TheSignalEngineer

One of those visible here?

The WTT for the area only shows the move out from the station to the junction, but in the Excel version available on the internet the way the times have been input for all trains in and out of Fort William brings up an error as both entries for Fort William Junction show the same time. Realtime Trains used to go into a glitch in such situations. We used to have one on the Dinting Triangle when some trains that went Broadbottom -Dinting - Hadfield - Glossop - Dinting - Broadbottom or vice versa were shown as one path from Manchester Piccadilly to Manchester Piccadilly.

I think someone got their fingers in the wrong places doing some keyboard work. There's also an instance earlier in the day of 477+493 departing Fort William for Mallaig whilst 477 was shown at Corrour on a Mallaig - Glasgow working at the same time. As there don't seem to be any conflicting moves at the station I did wonder if it was running a taxi service to the staff car park.

I would have thought that there was a bigger risk of injury from stumbling on the uneven stony surface. Perhaps it should be concreted over or removed completely.

Send 'er over. I'll teach her how to fire up the forge and make a set of shoes for 'oss. She'll need plenty when there aren't any motor cars left. Perhaps the East Lancs should get the Horse Tram out of Castlecroft Museum to work the Ramsbottom Shuttle. Doesn't need CDL, it hasn't got a door. No good for the West Highland though. I don't think NR do path timing for a large horse at 4mph. That would take about 10 hours to Mallaig not including a lunch stop at Glenfinnan.

I remember in discussions about a bypass scheme in the north where the standing joke was that when modelling the area introducing an incident on the existing road layout would have a ripple effect round the world as a large proportion of the aircrew based at Manchester used it to get to work. Any Road Up, time for a break. This thread has done more laps than the Super D currently sitting on my roundy, it's making my head go dizzy.

We had a long discussion about this something like 56 pages ago. I think there is a train graph posted about page 9 if you want to come up with a reasoned explanation of how the line works. The reason why the first Jacobite doesn't use the available path an hour or so earlier is because the first Down arrival at Fort William is the Highland Sleeper which is booked in at 1000 hence the 1015 Down Jacobite. If the train departed at 0930 it would have to wait at Glenfinnan for an Up train to pass, strangely enough the train which crosses that Up train in the summer timetable is the 1015 Down Jacobite. The latest a steam train could depart Fort William is 0900. It would then pass the 1010 from Mallaig at Arisaig. Here's my doodle of a line occupation chart based on last summer's WTT for the Mallaig line. Don't forget that many of the trains involved cross at other stations to the south and are also portions of Oban services to Crianlarich. The coloured blocks represent the period when a token is in use. Blue are Scotrail, Red are Jacobite. The yellow ones are the STP paths used by LS on 9th April. One clashes with the second Down Jacobite path (orange part) so is not normally available. For an example of other complications the 1815 train from Mallaig arriving Fort William at 1937 connects with the Up Sleeper departing at 1950. As the Sleeper is parked up at the station from 1800 the second Up Jacobite path arriving at 1908 has to get off to depot before the 1815 from Mallaig can pass Fort William Junction.

The present agreement is for trains of 6 or 7 coaches at line speed which is Max 45mph. As I said earlier 25 mph isn't an option without rewriting the whole timetable for the west of Scotland north of the Clyde. Taken to the ultimate extreme that could have a knock on effect on the morning peak at Euston.

Ryanair?

Walsall DCE used a 2P 4-4-0. I think the usual ones were 40692 then 40696. You needed a go anywhere loco for a saloon but with a good turn of speed getting to site and between stops. You would get put into all kinds of unkempt sidings during stops so big locos weren't much use. In the 1980s we liked to get a Class 25 for our tours.

Early in the thread someone mentioned Spring Road in Birmingham. This picture of the Up platform building shows when it was approaching its worst. (Picture from https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/springroad.htm) I started commuting from there two years later when the original building had been rep[laced by an Abacus shelter. The gas lights had gone but I remember that before the new electric lighting was commissioned the platforms were lit by temporary electric lighting which consisted of bulbs hanging from a festoon cable supported on wooden posts planted in cable drums full of ballast.

