Recent content by L&Y Robert

When going by train I always take my ear protectors - they look like orange headphones - which are very effective at keeping unwanted noise out. As they make it possible to work in a saw-mill, they can, and do efficiently stop unwanted announcements in trains, musak in supermarkets and road...

I remember an article in, I think, Modern Railways some years ago which had the title "Plasma Torch Kills Low Adhesion Problems". What happened to all that? Was it really The Answer?

Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/collision-and-derailment-near-salisbury-fisherton-tunnel-31-10-21.224217/ If the Salisbury collision was wheel-slide (not entirely certain yet) could this sort of accident be avoided by simply re-configuring the system to allow...

Initial reports said that a train "Struck an object". Have we established what the 'object' was yet?

I received a flyer in the post this morning for "Settle to Carlisle & Coastal Statesman" rail tour on 16th October. Starts from High wycombe, then follows Chiltern route to Banbury, finally calls at Leamington Spa - then what? It has to get to Hellifield somehow, and that's the bit that's...

Bishops L is nowhere, nothing. Why don't they run to Taunton, and so connect to the Big Railway? The track is there. The ballast trains were able to run onto the branch, so why can't passenger trains? I suppose there would have to be some physical adjustments at Taunton, but I suspect the answer...

Rose Grove - Paignton? Never knew there was such a thing!

A few years later, and if we were going to London (Motor Show etc.) we (our family) realised that it was a lot less cumbersome to take the local service to Preston, then a main line train to Euston. Trains from Burnley to Manchester in those days went via Accrington, Haslingden, Bury, Clifton...

I'm over 80 now, so my memory stretches back into 40s and 50s. In 1951 I attended the Burnley Grammar School, and went on an expedition that had been organised to take school children from the valley towns (Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley, Nelson and Colne) to the Festival of Britain. A long...

I sometimes look at York station through Railcam's webcam. I have seen several freight movements lately passing through the station. Anybody know why they aren't routed via the avoiding lines?

I just saw, about 10-05am on 'Rail Cam' a steam-hauled 2 coach train pass Norden-wards non-stop through Corfe. There was a bunch of orange-clad photographers at the end of the platform as well, eagerly awaiting it, so it must have been something special. Anybody know what this unusual working was?

Well said! [coppercapped (post 3319)] We should make the purpose of the planning system, and the efforts of those engaged in it better understood by the public at large. People - communities - benefit from the planning system in ways that are not immediately evident, although often it may seem...

Is there any possibility of establishing a west-facing bay platform for this service? Seems the obvious thing to do, and there seems to be plenty of room for the track, and a platform face ready and waiting. I measured it (from Google-E) at 113m long. I'm sure it has been thought of, and I...

What has happened to Swanage Railway's Class 117 and the 121 'Bubble car' heritage DMUs? The last I heard (last year it was) they were to have operated the Wareham service this (2019) year, but they didn't appear. I understand that a lot of effort and presumably some expense has gone into making...

I was once travelling back to Newcastle on a Tyneside electric, via the 'Riverside loop'. It was not a busy train, and I was surprised when a woman sitting diagonally opposite abruptly got to her feet and moved to the far end of the carriage. A few minutes later I saw a mouse moving about the...