TheSignalEngineer

Catch-up after a few days in the land of flakey internet, a few miles west of Wrexham. All I was going to comment on seems to have faded since hearing the news about Sandy. One bright spot was to see Debs active on the site again. I would heartily agree with the sentiment of living every day, I have seen too many colleagues who died young and never got to do things they talked about. It certainly puts our so-far minor ailments into a sharp perspective. As for me we had no grandparent duty this week so last Sunday packed the tent and bikes and headed off to Wales. Put the tent up in a near gale which seemed to carry on until just before it was time to take it down today. On Monday I entered my second year in the Coffin Dodgers Link (those past their Biblical Span) so headed off on the bike for 25 miles off-road with 2000 feet of climbing around Llyn Brenig and Llyn Alwen Reserviors and the Clocaenog Forest. The following morning was a slog round the Red route at Llandegla starting with a 500ft+ climb in 3 miles. After lunch we did a quick blast round to Blue route, which starts with the same climb as before. Wednesday saw us on the Bala Lake Railway with a short ride later. Our planned ride at Llanwrst on Thursday was scrapped because of inclement weather on the proposed route, so we did Llandegla Blue again but this time starting from the camp site which involves a 900ft+ climb over 6 miles. One day soon I may not be able to do it, but while I can I will.

I was up at The Lion a couple of weeks ago and it was warm enough to sit outside. On my previous visit I got blown off my mountain bike and had to have nine stitches in my face.

This was during the Garratt Centenary celebrations. Following the weekend exhibition at MOSI it was taken to the Beyer Peacock factory in Gorton. From there it went along the Hyde Road with a police escort. It was parked up at Tesco waiting to go to a commemorative event at the church just across the road where Richard Peacock is buried. Film clip here https://youtu.be/CRAt6dxUbO8

Our local Fire Station has a regular crew and a volunteer one. The volunteer crew can't go to house fires as they aren't trained to climb ladders. What's a fireman supposed to do to get up the outside of a building FFS? Back to other matters I was in Manchester today doing Grandad duty. Chris, I saw this machine and immediately thought of your boots. Unfortunately not a very good picture with the phone as it's in a glass case, but just the thing for running up some Rainbow Laces. Two sets of bobbins move in opposite directions and also in and out like a Maypole dance then the rollers at the top flatten the braiding.

Trip into MOSI Manchester today with the grandsons. Some quick phone shots, pity about the grotty weather. 142043 arriving at Marple with the 1049 Manchester Picc. to Sheffield. 142003 waiting for the road at Manchester Picc. 142003 leading a Class 150 at Marple on the 1631 Manchester Picc to New Mills Central

Not a trough shot but there was a request about filling. Not sure that's a good place to park a loco that was still hot enough to sound the whistle, although I think the fire was out by then. Back to Trev52A's call, anyone got a shot of a diesel with the scoop down?

The Georges Road end of the tunnel at Stockport is now completely history. This was last week. For completeness I'm reposting a few in sequence going back in time 9th September 2018 6th July 2018 4th April 2018 And from the same spot on 14th July 2014

That conjours up a few interesting prospects. Bet the tabloids would pay good money for a picture of that.

There's mention here https://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10941 of filling the water tank of Deltics at Newcastle. The boiler itself was between the two engines.

I've used him a couple of times for ordinary stuff. Fine for that, cheaper than Hattons at times, but unusual stuff tends to hang around at his prices.

Swindon did carriages as well as locos so I would expect them to use the same paint. I don't think Crewe did carriages then but it would be interesting to see an ex works Swindon one next to a Crewe one, and a Crewe one next to a maroon pacific.

If 1964 they could have been cleared as Mr P. used the Flying Moneypit to get to Cardiff via Saltley to pick up some gong for services to tourism in 1963

I remember seeing locos moved to and from works with the rods tied together in the cab.

What's that A3 doing under the wood? I thought they were banned South of Derby.

