Two years after my last visit (Back in the DDR–August 2022) it is time to spend another few days travelling and photographing the finest steam-worked railway network in the world, the remarkable Harzer Schmalspur Bahnen (HSB) metre-gauge system in eastern Germany.
This time using a three-day “short holiday” (Kurzer Urlaub) network pass (€47.00/£40.50) my aim was to travel as much of the 140km/87-mile system as possible, with a mixture of steam haulage and travel in ageing diesel railcars.
Loss of Cornish semaphore outposts at Par, Lostwithiel and Truro in March 2024 leaves just two main line locations in the Royal Duchy that are mechanically-signalled. These are Liskeard, which I last featured in October 2023, and St. Erth, junction for the scenic St. Ives Bay branch line.
St. Erth is a delightful and immaculately-maintained Grade II Listed station, where semaphore signalling helps retain the historic air of this busy country station, yet one that is sadly mired in controversy as its historic footbridge is replaced by a rather less attractive modern structure.
DINING ON THE LINE has long been one of my great pleasures and one that dates back to my first experiences in the early 1980s, when I was the only enthusiast aboard the last ever restaurant service from Waterloo to Bournemouth (2 October 1981) and, early in my journalistic career, a number of enjoyable business trips aboard the all first class Manchester Pullman.
Regular readers will have spotted that many of my trips to the South-West are rounded off with Pullman Dining aboard the 18.16 service from Plymouth to Paddington, but one missing experience, until now, has been the full dining now offered aboard certain Transport for Wales (TfW) services between Cardiff Central and Manchester Piccadilly.
RailwayWorld.net 
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