TheSignalEngineer

Badly

Rovers or the other lot?

Codes for OLE mast letters are shown on this site http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/electrification/mast_prefix1.shtm

It's a long time ago now but we had some problems with our first home. There was an issue about an unpaid bill incurred by the previous owner. Fortunately Mrs SE worked for a well respected legal firm at the time so a quick letter from them resolved our end. Had it not been for her connections it would have bern seriously worrying/inconvenient.

Possibly a good call. in the early 1960s there was a 7.35pm Holyhead - Birmingham which carried mails. Got to New Street just after 2am. Edit. Just checked my old New Street platforming book for 1964. That train from Holyhead had a cross platform connection with the Newcastle - Bristol sleeper which carried TPO vans

We had an Area Manager who bought a flame thrower for clearing the snow. Unfortunately the person given the job of using it to get stock off the depot didn't just do the hand points. He set fire to the signalling cables on the main exit points and stopped the job for two days.

The Torrs at New Mills?

Sounds a bit like an occasion just after my father retired from his first career. He answered the door and two well dressed gents stood there. Have you a Bible in your house asked the older one. Yes, Dad said, is there any particular version and passage you would like to discuss? He was on holiday from studying at theological college for his second career at the time. They always walked past our house after that.

Main lines are straight but there are curves at each end.

Whenever I have been at Chester station at Midnight I've either been fast alseep or too full of beer to notice my surroundings.

Reminds me of a few epic trips when the children were young and used to set off with me to explore the country. After doing the Central Wales we got off a Swansea - Paddington HST at Bristol Parkway only to find our connection to Birmingham had failed and no train for 90 minutes at least. Jumped back on to Paddington and across to Euston arriving at New Street well before any train from Bristol. Another day we were going to do Parkeston Quay to Peterborough then connections to Leicester and Birmingham. Incoming train so late we would have been stranded somewhere so got home via Liverpool Street. Riding one of the last ECML Deltics we got stuck at Edinburgh so did the Forth and Tay bridges out behind the driver on a 101, refreshments at Dundee then back with a McRat to catch the old sleeper home. Mrs SE a bit peeved when we got back at 8am on Sunday morning. Happy days.

I hear the old railwayman coming to the surface. In case of disruption get on any train going closer to home.

Except when it comes to cleaning them.

Ah, the Tipton Screwdriver.

Another taken from the platform on the left I think. https://rcts.zenfolio.com/steam-lmsr/london-midland-scottish-railway/5p5f-stanier-4-6-0-black-5/hB935475F

I've spotted a picture of an 8f at Chester station in the 1960s on the RCTS site with the same style canopy, clock and tannoy on one of the other platforms.

This one at Chester loks to be taken about 3 or 4 supports back from the original photo. Chester Station by Peter Hughes, on Flickr

Oxley had a lifting shop. http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/Railway Gazette/Edition4.htm

Fitted and unfitted Cattle wagons except GWR were common user from 1925. Fitted wagons were withdrawn from the arrangement in 1933.

If it still doesn't work escalate to the next level.

I used to work for a coal merchant occasionally in the early 1960s. My great aunt was manageress at a merchant's branch office on the local sidings. They had several pens along the yard fence next to the office. They were built from old sleepers and even a couple of wooden headstocks and underframe timbers. I still have a repair plate rescued from one of them. The pens were used for the different types of fuel such as anthracite, smokeless fuel, coke and various grades of house coal. There was a clear space over two lorries wide between the wagons and pens. I think there were three different merchants with offices there. Orders would be phoned through to the main office for so many wagons of the grades needed for the expected deliveries. From memory, because of the lumpy nature of house coal a 13T ex-PO or 16 ton mineral would only hold about 8 tons max. The method of unloading varied with the season. When a lot of coal was being sold if a wagon of the right grade had arrived and was waiting to be unloaded the lorry was tared on the weighbridge with the number of bags needed for the next run. The lorry was parked and the wagon door dropped onto the flatbed. Bags were loaded and weighed straight from the wagon then the lorry was weighed again on the way out of the yard. One of my jobs when the men were out in the road was to tally the weighslips against the wagon numbers and check the total amount unloaded from each wagon against what was on the wagon label then pass the information to the main office so they could deal with paying the NCB. If we had too much of a particular grade the lorry was tared and up to about 3 tons shovelled onto it, weighed again then shovelled into the appropriate pen. As this was after nationalisation BR charged demurrage, a form of rent, for wagons not unloaded within a certain number of days. Originally it was a week but was later reduced to three working days IIRC. This made for a nice little earner on a Saturday morning clearing spare coal out of wagons needing to be released back to traffic and dropping it into the pens.

I can't find a picture of Shrewsbury with a double column canopy as in the original picture.

I did think it may be Shrewsbury but couldn't match the platforms up. I think the stuff in the steam which I thought was a footbridge could be the end of an old overall roof. Possibly the clock at midnight gives a clue as well?

New Street Platform 10.

It's got wires, so not Preston. Also Has a glass sided footbridge of WCML 1960s style? What I thought were wires may be a scratch.