Recent content by 70014IronDuke

Trespass is one aspect - but what about security and anti-cable theft? Sounds awfully useful with an infra-red camera fitted.

Thank you, I stand corrected. I never worked on them and this was what I was told at the time. I took that as being true.

One of the problems that quickly appeared after the juice was turned on north of Preston was with double-headed freightliner trains at night. I forget if they used the 86s or - more likely - the earlier classes. Fact was the connections for working in multiple had been removed, so they could...

Yes, apologies - that was sloppy of me. Deltics, of course, were 100 mph max, but that didn't mean any of the route was ok for 100 mph in 1962. 1787662042 Well, they weren't 'any old trains' - they were 10 of BR's 'finest' inter-city flagships. (And have you counted The 'North Briton'?) So...

A second in two consecutive days! A friend sent me this footie link today, celebrating Swindon Town in 1963. In the first minute I think we have the entrance to Swindon Works at 17 secs, and around 40 secs, we have "Swindon" the Castle and in the works County 1023 being overhauled, along with...

OK, my very vague memory was out - but were those curves any impediment to 90 mph running, if the will and money had been there for higher line speeds in 1964? (Whether the Class 40s employed at the time could attain that would be another matter.) Well, Deltics had been passed for 100 mph on...

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but I have to report this: Today for some reason I searched for and found the first episode of "World at War" - the famous (?) 1973 TV documentary series (Oh, what quality there used to be on GB television). The series starts off with Hitler's...

I don't know when BR stopped the workings, but in Midland and LMS days I believe there were through carriages to Liverpool (not sure which station) on at least some St Pancras - Manchester Central workings. Maybe Nottingham-Man Central too. Of course, they would not have been on TV type screens...

Indeed. Any foreign military intelligence services with bad intent - I suspect there are one or two around - will surely be taking note of how incredibly easy it is to cripple train movements over trunk routes in the UK.

Thank you for the clarifications. It seems pretty amazing that the Caledonian main line was still 75 mph as late as 1970. I can't say I was very attentive when I went over it in the 60s and again in 74, but I can't remember it being awfully curved. In fact, IIRC, Lockerbie to the border was...

Yes, of course. But these were MML trains (and the daily Leeds - Glasgow and vv) and were usually Cl 45 diagrams from about 1962. I don't think they were used on the WCML diversions for the electrification work. Interesting points/anecdotes made in this thread. Prior to electrification, was...

Clearly opening at new, terminal platform near or at King Power is far from ideal. My feeling - and I think this is speculated up thread - this would be a sort of 'Royston' compromise. That is to say, the story goes as I've read, the BR planners realised that they could not get the full Hitchin...

Thanks. So not easy, but doable if NR do not need the possession time. What about running a stopper from Leicester, serving the smaller stations, Sileby etc? Would that be doable, if EMR wanted it? Well, listening to Middlesex vs Kent as I write this, one of the cricketers for Middlesex is...

2 x Cl 50s over the Glasgow and South Western must have produced timings never, ever seen before. Pity I never took the chance to do that at the time. That's an interesting thought. I wonder if they even thought of re-opening it? Or perhaps, that was one reason for closing it ASAP when they did?

I see Middlesex and Leicestershire are playing at Trent Bridge in the one-day cup final on Sunday 20 September. Would seem to be a no brainer to run some Crickex from London and even Leicester, since the first train ex St Pancras does not arrive in Nottingham until 10.56, too late to see the...