Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on May 02, 2006 at 12:05:53 from 213.38.124.194 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: Thorpe Station - engine changing posted by Owen Roberts on May 02, 2006 at 11:16:05:
Apologies for yet more railwaynerdishness on my part, but I fancy that the train that Dick and Dot were aboard at Norwich Thorpe would not have had a vacuum pipe; it would most probably have been fitted with Westinghouse brakes, being ex-Great Eastern Railway. The time taken to re-establish pressure after coupling up would have been a little less, as GER locomotives had large air reservoirs fitted.
One may speculate that the reason Dick was so interested was that the Westinghouse system was unfamiliar to him, though at this point I am guilty of speculating beyond the text itself.