mcowgill

My K1 has turned up from Sheffield (probably via the GN&GE line then cross-country to Ipswich!) and while there's a bit of a viennese waltz gentle rise and fall going on with the footplate it's only really noticeable when it meets a straight-edge.   I'm happy to leave it alone for the moment.

While trying not to get into the banned area of politics, I believe that with East Anglia being mostly made up of safe/large majority parliamentary constituencies has meant that the line has been starved of investment for many years as there's little political incentive to improve things.

As a reasonably regular leisure user of Abellio's services the general impression of both the Mk3 and 321 stock is that they are grubby and uncared for.  When you see the standards that other operators are able to maintain their Mk3 stock you realise how poor the Norwich sets are in comparison.

The area is desperate for investment, my office backs on to the Felixstowe branch with it's constant flow of intermodal trains to and from the docks.  There is a huge amount of freight that needs to run either along the GEML or cross-country via Ely, the GEML can't cope with the inevitable delays that mixing 70mph freights, stopping passenger services and the 100mph Norwich trains is going to cause on a double track line.  The Ely/Cambridge line doesn't have enough capacity to take much more freight and without the Hitchin - Bedford link doesn't provide an alternative route for many Felixstowe services.

The DfT needs to wake up to the fact that GEML and access to from Felixstowe is critical to the national economy and needs investment.   Now don't get me started on the road alternative, the A14...

Martin

My Aug/Sept 'Hornby Collector' (yes, I'll apologize now!) arrived yesterday. Pages 12 & 13 carry an article on the Hornby models of some preserved Kings, Castles and a Star.  Their latest King is R3102, 6023 King Ed II, released in 2012.  There is no mention in the mag of any imminent planned release of another King.

 

However, the larger-than-life front cover picture is of the blue 6023 with a very visible 32A shedplate  . Do I correctly recall a fairly recent release of an Eastern Region loco with an 81A plate - if so, it seems that finely detailed models can produce their own sets of problems on the production line!  Someone should have gone to S------vers! ​ .

 

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see! Long live the King!

 

Richard

Hornby just need to be careful when looking at photos, 6023 carried a 32A shedplate for some of it's time on the Mid Norfolk Railway, it's prototypically correct for a very short period but someone ought to pick up on things like that before they go to production and use a more appropriate plate.

Martin

The class 68s are being built under the same Stage 111A rules which I believe have a limit of 25 locomotives per manufacturer and all must be delivered by the end of 2013

Martin

We've heard from both Bachmann and Hornby that when you tool up a new loco it's the whole thing that gets produced, there's no longer a mix and match of parts bin components where they are common.  As the production is batch based a full set of tools for that model is put through the factory, in Hornby's case it might be a factory that doesn't produce a product with notionally common parts so there has to be duplicate tooling - not sure if Kader use more than one factory for Bachmann products.

The only benefit of a common component would be to speed up the design and pull the existing CAD files as the starting point for the drawings of a new product, I suspect the Mazak chassis block would one of the easiest items to redraw for change for say a class 87.

Martin

My Model Rail dropped through the letterbox this morning and the new model is......

No idea, I left it in it's bag and set off to work!

Ooh - that's nice.   No justification for one at all but I can always apply Rule No 1

Looks like my oft thought about 4mm Glyn Valley plank might just have been given a kick in the right direction!

It's come to the point again of trying to model the WCML. We have the 85, we have a dodgy Heljan EM1 and EM2,

I think there would be a big bang and a very strong burning smell (even worse than frying a decoder) if you tried to run an EM1 or EM2 down the WCML!   Unless of course they're running on the parallel lines into Manchester Picadilly

Is it going to look out of place on my GE branch line?

Don't need one, wrong period, never ran round 'ere - BUT, it sounds like it might go round the curve into the fiddle yard...

Have to think about it, head is laughing itself silly, the heart is remembering the one time I saw it in motion - I'll think about it for a bit but......

70808 made it into darkest East Anglia today on hire to Freightliner, here are a couple of photos of it at Levington on the Felixstowe branch this afternoon working 4M93 Felixstowe to Lawley Street

70805 on hire to Freightliner today

 

Planned to work

 

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/H37666/2014/05/27/advanced

Sat down somewhere near Colchester, a pair of proper locos sent from Ipswich to sort out the mess (86607 & 612)

Weirdly it wont be in use at Taunton as no electrification plans...(yet) 

Minehead branch being used as an electrification testbed...

It would be good to survey every single purchaser/owner of a Class 85 to get their thoughts discounting those that only buy for displat cabinet reasons (collectors).

Well here's my response.  The Class 85 doesn't really fit my location/era (GEML 1980s onwards) although one made it into the LTS in the 1980s on a railtour, but I bought a BR Blue TOPS one immediately after it was released a) because I liked the look of it and more importantly I hoped that by buying one it would help improve the chances of a follow up that I could run.

In the meantime I'm sticking with Heljan/Hornby class 86 hybrids and Warship powered class 90s.

Martin

Because the manufacturers tell us that unnumbered vehicles don't sell.

A  few photos I found lurking in my hard drive...

Unidentified whistling thing at Skipton 10/071980

40076 north through Skipton station, Black 5 5305 lurking in the background  26/08/81

40017 with a barely visible single 16 ton coal wagon and and 20 ton brake van. Weekly Bradford Valley Road to Menston coal train passes through Baildon. 15/04/81 

Two shots of 25205 with the Crossleys scrap train at Shipley  25/09/81

45074 on an up freight from Kingmoor at Shipley Dockfield  15/09/81

Green 40106 looped at Thackley Junction with a down Carlisle mixed fitted freight.  08/09/81

Hope they are of interest,

Martin

Stop it, Stop it!!! 

