Posted in Railway advice February 13th, 2012
I have already written about the fact that Guildford having a rather plentiful supply of passed cleaners and firemen, meant we did a lot of on loan work to cover the shortage of firemen at Feltham. Of course most of this work was comprised of the grotty jobs that the locals did not want to do, such as P & D preparation and disposal of locomotives, and shed shunting.
Posted in News/interest December 30th, 2011
Nationalisation and after.
The Second World War was to be a testing time for our railway system. Once again they were put under government control. The heavy wartime traffic and inability to invest in rolling stock, track and signalling renewal led to a run down system in 1945. This led inevitably towards nationalisation by the Attlee government in 1948. It is difficult to envisage what would have happened if nationalisation had not taken place, as the LNER in particular was in a parlous financial state. Not only were the railways war worn and expensively worked but the ‘poor bag of assets’ as they were described included more than half a million privately owned wagons, most of an outdated design without continuous braking.
Posted in News/interest December 30th, 2011
I have described the track renewals that took place below Ingrow Station in this years Civils week in part one of this blog, and promised to write about the other project that was carried out that week, which was to lift the track and ballast on bridge 19 to allow contractors to waterproof the arch to avoid the frost damage that had forced stone work out of the arch of bridge 18.
Posted in News/interest December 22nd, 2011
Our railways; their development and treatment by government.
Part 1 - The beginning and rapid growth.
When one reads the history of Britain’s railways, it becomes clear that compared with our continental neighbours, wartime invasions excepted, our railways have been subjected to more changes of government approach than most. Even the advocates of the 1990’s privatisation process now admit that they had got it wrong! What follows is a ‘potted’ view of our rich railway history focussing on the main events and this will not even scratch the surface of the involvement of the railway in social changes such as nationwide standard time, fish eating, development of national newspapers or even the adoption of the bar in pubs which resulted from its invention as a means of serving meals quickly to train passengers at places such as Swindon, Crewe and Normanton before the days of gangwayed carriages and restaurant cars. Similarly the major involvement of our railways in shipping, docks, canals, hotels, buses and internal air services is not covered.
Posted in News/interest December 16th, 2011
I recently watched an on line video where a foul mouthed youth on a Scot Rail service was removed from the train by another passenger, after he had refused to pay his fare, and the Guard then refused to move the train until he did. While not getting into the specifics of this incident this is a perennial problem facing on train ticket staff, as Chris Brown the owner of this website found when he was a Conductor Guard on South West Trains in the late 1990s.
Posted in News/interest December 13th, 2011
From the mid fifties to the early nineties the railways had been in decline, convulsed by reorganisations and mass closures. Governments of both colours hoped that it would just crawl away into a corner and die, without causing them any more money or grief. An ageing workforce felt trapped in poorly paid jobs being too young to retire, but too old to change their career. Having said that on looking back I now accept we did not do all that much either, with overtime being the accepted method of boosting your earnings. I am proud of making the quote much used by my able local shop steward Ray Cox that in the late eighties that as far as the railway was concerned “We pretended to work, and they pretended to pay us”.
Posted in News/interest December 13th, 2011
Alan Nichols joined the Westminster Bank at Mincing Lane Branch on 13th September, 1965, moving to Lothbury Office at the time of the merger and, after 10 years in the City and 23 in the West End, including 13 as a Saturday Manager at Camberley Branch, he took an early retirement package from his final post at Victoria Management Suite, as a Personal Relationship Manager, on 30th September, 1998. After two years as Bursar of a girls’ prep school in Woking, he saw an advertisement which led to the opportunity to realise a boyhood dream and many, who worked with him, will know of his detailed knowledge of timetables and railway operation!
Posted in News/interest December 6th, 2011
With all the Christmas festivities and the excitment of a model-filled Christmas morning slowly starting to build, we wanted to get in on the festive action. That is why this year we have decided to sponsor our local Christmas tree in Fleet.
Fleet Town Council have thanked us for our sponsorship and as this was only possible due to the support we have had over our first year from our customers, we wanted to thank you all in return!
Posted in Shop, Stock and Offers November 9th, 2011
As another great offer, in the run up to christmas and the new year, we are offering a 3 for 2 offer on all Oxford Diecast vehicles. Simply purchase any 3 Oxford Diecast Vehicles and the cheapest will be deducted at checkout!
Posted in News/interest November 5th, 2011
Having been a member of the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway since 1970, I have always enjoyed the civil engineering week at the end of the summer daily service in the middle of September. Basically this week is set aside to carry out planned repairs or renewals to the track or line side infrastructure, i.e. bridges , tunnels, embankments and cuttings. Of course with a branch line that had been starved of much investment for last thirty years of its life as part of national railway system, meant it was in a pretty poor state of repair, and while we may have planned to carry out a certain project, failure on another part of the railway meant there was an element of “fire fighting” to keep the railway open. Regular maintenance is carried out on two weekends a month such as fish plate greasing, packing ballast under sleepers, and cutting back and burning line side foliage, however you are restricted in what can be carried out as there is a passenger service in operation.
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