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I seem to recall that the old GWR planned on 6 tracking from Acton Yard to Slough as far back as the 1910 era.......of course that option has long dissapeared (along with slow coal trains with best Welsh coal heading for that there London , which was probably the reasoning behind their ideas) -...
Riding home on a dusty Northern Line train , when the observant guard pulled the brake handle down as a passenger seemed to be trying to get onto an already closed up train which was moving down the platform , not too fast , but there was a very impressive stop .....naturally there were some...
2 car 120 sets were used on the Central Wales line when I was a youth - excellent units , nice and warm in winter and had the luxery of orange window curtains. Very nice and I enjoyed a couple of illegal cab rides ! (the 108 replacements were inferior - but the poor 120's had asbestos - which...
Of course the ill-fated Crossrail1 , included the Chesham Branch - but the Aylesbury & Met service was reduced to 10 TPH - and the spec was generally reduced to cut costs (for example a turnback at Harrow ! , not relocating Rickmansworth Station etc) - there were howls of protest over 25KV...
I do not recall any issue with loco couplings for Freightliner working - special , strengthened green couplings generally used for intermediate workings - especially for heavy 1600T trains from say Felixstowe. Now and again , when time allowed I would send out the terminal assistant to scout for...
I was taught that "any light waved vigerously" can be a danger signal - (my personal Bardic - retained after retirement has a red shade of course) , - anthing to attract attention IMHO , but Jenny Agutter in "The Railway Children" had innovative ideas.......
Talking of the Motor Show - my brother in law was stationed as a BR fitter to stand by at the station , with a road van packed with every conceivable spare available. (he had some quiet , tea drinking shifts !)
I seem to recall there was a 47 standng for pilot or rescue duties at Reading (General) in the 1970's , we used a spare half hour to scrub some of the dirt off the numbers just to kill time , using available resources from a toilet campartment.
How sad is that ?
In the last days of 222 Marylebone Road , I found a discarded copy of the Tanganikan Rule book - fascinating document and carefully updated by it's one time owner - the classification of trains was interesting with total priority given to HMG's Governer being total and those conveyed solely...
There was a tale mentioned somewhere about a sharp supervisor at Clapham Yard who spotted a chocolate and cream BG , so he nabbed it and put into the Bournemouth Belle rake to give an uniform colour to the Pullman rake !
About the most impressive commute I ever came across was an LT guard (remember them ?) , who one serious disruption day and had only got as far as St Albans and who asked to use the internal phone , rang his TCS and reported that he had only got as far as that ! (he had travelled from Portsmouth...
Signalbox winter coal supplies delivered by rail - loco , and MCO + brakevan as a special (couple of handy blokes with shovels ,quickly done of course)
Very fond memories as a young man , doing a Swansea - Glasgow excursion (which left at 0400 !) for £5 return - first ever trip to Scotland and we even managed an odd-on to go over the Forth Bridge as well. (to Inverkeithing I think) , much to the amusement of the booking clerk at Central (a long...
Without a doubt - the HST's saved and developed the long distance passenger services. More would have been built without the dead hand of the then DfT ........
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