jamie92208

When we did our trolleybus tour we were told that the most critical spares atecBradford were motor casings. We also got to play with a bamboo pole when we had to overtakecq service bus at Allerton terminus, which must have been by then thevhighest trolleybus line in the UK. Mike mentions somevof the reasons for the demise of trolleybuses. My late architect friend told me that a major problem in the 60's was that the cladding on new buildings would not take the strain of a rose fitting for span wires. Snap, J've received an ordervof TJENA's today. Yes thevline from Castleford closed IIRC in 1926. My mother used to ride the tram to school from Cas. She got frightened by the men with black faces, miners coming off shift. Also she saw boys who had had their tonsils out as day cases going home looking rather sorry for themselves. The system was run by the same company that ran the Wakefield network but the connecting link through Normanton was never built. There was a bad fire at the Castleford depot one night so they transferred 6 trams from Wakefield to help. They ran them to the end of the track at Agbrigg then towed them them on the road over Heath Common on their own wheels by teams of horses and back onto the rails at IIRC the Hark to Bounty. Jamie

Good moaning to all. Avery good but slightly poignant meal was had with our friends last night. They depart the village for Rochefort this morning. Good conversation, almost all in French was had. Much hilarity trying to explain imperial weights and measures. The man camevover to get my car sorted and he got it started. Today we are off to the Danglies of St John where I am required to help a friend with translation at the tax office. The ladies are then going to stay and do some shopping, whilst I head towards Ruffec for the monthly railway club meeting. A good meal followed by a visit to Andy's home and layout. Cake and tea will be on offer there. It's a hard life. Regards to all. Jamie

When I worked at BP it was being sent for a box of atomic weights. I didn't fall for that one fortunately. Jamie

I didn't think that Mike went to Scouse land. Jamie

Good afternoon We are in about July 2005 and a rather grey day at Wakefield Westgate waiting for a rather special train. First though a 150'2 headed in about to turn into Platform 2 heading for Leeds. Then a GNER liveried NoL Eurostar headed south. Then after a short argument with a BTP Constable who thought a group of ageing spotters with cameras were a security risk, we were allowed to stay by the Inspector. Sense was seen. It didn't help that the PC had tried to teach me some law. The reason for all this was the arrival of the Royal Train with Her Majesty on board. Coming off the link from Kirkgate to run into Platform 1. I can't remember which loco was at which end but here is the other one at the rear. I was able to get a close up of the various plaques. I wonder if they have had new ones cast since the DB takeover. I was also quite surprised how grubby the inter vehicle areas were. Hopefully another few tomorrow. Jamie

Obviously the drive rollers to push it through. Jamie

And of course Toton is rather close to Trent Junction where famously you could catch trains to London in either direction from either side of the island platform. I doubt that you will be able to do that from Toton. Jamie

Growing up in Yorkshire we had the UK's first and last trolleybuses in Bradford. Leeds also had them but got rid early on. Bradford's lasted till 1972. I arranged a school transport society tour of Bradford in 1970 in a hired trolleybus. Much fun was had changing points manually for the overhead in the city centre to swap routes. Then as we got back to the depot the rather surreal experience of going through the bus wash with 600v on the roof just above our heads. Sad that the system died because the network got split in two because of one the vanity of one town planner who didn't want overhead on his new road. Jamie

Saudi justice can sometimes work the other way. Some years ago a Saudi officer on a course raped a male cadet. He was promptly sent home and executed. Anyway in that cheery note, good moaning to all and of course sundry. It's not raining at the moment and fortunately we are still in a safe department and not on curfew. I set off to do various tasks yesterday but the car wouldn't start so I spent the rest of the morning concreting in the swing. 3.5 barrows of mixture later the job was done and even got the seal of approval from the boss. Car still wouldn't start even after the battery was topped up so a guy is coming this afternoon. Today will be household engineering as we are having friends over for tea. Claude and Delia are the couple who are moving out of the village and are leaving tomorrow. It saves them having to cook with everything packed so things have to be tidied up. Not a lot else to report so regards to all and stsy safe. Jamie

That's looking great Graham. The impotance of Bog Junction, in my home city, is similar to the way that the main line to Castle Junction works on Green Ayre. 4 different operators can offer trains to the junction operator who then accepts them when ready. This is done with relays that drive LED's on the panel. Yellow is the call attention and when the junction operator is ready a button is pressed to wccept the train and the LED's turn red. It can be interlocked with the track but doesn't have to be. It works well in noisy halls. Jamie

Good afternoon. A few more from 2005. First to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and their miniature railway. I think this is a Hudswell Clark Diesel Hydraulic. The gauge is somewhere roundabout 20" but I'll have to look it up. Then the statutory rotated picture, Another Diesel in the shape of, IIRC a 4-6-4 T Now the right way round after the 2022 reload. Then up to Fleetwood and a balloon tram waiting to head back south. Allegedly the only location in the UK where the lighthouse keeper could ride to work by tram. Comin home a quick stop at Wennington where the signal box used to be a switched out block post between Settle Junction and Carnforth. It was due to be demolished shortly after this photo was taken. The Midland lever frame was still intact inside. Then on my way home I stopped at Hellifield and this 66 was waiting in the Up Goods loop with I think a log train. A long time ago i used to watch locos being coaled in the background whilst changing trains to go to Leeds. That's it for today. Jamie

Perhaps when they get to the Shap area they may finally build the tunnel that was to replace the 'temporary ' alignment from the 1840's that's still in use today. Jamie

