rodent279

Earlier on in the thread, there was some discussion about turbine locos, and I suggested that some turbine driven 8F's might have been useful. I was surprised to read in Tim Hillier-Graves book "The Turbomotive, Stanier's Advanced Pacific", that Stanier himself considered exactly that. Shame it didn't come about, I think an impressive machine would have been the result.

Relish Running? Might see you there!

And here's the real thing. Bridego bridge, scene of the crime, seen here in March 2018.

Isn't Lokführer a common term? Leiter means conductor or leader, and Führer means pretty much the same, possibly with more emphasis on overall direction and strategy.

Yes, they are passable. Almost better than the alcoholic Becks.

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.

What was up with Mk2d's?

Maybe instead of building on a grid plan, new towns should be built in a series of concentric rings?

As built, all class 86's were fitted with solid wheels. The forces on the track from the unsprung weight of several tons of angry wheel and traction motor, bouncing up and down at 100mph, knocked 7 bells out of the WCML track, and "wet spots" with a 20mph slack were a common feature. 60 AL6's were rebuilt with resilient wheels and flexicoil suspension in the early 1970's, later becoming class 86/2. The rest became class 86/0. In the late 70's, the class 86/0's were derated to 80mph and (theoretically) restricted to freight use. A pressing need for 100mph locos saw 20 class 86/0's fitted with resilient wheels, becoming 86/3's. Later in the 1980's, all class 86/3's & 86/0's had flexicoil suspension added, becoming class 86/4. Freightliner's fleet of 86/6's are essentially 86/4's but with solid wheels fitted. If allowed to run at 100mph, the same problem of damage to the track will occur, as the flexicoil springs do not change the unsprung weight of the wheelset and traction motors. Edit: the difference between an 86/4 and an 86/2, apart from mu equipment, is that 86/4's (and their previous incarnations as 86/0 & 86/3) have less powerful traction motors than 86/2's. As far as I'm aware, they retain these traction motors as class 86/6.

I used to use Alban Way every day to cycle from St Alban's to Hatfield, as part of my commute from Bedford. You could say I travelled on the railway the whole way, apart from the short stretch between STA and the path. It's 15 years since I did it, but I'd agree that far more people use it as part of their daily commute than ever did while it was served by steel wheel on steel rail.

All slightly pointless really, as we are measuring time from the birth of someone whose birth date we don't really know! And in year 0, years had 355 (?) days. A year didn't become 365 days until well after the Romans. So it's all rather arbitrary really, but hey, who cares, it's an excuse for a party.

All slightly pointless really, as we are measuring time from the birth of someone whose birth date we don't really know! And in year 0, years had 355 (?) days. A year didn't become 365 days until well after the Romans. So it's all rather arbitrary really, but hey, who cares, it's an excuse for a party.

Aye. Spotting at LB in the late 70's/early 80's, the only regular diesel turns were class 25's on bricks and local cement workings, emu drags to/from Wolverton and the St Alban's DMU returning to BY for servicing. More or less everything else was electric. Even the cement sidings at Tring were wired, though I'm not sure there was ever a regular electric turn there.

I'll have to have a look next time I'm down.

Have any of the former TR buildings been demolished?

DB's Munich-Wurzburg Neubaustrecke comes to mind. (Might not have been the stretch between those two places, but it was somewhere around there, and it's taken donkeys years). And don't mention the new Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg.

I'd bet that most of the waiting around so far has been waiting for politicians to make their minds up, rather than surveyors, consultants etc producing reports and surveys.

Ok, a question that has always intrigued me, and may well have been raised here before. Why was the speed limit in Gasworks Tunnel, from the KX station throat, for many years 8mph? Why 8, not 5 or 10? Also, I believe it was 2mph in the adjacent sidings. Again, why 2, not 5? How was it enforced? Cheers N

At least one followed it eastbound out of Swindon 10 min later, but how far it got is anyone's guess. There were reports of job stopped east of Reading, but no hard information. I didn't want to risk staying on, and spending half the night on a train in the middle of nowhere, so I baled while I could.

It was wedged. I was stood in that aisle, from Parkway to Swindon. The adjacent toilet had the door set to manual so a buggy, complete with sleeping child, could be parked in there. A 5 car set, already full, with around 150 more piling on at Parkway.

A trip to Northampton abandoned today, after 800327, travelling at around 50mph, had this builders rubble bag wrapped around it's pantograph, just west of Alderton Tunnel. The train continued on diesel to Swindon, at 30mph. During a 10 min stop at Swindon, the pan was raised and lowered several times, but the bag showed no sign of shifting. The train continued on diesel, I abandoned at Swindon, as due to disruption between Reading and Paddington, there's no chance I'll get to where I need to be in time.

It so looks like it just shouldn't work!

That does look an impressive machine, but didn't V2's have round top fireboxes? Regarding the 4-8-0 Scot, I take the point about 6'9" drivers leading to a long rigid wheel base, so they could be reduced to between 6' & 6'3". This would ease the problem of getting a suitably proportioned boiler and firebox over the rear drivers.

So were they true opposed piston engines, as in two pistons sliding in the same cylinder, or were they two separate cylinders and pistons in one casting?

Changing the subject, and going back to 4-8-0's, what about enlarging a Royal Scot into a 4-8-0? A 3 cylinder, 8 coupled Scot would look impressive, and be pretty sure-footed.