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Wasn't the lack of paths the reason why the Bristol - Oxford service was scrapped a few years ago? (and with it the prospect of reopening Corsham?)

Still begs the question of why, if restaurant cars are so popular and well used, have so many been withdrawn over the years. Somwhere around 2000/01 time I went down to Cornwall for a few days and there was even a restaurant on a Sunday lunchtime Paddington to Penzance via Temple Meads. There...

From what I seem to remember a lot of its high loading was due to naval and other military personnel travelling between Devonport and Rosyth. I used to see it at BPW and it was still running in 1993-ish. As others have said there were no budget airlines in those days and whether a train could...

There was a through sevice between Liverpool - Norwich via Leicester in the 1980s which was class 37 loco hauled with mk I carriages.....and it was a very long journey with no buffet car! There also used to be a daily though train from the NW (it definitely started at Manchester at some point)...

I would have thought that there's surely something in the railway by-laws giving the "authorities" the right to ask somebody to leave the station area and if they return they are liable to arrest? There was a crackdown on beggars in Bristol some years ago (and rightly so, as the situation was...

The 12.32 Holyhead - Maesteg and 13.30 Manchester - Tenby are both showing as "delayed due to vandalism" somewhere between Hereford and Abergavenny. They seem to be moving again after a delay of around 45 minutes and northbound trains appear to be unaffected. Anybody know if this was due to...

In my experience second sittings are a thing of the past, even if there are 1st class passengers who miss out.

I remember being at Newport (Gwent) some 25 odd years ago and hearing the announcement about the impending arrival of a reverse formation 125 to Paddington: "will 1st class passengers please note that this train is running backwards".

Probably the winter of 1947 - I seem to remember hearing of rescue trains having to be rescued themselves!

I remember watching a documentary on prisons a few years ago and well remember the words of one repeat offender about the first time he went to jail. He said something on the lines of "I was absolutely terrified, and if, after 48 hours, I had been let out I would never have broken the law ever...

How about Pontypool Road? Vast engine shed, multiple sidings and marshalling yard, one of the busiest stations in the country during WW1, several passenger lines, direct sevices to just about everywhere, now reduced to a bare, bleak platform.

In the Ian Hislop documentary shown on the BBC a few years ago there was an interview with somebody who was a young BR manager at the time, and he recalled how his manager had sent in a proposal to the Regional Manager as to how to reduce costs and improve services on a local branch line. The...

Given that 2013 is the 50th anniversary of the Beeching Report I suspect there'll be quite a few railway programmes this year!

Back in the days when Pontypool was still manned (early 80s) the one old guy who ran the ticket office apologised as he had to go and answer the phone. After a brief puzzling conversation it turned out that somebody had rung up and asked when the next train to Monmouth was (even at that time the...

I well remember a large group of accordion-playing French rugby supporters en route to Cardiff some years ago. They weren't singing "nous somnes les enfants en Amerique", though!

I take it that a route is "disqualified" even if there is only one train a day which is either direct or involves just one change?

Without wish to stray off topic, the other reason the dates of academic terms vary is not only because Xmas Day moves forward through the week but because Easter can fall anywhere between March 22nd and April 25th. In my 1st year in Uni we broke up on Dec 8th because Easter was early that year...

Are they doing omelettes now? :grin:

When I was a kid we lived next to a railway line which was a very convenient short-cut to the sports field and playground about a quarter of a mile away. By then the line had been reduced to a few Monday to Friday coal trains only, and there was an almost unwritten rule that on weekends parents...

IIRC the old Filton station stayed open very briefly after Abbey Wood came along, probably so that the necessary statutory notice etc could be given and to allow for any delays in opening the new station. However, in its later years it only used to get 5/6 or so trains a day each way, a couple...