D854_Tiger

These links may be of interest. Cab view of the route in question and filmed in glorious HD.

Isle of White.

I would tend to agree that were we down to just one Voyager, it would still be a multiple unit, in the same way that if all the women in the world ceased to exist I would still be a bloke. Anyway Voyagers aren't so bad, try one on the WCML, by golly they can shift and rather nice in the first class.

I don't know if it's still the case with more modern stock but I was once told by a WCML electrics driver that, with a rake of mk1s, if you came through Tring at 100 mph and then shut off power, with a favourable wind (green lights all the way), it was possible to coast the last thirty miles at 100 mph, all the way into Euston, neither braking or applying power. My first ever electric run to Euston, shortly after electrification, was behind E3004 and we pulled into the terminus alongside E3008.

Yes, there was a bubble car up front, locked out of use and full of mailbags.

The other side of the coin was a Tyseley class 116 on an all stations Worcester - Birmingham and that endless slog up Old Hill bank, you could lose the will to live on a DMU all stations stopper, at the best of times, but especially when never even getting out of second gear..

Indeed, all true, but sitting in a warm Swindon class 120 at 75 mph on the Marches route, non-stop Hereford to Shrewsbury, a black sky, torrential rain, thunder and lightning was a wonderful introduction to the Cross Country variety.

Back in the day, surrounded by all the flavours of diesel locomotives, it was always difficult to pay much attention to a DMU, let alone desire one for any kind of lengthy journey. However, secure the front seat (or rear) and you had the best passenger seat on the railway. At worst, you were always in for a fascinating journey and, at best, well ...... there were some really quite spectacular long journeys available. Birmingham - Norwich, for some years, was a DMU, obviously most of the Welsh railways and who could forget Nottingham to Skegness from the front seat. In the 1960s the Settle - Carlisle could be done in a DMU as well. Then just think of all those Beeching closures that were DMU operated, there was the Stainmore route, Scarborough - Whitby, the list seems endless, and all possible from the front seat.

Whatever used to turn up on Heart of Wales services you could be pretty sure, even two car, it would be composed of two power cars. I believe the official reason was because of the gradients but I think insurance was as much a reason. Back in the DMU days, break down on the H of W, and, chances were, someone was in for a very long walk to find the nearest phone.

Towards the end of DMU working a right old motley collection of units used to turn up on the Cross City line, I even remember a former Scottish power car floating around (without a trailer) I think it might have been a Gloucester unit of some description. Then, come the glorious day of electrification, and the Cross City ended up with a right old motley collection of electric units former Eastern Region stuff and all sorts, complete with inappropriate system maps. As for Tyseley's class 122s, they could turn up anywhere as has already been mentioned they were more often than not used as substitute power cars in other sets. A tradition Tyseley has maintained with its class 153s nowadays which hardly ever seem to venture out alone. I remember enjoying the front seat of a class 122 from Crewe to Birmingham, a daily summer only bucket and spade school holiday service from Llandudno, a suburban set was diagrammed, with no toilets, a great idea with all those kids in tow,.

Any discussion of colour always reminds me of a visit to Warley one year. I was absorbed in watching a succession of ECML expresses on the Stoke Summit layout. A chap near to me who was firing off photographs asked the guys if they had any Deltics. The helpful reply was, "Yes we have a Deltic we can send one out for you if you like, what colour do you want." Some wag in the crowd shouted, "The purple one" whereupon they produced it.

Euston Square to Liverpool Street on the MET could certainly be described as interesting during the rush hour. Mostly a view from the door windows, if you were lucky, and one morning at Barbican it gave me a view down in between the platforms of the biggest rat I have ever seen.

P.P.S. It also depends on the coupling type buckeyes presumably demand that the banker should be coupled up. Perhaps an expert could tell us how the procedure works nowadays regards TPWS working.

P.S. Some of the freights are used to return the bankers from whence they came, as they are no longer based at Bromsgrove full time, in which case I would imagine they will be coupled up.

There and are some nighttime cab rides on youtube showing this to be the case, the banking locomotive dropping off at Blackwell. Special headlights are equipped on those class 66s for such purposes. I was given to understand that certain operational 'issues' with the new station and track layout as regards banking of freight trains have still to be resolved. Regarding service levels, a quick check on Real Time Trains reveals that banking operations during the day are few and far between, most freights up the hill seem to be diagrammed for the evening and early hours.

Last year I had cause to commute down to the City for around six weeks, to Liverpool St. A couple of chaps in the same office were commuting in daily from Maidenhead. My commute from the West Midlands was only taking the tube journey (around twenty minutes) longer than their's from Maidenhead (around 80 minutes including train changing time). Of course, most days my commute home was taking somewhat longer, via Marylebone rather than Euston, because (well) sometimes you just have to.

