#Railnatter

#RailNatter Episode 136: A look at (probably) all of Britain’s moveable railway bridges

This week's #RailNatter is talking swing bridges, bascule bridges, sliding bridges... Because we're attempting to provide an exhaustive list of Britain's moveable railway bridges that are (a) still in use and (b) largely in the same form as it was when it functioned, even if it has been welded shut.
How many are there? Will I miss any? It's anyone's guess... Join LIVE to find out!
Watch  @Network Rail 's terrific little video on the Goole (Skelton) Swing Bridge here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzeTidU0INA
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

#RailNatter Episode 135: What happened when cracks grounded the Hitachi UK fleet?

This week, #RailNatter is dipping into what already feels like ancient history... The Hitachi UK train fleet was grounded by cracking over a year ago, resulting in widespread disruption and the withdrawal of large numbers of trains across the country.
The @Office of Rail and Road undertook an investigation into the causes and the required actions - and the report they subsequently published is what we are going to dig into together...
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

#RailNatter Episode 134: What might/should UK Labour’s ”nationalised” railway look like?

We're back in the studio for this week's episode, and not a moment too soon... The UK @Labour Party has formally announced that it is retaining its policy of railway nationalisation, which begs a number of questions, first of which has to be "what does this mean?" - so #RailNatter is going to see what Labour might mean, and what they should mean, by rail nationalisation.
There'll be a bit of other news to catch up on as well.
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

#RailNatter Episode 133: Skills gap? What skills gap? 3

This week's #RailNatter comes to you from the @London Transport Museum - and I'm very pleased to say I'm joined by not one, not two but THREE @Young Rail Professionals head honchos... Why? Well, it's #RailWeek once again, and this time we are getting in ahead of kick-off to talk all things railway industry employment.
We'll remind ourselves what Rail Week is all about, we'll look at all of the events happening this year, we'll tackle the enormous "the industry is in turmoil" elephant in the room, and we'll even have a self-guided tour of the LTM at running speed!
Head to the events section of the YRP website here: https://www.youngrailpro.com/page/events
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

#RailNatter Episode 132: US railroads can be Bad, Actually

This week we are joined by none other than Justin Roczniak (a.k.a. @donoteat01 from @Well There's Your Problem Podcast), who will guide us through everything wrong with US railroads and why things have reached breaking point for railroad workers, to the point where the whole US teeters on the brink of a national rail strike.
Last time out we looked at what is actually pretty good about US railroads. This time: we'll be doing the opposite. Join #RailNatter LIVE to ask Justin your questions!
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

#RailNatter Episode 131: New government, new ministers, but what’s next for UK rail?

Well, a lot has happened in the last month. A new Prime Minister. A new Secretary of State for Transport. New ministers. And given that our special boy, Grant Shapps, made Great British Railways his own personal mission, is anybody else going to want to deliver it?
The current state of the UK also has wider implications on railways, too... The cost of living crisis is genuinely unprecedented, and the impact is going to be crippling, even with Liz Truss's announced bolstering of the energy industry.
In any case - #RailNatter will be picking through as much of this as we can!
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Merch is at https://masquette.co.uk/collections/r.... Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

#RailNatter Episode 130: How engineers made the Great Western Britain’s first 125mph railway line

Britain's first modern high speed line may have been the Selby Diversion. Its first 300km/h line may have been High Speed 1. But the first inter-city railway that embodied the design elements we see of high speed lines today was - arguably - the Great Western Railway. 130 years after its opening it also became Britain's first 200km/h railway.
It may have been over-engineered by Brunel, but this was very much in the favour of the engineers of the 1970s when they upgraded much of the GWR for 125mph running... This week's #RailNatter looks at what these upgrades involved - and we'll think on what we can learn from these works today.
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Merch is at https://masquette.co.uk/collections/r.... Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

#RailNatter Episode 129: Not quite ten of mainland Europe’s missing high speed rail links

Jon Stone and I are joining the dots in this week's #RailNatter... Where on our side of Europe would really benefit from a new high speed link?
We trip our way across from Sweden to Spain, from Swindon to Serbia in search of the answers. This is most certainly an incomplete list. But the real challenges aren't perhaps the physical infrastructure, but the political unimaginativeness of our leaders.
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Merch is at https://masquette.co.uk/collections/r.... Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.