This has reignited so maybe time to bring it to the attention of @Heidi_Labour - please commit to making modern British train interiors less like an A&E waiting room.

You used to be able to go Oxted to Brighton on three different routes, but today there are none. Equally, there was once the route available down the Mole Valley and then to Brighton via Steyning. All now lost. I’m on one about this today.

Time to give Bethell some game time?.

They say you can’t justify retaining a line based on its value as a diversionary route alone and that’s true, but my oh my what a difference the lines via Culver & Copyhold Junctions would have made on days when Stoats Nest is out, from an operational perspective.

Had today actually been in 1963, all those bus pax down from London would be making their way up the stairs to catch that train to Three Bridges. Had it been 1953, they’d have stayed on the first train and gone right on through to Haywards Heath or Brighton via Horsted Keynes.

TV on the floor, any old shit thrown together on a plate for tea (pasta with strawberries and cream??). PM of Poland living his best male life. 😂.

RT @TrainStations23: No. 34089 with a Ramsgate to Victoria train arriving at Chatham in June 1959. Photo by Roger Joanes .

I mean there’s a bit of Sussex coast on the sleeves there isn’t there.

One of the modern railway’s golden rules followed here; namely to never fail to take an opportunity to have a pop at Dr Beeching.

Imagine if famous East Grinstead resident Richard Beeching hadn’t hated everywhere but London so much and retained the town’s rail links to elsewhere, we’d still have feasible diversionary routes.

Stoats Nest Junction needs mending tomorrow. Kind of important one and it’s going to sever the Brighton Main Line for a day. What this means in practice is that many foreign visitors arriving for London, are first going to learn of the existence of East Grinstead.

Who is responsible for procuring and installing CIS? It appears more standardised than 10 years ago, when it varied wildly by TOC. The white dot matrix NTIs are ubiquitous now.

RT @mongsley: Holiday crowds at Victoria Station in London in the summer of 1920.

I saw this exact same pic in metric three days ago. Good to see it’s been US Customaryised for the benefit of Americans.

At this rate, Manchester will have a world class underground system before the Bakerloo reaches Lewisham.

Pubs in railway stations 👌.

RT @railway200: Today is #WorldChocolateDay and did you know that Cadbury Bournville was a major rail user for 90 years? In 1947 Cadbury ev….

Something we can all be thankful for.

The stuff being produced by Macron, Hummel, Umbro, Joma and Lotto now is so much better than most of what Adidas churns out and literally EVERYTHING from Nike.

It’s 20:53 and I’ve just made an instant coffee. That can only mean one thing….