TheSignalEngineer

It still maintains two paths for route knowledge. The 0653 Birmingham to Manchester goes Fast line from Stafford to Crewe then continues via Stockport. The 0655 Manchester to Bournemouth goes Styal line to first stop at Crewe then via Alsager to Stoke. Similarly there are two trains each way to Banbury via Dorridge, two ECS workings via Sutton Coldfield and several between Kingsbury and Water Orton via the Old Line through Whitacre. Drift Alert Talking of strange routes the new timetable show a TfW service at 2106 from Birmingham to Manchester Piccadilly via Shrewsbury, Crewe, Chester, Runcorn East, Warrington Bank Quay and Newton-le-Willows, a journey of nearly three and a half hours. From Manchester Piccadilly it then continues via Stockport and Altrincham to Chester. After a layover at Chester the set appears to return to Birmingham via Crewe and Stafford.

I'm too far retired for any of my old contacts in XC to still be around and haven't been a frequent traveller with them for about six years. My perception is just what I see on the ground when I use stations frequented by their remaining trains. I had the misfortune to have to get back from a reunion last night. I realise that trying to travel by any train, not just XC, beyond lunchtime on a Friday is a pretty dumb thing to do, it was always busy with twice the number of trains. Next trip I will try the 350 and Pendo via Crewe or Stoke but late running and cancellations on West Coast were making that look a bit risky. As it turned out it would have added an hour to my journey because of missed connections.

So at the moment you struggle to run half a timetable without RDW?

About 18 months and counting since the last regular one. Today's fare on XC to the SW comprised 6 Bristol, 10 Plymouth and 1 Penzance all from the NE, albeit two were reliefs starting from Birmingham due to earlier failures and cancellations. Last time I travelled to Plymouth we caught a Manchester - Paignton train changing to a Paddington - Penzance at Taunton.

Many trains around Birmingham and Manchester absolutely stuffed this afternoon. Cancellations and late running on WM, LNWR and Avanti not helping matters. I haven't seen the like of it since the trains with six Mk2 behind a 47 were replaced by 4-car Voyagers before the Operation Princess TT changes.

Just checked formation. I was in G.

Only had a 3 minute connection at MAN so had to jump in back end. 1st in that set quiet but quite a good load by Birmingham. Afternoon is a different story. Three of the busiest northbound trains of the week are single 5-car sets. My alternative is running late so just making the best of it trainhopping to make sure I get home at a reasonable time.

Riding a Voyager this morning, Manchester to Birmingham. First time on XC or a Voyager since 23 December 2019! So far so good, we'll see what the return brings. At least I have an alternative way back via LNWR / Avanti.

The top loop of the R should be more rounded. The Bachmann 1F 41803 is better.

I photograghed one with the mini camera I used to carry in my pocket on the first day which I think was around November 1981.

Result of years of underfunding and spending on HQ empire building in our case. Arresting somebody in this town often results in losing 1/3 of the available manpower from the streets for the next four hours to deliver to the nearest remaining custody suite and do the paperwork. Nobody has been arrested for the past few days as the road across the hills had been blocked firstly by snow then the operation to recover the vehicles of the numpties who ignored the message signs then removed the barriers and carried on. I just hope they had a nice walk back to safety through the 50 mph gusts whipping up the drifts. (Rant over.)

On top of that there are no trains from the northeast to Reading and Bournemouth so only about half of the trains running. I think today there are two as far as Banbury. Virtually all journeys NW - SW or NE - South Coast currently entail a 12-15 minute change across New Street station. The main benefit of the present situation is that most things actually running are close to time rather than the usual lateness.

Certainly are today. The pre-pandemic weekday service c2015 WTT had 14 to Bristol or beyond, 13 Bournemouth, 1 Southampton, 1 Reading and 4 Birmingham trains. Today we have 7 Bournemouth, 1 Southampton, 5 Reading and 3 Birmingham running. About half of the number of trains but a very considerable reduction in mileage.

I have an event at Tyseley on Friday. My preferred connection between Manchester and Birmingham hasn't run for nearly two years as the setvice has been less than 50% of pre-pandemic levels since the spring of 2020. I had already decided that the Manchester to Birmingham leg could be done better by using the Pendo to Stoke and LNW, changing at Galton Bridge. All I know is that the ends of the return journey will be a 172 and 323, the middle bit looks as if it will be planning on the hoof.

