Ron Ron Ron

Most of their findings were flawed or even nonsense. That's just another example. That select committee report was largely a labour inspired political swipe at the government. .

A nice Steam Train funky rhythm ........

As Jamie says, effectively a complete electrical and mechanical rebuild and prohibitively expensive and time consuming. Even additional "normal" diesel electric Voyager/Meridian cars is difficult, if not too expensive, because of the cost of rebuilding the discarded jigs for the extra Voyager/Meridian vehicles and restarting production for a relatively small build run. ..

It's not an argument that I need to support, but a well known and well reported fact. However here are the figures.... When Virgin XC took over the franchise in 1997, total passenger numbers were around 12 million p.a. By 2005, they had increased to 19.6 million, breaking through 20 million in 2006. Most of the increase occurred post Operation Princess. By 2007 (after the franchise holder changed to Arriva), the numbers had more than doubled from when Virgin originally took over the first XC franchise. In 2006, Virgin were operating 70% more services than pre-Operation Princess. Just a couple of claims from the report. On the Reading route, which links the south coast with the West Midlands, business travel went up by a staggering 181% from September 2002 to 2006. When the CrossCountry network was re-launched, business travel between Bournemouth and Southampton Airport Parkway increased by 61% and between Bournemouth and Brockenhurst by 50%. Leisure travel between Brockenhurst and Southampton increased by 43%.

...and it worked brilliantly. more than they ever expected. So popular that passenger usage went through the roof and the 4 & 5 car trains were proved to be far too short. The exercise became a victim of its success. .

Indeed. The popular call is for a Class 444 type of EMU. Unsurprisingly, that will be available off the peg though....................in the shape of the Class 801 (or other derivative). .

I've been looking out of my window at that all week.

IIRC, I think it's Southampton, as with the previous Hitachi deliveries (Class 395's). .

Might it be time to think about disposing of your mk3's; or holding fire on purchasing the new Hornby issues??????? p.s. Could there be new super detailed ones in the offing?

The 5-car Bi-Mode Class 800 is designed specifically for routes like that. Pairs of 5-car units from London will split at places like Oxford.

FGW will be retaining quite a few of their HST's for services from London to the SW (Devon & Cornwall) for the foreseeable future. They'll obviously be replaced at some later time on, as yet to be decided. I think it likely, follow on orders or later iterations of the SET will supplant them early in the next decade. I suspect FGW's Class 180's will be gone as soon as the first Class 800's go into service. On the ECML, all the EC IC franchise (Virgin Trains EC) HST's will be withdrawn. The IC225 sets were also due to be displaced, but there is currently some talk or speculation that a few sets may be retained for a while. I'm not sure how much credence can be placed on those stories though? The future of the IC225 sets hasn't been decided yet. Rail enthusiast forums are full of speculation and imagined proposals, but we'll just have to wait and see what transpires. There is a firm proposal to use some shortened HST sets in Scotland and it's possible some others will be put to use elsewhere. People who work on them have reported on the condition of many Mk3's, suggesting quite a few will be ready for the scrapyard by the end of this decade. In any event, I'd expect the first HST's to be scrapped not long after the Class 800/801's are introduced into full service. .

That's the Pound Shop trick. Items priced at £1 look like a bargain, but actually work out more expensive than the same item bought in differing weight/quantity/packaging in other stores. .

Why 504? The answer may lie behind mysterious Oriental inscrutability perhaps? 504 is 12x the answer to that ultimate question, about Life, the Universe and Everything ! 504 is therefore in balance with nature, life and the Universe itself. It might also explain why Hornby's randomly sized large batches have thrown the company's fortunes out of kilter. Happy Ying and Yang from Ron

If it wasn't for the last minute win at QPR a few weeks ago and the opening home match against Southampton, both of which they really should have lost, Liverpool would now be in 20th place sitting on the bottom of the premiership and in danger of being cut adrift.

Back to the GWML........ Here's a couple of photos of one of the double stacked gantries (or whatever the correct technical name is), at Reading West station. https://www.flickr.com/photos/joshtechfission/14669188721/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/joshtechfission/14649389896/in/photostream/ .

No Tech, No light show, No stage set, No pyrotechnics, No showbiz. Pure and Raw - Sabbath in concert 1970. Make sure you've got some bass on your speakers or headphones. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clySTJtd81c

London based singer songwriter Brooke Sharkey has a few interesting songs; - even if she overdoes the vibrato a bit on some. (Some songs have French lyrics as she was brought up in France and performs there too) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk7omOJPFQQ

Not electrification, but going back to this matter. The newly published draft Western Route Study (n.b. Route Studies have replaced the RUS's) mentions the future capacity issues between Reading station and Southcote Junction. A proposal put forward for consideration for CP6, is to provide grade separation at Southcote Junction and a third bi-directional line between there and Oxford Road Junction. Reading West station will need to be relocated from its present location. Back to electrification... The same Western Route Study includes a lengthy list of further electrification proposals within the region for CP6 and beyond. .

"Fred. There's a fault on one of the wires. Can you go out and check it?" http://www.agefotostock.com/previewimage/bajaage/fd4ed97e758ecefb770a42cfbc874b54/ibr-1534101.jpg .

Bearing in mind the overall objective of increasing capacity to allow for up to DOUBLE the number of passengers using the station, increasing platform and circulation space must have been a very high priority. With the (ill judged in my personal opinion) requirement to retain the old station building (The Three Guineas pub), it resulted in a problem with the narrow old platform 7 (nee 4) being a bottleneck for passenger flows between the Southern platforms and the new central hub of the station. Resolving that, must have been a high priority in the design. The other thing to consider, for those not familiar with the new arrangements, is that the orientation of the main through lines has moved over to the middle of the station. The main lines are now on platforms 9 & 10, with platforms 8 & 11 being main loop platforms. There are also 9 through lines in the new layout, instead of the previous 5. I did read a somewhere that there was a rumour that NR are looking into increasing capacity between Oxford Road and Southcote junctions, with possibly another line? I don't know how much credence can be put on that story though? .

I've no idea how accurate they are, or not, but this what the Crossrail report say's.... also.... .

Some photos of the structures around Reading station... Photo 1 Photo2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Some more at Acton.... Photo 5 Photo 6 Similar double decker portals were tested near Old Dalby, if the following are taken there? Photo 7 Photo 8 (may be a HS2 type) .

None of us were alive to see these parts of Brunel's GWR at Paddington, as they ware demolished in 1906. Recently uncovered during Crossrail construction works, are the remains of the former engineering and loco workshops at Paddington station. Link to an article complete with photos and a video are here. .