locoholic

18 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

 

Not at all rare. It is timetabled to occur at Gloucester and Swansea several times each day.

Just to be slightly pedantic, the reversals at Gloucester and Swansea are almost always "undone" on the return journey, so have no effect on the orientation of the sets during the day. Empty stock workings to/from the depot at the start and finish of the day are the only time an unexpected reversal might occur.

I once remember being on an Aberdeen - London HST that did an unexpected three-point turn on the triangle at Thornton Junction just to get the set round the right way, but I think that was way back in the bad old days of BR.

On 5 March 2019 at 15:34, Nearholmer said:

Yes, I know Dennis, and have seen his book.

 

theres also a joint GNRS/NLRS book specifically about the services from Broad Street onto the GNR, by Alan Sibley and Jim Connor. I saw a copy on Saturday, and should have bought it!

Do you know the title of this book, please? My great-grandfather drove trains from Broad Street to Potter's Bar, so I'd be interested in acquiring a copy.

On 17/08/2018 at 22:30, w124bob said:

Regarding 5J42 I think the train is coming towards Manchester, so could well be an ex Preston working. Several parcel trains ran as class 5 at the time although mostly in the form of DPU or DMU workings . The 23.00 to and 00.18 from Oldham Clegg st ran as 6J09 for instance. I've got a WTT for the area circa 1973, l'll do some research.

Is that a Tartan Arrow CCT behind the Class 25?

Is anyone aware of any other pictures of those CCTs?

On 24/12/2018 at 14:35, jamesC37LG said:

Has any more been said on this potential announcement?

Nothing on the website yet. I really hope we get coaches for the Stirling Single.

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

 

When HSTs were new there were several wow factors. Some were liked and some not. 

 

Wow - look at that thing go!  Main line speeds increased from 100mph at best to 125mph overnight with massive cuts in journey times. 

 

Wow - look how fast we can get there!  Kings Cross - Edinburgh in around 4½ hours and Paddington - Penzance in 5 with a headline 4h 30m fastest train. 

 

Wow - the buffet is open through Cornwall now. (It used to be detached / attached at Plymouth)

 

Wow - those brakes smell AWFUL. 

 

Headline journey times have slowed in many cases. Paddington - Penzance is now typically closer to six hours than five though the early morning up is still a 4h 55m booking.  A straight five hours should be possible. 

 

The IET fleet has suffered from the indecision and poor decision-making of the GWR electrification project and now has to do something it wasn’t designed for. The ECML fleet still cannot work over half the route for various rather significant and expensive reasons. 

 

The current GWR HST seating isn’t the best but when the vehicle rides as it should the quality can make up for the ultra-high seat backs. The IET seating is too hard for the personal comfort of some (many?)  but the size and shape of the seats is an improvement. 

 

And they remain a DMU with underfloor engines. Not as intrusive as the Voyager units but still noticeable. 

 

They also go no faster than what they are replacing and in some places struggle to go fast enough to even keep to the same timings. It has yet to be proven that they will manage Slochd or Druimuachdar fully laden and on a typically damp Highland rail. They are also not reliably Dawlish-proof. 

 

We are, in my opinion, going backwards in attempting to go forwards. 

 

There was another "Wow": how smooth the ride was. On my first HST journey I didn't notice for a while that the train had started moving.

The Wow for the Class 800s is "Wow, these trains are disappointingly bad value for money".

1 hour ago, Richard E said:

I've now viewed the 'report' screened by the BBC. Very one sided with tales of 'land grab' for compounds etc being extended to cover areas that are said, by the land owners, to be the actual trackbed areas. HS2 were not represented, nor was anything said about an approach to them for an explanation.

 

Plenty of surmise that this tactic is being used to 'protect' land that will be required for the trackbed itself once the final alignment is known, the item suggests that the actual route of the trackbed has yet to be decided, it is only the general route that has been agreed and that could be varied due to geological issues. Certainly gripes about lack of compensation payments to date to farmers (I'm not sure if what I have read is correct in that the landowner has, under section 16, to claim compensation, it isn't paid automatically) despite the NFU having been instrumental in drafting section 16.

 

Local MP's join the debate, one is pro HS2 but 'disgusted' by the way his constituents are being treated by his government whilst the other is anti (and a member of the Opposition) but also unhappy about the back door 'nationalisation' process being used to get the land without paying for it.

 

Seems as if it is more a lack of explanation and understanding of the process rather than underhand tactics being used.

Your comment is factually incorrect - HS2 were represented, and they admitted that the current situation was unacceptable.

