Phil Himsworth

Our smart meter has saved us a significant amount of money, mainly through allowing time-of-use tariffs. A few years ago our daily routine saw us using very little power in the peak hours of 4-7pm, so a TOU tariff that was more expensive when we weren't using power but cheaper when we were took a decent chunk out of our bills. Then we bought an EV, and this is where it took off. We moved to the Octopus Go tariff, which means normal prices most of the day but 5p/kwh for four hours, normally overnight; running the dishwasher and charging the car during these times slashed our bills enormously compared with what they would have been otherwise. Now we are on an experimental tariff called Octopus Go Faster, which shifts the cheap period to 8:30pm - 12:30am, so we're able to charge the car, do washing, run the dishwasher and often cook dinner all during the cheap period. We don't use much electricity at other times, so overall the average cost of a unit is about half of what it would be. As this is an experimental tariff they also give us £5 a month back for reasons I don't understand but am happy to live with :-) The other month they even paid us to use electricity for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning. I imagine the main fuse was glowing... It is a SMETS1 meter and has no issues since fitting. The in-home display is rubbish, so we don't use it, but other than that I can't fault the meter or supplier.

I find it weird that a double slip is similar to an arrangement of two points, but the single slip - the lesser of the two in terms of complexity - can only be represented by two points *and* a crossover...

That's interesting, I thought that terminal was in a state of "theoretically open but never actually saw any trains", but evidently not! Is it a recent thing, or has it been in use for ages? Locally it has a reputation for having been built because the line was there anyway, not because there was any actual need for it...

Interestingly Bridgnorth tunnel is disused but still maintained, presumably because half the town would end up in the tunnel if it ever fell in. That said, it would be a phenomenal amount of work and expense to connect the two due to developments since the line was closed. While an extension of the Telford Steam Railway to Ironbridge wouldn't have the main line attraction that the SVR does I think steam trains over the Coalbrookdale viaduct, and being able to take a steam train to Ironbridge, would be enough in itself.

That does seem nonsensical! Something I'm most curious about is their plan to use the railway to haul materials out; is this likely to be limited by the gradient on that bit of line? The viaduct through Coalbrookedale has always looked really quite steep to me, there's quite a large height difference between the river and the top of Coalbrookedale, which is fine if coal is going down and empties back up, but less so if the load is going up...

Telford has its less salubrious areas like everywhere but there are far worse places to live and work. Interestingly one issue with the power station development is that even though it is to all intents and purposes part of Telford it's not actually in the Telford and Wrekin area, that side of the river is Shropshire...

Thanks for that, since writing that first post I thought I had read something like that somewhere but couldn't find it today!

A couple of articles from the Shropshire Star that mention the railway; No to McDonald's: Only 'high quality and appropriate' uses allowed at Ironbridge Power Station development - mentions that work to repair the Albert Edward bridge is "hoped" to start this year Power station site railway ‘would make Ironbridge Gorge not just for tourism’ - mentions using the railway to remove demolition materials (but won't that be rather late by the time they've fixed the bridge?), running the Telford Steam Railway into the gorge and the idea of new stations at the industrial estates that didn't exist when the line last carried passengers. The last article has a few quotes from the councillor for "Newport South & East" which on skim reading too quickly makes me think there will be bright blue, red and grey trains from the 90s running up and down the line :-)

Bit harsh, keeping your grandkids in an unconverted garage, but at least they've got lots of room :-)

The developers have said they want to use the rail line to remove quarried and demolition related material using the rail line, but it depends on the Albert Edward bridge which needs strengthening work before this can happen, which by the sound of it is still under negotiation. I find this a bit surprising given it wasn't all that long ago the bridge was regularly used by coal trains for the power station. Maybe they didn't know, or knew but just didn't tell anybody as they knew they wouldn't be needing it for long :-) The developers do intend to use the rail line for a new station on the national network. I'm not quite sure how this would work, as the most sensible connections for visitors would be the other Telford stations such as Telford and Wellington but Madeley Junction points the wrong way for this. I think the occasional special has turned round near Cosford, but that doesn't sound practical for a regular service. The Telford Steam Railway have their interesting "Steaming to Ironbridge" plan on their website, which mentions reinstating the second track if Network Rail uses the current track, or taking over the whole thing if they don't. It would be nice to see the line used though, it's a very pretty route sat there doing nothing. The last time I noticed all the signals were still on showing red, even though nothing ever goes that way...