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Someone on the Birmingham subreddit has just spotted this mystery garden and has asked if anyone knows anything about it. Nobody else on there has any ideas, so I thought I'd try a more specialist crowd... It appears to be on railway land, atop the viaduct where the old abandoned Bordesley...

Reddit thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/fgabqu/excavation_work_in_birmingham_uk_revealed_an_old/

Is anyone able to clarify something regarding the Days Out Guide 2 for 1 offer, and how it relates to Advance tickets? From their website: "If you are making a one way journey or your ticket is valid for one day, you can use your National Rail tickets to qualify for the 2FOR1 offer only on the...

The National Rail Enquiries page which shows the release the release dates for Advance Tickets appears to have stopped showing them at all. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/44703.aspx There's usually a table, listing each TOC, and the current date their advances are...

Idly looking into the Shakespeare Express this afternoon, I discovered a fairly substantial discrepancy in the published fares. The primary website has a standard return at £35, and first class at £45, but the online booking engine shows £20 and £35 respectively. I've emailed Vintage Trains...

The other half and I are planning our summer holiday, and we're looking at doing a tour of southern France, getting about by train. Provisionally we're looking at doing Lyon > Marseilles > Montpellier > Toulouse, with a couple of nights in each, and ideally a TGV between them. We'd also like...

Something I've always wondered, but which really struck me at Kidderminster this morning when I was able to compare a GWR Hall Class with an LMS Ivatt Mogul, is why GWR engines have very simple valve gear compared with LMS or LNER designs. Even the largest GWR designs appear to only have the...

I stumbled across, on another forum, a map of the Midland Railway's proposal for a line linking Dewsbury, Bradford, and Halifax in a great loop, duplicating the LNWR, LYR and GNR lines. Obviously it was never built, but it's fascinating nonetheless. Does anyone know of any more maps of...

Apologies if this has been done to death, but just what is going on with the cost of model railways? I've just been to a local exhibition, and don't begrudge at all paying a fiver to get in, but the cost of second-hand items on the trade stands struck me completely dumb. One particular stall...

Does anyone know of anywhere that lists when Advance tickets are actually released? Currently all I know of is this page on National Rail, but it hasn't been updated for two weeks, and isn't massively helpful in any case. I'm trying to book a Eurostar trip to Paris in July. We've got our...

Researching the old High Level line in Halifax, I found some aerial photos from the 30s, and noticed something odd about the houses which back on to the railway. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5MhNBRTd_ysQlhhX1pwOENnVm8/view?usp=drivesdk There are tall poles with boards attached, seemingly...

At Smethwick Galton Bridge there's a penalty fare notice bearing the logos of Central Trains, Centro, and the Strategic Rail Authority. At Birmingham New Street in the Red Lounge there's a map of the local area showing the Pallasades Shopping Centre. Particularly impressive as it was presumably...

Does anybody know of any floorplans that might show how the new New Street station compares with the pre-refurb station? We're struggling to figure out whether or not the current "Red Lounge" is in the same place as the old concourse, given how it appears to be laid out identically.

Since September I've been travelling to and from work on a weekly season ticket between Birmingham and Worcester, which I've been buying online through London Midland. Since WMT took over, they don't seem to want to offer me a weekly ticket, and will only sell me a monthly or annual one. Today...

Heading back to Birmingham from Worcester today, Foregate Street was absolutely heaving because of the Christmas markets going on in both cities. I gave up queueing just to be allowed into the station and checked on the National Rail app for alternatives. I was surprised to see a service...

Is there anything that can be done about the crowds of people on platforms pushing onto trains before everyone has alighted? I've tried a polite but firm raised voice, but it just gets me a torrent of abuse in return, while the few platform staff that do exist just look on from a distance...

Watching a British Transport Film - The North-Eastern Going Forward - the narrator mentions "textile towns in the West Riding" along with a view across one such town. It looks familiar to me, as I'm from that part of the world, but I can't pinpoint which town in particular is shown. Here it...

I like to think I'm reasonably clued up on railway matters, but there remain large gaps in my knowledge, mostly concerning how the railways of the past actually operated on a daily basis. I could tell you all sorts of things about closed lines, old stations, which companies ran trains in which...

Evening all. I'm shortly moving to Edgbaston but keeping my job in Worcester, so I'm going to have to become a commuter and take the train from University to Shrub Hill every morning. Obviously a season ticket is the sensible option, but I'm wondering, would I be able to use a Birmingham...

Evening all. I've just walked home from the pub, passing Worcester Foregate Street, and looked up onto the embankment at an HST waiting to depart. Between the houses I could only see one carriage and the rear end of one of the locos, but I swear this loco was in Intercity livery. There...