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Are you suggesting the sun never shines in Cumbria? :D White paint could be an economic solution to many ills.

Points and crossovers are mechanically more rigid than sections of uninterrupted rail which have expansion gaps to aleiviate this problem anyway. Points will be less tolerant to extremes of temperature.

Perhaps they are rails aligned North-South that will have both sides exposed to the sun.

You may have noticed that (in the UK) it is normally the southern face of the rail thats is painted white! That's how I deduced what it is for. Appears to be a very cheap and effective solution to avoid a potentially dangerous and expensive problem.

The Great Western may be wider than average due to the old broad guage but the clearances are certainly not high enough to meet international standards, as we are clearly seeing in the electrification of the Great Western Main Line. The lines were also built with a shallow layer of ballast due...

Thank you for all of your advice. I have just received an email from Southern to say they will credit my account with 50% of the fare paid corresponding to a delay of between 30 and 60 minutes. This is just as I understood I was due according to the delay payments scheme. I have also received an...

Ironically, had I gone down that route I may have received a 100% refund as the SWT trains were blocked for over an hour! In my initial claim I was only asked to give the start and end locations and times of my journey, less than 1 hour delay.

THanks for all of your suggestions, as requiested here is my itinerary: Off peak Day Single Southampton Airport Parkway to Arundel Bought 10:48am Train 1 11:09 CrossCountry Southampton Airport Parkway to Southampton Central Train 2 11:32 Southern Southampton Central to Barnham Train 3...

Thanks for your help. When I first declared the delay to Southern nearly a month ago all I could quote was the journey, start time and delay. Southern have only just rejected my claim so it is now too late to contact SWT as it is over a month since I travelled. Southern invited me to resubmit my...

I recently travelled from Southampton Airport Parkway to Arundel. It was the Saturday in mid November when the signaling failed in Esher stopping the whole of SWTs trains between London and Woking. I managed to get to Southampton Central on time to catch the scheduled Southern train to...

Photos from Journée du Patrimoine at Toulouse Depot

The "engineering" solution would probably be to go to broad gauge in order to run wider trains with more capacity for passengers. This would only work if HS2 was built in isolation. In the real world this is not possible as rolling stock would need to circulate elsewhere on the national network...

Thank you for your responses

I will be travelling by train in the UK this summer and would like to know if my french disability card will be recognised in the UK for access to priority seats on crowded trains? It has Priorité and Handicapé written on it which should not need translating and has photo, name, date-of-birth...

I used to like Pacers when they were new, big windows, bus seating, etc. I had a nasty shock two years ago when I took a FGW class 143 from Exeter to Oakhampton, new seating with no legroom, leaking roof (=soggy seats) and freezing cold despite being the mmiddle of summer!

You could try Birmingham to Cardiff via Hereford. That will take in both Worcester and Hereford Cathedrals, the countryside around the Malvern Hills and shopping in Cardiff. You have to change trains in Hereford as there is no direct service. Don't forget to specify Hereford when you buy the...

I was in Lucerne last year. I stayed in the Hotel Continental-Park. It was very nice and right next door to the station but, like most hotels in Lucerne, very expensive. Lucerne is a tourism centre in Switzerland so you should expect steep prices. If you do go there I can heartily recommend the...

I did the North of Scotland two years ago. As has been mentioned before here the biggest problem is the lack of services at the weekend, particularly on a Sunday. For example, there is no return service from Inverness to Wick on a Sunday. As a result I took it at quite a leisurely rate. Day 1...

Thank you for all your advice. I just need to find a good pub in Norwich now to savor real English ale! Unfortunately the line to Southwold was closed years ago!

I did Devon and Cornwall last summer over four days (including travel to and from Bristol) and it was a bit tight on the timing, so much so I didn't get to ride on the Bodmin Railway. The year before that was the North of Scotland from Edinburgh again over four days. That was a little more...