Category: Historical

  • Plateways, characterized by their flat-topped rails or “plates” often laid on stone blocks, were designed to be pulled by horses. These early railways were primarily for private transport of goods – usually for canals, mines or factories. The Surrey Iron Railway was in essence a public railway, being accessible to any individual or company willing…

  • Remember the post A Revisionist Surrey Iron Railway? This post goes further that the detail featured in the previous one – and that because its not a revision in any way or form. In fact its a prequel of sorts to the Surrey and Croydon to Merstham iron railways. And that means its both factual…

  • 2026 is the 180th anniversary of the closure of one of the world’s earliest public railways. It wasn’t a passenger carrying railway however. The Surrey Iron Railway was officially closed on 31st August 1846. Its traffic had been considerably low for at least two decades prior to that date and in the final years there…

  • Artemis 2 (10/4)

    The final day of the space mission, including splashdown, which takes place in the early hours of tomorrow (11th April 2026). But first this interesting video from Speedify which attempted to explain the differences between 2026’s Artemis 2 mission and that of the Apollo missions. He is quite right about these things. The Apollo broadcasts…

  • Artemis 2 (>9/4)

    This is an intermediary post, as I’m keeping the number of posts towards splashdown to a minimum. To start with after the lunar flyby the question on earth for everyone interested is when do we get to see the high quality images and videos? Have been thinking this since last night – and despite a…

  • Artemis 2 (6/4)

    Its the big day! The one where they go round Luna and see the dark side of the moon (DSOTM) – no doubt Pink Floyd’s iconic album needs to enter the dialogue somehow! Some might wonder why would London Rail be following the Artemis 2 program? Its because I faithfully followed the Apollo program and…

  • The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 (July 2019) was widely commemorated. These celebrated the July 20, 1969 landing which entailed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being the first humans ever on the Moon. Major news outlets like CBS News and BBC News featured special coverage, including archival footage and tributes to the crew.  Fifty years later the Apollo mission continued…

  • Artemis 2 (5/4)

    Even though this is currently day four of the Artemis mission, it was decided to start with Day 5 for the most recent reports instead of continuing with Day 4. In a way it was a means of keeping my sanity as sleep hasn’t been good, which is why a number of times I’ve woken…

  • Artemis 2 (4/4)

    Artemis is over half way to the moon. This post continues from the first published yesterday (3/4/26). Yesterday it was mentioned re the various flares etc seen during the flight. Here’s a couple of screenshots of those. One of sixteen screencaps taken of those flares. And another… One matter of note is the Artemis crew…

  • Artemis 2

    Ongoing updates on the first ever moon shot the world has seen in more than fifty years that has conveyed humans. The Artemis two project’s Orion spacecraft is on its way to the Moon. Currently at the time of writing the craft is 72,000 miles from Earth. This post is intended as a brief summary…

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