Ben B

I was thinking the Corickle at Whitehaven too, but doesn't look industrial/urban enough... the Corickle had at least one level crossing in a housing estate didnt it? EDIT There's houses up on the right hand side... the more I look at this, the more I wonder if it actually IS the Corickle; all the pictures of it I've seen were from the top, but maybe from the bottom it looked more rural

Probably hoping some of the locals will, a couple have already been graffitied... KWVR will be keeping one of the Pacers, partly for their operational fleet, partly so they have a more modern-looking unit for filming contracts I gather. Would be handy for the Railcar Wednesday timetables off-season, where the W&M tends to get overwhelmed if there's a school trip on the line as well as the regular passengers.

Apologies if shots of these have appeared before; these are the only train pics I've taken since Lockdown commenced... the stored Pacer fleet on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. Mentioned here because some members were joking on the FB group for the railway if the reopening special could be a diesel gala of the whole lot running in one long, horrifying train up the branch Lighting isn't great, but it was about 6am I gather most of these units are still there, certainly looked the case the last time I drove past.

Curse you! I'm already fighting hard the urge to collect tinplate O thanks to this thread, and then another user goes and posts a pic of that lovely Austerity tank loco and pushes me further towards it...

First thing I wondered when I saw the gunpowder van, was if you'd extended your empire to the Cambrian Coast? I always associate GPV's with the explosives traffic from Penrhyndeudraeth

Wasn't it South Africa where a signalman trained an ape or baboon to work the signals? Do the lions do the Civil Engineering then?

That Met Cam looks terrific- is it a commercially availible print? And is there an alternative to the rare Triang DMU chassis that could be used? I'm feeling tempted towards a trial micro in a new scale

My foster kids were fascinated by the cinema at the BCLM, because they were expecting a large art deco type cinema like our local here in Keighley (at least they weren't expecting a multiplex!). Probably normal to me, as a Gornal lad who ended up at the museum every couple of years as a child on school trips as well as family outings, I probably sat in the shed cinema more frequently than the UCI at Merry Hill

The Conwy Valley Line was, I believe, affected by flooding in 2017... to be honest it seems to be so most years, and not exactly quick to reopen. As for other passenger figures, frankly if there aren't the trains there, and the ones which are timetabled are frequently (or even randomly) cut, then people will turn away from them I suppose. Dolgarrog is a bit of a wasted opportunity, being so relatively close to the Surf Snowdonia attraction; if there was an easier way to get from there to the station -such as the embryonic Dolgarrog Railway preservation scheme- then maybe it would see an uplift in traffic. Though I doubt surfer types travel much by train (probably no room on a 153 for surfboards!) But being as for most of the last year or more it hasn't had a platform, it might be a tad tricky to get on and off

Especially as it lasted so long; even to the point of being used as an emergency freightliner terminal when the Britannia Bridge was knocked-out by the fire. I can see that the large station building would have been costly to BR, and they'd have wanted to make a little money selling off the land for redevelopment... but I'd imagine the line could have survived as a single-platform, single track, single-car-DMU 4-times-a-day into a wasteland/car park sort of operation through the 70's and 80's. So many other lines made it that far and survived in a similar condition, and expanding the line now would be a doddle. I'd imagine the cost of putting just that sort of operation in nowadays would be hideous; probably into the tens of millions and four-dozen feasibility studies before concluding it's too expensive.

I remember a trial-run with top and tailed 66's from Blaenau Ffestiniog, maybe two trial runs, then NR basically said there needed to be either a new passing loop somewhere, or the sidings at the terminus needed upgrading, or signalling the whole lot would be roughly as costly and complex as re-signalling Manchester Piccadilly, and it couldn't be done. As for coping with the axle loadings, I gather this week from the excellent North Wales Coast Railway Noticeboard that ballast trains with 56's and/or 70's have worked along the line so it can clearly support heavy locomotives and bogie aggregate wagons. I suspect that the issue is that if the line is open to freight, it becomes a bit more necessary to rapidly repair and reopen during the regular 'closed due to flooding/rockslides' which happens annually and seems to shut the line for months at a time. As far as I know NR have been struggling with repairing the flood damage from Jan or Feb, and also need to reinstate the platform at Dolgarrog. It was a bizarre sight last year, streetlamps, telescreens, and all the other trappings of a modern halt, but all suspended high in the air above the ballast with no platform. Thing is, even without the Covid issue, I think NR consider it 'only' a branch line, and tend to take their time with the repairs. I imagine some bean-counter is hoping that all these frequent closures will put people off to the point where the passenger service can be further rationalised; again, according to something on the North Wales Coast Noticeboard last year, there was a plan to replace even the summer service with a 153 instead of a 150, as the train operator were so desperately short of rolling stock for South Wales and needed the longer sprinters elsewhere. As far as I know Conwy Valley is meant to be getting a converted tube set (D train) at some point. I miss the days when it had the dedicated green class 101 in the 90's...

