D826

Talking of Kings, I came across this. Haven't watched it all yet, but thought provoking. Best regards Matt W

Love that place so much. Of all the places I wish I had a time machine to visit that is one. To see a 64xx or 14xx simmering quietly, or a cheerful toot on a Desilux horn as a railcar came along Monmouth or Chepstow bound. Heck, a D9500 running round a ballast from the quarry would have been good enough. My own rough attempts at recreating in N, now sadly consigned to history, are here. About 5years ago spent quite a while crashing through the undergrowth at Brockweir hoping to find an insulator with GWR on it. To match one with LNER on I found bear Ayot St Peter Peter station. Beautiful part of the world. Should of course have been posted in Railways of Wales. Cracking. Matt W.

Nothing to do with the front bogie but any more seditious talk about the Kings and you'll be having the spirit of my late father come pay you a visit in the small hours ! As far as he was concerned they were 'the engine'. If you look at the loads and speeds they were doing on the Inter City, (see a lovely little book called "Watching the Trains at Brill"), they must've been impressive in full flight with bloody great loads rattling through Saunderton, Risborough and Haddenham. The book has timings of King hauled trains with 14/ 15 coaches and more on. Mind you, Dad loved Castles and as a goods/pway driver he said the Halls could do anything. To be honest Swindon could have put a copper capuchon on a Suffolk Punch lawnmower and Dad would have said it was the proverbial dogs undercarriage. In fairness, he observed, and was part of practice on the Met/Great Central lines. He also rhapsodised about the merits of V2s, B1s, and Black 5s. By the time there were Patriots on the London extension they were knackered. However, and less like a King - (apologies for drift )- it was the humble pannier tank he loved and drove for LT till 1971. After Met E and F Class he said Panniers were like power packed pocket rockets ! Stopping was the skill. He loved driving them, to the extent he used to fondly reminisce 24 years later just before he passed away. I took him to the Met 100 yr celebrations at Aylesbury in 92 when King Eddy 1 and Nunney Castle topped and tailed trains out to Quainton. That Western exhaust bark (no other word for it) reverberated round Aylesbury. Could hear it running at home the other side of town in the evening. If you knock the Kings though, you'll be hearing the clanking of couplings taking up the slack as the old man opens the regulator and comes to give you a piece of his mind. (All entirely tongue in cheek). Great RM web. Halt thread drift. As you were chaps Best regards Matt W

Ok - very helpful that link 2750 Papyrus, so it's a Development Consent Order process. So precise route will be necessary for the Environmental Statement, and, by the time this gets off the ground, Biodiversity Net Gain, etc, etc, ad nauseam, ad nauseam. Matt W

Appreciate that Mike, but would describe that as a broad corridor, not a specific route capable of forming a Transport and Works Act order, any other legislative approach to project delivery or upon which to base impacts and mitigation. Be very interested in the alignment when it becomes clearer, and want to see it delivered in my lifetime! Best regards Matt W

Agree with all the above. Given altered loadings post Covid, the proclivities of residents in Oxford and Cambridge, (and Aylesbury proclaimed itself a cycling town some years back)*, one would hope that aside from the disappointment around propulsion the rolling stock might: 1) have comfortable seats - those on the stock introduced on the Hertford loop are rock hard. Could double as ironing boards. 2) seats that line up with windows. 3) leg room 4) properly offer and support choice in sustainable transport by integrating with cycling and public transport. Really think the post Covid railway will need to address these issues, generally, rather than just cramming the punters in. Cambridge station (and the new one nearer the Science Park) integrate transport modes well, ( whatever ones thoughts about the merits of the guided busway) .Other stations need to emulate that. Based on the length of time it's taken to reopen Oxford to Bletchley- which was at least mothballed, it will be another 30 years till it reaches Cambridge - what with route feasibility/objections to Transport and Works Orders/ Compulsory Purchase Orders etc.** *I used to cycle across Aylesbury from Broughton to the good old Sir Henry Floyd secondary school, via Tring Road, Hazells Roundabout, Exchange Street, Oxford Road. That would now be the cycling equivalent of drinking a cup of Saki, tying a Banzai scarf round you head, climbing into a Mitsubishi Zero, and pointing yourself at the nearest available aircraft carrier! **don't know what infrastructure delivery route, (let alone geographical route), the section from Bedford to Cambridge will take. Be fantastic to see trains running from Oxford to Bletchley AND from Aylesbury- my Father drove it north of Aylesbury in the 60s. Back to the future folks. Best regards Matt W

Thanks for the link Keith, and this link takes you to a picture showing the footbridge I was on about: https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p974673392/h4f1a659c Best Regards and I'll lose myself for a while in some of those images. Some crackers from the 70s.

