What have you done today

[Roscobbc]

Well.........the plan early this morning was to meet-up with 15/16 other Essex regional members and cruise over to the annual Stow Maries WW1 historic aerodrome's 'Wings and Wheels' event and be part of the classic car display (organised by joint reps Andy and Mark) in deepest Essex.
However, I didn't actually get there after this occured to the drivers-side front tyre. Seems that I may have picked-up a nail or something and its gradual deflation went un-noticed until the smell of burning rubber in the cabin gave a clue. Perhaps a hazard of using modern lower profile tyres.
Made worse with zero hard shoulder on the A12, few lay-bys to pull onto and soft gravel/turf verges. I had to exit a few miles further on an already wrecked tyre. Amazing thewheel only has a few scratches and digs which should hopefully dress-out ok.
View attachment 30359

Thinking back on the 'event' the amount of 'twanging', 'pinging' and general 'springy' noises coming from the from wheel were quite alarming......I fully expected the wheel to be totally destroyed......in fact given the vibration, trail of rubber smoke following me and the shagged tyre flapping around I realised that keeping going (to a safe place) was the wise thing to do given the circumstance with perhaps centrifugal force keeping the remains of the tyre on the rim. I'm still amazed the lack of damage. I reckon' if that wheel rim had been cast alloy it would have possibly cracked or shattered.......but being a spun 'rim' with solid cast alloy centre (and like a steel rim) there was a fair abount of flexibility and 'give' which perhaps saved it.
Angle ground the remains of the tyre off - an initial clean and polish of the damage.......and it seem that a carefull job with some swiss files will tidy things-up and the damage will barely be visible once a tyre is fitted!

 

[Chuffer]

Thinking back on the 'event' the amount of 'twanging', 'pinging' and general 'springy' noises coming from the from wheel were quite alarming......I fully expected the wheel to be totally destroyed......in fact given the vibration, trail of rubber smoke following me and the shagged tyre flapping around I realised that keeping going (to a safe place) was the wise thing to do given the circumstance with perhaps centrifugal force keeping the remains of the tyre on the rim. I'm still amazed the lack of damage. I reckon' if that wheel rim had been cast alloy it would have possibly cracked or shattered.......but being a spun 'rim' with solid cast alloy centre (and like a steel rim) there was a fair abount of flexibility and 'give' which perhaps saved it.
Angle ground the remains of the tyre off - an initial clean and polish of the damage.......and it seem that a carefull job with some swiss files will tidy things-up and the damage will barely be visible once a tyre is fitted!View attachment 30364View attachment 30365

Pleased for you that you got off so lightly . It could have been a very expensive aborted trip out !

 

[Chuffer]

I found a an old railway bridge on from the abandoned Taunton to Barnstaple line. About 1/2 a mile West of Venn Cross Station. If you look down over the bridge, you can see where the rails would have been and seems to be being used as a farm track now as there are some "wheeled" ruts in the soil.
View attachment 30362

View attachment 30363

My word Captain , you sure get the Vette into tight rural places !! Hope you didn`t meet any tractors coming the other way .
What you found was the old Devon & Somerset Railway that was built to link Taunton with Barnstable at its own Barnstable Victoria terminus station . This was a single track line that was absorbed the Great Western Railway and then British Railways at nationalisation in 1948 . A spur line was eventually put in at Barnstable to allow through trains to run direct to Ilfracombe . The line closed to passengers on 1st October 1966 and freight traffic on 30th May 1970 . There was a 246 yard long tunnel at Venn Cross which I imagine you can still find if you go exploring . I found this photo of an ex GWR ` Collect ` 0-6-0 loco hauling a passenger train into the tunnel . The line was never very busy and most passenger trains were push - pull operated by a loco and one or two carriages .The pillars of Castle Hill Viaduct just west of South Molton still exist and now carry the A361 Devon Relief Road . My old chief engineer boss moved to Bishops Nypmton just 6 small stations west of your bridge after he retired from Northamptonshire County Council .

