"Well I Never Knew That"...

[sheff'd victoria]

Paul Simon is said to have written the song " Homeward Bound " at Widnes North railway station

 

[321446]

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.

Same at Southend Airport. They have been put to the test, back in the late 60s/early 70s.

Prittlewell Station was built on land owned by St. Mary's church. It is not allowed to open on Sundays by covenant.

 

[RPM]

Strood & Higham tunnels were originally built for the Thames & Medway Canal before being converted for railway use in 1846. For a year prior to that boats and trains actually shared the tunnels with the single track line supported partly by the tow path and partly by timber staging over one side of the canal.

 

[fairysdad]

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.

A while ago I was staying with a friend in London, and they took me back to Paddington station. I managed to get back to Tiverton Parkway, and drive up to Barnstaple quicker than they managed to get back to their home in West Ham via the Tube...

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

... yet in a book published 1992 (I think) it refers to the semaphore signals as 'soon to be replaced'...

London Underground class Stratford station as being underground.

 

[WelshBluebird]

A while ago I was staying with a friend in London, and they took me back to Paddington station. I managed to get back to Tiverton Parkway, and drive up to Barnstaple quicker than they managed to get back to their home in West Ham via the Tube...

Talking about that area, you can get from Exeter to Bath (on some FGW services to London) in about the same time as it takes to get from Barnstaple to Exeter. That is pretty frustrating when I visit my girlfriend!

 

[trainfanatic]

Approximately 500 railway stations throughout the UK have a geocache in their immediate vicinity..

 

[DarloRich]

whats a geocache?

 

[Smudger105e]

I thought that! It's a sort of high tech hide and seek/ treasure hunt/ orienteering thingamibob

 

[DarloRich]

I thought that! It's a sort of high tech hide and seek/ treasure hunt/ orienteering thingamibob

wow - when i was a kid we played football and cricket in the summer!

how do you "play" this? Do you need some sort of GPS thingy?

 

[trainfanatic]

Are you allowed to post URL's on this forum? I don't know how to convert a URL to say, a 'clicky here' thingy, otherwise I would give you a link to the geocaching website and yes, you only need a computer and a GPS (although a smart phone will do the trick.

 

[O L Leigh]

The syntax to convert URLs into clickable text is simple.

{url=http://www.whatever.com}Clicky here{/url}

You just need to change the curly brackets {} to square ones [].

O L Leigh

 

[trainfanatic]

Clicky here
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Thanks O L Leigh...that worked OK.....!

 

[O L Leigh]

Most welcome.

Lympstone Commando is the only station where you have to pass a sentry post to leave the station. It's also probably the only station where you will not be allowed to alight unless you have business there.

O L Leigh

 

[table38]

Lympstone Commando is the only station where you have to pass a sentry post to leave the station. It's also probably the only station where you will not be allowed to alight unless you have business there.

In a similar vein, Stanlow and Thornton Station is right in the middle of the Shell Oil Refinery. There is no public road access since Shell closed Oil Sites Road.

 

[O L Leigh]

There are a few other stations with no public access due to them serving private premises (e.g. British Steel Redcar), as well as some that are publicly accessible but have no road access (e.g. Courror).

O L Leigh

 

[westcoaster]

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.

Almost correct it sets all signals in the area to red , and does not affect traction current.

 

[Crossover]

Almost correct it sets all signals in the area to red , and does not affect traction current.

Sounds then like a more modern version of the Pass of Brander Stone Signals (Anderson's Piano)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Another one is that Smallbrook Junction is unique in the UK in that it is the only station without external access, used only for interchange between the "mainline" (if you could call it that) and the steam railway.

Manulla Junction is similar but is in the Republic of Ireland (so not UK)

 

[tbtc]

Smallbrook Junction is unique in the UK in that it is the only station without external access, used only for interchange between the "mainline" (if you could call it that) and the steam railway.

