Conversation Starter

[StevieG]

I'm sure I've heard several people over the years refer black to other places known as 'The linger' - (perhaps that was also an abbreviation of 'linger & die', although I've a feeling some of them referred to block sections where Permissive working was in force, and queues of goods trains could spend hours 'lingering' in the queue, awaiting regulating margins, until being released after reaching the front*) - usually referring to completely different locations.
* - Tales of footplatemen and guards have been heard of their sometimes spending a whole shift on such trains during which time they did not even turn a wheel, though whether this was during exceptional traffic situations (wartime?, mishap/line blockage, or just when we still moved a lot of freight), I couldn't say.
When detained at a lower quadrant signal for a lengthy period, one trick to avoid having to frequently look for it having cleared, was apparently for the fireman to take a bucket up and hang it on the arm; then on hearing the clatter of the bucket falling, the signal had obviously cleared, so they could be on their way after collecting the bucket. Also perhaps handy for a tall signal in fog. Maybe not such a good idea for a signal at the top edge of an embankment!

Another, possibly not uncommon nickname, was 'the Khyber Pass', although to me that only means the Down Goods at Wood Green, between No.3 and WG Tunnel signal boxes, as it threaded its way through the narrow gap between a high retaining wall on its west side, and the quite high south end ramp to the Down Hertford ('New Line') flyover to the east.

[giner]

Yep, maybe the poor fella was bustin' a gut . These kinds of pictures always make me smile. I don't know why, but they always seem to have a Monty Pythonesque tone about them.

[52A]

Link updated.

http://ww2.durham.gov.uk/dre/pgDre.aspx ... ID=DRE1930

[52D]

Ive got this courtesy Roy Lambeth Durham Mining Museum;

Linger & Die Bridge was the railway bridge carrying the Leasingthorne & Chilton Collieries Railway over the East Coast Main Line. The only reference to the name on a map was on the OS map for the early 1950s which showed a rough area just to the North-East of this bridge, between the ECML & the Ferryhill-Stockton line. There was also a short street of probably railway cottages at this point, but now long gone. I have no knowledge where the name came from.

[bobser]

Re the accident at Preston Le Skerne.

During my time as a Guard then Travelling Ticket Inspector at Newcastle (1972 - 1988) I worked regularly with Tommy McMeekin who was a Guard on one of the trains involved. I think he was on the Manchester to Newcastle paper train.

Tommy also went on to become a Travelling Ticket Inspector and he retired early in 1988 when the Grade of Trains Inspector was introduced on the Eastern Region.

I went to Newcastle from Grantham in April 1972 and I cannot remember any loops still being there then but I don't know when they were removed.

Bobser