Gary H

The two pictures i saw at work today certainly showed 2 of those lines still usable, not anymore though The ground positon light that's still working made me chuckle! Thats a monumental task to repair that for certain, the mother of all land slips!

What date was it the 37's ran?? Its really ironic that some of the brand new bullhead rails we installed off the end of the wash plant road towards Friary yard still have their bar code stickers on the heads of the rails!! The only thing to run over them in the 5 years since they were fitted were the roadrailers that lowered them into the chairs!!

You didn't get that axle box cover per chance?

Good grief, not many then. Thanks for the pointer.

Same as that. If anything working on the railway of which i started in 87 only made the situation worse with not taking photo's, It was all so regular, mundane and just a job back then it never seemed like it mattered to take photo's! It was only when it all started to dissapear into oblivion in the late 90's that I suddenly realised how short sighted i was! As Cher once said, 'If I could turn back time'. Strangely, I just cant find the enthusiasm today to phot voyagers and 153's.

Can anyone tell me how many 08's there are left opperational now? Wasn't it like 800 or so at one time?

And here she is quietly rotting away in the weeds and Buddleia. As alot of its equipment is probably now out of test and with the state of the bodywork, i reckon the only way it'l leave here now is in a skip unfortunately. The old Res van is also similar just a few yards away from where i took these. Ive just noticed all the blue sky in those shots, when did that happen ?

Ah ha! I saw Tangmere at Exeter earlier that day. The guy delivering the coal for it in a lorry asked me directions to Riverside yard where the train later turned up. Made a nice change from the endless procession of Vomiters and 153's etc.

Thats the one!!!!!!!!! :good: Top man, thanks for that. Was racking my frazzled brain for days trying to remember! Salt of the earth that guy, spent many great hours rememising about how it used to be. Last time I spoke to him was early in the year, he came to Tavi yard to put a failed 66 over the pit in the OTM shed, it had badly flatted wheels, I think it went away on a skate!

I just spent a very enjoyable 2 hours or so looking through your flickr site! Oh what we have lost!

A few Ive taken last few years. Longitudinal timber replacement on the Plym bridge. Welding on a very windy and bitter night somewhere on the Gunislake branch. I can remember it vividly, it was so dam cold i thought my ears would fall off! A miss-hap in St Blazey yard with the Canton crane in attendance and LOTS of track repair! I'd just delivered a new TPWS battery bank and charging unit on Looe platform. Thats about 15 grands worth standing there!

Ive chatted to Mike a couple of times at Liskeard on the Cement, he's a great chap indeed. Another that sticks in my mind is the driver that was on "Silver Bullet Syphons" all those years ago, a St Blazey man, cant remember his name for the life of me now buts he's another gem of the railway, been fortunate enough to get him on a couple of ballasts over the years and is still SB. has a Yorkshire accent.

Hi Tim, did you see that PM i sent you? Sorry i didnt notice yours for so long mate .

One tiny positive outcome of its demise was that 2 of the crossing booms and pedestals from the Shapters Way crossing were donated to the Life Centre in Bodmin. They were used to reproduce an indoor railway crossing to edjucate school children on the evils of crossing mis-use and railway tresspass dangers.

I was involved in the major upgrade of that line about 5 or 6 years ago. We renewed all the rail from the boat yard area, about half a mile before Cattedown itself and renewed most of the S&C in the sidings inside the terminal, not to mention several hundred sleepers that were changed between there and Friary yard. We even dug out that road crossing to renew the sleepers and rails through it with new tarmac. Not 2 years after all that work and money, the line was shut for good and lifted. Indeed some of the guys that carried out those renewals were also instrumental in ripping it out although not me on that occasion! A great shame IMO. This is a picture i took on my phone on its penultimate day of existance looking toward the road crossing from the direction of the boat yard. By dinner time that day, it had gone. Looking towards the boat yard. Both taken on 10-2-2010.

Crikey, really brings home to me how small our loading gauge is when i look at those containers behind the loco compared with all the American 'stackers' I play with!

For diesel, has to be a matched set of EMD "F7's" in ATSF warbonnet paint. So timeless and never gets old. Steam, the Southern Pacific "Daylight".

Thats what I had in mind, strange! Nothing will beat a 59 below about 15 mph. (info from a driver I met on a ballast one night that regularly worked out of Whatley and Merehead up until the mid ninties) The Super Series by letting each driven wheel slip a controlled amount gives phenomenal tractive effort. Anyway, from good authority, dont right off the tugs just yet, lets see what 2010 brings!

They sound every bit like their C44-9W cousin so thats no bad thing! Even the T motors sound the same.

Which just goes to reainforce my earlier post..... Bean counters now run this 'circus' not railway people, folks. But not to worry, all the infrastructure is also heading the same way, so atleast it'l all match

Very more than likely, Britains railways were sentenced to death the day maggie T took over. I think Ed done a fairly good job of picking up the pieces and turning the tables of British railfreight tbh, same can be said of those 'horrible' sheds

Part of the problem for the 60 is that its a small class of locomotives built on a comparitivley tiny island in someones back yard compared with the loco building industry in the rest of the world. I suspect that the DBS bean counters see them as a huge liability, needing heavy overhaul, little or no spare part support and abit of an odd-ball in their shareholders eyes. All anyone wants these days is a huge (by numbers) generic locomotive with one generic set of parts, one generic set of servicing regimes. The 60 was great when we were just Great Britain with no one to be accountable for than ourselves, but look around now, we no longer produce anything except drunken thugs and are practicly run by the rest of Europe, hell, even the good old Spar shop is to be known as bloody Euro Spar :icon_frustrated: The demise of the 60 is just another closed chapter from a book we no longer own.

Great news for the hobby! Im also very glad i sold my kit built one when i did :icon_clap:

It must not be forgoton that todays big companys are run by bean counters, not railwayman like they were in the good old days. Thats fact. They wont care a hoot about a loco type, 60, 66 or otherwise in the slightest or if it works in run 8 all day, as long as it gets there. Hell, most of the time they dont even care about their employees If these big companys can see a saving in the short term, they go for it. Dont let anyone try to tell you any differant! That 'big rail company' i work for is certainly no differant! Its all just a numbers game nowadays.

Considering our feather weight axle loading compared with the US, the spec is prety impressive has to be said. The highest starting TE loco we had until now was the Class 59 at 113'000 pounds starting TE. The class 70 comes out at 122'000 pounds, should be more than enough grunt for the trains we have here. Putting things into perspective, an EMD SD90MAC has a starting TE of over 200'000 pounds but is obviously alot heavier. Its all about having enough weight on those drivers! The 70 is slowly growing on me but i cant help but think a livery without those curvy bits would sit much better. A big pluss is the typical GE traction motor scream when at speed