Recent content by tbwbear

TSGNL and Sussex Route makes sense, but I wonder what will become of Sevenoaks to Blackfriars TL services - almost all of that route is within South Eastern IBU

I had a similar experience between Kapiri and Nakonde in early March. Here is my blog on the subject.... (Previous posts deal with the Zambezi - Livingstone to Ndola train) https://trainstobeyond.com/2025/04/02/2025-zambia-mukuba-express/ I am writing the Tanzania post about my bus...

Yes, Nozomi. Shizuoka is a good choice - although none of the Nozomi trains stop there, but some of the Hikari trains do. The Hikari (which leaves Shinagawa generally every 30 minutes throughout the day) is a good compromise. It stops less than the Kodama but it is easier to get a seat...

You don't say how long your stay in Tokyo is, but the most straightforward trip is to go from Haneda to Shinagawa station on the Keikyu line. That takes about 30 minutes or less. Then change at Shinagawa.... Shinagawa is the first stop out of Tokyo on the Tokaido Shinkansen - the original...

Grassington is interesting. As mentioned above, that is where the "2020" series of All Creatures is actually being filmed. In that sense it is spot on.

Correct. Towards the end of the BBC series, they ran out of stories from the books and Alf Wight (and now his family) gave permission for new stories to be created. Call the Midwife followed a similar pattern, starting off being based on memoirs and then total fiction.

That simply raised the historical question for me which I was hoping someone could answer here. As the real story takes place in and around Thirsk (ie North Yorkshire), wouldn't that in fact have been "LNER" territory at the time of World War II? Yes - correct, it would have been Thirsk and...

If the OP is mentioning that the story is a few years into the war - that must be Series 5 in the "2020 series". Series 5 of the "1978 Series" is already late 1940s - as has already been pointed out.

You are correct in pointing out the importance of increased ridership. The comparison should certainly be between total Rail Passenger Miles and Subsidy. But I don't think John Major's origninal plan was to increase subsidy, much of that happened after the failure of Railtrack under Blair...

That clip is actually part of the excellent BBC documentary "Engines must not enter the potato siding" - there is a little bit more about Euston and the newly electrified line at 31.31. Set to the "good morning starshine" tune - the whole thing exudes a kind of magical optimism......

Thank you - I have corrected that. Although I think our scarce resources might have been a little "scary". Your recollections of Scandinavia are interesting. I still remember the expense of Norway and then the relief at finding goulash and bread in Budapest for the equivalent of 40p.

Interesting lecture. This might not be the best place to post this - but this my blog on an Inter-rail trip I did in 1984. Looking back now, I think we were a bit mad ! https://trainstobeyond.com/2017/08/02/1984-3-netherlands-ns/ https://trainstobeyond.com/inter-rail-log/

October 1st 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Tokaido Shinkansen, the world’s first high speed line. To celebrate, I have created a few new posts for my blog – https://trainstobeyond.com/ The main one is about a trip I made along the line recently, getting off at all the...

There were certainly "British Railways" travel agents / offices in Paris and New York in the 1930s - the Big 4 companies created them as a joint venture IIRC and they were actually labelled "British Railways" - Not sure if these locations morphed into BR offices after 1948.

Do you mean you will buy a Hampton Court to Brighton return with Network Card Discount, and use contactless to pay the Hampton Court to Clapham Junction part ? If so, isnt that effectively the same as trying to use a Hampton Court to Brighton return, starting at Clapham Junction, going to...