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Ah, the pandemic has some benefits, such as the doubling up of XC train lengths, which meant, al last, everyone could get a seat. I’m now on the 17:15 to Piccadilly, ex-Reading, and it’s like being on the the tube. 4 coaches on a summer Friday afternoon are just not sufficient. I know the...

As I’ve mentioned before, my job takes me all over the UK by rail, so I get to ride on quite a variety of rolling stock. It seems to me that as the stock gets newer, the leg room gets better but the seat comfort itself gets worse. Today I’ve had the joys of plenty of legroom in a hard ironing...

Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/eurovision-liverpool-a-rail-nightmare-waiting-to-happen.246794/ This would have been a good time to reintroduce the recent(ish)ly mooted return of trains to and from Bristol and Reading. As it is, no will and no dosh.

There is the odd picture here and there on the internet of “fantasy” liveries, some of which relate to fictional 70s BR steam. This got me thinking, if the Modernisation Plan had not happened, and the 50s built BR steam locomotives had been allowed to live out their “natural” lifespans, when...

OK, so I and others have complained for years (here and elsewhere) that CrossCountry trains are just too damn short and often packed to standing. During the pandemic, some of us had to keep travelling. On the core Birmingham to Reading section the frequency was cut from two trains per hour to...

Don’t get me wrong, I love the deeply padded comfortable seating of the BR Mk1 stock as much as the next… They are the mainstay of most heritage lines, it seems, but for those who want to experience a diversity of rolling stock types, I thought it might be an idea to have a list of lines where...

Just seen two Class 37s thunder through Leamington topping and tailing two Mk1s in BR blue. Any idea what this was?

On a late running 7:57 XC service from Banbury heading south. 25 minutes late. Down from 9 coaches to 4. Jammed in the vestibule next to the First Class coach. First Class is largely empty with a total of 6 passengers. Announcements apologising for the overcrowding. Those asking if First...

8.06 packed and standing from Banbury for several days running now while rolling stock can be seen sitting idle en route. Any plans to lengthen to pre-COVID levels yet? Also, are they any nearer to sorting out the problems with the 68 hauled sets? Chiltern are usually very good at sorting...

As on the tin, really. As Arriva are the parent company, how easy would it be to transfer the un-used 68 hauled sets to XC to restore, for instance, some Newcastle-Reading diagrams lost to the doubling up of the Voyagers?

As an almost daily user of Cross Country trains (as well as other operators) as my work takes me all over the country, I have often lamented here that the services offered fall well short, (in terms of facilities) as comparable services on the continent or even the long distance services into...

As it says on the tin. Feel free to draw, model, describe or design your ideal interior or exterior plan (or both!) and tell us what sort of services it would be used on. I’ll post my own as soon as I can get my camera working again!

I’d be interested to read your thoughts on which new trains on the UK network (from the past few years to date) are, in your opinion, the most conventional and the most radical in design, and why. I’ll start. Most conventional: TPE Mark 5A coaches. They follow a traditional Intercity interior...

As it says on the tin, really. Can anyone explain why TPE went for three different types of new rolling stock fleet when the Nova 1 (Hitachi bi-mode Class 802) would have fulfilled all their needs?

Even the Flying Scotsman in its current incarnation stops at Newcastle. I remember 10 years ago even the 0700 Liverpool-Euston service which was advertised as non-stop from Liverpool used to stop to pick up in Runcorn. Are there any true non-stop expresses left on the UK railway today?

I seem to remember in the years post privatisation Manchester had four different services to London: Virgin West Coast to Euston Virgin CrossCountry to Paddington North West Trains (stopper) to Euston Wales & West Alphaline to Waterloo (!) I was a mere boy in the 1990s so would be...

I would be interested to compile a list of services that are scheduled to be loco hauled (or propelled!) when everything gets “back to normal” in 2021. I can think of the following: Chiltern Railways- London Marylebone Birmingham/Kidderminster (Class 68 + Mk 3s) Transpennine Express...

When reading a book about the Hooton to West Kirby branch line (GWR/LNWR joint) on the Wirral, I read two oblique references that got me curious. One referred to aborted pre-war electrification plans for the line (presumably off the back of the LMS electrification of the former Wirral Railway...

Whilst out walking for the once-a-day permitted exercise, I was walking along an abandoned railway embankment (specifically, part of the Banbury to Buckingham line) and I came across this metal thing sticking out of the ground. Can anyone tell me what it is or was part of?

...why are there so few Pullman Restaurant services, and First Class catering seems to be limited to sandwiches. Am I missing something?