Mike_Walker

There is a shortage of drivers at TPE (and elsewhere) because the DfT under pressure from the Treasury is blocking the recruitment. Most of TPE's woes are down to at best clueless and at worst criminally incompetent civil servants who micromanage every aspect of the industry and have forgotten that the civil service's role is to serve and implement policy and not dictate it. For example, the current issues are not the fault of ASLEF or TPE. They agreed a RDW agreement basically similar to that which applies at many other TOCs. It went to the DfT for approval and was rejected for no apparent reason. It was the DfT that decided that TPE would have three totally different new train fleets. First wanted all 802s but the DfT wanted to spread things about and encourage CAF to set up in the UK. Now we have three fleets the DfT are surprised it takes three separate, costly training programmes to get them into service and maintenance costs are much greater as there is little or no commonality between them - a five year old could have told them. I've heard rumours that the 68s + Mk5s might be ditched - hey, it's only taxpayers' money so that's alright. In short, nothing will change for years to come and GB Railways is only going to make matters worse as micromanagement from Marsham Street will increase no matter what the politicians tell us. The civil servants have got their hands on the train set and won't let go easily.

Just a thought... Does anyone know if there is/was ever a signal with all six "feather" positions used? The old "Nelson's Hat" on the Up Westbury approaching Reading had 5 but I'm not aware of any with 6.

I do like the superb way you've blended the river with how it curves away into the backscene. The join is almost invisible until you really look for it.

Interesting that that photo shows the present arrangement where the bay was slewed a couple of years ago to lengthen it to take 4-car units which also widened the platform. As part of this work, the bay starter had to be resited but you will note it still has its original ladder and hoop arrangement whereas all the other signals at St. Erth have been modernised. Just proves there are exceptions for every rule. Good news for lovers of "real" or "proper" signals, St. Erth is not included in the current Cornish resignalling scheme.

I accept that, but I can show you many signals installed since T26, both semaphore and colourlight which do not have such a platform arrangement. For example the two which were installed at the London end of Banbury's down platform in connection with the Reading works.

That short post signal at Moreton is another relatively recent addition. Semaphores aren't finished quite yet.

I think Truro is included in the Cornish resignalling project (but not St Erth or Penzance) which is I believe scheduled for the Christmas/New Year break this winter. Yes, those colour lights are still at Shrewsbury and are in use as they control the exit from the bays or are we talking about different signals? A new signal installed at the Up end of the Down platform a few years ago is a semaphore - LQ too! The signal for the other bay is out of shot to the right.

SH77 at Worcester Shrub Hill is, TTBOMK, the last remaining GWR mechanical indicator on the national network. It has two indications, lever 77 is to the Down Main and displays B'HAM whilst lever 76 is to the Down Branch shown a H'FORD. SH78 indicates the same with the left doll (lever 75) being for the Down Branch and the right (lever 78) for the Down Main. The fixed distants are for Henwick and Tunnel Junction 'boxes respectively. The middle arm (26) is for movements into Worcester Depot hence it is a short,3', arm rather than the regular 4' ones. There is no access to the depot from the Up Main on which SH77 is situated. There may be examples of GWR mechanical indicators on heritage lines, the is certainly one under a backing arm at Bewdley on the SVR. Mention was made of the centre-pivot signals at Worcester. Shrewsbury has a pair too but they are somewhat different being, in effect the usual design mounted upside down. When we were surveying the area ahead of starting Wrexham & Shropshire, the local NR ops manager proudly told how one of the arms had been remade by the local S&T staff after the original rotted - they are wooden. Shrewsbury has a wonderful mix of semaphores, both upper and lower quadrant, and colour lights. This gantry, worked from Crewe Junction 'box (a LNWR example) at the north end of the station mixes colourlights with a GWR arm on what looks like an LMS post. CJ13, the home approaching the station from the Crewe direction used to be a LMS U/Q arm on a LNWR post until it too suffered from rot. It's replacement is this superbly over-engineered specimen. Whereas the old one was in the 6' beyond the bridge, this has a gantry structure which looks capable of supporting the QE2 whilst the arms are GWR lower quadrant - well, Shrewsbury is now in NR's West & Wales region. Look closely and you'll see the arms are actually supported by two 4" posts fishplated together; presumably it was thought the traditional single post is insufficient today. And talking of over engineered signals how about T26 at Truro which appeared in the background further up the thread. Here it is in close up. It was installed when the Falmouth branch was upgraded and allows trains to depart in the Down direction from the Up platform but I've never seen the like anywhere else. At least it makes cleaning the arm and lenses easy and safe, you'd really have to work hard to fall off that! One of my favourite semaphores was the infamous KJ63 SPAD trap at Kidderminster Junction before the resignalling. It's neither of the two clearly visible in the photo below. Look carefully and you will see a third arm just visible between the footbridge and the 'box. The problem was that when in the 'On' or danger position it was completely invisible! One is reminded of the instruction in an early GWR rule book which mentioned a ball signal at Reading: if the ball was not visible drivers were not to pass it.

In which case I'm even more glad I got the chance to admire Yelverton at SWAG.

