caradoc

There won't be any need to buy one (or more) the instant they are released, this model will be produced for years if not decades to come. Look forward to seeing the initial tranche of variants, BR blue or green with FYE, preferably 47/3 too, suits me sir ! Thank you Bachmann.

There are many great photos in the book. I'm thinking especially of Swansea Docks, and of course my home town of Oxford, with one picture taken from the same platform I was on waiting for the approaching train !

As a matter of interest, what are the 'vile proprietors' of the Daily Mail encouraging people to do, and what are you doing instead ?

Alternatively, getting in early in sourcing replacement traction for the day when coal-fired locomotives are no longer permitted.......

Just after the schools had finished here in Scotland I arrived at Glasgow Central on a train which then formed a return service to Ayrshire; I could barely get off the train thanks to the crowds, mainly but not entirely young people, trying to force their way in first to grab seats. And thanks to the fine weather, Ayrshire trains seem to have been as busy ever since. So we will have to see the effect on cases.

That's such a dreadful job one could almost think it was deliberate, to provoke a rethink......

That's one hell of a bird strike on the loco in the third picture ! (They always remind me of our own Class 33 for some reason). Great photos and background Jamie, thanks.

Agree, and the most recent example of that was the Scottish Government's Transport Secretary slating LNER for no longer enforcing social distancing (in Scotland) on Anglo-Scottish services; While the franchise for which he is directly responsible, Scotrail, has not enforced social distancing since day one; LNER of course did with their mandatory seat reservation policy.

One has to wonder why on earth you let her into your country in the first place (especially given that there are still Aussie citizens stranded abroad). Unless of course she was 'transported' on an involuntary basis, as in the old days..... ?!!

My ideal preserved railway would have a connection to the national network, share a station with the national network but with its own separate platform(s), have sufficient space for depot and stabling facilities, and run to somewhere of interest. Being in a pleasant part of the country would help too. There are of course several railways which meet those criteria, but a couple of suggestions would be Kingham to Chipping Norton and Gleneagles to Crieff.

They certainly served some commuter flows, but the HSTs were 125mph inter-city express trains used on 7-hour plus runs ! And regarding the Blue Pullmans, on the very few occasions I saw them before their demise they were going fast enough through Didcot that the coach numbers were impossible to record (albeit being white on light grey did not help.....)

The first time I had to wear a mask for a long time was July last year, travelling from Scotland to visit my Mum in Oxford. With the journey from my home station to Glasgow Central, train to Euston, Underground Euston Square-Paddington and train to Oxford, I had a mask on for around 7.5 hours, with the only relief being on the walk from Euston to Euston Square. It was horrible, but had to be done, as indeed it has since. Under the new situation I will still wear one whenever instructed, and where it is voluntary, anywhere crowded.

I hope the wagons were weighed both at origin and destination, to establish how much of the sand BR had actually delivered !

'The Power of the 37s' (B.Morrison, Oxford Publishing Co 1981) has photos of 37s on parcels trains: Jun 74 37238 at Selby bound for the Leeds area Jun 74 37012 at Norwich on the 1840 to Liverpool St (a passenger/parcels/postal combo) May 77 37025 at Colchester bound for Liverpool St Sep 79 37159 near Bridgend with 3 vans for Bristol Sep 79 37241 at Gloucester with vans for Swansea Sep 79 37255 between Cardiff and Newport with vans 'from Barry storage sidings' Sep 79 37268 at Milford Haven Apr 80 37230 at Chepstow with Down vans (a particularly varied formation) From memory East Anglia was a hotbed for 37s on parcels trains, given the number allocated to Stratford and March.

The car gained access to the line via the LC at Cheshunt station, so it certainly is level crossing stupidity, of a particularly outrageous kind in this case.

A different situation, in that smoking on a train is a clear breach of regulations with no exemptions, which is not the case with mask wearing.

Personally I don't believe that railway staff (or anyone else other than law enforcement professionals) should have to challenge non-mask wearers; Has it been the policy of TOCs to instruct staff to do so ? Make announcements at stations and on trains but nothing more.

The May 1971-April 1972 WR passenger TT shows the only Sleeper services from Devon and Cornwall as those to and from Paddington; The WR/Scotland Sleeper started and terminated at Bristol. Correction; At that time the Bristol/North Sleeper ran to and from Newcastle, not Scotland.

The Milwaukee Road for me too ! Many years ago I bought Richard Steinheimer's wonderful book 'The Electric Way across the Mountains' and have been fascinated by it ever since. The Pennsy also, partly for its electrics but also because its dieselisation policy seemed to have parallels with the way BR went about it.

Compromise; Green one side, blue the other, with one end SYP and the other FYE. Everyone's a winner !

Control certainly are (occasionally) responsible for operational incidents, although the dewirement at Waverley was not one of my 'achievements'..... (And sometimes we even accepted the blame too).

Also perhaps a Controller omission too..... When the only electrified route west from Edinburgh Waverley was the Carstairs road, the two lines through the centre Mound Tunnel were not wired. One morning a Virgin XC departure, booked diesel traction, was electrically hauled instead. The NR Controller did not advise the Signaller who routed it as booked through the centre tunnel, the Driver took the road and the loco promptly became dewired, causing huge disruption and delay. All the holes in the Swiss cheese were aligned that day ! One question I have not seen asked is why London Road/Piccadilly would actually need six 1500v DC platforms, given that the only such trains were the half-hourly Hadfield EMUs and the hourly Sheffields. Two platforms could have coped with that, although three or four were certainly preferable for operational flexibility.

How high would an ejector seat at ground level (which is of course where a train cab is) need to fire the occupant to allow them to parachute safely back down ?!!

Thanks, I hadn't noticed that earlier (it actually says National Rail !). In which case, apologies to the BBC.

Even with the huge subsidy it receives, and the comparative simplicity of operating entirely within the UK, the Caledonian Sleeper is not exactly a budget way to travel ! Lovely though it sounds, I have to agree that the finances and technical complications make this proposal a non-starter.