roythebus1

I've not bought much ralway stuff on eBay, but was after a Bachy green class 20 a couple of years ago. Stroke of luck, someone had a decent undamaged D8000 body on there, so got that for a song. A few days later someone else had a good running chassis on there for not very much! Result, a remarkably cheapEE Type 1 for not very much

The cost of seat belts on trains per casualty was investigated in the Hidden Report. I can't remember the cost per life, but it was ££hundreds of millions of "investment" to save one life. There was a delay report I saw many years ago at Victoria, something like "we regret the 0820 to orpington is delayed due to an avalanche in Switzerland". I asked at the time, who explained the Night Ferry from Paris was delayed awaiting a connection from Switzerland, so the Night Ferry meant it ran in the path of the inward 0820 to Orpington.

At the famous London transport Chiswick bus driver training school some instructors would tell the new drivers to turn left out of the gate and take the first available road on the left. along chiswick high road, the first turn on the left was signposted as a dead end; the second was no entry, the third was at traffic lights, which was the first available road. It caught out quite a few and tested their observation. Usually on the last day the instructor would take them to Clapham Common, a nice wide road. Back at Chiswick he'd say "well, you and you have failed". the horrified trainees knew they'd done no wrong...He'd say you both drove all along The Pavement at Clapham. Both denied it. then he'd get out the AtoZ where they found out The Pavement was the name of the main road at Clapham!!

You may find a bit of localised heat will free things, maybe run a hot soldering iron round the area for a couple of minutes. I do similar when I', dismantling old bus parts, but use a more industrial type blow lamp or oxy-acetylene!

One of the other major problems with today's new drivers is the absolute reliance on the dreaded satnav. "Oh but the satnav told me to go down there. Kerunch, 6'6 width. Bigger kerunch, 12 foot bridge with multiple injuries and possible fatalities. When I had my own bus company in Mitcham I had a friend who wa a n H&S consultant to give a chat to new entrants, emphasising the dangers of low bridges. The following day got a call, one of my buses had tried to go under the low bridge on Southend Road Catford. the driver had been on the H&S course the previous day. He'd asked if the could divert to his mm's to collect his AtoZ and in his mind he was driving his car.

In BR days anything that had the right class of seating was used, regardless of type, colour or design.

Hornsey used to provide bankers at Farringdon Widened Lines to help goods trains up from the widened lines to Holborn Viaduct, and if required from Kings Cross Met/Widened Lines up Hotel Curve at Kings Cross. In later years if was the usual 350 shunter

Photo 1 above, the original Frank Dyer plan scaled down; photo 2 a view from the countryside, the late Ian wood with his back to the camera operating the main panel, my first Mrs Treasure Gould driving on the main line; photo 3 the original hidden loops, on the right the dead-end sidings that served the local lines; photo 4. The "Mighty Wurlitzer" control panel for the main layout. Other panels were for the goods yard, local lines hidden sidings, another for the branch station and the hidden loops panel. Photo 5 New Annington station looking towards the loops; photo 6 A very puzzled me wondering what to do next. Note the extension to the loops included an incline up to the branch terminus. the line had been re-opened since the Beeching cuts as a useful diversionary route for freight and HSTs. Ex mrs fixing things on the right. Photo 7 under the country side boards, a very heavy box construction was used. also note the ex USAF rotary relays used for point switching. they too were very heavy and were replaced with Old Pullman slow-motion machines. Sadly they are no longer available and were the forerunner to the Fulgerex machines. The loops had a further extension outwards with another 6 loops if I remember correctly.

New Annington was indeed originally a steam-era layout. A double track main line with a double track branch. the main station based loosely on ECML London area. Local trains terminating from the city would run into a siding with a run-round loop, then cross over to the "towards London" local line to work back. Branch train could use the centre bay to reverse, loco uncouples, fresh loco runs in from the locos spur and takes train away up the branch. Fast trains go roundy-roundy. As it was about the tome Lima and others started producing "modern image" locos and stock and the layout builders were more into those than steam, it was never really run with steam, but diesel loco-hauled trains and DMUs. bit later in its life the main platforms had to be extended to take 8 car HSTs and some track alterations made. eventually it gained OHLE which was designed so locos could run with pantographs actually touching the wires. Signalling was semi-automatic colour lights complete with route interlocking, so signals could not be cleared until a route was set. As trains passed the signals, they would return to danger and previous signal aspects would change automatically using relays and light-activated switches. All could be returned to danger individually. Drivers had to drive to the signals. It was very advanced for its era.

