Boris

1 hour ago, 6990WitherslackHall said:

Some railways are experimenting with more eco-friendly coal. The North Yorkshire Moors Railway is using something like this having trialled it with Standard 4 tank 80136. I think it was covered on the news. 

It's the artificial ovoids I've been using on my open fire at home for years, they're great on my fire but the results are very variable on steam locos, it's a totally different firing technique that some have struggled to adapt to.

It's not just passengers who are struggling with rising living costs, volunteers are in the same boat, I can think of a number who have cut their turns from 4 a month to 2 a month because of fuel costs and it may yet get worse.  The Wensleydale has had to cancel some days operation this year because of a lack of volunteers (sourced from their official facebook page) and I think some other railways have had to scale back things like shop opening or booking office hours for similar reasons.

It still blows my mind though that some preserved railways still can't get the basics right though, clean and warm trains aren't a big ask most of the time, getting the whole customer experience (yes I hate the term too) right is more important than ever now and too many places still haven't realised it!

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

With the increased cost of travel, even the NYMR have a challenge bringing enough new blood and compared to most railways; they need a LOT of staff. 

The NYMR has a cracking junior volunteer program that has produced good results but its taken 15 years to get up and running properly, but its something other preserved railways could learn from. 

1 hour ago, Wheatley said:

My guess (based on what occasionally happens with 15Xs hitting things) is that it's gone underneath and taken some pipework out. It only needs to cause a crack the wrong side of an isolating cock. 

Absolutely, bearing in mind that it's potentially hitting the train at 70mph+ suddenly you get quite a bit of kinetic energy to dispose of.

10 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Aren't there any main line steam specials advertised ? 

They don't usually carry too many screaming ankle biters trying to poke you in the eye with candyfloss., and they don't always  originate in London.

 

https://www.railwide.co.uk/steamtraintrips.php

Anyone who gives a small child that much sugar deserves everything they get!

On 11/09/2022 at 08:16, Lacathedrale said:

Thank you all for the advice, again. Having parsed again, I think I'm looking at the following:

 

Taking a pram, with a changing mat/etc. included - shouldn't be a problem even if we need to change baby on the floor we can. In sequential order:

 

Start at Kidderminster - Breakfast at AJ’s under SVR offices,

Bewdley - Convenience stop if required, good for train watching

Highley - Engine shed/etc.

Arley - Convenience stop if required, good for picnicking

Bridgnorth - Up the hill, White Lion/Old Castle for a bite/beer

 

Return to Kidderminster - Some drinks or food at King & Castle (station) or Weavers (up road) and potentially pop into the museum/footplate.co.uk shop

 

There is a cafe in the Engine Shed which has decent food at a sensible prices and I think a baby change place in there too

It's great when you've a got an atmosphere like that, another great example was posted by Didcot on their Facebook feed a few days ago where 4 of their guards found themselves in uniform travelling their for their turns, and decided to take a group pic.  

Also encouraging to see that the people in the two photos aren't each 150 years old

3 hours ago, 6990WitherslackHall said:

I didn't know that. 

I was the controlling signaller on duty that day so it's first hand information, in the scheme of things it was a pain in the butt rather than a major issue but the delay minutes rack up and get expensive quickly.  That's also why the set was sat in platform 1 longer than usual because dealing with the fire and affected trains became the priority rather than sorting them out for the excursion sidings, they weren't critical for water so nothing was spoiling at the time, I doubt any of the enthusiasts on the station complained about having it in the platform in the sun for a bit longer!

On 02/09/2022 at 21:01, Flying Pig said:

 

MODS! @Boris is running a sockpuppet!

Only the kind of sockpuppet you can't mention on this forum darling,  see my OnlyFans account for further details.

On 02/09/2022 at 20:40, rogerzilla said:

Booked for the steam gala in 2 weeks.  It's not the most exciting line up of guest locos (SNG and the S15 are hard to follow) but it will be good to see Hagley Hall.  My mate had a Hornby model of it in the 80s.

 

AIUI some bits of track are out of action so the diagrams have been unusually hard to work out.  They fitted a goods train in, though.  I wonder what's pulling that?  The mickey?

Are you sure some bits of track are closed?  They've been running the gold timetable all week.

You around on the Thursday?

13 hours ago, 6990WitherslackHall said:

When I went to see the Scarborough Spa Express, I was told there had been a lineside fire at Seamer. However, it was dealt with very quickly and the train continued to Scarborough.

Not quite, the train carried on regardless, the Up Scarborough remained open with trains running at caution, the Down Scarborough was closed for about 45 minutes.  Maybe 150 delay minutes total?

I like Butterley, they have a bit of everything and stuff everywhere and for what you get its not hugely expensive.

