Recent content by coppercapped

Virgin was required by the DfT to oppose open access applications on its patch. It had no choice in the matter.

Your assumption that the space is devoted entirely to the engine and driving cabs is wrong. Have you ever looked inside a large locomotive or sought out some drawings of the interior layout? There are some basic concepts in relation to locomotive and train design that are necessary to...

I think you will find that the change came some time later, the Alstom built Class 458 sliding door units were also known as 4JOPs on introduction in 1999/2000.

Rumour has it that it was intended to name the penultimate and last 'modified Halls' Henry Hall[1] and That's Hall but the order was cut back... ...but, continuing the musical connection, that there was to be a Reading based '1000' to be called Western Elms Avenue. [1] A bandleader from the...

I'm old enough to remember and ride on or behind examples of the Maunsell N15 and U classes and well remember being hauled by 'Howard of Effingham' from Southampton back home to Reading stopping at Reading West on a northbound interregional train. At school in Reading and college in London I...

If each single element of the journey was profitable then there would be no micromanagement from the provider of the (now non existent) subsidy. The railway would be master of its own destiny. What’s not to like?

This has probably been answered in posts in other threads but basically the UK was suffering from 'stop and go' economic growth in the 1960s which limited the government's tax take and so the government's ability to support the railways. Specifically GDP growth at the top of the ‘go-cycle’ in...

I don't see the relevance of this comment. There is a big difference between competition between companies building railways and franchisees operating train services over already existing tracks. Eh? The franchisees (the TOCs) were not responsible for building railways (if that is what was...

Again, this myth about privatisation and competition. Very early in the discussions about the form of organisation of the privatised railways it became clear that 'on-rail' competition (i.e., competition between franchises) was not realistic for all the reasons given so the concept was dropped...

An example from long ago... There is a subway under the station at Reading which now leads from the 'plaza' on the town side of the station to the northern station entrance. Originally this was, as now, a public footway but it used to have stairs leading up to the platforms and on the town side...

It was developed by BR as a way of allocating revenue to different service groups taking into account possible routings between, say, Intercity and local services between the starting and end points. Essentially it estimated the chances of the ticket holder using a particular set of services for...

Who knows? Is the colour and patterns on the train important?

You might be right…!

Hmm! I went to the naming ceremony of 92220 Evening Star at Swindon in March 1960 with a group from school. A day of mixed emotions. Purely by chance I was at Reading station at the end of June or beginning of July that same year when Evening Star rushed through at the head of the down Red...

'Unleash' reminds me of Mark Antony's soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1, of Julius Caesar: "Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war." 'let slip' = 'unleash', but your mileage may vary!