TheSignalEngineer

So there's not only a North-South divide but an East-West one as well. As far as timescale pushback are concerned we are still waiting for the new road link between Manchester and Sheffield that was on the cards before the Woodhead line closed.

He's alive and posting in "Another Place" as LarryG. Looks as if he may be suffering a little road spread as he appears to have wandered into 7mm again.

They could probably do with some now.

We used to have a Railway and Canal Society at school. (They were all called 'Society', Headmaster thought 'Clubs' were a bit seedy.) We organised a lot of trips as we could get day returns to other cities for a few shillings. Travelled around by bus when we got there. Remember doing Manchester to try out the new electrics between Crewe and Piccadilly, visiting Trafford Park, Patricroft, Newton Heath, Gorton (Shed and Works), Reddish, Longsight and Edgeley before we ran out of time. Caught a DMU from Stockport to Birmingham which seemed to call at every station via Stoke. We later graduated to organising coach trips with Den Caney Coaches. Any old Brum people on here may remember him. When we used him he had two coaches which he used to park outside his house in Harborne. As parked vehicles had to be lit in those days he got hold of a coulpe of roadworks lamps which he used to hang on the side of them.

Amazing how many were around in our youth. I remember going to Rugby with a school friend c1961. First day of the West Midlands car trade holidays. Clacton train about 8am from New Street, back about 6 pm from Rugby. Saw over 200 locos that day.

Lucky you. You obviously missed the shirts, ties and tank tops Mrs SE made in those days. (No, I'm not posting any photos of me in them). As for the brown clothes, my wedding suit was dark brown, trousers had 36 inch flares. Three shades of brown on the platform shoes, they were only 3 inch heels though.

From personal experience of seeing them in the 1950s and wearing them in the 1960s, overalls worn by on-track workers were dark blue when new then rapidly faded to very pale blue, blue-grey or almost white with repeated washing. Signal Linemen usually had bib and brace overalls and what was often called a 'Slop' jacket which was like those worn by Ronnie Barker in Porridge. Indeed in the 1960s our overalls were delivered from Winchester Prison workshop. These photos in this post were LMR but show various stages of distress in working clothes.

Having thought about my earlier post, it seems no time since one of my children was on a school trip at the time of the 40th anniversary. It was that trip which finally got my Dad to speak about his army experiences. He didn't say too much about the horrors he saw right up until he died four years ago.

Thanks for all the reports Andy and others. My Dad spent the actual D-day at a harbour somewhere on the south coast as a MP marshalling troops onto landing craft. He went over a himself a couple of days later, landing on Sword. His job was escorting supplies up to the front line starting around Ranville. He was involved in the battle for Caen then spent the next six months heading through France and Belgium to the Dutch border. One of the unit's regular jobs was marking safe routes round minefields as the front line advanced. Following that he was then transferred to the Indian Army for about 2 years. As the British pull-out approached he was offered a commission if he extended his time in the army which he declined as his job would have been to set up a new unit to go on policing duties in Palestine.

Did the brake end have a footstep on the real thing? Can't get at my references at the moment.

Worst experience I had was Villa playing at Plymouth around 1971. There were only a few of us there, no motorway south of the M50 in those days so a 5am start to get there on the club coach. There were about 50 of us behind one goal where the police had guided us to stand. They warned us we were about to be attacked and gave us some instructions. About 100 Plymouth fans ran across the pitch and on the instructions of the Inspector in charge we made a rapid move stage left as they came over the wall. Behind us were a couple of dozen baton waving Devonport constables and two dogs. In retaliation they ambushed and bricked our coach as we left the ground.

I prefer living in the hills. The biggest problem is that we have 21 century traffic volumes on roads which have seen little improvement since they were Turnpiked. That is much worse than the times I have to use a Pacer. Fortunately the line nearest where I live has electric trains.

Thought that it was just that anything to do with grim reality of life in the North gets lost in the noise when it reaches the M25.

Or line them up along Whitehall for MPs to use as temporary offices during the refurbishment of the Palace of Westminster. Alternatively issue them with sleeping bags and make them stay overnight when actually at Westminster. No second homes allowed. At the peak hour loading factor on some Northern routes they would only need about 4 sets to get the whole lot in.

Probably be worse than the old Abacus bus shelters with an opening at each end.

I remember some mods being carried out on the 142s to stop the bodies falling off as the original straps were prone to stretching and in the event of collision or instant deceleration of the chassis they could break. There is a double row of fastenings (they look a bit like big pop rivets) between the lights in the outer end door footwell on the modified ones.

Returning to their being fit for purpose as trains, There were questions raised by HMRI following the incident at Winsford South Junction in June 1999 where an empty Pacer had the rear cab and one seat bay destroyed and its body removed from the chassis by 87027. https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/HSE_Winsford1999.pdf A report was supposed to be published by the HMRI following work they had requested from the HSE Laboratory, Halcrow and Atkins. I can't find any record of this report. Does anyone have a copy or know of a link to it? 21. Immediately after the Winsford crash HMRI requested the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), in collaboration with the consultants W S Atkins and Halcrow Transmark, as a matter of urgent priority to examine the Class 142 pacer vehicles involved in the incident, assess their likely crashworthiness when impacting other rail vehicle types and advise on possible ways of improving their safety. HMRI is already in discussions with the two Rail Stock Leasing Companies who own Class 141-144 vehicles (which include Pacers) to consider the outcome of this research. The results of the HSL work will be published shortly.

Pacers were never designed for heavy main-line use. They were supposed to be for working lightly used trains on rural branches with limited main line running. Big problem with this was that they were very noisy on '2nd radius' curves like the Esk Valley. Would be near-impossible to get a 142 up to the required standards. The access rules are one of the reasons they are being taken off the rails. They probably don't even comply with the present animal welfare rules for chickens but would probably be ideal as cannabis farms. I can see that going down well in the National Park. Perhaps they could be put on derelict factory sites for use by the local yoof as grafitti walls in place of the facilities for their entertainment which for various reasons no longer exist?

Just noticed an article about this in the local news. The DafT, run by Calamity Chris, aka Failing Grayling, has come up with an absolutely wizzo idea as to how to ensure that the people of the North don't forget how good the Pacers were when new stock is introduced. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/competition-will-breathe-new-life-into-an-old-pacer-train Locals don't seem impressed.

Yes please.

Now long-gone BROOM Junction

Accurascale?

I'm not a Derby supporter but I think Lampard has done well in his first season given that it is quite a thinly spread squad. Like some other comments I feel he needs to prove himself outside the Premier League where life is continual ducking and diving to survive without the massive money available there. The same applies to John Terry, who himself said he was probably five years away from being a PL manager.

Not the first time that Lampard has got it wrong, I seem to recall some matches where they hardly had a shot although were quite good in defence and midfield. Regarding entitlement, you're only as good as your history if you laern the lessons of when it goes wrong. I hope Villa don't let themselves get into the rut of a few seasons ago. In a way I will quite miss the interlude in the Championship, less of the boring games with teams playing 8-1-1 because they are more frightened to lose than ambitious to win.

Someone's ghost resurrected then Looking at their proposals it looks as if it is intended to be Traincrew operated full barriers with auto raise when the train has cleared the crossing.