Recent content by 70014IronDuke

Hmmm. Interesting development. IS it likely to mean the Sleaford - Skeggy trains get even more cosy on Summer Sundays next year? Oh well, that's not such a good record then when it comes to meeting the franchise commitments then, is it? But I suppose after Covid, it was all down to the DfT...

I thought its first passenger workings were "The North Briton" working Leeds - (Somewhere like) Dundee - and back - or has my ageing brainbox made this up? Yes, it was on the WR from sometime (May?) in 75, but I assume that was after the decision was made at BRB to introduce it first on the WR...

I have found the level of English competency is astonishing in most of former Yugoslavia, but Croatia seems outstanding. About 15 years ago, I was in the 1.5 horse town of Glina, about 60 km south of Zagreb and famous only for horrid ethnic massacres (both sides) and the site of a major prison -...

I've just been looking over the ORR entry-exit figures for the Peterboro' – Doncaster joint and find them astonishing for the last data entries, ie 2024-25 Spalding – 208,000 entries-exits. Sleaford – 296,000 – (Has Nottingham-Grantham as major contributor to these figures, of course, but...

Yes. Fair reasons, I suppose. Much more 'bitty' than the end of steam on the SR. Thanks for the summary of 'The End" in Scotland.

i'm sure I read reports about the demise of Scottish express steam in Railway World at the time, but I can't remember much. Did this transformation make the general Scottish press? I mean, apart from some the Southern Region's Weymouth line, and the odd Jubilee over the S and C, these were the...

Not quite correct. It is not a panning shot, it is a 3/4 frontal shot taken from the top of the tunnel looking roughly north. The panned shot shows the biplane atop the train shortly before it enters the tunnel - it then emerges with the wings cut down (but actually out of the north portal...

Well, I don't now for how long, but yes, I've seen at least one photo of and L1 on the GC joint, AIUI, they were not9iously rough riding.

Perhaps some spoil-sport bean counter had noticed a few too many Gresley pacifics were going through works on expensive overhauls considering they had, at most about 15 months (?) working life left? One does have to wonder if an old LNER manager in the Scottish Region hierarchy was not pulling...

I have, indeed, why they went to all the trouble (and cost) of bringing 103 all the way down from Glasgow(?) to shoot these scenes, when there has to have been a reasonably aged loco much closer (not sure if Midland Compound 1000 was still steamable in '64) - but if that was the reason the...

Doesn't appear so - same units worked back from Shrewsbury, leaving 25 min late https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G40082/2026-09-27/detailed#allox_id=0

Alright, thanks! But how did this come about, do you know? Did the Midland and GN or GE buy our the LTSR jointly, the Midland taking responsibility for the rolling stock, and the GN or GE the infrastructure? Seems an unusual situation. I mean, did the GN, GE or LNER need those tracks particularly?

I see on RTT that 2M37, the 11.10 ex-Swansea this morning, is formed of four cars - 2 x 153s and two unspecified (but I assume 153s too). Is there some sporting event on that might cause over crowding on this or the return working...

By coincidence, earlier today I got an email from a foreign friend who said she was at Marylebone station - and I responded that it was one of the stations on the GB Monopoly board. She must use it quite often, and wrote back that this explains why the Ladies' is decorated with a Monopoly theme...

Thanks for correcting me on this - I don't think I've actually been that way ever (certainly not by rail and almost certainly not by road) - I just had the impression it was very rural, but I suppose rail freight demand may have lasted longer if so and out of the Glasgow -Edboro central belt...