Recent content by warriorwarlord

I did find one aspect of this article slightly worrying "there is little commercial pressure for Network Rail to bring this debt under control" Now, if (fairly recent) history has taught us anything, track and maintenance is the LAST place you'd want commercial pressure in.

I think DOO/OPO can only be considered safe if stations are actually staffed with people who are licensed to dispatch in case of equipment failiure and that the equipment is checked regularly with markers on the platform to make sure there are no blind spots. Otherwise, with the amount of...

I guess monitors are OK if you have station staff carry out daily checks to ensure that camera's are aligned with no blind spots and monitor quality is A ok, this happens on LUL. Does such a thing happen on the mainline?

Ah this sounds familiar, I heard a legend that not long after SWT was formulated as a shadow TOC of BR, Eurostar turned up at Waterloo, the drivers based there realised on the other side of the concourse they could be earning the same pay and conditions that their European counterparts were...

Would it have been possible to rip out the auto driver box and the safety boxes in the 67 stock and replace them for manually operated equipment from scrap C stock trains? If I recall correctly the only major difference in this reguard between the C and 67/72 stock trains are the fact they...

In my opinion, the current system is full of pecularities and was not drawn out very well from the very start, which itself will always cause a problems. The biggest being the split between operations and infrastructure, on paper it sounds like a good idea, but on the operational railway it...

So you really think knive crime is as plain as black and white eh? Of course, its not as if a white gang member has ever carried a knive before is it? :roll: Hate is a strong word....

Recently I attended a presentation by a quango, aimed at the unemployed, among one of the enlightening facts was the sheer amount of employment gained through the "hidden job market". The volume was apparently such, that we were shown a diagram of an iceberg. This market involves inquiring by...

First - Transforming travel. Does that imply that my 10:46 or whatever ex-Paddington will get to Didcot and re-assemble itself in to a robot or sommat?

I think persistent cleaning and painting is the best deterrent - yes it costs a lot but I remember Tim O'Toole saying that if you keep painting and cleaning off their mess then the vandals will eventually get bored and move somewhere else. Look at the Underground now, even in 2002/3 it was...

London Underground still seem to use them to dispatch the last trains of the day. I believe the bardics are a mid 60's design? I'm pretty sure I read LT started using them in 1967.

I think NSE were the only sector to really drive DOO? I can't think of any Regional Railway's operated routes and certainly no IC routes that were DOO. Amusingly Chris Green actually portrayed it as a positive thing when it was introduced! Positive it could be, its a cost cutting measure. Apart...

Judging from the photo, the HST seems to have taken the impact rather well, thankfully it wasn't another Ufton Nervet. Dread to think how traumatising the incident was for the train driver.

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned possibly the most widely used typeface on the rail system. Rail Alphabet, designed for BR in the mid 1960's, it's been used more recently by First, Silverlink off the top of my head. It is a very effective and clear typeface, which can be integrated in with...

Chalfont & Latimer still has an NSE car stop at the Southern end of the Southbound platform. Stonebridge Park also still has two NSE double arrow + roundel combo signs on the bridge. (Both are LUL managed stations.) There is STILL a permit to travel machine at Custom House station (DLR) now SIX...