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I was taking a trip down Memory Lane with a friend the other day when the talk turned to various jaunts abroad that we took. I recalled my Interail trip in 1980, which I started off on the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry. (The deal with the Interail card was that they offered you a cheap rate on the...

Why have Avanti platform staff at Crewe station taken to yelling at passengers to "stand behind the yellow line"? I use many, much busier, stations in south London where trains pass through more frequently and at higher speed than the platform lines at Crewe, and none of our train or station...

I need to make a delay repay for a journey from Betws-y-Coed to London Euston. My booked itinerary was 18.02 from Betws arriving London Euston at 22.27 with changes at Llandudno Junction, Chester and Crewe Due to the train from Betws running 25-30 minutes late, I missed the connection at...

Just seen the Channel Tunnel freight roll past my window in Purley. About 15 Cargowagon sets behind a Class 66. Everything filthy, rust-streaked, graffitied. Why can the railway not clean up its act (literally)? Earlier in the week, I travelled past Thornaby yard on Teesside. You could hardly...

Catching the Enterprise from Belfast to Dublin yesterday morning, I noticed that the consist included a generator van between the coaches and loco. Why do the railways in Ireland favour generator vans whereas the GB rail system does not? I know there were the ETHEL units converted from Class 25s...

Are there any examples of railways in other parts of the world that are still common freight carriers? That is, if a customer presents them with a piece of freight that is within suitable dimensions and not dangerous, noxious etc, they are obliged to carry it between any designated freight...

mods note - split from this thread A small variation on the theme - where does national rail create a viable intra-urban transport route, a kind of mini-metro, so to speak? I don't mean the obvious big cities like London, Glasgow, Liverpool etc, where rail might be expected to be part of the...

BBC News website reporting a collision between a car and a steam train at Beddgelert. One person taken to hospital. Hope all involved are OK. I presume the loco involved is not the FR's Blanche as used by the BBC to illustrate the story. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63424629

A friend of mine has sent me this picture from Horley station asking what it might be. My first thoughts is a foundation for something that is no longer there, like a signal gantry, though it does seem a tad massive for that. An anchoring point for something maybe? But what?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-60120731 Looks like Crossrail is operating - sort of. BBC News' intrepid reporter makes a first journey. How long to the actual opening, I wonder? TfL still not committing to specific date. Crossrail: A first journey on London’s new line...

Reports on the BBC radio news and in the Guardian this morning that Greyhound is to axe its entire network in Canada: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/13/greyhound-canada-end-routes-rural-communities

I remember my father telling me how he and my Mum once travelled on the pullman train (probably from Yorkshire) to London in the late 1940s - very probably on their honmeymoon. Knowing my Old Man, it seems highly unlikely that he would have forked out for first class tickets - even on his...

Press release from DHL's Industrial Projects arm - the move of 676 coaches for Dunakeszi Járműjavító by rail and heavylift shipfrom Hungary to Egypt over the next 32 months. Rail to the port of Koper, Slovenia for the sea voyage by and then direct onto the railway network in Egypt at the port of...

Press release from developers Prologis about a new Royal Mail hub at DIRFT (Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal). It says the site will have its own dedicated rail platform. ROYAL MAIL PARCEL PUSH CONTINUES AS CONSTRUCTION OF ITS SECOND PARCEL HUB IN THE MIDLANDS ACCELERATES...

Anyone remember the McDonalds Dining cars on DB in the 1990s? Doubt they were much missed... https://www.thedrive.com/news/38221/the-mctrain-the-rise-and-fall-of-mcdonalds-ambitious-plan-to-conquer-the-railroads?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

As students of railway history will know, Brunel's bold attempt to build a railway worked by atmospheric power in Devon eventually came to naught. While it did hold out the attractive prospect of a railway without heavy locomotives, able to tackle with ease steeper gradients than...

In the mid- to late-1990s, I did a pub crawl in Bath with a mate. On the way back from a pub in the outskirts of the city, we caught a local bus and, instead of the breadvan-type minibus we'd been expecting, quite a sumptuous coach turned up; it must have been some sort of fill-in working or...

Seems like the Solari board at Changi airport in Singapore is no more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-51470599 I wonder, how many are left in rail service around the world? I don't think there are any in the UK now. Maybe it's an age thing, but the Solari indicators are one of those...

From the BBC News website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-51183301

I have an Over-60 London Oystercard that gives me free travel within the London Oystercard zones. Can it be used in conjunction with paper tickets for travel beyond the Oystercard zone? Say, for example, I want to travel from Purley to Redhill. Purley is one station into Zone six with Coulsdon...