 

[Roscobbc]

Isn't it fascinating that earlier last century (and the latter part of the previous century) the UK the comparitively sparsley populated country (except perhaps for major cities like London, Birmingham.Manchester, Liverpool etc), building railway lines linking all these areas and attracting investors to finance minor routes to 'feed' the new networks seemed a certain money maker for so many smaller investors. Amazing that given the right amount of money almost anyone back then seemed able to run new railways lines seemingly though prime farmland without hinderance from the very restrictive planning processes we see today. So many of these branch lines just didn't get the passenger/freight numbers needed to make profits for the investors. People 'bang-on' about the Beeching 'cuts'.........but truth was that many lines were abandoned before then as the use of commercial trucks and vans allowed more flexibility for moving freight etc around the UK.
Given the 'nightmare' of travel by road today from remoter parts of the UK isn't it a shame that so many of these abandoned rail lines have been built-over.
My question is - if you had the choice of using a re-established rail line, presuming it wasn't a 'rip-off' price for a ticket and competitive against fuel costs.........would you use in preference to a car?

 

[Chuffer]

You are so right there Ross . Many of the those country branch lines lost money from day one at worst or made very little profit at best before more convenient road transport really took hold . At the height of the `Railway Mania ` in the 19th century there were so many speculators starting up railway companies and whipping up local investment the whole country had railway lines spreading like veins in a leaf and were doomed to failure . Stations were built to serve little villages that were often a 2 or 3 mile or more walk or horse and cart ride away that ordinary folk rarely used them . The old Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway that ran past my village Tiffield is a classic example . Even today we only have a population circa 450 so in 1855 it was probably only a few farm hands and a dog but it still a request stop platform known as a Tiffield Halt . It was open to passengers for all of three months !! At least the loco drivers were happy as they no longer had to make a standing start on quite a steep incline . Passenger services on the line ceased in 1955 and nearby Stoke Bruerne Station lost revenue every day it was open !! In an attempt to save on operating costs the London Midland & Scottish Railway introduced a novel Road / Rail Bus that could come off the tracks at Stratford upon Avon and take passengers to the Welcome Hotel in the centre of town but that failed to make money and was not helped by its propensity for derailing at even modest speed . See photo .

Beeching gets all the stick but was only the `hatchet man ` brought in by Transport Minister Ernest Marple to weed out unprofitable lines , many of which only duplicated the routes from A to B built during the mania years . Also Marples was head of a huge family owned national road construction company so there was no conflict of interest was there ??? The biggest travesty was the closure of the Great Central Railway that ran as near straight and level as was possible to connect the Cities of Manchester , Nottingham , Leicester and London by as quick a route as possible . The final ` Southern Extension ` to London Marleybone Station opened in 1899 and was the original HS 1 concept with ultimate plans to cross London to the south coast and a Channel Tunnel to Europe . Test bores were even started on the south coast but money ran out as the compulsive purchase of so much property land in an already massively developed London proved prohibitive . The line was run down bit by bit by British Railways / Government until trains ran so sporadically that hardly anyone used them thus allowing the powers that be to claim it was unprofitable . It finally closed completely in September 1966 and I was at the line side to see the last steam hauled trains go by . The irony is that HS2 is being built on parts of the old route at a vast overspend and exceeded time scales to only go as far as Birmingham now . Our Victorian forefathers would turn in their graves !!

 

[CaptainK]

My word Captain , you sure get the Vette into tight rural places !! Hope you didn`t meet any tractors coming the other way .
What you found was the old Devon & Somerset Railway that was built to link Taunton with Barnstable at its own Barnstable Victoria terminus station .

Bingo. I knew you'd fill in more details. I've been trying to get my Corvette photo'd at different parts of that line over the years now. I live in Wiveliscombe, and the railway used to go right through it with its own station. I've got pictures of the station now, but its a builders yard now and also some houses. The goods shed still exists, as does the station building. Sadly can't get the Corvette into a builders yard to get a photo without permission - where the rails and platforms were is now their car park.

Last year I posted photos of the Vette at the Waterrow Viaduct peers, and on top of the Venn Cross Tunnel (layby and the road go over it), and also on top of the Batheaton Tunnel as a road goes over that.

