Recent content by Muppet56097

Mate - it was deliberate humour, a mixed metaphor, but I can see you weren't ready for it. I'll dumb it down for you next time and speak only in very literal phrases that you can understand. When do you leave school? When you do, feel free to lecture me on grammar, idioms and the English...

No - what keeps a "struggling company" as you call it going is customers and revenue. That depends upon hauling trains reliably and cost-effectively. Paint has nothing to do with it. Also, bear in mind that customers don't care about "celebrities". They care about performance. Only trainspotters...

I think this debate has become completely divorced from reality. At the GCRN all operational staff have to provide documented evidence of medical fitness. That's it. End of story. No medical = no work permit for safety critical duties. Whatever the ill informed may believe to be the case...

Not really. It is just a case of removing the skirt that sits around the bottom of the (earlier style) cab. Very common to remove it on 47s too. The later ZF built 56s and the ZC ones had a different design of cab and didn't have the skirt in the first place. --- old post above --- --- new post...

37248 is owned by 3 Growler Group committee members. One of them is me. It won't be doing any more work as part of the WCRC fleet, since we've decided it is time for it to come home now.

The viaduct is perfectly serviceable. There is some debate whether a checkrail should be added. As for "doubt any mainline company would take the risk" - have you considered the fact that Gypsum trains, track machines and other vehicles travel over that viaduct on a regular basis? If it is good...

That's true to an extent, but in reality the greater part of the problem was just design. There were a number of weak aspects to the design, and they always reflected in availability problems. None of them are really attributable to poor workmanship. Engine Camshaft keys E70 brake problems...

Decision re which locos to store are made on the basis of condition, faults, expenditure needed now or in the foreseeable future and so on, and not on whether the locomotive has had a recent repaint or name. The issue is more "why repaint and name a worn out loco that is a marginal member of...

Sorry, but that is total nonsense. They are completely different engines. The 16RK3CT was a development of the 16 cyl English Electric engine fitted to e.g class 40s and class 50s. That is its family heritage. The Valenta was an entirely different design, and entirely different size, and...

As if there wasn't enough to worry about in the world at the moment. First the collapse of the banking system, now this.

That's not quite right. One of the vac braked vehicles needs replacement wheelsets (not just tyre turning). However, the vehicle concerned was the brake vehicle in the vac braked rake, so there wasn't time to get the vac braked rake back into service before the gala. It will be back soon (Santas...

That's a real shame, you missed a classic.

No... there were two spurious DSD brake applications as a result of a fault with the Driver's Vigilence Device. That isn't harsh and frequent braking, and it happens on the mainline too when faults occur with DSD, AWS or TPWS. It is just part of operating life, you deal with it. It was the...

Oh do stop exaggerating and making up stories for dramatic effect... All that happens with any sort of DSD brake application is that the needle drops from 5 bar to 0 bar. It is a brake application. It is hardly a gauge "going haywire". I was driving, so stop spinning tales. You aren't best...

"Class 03 Staythorpe"? Are you having a laugh? It has as much in common with a Class 03 as my Aunty Norah. It's a Ruston 165DE with a fake BR number. The fake BR number is based on a similar loco once allocated to Stratford, but even that loco had nothing at all in common with an 03. "DMU...