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Coming back to thread topic, any advance on 1837 and London and Birmingham railway… https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/994645/view/london-and-birmingham-railway-1837 and heres it under construction, note in the back ground the double arch bridges.. built for 4 track from the outset. https://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/A003909/Construction-of-the-London-to-Birmingham-railway-1830s

New street was fun… before the days of RTT, you never knew what was going to pop out of the tunnel.

You've all been badly brought up. i’ll raise you.. A 25 chucking its guts up climbing Miles Platting. Looks like a rat, smells like a rat, goes like a rat up a drain pipe and dies in the gutter…… 25’s natural habitat is the back streets of Manchester. Dying on rat poison before Newton Heath, needing gronk rentokil to move its gutted corpse out of the way. Thats a memory. Thing I love about 08’s, they are like AA drivers, turn up, couple up, pull anything anywhere doesn't matter how big, how heavy or how bad, just tug it all out of the way at ped speed.

I hope some day. D 1041 rides again. Ive had many good rides on that one.

Just sideways thinking back to past events, most recent being 2023 with the Queens funeral charters, LSL had the 90/mk3’s on Euston Manchesters.. vandals smashed a passenger bay window. Whilst it fragmented it held. The stock remained in use the next few days, but LSL locked the coach from passenger use, but you could walk through it. but many other such incidents have occured, and probably do on a daily basis, I assume theres some regulation allowing the stock to remain in use as Ive seen Southern lock an Electrostar coach out of use for similar reasons, or a dodgy door etc in the past… but the service kept going, indeed the dodgy door one showed up for a few weeks as passengers even started to recognise it.

If your in the queue for the buffet, whats the difference to sitting on a potty ? Recent trips with Riverias mk2 blue greys, has two mk1 catering vehicles, a kitchen and a buffet. No ones stopping anyone sitting in the buffet, or queuing in it, yet those vehicles dont have cdl.. just regular bolts over doors, and a sign saying staff / emergency use only but these doors were originally passenger doors.. its an RMB. All that changed was a sticker on the window and a gate bolt on the inside. hence why I am asking as i’m not understanding the minutia of the regs, rest of the train is cdl fitted. If a service vehicle is exempt and has no passenger doors, what stops wcrc opening a tuck shop in a bay of seats on a TSO and calling it a buffet ? heres one of them, the doors are marked for non passenger use, externally and internally, but it wasnt built that way. https://flic.kr/p/2ou3qX8

Sadly I think not, even a class 88 at the southern end of the wcml even gets hearts fluttering, usually on a Tilbury containers. I saw an 88 goto Gravesend openday several years ago, but that came via Wembley, as did the occasional 88 showing up on the Dungeness LLNW train. Theres not many of them, they dont seem to do much. Mossend - Daventry is a favourite, Sellafield in pairs is another.

Can someone explain to a layman the issue ? if the toilets can be used by a passenger, the coach must either have cdl, but as it doesnt have cdl they are locked out of use, meaning they still cannot use the toilet ? how does that fit with passengers visiting the buffet in a mk1 with doors locked out of use and no cdl is that not crossing the same line in the sand ? i say this as most railtour stock uses mk1 buffets, regardless of operator and I dont think many have cdl, just former public doors locked and marked emergency or staff use only.

On come guys, theres another 5 missing from that picture. Must try harder. 😀

Theres no competition on Paris & Brussels to London. As long as that O&D market is matched to capacity available they can command a higher price. Unfortunately that means passengers beyond these destinations arent catered for. I think these immigration capacity issues are a convinient bogeyman to hide behind what is an optimum scenario right now for Eurostar, which is high prices and full trains on a reduced service and efficient cost base. Theyve cut the fat by reducing schedules, removing South France, Ski and Disney, Ashford, Ebbsfleet, Calais and focussed on a core. if they add more trains, the result will be additional costs and a lower revenue.. why work harder for less ? I think they are fat and happy right now, with no threats in site, and the occasion fly to swat from the odd toothless MP protestation. Lets face it no competitor is really coming for a decade, and Flybmi aint coming back, Veuve Cliquot all round to them. Capitalism at work i’m afraid.

I dont see a Swanage commuter service working at all myself. Where are they commuting to ?… Bournemouth.. in which case Wareham and change isnt the answer.. From Swanage.. the car is easier… 1 hour the bus and train from Wareham comes in at 1hr 7 mins (according to google) tonights railtour took 1hour 7 minutes too.. however that was a direct train, with a connection your edging closer to 90mins. but a commuter service is going to be a lot more expensive than the bus or taking the car and parking… The bus and car options give you a chance of dropping closer to an office to, than the main station. If there was a commuter service chance, the 117 all the way to Bournemouth is it, or convincing SWR to overnight a 158 at Swanage and run it to London via Salisbury to pick up a daily diagram… problem is in the evening it means an early night for a 158 in the reverse direction at around 5-6pm. I just dont see it. I dont think any preserved line has commuter potential except maybe the ELR*, otherwise they would never be closed. *The ELR has the connurbation and the proximity to Manchester, but its issue is finding a cost effective, speedy efficient way to Manchester that doesnt bulldoze the steam railway itself.

I’m actually thinking the starting point being anywhere, the destination being Swanage. But the 117 isnt the right vehicle for that, but the 4TC is. if the maths add up for a max 3 hour trundle from differing xyz cities each week to Swanage and back in the evening, something like an out at 8am, back by 9pm, with an arrival around 11am and depart around 6pm… theres a full family day out. Run that from across the south at weekends in the summer, varying the starting point each week, its an advantage of adding in the travel to Swanage, to the Swanage railway ticket combined. That gives a range out to Bristol, Oxford, London and the SE coast…. Kind of like how the Thumper does its day trips. Todays one way trip Waterloo to Swanage is £49, compares against an SWR walkup off-peak return for £82…

My KR Models Fell. some things are best buried and forgotten.

Iirc whats under Bridgnorth station carpark, should stay under Bridgnorth station carpark personally.

Yes one in Network South East, the other in Jaffacake livery is my bet.