Trog

The other thing I have done in the past where you have a trap point between other lines and don't want to use something exotic that self destructs when it derails a vehicle like a wide to gauge trap, is to use a pair of normal B switches and put a guard rail in the 4' to encourage the derailed vehicles to stay in line. As this requires timber sleepers so you can fit the chairs or baseplates for the guard rail, you also then have timber sleepers for the derailed vehicles to land on With a slow speed derailment you then usually just get a flange groove in the top of the timber, whereas a concrete sleeper would probably break and need replacing.

Double bladed catch points got more common over time, as the standard type for CWR used a pair of modified B switches.

I was always told that Catch Points were used to stop or 'catch' a vehicle running away in the wrong direction to normal traffic, usually where the normal direction of use was up a reasonable rising gradient. These were usually spring worked points except where the line was signalled to be used in both directions in which case they would be worked by the local signal box. Trap points are used at the exits from Goods Loops and sidings, and their function is to 'trap' vehicles in the loop or sidings, so if a wagon has not been properly secured it can not roll or be blown out foul of the running lines, and such train movements made in error by staff are also prevented. These are usually worked points that work in parallel with the matching switches in the running line. So the trap point will only allow a movement towards the mainline, if the mainline points are set to receive it, which will only be allowed by the interlocking if the mainline signal protecting that move is already set at danger. I have seen spring worked trap points at the entry to loops, so a train entering a loop will trail through the trap point which will then automatically be set to prevent a dodgy exit as soon as the train is in the loop. This may however just be a way of saving the cost of the kit to work the switch rather than a deliberate extra safety precaution. The above is the word usage on the south end of the LM Region over the last 40 years, other times and places may have used the descriptions differently.

How about having two rail gaps with the second gap placed for the 4TC with a switch that bridges it for the other occupants, so the length of the isolated section can be extended or shortened at need.

I believe that the LNER also used three hole fishplates, but I have never seen one.

The choice between steel and concrete sleepers is like most things in life money driven. If the ballast under the existing track is half way decent and the track radii are not too tight it is cheaper to relay using steel sleepers. As these are only ~1/4" thick and hence rest on top of what was the top ballast so after scarifying the existing top ballast you get about 5" of extra halfway decent new bottom ballast for free, as you do not have to reballast which more than covers the fact that steel sleepers cost more than concrete. If the radii are tight or the existing ballast is in technical terms heavily contaminated with clay sh*t, it will b necessary to reballast the track in which case it is cheaper once you have your bed of new ballast to lay the sleepers on to use concrete sleepers. In the case of tight radii the extra weight of the concretes also helps resist buckling forces in hot weather. On very tight curves the use of CWR is banned, but you could until a few years ago reduce the risk of 60'-0" rails on a tight curve threpenny bitting as the rails straightened, by using 120'-0" rails balancing the extra buckling forces off by increasing the concrete sleeper numbers per length, perhaps using LREPs and the CWR ballast profile on jointed track. However the use of LWR (rails over 60'-0" but not CWR) was banned due to buckles where rail often BH on poor condition softwood sleepers had been welded up into lengths over 60'-0" but no additional precautions had been taken. So once again idiots + H&S = annoyed experienced staff.

GWR two hole fishplate still in use on a running line in the early 2000's.

Give them time and they will.

I remember being told by an older colleague that you could see where the buffer stops at Warwick Road yard had been converted from Broad to Standard Gauge. Also the run off from the catch point on the incline on the north side of the Cremorne Bridge was still laid in GWR bridge rail in the 1980's.

Bog standard flat bottom adjustment switch, but in a position like that is a total waste of money as if the stops were just bolted or welded onto the end of the CWR all they would do is perhaps move in and out a bit as the CWR expanded and contracted. Probably just somebody with little or no experience blindly following the standard that says to put an adjustment switch between flat bottom CWR and bull head jointed. Without thinking about why the standard asks for that, and why it is un-necessary where there is too little bull head track to allow a buckle especially as the free ends of the rails will allow for any expansive movement of the rails anyway. I would have just relaid up to two sleepers from the buffer stop joints in concrete sleepered CWR, installed two Pan11 hardwoods, then the FB/BH joint and BH buffer stop, that arrangement would have been just as good need less maintenance and saved a fortune. The ballast looks to be the standard 50mm size normally used, although historically 28mm stone was used in dry tunnels where drainage of rain was not a problem as it is easier to work with. (Hence why 28mm ballast is sometimes called tunnel ballast). About the only recent use of tunnel ballast I am aware of was some of the late 1990's relaying on the Euston - Watford DC line CWJ, as the genius of Railtrack ensured that there was no longer any tampers suitable for 3rd/4th rail electrified track available at the south end of the WCML so all maintenance had to be done by hand. By the year 2000 or so supplying nonstandard sized ballast became too difficult for the supply side, so the poor old trackmen have since just had to lump un-nessessary shovelling of the 50mm ballast.

