black and decker boy

I'm taking heart from this. My budget has been hit hard with an SLW 24, a Bachmann blue 40 and other items. The 73 was high on my list but I can now relax, wait for batch 2 or 3 or 4 when problems are sorted and then buy. Maybe I need to remember a rule from a colleague 20 years ago to avoid buying the first batch of any new car model as they were always plagued with faults. Not sure what that does for Dapol going forward mind.

Indeed, when planning our smart motorway works, we looked to combine as many trades and as many worksites as possible into each night / weekend closure. Gantry erection in one area, resurfacing in another and barriers / drainage etc in between. We did it to minimise disruption (a client aim) and reduce cost (our aim).

mine arrived yesterday, my Dad, on unpacking asked what the fuss was about. Noise! was my answer and my only reason for buying one, the sound is the best I've heard for a type 2.

Freightliner are exporting more 66s to Poland, (66530 is first and currently being prepared) so perhaps the slack is in that class?

From what I remember from Roger Fords scribblings, it is the opposite. The steel bodied MK3 is a lot stiffer than the aluminium Mk4 hence the difference. Apparently, the SIG bogie trialled under the MK3 was most excellent so it surprised BR when the MK4 was so bad.

Hopefully from one end to the other and maybe back again?

An aerial view of Gascoigne wood http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/13789956.display/ A decent website for point of Ayr Colliery http://www.penmorfa.com/Archive/ten.htm Hatfield Colliery https://www.flickr.com/photos/garstangpost/8494859447 Maltby Colliery https://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-diesels/3895407883 Thoresby Colliery http://www.aerialphotography.org.uk/Industrial/Thoresby-Colliery/i-HKXjtz2 Oxcroft https://www.flickr.com/photos/thenewmendoza/4754451335 https://www.flickr.com/photos/77531355@N08/15776822152 Bilsthorpe https://www.flickr.com/photos/77531355@N08/15594547867 Bickershaw (steam & MGR) http://www.world-railways.co.uk/gallery/photo_display.php?id=22105 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bickershaw_Colliery#/media/File:Austerity_at_Bickershaw_Colliery_02.jpg

Here is my silver fox body on 03 chassis showing another livery that Heljan could do....

Well that should stop some bitching, one price for all which is good. Does that mean they are flying off the shelves, not selling at all or SLW \ RE have taken on board comments about a split pricing structure?

Magnificent. I can smell the oil and hear the pop-pop-pop of the air reservoir. Childhood memories of South Dock, Cambois and Shirebrook all wrapped up in a photo ;-)

They look the same prices as in my offer letter (£160 as a loyalty offer) and £175 on open market. For a £15 difference, I nearly decided to wait a few months to save the pennies, nearly that is!

I would be surprised if any 156s leave, in fact, I'd be surprised if more156s didn't arrive (from Scotrail).

I don't know what the NYMR were thinking, plain green with orange cantrail stripes and modern OHLE flashes. And the roof weathering is rubbish, everyone knows that pro weathered locos have black roofs not streaky rusty brown ones. Pahh, I won't be buying it

Posted on WNXX by one of the owners of 73003: Anyone able to confirm this?

Had my new peckett sttetching its legs on the clubs test track lay night, 2 hours or so and faultless. A joy to watch.

The class 442 (ex-Wessex 3rd rail) was suggested in the TPE ITT documents by the DfT. They would have been converted to loco hauled trailers. In the event, it seems that TPE have gone with other options. This then lead to a lot of discussion / rumour that they were to be taken on by GWR, again as push-pull trailers with a 67 or 68 to work the Cardiff to Portsmouth trains due to the late running OHLE. It appears this is also not happening hence my post which was in response to earlier posts on the subject by others. The only known fact is that most of these units come off lease in spring 2016 with a small number continuing with TSGN for a few years on Eastbourne trains. The underlying need for extra trains on GWR (and elsewhere) for capacity /cascades in the short term hasn't been solved. It is certain that electric services are still a long way off.

Are the 0-6-0 chassis available as spares or do you have to pay for a whole loco and scrap the body?

Posted by a GWR insider on WNXX (who is often very reliable) 442s out of the running. Were considered (for GWR), but a number of serious technical issues bar their use. rejected for TPE for the same reasons. I'm not going into great detail but Angel know what they are and if these units are to find further use, especially beyond 2020, very serious money would need to be spent. A pity but there it is.

The contract is in standstill for 10 days so there are no details on anything yet beyond the headlines in the press releases. We will find out at the end of the 10 day period who \ what \ where will be supplying new trains, what fleet cascades are planned etc

The GWR AT300s are being built in Japan as the UK factory is full of IEP and AT200s for Scotrail so it will be interesting to see where the TPE units will be built if they are indeed AT300s

Journalists on WNXX say announcement is 0700 Wednesday, so not long at all so long as they mean tomorrow :-)

Rumour from journalists over on WNXX is arriva for northern (if not then abellio) I am interested to see what has been proposed for the new and expanded fleets for both franchises. I am less bothered by the name over the door as all the staff and working practices get TUPE'd over.

Very sad but very true

The same applies to traffic signal and data engineers on our highways networks. These too often involve complex wiring (copper and fibre), bespoke hardware & software. Like railways there are not a lot of skilled people available to design and install the kit with the technology firms (often the same that do railway signaling) constantly cutting back, reorganising and reducing capacity. Off / on spending in this market seems to work against training and recruitment, as capacity goes down, prices go up....

When the first section was to open this month and is no where near ready and with many sections not really even started, it cannot be brought back on track and to even try would swallow significantly more than the £2.8bn currently forecast. The best option now is to stabilise the ship and reset the objectives and targets. As for it being 'unpaused too early' the GWML was never paused, that was reserved for TPE and MML only.