I have been asked an interesting question. Why does London’s Moorgate tube station have a mix of “traditional” bar-and-Circle roundels... and weird diamonds? Well... (1/6)

“I MUST tell you,” said a lady with breathless excitement, stopping us suddenly as we walked down Bermondsey Street last night, “I MUST tell you that you are wearing the same clothes as that building.” and skipped off

The @Moma released this haunting 1902 film of the Wuppertal Suspended Railway in Germany - but now it’s been colourised and upscaled to 4K and it is incredibly beautiful

This week, 7 years ago in the Netherlands, the overhead wires on the mainline were damaged - stranding a modern electric unit near Hoorn. In a somewhat Thomas-The-Tank-style surprise, it was rescued by a tiny 1922-built steam loco, normally confined to an adjoining museum railway

Ugh. Cannot WAIT until this current obsession by developers in turning perfectly decent homes into giant grey appliances is over

I’m at @londonwaterloo to observe genuinely extraordinary scenes tonight as 6,000 armed forces staff arrive for #Coronation rehearsal. Scenes not seen for a generation and EXACTLY reflect Helen Mckie’s 1948 famous ‘War & Peace’ paintings pair. Some kind of glorious coincidence?🤔

There. I fixed it.

The gothic West Front of Wells Cathedral - with c.300 carved figures - in medieval times was painted vibrant colours. Also I learned today of the “Singing Galleries” behind the sculptures: so that trumpets & choirs could play thru apertures, amazing the citizens below. Incredible

UPDATE: Reason to still love Twitter №1,999:

I am never not *astonished* when I walk thru Lutyens’s Page Street flat blocks in Pimlico, (1) ‘cause BLIMEY that chequerboard effect is *dazzling* and (2) they feel so modern yet a design of 1928. Social housing; but fine housing. Even the balconied courtyards are great spaces.

There was something extraordinary about the moonlight tonight: it compelled me to venture up Borough High Street and along London Bridge, so that I might see it reflected on the Pool. As I stood, a clock on one of Wren’s churches struck nine. Perfect, I thought. But before I could turn one of those magical moments that I’ll try to never forget unfurled — as I spotted the bascules of Tower Bridge rising. In an instant I remembered what I had forgotten, confirmed by a familiar long, deep wail of sadness - the sort of sadness that could only be mustered by an elderly orphaned hand-built ship which knows it is the last of its kind and that once it is gone, there will be no more. Either side of the bridge many sat stewing grumpily in their own traffic but for me - and I suspect many hundreds more who also witnessed the mesmerising sight and sounds of the world’s last ocean-going paddle steamer glide into London upon a river of silver and its decks full of folk bright-eyed with wonder – time stopped and silence fell. Waverley had come back to town.

As often found on London’s housing estates, these fences are made from WW2 Air Raid Protection stretchers. 600,000+ stretchers were made for civilian use in the Blitz; but surplus after the war. Estates’ railings had gone for War Effort: stretchers were recycled to replace them.

(What she didn’t tell me, and my bf only casually dropped into chat as we reached home, was that I was wearing my jumper back-to-front, so thanks, guys)

An almost perfect reflection at @TowerBridge! The combination of a very high tide on the turn & low sun just now meant that suddenly -briefly- the old Thames TV ident appeared...

Good morning from London, where at 9 o’clock the low winter sun was splendid and the Thames* was calm as a millpond.

Last night @TowerBridge bascules were raised to let the world’s last sea-going paddle steamer in to berth in London. The historic @PS_Waverley decks were packed with hundreds of passengers; there are sailings to/from here for the next week or so, and still a few tickets left.

Oh no this is embarrassing I’ve come along today wearing the same outfit as the train

#OTD 10th Jan, in 1863, London’s first true Underground Railway opened: the Metropolitan. So I went to have a look. Behold! Baker Street then (1863) vs Baker Street now (2018)

Gosh. A forgotten London street has today reopened beneath @NetworkRailLBG. Stainer St, which was tunnelled beneath London Bridge railway station platforms back in 1836 is now open once again. It is a little bit magical.

