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Exactly right. You arrive/depart from Reading from/to Gatwick when you can to get through all the constraints en route. It’s not an easy route to time trains on.

The work to accommodate 3TPH presumably is what Fenman is going on about. The problem has not been entirely of NR’s making. The DfT specified both the Thameslink and SWR franchise competitions to include timetables that had other operators services at then current levels (not necessarily at the...

I disagree. There are three DfT requirements that affect the ND route. Firstly there is the Thameslink programme, then there is the revised/additional services on the SWML and finally the North Downs 3TPH itself. One has been around for decades, the ND 3 TPH has been a DfT requirement since 2006...

On of my teacher's at school in the 1960's was on the platform seeing his wife off on the local before he took the Bakerloo - they were towards the London end of the platform. She got on and, in his words, suddenly the train shot forward in front of his eyes. His wife fell inside the train and...

The ORR didn’t like it. Their quest to see the end of slam doors - no mitigation measures were acceptable so it had to end and a local train was introduced to take the commuting punters.

Ha ha that quote always makes me chuckle. Each region had a variation on that joke. Substitute Didcot for the WR, whose drivers could also wander a bit. The furthest one Didcot driver got was Inverness and they even managed to get a Hymek to Mossend! The Saltley turns to Scotland in steam...

It was allocated to Rottweil between 1963 and 1972.

No, the 143 units are going, whether any 769's enter service or not. The extra GTi sets will help fill the gap with one due before Xmas.

I think it looks like a diesel with low level controls at one end. There’s also something RSH about it to me.

Funnily enough, that is exactly where I thought it was before I looked at your posting. Where the motorails used to go from, in much later years of course!

The failure of the Sherpa “workabus” between Paddington and Old Oak (a not uncommon experience if “side-saddle” had been driving “tramway style” and knackered the gearbox on one of the two minibuses) meant a loco substitution. The tannoy at the Oak would announce something like “the 3 o’clock...

That’s modern mythology. Pacers were not bought as a temporary stop gap and had the same BR book life as their other DMU’s. They were expected, by BR, to last a lot longer than 10 years!

You may be looking at apples and pears. You need to know both sets of asset values and assumptions about future costs, including the funding requirements going forward. ROSCOs and other similarly asset rich leasing companies are attractive to the financial sector because of the financial...

How do you know that? Do you know what the book value was, the life expectancy of the fleet or how much work was estimated to take place over the lifetime to maintain capital value? Do you know the depreciation or recapitalization policy of the ROSCO? I'll give you a clue on Pacers - they had...

How do you know they made unusually high profits on the Pacers?

But it may not have been the handbrake wot caused it, guv’nor!

The 143’s are not getting extended. If the extra HST units or the Turbos freed by the 769’s don’t appear in time, that’s tough. GWR need two more HST sets or 2 x 3 car Turbos in diagram to cover off the 143 sets retained because the 150/0 were sent away. The DfT are adamant about this. The...

The issue is you would lose 3 car units and create more 2 car units, which is not what you want to do. The real problem is that there are not enough intermediate cars in the total fleet, a problem that will only be resolved if any 465 trailers become available.

They were actually route cleared by NR quite a time before the GWR test runs. Formal route clearance by NR does not involve physical test runs. The TOC, however, does need to do physical test runs to satisfy itself that (for example) the stop boards, lighting and stepping distances are all...

Even if they kick the can down the road there will have to be a Commons statement as it is a matter for a Ministerial statement. That will take place after the (usually) 7.00 a.m. Stock Exchange announcement as the Commons statement obviously can’t be done at that time - it has to be done during...