First for cutting carbon emissions

Is it a bird, is it a plane...

No, it's the latest German designed kettle!



Makes Tornado look halfhearted.

(With a bowler tip to Driver Potter and WNXX)

London Midland - no plan B?

So a truly disastrous day for London Midland.

Nothing running on the franchise, with the honourable exception of the Liverpool - Birmingham route.

First a bit of background.

Several months ago London Midland found it difficult to operate all its timetabled Sunday services.

Sunday is of course a rest day and therefore not a rostered turn, requiring staff to volunteer to crew services.

In an attempt to buy its way out of trouble the beleaguered TOC agreed to pay traincrew double time to work on Sundays!

Double time on a £37k drivers salary - nice work if you can get it.

Alas.

This couldn't last, not least because DfT has been making dark noises about LM costs being "out of control".

So an end to this cosy arrangement was never in doubt.

What is causing surprise is LM's apparent lack of preparedness for the obvious backlash.

Why, for instance, weren't managers drafted in to provide a token London service?

No doubt Lord Adonis will be asking the same question of Captain Permatan at their next meeting (sans biscuits).

Curse of Porterbrook?

Captain Deltic may wish to look away now!



Unhappy D9009.

This is of course the same loco that was previously owned by Porterbrook.

And which errr... 'got on fire' on its first public outing after being expensively repainted in the Rosco's livery...

UPDATE: This from an 'Old Porterbrookian'...

Oh no it wasn't!

Porterbrook had 9016 Gordon Highlander.

That was the one which 'got on fire' - nicely snatching defeat from the jaws of a PR victory.

The Fact Compiler stands corrected - a shame as it was a jolly good headline!

UPDATE: This from our International Correspondent...

Fact Compiler - you are such a pants trainspotter!

UPDATE: This just in from Driver Potter...

How sad.

A beached Gunboat.

What a shame there wasn't a third rail present - clearly some form of stabaliser is required...

UPDATE: This from our International Correspondent...

Driver Potter bewails the absence of a third rail beneath the beached gunboat.

Why?

It would just result in the East Coast greyhound emitting a shower of sparks.

And we already know what a Deltic with sparks coming out looks like:


Hopefully we have now managed to work into this thread the correct engine number (and associated PR Own Goal for Porterbrook) that the Fact Compiler thought he was talking about first time round.

No, no, no! I was talking about the second time it "got on fire", or was it the third, just after leaving Brush in 1999 in its pretty new Porterbook livery.

Stewards enquiry shocker

This just in from Bob Poynter...

I am not convinced that David Rowlands voted for himself in your recent poll to identify who should lead high speed rail.

A far more likely explanation is that Sadie the Guide Dog put her paw on the wrong button when trying to vote for herself.

Which is of course why she is the stand out choice to lead the project.