TheSignalEngineer

Just give him the bank details for your Nigerian cousin.

I think my dad could probably list every one. He was off sick for a time when in the Fire Brigade and was allowed to go back on light duties when recovering from surgery. It was at a time when a lot of slum clearance and redevelopment was happening. His task for that period was to check the location and height above water of all bridges over canals, rivers and streams and produce a city-wide map showing all available water supplies suitable for firefighting.

I've not heard any of our cuckoos yet. Last year there were at least three. One was near Derbyshire Level southeast of Glossop, one near to the Snake Pass road east of the town and one above the Woodhead route near Torside Crossing. They should be starting to arrive any time now but probably still a little cool for them. Later last summer we had a visit from a bone eating vulture which stayed for several weeks on the north side of the Woodhead route above Crowden .

We don't seem to have any housemartins yet. Plenty of other small birds and a few bigger ones. Neighbour's scraggy cat seems to be taking an interest in a particular spot in some ivy but much to his annoyance he can't quite get at it. Last year he tried to take a fledgling blackbird from another part of the garden but was set upon by mom, dad and a mob of uncles and aunts.

The talk of ghosting on the payroll reminded me of an S&T Lineman on a country district which came under the office where I was working c1968. He would sign on in the morning and ring the office then go out on the district in the van supposedly doing various maintenance tasks. He was caught out when a failure was causing a lot of disruption and he was nowhere to be found. He lived on a smallholding and grew vegetables. The Inspector went out to try to deal with the fault and as he was passing the local market he spotted the Lineman's van and the Lineman serving on a stall.

Yesterday afternoon on grandad duty there was a sparrow hawk sitting on daughter's shed roof watching some activity in the next garden. Not usual for a suburban garden in the Stockport area I would have thought.

UEFA made their views clear with regard to Swansea and Cardiff and the Europa League, in that they could not qualify via the Welsh Cup if they played in the English leagues. This would preclude Celtic and Rangers qualifying via the Scottish Cup, they could only qualify for UEFA competitions as part of the English quota based on Premier League position. I don't know FIFA's stance but wonder if the formation of a British Premier League might jeopardise the four home nations playing individually in international competition. Perhaps that could provide a trump card for Little Jimmy Crankie in her bid for Scottish independence.

Obviously got too much time on your hands.

I don't know about ticketing but the club were stripped of two league titles and relegated after being implicated in a referee nobbling conspiracy in 2008. Apparently a number of clubs were able to influence the appointment of match officials to get favourable results.

Norman Tunna was a GWR shunter at Birkenhead. I understand that he was preparing a train loaded with bombs at the docks during an air raid when he found one wagon was on fire due to incendaries on the wagon sheet. He tried to put the fire out and remove the wagon sheet but one had gone through onto the bombs. Climbing into the wagon he managed to get the incendary out and the train crew helped bringing water to extinguish the fire and cool tbe load thus preventing a possible major explosion.

My dad was also full of praise for them, having been in India during 1945-47 as a Military Policeman trying to keep order ahead of Partition. He said that the quickest way to clear the streets if trouble was brewing between the different factions was to turn up with a dozen Gurkhas.

And of course pole spacings weren't all the same. They could vary due to such factors as the weight of the route, positions of bridges, stations etc. Quarter mileposts are easy. 10 seconds = 90 mph. Even easier, if you count the beats in 41 seconds that is the speed in mph on 60' jointed track to 99.78% accuracy.

Certainly was, only about 30 miles but over 5000 feet of climbs. I can still manage about 3000 feet on an ordinary bike but not over that terrain. Fortunately three of the big climbs from the Gnat Hole at Glossop to the first summit on the A624, Mam Nick and the climb out of the Sett Valley on the way back were on tarmac but the 4000 feet of off- road descents and the peat seation along Rushup Edge were as bad as the climbs, I've got the marks to show for it.

