Covkid

Definately the best time of the year for tests in Devon and Cornwall.

A very short circuit in the West Midlands in the early 1980s at least (probably quite a period prior) was Daw Mill colliery to Hams Hall power station. Probably because the latter was never equipped for MGR operations.

In this case though Pete, there are only three 150s on the books and only two diagrams - off Bletchley and off Tyseley. It would be pretty elementary to mess the diagrams up !!!!

They havn't "Tiger". There are two liveries. Spearmint for the LNW trains to Euston and ghastly purple and orange for the West Midlands area trains.

The balance was a 1700 Waterloo-Soton / Salisbury. The train split at Basingstoke and the 4VEP departed to Southampton, then the rest turned right at Worting Jn

Did I see a couple of those Southend Pier vehicles parked up in the yard of one of the Conwy valley stations some years ago ? Also appears the leading car has a naval style circular windscreen wiper

Going back to 1A03 this week I think we need to be utterly fair here and acknowledge a few facts Firstly IETs have been tested for quite a period of time prior to service introduction this week, but have been driven by GBRf drivers. It is only starting this week that GWR's own crews have started operating IET in service and these are crew who have just learnt them. AIUI the doors are controlled by a GPS gizmo linked to an onboard database. This database which Hitachi uploaded to the units going into service was based on the platforms NWR intended to have, not that they currently have. Therefore the incident at Bath Spa was apparently based on the train thinking the Up platform was xxx metres long so that it could auto open the doors on x number of vehicles, which wasn't actually the case. The GWML between Maidenhead and Paddington is a very busy route and there is congestion particularly in the morning peak. It is a fact of life that ever since Geo Stephenson was a youth that trains havn't always run on time. Therefore 1A03 and all other up trains will have been delayed by other traffic. Whilst I am not impressed with the IET concept I think GWR should be given a grace period to get their staff up to experience and attend to niggly problems. In my view the DfT should have specified HST2 with a power car at each end and unpowered trailers in the middle, except a pan / tran passenger car with traction motors at each end, linked to the diesel power car by a bus. You would then a 2+9 dual mode trainset with 16 traction motors per train, and if ever suffcient OLE were erected then the diesel ends could be craned out of the power cars. Sadly that won't now ever happen.

Oh yes. There are train drivers that don't have road licences. A mate of mine drives 125mph expresses but has never had a desire to drive a car. DB wanted to bring their train drivers into competition with the likes of Freightliner, Colas and GBRf who I believe are all able to drive motor vehicles. This means that a train driver can drive a company vehicle to where their train is and then drive the train. It was never fully in EWS conditions of service, which DB inherited. DB had to bite the bullet, but it is a moot point as to how they went about it last year. I am sure "Big Jim" could tell you all about driving his van to and from jobs.

It is worth visiting for people interested in industrial heritage. We visited this year on a non operating day but the staff were still busy doing jobs. The new shed must be a godsend for storing locos out the weather and there is a good collection. The issue of course is there are too few workers and too little cash to make it really work well. I was kind of hoping to see some of the Ruston Bucyrus' at work and I am pleased to see a blue haze in the photos above. They really need a wealthy benefactor and some skilled welding people to repair all those rusting relics in the sidings.

Theoretically you can keep rebuilding power units with new liners and bearing shells - until you get a leg out of bed. Realistically though, how many power units are left in existence, given there are six deltics in preservation each requiring a minimum of two - owned by three diferent groups ? There are "marine engines" in the float including I believe one in 55022 at the moment. They don't seem to get a good enthusiast press, but are they really an issue ? After all 50044 on the Severn Valley is about to return to service with an engine from a Portugese 1800 which had substantially different fittings. I know the Portugese engine had to have a lot of it's external bits and bobs replaced by those from the damaged "English" engine. Is it the same difference as a marine deltic ?

To be fair though, DB management wanted to "dismiss" all the staff a year ago and invite them back on new contracts. That included all train drivers who didn't possess a road motor licence who were expected to train themselves up then reapply. From what I understand many DB staff have left and gone to other TOCs and FOCs. Hardly a surprise if DB management wanted to treat their employees thus.

Yes, these magnets and the window bars are two additional features on the Kernow model which would perhaps make it financially unviable.

I'll bow to your superior knowledge then "The Stationmaster". In my view the Manor, 43xx and large prairie share significant commonality, the former two being inherited items in the Bachmann back catalogue. Just sayin

I wonder if Kernow might consider a run of the livery for the future. Ideal for running with the Heljan "Sarah Siddons" models as well as "pretty" class 20s etc

It is a good job we are all different then !!! I think the Dapol D63xx was a far more realistic model with a correct looking "face". Even though I have a Dapol "wizzo" I am still unhappy about the headcode box area and the central windscreen glazing bar and find my D6316 a more attractive model overall.

