Recent content by JWK

Back in 2010, travelling from King’s Cross to Edinburgh on a class 91-hauled set, we came to a halt somewhere south of St Neots. After a lengthy stop, the train manager announced that the train in front had reported damage to the OHLE and we had now been cleared to coast across it. However, as...

I’m not entirely sure why the rather over-engineered approach of sending radio messages to the train needed to be adopted for the Far North Line, when the much more simple ‘push button illuminates a signal just in advance of the station’ system has been used in Switzerland (normally two flashing...

Arth-Goldau in Switzerland has, courtesy of its role as the the interchange point for the Basel and Zürich arms of the Gotthard line, a far better service of express trains, including international services, than the pair of small towns it is named for would normally ‘deserve’.

The former station house at Aylesford on the Medway Valley line is now Melad Tandoori restaurant

Innertkirchen Unterwasser in the Bernese Oberland isn’t even long enough for both doors of the single-car train that shuttles between Meiringen and Innertkirchen.

A few other East Anglian ones which don’t call in any Labour constituencies: Most Southminster branch trains just operate between Wickford and Southminster, which means they stop in the Rayleigh & Wickford, and Maldon constituencies, both Conservative. There’s a handful of trains which run...

There’s an intermediate request stop at Birchi on the funicular to Beatenberg from lake level in the Bernese Oberland. Again, there is no ‘balancing’ stop the other side of the passing loop, so if the stop is requested, the other car halts in the middle of nowhere. An interesting one is the...

Well that would explain the lack of any passenger trains past Angerstein Junction in June, then, thanks! I won’t embarrass myself by asking Southeastern where the statutory closure consultation is….

Re the Southeastern times that have just gone up, either I’m missing something or there’s still some trains missing, but there seems to have been a near-total withdrawal of services from the Blackheath-Charlton line?

The Swiss Railways’ journey planner app, of all things, insists that the first station out of Ashford on the Marshlink line is called ‘Ham Street & Orlestone’, despite Orlestone being removed from the station name in 1976…

Thank you very much for that comprehensive reply - very illuminating!

Thanks! That makes a lot of sense.

Catching a train from Welshpool earlier today, I noticed that in both directions, trains were being dispatched in the traditional manner by guards blowing their whistle and hand signalling to the driver from the platform by their local door. The Cambrian lines are, of course, signalled using...

The Budapest-Prague through sleeper coach stops for 6 hours and 3 minutes in Břeclav, should you be really keen to sample the no-doubt swinging nightlife of this small Moravian border town between 11pm and 5am. Alternatively, there’s a lot of very convoluted shunting to enjoy during those hours.

It’s a classic case of a ‘might as well run it in service’ journey that to all intents and purposes is an empty stock move. The unit has run down from Fishguard Harbour at 06:50 (https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:W09411/2023-07-08/detailed#allox_id=0) to provide a connection at...