Nobody has noticed that it's highly unlikely to have a direct access to a turntable from a main line.

Did the GWR have wider lines on their signa box diagrams? Until 1891?

Yes, they are well remembered. there's a Lost Boys 1968-1988 FB group, no "rebellious" drivers or secondmen permitted to join. We have very long memories of those scabs. Lost wages were made up in other ways as mentioned. Waterloo done away with disposal time for every arrival which meant 12 minutes overtime on the end of every duty to secure the train properly. Additional walking time as it was impossible to get from platform 15 to the far end of platform 1 in the rush hour in 5 minutes. All those minutes added up and I think we gained 4 additional duties out of it!

At the risk of derailing this thread further, following the 1982 ASLEF strike against the imposition of flexible rostering which ended after management (the Thatcher government) threatened to sack every driver if they didn't go back to work, various ASLEF branches made various resolutions to "get back" at management. At Waterloo we refused to take training schools in the cab, inconvenient at the south side training school was there. A while after that rostering was altered and Waterloo lost its work to Exeter which caused an uproar in the top link. It meant a loss of several mileage turns. In those days if a duty exceeded 200 miles, a mileage bonus was paid. I can't remember the outcome of that dispute, I think an overtime ban, but everyone at the depot supported the move. A while later management wanted to do away with the "tunnel walk", a Saturday afternoon duty for Waterloo & City drivers. Book on after current went off at about 1400, a group of 8 with an inspector would walk the tunnel from Waterloo to Bank and back through the other tunnel, checking various items of safety equipment. It was as they say a snip turn, depending who the inspetr was and how quick we could walk. Management wanted revenge and were adamant we would lose the 8 turns every Saturday. The branch had an urgent meeting and resolved to shut the W&C every morning between 0800 and 0930 and 1630 and 1800. On the first morning of the action, muggins was the 3rd driver to book on for a Waterloo & City duty. When booking on we were asked what our intentions were. "To obey the branch resolution". First 2 got sent home, with me the foreman had changed. I was told to wait for the depot manager at 0900 which I did. I was duly summoned to see him and he refused to sign me on. I pointed out that I had sat there awaiting his arrival from about 0630 util 0930 and wanted paying for my time. The Union got involved and they were told I'd be pif for my time, but any drivers refusing to work normally would be sent home. Waterlo, being allegedly the most militant branch on BR had a hasty meeting and resolved that all drivers would support theit sent-home mates by putting £5 a week into the branch funds, this would be shared out between the sent-home drivers. Management went one step further, by booking men on their rest days to cover W&C turns. We were one step ahead...a mutual exchange of duty from a W&C duty to a duty "upstairs" on the main line with someone who was working a normal (not rest-day) job. That way the W&C remained shut for about 4 months, every driver paid a fiver into the fund and made up their wages by working rest days upstairs. Eventually management gave way and we kept the tunnel walk until it was taken over by the Underground in the 1990s. As a further aside, on the Southern these days there's usually a shortfall of about 93 drivers on long-term sick or slightly shorter term sick mainly due to what they now call "fatal trespass incidents". I'd suggest similar numbers on other TOCs.

The public consultation would take it towards the end of this century, arguments in parliament another 20 years of governments changing their minds a bit like the HS2 fiasco, meanwhile China builds 32,000 miles of new high speed lines. And TfL still won't have built the Ricky-Watford Junction link!

As opposed to our European counterparts who generally like their time off with their families, something the Brits seem to have lost track with over the decades. The only time my DB friend done überstunde was when there was something out of the ordinary that caused a delay.

I'd suggest that a big part of the overall problem is the upsurge in railway patronage since the mid to late 1980s with the advent of the HST and marketing ploys like Network South East. and the afore-mentioned arrival of Eurostar bringing continental style wages and conditions for drivers. Those in power failed to meet the supply with demand, with the bean counters cutting rolling stock requirements to the bare minimum, likewise with staffing. It's not appreciated how much training it takes to become a driver. Like most of my age we had at least a 2 year apprenticeship as secondmen, sometimes more and done a lot of learning on the job. These days it all appears to be in the class or in front of a computer screen. As we say, it's easy driving a train, anyone can make it start. It takes skill to make it stop in the right place, especially in the freight sector. To reply to oldddudddderrsss, the problem with signalmen is apart from being signalmen (in joke for railway staff), they are all employed by one company and can't transfer to another company. Maybe the RMT under Mick has managed to get a better deal for them, I don't know. The RMT has had some ineffective leadership until recently.

Looks a lot better. Trix AL1 wheels also fit if you push the insulation out. I fitted them to the Triang Hymek back in the 1960s. with 4 rubber-tyres wheels the Hymek would pull the house down!

