TheSignalEngineer

That one is a bit of a mystery. They were built by BRCW who stopped loco production in 1962 IIRC. Build / in service dates quoted for the last one E3302 / E3097 in various sources vary from April 1962 to February 1964. I suspect that this is because it was originally intended to have special gearing for freight work but this was found to have little advantage when E3301 entered service so it was stored until converted to the same gearing as the rest of the class.

The weather is quite bright this morning but the wind speed and direction indicate that it won't last. Will try to drop in at the meeting provided I don't get hijacked by the management for something else. I had a master Class at getting onto Zoom this week from an 8-year-old. I wonder if I can do it unaided?

Especially the Snake Pass road. It changes shape every time I drive it. Just to the west of the old Snake Pass Inn there is a nice deformation building. One day it will fail again.

A lot of sorting of loft junk today for Ebay, charity shops or tipping. A few bit of memorabilia turned up, the next picture is dedicated to @polybear. The event was the Birmingham Walkathon, a charity walk held annually in those days following the route of the Birmingham Outer Circle bus. It is about 26 miles long +/- half a mile depending on whose measurements you follow and was the course of a marathon Road Walking Race which took place from before WW2 to the 1960s. The Walkathon was split up into sections between parks each about 3 miles long and you could start and finish at the nearest one to where you lived and complete as many sections as you wanted. When you booked in you collected your badge then got your sponsorship form stamped at each checkpoint. That entitled you to a free brew at each refreshment stop. You could also pick up a free hot chocolate on passing Cadburys factory. We took part in the 1980s version on two occasions and completed the entire course on each, once clockwise and once anticlockwise.

I remember a driver doing that when shunting a Freightliner into Lawley Street. Looking back for the ground signal he mistook his whereabouts when on a dead end rather than a through road. Wrecked a Class 45 when it reached Saltley Viaduct. The yellow paint from the nose was on the wall for many years and I think the imprint of the buffers remains in the brickwork to this day.

I once clocked one at 80mph. We were going down hill with only six coaches. Going up the bank on the other side of the river it struggled to reach 40mph. My worst experience was doing a test run between Rugby and Nuneaton after commissioning some alterarions. It was on 'Sister Dora' from the Bescot Enginers Pool. Totally clapped out and limited to 60mph. I stood behind the driver to check signal sighting for two round trips at full speed. The vibration and swaying was so bad that when I got off the final run at Rugby station it took me about five minutes to get my land legs back for the walk across to the PSB.

Some location shooting for the League of Gentlemen series took place in the village where I lived for a time. Our local newsagent was a dead ringer for the shopkeeper and I'm sure several other characters owed much to people I used to see on a daily basis as I walked through Royston Vasey to the station. Much has changed, the butcher's shop has closed and the Masons Arms is now a Tesco Express.

Just after I moved to the Dark Peak about 20 years ago I was out for an evening walk near Royston Vasey. A gent coming the other way stopped and engaged me in conversation as he obviously didn't know me. "Are you Local" he said. It floored him a bit when I said "No, I just happen to live here".

I knew I'd forgotten something when I built my baseboards.

We had a serious run in with them a few years ago over a fridge that wouldn't cool. It took three weeks to get it collected and our money refunded. We got another from elsewhere and haven't bought even a memory card from them since. It put them out of consideration for two subsequent large domestic appliance purchases from us and one from our daughter, plus a new TV for each of us.

Overnight rain has passed and weather is much calmer now. Water finally trickled through the taps at 11.15pm. That must have been when enough water had been pumped in from the tankers got high enough up the town to reach us. I put the crockery in the dishwasher on the fast programme then promptly fell asleep in the chair. When I woke up it had finished so loaded the pots and pans and put it in the full monty. Finally got a message at 9.54 this morning to say the engineers had reconnected all of the town and were leaving. That was about 23 hours from when the leak turned to a full scale burst. Just waiting now to see where the drop and restoration of pressure will blow the next pipe. Where our daughter lives there is an old water main down a busy road. Every year there is a major leak. After it is fixed we spend a while trying to spot the next four which will appear at roughly two week intervals. It then settles down for a few months until the next big one. They would have spent less renewing the lot, but that would come out of the Capital budget rather than the renewals being paid for from the Revenue account.

