The (Un-illustrated) Weekly Salvo and Slaithwaite Review of Books
(non-illustrated version – go to ‘posts’ in Current News for version with pictures)
Please click on to the files for the one you want. I don’t put every single one on (basically because I forget to) but every one is on the ‘illustrated’ news pages
No. 83 January 27th 2013
No. 72 November 3rd 2012
Train namings, Stanley Kind, road-rail bridges, Raymond Williams, war and peace….
September 23rd 2012. Issue 68 features railway cats, Garstang and its Knott End Railway, Luddites and weavers, good bookshops etc.
For missing Salvoes see them under Weekly salvo and you’ll get the illustrated version!
August 5th 2012
Stuff on rail electrification, Filey Holiday Camp, Scots Guardsmen, railways and poetry etc.
July 29th 2012
Various things too numerous to mention…
July 22nd no. 59 (HLOS, Roger Casement, Sheerness, Clarion etc.)
June 24th: Issue 56. Stuff on Dalai Lama and Dukedogs, High-Speed Rail and the North, high-speed steam in the 60s, a song about anoraks and the niceness of Johnny Rotten
June 3rd 2012 no. 53 – I must remember to load these up but you can see the fully illuistrated (!) version in current news, complete. Anyway, this one has lots of Jubilees, derelict railways, cycling mayors and trips to Cardiff
April 29th 2012 no. 48
Scots and Th’North, Luddite stuff, Pacer-Legging (quaint Northern folk tradition), elections etc.
April 22nd no. 47: Various bits and pieces on local politics, electric bikes, Ashton, Nelson and Burnley, engine sheds…
April 14th no. 46
All sorts of interesting things, including more on culinary tram stops.
March 25th: travels in the south-west, works canteens I have known, library debates etc
March 18th edition: Linlithgow and its delights, Prof. Harvie is gonged by the Germans, community rail seminar in Sheffield, non-Victorian values, usual crank quizzes
February 26th: Welsh preservation and English volunteers; fighting the cuts; Hannah Mitchell’s ghost; garden railway re-opens…and more
February 19th: Mixed bag: Carlisle, Save our Services, Community rail’s early days etc.
February 12th 2012: Scottish special, plus Hannah Mitchell Foundation, upcoming rail confeernces, etc.: The Weekly Salvo 37
February 5th 2012: The Weekly Salvo 36
January 30th edition: Great Northern Liberals (Thomas Newbigging), WG Sebald and the Southwold Railway, Bartok and Bulleids, latest on Hannah Mitchell, twa’ Burns nights and more
January 23rd edition: Various stuff on conservatism, ‘real England’, Hannah Mitchell, royalty and the like.
January 16th edition: HS2; England and ther Scots; Hannah Mitchell Foundation founded; stations old and new
January 9th edition with England and Englishness, music and the North, Samuel Laycock and other things too numerous to mention:
New Year Special with 7 pages of railways, politics and steam engines:
Posts
Paul,
Like you, I have my doubts about HS2. The huge capital cost will lead to as little other money as possible being spent on the rest of the Network. So, it follows, resulting in no benefit to Northern commuters, nothing for the West of England (as the sea washes away the line at Dawlish!) and so on. Better surely to spend limited resources on further electrification and signalling to increase capacity – Midland Main Line, extend GW electrification to Plymouth & Swansea, Bristol to Doncaster / South Kirby, Colton Junction via Wakefield / Dewsbury / Bradford / Rochdale to Manchester, even the Harrogate line (instead of clapped out Underground trains!). To accompany this, order new rolling stock for InterCity, Regional Express and particularly Northern locals. Oh! And then send Pacers to Notwork South East!!
October 18, 2011 @ 1:36 pm
Paul,
as a former resident of Leicester who wanted to travel northwards I would agree that links between the East Midlands and the North West were and are poor – even before they closed Manchester – Derby. Admittedly once an hour from Piccadilly to Nottingham. But Leicester ? Derby ? Not sure that reopening Matlock – Millers Dale would be the answer, though, though it would give much better rail access into the Peak Park. About 10 years ago, Scott Wilson Railways did a report jointly for Peak Park Planning Board and Derbyshire County Council. They estimated that reinstatement would cost £840 million, and claimed that equivalent improvements in speed and capacity could be had more cheaply by resignalling the Hope Valley with a couple of extra passing loops in each direction, and doubling the West to South curve at Dore.
