hexagon789

They should've done, the two workings were: FO 2326 Manchester Picc.-Paignton SO 0820 Paignton-Man Picc. SO 0715 Milton Keynes Cen.-Penzance SO 1540 Penzance-MKC In both cases only one FO was proper First, the other vehicles were all declassified.

Spoiling us now! I like the top one, sort of a line up of 10 years - in 1981 you might have had a 47 without headlight yet doing a run to Inverness, 10 years later the same service would've been the 158 on the right. The lighting really makes it though!

So nice to see a post from you Dave, really missed this thread. I think I can quite legitimately say, we've all missed you and your posts, but equally I suspected the crash would've massively affected this thread. Thank goodness you had the foresight to keep all the photos! Those 37s are ace, top-notch locos. I hope we get to see more of your ever excellent photography and cracking layout soon! All the best.

Thanks for the update, looking forward to the ScotRail Express book

One of the original four-cars MM extended to five by removing an NS from each of the nine-cars. EMT then reduced the now eight-car sets to seven, and one of them to five. Then extended the remaining four cars up to five as well. Did improve matters on the semi-fasts using the four-cars, as the four-cars had silly proportions of First Class but removing two standards from the nine-cars means the issue now perpetuates in the seven cars! Good trains though, MM definitely took on board the criticisms of the Voyagers and managed to produce a far better train interior. I do miss that livery, never seemed to suit the HSTs quite rightbut was a lot better on the Meridians than the current Ribena livery!

Always liked the original livery on the 222s, though the seating arrangement in the 4-cars was less than ideal.

It was certainly 1V93 in 1980, don't know about booked traction, but a number of NE-SW trains seemed to change to 50s at Birmingham New St.

Something like that I imagine, though there are no plans to reinstate the hourly Edinburgh/two-houry Glasgow schedules nor the Dundee-Plymouth or 1V60 running all the way to Penzance in the near future (ie certainly not happening at the May timetable change, or it would have been planned already - future changes get done 18-24 months in advance normally, but we are down to 12 months with the present circumstances.) As it is, I understand the long-term plan is to split the Aberdeen-Plymouth at Birmingham, get rid of the Guildford, Paignton and Newquay services and possibly even Penzance extensions. Essentially concentrate almost everything on two core routes - Edinburgh to Plymouth and Manchester to Bournemouth.

There still is -5A01. It then runs in service as a Class 2 from Dundee - 2A01 the 0642 Dundee to Aberdeen, ironic as its non-stop. The same unit returns south at 0933 with 1V60, the 0820 from Aberdeen to Plymouth. The former Dundee-Plymouth no longer appears in passenger service, but an ECS working runs in the former slots! Same as Glasgow Central, there are still 3 CrossCountry ECS trains that run in and out of Glasgow in the paths of 3 now cancelled workings.

There is no outright ban, but the standards required now means that arguably building a bridge is easier than going through all the necessary legal stages.

I think I was a bit harsh worded there, but I'm thinking of basic practicalities. While I too would dearly love to see all the projects come to fruition, councils just don't have the cash to spare. Many have closed libraries, leisure centres or reduced hours, cut back on road maintenance etc. It might be fairer at present to at the very least have the railway at least partly fund such a project through donations.

Money? Councils aren't exactly flush with it and there are arguably far more deserving causes that are well ahead in line.

I always thought orange high-vis was so rail workers weren't mistaken for a yellow aspect signal from a distance in low light/darkness. That's what I've read/been told anyway.

Indeed! I understand the plan is for test runs later this year, with a view to the first passenger carrying tour in January. 47712 was recently given overhauled bogies and R5 blocks to permit 95mph specially.

I doubt many thought in a million years we'd see a recreation of a ScotRail Mk3 push-pull set complete with DBSO.

Locomotive Services Limited revealed their latest railtour set, a homage to the ScotRail Express push-pull sets of the 1980s. DBSO 9707 and a set of five Mk3s have been repainted in ScotRail Express livery to go with Crewe Heritage Diesel's 47712 Lady Diana Spencer: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid026ytHFDgkQR9ByNtyEz3jJE4b4fU8mT8pT3PNx5cwdtgbicu5LnZffgYrTWEeSRofl&id=100075707029121&eav=AfYcMzvrUQy2FT6XMYHnu8VbvUqS-Lj8iGPgqzejw_4tKpdq4lgNC3uyctxeIP5MxXs&m_entstream_source=timeline&paipv=0

The TPE units are Class 802s

Option 2 won - a sympathetic design similar to the original but using modern materials and construction methods and without chimneys (which were obsolescent anyway).

Ah, I think I took 'development' a little too far! Yes, fully agree there - the WCML and ECML seemed to go for different approaches - old regional differences dying hard? The WCML seemed to love the excess FO option, with one being fluid dining instead of a dedicated Restaurant Open of some description. The ECML seemed to only go for the use of a normal open in Executive sets and then later years when catering was rationalised, otherwise as you say RUO were well used, or sometimes you had RU+RB pairings such as in the Executive sets. The IC225 was really an electric HST with only one power car. The SV is pretty much a Mk4 version of a Mk3 RFB/TRFB.

The basic ECML restaurant set was RF-TO from memory (1920s/1930s), the TO being flexible Third Class dining/extra seating. That was in the most basic expresses, then one worked up towards the RTS triplet sets in the top-rank services with several intermediate variations on either theme depending on various factors. Getting off topic now though!

Lovely stuff Dave, C7924 especially and 7925 a close second for me.

The service is mentioned in the second of the four comments on the photo: '1E21 was the 14.28 Llandudno Town - Sheffield service.'

Mk2C, these appeared brand-new on the LMR in 1970 for the Euston-Liverpool/Manchester and the accelerated Euston & Birmingham-Glasgow services that were a feature of the May 1970 timetable. They were the region's first air-braked stock, prior to that even front-rank services were mixed Mk1/2Z and all vacuum-braked.

I'm sure it's heard in the BTF film Blue Pullman at least at one point pullimg off shed, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it sounded like. I used to have the film on tape, but on divesting myself of all VHS tapes and players, I never obtained a DVD copy to replace it so can't check.

Well spotted, I missed that detail while noting the headcodes.