So 2012 is already underway by three days, and its come in with another big blow meaning that my poor roof gets another battering from Mother Nature.
Still it is traditional at this time of year to dust of the stargazing charts and make predictions for the new year. This time we have employed the talents of that Diva of the occult, Madame Mystic Freg.
So without further ado, and before she drinks too much of the sherry , lets hear what she has to say about the Works over the coming months........
Cravens will inhabit the Works if a Canadian soldier can ever make good his promises.
An overweight man from far away will have sleepless nights as his gold is boiled by frogs to move platforms in the West.
The short stranger from foreign lands will be taken for a journey to the sea and will bring much happiness
Much red gold will be sold to foreign merchants
Five years of good harvests will be announced to the World
An old friend will appear with a new suit of clothes but his good name restored
Pilgrims will come to the temple to see old ways, bringing gold for the elderly
A school will rise and fly the nest in the spring
What was three, will be four and will grow
Wise men from Russia will pay homage to a Scotsman's palace
An old soldier that was wounded will be returned to health and given work
Men from Wales, Italy and Poland will talk with flamed tongues
Peopletrucks will continue to multiply
A leaping black cat will do or die
All of which may or may not happen, if the mad old bat is to believed.
Still, here's one of my own.
In 2012 the bastard son of the DFT known as IEP will be laid to rest. And about time too.
By the way, the first person to email us with the correct version of what all of that really means, or even the most correct answer, will win a personalised tour of the Works
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Happy New Year!
Hopefully everyone has had an enjoyable Christmas and we're all looking forward to a rewarding New Year in 2012.
2011 finished much as you might expect with surprises right up to the end! Three Class 59s arrived just before Christmas for heavy maintenance by Arlington. With all the 57s about and a 31 on a Test Train it's looking more and more like a diesel depot!
Also arriving before Christmas was Peppercorn A1 'TORNADO' with its support coach. Built in the 21st Century to a 1940s design, it's certainly an impressive machine.
What can we look forward to in 2012? Well, that's the big question and one that few of us really know the answer to but it is fairly certain that there will continue to be interesting and even exciting things to see happening at the Works. Don't blink, you might miss it!
All the best for 2012.
Carl.
2011 finished much as you might expect with surprises right up to the end! Three Class 59s arrived just before Christmas for heavy maintenance by Arlington. With all the 57s about and a 31 on a Test Train it's looking more and more like a diesel depot!
Also arriving before Christmas was Peppercorn A1 'TORNADO' with its support coach. Built in the 21st Century to a 1940s design, it's certainly an impressive machine.
What can we look forward to in 2012? Well, that's the big question and one that few of us really know the answer to but it is fairly certain that there will continue to be interesting and even exciting things to see happening at the Works. Don't blink, you might miss it!
All the best for 2012.
Carl.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
The North Wind Doth Blow
Well allright, it came from the West but boy did it blow and rain on Monday night.
The problem with an old building is always the roof but ours stood up to the storm force winds pretty well, with only two cracked panes out of the 4000 odd up there.
Its a big roof and keeping it in good order is a bit like painting the Forth Bridge (used to be). Each of the four bays has 800 8 x 3ft panes of glass, whilst the overall roof area is 40,000 square yards.
On the ground, the Works looks more and more like an MPD, with 57s and 73s in every corner. We expect to see more of them as the cold weather starts to bite later in the week.
All we've got to do is last out the storms that are forecast for the weekend
The problem with an old building is always the roof but ours stood up to the storm force winds pretty well, with only two cracked panes out of the 4000 odd up there.
Its a big roof and keeping it in good order is a bit like painting the Forth Bridge (used to be). Each of the four bays has 800 8 x 3ft panes of glass, whilst the overall roof area is 40,000 square yards.
On the ground, the Works looks more and more like an MPD, with 57s and 73s in every corner. We expect to see more of them as the cold weather starts to bite later in the week.
All we've got to do is last out the storms that are forecast for the weekend
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday dear Eastleigh Works, Happy Birthday to us.
On the 11th December 2006 the first train to arrive at the newly reopened Eastleigh Works, courtesy of GBRf and Angel Trains.
The train consisted of 4 x 153 , numbers 302, 308, 355 and 374
We will have to celebrate this in 2012 I think
On the 11th December 2006 the first train to arrive at the newly reopened Eastleigh Works, courtesy of GBRf and Angel Trains.
The train consisted of 4 x 153 , numbers 302, 308, 355 and 374
We will have to celebrate this in 2012 I think
Monday, 5 December 2011
adieu to old friends
Last week we said goodbye to the 150s we have had in store. Smart looking units, its a nice way to start the 60th month since I first took the place on. Back then it was 153s and 158s from Wales and Wessex that turned up, shortly before Christmas 2006.
It was a very different site then, with new shiny transit vans infesting the place like parasitic growth, and rusty rails leading into eerily quiet workshops. Contractors were busy ripping out tracks at the back end of the Works and there were still a few Alstom bods holed up in the main office building.
Of course its easy to be wise in hindsight, and I always thought that the Works had a good future. Yet despite all of that, I don't really think I gave much thought to how things would pan out at Eastleigh, other than thinking that it had a good chance of survival, even if it didn't make any money.
