CAS Weekly 28/10/15

October 28, 2015August 23, 2016Andy Carter 2 Comments

Image from Press Association

Modelling

All change at Hornby as Simon Say’s discusses the changes in Railway Modelling.

UK Rail

DLR Staff are going on a two day strike next week.
New line linking Oxford to London now open by Chiltern Railways.
Crossrail 1? Pffft so last year… Crossrail 2 is coming.
ScotRail have been upsetting potential applicants with snotty rejections.
Meanwhile Nicola Sturgeon unveils Virgin East Coast’s new Flying Scotsman paint job.
Residents of Goring Gap are upset at the new electrification infrastructure on The Great Western Mainline.
How deep are London’s tunnels?
Play golf underneath Waterloo.
Happy Birthday to The Northern Line who turned 125 years old this week.
Diamond Geezer has been measuring just how long it takes you to get from ticket hall to train…
Someone auctioned off a seat on The Tube at rush hour… No really…
Rail training academy opens in Northampton
“New” heritage line opens in Leicestershire village.

World Rail

Union Pacific washed away by Texas flooding.

From The CAS Team

Check out Edward’s ever growing collection of Railway poetry over at RailwayManiac.com
Join Andy on 100 Journeys on The Tube.

Compiled by Andy Carter & Edward Kendall

100 Journeys: No 5

October 28, 2015November 2, 2015Andy Carter 2 Comments

This isn’t a train.

I only made it to Journey 5 and 3 Days into this experiment before there was problems on the Central Line.

The W12 to Walthamstow is a scrappy service at best, and one definitely not designed for crowds of displaced tube travellers. The poor thing is only a hopper after all, which is more than ample to ferry the biddies to and from Whipps Cross Hospital on any normal day.

I got lucky this time. I have a choice of two bus stops, George Lane and Bedford Road. George Lane is closer but it means I have to back track on my journey – once I’m on the bus I travel back in the direction I’ve just walked – and this plays havock with my OCD. I’d rather walk in the direction I’m ultimately traveling and go to Bedford Road but on this occasion the bus was only 2 minutes away so I bit the bullet and went to George Lane. Good job I did, I was the last person to get on the bus before it started to miss out stops due to it being full up with Central Line passengers.

The next bus is in 20 minutes. The people at Bedford Road didn’t look happy as we sped past…

But wait… If I’d have let my OCD get the better of me and walked to Bedford Road instead, the bus then wouldn’t have been full. Which means it would have stopped. Would the driver have still skipped it or tried to fit in me plus the 3 others? We could have all shuffled down a bit.. Maybe he would have only let 1 on but that may have started a riot. Did I screw over the folk at Bedford Road or save them from argument?

It doesn’t matter. I’m still late.

W12

More Journeys
<< No 4 || No 6 >>

100 Journeys: No 4

October 27, 2015October 28, 2015Andy Carter 3 Comments

What are these for? I see these markers in various different guises at most stations. Sometimes the shape or colour varies.

In this instance the markers manifested themselves in large white boxes at regular intervals along the platform at King’s Cross on the Eastbound Circle Line. Near the front of the train one particular white box was also accompanied by a yellow diamond (as seen bellow).

Answers in the box bellow…

Platform Marker

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<< No 3 || No 5 >>

100 Journeys: No 3

October 27, 2015October 28, 2015Andy Carter 3 Comments

The calm before the storm.

Or after the storm. Yes it’s after the storm isn’t it… It’s 10:30am on a Tuesday. With the ordeal of yesterday’s peak-hour commuting now behind me, it’s time to embark on Journey 3. It’s remarkable how much the city changes in a matter of hours isn’t it?

I hate doing 9am starts on a weekday. It’s not the getting up early thing that bothers me… In fact I’d rather get up earlier and do an 8am start just because we haven’t reach maximum pushing and shoving, crowding and cramming, tutting and glaring yet. In some ways I’ve become far too accustomed to the luxury of not having to start every working day at 9am, not having to stand face to face with someone else’s elbow every day. I don’t envy those of you who do, and should I ever find myself in that position I’m not entirely sure my sanity would cope.

Yesterday was a fitting way to start this little project, a baptism of fire if you will. Launching straight in with little to no explanation of what these posts were about however was always how I wanted it to start. I think most of you get what it’s about even without an explanation… Heck a friend even commented on Twitter just after the Journey 1 post saying “I’ve always wanted to do that but with buses…” She got it.

100 Journeys, 100 pictures, 100 things noticed and 100 thoughts catalogued. This is going to be a trip into my inner monologue that rides with me on my travels on the Underground, logged through my smartphone collating places, people, buildings, objects and ideas that catch my eye.

Join me on this hopefully informative, slightly odd and definitely random ride.

Sedate South Woodford

More Journeys
<< No 2 || No 4 >>

– Andy Carter

100 Journeys: No 2

October 26, 2015October 27, 2015Andy Carter 2 Comments

17:30 is worse. I was wrong.

It doesn’t help that people got on at Bethnal Green. Nobody ever gets on at Bethnal Green. It was bad enough at Bank but now I can’t see further than a few inches in front of my own face. It’s like a fog, but a fog of people. I couldn’t lift my own hand to see if it was still there even if I wanted to.

Faces and arms clamouring for a sliver of pole to grip onto. They don’t need it of course, we’re so tightly packed in that’ll you’ll never fall over. Everyone has had enough with Monday, they’ve not even gone down the pub.

As the Essex suburbs get ever closer, tensions are lifting as people get nearer to their dinner.