rodent279

Would be interesting to see what that nice Mr Churchward might have come up with, had he had his eye on the Bayern S3/6 instead of the Nord Atlantics.

Someone told me once that it was acorn tea. How much truth there is in that I don't know.

A well thought out design, easier to handle and stack than today's cardboard affairs, with a built in rim so your fingers don't get burnt. Perhaps less environmentally friendly, being plastic, but I would think they would lend themselves to using recycled plastics. Unless recycled plastic can't be used for food grade products?

Motive power allocated so far:- 86217 Comet Vixen (GWR 7ft standard goods 0-6-0) Cupid (GWR 7ft standard goods 0-6-0)

Flux capacitors

Someone on RMWeb, forget who, posted words to the effect that every safety rule/clause/law was found at the bottom of a bucket of blood.

Irrelevant distraction. I've never been injured in a car accident, but I still wear a seat belt. I've never been injured in an aircraft, but I still pay attention to the safety briefing. I still keep my seat belt on even when the light goes out. I've cycled thousands of miles on roads, some of them in busy, peak hour traffic. I have been knocked off once in 20 years, but I still wear a helmet, hi Vis and lights, even in daylight. Read the report. 12 fatalities per year through falling out of open doors prior to CDL being fitted on high speed stock, 2-3 per year since. It's not whether there's been an accident, it's can we prevent one using all reasonable means.

I'd be surprised if any got as far as TOPS renumbering with lion & wheel emblem. I think the AC electrics were early in the renumbering program. (Stands back waiting to be proved wrong!)

33 section 3.15.5 shows the flaw in the stewarding arrangement-1 steward per coach, 4 doors, stewards cannot be in 4 places at once, and can be distracted or coerced. Yes, we did all travel on trains with slam doors back in the day, when men were men, and most of us got away with it. But ~12 fatalities per year occurred due to persons opening doors other than whilst stationary in a platform. That statistic reduced to 2-4 per year after the introduction of CDL on the MK2/MK3 fleets, and the replacement of a lot of loco hauled trains with Sprinters etc. If the cost of saving those lives is removing the ability to lean out of a door window on a moving train, open a door whilst still moving and jump off onto the platform, board a train while it's leaving a platform etc (all of which I've done), I've got no problem with that. And if 18 years isn't long enough to plan for this, how long is?

Is all of WCRC's mainline mk1 stock not fitted with CDL? Including the stock used for railtours, not just the Jacobite?

Does the nature of the cargo, in this case presumably cement powder, make problems with brake gear seizing up more likely?

Agree, and sometimes the best at doing it can't teach it for toffee.

Another couple that aren't quite in the machine as in the modern railway, but definitely ghosts:- Signal post bases on the Bristol-Bath cycle path, formerly the Midland route into Bristol via Mangotsfield. The first is located on the Up (left side facing Bristol) about ½ mile south of the former Fishponds station. The second is about ½ mile further on, near what is now Whitehall pedestrian crossing. This is at or near there point where the Clifton Extension Railway joined. There are several of these at various points on the Bristol-Bath cycle path.

Comparable with the later Swindon Cross-Country and Inter-City units I think.

Is this one of Reddish's famed electric blue shunters?

Nearly 20 years since I last went there, it certainly was a very good use of time.

I've never volunteered on a railway anywhere, with any of the 3 railway preservation groups I've been a member of (the NYMR being one of them), apart from 2 or 3 times on a sales stand off railway premises. I've been tempted to, quite a few times, but given the tales of woe emanating from 3 or 4 of the largest, most well known railways, I'm struggling to see why I would now. I'm getting the impression that there is a large underbelly of discontent in most organisations, but some are better at keeping a lid on it than others. Has social media perhaps contributed to the amplifying of otherwise small issues that would usually be handled locally, but now get blown up and get out of hand before anyone gets chance?

Thought this might be of interest to those reading this thread:- From this timetable:-

There isn't much left of either the original Peckett works, or the Fishponds Avonside works. I think there might be a boundary wall still standing, but that's about it. St Phillip's Station is the same, the boundary wall still stands, and I think part of the platform, but there's a warehouse built virtually up to the wall. Nothing remains either of St Phillip's goods shed or Barrow Road mpd.

Yet JG Robinson's brother worked with or for George Armstrong at Wolverhampton, and Holcroft went on from Swindon to a successful career with the SECR & SR

I was on a train once with a BR chap who had been part of the team liasing relatives of the deceased. Some months afterwards, maybe a year or so, he was walking in to (I think) Stewarts Lane, past a row of rolling stock bodies. It dawned on him that these were the remains of the stock involved, and he said he turned and just ran away. Even 25 years on (at the time we met), it still mentally scarred him.

I'll keep an eye out, not yet spotted anything cast by Avon side, despite living within 2 miles of the works in Fishponds

There you go, problem solved. A bi-mode steam-electric. High pressure water tube boiler driving a turbine-generator set, powering 4 traction motors. Boiler holds a reserve of steam sufficient to get it out of Marylebone and under the knitting, from where the boiler generates steam from the OHL. Boiler can be powered from a shore supply whilst in the station. You don't need to thank me 😁

A very wet and ironically named Port Sunlight sees Merseyrail 507018 depart towards Liverpool. Sorry about the lamppost, but I was getting wet enough as it was with one arm out of the canopy! Not long now for these 40+ year old BR design EMUs.

So a related question, that may have been asked on here before-why did the Metro-Vick type 2s use the unusual Co-Bo arrangement? Like wise the Brush type 2 - why use A1A-A1A, why not use 3 smaller traction motors in a Co-Co arrangement? (There are also some Japanese Co-Bo diesel locos, more for shunting & short trip work I think.)