Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Ecuador, India and other parts of the world all have one thing in common and that is their narrow gauge railways, but whats more is some of these railways are too a part of the daily lives, the social fabric, of town and city dwellers. There are markets, cafes, shops and shanty […]
Read MoreYes! London Underground once had a streamlined tube train – although the speeds it would have been doing did nothing of any sort to smoothen the train’s actual progress. Despite claims the design was to enable faster tube speeds, it was said ‘After making experiments,’ it was ‘reported that there was no advantage either in speed or […]
Read MoreFive different stations and five different lines for this year’s effort at celebrating International Womens Day on the tube. Even TfL changed its own social media accounts to depict the new style roundel as the picture below shows. TfL’s profile page with its International Womens Day roundel. Link to tweet. The roundels are presented here […]
Read MoreFrom March 2020 plans to keep just the N700, N700A as the sole stock operating on the Tokaido Shinkansen – with the exception of ‘Doctor Yellow’ – look like going ahead. End of era celebrations had been planned however the coronavirus outbreak prompted JR Tōkai (aka JR Central) to cancel all events. The last special […]
Read MoreThe oldest trains currently operating on the Tokaido Shinkansen are in fact at least 21 years old and Japan Central Railways have decided it is time for this iconic stock, its fourth generation of high speed trains, to bow out. To the casual observer it will not seem as if much has changed. This is […]
Read MoreLast week most of Central London had copies of the Evening Standard with a special feature cover from Great Western Railway. It was no doubt aimed at day trippers who might wish to take advantage of GWR’s new IETs (their green Azumas if you like!) Especially those faster services that are being offered with the […]
Read MoreNorth 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 MoreBeing the one where the PM has given the project the full go-ahead for stage one from London to Birmingham Curzon Street. The stages northwards will be known as High Speed North and more details will be forthcoming over the next few weeks on how the whole project will be redesigned, reshaped, and rolled out. […]
Read MoreBriefly, this is an overview of the problems of tube trains running beneath the Barbican Estate in the City of London, and the huge noise nuisance that’s generated as a result. My post looks at the history of the estate’s tunnels’ construction and how things look today. It also looks at the noise blight which […]
Read MoreYou’d think our railways couldn’t get any worse! Whilst a certain You Tuber was extolling the virtues of the new Greater Anglia 745’s, their biggest reputation at that very moment was the ability to breakdown for more than five hours, blocking a major railway route in to London! It seemed Greater Anglia had little inkling […]
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