TheSignalEngineer

Built alongside the GWR line from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton LL.👍

As long as the weather was warm. They had a switch in the cab for the ETH. One driver told me if you want engine power keep it off until the guard complains. We occasionally got one from OOC subbing for a 1000 on the Birmingham run. One winter trip from New Street to Banbury the only section we kept time was from Solihull to Leamington which is almost all downhill including Hatton Bank. We lost about five minutes to Banbury despite having greens the way. My main experiences with Hymeks were on trips from Birmingham to the West Country. One would take over from a Black 5 at Bristol. We would get off at Exeter, usually after a good run with 10 coaches loaded to the ceiling with holidaymakers and luggage.

Another vote for no pre-fitted lamps. I've been wanting a Caprotti for years but as normal moves on my layout are 10:1 in favour of freight it's most likely to appear on one of those. If on passenger it would probably be on an excursion, returning tender first either ECS or light engine shortly after. Later it would come back tender first then go home as express passenger.

Enough meanderings, back to the original question. We had a Railway and Canal club at school. One Sunday per month we took advantage of the excursion fares available from Birmingham to visit other parts, travelling between shed by bus. By the age of 13 I had done trips to Manchester, (Trafford Park, Patricroft, Newton Heath, Gorton shed, Reddish, Longsight, Stockport Edgeley}, Liverpool (Bank Hall, Walton-on-the-Hill, Edge Hill, Speke, Allerton DED, even managed Brunswick) and London (Bricklayers Arms, Stewarts Lane, Hither Green, Nine Elms, Old Oak, Willesden). One of our members lived next door to a man who owned two Bedford coaches so as numbers grew we spread our wings with road trips to South Wales, Thames Valley, East Midlands and Lancashire. In the space of three years we covered about 75 sheds. My Mother was a bit apprehensive but we survived without incident. I worked in quite a few rough locations where the antics of the ladies of pleasure provided entertainment during the night shift. There were also many places where nowadays you would take your life into your hands to visit. Besides the incidents I mentioned earlier one I particularly remember was Bestwood Park signal box on the Robin Hood Line. We had continual problems with thefts of materials and equipment on that job but the high point was one Sunday night when I was testing the frame after some layout alterations on a relaying job. A policeman came up the box steps and told us to get down as there was an armed siege in progress in the houses opposite and we may have to evacuate. He looked out of the window and said the gunman can't see the box from the house he's in so carry on working but be ready to move fast if there were gunshots.

That's why some of us refer to it as Moanchester. Our daughter did her degree at Liverpool and really liked her time there. She spent two years living in Wavertree and had a part time job at Edge Lane and never had any problems. Where she shared a house with four others the local supplier of mind bending substances used to keep the street under control. One day she saw a scroate leaving another student house with a video player under his arm. The dealer also clocked it and cornered him in an alleyway. Scroate's free arm was placed in a rather un-natural position and he was marched back up the street to return the loot to its rightful owner, telling him it was an unwise thing to do because if the police were called they may discover what mixture he liked to smoke.

Thanks, I'd forgotten about that bit. Another consideration was that a large number of Irish workers came to the UK and besides what they contributed to the war effort their wages were probably keeping the Irish economy afloat.

My belief is that Irish neutrality was largely a case of not pinning targets to their landscape. Handing the naval bases to Britain would certainly have done that and full involvement in the war would probably have destroyed the country. Their embryonic economy had suffered from civil war and the depression. Germany probably couldn't have invaded successfully as the British also had an invasion plan in the event of Ireland siding with Germany. Britain had the advantage of a land border across which it had troops in training and the Royal Navy patrolling the Western Approaches and Irish Sea, so could probably have taken control of Dublin very quickly. Ireland had a series of identification points for pilots crossing the coast. These were well maintained during WW2 and were well known to navigators of Allied aircraft on the North Atlantic supply runs. Some are still visible today and our son took us to visit one when he lived near Galway

When I was Signal Works Engineer covering LMR lines around London I was shot at when inspecting some new netting we had put on a signal at Camden Road. The sound of pellets pinging off an OLE stanchion is a bit disconcerting when on a signal ladder. It wasn't the first time someone had a go at us. My first experience was when working with the signal gang in 1966. Myself and Alan, one of the fitters, had hitched a ride from Bordesley Junction to Saltley Stores on a returning bank engine to get some small bits and pieces to finish off a job. We walked back up the line and just aproaching the Birmingham City ground Alan said stop when we are under that bridge, there are two kids up there." I duly stopped then Alan took a step out and immediately jumped back. A second later a half-brick landed where he had been standing. He jumped out again, grabbed the brick and lobbed it back onto the bridge. "Don't expect we'll see that couple for a while" he said. Alan was a native of Bomb Alley at Bootle and very adept at the Bouncing Brick trick.

And in the Petteril Bridge derailment report this week the RAIB is expecting freight drivers to look back along the train to check it is running correctly hen it is safe to do so. In my recent experience*of vegetation scraping the side of the train there's not much chance of finding anywhere to do it on the driver's side and he can't look down the other side without leaving the chair. *Latest trip from Manchester to Chester via Stockport. There are a couple of spots on the single line between Mouldsworth and Mickle Trafford that are like riding through a carriage washer when it is raining. The vegetation scrubs the dirt off both sides of the train at the same time.🫣

A trainspotting school friend of mine was found dead on a train with a head injury c1970. Matching blood type was found on the corner post of a Midland Railway signal box a few miles back.

