Railways around Coventry

The guy was me and I still have the photo somewhere.

Cool would be great if you could dig it out

My brother Ray at the controls of Ivatt 2-6-0 No. 46447 travelling away from the single line at Gibbet Hill towards Coventry in 1961. Ray was 18 and a fireman at Coventry.

Birmingham International Panel in Birmingham New Street signal box closed this morning. Coventry workstation at the West Midlands Signalling Centre send a traditional midlands farewell. Ta-Ra a Bit. Peter. (Image from Open Train Times with permission)

Hi Peter, I use that site often. Maybe after this upgrade, we might get the signal status north of International. Thank you for your flow of info to our forum Best wishes to you, ps. I have included this simply because it really takes the biscuit, if you will pardon the expression. It is not in Coventry. Can someone call the AA, or ring the Royal!

I have finally got photo upload to work again (I think backing up to the cloud was slowing it down too much). Finally here is the headboard (Windowboard?) from the re-opening of Kenilworth Station. Peter.

I have nothing but praise for Kenilworth station, in particular its staff. For the long bank holiday weekend just gone, we went from Kenilworth to Euston. There was a problem with the car parking ticket machine, which is because it had not been programmed correctly. It didn't recognise a £2 coin, didn't understand the difference between weekend/bank holiday/weekdays, and so forth. The gentleman could not have been more helpful, leaving his office to come outside and help sort out the issue. A small one-horse town station with friendly staff. Contrast that with Euston a few weeks ago, where I can only describe the uniformed army of Virgin staff as unhelpful and obstructive, and all because of an error on the part of Virgin staff at another station. For the fist time in my life I've filed an official complaint against them and am claiming a refund. (Whilst on the subject of the machine being incorrectly programmed [station staff told me that, and they were correct], it annoys me when organisations, e.g. as in the recent NHS issue, blame "a computer error" for a cock-up. They are misleading the public. It's easy to blame an inanimate machine. In reality, computer hardware errors are rare. What happens is that the software screws up because it has not been written correctly, or hasn't been tested thoroughly, or specified correctly in the first place. And that's human error which they don't like to admit to!)

Sunday services from Kenilworth Could Start in December (Kenilworth News) West Midlands Trains have put in a track access application to run a Sunday service through Kenilworth from the December timetable change (Sunday 9th December). This assumes that the 'new' (ex London Overground) trains are available by then. They also want to run "an" extra service (technically this means extra one train a day, not a half hourly service) and link with the Nuneaton service to run Nuneaton-Leamington through trains. The application form should be online shortly which will have more details. Just because they are asking doesn't mean they will get what they want. One implication could be more Birmingham trains using platform 4 so that the Nuneaton Trains don't have to cross the lines to and from Birmingham at the same time which would be a timetabling nightmare. Peter,

Hi & thank you for that Peter If they are the same refurbished units, their/there/they're use on the Bletchley line might be a sign. Let's hope so. ps. English students, should that be a there or their?

Neither Phil ! It's they are so should be they're.

Good morning Philip That should be a "their" in this instance (the possessive form).

Hello 3Spires, Thank you so much. Will I have to write lines in detention?

Looks like I will have to join you Phil, completeley misread it Write it out 100 times

A warm "Thank you" to both of you for your good natured and humorous comments - a tribute to the quality of this forum

The new units for Kenilworth are supposed to be Class 172's from London Overground which were due to transfer to the West Midlands in the Autumn, but I read somewhere this this has been postponed due to the late delivery of the trains that are replacing them. West Midland Trains are also hiring three 2-car Ex London Underground Class 230's for the Bletchley-Bedford line. These were originally Proposed for the Coventry-Nuneaton line, but this was abandoned when the trial unit caught fire at Kenilworth. They could be used as a stop gap on the Kenilworth service until the class 172's become available. Particularly as there is no Sunday service on the Bletchley-Bedford line. Peter.