Pandora

I began work age 18 in 1973 for 50p per hour, tax was 33p or 35 p /£ of income, I think a magazine was 25p or 30p, I need to find the price of a loco and work out the quantity of hours of work required to fund such a purchase

Any connection to the SNCF wagons, they were British built for use in France post WW2, returned to Britain when SNCF had recovered

ICI Grangemouth isolated the pigment Monastral, a key property being immunity to fade when exposed to high intensity light, therefore very likelythat ICI Transport Blue is based on Monastral, their showpiece colourant

Tonbridge Depot, . The base for railhead treatment and de-icer MPV fleet for Kent and Sussex

T The London Dockers were superstitious about their work, their jobs were hard and dangerous. Those pigeons around the Docks were the souls of old deceased dockers keeping an eye on the work to make sure the jobs were being done properly

The stretched version of the 16T wagon had 4 side doors and a longer wheelbase and body with about 50% extra capacity (category MDV)? Very few have survived, one example was marooned well away from public access or gaze at Three Bridges Depot for around 10 years. It was saved by Pete Waterman who reproduced the wagon as a 7mm kit. Another orphan is the GUV at Three Bridges station, the coach is so weathered and self- camouflaged you will not notice it. I hope the vehicle may find a home in the future.

The ECML, 30 years ago, was track maintenance by conventional ballast Tampers or by Stoneblowers which use small chippings of ballast? The latter tends to leave behind an initial rough ride until the line has settled under traffic. Today when I travel ECML London to York I notice Bllast Tampers by Matissa at strategic stabling points, I believe the WCML tend to favour Stoneblowers for maintenance.

Those class 90 hauled Leeds services depart KX 3 minutes after an Edinburgh service, the 90s contend with multiple station stops and a 110 mph capabilty they keep decent time and I think of them as a good choice for the work

"the locos had been built cheaply to meet the budget. Certainly when I was with Eversholt the price of the heavy maintenance exams was about the same as the initial build price. The cost of the subsequent refurbishment must have been huge." When the locomotives were built, the fixed costs of designing developing and tooling for production has to included in the price of the project, and those fixed costs design etc. amortised over (spread out evenly) of a modest fleet of 31 units. Is there a figure for the delivery price of each locomotive in the fleet of 31, and, if the fleet had been, say 62 units, e.g for a WCML and ECML fleet, what would have been be the marginal cost of erecting the additional 31 units?

The witness naming Buster Edwards was unreliable, for many years Buster Edwards ran a flower stall outside Waterloo Station, in 1994 he was found dead by hanging in a lockup within the Leake Street railway arches, Leake St being the dark and gloomy access road which runs underneath the country end of the platforms of Waterloo Station.

I think the figure of 9 million miles for the fleet of 31 over 30 years if off by a factor of 30

The Raleigh Chopper was a toy bicycle, and the Raleigh RSW16 an obnoxious knock off of the advanced bicycle by the engineer Alex Moulton.

A senior BR Officer told me the ECML electrification team were lauded for their performance and the minor add-on of electrification to Kings Lynn would retain the champions for another major opus which never materialised. Post privatisation under Railtrack , and the ECML team had disbanded, revealed the botched WCML upgrade and the risible GWML electrification. GWML is according to the spin doctors a mere 300% over budget, a retired senior BR project engineer said disregard 300 %, GWML is 500% over, he based his opinion on the fact that GWML electrification has been downsized in scope and 100% vs 300% figures a spurious comparison of pricing of apples vs oranges

Under BR the ECML electrification was delivered to time and budget, the spoiler being the non-implementation of the 140 mph linespeed, the Cost Benefit Analysis probably had credibilty. A stark contrast to the West Coast Upgrade and GWML schemes, the WCML upgrade was so out of control in costs to the point where budgets were abandoned.

The late 1980s was the era of Sprinterisation of passenger services and the run down of locomotive hauled services, there was much to sample before time ran out such as Class 20s to Skegness, Class 50s out of Waterloo to name a couple, memories were still fresh of the run down of the Deltics and even the Westerns. Foreign travel to Belgium France etc were new to the agenda, I can recall overhearing conversations about working diagrams for far off places. The new class 91 simply arrived as a backdrop to a stage of old actors being retired to Vic Berry and worse

From other sources the class 91fleet is rotated to have 26 in daily service, 5 off-service and mileage aggregates to approximately 27,000 miles per day which is approaching 10 million miles per year for the fleet of 31 locos

The Mark 4 coaching stock had the most appalling "mineral wagon" ride on introduction, the vertical pitch was so harsh and severe you could be partially ejected from the seat. I cannot understand how they ever passed acceptance trials , it took a lot of work by the engineers to tame the ride of the Mk 4s. Back to the 91s. I would like to see a couple of them repainted in the liveries of previous ECML "racehorses" to mark the occasion. A 91 in 1970s HST125 blue/yellow and another in a two-tone green Deltic livery would tick the boxes for me. I have noticed a few faces in coach B recently, logging up the miles (haulage) so they are attracting a visible following before they eventually yield to the Azuma fleet. I know of an individual who has logged 500,000 miles with 91009 locomotive

This year of 2019 will mark 30 years of class 91 operation on the ECML some highlights: 3rd March 1989 91001 worked 1736 KX to Peterborough as first 91 revenue service. 17th September 1989 91008 set UK speed record of 161.7 mph. 91009 worked first revenue service from KX to Edinburgh (cannot find the date) I'm staggered by the fact the 91 fleet arrived 20 years after the end of steam and another 30 years have flown by. I have not heard of anything but do anyone know of any plans afoot by LNER or others to celebrate the achievements of the class 91.

The class 90 90028 was named today at NRM York "Sir William McAlpine" the livery is DB Schenker red in a high-gloss exhibition finish, the connection to the late Sir William is 60103 which worked the down leg Kings Cross to York, and 90028 the return from NRM York. I predict a model of 90028 for the NRM or Bachmann collectors club

Backed the right stable but the wrong horses for 2019, I forecast nothing 100% new in mainline diesel, predicted models from the same stable as the Peckett and Sentinel, the Ruston 48DS a complete outsider which I never even considered

A stablemate for Hornby R3553 in LMS maroon 6231 Duchess of Atholl, I purchased R3553 to revive memories of my Hornby-Dublo Atholl

I recall seeing a van with drop-flap and side opening doors which be seen at NRM York in the Station Hall part of the museum I cannot recall if the van is of L & Y or NER origin

LBSCR Gladstone is a simple locomotive in outline. Therefore fairly easy on the toolshop budget. An attractive locomotive too. I think Gladstone is a good prospect for the announcement next week

For compatiblity with the Hornby Javelin, the Javelin Hitachi MPD located at Ashford in Kent have an eyecatching rod-drive Sentinel shunter https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidsnwtransport/26070812608

Yes if Hattons can contract out to China for manufacture of their A3 and A4 in O gauge, then why not Hornby following suit?