jonny777

Well, almost 12 hours have passed since this weird instruction; so I will give you this as one of my first colour photos. Can we now have an east coast terminus south of The Wash

Oh dear. I buy photo collections that I can afford, and have used some here. Maybe I should rein myself in a little.

Yes, it is not difficult to just enter 'railway horsebox' into Google and post the best of the 10000 photos which come up in the image section; but it is not quite in the spirit of the thread.

Well this train has cattle wagons, but I can't see if they are loaded or empty. 46479 near Kelso 30th May 1962 If this is allowed, the next photo will include 1 or more horseboxes.

Yes, the 71s were mostly delivered via the GC. There is a video clip of one being towed by a WD 2-8-0 through Nottingham Victoria, but the pantograph has either been removed or had yet to be fitted.

I'm not sure how old is 'old', but these are quite old. How about something moving fast...

Nice one...

Yes, that was 25th Jan this year; but lasted about 5 minutes, and was only over 50GW for an hour. Agreed that coal was going full welly at 10GW, but at just under 8GW nuclear wasn't flat out; and gas at 23.5GW certainly wasn't if those max zones are to be believed. Metered wind power is relatively uncontrollable, but still managed over 5GW. It is the figures beyond that which are open to conjecture. For the French, Dutch and Irish cables I have -1.024GW, -746MW and -234MW respectively. I take the negative signs to mean we were exporting to those countries - hardly something we would do if our demand was about to exceed generating capacity.

I was also told by someone in the power industry many years ago that the biggest panic they had in SE England was in summer, when a vast slow-moving thunderstorm moved over south and west London early in the afternoon. The sky became so dark that not only were millions of home and office lights switched on, but all the street lights came on as well; and on a day of expected low demand the sudden spike caused much concern in grid control.

Yes we are. We are just placing different interpretations on the coloured bands on the dials. Biomass is in the orange today, as it is most days when I look; but I don't see that as a crisis, just an indication that the plant is working close to its maximum output which it must be capable of for months on end. A Duchess climbing Beattock would occasionally go 'into the red' as far as maximum power output was concerned; but as the peak would be short-lived it was not a problem, as the fireman would be able to take a breather in a while.

C4896 shows a 43xxx power car with an SC prefix. These must have been very short-lived. I may have seen one, but I only remember E prefixes at Kings Cross.

I find this idea of 'scraping through' a winter to be misleading, and rather insulting to those who are paid to keep our lights on. I have monitored demand v supply almost every day through the winter, especially when cold NE'lies had been predicted - and at no time did we come anywhere near capacity, even in the mid-Jan cold spell. Yes, we might get a 1962/3 winter again (although it is highly unlikely given the higher population, traffic levels and urban heat island effects) but there are industrial shut-downs in place given an energy emergency. I think the chaos caused by our over reliance on 'just in time' supermarket food distribution would hit the population far quicker than any energy supply problems, if there was widespread heavy snowfall. It is also quite interesting to note the remarkable drop in overall energy demand during school holidays.

I think the idea of a burning 'coal fire' with respect to present day electricity generation is somewhat misleading. The pulverised coal is sprayed over very hot air and instant combustion takes place. Turn off the coal supply and combustion stops.

One of our stupid decisions was the siting of nuclear power stations at Dungeness. For half a century, lorries have had to move 30,000 cubic metres of shingle per year, back to the Camber side of the complex because a planning 'genius' did not understand the patterns of erosion going on there.

Yes, I am aware of these points; having provided the electricity and gas industry with weather forecasts for many decades. I never put forward the idea of pumped storage as a replacement, just as an emergency backup for peak demand. I was told many times by grid control that the biggest spike in demand did not come on a cold and frosty winters' evening, but during daylight with the onset of snow. This was assumed to be part of the British psyche; see it snowing outside and the immediate reaction is to turn up the heating.

While I agree with much of this thread, I do not believe that the oft attempted ''nightmare scenario' so beloved of the Mail and Express, would lead to a peak demand. A freezing cold evening with no wind is likely to result in lower demand than one with a strong wind. Thus, the generating capacity would be increased by the wind component; and remember the 'spike' due to evening cooking is very short-lived and could be coped with by pumped storage.

Not to mention those pesky railways which put all those canal companies, and industrial barge owners, out of business...

Not looking good for coal at present -

No. Defiinitely 1973 for widespread power cuts. I moved in Aug 73 and they were certainly at my former home. 1974 was the year of the 50mph speed limit, due to the OPEC oil shutdown. There may have been power cuts 79-83, but I don't remember them.

Here are the WD + MGR screen grabs from a video. (Yes, they were probably a class 9 with brake van).

I'm sure we have had this discussion before, and I have posted a photo of a WD on a train of MGR hoppers somewhere here. There are a number of photos of 9Fs on the early Cliffe-Uddingston cement trains around the 'net, and I think it was JeffP's thread that had an A4 on that working. There were lots of early steam substitutions for diesel failures, with standby A1s often being used.

I took my initial clue from this thread http://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19845, which after some speculation seemed to conclude West Hartlepool did have a roundhouse.

My theory is that the shed interior pictured here is West Hartlepool. Could someone more familiar with the location either confirm or deny this please?

I think this originated through laziness. People shortened would have to would've, and younger generations heard that spoken and just assumed it was 'would of' merged together because that is what it sounded like. That particular horse has bolted so far from the stables now, I believe it to be a lost cause.

Woodhead electric but not mainline action? I think this might fit the bill Next... HST in 1976