Recent content by rower40

Don't step on sleepers. You might wake them up. Kaboom, and, indeed, tish.

On the very few cab-rides I've had, even back in the 1990s the driver could dial up the required speed, and the loco/unit would accelerate to that speed, and keep it there. (That was a class 90 on WCML.) If the rear coach derails, the traction computer possibly notices a decrease in speed, and...

Where there’s blame, there’s a claim…

Many signals in complex areas have a half-way-house between first- and last-wheel replacement: that is “delayed” replacement. The signal returns to red when the second or third track circuit becomes occupied. This caters for locos where the cab is not at the extreme front. Steam, class 20s...

Given the number of lineside fires during this year's heatwaves, I'd suggest that an over-eager fire suppression system is a "right-side" failure.

I can't find in the usual places (Google, Wikipedia) any explanation as to why the Tonbridge Jubilee sidings are so named. Does anyone know when they opened, and therefore which monarch, and which Jubilee was being commemorated please?

I used to operate the one at Bodmin General. One ring for trains from Parkway, two rings for trains from Boscarne, three for empty trains from a siding. Not sure I ever gave three rings.

Agreed - it was for turning whole sets so that the first class was at the London end.

There is provision for turning vehicles using the West Ealing/Hanwell/Drayton Green triangle. This allowed the Old Oak Common turntable to be taken out of use in the mid 1990’s.

Set the way-back machine to when Anglia trains and Hull trains were both using class 170s... An ECS move from Kings Cross to Liverpool Street had to be held on the Carpenters Road Curve for the relevant Norwich to Liverpool Street train to go first; these two trains (both class 170s) then...

Going for the smallest difference here! Tornado was built 2008. Bodmin General box opened 2011. I signalled the former from the latter in 2017. And my forum picture is of that occasion.

I think that was the incident I witnessed. I was on 1S11 (1003 kings cross to Aberdeen) through Peterborough. 9J25 Peterborough to Horsham had been routed into an Up Loop between Peterborough and Huntingdon, and was about to return northbound to Peterborough. Other southbound trains either...

An excellent event - change of venue to Conway Hall near Holburn didn’t spoil the atmosphere. Did anyone else here go?

On Tuesday I went for a walk along London Road Derby, and looked across the car park into what I still think of as BREL Litchurch Lane. Unless I mis-counted the vehicles, there seemed to be a 5-car Voyager there. Which doesn't quite tally with the statement that the 4-car sets are all being...

As it was a down-direction train, I would expect that both ends of the crossover should have been normal. My guess is that the driver applied the brakes as soon as they saw the facing point lying reverse. That they stopped short of the trailing point ( which would have been damaged by the train...