The Pilotman

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

Ooh, that's something I don't remember seeing before; a non-air-con Mk2 in IC livery.  Were the other Mk1s part of a charter set (several 1st in there) or the Northampton Cobbler set, I wonder?

There must have been a few; Accurascale are doing one in OO in that livery. The Mk1s look like InterCity Motorail branded to me. 

Could those wishing to continue the parents vs teachers vs youth of today discussion perhaps go and do so behind the bike sheds please. 😉

Contrasting cab profiles at Glasgow Central yesterday. 
 

On 12/04/2023 at 11:41, johny retro said:

Farish can't even produce their mk1's to be the same height as their mk2's, 

True, but if you put a half mil washer under each bogie spigot, the Mk2s look fine coupled to Mk1s. Job done.

I was taught at school that the correct “rule” should be “I before E except after C when the sound is ee”

With that being the case, the only anomalies in the picture are Keith and weird. All the others comply. 

47787 has picked up a nice collection of flying insects!!

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Clapham (1985) was a wiring error caused by a loose wire which had erroneously been left connected at one end

It was three years later; Monday December 12th 1988. I remember it well. 

10 hours ago, The Johnster said:

 

The signal was a fully controlled one on the down Tunnel main at the top of the bank out of the Tunnel, the actual protection for the junction.  IIRC, there was a calling-on signal with a theatre display that would take you to the the down hump reception loop road (behind the down main platform) through a 25mph shunt, the one we actually went through, or the up loop and thence the loco shed and up yards.  A green aspect could only read to one routing, the down SWML main through the down platform with a 70mph restriction through the junction.  And both the driver and myself clearly saw a green aspect.  I looked particularly carefully at it, knowing that it is possible to be fooled by an aspect that you are expecting; our train was booked to be routed to the down SWML main as a class 4 premium parcels, the Derby had just cleared the junction, and we were both expecting this aspect.  Moreover, we were looking into the setting low sun, off to the right a bit, but the signal was very much silhouetted agains the light, so I took care to take notice of what I was seeing.

 

I was not fully party to the argument between Ray and the panel, but according to what he told me later in the evening, they had attempted to cover the problem by trying to say that we had been routed to the down hump through road recep, which would have required a red aspect and the use of the calling on signal and theatre display.  This was nonsense, that signal and the displays had never been lit, we had a green aspect for the down main, and while the panel were not directly to blame for what was in all likelihood a wiring or switching problem in the relay box, they'd tried to blag their way out of it and lay the blame on Ray. 

 

Clearly, given that the train came to a stand on the down hump through recep road, we had been routed that way, and we'd both seen the green aspect.  I am absolutely certain of this, and from the vacillations that Ray reported from his admittedly heated exchange with the panel, they were aware that it was their department's can to carry and were trying to weasel out of it.  Also clearly, Ray's temper did little to clarify the situation, but the down yard foreman, who was on the phone to the panel to get the road for us when I entered the cabin, was working to an assumption that the train had been misrouted and shouldn't have been on his reception road.  This was the reason I elected to take some charge of a situation that was rapidly spiralling out of control; no way I was going to allow my train to proceed without a C & W examination after a bang like that, and I was prepared to stick to my guns on that point if I had to!

 

Wiring and circuitry of MAS signalling is a mystery to me; I know what the signals did, not how they did it, but there seemed to be work going on at this relay box at all sorts of times of day and night, and I suspect that our incident was part of an ongoing issue at this location.  They were certainly hard at it later that evening, though it is only assumption on my part that whatever they were doing was connected to our incident.  Seems highly likely, though, and as I said there were other occasions when I had cause to mistrust Newport Panel.

Thanks for providing that extra detail. Based on what you’ve written, it does sound like some sort of issue with the signalling equipment somewhere. Perhaps something was being worked on at the time and the signalman was trying to cover for an error that he knew someone else had made (that certainly used to happen). Whilst I’ve never heard of an incident quite like this (a signal aspect completely at odds with the actual route set), extremely unlikely events can occur as the Clapham Junction crash demonstrated. 