I was GMPTE’s representative at Peak Park Transportation Forum at the time, and it was widely agreed not to proceed.
October 18, 2011 @ 6:16 pm
Paul,
Some comments on your latest ‘Salvo’:
Firstly, the M5 disaster. I think you’re absolutely right in what you say, though I have to say that I’ve been a bit surprised at the level of media coverage, which seems unusually high, even taking into account the number of fatalities. An interesting comparison with the level of coverage afforded to the Grayrigg derailment, though, in which the fatality rate was something like 0.5%. This incident does, as you say, highlight the danger in the notion of increasing the speed limit from the current 70 mph.
Railway clubs – don’t forget York Railway Institute. I love going in there, though the buffets they provide for meetings and events are a bit on the unhealthy side. And they sell real ale – usually with a guest beer available. It’s a proper community facility, used by a number of different groups, including a dance studio! There are some great ‘period’ items in there, such as armchairs covered in BR 1st class moquette, and a wonderful brushed aluminium plaque which reads something like “Modernised premises were opened by Mr. Geoffrey Myers, British Railways Board, 17 November 1975″ (I can’t recall the exact wording). I always think it should be read in a thick Yorkshire accent.
TSSA – I read the extract of Gerry Doherty’s resignation letter which was enclosed with the latest TSSA news, and am rather alarmed at what appears to have been going on. It doesn’t sound as though Gerry has left under very happy circumstances. So far as a potential merger with the RMT is concerned, as a TSSA member of 28 years standing, I can say with total certainty that I will never be a member of any organisation in which Bob Crow has any involvement.
November 7, 2011 @ 10:37 am
Great page and website. Great to see loads of Irish references including to James Connolly and the theme of OBU.
And gosh – Greenore – a blast from the distant past. A renown branch from Dundalk at the foot of the legendary Cooley Mountains. I think the interloper may have been a Kerry cow (classic black breed now endangered) but I may be wrong.
In your email you mentioned Warrenpoint which sadly closed in the mid 1960s before the big cuts came. I have very fond memories of going from Edward Street Station across town through Ballybot over the canal and the river and down the ramper to the ‘Point in a steam train. Those were the days.
November 8, 2011 @ 9:44 pm
Wrong Mick – but good try. It was a goat, which ensconced itself in first class and led the charge for the bar on arrival at Greenore
November 8, 2011 @ 10:38 pm
The Salvo an interesting read as usual. I have to break ranks, however on the subject of HS2. I think the North of England and Scotland really does need this if we are to have sustainable development in the future.
If you go to France and Germany you can see how the high-speed lines has helped to regenerate regions of these countries that were becoming de-populated. It’s only when you get back to the UK and switch to one of our ageing “express” trains that you realise how run-down and decrepit the UK’s railway has become despite all the investment that’s gone in. Even the Pendolinos only manage 125 mph despite being capable of 140. With high-speed trains moved to their own track we could really look at developing the classic network to serve local communities and of course bring freight back onto the railway in a meaningful way.
It’s a common fallacy that if the money wasn’t spent on HS2 it would be spent on the rest of the railway network – it wouldn’t, it would probably go an a Thames Gateway airport project or similar. As for Matlock to Buxton, as Peter Johnston explains this wasn’t a goer, and the line is now a very successful walking and cycling route bringing real benefits to the area. I don’t think turning it back into a railway would be a popular move at this stage.
November 14, 2011 @ 11:31 am
Has anybody dared to ask by how much the increased speed limits on the motorways will reduce the modelled benefits of HS2. It seems to me that the billions of supposed benefits to business in the North will have largely evaporated before the first rail is laid.
A subsidiary question might be ” in an age of instant communication, how will a 20 minute journey time improvement from London to Sheffield deliver the alleged benefits?”
This government seems to be suffering from “high speed rail envy” surely it would bring more economic benefits to spend the money on improving the ability of people to actually work on trains – currently impossible on all but a handfull of local rail services across the North.
As a transport planner I find the government to be far too intent on pandering to the middle and upper classes.
