62613

23 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

They may not be in "second homes" but can legally register to vote both at home and at their college, though they're not allowed to vote twice in a national election, but they can vote in both local council elections (unless it's the same council)

If the local authority is providing services where they live, why not?

13 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

Crop marks are very common where the geology has been disturbed and drainage ( + vegetation ) altered.

A very good way of spotting archeological remains, e.g. hut circles, post holes, etc., but not until ariel photography became common

On 30/06/2023 at 18:25, The Johnster said:

You are of course  entitled to your opinion, but I'd venture to suggest you've never attended a PIP (previously DLA) assessment or appeal with a mental health issue, allegedly recognised by the Department as a disability and entitlement to benefit, then.  'Can you prepare a meal?', well, no reason I physically can't of course, except that I can't face getting out of bed today because there's no point in anything, Black Dog Day.  'Can you go to local shops and purchase food?, yes, of course I can you idiot, I'm not a cripple, except that my agoraphobia and social anxiety disorder mean that I haven't been able to go out of my front door for the last three weeks.  'Well, you came here today, didn't you?', well, yes I did because if I didn't you were threatening to stop my money, and I needed this support worker to drive me and accompany me in order to do so, and I'm under pretty extreme duress at the moment.  'Well, you seem to be coping very well, Mr.Richards'.  What do you want me to do, have a complete meltdown in the interview room, so you can call security and have me ejected (coz I know you're not going to do what you should do and have me sectioned, actual mental health care is not available unless you are in the process of committing suicide or murder)?  Nice try, not biting. 'Can you wash your clothes in a washing machine' (these are all questions on the form and will be asked in interviews, don't worry, your tax £££ are safe from scroungers like me), yeah, but why bother, everybody hates me anyway because I'm rubbish and do not deserve to be liked, what's the point? Of anything?  Do you have any concept of what neurotic clinical depression as a result of a brain tumour actually is in practical terms for a human being suffering from it, and am I justified in assuming that you should given the job you're failing to do?

 

These are the wonderful people who will offer you a cup of water and then cancel your benefit because you walked 6 feet across the room to take it from them, therefore you have proved that you have full mobility. 

 

Dignity my *rse.

 

I once volunteered as an advice worker in a centre for people with mental issues, and as part of the training sat in as an observer on a benefit appeal.  It had a magistrate, a DHSS official, and a Trade Union officer on a panel, and the appeal was successful; the Department owed the claimant a significantly large amount of money in unpaid benefit, over £20k and this was thirty years ago.  A discussion amongst the panel took place sotto voce (but my hearing wasn't bad in those days) along the lines of 'we can't pay him this in a lump sum, he'll only spend it in the bookies (he probably did, but it was his money), can't we do it in installments'.  The Trade Union guy pointed out that it was rightfully the claimant's money, which had been denied to him by a Departmental 'mistake' (yeah, right, but let's give 'em the benefit of the doubt even though they do their best not to give us the benefit of the, um, benefit) and he was fully entitled to it, and it should therefore be paid out immedieately as further withholding of it would have been unlawful, so it was paid out in the form of a giro that had to be paid into a bank account; the claimant of course did not have a bank account and actually cashed it at a mendacious chiseller jpawnbroker's, losing about £4k in the process.  This was not an eyeopener, it was exactly what I'd expected.  The system in full action, dignity my *rse...

 

As my somewhat snobbish mum would have said, 'and they've all got cars and colour tvs, you know'.  Have they, mum, have they?

 

I do agree that we're all doomed, though.

 

 

 

 

How long ago was that? It's certainly been the case since 2011, after Mr Duncan - Smith's new bill. In my line of work, I paid occasional visits to the local jobcentre (between contracts), and the staff were helpful; they knew a job in my skill field would come along sooner or later. I got to know one or two of them personally, and had conversations with them when we saw each other in the local supermarket. One in particular left in 2012; after the passing of the 2011 act, she said, they imported a manager from another local jobcentre and the whole atmosphere changed. The interview which Daniel Blake had to go through inthe film, was entirely typical of what goes on in today's jobcentre; the idea is to try and withold as much as possible from claimants, and hope they don't have advocates to fight for their rights.

