rodent279

A wise man who is no longer with us related a story to me, from the time of the WCML electrification. He, a rep from the electrification contractors, and a senior P-Way man were in the cab of an electric loco, I assume on a test train. They were approaching the site of a recently relaid stretch of p-way at near 100mph, and the driver knocked power off and reached for the brake for the 20mph TSR. As he did so, the p-way man, who had been responsible for the relaying of the stretch in question, tapped him on the shoulder and said "take it at 90, driver".

Edit:- I knew I should have consulted my notes! The photo was taken on 26thth Nov, but the trip was actually to York for a visit to the NRM. See below the photo for full explanation. Couple of days late, but never mind. Saturday 26th November 1983, yes thats right, 40 years ago, RTC test loco 97201 "Experiment", the former 24061, is seen stabled at Derby, with a class 20 for company. I was on the return leg of a trip to Sheffield to sample class 08 shunter haulage on (I think) the last booked shunt move with passengers on board, sleeping car detachments excepted. This happened at Sheffield, with a 4 coach portion from Leeds being shunted onto the rear of the Newcastle- Poole, 08878 doing the honours on this day. Amongst other things spotted on this day was a forlorn looking 76031, in Coopers Metals, Brightside, awaiting the cutters torch. 24061 fared a bit better, now residing in Yorkshire, on the NYMR. The photo was taken on the 26th Nov, but I was wrong about the trip. It was taken from the window of an HST leaving Derby, after a trip to the NRM, York. The Sheffield shunt trip did happen, but a couple of weeks later, on 10th Dec 1983. No photos for the 10th Dec, but for the record, the motive power was:- 3100xx 0647 Leighton Buzzard > Birmingham (0600 Euston-Birmingham New St) 47512 0850 New St > Sheffield (0710 Bristol TM-Leeds, booked HST but loco hauled subs for the winter 83-84 timetable) DMU 1118 Sheffield > Rotherham (probably a Swindon InterCity unit in their dying days, wish I'd recorded more DMUs) 45137 1153 Rotherham > Sheffield (1J67 1106 Leeds-Sheffield) 08878 shunt onto rear of 1O19 0950 Newcastle - Poole 45131 1O19 1222 Sheffield > Birmingham New Street 47189 1450 Birmingham New Street > Derby (think this was an Xmas relief) 47594 1627 Derby > Birmingham New Street (1450 York- Plymouth?) 86102 1748 Birmingham New Street > Watford Junction 3100xx 18xx Watford Junction > LB Of all the locos above, apart from 24061, only 47594 (renumbered from 47035 2 months earlier) is still in existence, as 47739 with GBRF. Home for 7.30pm, mum's home made lasagne in the oven ready & waiting. Happy days!

Oh yes, please! (That would surely finish off those who escaped coronarys in the first round!)

How about a nice German word-Ersatz?

I think you're right. You've only got to look at places like the NRM-they get a huge amount of revenue from gift shops and cafes. I'm sure it's the same with heritage railways-it would not surprise me if the various shops and cafes at the typical heritage railway site take more money combined than the ticket offices do in ticket sales.

Poor grammar in the review, and the username beginning with Q6 ought to ring alarm bells....

Probably a good job that I've never volunteered at a railway then. I don't know about whether it happens, maybe it does on some lines, but maybe it's a good idea to rotate volunteers, so that everyone has to do their share of the menial but essential tasks, like cleaning toilets.

I reckon Midland Pullman livery would suit them well.

When a person applies for a job, they are interviewed. Sometimes they have to go through a rigorous selection process. Do volunteers have to go through the same? Maybe there's a case for some sort of application & selection process?

TBH, reading much of the above, there's not a lot that would encourage me to volunteer. I don't like backbiting, pettiness and silly internal politics in any context. That happens at work, but there I am paid to grin and bear it. It's bad enough sometimes just being a member of a club or organisation, but to volunteer in something that you have had a lifelong interest (dare I say it, passion?) in would risk spoiling that. And I'm certainly not keen on being part of a toxic environment, such as has been revealed by certain volunteers who have openly revealed the abuse & backstabbing they have been on the receiving end of.

Suspect either the author meant 1905, when North Star appeared, or that a larger version of essentially the same engines were still being built in 1950.

Lumo livery is a nice shade of blue, but like the IMO dull GWR livery, does nothing for the stylish lines of the trains.

It seems more and more that volunteers are unpaid labour supporting a business, which is not quite the ethos that the preservation movement started with-that of volunteers mucking in to achieve something greater than could be achieved as individuals, or as a business. Now we have businesses that can't survive without the volunteers, but somehow don't always seem to recognise that their business is built on the efforts of those volunteers. I was at the SVR 2 weeks ago. Still a great line, we had a great day out, but it must be a totally different beast to the volunteer led organisation of the 70's. Really it has more in common with a theme park than a steam preservation centre.

I feel your pain, we have the same- main account only for login, all other systems separate user accounts that cannot be utilised by another main account. Once you've got the hang, it's easy enough though, it's the transition that's hard.

Haven't been to the NRM for a good few years now, I hope it's on display if it's there. The Dutch Spoorwegmusuem in Utrecht has a full on display about railway electrification, explaining the reasons behind it as well as going into the nitty gritty of how the wires were put up. There are examples of catenary, contact wire, insulators, pantographs etc. That's the sort of education the NRM should be doing. (And maybe it is, I haven't been there since about 2005).

Fascinating. I never got to ride on the side contact system before it closed. Is there any side contact rail surviving anywhere (obviously not in use)? Would make a great exhibit on the ELR.

I guess there's an element in the volunteering community that doesn't like taking instructions, being told what to do & what not to do, and thinks that because they are giving their time, labour skills etc freely, they are indispensable, and shouldn't be held to account. It's also very easy to forget that a lot of volunteers in the heritage railway sector are either serving railwaymen/women, or were at some point in the past.

Now if BR had wanted to electrify that line, how would it be done? Would the trolleybus service have to be truncated?

Can't read the article, seems to be behind a paywall.

Notsure if this question has been asked before, so here goes. Is it known whether any other alternative colours or liveries were considered, apart from what became known as Rail Blue?

In fact, let's really pull the stops out, and go for a 9F in any of the Freightliner liveries, as I reckon they'd do good work on liners.

Followed by a 9F in Railfreight large logo. Mind, what would that cost the NHS in treating coronarys and high blood pressure?

Looking at the question differently, assuming the loco was scaled up to standard gauge, so that say the buffers were at normal standard gauge separation and height, what would the track gauge be? I'm guessing Cape gauge or metre gauge would be about right.

Looks like if they were embiggened to standard gauge, they'd struggle to fit the most generous of the various UIC loading gauges.

I was wondering I was wondering exactly the same question when looking at this photo on Flickr, courtesy of MKDarlo. It would be a rather impressive machine as a standard gauge 4-8-2.