TheSignalEngineer

Checked out my W14W this morning, a distinct 'Chug' especially when running slowly. Half an hour on the rollers and it actually seemed to be worse. I'm not sure where the stickyness is but in common with a lot of Dapol rolling stock I had in the past my 00 back to back gauge won't go between the wheels. Debating now whether it goes back or I try to investigate further. Pity, because it fits my location and era exactly and looks the part at layout viewing distance.

Hope you don't put the signal back to danger until the train has passed over all of the points in the route. That was the way of ensuring that a conflicting route wasn't set before the train was clear.

Marston Green. There was a derailment there in 1963 when at least one wagon ended up on the golf course.

Try this http://www.vintagebritishdiecasts.co.uk/dinky4/dinky26xb.htm

Deciding where signals are needed is a very straightforward matter. It largely depends on two factors, where the points, level crossings, etc are located and what moves the train operators want to make. Mounting the signals only requires that they do not foul the structure gauge requirements and that they can be seen in adequate time without the risk of confusion. So far all stuff learned when in short trousers, figuratively speaking. Next come the complicated bits. How do you give the driver a clear understanding of several different circumstances when the signal can only show On or Off? If I am making this move can I make that one at the same time? To switch these points, which other points have to be in a particular position first and which cannot be moved afterwards?

But those are the things that make it look right or wrong. Everyone seems eager to discuss the colour or shape of the seats in a coach, but blithly accepts a layout in a magazine with a Conflat running with a single A type container loaded at one end, a superb model of a WD with sound at five chuffs to the bar or another with the BR crest facing the wrong way. An exhibition layout with signals worked in an unprototypical manner or trains going into a Goods Loop at the same speed as a through runner on the Main detract from the experience for me.

Agreed, but under the 1993 Act the Franchising Director was required to exercise his statutory functions so as to fulfil the objectives given to him by the Secretary of State for Transport. It was a Government Department but had a paid Director rather than its own Minister so the Politicos had a 'Person to Blame' if it all went pear-shaped.

Who let the franchise and agreed the service plan? Certainly wasn't down to Railtrack, although I agree that they made a first class mess of trying to manage the job. Still, what do you expect when they employed people with no knowledge of the industry to manage things like interdisciplinary interfaces within the programme. (Rant over)

Not holding my breath on this Digital Railway malarkey. After all, DafT promised Beardy that we would have Moving Block and Cab Signalling with 140mph running on WCML by 2005 and no major possessions for 10 years.

Not sure about that, the figures from Daft seem to show that there is twice as much HGV traffic on the A628 over Woodhead. That is also a main route from Ireland to the European mainland. When i was chair of a residents group along that route I clocked HGVs at well over 60mph down the hill approaching the bend at the Woodhead Tunnel. When I approached the Police about the situation the Inspector in charge of Traffic said there was nothing they were prepared to do about it as it was too dangerous for his men to go out on that road without it being blocked.

I don't know the full details but it was proposed that trains currently running from the Leeds direction to Manchester Airport would run via Victoria and Piccadilly. This would take most TPE through services off the Guide Bridge - Piccadilly section, reducing the number of crossing moves and reversals at Piccadilly. May be that only the Hull terminators would still go that way. An extra train from Newcastle to the Airport via the Calder Valley was proposed but I don't know the progress on that one. Any re-routed or additional services via Oxford Road could cause chaos without the provision of the extra tracks. The current timetable is hardly robust as it is, just try catching any train from platforms 13/14 at Piccadilly and you will see.

Ever wondered what an A4 sprung buffer looks like? 60009 at Rawtenstall, October 2017 Photo C E Steele

The track circuit was normally 200 yards long if the line was not fully track circuited to the box in rear, which was only done if a train could go into loop before reaching the box or similar circumstances to enable signalman to clear the Block without seeing the tail lamp, then the berth track would sometimes be 100 yards. The annunciator mentioned above would sound for 10 seconds on LMR lines. On lines Absolute Block lines with a colour light Home signal the lever could be pulled but the signal would only clear after the train had been on the berth track for a certain time, based on typical deceleration rates and brake release times, to enable the driver to stop if the signal didn't clear or get the brake off and keep the train rolling if the signal cleared.

Saw the layout on Saturday, quite a star turn.

Mackerel at Peak Rail in September 2011 Photo ©2017 C E Steele

Not sure how new this is as Jim has been saying this for a while.

According to J H Russel's book 'Great Western Diesel Railcars' one worked a party special from Taunton to Newquay in 1936.

Similarly the new Dapol 'O' gauge Diagram N Auto Trailer was one of six, numbers 36-41, built to this particular diagram.

Comet Chassis https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/shop/locomotive/gwr-large-prairie-2-6-2t-chassis-pack-lcp20/

Despite whatever happens in the meantime these sort of memories always seem to linger in the subconcious. There are nights even now when I am greeted be the scene of the Stechford crash, which i attended as an 18-year-old. I can still see the underframe details of an AM4, Firemen clambering across the wreckage to get to the injured and Ambulance men carrying stretchers to ambulances.

Some of the lads at school referred to them as Blackies, but I suppose that would fall foul of the PC Mob these days.

Our postman in the Peak District always says he knows when I have been out with my Daughter as it takes me a few days to get out of speaking Brummie, even though she has spent the last 20 years in the north. My eldest Grandson speaks Manc with a Brummie accent. First time I heard the nickname Spaceship for a 9F was from a Saltley fireman around 1961. Flying Pig I heard mainly for the Ivatt 4, sometimes for a WD 2-8-0, although these were more commonly DubDees. Princesses were sometimes called 'Lizzies', Coronations 'Big Lizzies'.

It's coming along slowly, but I've been mainly on the boring bits like wiring and now ballasting. I've done a lot of test running to see what works best for operations and am now quite happy that I can put together a fairly realistic working day for the area. As it's not a principle passenger route i cam use a mixed variety of stock, nothing uniform, and in sets of 3-5 coaches. The timeframe is a bit blurred, as I wanted to run Monument Lane's Coal Tank, 58900, so it must have managed to linger on under the pretext of being the most suitable thing to access a particular location. Also the railcar W14W was a regular so I will be running all early emblem blood & custard on some days. At the other end of the spectrum there will be occasional Pilot Scheme diesels sent to the area for crew training. BRCW also used to sneak out new locos amd DMUs on test runs to Dudley when they were doing handover to BR. The DODO will make occasional appearances from the industrial branch, as will hopefully the new Hattons offering and the B4, several of which ended up at Bilston in the early 1950s. I also plan to do a Longbridge version of the USA tank (for Happy Hour) if I get the chance, but at the moment I have only one suitable photo. When ballasting is near complete I intend to do a few posts of constructing the buildings and a topic of how to go about signalling it.

Janice Nicholls. She was actually from Wednesbury. I had a girl from Wednesbury in my office. She was very useful as an interpreter when we ventured into the darker reaches of the Black Country around Lye and out past Kingswinford.

Mikado was a 2-8-2. We used to call the Stanier 8F 2-8-0s 'Consols', short for Consolidation. Mickey and Mickey Tank was used for Ivatt Class 2s.