Another very interesting instalment, and one which, I’m sure, most railwaymen of that era can relate to. The STJ incident had me scratching my head a bit, though. You say that the panel “misrouted” you but if the signal was off for the down main and yet the points were actually set for a different route, that’s not the fault of the signalman; that’s a serious wrong-side signalling failure. The fact that an S&T team were seen there later lends a bit of weight to that being the case. Alternatively, both you and your driver may have been mistaken and the signal you thought was green was actually showing correctly for the route you took (whatever aspect and junction indicator that should have been). I’m not familiar with the signalling arrangements there so whether you should have been routed onto that line or not is not something I can comment on. So, whatever the true cause was, something extremely unlikely happened that day but, having been in the signalling grade myself, I have seen very unlikely things happen. 

Today’s picture at Normanton, David (C12073) is really something. What struck me was how modern and out of place the train looks compared to the rest of the scene. Somehow, an all-blue first generation DMU from twenty years earlier would look more at home there. A quite brilliant image; thanks for posting it. 
And those Danish IC3 units (C17013/26) must be one of the ugliest trains around. I still see them occasionally at Hamburg. 

On 07/04/2023 at 15:25, JZ said:

So that’s how you get green fingers.

15 hours ago, stewartingram said:

A decent livery at last.

Brunswick Green?

4 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I am all set to pick fault's in Red Leader's train set this weekend and he (and his gang) can do likewise with Pig Lane on the second floor. 

In light of the recent BRM awards, wouldn’t “Silver Leader” be more appropriate now? 🤔

And here’s another, by Robert Catterson on Flickr. Given that all three types have coexisted for over 30 years, there must have been many times that this happened, with many different classes of locomotive. 
 

Here’s one. By 37001 on Flickr 

On 01/03/2023 at 06:36, Rivercider said:

This recently posted picture by @Rivercider shows all three types at Exeter Central so it seems reasonable to assume they arrived or departed in the same train. I have also seen quite recently at least one video clip of a train featuring all three types. It was in one of the Modern Traction Archive videos on YouTube but there are 35 of them, and I can’t remember which one it was. It’ll take you about two whole days if you want to watch all of them…

5 minutes ago, drmditch said:

Am I mistaken, or are the Swiss trains above travelling on the left hand tracķ?

You’re not mistaken, that’s the Swiss way. 

The S+T or PWay have parked that Sherpa a bit close to the track. 🤔

I’m not @Revolution Ben but does this answer your question?

C9238 isn’t 37428; the 37/4s were all in large logo blue from refurbishment. 37248 perhaps? The right numbers but not necessarily in the right order? (with apologies to Eric Morecambe). 

4 hours ago, packetlos said:

I know I keep banging on about this, but no demand for a re-run of these in N?

Did you see the post by @Revolution Ben on February 28th? Little response to expressions of interest for a second run in N. All your post shows is that at least two people are prepared to pay £33 each (that may, of course go higher) for a rake of 12 wagons. Hardly compelling evidence I’d say, and I speak as an N gauge modeller myself. 

12 minutes ago, Swissrail said:

Could be I suppose but you'd think if that were the case they'd take a better shot if it's all any prospective buyer has to go on with regard to the condition of what's on sale. I could use them but not on the basis of that picture.

The picture of all five looks like five individual pictures stitched together but in the other pictures showing the coaches separately they don’t look warped to me. I think if I was in your position I’d drop Rails a line and ask them if the coaches were indeed banana-shaped (as one image suggests) or not. I’m sure they’d give you an honest answer. 

13 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Oh well, never mind.  Thinking about it, my memory of the train I worked was that the loco was a 47.  Deffo the summer of 74, though. 

Also, that Western is on the up relief line in Sonning Cutting, so going in the opposite direction from the train you worked. 

20 minutes ago, Swissrail said:

Rails of Sheffield at it again...

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204268011852?hash=item2f8f52814c:g:EhUAAOSwm4JkCLRz

 

"Very good, boxed condition" they say. They have, rather more importantly, omitted to say that they've all been in the sun for a while and have taken on the attributes of the common or garden banana.

Or is it simply a case of them being photographed with a wide angle lens from a short distance? That’s what it looks like to me.