TheSignalEngineer

Two days before the start of term the road to our school was impassable. The Headmaster got the council out to hand dig a way through. One afternoon I walked three miles home through a blizzard as the buses couldn't get through to pick us up.

We had several weeks of freezing conditions and snow on Birmingham. From my desk I could see the digital clock on the old Birmingham Mail tower block which showed the temperature for a few seconds as the minutrs changed. One lunch time it got up to showing 00 degrees so I went out for a walk round the city centre without a coat. 1963 was probably marginally worse as the snow which fell at our school on December 27th didn't clear completely until mid-April. My Dad was in the Fire Brigade at that time. One night the hoses froze to the road after a big fire. At Monument Lane they had to go back to steam for some local services because the diesel solidified in the fuel lines on the DMUs overnight.

I did notice a pair of them having a picnic behind Tesco in Penistone while their children were playing football. Mind you, they did have a lot of natural insulation. It reminded me of a day back in 1982 when we went sledging with our children at Swanshurst Park in Birmingham. I had a flask of hot Bovril in my bag. When I poured it into the cup it started freezing to the sides within a minute. Only time I ever had a beef flavour iced lolly!! The ride back was slightly warmer due partly to the gradient also the angle the wind was catching us. I had my thickest riding gloves on. I have a pair of really good mitts which I have worn for walking at -10C but I can't use the gears and brakes properly in those. My first mountain bike night ride was on the Woodhead line at the west end of the tunnel when we lived within sight of the route. Coming back down towards Hadfield we ran into one of those temperature inversion fogs around Torside Crossing. By the time we got to our house the handlebars were covered in ice and I had to keep touching the brakes to keep them from freezing up.

I rode down to Thurgoland Tunnel from Dunford Bridge last month. I can't remember taking any pictures other than anything that got recorded on my GoPro as my hands were so cold I couldn't work the ordinary camera. By the time I got back to the car I had so little use in my fingers I had difficulty in turning the ignition key.

I suspect Hornby are seeing how many pre-orders they get before allocating the remainder to retailers on a basis of a certain small amount, say 10, each then splitting the rest on a reducing percentage based of the number requested. Ask 10 get 10, ask 50 get 20, ask100 get 30 or similar split.

Is there a dummy-spitting contest going on like the previous Hattons/ Bachmann and Rails/Hornby ones?

Over the years a lot got railway nicknames which in the 1930s were enshrined in GWR publicity material. The night train from Paddington to Birkenhead was The Northern Flash. Other examples included The Birmingham Market was mainly for live cattle and meat from Birkenhead to Bordesley, the Bordesley to Swansea train was known as The Hardware and the Margam to Bordesley was The Tin Man.

825 and 29 currently shuttling at Grosmont station.

I got a 94xx from Derails through this policy. I hadn't pre ordered but decided to wait to see it. Got a message to say that they had two of the one I wanted left after fulfilling the pre- orders and dealing with any issues. Got in quick and bought it for the best price around at the time.

In 1910 from the opening of the shorter route the 9.35pm goods from Paddington to Birkenhead and Manchester was booked via West Ealing, Greenford, Bicester and Banbury. I don't know of the route before that.

Hi Ian, he's looking at Birmingham New Street roughly 1950s, post-nationalisation bet when the turntable was still in use where the PSB was built.

Using the last link and searching for Birmingham I found this lot. https://spottinglogs.co.uk/1955-2/ Besides a brief snapshot at New St any passenger or mixed traffic loco seen at sheds with a 3 or 21 code would be a candidate to appear

Another useful site for listing locos present at a particular time is Shedbash. It will give you a lot of home loco details and also clues to where locos working into the area came from. This is the shed index https://shedbashuk.blogspot.com/p/index-of-shed-visits.html?m=0 I linked another blog on the Wolverhampton West Park thread recently. It's possible to search for locations by name on there.

When I was working around Saltley c1966-8 we had several complete trains per day direct from the East Midlands either from collieries or yards like Toton to the gas works sidings between Saltley Station and Duddeston Road. Similar trains ran to Hams Hall Power Station or Washwood Heath Tame and Rea Sidings for Nechells Power Station.