It is 1968 and Peter Lepine-Smith has built a miniature 1/3 scale trolleybus & circuit to ride around in his Surrey back garden. piped.video/zlgp2olfKaQ

Why yes of COURSE I made face coverings to match the seat moquette fabric on relevant London tube lines & bus routes when I travel 🤓

I joined @TfL for Elizabeth line trial operations today. I’ve visited sites a couple of times (this is 1st I’m allowed to share pics of) but I must say: Britain might’ve waited a long time for it, but WOW this is urban transport done *right*. It will have been worth the wait.👏

I have also just realised that this occurred, with some irony, almost outside @FashionTextile museum

Penny. Just. Dropped! There’s a 1937 London Underground photo (by E.O.Hoppé) which circulates on social media, often without exact location. BUT I’ve just realised that it *is* where a brief description sometimes claims -“British Museum station” - tho it closed down four year previously. So it’s not only an abandoned tube station, but was taken in what is a now-barely-accessible sealed off tunnel there too . When TfL granted us access to walk along the Central line tracks one night to explore the site for #secretsofthelondonunderground, by chance we found THAT passageway and hand painted advert (which still has paper signs pasted adjacent from its days as a WW2 shelter). So perhaps subconsciously I recalled Hoppé’s image and took a similar snap - but of our camera crew at work - at 02:44am on 27th Feb 2023. That night we spent exploring forgotten tunnels beneath London’s streets was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life and I thought you’d like to know the location of this now-famous vintage image is -by a quirk of fate - almost entirely unchanged, 87 years on.

Oh my GOD. I *THOUGHT* you’d have been in @EamesFineArt to see @paul_catherall as we were quite close and you looked a woman of fine taste :-)) This is amazing. As you walked off I knew we had to walk back to take a picture: it was the most perfectly timed observation. Thank you!

Nobody changing trains at Blackfriars means a v pleasing near-symmetrical moment

On Poole Quay, Dorset, there is a fab & rare example of a pub with an entirely green-glazed tile elevation. The Poole Arms is one of Britain's finest faience-fronted pubs: perhaps because this town was once an important ceramics centre. It is extraordinary, and listed, Grade II.

Dear @NetworkRail and UK rail industry. Your leaves-on-the-line problem days are over: there's a new hero in town. And they call him... Henry.

#OTD 10th Jan, in 1863, London’s first true Underground Railway opened: the Metropolitan. So tonight I’ve been to have a look. Behold! Baker Street then (1863) vs Baker Street now (2018, tonight)

Worst steps in London. Every time I watch another person gingerly ascend or descend grabbing the handrail, I wonder if the architects & clients responsible for this particularly execrable piece of London Bridge’s public realm ever realised just what a truly shit job they did here

I regret to inform you that a crime has been committed at St James’ses Park’s station

This afternoon, a walk up to St Pancras and back. Poked my head in to see just a single lonely Eurostar train sitting here. But, still, the sinking winter sun was gently warming Barlow’s great trainshed roof – just as it’s always done since 1868.

As I walked home along the river tonight, the rain paused, so I paused too. We – a handful of strangers – watched in silent awe as Golden Hour magic swept over the Square Mile; and a defiant red double-decker sailed across the bridge, off into the dark canyons of the City beyond.

The @MuseumModernArt released this haunting 1902 film of the Wuppertal Suspension Railway in Germany – but now it’s been colourised and upscaled using AI to 4K by @Dostoevskiy – and it is incredibly beautiful

There goes my evening. The "Britain From Above" archive is now FREE in high resolution and it is *incredible*. 96,000 photos of landscapes and buildings - many long-lost, from the air. Just wow. britainfromabove.org.uk/

Sometimes all you need on a Sunday morning is a cup of coffee and two minutes of Ivor The Engine.

So it took two years but finally I’m on a tube train that matches my @ltmuseumshop socks

#OTD 10th Jan, in 1863, London’s first true Underground Railway opened: the Metropolitan. So I went to have a look. Behold! Baker Street then (1863) vs Baker Street now (2018)

It is my birthday. 39. Hurrah! I made it. I cannot do today what I adore: travelling by train. But I will, sometime again. So here are four of my #travelbytrain window views of the last yr– so that I might recall my favourite trips. It is a joy to have you on the journey with me.

