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Talk Talk

« on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 11:56:08 »

Still going on as of last week

It's the Great Western Main Line (GWML) electrification. One line has to be closed while they work on the overhead line supports each side of the track.

Quote
From summer 2017, the new electric Hitachi Rail Europe Intercity Express Trains (IEP) will begin to replace most of the current fleet of HST trains. Services will run from London Paddington to Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea, Oxford and Worcester.
These faster, higher capacity trains will carry more passengers to their destinations more frequently.

The introduction of  Crossrail will further improve connectivity of the Great Western Main Line (GWML)starting from 2018 and concluding in 2019.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/About-Us/greater-west/Investment-project-schedules

So there is another two to three years of this.

I for one will be sad to see the HSTs go, I remember them being introduced in 1976 - they were so fuckin' FAST! They are also one of the last sets to have old skool manual opening windows. I always stick my head out on the way back to Swindon as I get to the A420 bridge, a great feeling of being home.

Here's one at Swindon station in old livery in the early 80's

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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #1 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 12:35:03 »

It's the Great Western Main Line (GWML) electrification. One line has to be closed while they work on the overhead line supports each side of the track.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/About-Us/greater-west/Investment-project-schedules

So there is another two to three years of this.

I for one will be sad to see the HSTs go, I remember them being introduced in 1976 - they were so fuckin' FAST! They are also one of the last sets to have old skool manual opening windows. I always stick my head out on the way back to Swindon as I get to the A420 bridge, a great feeling of being home.

Here's one at Swindon station in old livery in the early 80's



Now the 125's are going I suppose there's a pang of sadness,  but in all honesty, I never really took to them in an aesthetic way....by 76, you could still probably find the odd Western Class, Swindon built diesel kicking around, but they had largely been superceded by the Class 47, and for a while the class 50. Westerns were proper ace, Class 47s no more than Ok but the Class 50's a very nice loco.

4 Swindon built Westerns are still extant....Western Campaigner, on the West Somerset, Western Ranger and Western Champion on the SVR, and Western Fusiler, a long way from home in York NRM. Western Champion is still licensed for mainline running.



Hard to get too excited by electrics....


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horlock07

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« Reply #2 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 12:48:55 »

The last railway travelling post office in the UK was on the 9th January 2004. Post doesn't go by rail anymore unfortunately. Hence the increase in the number of Royal Mail lorries on the motorways in the last ten years. Sad.

It bloody does, a mail trains goes through Lancaster every evening around the time I get off my train - big red bugger!
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« Reply #3 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 12:52:34 »

My Grandad used to be a train driver and I was lucky enough to sit in the cab of a HST from Swindon to Paddington when I was a lad, and have a (pretend) drive for some of the journey.  Back before the days of the PC brigrade and hightened levels of H&S.

Will always remember it, not many (non train driver) people get to see that journey from that perspective.
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“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” ― Marcus Aurelius

When somebody shouts STOP! I never know if it's in the name of love, if it's HAMMER TIME, or if I should collaborate and listen...
Talk Talk

« Reply #4 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 13:05:21 »

4 Swindon built Westerns are still extant....Western Campaigner, on the West Somerset, Western Ranger and Western Champion on the SVR, and Western Fusiler, a long way from home in York NRM. Western Champion is still licensed for mainline running.

Got this booked up for December Reg: http://www.pathfindertours.co.uk/index.php/tour-calendar-reader/events/the-canterbury-champion.html Getting on at Didcot.



I loved the Westerns, used to watch them at Reading when I was in short trousers  :gay:

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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #5 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 13:37:41 »

Got this booked up for December Reg: http://www.pathfindertours.co.uk/index.php/tour-calendar-reader/events/the-canterbury-champion.html Getting on at Didcot.



I loved the Westerns, used to watch them at Reading when I was in short trousers  :gay:

Nice....definitely a mystery tour into deepest Kent, not sure about the festively decorated carriages mind.

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Talk Talk

« Reply #6 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 14:30:20 »



Just watched that. A Western under semaphores, lush!

Not many mechanical signal boxes left now. The drive is on for the mega regional signalling centres which will take out the remainder over the next ten years or so. There's still a few around, most of the GWR boxes west of Plymouth and before Marazion still have semaphores. Then there's Yeovil Pen Mill with the last GWR lower quadrant signal in Wessex, Moreton-in-Marsh on the O*ford to Worcester line, Worcester Shrub Hill and surrounding boxes plus some on the line to Birmingham. Bits and pieces in Wales and northern England etc. Elsewhere there are the Littlehampton and Bognor branches, Greenford East with the last surviving semaphores in London.

Most notably Shrewsbury is destined to survive until the 2020's, a real mecca of mechanical remnants. Severn Junction box is the largest surviving box in the UK



With some awesome old signals





This site gives the timing for their removal: http://www.signalbox.org/sectionc.php, although the page doesn't seem to be working at the moment  Sad

Even our local 1968 Swindon Panel Box is overdue for closure, control was supposed to move to the Didcot RSC (Regional Signalling Centre) when the Gloucester line was doubled but the Dawlish sea wall problems postponed it. There is even a preservation movement to buy the signal panel for a museum and to run it as a simulator!
« Last Edit: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 14:32:46 by Talk Talk » Logged
4D
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« Reply #7 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 14:39:51 »

Mods, can we have a trainspotters thread? Thanks  Smiley
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Talk Talk

« Reply #8 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 14:46:56 »

Mods, can we have a trainspotters thread? Thanks  Smiley

 Smug Fuck Off

PS forgot to add that Banbury still has GWR semaphores, well at least until next year...
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Talk Talk

« Reply #9 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 14:52:35 »

More on Swindon Panel here http://www.swindonpanel.org.uk/

I will shut up now  Cheesy
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« Reply #10 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 14:58:35 »

More on Swindon Panel here http://www.swindonpanel.org.uk/

I will shut up now  Cheesy

The GWS at Didcot are putting together a whole new exhibt (in a new building) showing the history and development of signaling from the early red flag days to the current - this will include Swindon Panel.

Right thats me out also!
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #11 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 15:21:42 »

The GWS at Didcot are putting together a whole new exhibt (in a new building) showing the history and development of signaling from the early red flag days to the current - this will include Swindon Panel.

Right thats me out also!

The GWS has the rebuilt Radstock signal box, which my grandfather worked....slightly weird feeling being in there, as it's the same box, but not the same place...so it doesn't quite chime with my historical imagination.
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hobnob

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« Reply #12 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 15:43:05 »

I think it's time for the "bat of rebuke" from those Fosters ads to be shown. zzzzzzzzzz
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kerry red

« Reply #13 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 16:01:44 »

How about the Gillingham Express

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Mother Brown

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« Reply #14 on: Thursday, November 6, 2014, 20:27:28 »

How about the Gillingham Express


Bring back the football  special.
Looks like the one that went to Wrexham in 77.
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