Search results

Day time. I was not trying to suggest that it was a stabling point, just that the platform is used more than people think. I have also seen the summer sunday Okehampton service use that platform as well.

I have occasionally seen a terminating Cross country train there, although it needs to be a 4 coach voyager as a 5 coach is too long

At Lichfield Trent Valley Low Level down platform there is a plethora of signs. Starting at the far end of the platform and working backwards they are: VT 10, Class 390 9/11 (a), 8 car, VT 4/5, 4 car. The 8 & 4 car signs are for LNR 350s. The reason for 11 coach 390s stopping earlier than 10...

The Manchester-Bristol (pre-Covid) would normally use platforms 2 or 3. There is no access to the West Surburban line (through Selly Oak) from platforms 1-4, only from 5-12. Trains from the Derby direction normally use 10 or 11. I remember on one occasion travelling on the 1125 Plymouth-Dundee...

One from many years ago, in BR days. I wanted to find a cheap way to "do" Stoke on Trent - Colwich direct. No internet then only paper timetables. Eventually found a Manchester - Euston that stopped at both Stoke and Tamworth thus putting it into the West Midlands Day Ranger validity. Duly...

Another aid to sighting. If the signal was next to a bridge then there would be a large white square painted on the brickwork behind the signal to make it stand out. They must have used good paint as these marks can still be seen in many places today, even where the signals themselves have...

When comparing seating between a 4 coach Voyager and a 3 coach Turbo, it might be worth remembering that on a Voyager only half of the end vehicles are available for passengers. Thus there are only three coaches worth of seats (two full coaches and two half coaches) and so the number of seats...

Detail from a portrait of Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shewsbury at Hardwick Hall. (not my picture) Might help with Shrewsbury pronunciation.

A bigger problem with running extra trains to Barnstaple is the fact that there are only two passing loops on the branch (Crediton and Eggesford). Every train already crosses another at both loops. There are no other paths on the branch without increasing the number of crossing loops. Even on...

In the early days of the Cross City electrification in Birmingham a signaller, used to sending ECS DMUs to Redditch along the fast line from Kings Norton, tried to send a class 310 that way. Only the slow lines were electrified (still the same now). About a week later I saw the unit at Lichfield...

Slightly off topic but one day I was standing on a platform at Birmingham New Street next to two 150s about 6 - 8 feet apart. One was going to Hednesford and one to Hereford!

How about University on the Cross city line in Birmingham.

Given that a train in the High Level platform can be signalled towards Alrewas (by Trent Valley Junction box) or towards Birmingham (by Aston box) presumably the signaller at Trent Vallley Junction has to be aware of terminating Cross City trains on the track circuit for the northbound signal.

When I went to school at Five Ways there wasn't a roundabout! (or, indeed, a station in the 1950s, but the current station reopened on the site of the original which was only closed as a temporary measure in 1942 due to the war)

The line through the trent valley was originally the Trent Valley Railway (1845) but while the line was still under construction the TVR was bought by the London & Birmingham Railway who then merged with the Grand Junction Railway to form the L&NWR. So, technically, named after the first railway...

Technically, Birmingham - Crewe via Stoke, and Birmingham - Rugeley are West Midlands services. Perhaps the 323s could be used on those? Maybe nine units are not enough though.

Around 1850 when the GWR extended its services to Birmingham it was intended to use Curzon Street Station jointly with the LNWR and a viaduct was constructed from Bordesley towards the station. The LNWR objected to this, partly on congestion grounds, but mainly due to the difference in gauge...

I quite agree with you, I also thought it wasn't supposed to happen. The only reason I could find these pictures quickly is because this is the only time I have ever seen a 10 car XC Voyager, although living in the Trent Valley I have seen many West Coast ones. I showed the photos to my...

Bristol Temple Meads, May 2016. 1125 Plymouth-Dundee (with second set Bristol-Newcastle) Sorry for the poor screen captures, unable to attach MVI file. 221127 & 221132 (I think)

I know this is OT but when did you get a contraflow bus lane? Back in the 1960s in Walsall part of Stafford Street was made one way and, to avoid the cost of moving the overhead wires, a contraflow bus lane was created for the trolleybuses and it is still there.