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    91s facing "backwards" in service

    A good while ago (possibly still in Intercity days) a delayed service I caught from Newcastle to Peterborough somewhat unusually came into the station with a 91 at the front and running blunt-end first, nose-to-nose with the DVT… when I disembarked, I saw what was presumably the reason - a...
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    Trivia: Platforms where you can only alight or only board.

    Apologies - thought I’d checked the entire thread before mentioning… obviously I hadn’t…!!
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    Trivia: Platforms where you can only alight or only board.

    Huntingdon’s P1 is no longer used in service, but certainly used to fit the criteria - some northbound trains used to terminate at P3 before running empty a little way north and using the slow to fast and northbound to southbound crossovers to change direction, then running through P2 before...
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    (Trivia) Railway stations which should be people

    Has anyone mentioned Steve Nage (or Steven Age) yet…? You get two for one there!! Keep going up the ECML and you’ll also find Sandy, Peter Borough and Grant Ham before meeting Don Caster. And if you keep going north, you’ll also eventually stumble across Pegs Wood. On other regions, you’ve...
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    Peterborough via the Hertford Loop…?

    On a Saturday evening at the beginning of last month, I boarded a service at Finsbury Park which I initially thought was the delayed 23:54 ex-Horsham to Peterborough (9J76), but quickly became somewhat confused when it slowed down where I wasn’t expecting it to, the ride became noticeably more...
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    (Trivia) your favourite special liveries.

    Pleased to see that others have mentioned some favourites of mine (91110 (BBMF), the promotional 365s and the “European”-liveried 90s), but my vote goes to 91111 “Lest We Forget” - the livery is stunning in its own right, but I particularly like the fact that it was applied to a loco which...
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    Best and Worst First Class

    For me, the best would either be HST (LNER/EMT) or Mk4 (LNER). Lovely comfortable seats, attentive service, and an extremely pleasant ambience for the journey. For shorter trips, I must also give an honourable mention to the sadly soon to be departed GN 365s - again, they have lovely...
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    Trivia - Furthest you've seen someone carried beyond their intended stop

    I’ve seen several people almost get caught out this way on 317s, and I almost have been myself at least once! I always found that if you just pressed the button and quickly released it, you just got a “psst” sound and not much movement from the doors... the trick seemed to me to be to hold the...
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    What should replace the Class 365 [Great Northern]?

    Moderator Note - Posts #1-#13 originally in this thread: Class 365 withdrawal confirmed [Great Northern] | RailUK Forums (railforums.co.uk) According to GN’s website, from this May after the 365s go, they’ll be using other stock from within TSGN on GN routes - quote below... “When we start to...
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    EMR 180s in traffic from Mon 14th December

    I did think the fact they have the same engines as EMR’s 222s may have helped with the reliability issues... clearly not the case thus far though. Shame really... I had a journey a few years ago on one of GC’s fleet from SUN-KGX and was quite impressed with it from a passenger’s point of...
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    Trivia: long distance direct trains by wildly different routes.

    Sunderland to Kings Cross - either on Grand Central around the Durham Coast line, rejoining the ECML at Northallerton and then non-stop from York, or on LNER heading in the opposite direction out of Sunderland along the old Brandling Junction line through Felling and Heworth to Newcastle Central...
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    Trivia: Stations that sound nice but really aren't

    If we’re allowing closed stations... A few years ago I was wandering around North London after running an errand, hunting for a railway station so I could get back into the centre quite quickly. After consulting Google Maps, I discovered that there was a rather lovely-sounding station not too...
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    Trivia: Most annoying sound made by a train

    The ear-splitting howling noise of approaching northbound/departing southbound trains around the curve at St Pancras Thameslink... Although a notable one-off I experienced on what I think was a mk4 set on the ECML (it could have been an HST though... can’t remember!) came close... the guard and...
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    Train announcements with a sense of humour

    Years ago in the old Intercity days when it was possible to get an HST from my local station all the way to Aberdeen, I remember boarding and taking my seat - a few minutes later a broad Scottish accent (presumably the guard) came over the tannoy saying “Will ye close the doors? Ye’re causin’ a...
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    What are the worst rolling stock subsitutions you've experienced?

    Back in the days of the Channel boat trains to/from Folkestone Harbour, I was distinctly unimpressed to see that after a particularly awful crossing back from France on a SeaCat, the traction for my onward travel back to Victoria was a single 4-VEP...
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    Trivia: Unusual, bizarre or oddly specific causes of delay

    Some years ago, a service I boarded at Peterborough (possibly GNER or maybe NatEx EC/East Coast - it was a cl91/Mk4 set anyway) was delayed because an alighting passenger decided to throw his suitcase off ahead of him before stepping down - unfortunately for him, it bounced back off the platform...
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    Court finds Govia's First Class service to be insufficiently distinguishable from Standard

    I'm not at all surprised to hear the court found against GTR... I've used GN services for many years and have bought both 1st and Standard tickets. When all the services were ran by 317/321/365s, it was quite pleasant to upgrade to 1st as an occasional treat - the seats were much more padded...
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    Great Northern Class 700 diagrams?

    Yes, I noticed this too - managed to take a quick snap of it. Didn't look like there was much damage at all to the 700 - the sign didn't fare quite so well though...!

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