Spotted today - Loo-less for over an hour!

Today I travelled to Portsmouth Harbour (from Angmering in West Sussex) to have a look at the Spinnaker Tower and was dismayed to find that in amongst all the shiny, new(ish) Class 377 'Electrostars' that Southern uses all over it's network there are also a number of these in use…

313201 stands at Portsmouth Harbour station, 21/5/15

A class 313/2, one of 19 three-car electric multiple units dating from the mid-1970s. Day in, day out, they ply their trade up and down the 'West Coastway' from Brighton to Hove, West Worthing and Portsmouth Harbour… The latter being a 45 mile journey that takes around 80 minutes.

313201 stands at Brighton station with another Portsmouth Harbour service.

Whilst I acknowledge that anyone taking a four minute trip from Brighton to Hove may not have need of a loo en route, a 45 mile, 80 minute journey on a train without a toilet is a very different prospect and the Class 313s are sadly lacking in that department! During my journey one young mum was forced to leave the train with her pre-school son for him to use a station toilet and of course would have to continue their journey on a later train. Perhaps the Class 313s should carry adverts for TENA® and Huggies® products?

Volk's Electric Railway - A taster!

Having a couple of hours to kill in Brighton this week I went looking for a historic little railway that runs along the seafront.

Volk's Electric Railway car No.9

The Volk's Electric Railway was the brainchild of one Magnus Volk, the son of a German clockmaker born in Brighton. An inventor and engineer, he was the first person in Brighton to equip his house with electric light and he went on to win the contract to provide the Royal Pavilion with the same.

In August 1883 he opened an electric railway running from the Aquarium to the Chain Pier. The line was later extended considerably and even though it was shortened in 1990 it still runs for over a mile!

I'm certainly planning to revisit this, the world's oldest operating electric railway, in the near future…

Spotted today - London Underground trains… In Nottinghamshire!

Eleven years ago (almost to the day) I had the best carvery lunch of my life at the Pullman Inn in Widmerpool, Nottinghamshire. Lunch was interrupted by a Virgin Trains Class 390 'Pendolino' flashing past the window as the Pullman Inn was located at Widmerpool station on the former Midland Railway line between Nottingham and Melton Mowbray that went on to form the Old Dalby Test Track (used to stage a crash between a Class 46 locomotive and four BR Mk.1 coaches into a nuclear flask on 17 July 1984).

Driving past the now closed Pullman Inn today I spotted this…

London Underground S7 stock at Widmerpool, 2/5/15

Just one of many London Underground S stock units that are undergoing testing on the line at the moment.

S Stock as far as the eye can see!

More S Stock stabled at the south end of the station, 2/5/15

The new Hitachi IEP units (the first of which recently arrived in the UK from Japan) will also be tested at Old Dalby.