At last, we have the answers to East of the M60’s bus and train livery quiz If you have been taking part in our bus and train livery, we now have the answers to Guess the Bus and Train Livery Blocks. In true tradition, the answers have arrived a week late.
Read More Answers to Escape to the Pantry’s Guess the Bus and Train Livery BlocksEast of the M60’s back with a nifty follow-up to the seat moquette quiz In the last year, you might have seen the use of minimalist colour blocks on t’ internets. In most cases, they form part of a quiz with video gaming characters and Walt Disney characters being popular subject areas.
Read More Escape to the Pantry: Guess the Bus and Train Livery BlocksThe cheap yet slow way of getting from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to London Road and rail competition, whether private car versus train or scheduled coach versus train is far from new. The private car was, and remains, a threat to the viability of any communal transport options due to its convenience and perceived economy. The opening of […]
Read More A Lost Train to London: The HighwaymanTen things about British rail travel that people born after 1980 never had the chance to enjoy or endure For many passengers, today’s trains are shiny and efficient beasts. Some might say they are a little devoid of character. Sometimes they look scruffy or sport garish liveries. In the space of forty years, the joys […]
Read More Ten Things That Millennials Never Enjoyed About Train Travel: The Not So Perfect TenA selection of the best train seating positions on Network Rail metals and preserved lines If you travel by train in the peak hours, there are two inevitabilities. One is the fact you’ll need a mortgage for the rail fare or the season ticket. The other, are the chances of getting a seat. Which is […]
Read More Train Seats in All Parts: The Not So Perfect TenA look at the long forgotten overnight train from Yorkshire to Mid Wales Till fairly recently, a lot of our post was delivered via rail with road for the last mile journeys to sorting offices. Before Railnet’s last hurrah for the Travelling Post Office, the TPO trains were a common feature of our railways. Mainline […]
Read More Forgotten Rail Journeys: York to Shrewsbury and AberystwythIn Pictures: The Evening Crush Hour Over the last six months, there has been a lot of coverage on the Southern Rail strike and the cancellations faced by its commuters. The main reason for the strike is the introduction of Driver Only Operation on 8 to 12 car units. That’s right: 8 to 12 carriages, […]
Read More Straight Outta Bolton: A Passenger’s Eye View of Overcrowding on Northern TrainsWhy, oh why, does our rail franchisees insist on liveries inspired by 1990s football strips? Call me old (well, I’m almost 37 years old for goodness sake anyway), but I hanker for the smooth, smart, yet strikingly modern liveries of the British Rail era. I hanker for their discipline and adherence to the Rail Alphabet […]
Read More How I Miss BR Rail Blue (and the use of Rail Alphabet on All Station Signs)Heard the one about the Northern Rail sandwich…? Thought not. If you visit a busy mainline station anywhere in the United Kingdom, today’s concourses resemble a small town shopping centre. It is a far cry from an era when the only shops were those of W.H. Smith and Son, John Menzies, Finlays or Wymans. Other than newsagents’ shops, […]
Read More How Privatisation Killed Off the British Rail Sandwich JokeA good excuse to reminisce about pre-privatisation diesel and electric multiple units Alongside today’s Pacers and Sprinters, our first generation EMUs and DMUs were known in the late 1980s as Heritage Units. The bulk of which being slam-door trains.
Read More Slam Door Trains We Have Known and Loved: The Not So Perfect Ten
