Jan Ford's World

Larger version of diagram Deepfields was one of the Stour Valley signal boxes I worked unofficially in the 1960s. Bloomfield Junction ...

Larger version of diagram Bloomfield Junction is another of the boxes I worked regularly under supervision in the 1960s. It was on the S...

Larger version of diagram In the late 1950s, I was a frequent vistor at Watery Lane signal box on the Stour Valley Line from Birmingham t...

When I was establishing my firm, some of my friends had jobs where they always seemed to be jetting off around the world and, I admit, I wa...

The 'Lion' supporters group, the Old Locomotive Committee (or, more simply, OLCO), holds a competition for live-steam models of ...

Click here for a larger version of the diagram Back in the 1960s, Dudleyport was the largest of the boxes on the Stour Valley that I got...

Back in 1975, G.E.C. (the English General Electric Company, not to be confused with the separate American business, General Electric or G.E...

In the early 1970s, British Rail was modernising and electrifying the West Coast Main Line from Crewe to Carlisle. Just three Power Signal ...

When I was much younger, I studied railway signalling and, through the kindness of a number of signalmen, I became a regular visitor at v...

Lisa and Jan on the footplate of 'Royal Pioneer' at Peak Rail on 14th January 2007 (photograph by John Archer). I was driver at...

This post is based on a talk given by Jan Ford at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. In the eighteen twenties, Manchester ...

These notes were written some years ago when I was a regular driver at Birmingham Railway Museum. I believe I was the last person to have t...

When I was young, it was a real thrill to visit Birmingham Science Museum, then situated in cramped quarters in Newhall Street. Every inch ...

My first visit to India was a business trip in 1992. Ford Electronics had supplied telecommunications equipment to G.E.C. for the Delhi Ri...

Jan working on the mural described below During my earlier business trips to Thailand, I'd met Sanpasiri Viriyasiri who was involve...

A picture taken at the 'I & C Seminar' held at the conclusion of the Project The first three or four visits I made to Thailan...

It should be clear, from even casual inspection of this blog, that steam railways form an important part of my life. People often ask how ...

I still work more or less full time, but this important part of my life doesn't figure very strongly in these blogs. Considerations of c...

The photograph, by Mike Leatherdale, shows Jan on the Ol 49 bringing the afternoon train from Posnan into Grosdysk (Click on picture to enla...

Back in 2002, when I read about the Three Gorges Project in China and how the completion of the hydro-electric project would permanently ...