Somewhat unusually for me I’ve been on a road trip in a 4×4… But there’s a very good reason for this -as a co driver on a 1350 mile journey with Pickups For Peace, taking a convoy of 4×4 vehicles and humanitarian aid to the Ukraine. I’ve set up a Just Giving page to fund… Read More Pickups For Peace
Network Rail’s £30million refurbishment of Barmouth bridge on the Cambrian Line in West Wales is now complete, it reopened on 2nd December 2023. The work has been some of the most challenging ever undertaken on the bridge, replacing the steel spans with like for like new steelwork. The 154 year old, Grade II* listed single… Read More The reconstruction of Barmouth Bridge
The recent Guardian article on how to get to Greece by train and ferry has the author heading straight to Athens. But there’s so much more to Greece than Athens. The ferry arrives at Patras on the Peloponnese, a diverse and beautiful peninsula at the southern tip of mainland Greece. It’s a journey I’ve done… Read More To Greece by train & ferry
The railway network in Albania didn’t exist before 1949, except for a few isolated narrow gauge industrial & military lines. When Evner Hoxta came to power in 1949 as the Communist dictator he directed a network of lines should be built. They were operated with secondhand stock from other Iron Curtain countries, in barter deals… Read More Rebuilding Albania’s Railways
The popular tv series Railway Roundabout filmed the 760mm narrow gauge line from Dubrovnik to Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia. It was built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire after they occupied Bosnia-Hercegovina in July 1878. There’s a fairly comprehensive list of Bosnian and other former Yugoslavian narrow gauge railways on Wikipedia. You can read some accounts… Read More Dubrovnik to Sarajevo in 1962
The BBC series Railway Roundabout was produced from 1958 to 1962 and included numerous snapshots of daily life on the railways of the UK, and a few featuring Continental Europe. This particular film I’ve just uploaded to YouTube feature the former London & South Western Railway branch line between Axminster in Devon and Lyme Regis… Read More Axminster to Lyme Regis in 1960
Many of the posts over the last few months are from moments of a Winter Interail – Winterrail. I took advantage of last years half price offer and bought a full 3 months pass, but due to various commitments wasn’t able to go until late in the year.Here’s a short compilation of the few bits… Read More Winterrail
I’ve found one of the best signs in the world: The city of Genoa, northern Italy is built around a series of steep hills and a very large harbour. Over the years numerous steps and many winding roads have been added to with three funicular railways and ten inclined elevators. All these are free to… Read More The Funicular Railways of Genoa
This is the ancient trackway of Diolkos, in Corinth, Greece. Archaeologists say it was built at end of the 7th or the start of 6th Century BCE. It enabled ships to avoid the 190 mile trip around the Peloponnesian Peninsula, including the treacherous Capes of Matapan and Maleas. Ancient writers referred to the stone roadway… Read More The first permanent way?
One of the more recently built metro systems in Europe, the 4 line network in Bulgaria’s capital city first opened in January 1998. It currently consists of 4 standard gauge lines with 47 stations, carrying over 300,000 people each day. There’s also an extensive tram network in Sofia, although this hasn’t been enlarged since 1995… Read More Sofia Metro System
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