4630

And to me that's the nub of the issue. Live and let live.

First are playing the 'no change' card at the moment for the new franchise. Time will tell, of course; http://www.firstgroupplc.com/about-firstgroup/uk-rail/south-western-information-for-employees.aspx Scroll down to the FAQs

There was quite a lot of investment in the electrification infrastructure in the early 2000s along the mainline to support the introduction of the 450s and 444s. They were described at the time by Roger Ford of Modern Railways as 'lard butts'. The beefing up of the electrical supply involved additional sub-stations at several places along the route.

As others have predicted, the regular will they/won't they stop using Silverstone for the British GP has now started; http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/40566434

The ABRail database suggests 397/0 for the TPE EMUs and 802/2 for the bi-modes. http://www.abrail.co.uk/emurev.htm

A token exchange. Colas 60026 on the East Lancashire Railway at Ramsbottom during the Summer Diesel Spectacular on 8th July.

Nice series of photos there Peter.

Waiting for the bell to ring. Ramsbottom Signal Box, East Lancashire Railway, Summer Diesel Spectacular, 8th July 2017

Even more so considering that today the Lymington branch is routinely operated M-F by a class 158 DMU - and has been for several years.

He didn't hang around did he !

I'd certainly like to have been in a REP climbing Parkstone Bank. I imagine even with 2x4TCs in tow it would have breezed up. They weren't exactly under-powered having installed HP equivalent to a Deltic.

Poole was used as the starting/terminating point for the inter-regional services to Liverpool, Manchester & Newcastle because as they were loco hauled the loco needed to run-round before taking/bringing the stock to Bournemouth T&RSMD, which is where it was serviced between duties. There were far fewer inter-regional services M-F in those days. Summer Saturdays were a different story !

I would suspect that it's more to do with Poole station being on a fairly tight curve and that coupling/uncoupling the REPs and TCs might not have been sufficiently reliable in those circumstances.

I know it's down to steam era operating history that Bournemouth was where the electric service also ended in 1967, but I've always thought that from an operating and service point of view Poole would have made a better terminating point for the electric service in 1967. Especially as the conductor rail already went half way to Poole - as far as Branksome to allow access to Bournemouth T&RSMD ! Poole was growing rapidly from the mid-1960s so the business potential would probably have been there. Best guess - one sub-station at Poole and a track paralleling hut at Parkstone, plus four route miles of conductor rail. Until electrification was extended to Weymouth in 1987/88 the BR(S) service to Poole was pretty poor with, generally, only one train an hour in each direction. A missed opportunity I feel.

Outstanding.

The rumours on another forum suggest that it is.

After a day spent on the East Lancs Railway 'Summer Diesel Spectacular' on the 8th July, Colas 60026 in the company of 37418 working 0Z60, 12.05 Castleton Hopwood Ground Frame (the link from the ELR to the national network) to Barrow Hill North Junction, on 9th July. Pictured approaching Mirfield East Junction.

A stunning sunset this evening over Mudeford, Dorset.

Zenfolio works well for me; https://en.zenfolio.com/uk/signup

Test link to Zenfolio

They did for sure.

Always good to see a 47 out on the network these days. 47830 'Beeching's Legacy' approaches Brighouse on 26th June 2017 with 0K47, 08.44 Crewe Basford Hall to Lostock Junction. From the number of people occupying the cab I presume this is a driver/route training run. This working and the associated return 0K48, 13.02 Lostock Junction to Crewe Basford Hall, are in the schedule for 26-30th June, although the usual caveats apply 0K47 http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/R01630/2017/06/26/advanced 0K48 http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/R01631/2017/06/26/advanced

And you didn't think that they already had and probably used that power before these recent events? Even if going the UK route via GCHQ would presumably require some oversight before the event, I'm sure that there's the possibility of 'back channel' communications with the NSA in the US.

I think SV should count himself very lucky that the 'stop and go penalty' was as short as it was.

From memory, some are being leased to Grand Central to supplement their existing 180s and allow withdrawal of their HSTs and allow them to have a uniform fleet.