Tag: railway history

BR & LT decimalisation

February 14, 2021

This weekend fifty years ago both British Railways and London Transport began a major task in their ticket offices and ticket machines to embrace the pending national conversion from pounds, shillings, pennies, to the new decimal coinage of pounds and pence. The change was effected on 14 February with the rest of the country following…
The Tokyo to Osaka Line: A history #3

February 9, 2021

The third instalment in this comprehensive series on the origins of the Shinkasen! We begin with the notion the new line would be affectionately named Yume no Chōtokkyū – or the ‘Super Dream Express.’ The older (eg 1930s era) and considerably more popular name which many use – ‘Bullet train’ – didn’t gain world wide…
The Southwold Railway #2

January 21, 2021

The railway’s route from Southwold to Halesworth: From the station itself the line headed across Southwold common and soon entered the largest cutting on the entire route. This present day view on Google Street shows the start of the cutting itself. Its been a public footpath for the last seventy years or so. This footpath was what…
Köln – Bonner Eisenbahn

January 11, 2021

The Köln-Bonner Eisenbahn’s (KBE – or the Cologne to Bonn Railway) Rheinuferbahn once provided local and express trains between Köln and Bonn. There was a substantial freight operation too with large marshalling yards servicing local industries. The company stayed independent to the very end and it would have been around today had its finances not…
Marylebone station anniversary #3

January 3, 2021

From the 1990s to the present day. Pair of 115 DMUs at the station. 1990 possibly. Source: London Reconnections A Class 165 in the early days of its use with a pressed steel DMU visible in the old diesel depot. Source: Twitter. (Note: Tweet is suspended, deleted or made private thus an archived image is…
Marylebone station anniversary #2

December 17, 2020

From the 1950s to the end of the eighties. BR 45292 at Marylebone in April 1948, on what is possibly a Manchester express. Note the lower quadrant signal midway on the platform! It can also be seen in the picture featuring the women porters. Source: PicClick (The page in question has now been deleted and…
The Tokyo to Osaka Line: A history #2

November 17, 2020

This is the second part of the planning/construction of the Shinaksen. Its straight in to the history! The construction of the Shinkansen would require enormous investment, some thought it would be as much as 200 billion yen. A significant proportion of the funds would have to be raised from banking institutes. In 1959 the Minister…
Southwark’s deep level tube shelter

November 4, 2020

‘The Deep’ apparently was the nickname for the Southwark deep level bomb shelter sited within the City and South London Railway’s former tunnels between Borough and London Bridge. The other end of this section at King William Street too was a bomb shelter however it was totally unconnected to Southwark’s thus the section of the…
The Tokyo to Osaka Line: A history #1

October 26, 2020

Writing a comprehensive history upon the origins of Japan’s Shinkansen is a large project indeed – and few in the English world have sought to undertake such a task with the exception of Dr. Christopher Hood who is an expert on Japan and has penned a notable history of the Shinanksen. I’ve only read the…
Tinpot Railways – Morecambe

August 24, 2020

I wrote about the truncating of the terminus at Morecambe a couple of months back as part of my Tinpot Railways series. That was a great disappointment for me because at the time – which was 1994 when the change-over was done – I was surprised to find upon arriving at the town we were…

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