APOLLO

I have read the PRR Duplexes were very slip prone so I doubt that claim.

The New York Central perhaps had a contender, The mighty Niagara, sadly all were scrapped. We will never know.

Mallard it is, her run was authenticated with a dynamometer car.

Brit15

A nice late Christmas Eve sound recording of times past far away. Have a drink and listen.

Have a merry Christmas everyone.

Brit15

Interesting video here. After gaining his Ordinary National Certificate ONC at Doncaster Tech he attended Wigan Mining & Technical College to get his Higher National Certificate (HNC) in a 6 month intensive course.

Brit15

Scots ought to be carefull what they wish for or ALL Pendolinos (etc) will terminate at Carlisle !!!!

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Wonderful layout & stock.

Liverpool & Manchester  Leipzig and Munich ?

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I'm off to Liverpool (Hattons !!) love.

Oh, I'll come with you. ---- Quick think ------

OK, I'll drop you off at the Chinese Supermarket, I'll only be half an hour !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Worked more than once !!

Brit15

I bought a tatty but serviceable 1970 J Reg VW 1302S Beetle for £350 (It had a 1600 engine so I never understood the 1302 bit).

I bought it as a second car for a couple of years, sold it to a mate who resold it to another mate. He did it up in my garage with new wings, footboards, respray etc and resold it to me for £600. I ran it for a couple of years and sold it to yet another mate for £500 and bought my 1973 Rover P5B saloon for £800 back in 1982. I still have and run the Rover, superb car. The VW soldiered on, engine blew up & was replaced, (easy job as mentioned), beetled on and was sold on yet again !!

Wonderfull cars (Beetles) ? - Not really, but mine was fun to drive and reliable. Would I run another ? - NO !!

A car once as common as muck but very rare these days.

Yes the BW 3 speed auto box coupled to the Rover 3.5 Litre V8 is allways a pleasure to drive. 

Brit15

I still have my old Trix and Hornby Dubblo (City of London) 2 rail pacifics that still run well and fly around with 12 on occasionally.

A very old 3 rail Hornby Dubblo Duchess has pride of place in my model of Ince Central Wagon Works scrap line, been there for years !!

Nice to have / run the (very) old stuff on occasions.

Brit15

Back around 1970 as an apprentice with The North Western Gas Board I had just passed my driving test, and was driving my Dad's old Daimler Majestic 3.8 Auto (having learned in a Mini).

The boss found out I could drive, and arranged for me to take the Gas Board driving test in a Morris J van with trailer such as the one below.

What a difference, an absolute pig to drive, all ours were old and knackered, the gearbox & clutch were a nightmare, no wonder they were nicknamed "Leaping Lena's" !! - I had to back van and trailer into a parking bay etc.

I passed, right said the boss, be at Wigan Gas Works at 11.45 each day, my job was to collect the "Gas Works pie order" from the bakery a mile away.

I soon "graduated" to a Ford Escort van - Happy days.

Brit15

Interesting story here.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/25/us/ohio-train-derailment-bearing-vibration/index.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11754485/Why-East-Palestine-bomb-train-not-stopped-fire-broke-out.html

Question, Did the flat wheel / false flange stop the wheel rotating and caused the subsequent derailment at Petrill Bridge, so no "hot boxes" were detectable ?

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11 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

On pay, I have never had an issue with people being well paid  (extremely well paid) where their pay fairly reflects their value to the organisation.  Where it is more questionable is when it doesn't. 

 

At £300k+ I would expect someone to be a shining star or sent down the road very quickly, at that level there's no reason to tolerate anything less than excellence. 

 

On travel, invariably at senior level it is about how the package is designed. Whether it is built into salary or paid separately it tends to land around the same place. Although why an organisation like DafT, part of the remit of which is emissions reduction,  would employ someone to commute by air as an ongoing arrangement is rather questionable.  Many organisations do it on a transitional basis but for an organisation like DfT it opens them up to the entirely reasonable charge that if they're happy for people to commute by air then what right do they have to whinge at the rest of us? The thing I find nuts is that DfT salaries for most roles are hardly generous.

I agree re pay.

On "senior level" travel, at this time of year Her Late Majesty the Queen was known to travel on a normal service train from Kings Cross to Kings Lynn for her Christmas break at Sandringham.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/20/queen-elizabeth-joins-commuters-train-begin-christmas-break-sandringham-11939951/

Nuff said.

Brit15

18 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

At a certain level management doesn't necessarily have to know the nuts and bolts and be able to go out and do a job on the coalface (though it's nice when they do and can). What they do need to be capable of is recognising the right expertise needed by the business and ensuring it is in place, understand advice, be capable of making decisions and have a spine. There's a theory that managers don't need to know anything about the industry within which they work because it's a process, I think that goes too far but many of the best leaders in shipping have never been to sea or have any detailed knowledge of how ships work, in electricity generation while most senior leaders were engineers it wasn't the case they'd all worked in power plants. The real disasters can't do, can't manage and can't make decisions but they can say yes and play corporate politics.

I strongly disagree with your first point, but fully agree with your last one.

When The British Gas Corporation was privatised by Thatcher back in 1986 she wanted it split up and sold off. The then head was Sir Dennis Rooke, a proven and capable gas engineer of many years, who stood up against Thatcher and won. His team of senior management were mostly engineers also.

The customer, and customer service remained king. British Gas was a success and remained intact for quite a few years after. Of course "market forces" (The city and it's £Billions) eventually won the day. Shell wanted the exploration and production, and eventually got it, the rest was (later) split into Centrica and The National Grid (who really wanted & got the high pressure gas grid).

Now gas is the enemy, a fossil fuel and everybody is jumping ship (NG selling off transmission / distribution etc).

The reason most (all ?) large corporations are so distant from their customers these days is totally out of touch (to the customer) management, most not able to tell the difference from Gas & Paraffin (as we gas engineers used to say !!). Just able to count beans and feather their own nests.  This reflects all the way down to customer facing staff etc. Staff morale everywhere is at an all time low.

Our railways are no different, an absolute customer disaster area these days. 

And things WILL get worse, and worse, for us all, as AI takes over etc. Corporations, Institutions and Government (of all colours) simply are not interested in "we the people" and are busy with "other" agendas these days.

Brit15

21 hours ago, ROY@34F said:

If you have to go you have to go Tony . As others have said , the shovel was handy . Lay paper on it first and chuck it all in the box when done . There was always old relayer notices and daily updates of work on the line , local appendix updates and suchlike paperwork kicking about in the tender cupboards . I can't remember the bucket being used . We used to wash up / freshen up in it at the end of a return trip . plenty of hot soft water out the slacker pipe .

 

  Regards , Roy .

For DCC sound aficicionados the relevant sound function button for the above is usually next to the "Frying breakfast on the shovel" one !!!!

Brit15

Back to reality.

The Radio telescope at Jodrell Bank alongside the Manchester to Crewe railway was electronically affected when the railway was electrified. It was soon sorted though.

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Time to dig the 2020 Callendar out !!

Lovely trains (when they run / ran), but

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/10/its-chaos-ruined-plans-lost-hours-at-uks-worst-station-for-cancelled-trains

And poor old Felix has gone. R.I.P.

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A good looking new loco - makes a change !!

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Marylebone 2030 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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3 hours ago, woodenhead said:

It's also not political correctness whose definition is "conformity to prevailing liberal or radical opinion, in particular by carefully avoiding forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against."

So no more pie jokes (or the eating thereof) of us Wiganers !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brit15

Any of these on the list ?

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 Quick question. Who actually PAID for these locomotives and coach sets ?

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The world is going backwards.

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https://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/methane_bate.html

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