NorthEndCab

They do say that when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon he was relieving a Saltley man...

This one?

Exactly this. And it works well for you right up until the point your boss realises that if they don’t need you there in person, then your job can be done for 1/4 the price by someone in South Asia.

This website is quite comprehensive: https://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/7-fops/007-index.htm

There’s 4aspect signals halfway through Bradway tunnel (1mile 266yds) but they’re marked as distants on the plates even though it’s TCB round there. Also 4 aspects halfway through Belsize tunnel (1867yds) (round a dog-leg bend on the slows.) They can display a red though, very common to be held there when you’re queuing with an ECS for Cricklewood behind a Thameslink.

There was St Pancras tunnel box, by all accounts the signalmen seemed quite happy with their “unique” situation. https://www.lurs.org.uk/articles15_htm_files/03 july THEYRE HAPPY DOWN THE HOLE.pdf

Personally I like the separation of work/home being different places. I know not everyone will feel the same way, but the idea of working from home, never leaving the house and then just having things delivered to you (as all the high street shops are shut) seems rather dystopian and not for me.

Its still in use today at least from Syston Jn to Manton Jn.

Do you mean like this sort of thing on the Up main leaving Sheffield?

It’s not like they need any encouragement to fall asleep....

Thank you. Reminds me of that old poem, “The Drivers to blame.”

Didn’t this lead to an accident due to the driver not being aware they were actually slipping backwards due to being in the tunnel and blackout conditions?

It sure if this is of any use to you, maybe a bit early, but, a silent film from the front of a loco travelling through Millers Dale c1898. Amazed at how neat and clean everything looks. Millers Dale cab ride 1898

Interestingly with the last rules update you can now pass two in one go, provided they can’t be cleared due to the same failure. But not an IBS on your own authority anymore.

There’s two very similar still extant on the MML. One just south of St Albans and one just at the North portal of Milford Tunnel, both on the down side. Also quite a lot of the old pway huts and one or two that I’m told were for fogmen. They certainly coincide with where you’d expect a distant signal to be. One of the benefits of being a “secondary,” line I guess ;-)

Not quite a prepping issue but definitely a sensor one, was the 222 that went merrily zooming though the Leicestershire countryside with a door wide open and full interlock a few years ago.

I’ve amended the title.

Apparently we’re going to have a “world beating,” railway, (to go with our other world-beating schemes like test and trace) and a key part of it is that it is no longer apparently necessary to physically walk round a train because of computers or something. “Nothing, evidently, must be done to put safety at risk. But just as it is no longer necessary to check the oil in a car by opening the bonnet and inspecting the dipstick, for there is a light on the dashboard which will tell you if more oil is needed, so it is no longer necessary for each train to be checked every 24 hours by a driver who walks all round it at ground level, on a path wide enough to keep out of the way of other trains, and well lit enough to be used at night. The unions insist on this ritual, which has become a ridiculous waste of the highly paid driver’s time, and of taxpayers’ money. Like modern cars, modern trains tell you when something goes wrong.” If you care to read the rest of the article (which I’m sure isn’t just dog-whistling about unions and pay to the usual suspects) it’s here: https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2020/11/shapps-has-spotted-a-once-in-a-lifetime-chance-to-give-britain-world-class-railways.html My favourite part is where the article talks about lack of railway knowledge in the DfT causing problems, but then goes on to make claims about what's possible in the rail industry from an evident position of total ignorance.

I refuse to believe a driver would actively try and avoid work.... ;-)

You might very well think that, but out policy is a bit more draconian. Having your mobile phone switched on while walking up to the station to get your set or walking back from the station to the depot (even if you’re not looking at it) is a disciplinary offence. Once you book on it must be switched off unless on a PNB. Like a lot of theoretical disciplinary offences on the railway it’s one they seem to keep up their sleeve to hang you with if they’re looking for the opportunity.

If they gave us IPads then they’d have to rewrite the “electronic devices,” policy to allow us to have the bloody thing switched on after booking on.

here’s been an ESR on the Up Fast at Hendon for about 6 months now. .... I always enjoy the talk of “digital railway “ and “driverless trains in the next 6 months max....” when the industry - RSSB - DFT et al are perfectly happy for safety critical information to be posted on tiny bits of paper in a random order in a notice case. I think portable magnets have replaced Dets as mentioned up-thread, but that also gives the situation where you can be cancelling 5/6 random magnets without knowing their meaning. (Wellingborough slow lines I’m looking at you.)

I’d expect the “they don’t know what they’re doing anymore, probably can’t shift the wagons until they’ve done a political correctness course, not like in the old days when they just used to......” comments from those railway haters over on railforums, not from here ;-) In all seriousness, stuff doesn’t derail as much as it used to because the Pway is maintained to a better standard so you’re going to lose the wide availability of skilled people you’d once have needed. It’s a particularly nasty place for it to happen because it’s particularly cramped on the North and South approaches to Sheffield, would a powerful enough rail-crane be in gauge to get through east-bank tunnel or from the North? I know the old hands have plenty of story’s about borrowing a loading JCB to bury wagons that fell off the road in ballast sidings, and smashing though buffer stops on depots only to borrow some chains and use an 08 to pull them back and then disappearing off to the pub for a few pints before anyone noticed, but those days have gone. And the railway is safer (if not blander) for it.

You would presumably only using that if the cess wasn’t a viable option, so aiming could be a bit tricky at speed. Off topic, but similar reasons why “bacon and eggs cooked on a loco shovel,” isn’t the tasty treat it’s imagined to be...

On HST clean air compartments / engine rooms you walk on a metal grille that’s raised above the actual floor of the power car itself. There are drains underneath, and for some reason which is probably best not thought too much about, an occasional “public toilet,” smell..... I’ve heard from a few fitters that Mk4 coaches are notorious for having vast quantities of water from the early 90’s to today sloshing about in the sidewalls.