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Lovely pictures. Philadelphia is on my itinerary for late September - really, really, really hoping we can make it.

Ah, but what do you wear when you washing *all* the clothes at the halfway point? 🙂

Some nice shots in there. Despite the result - spoiler alert! - it was a “better” run than the earlier one, because the speed restrictions were observed throughout.

In the UK headlights of any description are a relatively recent phenomenon, though modern stock has quite powerful ones. I have often wondered whether- from the night-vision driving perspective - they make things better or worse. There is no doubt that the more recent large-head LED signals are...

Yes, that’s LNER Class K1 2-6-0 - though actually built post-nationalisation - and is the usual motive power for the daily Fort William-Mallaig return run. There is no turntable at Mallaig, so the return run is tender-first.

When that photo was taken, the line was carrying traffic from south London (right to left as you look at the picture) to what was then a somewhat down-at-heel terminus at Holborn Viaduct. But there was also a line - out of use at the time of that photo - that descended to the Snow Hill Tunnel...

Love the picture of Fleet Street. Judging by the traffic, the bag must have been very new then. Of rail interest, you can (just) see the Ludgate Hill viaduct over your left shoulder in front of St Paul’s. That’s now gone, as the line has been diverted underground.

At first I thought that photo was the fans arriving for tonight’s game against England. 🙂 It is quite possible you had to change at Fort William in 1971, although at least some trains have always run through from Glasgow (and, of course, London in the case of the sleeper - a state of affairs...

I’ll put that down as “no”, then. 🙂

Is there any acceleration in the glacial roll-out of the V-IIs? I was hoping for one on the LSL in early October but am not holding my breath.

Perfectly illustrating the point that improvements like this are worth far more than top speed. I don’t know how long it takes an Acela to decelerate from 80 to 55 and accelerate back to 80, but it could easily save a minute. The saving in time between 120mph and 150mph is six seconds per mile...

What were the previous limits?

It doesn’t happen any more - thank goodness - but before the high speed line from London to the Channel Tunnel was built the Eurostars were on DC in England. If there was any serious attempt at power draw you could almost see the third rail melting. This was particularly so on the secondary...

Yes, that is the other way round from what one might expect - as you suggest, it’s the electric mode that is “last mile”. The third-rail electro-diesels in the UK were quite powerful on the juice - 2,500 hp - but only 750 hp on the generator.

I don’t think anyone has managed to produce an electro-diesel with enough power in diesel mode. Usually it is “last mile” stuff.

Was that Glenfinnan Viaduct? Well known to Harry Potter fans.

Nice one. Always love Glasgow Central - nicely restored to early 20th century condition.

Nice link.

Yes, one of those safety things we just take for granted.

In the UK, “incident”, usually - sadly - means suicide**. It has happened to me once - on that occasion it turned out they were trying to take a short cut across the tracks. The delay was kept to 90 minutes, which isn’t bad. The driver has to be relieved. I remember asking the guard when we...