"Well I Never Knew That"...

[NSE]

London Bridge is the only tube station to have the word 'London' on the platform roundels.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

London Bridge is the only tube station to have the word 'London' on the platform roundels.

Surely that's just like saying Waterloo is the only tube station to have Waterloo on it's roundels?

 

[DarloRich]

Surely that's just like saying Waterloo is the only tube station to have Waterloo on it's roundels?

but it is the LONDON underground!

 

[DaveNewcastle]

At one time they served proper meals in the Restaurant Car.

And still do on East Coast . . . . . until this coming weekend. (Anyone joining me for the "last supper" on the 19:00 off Kings Cross on Friday?).

Still will be Restaurant Cars on (I think) 4 FGW services a day (weekdays).

 

[ainsworth74]

Still will be Restaurant Cars on (I think) 4 FGW services a day (weekdays).

There are indeed four per day (M-F) two each way between Paddington and Plymouth. The times are 12:00 and 12:55 from Plymouth for lunch and 18:03 and 19:03 from Paddington for dinner. You can find more details here.

 

[NSE]

Surely that's just like saying Waterloo is the only tube station to have Waterloo on it's roundels?

Aside from the fact it IS the London Undeground, places like Victoria are called LONDON Victoria, as all the surface platforms say so too. I just found it quite odd only one station has the word 'London' in it.
Maybe not odd, just a bit surprised. :P

 

[Kneedown]

Acton is the only area in London to have, a station at all four points of a compass.

Sleaford also has signalboxes at all four points and named as such, but not sure if it's the only place.

 

[flymo]

Not sure if this is common knowledge, maybe it is and doesn't belong in this thread, but the engine, North British no 224, that hauling the train that was on the Tay Bridge when it collapsed in 1879 was retrieved from the river bed and returned to service. It was eventually scrapped in 1919, some 40 years after plunging into the Tay. This disaster still gives me butterflies every time I cross the current bridge. Creepy.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Not sure if this is common knowledge, maybe it is and doesn't belong in this thread, but the engine, North British no 224, that hauling the train that was on the Tay Bridge when it collapsed in 1879 was retrieved from the river bed and returned to service. It was eventually scrapped in 1919, some 40 years after plunging into the Tay. This disaster still gives me butterflies every time I cross the current bridge. Creepy.

now that is one of the best ones i heard

 

[trainfanatic]

Sleaford also has signalboxes at all four points and named as such, but not sure if it's the only place.

Sleaford Station also sits on top of a Saxon burial site discovered in 1824 (before the station opened in 1854). More evidence for Saxon inhumations were found when the railway arrived in 1854 and again when the line was extended to Boston.

 

[Any Permitted]

Manea is apparently about 14m above sea level.

Dundee is below sea level though.

Manea is 1-2m above sea level. Berney Arms is below sea level, you have to walk up a bank to get to Breydon Water.

 

[Yew]

In 2009, Nottingham County Council considered plans to extend the robin hood line from shirebrook junction to ollerton. Forming a Y shaped line. With not connections at ollerton.

 

[imagination]

Manea is 1-2m above sea level. Berney Arms is below sea level, you have to walk up a bank to get to Breydon Water.

Admittedly the figures I gave were for Manea itself, not the railway station that serves it, about a kilometre or so away.

 

[LE Greys]

Manea is 1-2m above sea level. Berney Arms is below sea level, you have to walk up a bank to get to Breydon Water.

I hadn't actually checked my figures on that, it just sounded right. Any "raise" on Berney Arms (I'm assuming -6ft)?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Not sure if this is common knowledge, maybe it is and doesn't belong in this thread, but the engine, North British no 224, that hauling the train that was on the Tay Bridge when it collapsed in 1879 was retrieved from the river bed and returned to service. It was eventually scrapped in 1919, some 40 years after plunging into the Tay. This disaster still gives me butterflies every time I cross the current bridge. Creepy.

I've heard about that. Wasn't the engine unofficially named "The Dundee Diver"? I'm glad I never had to drive her.

 

[ungreat]

And, as everyone knows, the highest point on the WCML is Beattock Summit, between Lockerbie and Carstairs. The lowest point anywhere in Britain is the bottom of the Severn Tunnel, deeper than any Tube line (the Channel Tunnel doesn't count) but where is the lowest non-tunnel point? The answer is probably Manea, in the middle of the Fens, about 20 ft below sea level. .

Holme Fen,just south of Peterborough
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
The tunnels from Drayton Park-Finsbury Park still exist along with pieces of track and 3 and 6 car indicators.

There is a black brick in the run off tunnel on platform 9 at Moorgate where the coupler of the tube train hit the wall in the 1975 disaster at Moorgate

 

[Fig]

West Ruislip and Ickenham stations are less than a mile apart. About 10 mins walk at a brisk pace. The same journey by rail would take at least an hour longer.

