TheSignalEngineer

I've had to use two when replacing items but both are in visible locations. One is in a ground floor toilet, the other in an en-suite which is due for a total refit as soon as I can be bothered to find a decent plumber.

I just checked the 'Crewe and South thereof' for one in the cases I was thinking of, Shrewbridge AHB at Nantwich. The 1969 edition makes no mention of a plunger, at that time there was a speed discrimination control. By 1972 there was mention of a TRTS plunger on the Up platform. I think it was around 1970 that a Sulzer Type 2 running light was rolling up to a signal and when it was cleared the driver opened up and it took off a pace. It managed to beat the speed discrimination controls and reach the crossing as the barriers were still coming down. All instances of this control were disconnected, and I remember removing two lots c1973.

Partly answering my own question I found a copy of the 1982 Sectional Appendix on line, leading to a speculative suggestion. Palgrave AHB is shown at 94m 04ch and Diss SB at 95n 04ch. The line speed was 95mph. The strike-in point for the controls which hold the barriers down was 38 seconds from the crossing which at line speed is appromimately 1 mile. Special controls would therefore be required to prevent the barriers from being down for long enough to go to the failed mode with a stopping train being held up in the platform. In the early days this was done at AHBs by a speed discrimination circuit but following incidents in c1968 these removed and special controls applied to delay clearing of signals within the strike-in. I worked on at least three crossings where this was the situation, including one at Watford North with a driver-operated device. This activated the crossing sequence to ensure that the barriers were lowered before the protecting signal cleared. What we need now is someone with knowledge of local operating instructions at Diss station from the time when the AHB crossing was installed.

What is the distance from the Starter to the AHB crossing? If the signal is within the crossing strike-in the TRS plunger may have been part of the crossing initiation curcuitry for a stoppong train.

Dimming switches for ground signals were still being provided on the LMR in the 1960s. I think New Street PSB may have been one of the last places to get one.

You can find a timetable for 1948 here. http://www.michaelclemensrailways.co.uk/?atk=608 If you are in the groups.io site that Robert Carroll of this parish runs for loco hauled coaching stock it has a lot of carriage working notices including some for the local workings in the Birminggam area. A lot of local trains in the area were 4 coach non-corridor sets as done by Hornby hauled by a Large Prairie, or occasionally a Pannier. Longer distance passengers were often 4 coach Collett and Hawksworth stock will a Hall or Grange.

I wouldn't. Except for the old platform it is Flood Zone 3, and the same height above the river as the GW main line at Cowley Bridge.

@Barry O Are you going to board up the windows? Sounds like the type to crack the gas pipe then short out the main cable whilst looking fo the source of the leak.

When I was in charge of our office supplies I used to donate any out of date bandages and similar items to a St Johns Ambulance group for use in training and competitions. Good for them to have a supply of the real thing without wasting money on in-date stuff.

Morning all. Looks like our supply of water is due for another topup shortly. Ours is ranked as very soft, being run off water from the gritstone moorland around Woodhead. It flows down to the reservoir between Mottram and Godley for treatment before being pushed back uo the hill to the service reservoir. It has a low calcium content, so low that I managed 15 years out of my last kettle without any furring before it died of natural causes. The water company website gives a table on which it ranks soft water as having a score of under 60. Across over 30 samples it registered between 20 and 37. Interestingly it has no added fluoride as it picks up some naturally on its way across the moor.

All of the Birmingham shunt trips had an xTxx number in the trip working book. It was probably the Soho Depot shunt and may have had the number chalked on or a small board on a lamp bracket. Just before Soho opened T40 was unused in the Tyseley and Bescot turns.

Timetabling on BR post-Beeching became a game of seeing how effectively you could discourage the public from using trains. Back around 1967 I was on holiday in Cornwall. I decided to try to do all of the remaining GWR branches in one day whilst there so went to the station to enquire about timetables. I was given a combined bus and rail booklet for the whole of Cornwall. When I asked about tickets and the station man found I worked for BR he said you will need this as well. He handed me a duplicated sheet of trains which apparently didn't connect in the timetable, which was cunningly arranged to show the branch trains missing main line trains by two or three minutes. He told that there was a whole system of train delaying tactics employed so that these connections could be used for the benefit of staff and the local people.

This shows the state at the commissioning of London Road Power Box in 1960 with the rebuilding of platforms 1-4 done. ManLR_1960-400g.pdf There was no running move from the Down Fast to Platforms 1-4. The only way in from the LNW lines was a shunt from the Up Fast. The only connection with running moves was at Ardwick, then only Down East to Down Fast or Up Fast to Up East

Aagh! Saw one of those in a lab about 50 years ago. I did my HNC at Worcester. They had recently taken over the Radar Establishment school at Malvern and we did most of our course there. How things have changed. My communications lecturer was involved in radar development during WW2 and my electronics notes included half a page about the new-fangled 'Integrated Circuits'.

