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There was a Brussels sleeper and - for a couple of winters in the late 1960s - a Basel sleeper for ski traffic. Nice pictures. Note that the BR double-arrow logo on your fourth picture was used on the ferries in this era - but used in reverse format for the maritime “port to port” rule of the...

That is correct. Only Dunkerque and - as you observe - Zeebrugge in Belgium had linkspans for rail traffic. Dover originally had a separate area of the harbour - with lock access - so that the level was more or less constant. Later this was replaced with a linkspan that could cope with the full...

I see from the map that in the north-west there is one of those excellent stations in the middle of nowhere - Manulla Junction - that has no public access to/from the outside world. Like Manhattan Transfer, but possibly with fewer passengers.

Ah, yes. That was rather what I expected. Waterford-Rosslare has been closed for some time, and the reinstatement of the Barrow Bridge looks to be €€€€€.

Is the service from Wexford to Dublin no longer running? That would be a shame. We went to Wexford a few years back when our son was singing in the National Opera House, and travelled both ways by train. A lovely run.

The latest TGVs and the e320 sets operated by Eurostar have a service speed of 320 km/h = 200 mph. They have to do a run at 110% of service speed for authorisation purposes - hence that 220 mph figure looks right.

The other point about multiple pantographs is that at high speeds the kinetic wave effect of the first has the potential to have nasty effects on the second. Incidentally, the Acelas - in common with most British stock - use the high speed pantograph developed in the 1980s by Brecknell Willis -...

Yes, the problems between New York and Boston seem to be totally different from those between Washington and New York.

That’s true, of course, but in many ways the comparison is unfair to the Northeast Regionals, whose performance is arguably hampered by a sexy marketing-led approach - “the new Avelias will reach 160 mph” - in preference to a steady engineering-led approach of incremental improvement -...

Yes, normal operating practice is one pantograph only - per unit. The 25kV bus line is also standard practice with unit trains - bearing in mind that all the cars are motored (so in that sense different from the Acela sets). The TGVs have them also, but they are banned in the Channel Tunnel.

It needs full barriers, because the line speed is in excess of 100 mph (I suspect it‘s the full 125 in that location). Half-barrier crossings are actually more common than full barriered ones. This is mainly because half barriers are permitted on lines where the speed is not in excess of 100...

That prompts me to ask a question about speed limits for trucks in the US. On the open road, are they legally restricted to a speed less than that which applies to cars? In Europe, they usually (possibly always) are. Taking the UK as an example, anything over 7.5 tons has a limit that is 10 mph...

You’re showing your age there. That was the mid-80s, specifically the Class 317 EMUs.

I would think the Strait of Messina one will be around for the foreseeable future. Every so often the bridge or tunnel idea gets revived, but in that volcanic/earthquake region the question “what could possibly go wrong?” is particularly pertinent.

If I remember correctly, these were Buffet Electro-Pneumatic [Brake], Corridor Electro-Pneumatic, Restaurant Electro-Pneumatic, and there were also Vestibule and Gatwick (more luggage space) versions - 4-VEP and 4-VEG. When I started work in 1980, the South London commute was on EPB suburban...

Yes, it will be interesting to see what the preliminary report from The Rail Accident Investigation Branch - which they say we shall get later this week - comes up with.

I suppose a SPAD (“signal passed at danger”) was always the most likely cause, and actually the “least bad” (if you see what I mean), since the alternative would be a wrong-side signal failure. Still nasty, though.

As cirdan says elsewhere in the thread, Bulleid was something of a maverick, but you have to experiment. His Pacifics were fine machines, but the valve-gear wasn’t perfect, and they used more coal in consequence. Most of them were rebuilt in the 1950s, lasting until the end of steam in 1968. The...

That’s correct. The conversion isn’t complete yet, but they are definitely working on it.

That would be right. I seem to recall that the lines to Boulogne and Calais weren’t electrified until about the time of the Channel Tunnel project. On the English side the electrification to the coast was done by about 1960 - it was (and is) third-rail, of course. Your journey from London to...