I think the best bet on the northern leg would be to start by just reconnecting Caernarfon to the national network at Bangor, difficult as it might be; probably a better bet than linking the whole way to Afonwen, as I doubt the Cambrian would support an extended service without infrastructure upgrades. Of course, it could all be academic; if Fairbourne does go under, with sea-level rises (the village is slated to be abandoned at some point) maybe the whole Cambrian Coast line could be lost. The Bangor-Afonwen could be the only way of keeping the north end of the Coast route rail-served, unless it's run as an isolated section (unlikely). In the case of the Bangor-Caernarfon Only route though, the difficulty, on a budget, would be Caernarfon station... with Morrisons being sat on the old station site, it would mean a 'classic' modern, out of town single-track-and-bus-shelter about a mile away; I wouldn't want them to go down the Borders Route option of having the terminus away from the town and having to run a bus link for the final bit, which would defeat the object of the exercise. The 'pipe dream' ideal would be a cross-platform interchange somehow with the Welsh Highland of course, which would involve a fair bit of demolition and closing the tunnel to road traffic, though might be doable with the bypass going in. As for the Cambrian itself, I've got myself a bit depressed going back through some of my photographs from 2004/05 over the last few days. Regular steam excursions on the weekdays, loco-hauled additional services to Aberystwyth around Uni starting time, and occasional loco-hauled excursions alongside the regular 158's; even then, longer 158 formations up the coast line on the Bank Hols. Last time I was in the area was about three weeks of the summer hols last year, and two weeks in October and November, and the permanent way was looking scruffy, and the regular services were overcrowded 2-car units (and not terribly punctual at that). It feels like a line that's crying out for a bit of investment, like it's nearby neighbour, the Conwy Valley. The latter seems to spend more time closed each year for flood repairs than it does open, but even when it is running, the service is pretty spartan. Whatever happened to the plan to return slate-waste trains? An enthusiast I was speaking to up there said NR weren't prepared to fund signalling changes and upgrading points, though I don't know if that's true or not. I've always thought the line is only grudgingly maintained as a strategic link to the old power station site in case Trawsfynned ever reopens, but it seems another line which isn't well funded; a sprinter (often single-carriage) a few times a day and no Sunday services much of the year. The railways of Snowdonia have a lot of potential, and if people cannot easily travel overseas in the immediate aftermath of this crisis, then maybe it could be developed as a way of bringing domestic day-trippers back to the area? (I gather investment-wise Barmouth Viaduct is possibly getting a refresh this year, which is glad to know given how ropey it was looking last year). I know capacity is a problem, partly by the lack of infrastructure but mainly because the line has the bare-minimum ERTMS-fitted 158 allocation. But would there be a possibility of hiring a rake of MK2's and using a couple of the yellow 97's for a regular loco-hauled Wolverhampton- Pwllheli timed to get people to the coast for a daytrip to the seaside (stopping Machynllyth, Towyn, Barmouth, Harlech, Porthmadog, Criccieth, Pwllheli). It's always struck me as ridiculous that during the No.6 Festival at Portmerion, Virgin would run extra trains for festival goers... to Bangor, where a fleet of coaches would drive down from the north coast and drop people off at Portmerion, passing three Cambrian Coast line stations en-route. I know Virgin couldn't run Voyagers through on the Cambrian Coast, but it seemed daft that a charter train couldn't run with the 97's along the Cambrian Coast to Porthmadog instead for the festival goers. When I was a student still living in the West Mids in the early 2000's, you could -just about- do a daytrip to the seaside for a day from Wolverhampton to Barmouth, bit of a long journey, but do-able nevertheless. I know the timetable is restricted at the moment because of Covid 19, but before the crisis it still didn't look like too appealing a timetable. And I really don't get why the services to the Cambrian Coast have to start so far down the line in the West Midlands; I can understand perhaps the logic of starting from New Street to capture the Brum passengers, but going all the way out to International just puts the regular timetabled services through two of the most crowded, slow-moving corridors in the West Mids. Starting and terminating at Wolverhampton does mean a train change for passengers from Birmingham, but there's plenty of commuter services on the Stour Valley line to Wolverhampton for them to travel on, and it would mean fewer knock-on delays.

