Siberian Snooper

On 11/01/2024 at 18:00, Harlequin said:

Huntley & Palmers?

 

Biscuits!

When I were a kid, 60 odd years ago, getting off a moving slam door train was de rigueur. Nelson's first and then BIGs, CEPs and finally VEPs. The odd SUB and LAV.

In the diary, I now have to work out the logistics.

Seems to be more of the same from WCRC.

Will you be building a cover for the drop-down section, to avoid damaging it whilst it's down and you're up against working on the main board?

On 10/01/2024 at 16:56, adb968008 said:

The dft’s already got this worked out…

(not mine /flickr).

 

I was under the impression that the terminus was going to be Euston, one day, I hadn't realised that it was going to be Brighton Sea Front.

I used to use an optovisor, but some years ago I read somewhere about asking the optician for a pair of prescription X3 glasses a  BOGOF. I find them a boon, once I got used to them and if things get really tiny, I use the optovisor as well.

I need to fit handrails to a couple of Parkside Micas, but so far I have not yet plucked up the courage to have a go.

A belated Happy Birthday.

2 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

 

I'll let you into a secret - but don't tell anyone 😎 I haven't done the end handrails on my recent carriages. I am surprised there isn't a jig you can buy for them.

 

I'm not relishing making the handrail for the front of the County 4-4-2T, being the face of the loco it has to be perfect. I've seen a video of Tony Wright making them and he makes it look very easy!

 

The carriage looks very nice, well done.

I was taught to do loco handrails in two halves which join in the smokebox top handrail knob.

Is there any way of getting a side elevation of those curved supports?

On 06/01/2024 at 18:16, The Fatadder said:

For 3d cad I’d recomend fusion360, both for being free and there is a good YouTube channel explaining how to use it for railway modelling purposes.

 

 

Can you please post a link or two, to the YouTube videos, I'm struggling to get my head around it, more so than I did with Templot.

Thanks.

4 hours ago, Wheatley said:

They dont like Brit tourists pointing at them and trying to take a photo :-)

 

Even more of a head shaking moment than filling in the green form on the way over with the invitation on the back to write to the National Office of Paperwork Reduction if you though it was too long. 

When I was in Washington last September and had a look at the White House through the railings I came across a bloke with a secret service written on his bulletproof jacket, I said to him that to me it didn't seem to be very secret, he just smiled and walked on.

12 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Git yer bleedin 'at orf, yer in the 'ouse of Gawd!

If I have an 'at on, I always take it orf when I enter a pub, is that good enough?

2 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

Local BBC news has recently reported that NR has (publicly) announced that control of the bits of Cornwall currently operated from the boxes at St. Blazey, Truro and Lostwithiel, will transfer to Exeter later this year.

 

I don't know if the story was covered nationally, though I suspect not.

 

It seems that Exeter PSB is destined to become something of a mini-ROC for the West Country due to a lack of space in Didcot. That being so, and with resources to maintain the existing panel dwindling, the area it covers will presumably need to be re-equipped with workstations at some point.

 

The same report mentioned that the number of active traditional boxes in the country is now just 86. If so, NR has been closing them at a fair rate of knots since Wilton Junction-Pinhoe was recontrolled into Basingstoke WoE in 2012.

 

John 

 

 

Would that lead to Exter, Plymouth  and back to Exeter from Liskeard? Or will Plymouth be absorbed into Exeter?

I don't think that I'll be holding my breath, any time soon!!!

8 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

By the way, sources from inside GWR (and not unknown on this forum) told me yesterday that one of the lines at the old station site at Brent was flooded again yesterday, resulting in Single Line Working from Totnes East to Aish Emergency Crossovers.

 

Despite loads of money having been spent on drainage there in years gone by, allegedly at least, it's still a problem area in times of heavy rain.

 

It's about time that another set of crossings are installed on that section, to break it in two, to reduce the time it takes for a train to pass through the section.

The number of times there's been perturbation through there, recently.

Is that Tiverton or Tiverton Junction? There's also Maiden Newton, the run round was a gravity shunt move as per the Princetown branch at Yelverton.

Pulborough heading towards Arundell.

Mike the station master is your best bet for such information. The GW were pretty parsimonious in providing permanent speed restriction signs, there's were circular mostly black, with a white circle and the speed within. Newer BR signs are to the standard of the time.

I couldn't possibly say!!

Not quite, the train with many wheels probably passed through Carnforth on occasions.

Pity the new stock is built to the European loading gauge, otherwise you could take the train out onto the Midland line and reverse it down the Thameslink line, to get to Kent. Yes it would be a lot slower and probably play havoc with Thameslink trains, but some sort of service is better than no service!!!

I usually catch the 09:15 PLY ex 07:10 ex PNZ, it's usually running late after SER and tends to lose more as it comes up through Cornwall, sometimes with some smart work at Plymouth we get an on time departure, but not always and rarely make up time, especially if there are any TSRs en route.

The last time I caught it our train was 10 cars sitting in platform 5 and the 5 car PNZ portion came in on ^ and they had to de-train and cross the platform, with all their kit, utter chaos, 29 minutes late at RDG, my destination.

As Gwiwer, above says, down trains rarely leave PAD on time and continue to lose more, even on the juice! By the time they get to RDG.

On 28/12/2023 at 23:05, The Stationmaster said:

At one time I was doing a job which had securty implicataionsnad after I'd been doing it for some months 'they' syudden;y realised that I should have been 'Positively Vetted' before being allowed to do it.  It was all then compley ted very rapidly although I suspected that as I had dealt with some more 'specialised' members of BTP on various matters in the past they knew me and that probably smoiothed things alo,lnf.

 

However even with that rating when I was WR Freight Planning Officer one of my staff dealt with some extremely 'sensitive' traffic (it was always accompanied by armed personnel although exactly what the train carried varied so I understand) not even I was allowed access to certain of the details.  Quite what we were supposed to do if he ever went sick or whatever appeared not to have been thought about as nobody else in the office had any contact details for the offices he worked with.

There used to be a MoD freight train that regularly parked in the loop at Keyham station, a member of P&DMRC and a chief in the navy photographed it and built a model of it. He submitted it as an entry for a competition at the Bristol show, and the sh1te hit the fan. Said train had accommodation for armed security staff, I will say that the sensitive bit of the train had lots of wheels and used to regularly derail on one of the curves in the yard, until they relaid it with staggered joints. These days they use commercial equipment.