Try €*. :) Like Kylie Minogue, went into a travel agent in Oxford Street and said "I want to book a ticket to Paris". The clerk enquired "Eurostar?" "Yes, I know".

As a bit of an aside, back in 1982 I met a driver in Germany on an exhibition train at the Cologne exhibition. He was a fireman on the steam on DB and had recently been trained on the high speed 101s. I told him I was a driver at Waterloo, and if he visited england it would be good to meet up. Hid did indeed vitis and we've been friends ever since. He is 10 years older than me. Back in those days he was earning about 50% more than me for a 37.5 hour week, no overtime, no rest days, he had a life with time off. I told him I was working 8 hours a day, every rest day, every other Sunday. One day off every other week. Still struggling to make ends meet. His status as "beamte", a civil servant, meant he retired at 55 on a full pension. He's now 82, living in a nice place in the country on the border with Holland, he has a large American G scale railway round his garden. He doesn't have to struggle to make ends meet.

It's always been the way on the railway. Having been a guard on the Underground in the early 1970s they were always short of staff due to seemingly low wages. I asked why we couldn't work overtime to keep the job running and boost earnings. I was told by the union rep that we should get decent wages without the need for overtime and rest day working. In the end I had to leave the job because housing was unaffordable (nothing new there). A year later saw me join BR as a secondman. There were staff shortages as they'd made too many redundant after the end of steam. there was something like a 20 year gap when no new footplate staff were taken on. I left railway employment in 1988 as I was as it turns out one of many who were got rid of because I reported defects and was on the ASLEF branch committee. They were short of drivers then but cut their nose to spite their face. I've found since the advent of the internet that around 100 such "examples" were made at that time. The result was the shortage of drivers we now see, no new secondmen taken on, train people from off the street to do everything. The advent of Eurostar at Waterloo meant that drives there could take a short walk across the concourse and almost double their money working for E* rather than go round the houses working for SWT. That is when real wages started to rise for train drivers. The abolition of the old steam-era PTR agreements were replaced by the free-for-all we see now, private companies nicking each other's staff. Drivers only have decent wages because of the unions negotiating better rates for them. For those outside the industry who are envious of the well paid drivers of today I say "join a union". Train driving can be the most boring job in the world. round the houses looking at chimney pots, station, shut off, brake, stop, ding ding, open up, station, shut off, brake, stop, ding ding...Express work, just as tedious at times, sit watching signals go past at 140 miles an hour all day. An old workmate went on E*, done it for maybe 20 years then transferred to Chiltern Railways at Marylebone, a far cry from the glamour of driving trains across Europe at 200 mph. Why? Because if he wanted to see scenery go by, it was better done at 100mph than 200 mph, at least he could enjoy what he saw at that speed. He retired early on a good pension, like a lot of them, he was fed up with the job and the pressure.

I heard this from a chap I work with on the buses, his other job is as a train manager trainer for Avanti. He told me how much Avanti are wasting on training, some £3k a day for taxis taking trainees from the station to their training place in the midlands on trains that aren't yet serviceable. All this goes to show that there IS money to be thrown at these problems especially with an election coming and the government wanting to get rid of the train strikes problem. Good luck to all the workers who actually DO the job who get this sort of money.

Rummaging through my drawers as is my wont, I found a large-scale official drawing of a Dreadnought coach. some smaller sheets were copies sent to my many years ago by the chap who i think invented protofour, he also produces some plasticard sheets for the Chesham set. Sadly I never got round to using them and got rid of them many years ago, the task of cutting out all those windows was daunting! I think his name was Joe Brook-Smith The smaller sheets were detailed drawings from a late 1890s copy of The engineer showing cross-sections of the bodywork and bogies. If I can ever work out how to get my applemac to allow me to share photos on here I'll copy them across for interest.

Thanks for that David, I find it difficult to get to grips using anything on iphone, it's too small for my big fingers. I use an applemacbook and there seems to be an inherent problem with the OS. It used to be easy to share pictures to here and FB from the macbook, under the "photos", pictures and anywhere really. The lastest versions the "photos" option gives a very limited amount f irrelevant picture, the "pictures" option, give a totally different lot of stuff I've scanned in, the photo library with over 3500 photos vanishes! I've been on to the apple help desk, they say there's no easy way round it!! Do this, do that, do something else, at my age I need something simple and easy to use. even the Apple forum has run out of ideas.

I still regret not keeping a few of his 1938 tube stock brass etches just to how how awful they were!