Mr E Driver

Deutsch Reichsbahn Class 41 at the Sinsheim Technik Museum today. Impressive engine, very impressive museum.

Mary Ann + Smooth + Reliable = 🤔

I thought you liked accuracy?

Yes, I’d just brought it in.

67012 on arrival at MAN this morning with 1W11.

Station noir:

150280 is todays chariot on the Salop-Crewe local.

A rarity north of Salop these days, 150267 is the weapon of choice for this evening on 2K64 & 2J70 Crewe locals.

Despite the appearance of the invasive and unwelcome 197 species (CheapAs Fuckis), 158s are still the main form of traction between Aberystwyth and Birmingham International. For how much longer though?

I took RF off my internet route card a long time ago, I’ve never been back.

552 rivets, all fitted in the last 3 days by the KS4415 team. Another little job done in the slow but steady restoration of Britain’s oldest-surviving diesel loco.

Now this looks fit. #festiniog

Earlestown, a bit off patch for me normally but there is one job a day where we pass from Chester to Piccadilly via Warrington. Nice to see a different bit of railway, even if it is dark and foggy.

It’s remarkable how ‘natural’ it feels watching that, almost like the view forwards from the cab of the Vale.

In its best form there too, with the bins rather than the brass dome covers.

Throwback to February 2018, with the Earl of Merioneth & the Linda at Beddgelert. This was my last turn on the Square before it came out of service later that year.

Used to love working the beds as a TM, rolling through Cornwall on 1C99 to the sun rising was always pleasant.

Another day, another trip to the South West stood in the toilet vestibule of a Voyager with 10 other people because XC can’t/won’t take on extra units currently in storage. Only two hours to Plymouth…

2V20, 0420 SHR-LLO, 01/01/25. Going to be a busy train, there’s an awful lot of fresh air to be moved about.

Earliest book on today, so first order of business - replace the messroom calendar. Roman Priests out, local Chinese restaurant in:

HNY and all that.

Guess who got the ‘joys’ of an STP early turn made even earlier?

A brace of 158s forming what should be my last working of the year, 1D15 from Birmingham International to Salop.

158 miscellany at Salop in P5 & P6. 1327 to Aberystwyth in 5, 1330 to Birmingham International in 6.

On what may well be my last trip to Llanwrtyd, 153318 waits in the Dn platform just prior to working back to Salop on 2M12 last night.

My favourite units to work, without a doubt. Still amazed that I saw them come into service when I was 8-9, and 30-odd years later I drive them.

I do. One day I might even get to wear it over the appropriate routes.

Some early infernal combustion. This is part of a McLaren-Benz MDB4, out of one of the earliest surviving diesel locomotives. It’s part of a long term project to return the loco to working order and is probably the most involved power unit restoration yet attempted - see www.kerrstuart4415.org.uk

Whilst Severn Bridge Jn is famous for its sheer size as the largest remaining mechanical SB, nearby is the equally impressive Crewe Jn. SBJ lost its LNWR locking frame in the early 1960s in favour of a lightweight WR frame, but CJ retains the very solidly built LNWR frame from 1903.

2V04 at Llanwrtyd, with 153367 & 935.

I don’t get the hate for the Loram colours - ultimately Loram have invested in keeping 418 going, and keeping it mechanically good and working on the mainline is more important than the paint pigment.

418 was a regular North Wales Coast machine in the 1990s when painted in Regional Railways colours and named East Lancashire Railway, I saw it in Crewe plenty of times and had a fair few runs up the coast behind it.