D854_Tiger

The Whitacre Junction to Kingsbury Junction line (part of the original B&DJ Railway is my local railway. Back in the 1990s, whilst container clearance work was taking place on the direct route to Water Orton we briefly became the main line with Peak hauled expresses passing by. Nowadays, only a couple of (late evening) booked passenger workings use this line for route familiarisation. During the mornings, we can get two of three freights an hour, round the loop, although it goes a bit quite in the afternoon, evenings and the weekends. We even get stuff coming round in the middle of the night now, though not sure why they need to go that way then. In the bad old days, I think it was the 1980s recession, a railwayman neighbour informed me that there was going to be a period of no booked workings over the line, with a view to closure. It lasted around two years, the line was kept available to the signallers, on an as required basis, but I've no idea how that translated to actual numbers of workings and I certainly very rarely saw or heard anything coming round. Anyway, they must have decided they couldn't do without the railway and ever since we've gone from very light use (two or three a day) to the situation we have now where it can get quite busy.

Is that via Stafford or direct route Rugeley to Stoke or is that a daft question.

Round my way (London Midland), they regularly combine Turbostar class 170s and class 153s where I believe an even bigger top speed mis-match exists 100 mph and 75 mph. This also suggests a Turbostar could, in theory, work in tandem with a Pacer, although I've never heard of it.

Tend to agree. I'm surprised more TOCs have not decided to plunder their past. After all, the old big four were masters of marketing. I also prefer that rail travel should not be marketed as if it were a bus company (even if it is), rail is the upmarket choice after all. Maybe Northern might now want to consider their L&Y heritage or TPE their LNW one. Bring back the glamour.

Well I think it looks quite lovely and I can't wait to see what a HST will look like in the new livery or even a class 150. The only question I would add, is there going to be any kind of GW branding added and what might that look like.

Do you ever get looped going the other way, I'm referring to the back loop at Dorridge station not the platform line. According to my 8X09 cabride DVD, the class 20s used to be sent that way as none of the platform lines were cleared for the tube stock (obviously now not the case), at the time the only booked working through the down loop (though going in an up direction).

Don't know about class 50s but I believe that some diesel locomotive are actually speed restricted when running light or with short loads like that due to the limited brake force available.

Is the loop still in use. Last time I went that way, about six months ago, it had sprouted a small forest.

As my old dad used to say, "There's always someone bigger" and if you're determined to go through life being an aggressive arrogant **** you've already booked your appointment.

I suspect the problem with using the Burton section is that the Birmingham - Derby line is a very busy 125 mph railway nowadays and securing freight paths must be quite difficult. I know the Tube stock train has particular difficulties, being limited to 40 mph, but no sooner does it join the main line than it gets looped for about an hour, then runs via Whitacre Junction rather than the main line and also gets looped at Washwood Heath for another hour or so. I remember when you could spend a whole afternoon at Whitacre Junction and not see a single thing coming off the back loop from Kingsbury Junction, nowadays it seems like two or three trains an hour are routed that way (back in the 1980s there was even talk of closing the line from Whitacre to Kingsbury).

Apart from the weekly (or is it bi-weekly) Tube stock delivery train I believe there are no other booked workings over this line west of Mantle Lane (Coalville). Is the line used by any other traffic, Youtube only has clips of railtours or one off NR test trains which kind of tells its own story. A work colleague who lives local (house backs onto the line) says that, before the Tube stock delivery trains, you could go weeks between trains, usually an occasional stone train working always after midnight. He even recalls a neighbour telling him the line was closed (apparently he had been walking his dog along it) and didn't believe a word of it when told otherwise. Apparently, when Bardon Hill is busy, three trains in a day, the constraint is the time taken to load the trains hence the post midnight departure which then is routed towards Burton, not Leicester, the more usual route. He believes the routing is something to do with keeping one less signalbox open after midnight, as it is, the boxes are normally only manned for afternoon shift. Strange to consider that without those Tube stock delivery trains the section to Burton would hardly be used whatsoever and they only operate in one direction, on what is a double track railway. What is the normal maintenance routine for such a railway sufficient to keep it open and available, as oppose to mothballed, which strikes me as closure by another name. Once those Tube deliveries come to an end would keeping the line open even be viable.