Edwin_m

Just to set that straight it's actually Trieste.

My first exhibition visit in two years I think, and left feeling fairly positive. More space this year meant fewer stands but the reasons for that are understandable, and there were still some excellent layouts. Traders seem to be concentrating more on secondhand, with Rails for example devoting the majority of their stand to it, perhaps because anyone wanting new is increasingly likely to just go online but with secondhand more people will want to see the item before buying. It may also be a reflection of the drastic increase in prices of new N gauge stuff in the last few years.

I think there's someone somewhere in a concrete bunker stroking a cat, thinking up conspiracy theories and putting them on the internet. Or is that in itself a conspiracy theory?

Looks like they've opened up a big tin of track colour and got together some aerosols for weathering it.

Have we just invoked the feline equivalent of Godwin's Law?

The caption "going" is clearly wrong here.

I think the "driving trailer" has a brake valve and it certainly has a horn.

Yes. Earthing on dual-electrified sections is a black art. I suspect when the fourth rail was no longer needed someone thought it was easier to just keep it instead of risking problems with stray current, which has been known to corrode the bases of OLE masts to the extent they needed replacing.

Insulation and surge arrestors as used in Cardiff could be an option for Wallgate, though I think the bridge itself will probably need sorting out before too long - I seem to recall it's propped up. Lowering the track would be difficult as the station platform would also need adjustment, particularly at the end where the steps and buildings are. Given that there are terminating platforms available at North Western that can be accessed without blocking the WCML main lines, I can see why that issue has been ducked. The Kirkby line is complicated by the issue of a proposed branch to Skelmersdale. The most sensible option would probably be for this to have a triangular junction and become the terminus from both Liverpool and Manchester, but if it's built at all something cheaper might be favoured instead. Also the new Merseyrail units have provision for onboard batteries, so extension of the third rail might be avoided.

There are several services that terminate at Wigan and could be converted to EMU, using the bay platforms at North Western to delay the question of how to deal with the low bridge under Wallgate (the street) needed to access Wallgate (the station). There are also 769 bi-mode units running the Southport service at present, which could run on electric for longer, and/or judicious timetable rearrangement to run through diesel service beyond Wigan via the Atherton line so that more trains via Bolton terminated at Wigan and could be EMUs. If diversion is needed there is always the route via Parkside curve, which also avoids any problems in the Bolton area, though it needs to use the WCML for a longer distance. So I doubt the scope for a second diversionary route adds much benefit into the business case. I think Liverpool to Manchester via the CLC route would have a better case than these or Kirkby or Southport.

Jobs that require more skills also pay better, especially when those skills are scarce. Someone with an HGV licence has the scarce skill of being able to drive an HGV, so is unlikely to be driving a van unless their preference to do so outweighs the prospect of extra money. Someone without an HGV licence may be driving a van, but they can't switch to an HGV without doing training and passing a test, which takes time and money. They're not really much more of a solution to the HGV driver shortage than any random member of the public with a car driving license.

I doubt online has much to do with this. The HGVs that brought the goods to the shops previously will now take (some of) them to distribution warehouses - there may be some move towards larger lorries to handle the greater volumes to fewer places, but there will be fewer of them. From the warehouses to the consumer is indeed all about vans of various sizes, but those drivers don't need a HGV license. Anyone with one who was driving vans has probably switched to HGVs already unless there's some reason they can't do that.

As mentioned, most supermarkets send some goods by rail, but it only happens when enough goods is moving between the same origin and destination, and they are far enough apart that the economies of scale outweigh the cost of double handling. As a rule of thumb, if the truck driver can deliver an item and get back within a shift, that will probably be what happens. Hence containers from Felixstowe and Southampton go on rail to the Midlands and beyond, but not to the South East. The "hub and spoke" model of supermarket distribution creates large volumes between the hubs, but any rail use is generally over long distances between rail-connected hubs, such as Daventry to central Scotland. This may change at the margin, due to factors such as drivers' wages (assuming we don't get autonomous trucks), increasing traffic congestion and (according to the Modern Railways article mentioned) the impossibility of a zero emission long range HGV. One of more of these could tip a particular flow over from road to rail if the economics are fairly close currently - assuming the rail network has capacity carry it. Several companies are also targeting parcels by rail, where a similar hub and spoke model may create enough volume over distance, with distribution by electric van meaning the "last mile" is actually a lot longer than that. So we aren't going to see anything like the "Edwardian Model" of goods being trans-shipped to or from rail at nearly every stations.

It's certainly normal for a loco-hauled train to have a handbrake on one coach, for use when the locomotive is uncoupled as the air or vacuum brakes can't be relied on to hold it indefinitely. Possibly if one of the locos remained coupled to the train when the others ran round, as might be the case from the OP's description, that would satisfy the requirement.

I was put on a train at Manchester to visit my grandmother who would have met me in Watford, but I must have had strict instructions to get myself off the train there as we knew the stop was really short and she wouldn't have had time to get on and find me. I was worried about bombings so it would have been about 1974 and I would have been 8 or 9. I don't remember being under the care of the guard, but may parents may have "had a word".

If the service is reduced to 14 trains per hour then which ones do you cut? Probably those going to York and beyond, because they are only half an hour or so quicker on HS2 than the existing ECML times. A reduction in HS2 line speed (along with likely minor ECML accelerations) would reduce or eliminate that differential. This would of course weaken the case for the eastern leg by removing some of the trains that would use it.

The WCML upgrade came in it about £10m at 2000 prices, and added hardly any track. For a start, think of the number of houses that back onto the WCML in all the places it passes through, and how many of those would need compensating or buying out. HS2 deliberately avoids any significant settlement or tunnels under if unavoidable, so the impact on people is tiny by comparison.

It's possible they are not legally enforceable, but it's clearly safer to have a non-compliant set of lights than to have none at all in that position. If someone went through them they could probably be prosecuted anyway for violating the compliant lights that are also visible from the same direction of approach.

On searching, I find this is actually a genuine product! Can't see many cats being prepared to use it in the manner described though.

Derby did, and it's still there (unless it's gone recently) as the office under the footbridge on platforms 2/3. This version dated from the post-war rebuild but is probably now the oldest structure on the station. Nottingham Midland had one for each island, and it is very obvious where they were in the station buildings. I believe Nottingham Victoria did too.

I don't remember what units we learned (if any) in early primary school, but in later years (about 1973 to 1976) the maths was entirely in metric. There was a section with imperial units in the back of the textbook but we never looked at it. But despite working in metric in my engineering job, I still think in feet and inches for everyday height and weight.

That was true for a while, or possibly they could be used for other duties but a lower weight limit would then apply. But I'm pretty sure they were allowed universally before very long.

I was thinking of boxes right at the platform ends - the Shrewsbury ones are a little way out. Stirling has now been electrified so I assume it was re-signalled too.

Is Stockport the only station that still has boxes at each end of the platform? Here the boxes are at the arrival ends of the platforms, which I guess makes it easier for the signallers to see tail lamps of trains passing the box, although I guess Stockport is fully track circuited by now. Shrewsbury nearly qualifies too I guess. Both stations are probably busy enough that combining the boxes wouldn't reduce the staff numbers, so there wasn't really any reason to do so.

For information, only two Ns in "Donington" although it's pronounced as if there were three. There's a Donnington near Telford, which confusingly is the site of another, but less successful, rail freight terminal.