Search results

I presume its one of the consequences of privitisation and the pressure to reduce public subisdy - sorting out lost ticket revenue is seen as a relatively easy gain, so the DfT have put it into a number of franchise agreements. It doesnt hurt either that barriers have been on many stationsfor a...

I dont believe they've ever operated beyond the tunnel in France, as they arent fitted with french signalling (KVB) - though GBRf do, or did, plan to have it fitted. Chris

Haha, i must just have been lucky then...

I find a good way to tell is to look at the timetable and see if there's a trolley service - 450's wont, but 444's most likely will. It works for me anyway!

Good idea - if you want exposure for this scheme, get in touch with the specialist press; RAIL Magazine, The Railway Magazine, Modern Railways etc whose editors will be happy to hear from you.

The Weardale website is talking about Coal to Port Talbot - is this an error? It did seem like an awful long way....

Maintenance on the Island is the responsibility of Island Line, who contract the work out to Colas Rail - i believe they have 5(?) people who work on the line.

There's no public access, but there is a path along the cess from a nearby bridge. The movement of materials/plant/men to the station is the same as anywhere else along the line with no road access, by works train on the IoWSR or road/rail vehicles on Island Line. Chris

If you have a look at the pictures here you'll see that they've just connected up the outer triangle, though there's still ballasting, tamping, S&T to be done.

Tim O'Toole isnt a fool, as he tellingly said its "the best tactical decision". After all, given the massive amount of time, money and effort that goes into franchise bids these days who would even bother to compete with First given their advantage? They'd win by default. Chris

As has already been pointed out, NRM+ was a huge project - it was quite clear that Steve was fully behind the plans, especially the new roundhouse and the return to the mainline of some exhibits, but there just isnt the money. Chris

Its really sad that people are actually happy about this. NRM+ was about much more than just changing the Great Hall and boarding over the timetable - new displays, a new roundhouse, more loco's on the mainline and a lot more besides; its loss is very dissapointing. Tbh, i wasnt a great fan...

Over 100mph you cant have passengers travelling in the first vehicle of a train unless you have suitable crush zones - on voyagers etc these typically take up over a third of the leading and trailing carriages. For this reason 444's would still be 100mph, as indeed would any current design of...

You cant have all 319's in one TOC, as they'll be used on GWML commuter services.

Electric loco's can in theory go on much longer than your typical diesel if well maintained so they'll probably be around for a while yet.

Apparently lined up to help with the York-Shildon shuttles.

There is no shortage of steam loco's - there are plenty of unrestored loco's, especially industrials, and New Build's have proved that any part of a steam loco can be replaced when neccesary. Chris

Not building it would be like a tree growing its branches without strengthening its trunk - capacity constraints on our mainline's have a massive knock-on effect across the network, they have the greatest economic impact and cost the most money to sort out. The whole rail network needs to keep...

Apparently they're also using the 20/3's for ordinary work as well - heritage traction here we come!

If anything, it was the withdrawn 458's that 'replaced' the Wessex units as they were offered a very good deal by the leasing company to retain them - this meant they could cascade the 450's which in turn released enough 444's for Bournemouth services. Chris