C126

Thanks to all of you who have chipped in with info. Alas, Southerham Cement Works had closed by 1985, Southerham being only a distribution point for Rugby Cement by then. Many thanks again for this. I thought an HAA in revenue earning service for domestic coal depots was rather unusual. Full timetable information much appreciated; my ownership of these is rather sparse. Best wishes to you all.

That explains a long-standing query I have had at the back of my mind. Would it have been a barrier for the oil tanks? On Thursday, 5th Dec., 1985, 09.56, I saw a train as follows heading north from Eastbourne (I assume from St Leonard's Depot area): 73 132 (large logo livery) +VIX (bauxite) +4x TTAs +VIX (Railfreight) +HAA. I have always wondered if HAAs were used for domestic coal-yards, and if not, why it was in this consist. Would departmental stock require barriers? Was the HAA a crippled wagon being taken west for mending? All ideas gratefully received.

I have two of Hove yard in 1985, which show some stock in use. I have a happy memory of standing here and watching HBAs/HEAs being shunted by a B.R. blue '73', with the shunter riding on the front bogie's steps, 'side saddle', clutching his shunter's pole and other arm on the driver's door rail, as the loco trundled down to collect the wagons in the sidings westward. I assume there was no third rail in the vicinity, but it still struck me as 'blase'. Of course, I did not have my camera... Hope these are of use.

While I have them to hand, please find below a few of the last workings of 1M34 Newhaven Marine-Manchester Piccadilly, taken in the early mornings around Lewes. They are all April to May, 1987. Unknown but named '47'. 47 457. 47 459? 47 543? If you can make it out, it is the Solari destination board on the last service, 10th May, 1987, at Hayward's Heath. "NEWHAVEN MARINE | For boat services to DIEPPE". 47 540 on the last 1O90 at Hayward's Heath, 10th May, 1987. Did anyone else photograph it, further north and in brighter light?

The most recent photograph of such yards I have found of use is in Andy Gibbs's splendid _The Southern Region in the 1970s and 1980s_, Stroud : Amberley Publishing, 2018, p.10, of Hastings Yard (in the background). It might be worth while trawling through the 1970's/80's photographic literature, e.g., Marsden's _Southern rails in the 1980's_, 1983, p.84, has a picture of a 47-hauled Freightliner with Basingstoke Yard in the background, and Rhodes's _Freight trains of British Rail_, 1982, has atmospheric pictures of Strood Yard, pl.24, and King's Lynn Yard, pl.38. I must credit the inspirational photographs posted by others here of, amongst others, Bristol and Rochester Yards. Worth doing a search for the threads if seeking ideas.

Some more, of the Newhaven aggregate train, when the '73's had charge of it, in chronological order... 73 003 6th September, 1988, 09.11. Southerham Ouse bridge, heading to Lewes. 73 003 back again, 12.33, Lewes. 73 002 8th September, 1988, 09.08. Lewes. 73 002, back again at 12.33. Lewes. 73 106 15th September, 1988, 09.05. Lewes. 73 106, returning 12.28. Lewes Tunnel. 73 106, pulling away from Lewes at 12.31. 73 106, a little further down the line. With the demolition of Lewes box, all this will be history, alas. 73 128 16th June, 1988, 09.08. Rounding the curve into Lewes, heading north. Drat; I did not get them in chronological order after all!

Thought I would add a few shots of these lovely locos, with a few minutes to spare this evening. Hope they are of interest. 73 105 1983. Not the best shot, but how I remember Brighton station: gloomy, grubby, decaying, but wonderful. N.b. 'Tesco's bag on buffer-stop, left. 73 113 16th July, 1985, driven by Johnnie Saunders, racing through Lewes during the naming of 'County of East Sussex', on an E.C.S. to somewhere further east. A 73 in a Sussex landscape, 1986. Trundling south with the tanks for Galley Hill, nr Bexhill. 73 111 1986, Brighton. 73 003 October, 1987. Lewes, during weekend engineering works. 73 139 +2xNJVs (all blue), 19th February, 1988, 09.00, passing beside Lewes's Priory ruins to Brighton.

