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Misc steam railway, traction, station and rail-related news

davesgcr said:
4VEP units yes - but your bog standard EPB units dated from 1951 or so , and on recycled underframes from before the Second World War. Mere detail.
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yes - and a few late 30s 'augmentation' trailers from withdrawn 4 SUB units. but there was the 1957 generation of EPB's.

davesgcr said:
They did try out one of the new fangled 4PEP units on the Dartford lines
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think dad said he'd made an effort to travel on it once or twice and wasn't very impressed

and he remembered the 'double deck' units (where they lived before i was around was a flat where the garden backed on to the line between lewisham and blackheath)
 
Puddy_Tat said:
yes - and a few late 30s 'augmentation' trailers from withdrawn 4 SUB units. but there was the 1957 generation of EPB's.



think dad said he'd made an effort to travel on it once or twice and wasn't very impressed

and he remembered the 'double deck' units (where they lived before i was around was a flat where the garden backed on to the line between lewisham and blackheath)
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A great film - watched it with a very good friend who was a relief Station Manager on the South Eastern at the time - (he said it was very hard work as they were incredibly tight on signalmen and they had to do all sorts of things to keep the signal boxes covered during the change over periods) , but he was able to recognize some of his ex workmates in the film , and also to add detail on some of the esoteric locations used , let alone the peak only headcodes on those stalwart units. He was so taken that we watched it twice !

Always had an incredible soft spot for the intricacies of the Southern - it takes years to learn it properly , and some courage to chair operational planning / strategy meetings with folk who were solid managers from that region. Managed it all right - such that one said (approvingly) , I was now accepted , having been properly taught by those born with 3d rail shoe gear vice shoes. !!! .......

I wonder where this interest came from ? - plenty of good stuff in my Great Western homeland - but the draw of London and it's exotic attractions - BR blue and the distinctive
"farting" horns , headcodes and red tail blinds.
 
davesgcr said:
he said it was very hard work as they were incredibly tight on signalmen and they had to do all sorts of things to keep the signal boxes covered during the change over periods
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can imagine - guess they wouldn't have been able to get new people in to boxes that were about to close, and presume some of the signalmen would have been drifting off to vacancies elsewhere rather than waiting for redundancy / retirement...

davesgcr said:
let alone the peak only headcodes on those stalwart units
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i can probably remember most of the numbers for the dartford lines, and a fair few from the rest of the charing cross / cannon street suburbans.

i noticed a '43' - would have been cannon street, via sidcup but avoiding lewisham, to / from somewhere beyond gravesend

or do you mean the odd bits of morse code above the number? i think that had officially been abandoned by the time i was taking notice, although would occasionally see a train with it showing. i think they were to show things like 'not calling at London Bridge' and so on.
 
Puddy_Tat said:
can imagine - guess they wouldn't have been able to get new people in to boxes that were about to close, and presume some of the signalmen would have been drifting off to vacancies elsewhere rather than waiting for redundancy / retirement...



i can probably remember most of the numbers for the dartford lines, and a fair few from the rest of the charing cross / cannon street suburbans.

i noticed a '43' - would have been cannon street, via sidcup but avoiding lewisham, to / from somewhere beyond gravesend

or do you mean the odd bits of morse code above the number? i think that had officially been abandoned by the time i was taking notice, although would occasionally see a train with it showing. i think they were to show things like 'not calling at London Bridge' and so on.
Click to expand...

Covering signal boxes with a pending vacancy gap - ageing workforce (as no recent recruitment) - plus even those keen on money would balk at endless 12 hours on the roster - not that it was easy work.

There is a slowly fading group of folk who can remember these headcodes ! - odd and evens twixt CX and CS easy enough - but even my mate was challenged by a "31" - somewhere up the Mid Kent was his reply ....but to be fair when he covered CX he was more concerned with the turnrounds and making sure he had a full crew to get it back out. He has some great anecdotes and I keep urging him to get it down on paper.* He covered some tough locations too in the not very good 1970's - but being a local he had no issue with that , - when transferred to Liverpool St as SM , he had no problems or concerns at all.

(* how to keep the tired signalman at Shepherds Lane on beyond 12 hours - ask what he wanted to eat - arrange a special stop on an Orpington local and deliver fish and chips and so on direct to him - and stay with him till relief came - had this bloke gone home - nothing would have come out of Victoria in the rush hour...)

A real specialist subject for Mastermind I think - along with Southern freight headcodes as carried on 73 and 33's etc.