Manulla Junction is similar but is in the Republic of Ireland (so not UK)

Cornbrook (Manchester Metrolink) used to be like that too (but no more)

 

[Trog]

Almost correct it sets all signals in the area to red , and does not affect traction current.

Even more correct, it sets all signals in the area to red and the pilots underpants to brown, but does not turn off the traction current.

 

[Wyvern]

British Rail was the most economically efficient railway in the entire world. It received the least subsidy from government of any railway in Europe, yet still managed to be seen as innovative and well-run by other railway administrations.

Well I never did1

 

[Bittern]

I didn't do 1 either.

 

[TomJ93]

Sarcasm doesn't travel very well over the web.

 

[Bittern]

Kitten killer!

 

[Trog]

British Rail was the most economically efficient railway in the entire world. It received the least subsidy from government of any railway in Europe, yet still managed to be seen as innovative and well-run by other railway administrations.

One of the reasons for that was that people like Old Timer, myself and a horde of others, often expert railwaymen with decades of experience. Were willing to do all the overtime we could keep our eyes open for, in all weathers in return for time and a half on a low basic pay rate.

Back in those days we did not let the fact that the company could not afford to supply the tools, and sometimes even the materials needed to do the work, stop us from getting the job done and the line open for Monday morning.

It often seemed that health and safety law only applied Monday to Friday, and that at the week-end we just dropped back to old rules of thumb, and traditional ways of doing things. Safety precautions were things like having someone watch to see if the back wheels of the crane had started to lift, or having a bucket of water handy while disk cutting in case you set your clothes on fire.

Site facilities usually ment taking the part of the ballast minutes, that dealt with someone elses possession behind a handy bush. If you were wise you were careful not to use the page with the staple in it. Occasionally a kettle would be used to fill a hard hat with warm water so you could wash your hands before going home.

It was all a bit rough and ready but we were a team, and were up for anything. Given the chance I would do it all over again, ballast minutes and all.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Signalmen get called "Bobby" because in the very early days of the railway, train movements were controlled by police officers.

 

[Holly]

Only once since 1968 has there been steam hauled heavy freight on (then) British Rail lines.
In 1980 at open day at Northwich shed a preserved Stanier Black 5 that was in steam for the day was sent to rescue a stalled Class 25. There are a few details here:
http://www.mcrua.org.uk/documents/mcrr70_1227765980.pdf

 

[LAX54]

Almost correct it sets all signals in the area to red , and does not affect traction current.

always used to though I'm sure !

 

[Madge Wildfire]

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

I think that you may be confusing metres and feet at the village of Manea. On my OS map the 5 metre contour more or less encircles the place. The highest spot height is 6 metres which is 20 feet.

 

[Scotrail84]

Heres a couple. Lockerbie is the only Scotrail owned station not to have any Scotrail services stopping there.

2 Dunbar is the only Station in Scotland staffed only by East Coast staff.

3 Prestonpans,Longniddry and Drem all had tickets offices until the Mid to Late 80s. (open station policy came in so they closed) the building still survive at Prestonpans and Drem.

4 Only 3 stations in Scotland have town after thier name. Dunfremline, Ardrossan and Prestwick. But Dunfermline is the only one outwith the west coast of Scotland (am i correct?)

 

[MidnightFlyer]

3 Prestonpans,Longniddry and Drem all had tickets offices until the Mid to Late 80s. (open station policy came in so they closed) the building still survive at Prestonpans and Drem.

4 Only 3 stations in Scotland have town after thier name. Dunfremline, Ardrossan and Prestwick. But Dunfermline is the only one outwith the west coast of Scotland (am i correct?)

As was North Berwick, it's building was demolsihed after it was partially rebuilt (?). Musselburgh hasn't had one since it orginially closed, but yes, they did close with the open train policy of the late 80s (there were also mass closures of booking offices across Britain at this time).

Dunfermline and Ardrossan are the only Scottish stations to be suffixed 'Town'