TheSignalEngineer

The building of a road bridge across the Torrs was agreed in 1882 and opened in 1884. It would look from the accounts at the time that the opening was celebrated by a marathon pub crawl around the town. Some information on the various bridges in New Mills here - http://www.stevelewis.me.uk/page26.php

But the picture was of course taken from the site of a "Railway". A tramway was laid to get stone from the top section of the Peak Forest Canal to the lower section at Marple Wharf during the building of the locks. There is still evidence of where the rails crossed the site in the stonework at the entrance to Lock 10 in the picture.

If the bag won't stay in - improvise. Severn Valley Railway 24 August 1968

Just a pity about the yob behaviour beforehand. If UEFA want to stamp out this kind of thing I can't see why they aren't going to discuss it until 5 days after the Final. They are obviously frightened by the power of the clubs/sponsors/TV and are incapable of exerting any control over their own competition.

Serves me right for not looking at the thread for a few hours. I will go back to sleep unless I thonk of an appropriately obscure photo in the next few minutes.

Bury Transport Museum 2018 As we've got to 2018 let's have another Railway Motor

Tyseley and Cannock Road both had a lot of stock used for dated trains to the coast in the 1950s. Some was used for local trains in the week right up to the closure of the Snow Hill through services.

Thinking back, Hornby seem to have had a big share of troubles over the years. One thing we never seem to get details of in the popular press is the profitability of various lines. Airfix seems fairly bouyant. I can't see Humbrol bringing much cash to the table, especially with the problems created by Chinese manufacture and the ready availability of others such as Revell, Tamiya, Games Workshop and the specialists like Railmatch. Slot racing seems as if it could be a bit of a liability and the fad market is something you have to hit at the right time (Olympics buses anyone?). The question for Hornby's future is can it survive in a market which now has a number of small niche and commission competitors after our modelling budgets?

From the modelling point of view, I don't collect MIB, my purchases depend on what they make for my era/area. The last 10 locos bought new have been 40% Hornby, 40% Bachmann, 20% others. Looking back 5 years my loco purchases were predominantly Bachmann. My coaching stock has been more in favour of Hornby, probably 70/30. but freight stock has been the opposite. That said, 5 of my last 7 wagon purchases have been Hornby.

I remember the 116s struggling a bit in the West Midlands. I've commented about Lickey in the past, and starting from Old Hill could challenge the driving technique. In later days the Gravelly Hill stretch on Cross City could make them wheeze a bit if not in top condition. A spectacular run I had was on an afternoon train from Leamington to Stratford which at one time was sometimes used by a holiday company for foreigners travelling from London for a meal at Stratford followed by the theatre, B&B then off to somewhere else, Grand Tour style. When there was a big party booked the usual 122 was bolstered by trailer, but on this occasion it had a 116 power car. One of the fastest runs I have ever had up Hatton Bank.

Bottom picture on this page. I remember it well. We never went anywhere near it when we were trainspotting. http://www.photobydjnorton.com/NewStAtWork2.html

Birmingham New St had some sidings on the Midland side accessed from Station Street. These were known as the Fish Sidings and dealt with vans of market traffic. There was a fish train from Sheffield to Birmingham Central which stopped at New Street for traffic purposes from about 0430 to 0500. There was also a train of perishables conveying vans from Templecombe which stopped at about 0125 - 0155 then continued to Burton and Derby. Market traffic was also dealt with in Queens Drive, unloading from platforms 6 and 7 especially at the start of the rebuilding.

When I booked about three months ago I thought I might get a few shots in the spring sunshine. No chance at Rawtenstall with a real-feel temperature of -6oC and a mixture of sleet and ice blowing almost horizontally along the platform. ©2018 C E Steele

Not what it says on the box.

There were plenty of Town/City Centre goods depots. In Birmingham, Central Goods was next to the West Suburban line into New Street but at a different level. Prior to New Street being built Curzon Street was both Passenger and Goods. Moor Street was adjacent to and underneath the passenger station. Manchester had LNW and GC at London road, Midland at Ancoats and Central, GN at Deansgate, LNW and GW at Liverpool Road, L&Y at Salford. In London you don't get much more City Centre than Broad Street or Farringdon. If anything it was carriage sidings and loco sheds which tended to be further out. In Victorian times city centres tended to have the biggest concentration of trade and industry, so you needed to get the goods as close as possible to the end user as the 'last mile' was down to horse or man power. Carriage sidings and loco sheds needed a lot of land and didn't generate cash so needed to be in areas of cheap land and a bottomless pit of cheap labour market. Posh business men also didn't want a dirty loco depot next to their office, hence sheds at Old Oak, Camden, Stratford, Bricklayers Arms, etc. Manchester's main sheds were at Longsight, Gorton, Newton Heath, Patricroft, and Trafford Park, Liverpool for example at Bank Hall, Brunswick, Edge Hill, Birmingham at Saltley, Aston, and Monument Lane. Tyseley was built in the early 20th cemtury an what would now be called a 'Green Field' site.

A bit of a coming together near Norton Bridge in 2003 Photo C E Steele

Left of the goods shed?

I just had a look at the SRS site and the highest number was 60, so quite large but not too hard to work if there was a lot of straight up and down traffic.

Very nice box. How many levers is it?

1999 anyone?

Nothing spectacular scanned from 1998 I'm afraid but in the interests of moving on here are a couple taken when I was trying to find the cable route for some possible signalling works between Stoke and Barlaston. Cable Route at the wagon works Abandoned signals at Trentham Colliery

If it's DCC the chip has overheated.

Even if the cameras are set at 50mph they would have made a lot of money from the cars that went racing past me. I hope the Highways Agency have got the paperwork right, GMP refused to enforce the cameras on the M60 at first because the correct Traffic Order was not in place. As far as the work is concerned, the signs have been set up right through for about 6 miles but the barrier had only been worked on for about 2 miles when we went through. Not as bad as some of the antics with 20 mile long speed restrictions on the M6 and M60 and hardly any activity taking place some weeks except during full closures at night.

I spent a while in 1971/2 based at Glebe Street with the S&T Area Engineer and Supervisors. I remember a lot of 21T minerals going into Meaford when we relaid the main line connection there.

The Hornby Dublo Buckeye was adopted on resumption of production after WW2. It was described in Patent No. 605283 granted to a certain Sydney Charles Pritchard aka 'Mr Peco' . The original design was submitted in 1945 and the Patent application approved in 1948. Full details available at this site https://www.meccanoindex.co.uk/Patents/Hornby_pat.php?id=1522430405 Presumably the original owners of Rovex and subsequently Lines Bros, owners of the Triang brand name at that time, decided that they didn't want to up their costs to the extent of royalties to Mr Pritchard.