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As the discussion so far indicates, determining if a new OA opportunity exists is very difficult, there are so many variables to consider. Mounting any OA bid is going to be very expensive, with no guarantee of success. Presently, for even the most adventurous speculators, the risks are too big...

If these homes are intended for the elderly, perhaps the buyers will gamble on dying of natural causes before the house falls onto the tracks or into the sea.

If you want to restore a railway it would probably be best to avoid being too close to an existing heritage line. If, for instance, you wanted to rebuild a narrow gauge railway in North Wales, a well-established railway company nearby might not welcome the competition. They might even take you...

I recently trawled the internet for 'new build' steam locos in the UK, and even after eliminating those clearly from la-la land there were still over 20 projects that appeared to have made some physical progress. Granted, some of these may well fail at a later stage, but it's still a phenomenal...

When I last saw 'Winston Churchill' at York she was being displayed as an example of an unrestored locomotive, i.e. pretty rough. With all the other shiny exhibits in the NRM it's no bad thing to show visitors how much work is required to get them into this gleaming condition. As previous...

Would a 'First Class only' service be permitted?

The plan is (so I'm told) that the regular timetabled steam service will resume, along side the diesel trains. Of course it's a contrived situation, but the steam trains have to work hard to keep to time so it's no picnic for the crews.

I visited the Wolsztyn-Leszno line in Poland last Saturday (5/7/2014). The regular daily steam services are presently suspended, although there are a number of steam excursions running. A plan has been agreed to resume steam running under the auspices of a new (charitable?) body which will also...

Reading through this thread it becomes clear that Britain's railways don't have the route flexibility, gauge clearance or capacity to compete properly against road haulage, especially when the economics are largely skewed in favour of the roads. The cost of increasing clearances on existing...

It's a commonly believed myth that the Great Train Robbery was a well-organised crime. In reality it was a shambles; The retired train driver hired by the thieves wasn't familiar with the loco, and Mills was no use as he had already been severely injured. Even if the gang's hideout hadn't been...

I've had a couple of tickets with QR (or similar) codes on, I can't remember where. All the tickets I'm presently using as bookmarks don't have them. How odd. I'm sure someone can explain.

Mr Portillo's 'Great British Railway Journeys' are a more or less endless franchise. The programmes rely mostly on subjects other than railway related ones, and some of the places visited are quite a long way from the nearest station. And there's no reason why the same territory can't be covered...

Using the wonderful gift of hindsight it's easy to say that Brunel's decision to use the broad gauge was wrong. Even if standard gauge was not already predominant, the advantages of the 7 foot gauge aren't that great, especially as the loading gauge wasn't any better. Having said that, some of...

Welsh railways are not (as already said) a cohesive network. South Wales has a reasonable population and some industry, whilst the North is sparsely populated with little industry. Most of the railways other than the most Southerly are single track and very slow. I recently had cause to travel...

Beauty, as is often said, is in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I like to look at windfarms; I'm sure it's not everyone's cup of tea. When the first railways were built they were regarded as hideous by many. Today, lines such as the Settle & Carlisle are considered scenic. It's impossible...

Rail freight receives public subsidy, but so do our roads. Neither road users or rail users pay fully at point of use, it's all subsidised from taxation. It's really a question of which form of transport merits the most public support.

Sorry to get picky about this, but how are we defining 'expensive'? Mainland Britain is very different situation compared to Europe. What with us being an island, most of our industry is closer to a port than in Europe, which gives road an advantage. Also, continental railways compete with an...

It seems to me that the arrangement with Riley's to run Scotsman for the first two years is a bit of a blow for the NRM. Obviously it makes sense for Riley's to oversee her initial 'running in', but I can't help feeling that the NRM is being punished a bit for their mishandling of the project.

Heritage railways are restricted to 25mph and consequently do not have to install mainline standard signalling on the track or locos. The track itself doesn't need to be built or maintained to the standard required by NR. Altogether this saves vast amounts of money on both construction and...

I was about to say that 85mph had a rounder, metric equivalent, but it's 136.79kph, so no.