Steam on London Underground

The Metropolitan railways Met 1 loco will be making a return to the London underground network on the 13th - 20th january 2013 where it will be making a number of runs from Paddington in the west to Farringdon / Moorgate in the East. This is part of the celebrations of London Underground's 150 years. from 1863 to 2013. The tickets have already sold out so you will have to settle for photos off the train. The train will pull 3 carriages 2 on hire from the Bluebell Railway and the Metropolitan Jubilee couch that has recently been restored.

Find out more here  http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/tube150/calendar

Crossrail work in the Paddington Area

The crossrail work in the area of Paddington railway station is preventing people from using Eastbourne terrace and has resulted in the closer of the the taxi rank beside platform 1 and the move of it to above platform 12. The closer of Eastbourne Terrace is to facilitate the excavation of the crossrail box in which the Paddington Crossrail station will be built. This means that people wanting to exit the station towards Sussex gardens need to use the exit at the end of platform 8 beside the entrance to the Main London Underground booking office where you can walk along the road.

Few pence of Tickets

I am asking the Conductors on the UK Rail network if a customer is 10-20p short on a rail fare if they would let them off or would you fill out a form for the payment later.

Greater Anglia Christmas song

Have every body seen the Greater Anglia christmas song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMJ14IIiYXI&sns=tw

Plug doors on mk3 chiltern carriages.

I noticed that some Chiltern main line MK3 coaches I was wondering how much it would cost to modify the whole MK3 carriages fleet of 848. It Would decrease door on the catch incidents, cut down on the air flow through the carriages and be more passenger friendly. at a cost of a few million pounds then i don't see the point.

First class and people walking through!

Is it just me but when you travel out of London in First class then you get lots of people running through the train on departure. Can standard class passengers not walk down the platform and board in standard class accommodation, it is just getting annoying.

Crossrail

I had a look at the updated crossrail website about where each TBM is underneath London. I found out that the TBM Phyllis has currently traveled 1759 m from Westbourne park/ Royal Oak to just underneath Hyde park. I also saw that TBM ada has tunnelled 779m from Westbourne park/ Royal Oak to just underneath Paddington . I also noticed that TBM elizabeth is currently tunnelling in the canning town area after traveling 24m from the portal. All in All then I think that the Crossrail project is making good time and I think will finnish on-time.

http://www.crossrail.co.uk/near-you

How is everybody's Christmas travel plans going at the moment? leave a comment below with your plans!

Very odd to think that the HST is 37 years old this year only 13 years to 50 years in service. I think that they will still be about in 2025.

Just saw all of the D400 (50050) restoration photo's on their Facebook page. Well done to everybody involved and good luck in the restoration.
http://www.facebook.com/50050Fearless

http://www.d400fund.org.uk/default.html

London overground orbital is now complete which finally put to an end to that annoying 2 car stopping unit from victoria to London Bridge. Nice to see the advancement in the overground and tube developments south of the river (northern line extension)

Has everybody seen the new scheme to reduce people walking around aimlessly at Major railway stations. The idea s by Google and will include walking around a virtual station in the same respect as street view on Google maps. The virtual tour of the station will consist of photo's taken from a trolley pushed around the station. 

Station currently covered are;

• Cannon Street
• Charing Cross
• Edinburgh Waverley
• Euston
• Fenchurch Street
• Glasgow Central
• Leeds
• Liverpool Lime Street
• London Bridge
• London Liverpool Street
• London Victoria
• Manchester Piccadilly
• Paddington

Station that will be covered in the near future include Birmingham New ST. 

Link here http://www.networkrail.co.uk/streetview.aspx

Kings cross

I was a London kings cross station last saturday and noticed that the new roof and balcony of the station concourse and  have to say that Network rail have done well. It looks up to scratch and very modern. also it is nice to see the overall spans over platforms 0-9 looking good with light being able to penetrate to the platform. it is also nice that when you ask the platform staff about getting through the barriers to get some photo's they don't ask you loads of questions as to what you are taking photos of and where you are standing.

What a Joke the current franchising system that Department for Transport is. the franchise on the west coast main line has been over turned and Virgin are currently operating it for an additional 23 months extra. i have a question for all of you that is; Why is there argument over why First should operate the Great Western main Line when people want a Directly Operated Railway such as East Coast. Virgin have the West Coast for an additional 23 months so why can First no be granted a contract extension.

What is it with the national rail enquirers website only showing major disruption on some routes as a yellow warning sign and other delays as red warning signs?

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/indicator.html 

Just found a photo from Railfest 2012 when 43003 and 43002 went up to York on a staff special service from Bristol Temple Meads.

The new s stock is very nice. I traveled on it on Saturday and it is very nice to be able to walk all the way from one end to the other. feels wired when you are looking down the train and seeing the curvature of the track. seats are comfy too!

Has everybody got a reset platform 5 guide for 2013 yet? I have just doing it as I am not going to get anything else that I haven't got in the remaining month.

I have just ordered train simulator 2013 for my PC. it looks good with 4 UK routes. with London Paddington to Oxford, London Victoria to Brighton, Newcastle to York and The isle of wight line. Looks good and can't wait to play it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Train-Simulator-2013-PC-DVD/dp/B0094B88TG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355255873&sr=8-1

Is it 4.5% increase in rail fares again? it is outrageous as the few projects that they doing such as 11 car Pendilino's and Reading and Birmingham new st. What a joke!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20675845

I have finally found the best platform in which to take photographs off at Paddington between platforms 8 and 9 where you can get shots like this;

First class vestibule

|I have noticed on a lot of signs around the place that if you stand in the vestibule of a first class carriage that you are liable to being charged the first class upgrade fare. i was puzzled about this and asked the guard on the next train i was on which happened to be a FGW HST and the guard showed me the sign at the end of the carriage. Here it is;

Wow how Reading station has changed in a year and a bit. It was only last year that they where taking the bridge out and diverting services via Banbury and into London Waterloo. It is nice to see that they are about 1 year ahead of scheduled but unfortunately to say that it is all going to be diverted again during the re signalling of the Reading area this Easter.  Hopefully FGW passengers can see the helpful cause of the disruption. Hope to be traveling through Reading's New platforms in the near future then.

Right First post. I have just got back from london this weekend and I have had an excellent weekend at 4 London stations (Euston,Kings cross, Stratford and Paddington) I have noticed the improvement that have been made on the Underground network, with many lines with 30 or more train per hour which for one of the oldest networks is a major achievement. I did however travel on the Jubilee line from Stratford to Baker ST where on a saturday was unusually busy even from Stratford. I can see how people on the Jubilee line have complained to TFL about overcrowding. Credit to TFl as they have sorted it out and now more trains per hour is a good sign.

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