Not always. The Marlow Donkey was authorized to run without a guard when running as an autotrain in GWR days. An early example of (almost) DOO although there was nothing between the two terminal stations.

What a sad loss. Ron was a regular presenter at meetings of the Marlow & District Railway Society and never missed an opportunity, as Chris says above, to slag off GWR locomotive policy. We used to hurl it back at him with equally ribald comments which he used to love - he much preferred that to being "nearly lynched" as he claimed had happened when he did a presentation in Plymouth! He was old school to the end. Apart from Ray's help with the catalogue, he never used a computer and stored all his images and details in his head. The slides were all kept in many sets of drawers at his home and if you asked about a picture of a particular locomotive and/or location he would invariably be able to go straight to it. It was the increasing difficulty in obtaining copy slide film that led him to decide to retire and pass the Colour-rail business on to Paul Chancellor. Yes, he was a good singer and was the leading man in many productions by his local amateur operatic society. He would also visit local WIs to entertain them with musical soirees. RIP Ron.

However, it's not up to the operators. They have to use whatever the DfT tells them they can have as, apparently, the civil servants know far more about train procurement and allocation than professional railway managers. The retention of the GWR HSTs beyond this December has not been possible without a series of "robust conversations" at the highest level on both sides. It would not surprise me if the DfT decides to store or scrap the Meridians and Voyagers rather than allow them to be used elsewhere - XC to reduce chronic overcrowding being the obvious. It seems the DfT (at the behest of the Treasury) want's to keep costs down at all costs and if that means passengers have to spend a fortune on tickets to stand like cattle so be it.

It seems the supporting piles being driven into the river bed are "spare" OLE bases from the abandoned electrification to Oxford. Amazing what you can find lying around in the lineside undergrowth - modern image modellers take note! I just wonder how they'll get them out again after the works are finished... 🤔

I used the EL for the first time yesterday between Paddington and Farringdon. Have to say it's an impressive inner-city people mover but it doesn't work for us here in the Thames Valley. Having caught the 10:05 from the "biggest and most important railway junction in South Bucks" (Bourne End) the first train off the rank at Maidenhead was non-stop into Paddington arriving on platform 1 outside the EL entrance - in my case right opposite the closest door on the 387! However, had I waited for the first EL train from Maidenhead I would have got to Farringdon a full 41 (Forty One) minutes later than I did. Coming back I got a EL train that terminated at Paddington then got lunch before boarding the 12:57 GWR train home. Sadly, a points failure at Ruscombe threw things into chaos with the result that the 12:57 had to run down the Main to Reading non-stop from Slough where we had to catch an EL train to reach Maidenhead. Ironically, this was the one that had been the one following the EL train I got to Paddington! Is it any wonder then that Thames Valley patrons choose to let the EL trains pass and wait for a GWR one - which at least have loos, very important for some particularly on evening down services... My only real criticism is the poor signage at Farringdon getting between EL and Thameslink not helped by some down right rude TfL staff when I asked to be pointed in the right direction.

Thanks to Rob and the team for a great day out, thoroughly enjoyable and more than worth the near 300 mile round trip drive. Lots of inspiration and food for thought - to say nothing of the pasties and cakes! Even the M4 and M5 were free flowing both ways - unheard of!

Interesting update from NR on Twitter. https://twitter.com/networkrailwest/status/1649077107660652547 Progress is being made but I don't think they'll finish by June 10 - hopefully I'll be proved wrong.

Has that door really been off for FOUR years?!

V R doesn't really mean anything there are still a few around today .

That photo explains why several of the GWR 80x's are displaying paint or vinyl damage along their sides.

Working practices are very different today resulting in a safer railway which is what we all desire. Modern standards are much tougher to provide that safety and take longer to achieve. Much of our railway network was built very quickly and as cheaply as possible with the results becoming increasingly apparent today as the Nuneham viaduct collapse and recent Hook landslip have graphically demonstrated and you can be sure they will not be the last such incidents. I'm hearing of a number of locations across the network that are causing concern. Even once the railway is "finished" there is an awful lot of testing that has to be carried out not just on the line itself but where it interfaces at each end with the Rugby and Thames Valley Signalling Centres. In addition, the drivers will have to learn the route and a new kind of unit which again can only take place after the route is safely signed off for use. It may seem a lot of red tape and be very frustrating to the observer but it ensures a safe and stable railway is delivered for generations to come.

Apparently Chiltern have been awarded the contract to operate Phase 1 (Oxford - Bletchley - Milton Keynes) using new Class 196s originally intended for West Midlands Trains but no longer required as their Snow Hill services remain at 2tph not 3. E-WR services are expected to start in December 2024.

If you are referring to the above photo that is from Google Earth and is a distorted image. Please refer to the informative posts by @phil-b259 and @nightstar.train for the real story.

Except it's not the central pier that's failed - it's the south end on the river bank.

Internally, some are suggesting it could be as late as July. And from May, the number of spare paths on the GWML east of Reading diminishes as discussed in the Elizabeth Line thread.

And I wonder what significance of that could be... 🤔