Recent content by Old Yard Dog

The elephant in the room is that rail will be far quicker than the bus from Cheadle to Manchester. This will lead to massive levels of overcrowding on Chester to Manchester trains.

Does anyone know why the 2018 Chester to Liverpool train leaves at 2018 rather than the 2027 which one would expect assuming the standard 30 min frequency? It then hangs around at Hooton for 10 mins much to the chagrin of those on board and those with an extra 9 mins to wait for an Ellesmere...

Nothing to do with being a hub. It’s about passengers to and from one of Britain’s biggest 10-20 cities not having to change at Leeds or traipse across Manchester to get to other parts of the country. When you’re an old codger, or travelling with kids and/or luggage, changing trains isn’t much...

On a stopping TPE on Saturday, I was amused to hear an announcement by an AI lady with a very plummy voice say “Slough-it” more or less correctly.

(Trivia) Having been relegated to Northern Premier League Division One East in 2024, Bradford hadn't played anywhere west of the Pennines for almost a year. But thanks to wider regionalization zones in the FA Cup and FA Trophy, Park Avenue now face trips to grounds served by three adjacent...

Didn’t Llanfair PG re-open as a temporary station when the bridge over the Menai straights was temporarily OOU due to a fire. It then remained open afterwards.

I think Ince & Elton had something similar. The westbound platform is only accessible by a barrow crossing.

I’ve alighted and joined at Stanlow & Thornton several times. It is outside the refinery security gate. But you have to pass some forbidding sounding signs on Oil Sites Road to get there. It can be reached from the east end by car, foot or bike and from the west end by foot or bike. But of...

The ATOC guides suggest that Liverpool/Manchester to Newcastle/Middlesbrough is not permitted via Sheffield.

On a number of weekends, the only through trains from Manchester to Leeds are via Bradford. Added to which, Leeds - York trains are diverted via Castleford. So - are there any easements allowing travel from Liverpool and Manchester to the north east via Sheffield and Doncaster instead of Leeds?

The Manchester Airport link could have been saved if TPE hadn't been allowed to pull rank and run Leeds - Huddersfield - Manchester Airport services via Victoria instead of via Guide Bridge with reversal at Piccadilly. The Ordsall chord has been wasted. Its paths should have been allocated to...

Buxton Bulls 51 Oxford Chargers 38 Buxton Bulls is the only speedway team competing solely in the National Development League, the third tier of British speedway. With the sport now down to 16 tracks, this was one I needed to cop having just been resurrected after a 7-year hiatus. The...

It’s sad that the Bradford Rail Users Group is now defunct as it seems there is nobody to fight the many adverse decisions concerning Bradford’s railways. These include moving Interchange station to a new inconvenient out of town site and the collapse of Northern Connect and the promised links...

I remember stuffing loads of Belgian 5 and 20 BEF coins into ticket machines before the Euro made them obsolete. The Belgians only had 4 coins and 2 of them were exceedingly similar in colour and size. It makes me think that Euro coins must have been designed by a Belgian. 7 of the 8 are...

I’d have loved Bradford- Hull through workings as my first job in the 1970s was in Hull