And don't believe the NYMR guff about being stuck on a particular train for your journeys, they keep coach A (Northernmost coach) on all the prebooked services for people who want to do something different, they just don't tell everyone because they don't want people overloading it.

SVR is ace, plan on spending the day exploring, the Engine House is a brilliant way to spend an hour and the cafe has decent priced food.

Don't bother with the NYMR until they sort out their stupid ticketing system, and ideally clear the management out from the top down.

I came across this photo on a Facebook group and I am trying to ID the last vehicle in the set, I initially went for Thompson BZ but it has too many windows/too few wheels?

Does anybody know what it is please?

3 minutes ago, Nick G said:

He is still very much trading but his website doesn't work because it was hacked a while ago.

 

Excellent, thanks Nick. I know there are other suppliers but I've built his baseboard kits before

Finally got permission to start a model railway layout!!!

So, I can't get on Tim Horns website, is he still trading or is it just my awful internet connection?

Feeling a little bit better and I've made a start on the wagon body.  The roundels come already pressed which is a bonus, the first thing is to do some measuring and scoring to make door lines on the outside, or you could do what I did and cheat and just run the knife down the inside of the half etch lines on the inside of the body, it gives the same effect once all the frames etc are in.  We fold the lip at the top next and then make up the wagon body by folding and soldering the inside of the joins.  Finally to give the top some shape 0.7mm wire is run underneath the top lip and soldered in place.  

Finally a clean and wash and off for beer.

Today accompanied by the Wasteland 3 soundtrack

And some reference photos 

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/bropenmerchandisesteel

So after spending a week laid up with the plague I finally opened a package from First Class kits.

These kits are really nicely presented in brass, white metal and some other bits, and came in at £53 plus £7 postage with decent instructions that include lots of photos.

What I really like is that these kits come complete with both wheels and transfers, so you solidly get the complete package, and the transfers even include builders plates and cover most eras.

So I've gone for one of the LNER/BR open merchandise wagons which gives plenty of options for loads etc.  they are available with 4  shoe brakes or the 8 shoe brakes which I have gone for, it'll probably end up with more H containers or similar in it.

Follow along when I eventually get round to staring it!

2 hours ago, 6990WitherslackHall said:

Typo?

Or a Freudian slip?

4 hours ago, john new said:

Which implies that the Risk Assessment for the Esk Valley section indicates a much lower risk than that for the farmed section just south of Goathland (previous fire history) running over the open moorland and on down Newtondale through the woodland areas. Out of curiosity has 76079 had extra fire prevention meshing or similar added?

There's not much in the way of serious gradients between Grosmont and Whitby, and there's been quite a bit of rainfall this week as well.

On 23/07/2022 at 14:11, rogerzilla said:

At least it won't affect the GWSR gala next weekend, because it's a diesel gala.  We're going to check out the rumours among kettle fans that the "wrong sort of people" attend diesel galas 😉

There's just as many oddballs at steam galas as diesel galas.  I walked in on a bloke abusing himself in the gents toilet at Pickering a few weeks ago.

At least steam neds keep their trousers on, I remember having to wipe many brown streaks off the inside of the front coach windows at a diesel gala where the gricers had mooned the photographers, .

20 hours ago, 6990WitherslackHall said:

I'm 50/50 about Network Rail's decision. I do support it, but I'm also a bit upset that it's happening. 

 

Sometimes, it's not worth the risk. 

Ok, so the procedure dealing with a lineside fire on Network Rail is that Control tell the signallers to stop all trains and appoint a Mobile Ops Manager as a Railway Incident Officer who then goes to the site and liaises directly with the fire brigade on scene as to when the railway can reopen.  Now on a quieter line this is disruptive but imagine this at say Colton Junction outside York stop all lines for a steam tour fire and you quickly have trains backed up, especially as the policy is, as far as is practical to stand passenger train in platforms rather than risk the passengers bailing off and walking.  Then tally up the total delay minutes (these could be racked up for many hours to come as sets are out of place) which will run into thousands, then multiply that by the rate for the train delayed and you quickly run into a bill that will potentially cost Network Rail hundreds of thousands of pounds in delay money alone.  Not to mention the disruption to passengers etc etc.

As a signaller with a decent sized patch that sees regular steam tours I can see exactly why they've done it and fully support the decision.

The problem we have with warm  weather in this country is that, aside from not being prepared for it is the humidity.  Hot days in the UK are generally accompanied by higher humidity than the continent which reduces the speed our perspiration evaporates, making the bodies cooling system less effective.

For example Madrid is forecast to have temperatures similar to the UK in the upcoming days, their humidity is forecast to be 10-20% ours is forecast to be 60-85%.

You just know the SSI modules are going to red over somewhere

This is what happens what 66s get humpy.

Avoid this in future, neuter or spey your class 66