And a few more... 33 1xx August 1987, Weymouth Town. Thanks to John New for confirming this. 33 101 20th February, 1988. Bournemouth. 33 009 25th June, 1988. Eastleigh, depot or works, not sure. 33 0xx August, 1989. Lewes. Thanks to Guzzler17 for drawing the original erroneous number to our attention. 33 021 8th September, 1989, 15.21. Lewes. Sorry, but despite the de Warenne/Lewes blue and gold cheques, I still prefer the B.R. blue and yellow livery. 33 202 19th July, 1990, 13.02. Lewes. Please do browse my Personal galleries as well, if interested.

A few more to banish the sadness of passing ghosts... 33 209 2nd September, 1985. Clapham Jn. 33 064 +16 HBA/HEA 2nd September, 1985. Clapham Jn. 33 030 September, 1987. Brighton. 33 060 (left) + 33 023 18th February, 1988, 14.06. Southerham Ouse Bridge. 33 115 +39 hoppers 25th June, 1988, 10.12, Worthing. 33 112 +8021 8027 20th August, 1988, 13.13, Platform 5 (8 in old money), Lewes.

Aaah. Thanks for the clarification, and so promptly.

Sorry for taking so long to think of this, but with the mention of "flints" by Miss Cresswell, could the flints excavated have been burned somehow, to shatter them into smaller pieces for ballast? Just a thought.

Quite unworthy of the quality of pictures usually posted, but I thought I would share a couple of mediocre shots of 313 201 from Saturday, 10th August, at Lewes and Brighton respectively. Made my day, even if I did not have time to compose anything a little more 'arty'. You can not have too much B.R. blue and yellow...

I confess notices like this make me sentimental, and without wishing to be flippant, I wish we could afford a Rayburn (and there be one that could be turned off on days like to-day) in our home, and do our bit to support the nearest coal-yard. My parents took out their Parkray last year, and I miss it when visiting in the winter. Thankfully, I never had to live near a Phurnacite manufacturing plant... Sorry for going off-topic.

This has reminded me suddenly of the N.H.S reforms in the 1990's. To-day, every state-responsibility has had an 'agency' put between the industry and the Sec. of State so the latter may say, 'Not me, Guv!' When N.H.S. trusts were set up under the purchaser/provider split, the Sec. for Health then wriggled out of responsibility for waiting list times, etc., I think, blaming the 'autonomous' new Trusts. We now have Govt. at arm's length, specifying standards to private franchisees instead of running services directly with state employees. Having said that, the railways appear to buck this trend by suffering more interference from DaFT than ever did B.R. under the Ministry of Transport.

Thanks for your opinion of the column. I had always wondered what those 'nearer the rail' thought of it, being more 'insiders'. I shall lower the pedestal on which I had put the correspondent, although I do like her/his pithy arguments (when I agree :) ).

Dear M. Storey and others, This is a little 'off topic', but as one who gets much information on British railways from the 'Off the Rails' column in 'Private Eye', I look forward to their forthcoming (I hope) analysis. If you do not read it, I recommend their correspondent. Thanks for the alert as to this report.

May I just thank you all for contributing so much, as hoped. I assumed, foolishly, that the latest signalling equipment installed in the last three years' fort-nightly line closures, had some sort of 'self-diagnosis', displaying what had gone wrong with itself, so cutting down on necessary site visits. I will stop thinking ill of Network Rail taking a few hours to sort everything else. It was a beautiful day anyway, and waiting on a station is far superior to being stuck on a train without 'news' of the problem. Thanks and best wishes to you all for your help.

Can I thank you all for your prompt and informative (as usual) replies. I did not realise there were so many different emergency signalling procedures. Broadening the question out a little then, may I conclude that, being so complicated and time consuming to implement, a delay to passengers of a couple of hours while the fault is fixed is easier than sending in teams to stand by the track, etc., using M.B.W., or whatever system is decided upon? Are there Guidelines for 'expected length of failure' and emergency system utilised? Banbury station staff were very good to us, but did not appear to know what was going on for a long while. I was hoping for a van of 'wo/men in orange' to appear, and trains to be 'talked through'.