I think another problem with the north-south run would be the need for additional funding on the existing Cambrian lines; the coast route has been slashed back to pretty much the minimum possible without just turning it into a long siding. Theres what, three sidings between Mach and the end of the line? Passing loops only at Towyn, Barmouth, Harlech and Porthmadog? I'd have thought you'd need to spend a fortune on reinstating passing loops, signalling etc to even accomodate just a few new services (not to mention making everything ERTMS capable). And what of the trains themselves? The days of long loco hauled (or even 3-4 unit dmu's) are well over. What would be the point if, like the Borders railway, you've a shiny new/upgraded route built to a low budget with only the capacity for a 2-car overcrowded class 158 a few times a day?

I've always liked small French stations, of the sort Joueff modelled in H0, with the combined house and goods shed. Is that the sort of protptype you'd be after? The low platform thing could be excused by having the UK versions be light railways (though there were -and are- plenty of little stations here with low platforms, Conwy Valley and Cumbrian Coast come to mind). About 9 years ago we holidayed in France, in Normandy and Brittany, and I was surprised how many little end of the line country stations were still so extensive. We passed a couple that still had plenty of sidings, large-ish manned buildings, where the equivalent here would be a bus stop on a carriage-length platform tucked into an out of town car park. I thought one such station was abandoned, it was such a timewarp, until a modern streamlined railcar appeared. Another was hosting both a modern railcar and a tourist steam service at a shared platform. Fascinating atmosphere

The 60's version of "War of the Worlds" scared the hell out of me when I was little, I used to struggle to get past the bit where the martian waddles past in the background when they've crashed at the farmhouse. Oddly enough when it's more visible on-screen later it isn't too bad, it was that simple, slightly-out-of-focus quick pass if it that always terrified me. On a similar note, the first "Tremors" film used to give me the screaming heebie-jeebies when I was little. You know the feeling of being so scared by something you're watching that it's the most frightening thing you can imagine, but you have to force yourself to watch it? Mine was a TV show called "Dark Season" about a sinister computer buried under a school... I can remember something about it giving me nightmares when I was 7, and being a proper watch-from-behind-the-door program. It terrified me at times, but I just had to keep watching it. Appropriately perhaps it was by Russel T Davies, it turns out, who did the same thing with the revived Dr.Who to our youngest foster-daughter years later...

And that Mark Gattiss had watched "V for Vendetta" before writing his script...

Have to agree; I'd already noticed an increase in fly-tipping during the worst of the lockdown (I live in the Worth Valley, and people seem to treat the Worth as a flowing tip at the best of times, and just drop crap over the walls into the river). But last week I took the kids for a walk to Damems, and on top of the fly-tipping (including a whole bloody bed, complete with mattress!) there were burn-marks from campfires, loads of ditched cider and vodka bottles, mini gas cylinders... at least no syringes (they're usually in the churchyard near their primary school in 'normal' times). Some poor sod is keeping the place tidy though; we didn't have any bags with us, but thought we'd come back with a bin liner on the next day, but when we did someone had beaten us to it and cleaned it up. The who'd been there trashing the place only have one path to access the riverbank where the campfire had been, and you have to pass a bin to get out of the place. Same mentality I suppose as to why the Worth Valley is dog-crap city, a messy minority just cannot be arsed cleaning up.

That's the bunny I've always fancied doing a model of 'Matilda' with all those cosmetic bits and pieces, I've an old Hornby Austerity which might get the treatment...

Yep, aplogies for the drift. So to get back on topic; Does anybody else remember a film called "Runaway Railway"? Kids helping to run trains on their doomed branchline, and end up foiling robbers, one of whom is played by Ronnie Barker. Black and white film, shot at Longmoor with a cosmetically-modified Austerity tank as hero loco 'Matilda', and action that was kind of a proto-"St Trinians" in terms of trains operating in a chase, in quick succession, whilst on the move in the same block section. I saw it when I was little when Channel 4 did a season of railway-related programmes and films, and recently stumbled over the start of it on a tape (a tape! How very hipster of me...)

Agreed. It was an odd film, from that perspective. Some really good historical detail in props and things, and some very odd stuff. Dunkerque now doesn't look like Dunkerque then, if you get my meaning. I gather Nolan really wanted to film actually on location there, but some of the shots had buildings that looked too modern. Looking at historical pictures, I think that epic tracking shot in "Attonement" did a better job of it. (Incidentally another good fx shot in the latter film, though with a railway connection; the flooding of the tube station in "Attonement" was done with miniatures, by the ex-BBC model lot under the great Mike Tucker).

