Recent content by Merle Haggard

And, in my opinion, the boundary between A and B isn't clear. There is only the one footbridge that connects all platforms at the B end, but I've made the mistake of walking up the stairs/escalator at what seems to be the B end to find that it still takes me to the A end 'lounges'. Using the B...

That sounds exactly like what the Railways Archive website has already achieved. Rupert Dyer, a retired senior BR Freight manager is heavily involved. // I don't have any facts, but I would think that a high cause of death for miners was silicosis but this usually happened, I would think...

Every year ta booklet was compiled with the following on the cover; 'Railway Accidents Report to the Minister of Transport on the Accidents which occurred on the Railways of Great Britain during thebyear of 19nn" In the rear section it has analyses of casualties by various criteria. As an...

That's an interesting assertion. Accepting that there may not be a correlation between dividends paid to shareholders and profit but in the last year of the L&NWR before grouping a dividend of 8% was paid. Working revenue £46,130,753 . Traffic expenses £36,517,288. Interest and other fixed...

What will the tourist tax be charged on, I wonder? Presumably, from its name, events and organisations that attract people who 'tour'. So quite likely charged on heritage railway fares. It's not much of an extension for it to be charged on football admission charges.

Thanks (Plus the 2 LE moves). A sad shadow of MAT/STVA & Rover Group days. Didn't know whether the freight was being dismissed in all the enthusiasm, but happily sounds like the same arrangement as Bathgate or Tower Colliery/Aberdare of long ago. Without freight it would not have been practical...

There was a schedule of what were 'reportable' accidents but the Ministry very often chose not to investigate those reported. BR being nationalised it was taken for granted that they would carry out their own investigation. In the simplest of terms it was person injured and train movement.. In...

I have formed the opinion from reports I have read somewhere that the reason the Annesley driver would not take it beyond Sheffield was NOT because of the gauging issue, and the loco inspector took it forward. Pique and high dudgeon may have been involved and the gauge conditions were possibly...

How does the suggestion that the Cowley branch will have 2 passenger trains per hour fit in with the existing car traffic?

There was a 'Hall' that washed up on Northampton shed about 1962 and everyone denied knowledge of how. Probably had made a break for freedom via Oxford & Bletchley but returning it without going through any platforms was a real problem. I have its number somewhere, see if I can find it. If it...

Thanks, I didn't recognise that name in previous posts. Probably to reflect my poor French, I was given a choice from the menu in English, and, ironically, when told that one of them was 'like a sausage' I chose it as the least-risky option. Hey-ho. I thought it had a very pleasant taste...

Everyone seems to be blaming someone else for the ineptitude. National rail Enquiries have come up with a new person to blame; if you try to look at Live Departures > Bewdley SVR it comes up with Warning Connection error, please check your connection in a red box with a red "!". So it really...

In France once (on BR expenses) many years ago I was inveigled into having 'sausages' by my hosts. They tasted really nice but, opened up, inside they contained what looked very much like short sections of lower intestine. It certainly looked like that was what it was, rubbery small tubes. Best...

I can't find the old copy of the Marshalling Circular I have but I recollect that the overnight Paddington - West Wales via Gloucester train, although conveying passenger coaches, was really a newspaper train and conveyed Siphon Gs - and shown as 'SG', as well has the penzance. Did some clerking...

Both Long Buckby railway station and the bus stop are pretty bleak places to wait in anything but good weather. The only useful forward connections from Rugby to the North are to Manchester first stop Stoke and a few to Scotland via the West Midlands - the latter's routing may not be a valid...