A few comments / tips about the Roche book related to New Street Firstly beware of interpreting the power classifications as the LMS system went up to &P with the patriots and Jubilees coming in bigger than 5p but not good enough for LMS 6P so they were rated 5XP. When BR set up its system based on the LMS one they aadjusted the passenger side to go up to 8P which was the equivalent of LMS 7P. LMS 6P became BR 7P and 5XP became BR 6P. To the individual classes:- M/L/10 - Stanier Class 5 was one of the most common classes M/L/11 - 4-6-2. This was the later Ivatt version of which 2 were built. An occasional visitor 1961-64. M/L/12 - CO-CO Diesel. 10000 and 10001 were seen quite frequently from 1956 to 1961. M/L/13 - Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0. A few allocated around the midlands throughout the period, turning up at New Street occasionally. M/L/14 - 4-6-2 Non-stereamlined, seen on an almost daily basis from 1961-64 but rare visitors prior to that M/L/15 - Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T. Regulars on local services from the early 1950s to the coming of DMUs on local services in the late 1950s but rare after that. M/L/18 - Rebuilt Royal Scot. Frequent visitors up to 1961/62. Smoke deflectors as noted for 6115 on drawing. M/L/21 - Stanier 2-6-4T. Although this is the 3-cylinder version built for the LT&S out of Fenchursh St it is visually almost identical the Stanier and very similar to the later Fairburn 2-cylinder versions which were common all through your period. M/L/22 - Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0. Common on local services on the Midland side of the station. The drawing shows the double chimney as provided on the early ones but these were soon removed and all ended up with a single chimney. M/L/23 - Fowler 4-4-0 Compound, regulars until about 1958-9 M/L/25 - Fowler 2P 4-4-0. Although the Fowler version was not that common at New Street the earlier Johnson version which had right hand drive rather than the left hand drive of the Fowler was common on stopping trains from Gloucester in the 1950s. They were also used as the Midland side station pilot at times. M/L/26 - Class 4F 0-6-0, appeared frequently on Midland side stopping trains especially after the demise of the 4-4-0 classes. also as Midland side pilot. A regular on the Cadbury to Water Orton vans on the Midland side around 1.30pm. M/L/27 - Unrebuilt Royal Scot, these were all rebuilt by 1955 so would only be seen in the early 1950s. However the unrebuilt Patriots were similar visually but a bit smaller M/L/28 - Rebuilt Jubilee. These were very similar to the Rebuilt Royal Scot and rebuilt Patriot. All were regularly seen at New Street during your period. They all gained smoke deflectors as shown for Royal Scot 6115. This is the quirky one for you. M/L/30 - ex-LNWR 0-6-2T. The 'Coal Tank'. One was regularly used as LNW side pilot up to about 1953. Now for a foreigner. NE/L/43 B1 4-6-0. although an LNER design these were virtually daily visitors on a train from Cleethorpes in the 1950s and early 1960s. On weekdays it went empty to Kings Norton and on Summer Saturdays often worked through to Gloucester or even Bath Green Park. It was the only non-LMS class regularly seen at New Street until the coming of the BR Standards. That lot should give you plenty of options to think about and enable you to do a representative selection. Eric

I've just checked out the station working book for 1964. The Templecombe actually ran as a Class 3 so would have been restricted to vehicles permitted to run at higher speeds in NPCCS trains. The Sheffield was a Class 4 fitted freight (90% with automatic brakes operative) whilst the Cadburys ran as 6T49 so needed at least 20% of the vehicles to have automatic brakes operative. The Grimsby vans could be any type, including ex-LNE ones in the freight wagon series.

The Gresty Road site had a number of areas. To the left of the gate looking from the road was the Divisional S&T Engineer's offices. To the right was the CS&TE Telegraph Workshops. These made and serviced all sorts of electrical signalling and telecomms equipment. When I spent a short period in there c1968 they were working on Block Instruments and Blockshelf indicators, illuminated diagrams, lever locks, curcuit controllers, relays, key token and staff machines, clock face type train describers, point machines, colour light signal heads, AWS inductors and loco equipment, signal post telephones and platform ticket machines. The buildings further back contained the CS&TE Laboratory and the CS&TE Stores. Also at the back was SBC, lovingly known as Sand, Ballast and Cement, but it really stood for Signal Box Construction. This was the CS&TE's gang who did our building for new works. I think t training school was set up shortly after the DS&TE moved into Rail House in the late 1960s. I certainly went there for a meeting with our man in charge of training at RHQ in 1970 or 71 and attended a couple of courses in the early 1970s. On the bit of ground where the signal box stands thete was a set of points which the lab used for testing new point motors and modifications to existing types. It could be set up to throw the points automatically every few minutes and instrumented to check number of operations and performance. I don't remember exactly when the box was built but there was always a stock of enough panels to build a new box at the drop of a hat on the SBC yard.

