Category Archives: Rail

The Bowes Railway: Re-enactment of rope hauled railways

An interesting post by railway historian Anthony Dawson on his Facebook Page ‘On Historical Lines’ titled ‘Replication, Experimentation, and Re-enactment.‘ is shown below as a screenshot, but raised a question about the operation of one railway that is already ‘lost’ despite still operating until the very end of the 20th Century, and maybe slightly intoContinue reading “The Bowes Railway: Re-enactment of rope hauled railways”

Reflections on North Eastern Steam (VHSRailwayFilms)

An interesting video by ‘VHSRailwayFilms‘ from the early/mid 1980’s has been recently uploaded to YouTube showing: Consett iron ore and coal trains (9F & Q6 locomotives), Northumberland: Border Counties Railway and Wansbeck Railway (Woodburn to Morpeth) inc Wansbeck Piper, Morpeth, inc sidings and shunting, ECML March 1965, November 1965 at Hepscott Junction, Hepscott Station andContinue reading “Reflections on North Eastern Steam (VHSRailwayFilms)”

Getting rid of level crossings a good way forward?

A good video showing a case study of Melbourne, Austrailia of their program to remove a substantial number of level crossings on the city’s metro network. What is clear throughout this video is the benefits of level crossing removal schemes: Greater safety through separation of road traffic and rail traffic. More frequent rail services byContinue reading “Getting rid of level crossings a good way forward?”

S&CR 150: Could a new Scotby Curve create a Newcastle to Settle via Hexham Line?

Yesterday, the Green Signals podcast with Richard Bowker featured a special on the Settle and Carlisle Railway. This episode covered a wide range of aspects of its recent history, particularly the story of it being saved from closure and now thriving as a tourism hotspot due to the amazing views available from the line, asContinue reading “S&CR 150: Could a new Scotby Curve create a Newcastle to Settle via Hexham Line?”

Ashville: An Advocate for Railfreight and the End of Ashville Weekly.

Today, Sunday 3rd August 2025, marks the final episode of the Ashville Weekly series by the Ashville channel on YouTube with episode 250 ‘The Last Dance’.  I can’t remember the first time that YouTube suggested an Ashville video to me, but ever since then, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the weekly episodes, as well asContinue reading “Ashville: An Advocate for Railfreight and the End of Ashville Weekly.”

Snippets of info from ‘The Tyne Coal Keel’ by Adrian Osler

A recent loan from my local library has been ‘The Tyne Coal Keel’ (2022) by Adrian Osler, which whilst only partially read so far, is a fascinating book with some initial facts that, in my view, are clearly worth sharing more widely as part of the knowledge of these interesting small vessels that have long-sinceContinue reading “Snippets of info from ‘The Tyne Coal Keel’ by Adrian Osler”

Hinckley National Rail Freight Interchange: Daft to Decline?

A new £750m railfreight interchange near Leicester, potentially creating up to 8000 jobs has been declined by the UK Government, which seems at real odds with the ‘pro-growth’ mantra of that same Government. Presumably, the financing of this scheme was to be made by its developers Tritax Symmetry, so wouldn’t be on the Government’s balanceContinue reading “Hinckley National Rail Freight Interchange: Daft to Decline?”

Railway Bridge Disasters and Other Mishaps by Alan Hayward

In another case of ‘found by the YouTube algorithm’, an excellent video presentation titled ‘Alan Hayward on Railway Bridge Disasters and Other Mishaps‘, with a very large railway focus, but not exclusively so, watch it to find out more. The talk very much shows how structural engineering is a field that is of endless improvement;Continue reading “Railway Bridge Disasters and Other Mishaps by Alan Hayward”

Thoughts on railways around Northallerton: Wensleydale Railway towards Whitby?

This blog post is entirely my own view, not those of any organisations mentioned, it is purely intended as a ‘thinking aloud’ piece. This was inspired by a recent Facebook post about the little used section of the Wensleydale Railway between Leeming Bar, Northallerton West and the interconnection with the East Coast Main Line (ECML)Continue reading “Thoughts on railways around Northallerton: Wensleydale Railway towards Whitby?”