 

[Smudger105e]

There are cables on poles at each side of the line just south of Gatwick Airport station under the flight path. If a plane lands on the track it will break the cables and the juice rail supply goes off automatically.

 

[Hydro]

There are cables on poles at each side of the line just south of Gatwick Airport station under the flight path. If a plane lands on the track it will break the cables and the juice rail supply goes off automatically.

It also turns all signals on the approaches to the area to red.

 

[EM2]

West Ruislip and Ickenham stations are less than a mile apart. About 10 mins walk at a brisk pace. The same journey by rail would take at least an hour longer.

Maidstone East and Maidstone Barracks are like that. You'd have to go from Barracks to Paddock Wood, then Ashford, then to East.

 

[imagination]

Yeovil Junction and Yeovil Pen Mill is rather more so than that, though they are slightly further apart (you have to go via Exeter and Castle Cary)

 

[causton]

Same with St Albans City + Abbey - 5 mins bus, 20 mins walk, 2 hours by train!

 

[Wyvern]

The ex-LNWR versus the ex-Midland stations from New Mills towards Stockport

 

[table38]

Same with St Albans City + Abbey - 5 mins bus, 20 mins walk, 2 hours by train!

Is Denton to Reddish South allowed? 167 hours, 55 minutes

 

[Any Permitted]

Same with St Albans City + Abbey - 5 mins bus, 20 mins walk, 2 hours by train!

Strangely you can buy a ticket from St Albans City to St Albans Abbey. It'll set you back £13 for an off-peak return or £46.50 for a first class anytime return.

Actually, probably more than that since my copy of the NFM is out of date.

 

[tempests1]

There are cables on poles at each side of the line just south of Gatwick Airport station under the flight path. If a plane lands on the track it will break the cables and the juice rail supply goes off automatically.

It has not been put into practice yet!

South West Trains once put in a proposal in the ninties to run a service from Guildford to London Bridge. At the time they had a service from Guildford to West Croydon

You can get from Kings Cross to Newcastle a distance of approx 277 miles, in a quicker time than it takes to get from Waterloo to Weymouth which is a distance of 168 miles.

Yeovil Pen Mill was the last location in the country to have oil lit semaphore signals. The exact year this happened escapes me but I believe it was fairly recently

 

[Any Permitted]

It has not been put into practice yet!

South West Trains once put in a proposal in the ninties to run a service from Guildford to London Bridge. At the time they had a service from Guildford to West Croydon

You can get from Kings Cross to Newcastle a distance of approx 277 miles, in a quicker time than it takes to get from Waterloo to Weymouth which is a distance of 168 miles.

Yeovil Pen Mill was the last location in the country to have oil lit semaphore signals. The exact year this happened escapes me but I believe it was fairly recently

Southern operates a peak-only service from Guildford to London Bridge via Bookham. I have vague memories of it being an all-day service back in the early-00s but I was very young then so it mightn't be true.

Also I'm sure they still use oil-lit semaphore signals on a number of lines including the approach to Great Yarmouth station.

http://www.signalbox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2594&start=0

 

[Crossover]

Greenford station is the only underground station where the escalator goes up to the platform
The same station is also the last remaining underground station with a wooden escalator.

 

[Leslie Fletcher]

The longest sequence of successive Network Rail stations in alphabetical order regularly called at by a passenger train is

Burnage, East Didsbury, Gatley, Heald Green, Manchester Airport, Styal and Wilmslow

(more precisely, I think it is!)

 

[causton]

Strangely you can buy a ticket from St Albans City to St Albans Abbey. It'll set you back £13 for an off-peak return or £46.50 for a first class anytime return.

Actually, probably more than that since my copy of the NFM is out of date.

Nope, prices still the same (for now...)

Going up and down the line, going south the prices stay the same until you get into Travelcard zones, where there is no fare found, and going up you get a route option described simply "St Albans Abbey" - as if you'd go to St Albans Abbey without going to St Albans Abbey! I assume it means a bus connection or something as Luton - SAA is £10 (+LONDON is £18) ... a CDR from St Albans to Luton is £5.50 so that assumes it costs £2.25 each way by bus! Unless it's something different *shrug*

 

[12CSVT]

Yeovil Junction and Yeovil Pen Mill is rather more so than that, though they are slightly further apart (you have to go via Exeter and Castle Cary)

Yet there is a line that runs between the two stations but not used for passenger services. Frustrating if you wish to travel from Sherbourne to Dorchester or Honiton to Castle Cary. And the taxi fare from Junction to Pen Mill isn't exactly cheap.