Show threadsimonbpDec 26
This boring looking Northern class 158 was effectively my #Rail200 special, taking me from the Head of Steam museum in Darlington up the original right of way of the Stockton & Darlington Railway to the Locomotion museum in Shildon, and then back to Darlington. Both museums are great and worth a double trip.
simonbpDec 20
And the big one, the New Orleans RTA St Charles Line. Opened in 1835 with steam locomotives imported from England, it is *the* oldest surviving streetcar/tram line in the world. After experiments with overhead moving cables, chemical engines using ammonia, fireless steam, and even going back to horses, it was one the first in the world to use overhead electrification. Today it still uses 1924-built Perley Thomas streetcars (900 series) and a few 1990s built replicas (400 series). Other than a street running segment in the CBD, it is on a dedicated right of way in a grassy median.
#transit #NewOrleans #rail200
I’m Gary King!Dec 13
There’s a Rail 200 exhibition on Platform 8 at Paddington, with a nicely liveried Class 66 at the front. I didn’t have the time to go through, hopefully we get a Jago Hazzard video on it in the near future. #Rail200
TrantionOct 9

I'd planned a day out today using last week's #NorthernRail sale to celebrate #Rail200: up the Settle & Carlisle, across to Newcastle, then back down the East Coast to home. But my #CrossCountry train to get to the start was cancelled and I couldn't make it.

Northern refused to change my tickets because their train was on time. Said I had to buy new ones at full price (with the sale finished, that's ~£60 instead of £4).

Conversely, #LNER refunded me the full £23 with no problems.

#UKRail

Show threadJonathan SchofieldSep 27, 2025

…My instinct is that, because we are on a rail road of growth, we will explore every possible branch line of magical thinking before taking Kris seriously

#rail200

https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/113134888351348909

Jonathan SchofieldSep 27, 2025

The UK is trumpeting #rail200: the 200th anniversary of the railway. As @markhburton points out, that’s a bit premature: https://mstdn.social/@markhburton/113803780435711720

But I want to re-up Kris de Dekker’s lens.

If we were serious about constructing a low carbon economy, we’d acknowledge, soberly, that we have a steel problem:

“The global iron and steel industry consumes more energy and produces more carbon emissions than any other industry.”

Some notes from Kris’s excellent analysis follow…

Mark Burton (@[email protected])

2025 is being celebrated as the 200th anniversary of the birth of the passenger railway. A bit premature, although there was a one-off excursion on the Stockton and Darlington railway, with passengers traveling on coal wagons, the regular passenger service from 1825-1830 used horse-drawn coaches. In 1830, the Liverpool Manchester railway opened, the first connecting 2 cities and the first scheduled passenger service. Stockton and Darlington Railway - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockton_and_Darlington_Railway #rail200

Mastodon 🐘
Show threadMark BurtonSep 27, 2025
I also remember being awed (terrified) by the power and noise of huge express steam engines, including streamlined ('Pacific class') ones coming into stations. I was about 4.
#Rail200
Show threadMark BurtonSep 27, 2025
Another great uncle, a railway worker was dismissed for petty theft!
#Rail200
Show threadMark BurtonSep 27, 2025
It was on a steam hauled train on a 1950s journey Liverpool to Malvern with mum that I first saw mini pots of jam, in a dining car with white tablecloths. A a smut came in through the window, dirtying the cloth.
I'd forgotten that til yesterday.
#Rail200
Show threadMark BurtonSep 27, 2025
Best rail journey? Glasgow to Oban.
Other contenders: Crewe to Bristol via Hereford, Bernina Express (Switzerland to Italy), Flam (Norway), Andean Explorer (Cusco to Puno, Peru), Milan to Lausanne (Italy to Switz).
#Rail200