TheSignalEngineer

Did you go into the pit to look at the wagon half buried in there?

I've just had some spares from SJS for a Shimano rear mech with a seized clutch. Several shops seem to have had a Shimano delivery recently. Some of the later SRAM ones (GX / Eagle ?) have a different fit IIRC but the standard ones will fit a Shimano pattern spline with the one narrow ridge. I have one bike with a combination of SRAM and Shimano parts and a KMC chain.

I've been through Piccadilly on three Saturdays recently and all trains I travelled on were quite well filled including one f&s on the Hope Valley service. Not quite as big a crowd on Piccadilly as 2 years ago but travellers seem to be returning.

There was always one path in the timetable but it was normally only used when somebody needed to get their card updated. I sometimes drive up to Hindlow and ride various mix and match routes which include High Peak Trail, Carsington Water, Tissington Trail and Manifold Valley (not all on the same day). I remember one winter day after riding down the Tissington trail then across to Hulme End to do the Leek and Manifold then across to Ashbourne and back up the Tissington Trail. When we got to Ashbourne the weather was turning bad and there was a Force 6 northerly wind blowing. Seventeen miles against the wind and mostly up hill. By the time we got to Hartington we were just about done for. Another occasion we had freezing fog for the last ten miles. By the time we got to the car I had a coating of ice all over the bike.

I see that the Hazel Grove route is being used again for the empties since the dridge job near Whaley Bridge has been done. My usual place for catching the stone trains is Marple as I walk over the bridge just north of the station two or three times a week when I am picking up my grandson from school. I usually manage to make it co-incide with the DB train to Ashburys or the GBRF empties from Small Heath, or as it is sometimes Northampton or Hams Hall. The Doncaster empties also comes around that time.

Agreed, but not impossible. The canal from High Peak Junction to Cromford is more difficult at times because of the number of people around and the A6 can be very busy. Depends what time you are aroind there. If you do that ride you could also come off by Steeple Grange and go down to Whatstandwell, but I don't know what the traffic is like on there compared with the run down the road to Cromford.

1Z99 is the standard code for a breakdown train or engine going to clear the line. It looks to have terminated at Stafford after spending about four hours between Little Bridgeford and Stafford. A light engine then went north from Stafford as 0Z57 eight minutes after 1Z99 arrived at Stafford. A second light engine running as 0Z99 went north from Stafford about two hours later.

Thanks Dave. Probably still be asleep for the Crewe one.

My late father laying a wreath on behalf of the Military Police Association at the Normandy Veterans Memorial in Birmingham about 15 years ago He spent D-Day marshalling troops for boarding on the south coast before following over then was involved at Caen, Bayeux and Falaise before accompanying the advance through France and Belgium into Holland where he was present at the liberation of Eindhoven. His unit was credited with reopening a supply route to a large group of Allied troops who had been cut off by the Germans near Arnhem during the stalemate after Operation Market Garden. Early in 1945 he was transferred to India where preparations were being made for the the invasion of Japan. Following the dropping of the Bomb by the US and the end of the war he was involved in policing in the run up to the British pull-out including being present at the Calcutta Riots in August 1946. When he came back to England in 1947 he was offered a promotion to go to help set up a police force in Palestine but his view was that after what he had seen in India in 1946, partition was never going to work in the Middle East and it would make Calcutta seem a nice day out.

What time?

Reports today that more cracks have been found in the CAF trams and services are being suspended. Forecast is at least four weeks to do the remedial work. . https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-59261154

Been there, Done that. He never threw another in our class after I caught one and scored a direct hit with the return.

I would certainly go for the bigger battery. The Trek Supercommuter has the 500 size, I think your is about 320, and I can get to my Daughter's house and back which is a 16 mile round trip with 1500 feet of ascents twice over with power to spare. The hardest ride I have done on it is over the Snake Pass to Ladybower and back via Hope, Edale and Mam Nick then Chinley and Hayfield. That's about 40 miles with 4000 feet of climbs. Using an EMTB with a 625 battery I have done from home onto the Pennine Bridleway across Lantern Pike to Hayfield, then Edale Cross, Jacob's Ladder, Rushup Edge back to the Pennine Bridleway over South Head to Hayfield and back home via my own lane and off road route. Over 40 miles and 5000 feet of climbs and 25% battery remaining.

Surely a fork with one prong is a skewer?

Sorting some of my old photos I've just found this at Bletchley, erected c1964, photo taken 1995. And one from Flickr Class 87 Electric Bletchley by Neil Smith, on Flickr

We've started converting to tubless for MTB tyres as they get renewed. I found them an improvement oved tubes, especially at low pressures. For other uses we have one gravel type bike running tubeless but I don't think they are so much of an improvement as tyre pressures increase. and width decreases. My old tourer uses Schwalbe Marathon

They felt a bit strange at first until a couple of rides on roughly stoned tracks rounded the knobbles a bit

Evening Awl, Not much time around the site this week as a lot of painting needs doing. How many spindles is it possible to incorporate into a single staircase? Sympathetic thoughts to all those struggling with various ailments. Mrs SE regularly has foot problems at this time of year through to around March. They seem a total mystery to the NHS so she has had several tests recently but all have been close to expected norms. The answer seems to be in self management of the problem by using her favourite anointing goo and keeping them warm to ward off circulation problems. Tomorrow I have Day Release. She has two sessions of tennis arranged and Grandson has no football so he thinks it would be a good idea to ride the shiny metal strips for a bit of watching of noisy machines moving on them. Think it's time to get the cameras charged up and a bit of eyelid inspection ready for an early start.

On the railway trails I'm using my wife's old steel framed Orange P7 which is now about 16 years old. It still has the 3x9 gears on it which gives enough range for quite big hills and I can get it up to near 25mph on the road. I have fitted 50mm Continental Double Fighter tyres which are robust, smooth enough it in middle to have low drag on tarmac but nobbly enough round the edges to give better control on loose or wet surfaces.

Note the position of the signal WL83 to the right. It's mounted on the outside of the gantry leg.

Our service is erratic at the moment. They often only appear about three times a week and that can be any time between 10am and 3pm. Last week I saw some out in the villages after 4pm.

I've only used him a couple of times and on both occasions I got first class product at a reasonable price. That's not to say I don't occasionally have a chuckle at some of his listings.

I think this plan on Warwickshire Railways gives the position of the arch girders. https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwrbns_str1310c.htm The site also has a lot of pictures which will give a lead to where the columns are, also the girder work attached to buildings.

Fortunately mine was out when the post arrive this morning.

For three years of my career my office was just up the road from there. We had plans to put platforms there around 1988/9 in the early days of Network Southeast. The idea at the time was to reverse the Bedford - Bletchley service and run up to Milton Keynes to give a connection to the Inter City services there.