cravensdmufan

Question for all you AC Electric enthusiasts: Why were buffers on many Class 90's turned sideways in the 1990's? I often wondered. Would be interested if anyone has the answer, thanks!

More scanned prints from the early 1990's

91 103 at Doncaster this morning. I don't normally photo modern liveried stuff but made an exception as this loco had it's blunt end exposed! As I was passing in a HST Mk3, I thought I might as well get the window down a bit sharpish!.

Another batch of scanned prints from my archives. The 90's with the empty HEA's in tow were taken at Leigh-on-Sea on the LT&S when they were used on Saturday mornings for driver training. It was unusual to see any locomotives on this secion of the line. Note the paint peeling off the front of the Intercity Mainline liveried one! That would be a modelling challenge! Again, apologies for lack of more specific details and dates due to my lack of proper recording which I now regret.

Beautiful shots of those 87's in blue.

A really excellent thread - thanks to everyone who have uploaded photos. AC traction was always a favourite for me - I remember tearing up and down the WCML, always good lively runs especially with Mk1's in the early 70's! Here are some of my photos, scanned from prints, alas all from the early 90's as I didn't even own a camera when the locos were blue! Apologies for the lack of dates etc - very poor archiving on my part. More to follow........

Strike dates announced. http://news.sky.com/story/virgin-trains-east-coast-staff-announce-three-24-hour-strikes-10532916

I see that the MD of VTEC has stated that a full timetable will be in place during any action. How can this be if there is no guard conductor on the train? Or does the proposed strike just involve platform and/or catering staff?

Excellent 5 page "how to" article in this month's Model Rail (issue number 225) featuring the Peco OHLE A clearly written and well illustrated presentation; the end result looks very good indeed. Think I will grasp the nettle soon!

Agreed. I was in a Mk4 last week sitting near the vestibule and the odour from the end of the coach was terrible. Suppose I should have text the vehicle number to report it. There is a sticker on the wall at the end of these coaches to text "how's your journey?" or words to that effect. I wonder if they have cut back on cleaning and maintenance? DOR East Coast was better. Catering and customer service was nicer too I thought. Edit: Just to add yes, I've also noticed that brake smell over the past few months on VTEC. I haven't smelt that since the 1970's when it was terrible on HST Mk3's. BR cured that problem quite quickly IIRC. Can any member throw any light on why this is happening again?

Exactly why I dislike Virgin so much. When things are new and going well they give all the fanfare with the grinning bearded bloke much photographed. They were even taking credit for introducing the new trains that were ordered when East Coast were running the show! Getting their name everywhere is all they care about. It's just a marketing brand after all - they own very little. Just 10% of the East Clast franchise. When things go wrong you can be sure they'll drop it like a stone! I was at Euston the other day and the WCML operation looked shabby (didn't help matters when I ended up on a Voyager, they still smell!). Virgin East Coast is going the same way

The day was a step back in time, don't think the 37 service will go on much longer. I just had to share it here. Thanks for sharing those photos - very nice. Saw that set ticking over at Norwich Thorpe a couple of months ago. Closed my eyes and thought of......British Rail in the 1980's Happy memories!

JCL. Living life on the edge is right! I better get into the habit of backing up everything to external drive every night before shutting down, in case she doesn't fire up again in the morning. Never had any trouble like this before! No point going back to 7 now I guess. Things can only get better?!

Exactly the same just happened to me. Put laptop to sleep when I went out for an hour. Then came back to it and just a blank screen with just the words Press ESC to continue. Nothing happened when pressed. Tried switching off and on a few times. No luck. Then unplugged, took battery out, reconnected mains adapter and switched on. This time - repair screen pressed enter to start and it's now up and running normally. Never happened before. Bit worrying. The joys of Microsoft Windows 10! Edit - in all fairness it's the only problem I've had since upgrading from Windows 7. But that was only a week ago!

I had a Mk2 Escort Ghia silver with black vinyl roof - and I thought that was quality! . wish I still had it actually! Bit of a classic now! Happy memories!

Great news about the Motorail Carflat. Can't wait!

Yesterday I went out and treated myself to Bachmann's 47 576 Kings Lynn. Stunning model in it's original NSE livery. I feel a layout makeover looming!

Brilliant - I loved NSE. That's given me great inspiration. Thanks for posting.

I use the ECML a lot, and have noticed a gradual slippage of standards since the Stagecoach/Virgin takeover. To me, the whole operation now has a feeling of cheap and nasty. If they are trying to cut costs to meet their financial commitment to Government, then things can only get worse. Such a shame to see the nation's premier railway line going this way.

Recently powdered this standard Bachmann 37/4 using just Tamiya sets A and B.

"East Coast are using a hired in ex East Midlands HST set that appears on a regular basis, especially at Weekends. The interior is 'basic' when compared to the VEC sets!" Indeed. They have been using that since the start of the franchise usually on the Leeds service midweek, and worse it's getting every month! I often use the service and my heart sinks when it approaches platform 4 at Peterborough!

RMT statement on Virgin East Coast's worsening finances: https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-responds-to-virgin-east-coast-reports/ (Shame the photo is of a West Coast Pendolino!)

Sunday Times Business section today, page 7. "Curse of East Coast strikes again". A very interesting and comprehensive half page article reporting that Stagecoach, the 90% stakeholder in this franchise, have only disclosed the "barest details about it's performance....but one thing is clear: it is underperforming badly". It appears that having pledged a £3.3bn premium to the Government over the eight years of the franchise, they are now 14 months in and all is not well. Another case of over promising and under delivering?

I see the Peco catenary has now been released. May 2016 Railway Modeller has a "Shows You How" supplement included. It looks very good - I'm going to exhibition this weekend and hope to pick up a starter pack. Anyone else on here tried it yet?

Excellent work ROS - really like that brake van - shows what can be done making older models look great. Thanks for the video link - very useful. CDF