The little wooden (usually) huts & houses you see in the outskirts of German towns & cities as you travel by train are known as Schrebergärten or Kleingärten Weekend garden houses – there’s a good read about them on the trip savvy site. It’s more developed than an English allotment, it’s a weekend getaway, garden… Read More Kleingärten – German Garden Houses.
Something I find invaluable when travelling is a decent left luggage facility. Sadly, most facilities in the UK are now run by private companies not connected to the train operating companies, and are not always open at convenient times. For example, the St Pancras facility is operated by The Excess Baggage Company. It charges £12.50… Read More Continental Left Luggage
Elbbrücken is the newest station on the Hamburg U-Bahn (metro) network. Opened in December 2018 it will soon be joined by a station of the same name on the S-Bahn (overground suburban railway) These titles are not strictly accurate as both systems have sections above and below ground… The S-Bahn station is still under construction… Read More Elbbrücken – Hamburg’s newest station.
A recent trip to Ireland to cover various stories about heritage railways and the reopening of a rail line meant travelling on the state owned transport services Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) and Bus Éireann (Irish Buses) around the west of Ireland. I took the train/ferry option via Holyhead-Dublin, which can be as low at £75… Read More Ireland by bus and rail.
This has to be one of the most unusual railways in the world. Technically a monorail, but built on a triangular track, with two guide rails at the base, the Lartigue Monorail was the brainchild of a Frenchman, Charles Lartigue and ran between Listowel and the seaside resort of Ballybunion in County Kerry, in the… Read More Ireland’s Monorail system
The idea of building a railway between Tralee and Dingle was first approved by the Privy Council in 1884 and the company was incorporated in 1888. Originally planned to be standard Irish gauge (5ft3”) the severe gradients and curvature led to the three foot gauge being adopted. The line took three years to build with… Read More Tralee to Dingle Railway
The New Zealand heritage Railway at Pleasant Point has a very unusual Ford Model T railcar. Originally they were built for rural lines in the Southland area of South Island in 1925. Based on a on a one-ton Model T Ford truck chassis, they never proved popular and were withdrawn in 1931. In the 1980’s… Read More Quaintest Railcar ever?
The Paris Metro has a reputation for elegant architecture and design, with its icon Art Nouveau station entrances and interiors. However tucked away on line 11, one of the smaller lines in the network, is something very different. Arts et Métiers station takes its name from the Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts… Read More Paris’s wackiest station
Not all of the Paris Metro is underground. There’s about 6km of Line 6 elevated above the city streets, it winds its way round the southern half of the city in a semi circle, and has great views of the city and some of its more famous landmarks. All the images of the city below… Read More The metro with a view
As well as being a designer and manufacturer of rather splendid cars, Ettore Bugatti also made railcars. The Bugatti railcars, known as autorails, were first built in 1933 as single, double or triple car units with two or four linked 12.7 ltr petrol engines. Each car had two 8 wheel bogies. The engines were surplus… Read More Bugatti Railcars
