Glorious NSE

Daylight shot of the 196 on test here: https://www.railjournal.com/fleet/new-british-fleets-undergo-testing-in-velim/ Would agree that it might take a while for the coaches to move to XC as none of the Cl.196 are in service yet!

Did London and back on them this week, reasonably impressed that they don't seem to have trashed them internally in the refurb (was expecting a seat cramming excercise!) - though less impressed that basic operation seems to have gone to pot. But you have to assume that someone will be looking at replacements within the next decade. It'd be lovely if they did that with a wider view. That's definately a wish, not a prediction though...

All comments accepted... By "SWR" I guess I really mean "relevant operator of the WofE service at that time". Currently SWR, but that may change. Franchised operators don't get to cherry pick their services, so if it was written into a franchise then the operator runs it. Nobody is suggesting it starts tomorrow, infra and rolling stock are definitely two of the hurdles to clear, though there's visibly more "wiggle room" on the rolling stock side than there has been in recent times - even some post-priv DMU fleets heading for store over the next couple of years. Trades to get some cascaded 158s are not inconceivable, and in the timescale it takes to get things done (bearing in mind i'm still waiting for breaking ground on Marsh Barton station, due to be open for the new timetable in Dec 2016!) neither is a newbuild replacement for the SWR 158/9 fleets on the WofE route.

Just a little comment on this one - DCC I believe had at one point also planned to open a park and ride style station where the Exeter Road crosses the line on the edge of Okehampton, that would have allowed better access to rail services by travellers using the A30, and also bus connections, giving the possibility of using it for railheading by folk further West/North. I do wonder whether you could pull in longer distance travellers if it was an extension of the SWR Waterloo services rather than just a train into Exeter - there must be many folk in North Devon/East Cornwall at present who drive to Tiverton Parkway or Exeter when going to London. Also - any Okehampton service would surely also call at Crediton, and ideally be timed to upgrade that from hourly to half hourly which would help rail to compete with the bus service.

Not at all - as per Zomboid's post, as that capacity becomes critical you have several options.

You are predicating "waste" on not filling all capacity from day 1 - if it was believed that capacity was necessary from day 1 then it's being dreadfully under-specced! In reality, it uses most train paths from the start of Ph1, but there will be capacity for a couple more train paths, and doubling sets, and doubling decks in future if needed. I don't see that as a bad thing or a "waste" in any way, rather that building it in such a way that you have no room for growth would be the waste!

I think it's 9 at present. 3x Birmingham, 1 of which extends to Glasgow 3x Manchester 1x Liverpool 1x Chester 1x Glasgow (direct) Then add Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle trains....

Just a random musing on delay recovery Southbound - if parts of the route and the trains themselves end up cleared for higher speeds than they may in reality run, and with OOC not really needing trains to wait for set departure times Southbound, you could conceivably speeds up the trains ahead of your delayed one (so arriving at OOC and Euston early) - plus your delay train. Effectively you'd be actively moving the trains ahead of and including the delayed train "forward" into path gaps rather than passively allowing subsequent trains to move "backwards" into path gaps...

AIUI, all trains will run with the same performance, stops and timings south of Birmingham Interchange so it then doesn't kill the whole service pattern if one train from further afield arrives onto HS2 already carrying a serious delay - which, face it, will happen from time to time. Conceivably the worst case is this makes the 2 or 3 subsequent trains run a (diminishing) couple of minutes late until that event is absorbed, but with OOC and Euston all designed deliberately to handle high capacity throughputs it will be quickly absorbed. It won't be like the existing network where if you present a (say) Inverness to Penzance train 10 minutes late somewhere early on it's run you run a large risk of following a local or a freight for miles, increasing it's delay and causing further knock-on delays in all directions.... The bigger risk I'd have thought is if inbounds from one direction arrive with delays significant enough to prevent them turning at Euston and getting back out on time - that risks putting a delay back onto the existing network. It might be that with a compatible fleet you can keep a hot spare in one of Euston's platforms as a contingency against that kind of thing.

Couple more post-accident - might help with canopy details etc? (Station Jim was lucky....) A stopped clock isn't always right twice a day!

HS2 is being paid for by specific borrowing against the value of the asset being built, not by robbing other budgets. Rightly or wrongly GWML and MML electrifications were stopped because they went over budget, not because their budgets were cut for HS2. "Environmental Mayhem" - Please....

Okay, I've put these on my Smugmug account and linked through rather than attaching them directly - if you're seeing a smaller version of any of these you should be able to click through - res won't be great as they are pics of pics and not proper scans but it might help tho.... Couple more: Post-accident and a bit of snow! Shows the back of the P5 signal mounted on the canopy. And a couple of longer shots looking East, with a Turbo arriving and a 60 running round a ballast train in P5: I do have a couple more I've found which are post-accident ref the damage, but which might help with how the structures worked, and i'm pretty sure there is another box of pics somewhere I've not found yet...

Going to need to rethink these as I've hit the upload limit...

