TheSignalEngineer

Well one thing is for sure, it isn't Upside Down

A somewhat flat day today as we were supposed to be at the cricket. In the absence of the planned activity I set off early over two hills in pursuit of a kettle with split personality which was heading towards an eastern seaside resort. Following that a walk over another hill was taken and after lunch the G word was indulged in. I can't help wondering why the Chief Exec of the ECB is soft pedalling so much over the cancellation of the Test Match, even though the Indian cricket board had been asking at the start of May for it to be removed from the series so they could rearrange their own calendar in favour of the Bagsorupees tribe. They also tried to get it moved to the start of the series which would have conflicted with the ECB's own Hundred competition, their suggested date conflicting with two fixtures at Old Trafford. No doubt there will be enough hot air generated by conspiracy theories over the next few days and weeks to raise a balloon or several. I had better not start the ball rolling on here as I will probably get expelled by the Headmaster.

I was working in the office when the news broke. One of the staff on the electronic section went across the road to the Maplin store to get some components which enabled our video conference room to pick up live television from somewhere.

...or you are doing something wrong

Aeros 'oles. All geared up for Saturday test cricket at Old Trafford with the grandchildren and the opposition pulls out.

What route are you using from New Street to Kings Norton? My usual route with the bike when my parents lived there was along the canal from Holliday Street to Bournville.

Our local non-chain diy man seems to be OK for timber but a few of the hardware items are in short supply as are some of the ooh nasty chemical based substances especially at the chain stote amd their 'trade' offshoots. And why do some suppliers have to source galvanised clout nails from the Far East?

I think my wife worked at seven Barclays branches, four of which have gone. When our local branch closed so did the next closest on the same day. The advice offered for visiting a branch was next to useless as the nearest takes an hour by public transport with no convenient parking nearby. The second is a day trip by public transport, passing two branches which are further away as the crow flies in the process. I hope I don't need to do a personal visit although it will happen at some time. The challenge will be to resist the temptation to do the quickest (but longest) trip, catch the bus across the hills to our next branch to the east and in the process withdraw some muddling tokens for a site visit to a coloured box emporium.

And reputedly made his escape by nipping round from his Pimlico flat to Victoria to catch the Night Ferry train to Paris. As far as his ownership of Marples Ridgeway was concerned, he sold his shares when Minister of Transport - to his Wife.

I've checked the various issues of the Sectional Appendix from the time the line was resignalled and can't find anything. Has anyone got a copy of BR29636 Working Instructions for D.C. Electrified Lines between Euston - Watford Junction - Croxley Green and Broad Street - Richmond. That may provide a clue.

Two new tyres, car serviced and MOT'd today. Another big hole in the muddling budget. Think a few things will go on Ebay tonight, although feeling a bit knackered after finishing the recovering of the shed roof, cleaning the guttering and windows at the back of the house and the conservatoty roof.

Reminds me of when I had a back spasm during the night a while ago. I couldn't get out of bed without assistance so phoned 111 and the operator went through the script which was not much use. Yes I can breathe, I haven't got chest pains, my eyes are OK, I haven't got headaches, etc etc. The advice was to take painkillers and if I lost the use of my limbs to phone 999. My reply totally dumbfounded the operator. "If I lose the use of my limbs how do I get to the phone and dial 999?" About 10 seconds of total silence then "I've never been asked that before" came the reply.

Sounds like my trade around privvy-tization. I knew my time to get out was fast approaching when the Management vacancy list was calling for 39 contract lawyers or accountants and three people with experience of the engineering or day-to-day running of the job. I just kept my head down until the optimum time to go. Strangely I actually managed to outlast many of the blow-ins, who usually managed one or two years before being found out.

