Recent content by Dr Hoo

The most important role for the 1555 to Arbroath was providing an early evening all stations service between Gleneagles, Perth, Invergowrie, Dundee and and the wayside stops to Carnoustie and Arbroath.

I have heard that it was originally a South Eastern Railway parcels office that was, amazingly, freehold. Hence it went to the Southern Railway and then the BTC/BR. At some point it was re-purposed. Very close to the ‘City Travel Centre’ at Cannon Street Station. I never really understood why it...

The was one in Douglas, Isle of Man, in the 1960s.

Should this thread be in the Traction & Rolling Stock section rather than Infrastructure? (Or is this because it’s deemed to be about satellites and lineside masts and ‘leaky’ cables?)

I assume that you aren’t interested in the Low Level/North Electric trains.

Aren’t the international platforms at Ashford a different height to the GB standard?

We seem to have reached the point where BR managed to keep most if not all of the coal revenue via a nearby Coal Concentration Depot, kept the rent/lease revenue at Great Harwood and probably avoided paying redundancy to the handful of staff affected (by the policy of retaining vacancies nearby...

Yes, that definitely happened. I remember (but didn’t witness it). They ran with the gangway doors locked for a while.

Given that the ‘discrepancy’ was detected in 2020, despite having arisen in 2014 can we conclude that auditing only takes place every few years? Or was this a ‘chronic’ failure annually?

Precisely. The freight ‘shopping list’ might include the Felixstowe branch, Haughley Junction-Ely-Peterborough-Leicester-Nuneaton-Birmingham and the ‘Joint’ line via Lincoln for example. None of these are really prime passenger/InterCity routes.

You’re missing the point. By getting ‘wayside’ coal merchants to use a Coal Concentration Depot all of the individual billing and lease arrangements are effectively ‘taken on’ by British Fuels (or whichever larger firm operates there). And Divisional/admin offices came under the microscope too...

@Gloster has beaten me to it on many points. Whilst ten coal traders (not BR staff) at one location doesn't surprise me we're only talking about an average of around three wagons per day. So ten different one-person businesses to keep distinct for accountancy purposes and general 'management'...

I would have thought that the two viaducts over the River Weaver - Vale Royal and Dutton - were the problem.

Thanks for a great article - very interesting. To be fair it seems to be largely about clearances for passengers on platforms rather than bridges. Obviously some bridges will be very close to platforms though. A couple of months ago I was on Hitchin station when a group of lads with fishing gear...

The various conditional words and phrases there are doing ever such a lot of heavy lifting in your argument. I really haven't got a clue what "serves as the pleasure..." means. It can hardly be a surprising that the statutory safety regulator for the railway industry is, err, the one that has...