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I noticed this display. The usual thing scrolling right to left. In this case the A is static then followed by a space before the edge of the scrolling message. Is this space reserved for something or just always blank? Are there any labels for coaches with more than one character?

I can remember in the 1960s at Bat And Ball (Sevenoaks) three things in particular: (1) The horrible sour smell of the gas lamp in the booking office (2) The letting-off of pigeons from the back platform (3) There was a bell, just a ding not a brrring, on one platform [Down] which told you that...

Just to do with a story I'm writing set about 1890. Could you get a through sleeper coach from Nice (in the springtime) to Paris? Or would you have to change at Marseilles? (I presume there were UK-term 'sleepers' on the PLM.) This is a completely trivial question, no bit of the plot rests on...

On the Railway Accidents Archive is a report Accident Returns: Extract for the Accident at Mansion House on 30th July 1877 where a train derailed at a set of points. These points are described as 'fixed' (but not in the never moving sense) and are recognised in the report as an obsolete and...

Last week I spent two hours looking out of the window on a pleasant journey through Devon and Somerset. I'd variously lean towards the window and look forward or angle myself against the middle arm rest and 'look straight out'. ie. My head roughly in line with my torso. (Seat facing direction...

I was looking at a picture of Tornado and it has the speedometer connected to the rear, left, driver. The complication is that there's an arm required from the crank pin back to the axle centre. In addition, this can't help access to connecting rod bearings. Why not use the pony truck right...

Taken July 2020 next to Penryn station (Cornwall). How long since this line had a steam loco on it?

Before WW1 personal transport for the rich was often still by their own horses. Back in 1850s era flats for carriages and boxes would be shunted at intermediate stations like smarties. By this era was horse-boxing more common or less common or what? In short, (forget the decade before WW1...

It's me busy writing historical novels again. SPECIFIC TIMETABLE QUESTION 1904 - 1912 era. I'm looking for the /rough/ times for high-class trains between * Gloucester and Paddington * Gloucester and Bristol Peter Fox (AKA Merlin Smallbone)

There's a picture on Shorpy (Glass-plate era US photographs for those that don't know) of some strange apparatus. https://www.shorpy.com/node/25506 You might need to click on the pic to enlarge it to see the details. At a first glance this looks like horseplay but then notice electricity on...

Timetable question. In a story I'm writing, set about 1900, I'm setting-up my main character to appear at an inquest in Oxford at about 11am on a weekday. Assuming he would travel from Gloucester to Swindon then to Oxford (possibly via change at Didcot station? (Was that possible)) then what...

Apparently it is in SNCF-land. https://www.railforums.co.uk/forums/infrastructure-stations.43/create-thread

'Everyone knows' (but perhaps those here know a bit better) that commuting by train is expensive in the UK when compared with France. Can anyone give some rough comparisons? All European countries considered. Any quality of journey info would be handy too. eg. One ticket for...

On the freights passing by me here in Witham on the East Anglia main line to and from Felixstowe, I see a mix of diesel and electric locos. (Aside: Electrics are sometimes doubled-up but never diesels.) I'm a great fan of it isn't broken don't fix it, but these locos must be about 50 years...

I was given a calendar for Christmas. One picture per month. All British (London bus, RAF biplane etc.) but none captioned. I've attached a picture. The whole thing is weird. There are no overhead wires in the photo. No electric rail. The coupling looks good for O-gauge. (The tilt at the...

Passing through Witham this morning at 06:20. 501N 0343 Ripple Lane Exch Sdgs to Norwich C.Pt. T.&R.S.M.D Big red diesel (cl 66?) dragging some whitish mu with red painted doors in the centre of the coach rather than the ends. That's what it looked like from my house. One set of central...

Would the stopping train on Boxing day 1966 have been DMU? Reason for asking is in my latest novel (Research 'Merlin Smallbone' if you're interested. Nothing railwayish except a short story featuring class 66 and class 60. If you want it posted on-line then ask.) happens to have the hero at...

I'm reading a Ministry of Transport accident report for an accident on Wednesday 1st February 1950. It concerns a passenger express from Ramsgate(dep 08:58) to Birkenhead. The accident took place at 12:10 at East Shalford between REIGATE and GUILDFORD. So it's taken nearly three and a...

I'm reading a 1949 accident report on the ex-GC line north of Loughborough. From the Railways Archive website: Report on the Collision which occurred on the 9th January 1949, near Loughborough in the Eastern Region (British Railways)... The PW work involved was 'turning and setting back'...

I'm currently looking at an accident report (http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/MoT_Pontllanfraith1933.pdf) which occurred in 1933 on the Sirhowy branch of the LMS. The description of the rolling stock is ...eight 4-wheeled coaches made up of one three-coach close coupled unit,... I'm...