Having been caught up in the 'little local difficulties' on Thursday and Friday, 4th-5th July, travelling through Banbury, with the signal failures, I wondered whether Network Rail still uses 'timed interval' emergency procedures. No trains were running south and north respectively; didn't B.R. used to have a system of line-side personnel with multi-coloured flags, detonators, etc., to allow trains through sections 'under caution' at slow speeds, until each could get to a functioning signal, and speed off as usual. Is this system still used? If not, is this because of the cost of the personnel needed? Or is it now simply deemed unsafe? Replacement 'buses could not be had for love or money, we found, owing to the school run. Sorry if the answer to this is well known among the industry! I got through safely eventually. It was University Open Day: my how we laughed!

It is not just the vulgarity and ill-manners of the intrusion, it is also the idea some people have that watching the world go by is 'not doing anything', so one must be in need of 'interaction'. "Relax, and try it for yourselves," I say. Who needs cinema when you have the sky and the landscape (if not in a tunnel or cutting, of course) outside? I admit I have been tempted to pretend I do not speak English, as an escape mechanism...

I heard of the above event on the wireless this morning. See also: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48622007 I was going to take it Off Topic and add my two penn’orth to: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/121466-third-rail-emu-photos/page/41/#comments …but perhaps it would be better to describe in a new thread the joys of gazing from a train window, and not conversing with others. I can not begin to elucidate sufficiently the joys of watching the world go by (or not, if stuck at a signal). It is simply the best reason (if possible) not to travel any other way. Gazing at passing country-side, townscapes, or factories, etc., one can marvel at the beauty of nature, the wonder of humanity, and the achievements of civilisation. A cup of tea at hand, a working lavatory at the end of the coach, and agreeably-behaved fellow passengers, how can one not be uplifted at the end of one’s journey by the pleasure of being alive? I know, the above is idealistic – we have all had appalling journeys quite unlike this - but I just wanted to be counted as one not brain-dead in front of a screen. See also Patrick Keiller’s excellent book, ‘The View from the Train : Cities and Other Landscapes’, Repr. 2014. I hope others agree one need not be an enthusiast to enjoy this most civilised of travel modes, just possess a sense of ‘aesthetic curiosity’. There, I feel better now. Best wishes to you all.

Dear eastwestdivide and colleagues, Sorry, I did not mean it in a 'sulk and flounce' way. I just meant to reconsider the 'site etiquette', as in my concerns listed. I like the suggestion of posting my better shots here, and will have a bash at working out how to 'direct' to related ones in the Gallery folders. I realised last night my first (S.N.C.F.) photos were taken at the age of nine, so perhaps the quality is allowed to be a little 'sub-standard'. Just wish I had not worn specs! Thanks again for all your kind words and consideration, and I will get on with scanning and labelling the rest of the C126 shots a.s.a.p.

O drat. I was trying to get a balance between getting the information in the photos 'out there', but their rarely being up to the standard of shots one sees in these threads. I assumed it was 'bad form' to post three-dozen shots, and appear to dominate a page or two (although I could 'like' such whole threads of others' myself). It also occurred to me after posting the message, I might be 'showing off' by drawing attention to the folders, which was not the intention. May one not 'comment' on individual pictures, like Flickr, in the galleries? I think I had better lay off this inter-web for a while, and retire to my library with a pot of tea. It is all rather more complicated than I first thought. :) Thanks for your help, and best wishes to you all.

Dear all, Just a quick note to say I have subscribed as a 'Gold' user to allow me to up-load my photos to galleries, and have started putting what pictures I have labelled under the various headings. Most are mediocre at best, but as I said in the galleries' introduction, I hope the information is of interest and use at least to a few. It saves clogging these message threads with images. Thanks.

Dear all, Just a quick note to say I have subscribed as a 'Gold' user to allow me to up-load my photos to galleries, and have started putting what pictures I have labelled under the various headings. Most are mediocre at best, but as I said in the galleries' introduction, I hope the information is of interest and use at least to a few. It saves clogging these message threads with images. Thanks.