Author: railwayworld53

Four decades after taking this circular trip from Birmingham New Street at a cost then of just £5.00, a two-night stay in Shrewsbury made the perfect excuse to spend a full day travelling around North and Mid-Wales using a Ffestiniog Round Robin ticket (now £30.80 with railcard from Shrewsbury), which remains a real bargain when you realise that a single ticket on the famous 13½ mile-long narrow gauge railway costs £24.90.

For those unfamiliar with this ticket, the Round Robin offers a circular journey in either direction from a range of starting points as far afield as Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool (railcard fare £34.70), that encompasses a single narrow-gauge journey between Porthmadog and Blaenau Ffestiniog, along with trips on the scenic Cambrian Coast and Conwy Valley Lines and then travel to or from Llandudno Junction on the North Wales Main Line

Continue reading “A bargain 12-hour rail trip around North Wales”

Three years on from my last visit (August 2023) and time for an overdue return to Shrewsbury, home to the finest collection of semaphore signals anywhere in Britain, with the aim of capturing some interesting workings from a fabulous vantage point in the castle and at Sutton Bridge Junction, a mile or so south of the station. 

Starting on the station platforms (18 August 2026) my aim was to get a few shots of southbound trains passing some of the semaphores controlled by the world’s largest mechanical signal box (Severn Bridge Junction), and particularly its rare pair of centre pivot signals (SBJ11) at the south end of platform 7 and its newest semaphore (SBJ99) at the south end of platform 3.

Continue reading “Views from the castle: Shrewsbury and its semaphores”

In an age when everything seems to be done on a smartphone and revenue protection staff and guards on trains seem entirely focused on scanning ticket QR codes on phones there is still something reassuring about holding and presenting a paper rail ticket, even it is barely glanced at on most of the trains I travel on.

As someone who usually buys in advance and collects my pre-paid tickets from a station ticket vending machine (TVM), what I have recently noticed is the ludicrous way in which a relatively simple journey means you are presented not only with the ticket coupons you want and a collection receipt, but also a handful of totally useless “seat reservations”.

Continue reading “Wasteful ticket machine madness”

There are a number of places across the UK railway network that I never tire of re-visiting, and one of these is Moreton-in-Marsh on the delightful Cotswold Line from Worcester to Oxford, where there is an irresistible combination of semaphore signalling and Donnington Brewery beers to savour. 

My excuse for a trio of summer time visits was the chance to photograph a Network Rail test train making its monthly visit to the Cotswold Line on 8 July 2026, then a charter special, the “Avon Gorgeous”, passing through Moreton on 1 August with its working from Crewe to Bristol via Oxford and finally some interesting empty stock workings on 3 August.

Continue reading “Semaphores and specials at Moreton-in-Marsh”

Along with the loss of gate boxes and signalling at Marston Moor and Hessay on the Harrogate Line, described in my June 2026 feature, another North-East route where significant signalling changes are planned is the 42-mile long York-Scarborough Line, where mechanical signalling currently survives at four of the seven signal and gate boxes on this route. 

Changes due to take place early in 2027 will see abolition of a small gate box at Howsham, with the removal of semaphores here and at nearby Barton Hill Signal Box, with the latter box being retained, and a signalling panel and crossing barriers installed that will allow the box to assume control of the level crossing at Howsham Gates.

Continue reading “Significant signalling changes for the York-Scarborough Line “

As the world’s media feasts on the ultimate silly season story and predicts a close race between Reform leader Nigel Farage and Count Binface in the comical and record breaking Clacton-on-Sea by-election, what better time than now to take a first ever trip along the Sunshine Coast Line.

There are very few parts of our national rail network I have not travelled, but one missing link until now has been the 18-mile double track route from Colchester to the Essex resort, along with the five-mile single-track offshoot from Thorpe-le-Soken to Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze.

Continue reading “Silly Season on the Sunshine Coast”

Having enjoyed the sight of some interesting special workings in Devon and Cornwall over the past couple of weeks, the promise of more loco action tempts me to pay my first visit for two and a half years (on 2 July 2026) to ever-charming Abergavenny on the Marches Line from Newport to Shrewsbury.

My last visit in January 2024 had led me to discovering a fine vantage point in some woods just south of the station and signal box, so after taking shots looking south from the station’s old footbridge, my plan was to venture back to this spot in the hope of photographing some loco workings passing the Abergavenny semaphores.

Continue reading “Loco action at Abergavenny”

SIX MONTHS before nationalisation threatens to cost me my FirstGroup employee travel concessions on GWR, as has already happened on SWR, and the promise of fine weather tempts me to take a couple of rail trips to the South-West on consecutive Saturdays (20/27 June 2026) to photograph special workings heading to Devon and Cornwall.

First up was a trip to the famous sea wall at Dawlish on 20 June, where in the space of less than five minutes there was the sight of two special workings bound for Torbay, with LNER B1 Mayflower (61306) heading to Kingswear, closely followed by Hastings units 1001/1013 on an epic run from Hastings to Paignton.

Continue reading “Summer specials in the South-West”