As for Tractors - plenty of them here, and the Vette is used to those kind of roads as I drive them all the time around here. Two lane roads are a luxury

 

[teamzr1]

Thinking back on the 'event' the amount of 'twanging', 'pinging' and general 'springy' noises coming from the from wheel were quite alarming......I fully expected the wheel to be totally destroyed......in fact given the vibration, trail of rubber smoke following me and the shagged tyre flapping around I realised that keeping going (to a safe place) was the wise thing to do given the circumstance with perhaps centrifugal force keeping the remains of the tyre on the rim. I'm still amazed the lack of damage. I reckon' if that wheel rim had been cast alloy it would have possibly cracked or shattered.......but being a spun 'rim' with solid cast alloy centre (and like a steel rim) there was a fair abount of flexibility and 'give' which perhaps saved it.
Angle ground the remains of the tyre off - an initial clean and polish of the damage.......and it seem that a carefull job with some swiss files will tidy things-up and the damage will barely be visible once a tyre is fitted!

Have you looked closely at the edge to assure no small air leak ?

 

[Chuffer]

Bingo. I knew you'd fill in more details. I've been trying to get my Corvette photo'd at different parts of that line over the years now. I live in Wiveliscombe, and the railway used to go right through it with its own station. I've got pictures of the station now, but its a builders yard now and also some houses. The goods shed still exists, as does the station building. Sadly can't get the Corvette into a builders yard to get a photo without permission - where the rails and platforms were is now their car park.

Last year I posted photos of the Vette at the Waterrow Viaduct peers, and on top of the Venn Cross Tunnel (layby and the road go over it), and also on top of the Batheaton Tunnel as a road goes over that.

As for Tractors - plenty of them here, and the Vette is used to those kind of roads as I drive them all the time around here. Two lane roads are a luxury

Have you explored the line west of Barnstaple down to Bideford ? It ran all the way from Taunton to Padstow via Launceston . The track bed is now a cycle way and footpath and lots of bridges and a short tunnel still exist along the route on the Barnstaple - Bideford section . The scenery is stunning along the Torridge Estuary and you could even pose the Corvette on the restored level crossing and signal box at Instow . I explored the area while on holiday at Westward Ho a few years ago .

 

[teamzr1]

I wondered just hw many miles of railroad tracks in the USA

The map shows all of America’s train tracks and who owned them in 2014.

In 2019, the US had 220,044km (136,729 miles) of train tracks which is around 40% more than China’s 159,000km and more than double Russia’s 105,000km.

However, this is down from the historic peak in 1917 of 428,180km (266,058 miles).
Also, only 1,847km of the United States’ train lines are electrified which is around 1.5% of China’s 119,000km.

That’s because unlike China the vast bulk of America’s railway lines are used for freight rather than passengers.

The US currently ranks 10th in total number of Passenger-kilometres travelled per year at 32.5billion, which is around 2% of China’s 1,550 billion.

If you add up all passengers from Amtrak (32.5 million) and America’s other commuter rail and subway options (502.5 million) you get 535 million passenger journeys by rail each year. This is barely more than Switzerland which only has 8.7 million people. Or round 2% of first place Japan’s 24,598 million passenger journeys.

California broke ground on their high speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco this month. Well, construction actually started last year to take advantage of federal funds, but the announcement still caught my interest. I love rail, and am a strong proponent of investing in our crumbling infrastructure (such as the 63,522 structurally deficient bridges; let’s map that next…).

Anyway, it got me thinking about our rail networks. When I was interning in the Hill as a college student in Fredericksburg, I would take a commuter train, the Virginia Railway Express, three times a week. It was nice to have the option, avoiding I-95 traffic, getting work done along the way, but the service was plagued by delays. The number one reason we heard was the VRE had to cede the right of way to CSX Freight trains who owned the tracks. An impression developed my mind of this monster conglomerate owning a monopoly of our rail infrastructure began to form in my mind.

But is that true? Does one company, or even a handful, control the majority of America’s rail? In short, no.

The Department of Transportation keeps track of these things through the National Transportation Atlas Database. Lots of great stuff here, from airports, hazmat routes, alternative fuel stations, but I pulled the railway polyline dataset. Brushed up on my query language skills to select by owner and save as a new layer. Then all I had to do was sum the length fields and you’ve got the lengths of all the rail by owner.

Current top 10 railroad companies in the USA in terms of track length are:

1. Union Pacific (UP): 57,673km (35,836 miles)
2. BNSF: 52,240km (32,461 miles)
3. Canadian National Railway (CN): 49,064km (30,487 miles)
4. CSX Transportation (CSXT): 36,297 km (22,554 miles)
5. Norfolk Southern Railway (NS): 33,591km (20,872 miles)
6. CPRS: 31,019km (19,275 miles)
7. Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS): 9,946km (6,180 miles)
8. Ferromex (FXE): 8,291km (5,151 miles)
9. Alaska Railroad (ARR): 3,726 km (2,315 miles)
10. USG: 2,760km (1,715 miles)

And finally Amtrack owns 1,622km (1,008 miles) of track, although their combined route length is 21,400 mi (34,400 km).

