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The Railway Data website provides some information that may be helpful (although I might question the accuracy of their data for individual loadings on specific trains). Firstly Glasgow is the most popular destination with 6651 recorded users in 2024/5 with Ayr in second place at 3491 - hardly...

Thinking how I put this to an old friend who had to stand between Cheltenham and Newcastle a couple of years ago and swore he'd never to do it again despite delay repay pay out. The trains exist. They were working until quite recently. He's going to ask if I'm serious. It's going to take...

23rd June.https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:P00053/2026-06-23/detailed Modern multiple units have so much vulnerable equipment hung underneath that hitting any obstruction or derailment can cause damage to items that are not kept in stock for replacement or repairs. Northern's...

Newcastle is an excellent example of how originally constructed platform capacity was decommissioned in the 1960/70 era to be used for car parking. Seemed fair enough at the time with the Metro diving underground to replace the Tyneside electrics. North and south east facing bays could be...

Quite. Although running a BEMU from Liverpool to Sheffield might work, stabling overnight in a wired platform maybe to be first westbound and last eastbound of the day.

I'm afraid that's the most challenging, and expensive, section to electrify of the South Pennine route. (Batteries are probably ideal for the tunnels.) It's also a big part of the reasons for postponement/cancellation of the MML eletrification project. Restoring at least a third track in...

Unfortunately for many/most of us on here Trump still has a lot of support in places we tend to discount. In fact many Republicans can't stand Trump any more than we can but will vote for their party candidate because they detest Democrats! Unfortunately Trump's ill mannered, ignorant rhetoric...

You know you're getting older when you realise the last time you went into a bank was to close an account a week before the branch itself closed. However I must be really old because when I used a bank regularly I went to a cashier. Tellers were in American banks. The early cash machines tended...

Once severed the price of reinstatement of the Cumbrian coast route would rise. It's a potentially important strategic connection. Two stubs would be increasingly threatened. I've only travelled from Lancaster via Barrow to Carlisle once but can appreciate how much it must cost to maintain...

I feel sure that 99% of us would have been satisfied if this character had been killed while committing his murders. In days of old such crimes would have been tried within 7-10 days and the execution swiftly performed. Any public element would have been in front of a few thousand maximum...

Last public execution in Britain 1868!

The railway bye-laws used to be very lengthy and prohibited riding cycles in railway stations and on platforms. The latest editions seem to be much shorter. The appearance of mountain bikes, bikes with very chunky tyres, electric bikes and electric scooters riding on some platforms certainly...

We are witnessing the results of when human nature responds to stressful situations and how all the parties will have reacted according to the information they held at the point at which their involvement began. There were no flies on all the walls to have independently recorded everything that...

I'm sure many readers will recall days not so long gone when central door locking was still not universally fitted. I recall the old Tyneside electrics with sliding doors that many users found difficult to open or close resulting in them often running with partially open doors, sometimes fully...

However, back on Northern we have timetabling difficulties when various stock types can operate the same services. 195s have better acceleration and braking than the 150/156/158 combinations that may be drafted in at short notice to cover for them. A pair of lightly loaded 150s will perform...

Unsuccessfully!

That's a point often overlooked as we progress through the evolution of railways and working practices generally. I started work in Newcastle where 'the Ministry' (DHSS ,MPNI, whatever) was a big employer. Friends went into teaching or banking, all with good pension schemes for life. The NCB...

Yup, still take on the mental arithmetic challenge every top up:D

I have noted two SPADS at signals near where I live where that may have been a factor. That said both drivers did realise in time that the red wasn't going to change and came to a halt not far beyond the signals but far enough to have to be relieved delaying trains for the better part of 2...

I started something off with endowment life insurance, tax relief and mortgages! I now realise I'm even older than I thought as I can't recall in exactly which decade what happened or where I was living and working at the times of all the financial changes and exactly how I was aware of a...