Mike_Walker

Yes, it is the carriage servicing platform for Laira depot and is on the course of the old line to Mount Gould Junction and Friary. The tracks now end just beyond it. In addition to the wash plant visible here, there is another for rinsing on the other side of the bridge. Sorry but I don't have any pics.

Sadly, Mike, the railway today is a very different one to that you worked on. Twenty years ago Mark ruefully showed me a diamond crossing at Wilmslow and remarked how many weekends it had taken to replace. He said he commented to Railtrack that when he joined the railway they would have replaced it between trains. The reply came back to the effect that you didn't have H&S back then. Possessions today take longer to set up, conduct safety briefings etc., and take down than they do for actual work done. But, the number of injuries and, worse, fatalities has fallen greatly. OOC will provide interchange between HS2 and GWR services to the West. It will also provide an easier interchange between GWR semi-fast services and the EL than at Paddington. A simple platform change by the transfer deck, not having to navigate your way around the station then two lengthy escalators as you do at Paddington. London Overground also have aspirations for two new stations to feed into OOC. If they come to fruition then it will be a western equivalent of Stratford. I presume the alternatives you have in mind for diversions are Olympia or Marylebone. To access the former you still need to go via Willesden as you can't hang a right at OOC East anymore and in any case, if you could it would be in the middle of the worksite. Euston, whilst not ideal, has better onward connectivity than Olympia. Marylebone is not an option as it no longer has capacity and it couldn't handle 10 car IETs - and the Chiltern Line isn't currently cleared for them although that could be addressed. I can assure you that everything will be done to keep disruption to a minimum. When Reading was being rebuilt, NR wanted to operate a 2-track railway for TWO years through Reading. This was totally unacceptable to GWR but NR said there was no alternative. That was until GWR submitted a plan that involved keeping a 4 track railway with two massive blockades during which trains would run to Marylebone and Waterloo. The former involved a bonus of signalling improvements at Banbury that improved operations there for "normal" GWR services and Chiltern. And as a result, Reading was finished early and under budget!

AIUI from the most reputable of sources, ALL GWR services will call at OOC both in and outbound which is why platforms are being provided on all lines. There will be a couple of major blockades for this work which will close Paddington completely. Last week Mark Hopwood took colleagues from GWR, Avanti, SWR, NR and the DfT on a special train that ran from Maidenhead to Euston, Acton Yard, Waterloo, North Pole depot (using the connection off the WWL disused since Eurostar moved out) and finally back to Hayes & Harlington to look at the challenges that will be faced during these blockades when GWR services will be diverted into either Euston or Waterloo (not sure what the Liz Line will do, it doesn't concern us). It is to facilitate the diversions into Euston that the Poplar Lines at Acton are being wired.

Sadly, it had disappeared when the "official" Government document was published on Thursday. To be fair, on Wednesday they did say "could be" rather than "will be".

Why would you want to rate your own postings anyway? 🤔

And there you have it. None of these proposals are likely to come to fruition - even the Government's own documentation says "could" rather than "will be" - it's simply a desperate last ditch attempt to buy votes and remain power. Thankfully, the people have now seen through them.

But how many of these smaller projects will ever get built? They will quietly get cancelled or forgotten about.

The Elizabeth Line carries heavy traffic already between the Thames Valley, central London and the eastern suburbs. The WCML makes little impact on it today. Actually, not only has the contract for the HS2 trains, Class 895 from a Hitachi-Alstom joint venture, been let but design work is already advanced.

Without wanting to be political, we can only hope that if there is a change of government then HS2 to Manchester will be restored. Not holding out any hope for Tavistock benefiting from HS2 as it seems the money is to be used for other schemes in the north and Wales.

Here's an ex-LNER (Thompson?) 6 wheel brake at Didcot in 1974.

I have that trouble too but I find that if you send it as a "bcc" it goes through. I understand gmail blocks messages from certain sources which it deems "hostile" but it seems it doesn't spot blind copies. Strangely, there seem to be no problems with "googlemail" addresses.

