Trains, Planes & Automobiles

[Mumby Magic]

18 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I true icon, very sad to see it finally retired from passenger service but much more efficient planes have been developed since and it was costing too much to fly the 747s. Its a real disappointment of mine that I never got to fly on one.

Randomly I have. On a holiday back from Gran Canaria. A Swedish Airline one quite randomly.

[Farmduck]

I was in Zimbabwe about 30 years ago and I went to the Railway Museum. They had a very nice old model from the 30s maybe, fully restored. A couple of weeks later I caught the train from Harare to Bulawayo and the train was exactly the same model as the one in the museum.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

21 minutes ago, Farmduck said:

I was in Zimbabwe about 30 years ago and I went to the Railway Museum. They had a very nice old model from the 30s maybe, fully restored. A couple of weeks later I caught the train from Harare to Bulawayo and the train was exactly the same model as the one in the museum.

Sounds like a decent trip. I do love travelling on a train, been all over Europe on them, my ultimate goal is to do Hull to Hong Kong by train. 

Hull to London

London to Paris

Sleeper between Paris and Moscow via Belarus (hopefully still running after everything that has been going on) 

Moscow to Beijing on the trans-siberian via Mongolia

And Beijing to Hong Kong, finishing my journey at the top of Victoria Peak. 

It will be amazing when I can finally fund it and get the time to do it as well.

[Shadow]

I thought one of you two had lost it and was talking to yourself for a moment there...

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 hour ago, Shadow said:

I thought one of you two had lost it and was talking to yourself for a moment there...

Quack. 

[M j M]

1 hour ago, Shadow said:

I thought one of you two had lost it and was talking to yourself for a moment there...

You're saying all birds look the same to you?

[M j M]

2 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Sounds like a decent trip. I do love travelling on a train, been all over Europe on them, my ultimate goal is to do Hull to Hong Kong by train. 

Hull to London

London to Paris

Sleeper between Paris and Moscow via Belarus (hopefully still running after everything that has been going on) 

Moscow to Beijing on the trans-siberian via Mongolia

And Beijing to Hong Kong, finishing my journey at the top of Victoria Peak. 

It will be amazing when I can finally fund it and get the time to do it as well.

That would be an amazing adventure. Well without the Hull bit. Not convinced I'd want to step foot in Russia until Putin is gone but the trans-Siberian is definitely a bucket list thing.

My favourite railway author is the late George Behrend and he wrote a book, Yatakli-Vagon, where he travelled across Europe to Turkey in the 1960s – starting in London, taking the Night Ferry to Paris, the (proper) Orient Express to Vienna, then the Balkan Express and the Istanbul Express to Turkey.

About five or six years ago I plotted a way to repeat this journey today but it was really hard to come close without several more steps and more messing around. And the modern lack of night trains was a severe problem, certainly in the early part of the journey: Eurostar in place of the Night Ferry, then instead of the direct Paris-Vienna Orient Express, to preserve the same route you'd have to take a Paris-Munich TGV and then a Munich-Vienna Railjet. So already we've replaced two of the greatest named trains in history with a bunch of, no doubt very efficient, plastic day trains.

Still, with the reintroduction of night trains across Europe and lots of spare holiday to use up I might give this another go in the next year or so.

 

[shaun mc]

31 minutes ago, M j M said:

That would be an amazing adventure. Well without the Hull bit. Not convinced I'd want to step foot in Russia until Putin is gone but the trans-Siberian is definitely a bucket list thing.

My favourite railway author is the late George Behrend and he wrote a book, Yatakli-Vagon, where he travelled across Europe to Turkey in the 1960s – starting in London, taking the Night Ferry to Paris, the (proper) Orient Express to Vienna, then the Balkan Express and the Istanbul Express to Turkey.

About five or six years ago I plotted a way to repeat this journey today but it was really hard to come close without several more steps and more messing around. And the modern lack of night trains was a severe problem, certainly in the early part of the journey: Eurostar in place of the Night Ferry, then instead of the direct Paris-Vienna Orient Express, to preserve the same route you'd have to take a Paris-Munich TGV and then a Munich-Vienna Railjet. So already we've replaced two of the greatest named trains in history with a bunch of, no doubt very efficient, plastic day trains.