 

[Roscobbc]

Have you looked closely at the edge to assure no small air leak ?

View attachment 30380

Yes Jon, the rim is 'spun' aluminium, so effectively a one piece 'band' welded to the cast centre 'spider'. The outer edge of the rim (where the tyre sits), whilst looking like a solid section is still a 'spun' section. Any damage is fairly minimal and unlikely to have any sealing need - importantly the inner section (where the tyre seals) is totally undamaged. Some gentle filing with swiss files and final polish-up to the mirror finish improved the appearance.

 

[Chuffer]

I wondered just hw many miles of railroad tracks in the USA

The map shows all of America’s train tracks and who owned them in 2014.

In 2019, the US had 220,044km (136,729 miles) of train tracks which is around 40% more than China’s 159,000km and more than double Russia’s 105,000km.

However, this is down from the historic peak in 1917 of 428,180km (266,058 miles).
Also, only 1,847km of the United States’ train lines are electrified which is around 1.5% of China’s 119,000km.

That’s because unlike China the vast bulk of America’s railway lines are used for freight rather than passengers.

The US currently ranks 10th in total number of Passenger-kilometres travelled per year at 32.5billion, which is around 2% of China’s 1,550 billion.

If you add up all passengers from Amtrak (32.5 million) and America’s other commuter rail and subway options (502.5 million) you get 535 million passenger journeys by rail each year. This is barely more than Switzerland which only has 8.7 million people. Or round 2% of first place Japan’s 24,598 million passenger journeys.

California broke ground on their high speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco this month. Well, construction actually started last year to take advantage of federal funds, but the announcement still caught my interest. I love rail, and am a strong proponent of investing in our crumbling infrastructure (such as the 63,522 structurally deficient bridges; let’s map that next…).

Anyway, it got me thinking about our rail networks. When I was interning in the Hill as a college student in Fredericksburg, I would take a commuter train, the Virginia Railway Express, three times a week. It was nice to have the option, avoiding I-95 traffic, getting work done along the way, but the service was plagued by delays. The number one reason we heard was the VRE had to cede the right of way to CSX Freight trains who owned the tracks. An impression developed my mind of this monster conglomerate owning a monopoly of our rail infrastructure began to form in my mind.

But is that true? Does one company, or even a handful, control the majority of America’s rail? In short, no.

The Department of Transportation keeps track of these things through the National Transportation Atlas Database. Lots of great stuff here, from airports, hazmat routes, alternative fuel stations, but I pulled the railway polyline dataset. Brushed up on my query language skills to select by owner and save as a new layer. Then all I had to do was sum the length fields and you’ve got the lengths of all the rail by owner.

Current top 10 railroad companies in the USA in terms of track length are:

1. Union Pacific (UP): 57,673km (35,836 miles)
2. BNSF: 52,240km (32,461 miles)
3. Canadian National Railway (CN): 49,064km (30,487 miles)
4. CSX Transportation (CSXT): 36,297 km (22,554 miles)
5. Norfolk Southern Railway (NS): 33,591km (20,872 miles)
6. CPRS: 31,019km (19,275 miles)
7. Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS): 9,946km (6,180 miles)
8. Ferromex (FXE): 8,291km (5,151 miles)
9. Alaska Railroad (ARR): 3,726 km (2,315 miles)
10. USG: 2,760km (1,715 miles)

And finally Amtrack owns 1,622km (1,008 miles) of track, although their combined route length is 21,400 mi (34,400 km).

