Recent content by davetheguard

Appleford (at one time Appleford Halt) - one stop north from Didcot Parkway on the line to Oxford.

The only meaning I know of for "chain guards" is the cover over a bicycle chain that stops the bottom of your trouser legs getting caught in the chain and/or being covered in grease. Clearly, that's not the meaning the OP is refering to! Can you describe it further @Questions ?

Presumably they're OK because they're not a fixed structure. Or a recognition that they're there to aid boarding, not to get in the way of it like planters would. Steps to help getting on & off at a low platform would be pretty useless if they had to be six feet away from the train!

Handborough on the Cotswold Line had the spelling slightly changed in the mid '90s to Hanborough. This is closer to the actual name of the village in which it is located - Long Hanborough.

Alternatively, just go for a SCAN: Senior Citizen's Afternoon Nap.

That's the existing -and in use- railway electrification between Edinburgh & Glasgow isn't it?

And very rusty railhead when I looked at it from the 08.15 to Paddington last Tuesday. Welcome to the forum by the way!

Spot on, but you forgot the next line: DfT: So we'll jack the prices up to price people off & reduce demand.

I'm planning a visit to Cardiff later this month, with time to visit one of the longer Valley branches plus maybe Coryton too. Quick question for those on here who know the Valley Lines much better than me: Which is the best line to visit in terms of new infrastructure to see - electrification...

My local station ticket office (GWR) is having the same problem at the moment, and has lost multiple ticket sales for travel from 2nd March as a result. They too have been told it will be fixed tonight.

If the lease has been signed, I'm surprised it has not been announced. And if any of the local train crews are being trained I've not yet come across any.

My copy arrived this morning. HS2 now ends in a field in Staffordshire at Handsacre Junction with phase 2 now all deleted. In view of this, I was quite surprised to find that in the preface Joe Brown says he's chosen to keep the "restoring your railway" entries, so things like: Bere Alston to...

I had a trip from New Street (sorry, Grand Central as they insist on caling it) to Wolverhampton on the tram yesterday. The ticket machines at stops were still not working, so Conductors were still issuing tickets on board the trams.

Is there any news about what's actually going on with the contract signing for GWR to lease the 175s? I pressume it's the Treasury stalling things while they count the beans over & over again. If so, these people don't seem to have to work to deadlines. We're already in the situation where...

PORTIS came first. It was replaced later by SPORTIS (Super PORTIS). As you say, SPORTIS could deal with credit cards using an integral swipe slot on the front of the machine, although there were no authorisation codes as it wasn't connected to the internet in any way.