I think it is sooner than that. IMHO they will be running a few Christmas period relief trains to the timetabled service before they move on, but the new timetable is planned to be wholely class 180.

J3034. Would I be right in thinking the right hand footplateman was Alan Garraway ? Certainly looks like him.

I am assuming that the next time you fly anywhere on a commercial jet you will be quite happy with just a captain in the left hand seat, and a bank of ipad screens. To turn in a profit the flight is operated COO (Captain only) and the cockpit door is locked so you have no access. You will be expected to react to all the onboard safety announcements, and should there be any kind of emergency you are basically on your Jack Jones. No ? I didn't think so. So why would a Thameslink service with two or three times as many passengers as an A380 not have staffing of a remotely similar nature ? don't even think about any kind of cabin service

Obviously a fantastic show as well as a great farewell to a great depot. I just wonder why the organisers didn't place the prototype HST power car in the lineup seeing as it was there on site. Maybe King, Warship, Western, fifty, prototype power car, 43002, GWR power car and IET It is no denigration ofthe organisation though - great work !!!

I agree and disagree "Stationmaster". As I said upthread the engines are noisy and vibration prone. The Cummins engine is a straight six, whereas the MTUs fitted to the IETs are V12 format. Twice as many pistons halves the vibration and the noise, from what I read online. The voyager ride seems to vary considerably in my view. A good set will give you a good ride, but some also rather randomly emit rather alarming clangs and bangs. Haven't had so many trips on voyagers on the WCML but the journeys on the NE/SW axis seem pretty reasonable to me and running at 125mph on the ECML is actually quite smooth.

I believe they are. The issue of course is that the XC route west of Bristol will never be electrified, so what ever service the XC franchise provide will need to be diesel or a derivative. If IETs or Flirts ever replace voyagers there will always need to be dual powered diesel variants to run the services. The power car in the Flirt would be an attractive option for me.

There is also the issue of line speed. As has been said 68s can hustle Mk5s along at 100mph, but once the 802s are delivered they can run at the higher speed where possible - ie York-Newcastle. This means the 68s and stock diversify to other less speedy routes.

Speaking as an "old hand" railwayman (39 years) IMHO the biggest issue is that the DfT cannot decide the role XC should take in passenger franchising. But to start with the DfT clearly no longer expect the industry to supply a good quality INTERCITY product to the customers, simply because the rolling stock is not now fitted out for it. Perhaps new comfort levels can longer legally match what we used to have because of fire safety and crashworthines standards ? Take a look at a modern car and note how much smaller the side windows now are compared to those lovely picture windows we had of yore. Something to do with safety and keeping the passengers locked in safe in their aluminium structure with high back ironing board seats - whilst cramming as many punters into the saloons as possible. Back to XC though and what do the journeys consist of ? We are told it is predominantly leisure and workers with some school attenders too, and a smaller smattering of business users. Well I happen to think there are a large number of commuters at certain times of the day too. So say you are a leisure traveler travelling say Berwick on Tweed to Taunton. You would like a resonable amount of space and comfort in order to relax and enjoy the journey. But you are not going to get that if your train becomes a commuter service between York and Leeds, Leeds and Wakefield, and Wakefield and Sheffield. Then again between Chesterfield and Derby and Derby and Brum etc etc. Would you expect the kind of long distance service that I believe DB does or used to with it's "Fernvekehr". Should you ticket the commuters off onto their own services so that those punters who choose to travel long distance in INTERCITY comfort can pay the pricer to do so ? Then there is the small matter of industrial diesel engines rattlin and vibratin away under the carpet. Is it really acceptable to have to pay premium ticket prices for the cacaphony of Cummins ?

Totally Robert. The current Bachmann BR/Sulzer bodyshell is streets ahead of the predecessor in it's "face". The nose and cab windows are the wrong shape and the characature windscreen frames just do not do it for me. There is a well known North Wales based "blue 80s" layout here in RMweb, which has some lovely locos. But then I see the old Mainline 45 and I wince !!!

Sorry I cannot help with reply directly to the question, and perhaps technically that is what you need. From a railway perpective though I believe the air pump is designed to keep the reservoirs pumped up. As the driver uses air from the reservoirs to apply the air brakes to slow the train down, then the pump should automatically fire up and restore the pressure. Not sure if you need to alter CVs or whether you can create a random air compressor action in the way some diesel sound projects have intermittent compressor and radiator fan "spurts". After all you are trying to recreate a steam version of what the more modern diesels and electrics do.