Still, with the reintroduction of night trains across Europe and lots of spare holiday to use up I might give this another go in the next year or so.

 

Yes, there's definitely a lot of planning around night trains now and in the future. Some doing routes that directly compete with the equivalent air route

One route on my radar (though not at night) is the Belgrade to Bar train

[M j M]

15 minutes ago, shaun mc said:

Yes, there's definitely a lot of planning around night trains now and in the future. Some doing routes that directly compete with the equivalent air route

One route on my radar (though not at night) is the Belgrade to Bar train

Yes, I was looking at that route just the other day - it looks spectacular, as that entire coastline is when seen from the sea.

The Seat 61 video, which I guess you may have seen, including the dead horse 2:40 in, shows it in all its glory.

 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

3 hours ago, M j M said:

That would be an amazing adventure. Well without the Hull bit. Not convinced I'd want to step foot in Russia until Putin is gone but the trans-Siberian is definitely a bucket list thing.

My favourite railway author is the late George Behrend and he wrote a book, Yatakli-Vagon, where he travelled across Europe to Turkey in the 1960s – starting in London, taking the Night Ferry to Paris, the (proper) Orient Express to Vienna, then the Balkan Express and the Istanbul Express to Turkey.

About five or six years ago I plotted a way to repeat this journey today but it was really hard to come close without several more steps and more messing around. And the modern lack of night trains was a severe problem, certainly in the early part of the journey: Eurostar in place of the Night Ferry, then instead of the direct Paris-Vienna Orient Express, to preserve the same route you'd have to take a Paris-Munich TGV and then a Munich-Vienna Railjet. So already we've replaced two of the greatest named trains in history with a bunch of, no doubt very efficient, plastic day trains.

Still, with the reintroduction of night trains across Europe and lots of spare holiday to use up I might give this another go in the next year or so.

 

I've looked at the same journey but as you say, you get messed around so much. The way I'd worked it out was, 

Hull to London, London to Paris, Paris to Munich, Munich to Vienna, Vienna to Budapest, Budapest to Bucharest and finally Bucharest to Istanbul. 

If I remember rightly, everything after Paris is night trains and apparently the Eastern European ones are pretty manky but it saves on a hotel booking so there is that positive. Also the trains into Istanbul don't go right into the centre of the city anymore and actually stop at a small suburban station right on the edge of the city and you have to get a bus transfer into the centre which is yet more messing around. Its hard enough to get from the new airport into the city at the moment seen as it hasn't been fully connected up to the metro yet so I don't need to bd messed around on the trains as well. 

Istanbul is somewhere I am yet to go to and I really would love to. 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

3 hours ago, shaun mc said:

Yes, there's definitely a lot of planning around night trains now and in the future. Some doing routes that directly compete with the equivalent air route

One route on my radar (though not at night) is the Belgrade to Bar train

I'd like to go to Belgrade but not sure about Serbian trains I must say. 

[shaun mc]

8 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I'd like to go to Belgrade but not sure about Serbian trains I must say. 

Man In Seat 61 reporting blockage on the 'usual' route to Belgrade due to tunnelling. Its only till July 2021 (we may not travel until then anyway) and the alternative is via Ljubijana (lovely city for a stop) and Zagreb. No concerns it seems from him on the Serbian trains

[The Hallucinating Goose]

31 minutes ago, shaun mc said:

Man In Seat 61 reporting blockage on the 'usual' route to Belgrade due to tunnelling. Its only till July 2021 (we may not travel until then anyway) and the alternative is via Ljubijana (lovely city for a stop) and Zagreb. No concerns it seems from him on the Serbian trains

Fair enough, I'll look into it.

[Bleep1673]

I remember Interail. Going all round western Europe, getting lost, turning up in places that had no accommodation, running for a train, and ending up in the wrong country.

Getting tips on where to stay, what to see when we got there, places to eat, or just plain winging it. Spent 4 months just drifting around in 1986, Best of my young life, it even included some ferries too.

Even an occasional "Sleeper", that wasn't. We just ditched in a terminus in Romania, and the staff let us sleep on board.

Edited January 27, 2021 by Bleep1673

[M j M]

53 minutes ago, Bleep1673 said:

 Best of my young life, it even included some ferries too.

 

Now I'm interested.

Did you go over to Greece?

[Bleep1673]

On 27/01/2021 at 14:17, M j M said:

Now I'm interested.

