TheSignalEngineer

The frame at Leamington remained in use until the SSI pilot scheme was installed about 20 years after the new junction was put in. After the new junction job the signalling and locking got altered further for Saltley resignalling in 1969, the singling of the Coventry line in 1972, the lengthening of the Up loop and the abolition of Fosse Road box c1974/5.

The Cornwall Railway Society has a lot on its website about the working of the branch with personal recollections from staff and users. I don't think there is any mention of a 90xx, but there are two witnesses to a 57xx being used double headed with a 45xx and a photograph of 5545 at St Ives near the end of steam in the far west.

The GWR in Birmingham had a borehole by All Saints Street at Hockley. There was a main through Snow Hill Station and Bordesley Yards to Tyseley Loco and Carriage Shed. Rowington Troughs were fed from the canal north of the Hatton Flight. The LNWR had a borehole at Perry Barr and I believe there may have been another at New Street at pne time. There was a large main which ran in a ring feeding Aston shed, Aston Goods yard, Vauxhall carriage shed, Curzon Street yard, New Street station, Monument Lane loco shed, carriage shed and Goods yard, and Winson Green carriage sidings.

It was planned to use them in Europe before transfer to the Far East apparently but by the time they were ready the balance in Europe had shifted towards the Allies being able to cope with what they had so that plan was abandoned. I believe that a couple were assessed over here during testing but that was as far as it got. 'Over Exposed' was one of the post-WW2 modified Photographic Reconnaissance ones, getting its name from its new duties.

When Anne worked for a bank we were part of their walking club. I sometimes did route planning and walk leading for them. We did a lot of weekends in the Lake District, Peak Deistrict, Dartmoor, Snowdonia etc. A group of about six of us got the nickname of the 'Irresponsible Club' not because we were but we had a reputation of doing routes that most of the members couldn't. On our walks we always carried emergency rations and survival equipment suitable for getting stranded on the hills overnight. We always assessed the incoming weather before starting, down to a couple of us even doing a pre-breakfast drive to the highest point around for a first hand look on occasions. It paid off one day when we were intending to do Ais Gill. My son and I took an early drive up from where we were staying towards Garsdale as it looked a bit white at higher level. Up near Dent station the ploughed snow was up close to the wing mirrors so we retreated and Plan B was invoked. All of our routes had a low level alternative via pubs and cafes for the people who didn't want our version, and we always had all of the escape routes from the high level parts marked on the map. In over ten years of involvement we didn't have a serious incident requiring outside assistance

The number of non-local people who went up on Bleaklow looking for the B29 bomber wreck during lockdown was totally manic. Mountain Rescue out about four days a week. People parked up in Old Glossop when weather was not particularly good at 500ft then setting off to climb to 2000ft in shorts and trainers. There was about 18 inches of snow up there at the time so not much to see. No phone signal so they were getting lost. Fortunately none died because of their stupidity as far as can be ascertained, although if they fell into a snow-filled peat gully would we ever know?

And someone not inserting an offset into the GPS data. An acquaintance of mine was once commissionedto sail a boat from Gibraltar to Cowes. The GPS was insisting that he was in the Bay of Biscay when he could see the Devon coast. Allegedly the US had just launched an air strike on somebody.

I once came across two lost souls on Bleaklow trying to follow the Pennine Way using only a souvenir tea towel for guidance.

I never got as far as being in the Army, but when in the school cadet force map reading and navigation was still taken seriously, at least by our CO. At one summer camp we were briefed for an exercise that we were stuck in unfriendly country. We had little food and basically what we were standing up in and a cape/groundsheet each, a compass and a i" OS Map. There was a resistance group in the area who knew we were there and were trying to get home. A friendly farmer would arrange our way out if we could get to him by noon on the following day. The locals had hidden supplies for us at point A. The farmer would be looking out for us to arrive at point B where there were further supplies. Two motorised enemy patrols knew we were there and were searching for us. We were dropped at Red Wharf Bay in the early afternoon and Point B was near South Stack. Basically it meant we had to get across Anglesey as quickly as possible and then cross to Holy Island under cover of darkness. We actually managed it without getting spotted by the patrols.

Blasting is still going on at the quarries around the Peak District.

