Interesting and inspiring photos from Flickr....

[chris p bacon]

2 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Is the turntable still there?

A quick look on Google Earth says 'no'

[keefer]

1 hour ago, montyburns56 said:

RTC Test Train  Relly Mill Viaduct 1984 by Bill Watson

 

 

Heaton South Junction

 

 

Otherwise known as the 'Tribometer Train' and consisted of

Lab 11 RDB975046, COV-AB RDB999900 and 'Auto-trailer' RDB975076 - usually hauled by R&D dept's own loco.

http://www.traintesting.com/tribometer_train.htm

'Waverley West' on RMweb has modelled this.

Edited January 10, 2023 by keefer

[jonhall]

1 hour ago, chris p bacon said:

A quick look on Google Earth says 'no'

are you sure you are looking in the right place, because my Google Earth suggests 'yes'

 

[woodenhead]

On 03/12/2022 at 06:15, 03060 said:

Don't think that we've had this one before .... taken by MagLad.

 

 

So much to take in ... chaps coming out of the weighbridge office on the left ... mascot on the shunter ... facing point leading straight into the works shed ... driver training Unit ... 4 very different house surfaces on the same building, etc, etc.

 

Here is the location after the steel works closed, I've set it to just where the train has passed under the WCML and is heading out through Warrington Low Level

 

[chris p bacon]

10 hours ago, jonhall said:

are you sure you are looking in the right place, because my Google Earth suggests 'yes'

 

 

So it is..what a muppet!

 

I think I wandered off the plot when looking.

[Darius43]

20 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Thanks to David Rostance

 

 

Is the turntable still there?

 

 

It certainly is.  Clan Line was turned there on the “End of Southern Steam” excursion last year.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[montyburns56]

Backworth Station 1966 by Bill Watson

 

 

[luckymucklebackit]

23 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

Backworth Station 1966 by Bill Watson

 

 

 

Trying to work out why there should be soot blackening of the bridge above one track and not the other.  Is there a gradient here with the unit descending the hill?

 

Jim

[montyburns56]

SuperTed to the rescue!

 

Burrs (ELR) 2014 by Alan Hart

 

 

[Cowley 47521]

1 hour ago, montyburns56 said:

SuperTed to the rescue!

 

Burrs (ELR) 2014 by Alan Hart

 

 

A seriously good way of clearing much of the surviving class members for haulage in one go!

[nigb55009]

The photo was taken at the Teddy Bears Picnic, celebrating 50 years of the class 14.

Held at the East Lancashire Railway in July 2014. Great footage on you tube.

[Blackthorn]

I saw 9516 at Didcot in 2017 and was surprised what a well proportioned machine it was. Such a shame BR wrote the 14's so quickly, at least they found success in private hands. BR's short sightedness with the hydraulics again, not to mention some of the steam classes!!!!!

[65179]

16 minutes ago, Blackthorn said:

I saw 9516 at Didcot in 2017 and was surprised what a well proportioned machine it was. Such a shame BR wrote the 14's so quickly, at least they found success in private hands. BR's short sightedness with the hydraulics again, not to mention some of the steam classes!!!!!

 

I thought the issue was that the work they were designed for disappeared even as they were being delivered rather than just a hydraulic clearout? Why else try them off the WR in the Hull area?

 

Regards,

Simon

 

 

[Blackthorn]

11 hours ago, 65179 said:

 

I thought the issue was that the work they were designed for disappeared even as they were being delivered rather than just a hydraulic clearout? Why else try them off the WR in the Hull area?

 

Regards,

Simon

 

 

True, but why bother to introduce them at all then? The panniers  et al . should had have worked to the end and retired gracecfully. Don't get me wrong, without Dr. Beeching the UK wouldn't have the best railway preservation communities in the world, his cuts would not have led to the preservation movement of the '60's, '70''s and even today. This side of the pond any kind of working heritage railway is a rarity. I have visited the Canadian Railway Museum in Montreal, the museum, in Toronto, at the former roundhouses where Flying Scotsman, and I think the Royal Scot were housed on parts of their Canadian tours and the museum in Squamish, British Columbia.  All worth visiting just don't expect the British heritage line. They're basically static displays.

[Nearholmer]

You can’t look at Class 14 in isolation; if you step back and look at BR in the round from c1955 to c1965 you will see that it was caught in a huge “paradigm shift” in transport and logistics as road motor vehicles “came of age” and the road network began to be seriously useful for long-distance purposes.

 

BR made multiple decisions that imply that they didn’t appreciate, or did appreciate, but simply couldn’t keep up with, the pace of change. A bit like high street retailers trying to adjust to the realities of internet trading over the past c5 years. It’s something of a miracle, and to some degree to the credit of Dr Beeching, that BR came out of the other side of the maelstrom with any meaningful network left.

[keefer]

The reason the cl.14s (and the other type 1 locos) existed was the BTC/British Railways imagined the same old traffic/network carrying on, with diesel replacing steam to provide the major cost savings.

As Nearholmer says, this business model was already pretty obsolete, so a lot of the most inefficient services/flows/practices were the first to go.

This included the relatively small/short-distance 'trip' workings the Type 1s were built for.

[woodenhead]

I may be massively wrong here but here's a theory on why the railways went so quickly in the 1950/60s.

 

Politicians are generally quite well off and will invest their money, especially those of a blue colour.

 

The railways were a nationalised concern, so no benefit to investing in railways as no return on shares bought as you cannot buy any.  However, despite there being a national carrier, there was an opportunity to invest heavily in road transport companies.  So no incentive for the wealthy to invest in railways, losts of incentive to invest in road schemes and haulage companies.  And when you have that incentive, you are disincentivised from focusing on making the railways work, in fact you'd prefer the very opposite.

 

So you have the railways trying to be more efficient whilst those in actual charge really wanting something very different and actively promoting schemes that will only make it harder for the railways to ever achieve efficiency and be losing custom all the time.

[keefer]

More specific than that, Beeching was in charge of 'reshaping' the railways while his brother-in-law Ernest Marples was head of the biggest road-building company in Britain. Conflict of interest much?

Also various other conditions applied to the railways that did not apply to the roads/hauliers e.g. common carrier status.

A big factor which meant the railways were always going to be on the defensive was the 1955 strike, which drove a lot of traffic straight to road haulage.

From then on, BR was having to justify every penny spent on it (unlike the roads).

[montyburns56]

St Hilda Sidings NCB Harton by ijr65

 

 

[Purnu]

There’s some real gems in his photo stream, so many would fit this thread. 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Purnu
Added text

[33C]

26 minutes ago, Purnu said:

There’s some real gems in his photo stream, so many would fit this thread. 

Madtit-thunder-max bolt-field!

[newbryford]

On 09/01/2023 at 18:58, montyburns56 said:

E26050 (formerly named 'Stentor') Wath 1971 by Gordon Edgar

 

 

 

Never noticed the "eyebrows" over the cab windows before!

[montyburns56]

Bradford Interchange/Exchange 1974 by John Whiteley

 

 

[03060]

15 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

Bradford Interchange/Exchange 1974 by John Whiteley

 

 

 

I have slightly vague memories of walking through the station around this period, aged 6 or so with my Grandma who would treat me to a toasted currant teacake in a cafe in town. Happy Days.

 

Thanks for the reminder,

Ian.

Edited January 15, 2023 by 03060
Correction, Arndale Centre not built until 1976 !

[rodent279]

Acton Lane steam, Dec 23rd 1977. I was 8, living in Ayrshire,  and 4 months later moved to the southern WCML, 30 min by train from here.

 

This absolutely reeks of 1970's neglect & run-down.

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by rodent279