One that springs to mind was in 1965, travelling from Renfrew Airport on the late plane(£5 single!) for a weekend in Crewkerne.
Came to land at Heathrow in thick fog, approaching the runway the engines of the Vanguard fired up at full blast as the landing was aborted, 30 minutes later we landed at Manchester and were taken to Central Station where they had laid on a special train hauled by a Peak for my only journey over the Midland Main Line.

Another was my first railtour, again in 1965. This was run by the St Andrews University Railway Society and used J39s to haul the train over the Fife coast lines, ending at Dundee West on its last day before closure.

Then there were the A4s doing the Glasgow Aberdeens via the old road no longer in use.

 
Back in 1971, I stayed with a spotter friend in Lincoln. My trips to and from Derby landed me at Lincoln St Marks.

 

It was well used especially as it offered a cheaper alternative to crosscountry via new street.
The south wales to Waterloo service were also very well used. I used to catch the 2015 Pembroke Dock to london Waterloo service a few times and it was busy even though it arrived into Waterloo at 0415. Certainly a good idea for a open acess service.

 
For those who aren't signed up to their newsletter, Network Rail recently sent out the following email:


There is a map attached which shows the work area to be the stretch of line from Portishead Station site to Sheepway, where there is a track access compound which will be in use until Spring 2028.

The work is described as:

 
Thanks for the detailed info - I hadn't spotted that topic, and specifically your post with the proposed timings. Fingers crossed, again

 

Currently just in the systems for that week and the following Monday.  Alongside that is a return working at 09:08 from BRI-OXF, and a rather unusual 1Z52, 05:47 EXD-OXF that runs via Bristol.

That coincides with Severn Tunnel engineering works, so the bad news is that it might well only run for those six days to support that closure.

The good news is that when the OXF<>BRI service commences properly, that train will run daily, along with a 17:12 BRI-OXF return working.

See post #140 here:  https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=28355.msg374552#new

It's also possible that an inital 4-hourly service on the OXF<>BRI corridor with operate if only one unit can be released from the delayed Class 175 introduction.  In which case you would expect both of those services at 07:00 from Oxford and 17:12 from Bristol to feature with a service pattern from Oxford at 07:00/11:03/15:04 and 19:04 and from Bristol at 09:08/13:09/17:12 and 21:10.

Time will tell. 

 
Telegraph article ('gifted' link expires after a month I think):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/31b1a60b8dee440f

Spoiler:
1. Hope Valley, Derbyshire
2. Tywi Valley, Carmarthenshire
3. Brockenhurst, Hampshire
4. Loch Lomond, Argyll & Bute
5. The Chess Valley, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire
6. Eryri (Snowdonia), Gwynedd
7. Esk Valley, North Yorkshire
8. Deben Valley, Suffolk
9. Tamar Valley, Devon
10. The Malverns, Herefordshire and Worcestershire

 
Winter '73, and on a late evening - or was it the overnight service that left Kings Cross for Leeds about 11pm, and was much diverted along the way, after other entertainment the train ran through Normanton having used that now abandoned line south of the station. The station at Normanton gave a very convincing impression of time-travel in that judging from the scene through the window we seemed to have slipped back to around 1952.

It may have been one of the journeys that took me over the Lincoln avoiding line but looking at a railway map I don't know if that would have been possible, but in any case, not a lot of time was spent on the usual route to Leeds. Thinking about it, another of these involved passing through Cambridge, through March and then via the March - Spalding line which I actually recall as being very steady progress and remarkebly dark night-time countryside through the window.

Mark

 
Have been on Folkestone Harbour branch (including far platform on a rail tour)
Sifin branch in Derbyshire
Direct curve at Old Oak towards Kensington Olympia
East Putney to Wandsworth flyover line

Once got very early first train from Kingston to Waterloo which included Wimbledon staff halt in the destination list and uses interesting crossovers

 
Other comments on this thread remind me:
+ Dover Marine
+ Paddington to Greenford direct

Overall - hundreds and perhaps as many as a thousand journeys in and out of Holborn Viaduct, nothing else such regular / frequent use.

 

Ditto, I think.

 
Shortest aside ever:- 
The crossover from the Down to Up Relief at Twyford on a Paddington - Henley train.

 

Indeed! That was my latest, but yet which I forgot - Friars Junction to Greenford, taken on one of the last Chiltern parliamentaries into Paddington.