Apologies for anything I have missed over the last few days but now back to the world of proper internet connections after a few days mountain biking and the delights of a rural connection. I think that if someone in the village logged in to Netflix everything else dropped out. After last night's rain today started quite well then went downhill rapidly. The grandsons managed to get their cricket match in between the showers, and I got a couple of decent pictures. Oh the joys of having rapid fire digital photography. As soon as the match finished I went round to Rose Hill station to see the Crank-Ex arrive. It was very late and by that time the rain was proper northern. I moved on Marple Aqueduct but the rain was so bad I couldn't even open the car window for a picture let alone get out. After trying some video at Dinting I abandoned. I intended going out later to get some shots in the Hope Valley but had second thoughts due to the weather. It was probably fortunate the route seemed to be altering on the 'VSTP+ a bit more' basis. It was very late and then looks as if it spent about 90 minutes at Earles Siding. I suspect the 37 had failed there as a loco went up from Peak Forest to Earles whilst it was there.

Definitely 'Windmilling' in our area. 'Bellowing' referred to the cry that went up on spotting the gent to the right of the picture in this post when out west. I'm sure some of you will have heard the shout, if not he appears with his step ladder at 0:45 followed by arm waving and bellowing from the Windmillers in this clip at Goodrington in May 2013.

The road where our daughter lives is not tarmac surfaced although technically adopted. It follows the line of the tramway built to convey stone between the two halves of the Peak Forest Canal whilst the Marple Aqueduct and 16-lock Marple Flight were built in the 1790s/1800s. There is still some evidence of its course at the nearby recreation ground and below Lock 10 where it crossed the route of the canal.

Reminds me of when a now defunct Sunday newspaper described the compere of a TV game show as 'Mr. It's a Kockout'

Sounds good. We already have a compressor and I was thinking of trying it with an airbrush. It has a 5 litre tank and will do higher pressures up to about 7 bar but I've also used it for doing tyres at 2 bar and can adjust the output pressure lower than that. Got me thinking about a bit of experimentation. Eric

Hi Clive, what size compressor is that? Eric

On 22/06/2021 at 15:34, Wickham Green too said: That page doesn't seem to exist = error 404 try http://igg.org.uk/gansg/12-linind/petrol.htm

In traditional signalling areas I always tried to use a datum based on something not likely to move whilst the project was in progress, such as a signal box which was to remain in use. Other fixed objects such as the ends of the parapets on a viaduct were also noted based on the distance from the datum. A colleague of mine came unstuck when specifying a cable route for a power signalling scheme. He painted his datum for the contract on the wall of a goods shed. Unfortunately it was demolished a few weeks later. I remember the HMRI spitting feathers when someone in our office submitted layout plans for approval all dimensioned in metres. They was returned with a request for the whole lot to be resubmitted in miles and chains. Earlier I had a lot of problems with the track circuit bonding plans for Carlisle PSB as the main line signalling was done based on the Lancaster & Carlisle and Caledonian mileages but the electrification bonding plan that it had to be plotted on was done on the basis of a resurveyed metric plan based on a particular platform end at Euston Station. Fortunately most of the mileposts had been picked up by the survey and given a metric distance from datum

One way or another this was always going to be a problem. The ideal solution for Manchester trains would have been to provide a grade-separated junction at Bellamour Lane north of Rugeley and 3.5 miles of new line passing to the east of Little Hayward and Great Hayward, rejoining the existing alignment just south of Pasturefields Lane. Booked freight is virtually non-existent via Colwich - Stone so all of that expenditure would have benefitted a very small number of trains per hour and would not stack up when looking at £ spent vs minutes gained. The 65 mph DTV Fast towards Stafford is faster than going towards Stone as that is 45 mph. An 85 mph PSR starts about 26 chains on the approach to the junction then a 90 mph PSR through Shugborough Tunnel. From the running point of view I don't think there would be much difference between turning a train going via Stafford onto the DTV Slow through the 75 mph turnout at Amington Junction. From there the EPS is 100 mph through Tamworth station then 125 mph to just south of Rugeley. It is then 110 mph all trains to Colwich followed by the 90 mph through Shugborough.

Pretty much so. The Fast lines from Rugby right through to Curborough Junction which is about a mile north of Lichfield station have bi-directional capability to assist with regulation during failure. I'm not sure what the current arrangements are but when we installed the first section of it between Rugby and Nuneaton c1984/5 it was used to assist with patrolling under traffic by closing one line whilst staff were on track.

I would agree with Simon that many mileposts are not 1/4 mile apart. I measured a good few hundred miles of railway plotting signalling equipment and found a lot of discrepancies, usually minor, but a few stand out. When the survey for the original WCML electrification through to Scotland was done there was a conversion of existing distances to metres for contract purposes. The figures didn't add up. One historical difference in mileages was at Wolverton where the posts actually ran on the basis of the old straight line through the works but the deviation to the present line was a bit longer so at the northern end there was a 'long' quarter mile. I don't know whether this was ever corrected.