Bilingual Signs
I’ve said before that I don’t like bilingual place names. Mainly with concern to Belgium, where they suddenly change language of the signs to the place you are going. In one case it led to a detour of about fifty kilometres.
Take this sign in Cardiff station.
Cardiff or Caerdydd
Surely, it should be in English or Welsh but not both! If the inhabitants of the city want Welsh to be the name, then so be it! An interesting example is London, where although there is a French name for the city, most French of my acquaintance, have used the English form, when speaking to me.
Obviously, where there can be confusion, like this informational sign both common languages are needed.
Bilingual Information Sign
In a few years time incidentally, this sign will be unneccessary as new regulations will mean that toilets will not be able to flush directly onto the track.
High Speed Train to Swansea
I said that I was going to see Ipswich in Swansea yesterday. I had bought a Standard Class ticket out and a First Class back at a total cost of £45.20. I had actually booked six days in advance, so these good prices weren’t the result of very early booking.
The trip takes three hours and is probably one of the longest trips you can do from London easily in a day in a High Speed Train or IC125 both ways. I got six and three quarter hours in Swansea, which was enough time for a wander round the city, have some lunch and see the match.
As to the latter, I’ll not be talking about that!
According to the guy who served me coffee in the buffet, the train out had just been refurbished. It was certainly in very good condition and completely clean. I think it might have been the same train set on return, as it was in an equally pristine state.
So how did Standard and First Clases compare?
According to Ian Walmsley ‘s excellent article in Modern Railways a couple of months ago, he scored 82.1% for First Class and 76.2% for Standard for the IC125.
I’m not going to argue with those figures, although, I actually found the more upright Standard Class seat slightly more comfortable. But then my spine doesn’t curl under correctly and I’ve always found that too soft chairs are less uncomfortable than hard ones. When I used to drive, I found some cars particularly difficult.
My one complaint is that the tray in Standard Class is not big enough to lay the paper out, so I could do the Sudoku.
Small Seatback Tray on an IC125
However, I did get two seats to myself going out, so I could spread sideways a bit.
Perhaps I need a Working Class coach. This would be Standard Class but everybody would get a proper table, just like you originally got, when the trains were built.
I know the new layouts get more people on the trains, but have we really progressed?
As to progress, I did walk through several carriages to get to the buffet. The train was rather busy and there were several of those trolley cases, I hate so much, in the aisles. Despite this, I didn’t have any problems getting to the buffet and getting back carrying the coffee. Compare that with the problems I had on the Pendolino. But then I was running yesterday at 125 mph on a railway built for 60 mph in the Victorian era, in a forty year old train.
If I had the choice, I’d take a High Speed Train or failing that a Mark 3 Carriage anytime I could! When I travel to Ipswich, I always book one of the Norwich trains, as these are made up of Mark 3’s.
When booking on-line, you should be told the type of train you would normally be getting.
Network Rail’s Pigeon Eradicator
This is not what you think it is on the platforms at London Paddington!
Network Rail's Pigeon Eradicator
It has shades of Hancock in The Radio Ham, where he was annoyed with pigeons on his aerials, so he gave them 1,000 volts and a very cheap thrill.
You may think it is to stop the pigeons sitting on the video cameras, but it is a fiendish device to kill them, by giving them a large electric shock. Note how one camera is angled so it can see the pigeons on the spikes. This allowed the charge to be accurately timed. The pigeons are then recycled in the meat pies on the trains from London.
Getting to the Liberty Stadium in Swansea
I hope there’s better information, when I get off my train in Swansea, but everyone assumes you’re going by car to Swansea.
But what do you expect?
Very few places have had good information on how to get from the train station to the football ground. In some cases, you can use the method you do at Ipswich; the Mark 1 Eyeball. But in others, it’s impossible.
How To Get Lost On the Hills
According to this report, it would appear the best way is to navigate using your iPhone.
What’s wrong with a map and compass?
Let’s suppose that you are walking one of the London canals and you’re aiming to be out for most of the day. By the time you get back, your iPhone will have exhausted its battery, so if you feel like taking a phone, why not take something with a sensible battery life, like a Nokia 6310i.
What A Way To Run a Railway
GBRf is a rail freight company in the UK and it has a shortage of motive power.
Could this be in part to what I saw last Thursday, whilst sitting outside a pub outside Thurston station in Suffolk, where in a brief period of perhaps forty minutes, three long freight trains trundled along between Felixstowe and Peterborough? I’ve done this many times before and never seen one. So as I’ve reported before a lot of heavy freight is now going by train.
So I was surprised to see that they are hiring in a 50-year-old Deltic locomotive, Royal Scots Grey, to move freight in the North East. It must make commercial sense to both companies involved. It is rather a tribute to the Deltic, but surely with better planning a few years ago, instead of scrapping these wonderful locootives, they should have been properly stored. After all one my most memorable train trips was behind a Deltic.
We sometimes decry the quality of engineering in this country. But the list of things we should be proud of keeps getting longer and the Deltic has just got itself added.
The High Speed Diesel Train Revisited
I said in The Train That Won’t Go Quietly, that it is likely that the High Speed Diesel Train or IC125 will still be in front-line service in 2030 or perhaps even 2040.
A lot on my part was speculation, but articles have started to appear in respected journals, that show 2035 is not only easily achievable, but achievable with increased fuel efficiency, much higher service intervals and with meeting all regulations concerning safety, doors and toilets.
The most surprising thing I read in the article in Modern Railways, was that a full computerised structural analysis on the Mk. 3 coach showed that they were good for a sixty year lifespan and were very much better than expected. They also found that the coaches were very stiff, which probably explains why passengers like the ride. I certainly find it better than a Pendolino.
But knowing the way governments think and engineers design and make-do and mend, I think that 2035 will be a date that when they retire the last IC125, will be long in the past.
I’m travelling on two tomorrow as I go to Swansea to see Ipswich play. The trains cover the 191 miles from London in around three hours including stops.
Improvements at Dalston Junction
The Southern entrance to Dalston Junction station is still not open, but at least there has been some progress at the Northern one.
The New Temporary Bus Stop at Dalston Junction
Today, I took a train back from Highbury and Islington and there was a queue of four buses at the new temporary stop outside the station.
This gives a good route for anybody, who wants to go say from Canada Water or Shadwell to the Essex Road or the Angel at Islington. Just change at Dalston Junction to the 38 or 56 bus.
Cambridge Busway Handed Over?
Well possibly according to this report. But anyway there is some progress and it is hoping that the ill-fated project will open in August.
The Anonymous Widower 