Southernman46

Well who'd have predicted that - what a game of Rugby !!! Needed Ford off though to stop mucking it up

Ford's clearly got his boots on the wrong feet - this is NOT the game to be practicing in 😡

I keep banging on about this. The amount of rain etc . doesn't matter .................... Railway drainage is designed to cope with "one in XYZ year" events BUT NOT if it is not maintained satisfactorily and THAT IS WHERE is issue quite clearly lies .........................................

Well, too all those over the years that have called for the Italians to be replaced in the 6-Nations - just ask the Scots how they are feeling now ........................ 👍 Now let's wait for the carnage later this evening .......................... 10 - 40 ?? 😬

It's the LMR's turn - so it will be a Class 501 - the basis 57' non-corridor vehicles (with some easy mould mods clearly) are in production right now 😬

Paradoxically it was the first "foreign" loco I saw at Bristol Temple Meads in 1971 that wasn't either an 08, 09, 33, 47, 71 or 73 having been restricted to darkest Kent as a very young person (excluding 812 seen crossing a bridge in Redhill on route to Weymouth on the same holiday)

Except I couldn't ....................... changed the chassis today with a spare Class 45 (yes it's the even the right 45 chassis too) purchased from Bachmann - amazingly despite my sore 61 y.o. mitts managed to put it back together and it goes - at both ends too 😁. Spare Class 46 chassis anyone / The domino headcode panels need removing next - chickening out a bit with that at the mo - I can scratchbuild stuff no problem but modifying RTR - find that really hard

I wonder if that is due to the pointwork E of Reading being the heavier RT60/NR60 design which has larger common crossing gaps than the standard 113lb designs - in my experience, the NR60 stuff always suffered from greater false flange damage, nose deformation, broken cover rail bolts opposite the nose and not a few breakages (Weybridge diamonds) - and the P8 wheel profile stock (Desiros' etc) always rode hard through it too.

That bridge "repair" in 1957 was always considered by the SE Bridge Engineers to be "temporary" ..........................

I learnt my lesson just down the track from this incident when some of my guys overlooked a PW trolley that they had put out on the DF at Weybridge to carry welding gear however, the job was caped at short-notice due to a problem elsewhere and NOBODY took charge of the trolley - left in the dark waiting .......................... Fortunately the driver of the 06:00 Weymouth (?) had his wits about him coming round the curve and through Weybridge station to pull his train to a stand in time - no harm done BUT definitely a C-change in our working practices at Woking - SOMEONE was always designated PICOT and responsible for it from flatbed throughout the job and back to flatbed. NR later implemented the count them all on / count them all off system for trolleys etc .................... Still get a bit sweaty thinking how close we came that morning ...................... 😬

Waterloo to Byfleet & New Haw - a mere 20 miles 😉 but possession length has nothing to do with the processes required of firstly the COSS's for the Site of Works, then the ES's for the Worksites and finally the PICOP for the Possession in clearing it as safe for traffic. Section T (or it used to be) of the dear old RSSB RuleBook

Ah - here I can make a valid comment - Walton-on-Thames used to be my PW area and the weekend possession extent was one of the annual normal "abnormals" if that makes sense - but whatever the possession length - the actual worksites between marker boards should never be so long / vast that the Engineering Supervisor cannot walk through and check ALL his their site before handback - to expect them to do anything less such as relying on COSS reporting is downright dangerous

Ah, my bleary night shift eyes had missed that this AM 👍

Them vents could do with dust though .................😁

Re-assured by the info in 90136's post that the object wasn't in fact railway or NR related - changes the picture somewhat in terms of cause. Have to say on arrival at Basingstoke - transfer and 25 minute wait to ride the GWR local up to Reading - not unpleasant - unlike Reading station which since the re-build is a draughty unwelcoming hole as yesterdays weather was showing. First ride in a GWR Hitachi thingy - bit worn already but speedy - some alarming crashes and bangs from the track though - overtook the EL train I was aiming for at Ealing Broadway which allowed me to nip down to the EL and catch it at Paddington - EL to Custom House and DLR to Gallions Reach - wasn't late for work at all - so big 👍 for the Western rail network and the EL proved how useful it's interchanges & connectivity is. Also impressed that the ticket barrier at Paddington was clever enough to recognise my SWR Smartcard ticket too - I suppose that's to ensure GWR can recover the cost of all the ticket acceptance SWR passengers they carried from SWR ?

Yup, my B&G 4-VEP spends its time inert (Motor gearing disconnected) between 2 Bachman 4-CEPs which they often did in reality - seems to work and I don't have to look at it's "face" as a result. When the new & improved B&G version appears - well I might or will probably just buy another Accurascale Class 31 instead ...................... 😁

As I've often bored everyone before said in my many many posts in this and other Wessex related threads - NR are riding their luck in Wessex with bankslips, trees and this latest type of thing, etc, etc - they've got lucky YET AGAIN with a high-speed derailment that probably didn't get messy as there was no intervening S&C and the adjacent platform may have "helped" and as MW said above the conductor "check" rail effect - (I understand 100+ insulators destroyed - small price to pay) BUT It is only a matter of time and probability before there is a serious incident in this area............................... However, I hope the result this time won't be like the Western Route with the Route Director washing their hands resigning and someone from the DLR being employed as their replacement to "fix" it with soundbites 🙄

More NR instigated chaos this morning (and subsequently all day) with 2L10 apparently DERAILING one bogie after reportedly hitting PW equipment left over from this weekend's 52-hour possession on the Up Fast at Walton on Thames - train was upright and in the platform when my Down train went past v.early this AM. Needless to say it is 16:30 and they still haven't recovered the situation and I'm now having to take a magical mystery tour via Reading and the Elizabeth Line to Custom House because there are NO trains beyond Basingstoke to Waterloo - as a former PW Engineer for that area I am to say the least, disappointed and quite honestly don't have the words to sum up the incompetence of people tasked with looking after the Safety of the Line or the lack of service recovery. Mind - it wouldn't surprise me and I kind of hope the recovery delay is due to the RIAB getting involved with the view to asking some very searching questions of the perpetrators. SWR must be heartily weary of dealing with NR's mess ....................... That's without the small matter that it could well have been my train that was involved ................ yet another near-miss after Hook last year ........................ 😬

Did you manage a photo ?

It took this to happen to get the BARS in the mix ................. https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/DoT_Hassocks1978.pdf

Bend a small paperclip and try to push out the pipes / coupling etc from the rear - it may need a spot of PLASTIC FRIENDLY lubricant (mine did) definitely NOT WD-40 - support the loco properly whilst doing it - take your time. I took out just the vac pipe, steam pipe and coupling , the small air pipes & MU cable are flexible enough to stay put - if you're not bothered about keeping the coupling intact then just cut it below the top link - that will suffice.

Finally got it on the rolling road - Well done Rails & Heljan - another superb job with an obscure prototype. Imagine if these had made it to fleet service .................

As a Man of Kent - bad luck Maidstone - the FA Cup spirit lives on 👍 As a 8 y.o. Chelsea fan back in the day - the way we were - crikey was it really THAT long ago 😲 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52416192

of course - that terrible raised roof panel (I'm sure it's there somewhere) - I was forgetting 🤣 Just couldn't resist ordering "Neptune" after seeing the PP sample