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More from loganberrybunny
Well, I've uploaded a number of photos of fine old steam trains, so maybe it's about time you saw something a little more workaday. In the rain, too! This London Midland Class 150 DMU is the type of train I travel on more than any other. They're gradually being displaced by the much newer Class 172s, but "gradually" is the word (they're a year late being introduced as it is!) and I expect to be using the 150s for a little while longer yet.
The Class 150s are not very exciting trains, with a top speed of only 75 mph (that they rarely reach anyway on their usual stop-start runs) but they've done a job for a quarter of a century now and don't break down too much. I'd say I'll be sorry to see them go, but in fact LM are retaining a few even after the 172s have been completely rolled out. This train is at Kidderminster; it will go up beyond the signalbox, then cross to the near line and come back towards the camera to start its journey to Dorridge, on the other side of Birmingham.
Framing this photo was a little bit tricky. I wanted to avoid the distraction of the Severn Valley Railway lines (just off to the right) but also wanted to keep the semaphore signal and the signalbox in, since both of those will be no more after resignalling work in the area next summer.
The Class 150s are not very exciting trains, with a top speed of only 75 mph (that they rarely reach anyway on their usual stop-start runs) but they've done a job for a quarter of a century now and don't break down too much. I'd say I'll be sorry to see them go, but in fact LM are retaining a few even after the 172s have been completely rolled out. This train is at Kidderminster; it will go up beyond the signalbox, then cross to the near line and come back towards the camera to start its journey to Dorridge, on the other side of Birmingham.
Framing this photo was a little bit tricky. I wanted to avoid the distraction of the Severn Valley Railway lines (just off to the right) but also wanted to keep the semaphore signal and the signalbox in, since both of those will be no more after resignalling work in the area next summer.
Category Photography / Miscellaneous
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1280 x 720px
File Size 557.5 kB
You probably don't wish you had these. I will miss them when they're gone, but they are getting old now -- they've had a hard life since appearing in the 1980s, and are working harder now than ever. Kidderminster has four trains an hour to Birmingham and two an hour to Worcester for most of the day, and until the Class 172s began to appear these Class 150s did just about all of that work.
ah but you see we don't have anywhere near that kind of frequency nor level of service within a distance from me greater then that of your entire nation, possibly the whole of the islands of your extended nation.
there is one long distance commute service near where i live. it consists of locomotive hauled bilevel push pull consists. cab car on one end, lokey on the other. total of five scedules a day. only one each way is actually train the entire distance. and only two longer distance schedules that run once each way daily (one of which only passes through here in the middle of the night and you actually have to catch it in the next town over.
at any rate, we have no multiple unit services and again nothing like the frequency of rail service you discribe. we used to have tons of busses on the highway, that offered local services to every village and town, but even these any more no longer stop at all of them.
granted we wouldn't want the equipment to be nearing the end of their useful life and on the verge of distigrating, but anything close to that level of service, with ANY kind of equipment, would be a myrical, given the dominant political attitudes toward public transit of any kind here.
it is true we actually have a slightly higher number of trains then we once did before the near compete hiatus in the 70s and 80s. but only a couple more, that don't go as far, and for more then double, probably more then triple, the level of population.
there is one long distance commute service near where i live. it consists of locomotive hauled bilevel push pull consists. cab car on one end, lokey on the other. total of five scedules a day. only one each way is actually train the entire distance. and only two longer distance schedules that run once each way daily (one of which only passes through here in the middle of the night and you actually have to catch it in the next town over.
at any rate, we have no multiple unit services and again nothing like the frequency of rail service you discribe. we used to have tons of busses on the highway, that offered local services to every village and town, but even these any more no longer stop at all of them.
granted we wouldn't want the equipment to be nearing the end of their useful life and on the verge of distigrating, but anything close to that level of service, with ANY kind of equipment, would be a myrical, given the dominant political attitudes toward public transit of any kind here.
it is true we actually have a slightly higher number of trains then we once did before the near compete hiatus in the 70s and 80s. but only a couple more, that don't go as far, and for more then double, probably more then triple, the level of population.
Thank you! I had to cross that footbridge anyway to get to the bus stop, so I'd have got wet anyway. I wasn't specifically waiting for a shot like this; it was a pure coincidence that any trains were about. I see what you mean about the weather, though: most people would feel rather gloomy and grey if they realised they would be spending their days repeatedly going to Stourbridge Junction. =:P
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