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I had my first experience of these trains last Thursday. I had a day out with a North Wales Day Ranger. I did Shoton, Bidston, Wrexham Central, Wrexham General. I thought they were a nice train to ride. My previous experience had been on the Marston Vale 230s, now presumably rotting away in...

I was on the Pathfinders tour in February and other tours have also run. Some freight services are running. The trains have been available for months and had been tested by WMR in public service before transfer to Chiltern. It has been an open secret that Chiltern would be the operator long...

Are the WMR 730/0s that have been working in the London area being transferred to the Midlands and if so which services will they work?

I think this is the first time for some time a 196 has been out on the line

Information available is that Coventry City Council own the intellectual Property to the VLR and the prototype was developed before the Dudley operation became involved.

What training runs that have been done over the last couple of months have been using class 165s which have been route learning. Traction learning requires the 196s. Has anyone seen the 196s? One report says that they are back at Tyseley.

A point I picked up from Geoff Marshall's video is that 230001 will be a one off to test the technology for use in orders for future new trains. There did not seem to be any future use for either the 3 ex Marston Vale trains or for the stock of ex D Stock trains which will presumable all now go...

Pathfinder Tours have a steam hauled tour over the line in October. The first with steam haulage. Actual loco not announced yet.

The USA is in recession now. It is just that they don't have the statistics to show it at the moment with a president who would lie about it even if they did have the stats. The question is how much will that affect world trade and and us as a result.

230001 did a couple of trips to Park Royal yesterday. Surprise for anyone on the platform at Perivale and Hanger Lane. This photo by Keith Ward on the Chiltern Line Appreciation Society Facebook Page.

Stratford upon Avon lost its London service because the paths from Bicester to London were required for the Oxford Services. The chord at Smethwick Galton Bridge faces the correct way for its historic traffic and is still used on a daily basis by 3 Cross Country trains, 1 WMR train, freight...

230002 and 011 are in America and surely not worth the expense of purchasing them from whoever now owns them and repatriating them. 230003/4/5 are diesel operated and for them to be brought back into service would probably require them to be upgraded to the same standard that TfW now have their...

I used the old Wrexham and Shropshire a few times from Tame Bridge Parkway. Biggest problems were the 30mph speed limit on the Aston Stechford Line, the 15 minute wait with the doors locked at Birmingham International to allow a Virgin train to pass and the single track from Coventry to Leamington.

A new video by Jago Hazzard suggests that 230001 may not go into regular service but just have been used as a test of battery powered trains.

We know that GWR owns 3 class 230 in storage and now know how to convert them to working trains, although I think they are 2 car units. Also we do not know what was included in the purchase of Vivarails IP and equipment which could include additional D Stock units.

Could someone clarify something for me please? Am I right in thinking that diesel trains can run under the Mersey as far as James Street but not round the loop? I have a recollection of reading something either on this thread or the thread about the class 230.

Code M8 Other technical failures above the solebar So can be almost any fault

This entry refers to another train passing. I assume that there is a timing allowance because of another train on another platform meaning that this train cannot move out of the station.

The last time the Chiltern franchise was put out to tender, the Oxford to MKC service was specifically included. I assumed that this meant that the decision had been taken that whichever operator won the franchise, ihat would be the operator, Chiltern Railways won the franchise so I was making...

This morning I went to Coventry to see the Very Light Rail prototype tram car being tested on the street. I had seen the vehicle on a couple of visits to the VLR Resource Centre in Dudley but I had never seen it running. We never expected to ride in the tram but we were surprised and pleased to...