Almost ten hours now. Reluctantly I have had to resort to drinking beer to conserve the limited stock of drinking water remaining. The toilet is home to a bucket filled from the water butts on the garden shed. Reminds me of a rhyme we sang during a drought in my childhood -"If it's brown, flush it down. If it's yellow, let it mellow"

Our vaccines are being run by the area's GPs in a centre set up in the cricket club. Very well organised but only getting enough vaccine for two days per week at the speed they can work. I didn't have an NHS invitation, got mine by text from the surgery. Mrs SE got hers the same way then got an invitation from the NHS on the day she was having the jab. On the home front eight hours without water now. Don't know how long it will be off but there is some flooding at the bottom end of town.

Eat-walk/ride-eat-gardening/DIY/etc-eat-hobbies-sleep-repeat

Electric ride this morning, just 20 miles but 2500 feet of climbs. It is impossible to ride more than about two miles from our house without a big climb. Temperature gone from -4C to -8C since yesterday's walk and wind dropped. Surprising amount of ice still around on the lanes higher up. Got home to find water has gone off, fortunately the tank on the coffee machine was full. I am on the priority list with the water company so have just had a text to say they are on the way to investigate.

Failed moving shiny metal strips investigated last night. Discovered that the spring which retains the bits in the fully closed positions had become detached, possibly due to over enthusiastic cleaning at some time. Fortunately although a fiddly job the device was rebuilt in situ despite its difficult position. Weather has calmed down and much warmer this morning so a cycle ride may be in order.

Largely the same mob of Tory Ultras who have just changed the initials of their group from ERG to CRG but still demonstrating the same mindset. Must stop before I have a political rant.

That would be TS520. The norm in the 1980s IIRC was TS5xx for non-gangwayed, TS6xx for gangwayed. Driving from the back cab was normal in those days when crossing over provided there was a competent person in the leading cab to work the horn and give buzzer signals to the driver. At Stourbridge Junction it was common to back out and if just a quick crossover to return and change ends in the platform rather than in the sidings especially with non=gangwayed stock.

Morning walk was done despite the wind gusting to about 60kph according to the local stats. Still plenty of groups obviously breaking the Covid rules invading the Dark Peak despite the conditions. Two soldering jobs done and an electromagnetic device designed for altering the position of shiny metal strips adjusted. Unfortunately subsequent testing revealed another moving shiny metal fault. The up side is that it is normally only used in the trailing direction so has been scotched out of use until further investigation can be undertaken after lunch. Meanwhile the S&T depot cannot be accessed. Good job it isn't the Sausage Factory siding.

Too old to be a Toy Boy and too poor to be a Sugar Daddy was my usual problem. However, a rather attractive single lady paid a lot of attention to me when I was about 19. When I neared 21 I was rapidly exchanged for a later edition. I bumped into her on a station about 20 years later and she was still single. If she is still around she'll be about 87 now.

Still very cold in the Dark Peak, although the wind has shifted slightly so not full on the house from the Snake Pass snow field. That usually gives a wind chill of -15C. Looks like a walk again as too windy to cycle even with the aid of elektrickery. I cried off yesterday and tidied the muddling room. Located the causes of three faults so it looks as if I may have to resort to the soldering iron to pass the time if the forecast rain comes in this afternoon.

Passenger Brake Van, SR Van C, which became BY under British Railways.

Mention of Rogerstone is interesting. There were Class H freights from there to Banbury and Oxford via Cheltenham and Stratford in the early 1950s. PS Looking a bit further I found coal trains from Rogerstone to Banbury and from Aberdare to Banbury Loco going via Cheltenham in 1949. Possibly one of these dropped off wagons as required?

We did occasionally have to put signals in awkward places. Even on an electrified line with colour lights I put in a signal where there was less than a foot of cover over an underground obstruction. I just cast a concrete block either side of it with two steel beams attached, fixed the signal to those and a rigid bar attached to the post was anchored in a retaining wall. To put your signal closer to the tunnel on that side would mean you wouldn't see the main arm. Not planting it in the bank would mean a very expensive retaining wall to get clearance for the left-hand bracket. You would probably need a Gallows Bracket or a gantry with the dolls hanging down as favoured by the LNWR to do any better. All that would be needed on a secondary line would be to put the post in a deep hole and put some stays into the bank to stop it from falling towards the track.