royaloak

11 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

 

Would you have thought that in 1948? Why is reinventing BR impossible? Your remark requires justification, IMHO. On the face of it, there appears no real reason—now that we have left the EU—why BR cannot be reinvented, and if it did a good job of running the network, why not? Or is there not sufficient management expertise available any more?

Because no Government would be stupid enough to have a 'Nationalised' industry where one group of workers going on strike would be able to basically paralyse the Country, privatisation was all about divide and conquer, I am not saying that was the reason for privatisation but I am sure it did have a bearing on it.

10 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

...or why they were built without toilet retention tanks.

The praise heaped on BR's Mk3 is somewhat diminished by these backward and unsanitary aspects of its design.

Same reason as the doors.

11 hours ago, rodent279 said:

I could never understand why mk3's weren't either built with power operated sliding or plug doors, or electric door locks from scratch. For such modern, state of the art (for their time) vehicles, it seems remarkably backward.

Because they were only supposed to be in service for 10 to 15 years while everything was electrified and the APT took over so it wasnt worth the expense, that plan didnt quite work out though.

17 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

That said, I don't believe in completely homogeneous fleets either. It seems to me very odd that GWR uses essentially the same train for both 90 minute and six-hour journeys.

Not by choice, blame the lack of a sensible electrification policy and lack of suitable trains.

23 minutes ago, charliepetty said:

 

At Glasgow and Alexandra Palace shows we will be demonstrating the inferior legomanbiffo ESU product with all of the following completely useless features, none of which were recorded from a real loco at Norwich Crown Point such as 90012 Royal Anglian Regiment, to pick one entirely at random. The pantograph and lights appear to work faultlessly whilst under the control of this obviously inferior product.

I am no expert but I think I detect just the slightest hint of sarcasm in this post? 

2 hours ago, PatB said:

Whilst I'm not familiar with the Vickers case, I can think of other examples of components that will fail, even if unused. I have it on good authority, for example, that the magnesium alloy uses for the crankcase of the VW Type 1 (Beetle) engine will eventually develop cracks as it ages, even if it's spent all its life in storage and never been part of a running engine. Something that's not widely appreciated, even amongst VW enthusiasts and specialists and which contributes to the VW's reputation as an incurable leaker. 

Which is why a lot of classic racing or rally cars have had their original magnesium wheels replaced with alloy ones, magnesium simply ages.

2 hours ago, mdvle said:

Except all the comments on here are that the workforce is earning far more now than they did under BR...

 

But you basically have the same number of staff members operating over twice as many trains.

1 minute ago, Butler Henderson said:

Yes I know that, what I meant was it not as restricted in number as the Limited "Tri-ang" Edition. No one knows is exactly how many have/are being made of the standard release and if it is still in production whether the producton run is extended to cope with the quantum of dealer orders. There have been instances of popular models getting a re-run; there was a second batch of one of the West Countrys made a year or so back.

I would hazard a guess that these have been a bit popular so a rerun would be a serious possibility, when would depend on what sort of mood Hornby are in.

On 12/02/2020 at 21:35, Butler Henderson said:

It is available to order at Gaugemaster for example. It is after all a standard release not limited in number and no doubt will be available at most if not all Hornby sellers not just the big box shifters who everyone has ordered from, although that includes the likes of Jamlam who are asking £219.99 for it. Gaugemaster are quoting £165 which includes free next day delivery which makes it cheaper than all those people have ordered from Hattons once postage is factored in.

All standard releases are now limited in number, they are produced as one batch and that is that, the days of thousands and thousands of the same model being produced year after year are long gone.

6 hours ago, 4630 said:

My understand is that this will require parliamentary time and a budget for the proposed new authority.  Consequently, I would anticipate an announcement simultaneous with the forthcoming Budget. Which, as we know after last weeks reshuffle, has been put back for a short time.

No prizes for guessing where that budget will be coming from!

7 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

The press has now been briefed that the announcement will come in the next few weeks.

The word is, a new authority is to be created to award the management contracts and oversee their operation.

How far this will remove the DafT’s sticky fingers from direct control, is yet to be revealed.

So that begs the question, what is the difference between the old broom and the new broom?

On 16/02/2020 at 16:09, Mark Saunders said:

 

I don't think you have got it, the greater the work content, means greater fatigue, short turn around times. Why do you think intensive suburban work creates problems.

 

Length of time in the chair is totally different on intensive suburban services where it is see a lamppost and top compared with some inter-city services are five station stops.

 

Bean Counters like to separate Guards (Conductors) diagrams from Drivers as it is more efficient but in the real world it as soon as service disruption occurs you are hunting for Driver and Guard but when they are on the same diagram it is easy!

 

Timetables form the basis for diagrams but not the work content! Distance does not dictate time to get from start point to terminus, many freight trains take forever to short distances as the whole of Britain's rail system is passenger centred.  

 

 

 

Oh dont worry SM has got it, the biggest problem is the 'crewplan' computer program, bung all the information and agreements in it and it will churn out compliant diagrams, what it wont take into account is what happens during disruption which is where a decent roster clerk should then look over the diagrams and 'adjust' them for resilience, unfortunately that doesnt happen so we end up with 9hr54 diagrams with 4 hours driving, minimum break then another 4 hours driving on them, what could possibly go wrong.