November 14, 2011 @ 12:46 pm
Greetings Paul
I am not quite a Luddite, but I don’t think that the HS2 project has been really thought through. Yes, the idea has some good points but suggestion of terminating HS2 at Euston Station beggars belief. Getting in and out of the station and getting to public transport and taxis is difficult enough now. Heaven knows what it will be like with the potential for an additional 300 plus passengers per minute (18 trains per hour and 1100 passengers per train) arriving and departing. Even if there is only one full train arriving every 6 minutes that’s over 180 passengers per minute and if 50% of them want taxis with two people per taxi, that’s 45 taxis per minute!
Think again. Think about connecting it directly with HS1 at St. Pancras / Kings Cross so that, ultimately the north of England can have direct passenger, and perhaps more importantly, direct Berne Gauge freight services to the rest of Europe.
There is space available, you just build a platform deck out over St.Pancras Road, Midland Road and Camley Street.
And that’s probably no more expensive than Euston’s rebuild and without inconveniencing passengers.
November 18, 2011 @ 11:37 am
Paul – I have to agree with Simon on HS2. The further away one is from London the more important its early completion is needed – no use waiting 25-30 years to get north of Manchester. It is currently seen too much in a SE and Midlands perspective but it is essential to relieve pressures on the current route for proper inter-regional and inter-urban services – plus freight which has the potential to develop massively once the capacity is available.
November 27, 2011 @ 12:39 pm
Re-opening the Leeds New Line is a nice idea, Paul, but it would cost a fortune. There are bridges out, the connection at the Leeds end in the Huddersfield direction is partly on private land and the whole trackbed just beyond it, if I recall correctly, now forms a road alignment. In addition to this, a new housing estate was built on the site of Heckmondwike station a couple of years ago, so you’re talking compulsory purchase orders too and all they involve. It’s a nice dream though.
I’m pleased about the electrification announcement, but infrastructure improvements are needed too. There is room at Batley for another passing loop in the westbound direction and the fourth track needs to be reinstated between Thornhill LNW Junction (Ravensthorpe) and Heaton Lodge Junction (west of Mirfield for starters. This all needs to be done at the same time as the electrification work to keep the considerable consequential disruption to a minimum.
November 29, 2011 @ 5:02 pm
Re: Silly Station Sub-titles
I quite like Bag Hill to Hag Fold?
cheers
Ian
December 4, 2011 @ 5:45 pm
Regarding the silly station names, for Cricketers:
Bat & Ball to Bowling with the routing via Oval (LUL) as Lords (Station) has been closed since 1939.
Another slight variation to this game is the Meaningful silly names, e.g.
Fishguard Harbour – Oakengates – Whatstandwell
I’m sure there must be others.
December 13, 2011 @ 12:22 pm
We were pondering somewhere in Germany….. if we were to invest money in raising a few bridges insted of HS2 could we run lots of those double decker trains to increase capacity… or is it more trains not more seats needed? The Germans seem to make room for lots of freight too.
Where is the quiz? wanted to send it to Jamie. Keep him quiet for a bit
December 17, 2011 @ 5:01 pm
Good effort Ernest – see more in latest ‘Salvo
season’s greetings!
Paul
December 18, 2011 @ 7:58 pm
Greetings Paul
Congrats on another interesting and challenging Salvo. Here’s a small thought for you and your other three readers to ponder on over the festive season.
We are now going to increase the number of electrified lines on the network by a reasonable amount not to mention HS2, and beyond, with it’s increased power requirement for operating at 225mph compared to 125mph of 324%!
At the same time, with the decommissioning of nuclear power production and the seeming lack of a replacement power source, it is said we could have a UK power short fall within 15 to 20 years.
So the question is “Will our electrified network be gently grinding to a halt just as HS2 should be up and running?”
But for the moment here’s wishing you, your team and your readers an enjoyable Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.
Robert
December 19, 2011 @ 7:15 pm
Here’s a suggestion for your latest Crank Quiz – Airmyn & Rawcliffe station on the Goole and Selby. This is a double whammy because BOTH of these villages are over 2 miles away from the station and I doubt whether anyone from either village ever traipsed along the main roads (mainly without footpaths) to this station. In fact I’m not sure if anyone ever used the station, except perhaps the residents of the c.10 houses on the main road about a quarter of a mile towards Goole, past the transport cafe. However, I’m sure the bus was more convenient for them. (I did step on the platform once – to alight from the footplate at the age of 10, before the train reached anywhere with a signal box!)
August 9, 2012 @ 1:04 pm
good one John – will add next week!
August 13, 2012 @ 8:25 am