BH Williams

"Ianigsy" <ianrcragg@m> wrote in message
news:df1defa1-d26d-4cbc-b504-08d535207efa@b1g2000hsg..com...
>> >I did pity the workforce. The weather was utterly horrid. Not what
>> >would have been expected for July.
>>
>> In the days when the line was largely worked on by locals they were
>> presumably used to the weather, which can be very variable.
>> Presumably on the occasions when staff were brought in from other
>> places for long jobs they got used to the weather.
>
> I get the impression these days that there are certain windows of
> opportunity (spring, early summer, mid-autumn) to do serious work on
> the S&C- it's a little like the West Country in that it would be
> unacceptable from an operational point of view to have closures in the
> peak holiday season, but at the same time the conditions don't lend
> themselves to working in the depths of winter either.
It's probably as much because of reduced demand from the electricity
suppliers, so less disruption to supplies. When a closure had to be arranged
at relatively short notice outside of the summer a couple of years ago, EWS
were combining trains to allow them to run via Hexham and the ECML.
Brian