rodent279

So, if the posts are evey 50m, I could have mistaken a whole km for an xx.95, or xx.05? I'll have to do some working out, but it may explain the wavering between 257 & 276km/h, if I was recording times over 900m, or 1100m. Not that it matters now, it's 33 years ago!

I have always felt that one of the original motivators for privatisation, from the politician's point of view, is that it was an exercise in blame shifting. Bad news about the railways can be blamed on private operators/NR, not the Minister of Transport.

If there's any sense in this barmy fragmented railway system we have, then I would hope that the cost to NR of the disruption, and of restoring full service, will far outweigh the cost of closing the necessary platforms and carrying out whatever remedial maintenance & repairs would have been required to avoid the incident in the first place.

It's the same in a lot of sectors of industry-you get trained to the level you need to do your day to day job. Anything else, giving you a broader understanding, is deemed not cost effective. I have been trained several times on a lovely radio planning package in the last 4 years, the last time in Jan 2016. Not once had I used it in anger, until suddenly, at the beginning of July, I was called upon to provide some a/l cover. I had to dive right in & use said software with 2 days notice, and though it does come back to you, I just don't have the experience using it to fix problems, or even spot them in the first place. Similarly with a piece of mapping software-I've used it, but not for 3 years, not been trained on it, and I can't even justify getting either software package installed on my laptop, because I "don't need it for my everyday job." But a bit of coverage planning going tits up does not have the potential kill dozens of people within minutes. I have travelled on trains since I was a child, many times, way more than the average person, been on more HST's than I've had hot dinners. I'm pretty battle hardened, and been on some rough old mk1 bangers that rattled and banged about like nothing else on earth. Been over some rough track too, once going through Hemel at speed in a Mk1 on a Cobbler to Northampton, the bounce as we went over the crossing lifted a large chap out of his seat! So I consider myself pretty used to noises and rough riding-I drive a Morris Minor, I don't scare easily! I have never got off a train because of noise or rough riding-until about 3 weeks ago. I was on a Swansea HST, from Reading. I was in the TGS, right behind the power car, where I usually sit. The rhythmic banging and clattering coming from beneath, clearly speed related, really did worry me. It really sounded like something was loose. My thoughts were "if this is going to be the next Eschede or Hatfield, I have no intention of being on it", and I baled at Swindon. To my untrained eye, all looked ok from platform level, the train continued on it's way, and unless there's been the biggest cover up since Iran-Contra, nothing untoward happened. Maybe I'm just getting soft, and more risk-averse, in my old age?

And separation of infrastructure from ops is done throughout Europe very successfully, the big difference is that most of the rest of Europe has not split up and literally dis-integrated, as in the reverse of integrated, their state operator.

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Nope, and I suspect that is his game plan. When all the chickens come home to roost, he'll be safely out of the way drawing his pension.

That is the sort of story that nowadays the Daily Mail/Sun/Express would be all over, and calling for heads to roll.

Balancing the "enough goodwill so as not to prejudice future contracts" against "clean up while you can" instincts is a juggling act to master.

I suspect Hitachi have enough nous to have a way of wriggling out of any additional costs/penalties if changes to the contract spec have been pushed on them. My own experience in the telecommunications sector is that the more clued up network management & equipment suppliers simply do what they are contracted to do, and do it very well. Anything else comes at a cost. They are not stupid.

I've always rated 180's as the amongst best new trains to come out in the UK since the HST, certainly best diesels anyway, and that is partly because they do not use a bodyshell designed for tilting equipment, which has subsequently not been fitted. Hence they are wider and more spacious, if only by cm. It's not so much the waist width that Voyagers, Pendos and MkIV's lack, it's the ceiling width. That contributes greatly to the overall imprssion of space (at least in my opinion). Maybe for diesel MU's, hydraulic is the way to go?

Thanks. So I'd probably get away with TM-Reading, then return to TM via Westbury?

Can anyone tell me how I find out what a "reasonable route" is for a tcket? A Bristol-Reading off-peak return is £58.10. Is that valid via Westbury, for example? Would it be valid between Reading & TM as well as between Reading & Parkway? In all 3 cases, the fare is the same, if you try it in Nat Rail Enq. cheers N

Ah yes, that would make sense.

They don't need to have anything in common. My point is that if wires can be put up and maintained in inhospitable, challenging terrain such as above, then it can be done on the Forth Bridge.

If you can stick wires up mountains in Switzerland, across deserts in South Africa & in Russia, then you can do the Foth Bridge.

I think some people just object because they can. It's one of the few areas in which people think they have power. On the G/WR, when running through Bishop's Cleeve, there is no station, and the trains always seem to slow down to around 10mph. I assume this is to minimise noise for the local residents-can anyone confirm?

It does surprise and disappoint me that a major route like the Highland mainline is not being considered for electrification. Given the availability of hydro-electric power in Scotland, it would seem obvious. If it was in Austria or Switzerland, it would have been electrified.

Here is a transcript of my notes from that day. My method was very crude-I set the stopwatch running on leaving Toulon or Marseille, and at various points just noted the elapsed time. I only wrote down what is here. Why I went from recording 10th's of a sec to whole secs after km 100 I don't know. I'm not sure that would explain the wavering between 257 & 276km/h after km 44 though. I know my method is crude, but I'd still like to know whether LGV Sud-Est has posts every km, or 1/2km or 1/10km? cheers N TGV_Jul_1984_v2.xlsx

To be fair, if you've arrived at virtually anywhere from Sunderland, it will seem like quite a nice place. Except, perhaps, Warsaw Centralna....

Thanks gents, I think I'd agree on 47330. The plates are in the right place, and seem to be about the correct length. I did a trawl of flickr, & came up with quite a few images of 330 in Trainload Dist livery, including this one taken about 6 months after mine. I'm convinced. https://flic.kr/p/d9h1xJ Cheers N

Can anyone this 47 please? It is quite distinctive. Trainload Distribution livery, named, with the plates in a low position on the bodyside, not lined up with the break in the two shades of grey. There is no cast depot plaque on the rear cab and no front number. Any ideas? https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-XYsKXYhXM-TVZXQ3FYenBqd1E/preview Cheers N

Has to be said, Market Harborough must be pretty depressing these days, if you remember it as it was. I'm not old enough, but looking at old maps, it was clearly quite an important and busy station, easily twice it's current size.

Personally, I love Euston. I preferred it before they cluttered up the concourse with retail outlets, and I hope they at least manage to preserve that aspect when it gets rebuilt. Looking at photos & maps of the old Euston, I'm glad it's gone. As for the Doric Arch-pig ugly monstrosity if you ask me. But each to their own......

Which models did you re-wheel, and which Romford/Markits wheels did you use? I have a Tri-ang Met-Camm dmu, class 81 and Blue Pullman that I'd like to re-wheel. cheers N