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Yes, considering the purpose of Fishguard Harbour station - the clue is supposed to be in the name! - connections with the ferries are not ideal. Flying from Dublin sounds a good plan - much more pleasant than LHR. Aer Lingus usually have some pretty good fares. They market quite hard for...

I have done the Dublin-Wexford train journey, and it’s a very pleasant run - along the coast at the Dublin end, then mostly inland. Wexford is a nice country town. It houses the National Opera House, if that’s your bag. The service beyond Wexford to Rosslare - about 15 miles further south - has...

That’s a common scenario on the trains in Britain, especially on a trip A-B-C, where the fare for A-C is set by by Operator X and A-B and B-C are set by Operator Y (or Y and Z). Savings can exceed 50%. It’s perfectly OK, provided that the train is booked to stop at station B (strictly speaking...

You did well. Scottish bank notes are not legal tender, even in Scotland.

Nice account. You’re right to mention one piece of ”nostalgia“ we won’t miss - the hassle of getting currency after crossing borders.

I should have added that the Trowse swing bridge - just south of Norwich Thorpe station is unique in Britain in having overhead electrification. They use a fixed rail - rather than catenary - on the bridge itself and its approach spans. Is that the same on the NEC in the US?

That is a serious machine!

There were two. Victoria closed in 1916, and was the Great Eastern’s original terminus from London. The Midland and Great Northern Joint had its own terminus called Norwich City, closed to passengers - with nearly all of the M&GNJ - in 1959.

No train would dare, OP 🙂.

In the Russian case, yes it seems so. But your point that a “foot” might mean almost anything is supported by the origins of Iberian gauge - six Castilian feet and five Portuguese feet respectively - at least as suggested by wiki.

Similarly the nominal gauges in Spain and Portugal were originally different by 8mm - not enough to worry about.

Things move fast. Oyster - at least in Pay As You Go mode - is no longer a requirement for London, since you can use any contactless credit or debit card to touch in and touch out on the readers - in effect making any card an Oyster Card. Admittedly you have to remember which card you used at...

The Paris-Barcelona overnight Talgo - and I think there was a Geneva-Barcelona one too - used gauge-changing sheds at Port Bou from the 1970s onward. I‘m not sure when this ceased. Mere mortals got turfed off the standard gauge train in Port Bou for a change of train. Going north, the same...

I would highly recommend the Inside Passage ferry from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy, but the art will be timing the Jasper to PR train to connect with the ferry, and then connecting from the ferry to the bus that runs from Port Hardy to Campbell River. That one runs three days a week, and I don’t...

The slogan has been used in Britain too, with “track” singular. In the “earbud and text message” era, it’s worth repeating.

Anything written by LTC Rolt is worth a read, even if his style is rather dated. “Red for Danger” is a classic of its kind.

It would be even better now, as the Welsh Highland Railway (also narrow gauge) has been restored from Porthmadog to Caernarfon. Unfortunately when we were there - for my mother-in-law’s birthday - it was December, so we couldn’t go on any of the heritage lines. I should have checked her birthday...

You would have changed at Llandudno Junction to get to Blaenau Ffestiniog - which I am pleased to say is still possible. The place that sounds like “Pefalley” is Pwllheli, as featured in Amtrak Maineiac’s original post.

Nice report. The run from Euston to Wolverhampton would definitely have been in Mark 2 stock in 1971. The Mark 3 - a huge improvement, and arguably better than anything since - came in with the HSTs in the mid-70s, the West Coast getting locomotive-hauled versions. Traction would have been 25 kV...