Virtually none. The lines in and out of New Street and we even had special indicators for banking on the Midland side towards Church Road in New Street PSB days. In the early 1960s I remenber three. They were the Templeconbe to Derby which carried traffic for the fruit and veg market around 2am, the Sheffield to Central Goods which carried the Grimsby fish traffic about 4am and the Cadburys vans at lunch time which ran non-stop from the factory to Water Orton. Some of those vans were attached to the Glasgow fitted via the S&C giving next day delivery across central Scotland.

Also remember that coal trains were slow and non-perishable, so went via routes where they could be kept out of the way of more urgent traffic. A lot of coal heading from South Wales to Banbury went via Gloucester, Stratford upon Avon and Leamington. Some from the north went from Bordesley to Stratford and the OWW to Oxford. The GWR gas works at Swindon got coking coal from Derbyshire which came in railway-owned hopper wagons which were worked to Washwood Heath then tripped to Bordesley for adding to a train heading south. Even in the 1960s we were getting long trains of coal wagons into Washwood Heath from the East Midlands where they were sorted for onward workings to customers in the south and west, balanced by steam coal and anthracite from South Wales going north. Empties from locally-used coal were taken there for making up into trains for local collieries or other main yards in coal producing areas.

a) The clearance diagram for new work was contained in the Board of Trade, later MOT then Dft, Requirements for Passenger Lines 1950 edition. I've posted it before on here, and it's available around the web including the Railways Archive site. Just be careful that the dimensions are measured from the running edge of 4'8 1/2" gauge. Clearances have to be adjusted to take account of side and end throw and effect of cant on curves. Basically the requirement can be summed up as you need to get 18" clearance between the largest vehicle and the nearest part of the signal structure. b) I assume you are looking at a trailing crossover or exit from a siding. It depends if you want to use the crossover or siding exit with a train approaching the protecting signal. In that case there would need to be a full overlap between the signal and clearance point of the conflicting move. The distance has varied over time depending on type of signalling in use, line speeds, gradients, etc. To give a definitive answer needs the actual layout and signalling system. As for the ground signals it would again depend pn the type of signalling but WR mechanical ground signals pre 1953 had the detection built into the base so they were at the toe of the points if there was not a track circuit joint. Signals with separate detection would be 6' frpm the toe if non track circuited or at least 11'5" if there was a TC joint at the points. A ground signal could be put in the 6' interval if it was less than 3' high. c) As others have said the position of a platform signal is a matter of convenience depending on the layout and local operating conditions Signalling is not the black art that some people think, but there is a not a one size fits everywhere solution.

For outline scale drawings of locos of the period have you got this one? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Historic-Locomotive-Drawings-in-4-mm-Scale-by-Francis-Joseph-Roche-Spiral-bound/133712355444?epid=91952492&hash=item1f21e0a074:g:ihoAAOSwYgBgZzcP The FJ Roche drawings have some errors but at 2mm scale they won't amount to anything serious especially if matched with photos. The LMS pages have drawings of about 10 loco types which appeared at New Street in your time period, together with a selection of appropriate tenders and detailing parts. Eric

I had an interesting interview at LMR HQ. I was senior applicant and sitting tenant, having been covering the new post for several months whilst all seniority/redundancy listings were sorted after a reorg. My interview was the last of the morning, starting at noon, with our Head of New Works and one of the senior managers from the Project office. The former I had known since I was a trainee, the latter like me was into backpacking and hill walking. The interview was mostly a conversation about our recent expeditions then at about 12.30 the big boss said "we're going across to the Mornington for lunch now, are you going to join us?"

No, only in preservation.

Until the late 1970s or early 1980s all track at New Street was 95lb Bullhead. Flat bottom was too stiff to be jiggled on site to make it fit and still get the points to work correctly. (Got the T-shirt, several times).

Pity, he was mentioned in an old joke concerning a famous Liverpool forward.