From lists I have seen the blue/grey LMS design daytime stock was built 1948 onwards. Early examples originally carried LMS maroon without LMS branding. Wasn't one in Blue/Grey when it arrived from BR? Having said that BR did strip gear that was still in regular use at workshops for refurbishment before disposal of stock in those days so any ETH equipment would be a prime target for recovery.

Whenever we were working in the Kingsbury / Whitacre / Water Orton area in the mid 1960s there was still enough coal about on the track to make a fire to keep you warm in the cabin. Not particularly visible but if you walked about five minutes down one cess and back up the other side you could get often a bucket full. There was a continual stream of trains from colliery to gas works and power station, although large house coal was most likely to come over the top by that time unless there was a badly secured end door, and still a few steam locos fresh off Saltley shed in the other direction. My last collection from a loco was probably the last steam engine to visit Curzon Street around Christmas 1966. A Black 5 came in with special parcels train so I relieved the tender of a couple of hundredweight for the Lineman's cabin before it left.

I have sent an email to Mike Musson questioning the captions on some of the photos at New Street and an apparent discrepancy in dating some of the plans.

A bit different to the 1960s when tbe usual thing was to announce a new development to house 50,000 but not move their jobs from the old areas then close the station just before the first people move in.

My family's connections with New Street go back to the 1880s and I never heard any mention of a North Staffordshire Bay. The bays at the West end were known as the Stour Valley bays, those at the East end were sometimes called the South Staffordshire bays as they were used for trains going to Walsall and Rugeley via Aston. I agree that the first of the pictures is the Down side of platform 2, which later became platform 5. The second picture is taken from the Up side of Platform 2, the loco standing on one of the sidings between platform 1 and platform 2. Both of those pictures are at the No.1 box end. The third picture is indeed the old platform 3, later platform 6 and is taken from the LNWR parcels office. Regarding the Stoke train, one still ran as far as Silverdale at about 5pm until the early 1960s. There was also a later DMU from Manchester via Stoke which returned to Stoke around 6.30pm.

And don't forget the three 15xx tanks at Coventry Colliery. Another reason for wandereing was works visits. Several instances of 'foreign' tanks were recorded in the West Midlands after attention at Stafford Road. There was a 15xx on a passenger train through Worcester, a Condenser 97xx on the West Bromwich trip and a St Blazey 14xx shunting at Oxley.

Some of the small tanks are useful for a private siding or industrials In the 1950s there were two USA S100 tanks at Longbridge and a number of LSWR B4 tanks worked at Bilston steelworks.

I've damaged two helmets, both off-road. The first I put my foot out to stop and there was nothing there. Saved mey head from coming into contact with a hard rock as I landed. Second time was at 12mph on the old Rosedale Railway. Went over the bars when I got blown off line by a 30mph crosswind and hit lump of cotton grass. Landed head first on the old slag ballast and split the helmet. Head was OK but needed nine stitches in my face because I broke the frame of my glasses and the nose piece gave me a nasty cut.

We use flashing lights front and back on the road in daylight plus steady lights when the light isn't good or at night. If off road is involved we also use spotlights. If I am not wearing a yellow or orange jacket when on a road trip I have a half yellow half orange hi viz vest with worker style reflective bands.

A delayed start on Tuesday due to waiting for a parcel and the poor weather over the tops. However we managed 21 miles eMTB in a few minutes over two hours. The last half hour was in the dark, quite interesting on the off road parts along the Pennine Bridleway but we had been well rewarded after the climb from the Sett Valley Trail by a fantastic winter sunset in the direction of Wilmslow.

That ramp was where they used to park the old tenders they used for bringing water up to the top section. There are pictures of locos topping up from them. I like getting to that when northbound as if the time is right it's five minutes to brew time. An interesting signal, reinforced concrete and still has the rusting remains of the LNWR spec plate on it. I would guess that it could be about 100 years old. There are some pictures in my Ghosts in the Machine thread. Can't believe it's six years since I took those.