Catching up on news with a transport flavour and transport-flavour web sites I have run across the Christmas Eve so far.
http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2016-12-24/bake-off-stars-mince-pies-at-britains-loneliest-station/Britain's loneliest railway station, Shippea Hill near Ely, saw a bit of a rush of passengers this morning - and it was all down to Bake Off star Ian Cumming.
Normally Shippea Hill sees only 12 passengers a year but Ian baked a 100 mince pies to hand out to passengers on the 7am train to Cambridge. Sixteen passengers, more than a year's worth, turned up to sample them.
http://www.oban-line.info/kj2/kj2.htmlOn account of the long and steep downward gradient towards Killin, interlaced lines named "live" and "dead" roads were formerly provided, with facing points at both ends. Ascending trains used the left-hand interlaced line, in which there were self-acting catch points.
http://spellerweb.net/rhindex/UKRH/GandSWR/Carrick.htmlAround the turn of the nineteenth century the Glasgow & South Western Railway decided to make another attempt to colonize the country north of Glasgow, by proposing a route from Bridge of Weir on the Greenock Branch, via a bridge across the River Clyde to Dumbarton, and thence via Carrick Castle at the mouth of Goil Loch to a junction with the Oban & Callander Railway at Loch Awe, and thence to Oban, where it was hoped that a considerable coal and ferry traffic between Scotland and Ireland might be obtained. The link to Dumbarton (pop. 19,985 in 1901) would probably have proved particularly useful, and the line might have turned around the fortunes of the never-prosperous Oban & Callander Railway, but the scheme, alas, came to nothing. It would have been a much more direct route than the Caledonian Railway's tortuous line from Glasgow to Oban via Stirling and Callander. But one relic did survive - the fine stone station that the G&SWR» built at Carrick Castle ...
https://www.journeycheck.com/greatwesternrailway/ - some unusual journeys possible without a change
06:55 Plymouth to Ealing Broadway due 10:16 will call additionally at Starcross and Exeter St Thomas.
06:50 Penzance to Ealing Broadway due 12:16 will call additionally at Ivybridge.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38427411Vesna Vulovic, an air stewardess who survived the highest ever fall by a human being after her plane broke up at 33,000ft (10,000m), has died aged 66.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-38422520A cyclist has died after being hit by a car in Wiltshire.
The man, aged 65 from Tidworth, was struck on the A338 near his home on Thursday night. He later died in hospital.
A 23-year-old man from the Tidworth area was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and remains in custody.
Police closed the road for seven hours for an investigation to take place and reopened it on Friday morning.
Life's rich tapestry. Feel free to add news items or sites new to you that you've come across; should any one discussion take off, we can split the subject.
