North Downs Steam Railway? Never heard of it! Surely you mean the North Downs Line? No it wasn’t that! Where was this other railway then? It was a short-lived heritage line in North Kent, based not far from the southern end of the Dartford tunnel. The NDSR began life with plans for the preservation of […]
Read MoreWhile we in the UK battle wits over whether a new high speed railway should be built or not, I thought it would be a good idea to do a feature on the world’s first ever high speed railway – the New Tokaido Line. It was originally planned in 1940 albeit with lower speeds. Although […]
Read MoreToday is the sixtieth anniversary of the closure of South Wales famous electric railway, the Swansea and Mumbles. It was a very unusual line being one of the world’s first ever passenger railways, and despite being described as a tramway, legally it was a main line railway. The final train ran in January 1960. Huge […]
Read MoreThe famous (since 2004) bridge was dismantled and taken to Portsmouth where it currently resides at Fort Cumberland in Eastney. Few know its there. It seems the stored remains are not even labelled as Brunel’s bridge. At the time of its dismantling there was every promise it would be stored for a short while and […]
Read MoreTrans Karoo express traversing the Hex River vineyards. This week its the 30th anniversary of what was initially Africa’s longest railway tunnel and certainly its the second longest narrow gauge tunnel in the world, just coming behind the Furka base tunnel in Switzerland. The Hex tunnel is 8 and a third miles long (13.5km) and […]
Read MoreThis stupendous Victorian construction has reached its 150th year. The reason for its construction was to enable a completely level route from Bank to Holborn without descending to the Fleet Valley. Its often not realised there are two parts to this scheme, the much bigger bridge over Farringdon Street, and a considerably smaller crossing over […]
Read MoreA branch line in London N1 perhaps? Nope. Its a part of London that’s been known by this name since the sixteenth century and also because of a well known pub, once a music hall, famous for hosting Charlie Chaplin and Marie Lloyd. Its a central London location but also a sort of in-between area, […]
Read MoreIts that time again, station after station, railway after railway. ALL the stations on the Isle of Man episode two released yesterday. But what’s this? The Manx Electric Railway ‘All The Stations?’ It looked like ALL the MER stations but it wasn’t actually in terms of the lines history and what came as a surprise […]
Read MoreYou’ll know what this is about! Its fifty years since humans first set foot on the moon. But first we start with a totally different perspective upon the matter – and this is the alleged fakery surrounding the moon landings! And so it begins…. on the 20th July 1969 fifty years to this day, in […]
Read MoreToday is the anniversary of the topping out of the BT (or Telecom) Tower and for some its still known as the Post Office Tower. Besides the images showing early designs for the tower itself, the structure was going to be known as the Museum Radio Tower. The rather grandiose name came from the fact […]
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