TheSignalEngineer

Besides being bleak, Longdendale is not well served by utilities past Torside. I looked at the old Crowden cottages when they were up for sale some years ago. The last resident of the row had an oil lamp, coal range and spring water. Also virtually all of the land is owned by United Utilities and is used for water catchment so any development would be frowned upon.

There are only about five or six houses at Woodhead, all formerly associated with the railway. Crowden is slightly more populated, there are about 12 occupied properties within a 20 minute walk of the old station site. One of those used to be a row of railway cottages. There is only one isolated farm between the two ends of the tunnel at Woodhead and Dunford Bridge. Continuing east from there it's about four miles before you find any significant population. Heading due south from Woodhead the first house you come to is the former Snake Pass Inn about six miles across the moor. Basically the population runs out about a mile past Glossop and Hadfield stations, but the catchment area of those plus Dinting generates about a million train journeys per annum.

Hosting expired on 19/02/2023 according to one of the registry search websites.

I don't know the story behind this one at Warwick, other than it is standing in the position where the Hatton Banker used to reside. http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrw2169.htm I have a possible explanation for this one in that OOC had a working with Regent tanks for Warwick Cape Yard at the time.

Probably done by the FOC to discourage the rattlecan brigade. 😉

Probably was. It's the only one I remember when I was working there.

The bucket cold storage was in Charlie's Cabin at Curzon Street, which I later modelled for the shunters cabin on Black Country Blues. In those days a mess room with a cooker and fridge was a distant mirage for most railwaymen. A single gas light, gas ring and coal fired oven for hot food.

Nah! I could open one using the catch handle on a Midland Tumbler or LMS lever frame.

By far the best milk for puddings. Drinking it is an acquired taste, unless of course you were brought up in Birmingham, in which case you were probably weaned on it. An opened bottle would stay useable for several days if kept in a bucket of cold water in the corner of the cabin away from the fire.

We have a Tassimo machine but also use ground coffee and sometimes beans. Pods are barcoded so it automatically puts an amount of water through although you can add more or less by pushing the start button at the right time. I don't think Tassimo pods for ordinary coffees are as expensive as some of the others but things like latte are more so. There is a very wide range available so you need to try a few to find what suits you. You need to shop around as prices can vary and if buying in bulk you get discounts and free shipping over a certain value.

If end up on the one due out of Guide Bridge Loop at 14.-something look out for an old bloke with a camera at Hudson's bridge between Marple North Tunnel and the station, it's probably me.

Back in the 1960s I was working on the track for the new parcels shed at Curzon Street, fitting point rodding as the Pway laid in. There was a mainly Irish contract gang based at the old Camp Hill station doing the job. Mid morning and afternoon the 'cook' brought round two buckets. You took a cup out of one and and dipped it into the other for the tea. The method of making was to put a gallon or so of water in the bucket and put it onto the fire until boiling. Take off the fire then add a packet of tea and a pound of sugar, gently stirring for about three minutes while adding a bottle of sterilised milk. It was then just right for drinking.

That's a pity. You won't be doing the one I see on the afternoons I do the school run at Marple.

Thanks. I thought that there had been a change but it came long after I had retired from on-track projects and was doing a bit of part time consultancy on pure signalling and operational matters. I can only remember one fatal incident due to OHLE at a station, when a shopfitter working at Euston station touched the overhead equipment with a long metal pole. Two other incidents due to actions outside the station sing to mind. In one at Adderley Park a gentleman climbed onto a bridge abutment near to the track and relieved himself onto the equipment. He died from a rather nasty injury a few days later. The other was at New Street just before one Christmas where some people on the way out of an office party were throwing lengths of tinsle around on Navigation Street bridge. One blew over the parapet and wrapped itself round the wire. Fortunately no-one was holding on the the tinsle at the time, and as the end dropped down it didn't go near the platform. It did however dangle down by No.3 siding and came into contact with a position light ground signal causing a flashover. It caused a lot of damage to relays and cables in the PSB and even melted some indication lamps on the panel. I don't know how you mitigate against an incident like that. Not a good photo but the only one I can find at the moment shows two contact springs on one side have vapourised. In the relay room the side of the indication relay had a hole blown in one side of the case.

The structure diagram in the 1928 Requirements showed a bridge clearance for electrification abeit not 25kV. At that time the desirable height was 15 feet above rail level (ARL) for new or rebuilt bridges. IIRC when I was doing signalling structures I think the specified height had become 4.640 metres clear ARL. I remember some boffin consultant came up with a stupidly high figure which was probably enough for a six foot six man to be able to swing from the bridge without touching the OHLE. Then there was the EU Interoperability Requiements, although did we ever properly sign up to those? I thought originally only for HS1.

Makes a change from weathering with the tail lamp in situ and leaving a clean area behind it.

I was lead Project Engineer for an upgrade being funded by a local authority. There was a council organisation coming up and the one in charge was being merged. They didn't want Phase 2 to be scrapped and had some cash to dispose of before they disappeared. The Project Manager called me and asked if there was anything I could do to help them. I bought 3000 tons of ballast and 4 miles of concrete troughing and had ot all delivered to the site earmarked for the workd depot on Phase 2. No-one on the new council dared cancel Phase 2.

Probably even later Phil. 76048 at 3:36 didn't arrive in the Midlands at Saltley until July/August 1964. It moved to Croes Newydd in September 1966. It arrives on an up Class 1 and is replaced by a 47. A big spread of dates on the film as some were withdrawn in 1962 and others not in the area until 1965/66. 44860 at 2:55 was on that line from 10/65 to 9/66. Note also the shot of Western Talisman with Yellow buffer area which if it is after moving from Laira to OOC dates that clip as October or November 1962. It is noted on brdatabase.info as MSYP at 29/11/62

A few depot specials as well like the Tyseley TMD shunter in GWR green with brass number plates and New Street 08 pilot in 1930s LMS black.

The two tone green livery on 47s lasted through to 1977.

A boss of mine frequently appeared in the railway press. He would ask us to proof read before he sent the material off.

Back in 1980s my boss modelled GWR Summer 1947. He was a member of the office railway modelling magazine club. One of his predecessor was a train chasing photographer in the last days of steam and a successor was involved at a model engineering society. After privatisation one of the directors used to spend Saturdays in his youth helping to work his busy local signal box and was later involved in a miniature railway. As for my staff over the years one was part of a group who won best layout at Warley and another who exhibited there had his SM32 layout mentioned in articles by Carl Arendt. I think I must have been one of the lucky ones.

I think bringing a bit of geometry into the discussion is appropriate. The loco shown in the OP is an S100 clone. Looking at the S100 GA drawing the plug is at the highest point of the firebox which is only about 3ft behind the centre of the fixed wheelbase. The latter is effectively the pivot point of the boiler when on a gradient. This means that the plug will move up or down by approx 1.25 inches on your gradient. The firebox top slopes down towards the back, so going downhill chimney first it will become closer to level. On the S100 drawing the lowest indication of the gauge glass is quoted as 3 inches above the highest point of the firebox. That would be over 100% safety margin before the plug is uncovered. In that case there should be no problem going down chimney first as long as the water is visible in the glass when on the level.

There was a job c1972 recovering coal from an embankment around Brettel Lane requiring some temporary track works.

Sometimes it will come down to what moves can potentially take place at the same time, distances involved and visibility. It would be advisable for locking between 1 and 2 as there is nothing stop a freight arriving and being broken up there and a wagon getting pushed over the points then derailed.