Sorry for the rant; It's something I feel very strongly about

26 minutes ago, david.hill64 said:

Agreed: Railtrack was naïve: they believed that contractors would do what they said they would without the necessary supervision. But: Railtrack strongly supported the development of TPWS which they rightly realised was a better alternative to nationwide roll out of a country specific ATP system. Railtrack supported the development of TPWS and its implementation pending the implementation of ETCS level 3 which again correctly they had diagnosed as being the most cost effective form of signalling control and safety improvement. What they hadn't realized was that it would take the EU close on 30 years to develop and agree the specifications for the system. So ETCS level 3 has not yet been widely implemented. The decision to implement TPWS was, in my not unbiased opinion, one of the best of the last 30 years, but then as the project manager who led the team that developed TPWS, I am not a disinterested party in the judgement. 

 

Of course Railtrack had history in believing what they were told by engineers who didn't understand UK railways and like the DfT they assumed that UK rail engineers were incompetent. So I give you WCML resignalling which was promised by American consultants as the answer to everything, even though no such system existed. Railtrack even signed a contract with Virgin promising to deliver a system in an impossible timescale. So yes, Railtrack was not an unqualified success.

 

Bur Railtrack was only around for 8 years of the privatised BR era - about 30 years now - and you cannot dispute the clear statistics that UK rail is safer now than it ever was under BR ownership. So, take a cheap shot about Railtrack, but please accept that in this important respect, UK rail is now demonstrably safer than it ever was under BR ownership.

 

 

Again, correlation is not causation. In the 1860s and 1870s, the railways were downright dangerous. There was a gradual implementation of safety measures down the years; are you saying that if BR had not been privatised, TPWS wouldn't have been developed and installed? Both would probably have happened, but quite likely at a slower pace.

11 hours ago, david.hill64 said:

Ben Elton may have a view that Rail privatisation is a national disgrace growth but during the privatisation era traffic growth reversed decades of decline and safety is much improved. We do not know if this would have happened under BR (and I think that there is a good chance that it would have) but many things are better now.

We keep on hearing this, but traffic was already growing under BR (from 1992, when the economy was picking up after the Big Bang recession). Correlation is NOT causation. Is it worth pointing out that traffic had been declining since before The Great War, and that nationalisation wasn't the culprit?

Some wires up on the Guide Bridge line, between the B6170 bridge (telephone exchange roundabout) and towrds ASDA; not more than 200 - 300 metres. Still a gap in the gantries between there and the Guide Bridge Yard side of Cavendish Street bridge. The old gantry and terminating post from the original 1.5kV electrification are still in situ. There were three booms on the ground between platforms 3 and 4 at Stalybridge Station last Saturday, which leads me to think they may be the missing gantry on the lines towards the tunnel 

On 21/06/2023 at 13:27, Michael Hodgson said:

Industrial locos were often named after a director, or his wife.

Main line companies weren't above that either.

 

 

 

In marketing terms, it's much safer to name your stock after a place, a military unit, racehorse or a football team than after some individual* especially if he's still alive;  the Catholic Church tries to avoid such fiascos by ensuring that you are safely dead and buried before making you a saint!

 

It used to be usual for a loco to retain a name throughout its life, but these days renamings are much more commonplace and obviously anything with a name which has become an embarassment would quickly lose its name plates.

 

*Sir Drefaldwyn wasn't as some suspected, a Welsh MP !

 

The GC named one of their 4-6-0s David Lloyd George, which name was removed after his various parliamentary misdemeanours came to light

20 hours ago, eldomtom2 said:

The normal American way of route signalling uses this method, but as "searchlight" signals and other methods of reducing the size of a signal head were commonly used the space taken up could be reduced, though columns of "traffic light" signals are becoming a standard. Looking at the rulebook for Metra's Rock Island line, a surviving example of a solely route signalled railroad, the way in which the old system of multiple semaphore signals was preserved with colour lights is clear:

Quite a lot to remember there; it shows the simplicity of the system in the UK. It also looks similar to the "speed signalling" on the Heaton Lodge Junction - Thornhill Junction section of line in the West Riding

Love the wheel trim on the smokebox door of 997232 - 4!

