Vanders

Hmmm, a model of Bristol Parkway in 1972. Basically a couple of drab platforms in the middle of a downsized yard. BR Blue, Western Region, Presflos in the yard...yeah it's ticking all my boxes!

It's one of those discussions that seems to continue over many forums for a long time, never really getting anywhere except in a circle. However, here's one from RMWeb discussing an article published in Railway Modeller. There was also a more recent bit in the Railway Modeller 2017 Annual, and you'll find similar discussions cropping up in model railway forums all across the internet. It seems a lot like some people do want it, but nobody wants to make the first move. A cynic might suggest the pieces in Railway Modeller are a way for PECO to goad another manufacturer into making the first move that they can build a market on...

A little bit of 'A', a little bit of 'B'? See the discussions around reintroducing TT into the UK market for another example.

Can it be inserted from the other end, and pushed through into place?

That's actually less than I'd expected. Of course you'd also have to get the Battlefield Line to speak to you. And the owner. And have somewhere to put it. And permission to move it (anybody know what's involved in moving something you know is full of asbestos, anyway?). Then your problems really begin.

XTrckCAD will run, if you get XQuartz installed & working, but the experience is awful because X applications don't integrate into the rest of macOS very well at all: X apps basically run as one big mac OS application with their own window manager etc. Your best is, frankly, a Windows VM running under something like VirtualBox, and then you can run whatever planning software you like.

I am nothing but impressed. I'd love to see an article(s) on this; I'm sure MERG would be more than interested!

To be fair, they can do both.

They have to purchase the trackbed beyond the occupation bridge at the northern limit of Broadway station. It's currently owned by Sustrans but not developed as a cycleway, and I believe the long term gentlemen's agreement between the GWSR, Sustrans & the local council is that the purchase will happen in due course. Network Rail made provision for the track to run under the replacement underbridge near Honeybourne, so the understanding that the track will reconnect to the mainline at Honeybourne eventually is certainly there.

The only one of the year now isn't it?

Segregated, but not guided, as far as I know. Although yes, a lot of new alignment has been built including a bus-only junction on the M32: probably no cyclists on that section at least

Guided? Hah! That would be dangerously close to a real system. Metrobus is just a few fancy bog standard bus routes.

It's okay they're only going to drop the trackbed by 700mm. A few men and a couple of shovels is all they'll need.

It was, and was one of the nicer sections of the cyclepath through a deep cutting and under a very nice high 3 arch bridge, through Siston Common. The replacement route took a lovely flat, wide, cycle way and replaced it with an awful narrow path complete with steep gradients and 90 degree turns. I know many people who live in & south of Warmley stopped using the cycle path north beyond Warmley after the change, as it's just not very nice to use. Do you have a link to the proposals? There's a brand new one just opened at Lyde Green just up the A4174 so I'm not sure what another a few miles away is intended to do!

They already lost a big chunk of the original route when the A4174 was built between Warmley & Mangotsfield. Sustrans have less sway than you might think. Even the small handful of Green councilors would struggle to argue against an electrically powered public transport scheme.

If they convince the airlines to use Seaplanes they could use Blagdon Lake as a second runway! Absolutely; which is why one should have been started 20 years ago, with a reasonable plan that could have been expanded slowly. Unless Mayor Marvin knows where that Magic Money Tree is being hidden and has a cunning plan that somehow means this transport scheme won't be an abject failure and/or killed by political backbiting and u-turns, this one is possibly one of the least likely to happen out of all the scheme we've heard of since the Luftwaffe closed the tram network in the 40's.

Surely you jest?! Actually they did close Cattle Market Road for over a year so they could build a bridge onto the empty waste ground. And then made Cattle Market Road one way (Temple Meads to Feeder) just to screw with everybody. They did use the extra lane to build a nice big cycle path that goes from nowhere useful to nowhere useful, though.

So it sounds as though Bristol City Council & associated authorities are starting to make serious noises about building an underground railway network. You'll have to forgive me if I'm maybe a little sceptical at the idea of Bristol delivering anything in 10 years, let alone one of the most ambitious local transport schemes envisaged anywhere outside of London...

Slightly back on topic, here's a timely piece from the BBC about the Portishead branch: http://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-bristol-42227038/portishead-railway-could-line-reopen-to-public

Sure, if money is no object, then always build a nice new line. Except of course we all know that money is always the barrier to building any of this infrastructure, especially for regional projects. If the good people of Manchester & Sheffield were given the option of a nice new high speed line that will never get funded or the resurrection of an older slower line that stood a chance of being built, then obviously option B is going to be popular. That's not to say it's the best solution, but it is a solution. Of course Option B has to at least exist, first. A good example of this is obviously the Borders railway, which didn't require a shiney new high speed line, but did require a lot of disruption because nobody had protected the trackbed & right of way. Another example more local to me would be the old Midland route in Bristol, which would provide a useful suburban railway to the new suburbs of East Bristol, if only somebody hadn't destroyed the trackbed and right of way over the years. Without resorting to conspiracy theories, it does seem that old trackbeds in and around London are far less likely to see wholesale destruction, and subsequent rebuilding & reuse: possibly because somebody noticed that it's really expensive to build new infrastructure in London, and that it might be sensible to protect the infrastructure you have, rather than always building new?

This is the part I will never understand. Closure was one thing, but the subsequent destruction of the trackbed & right of way was done with such gleeful abandon; often for no more than a few extra square feet of car park, or one or two houses (or a power cable...) It was so bloody minded and short sighted I can only assume it was a deliberate ploy to ensure the old lines could never be re-opened in the future; some sort of giant middle finger to the future. Oh and if we're talking top 10 lines to re-open, surely Manchester-Sheffield via. Woodhead? If only, of course, somebody had thought to protect the trackbed...

Only if we count the 1589 of them that were secretly built and stored as part of the Strategic Reserve.

Like splitting the 09's into an class of their own based on the difference in gear ratios? If you put the 08's & 09's together, you get 1022 machines. At least the 10's, 11's & 12's had a stronger basis for having an entire class of their own.

"mega rare" is of course more rare than "\/\/0\/\/ l@@k RARE!" but less rare than "\/\/0\/\/ l@@k |\/|EG/\ RARE!"

The Co-Bo, ex-D5705 TDB968006, was rescued from Bristol Bath Road. It's funny where some of these rare pilot scheme locos ended up.