"Please hold the line, the resource centre wishes to speak with you" Copped an easy London and back off spare today, Pioneer 101 as my train for the day. Not the most well behaved, but it did the job at least Despite everything, just plodding along day by day. What else can you do after all?

August throughout the years 🗓️ 2023: A GWR Castle at Newquay replacing an IET as far as Plymouth during a unit shortage 2022: 313201 "Big Blue" arrives into Littlehampton 2021: A 313 and 158 share island platforms 1 and 2 at Brighton 2020: 86639 passes Highbury and Islington

2 months after my last visit, I've finally been back in Scotland with @pacerclara.insanity.tube again! 😊 Last week, we tried out Lumo's Meridian from Motherwell to Stirling, taking a 222 in Scotland felt very strange! The former First coaches are decent Seemingly empty after Motherwell though

My 1000 to St Pancras was being held up on its way into Sheffield today, but I didn't mind because look how stunning it was! 😍 How I wished we could've pinched it for my ten o'clock! I need to find an excuse to do the 125 Group's set again

Reasons to railway job cat 😺 Hope this helps

From factory to service I worked 810022 for the first time today after seeing it in Newton Aycliffe whilst it was still being manufactured. A fun full circle moment. It behaved brilliantly which was a bonus

Yesterday, I tried out the Railjet for the first time in First What an impressive train! 9 hours to Zurich from Vienna went by very quickly! Lovely staff, extraordinary views, excellent good and @pacerclara.insanity.tube's lovely company made it a brilliant journey ☺️

For those who say all trains in Europe are much better and on time, may I introduce you to my first ever Austrian train Expected arrival into Vienna, 3hrs late at gone half 1 in the morning after a different train failed on a single line I really haven't had luck on my side 🥲

It's amazing who you get to know and meet out there! Got to meet the wonderful @lorainedoesthings.bsky.social who drove my train to Utrecht Centraal from Amsterdam Centraal incredibly smoothly Dutch and British railways in one photo 😁

785 minutes behind schedule, finally made it to Amsterdam 1 direct train ended up taking 6 different trains...... Great success 😭

Hello from Amsterdam Centraal... or perhaps not Not the smoothest start to a European trip. Spent an extra night in London after the 1804 was cancelled yesterday only to be terminated short at Brussels on the first one this morning 🫠 Eurostar have been rather unhelpful too, fun and games hey

It's @pacerclara.insanity.tube's birthday today! Go wish her many happy (off peak day) returns! 🎉

It's been a very weird week at work, we're still trying to process what unfolded last Friday. It's been a horrible time for many, though we're all supporting one another the best we can Thanks you all of you lot for the kind words to our colleagues involved in the incident ❤️

Nearly 2 years later, I'm finally back volunteering on the @hastingsdiesels.co.uk DEMU again 🥹 The sounds, the smells, the lovely regulars, oh how brilliant it is to be back! I've missed this

A weekend of Manton Mania Spent the weekend going via Melton Mowbray and Corby on Meridians. Here's two of my services during standing time at Wellingborough and Leicester Of all the diverts we do, Manton is my favourite, the view over Harringworth viaduct is simply stunning! 😁

I always feel like I'm being teased when my Meridian parks up on Platform 4 and there's a Eurostar next to me, but especially if that Eurostar has the fabled "3999" powercar 👀 A lucky puddle gave me this amazing photo during my turn around in London this evening 😁

...we've got to turn up to Pride and make our numbers known, break records, and make our voices heard. With the threat of Reform on the rise, numbers matter. I'm glad the Trade Union movement is here to take a stand, it makes me proud to be a queer trade unionist Let's have some fun folks! 3/3

We've come so far, and I feel we need to keep celebrating that. The achievements we and our ancestors have made in time have been huge, we need to not discount it because we can only progress on top of it Go out there, celebrate, be you! But equally...... 2/3

Oh hey Pride Month, we're back again! 🌈 It does feel a bit harder going into Pride Month this year. Things have continued to go backwards rather than forwards in regards to LGBTQIA+ rights, but especially the "T". There's so much more that needs to be done 1/3

I was in London yesterday and by chance has the GBR 701 back to Waterloo 👀 Take the red off the intermediate coaches to be far less on the nose and it wouldn't be too bad of a livery. Looks better in the flesh than on the renders I do think it will be a bit boring when this is the norm though

Its been more than 2 years since I last worked the first train of the morning into St Pancras, but there I was this morning at 4:15am in the station and ready to work 😅 I've not missed the 3:30am alarms but equally, its nice to be back doing a mix of earlies and lates again

What do you mean today is 3 years since the last ever run of a Class 313 in passenger service? Still miss these absolute shitbox trains. The amount of weekends and school holidays spent racking up miles with the window down in the motor coach will stick with me Forever my favourite EMUs 🥺

I was back on the job this week, but with a slight twist 👀 As part of the 810 Training Programme, myself and a few other hosts and TMs were on a customer service day. We fed back about 810s and talked through many things customer service It was very good in fairness, my group were great fun too 😂

I could go on and on all day, but I'll leave you with a few photos of the Transport Challenge we did on the Saturday which was a Random 15 with an East/West twist. Myself and Clara came 7th/12 but considering how bad the draw was, this isn't a bad thing! Berlin, I'll definitely be back! 10/10

The ABC ticket allows you onto some regional trains, so I made sure to get some loco hauled trains into the book, including the iconic ES64U2 locos which sound like someone has dropped an Orchestra into the motors. 11/10 would recommend through the North-South tunnels 9/10

The S-Bahn network is quite fun too and extends far beyond suburban Berlin. There's some new Stadler-Seimens units which are excellent (we need them to collaborate in the UK really) but the older stock is also very nice whilst sounding cool 8/10

Some of the stations have very cool looks too, there's so much variety in architecture and of course for a city like Berlin, history. Even some generic stations have a cool feel to them. Combined with the varying rolling stock, it made me wish I got even more photos 7/10

The U Bahn network is utterly fascinating. There's at least 5 different types of stock which for the most part aren't limited by line, so you could be on 1960s units one moment and 2025 built units the next! Some units still have manual handles on the outside too 6/10

Other fun former East German trams include the Woltersdorf 87 and the 88 which both can occasionally drop heritage trams. We kicked ourselves for not doing the 87 in the evening because a heritage tram was sent out! Nonetheless both very intriguing systems 5/10

Strausberg hosts a line that only runs for a few kilometres but hosts a Tatra and Europe's only overhead electric ferry (you've seen the Tim Traveller video on it, right?) This bit of outside Berlin is so intriguing with so many tiny tram lines left over from when Germany was divided 4/10