Wheatley

155s have indeed been PRMed. 153s will stay for the moment but cannot work as singles or coupled pairs after December. Current plan appears to be tò use them to strengthen 150s or 155s.

George O'Hara's Scottish diesels book has a photo of one in gsyp near Ayr which I think was 55000. It was in bsyp by the time WS Seller photographed it at (I think) Barassie a year or so later.

Do it properly or put it in the garage/shed. Apart from anything else it's much harder to fall out of a shed.

"Force Ten From Navarone", "Yanks" and "Hanover Street" all released in 1978/9 if anyone fancies trawling through looking for Black Fives pretending to be something else. There's a Standard 5 in "Yanks" ...

You're right if course, my delay attribution is a bit rusty. In that case the ban may happen a lot faster, as evidenced by the statement over the weekend.

Well there's the answer then. We'll just train every gricer (and ad hoc smart phone photographer who just fancies seeing FS) in track safety and then they can wander about where they like because they'll all be looking after themselves. Presumably they can all co-operate with each other to arrange lookouts etc. Unfortunately people are inherently stupid, especially enthusiastic people in large groups, and it doesn't work like that. Of course, if things carry on like this and the charter operators keep racking up delay penalties to the extent they were on Sunday, the problem will solve itself because the services will become financially unviable. Network Rail won't have to ban anything, FS will become a toxic brand from a commercial operator's point of view.

Agreed. There is a standing joke in Northern Engineering that no two 142s are ever in the same mod state. There are, for example, at least three different types of saloon heaters, only two of which can be turned on or off by the crew.

At that date, and in that livery, I suspect working back to Neville Hill via Heaton after refurbishment in Kilmarnock.

A 12t van is about the same size as a single garage, my suggestion to swap our garage for one was vetoed though. The SRPS have built a layout in a couple of coaches I think.

There are still a couple of 14x/15x diagrams, anything which needs to run as a 4 car for example, either for capacity or to ferry a set to be used later (17.41 off York for example is always a 14x, detached from another earlier in the day. ) There are more 170s in traffic but they have also been deployed on Leeds to Selby and Huddersfield, and they take over Sheffield - Hull - Brid from May.

The chassis is indeed loco drive and is infinitely better than the airfix comedy tender drive. The tender chassis is also new and picks up on all wheels. The paint job is to current Hornby standards. Everything else is the old airfix tooling to the extent that, should you wish, you can use the loco driving wheels off the airfix version to replace the grooved traction tyred drivers on the Hornby one. I should make clear that, as the owner of two of the newer Hornby ones I don't/didn't subscribe to the "It's too expensive view !

That's because it's not a font, at least not one a computer will recognise. At that date it will have been signwritten and set out by eye. More of a logo than text.

The only answer I can think of to that is that TFW have made the decision not to specify any requirement for toilets on certain services in their new franchise, and are presumably happy with that. Where the long ramp is used directly onto the top step on a 14x the higher floor makes the ramp gradient steeper than using the 2 part ramp, but many stations are outside the PRM requirement for ramp gradient anyway, 142 or not. Narrow platforms are more of an issue - a 6ft ramp on a 6ft wide platform leaves no room to manoeuvre but that applies to all units with long ramps.

Getting the wheelchairs on and off isn't the issue, all trains require ramps and there is plenty of room to manouevre once on board a14x provided you get on at the end doors. Low platforms are slightly more faff as you need both parts of the ramp but still do-able. The issue is purely toilets and politics - even on the refurbed units with 2+2 seating you can't get from the wheelchair space to the toilet because the aisles and the toilet doors are too narrow, and the toilet is too small. If you fit a compliant toilet (as on the 144e), you lose half the non-disabled accommodation in that vehicle. Taking the toilet out altogether makes you compliant (if the service isn't provided at all it doesn't need to be accessible) but that is not acceptable either politically or practically - with no toilet on a train full of revellers/football fans you just turn the whole train into a toilet. The 153s are not PRM compliant either (toilets again) and they will be remaining in traffic after Dec18 but only if coupled to a compliant (and gangwayed) 15x.

Apart from the chimney and dome the other upgrades worth doing on the body are replacing the footballs holding the handrails on and either thinning down the visible edges on the steps or replacing with brass (Mainly Trains etches). The tapered dome was a mould-release thing before extensive hand finishing pushed RTR prices through he roof, the rest of it is pretty much spot on. The criticism on it's last release was mainly down to Hornby putting it in the main range at main range prices when the tooling is 40 years old and fully amortised.

Is it not the layout RM built around the time the points were released as part of a "Shows You How" piece ?

It fooled a lot of people to the extent that the engineer responsible for the re-livery programme got very very fed up of being asked about it ! It didn't fade gradually or in patches either - straight to one shade of blue. It On some of the repaired-but-not-yet-refurbished 150s there are very distinct grey patches now where seams have been repaired and repainted in grey enamel*. (*Or whatever real paint is these days)

It's not a throwback to ATN, it was an early attempt at using solvent free paint. It looked just as grey as the ones done in propr paint until the carriage washing plants got at it, whereuppn it faded to blue almost at the first wash. Some 153s are similarly afflicted.

Ooh ! Hopefully York will start taking some again then. Thanks.

Those (I think), Hawkins Bazaar, Toyland/Toymaster, department stores (Fenwicks and Beales around here) and the late Modelezone took Hornby on a concession basis. After Hornby killed off the concessions (under the old regime) it's not surprising they aren't falling over themselves to restock.

The Northern issues are specifically at Leeds where platform extension has started but is behind schedule. The plan was to replace 4 car 333s with 2x3 car 331s on some services. Leeds NW will get new trains in 2019 but 4 car 331s for now.

Always Provincial / REgional Railways. The service was branded as Transpennine but only on timetables and publicity material until 1998 when Northern Spirit went ORCATS raiding between York and Newcastle, fitted the 158s with first class compartments and painted them purple with "transpennine" branding instead of the standard NS green/turquiose.

Exactly, there's no benefit in resignalling beyond what's already been done. Also delays on the route, for passenger trains at least, tend to have limited knock-on effects on other routes.

Yes, because everyone knows which shape loco he means by 'J94'. Even if that isn't a J94. The detail differences are lost on 99% of the potential customer base.

The last mention I saw of them in a Nettwork Rail document was that they were to be gone by 2029 (end CP7). However, given the other GNRP and HS2 projects still in the queue I would be surprised if they were a priority. Absolute end date for centralisation is (was ?) 2040. They are expensive to operate, so the cost-benefit analysis almost writes itself. However, the performance benefit is almost nil, so other resignalling projects get priority. The upside is that the S&C Development Co / FoSCLA are likely to be keen to preserve as many in situ as possible (think Armathwaite) and probably rather more innovative/committed that other community groups in finding alternative uses for them to make that viable. Garsdale would make a lovely cafe.