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Yup, that's the one, not sure why I had wrongly noted it as from Paddington rather than Victoria as I have photos of 35028 standing at the buffers at the latter. It was a 90th birthday treat for my grandfather, and sadly his last ever main line steam trip before he left us a couple of years ago.

It certainly used to be possible to turn the loco for charters at Cardiff, I went on a trip from Paddington-Cardiff in 2012 with Clan Line where the loco was turned during the break at Cardiff (and no diesel on the back to reverse the train around a triangle). My understanding was that the issue...

Much as I'd love to see a Chiltern Oxford-Birmingham service, it would miss out the key traffic generators of the NEC/Airport, and I don't know whether the walk from Moor St-New St would reduce its attractiveness for anyone making onward connections... it's likely that journey planners would pad...

I prefer not to reserve seats as I value the flexibility of being able to pick a seat that suits me (decent window view, shady side of train, further from disruptive passengers etc). Most of my travels are on Chiltern who don't offer reservations anyway (though it sounds like they may be...

We need to adopt the Swiss/German approach. Proper consistent zone markings on *all* stations. Platform displays on all stations that show the *correct* formation and zone positioning for every single train, not just those run by the TOC that manages the station Reverse/short formation...

The line only terminated at Traeth Mawr for a couple of seasons while the southern section of the WHR main line was being rebuilt, now all trains terminate at Pen-y-Mount However I don't think either that or the intermediate station at Gelerts farm have official public access.

I've had this happen to me on a TfW train at Lydney. I arrived on a Dean Forest Railway train with plenty of time until my connection, but had to wait for a late running service to depart the opposite platform face and the crossing gates to be unlocked before I could exit the island platform...

Looks like Chiltern are (unsurprisingly) going to be running a reduced service on Thursday and are stating 'essential travel only.' Details from the National Rail site Nothing on the Chiltern Railways own website or social media yet. Wouldn't be surprised if other TOCs in the Amber warning...

Paper reservations need to die a death! They slow boarding down as people looking for a seat have to read the tiny text to determine whether the seat is free for their journey. They're also much more inaccessible to the visually-impaired than a bright LED display, alongside a coloured status...

I'm suggesting the passenger actually *make* the journey, as a quicker/cheaper option than going all the way to Reading and back But as you say, just presenting the original ticket would probably be fine.

You would however be approaching the barriers at Oxford having alighted from a train that called at Radley (no barriers) or Oxford Parkway (where you could scan out and immediately back in) so no accusation of short faring for the ticket you presented at the barrier. No need to present the...

Depending on whether the timings work, rather than travel all the way to Reading and back, you could buy an Oxford-Radley return, alight at Oxford, catch a stopper to Radley, cross over to the other platform, and come straight back to Oxford, all perfectly above board! (Oxford Parkway might also...

While I'm a proponent of reducing the number of unnecessary seat reservations, I do hope they would at least provide free/discounted seat reservations for those who actually need them (disabled/senior railcard holders at least). I'd also support making reservations free if you're booking more...

If it's the same one I saw, I think it was Mansion House to Cannon Street. Another one that's might be theoretically possible is Ninian Park to Cathays (Cardiff). 18 min by train or 1.6 miles on foot, but you'd have to be a good runner and very lucky with timing the road crossings. Danescourt...

Ash Vale to Ash (Sundays only) Train is booked to take 19 minutes (reverses at Aldershot), and it's 1.9 miles walking distance, so might just be doable for an experienced runner. The other direction is 17 minutes by train and you'll be on the far side of each station, so would be a bit more of a...

One has to wonder whether there's a perverse incentive to leave some of these 'obvious' fare evasion options open as a 'honeypot'. If most of the people being caught doing this are serial fare evaders, or regularly use invalid/expired railcards, catching them 'bang to rights' performing an...

The Great Cockcrow Railway in Chertsey is a 7.25" gauge miniature line, but is fully signalled to 'main line' standards and has 3 fully-equipped signal boxes, along with a 'gate box'. Two use miniature lever frames while the third uses an ex Waterloo & City 'knee frame' At least one of the...

Had one the other day at Marylebone, where an inbound 2 car from depot was followed into the same platform by a 4 car from Birmingham. Those 'in the know' knew that the two units would be coupled together to form a 6 car back out to Birmingham, and boarded the ex-Birmingham unit as soon as...

Oh, it's entirely possible: Permanently declassify the First Class in the Mk5s, and you've got another Standard class coach (albeit with fewer seats until you can re-seat it to match Standard). Financially acceptable to the DfT, that's another matter...

I received the following e-mail from Chiltern Railways earlier today: The link to the survey is https://www.research.net/r/WMFXFWV (I've removed the referrer parameters so anyone else can fill it in if they want). It looks like Chiltern are planning to introduce seat reservations, presumably...