rodent279

What was the problem?

That's what you call a near miss. Had the accident happened an hour or two later, & the train been a packed commuter service, there could easily have been multiple fatalities.

Could it also be for the SNCF/SNCB Krokodil AWS system?

I'm sure there was an "Alternative Outcomes to the Grouping" thread somewhere, but a search hasn't thrown anything up, so continuing here from the Imaginary Locomotives thread seemed the best bet. Could the Grouping have been arranged to create some more viable cross-London links? For example, combining the LNWR & LSWR via the already extant NLR routes via Richmond & Kenny O would seem a natural choice. Similarly the GW, Met & GE, maybe also taking in the District Railway, would create a prototype Crossrail 80 years earlier. Maybe the Midland & SECR could have been combined with the NER, to create a sort of CrossCountry with Thameslink bolted on?

What grouping could have done differently is create a couple of cross-London groups, say GW & GE, GC & SECR/LBSC, and then a kind of early CrossCountry by joining the Midland up with the NE, LSW & GSW.

Still that way in July '84. I have published this photo before on here.

Exactly the point i made above about lower speeds giving more time to react for both parties.

Just as, possibly more, importantly, the lower speed gives both parties a longer reaction time in which to avoid or minimise an accident.

What passenger services are CP 1400s currently working? I've got a short business trip to Porto coming up at the end of September, wondering if there's the opportunity to get a short trip behind one in?

Somewhere on the GWML near Taplow I think. The blessed IKB was a vandal! (Edit-maybe that's a pertinent point to bring up with English Heritage or whoever, when they next get protective about rebuilding one of IKB's bridges!)

I have a Shunter Duties at home, not sure what year though, might be '76. I'll check later.

Just saying "well if they're daft enough to do <stupid thing> then they get what they deserve" doesn't wash anymore. The problem is that people will insist on doing stupid things, and very often it's some innocent 3rd party who gets what "they" deserve-e.g. aforementioned train driver having a body splattered across his/her windscreen, depot staff having to pick human remains out of the underside of rolling stock etc.

Go on YouTube and search for videos of 40082 at Sheffield, and 40152 at New Mills in 1983. There's some very good examples there. (I won't post links here, I don't want to cause trouble for the person posting the video)

You might have enough common sense to get away with it, so might I and so might a lot of people reading this thread, but the great unwashed British public don't. Even experienced serving railwaymen/women have been killed leaning out of windows. When I saw a grown adult cycling along a busy main road in Bristol in the rush hour, without a helmet or hi vis, and with a small child, also without helmet, balanced on his shoulders, I lost all faith in the "common sense" myth.

I wonder if there is something in the fact that travelling on a train that has windows that can be opened and leaned out of is the exception these days, not the norm? Does this make people more likely to do it, especially those who are less likely to be aware of the risks and dangers? The problem with relying on the general public's common sense is that they don't have any. You only have to spend a few minutes on a bike/in a car to see evidence of that.

Personally I prefer the DBAG timetable, but I'll have to try the SNCB one.

Not quite sure where to put this question, as it does not relate directly to trains themselves. @AY Mod feel free to move to a more appropriate forum if you see fit. I have in my possession a number of official photos taken by the BRB Photographic Unit, and by the LMR Photographic Unit. Where do I stand with putting them on Flickr? Is it ok as long as I credit BRB etc, and do not pass them off as my own work?

Agree. I'm the last person to lecture anyone on being prepared and generally being organised, so I can give even our government some leeway there. It's the blame shifting game that I keep harping on about that really gets up my nose, and that extends to just about everywhere & everything, not just pandemic responses and booking office closures. Now where were we? 😀

Absolutely. Pandemic predicted and even a strategy practised (2016 or 18?). But to be honest, how can you budget for something like the pandemic? You can wargame it, but if Khan/Bozo/whoever had said "we're not going to do xyz because we need to put £xbn aside in case there's a once-in-a-couple-of-centuries pandemic", they'd have been pilloried for it. And I can't honestly see that raising fares across the board would be any more popular or acceptable a way of easing TfL's financial woes. As stated before, it's all a big game of political blame shifting. If as much effort went into resolving issues as went into trying to shift the blame somewhere else, we might actually get somewhere.

Unknown spoon apparently stabled at Bristol TM today. Anyone know what it's been up to?

Predicting something is not the same as budgetting for it.

That sums it all up in one short sentence.

Emissions from steam & diesels are a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things, however, they are very visible drops, that by their very nature draw attention to themselves.

Oh come on, be real...... It's not that good.

I wonder how common that sort of failure (little end/crosshead failure, or separation of con rod & piston rod) was during steam days? Obviously there is the Settle accident already referred to, but was this a common occurrence, or a very rare one? It seems to me that the little and big ends, and the crosshead/slide bar, are safety critical items, as a failure there clearly makes a serious accident possible.