Just returned from a jolly trip to the south of France where we rode the Chemin de Fer de Provence, a metre-gauge line that winds up into the mountains north of the Cote d’Azur. The services leave from the CFP’s own station in Nice, three blocks north of the SNCF station. The original Gare du [...]

I drove to York yesterday from Spalding for a job for the magazine. Not because the timings prevented me using the train (although the return trip could have been a bit tight), but purely because of cost.
Being too late to get an advance fare ticket And that was on the Friday!), I looked on the [...]

I enjoyed a family holiday the other week in the lovely Yorkshire Dales, staying in a farmhouse so isolated there is no mobile reception. We had a wonderful break and it was great to get away to such a beautiful part of the world.
However, we did travel somewhere each day, and one day we went [...]

Well I have been pulled up by a reader for publishing too much grim news in Modern Railways. While we are all a bit concerned about the possible ramifications of Government spending cuts, yes, he is right, we could take more of a glass half full approach! So we have some good news in the [...]

For the second weekend on the trot, I visited a railway I’d never travelled on before. I’d been to the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway once, for the research into the old Grimsby to Louth line, featured in RI June, but there were no trains operating and so I couldn’t enjoy a trip.
This time, trains were running [...]

When you have been around railways as long as I have, it gets increasingly harder and harder to find something new that I haven’t done before. But I did that just that on Saturday with a first ever visit to the Kent and East Sussex Railway.
In fact it was a day of new things; my [...]

In the issue of Railways Illustrated I’ve signed off today, there is part one of a two-part feature looking at the history of the 31 Class 37/4s.
Believe it or not, this sub-class has been hard at work for 25 years now and they have covered pretty much most parts of the network on passenger, freight, [...]

Well the summer of 2010 is here and down in the West Country around Dawlish the weather is far from welcoming for the holiday makers, today we had heavy rain during the morning which has cleared in afternoon, but very dull and not holiday weather for photography, children or summer trips. Well I guess living [...]

So, it’s Election Day, and I have already cast my vote. The Labour government’s handling of the railways since 1997 has been pretty poor, although not half as bad as the Conservatives who positively wrecked the system by selling it off in the mid-1990s!
Transport rarely gets a mention in the campaigning, but the Lib Dems [...]

At last, the 2010 gala season has started and the Nene Valley Railway put on another impressive show this weekend despite being let down on one or two of the visiting locos.
During the event, 20048 – making its return to traffic after a thorough overhaul – suffered a minor fault and it is a credit [...]