Recent content by Sir Felix Pole

The GWR did make a start withdrawing goods facilities from small stations in parts of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset in the 30s. Large new depots were built, with the aid of government money, at Taunton, Goodrington (Paignton), St. Austell and Redruth. The surrounding district was served by the...

There is a half-hourly bus service from Billund Airport to Vejle - Route 43 operated by Sydtrafik. Vejle is on the Copenhagen - Aarhus main-line so you can take the train from there if you do not want to go all the way by coach to Aarhus. Billund is served by Ryanair and BA from Manchester.

Alsace-Lorraine in France has right-hand running, unlike the rest of the country, due to German control from 1870 to 1918. It was never converted back to left-hand running after WW1 because of the economic situation. The old main line near Thionville / Metz has a flyover to effect the change.

A further complication is that the street level station building is Grade II listed. I guess the front canopy can be removed for safe keeping and then reininstated, but the building itself would need reconstruction.

The SE & CR closed the SER Chatham Central branch in 1911 as an obvious duplication of the LCDR main line services. In 1927 the SR moved the main line over to use the newer SER bridge across the Medway at Rochester. The original LCDR bridge remained unused, but was eventually removed and the...

An awful lot of verbiage in the reports - is it really necessary to say 'we will..' in every other sentence? Actually it should be 'we can't' - looks like Stockport and Edgeley boxes will live on to celebrate their 140th birthdays (2029). Still Plymouth resignalling gets a mention - presumably...

Sadly the train shed at Foynes, long derelict, finally collapsed in the recent gales. I believe there is talk of running passenger specials to Adare for the Ryder Cup in 2027 and eventually for a 'Limerick Metro' service from Adare across the city to Ennis.

The Big Four of course had their own airline (in consortium with Imperial Airways) - Railway Air Services - from 1934-47. The principal route was Croydon - Birmingham - Manchester - Belfast - Glasgow. I wonder if any VIP was 'upgraded' to air in preference to the train?

Yes, Dawlish Warren. It'll be one of the regular SR loco workings via Newton Abbot for crew familiarisation - the GW had similiar via Okehampton - in case of disruption. GW stock.

LNER would be WW2 - maybe it got stranded in Belgium after the 1940 German invasion.

I am all in favour in principle, but I can see some major rows developing due to the vagaries of the GM boundary, with stations outwith included, yet a fair number within excluded. Southport and Buxton are the surprising ones - they are both nearly 15 miles outside GM (Gathurst and Middlewood...

An early 'crayonista' perhaps? A mapmaker error I think - it doesn't show the Lothian Road terminus which in fact opened in 1848, and the assumption has been made that the Caledonian connected directly to the E & G. It would have been an engineering challenge to say the least, with the...

Manchester Piccadilly has the 'lounge' on the footbridge leading to Platforms 13/14. It gets very congested, with folk standing and gawping at the departure board (which is in the wrong place) whilst others are trying to rush through to their train. It needs a rebuild (with additional platforms...

I guess they were trying to fend off the Triang competion with something inexpensive and sufficiently 'cute' for the younger market, but they did make some other oddball choices - the Metrovick Co-Bo was another. Two-rail came far too late of course, and they managed to flunk that initially with...

Devon and Cornwall to Manchester is already pretty competitive via London, despite the change of termini. Plymouth to Manchester by XC is typically around 5h 30m to 5h 40m, with one change - sadly through services have disappeared, despite the long-standing demand. Plymouth to Paddington is 3h...