Gary H

Looks like a couple of days old but worth a look. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IIiED7SMF0

Ive been pondering the same thing Mike. They're 20 footers and filled to the brim with wet sand and stone so probably about 30 tons each. That's far to heavy for any road railer to lift with even one at each end. RR machines are notoriously feeble for lifting capacity at the best of times, couple of bags of ballast is about ya lot and they become unstable. Cant see a road crane being used even if the road was reinstated as it wouldn't be wide enough to extend out riggers. I can see maybe a Kirow being brought in? It will be interesting to see what happens to them.

Some how I doubt that! More than likely there'll throw a party when we've gone and piece returns to their town. At the moment you cant move in there for NR vans, contractors vans, contractors cars, welfare cabins, etc. Its a bloody nitemare. So much going on but so little room!

Crikey, a 56 on the Cally beds, imagine the pics that would have generated had it materialised!

Interesting post. Is that a rarity on a 66 then Jim?

Il be there tomorrow delivering two stores full of tools, stressing gear and other track laying related paraphernalia. The light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. I remarked to a signalling manager today that it was nice to see all the signals lit and working again instead of being black for the last few weeks!

Another way I was told a few years ago was to brush it over with watered down cow sh.

I was wondering when that would get out!!

Great set of pics and report Tim! Another positive is that missing fencing in Marine Parade was being replaced earlier this afternoon. All the those glass fibre boards were also taken away from site ready for tamping, there were flipping hundreds of em!

Indeed, sorry fella's, a mistake on my part. I tried to remember the date I was told and between being told and writing here, - failed.

I had a an hour spare in Dawlish today in between picking up 10 tons of scrap rail to remove to Newton Abbot so the opportunity was seized to have a quick look at proceedings. Now, one thing that really struck me was the security in actually getting to the main breach site. Its very clear that for all intents and purposes, this is not a railway construction site at the moment, I was informed its a "street construction" site. Despite this, the main contractor still uses E'S's and COSS's. Strange street.......... First off you'll walk through a gate and into the first cabin where I was 'inducted'. This happens to any new entrant to the site that's controlled by Amco staff. Even though I was in my full NR 'dress code', every one is inducted. You put your name in the book, time in, where you came from, whom you work for and Sentinal card number. You then get a little sticker on your hard hat to say you've been inducted! After that you walk 20 yards before entering another cabin with a white board inside. Here, you do all that again that you did in the first cabin, save perhaps where you travelled from and Sentinal number. You then go through to passport control**. Im bloody sure they must be making gold bars in this place although I didn't spot any whilst I was there! First thing I came to was some guys from my unit in Plymouth finishing up changing some concrete sleepers. Pic shows them 'Kango-ing up' basicly hardening in with petrol driven hammers. Im now standing directly above the 'six-foot' rail of the Up looking towards Exeter. One thing that really does strike you here is the vast scale of the whole thing. I would say that the tops of the L-sections will be the top of the finished wall eventiually. There's a lot of cables there! These new cables have been run in over 100's of metres. I reckon the concrete pump will be used again once the L-sections are completed. If you look to the Amco banner in the background, you'll see a couple of concrete barrier sections, those two sections are sat on top of what is track level. If you look just up from centre in this image, you can see the electric meter box of one of the houses. Just to see how close these houses were to being in the sea! L-section fastenings. Stainless steel ofcourse. The L-sections are very substantial indeed. The 360 driver on site I spoke to said they are 4.3 (metric) tons each! This one is pictured lying on its side. On the walk back to the station some good progress was being made on the platform repair. A lot of wood work involved here by the looks of it. Anyway, that's all from me! Im back there again tomorrow to take away the 30 concrete sleepers our guys have changed out. I don't think I'l be going back in to the main breach site again though, atleast not until they give us the go ahead to reinstall the track which should be happening 7th of April I think. That will be a 24 hour operation, around the clock until its all in. One thing that made me smile was that the free burgers etc have actually gone to £1 each. All the money will go to charity and its into thousands already, what a great idea!! **The bit about passport control was a gag! But its abit like that!

What do you make of them then Jim? All good so far? Any annoyances or anything that really stands out great? I doubt there's any such thing as a perfect locomotive but I was just wondering.

Mike, do you remember the HST that tore in half the small horse box / live stock lorry on the Berks & Hants just outside Reading around 1988 ish? An accommodation crossing IIRC. An old school friend of mine recovered it back to the commercial vehicle garage on the Bassingstoke Rd, Reading, afterwards.

There's that dam word again! I do respect though that trying to teach some adults not to do it is a challenge in itself, letalone teenagers still at school!

I would put money on the latter. The RAIB seemed to sugar coat it in favour of the car driver but lets turn it on its head for a moment. The driver was apparently a local guy and he no doubt would have noticed the phones and signage at some time or other. So one would also have thought that should he have questioned the proper operation of the crossing, maybe it would have been a good idea to stop and use the crossings telephone to help shed some light on his predicament. (That's what I would have done personally) If he'd have done so, the train would have by now passed un hindered whilst he got out of his car and everyone could have got on with their day! Instead though "he couldn't be arsed" to stop and chose instead to drive around the barriers.

I also read that report. But surely, unless Im missing something here doesn't the whole thing boil down to just one fact. The driver of the car made an assumption which was the wrong one! I have a saying in my own life and one which I have also drummed into others around me and it goes like this- Assumption is the mother of all **** ups!

Those screens are very similar to their big brothers, the ES44AC's. They can show (amongst many other bits of real time information) what TE the loco is putting down at any given speed and throttle setting. Would be interesting to see some numbers Jim.

*cough* I think we may have voided any warranty looking at their current use and "slight modifications"!

It would be a good comparison trial. The 59 has a very similar starting TE figure, on one tinternet page Ive seen, the figure is almost the same at 122K but Wiki has it lower than that. But as we know, its what both loco's can put down continuously that matters. On paper the 70 should just take the title but I doubt there'd be a lot in it, atleast there shouldn't be!! Anyway, my comment was a little tongue in cheek. I like the 59 as it holds one of the most successful diesel engines ever built, the EMD 16-645E which is also fitted to one of the most successful locomotives ever built, the EMD SD40-2 - luv em to bits, fantastic machine.

I notice the far superior and premier traction is coupled inside.

Yeah, they're ugly but I still reckon the Met Vic Co-Bo holds the title. Maybe we shouldn't concern ourselves much with the way they look if they do a good job, unlike the Met Vic! Time will tell.

Just been informed by the Truro SM that Saturday night at around 19.00 hrs has been said as a start time for running trains. There maybe some teething problems with rusty rails / TC's and a little pilot working to begin with is expected. He was confident of a PZ to Plym train running Saturday night though all being well.

Tim, who is the main contractor on site, is it Amco Rail or Bam Nuttal? Either way, we're (NR) lucky to have such good civil engineering company's to work with. Looks like they really know their stuff when it comes to big rebuilding projects! No doubt it'll be reflected when they hand over the bill though. (Me, bigging up sub companys! Whatever next?)

Great glow affect from the GPL's!

"Fuel"!!! It'l go bloody nuclear opening that old chestnut!