Also now I think about it, I was on the curve round from Old Oak Common to North Pole Junction that the old Brighton Cross-countries used to take. Short but sweet.

Oh, and does the original connection between HS1 and the Southern third-rail network (when Waterloo was international) count?

 
For me I think it's just Dover Marine, the Folkestone Harbour branch (on the UK portion of the Citalian Express no less) Holborn Viaduct, the Lincoln avoiding line, also Gunnislake (the station across the road, but perhaps that's wishful thinking). Bradford Exchange of course, and I recall zero publicity that it was to close - the replacement as first built was squalid. Also, Forster Square - the new station's just about off the site of the old, and for good measure shares with St Ives in that the new station's on the previous fish dock. Ah, and Ashton Gate from the harbour direction. Oh, and Gogarth, but it was a station and not an entire line. Ah, and Lincoln St Marks - which *was* on its own line.

Come to think of it, that last bit of the GWR line from Birmingham into Paddington at Old Oak Common as well. HSTs from Bath to London were sent to Oxford and then that way to Paddington. The train crawled the last few miles. That's now gone, hasn't it?

New lines include Tweedbank, and the Airdrie and Bathgate (though mostly asleep for that...)

Mark

 
From Bluesky.

Mark

https://bsky.app/profile/eurostarjustin.bsky.social/post/3mkiurdqj322s

 
From the BBC



At least four people were killed and dozens injured when two trains collided outside the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Monday.

State media report that a stationary commuter train was hit from behind by a long-distance commuter train arriving on the same track.

The final number of casualties is still to be confirmed and rescue efforts are under way to free a number of passengers trapped, officials said.

Footage shown on local media shows passengers on medical trolleys near Bekasi Timur Station, with other images showing rescuers trying to free people from the train wreckage.

Confirming the four deaths, a spokesperson for state-owned railway operator KAI, Anne Purba, said 38 other people had been taken to nearby hospitals.

"KAI expresses its deepest condolences and condolences to the victims and their bereaved families," Purba added.

The death toll could rise, according to the Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, who visited the site - which is approximately 25km (15.5 miles) from Jakarta.

Some people screamed "hysterically" as the trains collided, one passenger told the BBC's Indonesian service. Other eyewitnesses said they had seen "many victims" injured in the crash.

Jakarta Police Chief Insp Gen Asep Edi Suheri said six or seven people remained trapped inside the carriages.

Indonesia's public transport network in general has a high accident rate, due in part to ageing infrastructure and poor maintenance.

In January 2024, several people were killed and dozens more injured when two trains collided in a rice field in Cicalengka.

A video shot by drone showed the derailed carriages of the express train and the commuter train involved.

 
Two that come to mind on the same University railway society tour: Preston to the Red Scar sidings on the old Longridge Branch over the M6 - the site of the line is now a slender footbridge. Plus Poulton-le-Fylde to Burn Naze on the old Fleetwood Branch.

As a youngster on a family trip to western Scotland we travelled into the old station in Fort William, with its lovely three road starting signals and the track that ran out along the quay beyond the station. Now truncated about 3/4 mile back towards Mallaig Junction.

Even younger - the Douglas to Peel line on the Isle of Man. Can that count as GB?

 
Your photo, the juxtaposition of cows and iep is excellent.

Mark

 

 
Minority opinion: the Bedwyns should terminate at Marlborough.

Mark

 
I was fortunate to travel between Cheltenham and Stratford-on-Avon on a railtour in '75.

Of course part of that route now is occupied by the G&WSR.

 

Yes!

 
"more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time" has now spread to Cross Country.

 
Was the work to extend the siding at Bedwyn so that the EMUs could cover the Bedwyn service?

 
The last two I have been on, only appear to have the new livery on a driving car.

The bonus, for most people, is a bar/shop which is possibly old. But it means the bike spaces, four, have been relegated to a gloomy little area backing one of the driving compartments. Don't know what the situation is with the large luggage area that used to be next to the bike spaces.

Yours unimpressed of Reading

 
The "local" of my youth:
Havant, Langston, North Hayling to Hayling Island

Moat Lane Junction to Llanidloes, having changed from the Cambrian Coast Express

 
Yes, that's what I was looking for, but it ain't there, yet...

 

 
...but can't see a corresponding (direct) return trip for the commute back...

 
Ah yes - 07:00 Oxford - 08:20 Bristol direct via Swindon, Chippenham & Bath (no Keynsham).