TheSignalEngineer

I had a bit of an issue with a blow-in Project Manager who had been put in charge of our office. He started getting personal with his remarks at a team meeting so I just told him that my bank balance was bigger than my mortgage and I had already decided on the optimum date for the greatest return on early retirement. Had no more problems with him, and he ended up being removed before I left. His replacement was much better and we had a mutual respect. When a Railtrack Project Manager called one morning insisting that I attend a meeting at Milton Keynes at 1pm that afternoon when I was already in a 10am meeting in Manchester he was told "No, he won't be there and don't get insisting that he drops everything to runs to you. Phone him yourself and ask if and when he can grant you an audience". I got my own back a couple of weeks later when we had about 12 unanswered questions on the project. I called a meeting for 1pm on a Friday afternoon at Euston Station insisting that we had answers or I would start reallocating staff to other work. I turned up with the draft minutes already on my laptop, my assistant typed in the agreed answers as we discussed the items and got them printed off all in time for the 4pm train home.

Yes please

When I returned to layout building I went over to Code 75. It is much more flexible in all directions that Code 100 and I found laying was much more critical with the more modern track. I had a regular problem with derailments on one turnout and found it was slightly dipped about half way along on one side. My method now is the hold the track in line with drawing pins at the sleeper ends then lightly glue in place using a strip of glass lightly weighted on top of it until it has dried. After testing the if there is a problem the track can be lifted with a palette knife if necessary thenb re-leveled. In the case of a slight dip I just ease the knife under the sleepers then pump in a small amount of PVA to fill the void. Once you have got it right ballasting will hold it permanently.

Morning all. A few days of posts to read after spending most of the weekend digging out a bay in the the manure pits at the allotments ready for our supplier to start refilling it. I was hoping for a bike ride today but a bit wet and misty over the Dark Peak at the moment so will see what the afternoon brings. I have given up walks and bike rides at the weekends since the Covid rules started as we are getting swamped by numpties from 100 miles around. A few weeks ago we had scoucers travelling over the Main Watershed to have a look at the snow. Lots had to be guided back off the hills by Mountain Rescue volunteers. Three from different households were fined for breaking the rules after writing off a Boy Racer vehicle near Bamford. The GP-led effort in our area had got down to doing over-50s but they were stopped from having any vaccine deliveries for three weeks as their performance was overshadowing the Government's efforts at the mass vaccination centre 10 miles away I gave up on the lottery after a price rise. I calculated that my usual entry in the National Lottery and Euromillions compared with my winnings was costing me a lot of funds that could be diverted to the muddling account.

The United Kingdom Railway Temperance Union and the Railway Servants Coffee Tavern Company operated a number of these establishments. I think there may have been an LNWR Coffee Tavern Company as well but am not sure. I remember using one at Crewe station when I was working in the area over 50 years ago.

Most problems I have had like that have been inconsistent back to back setting of the wheels on rtr stock. All now get checked on delivery. Historically my worst for derailing was the old Joeuf Class 40, cured by changing the leading wheels on each bogie and adding some lead strip to the carriers of them. The instances caused by track problems were one set of points where the baseboard had distorted causing the frog which was right on top of a bracing strut to be raised slightly above the ends and another set where the electrofrog wiring had got trapped under a sleeper with similar effect.

It's not a signal box, it's the Coffee Tavern IIRC.

Quite logical really. Instructions were traditionally written in line order reading down the page starting from the zero milepost at the top, thus for the Down direction you read Down the page and for the Up direction you read Up the page.

I often use the mixed steam / diesel service on my visits to the ELR. Park in Bury. Steam up hill and a few pics of it at Rawtenstall. Take refreshment there then down hill to Ramsbottom on the diesel, especially if DMU. Possibly pics of the steam coming uphill and more refreshments then back to Bury. Try to fit in a call to Bury Market to pick up some Black Pudding and Lancashire cheeses.

Whem my grandfather joined the LNWR Signal and Electrical department after WW1 he worked on semaphore signal in the tunnels at New Street. They didn't have arms, just coloured spectacles movinng in front of a lamp. These were actually gas lit at that time as were other signals on the station which were fed from the station lighting supply. On pictures from Victorian times the pipes can be seen going up signal posts and into the bottoms of the lamp cases.