I dismantled my Cambrian GWR layout 28 years ago, it doesn't fit in with modern image East Angular or my O-14 Ffestiniog project

Must keep repeating 'I don't wont one, I don't need one, I can't afford one'...

My wallet's aching...

..it would look lovely in my cabinet alongside my EM Duke 'Comet'...

Martin

Would 'a bin useful before I spent 4 years studying in Naaridge with a Bradford accent.  30 years later I'm  almost fully integrated into Eest Angular and have kids who can speak the lingo proper loike     

Another one here please

Can I have a left-handed version???  

Martin

The difference between a give way at a road crossing and a level crossing is that you would always expect to slow and check the road junction, if there is no apparent warning to stop to the road user (as described in this instance with low backlighting and crossing lights not meeting standards) the standard response at a level crossing would be to cross more quickly.    Appreciating the poor sighting conditions is a different matter but it's difficult to put yourself in the postition of that particular driver.

I had an interesting situation a few weeks back.

I cross the GEML on my way to and from work each day, I drive low slung sports car and am well aware of the crossing, I usually get stopped for a down Norwich train but some mornings I meet a Freightliner intermodal heading up the line or the returning fuel tanks working to Ipswich.   I ALWAYS slow down for the crossing, the superelevation on the two lines are in different planes, if I cross quickly I am liable to ground the car (with underfloor coolant pipes that's not a good idea) so I would guess I never exceed 15-20mph as I pass the barrier.

One morning I looked in my mirror immediately after crossing to see the barriers well on the way down, I must have entered the crossing with the amber light on or even after the first red light started, yet I had no recollection of seeing the lights, even crossing at that point in the sequence gave me a bad feeling.  I may have been distracted by something else, but it's easily done even when you are fully aware of the risks.

Martin

Here are a few from my collection.  Lets start with a couple of these as there's nothing better than a well fettled Clacton unit!

309 612 coming off the Harwich branch at Manningtree,  October 1987

309 601 at Norwich during the short period they ventured further north after the GEML electrification was completed, May 1989

31013 stood outside Stratford Repair Shop, April 1979

03158, Norwich Thorpe station pilot, February 1981

47583 'County of Hertfordshire' in the late 1981 variant of it royal wedding livery, leaving Norwich, October 1981

Old Liverpool Street, 47539 waiting to depart, it had been transferred to Stratford but not yet attacked by the tin of grey paint.  March 1982

47584 'County of Suffolk running in to Ipswich with a down train, July 1983.

My notes say 31253(?), Norwich Thorpe Junction box, March 1982

90031 coupling up to a delayed Norwich service at Ipswich.  Does anyone know of an earlier use of a class 90 on a GEML scheduled passenger train?  11th February 1992

Loadhaul 56045 runs down from Westerfield towards East Suffolk Junction with 4E20 Felixstowe to Wilton, 17th August 1995

I'll see if I can find a few more.  Enjoy!

Martin

 

I don't live anywhere near the A14 either, but I would be happy to pay towards a new railway to take the lorry traffic off it, for the sake of those who do.

 

Martin.

HS2 can benefit the A14 traffic (and I know all about the the traffic twice a day!)   Moving stopping services from the slow to the fast lines on the WCML and changing the servies on the ECML could free up slots for freight from Felixstowe. 

There's still the problem of getting more trains along the Felixstowe branch and then across to either the ECML (via Bury St Edmunds & Ely) or the WCML (up the GEML).  Hutchinson Ports commited to doubling a large part of the Felixstowe branch at their own expense a while back, but as there are limited paths to use beyond the branch it's not been sensible to invest in this yet.   The work on the additional capacity via Ely will help but we're not going to get much more up the GEML without capacity improvements along the line.  There has been recent talk of a relief line being added between Chelmsford and Colchester but it's not in the next control period's investment plan.

HS2 may well be the enabler of a number of other additional capacity improvements in the future.  Currently there's no point in throwing more container trains from Felixstowe at the GEML if they are all going to stack up at Wembley waiting for a path north.

As for your Exeter to Lincoln passenger.  HS2 may offer him an alternative route on a direct Kings Cross to Lincoln IEP service, using slots currently used by some of the KX to Leeds services.  

Martin

If costs continue to increase, and the cost-benefit ratio declines, is there a point at which the project has to be cancelled? Look at the Edinburgh trams ... 

I'm sure there would be a point at which it should be reconsidered, but where is the evidence that the costs are actually increasing?  What's going up is the contingency part of the budget, not the actual cost.    Comparing the original projected cost with HS1's actual costs (£86.5m / mile), the cost per mile of phase 1 at £17.4bn is £146m / mile, allowing for inflation since HS1 was built these figures based on the budgeted costs seem realistic, what pressures are going to cause them to become vastly inflated above this and go way above even the contigency allowance?

By the way, it still seems cheap at about one quarter of the cost per mile of Crossrail...

Martin

The clearance round curves is not quite as easy to sort out as all that. Having been involved in the construction of 4 GNR Atlantics and 2 Jersey Lilies in EM gauge, there are some potential problems, mainly involving the bogie. Just look how close the rear bogie wheel is to the back of the cylinders and to the driving wheels.

 

I can live with slightly undersized wheels (real wheels got turned down by a bit over their lives) but I feel sure that it will take a bit more than that to sort the bogie out.

 

The Midland/LMS Compound has the lower inside quarter segment of the cylinder removed, the detailing pack containing full circular cylinder end covers for those who have curves that don't need such compromises.  I would expect a similar solution on the Atlantic.

Edit:  Andy posted this picture in his review back in 2011 which shows this rather well:  

Martin

Interesting, not too much of a leap from there to a GNR C1 Atlantic, now I'd have one of those...