Happy Birthday King’s Cross station, opened this day back in 1852! I’ve popped up to the hotel roof opposite for this pic and gosh, you don’t look a day over your 169 years. Must be your timeless design by architect Lewis Cubitt. So three cheers to him, & three cheers to you.🍸

I’m in Shrewsbury. This is Britain’s largest & finest historic Tudor Multi-Storey Shoppinge Centre, compleat with authentic 16th Century Jettied Lorrye Loading Bay and Ye Olde 920 space Wagon Parkinge Experience. It seems it was discovered by John Laing Dvlpmt in 1989. Incredible

I reckon that if the teenage me knew that one day I’d take a train – liveried to counter homophobia – directly to a national model railway festival where 10,000 ppl happily chatted & enjoyed our shared hobby of model trains, I’d probably have worried a bit less about the future🤷

Gosh that tweet “blew up”. So. Turns out we were both on @BermondseyStLdn (incredibly) because we are both fans of the same artists with exhibitions on at @EamesFineArt: @paul_catherall & @gailbrodholt. May I politely promote their work into your timeline? Happy Friday, all.

A silent Green Park tube station interchange on my way to work just now

I think about this photo - of a bloke going out for a casual ride behind his model tugboat on the Shopshire Union Canal - really quite a lot.

There's an Open Railway Map of the world and the level of detail is incredible openrailwaymap.org/

Locomotion №1 doesn’t sound like other engines. It doesn’t go “chuff”. An ancient animal: an iron dinosaur of the Georgian age. In the early hours of Sunday it hauled itself on the East Coast Main Line at Darlington and, sighing, gently clunked off into history & into the night.

A handy comparison showing difference in size between: (a) London Underground's sub-surface trains (b) London Underground's deep tube trains

Stop the hunt. I have just found the greatest wrapping paper ever created and is by @NickSellek windowcards.co.uk/product.ph…

Fun fact! There is a Penguin book vending machine at Exeter St Davids station. Built 2023, it recalls a 1934 visit by a publisher (going home after an Agatha Christie meeting) who was inspired to set up @PenguinUKBooks right there. @GWRHelp staff tell me it sells several each day

Waverley: the world’s last ocean-going paddle steamer. Our walk home tonight “er… just happened” to coincide with her glorious arrival through Tower Bridge once again. She’s doing a return trip to Southend tmrw, then home to the Clyde until next year. It’s the best ship, of all.

Tonight in town the mist hung low, the streets were quiet and as the Thames tide turned, the river was completely still.

As I took my symmetrical window shot at 125mph, another @LNER train passed, it too at 125mph. UGH. But then I realised I’d shot thru my train’s window AND the next train’s TOO to fields beyond: a closing speed of 250mph. #travelbytrain – the “what are the odds of THAT?!” edition.

A tale of the railway doing a good thing. The other night, floods stopped all trains from Paddington, so my Devon train was late; hours late. We made up some time haring through the Somerset night but too late: the on-time stopping-train which was to become my Paignton branch connection further down at Newton Abbott junction, had already left Exeter ahead of us. Dammit. I asked the @GWRHelp TM if they might call ahead to perhaps hold it at NA. Two minutes later she returned looking pleased. “Oh! they already had a plan, we’ll be getting there first…” and walked off. Now, I had questions, because I (obv) had @RealtimeTrains running and that train had just left Dawlish Warren, the last passing place. But we zipped onwards up to 100mph and i worried that we were about to do what Father Dougal did to Bishop Brennan: ie kick it up the arse, but at 70mph and along the Dawlish Sea Wall. A text pinged in from a helpful GWR chum. “Look right…” and for the first time in my life I looked inland to the cliff along Dawlish. Lights! THWOOTH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWOOTH. Darkness. Newton Abbott soon appeared, two dozen of us alighted and were delighted when five minutes later in came our connection. But how? Well. Because those clever sods at Exeter Box saw our need, they activated the bidirectional running system. It means they can run two tracks both going west, by halting stuff coming east, using strategically placed crossovers and essentially use them as slow lanes to let other trains past. All because of the Dawlish Sea Wall resilience project, but it has uses at other times too. It’s becoming more widespread on the network - one GWR driver that weekend told me “normally in the cab you feel you’re a jet pilot. When we parallel run it feels like Top Gun.” Anyway here’s a big 🏆👍to the folk at @networkrailwest & @GWRHelp who chose to help out a lot of passengers trying to get somewhere late at night a long way from home, and 🏆👍 whoever signed off budget to give that route that resilience. It’s a timely reminder that in this big machine we call the railway, at its heart it’s still people fixing things and finding cunning ways round even the oddest of problems. And 👍👍👍👍 to whoever at @GWRHelp chose to put a rare Castle Class InterCity HST 125 on that diagram down the branch: it’s a slice of timeless design that, unlike everything else around it, never seems to age.

