Recent content by Taunton

Even this will be an overstatement, there being catering only provided for other parts of the journey the passenger is not using, only in the other set of a coupled train, or crew on duty but do not come round. All this will have been concealed from the ASA. The statistics for what percentage of...

There are already too many Eliz Line trains, I count the number still in the sidings at Old Oak depot as I pass in the peak (as I have written before), often there have been 10 in there. One wonders what they are going to do with them all. Presumably nobody at the DfT commutes in on this line to...

At Stockport a few weeks ago there were two Class 37, from 1963, on a snowplough, alongside a brand new TfW Class 197 from 2023 on Cardiff to Manchester - that's 60 years. I suspect the greatest gap overall was at Havant in 1963, when the last A1X tank, built 1872, would be alongside the last...

This may be true. It will be interesting to see if it happens in reverse. One of the issues with trains increasingly being designed with a minimum of "spare" seats for the overall demand can be seen at the (reasonably) new West Ham station on C2C, Inbound morning passengers change there for the...

You are right about the incessant irrelevant announcements. There was likewise a takeover of the first new inside information board when I was last there, about future engineering works. A nice notice in one or two columns would be reasonable. No, they had been allowed to take over the whole...

This is normally nothing to do with the mechanical capabilities, but just that the interior designer has squeezed the seats up too much, to pack too many seats in. Just the same has been done on the new SWR Class 701, so it's not a feature of the rolling stock per se

Reaching the National newspapers. Article in The Independent today: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/uncomfortable-unpleasant-unsafe-how-london-s-euston-station-became-hell-on-earth/ar-BB1lAi3Q?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=f98eae366efd4c6bb7f53dbd343aa9c2&ei=69 "Passengers who stampede...

The West Clare diesel cars were the same as the later Donegal ones (including the one which ended up on the Isle of Man), except painted drab green instead of red/cream, but their small network is much further south, near Limerick. These cars, and further ones for Ireland and overseas, were...

The DLR certainly manages 20 second stops, with two separate cycles for closing, firstly all except the conductor's door, and then that one. London Underground can do the same at lesser stations late at night, such as the top end of the Northern Line.

Really? The train this morning took 62 minutes for Waterloo to Windsor. In contrast, in 1958 the equivalent half hourly service took 50 minutes - and that was with dilapidated pre-war 2-BIL units, plus dividing at Staines for Weybridge, which portion left there first! 5 x 2-BIL for 10 cars...

Wholly by chance I had my first ride in one today. Upsides Seemed notably smooth and quiet, and ran nicely over points and crossings. more so than just about any other recent stock. Presumably more space as they are running 10 cars where there used to be eight. The inter-car wide gangways...

Actually they were vacuum braked only. Some of the last such built, for 1966. This soon became a problem for the Liverpool Pullman, which was formed of Pullman Firsts and regular Standards. As subsequent generations of mainstream stock were built with air brakes, the Standards could not be...

The report into the 1967 Raynes Park newspaper train accident has quite a lot of detail about procedures, the formation, etc. A shortage of bogie vans, leading to the use of short wheelbase freight wagons, was actually a key aspect of the substantial derailment. Report here...

At a notably youthful age we did possibly the last "Taunton Sunday School Treat". Apparently an annual event since at least the 1920s, going on adult reminiscences, lasting fractionally into diesel days, it went on an August Sunday to the delightful beach resort of ... Burnham-on-Sea :( . Don't...

Now being extended to be the continuous length of the platform for the new trains, which presumably have different shoe positions. It's one of the downsides of bottom-contact that although the live rail itself can be shrouded, the shoes, including on the non-live rail side, commonly the platform...