Covkid

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.

One of the great model railway manufacturer mysteries in life, along with ; BR(WR) design non corridor stock BR maroon Portholes BR maroon Thomos LMS / BR(LMR) Push pull sets It is what most modellers want - transition era - now moving into the BR TOPS era

That is the way I understand it. DB (German railways) is a state owned company. The infrastructure and trains are seperate business accountancy but owned by the same company. It is ironic that when DB bought Arriva, the Arriva "private" operations in Germany had to be sold off because DB couldn't compete with itself. I believe these operations were sold to the Italian state Railway.

Mr Smith at Carnforth having a bit of fun with the OSPs (outraged steam purists) regarding 35018 yo gotta larfff

Indeed. There are rumours 47727 is currently being painted either Caledonian Railways blue or Caledonian Sleeper blue for a one year contract. With 47805 also now sold out of service by DRS that is two more historic liveries Bachmann are delivering !!!

My plea would be late GWR or BR(WR) non corridor stock as used on nearly BR(WR) suburban routes. Just a Third would do to start with, maybe followed later by a composite and a brake. There were lots of rakes of these performing suburban services on the network and considering the range of 4mm GWR steam locos available there is very little to represent other than the cliched "B sets".

You will be meaning these then Mark ? https://photos.smugmug.com/Foxfield-Railway/Railway-Wagons-Cranes/i-Z28wMMx/0/adbcb0b9/X2/PO%2023%20Coal%20Wagon-X2.jpg Yes please

Not convinced of this. When the order was placed by DfT there were class 800 Bimodes, and class 801 straight electrics *. The class 800s would obviously been able to run to Swansea on diesel, but the 801s not so. This means there were clearly plans kicking around the DfT for OLe between Cardiff and Swansea. It is only after the DfT woke up and smelt the coffee and realised the electrification programme is a farce, that they asked Hitachi to build the 801s as 800/3s with diesels, fuel tanks and pigpee tanks underneath. * 25Kv AC powered trains but with a single diesel engine for emergency power.

I hazard a guess that they are East or North Midlands rather than West Midlands. Many of the West Midlands internal users seem to have carried the large St Andrews Cross on the bodyside

Reminds me of the Wrenn nee Hornby Dublo 0-6-2 tank painted in Big Four liveries

Yes. Good job the gap between the traction motor and the gearcase on the derailed 350 in Watford tunnel kept the car in a straight line. Otherwise the LM guard might have been in an even worse place. But DfT maintain that DOO trains are safe as you say "Hobby"

Not totally sure that is correct "D854". The way I read it is the 800s are the basic IET design, with the engines set at the "reduced wear" setting of 750ish BHP, and the basic "five second" rheo grids for passing through neutral sections. There has been talk of software upgrades to push the engine output to 940bhp on these. AIUI the 802 / AT300 design has the engines set at the higher 940bhp output, but also has larger rheo grids on the roof designed for going down hills in the diesel mode without excessive use of the brake pads / discs. Therefore the 802s will have different brake component wear to the 800s, particularly if an 800 is sent on a Penzance diagram instead of an 802. It is all down to Network Rail not delivering electrification and DfT designing electric trains to run on diesel routes.

I didn't realise until looking at some modern video of GWR HSTs how much the vehicles have been modified from original build structure. Obviously this example can be painted onto a "traditional" bodyshell https://photos.smugmug.com/Coaches/Mk3-HST-Trailers/401xx-Series-Mk3-TSMB-GN2G/i-jr3K5Lm/0/c86d8fb0/XL/40114_BristolTM_010510%20%287%29-XL.jpg But the modifications to the vehicles fitted with the disabled area would need a new mould or serious plugs https://photos.smugmug.com/CoachingStock/Mk3-HST/Mk3-TS-423xx/i-5qJPJxx/0/326e4198/S/42310...16-01-08-S.jpg

The little research I have done on this was that it was normally a four wheel tank wagons of either the anchor mount or cradle type. Esso or Shell branding. Apart from the few specialised TMDs like Bow and Stratford, much of the rest of the network was still in the transition with adapted steam era sheds. Kinda depends which regon or era you are modelling.

Perhaps this kind of buffer was fitted late in life maybe ? http://www.railcar.co.uk/images/4884 Notice also the difference in "swan necks" to the vacuum hoses. Some were low and some were high !!!