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Post by ducatisti on Jun 30, 2008 21:04:41 GMT
And some more pics. West Finchley. www.flickr.com/gp/27565507@N06/8p8547Most of the likely characters at the far end of the station are from the board I suspect... After all those suffering from over-zealous staff, it is nice to report that the chap at West Finchley was relaxed, chatty, helpful and generally a pleasure to meet. (The signal shot relates to my thread a few days ago about the unusual location of the signal)
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 30, 2008 8:15:34 GMT
Quite oddly, I saw some 95 stock last week where someone had managed to write in the grime behind the door. (That you see through the door window when it's open).
It was only after it had pulled out that I realised that I couldn't work out how they did it...
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 25, 2008 15:46:54 GMT
:-[I go through that station every day and have never noticed it... I just assumed it was outside the station or some such. Optician sale ---------------------->
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 23, 2008 21:20:27 GMT
blow the dust of John Hampden and top and tail with Sarah Siddons...
but, er, yes, off-peaks only for that...
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 23, 2008 21:16:27 GMT
heh! Presumably with a certain degree of confused muttering about what strange ideas the Englishski had about rails...
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 23, 2008 16:54:13 GMT
Sounds likely to be the answer then. I suppose that it was beyond the platform to stop passengers being inconvenienced by it
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 23, 2008 12:48:50 GMT
Sorry old chap, I don't understand your banter ;D I thought arbour lights were the ones that said "you are turning left here" etc.
What I mean are the little holes (and presumably prisms and lenses and wotnot) that come off the aspects so that if you are drawn right up to the signal and so couldn't see the main aspects, you still can still see if it's red or green.
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 23, 2008 12:23:11 GMT
Quick q (apologies to those who have already heard it)
The signal at the city end of West Finchley station has those little side aspects on it that allow it to be seen when the driver is close to it (Pigs Ears?). The signal is about a car-length from the end of the platform. Two theories that we have come up with are 1) a relic of the 9-car trials, or 2) freight operations from High Barnet.
Can anybody shed any light?
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 23, 2008 12:19:01 GMT
Interesting stuff - interesting that bullhead could be purchased from Eastern Europe - I thought bullhead was largely confined to Britain?
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 23, 2008 12:13:37 GMT
I may, or may not, be at West Finchley. If I'm not building barns, I'll be about. Wave if you see me
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 23, 2008 12:10:53 GMT
From when I've seen works on NR lines, they do seem to have a fair bit of spaghetti they stick in their ducts. I should imagine also, they are somewhat self-clearing as you'd use the old cable to pull the new one through?
I note on the upper reaches of the Tallyllyn the danglers appear to have the upper hand over the buriers - anyone we know?
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 19, 2008 17:33:59 GMT
Interesting - I'd have thought any dynamic wear would be more on the NR stuff on account of higher speeds (mv^2 and all that). Then again, I suppose the service is an order of magnitude more intensive...
new things/day ratio well and truly on the up
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 19, 2008 14:51:56 GMT
Would I be right in assuming rail lasts longer on LU (slower speeds, lower axle loads etc?).
MRFS - what do small railways do then? go scrumping for rail?
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 19, 2008 10:31:32 GMT
Why is bullhead a scarce commodity? Is the kit to make it not around any more? or is there something more complex involved?
I was doing a demolition site near Guildford once, and was some Bridge rail, wish I'd had the wherewithal to take it away. No idea what it was doing there.
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 19, 2008 5:57:58 GMT
This message has been moved to Deleted Threads by Phil . Once again, an individual member has decided to make personal insults to another, something all members know the admins on this forum do not tolerate
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 16, 2008 11:16:12 GMT
heh! Doesn't surprise me at all. "World Class" is my current most-hated buzzword... Oh well, I may be one of those naughty people seeking anoise abatement order.
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 15, 2008 13:45:38 GMT
Gosh! one truly does learn something new every day. this is probabaly getting a bit generally p/w now, but a couple of follow-on qs (if I may): 1) is this height an intrinsic problem with f/b, or just the profiles/weights its currently available in? 2) presumably the existance of lots of new bullhead rail indicates that there is a time/cost difference between taking up and replacing bullhead and re-laying with flatbottom?
(the largest track i've ever laid is Bonds' coarse-scale O-guage for an SM32 line in the parent's garden)
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 15, 2008 11:41:13 GMT
"New PA system" the words I knew were coming and dreading... I know there's a good reason for automatic annoucnements, but they just never shut up... I look forward to being told to touch in and out, to get announcements telling me what the display says (and so having the same errors), announcements that play in both directions when two trains cross (making them unintelligble)... Feel sorry for the peeps that live by the station.
It's not even as if the PA is particularly unintelligble here either...
