APOLLO

The old GC main line was built to continental loading gauge, easy gradients and high speed (for 1900 !!) curvature. Lets face it, a reinstated GC / new route HS2 in any urban area will be mega-expensive. Why is Birmingham to London so important (especially if the corresponding airport links are not included) - wasn't a couple of billion £ or so recently spent on a WC main line upgrade south of Rugby ? Why travel London to Leeds via Birmingham anyway ? Why will it take so long - 2030 or so before it gets to Manchester. Anyway, if Scotland devolves (nearly wrote dissolves !!) then a high speed line up there won't be needed. I'm 100% FOR rail investment - but any availiable money needs to go where the need is greatest, mainly the urban areas / commuter lines & cross country (Like Oxford to Cambridge - wow, they've built a guided busway on part of that route that has yet to open, and is disintergrating as I write). Freight investment is very much needed to. Like it or lump it, oil is getting ever more expensive, and won't last for ever (BP stats give us 65 years, then it's all over) I bought some old (1950's) O.S. maps the other day, £1 each from oxfam. A selection of areas of the UK. Strange thing - the country was absolutley littered with railways back then, all with red circles on the stations - station open. What idiots we have had for many, many years running this once great country. No forward thinking. Brit15

Christian Woolmar on Granada reports - 2 minutes ago "I am afraid HS2 will tie up ALL major rail investment for the next 20 years on just one route corridor" If this is the case, god help us as petrol passes the £2 / litre point in the near future. And yes, reinstating the GC line would be far cheaper as most of the route is still there. The steam GC bit could be either paralled, or "taken over" - lets see - rebiuld the Leicester Belgrave Rd line & M&GN line for cross country steam / local use. Would upset a few though !!!!!!!!!!!! Brit15

Rebuild the old Great Central main line London-Rugby-Leicester-Sheffield-Woodhead-Manchester & add link branches to Coventry, Birmingham and Leeds / Bradford / York, Rebuild Nottingham Victoria "as was" - pull down the hideous shopping centre - (most of the shops are empty anyway !!) Far cheaper, more usefull, 150mph is quite fast enough. Brit15

I'm 100% for HS2, but the current plan needs to link Manchester City & Airport to Birmingham City & Airport (yea also a branch to Sheffield & Leeds) and continue to London City / Heathrow & tie into HS1. The Heathrow to Man Airport link is most vital. Tie up with the airlines & the potential is huge. BUT - lets also have more, a hell of alot more spent on our provincial and cross country services. Not everyone wishes to go at high speed to / from Londinium. Trans pennine electrification, etc is a good start. In todays sunday times was an article about the proposals, with the transport minister saying double deck trains were vital, and some consultant brain dead goon having allready designed twin level trains with panoramic glass roofs and top quality restaraunts where "one could dine in luxury whilst watching the english countryside rush by at over 200 mph" - !!!!!!!!!! - You will just about finish your starter as you arrive in Birmingham !! Brit 15

Came across this by accident, great for Kestrel fans Brit15

I still run two old Lima westerns. Nice looking locos. Who needs sound chips with Lima locos !!!! Brit15

All true, but well more than 50% of trains passing my house, just north of Wigan on the WCML are diesel. Most freights, Liverpool - Preston DMU, Voyagers Birmingham - Glasgow / Edinburgh (100% electrified route). The class 66 diesel hauled freights are alot quieter than the Pendolino's too. As to the tunnels on the standedge route (don't forget Morley either - a fairly long one), I remember reading about the early LNER Woodhead electrification plans - apparently they where going to electrify the OLD Woodhead tunnels. Tunnel condition, not clearance dictated otherwise post WW2. Where there is a will, there is a way. In my opinion THE main reason for electrification of any route is energy driven. As oilfields deplete over time, and oil is ever more costly / politically sensitive, it makes sense to electrify. The whole main line network needs converting over time, say the next 20 years or so. Electrified railways are the future. Brit15

We once had a superb trans-pennine electrified railway, complete with new tunnel. Don't trust 'owt the politicians tell you. I will beleive it when I'm riding on it. Brit15

Quite a good shop to visit as well if you are in Hereford, a big shop with tons of stuff. 5 mins walk from the railway station & 3 mins walk from bus station. Brit15

Who needs sound when running old Lima diesels ? - The Lima deltic sounds great running at full belt with 12 on. I've saved a fortune by making my own sounds. I can whistle like a class 40, burble "out of tune" like a class 25, thrum like a Brush 4 and do a realistic diddly dum, diddly da for the coach wheels at quite a range of speeds. My repertoire of air brake hisses, clanks and bumper coupling thuds is vast. It's a bit difficult & noisy when running 6 trains at once, and my family are talking about having me certified, but I don't care, it all adds to the fun Brit 15 (can't get the chime whistle correct - underpants too tight!!!)

No, the slag heaps in the background are not big enough ! Brit15

A man jumps out of an airplane with a parachute on his back. As he's falling, he realises hiss chute is broken. He doesn't know anything about parachutes, but as the earth rapidly approaches, he realizes his options are limited; he takes off the parachute and tries to fix it himself on the way down. The wind is ripping past his face, he's dropping like a rock, and at 5000 feet, another man goes shooting up past him. In desperation, the man with the chute looks up and yells, "Hey do you know anything about parachutes?!" The guy flying up looks down and yells, "No, do you know anything about gas boilers?!"

