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Would you welcome a 21st centuary BR with open arms???

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Phoenix

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Well it's seem at least a tiny bit more likely that BR could come back but probably not but in this day and age if BR came back would you be happy about it or not ????
 
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Phoenix

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only if they decided to keep the hst in sirvice

Well the wouldn't have an option seen as though they are the staple traction for three major companies that operate out the capital but im sure no matter what hst's will go eventually.
 

EE Type 3

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No. I think the railways today are far better than what we had when BR were around. More trains, quicker, and more reliable. And colourful. As much as I hate to say, I prefer todays railways than what we used to have.
 

Beaker

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More trains ?
My local service hasn't improved since 1939.

I think it would be better purely as it would be easy for stuff to get done as slash says.
 

richa2002

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If it wasn't for privitisation, I really don't think we'd have the amount of heritage traction on the mainline that we have now such as WCRC locos.
 

xc170

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Personally i can see the whole rail network being opperated by 1 or 2 TOC's within 30 years.
 

Phoenix

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Surely that should be 1 as NXEC have far more IC225s and EMT have more Meridians?

Yeah but although both companies have more others than hst's but if you were to boot them all out tomorow both coampanies would swiftly crumble overnight.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
If not, back to the big 4 :)

Honestly I see it turning towards grouping in the not to far distant future.
 

Crompton Karl

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What i really miss about now and the BR days is joined up thinking that they had in the rolling stock department and the apparent short-sightedness of the aquisition of Rolling Stock nowadays - it really bugs me and gets my goat!. I would love a return to BR myself but i'd accept just a little more standardisation of the rolling stock which could be dictated by the Government and ROSCO's at the contract acceptance stage.

Under BR most stock could couple up to each other within its own region etc (i.e. look at the post 1951 stock of the SR, buckeye couplers, 27 way jumpers - nearly everything working in multipull with each other and if worst came to worst all you did was drop the buckeye and couple a loco up to the exposed hook) there was no need for a rescue unit or loco to carry an adaptor and pretty much anything could haul anything else.

Nowadays its a 3 hour wait on a total failure while you find a thunderbird - the inevitable hastle to install the adaptor which sometimes just don't work, when years ago it would have been as simple to request the unit/loco behind to couple up and push the offending item of stock out of the way. Its not hard for the Government to ask for some form of uniformaty to the rolling stock fleet - especially as they have much tighter reigns over the stock aquisition nowaday.

Karl :)
 

BJMorley

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I would bring BR back only if they bring back loco hauled services... darn better space than a DMU!! TNT trains, anyone <D <D <D
Brandon
 

P156KWJ

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if you wanna pay the extra costs, cos the passengers don't. I know it's easy to say, but in reality, it's a pain in the neck :(
 

Techniquest

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Hayabusa, and yeah eventually it'll get a VP185, once the hours are gone on the Valenta. Well excited about that! :D

As for the original question, no I don't want BR back. I like having the individual TOCs and things tend to run OK as they are.

Bringing it all back under the BR banner would cause mass confusion. I don't know about anyone else, but if I was working for X TOC and got told it was all getting nationalised, I'd be annoyed. As if all the hard work in getting the TOC to be one of the best in the country counted for nothing.

We've got more trains running much more often than we had before with BR, I don't want to see that lost.

The only thing I'd like to see that we had with BR is service trains through the night. Things like 2025 Aberdeen to London Kings Cross, 0150 Fishguard Harbour to London Paddington, 2340 Newcastle to Kings Cross, 0110 Kings Cross to Leeds, 0147 Crewe to Cardiff...the list could go on. Overnight trains, even if it's just units, would be vastly appreciated by those of us who tend to need to travel overnight for long distances.
 

Pumbaa

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Even huyabusa (whatever the name) has been sold to EMT and is due to be converted to a VP185 engine.

No it's not. The Valenta engine has a really low mileage, so they're not going to bother.
 

P156KWJ

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not for at least a decade, surely? And Phoenix, it was not sold to EMT. It is still owed by the same owner.
 

me123

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21st Century BR? Well, they can barely fund Hospitals (I've heard stories that patients have found a suitible donor heart, but there is not enough money to perform the op!) and Schools as it is. And military spending is ludicrous. Then, look at the last attempt to nationalise. It ended with Dr. Beeching and now we're only just starting to reopen some of his closed branch lines.

Would a nationalised railway be able to cope with the financial burdens? There is quite simply no chance.
 

Phoenix

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21st Century BR? Well, they can barely fund Hospitals (I've heard stories that patients have found a suitible donor heart, but there is not enough money to perform the op!) and Schools as it is. And military spending is ludicrous. Then, look at the last attempt to nationalise. It ended with Dr. Beeching and now we're only just starting to reopen some of his closed branch lines.

