phil-b259

If you thought it was bad back then - let me tell you its many many times worse now. But as the bean counters in Whitehall keep telling us the railway costs the taxpayers too much so cuts, cuts and more cuts to staff are essential to deliver tax cuts.... ahem, I mean 'value for the taxpayer'....

Effectively yes. Basically the interior of the tank was glass lined so as to keep the milk free from metallic corrosion / contamination.

(1) Bats are not extensively strewn across the countryside in terms of colonies - if they were they wouldn't be listed as endangered! (2) Where a railway has been in existence for 100 - 250 years then the Bats will have evolved to take account of it presence. The issue with HS2 is that something NEW is being introduced into the Bats habitat which was not there before. (3) What part of Endangered species is hard to understand? If a particular creature is classed as 'endangered' then its reasonable to assume that there aren't that many of them in existence and the consequences of a significant proportion of the population being killed while the colony 'gets used' to the new situation is very likely the threaten the viability of the whole colony and lead to its collapse. For far too long people have been taking the selfish attitude that nature doesn't matter or is somehow not worth spending money on and things we desire like tax cuts or cheap goods / services are of paramount importance. Just because the Victorians say were quite happy to decimate Bat colonies when building railways doesn't mean we should be doing the same today (4) If the proposed site of a wind turbine is found to be in a location where endangered species are found to be present and the turbine can reasonably be expected to cause issues to said species then it probably won't get approval.

Like many creatures Bats tend to hunt for prey / transit along the same routes day after day using eco-location (sound waves bouncing back from physical structures to keep them correctly orientated and avoid collisions) Thats why you sometimes see wire netting used to create 'Bat bridges' across roads where the construction of the road has smashed through a hedge line / field boundary which Bats use for navigation. In this case the contentious roof like structure is meant to mimic the trees which were there before HS2 was constructed thus preventing the Bats losing their way or mistaking the railway line for a strip of open ground (and if they think that way then there is obviously a chance they will get low enough to be electrocuted / hit by trains)

Horses are not listed as endangered species - bats generally are! Moreover stout fencing will easily prevent horses coming into contact with trains but as bats are flying creatures its virtually impossible to stop them ending up foul of the line and being killed. Also, although the possibility of horses being 'spooked' by train horns may sound trival, as many horse riders who interact with motor vehicles will testify, being thrown from / trying to calm an out of control horse is a dangerous situation to be in. That said, like humans, it won't take long for horses to become acclimatised to the sound of trains once they are exposed to them for a couple of months so the increased danger is temporary.

Then why did you feel the need to put down something that was not relevant to Klein's? Given Hattons (the owners of Klein's) have just shut themselves down because the owner did not wish to continue trading then its fair to assume that the same orderly winding up of the business will be taking place to the North American entity. Ensuring that the owners of gift cards / vouchers don't lose their money is, in my view, very much a part of winding down a solvent business and hardly an unusual step in that context.....

You are mixing up insolvency / bankruptcy and an orderly business closure! Under insolvency / bankruptcy laws then it’s true that holders of gift cards and suchlike are the bottom of the pile in terms of creditors to be reimbursed and given the whole reason for insolvency / bankruptcy is a lack of funds then said card / certificate holders usually get nothing. However if a full solvent business is simply closing down because the owner wishes to cease trading (as opposed to being forced to cease trading) then it’s entirely possible sufficient funds exist to compensate gift card / certificate holders as part of the orderly winding down of the business.

As I have repeatedly pointed out the Labour Party are desperate to avoid being cast as being irresponsible with the nations finances. Were they to do commit to reversing decisions over HS2 you can be sure that said decision would be sized on with glee by the Tories and used to denigrate the party as being profligate in spending terms leading to grater national exit and higher taxes etc. However what experience should also tell you is that once in power what a party (and that’s ANY party by the way) decides to to can vary considerably from what they may have said or not said on the run up to / during an election campaign - particularly if the topic is not specifically mentioned as a manifesto commitment. So to turn to turn back to HS2 while it’s true that on the face of things Labours position is they won’t re-commit to the cancelled phases, given the need for things like a Stafford / Colwich bypass (which has long been identified as a key bottleneck on the WCML) then it’s not impossible that something which re-uses the parliamentary powers for phase 2A might not in time emerge under a Labour administration.

Which brings us back to the point that HS2 has been crippled for party political / blatant electioneering / pacify Tory party members who hated the whole thing anyway reasons rather than any sound analysis!

The only physical connection between HS2 and the classic network is going to be at Handsacre onto the WCML - but with the cancellation of phase 2A the junction design as laid out in the authorising acts of parliament is no longer fit for purpose so needs redesigning and like Euston will only be finished after the main section of phase 1 is done. Although I have long said that a connection between HS2 and the classic lines at Washford Heath is a very desirable thing in terms of future proofing / maximising the use of HS2, the brutal truth is there won’t be one. As Jamie has said unless a temporary connection is installed at Washford Heath then EVERYTHING will be done from the Calvert base.

