mikejames

while a slight change of emphasis I find myself reluctant to go to the railway museum at York altho' my grand kids love it because it doesn't smell like a 'shed' should. regards mike j

I guess its obvious to more knowledgble people than me but, given there is no signal controlling the exit from the virtual quarry siding (see the earlier pdf) , how does the driver know when to leave - there could be a leeds/southbound train between here and blea moor. regards mike j

as a old age pensioner my conclusion from reading this thread is don't use e tickets - its too complicated mike james

in the winter 1998/9 passenger timetable (weekdays) there is a central trains 5.57 ex Nottingham arr Cardiff 9.48 via gloucester 8.31 ex Nottingham arr Cardiff 12.03 via Gloucester - originated lincoln and others if anyone wants photo copy of Timetable give me a message with your email address. I have several public time tables from the period that I am willing to photocopy a few pages from if anyone is interested. mike james PS the only Aberdeen service is to Plymouth. services from further south in Scotland(Dundee Glasgow edinbough) to penzance and brighton but none to south wales that I can see

to amplify a bit From winter 1998/9 public timetable regarding Nottingham derby Birmingham Cardiff central trains ran all the trains in this direction from nottingham virgin ran lots of trains derby Birmingham to Bristol as part of north east - southwest services wales and west ran most of the bham Cardiff trains but some central trains regards mike j

the north wants decent rail services - and the mayors have every right to say so mike james

one of the problems with renewable energy sources is that storing the energy until its needed is not a trivial problem on a large scale. creating hydrogen is one of the ways to store this energy. it has the advantage of being portable and can be used to power trains and other things like cars. there have been several reports recently on 'the hydrogen economy' and similar titles. I don't think there will be a single solution to the energy storage problem but a mix of different technologies of which hydrogen will be one. mike james

hi again maybe off topic but a question these locos were designed to pull passenger services on the London local lines they were then sold on to work in various locations including the north wales granite co site surely they were not obviously suitable. Is it just they were available cheap and people had to use what they could get or is it a case of locos are actually very flexible if used with skill? mike james

hi hopefully not to far off topic the photo above of the north wales granite co loco is attractive and since named Conway is of interest since its 'my patch' but a quick web search for north wales granite co doesn't produce anything helpful I assume the loco is standard gauge and most quarries were narrow gauge can anyone point to where it was used and for what regards mike j

I have a paper copy of the passenger time table for this period Obviously I could photo copy the relevant pages. Since it is the 'public' timetable it differs slightly from the working timetables and doesn't have the details that wtts contain. Since you mention St Blazey, I looked up par and that would be about 30 pages but the table covers the (ex gwr) main line west of Exeter. If of interest leave me a message with your email address so we can sort out details Mike James

hi I think its the same train and it was a 70 by the time it got to ribblehead There are 2 'stills' on the ribblehead cam of railcam at about 5 42 I wont post it because I'm not sure of copyright issue edited to say that a bit earlier there is another still of a 'light' 56 at ribblehead (and also at Horton in ribblesdale) so the 56 didn't turn into a 70! mike james

The A1trust could then build a replacement and everyone would be happy?

FS seems to cause some problems where ever it goes but was there any reason for it being so bad around the midlands that day. e.g. publicity in the papers? If so may provide a action plan to help in the future? mike james

I would be interested to know if there are any figures for 'reliability' in service yet. The next lot are due for north wales which is 'my patch' hence the interest regards mike j

please restrict yourselves to comments that are loosely connected to railways. Of coarse railways and politics get mixed but the recent comments are (in my opinion) too far away to be useful regards mike james

seems to be some gossip about some use on north wales coast. any facts? for may timetable change !?- seems optimistic if need referbs! (it can be my 'local patch') thanks for any info regards m

Two northern services at Altrincham today (23/3/19) The first is the 1102 ex Chester to Manchester and shows 142046 (which was working with 142 035) The second is the 11.41 ex Manchester to Chester and shows 142 018 Not seen pictures of them on Manchester/chester service so hope of interest Mike j

not balance - but a very good reason to look very hard at restrictions on diesel use in the uk. for some reason some people are impressed by an exhibition of cleg/clag? from deltics and other diesels but to me its a serious health risk sorry but no thank you regards mike j

this thread raises a lot of interesting points about alteratives to diesel engines etc but I don't have the engineering background to really understand the options Can anyone point me to a good source of (free) background reading about these alternative energy vectors and their pluses and minuses thank you regards mike j

not sure if 'definate' I cannot for some reason post the link but https://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2019/03/05-welcome-for-extension-of-midland.html regards

The problem with 'popular' treads is they become overloaded with side issues that are sort of relevant but distract from the main 'theme'- the hs2/hs3 either/or/both is a good example for this thread. Housing policy and its effect on hs2 is another. The problem is that it is difficult to 'split off' a side topic once a tread is running. To a reader it is often obvious that material about xx should separated but linked but I wouldn't know how to accieve this. Can the 'mods' think how this might be accieved with only a small amount of work? regards mike j

seems to be quite a way away from HS2

what this seems to say is that you get a lot more 'outcomes' for every pound spent if you spend it in 'the north' ( and other 'deprived' areas) so why not do that? I'm not saying I advocate this but the real point is to decide our national priorities. these are political decisions and the problem is (in my opinion) people have ceased to trust politicians to make them in 'the national interest'. regards mike j.

hi thanks for the thoughts I model in OO and I cannibalised a wordsworth church. not very good but did the job thanks for yours (and everyones) comments mike j

hi DAS000364 is interesting also in that it shows what I assume is (one of) the warrington transporter bridge(s) in the background (I believe there used to be more than one) regards mike j