Decided we had done a bit too much electric lately so we got out proper bikes yesterday. Anne used her light Cannondale gravel bike and I went on the old steel framed Orange P7 hardtail which I fitted with gravel tyres on its last refurb. Parked up at Dowlow and took an easy ride down the Tissington Trail to Ashbourne, hilly roads to Waterhouses, Manifold Way to Hulme End, then road to the trail at Hartington Signal Box and back to the car. 41 miles and 2000 feet of climbs. One of our longest unasissted rides this year, surprised I can still manage it but no big problems other than a couple of short rests on long climbs.

A vote for margarine tubs here for wagon projects. Used to store all bits from kits or dismantled conversions, plus detailing parts required for the job. Part assembled work kept in the same box between sessions. Then there is my stock of Evergreen strip.

Mine came from Derails. All fiddly bits appear to be present and correctly attached. It runs smoothly on a short DC test. There is a very slight waddle when propelling but less than other short tank locos I have. I was told in the past that the prototype was a bit rough riding. Dan has become my main loco supplier in recent times. I have not had any problems with any that he has supplied, in fact he called me regarding an order for a special offer some time ago to say it was the last he had in stock and when put it on test it made a horrible noise. He had been on to Hornby and managed to get a new replacement from them and he would honour the special offer price. Taking into account postage costs his standard UK free delivery offers normally make him cheaper that the big tin shed down the river.

After privatisation I worked for a major signalling contractor and supplier. We were trying to do more business in the Far East and had a man based out there who also looked into using potential suppliers over there. His conclusion on Chinese manufacturing from his own experience was that if you got as low as 10% rejects from a batch it must have been a good day in the factory. Around the same time I remember a report that a non-UK model railway supplier had rejected a whole order for around 10,000 of what was supposed to be a new flagship item of rolling stock, fortunately before it got to the shelves.

Looks like a Black's Lock key. Could only be removed from the gate with it locked across the road. Putting it into the lock on the frame and turning it released the signals.

My only experience with an expanding hose was to wash my bike down at the place we were staying during an MTB trip. Absolute disaster, at the first attempt I cleaned more mud off myself that the bike. I have two lengths of hose at home. The one mainly used is a reinforced soft plastic type which is 16 years old. The other which is mainly used as an extension where necessary is a stiff green plastc one bought for £1 at a car boot on 1999. It lives coiled up on a hook by the tap throughout the year. Neither have ever been a problem.

When in the army cadets at school we went for summer camp in the Brecon Beacons. We were on a 24 hour exercise, I was leading an 'enemy patrol' tasked with finding out the layout of the main party's camp. It was in August about 60 years ago. Late in the evening it started raining heavily, so we made unofficial contact with our opposition to arrange a short truce and retired to a spotting hut on the ranges. When we came out to resume at sunrise the grass was covered with frost.

When I started my training on the LMR most of my time was on stagework for PSB schemes, lots of layout alterations on existing boxes At that time we had about 20 pairs of fitters on the LMR alone. I worked alongside at least seven in my first three years. I worked on locking design and checking for various scheme across about 13 years. When my log was being checked during the introduction of licensing I found that I had been involved in some capacity with work on at least 17 variations of frame. The last job where I was hands on was testing an alteration to a frame on one of my projects in 1993. One of the people involved in the design is still active as a senior man in Network Rail but for how much longer.

In the 1970s there was a Southern proposal that the whole region would be covered by three enormous power boxes. On the LMR the proposal was 13 boxes for the region. I had to draw up some ideas for the West Midlands, the easiest of which were to leave Saltley largely as it was with a few additions to mop up fringe areas, a new box to take over the existing New Street, Wolverhampton and Walsall areas with extensions to cover the Kidderminster, Cannock Chase and Lichfield lines and Coventry to be extended to take the line to Nuneaton and control resignalling from Leamington to Aynho. I actually made a cardbord scale mock up of the panel for the latter to prove it could be fitted in the existing Coventry PSB. Back in the 1980s I was Staff Rep for a group of S&T staff. We had just got the papers for a consultation over heavy staff cuts when our boss man came on a visit. I complained to him about the proposal to get rid of all specialist locking staff on the region. His rather flippant reply was that as I was a capable locking designer and the Works Engineer standing next to me knew how to alter and maintain locking there was no problem. I must admit to giving him a severe tongue lashing to the effect that he had little idea of the time and money required to complete the development and implementation of his ideas. I told him I was intending to retire by 2008 at the latest. My estimate at the time for the replacement of the last mechanical signal boxes was 2030 at the earliest and that in my worst case scenario I would by 102 years old when lever frames finally disappeared from the network. At the moment

good to seeing you having a go. I found your comment on my old carriage thread from about three years ago. Although all of the pictures had fallen off I found the vestibule stock was still in my attachments so I restored them tonight

You forgot to add in the passengers standing. We used to say that 142 wasn't the class but the number extra people you could get on and still close the doors. Seats varied between 102 and 121 depending on refurb dates and operators.

I don't remember exactly what was done but I think the signals had two lamps illuminating alternate fibres. Some work was done on switching off one lamp when the ambient light dropped below a certain level but I lost track during various reorganisations and don't know the final arrangement.

IIRC there is a banner on the viaduct approaching the signal reading into the platforms at Wolverhampton. Sighting of that signal is obscured by electrification structures and a factory building on Lower Horseley Fields.

This was a tall LMS pattern signal that stood at the Northfield end exit of King's Norton yard until I think about 1979.

My office in Birmingham was involved in what I believe may have been the first fibre optic banner at Smethwick Rolfe Street. From memory of what I was doing at the time I would put it at around 1979/80 when we were playing around with the idea. I think producing the prototype was a joint effort between Gresty Road workshops and the S&T lab at Crewe.