1 hour ago, Mike Storey said:

 

Where exactly does it say Section 16 is supposed to be used only for that purpose???

 

It isn't true (did you bother reading the documents I have recently attached?). The Safeguarded Zones are just that, and can be used for any purposes pursuant to the eventual construction and (to a lesser extent) maintenance of the railway route and ancillary works. Whether the large extent of those Zones is entirely necessary must have been covered during consultation and parliamentary process. It is redundant to go over all that again.

 

 So it is all about non-payment or late payment. I would entirely agree that is unfair. Please don't attack me personally for asking what the key issue was. But do we know why that is happening, from that programme? Was "we must do better" or similar, HS2's or DfT's only comment? Was the Independent Commissioner for Construction, whose only responsibility is to keep an eye on, and resolve this stuff,  interviewed?

 

 

You have avoided the central issue: the final design for HS2 has not been agreed, but they are acquiring access to vast amounts of land using Schedule 16, even though they cannot use most of the land until the design has been finalised. In the mean time, the landowners are suffering financial losses, and for HS2 the costs of compulsory purchase are delayed, to the benefit of their balance sheet. It is encumbent upon HS2 to use their powers responsibly, which they are patently not doing. 

22 minutes ago, dibber25 said:

That is a gross misinterpretation of Brunel. In all my years of studying  Brunel's work, I've never seen any reference to him seeking economy in construction or operation. Yes, he wanted a main line that worked and worked well and was better than anything anyone else was building  - and he wanted it to look good. No, he wanted it to look great! He coined the name GREAT Western Railway and he called it 'the finest work in England.' The fact that over time, so much of that fine work has been destroyed in the name of progress is what has lent greater importance to what little is left. The bridge at Steventon may be a minor structure but Brunel was a man of detail and while one of his minions might have designed the bridge in question, there's no doubt it would have had Brunel's attention. It would be interesting to know how this bridge was graded in the Railtrack/English Heritage document produced some years ago , which examined every structure on the route of proposed electrification, recorded their relative significance and the degree to which they were or were not expendable. Sadly, I no longer have access to that document. Good on the people of Steventon! The right to protect our surroundings is important and needs to be exercised. Electrification has been such a disaster to 'the finest work in England' because, unlike Brunel, no one paid any attention to aesthetics - nor it seems to making something that works well and is economical to build!

 

I don't think you would have such a rosy view of IKB if you had been a GWR shareholder who watched as the pathetic locomotives that he initially saddled the GWR with failed to run the service properly. I also don't believe that he would have any truck with sentimentality when progress was being adversely affected, as it undoubtedly is at Steventon. Sadly, democracy means that aesthetics come a poor second to functionality now, but that's not really Network Rail's fault.

14 minutes ago, billbedford said:

 

Where is this report?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00032jq/sunday-politics-midlands-03032019

1 hour ago, Mike Storey said:

 

I am unable to watch this, even on iPlayer, as they have stopped viewing from outside the UK.

 

Could you please explain what exactly the "abuse" is? It cannot be as you describe, because those powers exist and were always planned to be used in that way - see below.

 

Under the 2017 Act, the powers that the Secretary of State has include temporary possession orders within the Safeguarded Zones, and he has the powers to decide which of those temporarily possessed lands revert to compulsory purchase, where identified following completion of detailed design. See pages 23 and 24 of the attached.

 

The Safeguarded Zones were published for consultation several years ago, and each local council affected, assisted in that with the relevant property owners and occupiers, for the Zones to be finalised in 2016. You can see the details of those by area in the same attachment, the first several pages. It has been clear for many years, that the potential land take during construction would be far in excess of that eventually needed for the route. But the powers and plans have been through consultation and parliamentary scrutiny. 

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/561799/Section_P_Compensation.pdf

 

So can you please identify what is it that HS2 (or in reality, the Secretary of State for Transport) are abusing exactly, as it "clearly" isn't the law, nor have I seen any evidence of non-adherence from their intentions publicly published some several years ago and finalised three years ago? Why is a TV programme debating the issue some three years after final consultation of those powers and plans took place?

 

Is this really just about some people not being paid fast enough, or not getting the amounts that they thought their land/house/business was worth etc?

 

 

If you don't think it's an abuse to use legal powers designed to facilitate temporary access to deny landowners access to thousands of acres of their land without any payment of compensation, way ahead of the finalising of the project design, then you need to have a word with yourself. The land taken is greatly in excess of that required in order to gain the geotechnical data needed to finalise the designs of earthworks, tunnels and bridges, which is what Schedule 16 is meant to be used for. Similarly, if you think that "just not being paid fast enough" is also not an abuse then you are lucky it's not your property that's affected.

