Recent content by John Webb

In the Harrow incident (and Lewisham in 1957) the cranes were needed on site urgently to help lift carriages off each other to assist the release of trapped passengers, the carriages being far less 'crash-resistant' than modern rolling stock.

'Mobile Load Banks' were introduced by the LMS in 1947 using motor coaches whose motors acted as generators and could thus imposed a controlled load on the loco pulling them. But finding space on the tracks for test trains could be a problem, particularly for constant speed tests. "Rolling...

Photos on the Geograph website indicate the bridge was removed sometime after July last year.

Bit of an uphill climb from Woolwich/Plumstead/Abbey Wood to Welling! (I speak as a former resident of Plumstead and a frequent cyclist in the area in my younger days.)

Haywain's suggestion involves the least cycling 'on road' but needs a lift down to the Thameslink platforms. You might cycle to Charing Cross as you suggest in 1 above, catch any train stopping at London Bridge and change to a Welling train there. (Probably better than at Lewisham?)

Looking at their website, they are the owners of 0-6-0T Slough Estates No.3, which is at the Middleton Railway, not in Slough.

The compulsory provision of quarter-mile posts required by the Railway Clauses Act of 1845 gave a regular measure of 440yards. Could this have resulted in this distance being used for the clearing point distance?

It currently no longer opens to the general public on a regular basis. They are concentrating on factory visits and driver experiences which have to be booked in advance. Interestingly in the current issue (September) of 'Railway Modeller' in the 'Live events' pages they advertised a 'Beer...

Brief item on the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service website: link: https://www.rbfrs.co.uk/incidents/fire-at-a-commercial-premises/fire-in-slough-99/

Thanks - I hadn't thought to look in my copy of "London's Termini" (2nd Ed , David & Charles, 1985). I note Jackson mentions some changes to track arrangements around WW1 and wonder if that is where Brown got his dates from?

I can't find a date when the line to Charing Cross was widened from three to four lines. There was a 55 ft turntable added at some point when the depot was expanded some time after 1873. The junction with the spur up to Blackfriars was named as such as it was built to link the SER with the...

And for those on a train a con is you can't count the rail joints in, I recall, 41 seconds to get the speed of the train in mph......

Another view, from the 'Geograph' website - click on picture to go to the original on that site: May 1976: Between Duties at St David's © Copyright Martin Addison and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. EDIT: Entering the search term Railways+Water+Tank on the Geograph...

There were various mechanical ways of compensating over a long distance - this includes a 'lost motion' lever to increase the length of pull on the last part of the wire to allow for motion lost in the first part of the wire. The 'Compensator' is a pair of opposed cranks linked together at...

The LMS had a policy of converting 'Isolated Distants' from mechanical to colour-light signals for some years prior to WW2. I understand the main reason was to avoid trains being delayed in foggy/smoggy weather while 'Fogmen' were called out to attend such mechanical distant signals and had to...