Seems like I have missed quite a lot over the past few days of grandad duty etc. Apologies for anything that has gone un-noticed. The remainder of the school hols was fairly uneventful. The boys don't take any looking after now, in fact I think they look out for us rather than the other way round. On days off we caught up with some cycling including revisiting the Worsborough incline and did what I now discover is a Category 2 climb on the Tour of Britain to get back to the car after a MTB ride. On Friday there was a momentous occasion when I took my first train ride for 552 days. We promised to take youngest lad to see the Flying Moneypit on the East Lancs Railway. When we got to our first vantage point we saw Union of South Africa was hauling the ordinary service train so we headed off to Bury and had a ride behind it. Even more adventurously I braved the trains to Liverpool yesterday to visit the Liverpool MRS exhibition, my first show for 559 days. Today followed with even more normality of a sort. The cricket club had a junior presentation day where they had a Lads vs Dads match. It was a sort of modified Hundred game where each of the lads present batted for 10 balls bowled by one of their parents. The Dads (and two Moms) then batted for 10 balls against each of the children. The Dads won by one run when a misfield allowed the last ball to go for 4. Presentations followed where Sammy won the U11 bowling award for his performances including having an economy rate of 1.8 runs per over across the whole season. He also got a special mention for the occasion when he turned out as a last minute replacement for the U13 team and restricted the opposition to four runs in the last over when they needed seven to win. Thomas also got a special mention in the U11s as the youngest member of the team, being only nine. The coach had said he couldn't play for the U9s as his bowling speed and accuracy would have been too dangerous for the others. He even got his Dad clean bowled first ball today.

Welcome news, I've got a free day on Saturday so will be over around lunchtime, trains permitting.

9710 was photographed in 1957, 1960 and 1961 with the shirtbutton, so probably not paint wear or over-zealous cleaning. It was noted in Caerphilly Works on 29 October 1961 and was subsequently pictured at OOC with the late crest. IIRC 9709 may have been a late survivor with GWR initials.

This is the GWR map for route colours. Engine types are noted on the map. http://www.michaelclemensrailways.co.uk/?atk=634

That LMR table format is the same as the way information is shown in the current Network Rail Sectional Appendix. The GWR had a route availability map. There is a copy of one on the Michael Clemens Railways website, sorry no link at moment as I am typing on phone. They also had the local prohibitions listed in the Working Timetable, such as Kings and 47xx not allowed through crossover between platforms at station 'z'.

In the late 1950s the Down Cambrian changed locos at Wolverhampton on Summer Saturdays, running non-stop from Wolverhampton to Welshpool via the Abbey Foregate loop. Due to line capacity on the Welshpool route there were several Summer Saturday Birmingham trains to and from Pwllheli which ran via Llangollen with reversal at Ruabon.

I did enquire about variations in the early days as I was interested in the ones used at Longbridge in the 1950s but Chris said it was a no-go due to the variations. The locos came from three different builders, all but one of those, on the SR were from Vulcan Ironworks. 30061 was from F Porter. The Longbridge ones were from Davenport. Even though the two of those were very close in their works number there were detail differences between them. The closest is the NCB livery version which I will convert if EFE don't do tooling for the main Davenport differences in the next year.

RCH464 C-17A out of Doha just passed Malta

You should have tried riding along West Street at clocking off time in the 1960s. Made the Tour de France peloton look like a load of pussy cats.

It brings back memories of summers in North Devon when Chivenor was doing Hawker Hunters. They were often out over the Bristol Channel. It got a bit frantic at the end of the month if the regulars hadn't got enough flying hours in. They would do a couple of trips cliff hugging from Ilfracombe to Minehead or do a low level trip across the sea to entertain the Taffs around Porthcawl and Barry. Some of them could get so close to the water you could see the wake from the top of the cliffs.

Being seen on the road is very important. Even in the day I have a red light on the back and a flashing light on the front. I've only had one direct hit in all my years on the road. That was when I was cut up by a taxi on the A45 island for Birmingham International. Fortunately only minor injuries but the bike suffered a bit. I think he didn't see me because I was going to catch a train direct to a worksite and was wearing full Orange Army clothing.

Some REACH transports active from gulf airfields towards Europe and couple out of Germany now over Atlantic heading west.