Recent content by Dr Hoo

The Middleton Incline on the Cromford & High Peak was worked by an 1829 (stationary) steam engine. Various trials were done with modern diesel shunters on the Middleton Top-Parsley Hay section, so ‘traction’ separated by around 130 years occurred at one location. (Unless someone can tell us that...

There are, of course, three sets of departure boards generally in use, two in the 'middle' and one of the booking office side. As I understand it they can all be re-configured, e.g. to cover maintenance, including the one on the Eversholt Street side if appropriate. I am struggling to...

Some great memories there. I remember an ailing DMU being banked from Stourbridge Junction once.

Right, so you've reached your conclusion already, just a pity that there don't seem to be any actual facts out there. Yeah. Right. I very rarely go to Heathrow (although I am presuming that @Horizon22 is a frequent flier) but happened to be there last Thursday, hence this thread piqued my...

If Paddington is supposedly 'full' can anyone confirm that Network Rail has declared it to be 'Congested Infrastructure"? It doesn't feel that way to me intuitively. Further Fast/Main paths for an open access Carmarthen service have been approved, I believe. During the Nuneham Bridge collapse...

Over the years several London termini have had more organised Underground access. St Pancras immediately springs to mind. Paddington (Hammersmith & City), Liverpool Street after the 1980s rebuild, Victoria, Blackfriars, Cannon Street and London Bridge have also seen significant changes...

(Having just come across this thread) I think that the penny had dropped on older coaches only used at weekends rather earlier. The Reshaping Report in 1963 had highlighted that of 18,500 hauled coaches a mere 5,500 were in 'all year' service and a staggering 10,900 only on summer and high peak...

Thanks for the extra background @Magdalia . Braintree was Shell and Esso by the way but you had the right idea. :smile: Block trains of around 500 tons gross (say, 350 tons of product), together with all the faffing around with brake vans were hardly great shakes (and ironically probably...

You might have thought that but the number of freight depots fell from 6,395 at the end of 1948 to 5,475 by the end of 1961 - a reduction of over 14% (920 locations). All done pre-Beeching. I'm really not sure about that. BR did very badly with oil traffic, steadily losing market share to...

I think that the problem is that virtually all freight was operated on a ‘wagonload’ basis. The large power stations, refineries and so on just didn’t exist in the way that we think of them. There were a few ‘block loads’ but they were the exception. Disaggregated or sectorised analysis...

Is the right answer IMHO. (I only used to leave some very tatty wet gear in my panniers, which anyone was welcome to inspect or nick if they were that desperate.)

Has the OP thought about a complementary set of freight tunnels to link Trafford Park in all directions, various stone and waste flows, biomass Liverpool-Drax and new TransPennine intermodal flows to the Liverpool area? There could economies of scale in (say) a 25-year rolling programme.

The OP may enjoy looking at LMS Diesel Locomotives and Railcars by E V Richards, RCTS 1996. Although mainly about shunting locos and the famous 10000/10001 duo there are over 30 pages on 'Railcars'.

There was a strike in the steel industry that left many rail staff at particular locations idle for weeks and hammered BR’s cash flow, leading to a short recruitment freeze. Not a ‘government decision’.

Surely we should all be ‘thankful’ for public vigilance around the railways, e.g. bridge strikes, trespass, vulnerable persons, vandalism, cable theft, insecure trees, etc., etc.?