Currently six electric trains per hour (off-peak) ply their way over the Cross City South, three terminating at Longbridge and three extending to Barnt Green and Redditch. I believe the plan is that all three trains currently terminating at Longbridge will extend to Barnt Green and Bromsgrove. The first time I visited Redditch in the 1970s it was on one of the two only (both ways) per day peak time DMU workings. The other stations on the Cross City line had only one extra working over that. Not sure about Bromsgrove back then, when the service was at its nadir, but I'm guessing it wasn't too many trains. It only had one platform as I remember the trains had to use the same crossovers the bankers used in order to call there. Not that I ever experienced it, my abiding memory of Bromsgorve was always passing non-stop keeping an eye out for the bankers (Hymeks in those days). A hydraulic was an exotic beast to us Brummies back then, rarer than girls, the sight of those bankers (always the same three) being a first exciting glimpse of what was to come further south.

The new station at Bromsgrove opened this month offering some new photographic opportunities for the Lickey banking operation. As this rather excellent clip shows.

I would just like to say that from memory a HST + 5 is the dog's proverbials. Virgin XC had a few sets so composed initially, during Operation Princess, so they could keep to the Voyager schedules. Sparkling doesn't even begin to describe the performance.

Every picture or clip I have seen of a class 350 on that TV and Crewe flyer has featured only one unit. That maybe adequate for north of Rugby but south thereof includes a stop at Milton Keynes, just one unit in the peak stopping there sounds like a recipe for trouble. LM's Birmingham trains take on extra units at Northampton, even in the off-peak (and lose them in the opposite direction), but those Crewe trains are routed over the fast lines south of Rugby and don't stop at Northampton, indeed just the one stop at MK, with presumably no opportunity for strengthening. I wonder how they cope.

A couple of our family holidays were spent near Borth (alas by car) around 1970 - 71, we used to spend time at the dunes, at Ynyslas, from where the view across the estuary allowed you to follow progress along the Coast line between Aberdovey and Dovey Junction. I remember trains composed of various flavours of DMU twin sets, sometimes up to six coaches (summer time), and the mid-day class 24 hauled daily freight train. A couple of times returning to base camp, in the evening, we passed the gatekeeper operated crossing at Bow St in time to see the early evening class 24 on the parcels (not sure if that was the one that went through to York). Later and old enough to arm myself with Rover tickets, I visited the line several times. Summer Saturday on a Swindon cross country DMU (front seat) we passed the double headed class 24 hauled London train at Talerdigg we also stopped at Caersws, no loop by then, but we were able to pass a late running service by means of backing into a siding, the most rusted over piece of track I reckon I ever travelled over. Also a double headed class 25 day excursion from the West Midlands to Barmouth, they used to run these during the school summer holidays, home in the glorious isolation of a mk1 compartment (to myself). Fast forward to the final days of scheduled summer Saturday loco haulage along the coast, it was possible to take a class 37 hauled train from Birmingham to Llandudno (remember those) then via the Blaenau Branch and the Ffestiniog to arrive at Porthmadog (main line) in time to meat the incoming train from New St. Double headed class 31s, a motley pair of, seen much better days, Bescot infrastructure locomotives. Returning from Pwllheli, after 5 in the evening, towards the end of summer you would get a coach to yourself, not just a compartment, ideal for the epic journey home to New St and hanging out of a droplight most of the way. Stock up with a couple (or three) of beers from the supermarket next to the station and you had all the constituent parts necessary for the best pub in the land.

Those class 156 sprinters made more stops as well, which didn't help with the overcrowding. The class 31 hauled service was limited stop - New St, Nuneaton, Leicester, Peterborough, March, Thetford and Norwich. One rather interesting idea that emerged, around that time (but never happened), for summer Saturdays (covered in Rail Magazine), was for the through Walsall and New St to Yarmouth service to run via the NLL composed of two class 310 units with a diesel drag from Norwich. In the event, they found a rather motley set of just four mk1s (they seriously looked as if they could be flea infested), with a class 47, running round the world (it took forever). The route was Castle Donnington, Nottingham, Grantham, Peterborough, Ely (reverse) and Norwich (reverse).

The section of the Varsity line west of Bletchley remained in use until 1993, well into the more enlightened era of railway development. Even then, it wasn't so much closed as just fell into disuse, suggesting there was little need for it at the time, from a freight perspective. So even if it had survived, the sort of railway that could have gone many days, even weeks, between use. The potential for passenger use towards Milton Keynes was probably frustrated by the junction arrangements at Bletchley. A truly realistic layout would probably look more like Coalville to Burton does nowadays. But hey, this is model railways, so a Virgin operated Deltic plus 7, XC HSTs and Virgin class 47s with mk2, plying their way along the route, on their way from Coventry to Oxford, is not so unlikely.

Video 125 went better than that and did a whole series (steam and diesel) of archive videos based upon old cinema outtakes. I say better because the clips were based on 35mm film, which in theory will withstand remastering into a HD format, unfortunately none of those videos, so far, have been released in the superior format. I am no expert but someone who claimed to know told me that even 16mm film can hold up to the quality required for an HD remastering. But again, none of the multifarious DVDs based on such film stock, such as the Ivo Peter archives, has been made available in this best possible quality, made possible by Blu-ray. Which is a shame.