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(I wondered about putting this in Disputes and Prosecutions, but it's not (yet) an actual dispute, and probably not worth making one -- I'm just seeking clarification). On 17th June I received an e-mail notification that my Network Railcard was due for renewal; the actual expiry date is 15th...

(If the authorities wish to move this to the preservation or international subforum, please do so). A few days ago I was on a train passing through Stoke on Trent. In a siding a few hundred yards north of the station on the east side of the line I saw a coach which semed, from the brief glimpse...

The other week I used contactless payment to travel Surbiton-Waterloo-Paddington-Reading. When my bank statement arrived, I found that I'd been charged £19.30 instead of the expected £15.60 (from TFL's single fare finder) or £16.00 (from brfares.com -- does anyone know the reason for that...

Around 4 a.m. last Sunday morning, my mother, who lives in a house in Surbiton with the main line out of Waterloo at the end of the garden, was woken by a loud noise from the railway. (I was actually staying in the house that night, albeit not in a room with an open window directly facing the...

A super off-peak single from Reading or Chelmsford to Newcastle has restriction 9D: https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=CHM&dest=NCL&ldn=1&tkt=SSS, which indicates that it can't (except on Fridays) be used to leave King's Cross before 18.59 (see also...

As far as I can see from brfares.com, travel from London to Reading at the off-peak contactless rate has no evening restrictions: https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=1072&dest=RDG&tkt=POC https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=1072&dest=RDG&rte=801&tkt=POC And Reading to London does or...

It appears that the other day restored 'Big Boy' no. 4014 was out on the main line somewhere in Nebraska when it was called upon to assist a stalled freight train. There are various videos on YouTube, including for example this one: Here there are clips from the same video with commentary from...

I have a foot passenger booking from Newhaven to Dieppe for later this week. It includes the somewhat confusing message: ‘please check in at least 90 minutes prior to departure (Last presentation 45 min)’, and when I e-mailed them to ask about it, I got the equally unhelpful reply: 'That...

I'm considering a brief visit to Normandy sometime between now and Christmas; this would involve some travel on regional trains and local buses. France is presumably feeling some of the same inflationary and public spendng pressures as the UK, it has a reputation for militant workforces, and I...

My aged parents (not quite so aged as to need passenger assistance, but the smoother their journey the better) are booked on the 'Highland Chieftan' from Stirling to King's Cross on Saturday 29th October, when it's now been announced that RMT members at Scotrail are having another strike (not...

If replacement buses are scheduled due to planned engineering works, and a strike is then announced for the day in question, is it a safe assumption that the buses will run as planned (assuming no unrelated problems like bus driver availability)? My particular journey is from Heysham to...

On the now-closed e-ticket thread, in response to this: @yorkie said: The PDF software I use will print multiple pages per sheet. Do people know how small you can print an e-ticket before it gets too small to scan properly? From Yorkie's comment I presume that two pages per A4 sheet is OK...

Can anyone answer some questions about taking bikes on XC's Voyager routes, in particular Leamington Spa to Oxford? It's quite a long time since I last took a bike on XC, or indeed any train requiring a reservation for it; I'm asking partly on behalf of a colleague who would find it useful to be...

I have an unregistered PAYG Oyster card, which I've had for many years but only used occasionally (I'm not in London, other than the very edge, that often, and when I am, I often have a paper outboundary Travelcard or a through ticket from one side of London to the other). In late September I...

I'm planning a day trip to the Isle of Wight -- out to Cowes with Red Funnel, walk to Ryde, return via Portsmouth; I'll probably buy a day return to Eastleigh and then singles to Cowes and from Ryde. The outward journey is fine -- you can't reserve on the Red Jet service even if you want to...

(Starting a new thread because it's off-topic for the one where the subject arose). Apparently some of the American railroads used anthracite in locomotives, and at least one made much of it in their publicity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Snow_(character). There's an article on the...

I'm planning a possible journey from Oxford to Stirling and back in a couple of weeks (which if it goes ahead will be my first Anglo-Scottish train journey, and only my second long-distance one of any kind, since pre-Covid). The not-London Off-Peak Return costs £165.90 according to brfares.com...

A few weeks ago I had occasion to travel form Haddenham & Thame Parkway to Didcot (on a Saturday afternoon, so the ticket office was closed). I was surprised to find that the off-peak day single fare, routed Not London, was £29.50 (BRfares.com indicates that you can go via London, which must be...

Further to my earlier investigations of how to get from Penzance to Reading on 2nd October, I now find that the Exeter-Waterloo service has entirely disappeared from NRE. The SWR mixing deck for ticket purchase shows a service averaging one train per hour for much of the day, but at more...

(Inspired by the recent History and Nostalgia thread on people's first memories of train travel) What was your first experience of train travel in a country other than the one where you grew up? If you know of any earlier journeys that you were too young to remember you can mention both those...