I started learning the geography of Britain nearly 70 years ago from an OS 10 miles to the inch road map my Dad bought c1948. Within a few years I knew where most of the railways and principal road were and the relationship of most towns especially in England. I learned to read 1 inch and 2 1/2 inch maps by the age of 10 and can generally navigate myself from anywhere to somewhere via a complete wilderness without modern aids. I don't use SatNav except if I programme a complex cross country MTB route into my Garmin to save map reading in the saddle and have the OS app on my phone to use if necessary. The main advantage is that it will give your location without having to interpret geographical features.

Greenhouse cleared out today, a bit warmer in there than it was in the garden. All prepared for winter storage of more delicate plants. Computer is getting a bit clogged up so a few little used directories transferred to a portable drive for sorting. I found a copy of the video files from the coast to coast across Canada that Matt and I did. I can't believe it was 15 years ago. I am putting together a sequence of stuff from the 'Canadian' and 'Ocean' as I sort out the other stuff. One good result of the sort out is that I have finally got a definitive scanned version of the 400 or so slides taken on BR and heritage sites between 1964 and 1984. I managed to identify all of the places and most of the content from my old photo notes and have got the dates pretty accurate as far as I can tell. Any not exact are known to the correct year and month from a list I made about 30 years ago. The scans are all high res large files so I will do a set of JPEGs suitable for screen use. A selection may appear either here or elsewhere on the web over the coming winter.

I'm sure I've seen a picture somewhere of a Stanier 8F with an Austerity 2-8-0 chimney.

My Great Aunt who lived alone had a fall at the age of 95. She was stuck for 17 hours before she was found. She moved into a home and lived to 102. She started doing needlework again after an eye operation at 96. When nearing 100 she complained to me that the other residents were too old in their outlook and had no interest in what was happening in the world like politics and sport. She had worked with Neville Chamberlain when he was a local councillor and attended two FA Cup finals before they moved to Wembley. At the start of WW2 she left her office job in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter to join the LMS Goods Department, staying until retirement. The 100th birthday greetings from HMQ got put on one side, the card signed by the Aston Villa team took the centre of the display.

Welcome to the Wonder Years. I wonder where I put the car keys, I wonder what happened to my glasses?

At least 007/015/038 got BSYP at the start of the Rail Blue era.

A long time ago when I used to drive a lot between Birmingham, MK and London these tricks were common on Friday afternoon in the 60mph traffic jam. It was before speed limiters were made compulsory for lorries. The area around the NEC on the M42 was particularly bad. One day I got the last laugh on a big posh car when I was driving the office Escort. I had watched said numpty weaving lanes for several miles getting nowhere fast and recognised who it was. He wanted to get off for the posh houses round Knowle but as if by magic he got completely boxed into the fast lane at that junction and ended up coming off at the next to go back on the other side which was moving at about 20 mph. I had a sly chuckle aa I watched him join the slip road queue.

Evening Awl. Back on the air after a period away on holiday and not much time for the internet. Have looked in a couple of times but I think I'm about 1000 posts behind at the moment so will probably be difficult to catch up. A good session was had with plenty of MTB mileage, and a small amount on the shiny metals during a day of inclement weather. A couple of trips to the coast were also had by bus. Managed to get by without a visit to a petrol station. When I went shopping this morning I found that the price of fuel at the supermarket was the same as when I topped up a fortnight ago. There were only three cars there for 12 pumps. a bit different from the places we passed last week where there were queues onto the road and prices going up 5p per day if they had managed to get a delivery. Need to make good use of time on the G word this week as weather looks reasonable.

I get tolerated as I provide a free maintenance service for tennis and cycling equipment, along with property repairs and fixing White Goods. A few days ago I repaired a leaking kitchen blender and last night I dismantled a jammed five lever mortice lock from the door between the garage and house, cleaned out, repaired and refixed it.

One of my friends had a fallout with his ex about the cost of his trains. It didn't help when he retorted that his trains had a value but her horses and dogs ate their way through a high percentage of their income.

There is also a picture of one being towed through Derby by a B1.

Between August 1965 and March 1966 E3101 - E3140 crossed the Pennines from Doncaster to the ECML. I'm not sure what routes they took but via Huddersfield would not surprise me.

Mine has been heavily weathered and languishes against the stop block in the Mileage Yard as a store for the C&W deparrment

Only as internal user or departmentals. I don't think any got far past nationalisation as revenue stock

I've used this method for wagons where white lettering is required. A small area of white paint with the transfer of the overall body colour printed on clear film with the lettering uncoloured. Very useful when you only want one set of transfers or a particular local 'Return to ...' branding. I am about to try a rake of Midland Tar Distillers private owner tanks which is a bit more ambitious!