View attachment 30385

Interesting data comparisons for such a huge country as the USA TeamZR1 . Here in the UK we will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the worlds first locomotive hauled public railway this year which eventually brought rail travel to the whole world .
In 2024 , Network Rail the UK`s rail and infrastructure owners managed 9,848 miles of track of which 3,810 were electrified . This does not include city metro systems , light railways , tram systems or London Underground which are not Network Rail managed .
In 2024 there were 1.612 Billion train journeys taken which is not bad going for our nation that ranks 23rd in world populations .
To put things in perspective , the UK had just 140 miles of track in 1830 . By 1840 it had exploded to 2,388 miles which was branded the `Railway Mania` period . By 1913 we had 22, 713 miles of track which is 12,865 miles more than we have now !!
By 1973 the UK had 11,798 miles which shows we have lost a further 1,950 miles in the last 52 years . This slowing in closure rate is due to a number of long disused routes have been re opened after public pressure to serve expanding communities . As can be seen from the British Railways Map of the railway network after the railways were nationalised in 1948 , there were hardly any parts of the UK not served by rail . The broad red lines being the major routes and the thin red lines being subsidiary feeder lines and branch lines that stopped at small town terminus stations .

 

[teamzr1]

Here is more interesting history in USA you might like

The evolution of rail transportation in the United States can be conceptualized as a cycle composed of phases of introduction, rapid growth, maturity, and rationalization.

• Introduction (1830-1860). From modest beginnings and untested technology, rail transportation emerged in the 1830s with the construction of numerous local lines, dominantly in the Northeast. By 1840, 3,000 miles of tracks were laid, but rail transportation was still uncompetitive in regard to waterways, which had a wider coverage (e.g. Erie Canal, Mississippi). Many of the first rail lines were actually portage segments within the canal system or routes aiming at complementing existing canals. A set of independent feeder rail networks was also being established.
• 
  
• As the network extended, the Appalachian mountains were crossed in the early 1850s, and rail transportation was able to compete more effectively in the resource-rich Midwest, with 30,000 miles of tracks laid by 1860. The cost of moving farm products and manufactured goods over long distances fell by 95% between 1815 and 1860. This underlined the capacity of the rail system to answer the needs of the national economy and its subsequent phase of rapid expansion.
• 
  
• Growth (1860-1915). As the advantages of rail transportation became widely acknowledged, a massive phase of growth ensued, with rail achieving dominance over the roads and waterways. One priority was the construction of a transcontinental line linking the East and the West coasts, which was completed in 1869. From that point, numerous branches and trunks were constructed, leading to an interconnected national rail system.
• 
  
• A standard gauge of 1.4351 meters was also agreed upon (in 1860, 23 different gauges were still in use). However, there were complaints made by users stating that the rates charged by railroad companies were high and discriminatory, particularly because of the monopoly they had on several parts of the emerging railway system. In response, the US Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in 1887, with the authority to regulate the rates railroads could charge (this agency also became responsible for collecting railway data). The growing level of regulation of the rail sector was associated with the end of its spatial growth. The extent of the rail system peaked in 1916, with 254,000 road-miles.
• 
  
• Maturity (1915-1950). This period marked the age of rail transportation dominance. By 1930, a rail network of 250,000 miles accounted for about 65% of all the freight tonnage carried in the United States and was close to the totality of long-distance passenger transport. Rail technology was standardized and showed little improvement in terms of speed. However, competition from trucks was beginning to be felt, notably for short hauls
• . Mileage started to decline with unprofitable lines being abandoned. The Great Depression of the 1930s marked the first significant rationalization with the abandonment of more than 16,000 road-miles between 1930 and 1940. By 1950 the system was downsized to 224,000 road-miles. In addition, heavy regulations from the ICC led to a standard private sector response; lack of investments, increased accidents, reduced punctuality, and the bankruptcy of several companies.
• 
  
• Rationalization (1950-2000). The post World War II era was one of intense rationalization for rail transportation. By the 1970s, the US railway system was facing serious financial difficulties; several railway companies were going bankrupt. One of the most significant bankruptcies was the Penn Central in 1970, which controlled more than 10,000 road-miles. The response of the Federal Government was deregulation.
• In 1980, the Staggers Rail Act enabled rail companies to fix their own rates, service levels, as well as to abandon, sell or lease unprofitable rail segments. Between 1950 and 2000, 79,300 road-miles were abandoned, which left the rail system with 144,500 miles of road-miles in 2000, a mileage similar to the mid-1880s. Just between 1975 and 1980, 12,300 road-miles were abandoned. Rail transportation was losing passengers to road and air modes, which meant the loss of revenue and the abandonment of numerous passenger services.
• The role of rail as support for long-distance passenger travel was collapsing. While there were about 2,000 scheduled passenger trains per day in 1950, this number fell to 200 in the 1990s. As a result, rail transportation became dominantly freight oriented, and the development of long-distance intermodal transportation in the 1970s justified further rationalization within the rail industry, mainly through mergers.
• Among the most significant was the Burlington Northern / Santa Fe merger in 1995, followed by the acquisition by Union Pacific of Southern Pacific Railroad in 1996 and the split-up of Conrail (a company created in 1976 by the Federal Government to consolidate the assets of bankrupt rail companies) between Norfolk Southern and CSX in 1999. Freight rates were cut in half. While in 1960, there was 106 Class I rail operators, this figure dropped to 7 in 2002 and has remained as such since then.
• 
  