In 1955, this tiny electric narrow gauge train was installed in New York's Holland Tunnel, driven by traffic cops to monitor & slow vehicles

This morning I pootled along the St Ives branchline, hugging bay by clifftop. The Caribbean blue of sea I’ve not enhanced; nor the golden sand. It is a line I’ve been on often, but the noses pressed to glass and exclamations of delight never fail to bring me joy. #travelbytrain.

Abandoned and rediscovered: Russia’s incredible 1970 jet-powered turbojet train - built to travel over 250km/h - has been found rusting outside a railcar factory englishrussia.com/2014/05/26…

I regret to inform you that the horrific crime at St James’s’s Park tube station remain’s on view.

Your annual reminder that there's an interactive historic map of almost *every* railway station & line that's *ever* existed on the British & Irish Isles. It is BRILLIANT, it is by @Railmaponline, I guarantee that you will lose hours on it AND IT IS HERE: railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.ph…

Londoners! If the security guards of One New Change shopping precinct get overzealous and demand a booking for its overpriced bar, just gently remind them that Roof Terrace access was a condition of @cityoflondon Planning Consent 05/00431/FULEIA (2006) & you too can get this view

there i fixed it

Oh. My. God. This is the greatest cooked breakfast that I have ever had aboard a train. I am zipping through Wales in the @tfwrail Dining Car, and THIS is breakfast between Cardiff and Manchester. Bacon & eggs & sausages (two), all the rest, plus my choice of toast, and jam on the side. The scenery is spectacular, the seats are superb, the staff are cheery and this food was just £12.50: the first class ticket was only about £7 more than standard Advance. It’s made me so bloody happy on my way to this weekend’s @TalyllynRailway #AwdryExtravaganza that I’ve eaten the black pudding, and I don’t normally touch the stuff. Hot food from the kitchen (like bacon baps) is available to all on the train, too, btw. There are 5 return trips of this train between Cardiff and Manchester each day, plus ones to/from Cardiff/Holyhead – calling at places like Abergavenny, Hereford and Shrewsbury. The Dining Car isn’t guaranteed but it does seem to be “on” far more than it used to be when I last did a trip about 10 years ago – so I do now very much commend it to you. Honestly, THIS is what train travel catering *can* and *should* be like in modern European nations like ours, and if you get Adam and Alex D as your dining car crew and chef then that’ll be a bonus too. Nice one Transport for Wales @transport_wales team – I’m looking forward to trying lunch on the way back next week. This has put me in an outstandingly good mood. Cheers to all the staff who work this service. Diolch!

Good morning from London, where the sun rose *precisely* where I’d hoped. Standing right on the corner of Tower Pier, the nice @TfL lady and I watched it slide straight up through the centre of @TowerBridge’s bascules; with a red double decker crossing too, as if to celebrate.

Tonight I had my first experience of nasty physical assault by a fellow train passenger (ugh). I’m fine (rly!), so my tweet is a public THANK YOU to @AvantiWestCoast’s ace TMs Jamie & Graeme who acted swiftly, confidently & kindly. Report filed, they knew which medication works🥰

I regret to inform you that a crime has been committed just south of Reading town centre primelocation.com/for-sale/d…

A surprise. Lucky access to see this view of London King’s Cross & St Pancras tonight. Cor.

