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This appears to have been issued for the first time in 1969, first in a provisional edition and then in a final version, and to have been revised annually at least to the middle of the 1980s. It broke the whole national network up into sections and assigned a numeric code to each section. The...

The old-established political parties have been ashamed of “England” and “English” for a good many years whilst the Scots Nd the Welsh have become more proud of their heritage — which all leaves the field wide open for the Reform lot and others like them. As for “Great British Railways”, I...

Different people seem to have had very different experiences of jury service, and I'm well aware that some of them are strong defenders of the system as a result of their experience. My own jury service at a Central London crown court some years ago was deeply disillusioning, leaving me with a...

Interesting YouGov piece on people's reactions to the budget: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/53583-how-have-britons-reacted-to-the-2025-budget

Diverting for a moment, if I may, to another aspect of Reeves's budget. Setting aside questions of manifesto promises and how binding they are, would it not have been fairer to restore linking of the tax thresholds and raise the money needed by even quite a significant jump in tax-rates? The...

If I may correct ... the author is Francis Whishaw, and there's an "and" in the title. There were two editions, 1840 and 1842, and both are available on-line. Also worth reading is his Analysis of Railways, again two editions, 1837 and 1838.

Do those forms of insuring yourself against care-home fees still exist? I thought there was a move quite a while back to get the insurance industry to provide such schemes and they did for a while appear, but then with costs rocketing the companies involved all withdrew from the market. Was your...

It's not just all the stuff around pensions that shews what an ambiguous attitude our political lords and masters have towards savings in general. Save towards a good pension, or just save, and when you come to need care the government will not only have it all off you in care-home fees until...

Given that the Derby layout design is modern and the performance capabilities of modern diesel and electric stock were well known when it was done, does anyone know why St Mary's Jn was designed for 60 when 70/75 might have made all the difference between slightly-checked and unchecked running?

Are there any cases in this country where the vertical curvature is responsible for a limit? I seem to remember that it is responsible in a couple of cases on the original French LGV.

The scissors were part of the original design of the new station in the 1880s.

A perfect summary!

If the king is subject to parliament, then why is parliament not free to debate him, his family, and their affairs, why does he have effectively a veto over any proposed legislation that might affect the royal family, why are not the affairs of the Crown Estate and the Lancaster and Cornwall...

Am I alone in not understanding how it can be that, if the by-laws are clear on a subject (as everyone seems to agree they are on this one) one TOC can simply decide to ignore them and go its own sweet way. Whose job is it to see that the by-laws are observed if not that of the train-crew?

It was designed when plans were still for the main cross-country route to be York-Castleford-Altofts Jn to join a greatly-upgraded North Midland line thence to Sheffield. The kink in the newer lines at Church Fenton would have been eased (and Castleford would have gone back to the old...

Isn't that how it used to be done, not only in this country but in many others too? The highest-class trains went on the graph first and then others were fitted in descending order. Wasn't that why some goods traffic got its reputation for being so desperately slow?

Doesn't this bring us back to the old point that we've never, from the middle of the nineteenth century on, managed to value the applied sciences and the institutions that specialised in teaching them properly in this country (except for medicine, which somehow managed to set itself up as an...

What do you expect? The East Midlands just doesn't seem to have any political clout, no matter which lot are having their turn in power.

Well now, there's a temptation ... An online search brings this up (https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/manchester-airport-station-reopens-after-work-to-build-a-fourth-platform-is-completed): "Manchester Airport station reopens after work to build a fourth platform is completed...

Unfortunately not — more like one holding company and a whole host of smaller businesses all doing their own thing. And, if anything, they seem to be slipping happily back. My GP surgery had online appointment booking for a good few years before Covid. You could see who was available when...