On 09/06/2023 at 12:54, Reorte said:

It's not totally ineffective, it's not usually enough to affect the final score but it can make players a bit more wary for fear of getting a second one and being sent off - a player who manages to get sent off for a second yellow will have quite a possibility of affecting the score and will usually get a lot of criticism afterwards for being reckless when they're under a warning, particularly if it's seen to have cost the game.

Also, if a player accumulates five cautions (yellow cards) in a season, they will serve a one - match ban (or 7 days under county FA disciplinary rules, which extend up to tier 9 of the NLS), and 2 matches or 14 days for 10, and so on. Clubs can also accumulate "disciplinary points"; if they exceed a certain total, a fine will be levied on the club. I'll try and dig out one of my county F.A. handbooks.

12 minutes ago, 62613 said:

Something needs to be done about the congestion along the Oxford Road corridor; it's been known about for at least 15 years; the Ordsall Curve made it worse

Rephrasing this; the Ordsall Curve was a part of the "Northern Hub"; a project to increase rail capacity around Mancheaster and to make accessiblity from North - East England to Manchester Airport easier. As well as the curve, there was the 4 - tracking between Piccadilly and Oxford Road, as well as, as I understand it, a grade separation scheme at Ardwick, to avoid trains having to cross the Piccadilly station throat on the flat. There were other parts to the project as well. Proceeding with the curve while binning all the rest looks like absolute stupidity from where I'm sat. It also seems to highlight the problems of upgrading existing rail infrastructure in crowded cities (see, ad nauseam, HS2, and the current furore in Bedford over the demolition of 65 homes for East - West Rail)

17 hours ago, woodenhead said:

At Oxford Road station yes because the arches are occupied by many businesses, but Piccadilly looked like this back when it was proposed and I think it isn't much different now as most of the land would be over Fairfield Street

Wasn't it the users of The Star and Garter who were objecting to its demolition? I raised this a few years ago, and another reason for not going anead would have been disruption to London Road while the approach structures were built. 

Something needs to be done about the congestion along the Oxford Road corridor; it's been known about for at least 15 years; the Ordsall Curve made it worse

Well, we at Stalybridge have new majority shareholders, the previous MS having sold out. New manager as well, formerly at Wythemshawe Town. Let's hope the tale of the last 20 years of steady decline can be reversed!

On another note, another local club has revealed its matchday prices for next season; they will be charging £14 for adults and £9 for concessions. This is at tier 7; they are citing rising costs, for energy and stuff. It will be interesting to see where their attendances go. Just over 30 years ago, my wife and I (and Peanuts, of this forum😁) stood on the Chaddy End at Latics and watched Oldham beat Sheffield Wednesday to win the 2nd division for £4.50 each

3 hours ago, Edwin_m said:

When a SI unit is spelt out in full it should not be capitalised, even if the abbreviation is upper case.  My physics teacher said this was to avoid confusion with the name of the person it was named after, the unit sometimes being identical to the name as in watt/Watt.  

 

Never heard the thing about the space in 35 years of engineering.  I run the number and unit together because unless you use some strange nonbreaking character in a word processor, it may decide to put a line break between them.  

It's the units that are named for someone (Volt, Ampere, Joule, Watt, Newton, Farad(ay),etc) that have capitalised symbols, I was told.

Are you sure C2949 was a Newcastle - Liverpool? Late mark 2s were a rarity on these trains , even after the timetable recast in the later 1970s. The following picture looks more like the normal consist of that period

1 hour ago, keefer said:

What livery are they?

LNER apple green?

I'd say Royal Sovereign is in post - WW2 apple green, but whether 2614 retained that at that time, I don't know. Certainly seems to have the post - WW2 lettering style.

Edit: according to the RCTS green book, 2614 had been rebuilt to the style shown in December 1939 (the only D16/2 to D16/3 conversion to be so treated) after an accident. After WW2 she was in green until at least 1950, including renumbering by BR with the cycling lion emblem.  There are photos of her as 2614 and 62614 showing this in the book.

2 hours ago, ess1uk said:

https://www.railwaygazette.com/uk/manchester-rail-plans-rethought-as-ambition-wasnt-able-to-be-delivered/64224.article?ID=z9xqh~999xtf~nznrfr~W4ik~Ky0gk&utm_campaign=RG-WEEKLY-020623-DE&utm_medium=email&utm_source=email&utm_content=newsletter

 

not sure if this has been mentioned?

