Search results

The purpose of the diesel engine was to give slow speed running on non-electrified sidings and short spurs, , possibly even just to heat a train standing off the power, not open line running. For this horsepower is not really relevant - a 350hp Class 08 will start a full size train up to about...

I don't find the Eurostar Brussels service to be that much less frequent after Brexit than before. Even before this, the Eurostar passenger numbers, to Paris and particularly to Brussels were way below initial expectations. As I understand it the Channel Tunnel itself is now pretty full, lorry...

A good place to observe the arrangement is from the large pedestrian overpass that goes from the Stratford stations into the Westfield shopping centre, above all the tracks. You can see it going right across the station in the image above, and from there you can see all four portals of the...

I just wish to point out that in the spectacular 1978 event I described above, of 1/4 million attendees at Bob Dylan's Blackbushe music festival, and the resulting post-midnight, immaculately handled, continuous 12-EPB return service from Fleet to Waterloo, none of us musicheads, at least in my...

This is Post 9 right at the start of this thread, May 2023, well over two years ago. Seems virtually no progress has been made beyond that. Comments above about drivers still not trained in any number (more than one needed?). It's no wonder that DfT get hacked off with the conduct of projects...

To be precise they were not DMUs as they had no multiple working connections. They did have buffers, couplings and vacuum hoses, but that was for the attachment of vans or an extra hauled carriage, which they had to run round at the terminus. There was one final incarnation, with the last two...

Goblins are not politically correct, though ...! If you want the strongest rail brand of all, it has to be the Underground. The majority of it is not, but the public like the name. No Metro or Subway for us. The individual lines are pretty strong in memory as well, even Circle Line, which has...

I don't think so. The key thing is whether the service is any good or not, and then ... whether they usually get a seat or not. That trumps any understanding of when the train was built. For some reason rail management, and indeed enthusiasts, seem to think that second point is somehow not...

GWR of course goes right back to 1833, and is far and away the longest running of any railway brands. Operators still can't let it go (the same applied in the 1950s-60s in BR days!), and every reincarnation of privatisation somehow keeps the name. Traction of all types being dark green just adds...

Although this was true, the Deltics were notable competitors for miles per year, as the HSTs (and Pendolinos, 91s, etc) typically stood in depot sidings overnight, whereas the Deltics, somewhat slower, nevertheless ran pretty much 24x7, being on overnight trains returning to their starting...

Edinburgh Waverley is notable that, right in the middle of an architecturally spectacular world heritage city, from different eras on either side, its large bulk is virtually hidden, and all it can show from many viewpoints is an extensive flat roof, which I think has been a longstanding...

From the beginning of Bournemouth electrification full CIG formations were regulars at Bournemouth on summer Saturdays. This was a combination of there only being 11 REPs built originally, plus there was much more of a summer Saturday peak demand, and timetabled additional Saturday services on...

That can happen at special events. The 1978 Bob Dylan etc concert at Blackbushe airport, near Fleet station on the SW Main, was broadly well handled with 12-EPB extras from every depot on the Southern, but at the start the regular 0530 etc departures from Waterloo, although augmented formations...

One does sometime wonder at accounts of a "breakdown", towards the end of a lengthy run which has been conducted on time. If experience of motorway patrols is anything to go by, the most common single cause of breaking down in the middle of nowhere is running out of fuel. Which is more a...

When I looked up that 1960 timetable the trains via Sutton terminated at West Croydon, which is not a convenient place to terminate. Another service started at the same frequency from there a while later to Victoria via Norbury, so is conceivable that trains were run through. The Central...

The real issue is that none of the available routes onward from Wimbledon to a central terminus are efficient in terms of distance, time, or freedom from conflicts. It's far quicker to change at Wimbledon onto the Waterloo service. Coupled with the Northern Line at Morden, plus its associated...

You may find of interest an article (from 1966) in the Railway Magazine about the Loop Line and its services (also sometimes known as the "Wall of Death" Line after the high curved concrete cutting sidewall at the Sutton end), by noted authority Alan A Jackson...

Yes, it's before through Thameslink services opened. It had been like that for some years prior, but in 1960 for example they went from Holborn Viaduct (again) round through Wimbledon and Sutton, and terminated at West Croydon. The local service back through Mitcham Junction started back...

I am well aware of government funding settlements for London, which vary annually, but in total overall upwards, and are consistently twisted by politicians to suit their purpose. For example, a few years ago London was given an extra £4bn from commercial property tax, but out of that £1bn for...

Pre-Thameslink the loop service operated from London Bridge, via Peckham Rye to Streatham, thence via Wimbledon, Sutton, and Mitcham Junction, and back to Streatham and London Bridge - or the other way round. Half hourly both ways. Blackfriars services shared a common route with this between...