Any punters living in Birmingham Area interested in a Pie, Pint and jaw, one evening in a pub in Birmingham area.
Personally interested in small time investing(gambling), developing an appetite for CFDs. Also developing an interest in Charting or TA.

I use Sharescope, Moneyam, Barclays, Comdirect and IC

I think I have seen one of the CDs and would not consider purchasing it. The other parts I leave to you.

Chris, can you remember the name of that Thai resturant that you pointed out to us last night in Bennetts Hill as we might go there Sat. Night please?

It's a secret not saying

Well, OK then, heres the info:

It's the THAI ORCHID.

They're part of a (Thai) owned group. Good Thai Food (not the wishy-washy pseudo-Thai stuff).

Website is:

http://www.thaigroup.co.uk/restaurants/orchid.html#Birmingham

"The Thai Orchid Group of Restaurants is celebrating after winning Thailands most prestigious "Best Service Provider" award from the Prime Minister of Thailand, His Excellency, Thaksin Shinawatra - at a glittering ceremony in Bangkok. Only two other restaurants were selected from around the entire globe!"

Thanks, any rough idea on prices for straight forward meal.

Think It will be a toss up between the Ochid and the Barton Arms, depends on time and how we feel on the night. Am I correct in saying that it was the No.33 or 3 bus from the centre out to the BA?

Fred, I think that on the night the feeling was the same regarding the value of that CD -):

33 bus from Dale End - near Carling Academy for BA. Runs quite often.

I've got the Take Away menu for the Orchid - on that starters are @ 3.50, main course @5.50 (+ rice @2). Or they do set menu's starting from about 13.50 per person. So think you need to add service charge to that if your eating in there. The buffet lunch is excellent - that used to be 12.50 but was very good value for choice / quality available.

See EXPN is finally moving north now.

PS.... If you're specifically looking for Thai meal, then theres a fairly new one on the canal behind the Mailbox in the City Centre thats authentic and good. Menu for that is on the website:
http://www.kinnaree.co.uk/
They used to have Thai dancers on Saturday evenings - not sure if they still do...

There are other 'Thai' outlets in the City Centre - but Thai Orchid & Kinnaree the best.... Overall in Brum, think the Barton Arms is the best in terms of value for food .... and of course, a pint of JHB can be partaken of at the same venue

There's also a couple of good one's in Stratford ...... The Boathouse and The Thai Kingdom.... (the Kingdom is the place for a good value lunch)...

And if your in London, then best value Thai eatery is also part of a drinking establishment ..... The Churchill Arms .... easy to get to .... just a short walk from Notting Hill tube station....
http://www.pubs.com/pub_details.cfm?ID=159

I see Biffa shot up towards close of trading today....

And back to the choo - choo's. Stan/55, are you aware of a partner with an interest in both existing Chiltern Railways and the new Wrexham to London service :

"Chiltern Railways is owned by M40 Trains. All shares in M40 Trains are owned by John Laing plc through Laing Rail Ltd."

"Wrexham & Shropshire is a joint venture between Renaissance Trains and Laing Rail."

Wrexham & Shropshire expects to operate trainsets formed of a single class 67 diesel-electric locomotive, three air-conditioned MkIII carriages, and a driving van trailer (DVT) at the rear. All will be painted in the silver and grey Wrexham & Shropshire livery. (So seems it won't be a Deltic plus Mark 2 TSO carraiges with a
Mk2a BFK Brake Corridor First at the end -all in Express Parcels Blue).

Thanks for the comprehensive info Chris.

Lang Rail were taken over I think turn of the year, thought it may have impeded the new line but did not.

Liang Rail still showing on John Liang website as being part of the group. However, a few months ago it was announced that John Laing is conducting a strategic review of its Laing Rail business, which could lead to the sale of the subsidiary that operates the Chiltern Trains and London Rail services. Don't know what progress on that is....

Have to have a ride on the new rail service when it opens as haven't travelled in a C3 carraige for ages and ages.....

As regards the loco's, I think they were built in Spain especially for use on high-speed mail trains including the Travelling Post Office services. So were redundant from about three years ago..... But a couple are / were in Royal Claret colour scheme for hauling the Royal Train.

Blimey just seen the Biffa news ( I missed the market closing ) up nearly 25% and other lot saying that they won't take no for an answer. Maybe some miles to go on BIFF now.

Back to the choo-choo's. Interesting route (& will be even more 'interesting when Virgin increase B'ham-London services to 20 minute intervals):

From Wrexham General, the proposed route runs to Shrewsbury, then to Wolverhampton. From Wolverhampton it will be routed via Tame Bridge Parkway, Birmingham International and Coventry, before joining the Chiltern Main Line at Leamington Spa. Under the terms of the Contract, trains will not be permitted to call at Coventry or Leamington Spa. However, the agreement does allow for WSMR trains to serve Birmingham International, but the company's proposed timetable does not include this.

WSMR plan to use the currently disused bay platforms (Wrexham General station) at the end of platform one and use empty offices as their train crew depot

Things looking up in this part of the country then?

Surprised they're not exercising the chance of stopping at Birmingham International. I thought it woukd be handy for people travelling from Shrops to Birmingham Airport.....
But quick look at timetable indicates it was faster in days of BR from S'bury to London - even though there was a change locos at Wolves whilst passengers remained aboard same carraiges.

Survived - by "C3" do you mean a MK3? If so did you know that there is a set of them deputising on the Euston - Birminghams just now. A real train for you! You could take a trip and sample that London Thai restaurant...........

