Recent content by Sir Felix Pole

To be fair the pre-1990 station was a dump too - badly damaged in WW2 and never fully repaired. The far through platforms were dangerously curved - and wooden over the subway! The surviving Edwardian roof over the terminal platforms were what we would call today 'bog standard' and of no...

Yes on the Blvd. de la Madeline. This was inherited from the Big Four who had set up a joint operation pre WW2. It also had offices in other European cities (and Manhattan) and many of the European railways had their own offices in London - notably SNCF in Piccadilly. Dilton Marsh in Wiltshire...

Electrify to Girvan (from Ayr and via Kilmarnock) and run Girvan to Stranraer as a DMU / battery shuttle. No need for train crew facilities etc. at Stranraer. Move the station 'inland' and tidy up the waterfront with a park / marina or something - the former lorry park is currently a wasteland.

North Western Road Car liveried 504 on the 130 today. Quite nostalgic, as Wilmslow did have a depot of said company back in the day.

Very nostalgic and balanced report - some old faces there including Gerry Fiennes, Sid Weighell and Richard Marsh. I liked some of the BR managers valiantly trying to defend the party line, like we have all have had to do at some point in our careers! Richard Marsh, of course, was poacher...

You have to include the working expenses, of course - rail deliveries of coal to individual stations by trip working was pretty inefficient and the move was to area 'coal concentration' depots. I suspect the whole operation was a sea of red ink. The passenger service might have been saved by...

There doesn't appear to be an existing occupation bridge in the 1932 aerial shot at this location. South of East Didsbury station, however, Gawsworth Road was built at around the same time and a new bridge replaced an older occupation one - I wonder if the Todmorden firm did this job as well...

Midges can be a real nuisance in Northern Norway (like Western Scotland) in high summer - Bodø is particularly notorious for them. May / early Jume is preferable.

The 1936 25in OS Map (Revised 1934) shows the bridge, so built sometime in the intervening period. School Lane Kingsway was laid out in 1926-30 so I guess it was part of the eventual master plan for the whole area.

Exeter is losing Newcastle, with just Jersey and Edinburgh left. Exeter Loganair

Yes, the Okehampton (former Down) line Crediton to Coleford Jcn. is still jointed track and is an annoying trundle - it wasn't re-laid as part of the reopening for this section always remained in BR / Railtrack / NR ownership. It is about 4.5 miles - no idea if a week is long enough to do the...

I believe Rawtenstall Corporation was the last to operate steam trams in 1909 when it fully converted to electric traction. It had taken over the privately owned Rossendale system the year before. There were of course other 'tramways' but they were really light railways with conventional locos...

Bushey, Feb. 1980. Down Manchester derailed at 96mph due to a broken weld on CWR. Miraculously no one was killed which was a tribute to the strength of the Mk III coaches. It was a tricky operation to retrieve the Cl.87 at the bottom of the embankment.

The direct ferries between Ireland and France are doing very well, apparently, as they avoid the hassle of the paperwork for traversing the UK. All could change if we ever rejoin the EU of course...

Was double track ever reinstated on the 'new' Britannia Bridge - I thought the single-track merely swapped sides as the tubes were removed? Is there really a capacity issue - there is no freight left and the passenger service is pretty thin? Foot passengers for Ireland are pretty meagre these...