I would have thought that Hattons will keep having batches made for as long as they can sell them. If I was Hattons I would take a batch selling out on pre-order as evidence that there was an opportunity to sell a few more, particularly if the feed back from those who bought the early batches is good. Perhaps making second / third repeats smaller orders of any one livery just in case demand ends suddenly.

Probably not too big a problem as the lines between Hanslope and Rugby via Kilsby and Np'ton are still known as the Old and New Lines, despite the New Line being built during the reign of Queen Victoria.

The link says that a benefactor is paying for it to be built externally to the railway. So should make no difference to the running or maintenance of the railway until said benefactor buys a very large sheet of wrapping paper and says present for you. At which point it should help generate revenue which could help pay for other things.

Probably because the nose to tail traffic jams on the A1 north of the Black Cat roundabout in the mornings, from the Bedford direction in the evenings and on the single carriage way from the A1 to Caxton gibbet morning and evening must be so fuel efficient.

So was I with much the same joke.

Should that in this case be vertical curves as the pictures I have seen show a quite rapid change of gradient at the end of the bank. Although this may be due to the effect of pictures taken through a telescopic lens. (If you want to give a PW Supervisor a heart attack let him look through a surveyors level at some old jointed track he is responsible for, as the dips at the joints look horrendous and a half.)

Also the reason why double headed rail did not work, and railways switched to bullhead instead.

Think of rolling slums with a kettle, and the sort of toilet facilities discussed when Blackadder was selling his house.

I did a Hallade course at the Engineering School. I remember being told that if the fire alarm went off to get out quickly as the then ~50 year old wooden huts had a short fire life. It turned out that there was no accommodation available for me so I ended up travelling from home each day, loads of lovely overtime. Although as we were working longer than standard days I had to walk to and from Watford Junction each day. I was also once sent up there with a level, gang and some ballast to lift and pack the S&C behind the huts. Also the bridge over the canal on the drive was I believe numbered in the WCML bridge number series sixty something Z.

You surprise me I thought it was the Metropolitan and Great Central Joint and Great Western and Great Central Joint Joint railway that served Aylesbury? (Also the LNWR at High Street for those wanting a more premier service.)

This was on BR, the doors and door pillars were so weak they were easily bent out of shape. But if you really want to see a wagon bulge load a 40 year old tube/pipe wagon with spent ballast until you can not get any more in.

The doors tended to bow outwards sometimes to the extent that the wagons would be sent to works for repair under exceptional load conditions (out of normal gauge), not bad for an empty wagon.

It is interesting how things change, I remember one day being out looking at a track relaying job in the middle of Roade Cutting with Alf Barker who was then the local Relaying Supervisor at Northampton. No block, no look-out men, no worries just two blokes doing a normal days work between the passing 100MPH expresses. Alf then got a message I think he must have used a signal phone when the signalman played the P-Way's tune on the cookoo. That someone had been hit by a train at an old occupation crossing between where we were and Blisworth. So we walked off down the line until we found the body, which appeared to be an obvious suicide. My abiding impression of the whole thing was that it seemed unreal, the body having drained of blood was yellow and waxy looking, like a joint of meat in a butchers window. So we stood by the body keeping the crows away, and started waving to attract the attention of a police car who's occupants were searching for the body by driving up and down a nearby road. It was the first dead body that I had seen close up, I don't remember there being any follow up to check to see if I was upset about it. I think Alf just said are you OK to carry on and we went back to what we were doing in Roade Cutting. But in those days you only got the rest of the day off if you had been asked to actually pick up the remains of someone you knew. I suppose that trying to put people threatening to jump from bridges off by looking at your watch while holding a bin bag would also be frowned upon these days. The past is certainly a foreign country and they do things differently there.

That has been a long term trend, I once read of I think a rear end collision at Willesden Junction in the Victorian period with fatalities, where they uncoupled the front coaches that were still on the rails from the wreckage, and that part of the train still with passengers in it then carried on to Euston. Even in the early part of my time on the railway a traffic supervisors reaction to a suicides body on the line was to get it clear of the track and chuck a blanket over it, and start running trains again. This was probably a good thing even from the point of view of the suicide. As the last thing they would need after a depressing day, would be to arrive at the Pearly Gates only to discover when St Peter opened his big book. That they had collected enough demerit points for causing anger and distress to thousands of delayed commuters while they were climbing the stairs, that they now have to turn round and go back down to where a warm welcome awaits them at the bottom

Decadence that it what it is shear decadence on the part of modern snowflakes who would benefit no end from the character forming effects of tipping a few dozen Mermaid wagons by hand. My heart is still lightened by recollecting the look on the mans face the time the Area Civil Engineers P-Way Assistant ordered a relative of BR Chairman Sir Peter Parker who was on site dressed in a suit to help him tip Mermaids. Myself and the supervisor were half way through tipping another at the time, the relaying gang having had an argument with the supervisor and gone home when their shift was up.