• Resurgence (2000-). As of the beginning of the 21st century, rationalization appears to be completed, leaving a more efficient rail system based on high-capacity long-distance corridors connecting major maritime gateways and inland terminals. These corridors are almost all double-tracked. Additionally, rail freight has faced a surge in demand linked with globalization, a level of de-industrialization of the North American economy, as well as rising energy prices making rail more competitive.
• 
  
• The three most important factors behind the recent growth of rail traffic involve a growth of international containerized trade, growing quantities of utility coal being shipped to power plants (namely from the Powder River Basin), and the growth of Mexican trade. A new wave of investments along long-distance corridors (double or triple tracking) and intermodal rail terminals have improved the efficiency and capacity of the system.
• 
  
• Prospects about the future of rail transportation appear favorable, even if the network has experienced no growth in its extent; as of 2020, the American network mileage was standing at 93,150 miles. Rail operators are focusing on efficiency and corridor and inland terminal development.

Through time, statistics about the rail system were collected by different agencies, so there is a discontinuity in information sources. For most of the 19th century, the mileage was compiled by Poor’s Manual of Railroads of the United States (here summarized by an 1897 Rand McNally publication).
Then, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) assumed the responsibility between 1890 and 1977. With deregulation in 1980, the Association of American Railroads took over the compilation of various rail statistics.

 

[Chuffer]

Interesting to read how USA phases very much mirrored the railways in the UK . The UK had ( and still does ) a vast network of canals built from the 1700`s on wards primarily for transport of coal , other bulk goods and manufactured goods . There was even some passenger carrying as by and large our roads were little more than cart tracks . Many people think that the railways brought about the demise of our canals for commercial carrying but that is only partly true . In the early days of railways when locomotives were not capable of making long journeys in one go , merchandise spent ages stuck on wagons in freight yards ( to use US parlance ) before on ward shipment to final destinations . The canal companies capitalised on this by intruducing ` Fly Boats ` that took president over all other canal traffic and with regular changes of horses en route that hauled the `narrow boats ` and traveling day and night they could actually beat the railways delivery times . Many of the canal companies were bought out by the railway companies and left to decay , thus destroying the competition .
We adopted a standard gauge track of 4 feet , 8 and 1/2 inches from the get go in 1825 which was the idea of Civil Engineer and Mechanical Engineer Robert Stephenson who designed and built the first successful locomotive `Locomotion Number 1 `. He is regarded as the father of the Railways and his standard gauge was the average of the various different horse drawn tramway gauges used that fed coal mines and quarries in the North of England . This effectively stopped any argument as to who`s gauge should be adopted for the new railways .
However , there was one fly in the ointment in the name of Isombard Kingdom Brunel who was chief civil and mechanical engineer of the newly formed Great Western Railway in 1835. A very clever engineer and a totally driven `achiever ` in the true Victorian era sense , he had many ideas and creations that he tread to out do the competition . He insisted on a track gauge of 7 ft and 1/4 inch known as Brunels Braod Gauge . The thinking being that larger more powerful and faster locos could be built and the carriages more commodious and more stable at higher speeds . The down side was cost as engineering a railway line on such a grand scale meant buying more land , building larger bridges , tunnels , embankments and cuttings etc . Not mention the fact that long distance through journeys of freight and passengers from other railway companies could not take place without time consuming changes of trains . All this nearly bankrupted the company and share holders were in revolt . Brunels Broad Gauge was replaced in 1892 at even more cost although some tracks had been laid as dual gauge for 31 years prior to that .
The UK railways are in a process of going full circle and back to being Nationalised again which proves the point that politicians never learn from history . Prior to 1928 there were more railway companies in the UK than you could shake a stick at ! Each with their own workshops building locos and rolling stock , their own tickets and pricing structure and timetables so that long distance travelers had to change trains , companies and buy numerous tickets to complete their journey . This was deemed impractical as the railways grew so all the various companies were amalgamated in the `Big Four`. These were the London. Midland & Scottish Railway ( LMS) , the Southern Railway ( SR) . the London & North Eastern Railway ( LNER ) and the Great Western Railway ( GWR ) . There was how ever still fierce competition and rivalry . After WW2 the railway network and all its locos and rolling stock were worn out by six years of intense over working and no investment so the government stepped in a nationalised the railways in 1948 . Then in 1993 our then Tory Government in their infinite wisdom privatised the railways and in one fell swoop we had nearly as many different train operating companies (TOC`s ) as we had prior to 1928 which the government of the day deemed inefficient . All these companies had to pay Network Rail to operate their trains as NR owns ( and still does ) all the infrastructure . Needless to say , fares have been going up year on year , services get worse , trains are overcrowded and often cancelled and commuters ain`t happy ! It`s all down to share holders dividends again !
As of this week the first TOC has had its contract revoked for failure to provide acceptable services and is now nationalised . All the other TOC`s will be nationalised too when their contracts expire . This will be all well and good until we have a change of government at the next election and the whole lot will probably be put through the grinder again !!

