Knicks

Congratulations John, well deserved, and thanks Raine for the judgement and nice comments – hope Life takes an uplift for you.

Congratulations John, and many thanks Raine for setting the comp. I hope the rest of the month is easier on you.

Richard, your narrative quality is spot on again. Brilliant read.

Daeds, when I was knee-high to the proverbial grasshopper, we had a mix of streamliners and more conventional looking engines pulling the expresses that rolled into Newbury from London Victoria. I always hoped it would be a streamlined engine that would carry me off to exotic…[Read more]

The usual reason given is for ease of maintenance in WWII. The streamlined casings were a diktat from the LMS publicity department (the LNER’s got them so we must have them too), and the Chief Mechanical Engineer referred to the batch of five un-streamlined ones he insisted on building ‘for comparison’ as ‘proper’ones.

Good topic John. Will DEFINITELY enter this one (and apols to Raine whose comp I failed to contribute to)

I didn’t know about that one – lucky it wasn’t catastrophic. I admit to a fondness for the LMS streamliners, and, contrary soul that I am, prefer them to the much more successful LNER ones. This is partly because I was given a ‘Coronation Scot’ for my train set in my childhood (including a carriage by my grandmother, which I think was the last Ch…[Read more]

Well, I didn’t see that coming. Thanks, Raine.
Well done to all the entrants for taking part.

Guys, I can’t apologise enough for being NINE days late coming back to this. THe holidays were … not conducive to remembering things, so I am sorry for keeping you in suspense (and making January a very brief comp!)

So… thankyou for managing to fit in writing your entries during the xmas busyness.

@Seagreen – I loved the tiny details that…[Read more]

Well, to be fair, accidents through excessive speed aren’t all caused by the heat of competition. One curve at Morpeth was the scene of three (count them) derailments within thirty years, all in the BR period: 1969, 1884 and 1994. Fortunately only the first caused any fatalities, six of them. And at Eltham Well Hall in 1972 the driver was…[Read more]

Fascinating and absorbing stuff as ever, Richard. As well as the wonderful clarity and readability of the technical matters, I find the culture of the railway companies and the way it affected how they ran their services really eye-opening. We have it pretty bad these days, with the worst combination of competition and monopoly, but at least we…[Read more]

Don’t forget about this! 🙂

Another interesting and entertaining story from the world of railways – thank you Richard.

Another engaging story, Richard. I have no particular interest in railway history but your adept recounting of these incidents mean that I open your blogs with a sense of anticipation and I am never disappointed. You have a gift for giving us the right amount of background to bring the events to life. Thank you!