MAIN LINE MISCELLANEA

●● It’d be easy to see the attraction of such a move – but Jeremy Hosking’s spokesman Peter Greenwood has dismissed as “absolute rubbish” speculation that Locomotive Services might take over St Blazey depot in Cornwall. Currently with DB, the Par site includes a listed part-roundhouse (no longer in railway use) and turntable (still used to turn engines on trips such as RTC’s ‘Royal Duchy’ from Bristol). The shed, which opened in 1874, is on the English Heritage ‘at risk’ register.

●● Main line steam has now survived for a quarter of a century on the privatised railway. BR’s David Wardled era came to a formal end in April 1994 with the ‘Inter-City Sunset’ series of trains on the North Wales Coast, using Nunney Castle, Princess Margaret Rose, Sir Nigel Gresley, ‘S15’ No. 828 and Duke of Gloucester. The ‘open access’ that came with the end of the nationalised railway brought an explosion of new itineraries – not least SR’s own ‘Elizabethan’ that took steam back to King’s Cross that October.

●● Union of South Africa’s original springbok plate could be reunited with the engine on the main line – depending on the outcome of the moves to gain the ‘A4’ a boiler extension. The 13in by 12in copper plaque, carried from 1954, was bought by No. 60009’s owner John Cameron at auction before Christmas. Its £3,000 cost was, John jokes, around three-quarters the unadjusted price originally paid to buy the 4-6-2 from BR! ‘Number Nine’ has been in his ownership since 1966 – a much longer period than the Gresley engine was with either the LNER or its successor. The plaque currently on the engine is a replica.

●● Spotted on the door in a vestibule on Germany’s ‘Rodelblitz’ winter weekend ‘main liner’, which climbs up through the snowy Thuringian Forest, (and loosely translated):

Attention!

This compartment/coach is to be kept free for the real steam fans, sound animals and cinder swallowers. The windows remain open for the whole trip, including when the temperature is below zero. We ask for your understanding. Thank you!

Windows shut? Staying in your seat…? Yeah, right… looks like that’s definitely for us Brits!