Artless Bodger

I think I read that Volk's at Brighton originally was 2 rail electrified, but changed to 3 partly due to current leakage. I can't imagine Sussex commuters accepting a Volk's style train though.

J354, is that one of those tampers which could be rotated around its vertical axis? I've just read one of Machorne's blogs about Watford (Met) station where they had to turn one, the couplings are only on one end. This looks as though it fits the description.

Thank you, I'd often wondered what those numbers meant in the middle of fields etc.

J4955, could be a model, with a modelu figure on the verandah. Beautifully crisp photo. In the light of the WCRC thread - J4954, notable for bars on the droplight (shades of North London Line 2EPBs). Is that very faded maroon, or unfaded rust colour (or maybe red oxide primer)?

After a search I have found the puzzle, there's one in the Scinece Museum collection, link: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8003850/the-kings-regiment-jigsaw-puzzle I remembered wrongly, it is emerging, not entering the tunnel. Thanks for reviving a good memory!

Nice, reminds me about 60 years ago I'd had a jigsaw of a train just about to enter a tunnel as a Christmas present from a relative, once it was made Dad glued it to a piece of hardboard to hang on my bedroom wall. The loco was in BR blue, I think a Royal Scot (were they in blue?). We have one in progress now - 2 views of Waterloo, in wartime and just post war, celebrating the centenary of the station.

Proof of the advantage to be gained by removing fast trains onto HS2, as if one were needed. With so much in tunnel presumably HS2 should suffer less damage to OHLE from storm winds?

We used to send our paper machine rolls to a company called Bottcher to have their covers replaced. APM QC manager was Ken Tester.

A 100T oil tank wagon was rewheeled in APM West Mill siding (known as Brookgate Siding I think) using a hired in Iron Fairy type road crane. The oil train arrived with one bogie on skates, the defective wagon was shunted out of the train once the tanks had been emptied and was left on a spare road. Two wheelsets were delivered by a later 'pick up' goods on the line (headcode 4G?) on a lowmac. After the wheelsets had been exchanged the tank wagon and the duff wheels on the lowmac were removed a the head of our next oil train. I posted a view somewhere on here once of the departing train.

OT, I hope their pothole repair projects improve, the local 'Jetpatcher' does a worse job than my ballasting. Seems they forget to add the glue.

Hand painted numbers on 1628? Someone taken the number plates for safe keeping?

I remember the posters in the frames on partitions in SR EMU stock - "Do not open the door before the train has stopped, your thoughtless action may kill or maim". Illustration of male passenger standing in open doorway and injured woman laying on the platform. Still it didn't stop commuters doing it at Victoria, there was always a rush to the Underground entrance. Only time I saw someone get come-uppance was him opening the front end door on the corridor side, jumping out and starting to run alongside, the train stopped smartly (as the SR seemed to do then) and he ran straight into the door he'd opened, held perpendicular to the train by the whip straps.

Agreed, the thought arose when it seemed like HS2 was to terminate at ooc and the Euston link be abandoned, it got round the then arguement that terminating at ooc would mean the platforms blocked while trains were serviced thus reducing its terminal capacity. I await the extension to Euston in hope.

It's a thought I had a while back - extend underground beyond ooc to a servicing yard, maybe under the iet / ex e* sheds near Ladbrook Grove? I think this is the approach the PRR and NYC used in New York?

Build a few iets with 3rd rail capability too, then extend Gatwick services to Oxford - wasn't that the idea behind the 319 conversions?

WRT reversal - some time ago, but I think within internet search time, I got some info from Voith about their transmissions, one shunting loco had a single control wheel on the sideways mounted panel (centre cab loco) (brake extra). Turn the wheel one way and off the loco goes in that direction, turn it back through 0 and on the other way and off the loco goes in the other direction - much like my Tri-ang controller. So quite simple by then. By comparison on our RH 165DE, it was necessary to bring the loco to a halt, reduce the throttle to idle which released the interlock quadrant on the reverser, change direction, then open the throttle again. The RH 165s were available in mechanical, hydraulic and electric transmission types, iirc the hydraulics were made for steelworks duties?

Interesting layout at Victoria, especially the dual gauge loco and wagon turntables. Thank you for the link.

C2978 the Creagan bridge. We spent a holiday in Onich a while back and often visited a cafe some way round the bend to the left beyond the bridge. The road then followed the shore around the head of the loch, and at its head was prone to flooding with a rather agricultural alternative route. Difficult to find a safe place to park to take photos as the road was so narrow. Since then the bridge piers have been cut down and a new road deck built to cut off the route round the head of the loch. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.5465709,-5.2859917,3a,75y,309.85h,85.42t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4Luw2gBfo7snoZ13HXvCKQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

Thanks for confirming that, I wondered about the Velaros compared to the earlier sets. I had thought otherwise to use the North London line link, then reverse and round to Clapham Jct, and up to Factory Jct and pick up the old route through Kent. There was even a diversionary route in Kent as Maidstone East track layout was revised for Eurostar diversions and I saw them crossing the Ashford Road bridge a couple of times. That's progress for you I suppose, more sophistication but less adaptability.

C17258, OBB 1020 - NICE! And they look so good with the 2 window cab and blutorange livery (compared to the original DRG 3 window condition and green livery (imo of course).

Thanks for those links pH and adb968008, exciting stuff. It was certainly more of a purr than a discreet chuff sound - which is what the manager seemed to expect and so thought it must actually be a diesel underneath! He was younger than me (probably born after the end of regular steam) and so probably has never seen or heard a steam loco at speed. I recall an article in the Tenterden Terrier many years ago regarding the journey of the Sentinel 'Gervase' up Tenterden Bank, it was said to sound like an express at speed but was doing hardly more than walking pace.

A Jubilee hauled excursion train passed our office at Overton one afternoon, one 'expert' manager said it could not have been a real steam engine because it wasn't chuffing. I did a quick approximation, assuming 60km/hr for ease of calculation I came up with about 15 exhaust beats per second. Was I wrong?

Where's the 'disagree (strongly)' button when you need it? (Many happy memories of holidays in Margate and environs). The only problem with living in Kent was / is the need to cross London or use the M25 to get to anywhere else in the UK (almost, slight exageration).

There's a photo of EF1 class locos in Shildon roundhouse, the overhead contact wire can be seen radiating from the turntable to each stall, in the centre the wires end in insulators, presumably so the contact wires can be suspended at the centre. https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/north-eastern-railway-pioneer-electric-locomotives

J742 is particularly interesting, the LOCOSX 5 plank wagons all seem to be WR ones, I cannot determine if they have end doors - ex clay wagons or just merchandise wagons? Can you tell me the meaning of LOCOSX please? Specific to Skipton perhaps? Also in the rake behind a cupboard door 'French' mineral, you don't often see them in photos (though somewhre I've seen a photo of an A4 pulling a whole rake of them - protoype for anything). I find any photo with the 'French' minerals interesting as we had several as internal coal wagons at the papermill I worked in. Your Swiss photos are always interesting thank you. In my view the Re4/4ii and Re6/6 have to be the neatest electric locos yet built.