I do my "railfanning" on the WCML out of my loft window these days. Not fell out--- YET !!! Yes, the guys a pratt. The modern railway is no place for trespass, as our H&S culture proves. However, how many of us, many, many years ago went trespassing as a matter of course, steam shedbashing in particular ?. Yes we had more common sense back then, no H&S to "protect" us. Simple rules were the order of the day, dont step on the rail, wet sleepers, pointwork, jump over pits, keep a 360 deg lookout for moving locos, wagons, shedmasters (!!) etc. Strange world we now live in. Everyone is / has to be politically correct, AND prove it also. What would I have done?, well, a quick, polite word to him re his situation, and perhaps a call to the police if deemed neccesary. Glad I'm not a modern railfan. I only open the loft window when I hear a steam loco thundering up Boars Head bank. Brit15

In 1991 friend & I where staying in Trier, Germany and decided to have a day out in Paris by train. (long way !!). Well we arrived at around 11.45, and walked around, visiting a few "sights" ending with the Arch de Triumph (what where the French triumphant about !!) - I remember seeing 2 Americans trying to WALK across the roundabout to the monument. Saw several cars in minor bangs all over the city. Bloody madmen. Anyway back to the Gare de l'Est for the train to Luxembourg. Left on time around 5.30pm, Electric loco & coaches doing a hell of a speed then WHAM - on with the brakes - full on & harder !! NEVER have i experienced such a quick stop. Then the train stood for well over an hour. Air conditioned sealed coaches meant you couldn't stick your head out & see what was happening. - Eventually the guard came along muttering "Mort" - apparently we had just oblitterated a fellow human. A sad experience. On we went, very late, to Metz where the train split, our half to Luxembourg and the other half to Zurich. Another daft yank talking to his friends in our coach found himself in the wrong section as his "end" of the train departed to Zurich. We had to change again at a small station (Thionville ?) from SNCF to DB for the connecting service to Trier. It was near midnight now - no chance for the connection, what shall we do ? - but DB saved the day, laying on an additional train for the Trier passengers. An eventfull high speed day to Paris, complete with crazy French, crazy Brits, crazy Yanks & dependable Germans. !! Brit15

Some nice colour photos of various Rhodesian Garratts in Sep 2011 "Continental Modeller" - 3 pages worth. Taken in 1992, all working, some on passenger trains, All in "weathered" condition. Don't think these got as far north as Bristol though !! Brit15

Here is my (very) old non working Kitmaster, waiting patiently to be scrapped. (Been in this scrapyard 10 years !!) Brit15

British Rail pork pies (Bowyers ?) - The ones that had travelled from Inverness to Penzance & back - twice !!. Actually, British Rail Blue & Grey era - Proper trains - loco hauled - choice of many loco types. Loose coupled goods & mineral trains. Many signalboxes and manual signalling (bits still left) Goods / marshalling yards in most towns (virtually extinct) Loco depots - proper ones. Fist generation DMU's Coaches you could stick your head out of. Good mannered rail enthusiasts The Woodhead line, Waverley, S&D, and many, many other lines. Wrenn (ex Hornby Dubblo) Reliable, strong, heavy metal locos. Who needs superdetail ? ECM controllers - where did they go ? That'll do for now. Brit15

They also ran from Widnes to Sheffield area via Warrington Bank Quay (Low Level), Latchford, Lymm, Altrincham, Godley, then via Woodhead to Sheffield. Block trains. usually class 40 hauled to Godley, where electrics took over. Ran till the late 70's if I remember correctly. Have a look at the GIF at the bottom of this website main page - one sometimes runs past !! http://www.thewoodheadsite.org.uk/ Brit15

WELL DONE WIGAN BOTH FOOTBALL & RUGBY LEAGUE Stoke 0 Wigan Atheletic 1 Bradford Bulls 22 Wigan Warriors 26 POOLE'S PIES ALL ROUND !!!!!!!!! Brit15

We had better start a whip round soon to preserve a class 70 !!!!!! Brit15

Haydock Oil Terminal (between Wigan & St Helens) was served by the ex GC St Helens Branch and a newly built spur to the WCML at Golborne. A large terminal, with a throughput of 2 million tonnes / year. Opened in 1969, closed sometime in mid-late 70's, don't know date but was served by 100 ton tank trains, usually 40 or 47 powered. One from Heysham & 2 from Stanlow daily. (Heavy oil). Light oil (petroleum) came from stanlow by pipeline. More Info from here. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GoyzfRa8zQ8C&pg=PA260&lpg=PA260&dq=shell+haydock+oil+terminal&source=bl&ots=KvLGSeywma&sig=AGL8eABvNU0bi-tu-PO0RAjzKWo&hl=en&ei=PlenTYHINoiGhQfTz5XfCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&sqi=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=shell%20haydock%20oil%20terminal&f=false Another one was Glazebrook on the CLC Mancherter - Liverpool line, serving British Tar Products. Also now all gone. Brit15

Good article & photos about Mottram Yard & Dinting area in Feb 2011 issue of British Railways Illustrated, It is part 11 of a series about "Britains new railway" - The woodhead route. Will we see it revived one day ? Brit15

Treacle mine ? - Bet nobody has modelled the Jam Butty mines in Knotty Ash (at the side of the Cheshire Lines dock branch) !!! LNWR North Wales coast, Cumbria, Peak District etc LYR Southport Blackpool, And OF COURSE they BOTH (together with the GC) served sunny WIGAN !! Brit15

Allready in Wikipedia 70012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_70_(diesel) American built locomotive falling off a Chinese built boat during unloading in Wales - You could not make it up !!! Previous poster was correct re Brush & Loughborough - We have no longer any decent manufacturing / design capacity for so many things these days. Let's not go there replied one, no, we will not go there, ever again, unfortunately. This country is so FUBAR, and our whole future is bleaker than bleak. Just why are new 70's being bought and class 66's stored / sent abroad ? - Economics of the madhouse rule the Iron Road these days. Just my thoughts anyway. I'm sure the 70's are technically very good machines, just a shame they are not clad in a stylish & swish Kestrel like shell - then even I would (partly) welcome them. Such is progress. Brit15