New Rochester Station

The new railway station for Rochester is already under construction, as the short time-lapse video below shows. This illustrates how the new underpass was assembled on the site, the gap prepared for it, and then the whole thing was slid into place on a cushion of compressed nitrogen gas.

The new site, in Corporation Street, will serve both the existing community and also connect to the new Rochester Riverside development that is also being constructed right now, and which is starting to look very promising at the Doust Way end which is partly complete. I had a little wander around there recently, as well as a look at the rail station work from the top deck of a No. 141 'bus on my way back from a Strood South walkabout (yes, another on!)

It is at times like this that I can really 'feel the future' even without my abilities as a Sensitive – though I have done so in years gone by and felt it back then too. As with other instances I have mentioned before, here and elsewhere, it has been quite a powerful feeling to re-live, in real time, experiences I previously only felt as yet-to-happen.

As with those others, it is a very good sense indeed that I have of the transformation of old, tatty areas that had been there since before I moved into the area in 1997, into high quality, modern townscapes and riverscapes. There is a sense of new life, what some might call 'green shoots' growing out of the old now-dead landscapes of yesteryear.

The old Rochester station is, bluntly, a ghastly place, especially from the street coming up to the platforms, and is now in the wrong place. This new station will be such an improvement, and it too has started to happen...

The Half Mile Train

Freight trains can sometimes be very long; and this one measures around half a mile in length – 2,526 feet, or 770 metres – with some 46 (count 'em) wagons and a Class 66 diesel locomotive at each end. These are highly-reputed locos by the way, and can operate in France as well as the UK.

The wagons are interesting, with an end-to-end-slanted design to most of them and a few custom vehicles also in the mix.

Here it all is pausing at, and presumably well beyond, York station for a change of the train crew, and then it sets off again with a fair amount of 'thrash' to get that huge mass moving. It takes quite a lot of effort, even for two Class 66s which have a combined traction of more than four and a half Megawatts.

The video creator poses the question: Is this the UK's longest train? The answer is no – there are longer MRL stone trains, and the 'Octopus' that passes through Leicester is around the same length, for a couple of examples – but it is certainly among the longest...

Lady Penelope Rescues Virgin!

Although Wales has its own legislative Assembly, I'm not sure this is, strictly speaking, an International Rescue, but it is certainly the case that Lady Penelope – in the form of locomotive Class 57 number 307 – rescued this nine-car Virgin Trains Pendolino, here seen in Wales after being hauled from Euston, and also its departure back there. Oh, and you'll love the plaque on the locomotive's side!

It might be ever so slightly over-stating the case that "Pendolinos are Go!" – but it certainly applies to this one...

Steam Railmotor

Now, this isn't the kind of rail vehicle one often encounters. In fact, it was the first time in 77 years that this old Great Western Railway steam 'railmotor' (as it's called, rather than the more modern 'railcar') had been on the main line, from where it operated five trips from Liskeard at two-hour intervals during 11 November 2012, travelling along the Looe Branch Line.

This is a good video, well shot (apart from forgetting to pan once, at the start!) including scene-setting shots of the stations along the way and some nice scenic touches too. It's worth going through the full twelve minutes, but it isn't essential – although the tracking shot from the car, near the end, is rather good...

Model Railway Driver's-eye View

This is an amazing model railway layout, on a scale I have never encountered before, at least in OO gauge. It is all laid with the excellent Peco Streamline track (which I used on my own vastly more modest layouts when I had somewhere to put one) and, although not complete (it needs more scenery and, more significantly, some signals!) it is still mightily impressive and must have taken many years to construct.

In this quarter-hour video, we are given the view from the cab of a Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) that calls at all stations. I do not know what those stations are named as I cannot read them as we reach them and there are no notes on this at the video's YouTube page. Not that it really matters: just enjoy the ride...

That's My Loco!

Well, I do have a few shares in both D1062 Western Courier, seen here, and D1013 Western Ranger.

In this short clip, Courier is leaving Irwell Vale station on a trip at the East Lancs Summer Diesel Gala on 4 July 2009, a maroon loco hauling maroon coaches with plenty of 'clag' (a certain type of exhaust!) in a fast acceleration made possible by its twin Maybach MD655 engines and three-part hydraulic transmission.

The Western design was very clever, in that the engines were not linked, so that if one were to fail the loco could still proceed at reduced power on just one engine. It would be slow going, but it'd still get there unaided...

Nine Same Type Locomotives in Convoy

Now here's something you don't see every day! Nine Class 66 diesel-electric freight locomotives in convoy, here heading into Eastleigh Yard on 18 February 2012, in two distinct stages, both captured in this video.

It is sufficiently unusual to merit inclusion here (I typically check out between twenty and thirty railway videos for each one I post here, by the way) and lasts just four minutes or so.

The Class 66 is quite distinctive, bordering on attractive in its styling; though only the red one has much visual appeal as the others look somewhat lacklustre in their more typical livery...

Off The Rails

Oops! Derailment recorded as it happened...

There was a good reason why the semaphore signal that we see at the right side in this video was at danger: the points to the main route were not set for the siding. Fortunately the catch points made sure the train approaching from the siding did not encroach onto the main line: it would have damaged the points and blocked the line if it had.

This is the primary purpose of catch points, which the observant rail traveller will probably have seen out a train window and wondered what the strange thing is and what it does. This incident, at Quorn just a few weeks ago, shows how important they can be. The 'TPO' in the video's title stands for 'Travelling Post Office' by the way.

