Perhaps there should be a paragraph appended such as:

"If you are a white male over the age of 50, are not conflicted, have largely been in full employment over your working life, are a home owner with significant pension contributions, used to drive Rover cars when they were available, thinks that the British Empire had many positive effects, now lost, thinks that the Malvinas should be British, don't own or play a guitar, haven't taken drugs, never read the Guardian, don't have an Arts degree, often wear a sports jacket and tie,...........etc etc, then you are unlikely to hear from us further."

(!)

OTC

We should be aware even from just watching the adverts in the media, how great a prominence is accorded to the various minority constituencies.

Thus if all of one's answers place one centrally within a majority group one will likely not be favoured.

The fashion in the equality field is to allow "self identification".

How you treat that is up to your own conscience.

OTC

Gordon Brown's £5Bn/year pension fund raid at the start of New Labour, when capitalised at 4%, was equivalent to the c£130Bn hole in the pension funds. It would have been better to tax the pensions paid out from the investments' returns rather than reduce the invested capital.

IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly) many private pensions pre-2000 were based on 1/60ths over 30 years, often non-contributory. Public sector pensions were based on 1/80ths over 40 years, with 6% employee's contribution, employers paying 12%. As most public sector workers had far less than 40 years service, average pensions were often not large. The gold plating was therefore not very thick, relatively.

The fallacy in the Unions' claim is that inflation will blip, over the next year, falling away after. As an example gas wholesale prices peaked about 550p/therm and have now fallen back to c150p/therm. Once the other markets have settled, similar reductions will follow.

I do sympathise with those many industrious skilled members of the railway industry who have put up with much abuse since privatisation but they will weaken their position and industry by disruption.

OTC

I think that the real problem is "through running", as a regular service (other than a visiting excursion) requires a full, modern NR^» (Network Rail - home page)/TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) compliant train etc.

I think that a better route to public service would be to provide an independent  shuttle connection to a bay platform from the heritage + public service line, at an NR interchange station. This is often not easy as track beds, if they ever existed may be obstructed etc. However the alternative is very expensive signalling and track alterations as well as rolling stock procurement and adaptation to main line operating standards, after which paths have to be identified and significant extra annual operating subsidies allocated.

It may have been cheaper to build (and operate) a short, new line into the old south bay (now car parking) at Wareham for the Swanage services as well as slew/clear the track bed from Norton Fitzwarren to Taunton north bay (platform 7?). The arrangements at Cholsey, Smallbrook and Keighley etc spring to mind.

OTC

There's also a high up secretary at the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) honoured.

I was tempted to add "for services to ironing boards and foreign train makers" but I heard the said person deliver a very perceptive speech on the railways.

OTC

There was a thread elsewhere, link below, that discusses this, although not specifically flourescent lamps.

Looks like LED's are a very positive, power saving factor, for heritage stock, if colour match can be achieved. An LED uses half the power of a flourescent, and a tenth of an incandescent lamp for the same lumens output.


https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/internal-lighting-of-heritage-coaches.103377/

OTC

I wonder whether more, lower lease cost EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit)'s might help make the case for wiring to Oxford and Bedwyn as I imagine that the avoidable costs of Bi-modes are now being felt.


OTC

The Lizline opening day of 24th May is Queen Victoria's birthday, also, until 1957, Empire Day. It is still observed in Canada on the nearest Monday as a public holiday entitled "Victoria Day"

The Maple Leaf for Ever

OTC

Another snippet (April MR^▸ (Midland Railway) "informed Sources"):

"According to the press release announcing the scheme, ‘The upgrade project will provide 450 new overhead line equipment stanchions, and modifications to 17 bridges and two-level crossings’.

But, as we learned at the PWI Seminar, significant strides have been made in reducing electrical clearances at structures. According to Informed Sources, application of this engineering activity has resulted in a substantial reduction in the cost of electrification-related work in the Wigan-Bolton scheme. Without the reported 150% overhead on the actual project costs, the physical work on site, including those ‘modifications to 17 bridges’, came to around £30million.

Application of the new approaches to clearances, means that only one bridge will now require reconstruction for electrical clearance. Two more will need to be reconstructed because of condition. At a stroke, this has reduced the cost to under £15million, or around the £750,000/stkm, which the RIA study thought should be achievable on simple schemes."

The original bid accepted was IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly) £78M, including 150% optimism bias, still apparently "justifiable financially". Might help us down here in the West if the out-turn is actually near the nett estimate.

OTC

My surname is also a place name with a station.

Back in 1974, a colleague who passed through each day told me that the Totems had been replaced. I went to Collectors' Corner then at Cardington Street, Euston and bought all three survivors for £18.00, telling my wife gradually and much later.

They are now too valuable to hang outside, of course.

More junk for my executors.

OTC

They're not in our area or very immediate but there is still evidently life in electrification.

We won't know though until a working compound is cleared and fenced and pile drivers/augers start work at the lineside.

OTC


"Cheshire Lines and Rochdale electrification schemes (Option selection and design, early-mid 2020s; delivery late 2020s – early 2030s)

    Further electrification options to be investigated"

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/tfns-manchester-blueprint-sets-out-rail-upgrades-for-next-20-years-08-03-2022/

A service I used many times, 0635 from Reading, off peak savers valid until the mid-90's! Plenty of room and into New Street reliably in time for connections North (was it through to Picadilly?) and no risk of missing a connection from Euston or Kings Cross, because of LUL^▸ (London Underground Ltd). I also went to Glasgow that way, arrived on time with the Buffet needing to be taken out of service because of mess made by drunken passengers. The (truncated) XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) voyagers are not as comfortable as Mark 2's, proper railway carriages, but they are a lot quicker.

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I can't quite get my head around the concept that the fixed head, Alliance "Buckeye" coupling used within  many sets is suddenly unsafe. Accidents are rare and so are coupling breaks.

I accept that the MU^▸ (Multiple Unit) future is Dellner and Tightlock, but at the ends of new stock. Could anything survive a high speed derailment on a curve? If a replacement is really sought would not the in-set bar coupler suffice?

OTC

The interesting point here is how Merseyrail dc EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit)'s will motor to this station. Battery trials have been mentioned but third rail extension is proposed if that doesn't work.

Evidently the Scousers are prepared to face down the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) and its "we shall all be murdered in our beds" safety advisers over extending the live rail. Would ORR dare keep a new £80M station in a deprived Northern town closed?

Others have commented on the Frankenstein allusion in the name. The more posh one would be Simonswood.

OTC

I seem to remember the crash-worthiness of the Mark 3's being highly praised after Bushey, Morpeth etc. The identification of a further marginal improvement is no argument for premature scrappimg, which only leads to less rolling stock, fewer train seat miles, more road journeys and more travel deaths.

I am surprised that thorough inspection of vehicle body condition (as in MoT tests!) is not done, or provided for in design and construction, either by access viewing or "oil rig" coatings.

Weren't the Mark 3's built out of "Corten", BSC's higher tensile, lower corrosion steel?

The drain design owed more to a rigid design spec than common sense. Every drain will overflow and gravity must win, so let it!

OTC