Exeter now do Exeter to Paddington and back to Exeter before they get a PNB, Plymouth now do Plymouth to Paddington 1hr4 PNB (minimum required is 57 minutes) then back to Plymouth, so if they are 8 minutes late into Paddington it will impact their back working.

We then get the company going on about managing our fatigue, oh the irony.

When I was at Exeter they put a poster up asking us why we thought the number of incidents was on the increase, but at the bottom it had 'diagrams are not the problem' in bold letters, so they did know the reason but didnt want us to tell them!

Drivers and Guards are now worked about 2 and a half times harder than they were under BR, but as soon as there is a hitch the timetable will fall apart because there isnt any resilience in the diagrams and there arent any spares any more, in fact its now normal to have uncovered diagrams on a daily basis due to lack of crew.

5 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

Yes, if we assume that no improvement can be made to times down the ECML.

 

If 15 mins could be knocked off via the ECML (difficult certainly), then the gain of going to London via HS2 is only 17 minutes. That is right at the margins of significant gain (15 minutes). So I would suggest that capacity on HS2 would be better used elsewhere, particularly as Newcastle will have to be served by a train compatible with the traditional network, so potentially only 37% of the capacity of a "captive" HS2 train. It probably makes sense politically but the economics don't add up.

The Fast trains wont be on the ECML though will they, they will be on HS2 so why waste money trying to speed up the ECML?

5 hours ago, 2mmMark said:

Ne scorchio, alertos ambros!

At least it isnt Purple Rain.

On 13/02/2020 at 13:57, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

Calvert as a new town location only makes sense with:

1) East-West rail corridor (Oxford - Bletchley - Cambridge)

2) New east- west trunk road (linking M40 to M1).

3) a station on HS2.

10 yes definitely.

2) Yes probably

3) Definitely not because then HS2 would cease to be a HS route, its to take the long distance trains away from the WCML, ECML and to a lesser extent the MML, HS2 needs to be have its first station at Birmingham to make the best advantage of its HS moniker.

On 12/02/2020 at 16:11, D9020 Nimbus said:

There's no doubt that train services are far more fragile now than in the past… something that hasn't sufficiently been taken into account when designing modernisation schemes.

Or trains and crews are worked harder than before so there isnt the resilience there used to be to absorb late running, we now have a LOT of diagrams where we have the bare minimum break in London so any delays on the way up will result in our back working starting late while we have our legally required break, whereas our break used to be longer so even if we were 10 or 15 minutes late our back working could still leave right time!

It works on paper because "we dont diagram for delays" is the standard answer.

Of course there are those who think its disgusting that they are being delayed while the driver has a 'cup of tea' forgetting (or not caring) we might have just driven for three and a half or four hours straight but that is just the ignorance of people these days!

Steam hauled trains on the main routes are a pain in the arris simply because of the number of and the speed of current services they have to vie with, I can see ABDs point about excursions being electrically hauled out of the capital to a convenient location before hooking the steamer on for a nice meander around the countryside, but even then only being able to do 100mph will still be a limiting factor.

A steam hauled train only needs to be able to keep up with the stoppers if it is routes on the slow/ relief lines, if it can quickly get to (and maintain) 60-75mph it should be able to keep out of everything elses way as they start and stop in  front of and behind it (depending on calling patterns of course), the same as freights are pathed.

A steamer isnt going to be able to compete on the fast/ main lines.

4 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Perhaps they should have stopped with Airfix two bob kits?

 

Mike.

I was wondering what having diarhia dioriah an upset stomach had to do with it and then realised the last word was kits with a 'K' and not 'bits' with a B.

Yes I know its spelt diarrhea.

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

I reckon there's a great crested newt farm somewhere, where the little blighters are being bred for release into suitable sites by rail, road and building developments.

 

There was an ecologist on TV the other week when after an ecological survey at a site had found no sign of GCNs said "but there must be"

Why? Had some been 'planted' there?

 

The problem with great crested newts is that while they are rare on mainland Europe they are quite common over here, although, like you, I get the feeling its the same ones turning up at all these sites, maybe any which are caught and relocated should be microchipped so they can be checked.

13 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

I have visions of Stop HS2 and environmental protestors being dragged off to re-education camps.

 

So there is an upside to the Chinese doing it!

5 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

Chinese build HS2 -----That would cause Pandamonium !!!

 

Brit15

I wonder how long the rails would last if they were made out of Chinesium instead of proper steel?

Just now, DavidB-AU said:

 

Some in otherwise good condition were withdrawn on the Monday after being put on a FOOTEX. 

They only lasted until Monday because there wasnt anyone in on the weekend to sign the paperwork.

At least the interiors and windows had been removed by the last load of 'passengers' to save the scrapyard doing it.

9 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

Can the Chinese build HS2 in 5 years at a much reduced cost ??

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/14/uk-holds-preliminary-discussions-with-china-over-building-hs2

By ignoring half of our H&S laws and running roughshod over land acquisition most definitely! 

4 wheel CCTs were definitely running on November 21 1983, I remember photographing a couple in Plymouth on the day I moved to Yorkshire.