Would a nationalised railway be able to cope with the financial burdens? There is quite simply no chance.

No offense intended towards you me123 but the problem when mentioning beeching is that it's a two sided argument because if beeching were around today there would be a lot less mucking about like there is today.
And a few features of today railway could do with rationalization such as the amount of locos we have sitting around doing nothing I would imagine that unless they had some solid work to do they would be sold off straight away.

Also I truly think the man could make sense of the farse which is the game of cascading today of second generation units (the things change homes like NOMADS)
 

TheSlash

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What i really miss about now and the BR days is joined up thinking that they had in the rolling stock department and the apparent short-sightedness of the aquisition of Rolling Stock nowadays - it really bugs me and gets my goat!. I would love a return to BR myself but i'd accept just a little more standardisation of the rolling stock which could be dictated by the Government and ROSCO's at the contract acceptance stage.

Under BR most stock could couple up to each other within its own region etc (i.e. look at the post 1951 stock of the SR, buckeye couplers, 27 way jumpers - nearly everything working in multipull with each other and if worst came to worst all you did was drop the buckeye and couple a loco up to the exposed hook) there was no need for a rescue unit or loco to carry an adaptor and pretty much anything could haul anything else.

Nowadays its a 3 hour wait on a total failure while you find a thunderbird - the inevitable hastle to install the adaptor which sometimes just don't work, when years ago it would have been as simple to request the unit/loco behind to couple up and push the offending item of stock out of the way. Its not hard for the Government to ask for some form of uniformaty to the rolling stock fleet - especially as they have much tighter reigns over the stock aquisition nowaday.

Karl :)
Great post! I fully agree, especially the fail safe draw hook and screw link coupling.
These days you have a double battle. First to couple the things, then to release the brakes and get some method of applying them again!
 

Mintona

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Blimey, can't believe some of the comments in this thread. "I'll only support BR if they keep HSTs" and "I'll only support BR if they get rid of units, and replace them with loco-hauled stock" (I have improved spelling and grammar there, so not actually direct quotes). Utter tosh.

I think you need to look at the wider picture. Crompton Karl makes a very good point, it would have made a lot more sense if all units/locos had the same coupling equipment.

Whilst the privatised railway works relatively well, I don't think anyone can judge a nationalised railway, as we don't have it to judge.

Myself, I am in 2 minds, I would personally quite like to see a return to BR.

And why can we not spell "Century"?! It's not ****ing hard!
 

me123

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No offense intended towards you me123 but the problem when mentioning beeching is that it's a two sided argument because if beeching were around today there would be a lot less mucking about like there is today.
And a few features of today railway could do with rationalization such as the amount of locos we have sitting around doing nothing I would imagine that unless they had some solid work to do they would be sold off straight away.

Also I truly think the man could make sense of the farse which is the game of cascading today of second generation units (the things change homes like NOMADS)

I still do not think that the curent government, in either Scotland or England or Wales, would be in a position to nationalise BR without Beeching-like issues. We may be using more locos again, but taxpayer's money does have to go somewhere, and at the moment it is being fully used up.
 

Tom C

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I don't know about anyone else, but if I was working for X TOC and got told it was all getting nationalised, I'd be annoyed. As if all the hard work in getting the TOC to be one of the best in the country counted for nothing.

I certainly wouldn't!

We can go back to the blue and red books for our terms & conditions instead of this miss match of some restructured grades, some using the books for everything and some using both!. We can have contractual staff travel facilities which are safeguarded and also allow the boys who fix the line to have something rather than bugger all in most cases.

When you are working for a TOC it shouldn't matter what uniform you wear, your main aim should be to provide excellent service for your passengers regardless of the train service they are using and judging by the situation with Grand Central and NXEC that doesn't happen at the moment and I am sure that isn't an isolated situation.

You don't find many staff (certainly not this end) who have anything other than praise for BR and nearly all of them would wish that we were back in the "good old days".

0150 Fishguard Harbour to London Paddington

Is there a ferry service for the train to meet anymore? If so then yes that would definately be a good idea, if not then thats why it doesn't run anymore.
 

Techniquest

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There is a ferry that arrives around 0045 IIRC. But most of the time the unit terminates at Swansea, hardly useful.
 

Pumbaa

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The whole principle of privatisation was to put an investment boost into the network. On the principle that neither of the big 2 political parties are truly labour now, I wouldn't want it to happen.

I'm for rationalisation. A big 4, sort of.
 
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