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    Best Train spotting stations (updated)

    Taunton, 1962 (or before), summer Saturdays ...
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    Running round at Cowes

    Slip coaches had a special attachment on both ends of the vacuum pipe (and also on the steam heating pipe, for winter use), which was connected by mechanism to the slip guard's lever, so that when this was pulled both ends were sealed. A breakaway at any other point would apply the brakes in the...
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    Last Year Of Regional Coloured Unified Style Timetable Covers ?

    The GWR predecessor, on all the timetables I have from the 1940s, are also cream stiff paper covers, with brown letterpress printing. But mine are all summer ones. Apparently pre-nationalisation the other Big Four companies contracted Bradshaw to print their public timetables, while the GWR did...
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    Is there way of making the Caledonian Sleeper more profitable?

    Likewise back in the 1970s, when sleepers were first class = sole occupant, second class = share, a woman colleague who travelled overnight Edinburgh to Inverness on business said they only needed to book second, because solo women passengers were unusual and there was never another one to share.
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    2024 Tube Stock (Siemens Inspiro)

    At university (alas) some 40-50 years ago we used to call it "perceived journey time". There are comparable issues on road, a minute waiting in a traffic queue is perceived longer than a minute driving along, hence drivers will prefer a longer distance route where they keep moving. A notable...
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    Trivia: When did the last loco hauled services operate on normal passenger services from each London termini?

    Holborn Viaduct long had late night (especially Saturday night) newspaper trains. When I first moved to Canary Wharf in the mid-1980s I was struck late on periodic weekend nights by hearing what was obviously a Sulzer diesel sound coming from afar over the rooftops, which I initially thought was...
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    Trivia: When did the last loco hauled services operate on normal passenger services from each London termini?

    I think that well before that the loco hauled peak hour services had all been arranged to run from London Bridge. Victoria had become all multiple unit at some point earlier. The first peak 33-hauled train was top-and-tailed in, for each service thereafter the loco which had brought the previous...
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    Trivia: When did the last loco hauled services operate on normal passenger services from each London termini?

    June 1962 for Fenchurch Street, which may have been the first. Although there are loco hauled trains now, from 1966 when the GC main line closed Marylebone was without loco services for nearly 50 years. Which shows "never say never". I think for both these two the last loco hauled service was...
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    Ex-B R Scottish-based NBL Diesel shunters used by industry in South Wales.

    Is that how they got the wheels off? :)
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    South Western Railway Train Cleanliness Survey

    Was looking at their trains yesterday. While they have spent significant sims on train washes, these only do the sides, the transition to the filthy, dirt-encrusted ends of each carriage is only too apparent. If nothing else, why not paint the ends all black - like BR used to do with Mk 1...
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    Maidenhead Main Line Platform 2/3 edge barriers

    The ones at Slough were installed a while ago, probably during lockdown. I believe on this stretch they are all as much for avoidance of intentional acts as much as for safety of passing passengers, particularly after the inquest into a particularly appalling incident at Slough some years ago...
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    Waterloo station masterplan

    I deliberately came through, for the first time, The Sidings last night, after reading this thread, from arriving at the "Eurostar" (alias Windsor Lines) platforms, to the Jubilee Line. What a poor experience. - Most, in fact almost all, of the retail units are unlet. - Despite the main...
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    Former British car marque revivals.

    The MG badge (which is actually "Morris Garages", a very early times 1920s tuning shop) went onto the rest of the production long before that, from about 1960 it was a sub-grand on the Morris Oxford, and then the 1100, with "sporting" add-ons, in parallel with the traditional small sports cars...
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    Last Year Of Regional Coloured Unified Style Timetable Covers ?

    I seem to recall the Western covers in the 1950s were the standard pattern, but the colours reversed, mainly cream with brown lettering and borders, rather than the other way round. I also believe the Southern did things quite differently, used a different printer, possibly the one who did ABC...
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    Running round at Cowes

    Another occasion where the brakes were released was at Bristol Temple Meads, on northbound cross-country services in steam and early diesel hydraulic times. The GWR used 25" vacuum, whereas others used 21", and when the Western loco was detached there and a Midland one came on, it might not...
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    Waterloo station masterplan

    15 months ? Let me introduce NR to a mechanical and electrical contractor who can install 100 complete bathrooms in 100 rooms of a new-build hotel (Premier Inn/Travelodge/ HolidayInn Express style) in about four weeks ...
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    Eurostar St Pancras - is bedlam normal?

    The disorganisation seems to vary by time of day, hence different people having different experiences. Early departures seem the worst. A significant part of this is staffing arrangements, security and check-in staff being paid night rate for the full shift if they have to report before 0600...
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    Waterloo station masterplan

    It was, Lambeth Council made a specific point of this when the footbridge was closed, and how it was their "policy" to have surface crossings for this reason, no steps. Someone can doubtless find the old statement.
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    Closed Passenger Stations still retaining B.R. Regional Signage after Passenger Closure?

    I've posted before that in 1976 we drove west from Stirling and got to the old Balquhidder station site. At the back of the outbuildings, thrown down in the weeds, was the old Scottish Region blue station running in nameboard. Closed in 1965, but still presentable with not much rust. Quite...
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    Same loco into 3 or more different London termini

    317s likewise have been moved around over time, from St Pancras, Euston, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street, the same units seemingly having served all these in turn. Someone is likely to have ridden into all of them.

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