roythebus

Could this talk of HS rail to LHR bring the final end to the Boris Island airport plan? After all, why pend billions on such a link when it will become redundant within a few years if Boris Island gets approved? Oh, I forgot, BR are good at that sort of thing (Waterloo International springs to mind)....

There's quite a bit of info on Holmethorpe elsewhere on this site if you do a search. ISTR my son posted me a link to the local Merstham Historical society pages. KESR loco Marcia used to work there many years ago!

During my time running a bus company in Mitcham, for a while I used a yard that backed onto the single line. Trains were about every 40 minutes, but irregular intervals. Later, we submitted a tender for the rail replacement bus service, but weren't successful. Later, when Tramlink opened, my depot moved along the line a bit and the trams used to whizz past every 8 minutes, packed solid all day and all night! Quite where all those people came from is a mystery. It just shows though, provide a good service and people will use it. BTW, my company was the first to use Routemasters on a Tramlink replacement bus service when that went belly-up one day! We even had Tramlink blinds for the fleet.

Humbrol used to do a Canadian Pacific Indian Red that was about right for the GWR locos. But they discontinued it back in the early 1960's...

Was there a cement depot at Kings Cross? Yes, it was on the "railway lands" next to the North London incline, between KX and STP.

There's a nice picture of Bittern waiting to go faster somewhere on the preservation section...that does 90, is that fast enough?

In my days at Waterloo the coal depots at Tolworth and Chessington were rather busy. there was also the regular aggregate train to Tolworth. shunt movements at Tolworth were made by the local diesel shunter, of which there were 2 on site. I never actually worked into either yard. ISTR having to shunt a 508 beyond the bridge at Chessington one day to allow a railtour into the platform. The Tolworth yard (and later the Chessington yard after Tolworth stopped dealing in coal)provided coal which was transferred by road to the Battersea power station site after it closed to provide heating for Dolphin Square at Pimlico. This was originally heated by excess heat from said power station! There was probably never any pick-up goods on the branch or the Wall of Death. Interestingly, a friend lives on Cannon Hill Lane in Lower Morden, and the deeds for his house show the land was originally owned by the Southern Railway as part of the planned route, but the route built differed from the original plan.

However, I'm sure there used to be a set of 4 short maroon suburban coaches used on the service, albeit only for a short period. Photos of the elusive Kenny Belle are rather scarce! Thumpers were used occasionally in the early 1980's after regular push-pull operation ceased. 33+TC were only normally used on the pm service as that was staffed by Waterloo men, the am service still being run by Central division men, probably from Norwood by that time. for a period in the late 1980's 455s were used following electrification for the E* empties!

There were indeed green suburbans on the Kenny Belle in the last weeks of steam! I don't recall seeing Maunsell brake coaches on any of the sets.

King Charles house, the government department where I had to go to get my PSV licence updated or national insurance... The 33/TC would have been Waterloo men on the pm duty, thumpers were central division drivers! By that time the return journeys were made available to passengers. I was aware that S1000S was the plastic coach and am glad it survives! Maybe we could have a Kenny Belle re-creation one day with S1000S, a Bullied brake, a couple of green suburbans and the Q1...

I used to go to school in Battersea High Street and regularly saw the "famous" Kenny Belle- the Clapham Junction-Kensington Olympia train almost every day. There seemed to be several sets of coaching stock used: a set of 4 green 63' suburbans which included one with a white roof (S1000S); a mixed set with 3 suburbans and a Bullied brake a short set of maroon suburbans with S numbers; Locos could be quite a variety with BR 2-6-4T, Ivatt 2-6-2T, Q1, Bullied Pacifics, and in the last days class 33 or 73. There was also a class 33 with the 6TC, the prototype TC unit made from a 6COR set! The push-pull apparatus rarely worked and the loco had to run round every trip. The morning journeys seemed to work from platform 16 at Clapham, worked by a Stuarts Lane crew, while the afternoon runs were from platforms1 or 2 with a Nine Elms crew. somewhere around I've got some rather grainy 8mm cine of a standard tank at Kenny on the afternoon working, weeks before the end of steam. On the few occasions I rode on the train, it was always a problem getting back as the guard would never let us go back on the train, which always ran empty in those days. The 49 bus was quite a useful replacement; it was operated by RTs at the time and ran from Shepherds Bush (and beyond) to Crystal Palace in those days.