Actually not too bad compared to some parts of the network these days! I note the image is dated June 2023 so perhaps the temporary railings are a first sign of the proposed upgrade. From here the line makes almost a 90 degree turn which is why there's the 10 mph limit. Once clear of that, it's a blistering 20 all the way to Gunnislake apart from Stop and proceed at another open crossing, Sandways. It's 15 from here back to Calstock station where there's a foot crossing between the platform end and the viaduct. An interesting detail: if you follow Streetview up the crossing you will see a narrow upright box between the railway and road on the Gunnislake side. This contains emergency "sand sticks" used if the train has adhesion problems. There is another 3/4 mile further on.

There are probably others on the network like that. Kings Sutton, south of Banbury, was like that with only a foot crossing for access to the Down platform on a 90mph line with a curve but now has a non-accessible footbridge. Such places continue to exist under "grandfather rights" but such arrangements would almost certainly not be tolerated for new works which is how Bere Alston would be considered.

30585 on the daily goods bound for Wenford Bridge. Moving on a few years, a Class 03 brings some china clay from the Wenford dries bound for Fowey.

Not really, they are expensive assets which become even more expensive liabilities sitting out of use in sidings.

But Penryn has passing loop and is fully signalled it merely solves the access problem to the second platform. Bere Alston would have to be the same with signalling, axle counters, etc. all connected up to Plymouth Panel. Knowing something of the eye-watering costs of such things then a second platform complete with footbridge, track alterations and a new ground frame would probably come in much "cheaper" although "cheap" in a rail context is not how you or I might define it!

I understand those crossings are due to be upgraded to ABCL with barriers.

Back in the day there was a door in the building on the old platform 4 at Reading marked: "For the use of SR traincrew only". When this was mentioned to a WR Divisional Manager the reply came back: "Well we don't want their tram drivers mixing with our blokes." As for the riding of the 345s underground, well there's only a few points down there, they are still new and haven't been subjected to continual pounding by 3000 tonne stone trains!

I have two that run on DC only and are as sweet as a nut. I actually told Dapol that they unrealistic models as they were so reliable! 😁

It's an open secret that FirstGroup, GNER and Siemens had been jointly working on what was called "HST2". It would have been a loco-hauled push-pull train with a driving trailer at one end and a loco at the other. Various options for the latter were planned, straight electric, diesel, bi-mode and even consideration of gas turbines! The design had been worked up to a point where orders were about to be placed and metal cut. The the DfT intervened and said that the train operators didn't know how to design/specify new trains but their civil servants did. The companies were blocked from proceeding with HST2 and we got the IET instead led by a now departed civil; servant better known for drawing atlases who thought he could rewrite the laws of physics among other things. As it turned out, IET took so long to come to fruition that had HST2 gone ahead it would have been in service and coming due for its first major overhauls before the IET finally entered service. The latter ended up being the subject of so many design changes that it went way over budget and is so complex that it is becoming an operational nightmare for both the operators an Hitachi. History will record the HST as the high point of British train design. Conceived as a stop gap during development of the APT, it went on to revolutionise the industry and public perception of it. It is no exaggeration to say that it probably saved the industry. There's a joke in the industry that there's a chair reserved for the Japanese ambassador in the SoS's office. "The answer is Hitachi, now what's the question?"

Otherwise known as Gone Completely.

Those '1950s' cars are actually Amfleet cars built around the same time as the Hosts.

But that is Devon ÇC document which might be based on outdated information.

You are looking at proposals made several years ago since when all costs within the rail industry have escalated at a rate far greater than the national rate of inflation and at a time when the willingness of government to fund such expenditure is under pressure. I doubt that if those plans were reviewed or created today they would be accepted. A few years ago, GWR worked up a plan to reconfigure Bourne End station to permit 2tph all day from Maidenhead through to Marlow. It was costed and the required funding secured but delays were encountered in the final design work by which time the estimated cost had increased by around 500 percent making it unviable and it was abandoned. And that was before the present squeeze started I don't think you appreciate just how expensive anything related to the railway is today. Tom Windsor, when he was the regulator, asked: "Am I the last person in this industry who thinks £1 million is a large sum of money?" How long ago was that - it would be billion today!

Agreed but I was trying to keep things simple. They look like signals but act purely as 'points indicators' as described indicating which way the points are set even though those at the actual junction are right under the BE1 PI and perfectly visible from the cab. Even some of the drivers had difficulty getting their heads around it initially!