I've tried giving magazines away and failed, no market unless you are looking for a particular article, then some of the more recent ones are available online. Individual wagons and coaches not much value unless recent models or some boxed excellent condition old ones. I've got silly money on a couple of occasions when two or three people got into a bidding frenzy. Locos tend to be hit and miss what with all the historic mazak problems and plastic degradation. Typing the maker and loco or coach running number into the Ebay search and choosing 'Completed Listings' will soon show if there is any interest in a particular item and the price they have sold for. Unless there are some rare collectable items I don't think it is worth much effort other than getting a dealer in or approaching a heritage railway group that has a tat shop railway memorabilia stall at galas etc or shop.

Aussie map?

You may struggle at Corwen. It died when the A55 coast road was built and became a faster way to North Wales than the A5.

It looks military to me. There were lots of similar boxes around in army surplus stuff in the 1960s and many were repurposed as tool boxes. I still use one of the smaller wooden ammunition boxes as a carrying case for my battery drill.

The signals for "wrong direction" running on bi-directional lines are often placed to the right. Down direction on the Up Slow/Goods from Water Orton to Washwood Heath. The tracks were paired by direction and many of the signal structures were cantilevers, so no suitable gantries to mount the signals on when the layout was altered in the mid-1980s. The Trent Vally line has tracks paired by direction in the Rugby - Nuneaton - Lichfield area. The normal direction signals are placed as in your first example. The Fast lines can be used bi-directional and the signals for the wrong direction are placed in the wide interval to the right of the line in the direction of travel.

Birmingham Snow Hill had at least two tandems in running lines, leaving the north ends of platforms 6 and 8. The one on number 8 was a four-way after the 1912 rebuilding but was fairly quickly replaced by a tandem and single lead.

Nice sunny morning and less cold. Gardening and the allotment beckon. I feel it is getting near lunch time as Anne had to go to the surgery for a pre-breakfast blood letting this morning. Will do a catch-up read later as the last three days have been busy with other things.

That's something an old S&T Telegraph Lineman taught me over 50 years ago. If there was a line fault he would hitch a lift to the last pole route disconnection point on our section, test back on our side to see if we were getting a call through then repeat the test forwards into the next section. If the fault was beyond our section he would contact the nearest box to arrange a lift home.

Last withdrawl dates for LMS stock are shown in books by David Jenkinson and Bob Essery. The Porthole FK only lasted until 1965.

I was chairing a junction signal risk assessment on WCML just after privatisation. The Freight company rep, EWS or whoever it was called at the time, came up with the quote "Our crews don't need route knowledge, they don't go above 60mph." With the full backing of Railtrack and the TOC reps I suspended proceedings on the task until he had been replaced by someone who had experience of the working railway.

IIRC some places retained a few wooden sleepers because the depth of formation over subways etc was not enough to get standard concrete types in.

A relative of mine was a BR Research specialist in vibration and accoustics . He actually recommended using hardwood sleepers in some circumstances to reduce vibration propagation through buildings close to and particularly over track.

When the Euston -Rugby Outer Suburbans were extended to Birmingham in 1967 the only stopped at Coventry. Before the 75mph limit was imposed the 310s were capable of doing 85mph from Adderley to Canley Gates or beyond and covering New Street to Coventry in no more than 16 minutes.

The Class 310 or AM10 as they were at the time were allowed 85mph when first built. IIRC the 75mph came in when somebody coupled an AM4 to an AM10. The driver was in the AM10 and either nobody told him he had a 75mph unit on the back or he forgot. I don't think it did the AM4 much good, certainly it would have bounved the passengers about a bit.

The outline of my track was sketched out freehand on graph paper. Some complex bits were detailed up in Anyrail. To test out I put decorating lining paper on the floor and transferred the design to that with Peco templates for the points and some curves made from anyrail plots. Then as with Clive I stuck a few trains on th to check how it looked. The shape of boards needed was drawn on the lining paper to use as a template. Then I pinned the pattern to the finished baseboards to mark out the track alignment. Sounds complex but really quite simple and straightforward.