Hey & 150, 153 & 170's!!
Plus the amount of steam we have had lately, plus regular class 60's, 57's 66's. Infact we probably get more loco hauled than new street!
hock:
P.S. Proud salopian, have you been on salop station the last few weeks. I keep waving to a few neds that look familiar from pic's on here.
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The 16:30 Holyhead does actually leave right time a fair bit, although as you say waiting for a connection from a brum train is always a nightmare as New st PSB, Wolves PSB & Oxley boxes seem to devise new ways to delay anything not owned by Dick. At least most of the signalman now apologise for being vermin blinded now, especially when You point out that 1 is before 5 regardless of livery/ owner!
As for My point re the delay on the Salop to Chester line, my point is regardless of whom delays whom is that network rail seem happy to take there money for line usage without actually bothering to work out things like timings. After Cross Newyd box's(AB section) section signal is a bloody long section to Gobowen plus the regularly used groundframe at Chirk. Then between Gobowen box(AB section) & Crewe Jcn box (Salop,AB again) with one IB signal each way is also a long long section. It's 20 minutes (booked) between the last two points (16 minutes,4 seconds in 1967 with a black five though! But then it was still a mainline then rather than a very rough branchline). All the other boxes along the line were removed by the early 90's in cost cutting & now it's just a sh*t line to drive on at the moment with timing's. Plus 150's,158's & 175's are just way faster than skips isn't going to help matters at all.I know a 67 has a higher top speed than a 150,158 but between Shrewsbury & Wrexham the speeds are 15mph(salop),70mph(clear of Crewe Jcn), 60mph(approach to Cefn Viaduct to just before Ruabon, 50mph before Ruabon to otherside of the station & then back to 70mph up to Wrexham. So top end never comes into play plus on other sections they are running at lower speeds due to loco hauled (& NR's fear of loco's) whilst MU's travel at higher posted linespeeds. Talking to one WSR road learner with me the other day he was sying further south there's a section of around 20 miles where MU's are 100mph & loco's are 60mph! Thats going to hammer someones else's trains as well. I'm all for other company's running trains & certainly up for loco haulage but if you see things without Network Rails rose tinted glasses you will see all they care about is getting more money & sod anyone who runs trains already.I worked for NR from when it started till 2005 & I have never seen such a shoddy setup as it(apart from Railtrack, but they were just a complete joke "Quality paths for Profit" was there catchphrase, yeah right!
I think the signallers are scared sh*tless when it comes to Dick Vermine, as you say 2 yellows out of Wolves, a 5 minute delay coz a class 5 wants to emerge from Oxley.