Given HS2 is trying to set new standards for environmental sustainability during construction the use of worn out Smokey diesels is the last thing they would want to do. IIRC HS1 though Kent used brand new / nearly new class 66 locos for the work - the few Heritage machines they did use being deployed for yard work. So I with regards to HS2 I would expect either well maintained 66s being the staple traction - with things like reactivated 60s etc being used to backfill the gaps that creates on Network Rail.

I suspect it will settle back in a bit once folk have got things off their chest. Yes its supposed to be about HS2 - but when the a Government basically axes most of it - but leaving lots of lose ends and unanswered questions all over the place its inevitable that Politics will come to the fore. Put it this way had Phase 2A not been cancelled and the future of Euston thrown up in the air then I'm sure this thread would be a lot more infrastructure focused...

IMPORTANT - I’m not advocating any particular political viewpoint , I was merely trying to highlight there are no simple answers ! It’s just when you actually analyse the things in detail which would make a real difference from an environmental perspective they come dangerously close to certain ideologies and are in direct opposition to the economic strategies we currently use

Indeed - it’s essentially a vanity project for the ruling dynasty of Saudi Arabia backed by the immense wealth they get by selling oil (which contributes to climate change in the first place)

It’s worth noting that ‘Express’ / ‘local’ versions of the supermarkets put a price premium on everything they sell. If you use such establishments as your main food store you are paying a substantial premium over those who can get to a regular supermarket. As ever it’s the low income / car-less / who suffer - just as low income households are far more likely to have pre-payment meters and thus pay over the odds for their energy even though they are the socioeconomic group least able to do so!

And that’s where capitalism gets in the way of protecting the planet. Lets be brutally honest the human body doesn’t care what label is on the packaging - all it needs is for healthy food to be available at prices people can afford. So in principle you only need a single shop / supermarket to serve a given area and it is a lot better for the environment if that’s all people use. However that sort of approach pretty much requires a communist style approach to life where retail is organised by the Government, prices are organised by the Government (to prevent the monopoly that has been created to fleece people who have no alternative etc) But, given the experience of the likes of Poland, East Germany, etc with this sort of ‘planned economy’ during the cold we also know that in practice it never works out like socialists pretend it will.

Lots actually - just not in the UK where tolling was not implemented from the start of the motorway network. To see the potential look at the Dartford crossing - it generates huge sums for HM Treasury every year even after operation and maintenance costs are taken out. Yes I know it being the only decent river crossing east of London does skew the figures a bit, but even so the sheer volume of traffic wishing to cross the river means even with the proposed lower Thames crossing open I’m sure the toll receipts will be way more than the cost of running / maintaining the crossing is. In France where many motorways are tolled the costs of maintaining them are more than covered by the tolls charged. In other words where motorways are seen to provide value for motorists they will pay to use them! And before anyone highlights the M6 Toll that’s a classic example of the British doing it wrong! Given it is paralleled by the ‘free’ M6 through Birmingham many motorists, and HGVs in particular avoid the Toll road. Given the M6 though Birmingham is carried on lots of concrete viaducts which are becoming increasingly expensive / difficult to maintain as they are now getting beyond their designed lifespan any sane Government would have used the opportunity to make the M6 Toll a free motorway and slapped tolls on the current M6 (between the M5 and M42)

In the short term not a lot…. However they could stop selling off the land already purchased and keep the powers for phase 2A intact.That makes things easier in the medium to long term…. Besides In any case it’s crystal clear to anyone in the industry that without things like a Stafford by-pass and Colwich junction grace separation there is zero chance that phase 1 will ever be able to deliver the benefits it’s supposed to do for the WCML and hence there is lots of manic work being done behind the scenes by NetworkRail to come up with new infrastructure to fix said issues. Its therefore not beyond’s the bounds of impossibility that a rebranded and tweaked phase 2A could yet emerge in future - but quite obviously with the Tories being desperate and trying all they can to pretend Labour will be worse for the economy (remind me which party did Ms Truss belong to) then it’s only natural for Labour to rule backtrack on some of their previous policies.

