Railways and People

There is always some woman who gets in your photograph.
Sheffield Park late 70's or early 80's I think.
I guess as we lived together for 24 years before we got married (you have to be sure after all) I must have forgiven her.
Forgot about that cracking signal at SP though.

 

Before the days of “fag packet junction” when the track layout (if not the usage) at the south end of the station was still largely original.

Tom

 

Carlisle Canal passed cleaners pose for the camera with Edinburgh Haymarket A4 No 60004 William Whitelaw at Carlisle Canal shed 1962:

 

What a cracking place Carlisle must have been in the early 1960's for gricers!

 

Do we know who they are. Some of the 1980s Carlisle steam men were from Canal

Peter

 

Would rather have been there in the 1900s! It is one of the stations that comes up as an answer to “which location had traffic from the most separate companies” - the answer I think being 7 spread across the city (LNWR, Midland, NER, NBR, Caledonian, G&SWR and Maryport & Carlisle).

Tom

 

I only know their surnames, Peter:
Eccles, Taylor and Thomson.

 

According to a Facebook page the photo is on, the guy on the left could be Maurice Eccles who used to drive the Kingmoor staff bus.

 

Especially in the early hours when locos awaited changeover on night services in the station area. I recall returning south on the Waverley sleeper and noting "Duchesses" in the centre road waiting to take over sleeper services.

 

I'm not sure if I've posted this before, it's the first time it's happened on a charter to my knowledge. At least they had the right gear for dealing with it at Redcar, a full torpedo wagon weighs 600 tons if that's not back on the rails within a few hours they end up with a damn great iron ingot!

 

I remember these as we waited for a car sleeper train at Bressoux (Liege). You could feel the heat from a couple of tracks away.

It was said:
'My torpedo wagon has derailed'
'When did it happen?'
'Yesterday....'

'Never mind then'

 

The one behind the engine was empty but you could feel the heat coming off the real ones from quite a distance. The diesel locos were driven remotely with the driver sitting on the bufferbeam with the controller.

 

In 1984 I was on a steam hauled tour of the Hoogovens at Ijmuiden.
You might enjoy these pictures:


In Dutch, these were known as 'Mixers' (as per 'concrete mixers'?) and my notes of the time say 500 tons weight, and 60 tons axle loading !


A bogie on a bogie on a bogie - how to distribute 500 tons across 16 axles.



This was our posed picture, with a 1952 built German class 23.
23023 is still running main line trips in the Netherlands today, most recently a couple of days ago, paired with Pacific 01 1075.
They are doing two main line Christmas trips for example.

Enjoy the pictures !

(The Pway man in me says - gee, look at the spacing of those sleepers...)

 

It would be closer to 30 tons - or 60 tons per bogie. Still high, and needing fairly beefy track!

Tom

 

In The Netherlands, everything is built on sand.
Packing the track in our little yard (1980s) involved turning the shovels upside down, and using the T handles to shove the sand under the sleepers.

How others live

 

A friendly chat at Euston:

 

What do we think is the interest here?
A well known Merchant Navy, or Santa's little helpers?

 

Didcot, 4th December 2024

 

I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find a mouse! Excellent shot.