The truth is of course that a good idea has its own momentum and its sometimes easy to forget just how green I was back then. I didn't know anybody at Arlington Fleet or Siemens and was just concentrating on storing 442s and 15X units for my friends at Angel.
Now the Works is once again a proper engineering centre and storing units seems to be a little straightforward and run of the mill, compared with the great things that happen in the main shops.
I never thought that I would get underground trains on site and yet last week I was happily driving an ex Victoria Line unit up and down the yard under its own power.
I also didn't anticipate the recession of 2008, or the fact that Eastleigh would have to stand on its own two feet from 2009 onwards, rather than be a satellite of our Shoebury operations.
The transit vans are long gone, the demand for posh vans having never recovered from the Banking crash of 08. Shoebury is now a clear of any commercial activity and staggers on under the dead hand of MOD management. Yet Eastleigh continues to grow from strength to strength.
I'm all toured out, having shown 4 groups around the Works in as many weeks. Its quite enjoyable showing people what we do, although it is getting harder to find the time away from the daily grind to do it.
Apart from the enthusiastic amateurs, I also enjoy showing potential customers around the place and last week we had a particularly satisfying reaction from one of their engineers. He did a perfect demonstration of jaw dropping when he looked into the front of Bay 4 and saw just how huge the place is. When I showed him another three bays like it his reaction was just as marked.
" I didn't think places like this still existed" was his comment.
Sums it all up for me, that
It was a very different site then, with new shiny transit vans infesting the place like parasitic growth, and rusty rails leading into eerily quiet workshops. Contractors were busy ripping out tracks at the back end of the Works and there were still a few Alstom bods holed up in the main office building.
Of course its easy to be wise in hindsight, and I always thought that the Works had a good future. Yet despite all of that, I don't really think I gave much thought to how things would pan out at Eastleigh, other than thinking that it had a good chance of survival, even if it didn't make any money.
The truth is of course that a good idea has its own momentum and its sometimes easy to forget just how green I was back then. I didn't know anybody at Arlington Fleet or Siemens and was just concentrating on storing 442s and 15X units for my friends at Angel.
Now the Works is once again a proper engineering centre and storing units seems to be a little straightforward and run of the mill, compared with the great things that happen in the main shops.
I never thought that I would get underground trains on site and yet last week I was happily driving an ex Victoria Line unit up and down the yard under its own power.
I also didn't anticipate the recession of 2008, or the fact that Eastleigh would have to stand on its own two feet from 2009 onwards, rather than be a satellite of our Shoebury operations.
The transit vans are long gone, the demand for posh vans having never recovered from the Banking crash of 08. Shoebury is now a clear of any commercial activity and staggers on under the dead hand of MOD management. Yet Eastleigh continues to grow from strength to strength.
I'm all toured out, having shown 4 groups around the Works in as many weeks. Its quite enjoyable showing people what we do, although it is getting harder to find the time away from the daily grind to do it.
Apart from the enthusiastic amateurs, I also enjoy showing potential customers around the place and last week we had a particularly satisfying reaction from one of their engineers. He did a perfect demonstration of jaw dropping when he looked into the front of Bay 4 and saw just how huge the place is. When I showed him another three bays like it his reaction was just as marked.
" I didn't think places like this still existed" was his comment.
Sums it all up for me, that
We all knew that there was a lot of interest in the work that goes on here at Eastleigh Works, hence this blog and the decision in 2011 to operate guided public tours. However, none of us really expected the interest to be a high as it is. We recently announced our first four tours for 2012 and all were fully booked within just four days!
Unfortunately this means we have a lot of people who have been unsuccessful in applying for tickets and who will be receiving letters shortly explaining this. We have to limit numbers to a manageable level or the visit takes too long and with the Works so busy it's already eating into the working day to provide the tours in the first place.
The up side is that all the people I've spoken to and those who've emailed and written following their visits have enjoyed it and many want to come again....we must be doing something right.
Let's not forget that the reason we've done these tours is to raise money for the Mayor of Eastleigh's charities and we're proud to say that we have raised over £1000 in 2011. Thank you to everyone for your support in this.
Cheers,
Carl.
Unfortunately this means we have a lot of people who have been unsuccessful in applying for tickets and who will be receiving letters shortly explaining this. We have to limit numbers to a manageable level or the visit takes too long and with the Works so busy it's already eating into the working day to provide the tours in the first place.
The up side is that all the people I've spoken to and those who've emailed and written following their visits have enjoyed it and many want to come again....we must be doing something right.
Let's not forget that the reason we've done these tours is to raise money for the Mayor of Eastleigh's charities and we're proud to say that we have raised over £1000 in 2011. Thank you to everyone for your support in this.
Cheers,
Carl.
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Firstly I should apologise to everybody over how long its been since my last post ( confession?). I'll say three Hail Marys and hope to be forgiven
The reason is (of course) because we are run off our feet down here as the work continues to come in. Looking over the 12 months since we started this blog we have taken on more staff, laid more track and renovated more buildings and yet we never seem to have enough space. As of next week the yard is officially full until something moves out to make space for new arrivals.