That was something I was impressed by with the first series of "Peaky Blinders", with the railway scenes shot at the Worth Valley (the film company at the time using almost exclusively Yorkshire locations, aside from the BCLM in Dudley). Keighley station, with the canopies and stonework, made a decent stab at being somewhere like Moor Street, and an impression of being a suburban station once an appropriate train was parked in the other platform road to screen-off the modern electrified part of the station. They also went to some trouble to use older stock and the Coal Tank loco as it looked period; even rebranding some of the carriages as GWR. The 'passing' shot of the Coal Tank was filmed on a single-track section, but being both a brief shot, and filmed from extremely low-angle, it wasn't clearly visible. They haven't filmed there recently though, series 3 used the East Lancs I think with period-inappropriate stock. Always surprises me they don't film station scenes at Kidderminster on the SVR, it's pretty close to Dudley if they're filming at the museum, and Kiddy looks as close to GWR Moor Street in Brum as it's possible to get without CGI I'd have thought. The Worth Valley was used again around the same time for two productions- "The Robbers Tale" (about the 1960's train tobbery) and "The Selfish Giant", where both productions seem to have made the most of the very limited stretches of double track the KWVR has access to. I won't go into the whole class 37 as a 40 business, but the prog makes a decent stab at filming as much as possible on the double-track bits. Interestingly major house building at Haworth would render period stuff impossible here now, but would make a suitable backdrop for a modern mainline. For "The Selfish Giant" they used the class 20 (in 1990's RF triple-grey) with some engineering stock as an attempt at having a 'modern' train, and probably a better stab than having the green 25 and a few 4-wheelers as a modern freight train in "Frost" in the late 1990's. The film company even built some prop cable troughing with hosepipes as the cables for the scene which involved two lads trying to nick the stuff. The KWVR have acquired a Pacer recently, and I gather from talking to a couple of the vols that it's not just for the historical preservation/cheap off-peak unit aspect, as much as it is for filming. The most modern diesels are all 1960's vehicles, ableit two of them in 1990's liveries, and both DMU's and the two railbuses are green. A recent film contract set in the modern day used the 101 which at least has a vaguely modern interior, shot at night with fancy camera angles for the exteriors but I gather the thinking is, with the valley looking less period with all the modern building work going on around it, a more modern unit might be useful for filming work. Even with the Pacers going out of use on the mainline, the interior will still look pretty recent, and exterior shots will be more convincing of a contemporary unit than a slam-door 101 or 108.

I live under the circuit for Leeds/Bradford so until this crisis it was usually quite noisy. Very odd not having jets over. We've had police helicopters a few times, and until a couple of weeks ago several flights by military Wildcats. Heard but didn't see a couple of Chinooks too. What's mainly flying over are geese, more noticable than recent years. They have a habit of noisily flying around honking at 5am and waking us up...

I picked this up last autumn from the W&L shop on a whim (lets face it, that gloriously colourful cover shot is extrememly eyecatching!) but only recently got round to properly reading it during lockdown. Wonderful book on a subject I didn't know much about, and full of interesting info and great pictures. Very comprehensive and readable. What's shocking is the sheer decline of the railway there; the initial contraction of the route when electrified, but then so much creeping rationalisation. The loss of the shunters and engineering stock is perhaps understandable, but both generations of tube trains arrived in large numbers before being whittled down to a mere handful of scruffy units on reduced timetables serving cut-back stations. I really hope the possibility or reversing this trend is taken with the new trains...

It had a tidy and lick of paint a few years back, but was looking scruffy in feb when we went to see "Bahamas" run past. If they started running longer trains on the S&C (fat chance) they'd really need to tidy up the platforms. They either need weedkillers or more wild flowers in the old bays. Would also help if the parcel vans (owned by West Coast I gather) were scrapped finally; more grafitti than livery after a decade absndoned there...

Hellifield is such a sad case, because it has so much potential; the passenger services are somewhat sparse (though better than it used to be, even if it is just a Sprinter every couple of hours)… maybe if there was a passenger service coming up the freight-only line from Lancashire to join with the Settle-Carlisle/Morecambe routes, and thus make it a busier junction/interchange it would be better. There's so much of the historical fabric of the station surviving, and steam-hauled portions of specials almost all start/end there (or at least stop to take on water). But what are you greeted with? Cracked and overgrown platforms, weed-strewn empty bays, rusty sidings, an unused metal shed with no doors and rakes of abandoned, graffiti-covered parcel vans. Compared to the Settle-Carlisle stations which retain their historical structures, or nearby Skipton which is kept in far better nick, it just looks like a wasted opportunity.