rogerzilla

Amos? There be panniers in the lower acre again. Get Jethro and his border Burrell down there to chase them off!

Hixon is the prime example of that. You couldn't really block a crossing with anything worse than a giant transformer.

I think UK non-high speed lines are fairly unique in the world by being fully fenced. Elsewhere, there is more of an onus on the public to keep off the tracks.

I wonder how there was time to get an emergency vehicle to the scene but not stop the train. I suppose the vehicle happened to be in the immediate vicinity and maybe US trains don't all have cab radio.

It's not a UK crossing, nor is it especially stupid, but the typically American reaction to the sight of Stuff Being Wrecked makes this worth 10 seconds https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-65859078

Ah yes, they were doing that in the late 80s too. I never saw if they changed the loco, or just put it on the other end.

Common in the 80s due to breakdowns! In the 50s and early 60s, water for steam heating boilers may have been an issue as water troughs (some early diesels had water scoops - Ramsbottom would have been proud) and columns started to disappear.

A work colleague (who happens to be an ex-policeman) was on a busy train and the passenger seated next to him was browsing the Internet on a laptop. It started with fantasy gaming sites, then "glamour" sites, then men and women doing things to each other with no clothes on, and then men doing things to other men with no clothes on. My colleague asks the guy, "Do you think you should be looking at that stuff on a train?" and is ignored. So my colleague, who is absolutely immune to embarrassment, stands up and announces to the entire coach, "Hey everyone, this guy's looking at gay porn." Laptop slammed shut, guy leaves train at next stop. I like to think it wasn't even his stop.

You can't even make a 2G voice call on the GWML unless you're sitting in one of the main stations. Good luck getting a 4G/5G data connection.

Ah, that's worthy of a dining train!

External finish "Good"...based on those photos, I wonder what "bad" looks like!

Timetable slipped again today (by about 40 mins at 4.30pm) but some good stuff on show. Highlight for me was seeing the class 88 coming through the cutting to Arley. A really unique spectacle. The other revelation was how well those ScotRail air-braked coaches rode the SVR track compared to BR Mk1 (or older) coaches.

We're off up there today. Early start.

I like the way the train keeps going. That is the thing with steam - it sort of works even when mortally wounded. Would probably never restart on one cylinder, though - no torque at front or rear dead centres!

Is it cast in one piece with the smokebox saddle? Looks too far gone for metal stitching.

Call Piglet!

If you can get hold of the book "Green Diesel Days", it is organised by region and has colour photos of everything indigenous to that region. 26/27 is the type most associated with Scotland, although nothing was a "Class" anything then...BRCW Type 2 🙂

My employer has claimed many different anniversaries over the years depending on what predecessor they decided to pick. Under the current name, it's 1970s, but historic merger partners can give you 170 years if you like. I think the current administration is claiming less - it goes down as well as up!

It's as if the marketing department have looked at the age profile of their visitors and determined that they most remember the absolute nadir of BR in the 1970s and 1980s, HST excepted.

A nice selection there. The class 40 looks great.

Maybe they'll do a bloopers reel.

There was certainly one on Argyle Street Buchanan Street a few years ago.

I believe some railways in problem water areas routinely removed a proportion of tubes just to get all of the scale into a position where it could be removed. The normal washout plugs and mudhole doors didn't cut it.

Are you thinking of the Kitzsteinhorn fire? The legal cases went on for years. The cause was a fan heater in the cabin overheating and setting fire to hydraulic oil, but the blame for it being installed there, or whether it had been modified, was never established. We go on holiday there often. There's a memorial building to the 155 who died.

This is an original Class 70!