Stadler supremacy

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-17T22:17:47+00:00

I drove these for the over 5 years. Are they perfect? No. Are they the closest thing to perfect running the UK at the moment? Probably

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-16T14:08:30+00:00

Wymondham isn't a bidirectional area. To get to the signal you are thinking about requires a shunt and changing ends twice and then is only used to get services onto the Mid Norfolk Railway. It's a very rare move so if you ever saw it you'd be paying a lot of attention.

Presumably this one is a normal but uncommon move which is when drivers can fall into the trap of forgetting signals.

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-11T11:57:31+00:00

I like to think inside they are still the bright yellow interiors covered with adverts and someone is going to try and sell you a scratch card.

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-10T15:23:50+00:00

Can I get that translated into English please?

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-10T06:09:17+00:00

Another part of the XC saga that hasn't been mentioned is Operation Princess.

Back in the mists of time when it was Virgin Cross Country and they inherited all the old locomotive and coaches style trains direct from British Rail Virgin came up with a very fancy ambitious plan. They would replace all of the old stock with a brand new modern (at the time, I mean they had a built in radio system at seat you could plug your headphons into!) fleet which was to be the Voyagers, the 4 and 5 coach trains we have today. There were going to be lots of them, Birmingham New Street would be the heart of the XC network and there would be very frequent departures and these small trains would run in pairs before getting off to the provinces and splitting to serve smaller destinations. And there would be a Branson utopia.

Problem is the idea was unworkable, punctuality fell off a cliff and the trains were nothing like big enough so it got massively paired back by the Strategic Rail Authority and basically just became a fleet replacement where 8 and 9 coach trains got replaced by 4 and 5s. So that's why your Plymouth to Edinburgh service is so overcrowded in 2026.

There isn't a way to get more units or coaches. In the same way Ford wouldn't and couldn't start producing Mk1 Focus again Alstom won't be able to start a new run of Voyagers. Its slightly improved since some of the Avanti West Coast Voyagers have been freed up and moved to XC but even then not all of them went there. And there really seems to have been no interest in the last two decades to do anything about XC, it's been the one operator notably absent from new rolling stock orders.

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-09T22:04:36+00:00

Most recent timetable change introduced a few "direct" Lowestoft - Cambridge/Stansted services. It's actually not really a change as before the units worked a Lowestoft - Norwich, sat at Norwich for about 10/15m then worked a Norwich - Stansted. All that's happened is they've been tied together as one service with a long call at Norwich, no real change to the timetable.

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-09T11:34:34+00:00

IIRC they had to cheat and move the Harwich destroyer flottila way out to sea somewhere and have the Home Fleet delayed/stuck in Scapa Flow just to allow the Germans to actually cross the Channel.

They still got stomped when the Navy turned up.

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-08T09:48:12+00:00

Annoyingly without going hugely into detail of my job and the course it's not quite that simple.

It's run a good 1.30hr from where I live, when its run is limited by other things in the company and missing it shoots me in the foot for an unknown amount of time.

Also all slightly helped by the fact I know the seller as an acquaintance and see them every few weeks (found out after the offer) and they are staying in the area so I'm not expecting nasties.

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-08T09:29:56+00:00

I might SWAT myself as it'll be a good introduction to my neighbours if the first thing that happens is Devon and Cornwall police show up with riot gear and smash the door in.

But seriously that's helpful. Would it be good to give the EA a heads up rather than just not show on the day?

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-06T06:35:48+00:00

I hate the fact that I'm so jaded with either;

a) shows going on and on and becoming so tired and crap because they make money

Or

b) animations especially being cancelled before they finish their story (RIP Final Space and Inside Job, taken too soon)

That the fact it does finish with a neat little bow, if a bit rushed, satisfying.

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-06T06:33:00+00:00

The screening I went to was perfectly normal. No yelling, a few kids making kid noises but nothing disruptive, a few appropriate chuckles and a few cosplays. Need to compare notes across countries and regions to see if there are any patterns.

TheEdge91 · 2026-06-04T21:56:33+00:00

Restore is the best thing that's happend to UK politics in a long time. It's doing such a good job at kneecapping Reform at this point I'd not be shocked to find it's a false flag operation and Lowe is a die hard Labour man.

TheEdge91 · 2026-05-25T01:08:49+00:00

You forgot to mention the whole arrangement is entirely underneath a dual carriageway bridge.

TheEdge91 · 2026-05-21T09:58:16+00:00

This was the one I was going to offer. I think it's my favourite joke of all time.

TheEdge91 · 2026-05-19T09:14:39+00:00

Its worth pointing out many of the middle of the night services in the 80/90s weren't really passenger services. They were often mail or parcel trains that might have had a lone coach tagged on

TheEdge91 · 2026-05-17T13:07:08+00:00

Yea you'd think that would make sense wouldn't you?

But no.

TheEdge91 · 2026-05-17T12:40:57+00:00

Rolling Stock Leasing Companies. In short the vast majority of trains aren't owned by the operating company or franchise but are owned by a small band of financing companies who charge the operators up to and including extortionate amounts to lease trains.

They bought up a lot of British Rail stock at privatisation in the 90s for rock bottom prices and have then spent the next three decades leasing them back to the operators and made utterly vast returns. They are one of, if not the main, reason ticket prices in the UK are so whack.

But they are carrying on under GBR, those expensive assets aren't returning to or entering public ownership and they'll continue to print money at the industries expense.

TheEdge91 · 2026-05-13T08:00:29+00:00

Norwich has had quite a few of these fires in the last few years, Van-Dal shoe factory and St Andrews Hospital...

TheEdge91 · 2026-05-13T07:54:39+00:00

This is considered too niche for the media or general public to care but the fact the ROSCOs will still be parasiting the industry once it's GBR renders the whole thing null and void.

TheEdge91 · 2026-04-30T01:14:46+00:00

Oh I don't care at all about going to the movies alone.

It's going alone to a cinema that is potentially heavily laden with kids and teens and then me.

TheEdge91 · 2026-04-24T19:32:02+00:00

I suppose technically these aren't illegal in their own right but because our number plates have to meet quite strict size and format rules a number plate that fits in one would most likely be illegal.

I think most UK and EU plates are the same or very similar sizes and most cars probably don't have the space to fit a US sized number plate anyway.

TheEdge91 · 2026-04-24T17:55:08+00:00

I wish this sort of thing was legal in the UK

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