The Wrexham proposal - power to weight ratio as stated will be quite respectable, but then go on to work out the weight per seat available. While I cannot speak for current hire charges, cost wise a unit should be cheaper. If it isn't then it arguably it should be.

Loading will be interesting, especially as to how evenly spread it is throughout the journey, and different days of the week. One station for the West Midlands is rather a poor do, and would not Sandwell & Dudley Parkway have been a better choice?

It is a shame though, that, there have been so few of these ventures, with nothing else on the drawing board.

Now if the roads wallahs could only open up the northbound M6/M5 junction by Cannock, that would saved a lot of wasted time. Care to put a value on that?

Yes, Mk3. Just done 'back of fag packet calculation'. In the 1980's I travelled about 300,000 miles in Mk3 coaches - usually hauled by a Class 86, sometimes by Class 87, and as far as my memory goes, very occasionally by Class 85 plus even a couple of times by a loco with a 'Made in Birmingham' plate on it - (can't remember which - think Class 82 or 83). Was always happy to see a Class 87 at the front - as those services always seemed to reach Euston early - although often then had to sit waiting just before Euston for the arrival platform to become vacant.

Plus about 100,000 miles in some varied elderly carraiges on the Liverpool / Manchester to Euston overnight sleeper service. Even sometimes they had (in the seating car part) the individual compartment carraige with the large drop down ('sash') windows designed for loading strechers thru. Think they used to cobble that service together with whatever odds and sods they had left in the sidings. Think BR kept trying to axe the service but could never overcome main supporters of the service (various MP's travelling between north west constituencies and London overnight).

The new Shrops service joining the main New Street to International line at Stechford should certainly be interesting. It's all they can do to keep the fast, semi-fast, and local services on time along that section without having regular timed services joining at Stechford to slot in. It'll be even more interesting when Virgin switch to a frequency of every 20 minutes for the New Street - Euston service - think that will be in 2009.

55- what's a set of Mk3's doing deputising on the Euston - Birminghams just now?

Think the main reason for the Wrexham line is to tap into the Cheshire, Mid wales Shropshire traffic. Also Shropshire is the only county in the country without a through service to London, so thats why not a lot of stopping in the West Midlands.

Further They were prevented from stopping at New Street (by Virgin I think) but agree it does seem crazy that they are not stopping at Bir. International for the Airport traffic (although I thought that they were originally going to do that).

I was concerned that they were going down on the Chiltern line (as far as time keeping is concerned) but even more so now that you tell about the amount of traffic to be used around Strechford.

Stan....Hope you found a suitable eatery ....

Along the B'ham - Coventry piece of track then it's a matter of combining the fast (Virgin), semi-fast (used to be Silverlink) and slow (all local stations - used to be Central) - all runing on same pair of rails. Then add the stechford junction in to it. Not too much of a problem fitting in freight trains or excursions that can wait at the junction for a while - but fitting in additional published timetable trains shold be interesting. Then they've got another junction near Coventry to get across to get down to linking up with Chiltern / Cross Country route (now Arriva, previously Virgin) at Leamington. Should work OK when everything is running exactly to schedule but ....

Also, no room for not following rules exactly as there have been a couple of mishaps at Stechford junction:
February 28th 1967 at the Birmingham end of Stechford station, at the junction of the loop line. The 13.15 Manchester - Coventry traveling at about 70mph ran into the side of D5002 running light, coming off the down line of the Aston loop. The locomotive escaped major damage but the two leading coaches were seriously damaged, the driver was killed in the wreck along with eight other passengers.
Stechford had seen a similar collision on March 4th 1962 when 46150 on a Holyhead - Broad Street meat train had a sidelong collision with the 16.35 Birmingham - Coventry dmu at Stechford No 2 box, the line being closed for eighteen hours.

(Note that London Midland is the new company that brings together the former Silverlink County and most of Central Trains, in particular the West Midland regional services including the Snow Hill Lines and the Birmingham to Liverpool route. It also includes the Bedford to Bletchley and Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey branch lines.)

And, after digging around a bit more, then seems Freightliner aren't too happy.
Here's the link for the 'Consultation on a proposed track access contract between Network Rail Infrastructure Limited (Network Rail) and Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway Company Limited (WSMR)':

http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/s17-WSMR-new-frgtlnr-resp-300307.pdf

Also, Centro, don't seem overjoyed. "The WSMR services then layover at International (not picking up passengers) for 12 minutes while they are then overtaken by both the xx00 New St Euston and the xx03 New St Bournemouth services. Any delay to these services will knock onto the WSMR services."

http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/s17-WSMR-new-centro-resp-020407.pdf

Although, on 3rd September 2007, the Office of Rail Regulation announced approval for the new direct rail services between North Wales, Shropshire and London Marylebone. Therefore assume Freightliners and Centro objections have been sorted.

http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2007/09/wrexham_to_london_rail_link_ge.html

Seems decorating and gardening are good for your stock market trading.

"Psychologist Paul Andreasen found that investors who received frequent updates on their holdings earned half the returns of those who got no news at all."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml;?xml=/money/2007/11/25/ccneuro125.xml

" Just as a recovering alcoholic knows better than to trust his self-control and walk into a tavern, you should minimise your contact with anything that can fixate your attention on falling market values. Break your obsession with the market by going for a long walk, playing with your children or sneaking out to the cinema. "