On 2 March 2019 at 12:54, letterspider said:

I am French tourist with bags and I want to visit the Midlands (I suppose this scenario is now going to be very unlikely because of Brexit but in any case)

Why is HS1 and HS2 not being connected? How am I going to enjoy frictionless movement between St Pancras and Euston?

Surely a link between HS1 and HS2 would also provide the sort of redundancy that was mentioned higher up in this thread, relating to Old Oak Common?

I have read the decision not to have a link - and I go away with the impression that the decision seems to be largely for political reasons

Am I missing something here..?

 

Not sure why you expect HS1 and HS2 to be linked. Have you ever arrived in Paris on Eurostar for an onward TGV journey? Crossing Paris with luggage is far harder than getting from St Pancras to Euston.

Having watched the full BBC West Midlands report on HS2's dealings with landowners it would seem pretty clear that HS2 has been abusing the Schedule 16 process by using it to gain control of the land required for the route, not just for temporary access roads and compounds. The excuse used was that the design details of the route have not yet been finalised (as has been claimed by the residents of Calvert, too), which begs the question why they need access to so much land at such an early stage. You don't need to occupy hundreds of acres of land just to drill bore holes and test pits.. An HS2 spokeswoman admitted that they need to improve their dealings with landowners.

7 hours ago, Mike Storey said:

 

Perhaps your synthetic ire should be better directed at Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Transport, or his team?

My ire is no more "synthetic" than your willingness to defend any scheme simply because it involves trains. You have no evidence that the allegations made on TV are false, and yet you accuse me and others of being mendacious.

I prefer to wait and watch the programme. As I have already stated, I'm quite open to the possibility that the story may not be true. But I am also quite prepared to believe that HS2 are deliberately withholding payments to landowners - after all, they have both motive and opportunity.

Quote

 

8 hours ago, Mark Saunders said:

 

To  paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davies, "they would say that wouldn't they", as it is a national preoccupation with the perceived value of property and actual!

 

Plus the link does not say HS2 not behaving itself rather for items they can't agree.

Your quote applies equally to HS2 and the government, neither of whom are remotely likely to admit to delays in payments for land purchase or compensation.

The news item I saw was apparently an edited version of a report to be aired on the BBC West Midlands local Sunday Politics programme midday tomorrow.

To all of you leaping to the defence of HS2, may I point out that Sir Mark Worthington had to be appointed as an independent commissioner last year to deal with the large volume of complaints against HS2, precisely because HS2 wasn't behaving itself.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sir-mark-worthington-appointed-as-independent-hs2-construction-commissioner

That is definitely not what was stated in the news item: the farmer being interviewed had lost access to one third of his whole farm without receiving any payment, and they clearly stated that two-thirds of HS2 land requirements are now subject to this procedure. That can't all be land for compounds, etc.

If the report is true it would appear that HS2 is seriously abusing the Schedule 16 process.

On BBC TV Midlands Today they've just said that two-thirds of the land required for HS2 is under Schedule 16 possession: that is, HS2 has sole access to the land even though they haven't paid for it! And the landowners are legally trespassing by walking on the land that they still own. The rationale being that HS2 are avoiding paying for the land to keep their costs down, whilst still being able to progress the project. This doesn't seem like something that should be going on in a civilised country.

Is there any mention of a launch date?  Hopefully soon if there's media coverage.

In the good old days when people of influence disapproved of a railway line, the usual solution was to put the railway in a tunnel past the relevant stately home. Since the inhabitants of Steventon seem to be today's equivalent of influential aristocracy, maybe a tunnel under Steventon is the way forward?

Perhaps we will finally find out why Hornby make so many almost identical models, like large logo Class 50s, BR early emblem King Arthurs and Class 31 diesels, and then wonder why the later ones end up in the bargain bin?!

Used to be my local shop when I lived in Suffolk - highly recommended.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47310215

High Speed Rail troubles aren't just a UK phenomenon!

On 19 February 2019 at 17:56, SouthernBlue80s said:

The bodyshell went for 110 pounds

I'm feeling very smug - I acquired a Modelzone 'Royal Marines' at a local model show for £80 last Sunday!  :-)

Has there been any sign of progress with this model in the last year or so?! I would quite like to buy one before I'm consigned to the care home...