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Without having any hard evidence it appears to me that USA railways had 'bogie' coaches almost from the start, whereas in the UK 4 and 6 wheel rigid coaches persisted for many years. So why was the bogie coach slow to be adopted in the UK. Was it 'we have always done it this way' or were there...

A quick bit of background, there are two total eclipses visible from Spain, one on 12th August 2026, and one on 2nd August 2027. 2026 eclipse is total across a swaith of the country from the North Coast to the Med, but is late in the day, nearly at sunset. Possible places to view would be...

A simple one this: Is a one day travel card valid on SE High Speed services from St Pancras to Stratford? Arrival into KGX at about 09:10, plan is to go there first. We are visiting London in a few weeks and SWMBO wants to visit a particular shop at Westfield Stratford. Journey time less than...

An example: Potters Bar to York, two possible journeys: Potters Bar - Kings X - York or Potters Bar - Stevenage - York, maybe with another change at Peterborough. Timewise this seems like a borderline case So what is the furthest point from London where doubling back is quicker. (this assumes...

Due to engineering work on the ECML this Sunday Hull trains are running a reduced service into St Pancras. A few questions and thoughts: Hull trains, as an open access operator obviously find it profitable to organise what is a major diversion rather than just give up or put everyone on...

Given the cost control problems on HS2 and cancellation of everything except London Birmingham how likely are the Northern Powerhouse Rail upgrades to come to fruition (apart from those already started). I know work has started on Huddersfield - Dewsbury section, but I am thinking the larger...

I know this has been discussed before, and various answers have been put forward. I realise that rocket power, maglev, and possibly linear motors may allow far higher speeds, but what I am interested in is what could be acheived with the current technology. So to set the parameters: Wheel...

Coming out of York towards Scarborough recently I saw a car on the rail side of the level crossing barriers. It was clear of the tracks, at an odd angle almost 90 degrees to the direction of the road. Our train was running close to line speed for that section I would guess, and no obvious...

We visit family in Peterborough maybe 4 times a year, travelling by train from Bempton. We are going again in a couple of weeks, Saturday 19th for the day, and there are no advance tickets available for Bempton - Peterborough that day. I am not totally surprised, middle of August, weekend etc...

On the face of it a fairly simple question, when was the last mechanical signalling removed from Balham? Certainly growing up in the area in the early 60s it appeared to be all coloured lights, but were there any bits that were still mechanical. The reason for the question, we have a picture in...

We are now probably 1 year away from a general election, and its anyones guess what the next parliament will look like. My own guess, Labour will have the most seats, but no overall majority, but this is a very much a guess. Labour have stated that they wish to bring the railways back into...

Sadly it looks like there has been a serious incident at Pickering https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-65665628

I came across this display at the London end of platform 13/14, I had run up the stairs at Chorley and got in the first carriage, and ended up right at the front on a 6 car unit, so ended up right at the platform end at Man Pic. Simple question, what's it for?

I know Midnight Trains have aspirations to introduce an Edinburgh - Paris service, and this has been aired previously, e.g. here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/sleepers-trains-from-london-to-europe.240500/ and here...

We are visiting London in a couple of weeks for the day and we want to visit the LT museum in Covent Garden, i had a look on their website, but it didn't really help. There was a lot of stuff about annual passes but I could not see anything about tickets on the day or tickets bought in advance...

A very specific question: I know it is possible to load a navigo pass directly onto a compatible Android phone, without having a physical smart card, the phone needs specific hardware to be able to work in the same way as the smartcard, but if your phone has the support its works fine, and when...

I know a lot has written and discussed about this route, my question is a simple one, had the route survived (Nottingham southwards), what speeds could have been acheived assuming the route remained within its original boundary. It looks to be fairly straight on the map. You can electrify it...

Following on from @Chester1 thread about at risk fleets, I wonder when and where the last HST in normal revenue service will run. To clarify, a normal timetabled service, carrying pssengers, but maybe not the diagrammed stock. Will they make 50 years? I understand they are a bit like 'Triggers...

How was the wartime black livery, 'labour saving' over an unlined version of the normal livery, or was the livery to do with less visibility from the air? in which case the labour saving aspect is a misinterpration of the original intent.

There has been a lot of discussion on here about possible new tunnels between Huddersfield and Manchester as part of major improvements to the York - Manchester route, however given the likely cost and the current economic situation it seems very unlikely that this 'new build' will get beyond...