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At least one gate at Marylebone NR yesterday was failing to read mag-stripe tickets (causing a bit of a pileup), and there's been a gate at Baker St that almost always fails to read magstripes and has been like that for months. It does feel like a bit of a 'can't be bothered' attitude, or at...

According to reports on National Preservation, it was supposed to be picking up the Bristol-Shrewsbury leg of a Saphos Welsh Marches tour. However it couldn't reach Bristol in time due to the incident at Taunton, so the tour went forward diesel hauled. The B1 and support coach were eventually...

LSL (owners of Saphos) have a depot of their own at Southall, next to the WCRC one. The train will pull into the loop alongside the main line, the front diesel will come off and be replaced by the steam loco out the depot. There will almost certainly be a second diesel on the back which will...

If it's the same route as they used for a similar trip last December, it'll turn off the Chiltern Main Line just after South Ruislip towards Greenford, then join the Greenford Branch and heath south to Drayton Green. At that point it will turn west on the triangle to join the GWML at Hanwell...

Please, no re-instatement of reservations on the Cambrian, and definitely not on 158s! The Cambrian isn't an InterCity railway with most people travelling end to end. It's a local/regional service with frequent stops and lots of passenger 'churn'. Allowing reservations just leads to increased...

As someone who can't drive and almost exclusively uses public transport to access heritage railways, I do appreciate realistic timetables and the attempts by the railway's volunteers and staff to keep to them whenever possible as it means my day tends to be a lot more relaxing. I certainly never...

My TfW 158 from Birmingham to Aberystwyth yesterday morning seemed to have working AC (or at least the windows were shut and it wasn't getting too stuffy onboard even though busy). The one back the other way had windows wide open as usual, and was held at Shrewsbury while they got fitters to...

In fairness to passengers who might ask a question about something while stood right underneath a sign or screen providing that exact information, there is no guarantee that the passenger does not have a visual or reading impairment that makes it difficult to read that sign, and staff should be...

It isn't a budget service for those people in Banbury, Leamington Spa, Warwick and all the villages for which they are rail heads. For them it is the only sensible route to London. In Banbury we've already lost our sub-1hr peak trains to/from London due to the removal of the stopping services...

One of the regularly stated aims of the Darjeeling Tank Locomotive Trust (which took on Adrian Shooter's DHR loco), is to engage those of Indian heritage with railway heritage and preservation. They have even talked about hiring out the loco and coaches for Indian weddings and visiting some of...

A couple of Standard Gauge demonstration lines within heritage sites perhaps? Things that come to mind are that at Fawley Hill near Henley-on-Thames (on the McAlpine estate) and the (sadly currently out of use) short section at Hollycombe near Liphook. I think Statfold might also include...

It does seem that Stratford has been repeatedly screwed over by timetable changes that have reduced its direct services. I'm sure in the dim and distant past, there were direct Thames Turbo services from Paddington to Stratford via Oxford and Banbury, and more recently at least several direct...

Welsh Highland Railway has Caernarfon Castle at one terminus, and port town of Porthmadog (with its maritime museum and other attractions) at the other. Sadly with the fixed itinerary based trips, it's hard to visit either in conjunction with the train ride. At the end of the Ffestiniog Railway...

Llanfairpwll famously has a totem with the full name on it. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwll_railway_station#/media/File:Llanfairpwll_Station_Wide_Angle.jpg

Or upon arrival, you find the front set locked out of use due to lack of staff... but nobody bothered to tell the waiting passengers and they have to all go running down the platform!

So what happens in a situation such as I faced today? 8 car Voyager arrived the wrong way round (relative to RTT... the platform displays don't even show the formation). My wife (who has limited mobility) and I were stood at where we expected our reserved seats to be, except they were now 7...

The Great Central Railway are running their 'Last Hurrah' gala on 16/17 November. From: https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/whatson2024/

Seems to work fine at places like Marylebone and Waterloo, which have some long distance services but no reservations. I don't know what Liverpool St is like now that Greater Anglia don't do reservations, but I haven't heard any complaining. You get to the station with plenty of time, head to...

In 25 odd years of travelling all over the country I have only been 'upgraded' to First for free a very small number of times. Once when accompanying someone travelling on a 'dependent' Priv ticket, on a quiet late night train, and we were invited into First by the guard and offered some free...

My preference would be a compromise: - No more than say, 25% of standard class accommodation reservable on any train. - 2/3s or so of the reservable seats can be booked on a first-come first-served basis by anyone for a nominal fee, refunded if cancelled before departure, to discourage unused...