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By chance I noticed on Real Train Times a freight routing 4L73 Tinsley > London Gateway today which struck me as unusual. It went via Doncaster and Lincoln as one would expect, then at Peterborough went across to Ely, then went via Cambridge, Cheshunt, Turkey Street, Seven Sisters, South...

Taking the sharpness of many of the curves -- perhaps 'corners' might be a more apposite word -- on the DLR into consideration, I've often wondered why it wasn't built as metre gauge. That it is completely separate from both the main line and Underground would have made this possible.

The discussion about linking Campbeltown to the national railway system was on this thread. It was an interesting discussion; my contribution was that: 'The easiest -- or, rather, the least difficult -- I can see for a route would be from Dalmally on the Oban line, alongside Loch Awe and across...

True enough, although in mitigation getting to the biblical three score years and ten does affect the way I view the passing of years, not least when I can recall the first series of year letters coming in, A in 1963. My G reg Micra from 1989 would be pretty old by now, not that I imagine it's...

For me, a motor is old when its number plate finishes with a year letter. Ones whose number plate starts with a year letter aren't old! Ones which don't have a year letter are really getting old.

The joke was that the A340-200s and -300s used the curvature of the Earth to get airborne. I live about ten miles east-south-east of Heathrow and can clearly recall how much lower at that point they were when taking off compared to other airliners, including A330s and the A340-500s and -600s...

I worked at the Crown Agents, which ordered, inspected and shipped locomotives and rolling stock (and much else besides) to what were then British colonies, and in the archive department were many ex-works photographs of them, including huge Garretts for East African Railways. This was back in...

Stratford is my choice, a right old mess and utterly baffling for occasional users, such as me, especially at rush hour when stopping to read the direction signs gets in everyone's way. I guess I'd get used to it were I to use it more regularly. Birmingham New Street is a puzzle: I changed...

I recently travelled from Euston to Birmingham and noticed that nearly all the OHLE masts were crudely daubed with a yellow or green paint (I'm colour-blind, so it might be some other colour). Any idea why?

I understand that whenever a steam loco started off, the driver would always give a short blast on the whistle (I was asked to do this when I drove Baxter up and down the line at Horstead Keynes on a fund-drive trip some years back), but this doesn't seem to apply to DMUs and EMUs. I'm not sure...

Chessington South has an air of dereliction about it -- or at least when I last saw it -- with its never-used platform, tired 1930s concrete construction, and the line disappearing into a long-disused, weed-ridden goods yard. Perhaps if the Green Belt land to the south is built upon, as has been...

Central station on the Galleons branch always amused me: 'central' to what? It's a pity that the Docklands railway didn't revive the name, and called its nearby station Beckton Park. Here's a picture of Central, scanned from the Middleton book Branch Lines of East London; the only potential...

There are a few examples around my way; for example: Shacklegate Junction at the south end of Strawberry Hill depot Feltham, Hounslow and Whitton Junctions, where the Hounslow loop leaves the Windsor line Hampton Court Junction Motspur Park Junction Wimbledon West Junction Streatham North and...

I went through Queen's Park last Friday, and the platforms looked a bit tatty and weed-ridden.

I've never heard anyone refer to the ex-LSWR station at Windsor as anything but Windsor, except on railway announcements where the 'and Eton Riverside' suffix is always used. I remember 455s with the name in full on the front indicator, thus requiring it to be in tiny letters and unreadable over...

Me too. The only time I went on a Porker was when one happened to stop at Clapham Junction; I don't think it was scheduled to do so, but the doors were opened and so I took the opportunity to travel up to Waterloo. About ten minutes on a 442, and purely by good chance. When one only travels...

Do people still talk about going 'up to university'? In my seven years as a student (1991-94, 1997-2001) and then five working in higher education, all in the University of London, I never heard anyone say that. Perhaps they do in respect of Oxford or Cambridge, but then they're different. Are...

I don't think it's a case of 'nanny stating', rather I think it's more likely to be the litigious predilections of some people. If there is no warning and someone slips when alighting, he could try to sue the company, on the grounds of negligence, that there was no warning that the platform...

For me, the verb 'to sort' is to arrange items in some kind of pattern, not to deal with something, that would be 'to sort it out'. Once I have arranged the said items, they would be 'sorted'; something dealt with would be 'I've sorted that out'. This use of 'to sort' and 'sorted' to mean the...

I'd rather have an occasional light-hearted comment from the guard than hearing yet again that awful 'sorted' announcement that seems obligatory after setting off from each station.