PS - ever watched "Old , Dirty and Late" - bit later but superb - on Youtube.
 
davesgcr said:
(* how to keep the tired signalman at Shepherds Lane on beyond 12 hours - ask what he wanted to eat - arrange a special stop on an Orpington local and deliver fish and chips and so on direct to him - and stay with him till relief came - had this bloke gone home - nothing would have come out of Victoria in the rush hour...)
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wonder just what the current 'delay attribution' people would make of that...

davesgcr said:
PS - ever watched "Old , Dirty and Late" - bit later but superb - on Youtube.
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not sure i've seen that. will watch it some time. thanks.
 
there is another balls up on the reading - waterloo line this evening. (fortunately, i'm at home, so only seeing it on tweeter)

SW Fail have put this out

sw-fail-121023.jpg

people are starting to make the point that the underground doesn't really go in that direction, and the TFL bus network stops at staines

:facepalm:

there was another time (when i was commuting regularly) that i got stuck at ascot about 7pm and they recommended various local bus routes (all of which are back in their box by that time of evening)
 
editor said:
Here's a splendidly composed pic showing a tank engine heading for Ottery St Mary / Sidmouth Junction (now called Feniton), in the village of Tipton St John

View attachment 395163
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at the risk of being off-topic, bus is a Devon General AEC Reliance, from a batch new in 1957.

This one got restored a year or three back

VDV-798-Newton-Abbot-S-Wren-3-Sept-2023-1-e1694447992741.jpg


There weren't many operators who specified offside doors for the driver on underfloor engined buses. It must have seemed like a good idea at the time...
 
Puddy_Tat said:
there is another balls up on the reading - waterloo line this evening. (fortunately, i'm at home, so only seeing it on tweeter)

SW Fail have put this out

View attachment 395203

people are starting to make the point that the underground doesn't really go in that direction, and the TFL bus network stops at staines

:facepalm:

there was another time (when i was commuting regularly) that i got stuck at ascot about 7pm and they recommended various local bus routes (all of which are back in their box by that time of evening)
Click to expand...
I don’t miss commuting Chertsey to Earley by train at all, did it for around 18 months
 
1697983318663.png

The image above is of the work pit of a railroad “hot box” inspector! Passenger trains, as well as freight trains coming into the station complex, had to slow sufficiently for the switching ahead. They had been running at a much higher speed prior to coming to the location pictured, which meant wheel bearings had been operating at higher speeds, creating more friction. A bearing without sufficient lubrication would be smoking if not on fire, and it was the inspector’s job to spot the smoke/fire from a “hot box” and report it so that the train could be stopped and the problem dealt with.
Click to expand...

 
Following up from editor ’s post, forgive my ignorance, but I’ve always wondered if the old fashioned levers they used in junction boxes controlled just semaphores, or also points. And if they also moved points, what was the maximum distance a set of points could be operated from a junction box?
 
T & P said:
Following up from editor ’s post, forgive my ignorance, but I’ve always wondered if the old fashioned levers they used in junction boxes controlled just semaphores, or also points. And if they also moved points, what was the maximum distance a set of points could be operated from a junction box?
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definitely points as well, although some boxes have / had powered points



is the shortest video i can find

i can find a couple of discussions on web forums, and depending on who you believe, either 350 or 440 yards was the limit for manually operated points connected with point rodding to the lever frame.
 
Puddy_Tat said:
definitely points as well, although some boxes have / had powered points



is the shortest video i can find

i can find a couple of discussions on web forums, and depending on who you believe, either 350 or 440 yards was the limit for manually operated points connected with point rodding to the lever frame.
Click to expand...

The longest "run" I've operated was at Dduallt {Festiniog Railway} the "bottom" loop to main points, there was also a treadle / fpl for those points that was very heavy ... offhand, I don't know how far it was from the lever frame to the points, but not a short run. Unlike the top end, which were almost outside the cabin by comparison.
(Not actually a signaller, but as a guard I needed to do a full shift in that cabin and to be able to pull off everything on the frame)
 
"The planned widespread closure of railway station ticket offices in England has been scrapped.

The Government has asked rail operators to withdraw their proposals for a widespread closure of station ticket offices in England, Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, confirmed on Tuesday.

Just under a thousand station ticket offices were set to be closed within the next three years, in a move that the rail sector said was needed to modernise the network which was backed by the Government.

But the plans had been met with cross-party uproar, with regional mayors including Manchester’s Andy Burnham and West Midlands mayor Andy Street coming out against the plans, as well as senior Tory backbenchers including Dame Priti Patel.

Concerns were raised in particular about elderly and disabled rail users who relied on in-person ticket office services and were less able to use machines.

In a statement, Mr Harper said that the proposals to close ticket offices “did not meet the high thresholds” of serving rail passengers”.

“The consultation on ticket offices has now ended, with the Government making clear to the rail industry throughout the process that any resulting proposals must meet a high threshold of serving passengers.

He added: “We have engaged with accessibility groups throughout this process and listened carefully to passengers as well as my colleagues in Parliament. The proposals that have resulted from this process do not meet the high thresholds set by ministers, and so the Government has asked train operators to withdraw their proposals"
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From The Telegraph.
 
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