NO ITS NOT! That lie has been trotted out before by many folk (including a certain U-Tuber) and it needs to be exposed for the nonsense that it is. The current Fowler 4P 2-6-4 tank is a completely retooled item (body + chassis) done at some point in the 2000 - 2010 decade. How do I know that - well I bought one of those 4P tanks (R055) in around 1990 and had it until a couple of years ago. I also bought a newer example (R2224) around 2010 so I know what I am talking about. My R055 had chunky motion, no cab detail (and in fact a large lump of plastic running across the middle of the cab), no sprung buffers, no lamp irons, crude moulded on smoke box door handles, builders plate and misshapen moulded blobs tying to represent coupling hooks. By contrast my R2224 has much finer valve gear, separately fitted detail like lamp irons, coupling hooks, smoke box door handle a decent cab interior and sprung buffers. Incidentally the chassis of this newer version is also used under the Stanier designed 2-6-4 tanks produced by Hornby - and before anyone cries foul that is because in real life the Stanier 2-6-4T was exactly the same in terms of its wheelbase / running gear as its Fowler design predecessor.

For starters the Government learn’t its lesion after the botched GWR IET contracts with Hitachi and as a result left it up to the rail operator to hammer out the finer details of the contracts. As a result LNER was able to make changes to the on board fit out and also to the servicing arrangements which GWR could not do due to those 25 year Government organised contracts they handed to them as done deals. Its also true the operators being run under the ‘Operator Of Last Resort’ seem to be given far more leeway in terms of running their own affairs than other operators run by private sector companies as DfT issued management contracts. Why this should be the case is not clear but I suspect it’s because there is an extra ‘insulating layer’ between the DfT and the likes of LNER which isn’t present for the likes of GWR. A bit like what you used to get with the British Rail Board who acted as a firebreak between civil servants / ministers and day to day train operations in fact…. DfT - DOR* - LNER DfT - GWR * Directly Opperated Railways - the Goverment owned vehicle under which LNER, South Eastern and Northern are grouped.

You cannot ‘give’ / force anyone to be a train operator! If Hitachi wanted to become one then they would need to apply to take over the GWR managent contract when the agreement with first group expires. Unsurprisingly such a move would be regarded as not good for Hitachis shareholders so it won’t happen….

Because they have no choice! Please remember that ALL the contracts relating to the IETs were drawn up by civil servants in Whitehall and as with lots of Goverment contracts are full of more holes than a Swiss cheese…. Hitachi meanwhile has very good lawyers who are experts in finding and expoliting said holes to their advantage even if that is against the interests of passengers or the operator. As for GWR - they simply inherited the contracts the DfT had already drawn up as a condition of the franchise and were powerless to do anything about them. Of course post COVID what with GWR merely reduced to a management contract charged with doing what the DfT say their is even less ability to try and challenge Hitachi. Even if First group (the people behind GWR) walked away it would change sod all for uses as the new operator would still have to deal with the effects of Government incompetence….. Oh and those contracts with Hitachi - thanks to the Goverment trying (and failing) to get ‘value for the taxpayer’ they have a duration of 25 years!

That is probably deliberate - and done for much the same reason as your car spedo always under reads…. You see in law the road speed limits are absolute - going at 30.0000…..00001mph in a 30mins zone is, legally speaking a criminal offence. However it is impossible to make a speed measuring device be perfectly actuate and thus there will always be +/- tolerance on the readout. Consequently manufacturers make sure the speed measuring device always indicate slightly higher than the actual speed so an indicated speed of 28mph a tolerance of 5% means your actual speed is 29.4mph and as such you can never break the 30mph legal barrier without knowing it. Now given the ORR go round with speed hubs and do measure train speeds, plus also review OTMDR logs and train drivers do actually have licence complete with a penalty points regime, it stands to reason that if you are a train operator you will set your cruising speed / speed measuring devices in such a way that a driver can never think they are doing 125mph but are actually doing 128mph.

(1) Triangles still exist at one (West Ealing) if not both ends of the Greenford branch so there is still the ability to turn GWR sets from North Pole depot / Paddington even if it’s not as convient as before. (2) GWRs depot has swapped to the other side of the tracks from Old Oak Common and even if the connection to the NNML towards Greenford was still there or is reinstated after the HS2 works there is no easy way of accessing it. (3) The one day a week Chiltern to / from West Ealing was withdrawn over a year ago and the duty is now covered by a hired in bus (4) Offical closure only comes when a journey is no longer possible between two stations - there is nothing in the legislation which says it has to be a direct train. That was why there was no issue diverting the Chiltern train to West Ealing because that service connected with another National rail service which took you to / from the original starting point of Paddington. When the Chiltern train was withdrawn there was no way of completing the journey by National Rail services (the existence of other connecting services like the Underground’s central line doesn’t count in legislative terms) so a bus was put on instead to maintain the National Rail service.

But would the body still be good enough for Acurascale? Yes the DJM J94 might have had a retooled chassis but that has done noting to redeem the body deficiencies, which are many But to return to the 14/48XX, IIRC although the body for the Hattons release was a lot better than the then competing Hornby model, even at time of release it wasn't perfect. Since then we have also seen further enhancements to locos like firebox lighting and pre-fitted speakers becoming standard so I can easily see Acurascale taking the view that the body needs retooling too!