DavidBird

As I've posted before, the Trent Signalling Diagram is available online from the Signalling Records Society (donation please). These extracts... ... suggest there is (or rather was) no crossover between the DG and DM between Trowell and Codnor Park. SimSig's simulation says the same, no connection between mains and goods lines.. Unless, of course, somebody knows different.

In case 1 here, if for example a train has left A for B, and shunting needs to be done at A, when would the token be replaced in the machine at B? Would it be after B's 2-1 is answered by 3-3, or would the token be kept by the signalman at B and only replaced after he then gets 2-1 (Train out of section or Obstruction Removed) from A?

Something to do with the slow-speed control on the 58 shutting off power at the first hint of a wheel-slip. 20s didn't have such modern "improvements", so could get the job done. I now remember that, of course, the derailment must have been on the main lines. Even though I didn't get to see it (I think the road bridge was also closed), I remember seeing the wagons at the side of the DM. This picture http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;DCCS001437&pos=28532&action=zoom&id=128031 shows the slightly longer-term aftermath, in that the junction with the branch and the main lines plain-lined, with the only connection to the goods lines. Presumably the Nottm - Sheffield services that ran via Radford had to use the goods lines and cross to the mains at Codnor Park Jct?

Thanks GC. That was my feeling, good to have it confirmed. There were photos here, before photobucket started playing silly b****rs https://nottstalgia.com/forums/topic/14906-crash-at-trowell-junction-august-1988/ and the caption to this https://www.rcts.org.uk/features/mysteryphotos/show.htm?img=65-019-04A&serial=3 says "The derailment ... took place on 1st September 1988 involving a Silverhill - Ratcliffe MGR. Trowell Junction was plain lined as a result and stayed that way for several years", which was on the fast lines before it blocked up the road bridge at Trowell... Just not certain if the ones from Staythorpe had gone the same way. The signalling on the Radford - Trowell line was not exactly high capacity though.

I have a copy of the 1982 Toton & Westhouses Trip Notice for May 1982, this is an extract. What route would this have taken between Nottingham & Tibshelf? Would it have been Nottingham Goods Line - Mansfield Jct - Lenton Nth Jct - Radford Jct - Trowell Jct - Erewash valley lines or Nottingham Goods Line - Mansfield Jct - Lenton Sth Jct - Attenborough Jct - Meadow Lane Jct - Toton Centre - Trowell Jct - Erewash valley lines. Would it have used the main or goods lines from Toton and/or Trowell? Or did it just depend on the whim of the signaller in Trent PSB - and other traffic, of course - at the time? Thanks

RETB, "spring" points and removal of fixed signalling was introduced on the WHL, and the Far North and Kyle lines in the mid-1980s. So well before privatisation. See here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Electronic_Token_Block#History

Some short lengths near Mallaig were relaid (not just re-railed) recently with FB, but a while before that all the S&C in Mallaig, (presumably Arisaig and Glenfinnan as well, from Reorte's post above) were replaced in BH - both completed without a single bustitution! There are still several lengths of (possibly new) BH on the loading bank at Mallaig. When the new rails were delivered, the lorries were from a haulier based in Workington, I was surprised at this, as the steelworks at Workington was gone a long time ago. But they actually loaded at (I think) Scunthorpe, don't know if the railes were imported or not. Maybe a throwback from when rails were rolled at Workington. Plenty of jointed BH on concrete sleepers on the Strathspey Railway, with lots more to go in when/if they get the extension to Grantown. This was recovered from the Stirling - Alloa line before it was relaid for re-opening, also some panels and S&C were recovered from Longannet Power Station after it closed.

Just to confuse things even further, on the Trent PSB diagram I have - the extract above is from that diagram - the designation "Down High Level Goods" extended through Toton Yards as far as Stanton Gate, even though they are all on the same level; presumably to avoid confusion with the "Down Goods", the continuation of the line from Trent Jn through (the site of) Long Eaton Town. Futher confusion is that I have also seen this line called the "2nd Down Goods"... Diagram here - (Not mine, I must add!) https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4083/4971450542_e070a745a0_b.jpg

Actually the bridge carried the East Arrival & West Arrival lines from the High Level Goods to the down side sidings, the HLG itself drops down to Old Bank Sidings on the up side. You can also see semaphore signals TE1, TE2 and TE15 and TT 207 colour light and Toton East Jn signalbox. The Cl25 and train is on the Down Main, having come up from Trent Junction through Long Eaton. Edited because I can't tell up from down...