Certainly is some hard riding round that area. I lived in Tintwistle for a few years before moving into the next valley south. An interesting ride on that side of Longdendale is to go down past the United Utilities site at Tintwistle which used to be the start of the narrow gauge line up to the Woodhead Dam. At the bottom end of the yard the site of the level crossing can still be seen. Just to the east of that there used to be a bridge across a water channel but that has gone now except for the centre pier. At Vale House Dam you can climb up to the old trackbed and in winter still follow it to Rhodeswood Dam. From there you can ride most of it right up to Torside Dam. Further on there are several parts you can still follow right up to Woodhead Dam at Crowden, although the last section of the concession path is closed at the moment because the steps at the end have collapsed. Some of my rides direct from home are via Hadfield - Woodhead - Dunford Bridge to Holmfirth or Penistone, via Stalybridge to Diggle, to Stockport via Broadbottom, Godley and the Cheshire Lines then back via Marple. I tend to do eMTB on the longer runs these days. Today was to Hayfield then via Edale Cross to Edale, Mam Nick, Rushup Edge then Pennine Bridleway to Hayfield, the old Hayfield branch towards New Mills and over Cown Edge back to the A624.

The ones at Snow Hill were similar to a searchlight unit. I was looking for the one I used to stand by for trainspotting then found this one taken from the back of it. The miniature yellow is to the right of the theatre indicator. https://warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrbsh32.htm

I'm not sure how long the LMR put them in but they were retained at Lime Street in the 1960 alterations. I don't remember any being provided on the new boxes between Manchester and London between 1959 and 1966. The WR used them at Birmingham and Plymouth in 1960 but I don't know if any were used after that.

We had one section of line that was in the balance because we were struggling to justify replacing the GWR ATC equipment with BR AWS, it got that bad.

A bit inconvenient when the Regional boundary changed and the shed had only got the wrong kind of lamps

I flew a few times post privatisation from Manchester to meetings in Glasgow. Finance turned me down the first time so I did a presentation for my Project Director which demonstrated that in addition to the train fare I would need at least one night in a hotel. I would be taking up not only the day of the meeting but losing the equivalent of a working day on top. He called in the finance man to see what I had done and told him that if I said I wanted to do my job in a partucular way not only would it keep me happy it was also very likely to be the most cost effective way so sign up and shut up.

The resignalling has to be looked at in context with the period, not like the present fad for re-writing history based on presemt day norms. When the job was being planned BR was broke. We lost nearly 50% of our signalling renewal projects budget in two years even at a time when were were struggling to maintain the status quo. Network South East hadn't been invented. Financial constraints were extreme. It was even questioned as to whether it was worth keeping the DC Lines north of Harrow at all. As it was the original specification required the system to support a 10 minute interval between Harrow and Watford plus the Croxley branch trains. It took a lot of work with the Magic Pencil to get the figures to balance. It was not really a runner as a conventional relay interlocking but the first SSI at Leamington was under trial so the figures were re- worked on the basis of using that technology. It was just about viable if two interlockings were used but that was stretching the processor capacity to the absolute limit. Other considerations were that a job with two SSIs talking to each other had never been done before and SSI had not been used next to AC electrification let alone with AC and DC lines adjacent. Somehow the job was made to work and within what our masters were prepared to pay. Two hours after the job was signed in Clapham happened and the signalling landscape was drastically changed. NSE was now in control of the area and passenger numbers were increasing.

One of the EP pictures showed the coach with ordinary roof vents so hopefully will come when the feeding frenzy has died down.

And currently trying to make a comeback in local politics, standing in the Derbyshire CC elections next month.

A nice trip out for a bike ride today. Hebden Bridge was heaving and our usual coffee stop was full to bursting and no sign of social distancing in the town centre. It was straight through up to Midge Hole then a long climb to the Pennine Bridleway before a rapid decent of Colden Clough. I was surprised to find a few patches of snow still around on the higher ground. It was 23 months since we did the same ride and I was pleased to do it in about the same time despite not having done any long climbs on a non-electric bike for over six months. The Pennine section of the M62 was fairly quiet, plenty of cars but the lorry traffic not yet recovered and very few foreign lorries about compared with pre-Covid/Brexit times.

No problem in a standard 6-foot using an old Westinghouse signal with no backboards.