Regarding the maroon locos I saw most of the Westerns at Snow Hill in their early days, partly because I was a regular spotter around there when the Crewe-built ones were arriving. They came to Tyseley and could be seen on a daily basis with a few coaches being tested. When signed off they often worked an ECS Tyseley to Queens head then up to Lapworth on an evening peak service. In my memory when ex-works they were very close to the coach colour, but soon lost their gloss due to either different painting or cleaning techniques. Another cause for different shades was the paint preparation. I believe that Swindon used a green primer whilst Crewe used red. Most of my colour pictures were from the blue era but this is an extract from one at Plymouth in 1967. The undamaged parts of the paintwork look very close the the BSK shade. I saw a lot of the red LMR Pacifics in my trips to New Street, Rugby and Stafford. My impression of those was that on a dull day they were close to the coach shade but they stood out in the bright sun. Again I think this could have been due to surface finishes and cleaning with an oily rag rather than water and brooms reflecting the light differently.

In the 1980s I was put down in front of my staff by a very senior manager and member of the signal engineering profession. He told me the procedure I was using to produce designs for signalling alterations was time and money wasting and was to be stopped immediately. After he left the office I told the staff to carry on as normal and ignore what he had said. They agreed with my position and carried on as before. Shortly after during what I considered to be a reorganisation too far I engineered myself a move to a different job. Less than 12 months later Clapham happened and suddenly the methods we had been using were flavour of the season.

Having done some more testing and measuring I found more problems with propelling through points. The close coupling units are much too sloppy when tension locks are used. With the alternative couplings they are fine. Regarding the wheelsets I tried several combinations at one location in the fiddle yard. Everything works O.K. in the normal running direction trailing through them. Hornby Bulleids gave problems propelling. I picked up a coach made up from several bits of Airfix / Mainline / Dapol origin and wheels from a pack of Hornby ones I bought about 5 years ago. The coach has Hornby R8099 couplings in Dapol bogies. Worked perfectly as built, so I swapped one wheelset with one from a Bulleid brake. Repeating the test runs the Dapol coach with the new wheels derailed three times in five shunts, the Bulleid with the old wheels ran perfectly every time. I am beginning to suspect that the newer Hornby wheels have a slightly different profile to the older ones.

Possibly the one photographed behind a Brit on a parcels train at Tebay in 1967? Third picture down.

He could do a Prezza and travel by train whilst his Ministerial Red Box and overnight bag went in the Jag.

On page 15 there's a picture of a Highland 37' 9" bogie brake at New Street in 1954 with the bottom panel of the guards door and the extreme ends of the top panel painted in a different colour to the rest of the body. It also carries STOVE branding. Three vehicles were rebuilt to brake vans from older mail vans around WW1.

We definitely need an 'OMG' button for things like this.

Since my previous post my composite has arrived and as expected the cut-out in the end is different again, so this must be for identification purposes. It too gave problems propelling across one set of points. I acquired a digital measuring thingy last week. The wheels were tight to my back-to-back gauge so I measured all of them and the figures came out between 14.10mm and 14.32mm across the 12 wheelsets. I set them all out to the gauge and all but one bogie propelled through all of my points without problems. I cleaned up the edges of the close coupler and slot on that one and it now seems OK. Looks like it could be job sorted, thanks for previous comments.

There doesn't seem to be any way down other than a scramble. Details of the site on this page. https://www.thetownthatneverwas.co.uk/walk The site also has a copy of the plot drawing overlaid on Google Earth, but take care that they don't try to sell you a plot.

Working from my rough details of a Midland coach I've come up with this drawing. Not sure if this is what you mean but it would cover the hole in the coach sides.

Many years ago I remember when Clamp Locks were first introduced there were speed restrictions over them until experience was gained. One of the first sets was on a 40mph connection at Coventry station. I was later involved in a project which got approval for using them at 70mph in the facing direction.