Did you go over to Greece?

Yes, but I can't remember the name of the Island, Rhodes, or Skiathos, 1986 is a long time ago, I know we went to Croatia while there was still some animosity to Brits going on, and we scarpered fairly quick to Bosnia, then back to Italy.

Edited January 29, 2021 by Bleep1673

[Bleep1673]

59 minutes ago, Bleep1673 said:

Even an occasional "Sleeper", that wasn't. We just ditched in a terminus in Romania, and the staff let us sleep on board.

I think that was where we got woken up at 6am, and pointed to the staff canteen, and given breakfast, for free, because it was a staff canteen. We left them some small change.

Or was that Turkey, where £400 was 850million Turkish Lira at the time?

[M j M]

 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

52 minutes ago, M j M said:

 

Bet he thought the train would swerve first.

[JohnM]

On 25/01/2021 at 21:18, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I true icon, very sad to see it finally retired from passenger service but much more efficient planes have been developed since and it was costing too much to fly the 747s. Its a real disappointment of mine that I never got to fly on one.

For 747 aficionados, a visit here ( Speyer, 20 miles west of SAP's HQ and  twixt Frankfurt and Baden Baden) is well worth while.  I was there is October 2019

Technik Museum Speyer | Germany (technik-museum.de)

They have an early 747  on a stick.  They inside is stripped down so you can see the structural elements.

Edited January 29, 2021 by JohnM

[Bleep1673]

10 hours ago, M j M said:

 

That was a hell of a long train, I counted over 20 carriages.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

3 hours ago, JohnM said:

For 747 aficionados, a visit here ( Speyer, 20 miles west of SAP's HQ and  twixt Frankfurt and Baden Baden) is well worth while.  I was there is October 2019

Technik Museum Speyer | Germany (technik-museum.de)

They have an early 747  on a stick.  They inside is stripped down so you can see the structural elements.

I'll look into it, not been to Speyer, been to Heidelberg just across the river and got some friends up in Essen so could always meet them down there. 

I've been in the cockpit of a 707 at the Scottish Museum of Flight at East Fortune. Some very interesting planes there, especially some gorgeous de Havillands such as an early Comet, a vampire and if I remember rightly a Dragon and a Dove. There's also a Vickers Viscount there, a favourite of any civil aviation enthusiast and of course a Concorde which you can go on board and walk through. I do enjoy telling people I've been on Concorde, they don't need to know it was sat in a hangar!

There's also a fantastic hangar of planes at the Belgian military museum in Brussels, mostly fighters but they do have an Aerospatiale Caravelle hanging from the ceiling. Opposite that museum is a motor museum which has some brilliant cars and bikes as well. Shame the rest of Brussels is a toilet.

[shaun mc]

Back in 1997 I flew back from Corfu in the cockpit with the pilots. Got on the flight not knowing that an ex college friend was co-pilot that day and he invited me up there after I asked one of the cabin staff to say hello to the co-pilot

Wonderful views and they did surprisingly little to fly the plane. It was also a surprise to see quite a number of other planes to the left and right and below during the flight

Thought it was quite funny, when landing at Manchester, as they taxied the plane and came to a junction they both leant slightly forward and looked left and right in the same manner as you would do in a car

No idea what type of aircraft it was, but maybe not a 737 on that length of flight 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 hour ago, shaun mc said:

Back in 1997 I flew back from Corfu in the cockpit with the pilots. Got on the flight not knowing that an ex college friend was co-pilot that day and he invited me up there after I asked one of the cabin staff to say hello to the co-pilot

Wonderful views and they did surprisingly little to fly the plane. It was also a surprise to see quite a number of other planes to the left and right and below during the flight

Thought it was quite funny, when landing at Manchester, as they taxied the plane and came to a junction they both leant slightly forward and looked left and right in the same manner as you would do in a car

No idea what type of aircraft it was, but maybe not a 737 on that length of flight 

Do you remember what airline it was? 

[shaun mc]

2 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Do you remember what airline it was? 

No real idea sorry, apart from it wasn't Ryanair or Easyjet. A guess would be Thomas Cook or Thomson.

Definitely 1997 as it is easy to remember for me - I flew out the day after Princess Diana died

Edited January 29, 2021 by shaun mc