Pre accident shot including the weather screen and mail trolleys that were always stored behind it.

Platform end, 60042 on stone empties and 165110 arriving into the bay.

Okay, are you ready for some camera phone captures off mediocre 90s prints? Couple of shots from the down main platform with the background buildings:

Yep, looking at it I suspect i'd shot it because it's a mis-formed 166 (only 2 cars) - which gives more of an angle of view than normal! I'm wondering if the angle is misleading, and whether the building across the end of the car park is just out of shot to the right which would have meant it felt more closed-in in reality. It didn't "feel" like there was a big open space there. I tried google imaging "Atari Slough" because I had a feeling that might have been the building that was at the end, but only got pics of the building directly behind the main station, with just a tantilising glimpse of what was at the end of Railway Terrace! https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/atari/mirror/myatari/issues/dec2001/atari_uk.htm Looked at today's google maps too - wow....I think only the station building and the bus garage date back that far!

I've just these online at the mo, but I think I may have some more - I lived just round the corner in the mid 90s so I'd be surprised if I can't find any more! Above, London end bay and the car park behind. Below, semi-helpful, this shows the building in the background of the shot above, with the least-damaged of the cars from that accident on an Alleleys trailer. The telegraph post can be matched to the image above. And last one - looking SE from the bay platform, an MOD box on a multifret travelling on the down main, the up main signal on the left, platform ramp on the right. Will have a dig and see what else I can find....

From a UK perspective they would cite faster coupling - but the crews aren't exactly slouches at splitting and joining trains with existing stock! There will be less manpower, but given the splits/joins suggested are at one place you'd have thought that'd be less of an issue. Bit of "fantasy fleeting" here, but i'm still trying to get their fleet changes to make sense to me: Based on a future fleet of 25x loco's: (13x 4/4iii, 12x 4/4ii, as mooted elsewhere.) If that's just passenger loco's and the 6/6ii continue to work the freight, that works out as: 4x GEX (summer timetable) 3x Albula (based on current usage) 14x Push Pull sets (they will have 16x low floor 2nd class control cars) 2x Maintenance 2x Spare That adds up, but if they have 14x push pull sets running then adding 34x Capricorn to replace 9x loco's plus the 2x Pendelzug (I think that's the number of sets still in use...) doesn't seem to add up. If the 25x also sees the 6/6ii retire - then: 6x Freight (based on there being a spare 6/6ii diagram at present) 4x GEX 3x Albula 8x Push Pull sets 2x Maintenance 2x Spare That makes more sense in terms of absorbing the new Capricorn's better, but if so, why then have they just increased the cab car fleet to 16, surely that's severe overkill? Or am I way off track, and did somebody sign an order for 8 extra cabs before doing a major policy U-turn and ordering the Capricorns? Allegra's on local push-pull trains with the cabs is neat - but I can't see them freeing up many Allegra's to change these numbers as the Capricorns definitely won't work the Bernina, and I doubt will end up working the Arosa either?

That's just inspired me to browse it a bit...some interesting consists today! Push pull worked traditional coaches deputising for one of the fixed sets, with one of the 2nd class control cars, powered by an Allegra. https://www.schmalspurbahn.ch/filisur/webcam/m200204090410851 https://www.schmalspurbahn.ch/filisur/webcam/m200204090513172 And a second Albula set running with a 2nd class rather than it's usual 1st control car https://www.schmalspurbahn.ch/filisur/webcam/m200204130029715 Can't see there being fewer Allegra's on the Albula line from that, so yeah, maybe just a test.

Interesting to see an Allegra back on that route, it's had a mix of LH push pull sets and the old pendelzug sets scheduled through last year apart from the daily BEX through train. If it's now regular, does that mean another Albula working has gone back to loco haulage, as from memory half those diagrams were Allegra powered last year? No RhB formation guides yet on vagonWeb to check...

This one is available in 1/148 with the truck which isn't bad. They might sell it separately in 1/148 if you ask (it is already available in 1/160 separately and IIRC these are 3d printed.) https://railnscale.com/2019/06/21/volvo-f10-abrollkipper/ There's other options in 1/160...

Mmmm, hardly daring to hope, that would be excellent news! The large window coach (AS 1256?) pictured is a Bernina length vehicle isn't it, which is again rather intriguing, as to what basis they are using? I'm liking the Barenland coach, was hoping they would do one of them - I think that's a Pirata custom repaint I could perhaps justify spending for as a one-off. Likewise, depending on price, I might be more tempted to buy a one-off of their SI wagons than I am a log flat, as I suspect the SI would be a royal pig to kitbash or scratchbuild with the correct 'see-through-ness' - looks like it's a pic of an HOm one though from the couplers?

The baggage is intriguing, wonder who's tooling it is - as if it was Pirata themselves you'd think it'd be available in red as well?

Hands up who thought Smokey Joe was fast enough already without streamlining it. And, rhetorical question of the day - is a diesel really steampunk? Seriously - an interesting range, will watch with interest.