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Post prompted partly by a thread on the Forums a number of years back, inviting people to list the countries which they had visited "outside the UK"; partly by a recent conversation with my brother. He is a pretty competitive guy: on hearing some widely-travelled bod (as it happened, "in...

Being well past my biblical "threescore years and ten": I've been taking thought re at-some-time-inevitable demise; and trying to make things at least a bit easier, for near-and-dear ones who will survive me, and their having to deal with my inanimate "junk" that will likewise survive me. I...

A recent few days in Scotland -- objective, some of its very northerly parts, never visited by me before (this including a short sojourn in Orkney) -- featured travel on the Far North line: new track for me north of Dingwall -- had "bagged" the Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh route, more than half...

This, about non-British stuff; mods, please, as ever ... As per title; silly, but ... am in process of trying to create -- for my brother's birthday in a few days' time -- a "thing" on stuff which interests him, and which he may hopefully, like. Involves an "on paper" map of the world: the only...

Definitely in the "trivia" department (am initially posting in "Railway History and Nostalgia", rather than "Railway Books Discussion" in "Memorabilia, Media and Publications", what with genuine rail-history queries being involved); but -- am reading a novel (published 2011) set in 1924. The...

Weird, and blatantly wrong, "information" -- presumably, believed by them -- which people come up with: am wondering whether folk here have examples of such, which have come their way. This prompted, by a conversation which I had today. I live in the north-eastern parts of Birmingham, just off...

This will be found, likely, a weird / abstruse matter -- have wondered whether it properly belongs here, or in one or another different sub-forum; but as it concerns a railway elsewhere than in Britain... as ever, "mods, please adjust if you see fit". Brought to mind by recent "chat" elsewhere...

The above-cited reference work, attempting comprehensive furnishing of (within the bounds of common sense) dates of all passenger-service withdrawals -- lines, and stations on lines which overall remained in passenger use -- in Great Britain: is often invaluable to those whose interests lie in...

This perhaps belongs more appropriately, in "Railway History and Nostalgia"; but as it's about "somewhere foreign" ... Recently perusing the "Insight Guide" to Cuba (said tome plainly declaring itself accurate as at the early 2020s); in particular, the book's short section on "Cuba's Transport...

Re thread title: for me -- aged 75 -- it's slovenliness / messiness. I tend to burden my everyday life with a lot of physical "stuff" -- largely, very mundane: "paperwork" and books of sundry kinds. Have long been aware of the maxim "a place for everything, and everything in its place" -- can in...

Having had a lifelong love of the Ffestiniog Railway: for many years in times past, I belonged to the supporting Society. Shortage of cash caused me to let my membership lapse; a situation which has long obtained. A recent unexpected "windfall" has had me considering re-joining the Society...

A recent-ish couple of "General Discussion" threads in which the subject of cheques arose, have been closed to further posting; thus, starting this as a new one. I (in my mid-seventies) am one of probably not very many people, who enjoy using cheques in circumstances -- not very common nowadays...

I start threads once in a while, about general English-language matters which bother me, if only to a slight degree. (This one perhaps prompted in part, by the current "evolution-of-the-English-language" thread.) The noun "sloth" -- probably most used nowadays, in respect of lovable animals...

My brother is a keen home aquarist; a couple of weeks ago, he purchased some fish -- which have given him much pleasure -- called "rummy-nose tetras"; so called, I learn, because of their having bright red (only) noses: suggestive of humans who over-indulge in alcohol, in this case specifically...

Prompted by a couple of posts in the ongoing in "General Discussion" thread, England's late 20th century good old days... ; a poster muses as to whether people were perhaps friendlier in the 50s and 60s: did people use to then, as a general rule, engage each other in a friendly fashion in the...

A seeming unsatisfactory -- and not merely "a one-off" -- matter encountered, on a visit by me to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway on April 18th just gone. I was looking (in my case, just a non-essential "twiddly bit" to my travels) at taking the last scheduled journey of the day, on the line's...

Feel that I appear to make rather a lot of posts on Railway History & Nostalgia, to do with the Tallylyn Railway in its eighty-five years of pre-preservation history; but it does strike me that, especially for such an essentially modest and out-of-the-way concern: the TR has in its career...

Am maybe at a loose end -- but; remorse prompted by an item which recently happened to show up. At a time of family crisis, I lived for a couple of years in my early teens with (very kind, and much-loved) relatives. Teenagers -- even non-riotous ones -- tend to be in various ways, annoying...

I live very largely "under a rock", and readily admit it: with matters as they are "near and far" -- I find this a necessary strategy against the temptation to commit suicide: possible eschatological consequences of which, bother me. Thus, a lot of modern-day expressions and concepts pass me by...

(Not sure whether this is the appropriate sub-forum; mods, please move if wished.) June 24th 1914 can be pinpointed as the date of an incident -- at a station, now closed, between Kingham and Moreton-in-Marsh -- which inspired Edward Thomas to write a poem now very greatly loved by British...