Recent content by Dr Hoo

The ‘second report’ was about the Development of Major Trunk Routes, not closures. A detailed study of freight flows and potential in particular by the BR Board’s member for planning - former Scottish Region GM, James Ness, had failed to identify sufficient traffic to justify Trunk Route status...

Apart from the general issue of the ‘costs’ seen by Roger Ford being out of date many things have moved on. Other considerations such as emissions and noise now really have to be part of the equation. Then there are secondary costs such as training, need for ground/shunting staff, need for a...

Plenty of road damage occurs because of ground movement, flooding, poorly executed/reinstated street works and so on. In my part of Derbyshire there are lots of minor and secondary roads that see virtually no HGVs but are still in an appalling state.

There are various references in both The Origins of the Scottish Railway System 1722-1844 by C j A Robertson and Wishaw's Railways of Great Britain & Ireland. These are not particularly clear but the RailScot site seems to make a reasonable fist of summarising available information. 'St...

Between Denham West Junction and Denham Station there were Up and Down Passenger Loops besides the two running lines. There is a structure over (just) the River Colne labelled 'Viaduct' on the 25" Ordnance Survey map after the construction period. It lies between wooded areas named Altcar...

There have been previous threads discussing the movement of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in tank containers to supply ‘isolated’ former ‘town gas’ networks in towns such as Wick. This is a long-standing flow from Daventry to Inverness, albeit in modest quantities alongside supermarket goods.

Presumably the maintenance practices didn’t include the use of filler caps. Good old BR!

Living in Scotland but with relatives near Peterborough over the 1986-1991 era I can assure everybody that there were huge numbers of weekend diversions. I think that via the Joint Line, Turners Lane (Wakefield), the Stillington Line and Carstairs on one train was the record. There were some...

Given the inevitable geographic compromises in a hill town I'd agree that Buxton isn't too bad but it's still not as handy as the range of bus stops. Quite a lot of this thread has seemed to favour a new/replacement 'through' station for services via Whaley Bridge and towards Chinley and/or...

The original proposal implies an interchange role for Chinley, which would also become more of a railhead by virtue of having the widest range of services. However, as an unstaffed station with no level access at all and a tiny oversubscribed car park it is not well suited to the roles without...

Denham?

If this is essentially a wholly new operation I am unclear how it will be able to demonstrate competence at building (presumably) new EMUs, bi-modes and a distinct ‘intercity’ product.

Google Maps suggests over 10 mins to popular locations in Buxton such as the Pavillion Gardens and Market. Neither Buxton nor Bakewell (nor Matlock) are the sort of places where one can stride briskly about given that there are roads and/or bridges to cross, with narrow pavements amid many...

Don’t smaller engines have the benefit of usually being more mass produced for automotive, marine, mobile plant, etc.? This tends to lead to easier spares availability, wider fitter skills, earlier de-bugging and so on.

If you’re able to drive have you thought about hiring a car? You could break up the journey a bit with meal stops in towns/ cities of your taste.