I've been travelling.

Deltic diesel prototype (powered by two MTB engines - capable of a continuous 100mph)

Very nice.

Fantastic pictures Eric, just read this thread too and love it xxx

The VTC tankers are for bitumen, from a works a bit further along the track. The far track is Railtracks, the middle one is shared, for access, and the near one is the Preservation group's.

Thanks Eric, thanks goodness somebody cares enough to collect all this stuff, it's all part of who and what we are, 'proud to be British'!

Exactly right Klipy!! Don't think the generations we have now appreciate how hard things were, how much effort and detail went into designing and running things like these fantastic pieces of equipment or how much of a breakthrough it was in technology and machinery that then connected and united areas all over the world that had never imagined being accessible before!

We have a fantastic museum of science and industry in Manchester and i think it is very important we preserve and show the new generations how lucky they are, how things have evolved and how they should celebrate the effort and craftsmanship that went into designing what they take for granted today.

I just posted a long message on here, and the site decided to give me a 404 site not found message!


Well - that worked!

Trying again! -
As some of you may know, I went on a rail-tour yesterday, April 5th. (It should have been set for April first, as you are about to see!
The tour began from Manchester Victoria station, and was due to arrive at Warrington at 0800, so I had set my alarm for 0600, to give me time to get organized, and to get there.
Missy the cat had other ideas, though, and leaped onto me from a great height, at 0500! I then had to go to the bathroom, and decided it wasn't worth going back to bed, so dressed, went down, fed Missy, which is what she wanted, and generally messed about for an hour!
I arrived at Warrington station at quarter to, and joined a number of other hopeful passengers, and some of the train stewards, on the platform.
At 8, nothing happened, and the stew's began to look concerned. Then the station P.A. said the tour was running an hour late. Someone suggested that maybe they had to wait for a shop to open, so they could get some matches to start the fires with.
If mobile phones had wires, the wires would have been glowing from the strain of messages flying back and to.
At quarter to nine, the electronic platform sign said the tour was cancelled!
The phones went ballistic, and we were told that the sign was wrong. We could see that by the clouds of steam and smoke belching from further up the line, on the other side of a road over-bridge!
Two 'Black Five' steam engines, two support coaches, and ten old-fashioned mk 1 'slam-door' coaches arrived alongside platform 1, and we all piled in and found our allocated seats. Then we waited - - and we waited - - and.
I heard that one of the engines, the second one in the consist, had developed a fault, and the drivers wanted the signal box to allow them to uncouple from the passenger coaches, pull forward, split the loco's, split the support coaches, (one each), then put one of the diesels that were following, en route to Pengam for the return run, on the front, behind the steam engine, while the faulty one limped off for repair. The 'box' wouldn't allow it, saying it was too complicated a move, and it was more than his job was worth . . . so we had to go to Crewe, and sort it out there.
While they were 'discussing' the matter, the two diesels had caught up, passed us on the freight passing loop, and been parked in a head-shunt ( a short parking siding, long enough for a couple of spare engines or a two-car railbus).
In the end, the 'box' agreed to allow the faulty engine to be removed, (probably to get rid of us, because we were blocking the platform!) but wouldn't allow the diesel to be coupled up, as they were scheduled to run behind, not in front, and by putting one on the front of the passenger coaches, it would be in front, and it was more than his job was worth . . . . . .
So we chugged down to Crewe, with one engine working hard, and the two diesels trundling along impotently a safe distance behind.
At Crewe, one diesel was coupled at the back, because there were some stiff climbs in front of us, one being 1 in 90, while the other one went on to Pengam.
Sorted, but two hours late, we went on to Shrewsbury, then to Craven Arms, where we peeled off onto the single-track mid-Wales line, and on to Llandrindod Wells, where we were due to halt for two hours.
With only having one engine to water at the scheduled halts, we had made up a bit of time, but to keep to the departure schedule, we only got 25 minutes in Llandrindod! 400 or so people piled out of the train, in the steady drizzling rain, for a short wander - mostly to the nearby supermarket, so they could stock up on 'nibbles' for the return leg. I managed to get a snap of the front of the cycle museum, to prove I'd got there, and a couple of the one remaining loco, between people's heads, all trying to do the same thing.
Back on board, we set off on time, to Pantyffynnon, for water, Cardiff, then to Pengam, for the scheduled loco change. Behind the diesels, now, we went on to Hereford, and back round to Craven Arms, Shrewsbury, Crewe, Warrington, and Victoria.
Rattling (literally) along behind the diesels, we found out what a James Bond martini feels like (shaken, not stirred) as the carriages had a tendency to thrash energetically from side to side, at high speed. We also found that the diesel's train-heating system was a lot more efficient than the one on the steam engine, and that the temperature control in our coach was either on or off, and the off selection didn't work, so we were trying to open the small sliding windows. Of course they were jammed solid, and we had to borrow a screwdriver from the support coach to use as a crowbar to force them to slide an inch or two!
Then, as darkness fell, the poor souls in the coach in front found they had no lights at all! They finished the trip with whatever ambient lighting there was from outside.
We were back at Warrington for half past ten pm.

Right - if the words are saved, I'll put the pics on!

Tour map

cycle museum (so you can see I got there!)

and two of the remaining loco

and the link to Tom Norton Aircraft - www.powys.gov.uk/index.php?id=5366&L=0

Found some nice video footage of the run. -

Hmmm
Did I hear that diesel 'helping' quite a bit up the Sugar Loaf incline?

Yes, there were ten (full) coaches, and the support coach, on the back. The run was supposed to be double-headed by two 'fives', but one failed at the outset - and it WAS very wet!. There were two diesels supposed to take over for the return leg, allowing the two 'fives' to go elsewhere for a booked run on Sunday.
Sugar-loaf is a 1 in 90 gradient!
If the magazine I sent it to doesn't use the article I wrote, then I'll post it on here, but I'm wary of the copyright rules, even though I wrote it! I don't want them saying the article has been used before!

1:90 may be steep for the UK but The Union Pacific Sherman Hill had a 90ft grade (1:59) although it was later reduced to 1:90.
Even this was not the steepest.
The original gradient on the Canadian Pacific 'big hill' at Kicking Horse pass was 1:22.
I have actually seen part of the old track bed - it is seriously steep!

If you want to see railroading at its best take a look on you tube at THE AMAZING TEHACHAPI LOOP, i would have loaded it on here but dont know how :S :S :silly:
When i modelled American railroads i went to see this awsome sight i stood where this camera is, fantastic,
Now i only crash planes :blink: what made me change my hobby :S :S

And that was only one single train with four engines on the front, i saw one when i were there a train came up the grade with four on the front , four in the middle and two on the rear
That is why i modelled American as in the confined space we have for a layout you can get the twists and turns in, and its as the real ones are
Most British layouts are round and round the same flat oval of track

If you want to see REALLY steep - look for the Tanfield Colliery heritage line!
snipped - The line had a 1 in 40 ruling gradient, and there were several inclined planes on it.