Sorry I've missed out on a few day's of discussion here with working abroad, but found a comparison in terms of expenditure on the "Boris Island2 airport scheme, reportedly costing £47bn and taking 7 years to build. It begs the question if they can find £47bn and build a complete new airport in 7 years, why can't they do the same for HS2? Quit yapping, get digging! Re HS1, I've used it a few times from Ashford to Brux and back, the main complaint is lack of trains from AFK to Brux!!

Hutchinson Roe seem to use the same address that GF used in Masons Hill Bromley in the early 1960's.

To answer Nedrahn, we don't NEED any more consultations, opinion polls or associated crap to waste yet more money, TV airtime or paper. Let's get the bloody thing BUILT and running. Everywhere else has FINISHED their High Speed rail networks while we're still arguing about our second line. Question Time on BBC1 was interesting this week with MP from the 3 major parties actually AGREEING to support the building of the line. FFS stop yapping and BUILD!

National Rail website usually has better prices! As for road folly, how about the original M1 southern bit, 2 lanes each way, then 3 each way, now 4 each way. Same with the M25, widening everywhere, yet not a word from the nimbys about that waste of money! A lot of that could have been saved by abolishing the Centre Lane Owners Club! Funny how we never hear about concerted campaigns against road widening or much about road building except near Hastings. "Marples must go" as the slogans used to say.

Phil, if you're retiring, senior railcard, then Southern to Thameslink, £25 max fare les discount...then whatever deal for ECML. simples. As for premium fares, sure there's premium fare on HS1, but a couple of quid more to London from Ashford isn't a big deal. Remember too HS1 was built within budget and finished within timescales. Britain has always underfunded capital projects: ECML electrification, cheapo wiring that falls down when the wind blows; DLR, built on the cheap for 2-car trains, platforms had to be extended because of demand; LO services, built for 3 car trains, platforms now being extended; WLL platforms being extended; Crossrail, tunnels won't take double deck stock; Leyland railbuses...... With the amount of time it's taken discussing the matter and the amount spent on consultants fees, the whole bloody thing could have been built and running by now!

Having heard the government's latest take on HS2, that to not build it but to upgrade existing lines would take 14 year of weekend engineering works. Has anyone costed rail replacement buses for 14 years? As a rough guide, when I used to do such services, the average bus duty price in 2002 was £280. so a typical Three Bridges-Haywards Heath weekend would be 120 duties per day, £67,200 per weekend. Extrapolate that to an annual cost of almost £4m, then multiply that by 14 years is £489.2m, and that would be at 2002 prices! Then multiply that by the number of services that would be required, say Watford-Milton Keynes; Nuneaton-Stafford; on a typical weekend, and you're looking at over £1000m just for 2 typical closures. The problem then is the bus industry runs out of drivers; many part-time drivers have left the industry due to the introduction of the Driver CPC so are no longer available; the national bus stock is down to about 97,000 vehicles licenced according to the latest industry figures, a small proportion of those being coaches. Buses are generally intensely used on local services and are not suitable for long-distance rail replacement, plus with their drivers being utilised all week, they're not available at weekends! As for disruption, I was in the process of moving to Kent when HS1 was being built and although there was disruption, even the locals admit it was nowhere as bad as they feared, and certainly the "noise scare" campaigners were surprised at how little noise the Eurostars emit when running at full speed. The noise is only there for about 10 seconds!

I think I'd have £5 on the loco to win...

How did 1598 manage to get under the bridges with the water tower attached to the dome??

I've got one somewhere. It has "British Railways" on the side tanks. Gotta be Budgie! They done a very nice Midland Red C5 motorway coach model. when the electrics started from Euston to Brum, we went on a cheap day trip from Camden Road to Brum in an AM10 (still got the ticket too), and in the Digbeth coach station selling the C5 models for 10/6d. I bought quite a few for my model bus collection!

Sitting here chuckling at this thread....

I think a preserved HST set is an ideal preservation project, especially if it can be maintained in full main line condition. These units are approaching 40 years old and it is amazing that they are still in front line service doing what they were designed to do. I don't recall any other trains being in service that long except the 1938 tube stock and the a stock! (waits for barrage of other units to arrive)

But would Bullied Pacifics or A4s have been out of gauge at those places? ISTR reading that a batch of French electric locos were built to Stephenson gauge for CT use in the early 1960s. As that project never got far under the ground, these locos were then normally used in a certain part of France which WAS built to the Stephenson gauge!

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/archive/2012/07/05/9801124.Terror_as_driver_jumps_rail_lights/ Absolute stupidity, and a long sentence.

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=83416 young driver fined for jumping crossing lights RHDR plus the stupidity of some drivers http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=83383