London Rail
Welcome to London Rail!
The poster at right – ‘Five marvel at mythical Mumbles’ is GWR’s latest Famous Five poster. Its a lovely one and yes the area around the Mumbles is certainly a delight. But getting there? The text says:
‘Explore legendary places with Great Western Railway. Up to 21 trains per day from London Paddington to Swansea, and then a scenic bus ride to the beach.’
How much better it’d have looked had it said ‘a scenic tram ride to the beach’ – the Mumbles railway had once been the very means of directly accessing the beach at many locations. The ‘scenic bus’ is a poor substitute because it’s basically less convenient for the beach! One can’t argue with the scenic views around the bay though!
London Rail briefly
Sunday 17 May the Bromley North branch had very rare through trains to London. The last such services ran quite a few years ago. The Bromley South route is shut for engineering works, thus the branch has a special non-stop service to London Bridge and Cannon Street. That is apart from irate passengers who pull the alarm in order to get off at Grove Park despite the fact there are no Sunday services on the branch. NSE liveried 465908 (named ‘Chris Green’) was one of the units on the special service. Pic shows the indicators at London Bridge.
Posts Round-Up
- The Surrey Iron Railway #2
The world’s first railway to be authorised by an Act of Parliament was the Surrey… Read more: The Surrey Iron Railway #2 - London’s first CTC project
The tube was the first in the UK or Europe to adopt automated train control… Read more: London’s first CTC project - New Mill’s mystery ‘DMU’ tunnel
A recent video from Our History Underfoot (26th May 2026) covering the former Hayfield branch… Read more: New Mill’s mystery ‘DMU’ tunnel - The Morden-Edgware line
When it comes to the history of the London Underground, the Morden-Edgware Line is essentially… Read more: The Morden-Edgware line - The Wetterhorn Aufzug
Switzerland’s first ever cable car was once to be found near Grindelwald. Sometimes it is… Read more: The Wetterhorn Aufzug - The Surrey Iron Railway
Plateways, characterized by their flat-topped rails or “plates” often laid on stone blocks, were designed… Read more: The Surrey Iron Railway - From revisionist to factual
Remember the post A Revisionist Surrey Iron Railway? This post goes further that the detail… Read more: From revisionist to factual - Was canal breach partially due to hidden culvert?
A quick post on the latest involving the Llangollen canal at Whitchurch especially after a… Read more: Was canal breach partially due to hidden culvert? - Waymos – the way to go!
A short post on those exciting (or in the eyes of some, infernal) new autonomous… Read more: Waymos – the way to go! - Canal Breach news (2)
This is the first canal breach post since 29th January 2026 when the last one… Read more: Canal Breach news (2) - In brief…
The main news is Euston’s new Assisted Travel Lounge that recently opened. More on that… Read more: In brief… - A revisionist Surrey Iron Railway?
2026 is the 180th anniversary of the closure of one of the world’s earliest public… Read more: A revisionist Surrey Iron Railway?
Recent Comments
Yes it has been uncovered for sometime as videos by Riley Robey and Kieran and Lottie have shown. I have…
The secondary culvert, which was buried as a result of the breach, has now been completely uncovered, flushed out, and…
Yes, these are terrible misrepresentations of the true route of this historic railway. The fact that so many remains of…
Thanks for your comments. Yes these boards, which can be seen in Coulsdon on a recent visit I made, are…
The REASON I have a dark mode site is because it hurts my eyes and brain to have to constantly…
Malte: Have written a new post on the Whitchurch breach largely as a result of your comments. (Published 2.30am on…