Hello there! Just wondering if it would be okay to use some footage for a video I'm releasing in the future regarding the class 73s and stock? Full credit will be given!
That is the Up Home signal for Wittersham Road. Whenever we see the two stop signal arms one above the other like that it shows we are approaching a junction with two routes. The upper arm applies to the line on the left (in this case the platform road) and the lower arm applies to line on the right (in this case the 'through' or 'main' route).
Given that Connex had to be bailed and then failed in 2003 I expect the livery was the least of their problems. There's nostalgia for those slam-door trains but probably not much for Connex itself!
That blast up the bank put me in mind of a firing turn I had on one of the Austerities, sometime in the mid 90s, with the late Chris Mitchell. We reached Rolvenden, and Chris looked across at me with a wicked twinkle in his eye, and asked how it looked. I told him that we'd got a good batch of coal, a clean fire, no problem with water or steam. "Shall we go for it?", he asked; "Why not?", I replied - and by God, we certainly did! As we approached Cranbrook Road, the crossing keeper had his hands over his ears and a *huge* grin on his face! I don't know what our time was, Rolvenden to Tenterden, but I bet it was a goodly bit quicker than shown in the WTT . . . Chris and Carole Mitchell, very good friends, and great people to work with. ♥
Loved those 4Cigs and 4Ceps……lovely times travelling between Lewes and East Croydon in the 60s and 70s whilst working on the Southern, when we had a proper Railway.
