Monday 10 August 2009

Telegrammed by Driver Potter
You thought the Super Voyagers had got there first: but no!



Dramatic Proof that BR were tinkering with passive tilt systems on non-electric services as early as the mid-nineties...

2009 Railway Garden Competition #XXIII

Telegrammed by Dr Gloucester
Here's another entry for the RGC, taken yesterday at Stockport.


Like many boxes in the area, Stockport No. 2 has been 'plasticised' in recent years, and looks rather smart, only let down by the jungle that has sprouted in front of it in the last few years.


Any chance it will be dealt with before observation of tail lamps becomes a problem?

ATOC sets gold standard for time keeping

Telegrammed by Bushy
The following consultation email was sent out by ATOC in June 2008:

ATOC, on behalf of all TOCs, together with Network Rail and British Transport Police (BTP) have decided to review the Enthusiast Guidelines, which give advice to railway enthusiasts on visiting railway property in pursuit of their hobby and also set down what sort of photography is permitted on railway property. The Guidelines were drawn up three years ago and we believe are still appropriate.

It is our intention to reissue the Guidelines later this summer so as to re-brief and make all rail staff aware of the them. We have decided to consult a number of stakeholders to ask for their views on whether they need to be modified or revised further before they are reissued. As part of this process BTP will also ask their senior officers for a view on the guidelines (particularly in relation to photography) and Network Rail will also consult station mangers at their stations.

I have attached a copy of the Guidelines and would ask you to come back to me directly with any comments or suggestions by Friday 18th July. We don’t envisage changing them radically but are interested in hearing any constructive suggestions for their improvement, particularly when it comes to the Guidelines for photography. As part of the consultation we are inviting the trade press and a number of well known railway photographers to give us their views also.

Finally, from time to time it has been suggested that there might be some form of accreditation for well known railway photographers who contribute to the trade press regularly. One suggestion is that magazines/publications would nominate a limited number of contributors who would be given an accredited railway photography press card. This might involve a small charge. Do you have any views and if you are a railway publication would you support such a scheme?

Errr... as it's summer 2009 any news?

RAF Elmdon scrambles the Flying Spokesman

Telegrammed by the International Correspondent
The dogfight between High Speed Railers and the Aviationists hotted up over Birmingham last week when the Birmingham Post provided the oxygen of publicity to RAF Elmdon (better known as Birmingham International Airport).


The airport authorities, anxious to be seen to protect their customer base of small domestic airlines scrambled their crack fighter ace to strike at the heart of high speed rail's environmental claims:

Mr Morris said: “I think what you will see is companies like Flybe changing the way they operate, adapting, and improving their service.

“The Eurostar did not put an end to cross channel ferries and in the same way I think a high speed rail network will not put an end to short-haul and domestic flights.

“There’s no doubt that travelling from Birmingham to London is best done by train - that is why we have no flights there from Birmingham. “But getting to Glasgow and Edinburgh is better done by air.

“You just have to look at the lower carbon emissions for the journeys, the quicker journey times, and a noise footprint that is significantly less than the 300-mile one left by trains”.

But who is the Flying Spokesman?

Surely the sharp-shooting and combatative Baron Von Richtmorris of the airport is not the same Class 40-loving John Morris who was for many years Chief Apologist for Cross Country, and who became dis-invented after daring to suggest that Virgin's Voyagers were a less than optimum transport solution?

And who supported the Red Revolution from the inside by painting a XC Class 86 engine in, er, chic but very retro Caledonian Railway 1920s blue livery?

Perhaps we should be told.