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It was a DfT decision, so the answer is no. Franchises effectively ended in 2020. It’s a DfT railway now, whoever runs the TOC at the moment.

It’s a puff piece, hoping to drum up business from interested private sector rail entities. There is absolutely no detail in it. It’s just a pitch for new trade. p.s. FG use Burges Salmon.

The first few of the BR Standard Block Instruments were actually made of wood.

The problem with water coming from neighbouring land is certainly a major issue, especially with tunnels! The EA sometimes has a difficult decision with housing to make too, one they had to do once was “do we flood part of Huntingdon or Alconbury?” Not everywhere can be blessed with the kind of...

Well remembered about Stevenage. Langley House was where it and other activities were undertaken. Iirc, it was situated to the east of the “new” station in Southgate (a road in Stevenage, not the place!) It was a parcels accounting centre too and also at one time dealt with NPS payroll input.

The Hereford problem was caused by NR not having enough staff to go out to any emergencies. They ran out of cover so Hereford was sacrificed by some services. A word about flooding. The “natural” water table rises quite fast with the types of weather we are now experiencing. It isn’t mainly...

It will all depend on what Hitachi sets the power curve to in the software. The GWR sets could be set to a different power curve (they already have on more than one occasion) but what Hitachi tend to do is to set it to achieve an end to end journey time, all to save on engine wear. It never is...

And also presumes the replacement pumps will last longer than the previous ones fitted at the last engine overhaul. As well as dropping the GU to replace the pump, the fuel also has to be cleaned for removal of any pump debris. Special mode isn’t anything to do with this, however.

To save possible damage to the engine.

As has been explained before, these are water height detectors fitted to bridges over rivers. Once the alarms have gone off, it is job stopped until the water levels have dropped to a safe level and the divers then go in to examine the structure.

The current main problem with the GWR fleet is because the fuel pumps are disintegrating internally. This is a manufacturing/overhaul issue, nothing to do with duty cycle. This design of engine has a number of safety features where it will self isolate under certain fault conditions. Avanti is...

They were hoping to drop the last one at Xmas but I was told last week that one 8 car diagram may go out between Xmas and early January. Plans for that period still to be finalised.

Both the GWR 800 and 802 contracts work on a fixed number of sets to be supplied each day. That hasn’t changed with the reduction in HST GTi sets, nor has the maintenance regime for those sets. The latter has always been mandated to give Hitachi serious shed time. That’s how Hitachi structure...

The name you are looking for is Mike Higson, one time owner of 4079. Both shops ran in tandem for a number of years, Mike then mainly working in Kingston and his long suffering assistant working mainly in Harrow. The shop was on Harrow Hill, a stiff walk up the hill from the met station (I...

There are no publicly available profit and loss accounts for any train service because those figures do not exist and haven’t done for at least 50 years. The railway system isn’t run on an individual profit and loss basis, either by service group or even by individual route. All operators pay...

By “bendy poles”, I presume you mean Abacus “Raise and Lower” columns, which with the aid of a special spring jack hinge from the base. They became commonplace from the 1970’s, except on SR. Someone has taken all the fittings off the poles at Denton, presumably as a cost saving. If they were...

A “facility for transport” is infrastructure. Rolling stock, such as trains or buses, is not included in that definition so the Act does not apply here. The way itself, including any bridges and tunnels, the signalling system, any power supply systems, all stations and all depots are covered by...

Back to the units. At the beginning of 1977 Cricklewood had 27 cl.127 sets left and 12 cl.116 sets. Now if we take 4 units off that allocation total of 39 for the GOB, that leaves 35 units for MML. Given the increase in service level planned for the Bed-Pan scheme, an order for 48 units seems a...

The contract does not allow for rejecting trains unless they have what is known as a Category 1 fault which is confined to such safety related items such as ATP and SDO. They shouldn’t be offered to the Operator with any Category 1 fault. Engines being out is a Category 3 incident and as long as...

LNER have some of their contracted units diagrammed every day as spares. GWR does not and their contracted number of (currently) 79 units every day are usually all required for traffic. Really whether Hitachi have built too many units or not enough units for GWR is their problem. They just have...