My Dad, whose Aunt ran a guest house in Dawlish, pre and post WW2 - he first went there circa 1932 - she ran it till the late 50s, told me the "Dawlish and Teignmouth Cliff Gang" used to use accommodation in stock stored in the siding. Couldn't be associated with that could it ? They also stored gear in the structures, ('buildings' doesn't seem the right word), built into the cliff face just beyond the coastguards footbridge heading toward the Langstone Rock. I always wonder when the small pedestrian footbridge was removed which used to provide access to the sea wall from Sea Lawn Terrace. The stumps of it were visible on the up side. I guess it was in the 50s but have not conducted a proper study ! Best regards Matt W

Not so very different from the Deltic motors origins really then. Take the point about road noise in Scarborough mind. Best regards Matt W

Yet road noise and the continuous roar of tyres barely get a mention. In my humble, if you move into a house next to operational railway land, you pays your money and takes your choice. Not saying modern traction shouldn't be designed to higher standards. However, we do live in a society where everything is someone else's fault. Maybe park up some Sulzer, EE, Maybach, Paxman traction for comparison. I'd be interested in genuine comparative Leq noise levels of different traction against ambient levels. Cheers Matt

One diesel loco ticking over.....pheeewwww .....Should have tried Marylebone 1970 - 1992 ish - inhaling blue diesel fumes from idling 115s. 3 or 4 of em belching out blue smoke like a Trabant on speed. Always needed a couple of paracetamol by the time I got back to Aylesbury ! When men were men and diesel was an expectorant ! (I have my tongue firmly in my cheek). Cheers Matt

Thank you A Sage aka Western Aviator. I think Kevin (Rivercider's) image of 50 019 Ramilles, shows just how smart and classy they looked in Rail blue when clean. I thought large logo was gaudy when it came along, so you can imagine my apoplectic reaction to some post privatisation liveries. Was the milk from St Erth the last one from Cornwall ? Cheers Matt W

So, here's a question. I think the Milks from Dolcoath, St Erth, Loswithiel, Totnes, Torrington stopped in 1979 - 1980 ? So is it fair to say that it was never hauled by a refurb 50 ? Any of the sages on here know ? Best regards Matt W

50044, my fave Kevin. Some brilliant images there. The signal flag from HMS Exeter from the Battle of the River Plate hangs in Exeter Cathedral. For all we know we might be shaving with it after she, HMS Encounter and all the other Java sea wrecks - war graves no less, were illegally salvaged a few years back. Ironic and potentially a good twist if models of 50s from the far east have a bit of recycled metal from the real thing. Who knows. I've got John Vaughans Power of the 50s, published by OPC in 1979. It's all pre large logo and pre refurb but 50s on the Milks and on the clays, perishable, parcels , and on the proper Motor rail trains loading to 16 bogies. Theres a cracking image of 50044 on the up milk and 50 047, Swiftsure on a down express on Hemerdon bank. You can hear the exhaust of Exeter in the picture. Its brightening the January evenings this thread. Spot on. Cheers Matt W You can never post too many images of 50044 or any other 50, (or any other diesel traction in the west in the 70s by the way) !

Aha - good old Repulse. Fantastic Kevin. I never thought of 50s as 'proper' Warships either. D826 looked like she had the same sort of camouflage as HMS Jupiter in the far east, prior to a Laira repaint in July 71. Exmover in the wash plant meant you could see traces of most of her liveries before the repaint. Rail Blue with arrows on each cab (which I think suited the D800s) was replaced by a single arrow amidships in the Laira repaint. For some reason the single arrow never looks as balanced to me. I liked the 50s mind you. We were spoilt in the mid 70s with D1000s, 45s, 46s, 47s, 50s. That was just type 4, and even post 50 naming in 78, you could still see all them, save the Westerns, + 08s, 25s, 31s, 33s on the mainline at Dawlish. An 08 would pretty frequently be seen scuttling, (no other word for it), along through Dawlish, presumably from Newton Abbot. There a good image of one in the down platform loop at Dawlish Warren in one of the Strathwood books. I always thought the 50s looked classy in rail blue with domino head codes. Still do though like them in most liveries. Original NSE seemed to weather really badly and bought earlier hydraulics to mind. Love this thread folks. Keep it going. A very appreciative reader. Best regards Matt W

Warning- thread drift. Indulge me. My favourite 50s were always 50 030 and 50 044. Both ships lost in the far east. Repulse alongside HMS Prince of Wales as the first ships to be lost exclusively to air attack. Exeter, in the Java Sea a couple of days after HMS Jupiter. (Thats the origin of my d826 monicker). Coincidentally, my grandfathers ship HMS Encounter, an E Class destroyer, went down in the same engagement. Sadly he never came back from Fukuoka B POW camp. Any time I think I am having a hard time I think of what he went through and get a grip ! Got his seamans (ditty) box and postcards sent from Grandad to dad, bearing the ominous words "Imperial Japanese Army". Includes one with return to sender on it from Dad to his Dad saying "here's to when we go to speedway at White City again". The return to sender, addressee deceased always gives me pause for reflection. The Battle of the Java Sea and loss of HMS Exeter a couple of days later in March 42 are a dusty corner largely forgotten corner of history. Example of international cooperation - American, British, Dutch Australian ABDA force- and total disaster which are barely mentioned these days. An object lesson in underestimating an enemy and the amazing performance of the Japanese Type 93 torpedo. The Exocet of its day. Extraordinary weapon in terms of range and speed. Drift over. Back to the 50s. Marvellous stuff. Best regards Matt W

