Boris

My favourite is the ECS move that was supposed to be going to Edinburgh and ended up in Scarborough

I very much doubt there will be much of an investigation into this, likely the signaller will be asked what happened, admit to wrong routing and asked not to do it again. It happens frequently enough that there are procedures in place in the rules for it to be corrected quickly without a huge fuss being made, any delay will have been down to a) the time taken for the driver to walk the length of the train twice, possibly including being stopped by passengers multiple times and b) the need to provide a space in front of the wrong direction movement in case the driver goes further than instructed so there is no risk of conflicting movements, stick on a few minutes for the signaller to talk to the Driver on the GSMR 2-3 times and 20 minutes is pretty good.

Not surprised, I can think of a few preserved railways where the people that run the spot treat the guys on the ground with contempt.

A quick image search round Yahoo shows the usual suspects, 16 ton mineral wagons and a variety of 12 ton box vans. As previously mentioned the LGW wagons are a good choice hanging around very late for 19th century wagons, there is at least one photo of a Clayton with about 10 of these as well.

That's what's been quoted in the media, maybe be wrong though

Unlikely, when the class 20 humped the back of the coaches at Grosmont the root cause was nobody watching where they were going. 12mph has been quoted as the collision speed which would indicate that the footplate crew a) couldn't see the stock/weren't looking or b) were disoriented/distracted and weren't where they thought they were. That's too fast to be anywhere near stock in poor lighting conditions (it's nearly sunset at 1815 in Aviemore) and they in theory in should have been expecting to stop short of the stock and then go on. Had a shunter been present they MAY have been able to attract the crew attention but more likely they would have had a first class view of the bump and possibly needed clean underwear.

There's some of those in the airport in Singapore that have the arrows of indecision and say Return to Crewe!

So much on social media about the "poor locomotive" never mind the people who ended up injured or in hospital. I'm a bit confused why the buckeye is relevant when the coach in question no longer has the buffing plate or similar fitting to accept a buckeye? Also when the class 20 got humpy at the NYMR the railway reopened but the coaches had to be lifted to check for centre casting damage on the mk1s, I think the main reason the job was still stopped was because it is likely RAIB wanted to take a look at the scene in the daylight, its a mandatory report if people are sent to hospital, the NYMR were lucky in that nobody was injured.

Reading the photo caption its running under a Class A headcode and the train was the Pullman Brake third, 2 Gresley coaches, a Mk1 and "something else", now its likely Autumn or winter and the steam heat is connected. There appears to be a label in the guards compartment window of the BTP (it wouldn't have had label clips) which may indicate the vehicle is being transferred for repairs or post repairs? I think its Car 78 looking at the exterior fittings?

That looks like it would get quite warm inside in the summer

For sale, 1 Pacer tour ticket to accompany me as Mrs Boris would rather "wear my soiled trousers on her head" than go on a Pacer tour

Availability with the 68 sets has been as low as 4 out of 13 in the past few months, leaving aside the noise issue, they are quite unreliable and frequently delayed by various ongoing electrical problems. When they work they are great and we've had 5 car mk5 sets and 6 car 185 sets operating in/out Scarbados and its been fantastic, the trains have been comfortably full rather than sardine cans and anyone who wants a seat can get one. But then we've had failures that have sat in platforms at Scarborough for over 3 weeks at a time, and also 3-4 mk5 sets stored for days on end at Scarborough and its causing headaches for people having to deal with charters (which need to use 1 because of length) and a lot of shunting movements because TPE haven't got anywhere else to store them. I remember this year one colleague got really creative and we had one as station pet at Seamer for a bit too.

They've sold at least 2 tickets to me and the Mrs

I'd never even heard of the spot, sounds like it could be combined with a visit to Rails or Butterley.

The more I see of stuff like this (and the failure of the Deltic on the 19th August) the more I wonder if this stuff has any place on the mainline in the 21st century? My personal opinion is that steam and heritage diesel charters are a massive pain in the behind to deal with on the modern network and I'd prefer to see them on a preserved railway rather than complicating the life of the average rail user. I know this opinion is going to be about as popular as a fart in a spacesuit but this is a discussion forum after all.

Absolutely, it's about keeping a balance.

Please let me give you some advice here, you'd get more help if you put the whole text in your post rather than posting a Word file which people may not download because of the whole virus thing. I have copy and pasted the document below for people to read leaving out the name. I was on the night turn in the Control Office at Nottingham on 1st August 1969 when 1V35 22.55 Sheffield to Plymouth relief train ran, it wasn’t booked to call at Derby or Birmingham for passenger purposes. When it had left the station after effecting train crew relief, the Chief Inspector told me there were only two passengers on the train from Chesterfield to Bristol. 1V41 20.45 Bradford to Paignton meanwhile had left the station full and standing a few minutes earlier. I passed this information to the Deputy Chief Controller who advised RHQ Crewe, it was for them to decide whether to route 1V35 into Birmingham New Street, which they duly did. My own handwritten memo to management clearly showed 1V35 as 22.55 Sheffield to Plymouth, however, it did appear unusual to have a relief train running to a destination other than that of the booked service. Doubts still remain today as to whether 1V35 should have read Paignton and not Plymouth, but, the relief train was running behind the booked service. Are there any Weekly Traffic Notices M 31145 or N, printed by Bemrose of Derby or McCorquodale available for that particular Friday that might confirm where 1V35 was destined for?

How about the amount of local opposition that focusing the whole operation on tourism would cause? There are any amount of areas that have focused on tourism for 50 years (Whitby area is a great example) and there are massive problems in the area with accessing services and with the explosion of 2nd homes and holiday cottages forcing younger families away from the area and suddenly there are fewer staff for jobs and more elderly people who have retired to the area who put pressure on local services, all helped by fewer people working in the area and paying taxes. A heritage operation would not receive a subsidy therefore would have to run at a profit like any other business and that would mean cutting the services that are no longer profitable which realistically is going to mean fewer to no services October to March and having to make this profitable you're also going to charge a lot more for tickets pricing a lot of local families out. For example the NYMR no longer does one station singles meaning locals who would often take the train one stop and walk back via the pub are priced out. Average wages in the Scottish Highlands are quite low with it being tourist/agronomy oriented so a lack of subsidy means again pricing locals off the trains destroying a local transport link (Source:ONS regarding wages). Given the Scottish Government wanting to invest in local transport for residents (see also Waverley restoration) it is unlikely to be politically acceptable. I'm interested to see what positive arguments you can produce that aren't just "I like steam trains"

Ask the ORR it's their rule and goes back a long time. However the current head of the ORR has indicated that he is much less inclined to give heritage operators derogations than his predecessor.

They made the decision to not exceed 25mph on the Esk Valley Line so they are exempt from requiring secondary door locking, they don't actually need to use the SDL bolts but they do anyway to deter the casual cretin.

Mischief on tour

I love Pacers, can't wait for a bit of bounce and thrash

I love those transpennine sets with the wraparound windows