I’m off to Devon tonight; aboard one of the best-kept secrets of Britain’s railway: the 19:04 from Paddington. I am having dinner in the dining car, as we surf through the night along twin strips of steel. Speeding at 125 miles per hour, Sarah the chef somehow cooks in the kitchen for us lucky 16 and Aaron’s team deftly serves up soups (thanks to some fancy footwork, I’ve noticed) without a spill down the aisle. It’s a full house tonight; numbers have been steadily growing these last few years as more people discover this semi-secret weekday - (it runs at lunchtime too, as well as in the other direction, AND to/from Swansea) - attainable occasional luxury. We’ve just called at Taunton and I’m having my freebie coffee and mint. I’m enjoying the shared spectacle of once-strangers at tables swapping stories of travels, decisions which changed their lives, careers extraordinary and yet - as every conversation always turns in this carriages - finding commonality in a love of all things & places which lie out this way West. At Tiverton Parkway the ever-chatty Michelle clears away glasses, and visibly restrains herself from striking up chat… she’s just seen the time. Here, I am reminded of my last trip last year, riding aboard this incredible survivor of an age of romance which - and this carriage is proof - is not yet all gone. That day was a time when I was low; really, very low. Two kind friends swooped in and took me far, to see more friends down by the sea, and we came home that night on the evening diner. Some poor soul - troubled by something terrible - was in such a bad way that they had ventured on to a bridge up ahead, so we stopped at Tiverton whilst someone unseen did their magic and that night, likely saved a life. As we waited, some aboard and some on platform, others from standard joined the dining car on discovering that it’s a free upgrade if there’s space, and you’re buying a meal. As I stood in the evening sun, mulling over the meaning of life and how its ups all have downs but deciding that therefore all its downs must always have ups, one of our fellow diners (a much-loved actor of worthy great repute) was now, it transpired, desperate for a spliff. With wine glass now on the platform, she brought out her sweet-scented roll-up. But she *knew* that one cannot smoke upon a station, so in a move executed as elegantly as those she makes upon stage and screen, she lit up and leant over the railing - on one leg to ensure she was well over - into the car park. It’d never stand the test of a court of law but no judge could surely fail to be impressed. Good news soon came from Control of the line and person safe up ahead, and we all returned to the dining car in better spirits perhaps, than we had all been in whilst in our own separate little worlds. That journey back to London was full of chatter, joy and relief. I don’t flash cash - I have none to do it with, despite what some might presume of people who work “in the media” - but there is a romance to dinner in the diner and something very special about eating a proper meal on a train. Sometimes the quiet solitude of a table for one, saved up for and planned for, is the restaurant of my dreams and an escape away from London. Another time it can be a journey unexpectedly learning from others’ life experiences, or a safe haven to hide in having had a day of sad loss, or a place to celebrate something chuffing great with mates. Whatever the occasion, I’m grateful for the Great Western Railway Pullman Dining cars and the staff who work on them. At £38 for two courses and coffee, that often-first-class-from-standard upgrade, the chat, the solitude, the people and the smiles, to me it’s real worth is far more than that. The @gwrhelp dining cars remind me that life, and indeed our railways, really can be great.

I live here for moments like this. Early yesterday morning, before the rest of the world arrived, fog rolled along the Thames and the modern sights & sounds of my city vanished – in a few seconds flat. Then, just when I least expected it, Old London briefly reappeared… (1/5)

Paddington station just now. A spectacular reminder that the railway engineering and architecture that doesn’t move is just as wonderful as the engineering that does.

New tube commute. New face covering.

1958 vs 2018 Two years ago today the good people at @Southwarkcathed let me climb to the top of the tower to re-stage this old photo just ‘cos I asked nicely and was interested in what it looked like. People are kind.

Waterloo sunset’s fine...

London Bridge Underground is at its best when it feels that nobody else is down here

Good morning from Edgware Road Bakerloo line tube station but *especially* good morning to the member of @TfL staff who saw my interest, keenly explained his happiness at working in such a historic building and pointed out several features. An enjoyable start to a Tuesday.

There, I fixed it @tfl 🥰

There is something immensely satisfying about being on trains running in parallel.

91 years ago, Tom Purvis designed six posters for the London North Eastern Railway - each depicting “East Coast Joys”, reachable by train. But what’s *really* delightful is something that many people have never realised: each joined the next, forming this six-piece seaside vista.

brb just going to be staring longingly at this colourised photo of the New York Central's streamlined "Mercury" train set of 1936. Designer: Henry Dreyfuss.

My LNER train north tonight has taken a vast easterly diversion, avoiding engineering works. The Fens nr Ely have spectacularly flooded; and these vast watery views from our Azuma train have rather distracted me from my laptop. Anyway, I thought you might like to see them too.

