caradoc

Given that two English clubs are in the Champions League Final, and that no fans will be in the ground in Istanbul anyway, the logical thing would be to move the Final to the UK. So there's no chance whatsoever of that happening.

One of many mickey-takes in Control occurred when a loaded long welded rail train developed a fault on a wagon mid-train. The section Controller was advised to tell the Traincrew to detach the wagon and continue forward. Fortunately he realised the absurdity before passing the message on.....

I wasn't implying that it should ! Merely pointing out that London is quite a long way from many parts of the UK, meaning that air travel will always be faster from some places. There was at one time an Edinburgh/Waterloo HST, providing a same-station connection with Eurostar. The only problem being, hardly anyone used it ! Nowadays a near-same station interchange is available between Kings X and St Pancras, a same-station interchange within St Pancras, and an interchange involving a short walk between Euston (my normal station of arrival from Scotland) and St Pancras. However..... I still made the journeys I mentioned by air, and would do so again.

As adb968008 says, Eurostar cannot compete with air for many, many journeys due simply to the geography of the UK; For example, my most recent Euro trip (from Scotland) was to Berlin, a two hour flight from Glasgow Airport, but an entire day by rail. Despite having rail staff privilege travel going by train was never a serious option.

It's good to see (more) rail freight at Tinsley again, even if it is very much a shadow of what used to be there !

Unless Hornby's Railroad version (or ancient second-hand Airfix or Lima) is considered, this 31 is still the only game in town ! Which, considering how many there were, and the proliferation of models of other classes, eg 24/25, Peak, is IMHO surprising.

For a while in the 1980s a 20 plus 37 combo worked Ayrshire coal trains. And in the 70s a 33 plus 73 combo worked MGR coal trains to Didcot Power station.

I was on duty in Glasgow Control on the day of the tragic accident at Moulinearn (Scotland) which, by strange coincidence, was exactly 20 years ago today - Saturday 5th May 2001. There was also a previous fatal accident there in September 1953. But this is not what PatB is referring to, of course.

Given the second part of their builder's name, should they not have been reserved for the Slough/Windsor branch ?!!

On the Glasgow/Carlisle via Dumfries route, Barrhead SB controls the double line from Glasgow which becomes single to Lugton, and all its signals are colour lights. And on the same route Kilmarnock SB controls the double line from Mauchline which becomes two single lines, towards Barassie and Lochridge Jc (between Kilmaurs and Stewarton); All its signals are colour lights too.

Much more noteworthy would be railwaymen (anywhere) not griping about management !

TMC's website shows Expected Q4 2021.

Running onto NR, eg to Bangor, would of course require trains to be maintained and operated to national standards, ie with TPWS, OTMR, GSMR etc, and staff trained appropriately. Would there be enough traffic from Amlwch, and the other towns on the route, to justify that ?

TMC's website shows Expected Q4 2021.

Surely he will have to there, so he can leap off just before the train plunges into the abyss ?!!!

Maybe someone could secret a suitably-aged Titanic boarding pass behind a panel in one of the coaches.....

I only saw Falcon twice, once in Swindon Works and once on that same train at Didcot, where the train stopped; If only I had been able to afford a day return to Reading to travel behind it !

Hasn't their retail outlet in Swindon closed (some time ago now) ?

Yes, quite possibly; As the table in the link below shows, the UK (in 2010) had the best LC safety record of any EU country. So common sense doesn't seem to have done them much good. https://www.ilcad.org/IMG/pdf/era_leaflet_web_version.pdf

Interesting too that the headshunt is accessed by a facing point from a passenger line; I would have thought that was fairly unusual ?

If the person attempting use the LC does not even understand the English word 'no', they cannot communicate with the Signaller at all - ie to state where they are, what they are crossing with, how long they need, and to confirm when they are clear ?

Good points, plus how long will an impatient van or lorry driver stand listening to a recorded message until the section in their language (If it is even included) commences ? And if they still don't understand and require clarification from the Signaller, we are back to square one !

One of the many roles of NR Controls is arranging the management of pollution incidents, ie sending staff to site, arranging specialist clean-up if required, and advising the relevant environmental authority (in our case in Scotland, SEPA) and if necessary facilitating their attendance. I have to say that by far the majority of such incidents involved hydraulic fluid from OTMs..... We always made sure to advise them when the fluid was bio-degradable, although I do recall one of their officials not being particularly impressed by that !

And it's not a new thing, BR named an HST Power Car 'Top of the Pops' in 1984 !

It's about time, he was very discriminatory towards the dragon community.......