As for the train crew: why did they pass the signal at 'danger' anyway? They surely didn't have permission from the signalman to do so. I wonder if we shall ever know...

Deltic Locomotive

I am grateful to the uploader for allowing embedding of this short (2 minute) single shot video of English Electric 'Deltic' diesel-electric locomotive D9009 Alycidon leaving York station with a thirteen-coach special last month.

The Deltic has the usual EE characteristic of a 'nose' in front of each cab, as in their other series (Class 37 and Class 40) but with a more stylish windscreen design. That feture was shared by the Peak classes 44, 45 and 46, also the Warship classes (one by NBL, the other BR at Swindon) and a blunt, very much shortened form was also found on a couple of the North British Loco (NBL) Type 2 designs.

The Deltic's engine output was rated at 3,300 horsepower, making it the only Type 5 diesel loco operating in Britain.

Espcially for anyone who has never heard the distinctive sound of a Deltic, now's your chance...

London Bridge Station

There is an early warning to Kent commuters and other railway users travelling to and from London Bridge railway station, in that although work on the re-vamp of the station is to start very soon, its direct impact on this area's travellers won't commence until the end of 2014.

This will be the start of a two-year period of what look to be unavoidable disruptions to services, including trains not stopping at the station at all during that period. Of course, if the work necessitating the disruption is completed in early 2016 (the exact timing isn't specified) then it will have been little more than one year – but it is not characteristic of such work to be finished in a timely fashion in this country.

The Kent OnLine site's Paul Francis has the details as currently known.

I am reasonably familiar with London Bridge station, and it seems to me to work well enough as it is. I wasn't aware that there was an apparent need to re-vamp the place, nor that there were any plans to do so. I can't help wondering if this is a sensible project at this time.

No doubt someone out there will correct my view and point out a number of inadequacies that necessitate a wholesale update; but at present I cannot perceive any – not because it's perfect, but it doesn't seem to need this huge investment that might have been better utilised improving a number of smaller stations instead.

That's just my perception, though...

Cuxton and Borstal River and Rail

I shot the more than 50 clips for this video (not all of which were included in the final product) on Saturday just gone – 26 May 2012 – at Cuxton and then, after walking across the M2 motorway bridge, took a few shots in Borstal.

While at Cuxton I unexpectedly encountered local Labour councillor Tristan Osborne, who showed me his latest toy – a tablet computer – very excited he was about it too and who can blame him?

Anyway, I have now edited the video together, adjusted the sound throughout to minimise the wind noise effect without losing the wanted sounds, and uploaded the finished work to my YouTube channel. Here it is...

That's My Loco!

Just fifty-four seconds (less than that, really) conveys several reasons why the Western Class 52 diesel-hydraulics were so popular with enthusiasts. Is it the stylish, elegant design?

Perhaps it's the superb hydraulic transmission, and the two independent engines that allow the loco to keep running even if one engine should fail. Or maybe, it's the wonderful roar! of the engines when pulling away.

Actually, it's all of those, and more besides!

It is little wonder that, back in the 'seventies when these locos were still running, I'd go all the way up to London Paddington, walk to the far end of the platform, just beyond the front of one of these magnificent beasts, and wait to see and hear its departure.

There's nothing quite like being that close to such an event (and it was always an event, however routine!) and I did it several times. One good bet was the 2230 Travelling Post Office (TPO), which was often Western-hauled; and the atmosphere at that time of night, after sundown, was something else again.

Oh, and yes, I too have been on a Western-hauled excursion, and hung out of the window just like those you see in the following video(!)

This short clip by traintelevision features one of the preserved locomotives in which I have shares, D1062 Western Courier (the other is D1013 Western Ranger, both pictured above), and is best watched full screen and played through a high quality audio system...

Pullman Train at Strood

This short video, from one "goonerlewis16", shows the traditional Pullman carriages being hauled through Strood here in Medway, by a Class 67 diesel-electric locomotive at each end – 67 024 at the front, and 67 019 as the so-called banking loco to help push the train up steep inclines. Presumably there must have been at least one such elsewhere on its journey.

Visually, the cyclopean Class 67 isn't a very attractive loco, but it does the job well enough, with the power of a top-end Type 4 diesel, though not as high as a Type 5 (e.g. Deltic) but with a higher top speed.

If it's just extra hauling power that's needed, both locomotives will be joined together at the front, but for climbing long and/or steep inclines, the second loco goes at the back. After all, we all know how much easier it is to push (say) a heavy trolley of shopping or suitcase-on-wheels up a slope from behind than it is to pull on it from in front.

This train has the good fortune to have both...

Hundred of Hoo Railway

Prompted by an uploaded film made by the same company (Gazelle Films), I discovered these parts of a documentary they made on the Hundred of Hoo Railway. This refers to the branch off the line from Gravesend to Strood that heads off to the Hoo Peninsula, here in Medway. In fact it spends a few minutes at Hoo Junction, which I found really interesting, having whizzed past it on that main line.

It really is fascinating stuff for those who, like me, know many of the places featured but know them only as they are today. Here we also see how they were in years gone by, including lines and stations that no longer exist. It even features the Stoke Crossing which is currently in the local news...

Here are two of what seem to be at least three ten-minute parts of this production, which were filmed in the  'nineties and uploaded in video form just under two years ago. The producers apparently haven't put the last part(s) up, but are working on a DVD release of the whole thing, which could appear soon.

In the meantime, watch and learn, as I have just done...