5944

One for the Joy Division fans...

Bit late now, they've been in Letchworth for over a hundred years. Greys are relatively rare around here.

Couple of photos taken this afternoon of the black squirrel that has been feasting on the seeds from the sunflowers in our garden.

This landed in the school field opposite the house a few weeks ago. Luckily the casualty wasn't seriously injured and the air ambulance wasn't required. The helicopter has landed there once before in the time we've been in this house, but we were out for the day. This time it woke me up as I was trying to get a nap before nights! That was on the Friday, and on the following Monday it had to land again to collect someone else.

Is demand high though? The very first run on its first day in public service has a completely empty carriage at present, and only 18 tickets booked in total. The other three trains show 19, 12 and 8 tickets sold so far. Some of the midweek trips don't have a single ticket sold on them yet. There's only one other train out on the days the T3 is running, and for 9 days it's half term. Families aren't going to pay for one round trip that doesn't stop anywhere, and especially not when it would be £115 for 2A+3C! A normal family return ticket is £47. The loco doesn't owe anything at present, the overhaul was funded by grants and donations. It just seems a bit greedy of the railway to whack such a premium on what is, to the general public, a completely unknown loco. I agree about the Victorian dining trains though! Shame they've only got Mk1s and the dining set is out of action after being vandalised a few months ago.

The loco has now commended loaded test runs! Looks and sounds excellent. Just a shame they've priced the first runs way out of my budget, and probably that of many other people. £30 for one return trip from Swanage, but unlike when 60103 visited, the other services cannot be used by 563 ticket holders. So if you park at Norden it's an extra £17 return or £25 day rover per adult, meaning each ticket costs more than when 60103 visited. Lovely loco, fantastic achievement getting it steaming again for the first time in 75 years. But to command a higher fare than Flying Scotsman? Hmm...

Probably yes, plus the fact Farish haven't released any more since the initial batch. They seemed to sell ok and didn't hang around on the shelves for years on end.

Is the drive shaft properly fitted been the loco and tender?

It appears the ashpan sprinkler was left running on 80136. It's fed from one of the feed side of one of the injectors, so if the fireman was using the other injector he wouldn't have noticed the feed to first one was still on. Hence why the loco has managed to use 2000 gallons of water in less than 6 miles!

Bit late to this, but nothing has changed. Class 387/1s and 387/2s, virtually identical EMUs, built a couple of years apart, have different components fitted in places! Windscreen wiper motors being the one that sticks in my mind, having had to change a couple. Different design, different mounting holes. Why?! But then again, they're Bombardier products. I could give a nice long list of things that don't make any sense about how they were assembled. They have an obsession with hiding all the fixings in the passenger areas, so they look good. It means exam work isn't too bad on them, but repair/maintenance work is an absolute nightmare. For example... The screen wash bottle is L-shaped and fits under both the power-brake controller and the DSD pedal, and it takes all shift to replace one due to the amount of stuff that needs to be removed and refitted. One of the bolts holding the covering panel on has to be slightly shorter than all the rest, as otherwise it goes through the side of the bottle. Passenger door open buttons for the external doors, you wouldn't expect to need to take roof panels down to be able to change one! Inter-coach door buttons can either be changed in two minutes or two hours, depending which one it is. Obviously it's the two hour one that regularly breaks. Passenger information screen replacement? Good luck with that! Be easier to cut a hole in the roof and go in from above than the way they've been designed. Ventilation fans for the toilets? Buried in the roof space with air con ducting in the way, yet there's loads of room to put them elsewhere. Simple things to change but access is a nightmare. A component that can be changed in 15 minutes needs the unit to be booked on depot for a day to allow it to be stripped down and put back together again afterwards. I'm sure it makes sense to somebody...

Likewise. It looks like one of those massive skyscrapers that get built in the Middle East has fallen over.

Toilet end of TOSL next to pantograph end of MOS. Pan next to (toilet) pan!

If everyone could check behind their garden sheds and out buildings, that'd be grand. Very impressive to completely lose an $80m aircraft!

I doubt WCRC will send their locos up to Fort William - why knacker your own locos when you can hire someone else's? It's telling that there hasn't been a WCRC steam loco based at Fort William for many years.

I agree, and a lot of issues/failures can't be helped. I think the vast majority of people accept that. Likewise if the operators are scrambling around trying to fix the fault, not a problem in my view. These things happen. It's when there's a lack of urgency or pride that irritates me. You're there to show off your layout, if you want to stand around chatting to your mates all day go to the pub! I went to one exhibition where an hour before doors opening, there was still a substantial sized layout missing. 45 minutes before opening time they waltzed in to try and set up their layout. Come opening time the boards are up but no lights and more importantly no stock! Frankly that's not really good enough, especially as they didn't seem to be in any sort of rush to get things sorted. Everyone has something go wrong or makes mistakes now and again, it's just the way things go. In the past I've had to drive back to the club room the night before a show to pick up the controllers for the layout! But the layout was ready to go at 10am when doors opened, and that's what the paying public expect.

I see your complete plastic case and raise you this... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144397776630?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=g4LuWR03S1q&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=dltlllrnrym&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I know it's not eBay, but it is another auction site. This is quite an interesting concoction! https://www.catawiki.com/en/l/74227041-zelfbouw-n-electric-locomotive-series-1500-ns

I don't think that's what causing the height difference though. If you look carefully, the gap between the top of the bogie step and the bottom of the body is smaller on the loco on the right. It could be something like it's longer out of works and the springs are more worn than the other loco. The one on the left has definitely seen works attention recently - look at the new axle end covers and shoe beams.

Are they coming out more frequently these days or am I just getting slower at reading them? Another trip to Smiffs tomorrow morning then.

Funnily enough, Ol49-7 was the first loco I saw in Wolsztyn, and I've never seen so much water pouring out of a loco before! Remarkably it lasted another 3 weeks in traffic before being dumped in the sidings near the station, never to work again. I never met Howard, but I'm very grateful for what he achieved out there. Even now, to be able to book last minute flights and head over there for a couple of days of proper mainline steam is still quite unbelievable.

Two shots of Blümlisalp on Lake Thun and one of Lötschberg on Lake Brienz last month. Bit annoyed I only managed to get the peaks of Jungfrau and Mönch in the first shot - the Eiger is behind the trees on the left. But as I was already standing on the edge of the pier I couldn't go much further out without getting wet!