Good moaning. A bit of a lie in this morning but at least it was light when I got downstairs. It actually looks quite nice out. A good after and evening was spent watching trains at Poitiers. Andy and I are proposing a new European wide law. All locos should have their numbers displayed in numerals at least 200mm high on the side. 30mm on a sticker below the cab us just not fair when the freight is doing 50 mph. Anyway on to today. If the weather holds, my plan us to plant the swing and then concrete in the legs. If that goes well then some muddling in the shed may be achieved. Regards to all. Jamie

I've heard the same from a friend who instructed out there. I've also heard similar comments from a friend who had to instruct Iranian officers (pre revolution) on Chieftan tanks. Jamie

It took me a while but I eventually found a press release with an annotated map. It's on the west side of the WCML, north if Kingmoor yard and near Gretna. It's big and as you say it probably couldn't have been built near Glasgow. Being south of Carstairs it would serve both Edinburgh and Glasgow trains. Jamie

Yes I had to look that up. Just north of Kingmoor and just inside Scotland, a servicing depot for, IIRC, 22 trainsets. Is there something political behind this location I wonder. Jamie

Good morning from a gloomy but brightening Charente. Chris, youbare notcalonevin findinding mistakes on Wiki. I've corrected a couple about Leeds trams. I also found that the two GeorgecMedal recipients that I was involved with were not listed so O corrected thst. I even managed to insert the correct reference from the London Gazette. Anyway, we headed for Niort yesterday. A good lunch was had at The Buffalo Grill. Beth did some shopping and I did some trainspotting whilst she was in the hospital. I saw a train, and Beth was told there was nothing nasty or suspicious in her lungs, so a good result all round. I celebrated by having a productive hour in the shed while Beth was on the phone. Today things will hopefully get even better once I've done the shopping. I'm meeting my friend Andy for an afternoon/evening of trainspotting. Life isn't too bad. Stay safe one and all. Jamie

Yes they give you a small salad that includes beans as a starter. The meal was good. Jamie

Reference the tailplane cracks on VC10's. They were the first aircraft that my brother flew for BOAC. He always liked the aircraft and told me a story about thectail replacement programme. There was a programme to strengthen the taiplanes and it was a slow process. Someone suggested that they needed a spare tailplane so that one could becworked on whilst another was replace but none existed. Then an engineer remembered the one that was hijacked to Dawson's field in Jordan. The tailplane looked intact. A scheme was hatched and eventually a C130 flew, I think from Egypt, with a load of engineers on board. Theclanded in the desert, removed the tailplane and took it back to London. The replacement programme then speeded up and planes weren't out of service for long as swapping a tailplane was a fairly quick progress. Jamie

Reference the tailplane cracks on VC10's. They were the first aircraft that my brother flew for BOAC. He always liked the aircraft and told me a story about thectail replacement programme. There was a programme to strengthen the taiplanes and it was a slow process. Someone suggested that they needed a spare tailplane so that one could becworked on whilst another was replace but none existed. Then an engineer remembered the one that was hijacked to Dawson's field in Jordan. The tailplane looked intact. A scheme was hatched and eventually a C130 flew, I think from Egypt, with a load of engineers on board. Theclanded in the desert, removed the tailplane and took it back to London. The replacement programme then speeded up and planes weren't out of service for long as swapping a tailplane was a fairly quick progress. Jamie

I was always told that Liverpool was the capital of North Wales. Jamie

Good morning. Time for a return to Festiniog for a trip on the railway. Unfortunately the first one has turned itself round. I'm not expert enough to ID the locos but this was waiting at Blaenau to take us down to Porthmadog. A stop for a loco inspection at I think Dduallt This gave me the chance to get up on the footbridge for a photo. Down at the Harbour, the National Power liveried diesel was waiting to take us back up the line. Whilst one of the smaller locos (George Englands' ?) was shunting in the station. And on the climb backup to Balenau. This was a day trip out with another friend to donate a night storage heater to the volunteers hostel. It was my first trip on the line. Jamie

Morning all from a sunny place. It's a tad chilly though. The old couple's boxes and other small stuff were packed into avan yesterday in good time then 11 of us sat down for a good meal. Most conversation in French but a lot of laughter. Another crew were waiting at the other end. Back home and a relatively lazy afternoon ensued. I did however have a successful time in the shed. Today is off to Niort for the day as Beth has an appointment. A friend is coming with us and because of the timing we are heading for the Buffalo grill for lunch. Whilst she is in the hospital it would be rude for me not to head for the nearby station. Not a bad day in store. Hope that Rick and Sharon are enjoying Kernow and that Debs does OK in the archery. Regards to all. Jamie

Yes that was Crofton. Now sadly demolished. With the doorless rover on thd skidpan. I certainly remember Barry's name. Jamie

We had ourvown examiners and were toldcthatvwe would not pass an MOT run driving test for several,reasons. The two I can remember were A) not going through the gears every time but selecting thevmostvappropriste gear for the intended manouver. Apparently the MoT examibers had so little time in the car they wanted to be able to see that the candidate could change gear. B) The only signalling when necessary as discussed already. Therecwerecother differences . I certainly enjoyed the courses I did, 5 week initial and 2 3 week short standards. We got to Barmouth from Wakefield one day, had lunch and got back in an 8 hour shift. An hour 15 minutes from Queensferry to just south if Wakefield in a plain white car with no blues and twos. Jamie