OnTheBranchline

Isn't this what caused BMC/British Leyland so much grief?

The 1000 County Class of the 1945 vintage had taken a number of steps away from the standard GWR practices such as: High boiler pressure, Non standard driving wheel size, Non standard slabsided tender of a non standard size to the rest of the type built for other locos, continuous splashers, straight nameplates. etc). Were the Hawksworth coaches as big a change/development from the previous Collett coaches (particularly the later "Sunshine" stock) or were they a little more organic from their predecessors?

"We don't punish based on the result of the incident" = meaningless penalties for cars that can make up whatever gap they need vs the car who's race was materially effected by the incident.

Percy: [to himself] A promise is a promise, no matter what the weather.

I just saw a picture on Facebook of a Grange and a Castle pulling Cornish Riveria Express flood waters near Plympton in the early 1950s - the picture noted the engines were going through "at a walking pace". Were flood waters always treaded so carefully/slowly? I assume it was like this because you may not be able to see what's under the water?

Why didn't Merc split the strategies at the end? George was assured of at least P2 and Hamilton wouldn't have been delayed at the VSC stop.

With respect, you and I, and a lot of people here know that this is common sense but life is sometimes not that straight forward and what's simple to you and I may be a struggle for others to understand/accept due to their specific situation. I was just reading about someone's financial difficulties on another forum and it's really eye-opening how people manage their finances (or not!)

Anyone else getting thirsty reading this topic? 😆

Sorry, has this been previously posted? Downing Street refuses to guarantee HS2 will run to Manchester in northern leg

Also trying to kill the Hilux repeatedly. and Clarkson driving that smallest car driving in London.

The sight of James May driving around a 1978 Princess full of water and somehow winning will always be one of my favourite challenges. How about you guys?

I kind of wished that I had stopped there because 3 years later I haven't been able to go back to it. Also, how do I get back my pictures?

With having kids, it's easier to justify not buying a 200 quid loco.

One show I was at had an interesting layout of large scale Thomas & Friends where they had the engines on the nicely decorated layout but nothing was running. After 2 hours of periodically checking back, maybe one of the trains was running, I seem to remember them trying to figure out what's wrong with Gordon (isn't this something that is figured out before) - I just had the feeling of "come on guys, you're on display here" and the guys running this layout didn't seem have their wits together. But maybe I'm being unrealistic in my expectations because things to do go wrong and I've never been on the other side before. Note - when I say not ready to go, I don't just mean putting a few more wagons on the tracks etc etc...

@The Stationmastergot in trouble for this in Poland I seem to remember?

You go first 😉

I remember from one of those Railway Roundabouts films that the LMS men didn't really like the GWR engines (I think in particular the 42xx 2-8-0 class) and preferred their Jintys as bankers.

My family’s old snooker table had gradients after it was refinished improperly… 🤪

In reading a forward by Rev Awdry of the Thomas The Tank Engine Collection, he describes as a child, his family moved to Box around 1916 and he remembers laying awake at night listening to the sound of a banker being called and the two engines going up the gradient from Box Station. Just curious, which workings would this have probably been where the banker was needed? And would have been typically the banker loco?

In reading "The Great Western Railway in the 1930s: Volume Two" by David Geen/Barry Scott with pictures from the G.H.Soole Collection, there is a biography of G.H.Soole where it says "In 1938, he joined the GWR as a traffic apprentice. Apparently, this involved him traveling to other stations to 'learn his trade', so giving him ample opportunity to pursue his hobby. It is said that the GWR frowned upon its employee taking photographs and that he was discouraged, so during 1938, his hobby gradually ceased". To me, it's unclear why the GWR would have been against employees taking pictures unless it was on 'work time' of course but from the above paragraph, it's not exactly clear that he was. Were the other railways (including BR) like that?

Looks like Rev Awdry wrote this story (he also wrote Super Rescue which was rescuing two dead diesels).

I would be curious on the loco booking would be as well.

The 58: “Look at me, I’m the HST now” 🤣

How fast is "not exactly hanging about" for a 58? And please don't say how long is a piece of string...