Neil/Kevin Those images above are fantastic. Like doesnt do'em justice. Su bloody perb. (Edited original Anglo Saxon word as betraying poor linguistic skills). F me. (Whisper it but I have a bit of a thing about Western Blue Brush type 4 namers pre tops too, I mean Cyclops, Titan, Mammoth, Odin etc - what names) I've fought it and tried but I'm addicted. Naming went TU in the 80s, IMHO. (And I like the 46 on the through road at Exeter) Going to sit with a pint of Bishopsfinger and imagine that 46 making the rails sing on the cant (careful - spelling) on the way down at Langstone Rock. I can hear the wagons banging and wheel flanges screeching and see the oil lamp on the end wagon disappearing into the distance under Lady's Mile footbridge. The 50 and Hymek at Reading, -smashing. Cheers and thanks for posting chaps. Matt W

Kevin, Cracking photo of Dawlish. We used to stay in the Beach Hotel. You could sit in the bay window look through a pair of binoculars at the station and watch as the signalman pulled the home signal outside Kennaway tunnel on or off. I was alway fascinated by the sound of the signal wires and pulleys subtly trembling and what almost looked like a rippling motion from the station signal box to the signal, followed by that lovely diminishing sound as the signal arm bounced to off... Summer Saturdays in the early to mid 70s trains could still be seen block to block. Very happy memories indeed. Cracking picture the first one, second is a bit sad. Absence of freight, and the infrequency, and lack of 'presence' of trains means Dawlish doesnt have the magic it once had. Happy New Year Kevin (and fellow RMwebbers) and keep your photos - and memories coming. Much appreciated and much enjoyed by myself and others - a bit like Dave F of this Parish's everlasting photo stream ! Happy New Year Matt W

Equally OT... The Blue Leanie was by the Brookside Clinic, where the youff of Aylesbury had "its boiler tubes swept and fire box de clinkered" after "shunting incidents with condemned stock"....it was also where "water treatment pills" and other essential items made by the London Rubber Co were distributed. Where's a winking emoji eh ? Best regards Matt W

Like is not good enough for those pictures Wickham Green - love them - thanks for posting. In the Aylesbury shot you can see loads of Dutch liveried departmental in the nest of sidings by the Gyratory/Equitable life building. P Risborough box was (is), a beautiful, controlling not just the ex GCR/GWR cut off, but also the branch to Watlington, Thame/Oxford - did it also control the connection to and Princes Risborough bay to Aylesbury ? Must have been a very busy box back in the day. A locally (to Aylesbury) published book from the 1990s, called "Watching the trains at Brill" has King hauled down expresses passing through Haddenham timed at 92-95mph. Would love to have seen them hammering past on the through roads at Risborough. Best regards Matt W

Serendipity 35A ? See photo of Aylesbury signal box in 1988 - in the Prototype Discussions Signal Box thread. Posted by SM32 yesterday- 47484's front is in view. Pointing towards London on the up side in the main up platform at Aylesbury. (Rather than the bay platform which may have gone by this time anyway - memory fails me). Best regards Matt W

Cracking shot of Aylesbury - SM32, and looks like a WR namer 47 - Great Western -? Actually I reckon its 47484, IKB itself. Preferred her as D1662, but I saw that loco all over the place over many years. Looks like it's on the up road. Can see the old DMU stabling by the gyratory and over bridge to Stoke Mandeville and Southcourt in the distance. Also, the line to Princes Risborough and the GWR/GCR cut off from Aynho/Ashendon junction respectively to London, curving away behind the box. Great stuff. I took a load of photos of the box and semaphore just before the total route modernisation under NSE. Must try to find them. Best regards Matt W

L92, livery not quite right -(tongue firmly in cheek). Not enough of the very special LT patina - a sort of dusky, oily black kind of weathering....see the book Red Panniers., Dad, Ray Wood drove them, and was shed foreman at LT Neasden Steam Shed. Some cracking shots of pway trains in that book, including one with an open wagon for Watford Tip with its load on fire, being taken to be doused under the water column at Croxley or Watford Met, I forget which. Some good photos of Dad in there too. I managed to suppress criticising the blue moquette and luggage racks in what was clearly post war BR rolling stock at the end of the film Dunkirk on Boxing day evening. The family were enjoying it, but that interior shot had me inwardly shaking my head ! Cheers Matt W

....and Kevin, I spent some quality time on Christmas day with a pint (or 3) of Tring Brewery Ridgeway and your rather excellent book, The Western Region in the 1970s and 1980s. One happy customer. Super book. A few days too early but a happy and healthy New Year all. Matt W

How I wish I had experienced the Devon and Somerset from Taunton to Barnstaple. Calling at Dulverton and Wiveliscombe amongst others, what's not to like. Every time I'm on the link road near Swimbridge, I always think how lovely it would have been to have been behind a 93XX or even a 63xx diesel hydraulic rather than in the car. The goods shed at Victoria Road is still extant too I think. The remains of the station at Molland are rather lovely too. Best regards Matt W