What does £26 million get you, railway - wise, these days? There was a plan (as an add - on to the Northern Hub?) to route the container trains westward from the container terminal, and from the new "Port Salford" project, which also seems to have stalled, a few years ago. I can remember discussing the last at work, and I've been retired seven years now!

13 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

Really nice to see such clean engines at Cambridge. By the time I used the Cambridge Buffet Express it was usually a somewhat grubby class 31.

I had assumed that the lower "lamp" was actually a red lamp and the loco was on shunting duty, but I suspect that Stewart In gram is right.

Jonathan

Royal Soveriegn and 2614 were at this time the engines reserved for Royal Train duties for when the King was travelling to/from Sandringham.

42 minutes ago, scottystitch said:

An odd shade of blue, and a couple of broken windows.  Beautiful image, however...

 

Liverpool Street, May 1960

 

 

Saw this one a few times through March, and the 'orange' one as well.

6 hours ago, DaveF said:

Nottingham Victoria in black and white from the early 1950s.  The last photo includes me when I was about 5 years old.

 

Once again Dad was making use of his track permit for most of the photos.

 

 

Nottingham Victoria J1 down pass Grantham to Derby Friargate c1950 JVol3177

 

 

Nottingham Victoria N7 down pass c1950 JVol7132

 

 

Nottingham Victoria O1 down goods and B1 c1952  JVol4286

 

 

Nottingham Victoria O4 up goods B17 in bay c1951 JVol3165

 

 

Nottingham Victoria V2 60831 le and B1 and me c1954  JVol4031

 

David

I'm pretty sure JVol4031 appeared recently on Facebook, in one of the "Memories of Steam"  groups. Your father was acknowledged as the photographer in the comments following, but not in the header 

22 minutes ago, phil-b259 said:

 

It might be noteworthy that ordinarily Grand Central and Lumo don't stop at Peterborough and as such might we not be looking at a case of the mind seeing what it wants to see which then means their brain says they are remaining on the fast line.

 

 

That seems to be fairly common in accidents, particularly derailments; "I wasn't usually routed that way", or "I didn't expect that signal to be at danger" comes up in quite a few accident reports. These remind me a bit of the Bourne End crash, just after WW2, where a train was due to be re - routed over a double junction, due to p.w. work in Watford Tunnels; although in that case, there seems to have been some confusion about what a particular signal indication meant, and whether the driver actually saw the signal because of the lighting conditions.

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Since we're on offshore vessels, this is the workhorse of the sector, a platform supply vessel (PSV). These carry cargo on deck. In addition they have complex tank and silo systems below deck for drill water, potable water, fuel, mud, brine, base oil, dry bulk like cement and bentonite etc. Despite the small size they're impressive ships.

 

 

I take it  the main propulsion machinery is in the forward part?

14 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

I don't know if they're still there but there used to be a couple of these on the Great North road that I went to several times while driving on business. I remember them as being pretty good (unlike Starvin Marvin's) 

They're the ones I was on about. Look like the Cover of the Hall and Oates album Abandoned Luncheonette

On 07/05/2023 at 00:29, Pacific231G said:

 Some of these came over here but I don't  think there are many left. There used to be a typical American Diner on the A40. Fortunately, it's closed down now and a block of flats built on the site. I say fortunately having been there a couple of times but this link explains why

http://www.cheeseburgerboy.com/2014/02/starvin-marvins-greenford.html 

Shortened. There are a few on the A1 around Newark. Whether of the traditional type. I'm not sure, but they're branded as "American Diners"

On 02/05/2023 at 15:35, scots region said:

Oh I imagine a good 90% of all the drawings out there were never intended to be much more than stepping stones, merely to see what it would look like, with no serious intent to pursue them beyond working out which ideas survived to the final design.  

It depends what you mean by "Drawings", I suppose. If you mean concept drawings, when someone in authority has come up with an idea or a possible project, then you're right. I would say, however that the vast majority of drawings are actually issued; think about all the detail drawings required for anything that actually gets built; there can be considerable numbers of them.