While on this thread and elsewhere we have seen several videos of vehicle drivers ignoring flashing red lights at railway crossings, I've yet to see one, even when chased by a police car, to ignore the flashing reds at a swing bridge... even though potentially the outcome could be the same

No, they cannot be ignored, even when on an emergency call Certainly not exempt from paying attention to them. However, "we" are allowed to treat a red traffic light as a "give-way", but there is no exemption from simply ignoring them, as to do so would be dangerous. There is no exemption from dangerous driving.

Thanks for all your replies. It seems as if the bar in the photo is a fouling bar, preventing (presumably both ends of) the crossover being normalised if a train is standing on it rather than any sort of lock for the points. What do you make of the compensator cranks that are nowhere near the middle of the run?

I know that in some cases locking bars were used together with FPLs, to prevent facing points being moved while a train was approaching them. From other posts on here, I've also found that where space was limited in front of the toe of a set of points, sometimes locking bars were provided on the switch rails, which would prevent movement while a train was actually passing over them. While there are locking bars on heritage lines (NYMR comes to mind), are there still any in use on NR? Can anybody confirm where switch-rail locking bars were used? Better still does anybody have a picture? I've also come across this photo on another forum (re-posted with permission), of Hawkesbury River Station in New South Wales. Not a UK prototype, I know, but their equipment was made by Tyers & Co. What do folk make of the "locking bar" on the right-hand switch? Is there actually a FPL at all? Was this sort of arrangement ever used in the UK? Thanks

I've got to like these quotes, haven't I ?

There was also an earlier DMU diagram on what became the West Highland Lines. There was a "Land Cruise", from Glasgow both out via Stirling, Doune & Callander to Oban, and Craigendoran & Crianlarich to Ft William. Passengers would then transfer by steamer or bus between Oban and Fort William, returning to Glasgow on the opposite train from which they started. However, what I suspect what you are referring to is the services to Oban, lasting until 1970, as detailed here http://www.railcar.co.uk/type/class-120/operations-scotland

More controversial than anything that's been discussed so far is this. Will she be allowed to keep her Yorkshire accent? ...

Would that be the "Mexican Bean" Class 104, as here? (2nd one down) http://www.scot-rail.co.uk/page/class+104

Last week I got the chance to recite this story whilst standing in the Parvis Notre Dame - Place Jean-Paul II, actually in front of Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris, pointing out the very spot where the poor unfortunate armless bell ringer and his nameless brother met their end. After listening raptly, the reaction was "Well, that's 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back!"

I recently returned to Nottingham after a while away, and was more than a bit surprised at the changes to the Midland Station... Firstly, getting off at (the new) platform 7 and finding a huge multi-storey car park, rather than the large open space that was there... The former Up Main (to the left of the figures in Dave's photo) is now the new through short platform 4, and the view in the photo of workmen in the old P4 road would now be of the buffers at the end of the dead-end P5...

And it can be, courtesy of the Prisma filter on Android...

What, dropped it?

With Dave's permission, I have posted the photo on the Facebook "Signalboxes and Signalling" group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/168118503304604/permalink/1284970358286074/ The only conclusion that came from there is that the situation in the photo is actually a failure. The disc should not be off at the same time as the main signal. Which is a bit disappointing, I was hoping for confirmation of an unusual signalling set-up, possibly in the "prototype-for-everything" category...

Sorry, brain-freeze there. Of course, the same centre-line of the two gauges means they're the same width...

If the 4'8.5" is outside the 3'6", "so that different gauge coaches can use the same platform & still be at the correct distance from the platform" does that mean that the narrow gauge coaches are actually wider than the standard gauge ones?

Is that "Opposing locking omitted" between the disc signal and the main signal? I've never come across that before, how common is it?