flyingsignalman

Another token exchange, this time in the rain, at Leek Brook Jcn 1981.

Exchanging tokens at Portmadoc 13/7/1978

Winding down after work, listening to Mike Oldfield's Ommadawn ( with a large scotch - cheers! ).

S&T at Hall Road cabin on 3/2/1994 during Merseyrail IECC commissioning works. Note the "pristine state" of the HV gear!

Here's a pic showing a trap point next to a small radius point. It should give you an idea of the "surgery" involved.

when I needed some trap points I cut small radius points in half; the cost is about the same. (not the best pic but all I can find at the mo)

Here's a couple of views of a class 55 arriving at Lime St platform 2 on 25/11/1981.

Visiting Landican Cemetery to put flowers on a family grave this morning, we saw this.... Everyone's a critic!

Not quite sure if this "human" but at work is the latest "must have" for NetworkRail depots...... They have been trying to persuade us to reverse park in bays for the last year (left hand notice) but now it seems they're trying to make it compulsory as the lifesize cutout says.

The nearest I've been to any wildlife recently. I was just about to move the bin when I noticed what I thought was a dead Holly leaf stuck to one of the wheels. I realised it was a moth and convinced it to get on my finger so I could take the pic. I put it on the branch of a nearby Lilac tree where it stayed for the day.

Many thanks for the kind comments. My photos in post 67 on p3 of this topic show that the roof of the building was either built slightly differently or altered later from that shown in the drawings. As this photo from 28/8/1982 shows. (Edited to add photo)

Here are scans of a drawing of the main station buildings provided with the new viaducts. I had put in an enquiry in the Railway Modeller in about 1975 when I thought about making a model; Greg Fox sent me this plan. If you would like full size copies of the scans please pm me

Loved it! - but it weren't me. Mind you, a few years ago, a colleague was admonished by the Signal Manager for using the phrase "Drive" when speaking to Drivers. Mercifully (for us) the manager has now moved on to inflict pain and misery to other parts of the country......

Some photos taken in the sidings at Hartford Jcn and shown in posts 31 & 32. All taken 23/11/1986. Looking south towards Hartford Jcn, ICI line off to left Turning around and looking north Not quite sure where this in the sidings but I think it was at the north end of the sidings. On the line to the works, first looking to BR and the second looking to the works (I think).

A visitor to the bird table last night. (Well it made me smile after a "lovely" late turn.........)

I think the bags/cushions are either to make sure the coal goes in the hopper or, looking at the water lying around, to stop debris being washed into the hopper and so contaminating the coal. The depot at Gobowen opened about 1971 replacing the coal yard at Oswestry IIRC. The storage bunkers and the equipment associated I think are "off the shelf" standard items. Birkenhead North had similar free standing hoppers.

Some photos of Gobowen coal yard taken 2/3/2003 The entrance to the yard looking from the down platform. The storage bunkers. The hoppers in the sidings, looking in them I thought that they resembled the interior of 21t hoppers (with the sides cut off). Showing the relationship to the station. Looking towards Shrewsbury, coal sidings to right. General view of yard.

Gobowen station, north of Shrewsbury, had a small coal depot which used the old Oswestry bay as one of its two sidings. The depot survived quite late but has now closed.

The small shunter next to the class 37 looks to be one of the two that used to be at Port Sunlight; both were moved to Carnforth after the Levers' internal railway closed. Glad to see its still in existence but sorry about the state its in!

Some photos taken on the branch, starting with some of Llanfechain station taken 18/5/2008 while it was being renovated. Looking from the road entrance, an extension was being built on the left hand end Looking towards Llanfyllin from the overbridge. Near Llanfechain is a road bridge that the map in the Middleton Press book "Branch Lines Around Oswestry" identifies as Pont Parry. Next 4 photos taken 1/11/2007. Nearby was a bridge over the branch The Llanymynech side Road level Looking from the bridge towards Llanymynech. Remains of the bridge over the River Tanat, between Carreghofa and Llansantffraid This was only part of the bridge and just above the water level can be seen the remains of the wooden trestle it replaced, taken 6/10/2007 A view, taken 25/8/2008 of the rest of the bridge looking towards Llansantffraid.

After moving house in 1995 money was tight and my dad "subsidised" the buying of quite a few of my locos. 9 years after he passed on, I still miss him but running them brings back warm memories of him.

I hope you don't mind me posting these photos, taken near Carreghofa Halt on 15/2/1981. This view is looking north to Blodwell Jcn on the PS&NWR branch from Llanymynech that was last used in about 1925, though it remained in situ for a while after that. The bridge abutment on the right is the first alignment of the Llanfyllin branch. A similar view from the track bed. The cutting has now been filled in and the area landscaped. Looking towards Llanymynech at the track bed of the first alignment Llanfyllin branch showing the gap for the bridge over the PS&NWR. In the background partly hidden by trees is a road that then crossed over the Llanfyllin branch. The patch of ground beyond the PS&NWR is now occupied by a bungalow. Finally looking towards Carreghofa Halt from a point between the branch lines. The bridge in the background carries the canal and road over the track bed. Through the bridge went to Llanymynech, to the right to Llanfyllin and to the left to Blodwell Jcn.