PerthBox

I think it’s Fort William -

The East Coast sleepers were ‘temporarily’ cancelled to facilitate the electrification work but never returned.

They used to do powercar swaps regularly at the Waverley right up into the GNER era in the mid 2000s. It only stopped because the station got too busy for it.

Here's Usan box the day before it was demolished. The brickwork at the rear descends about three metres below the track level.

I see the Health & Safety police are being productive in Australia... I may be missing something but I can't see any wires or point rodding protruding from under the structure. I take it that means it's out of use but what would the arrangements for these be when it was operational?

There's a good cast iron one on railway land in Dundee, known as the Stannergate Stank:

Here's Perth fuel road. It dates from October 1969 but the equipment has been renewed a few times since then. Here's a picture by John Cumming of three(!) class 50s in the fuel road:

It happened at Leuchars during the Gulf War. BR 'mislaid' a wagon full of RAF munitions which was meant to be tripped to Leuchars for onward transport. It eventually turned up in Fort William. The signalmen and traffic inspectors were interviewed by Special Branch about it.

The target is actually a road sign for motorists and cyclists - diagram 106 of the Private Crossings (Signs and Barriers) Regulations 1996: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1996/1786/made/data.xht?wrap=true

The maximum rail linespeed for an AOCL type crossing permitted under the ORR guidance is 55mph.

There are three other AOCL crossings in Scotland, all on private rail infrastructure and private roads - two at Grangemouth oil refinery and one at the Fort Wiliam Rio Tinto Alcan smelter. There is also an Open Crossing on a public road at Rogart.

I'm very surprised to find out that they propelled them through the two tunnels and, like you, can't imagine why that would be needed or desireable. There was once a turntable at the north end of Aberdeen station next to the 'Geranum' siding but I don't know when it went out of use. The pit is still visible from Union Terrace Gardens.

It's a SLE or SLEP.

Yes, although it has recently gained some perspex above the railings to stop you sticking your head or hands over. It is the designated smoking area on the train.

There's a list here - http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/signal/signal_boxese.shtm

The train operated points on the RETB (and some NSTR) lines are hydro-pneumatic, they use a compressed gas accumulator to operate a hydraulic ram to move the switch blades back to the normal position. This gives the action a degree of damping so it takes place slowly after the passage of a flange.

Interestingly there is absolutely nothing about it in the route Control Log for that day, which strongly implies it wasn’t reported by the train driver who ran it over.

As others in the thread have obliquely alluded to, we do use hot axle box detectors in the UK but they are generally found on lines where direct observation of trains by signallers is not possible. We also use wheel impact load detectors which are more suited to indicating severe (and not so severe) wheel flats before the wheel locks and heats up. HABDs report straight to the signalbox whereas WILD equipment sends the alarm to Operations Control. We don’t go for ‘speaking clock’ radio broadcast detectors like they do in America.

The yellow hi-vis tactical vest is standard PPE for BTP officers and has been for decades now. They stopped wearing orange hi-vis in the mid 1990s. In any case the police officer will have been placed in that spot on scene guarding duty by their operational commander (he won’t have just decided to stand in the four foot next to the derailed vehicles of his own accord) and the railway there was totally shut with no risk of being struck by a train movement. The colour of the hi-vis vest he’s wearing is academic in those circumstances.

I’ve seen this pic online before and it was suggested that it might actually be the 25 that had failed and was being assisted, based on the amount of evaporated coolant around the header tanks and radiator. I suppose however the express passenger lamps on the brake tender may suggest otherwise unless someone was having a laugh.

The report indicates that the Installer was using his iPad to access the SMTH and SMS, and that he had great difficulty in operating it due to the wet weather at the time of installation (which also drove the Tester to complete his test records in the van and/or relay room after the event…) It surprised me too that the signaller wasn’t brought out early; the only time Highland main line boxes are closed during the week is overnight on a Saturday night into Sunday morning and it is quite usual to have at least one of the boxes on the line open early on a Sunday to give up a possession or line blockage. Closing overnight on a Saturday is a money saving wheeze which was introduced in the area about 15 years ago and the requests for engineering turns (additional nightshifts or early opening) have become so frequent in recent years that it is likely that continuous coverage will be making a come back at shortly.

That photo must be from quite a few years ago as the Omya sidings on the right have been relaid and the area on the left was developed into a haulage yard with a couple of sidings for the Aberdeen Harbour Board (albeit the sidings are not in use). Those cranes are long gone, the Harbour Board now uses modern rubber tyred cranes which are painted red.

The MENTOR coach has a commemorative plaque in one of the vestibules recording the fact that the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh rode in the coach between Preston and Lancaster on that day. I have a copy of the Royal Train notice for the trip but I’m geographically divorced from it at the moment so can’t scan it and post it here.

Ok, well I disagree with that assessment.

2921 has a rotating table in the van end which was intended to take a coffin. Although interestingly the copy of the rail industry LONDON BRIDGE plan I have seen (dated 2017) states that the coffin would be placed in Royal Family Dining Saloon 2916 and illuminated with specially fitted lights for visibility from outside.