CAS Weekly 23/01/15

January 23, 2015August 23, 2016Andy Carter Leave a comment

Image by Magnus Back

Modelling

A special exhibition “Playing Trains” will feature at the National Railway Museum from 20th March onwards.

UK Rail

The Channel Tunnel is still suffering delays after this week’s fire.
…speaking of the Chunnel… The idea for a trans-English-Channel route dates back to the dawn of railways itself, but did you know during the 1980’s it was planned to be accompanied by an elaborate road bridge?
We’ve all zoned out and missed our stop but what happens when your driver does it?!
London Bridge (I know, still going on about it), themurkeydepths explains why it’s not Southeastern’s fault.
The Night Tube: won’t break even, and bad for Night Buses.
There may be more strikes ahead for TfL.
Some of Tottenham Court Road’s mosaics may be lost in the rebuild.

World Rail

From underneath the north sea earlier to the depths of the Atlantic as CityMetric discover how New York recycle their subway cars.

Featured image by Bernard Pépellin.

CAS Weekly 16/01/15

January 16, 2015August 23, 2016Andy Carter 1 Comment

Are Battery Powered 379’s the future? Image by Mme1234

Modelling

YouTube blogger IC82 celebrates his 5th Anniversary whilst LocoYard celebrate their 3rd.
Japanese artist Akihiro Morohoshi has been building model railways into small household objects

UK Rail

Bored of hearing about 2 weeks of mild delays at London Bridge? How about the train out of Victoria that’s NEVER been on-time!
London Underground are getting a new power station…
…whilst the DLR might get a new bridge.
A look at the new Tottenham Court Road ticket hall and station entrance…
…and an artist impression of what’s to come at Canary Wharf Crossrail.
And lastly in London, it was recently ‘No Pants Day‘ on the Tube. All I can say is thankfully I wasn’t working on Monday.
We’ve got battery powered cars so how about a battery powered Class 379?
The BBC take a look at some of England’s best lost stations. Where was Broad Street? And Manchester Exchange? And Halifax North Bridge. I might be here a while…
From lost buildings to restored rolling stock. More on the coach that carried Winston Churchill to his final resting place.

Self Promotion

My Christmas day adventure on The Fallowfield Loop.
Remember that derelict building I saw near Euston on the recent Northern Line Leslie Green walk? Well A View From The Mirror has found out what it was for.

London Bridge Was Falling Down (Again)

January 12, 2015January 12, 2015Andy Carter 1 Comment

Here’s a short film from the last time London Bridge Station was remodelled. I wonder if the delays suffered are as bad as the ones today?

Inside Croydon

Commuters who travel to work via London Bridge, who have had to endure chaos on their daily journeys over the past week or more – and all in return for higher fares – may be interested to view a public information film from 1975, the previous occasion that the railway lines into London’s oldest terminus had to be reconfigured and the station re-built.

Yes. Just 40 years ago.

We are indebted to another hyperlocal blog, 853, for unearthing this gem of its time, as they lament the ending of the direct train service from Greenwich to London Bridge, the very journey for which the original station was built in 1836.

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Exploration: The Fallowfield Loop (A Christmas Adventure)

GalleryJanuary 12, 2015October 7, 2017Andy Carter 1 Comment

This Christmas (2014) I was visiting family in South Manchester. Whilst plotting my route for the drive from London I discovered on the map a long strip of empty land near their house that looked suspiciously like an old railway bed…

The Fallowfield Loop formerly provided access to Manchester Central Station from the Hope Valley Line to the east and Sheffield via a 10 mile sweeping detour of the city centre. The line is now an answer to London’s Northern Heights and is a footpath and cycle parkway which even has it’s own website and organisation.

Well of course I had to check it out… My time in Manchester was limited, so fresh from opening presents (most of which were train related of course), we stepped out for a crisp Christmas Day stroll. This was in no way a ruse to check out The Fallowfield Loop…

Full Loop

As it was Christmas Day I felt it was perhaps mean to subject Leah to the full 10 miles, so we just explored a short section in Levenshulme. It’s my intention to one day return to do the full loop so I will save the full history lesson until then, but for now – click on a photo to find out more:

At some point I shall return to complete the other 9 or so miles and visit the other 3 stations on the line. Until then, if you want to check out the loop yourself, here’s the full route:

Changes Announced To Solve London Bridge

January 12, 2015January 12, 2015Andy Carter Leave a comment

How to solve a problem like London Bridge: Who’s to blame? What’s Being Done? Will it fix it?

fromthemurkydepths

Not long now until the first changes to rail services begin on Monday, and some last minute changes are still being announced. TfL have just announced 30 extra buses to help from Monday:

Ten additional double deck buses on Route 21 between London Bridge to Lewisham via New Cross during the evening peak
Ten additional buses on Route 47 between London Bridge (Duke Street Hill) and Lewisham via Bermondsey
Ten additional Route 381 buses acting as a shuttle between London Bridge and Waterloo stations during the morning and evening peaks

This is in addition to an announcement in December of extra shuttle buses between Charlton station and north Greenwich, with buses starting from Charlton station at 7.50am, 8.00am, 8.10am, 8.20am, 8.30am and 8.40am. Extra buses on route 129 to Greenwich town centre were also announced and begun last week.