 

[CaptainK]

This will be all well and good until we have a change of government at the next election and the whole lot will probably be put through the grinder again !!

You are not wrong there - working in the NHS we are constantly merged / un-merged, rebranded, abolished, transferred whatever all the time due to some politician drumming up some dead beat idea. Constant state of flux means its hard to get stuff done and constantly short staffed due to the sacking of alleged "redundant / duplicate" staff that are actually VERY important.

 

[CaptainK]

Have you explored the line west of Barnstaple down to Bideford ? It ran all the way from Taunton to Padstow via Launceston .

Not yet, but no doubt will do at some point.

Not holding out any hopes for my Corvette's handbrake holding on that steep hill in your second photo though

 

[Chuffer]

You are not wrong there - working in the NHS we are constantly merged / un-merged, rebranded, abolished, transferred whatever all the time due to some politician drumming up some dead beat idea. Constant state of flux means its hard to get stuff done and constantly short staffed due to the sacking of alleged "redundant / duplicate" staff that are actually VERY important.

I joined the NHS in the hospital engineers department in 1973 and well remember an `old hand` telling me to get used to a re organisation every 5 years and he was not wrong . I subsequently moved through 38 years of continuous service in various local government organisations and by the 21st century the remodeling / re organisation / restructuring was coming round far more frequently . It is a deliberate ploy to cover up inefficiencies in politicians and senior management by being in a permanent state of flux ! At least it finally gave me the opportunity for a good redundancy settlement and early retirement on full pension .

 

[Chuffer]

Not yet, but no doubt will do at some point.

Not holding out any hopes for my Corvette's handbrake holding on that steep hill in your second photo though

No steep hills along there to worry about !

 

[Letank]

Treated myself to a Quickjack the other week and finally got around to setting it up today.

What an awesome bit of kit!

It will do my frame twist anxiety the world of good as I’ve always hated jacking up my 69 convertible one corner at a time.

They’re on offer at Costco at the moment with £300 off the top model, making it cheaper than the base model.

This one will lift up to 7000lbs / 3.2t. It ain’t half heavy though

 

[Chevrolet]

Nice One! Nothing like a black Vette on a Quickjack. Cheap weekend for me. Could only afford a Snowfoam sprayer from Aldi at £9.99

Snow Foam Sprayer

Keep your car looking clean and save money with this Snow Foam Sprayer. <ul> <li>2 Litre capacity (approx.)</li> <li>Working capacity 1 Litre (approx.)</li> <li>Spacers to adjust foam consistency Safety release valve for automatic depressurization at +- 3 bar</li> <li>Manual Pressure release...

www.aldi.co.uk

 

[Letank]

That’s funny, I was just thinking about getting a manual snow foam sprayer. I may have to call in to Aldi on the way home tomorrow!

The Kärcher one I have with my pressure washer is rubbish. It always comes out too watery. Can never get a nice and thick foam to stay on the car, despite having tried several different foams now.