Not that anybody is complaining here. The growth in work allows us to invest in the infrastructure in order to create business in the future. Even the impending world financial meltdown doesn't seem as if its going to harm us here (touch wood) as the spend spend spend school of running our railways notices how much cheaper it is to make older but good reliable vehicles work even harder for their money.
And its nice to know that people are starting to sit up and take notice of what we are doing here. I met up with the council's economic development people on site and they were frankly a bit lost for words at the scale of the growth in business on site. The expansion of the area now in use for railway work here is pretty impressive. In the past 12 months it has almost doubled to the extent that there is only one small part of the main building that is not in use.
For those who came to the Eastleigh 100 event, the area where the stalls were is now being refurbished to allow carriage and wagon overhauls, courtesy of new lines being installed out the back of the Works, where the old traversers used to be. The groundwork has been done and the panels are stacked up ready to be laid.
Even the old Bosh shop has a big hole in the outer wall for a line to be laid over a new deep inspection pit that is being built. The rails are on site and the new pit wall is being constructed next week.
Some of my favourite news is the pending arrival of two new 30 ton overhead cranes for installation into Bay 2 by Arlington. What odds could you have got for this back in 2006? I also am proud of the installation of a short length of 4th rail that allows us to power up underground cars at the Works, something else that nobody could have predicted. I've spent a happy afternoon learning how to make the various automated announcements work on 72 tube stock, another first for me.
The appearance of two old standard stock tube cars for dismantling is a bit sad. These two cars are in NSE livery, having been brought back to the mainland from the Isle of Wight some 20 years ago. These ancient vehicles were converted from standard LuL cars at Eastleigh Works in the 1960s so they have a connection with the Works that goes back a long way. Parts from these two cars will be used to create a working train of standard stock for London Underground so its not all bad news.
The tiny KOf shunters are creating a bit of a stir. We're sworn to secrecy but we may even give them a chance to stretch their legs next year. There is just the small matter of getting them running properly first but one of them is very nearly there.
I'm very conscious that the 5th anniversary of the reopening of the Works is looming this December and we will announce some really good news to coincide with that.
In the meantime we have decided that the theme for the 2012 calendar will be the first five years, highlighting some of the vehicles that have played there part in our recent history.
As before we will be selling copies of the calendar via our website so please contact us via www.rail-services.net if you want one.
I've just seen a 66 on load 8 come past under the window so its time to go and do some shunting in the dark. Still at least its not raining.........
The reason is (of course) because we are run off our feet down here as the work continues to come in. Looking over the 12 months since we started this blog we have taken on more staff, laid more track and renovated more buildings and yet we never seem to have enough space. As of next week the yard is officially full until something moves out to make space for new arrivals.
Not that anybody is complaining here. The growth in work allows us to invest in the infrastructure in order to create business in the future. Even the impending world financial meltdown doesn't seem as if its going to harm us here (touch wood) as the spend spend spend school of running our railways notices how much cheaper it is to make older but good reliable vehicles work even harder for their money.
And its nice to know that people are starting to sit up and take notice of what we are doing here. I met up with the council's economic development people on site and they were frankly a bit lost for words at the scale of the growth in business on site. The expansion of the area now in use for railway work here is pretty impressive. In the past 12 months it has almost doubled to the extent that there is only one small part of the main building that is not in use.
For those who came to the Eastleigh 100 event, the area where the stalls were is now being refurbished to allow carriage and wagon overhauls, courtesy of new lines being installed out the back of the Works, where the old traversers used to be. The groundwork has been done and the panels are stacked up ready to be laid.
Even the old Bosh shop has a big hole in the outer wall for a line to be laid over a new deep inspection pit that is being built. The rails are on site and the new pit wall is being constructed next week.
Some of my favourite news is the pending arrival of two new 30 ton overhead cranes for installation into Bay 2 by Arlington. What odds could you have got for this back in 2006? I also am proud of the installation of a short length of 4th rail that allows us to power up underground cars at the Works, something else that nobody could have predicted. I've spent a happy afternoon learning how to make the various automated announcements work on 72 tube stock, another first for me.
The appearance of two old standard stock tube cars for dismantling is a bit sad. These two cars are in NSE livery, having been brought back to the mainland from the Isle of Wight some 20 years ago. These ancient vehicles were converted from standard LuL cars at Eastleigh Works in the 1960s so they have a connection with the Works that goes back a long way. Parts from these two cars will be used to create a working train of standard stock for London Underground so its not all bad news.
The tiny KOf shunters are creating a bit of a stir. We're sworn to secrecy but we may even give them a chance to stretch their legs next year. There is just the small matter of getting them running properly first but one of them is very nearly there.
I'm very conscious that the 5th anniversary of the reopening of the Works is looming this December and we will announce some really good news to coincide with that.
In the meantime we have decided that the theme for the 2012 calendar will be the first five years, highlighting some of the vehicles that have played there part in our recent history.
As before we will be selling copies of the calendar via our website so please contact us via www.rail-services.net if you want one.
I've just seen a 66 on load 8 come past under the window so its time to go and do some shunting in the dark. Still at least its not raining.........
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