Recent content by phil beard

This may have been written before, but I think the TfW livry looks too much like Greater Anglia. Perhaps a splash of green somewhere in the colour scheme would a) improve the looks and b) complete the Welsh flag colour compoenents,

Not at all. The old chap has been marvelous but a bit of humour does not mean sarcasm.

An honorary promotion to Major Tom could see the re-vinyled unit also see a graphic of David Bowie on it!

A good gesture for everything the NHS continue to do for us. Glad there isn't a No. 700999 in the Class.

Voyagers should be taken off XC's longest routes and transferred to CC - Nott and BNSt - Stan Air to provide suitable accommodation there. Voyagers should be replaced by 9 or 10-car bi-modes and the 170's moved to other franchises. Voyagers were always a stupid idea as they replaced much longer...

Well, they will certainly have some stock on their hands to paint, or at least clean, in the next month from Monday.

The latest picture released by SWR shows a non-gangwayed 701 but I thought this Class had inter-unit gangways.

These errors occur regularly. I was l;ooking at Westbury and there were a lot of trains on Realtime Trains marked the previous day as run by an electric locomotive; they must be bi-mode freights!

Good luck to those in North Wales who are getting these things.

London Overground should be taking over all the franchises' metro services and then the fleets on SWR, Sthn and SE could be replaced with a homogeneous fleet.

A driver at Gospel Oak today (Tues) told me that the 710s will start on Thursday. I am always sceptical...

I took this shot of 230004 yesterday (26/04) at Stewartby. Very impressively quiet but I cannot help thinking that their use should be strictly limited to quiet country lines and not metropolitan lines.

There was a Class 210 of two trial DEMUs based on the Mark III coach and looking very similar to the Class 317/455 units. The 300 series of numbers were based on Mark I and II AC EMUs and the 400 series were third rail EMUs for the Southern Region.

In my case, the problem with these damn things is that the dispenser is so low. I am 6 foot 5" and have disablements to my back and cannot get my hands almost to the floor. No use at all. I won't even bother you with the problems I have with ticket machines...

Those wretched German-style smoke deflectors really preclude it being painted in LNER colours and number(s). I wish they were never refitted during rebuild as 6201 shows they are not required.