London’s tube map if viewed from a plane - now including most of the DLR & Overground too! Photo by @djsantero, map plotted by @MartinBangratz.

PM in lots of shit? On my walk today I discovered that somebody has stuck tiny decomposable portraits of Boris Johnson in all the cowpats along the footpaths that surround Chequers, the PM’s Buckinghamshire residence

The island of Nordstrandischmoor is connected to mainland Germany by a tiny narrow gauge railway. Several residents have their own private railcars, and many households have their own little wagon. “Drivers must be 15 yrs old & hold a moped licence” piped.video/watch?v=DULlPrOO…

Today, 2 Oct 1946 @PS_Waverley launched. Today, aged 79, she sailed under my feet at @TowerBridge. So, Happy Birthday to this incredible ship, the world’s last surviving ocean-going paddle steamer. Built for LNER to an old design, she’s still going strong. There she goes, again…

Today I learned that Mr Bean's intro theme lyrics are: "Ecce homo qui est faba" – "Behold the man who is a bean" and the final credits are: "Vale homo qui est faba" – "Farewell, man who is a bean" –– and *that* has made my day even better.

The scaffolding’s off… revealing that Findlater’s, one of London’s most prominent derelict buildings, is BACK! The old wine merchants in once-unloved London Bridge rly arches is an essay in Doulton Carrara Ware: tonight the faience GLEAMS. Clock’s repaired & ready to go too(1/3)

On way to tonight’s work site, hopped off briefly to check that Southwark tube still looks like an abandoned space station. It does.

More people need to know about this… the incredible dining cars of @transport_wales. We are cruising along at 90mph – past the peaked hills of the Welsh Borders with an ace three course steak lunch for under £30 and staff who smile & chat. This isn’t a brag: I upgraded my cheap return ticket (I’ve spent the weekend away volunteering with friends at @TalyllynRailway) for just £10 to sit in First Class and this lunch is my own holiday treat. But the talented chef aboard cooks for the whole train: regular is the psssht of doors heralding another passenger who’s popped down for a hot snack served from the buffet. Manchester to Cardiff via Shrewsbury, Hereford, Abergavenny, Leominster and more places in between: such is the popularity of this train that there’s talk of more Mk4 cars being added to each service. There’s a market for this, and it works because of good staff and good product. I tweeted about the breakfast and some people grumbled in the replies that not all train services are this good, or that they were cross about their own experiences elsewhere. OK. But this train right now is great - Chloe doing front of house and Matthew in the kitchen - I want to call them out right now to @tfwrail for being brill just as I did Adam & Alex on Thursday. It might feel to some that the Dining Car concept – of saving time by eating great food at good prices whilst travelling between places and having the best, changing, views of any restaurant in any season – is something lost to time, the staff and wider team of @transport_wales are proving that it CAN work in 2025. Done well, on-train dining is one of the most joyful things about rail transport (to me), and I’m chuffed to bits to have had the chance to experience it here again. It isn’t the choice for everyone, and it isn’t practical on every journey, but I think - no matter what other things you might find fault with railways elsewhere - it’s good to call out & share the good stuff. This *is* good stuff, with great staff, and it to me it feels like something special. Diolch!

How welsh slate quarrymen got down the mountain each night: Sliding down railway inclines on tiny boards w/ wheels: piped.video/watch?v=Q0QqflJN…

OK an extra bonus (or spam, depending on your POV) tweet: If you know where to look, you’ll find old Metropolitan Railway company evidence. I’ve just been here, at its former Farringdon station. Check out the Met red diamond & bar frieze! Buildings find it hard to forget.♥️♦️

So I’ve been thinking quite a lot about David Hockney’s new tube roundel poster. I’ve looked at the vast archive of great tube posters from 1905-2021 by talented artists like Edward McKnight Kauffer, Abram Games and Man Ray... and I have decided that I think the new one is crap.

Best thing about being a Londoner on the tube on a hot day is watching tourists do a double-take at your visibly matching seat/sock combo.

A Brio-style train tabletop for grownups. Seven years after this prototype was created it seems still nobody has yet successfully produced it. Will someone please sort it out and make 2021 better.

Whenever I come here to York station I look up at that little observation room cantilevered out over Platform 8 – and have very strong desire for it one day to become my office