lmsforever

When we were on the island in May on our coach drivers day off we went on an excellent boat trip around Portsmouth harbour very interesting .coach from hotel to Cowes driven by a very interesting American Southern Vectis driver .IOW is a lovely place for a holiday recommend it to all ,we went backe a week later to Warners at Bembridge going again in September.

Think they look better without any livery on ,look more sleek is the interior the same as other Pendos?

The track looks unloved at Althorpe did the weed killer train ever go there?

Like the way you show your handiwork on the front path if I tried that they would not be there long also the front of your house are they on your house?

A while since I went through the Wendover Gap works they are coming on very fast the viaduct will look very smart when built and the greenery has returned.

I hope that the line from Aylesbury is reinstated but I am not holding my breath ,the use of lorries from an unloading point outside of Waddesdon would cause a revolution locally already people are sick to death with all the HGV,s using the A41 although a bypass is currently being built around Waddesdon. Even the new section of the A41 outside of Aylesbury towards the start of the above bypass is single carriageway so a decent road beyond Waddesdon is a no hoper. Around our town the roads are hopeless all single all jammed with traffic and a drive to MK is a nightmare until you reach Leighton Buzzard.Bucks CC is basically anti rail and cant even provide us with decent roads, the A41 from the M25 to the M40 is a rat run for HGV,s especially at night with lorry after lorry blasting along. The rail link to MK would provide us with excellent links but convincing the population of this town to use it would prove to be very hard.Our buses are excellent but people just dont use them to go to work even if they work in the town centre.The fact that Chiltern are reverting to an hourly service to London reinforces this view.When you go to London by train it only starts to fill up from Stoke Manderville ,Wendover,Great Missenden ,Amersham Aylesbury seems to be very quiet. We wont be able to have a direct link to London via Risboro we have to change at Risboro not a forward step .When HS2 is finished it will be part of the countryside but I bet people will still complain and continue to drive everywhere whilst ignoring our train links . On a happy note the viaduct at the back of town is really progressing fast and the Waddesdon bypass will be open in the new year . The earthworks around Aylesbury are very large at Stoke Manderville there is a very deep hole and brick abutments are appearing ,At waddesdon there are large piles of ballast which are being used to stabilise embankments ans cuttings .Work in general is progressing well all the way from Wendover to Bicester and the maintenance facility is taking shape ,EWR is also takikng shape fast with sections of double track in place near Winslow .Thats it for now at least there is a light on the horizon.

Thanks for the shot of viaduct around Aylesbury will be quite a bit of engineering when finnished.

I enjoyed watching the gala on Railcam the sound of these locos was fantastic and seeing the refurbished set of coaches added to the pleasure ,I regularily watch the trains on this line as they have to work hard.

Now that would be a good idea as would the origonal idea of our trains going to MK but given the current services being provided by Chiltern and the attitude of govt its probably never going to happen .The Parkway station is starting to gain passengers but is nowhere fullfilling its potential overall at the moment in Aylesbury the private car is king the bus services are underused which is bad because the network is good. So we shall have to wait and hope things change .

The class 310 emu shown at Birmingham reminded me of many pleasant journeys on them over a long period the seats were very comfortable unlike the majority of todays units.

I learnt to drive in a Triumph Herald lovely car to drive wished I had bought one instead went for a mini van which saw well in my travials across the UK but I still would not mind owning a Herald.

Very nice looking shed like the side for storage well covered over all in all a very solid bit of work cant wait to see the coach appear you have your work cut out .The view from your house looks great and uncluttered is it only deer you get visitations from?

You have definitely caught the mood in Mallaig it always looks cold and the new 37 with the white line looks great ,never understood why management did not like it .Keep up the good work.

Its a lovely feeling when you wake up and realise that no more work but its amazing how life gets busy but in good way the eight years will fly by!

m in my shed two of the local cats visit me and often curl up and have a kip ,like the layout.

Good to see you back know how life gets in the way thats something I experience regularly\ my layouit is being changed on an ongoing basis ,every now and then I even run trains. Glad the music is getting on well we are going out Thursday evening to a do with a local band playing who are very good ,they are shall we say been around for a while and know how to entertain.

They had a piece on local tv a couple of weeks ago about the level crossing beside the Bicester town station on EWR people were complaining about how long the barriers were going to close against cars .A women councillor was allowed to blather about how important all the cars are and how disgusting the trains were going to be and they should be cut back when they start running.You can reach that part of Bicester by driving further up the road turn into the town and you are there with only three minutes added to the journey.

That is fantastic the snow adds a special feel to a good photo of the freight.

Went out to give an RNLI talk last week and found myself next to the line near Winslow and next to me the line had two tracks laid and ballasted looked good and pleasing .

The Bicester railway was an interesting place to wander about and see some very interesting trains going about their business ,you did wonder sometimes what was under the tarpaulins! Alongside the A41 going into Bicester was a group of sidings where wagons were loaded and sent off to other depots the route was towards Oxford and the rest of the UK. As it contracted various buildings were reused by new companies at one point a preserved railway was started but this had to close .The area near the prison was used for vehicle auctions for a while also one building was used to rebuild a loco and it was sent to a preserved railway. The network was vast and had a very good signalling system with a good few boxes one was at a junction behind a village on the way to Bicester and another line left here to loop round around the whole site. A building opposite the airfield that used store uniforms is now an old car restoration centre .After the war one of the hangars was used to store captured German aircraft a 109 ,a Dornier bomber and a Focke Wolf 190 were reputed to be there plus a few others ,they all went to museums . Bicester was an interesting place to visit alas now new houses are being built on many sites once occupied by the military .Shame that the preserved railway did not make it but unfortunately it was doomed from the start with what was being proposed for the area ensured that housing was the priority so goodbye railway.The army is still there in an interesting camp where I used to deliver fish to the officer's mess accompanied by a soldier to see I did not do anything I shouldnt !!!!!!

Thanks pity it is not out and about.

Today I went to Wendover mkt as usual but could not go via Butlers Cross as usual so turned left expecting to come out at the bypass , but as we approached this area we had to follow a brand new road that looped across the work site onto an impressive bridge and came out at the end of the bypass. This an impressive construction and makes our journey interesting also the hole that has been dug outside of Stoke Manderville plus a wall is being built here as well to match one opposite .

Didnt we look boring in 1950,s all those raincoats and the women in horrible woolly coats and short trousers they were horrible I managed to stop wearing them by the time I reached nine . But the royal train looked good nice to see the loco it looked very clean what happenned to it?

Went past the works outside Stoke Mandeville where the line crosses the Wycombe road on the right hand side there is a very deep excavation and on the left a wall is appearing and the track bed is more defined. When looking down on the works beside Wendover station the whole ares looks a lot cleaner ie a lack of works and any kind of vehicles the work sites have moved to where the line crosses the A413 and the BR rail line .The possible road access behind the house backs as you descend into Wendover from Butlers Cross seems to have a great amount of stone added so what happens next is anyones guess!

Thanks for an interesting post you certainly did some traveling good to see pics of Glasgow I always enjoyed my trips there Central is indeed a great place and has a special atmosphere,how does it feel to doing 110mph over the WCML?