Search results

Does anybody else get them? I have no idea how many times I've listened to somebody singing something and heard absolute nonsense, everything from Madonna's bizarrely contraversial hit "Like a Budgie" :? to the strange Michael Jackson one that goes "Killer, killanize". Apparently these are...

Please could someone give me a list of the permitted routes for a Not London SPR between Stevenage and Grange-Over-Sands. The way out is taken care of, Leeds and Preston via the Calder Vale, but I'd like to take a different route on the way back. They originally wanted to send me via the...

Just watched the Space Shuttle Atlantis making her final launch. It nearly didn't happen, the vent fitting on top of the main tank failed to retract properly. An awesome sight when it happened, and everything went OK. It's a great pity to see the USA backing out of manned spaceflight. We...

After some discussion on this subject, what are people's views of what has been called variously the Varsity Line, the East-West Rail Link and the London North Orbital Railway? There have been several versions Oxford-Bletchley-Bedford-Sandy-Cambridge...

I've heard that 41001 is being restored to operational condition. How on Earth are they going to operate her without her partner? I know she has two cabs, but can they really run round and haul stock from the shunting cab. Hiring a regular power car is probably not an option, but is there...

Can anyone tell me what a pair of DRS Class 20s (or possibly two pairs push-pull, I couldn't see very well) were doing on the Metropolitan Line at Eastcote this afternoon? They were on the down line hauling some sort of tanker. Is this a regular service, an infrastructure train or what?

Is it possible to scrape together an entire rake of blue & grey railtour stock, either Mk.I or early Mk.II (say IIc)? I say this after seeing Royal Scots Grey going through with maroon coaches on the back despite being all-blue. I know there's the Cargo-D set, but AIUI Deltics can't haul...

I've seen this come up on a few threads recently. I happen to think that an automated road vehicle is a very bad idea, because a minor glitch in the system could cause major problems, and because the driver would simply behave like a passenger, and might not notice something was wrong until too...

Is it possible? The fastest service in 3rd rail land runs at 100 mph, and covers the 24 miles from Waterloo to Woking in 26 minutes. That's comparative with London-Stevenage by 365, 27 miles in 25 minutes including a stop at Finsbury Park. In other words, the expresses south of the Thames...

Does anyone here know anything about the four rusty Barclay shunters in the yard of an old factory to the east of Kirkaldy station on the north side of the line. They've been there ever since I first went past. Nobody seems to have touched them for a very long time, and I have to wonder what...

I'm heading up for Aviemore on the first weekend in December. A friend invited me on a skiing trip even though I can't ski, decent chance of a Golden Eagle though. Anyway, that would usually mean sleeper north on the 3rd/4th (Friday night/Saturday morning) and back on the 5th/6th (Sunday...

The Strategic Defence and Security Review has now been published. You can read the whole lot here, but I'll give you the "highlights". Cyber warfare and terrorism are seen as the greatest threats, with actual shooting war a lower priority. Cuts of 7,000 Army personnel, 5,000 Navy and...

Not sure if there's been a thread on this yet. I only found out about it from the Railway Magazine. Apparently, Hunslet have developed a new shunter (http://www.hunsletengine.com/news_new_loco.php). This looks like a perfect replacement for the Class 08, built when BR was still turning out...

Does anyone have any weird and wonderful tales of happenings on the railways, past or present? The example here is probably a myth, but I would love to hear if anyone could confirm it. "A Duchess-hauled express was running slightly late, approaching London fast, with the driver trying to...

Having now been to the US and travelled around a little, I might put up a few thoughts on Amtrak and the new 'high-speed' version. Going to anywhere in North America is like going back in time, because almost everything is loco-hauled, and this even provided a loco exchange at Albany (when I...

Is there such a thing? I ask because I am about to go on a two-week research trip, and will be flying out of Heathrow. I'd rather not get tied down to one particular route, so is there a ticket that will allow me to travel out and back from any station in Zone 6. In practice, this means going...

Something that really gets me angry, as in :-x :-x:-x I've just watched a documentary about the loss of Air France 447 last year, and I've discovered that Airbus are selling airliners with unsafe controls. Firstly, they use fiddly little side-sticks, which don't have proper 'feel' response...

Just seen an article on the Cambridge guided busway on the local news. It's got even more delayed by technical problems, which should be familiar to anyone who knows what a plateway is. The general structure seems to be a reinvention of baulk road, and suffers from problems where the baulks...

To avoid various different threads veering off into debates about which classes of unit are suitable for which lines, I think I might start a specific thread to debate the issue. What precisely is each class for? This is my theory, although I'm sure other people have others. I'll start with...

How difficult would it be to reintegrate some rail-connected preserved lines with the national network? If anyone ever proposed it, would it be a good idea?