General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

In the early 1970s I used to visit the TMD at Old Oak Common in London in me trainspotting days, although has I have said before, I wasn't really interested in collecting numbers, I just liked trains, and the locos which hauled them, and Old Oak Common was actually the TMD stabling locomotives on the old GWR main line from Paddington to Penzance in the Southwest.
For yoo train buffs who are loco, the Western Region of BR used diesel hydraulic locos, instead of the usual diesel electrics, and I was fascinated at the sight of Westerns(52's). Warships(43s) and Hymeks(35s) on the Old Oak Common turntable

Although it is on the old Western Region of BR, Old Oak Common is only a stones throw away from the WCML, as it approaches London Euston.

To repeat meself, I believe that HS2 died on the day that George Osborne was sacked as Chancellor of the Exchequer, by the incoming new Prime Minister Theresa May, rubber stamped in my opinion, by Theresa Mays decision to divert money for HS2 into the Crossrail 2 project in London.

When the eastern section of HS2 to Leeds was cancelled two years ago, followed by the spur on to the WCML at Lowton, near Wigan, I thought it was only a matter of time before the link from Birmingham to Manchester would be cancelled, and now I ask myself what would be the point of building HS2 from Old Oak Common to Birmingham, because as has already been said, it would be quicker to travel on the present train service from Euston to Birmingham, rather than travel the few miles to Old Oak Common just to catch an HS2 train to Birmingham, but as to what Rishi Sunak has got planned for HS2, I just don't know, but I am sure we will all find out soon

In my opinion and to repeat myself, to increase capacity on the main line rail network in Britain, why not reopen lines closed by Beeching, to take freight trains off the main line networks, and to provision for new local passenger services, and it is being mentioned frequently about the fact that the line across the North of England from Liverpool to Hull and Newcastle, is badly served by rail, and I personally think that the 13 mile route on the old Woodhead line from Hadfield to Penistone, which was closed in 1981, should be reopened to relieve the Hope Valley line, increasing capacity on that line, because the Hope Valley line, is the only way across the Pennines, from Manchester to Leeds