Not a clever game to try. The Track Access Agreement is with Network Rail as 'Owner of the Network' Who has to agree to Network Rail making the agreement? Well the document is about 100 pages long but you don't need to get deep into it to find out who pulls Network Rail's strings. Words copied directly from page three of the current Jacobite agreement between NR and WCRC:- "Background: (A) Network Rail is the owner of the Network; and (B) Network Rail has been directed by ORR to grant to the Train Operator permission to use certain track comprised in the Network on the terms and conditions of this contract."

Flew home from Faro after a New Year holiday. Security took me about 30 seconds to get through. They either have amazing scanners or don't give a toss.

And they make a terrible squealing noise on tight curves due to grinding off the flanges and rail head. Weren't they banned from the Esk Valley and other lines for that?

I scored some victories in local campaigns in the past. At some meetings with council officials, utilities, politicians etc, the killer question was "in the event of an accident which one of you holds the Go To Jail Card?" Certainly concentrated their minds on the problem in hand.

The semaphore was altered when the layout changes at the North box were made, I think it would be 1966. It was like that in March 1967. I haven't got an exact date for my photo but the one before was Western Invader and the one after Western Fusilier. My guess based on that would be late 1976. Leamington platform end bracket and the Up Starter were replaced by colour lights either late 1977 or early 1978 as spot renewals. At the time I was doing a resignal by stealth of as many bits of the Banbury line as possible under the cover of track remodelling. box rationalisation, DM's minor works and S&T minor renewals. In nine years we managed to renew all of the main line running signals and provide track circuits for most sections on nine route miles, reducing ten boxes to five, increasing MGR train loads and improving headway times in the process.

Diodes for stopping backfeed through relay coils? If they are not there throwing the control switch will try to energise both sides of the Seep simultaneously depending on the internal arrangements in the relay.

Both appear to have run this morning so they must have at least one line fit to pass traffic. I assume there are still rules for passing an important train through a possession. Many years ago I did the 'man with the red flag' act, walking through my possession at Acton Wells a safe distance ahead of an 08 checking the points were correct and secured to get the Guinness out of Park Royal.

If it were in our line the MP would be out with his shovel this morning fully dressed in orange waterproofs to do a 'Levelling Up' photo shoot.

I'm past doing it on an ordinary bike now but have done it a few times in the past even on an MTB. It's even tough (or slow) on an ebike. One day we were doing our old Kinder Round loop. over The Snake to Ladybower, Bamford, Castleton, Chinley, Hayfield and back to Glossop. Stopped at Hope for lunch and a westerly gale sprung up. Climbing up through the cutting above Castleton it was raining and the wind stopped me completely even with a motor. We raced back to Hope station and got the train to New Mills. Mam Nick from the Edale side is another killer.

Last weekend I was travelling in one elsewhere (at low speed) that certainly had body panel rot. Not quite bad enough to examine the condition of the framework though. I think it is 45mph maximum. We discussed that with a lot of explanation as to how a lower speed isn't practicable and would require rewriting the timetable for just about every line in western Scotland north of the Clyde. You'll find it from about page 8 or 9 of the thread onwards.

Tread carefully. Two doors down from our daughter the new occupants decided to build a basement. The next door conservatory decided it was too heavy and started to move. Has turned into a very acrimonious situation. I wonder why the bothered buying the house as knowing the ground conditions there I think they could end up with an underground swimming pool.

Somewhere in the dim and distant I did produce a scenario for a similar joint line to be built by the West Cornwall Railway and Bodmin & Wadebridge from Padstow through Wadebridge onto the Ruthernbridge Branch, Indian Queens for China Clay traffic and Newquay branch, then on to Truro (Newham) and a new deep water port at Falmouth.

Mam Tor Road is pretty good on a mountain bike, almost as good as some Red sections at trail centres. Navigating round that step by the dog walkers is a bit technical and one section near the top is getting a bit narrow to ride. If you misjudge that one the best bet is to try to fall towards the high ground and let the bike go over the side if you have to. Must take the GoPro next time I'm over that way.

Didn't really solve the issue, just cut off that end of Castleton to all but light vehicles. Only way in and out is Wynatt's Pass. It pleased some high-ups in the National Park and National Trust as they no longer had lorries past their mansions 😉