jamesg

The Coventry to Leamington line between Kenilworth and Leamington was double track, singled in 1972. There remains a passing loop at Kenilworth but this is not in the new station. As far as I can tell, the stretch from Kenilworth to Gibbet Hill on the outskirts of Coventry has always been single track. Milverton station (Leamington) was closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching Axe, with the stretch between Leamington and Kenilworth being singled in 1972. Part of the line was redoubled in 2007 and there's talk of electrifying the route, though who knows whether that will happen. More about the line in this Wikipedia article.

800305 was working 1W21 09:22 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street and 1P47 12:06 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington yesterday (16th June). 1W29 on Thursday 14th June was 800028 (it was 800304 on 13th June), so for the time being, it looks like the diagrams are interchangeable between 5- and 9-coach sets. Some diagrams were interchangeable between 5-coach 800s and HSTs as the 800s were coming in, so that's no surprise.

Excellent shot, I was a few miles north of you and got a photograph in the rain and mist. This should be the first of fourteen sets to be delivered, though I've no idea if they'll all use the same route. There's a video on the BBC website showing the coaches being tested at Velim. Seats are clearly aligned with the windows. (Still from linked video)

800302 became, to my knowledge, the first 9 coach set to visit Worcester. It worked 5X76 Stoke Gifford to Lydney, 5X77 Lydney to Abergavenny (via Cheltenham, Worcester & Hereford) and 5X78 Abergavenny to Stoke Gifford. An additional 5-coach 800 followed it from Cheltenham to Worcester. I can't find it as a scheduled working, but it could be a diverted 1W12 (Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street via Oxford), running via Swindon instead: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C56076/2018/05/11/advanced .

Modern technology, pictures of the rescue were circulating online within an hour of the event. I thought I could see you driving 70810! Excellent pictures and thank you for sharing.

There has been a lot of tree felling on the lines that run past me. I've seen workers on behalf of Network Rail clearing trees on a few occasions in January and February, all work had stopped by the middle of March (one worker mentioned to me that this was to protect nesting birds). Some work had to be done at night, unfortunately some was in the middle of villages. I can understand people being annoyed at being kept awake, especially when the railway stations in these villages closed in the 1960s. The last tree to fall on the line, cancelling all trains, was in December. Hopefully there will be no such incidents next winter and the press will be reporting on there being no trains cancelled.

Beat me to it! If Hornby could fit sound into a Peckett, Ivor would also be able to sing in the choir.

A little news on 800020. This member of the GWR Class 800 fleet has been named after Bristolians Bob Woodward and Elizabeth Ralph. Full news article from GWR here: https://www.gwr.com/about-us/media-centre/news/2018/april/bristol-heroes-celebrated-with-train-naming . I found out first hand by photographing it yesterday on a Worcester to Paddington service.

There is some confusion in the Network Rail Open Data feeds used by Realtime Trains (amongst other websites). Schedules from VSTP (very short term plan) have their speed in a unit that is 2.24 times the speed in mph. The raw data will have given the speed as 280, which is divided by 2.24 to give 125. There's a bit more detail at https://wiki.openraildata.com/index.php/VSTP (section 'Note: CIF Speed'). If you've ever seen a website reporting a 60mph freight as 'timed for 134mph', that is also the reason.

Another great set of photos Jim. I especially like the lineup at Bescot alongside 66003, the perspective is spot on. I saw 70804 and 70811 move to Bescot as part of 6M50 Westbury to Bescot on Thursday. Must have been some interesting shunting to get everything into place at Bescot.

An evening shot. 55009 'Alycidon' working a railtour last June. Any more dramatic lighting, evening or morning?

That was fun, quite tricky and I needed the second photograph to find one of the shunters.

Welsh Guardsman on the Gwili Railway, near Carmarthen.

GWR Double Twist interlocking.

No station should be without a Southern Scammell Scarab! This one is at Toddington, GWSR.

Monty, the newest member of the narrow gauge steam fleet at the Evesham Vale Light Railway.

A funicular railway on black and white film.

A piece of recent history. 180106 on an apparently remote part of the Cotswold line, actually just south of Worcester. I'm calling it 'remote' because it's some way from the nearest road and getting there requires a trek across a muddy field. Still, the unusual angle and rarity of photographs taken from this spot make it one of my favourite viewpoints. More countryside please!

A few photographs have popped up on Flickr showing 37884 being taken to Eastleigh by 47848 yesterday. Here's one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/16885966@N08/26152868608 .

It was reported in Railway Herald today that 47815 had brake issues after working the Wembley to Foxton (Barrington) spoil train and 37884 was sent to assist. 37884 was pictured with a tarpaulin over the cab. It looks like 47815 fared a lot better than 37884.

Or 'Great Way Round'. 800008 was on the Cotswold line yesterday, though another diagram which I expected to be 800 operated turned out to be a HST, so it looks as though they're interchangeable with HSTs to some extent at the moment. 1P29 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington was operated by 43187 and 43174; it was 800006 on Friday.

The livery applied to 66720 was a competition entry, here at Croome Perry Wood on the evening of 31st July 2016 with suitably bright yellow box wagons. Unfortunately I can't remember where it was going from or to. There must be quite a few more unusual liveries?

I'm considering this with my Bachmann Class 20. The mechanism on mine isn't perfect and benefits from the back EMF sensing in the decoder, so hopefully the TTS decoder will do this just as well. With the 20 or other Bachmann diesels, there isn't a lot of empty space inside, how did you fit the decoder and the speaker?

I saw different 800s on the 1P22 08:25 Worcester Foregate Street to Paddington and 1W14 06:25 Paddington to Great Malvern services this morning. It looks like two diagrams over the Cotswold line have been worked by 800s each day this week, a turbo was used on 1P22 last week (this used to be a 180). The 800s I saw were certainly running well on diesel power and RTT shows that they were on time for the diesel sections. The afternoon 1W23, formed from 1P22 at Paddington, lost a lot of time on the electric sections and was cancelled at Evesham as a 'points failure' in order to form 1P33 back to Paddington on time.

Green tank wagon coming out of Long Marston, hauled by maroon 66746. How about another maroon locomotive next?