Recent content by bleeder4

It's what Flying Scotsman shunted into on the Strathspey Railway last year, whilst people were standing on the balcony. Plenty of videos of that incident from the time that give you a close-up view of the balcony.

Tyndrum definitely the smallest settlement. I remember stopping at Upper Tyndrum last year on the Midland Pullman while we waited for a Scotrail unit to come the other way. 400 people milling around on the station platform for 20 minutes - we temporarily trebled the population! In terms of...

Still a barrow crossing at Worcester Shrub Hill, a station which has no lifts. I actually saw a member of staff pushing a wheelchair user across it just last week. I believe there is a plan to reinstate the old luggage lifts for passenger use in the next year or two, so presumably that will then...

It's popular with charters though, which are usually heavy trains, far heavier than the little units that normally shuffle along the line. For example, I'm going along it in June with 2 Class 47s and 11 coaches.

This has reminded me that I still have a £10 note that was issued in Gibraltar, from a trip there I did last year. I might try using that somewhere just to see what reaction I get!

The other advantage of doing that of course is the scenic drive along the A82 down the entire length of Loch Ness. Plenty of picnic spots along the way to take some photos, take in the views etc.

That's been the case for railway photographers for the last 100 years. It's only in the last 10/15 years or so that they've been spoiled with the invention of RTT and the like. You can see the confirmed timings for pickup stations on the UKRT website, so can work it out for the places in between...

Still running, tickets were sent out earlier this week.

There does seem to be a trend in recent years in attaching a label to every possible type of human behaviour. We're all different - what's abnormal for one person might be perfectly normal for another person. No need to differentiate the two people by giving one of them a label. I dated a mental...

This is a photo of the Mk2 interior I took on a recent tour. They've just finished overhauling a Mk1 FO so that should be replacing the Mk2 soon. You'll be in the Mk1 buffet with opening toplights if you book Standard. Have never taken a photo of it unfortunately, but it is done up very nice, as...

No, the Shakespeare Express between Birmingham and Stratford on Avon never runs with a diesel, apart from times of high fire risk during exceptionally hot days.

Got stuck climbing out of Glenfinnan, leading to the cancellation of ScotRail 1Y41 at FTW

Diesel is needed to power the CDL. They do have a generator coach at Crewe, but they take a diesel along for power now, since it can carry its own weight and help if there is a problem up front.

The provisional times are still on the website. They say 0700 depart New Street and 1900 arrival back into New Street, so I think the original plan was for a longer day.

In the latest Trackside magazine, David Smith owner of WCR says that WCR aren't planning to run any tours in the Summer due to the unreliability of the aircon in the Mk2 coaches WCR are having to use at the moment. The magazine then quotes the boss of RTC who says that they are working on...