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My mistake. Don't spose you'd need multiple working equipment with 3300 hp on passenger work!

If there was proper competition, then I'd agree, but British railways don't really lend themselves to it. Beeching saw to that. And what's wrong with having specialists in house? --- old post above --- --- new post below --- What about DB. They run German railways, and much of ours too!

It doesn't matter what they've done before. If the present CON/DEM situation carries on, then I'm all for giving Labour the chance to screw up!

But they rarely compete with each other in real terms. If you want to get from a-b, then you go to station A, buy a ticket to station B and catch whichever train gets there quickest. (well, that's how normal people use the railway). If we're honest, all the toc's are owned by a small number of...

Imagine a Lab government that could say it could create jobs, improve transport infrastructure, increase manufacturing and re-nationalise something, all while saving money then they'd landslide the next election

All these forums are full of people referring to 'them' and 'they'. But these days 'they' are toc's, network rail, contractors, rolling stock manufacturers (often in far flung countries), and of course, those wonderful leasing companies. Look, I'm just going to say it. Nationalise. Now...

Probably, although I'm sure somebody will know for certain. There were 4 rakes of them (although I only remember 3x12), so weekend work would have been accommodated with ease.

That would leave you with an underpowered, overweight leccy, and an underpowered, overweight diesel. Nobody would want them. Something with similar output to a 81-85, or a 31 depending on its mode would be far from desirable. Of course, the all electric version of the 60 exists. It's a class 92

At the turn of the 80's to the 90's, I was heading through the car park at Northampton castle station when I heard an unfamiliar diesel engine. It was the day before the Bescot open day of that year. We headed over to the noise, to see a 31 coupled up to 55016. They could have been waiting for a...

Any idea of how many of the cobblers coaches (4 lots of 12, iirc) managed to make it to preservation? --- old post above --- --- new post below --- Excuse the double post, but I also remember a Northampton yard open day (yes, really) where 86401 was named, and I was told by a NSE driver that the...

Wow! That's fan-flipping-tastic. I must've been stood next to whoever snapped the 33's at Wellingborough! All of a sudden I'm 9 years old, and grinning up at my dad. Thanks!

Okay, bear with me on this one. Sometime at the back of the 80's, (after sectorisation had left loco's painted in a kalaedoscope of colours) I was taken over to Wellingborough by my dad, he'd heard something about a number of special services being put on. Through the three hours or so we were...

I'm sure that 80-90 mph would have blown them up very quickly if they were doing it all the time. Slight divergence, but I once clocked an HST on the mml between Leicester and Wellingborough at well over 100mph. I knew they were capable of more easily, but it was still over the line speed limit...

Guess I'm just biased. Its easy to get bored of tractors when you don't live in the south. The cromptons fascinated me after holidaying in Bournemouth in the late 80's. And as for a new type 3, if we still had a BR, they could build them in house. They could re-engine the 37's- a sort of 57...

Does anyone else remember the old cobblers set mk1's? My recollection of them is Saturday afternoons sat in a compartment heading down to London from Northampton . I can't remember what would've been pulling us, probably an 86, although I'd like to think it was an 85.

That's me told then. I still can't understand how the 37's saw favour with ews. They're rather big and bulky when compared to the class 33's, which are of a similar power bracket (and all eth fitted). Of course, the 'heavy' freight 37's are a different case.

Okay, I get the reasons for top and tailing, and I understand why it's needed for freight, but surely in the medium to long term, it'd be more economical for the hire companies to convert some mk3 TS's into DTS's? Scotrail did it back in the 90's with the 47/7's and their mk2 DBSO's, so why not...

Of the 100 class 60's built, only a handful are in use. Wouldn't it be a good idea for someone to buy, re-gear, and eth up a number, say 30 of them? They are a great deal younger than the class 47's, and would probably see off the remaining elderly 37's.