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 15, 2008 10:32:28 GMT
Idle musings, but is there any reason as to why some parts are bullhead and others flat-bottom? There are a lot of places where the track has been recently renewed (new ballast and rail). Odd anomalies include the sidings at Finchley Central being f/b, but the running lines bull-head, the depot lines at East finchley are FB (although that could be quite old). I was particularly surprised that the Charing Cross branch is still bullhead when it was closed for a couple of weekend refurbs that seemed to include removing and replacing the wooden blocks that the (chairs/plates) fit on. I presume it comes down to time taken to remove and replace and re-align, but given in a lot of places it seems to have been removed and replaced I'm slightly surprised they haven't upgraded to flatbottom and heavier section. What am I missing? (apart from a few marbles... )
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 15, 2008 10:26:58 GMT
That can't be right - the main building looks about mid-80s (OK, there may be a lot of stuff behind the scenes that is older, but all the cable racks look newer, and the pw certainly is newer). This is one of the reasons why I'm curious as to what needs doing to it...
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 8, 2008 0:03:02 GMT
Oooh, Finchely travel experts! Seperate discussion page? As it happened I went via Ballards Lane, it goes nearer to where I live. On the subject of dodgy journeys, somebody broke Camden Town again today by the looks of things. Stoppit! The split is not the good idea some people think it is...
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 6, 2008 21:57:47 GMT
It was playing slightly silly b*ggers today on the Barnet branch, lots of trains going to Mill Hill East at about 5.30. Would have had to wait over 10 mins (and 2 intervening trains) at Finchley Central for a train to West Finchley. So I walked it instead
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 3, 2008 22:09:54 GMT
Ahem, sorry, Platform 3...
Ta to MRFS for the piccies.
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 3, 2008 15:35:55 GMT
heh! Don't worry, I have lots of more likely ways to get killed, I'm not going to take any silly risks... Cunning plan, I'll get off at FC on the way home and have a look from platform 2.
Is there such a device about half-way along the platform at Farringdon? I'd always assumed they were the tripcock-operated things..
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 3, 2008 11:56:42 GMT
Oooh, I shall have to have a peer off the end of the platform to see what I can (safely) see
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Post by ducatisti on Jun 3, 2008 8:03:58 GMT
On platform 1 (southbound), I noticed recently a little white lamp on a pole. I've seen that sort of light before as fixed red signals (ie anti-wrong way), but not with a white light.
It was just below the level of the bottom aspect of the signal and came on as the train pulled up to it and then went out again before the train pulled away.
Anyone know what it's for? I didn't think there was ATO on the northern
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Post by ducatisti on May 27, 2008 7:36:41 GMT
If you don't change something, rebrand it... See Department for Transport etc etc
Yes Prime minister had it back in the 80s - Jim Hacker wanted to do a party political broadcast announcing lots of changes, so it was decided he'd be in a trad suit in front of an oak-pannelled back-ground. As the all the changes he planned fell apart, the more modern the setting got. In the end he broadcast it wearing (IIRC) a lime-green suit, in front of a chrome-trimmed background
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Post by ducatisti on May 22, 2008 12:36:13 GMT
I guess it's being done now as it sounds like a relatively simple job, and thus doesn't require too long or too many staff. This will give them a another station to add to the refurbed/refreshed list.
Also, I imagine that there has been some serious logistical planning done based on what staff do what, what stations need to have what done, what order that has to be done in (e.g. it's pointless painting walls you need to rebuild later), when things can be done (e.g. maybe you need a track possession to do some stuff and you can't do that until September, so there's no point scheduling stuff that depends on it having been completed until after then), etc. Maybe done as a massive Gantt chart or something. If so, a small job like West Finchely might fit nicely into a gap of waiting for a bigger project to become possible. Oooh! I've worked out how to quote Agreed in terms of labour use, and it is an easy station to shut down. But its still a waste of flippin' time. Joys of (badly-drafted) contracts
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Post by ducatisti on May 22, 2008 12:34:08 GMT
Today at 12:46pm, ducatisti wrote:
Has LU taken any notice of the decision against them for noise levels in Kensington & Chelsea.
Erm, no. This week we've had another missive from on high, reminding us how important it is to have the recorded PA's running every 6 - 10 mins (4 - 6 if a busy Z1 station) - just to keep the MSS scores high! If I can hear from my flat, I shall be Investigating My Options...
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Post by ducatisti on May 22, 2008 11:46:27 GMT
Oh lucky us, the station is being shut for some works over the next few weekends. One of the things being trumpeted is a new PA. Does this mean we are going to get the annoying repeated automatic announcements as per Finchley Central (where they seem to fire without checking if another one is going resulting in a garbled noise)?
Has LU taken any notice of the decision against them for noise levels in Kensington & Chelsea.
From (a tolerably experienced) eye, there is nothing wrong with what there is on a non railway-specific side, so unless the staff acommodation/signalling or wotnot is in need of it, I really think there are other stations they could be "benefitting" first.
ho hum...
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