The New Year holiday usually sees a James Bond film film on UK terrestial television. Last night was no exception, with ITV showing Skyfall, starring Daniel Craig. This is one of several Bond films that feature railways. The film opens with a chase after a stolen hard drive through Istanbul, ending up with Bond and… Read More Bond on Rails
I recently picked up a copy of “100 Places You Will Never Visit”, which included one railway entry, for the Moscow Metro-2. This is, it claims, a secret metro system created during the Soviet era to move government officials and the military around under Moscow. After searching various web pages, blogs and Urban explorer pages… Read More Moscow’s Secret Metro
This scooter popped up on Pinterest the other day. A person powered scooter that fits on the rails. Primarily designed for maintenance and inspection work, it can be carried by one person and will carry 50kg of equipment. Available from Safetrack in Sweden. So it’s time for a quick look at what other forms of… Read More Human Powered Rail Transport
There’s a good article in Marie Claire about how President-elect Joe Biden has become known as “Amtrak Joe” Will he be using a Presidential train to get around instead of a 10 ton armoured limo? Maybe. He’s been a regular Amtrak user for years and took a train journey in September on the campaign trail.… Read More Will “Amtrak Joe” Biden be taking the Presidential train?
An unexpected purchase last week included volumes 3 & 4 of ‘Modern Railway Working’ dated 1913. The in depth and diverse articles included civil engineering subjucts such as tunnelling, bridges etc and station lighting, along with motive power, workshop practice etc. Here’s the article on Rail Motor cars. At the time they were a new… Read More Rail Motor Cars
Doing a workshop clearance of a late model engineer’s workshop last week I found a few photos, from his days as a loco fitter at Stafford Road works. Most are uncaptioned, but date from 1950 to the early 1960’s when it closed. The works was the northernmost workshop of the Great Western Railway. Originally locos… Read More Steam at Stafford Road
A short clip of The Scarborough Spa Express leaving York on Thursday 24th September. A slightly unconventional angle from the footbridge north of the station as LMS Jubilee class 5699 Galatea (renumbered as 45562 ‘Alberta’) leave for Scarborough. The tour is operated by West Coast Railways as a regular trip. For a list of most… Read More Steam at York
Just found some excellent images of Leominster’s Elevated Signal Box. The station is now a shadow of its former self, with just 2 platforms, and a part time ticket office. It once had 5 platforms – 2 mainline & 3 branchline – for the East & West bound branch lines lines to Bromyard, Worcester &… Read More Leominster’s elevated signal box
If you’re interested in the civil engineering aspect of railways there is a wealth of material out there about the construction process. Some of this has been captured on film. Going back to the 1950’s & 60’s there were British Transport films covering the regular maintenance work such as “Making Tracks” and moving into the… Read More Rail Construction films
Another extract from The Railway Engineer 1920 volume. This is from the May edition, an article about the newly built Midland Railway 0-10-0 No. 2290. Built specifically for one job, banking (pushing) trains up the Lickey incline, just outside birmingham. It is the steepest climb on a mainline railway in the UK, with a gradient… Read More The Lickey Banker, aka “Big Bertha”
