Recent content by ChiefPlanner

At a guess , Swansea to Llandrindod might work - access at Swansea end good for connections all over and enough track around to berth and so on - run it via the Swansea District (plenty of paths and nice views over the estuary and towards the Gower) - pleasant scenery down the Vale of Towy and...

Add on sections to Neath via Port Tennant , Briton Ferry to the station (maybe beyond eventually) - and a bit of crayonning to get a route up the Swansea Valley to at least Pontardawe. Prime commuting and not just to the center either. The name "Swansea Improvements and Tramway Co." could...

Certainly , well into the 1970's best Welsh anthracite would be railed from GCG / Abernant to Nairn and other distant Scottish locations - they even made a whole train up on one occasion which caused some local interest. Another factor was the increased use of water-borne coal for electricity...

Slightly off topic - but a rail freight point - road had overtaken rail for traffic movements at Tilbury Docks from as early as 1946 , closely followed by Park Royal (London in the 20th Century) , market forces I guess...........

Yes - I had a visit to Coney Island Yard to see some of this in action ,and it was very impressive indeed and spoke to some of the car cleaners at a terminal who were in my view , very motivated with their job and if any sets came in with no graffiti damage ,rather than sit and do not much ...

They had funding first of all , - chose lines to work on and built a solid plan - made sure the sidings and depots were as secure and possible , then started the cleanup. Clean trains were not berthed next to dirty trains - any clean trains were kept clean by removal of tags at terminals ...

And a good number of those passengers are paying premium rates .......

Your standard BR brake vans - the better ones - CAP were piped only - for use on fitted trains - (or coupled to a loco) - so they would probably have run as a class 9 (old class 9) , as not braked (CAR and CAO brake vans had no such luxcery) Yes -absolute no chance today - though certain...

Great Western had a "anywhere" provision in their safety case which allowed exotic trips. I ran (for my next door headteacher neighbour - to celebrate a 100+ years of his school - St Albans Abbey to Clacton) - this was with a 321 , points clipped at Watford Junction - pilot traction...

When I was a student at Aberystwyth we hired a through train to Euston by the simple means of getting the chief clerk at the station to ring the Passenger Section at Stoke Division and a price was quoted with half an hour and the train booked. 6 MK1;s and a class 40 for the record - we took...

About that - as the DfT of the time - took a hearty dislike to all those TOC's talking to each other , and of course there were changes within the train planning structures at Network Rail coming up. A shame really -the first one was at Manchester Airport , (2000 ?) a bit stilted due to the...

From memory - "Ferodo" were brake blocks ! (often advertised on rail over road bridges) ......

Being laid up at home with mobility issues (hopefully for not too long) , I have ample time for reading so I got out Michael Bonavia's excellent book on the birth of British Railways. An excellent read , concise and thorough read and he was very much in the right place to comment on "high...

Years ago in the SRA days there was a National Timetable Conference where the operators met to have official discussions on their planned bids for the next year and to do some very useful networking - (some of the contributors here would have loved it) , anyway , it was held in Brighton one year...

The 1930's saw a tight period for on train catering (thanks to post war recession , the effect of the 1926 general strike , and 1931 was about the worst year of the economy - things picked up towards the end of the 1930's for re-arnament and the growth of consumer light goods in new industry...