TheSignalEngineer

I see Ronaldo has been making good use of the skills honed at the Fergie Academy of Falling Over Dramatically. Oh for the days of free kicks only being given if the player needed to be stretchered off.

In the early days of experiments with automatic route setting on BR some assessments were done on a busy section of panel comparing the performance of a human operating in the real world and the computer making decisions on a simulation of what was happening on the ground. For the first six hours of the shift the human performed better than the computer program as it then stood. Prior to that I had a play with a system at Derby Research ( c1972) which was called Junction Optimisation or something similar. It was running a simulation of Weaver Junction to Crewe. It was never heard of again as far as i know. In the 1990s Railtrack promised Beardy that the WCML would run like a dream with the new system they were going to put in at Saltley. They even signed a contract with US company Union Switch & Signal to install the system, despite it had never been successfully proved in service. We've still got Victorian signal boxes with levers pulled by humans working some of the signalling that it was supposed to be supervising about 15 years ago. Development of railway automation sure takes a long time.

Well, it finally arrived as promised. The driver was none to pleased at having to come out to our place or having to handle a big parcel. He was a subcontractor in a hire van, it appears that Parcel Farce don't send there own van out here any more, they pay some poor unsuspecting self-employed person £1 per parcel delivered to do it. He said he was told that he had to take the parcel and make sure it was delivered, obviously the depot didn't want us on their backs any longer. As to where it had actually been we don't know, all tracking had been wiped this morning. During a 15 minute call the depot managed to find it and make sure it was coming our way. It sounds that it had never actually gone anywhere and had been 'lost' within the depot by the previous subcontractor. The moral of the story is don't touch ParcelForce. I have used them in the past and stopped doing it after we had a claim for a non-delivered item. We had a copy of the receiving name and signature and it turned out to have been left at the shop next door but no card left and the person hadn't passed it on. I was going to place a large order this week for some models and other stuff, but the terms of the shop I was originally looking at said over a particular weight they used Parcelforce. Needless to say I haven't placed the order yet and that particular shop may not get any of it now.

Try to get the signal box closer to the points if possible. Maybe top side near to the slip with the steps towards the station.

Wheels too big and wrong spacing.

If there were no other significant differences it should be possible to model the later version of the front end and also a bit to fit in for the earlier version.

It is possible to do with the later 57xx chassis. I have one ongoing at the moment but it's of a bit an as and when job. I started with the old chassis but the opportunity of a later model, the body of which had been badly repainted, at a knock-down price was too much to resist. Sold unwanted body, a bitza I put together with the old chassis and a selection of spares at a profit.

Looking at StreetView there's a secon vehicle gate onto the platform opposite the Prince Arthur pub. It would be about 125 yards from the Buffer Stops and there is another door which appears to be a Fire Escape nearby. The staircase I mentioned earlier to the offices up on the deck is about a further 40 yards on.

Well, Thursday has come and gone as far as Parcelforce delivery hours are concerned. No sign of the parcel or tracking info this morning so PF and shop contacted. PF said no sign of parcel, shop said OK we will claim. PF rapidly swung into panic search mode and three hours later told the shop they had found it. Will tomorrow bring a result?

Going along the outside wall, just past where the platform stop blocks are there is a vehicle access gateway from Eversholt Street. Moving north along Eversholt street there is anothe entrance but I don't know what it was. There was a staircase inside the wall leading to the offices on the east side of the top deck. Just before reaching Barnby Street there was another vehicle access into the yard behind the Royal Mail building From there you could see right into the station. This yard was by the right hand end of your red box. This is the stop blocks end looking from platform 2, showing the vehicle entrance. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2874031 This is looking along platform 1 from the stop blocks. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/HotspotDetails.aspx?stdCode=SME_EUS&fullsize=34201

Must stop taking holidays. Every time I do it seems I come back to find that you have ripped up half a layout or changed gauge.

One summer there was a flourishing cannabis plant on the disused Glossop line platform at Dinting. Not sure how it got there, and when mature it suddenly disappeared.

Perhaps the HLF has rumbled that the NRM seems to want to forget about 'Heritage' and play Spacemen. That should be the job of South Kensington unless you want to morph all of the branches onto the same thing. MOSI has a wide range of science, industry and transport but with a leaning towards Manchester and the Northwest.

Apparently my wife's parcel didn't get put on the van for our round yesterday. From today's phone calls Parcelforce HQ think it is in Manchester. Manchester depot say it is in Coventry. Will it appear on Ebay next week?

After travelling about 150 miles from Carlisle via Kingmoor to within 600 yards of our house the parcel has now set off 120 miles in the opposite direction towards Three Spires Junction, Coventry. How does ParcelForce stay in business? Let's see what Thursday brings.

Rather than start a new thread I'm reviving this one. My wife was expecting a large fairly high value parcel today. The shop had sent it Parcelforce Next Day 24 or whatever it is called these days. We usually see them around our part of town about 2pm which as we hand't got anything booked until after 4pm shouldn't have been a problem, especially as the tracking app was showing the van less than a mile away at about 1.45pm. An hour later the tracking app was still showing the van in the same place and the delivery time was predicted as 3.30pm to 4.30pm. My wife went out and returned at 3.50pm, Meanwhile I had been working on the front garden and moving stuff in and out of the car on the drive, No sign of the delivery by 4pm so I did that job by myself and my wife said she would cycle to where she had to be later and I would pick her up to get back home. Almost 5pm there was still no delivery. despite the van having to pass the entrance to the estate at least twice to get to the different places it had been shown on the app. A series of phone calls produced several bs claims including that delivery had been attempted at a time when I was watering the hanging baskets and planters at the front of the house, and it had been mis-sorted and was on its way to the Hub. No card was left so the driver had never been near our front door. I am waiting in hope but little expectation that tomorrow will not be another day of hanging around waiting for Parcel-Farce to get their act together.

Left Llangollen on 10th May. Certainly not working at ELR during 1940s weekend. They are short of steam locos by the look of it as the Crab has boiler tube problems and will be out of service until next year.

We used to get a steady stream of them into Washwood Heath for Nechells Power Station and Saltley Gas Works, usually about 40 or more at a time depending on the type of loco. They also came on to be marshalled into block trains for other places. One I remember was Bath Gas Works.

Looks like the demolition of No.3 Roundhouse. It only had its wartime bomb damage repaired c1959 but didn't last another ten years. Regarding the Peak under the coal stage I think it is a combination of the light and the film or scan. It looks like a full yellow end livery to me.

I don't know about long-lived shirtbutton 64xx but there was a 97xx condenser photographed with one in 1960.

That's 123 pages to look through to spot any I am interested in.

If you tried to explain all of the Tyseley formation and livery combinations it would probably break the internet

I rode on several drags over the Cannock line when travelling to Crewe in the early days of the electrics. Due to the engineering works patterns in those days it used to happen for about two 8-week periods in a year. Prior to electrification there were some Sunday trains booked between New St and Walsall via Tipton, Princes End and Wednesbury. It even happened with 34079 on a 'CrankEx' in 1964 but no doubt you will be able to prevent 'Spams' from trying that now.

To me the infrastructure has the air of late steam to early diesel in an area where corporate image never quite caught up. Charlie's Cabin at Curzon Street which was the inspiration for the little hut at the end of the sidings had Class 86 locos hauling Mk2 stock past it and blue FYE diesels arriving on the Bescot trip whilst still wearing 1950s paint.

To put those curves into context, 2 chains radius is between the 3rd and 4th radii in 00 Set Track terms.