#railway — Public Fediverse posts

A video of this steam locomotive museum: https://youtu.be/CuxaNSFbfwg

Steam locomotive museum (Dampflok Museum Hermeskeil) Germany May 2026

#museum #eisenbahn #photography #YouTube #trains #Germany #railway

A video of this steam locomotive museum: https://youtu.be/CuxaNSFbfwg

Steam locomotive museum (Dampflok Museum Hermeskeil) Germany May 2026

#museum #eisenbahn #photography #YouTube #trains #Germany #railway

A video of this steam locomotive museum: https://youtu.be/CuxaNSFbfwg

Steam locomotive museum (Dampflok Museum Hermeskeil) Germany May 2026

#museum #eisenbahn #photography #YouTube #trains #Germany #railway

A video of this steam locomotive museum: https://youtu.be/CuxaNSFbfwg

Steam locomotive museum (Dampflok Museum Hermeskeil) Germany May 2026

#museum #eisenbahn #photography #YouTube #trains #Germany #railway

A video of this steam locomotive museum: https://youtu.be/CuxaNSFbfwg

Steam locomotive museum (Dampflok Museum Hermeskeil) Germany May 2026

#museum #eisenbahn #photography #YouTube #trains #Germany #railway

Passing Whittlesea. 26 March 2025. #railway #photography

Passing Whittlesea. 26 March 2025. #railway #photography

Passing Whittlesea. 26 March 2025. #railway #photography

Passing Whittlesea. 26 March 2025. #railway #photography

Passing Whittlesea. 26 March 2025. #railway #photography

Jump on board!

The genuine Hogwarts Express
black steam train emitting smoke on concrete railway during daytime
#photos #railway #ferroviaire

Jump on board!

The genuine Hogwarts Express
black steam train emitting smoke on concrete railway during daytime
#photos #railway #ferroviaire

Passengers flee #bus #trapped on #railway crossing https://www.youtube.com/shorts/I_6qaxj6EMA?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Greater #Thameslink #Railway (GTR) has highlighted improvements during its first 100 days under public ownership, following its transfer to DfT Operator Limited on 31 May.

Changes across its four networks include new signalling on the Thameslink core, a 69% fall in train crew-related cancellations since May, and plans for 75 additional drivers by the end of 2026.

Gatwick Express services were expanded over the summer, while automatic ticket acceptance was introduced across participating publicly owned operators. #Cambridge South station also opened, recording more than 110,100 journeys in its first month.

GTR has invested £3.6 million in cleaning trains and deployed 110 Travel Safe Officers. Other initiatives include Model Stations, airport #travel benefits and progress on the £1.4 billion East Coast Digital Programme.

GTR said improving reliability, customer experience and passenger trust remained priorities.
https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/gtr/pressreleases/gtr-highlights-improvements-delivered-during-its-first-100-days-under-public-ownership-3466615

📢 New whitepaper from the DIA Railway Working Group has been published!

🚆 The EU sees rail as one of the most effective paths to greener transportation, valued for its punctuality, reliability, and competitive pricing for both passengers and freight.

📄 Read the full whitepaper here: https://lnkd.in/dNFYN2tZ

#Railway #Cybersecurity #WiFi #Digitalisation #GreenTransport #DIA #DatacomIndustryAssociation

Semaphores at Helsby. 13 April 2025. #railway #photography

Long distance battery electric trains being ordered. If they work out OK, rail electrification in the UK might take off without expensive continuous catenary being strung along the tracks. Once again improving battery tech offers to sidestep obstacles in decarbonisation. #railway #ClimateChange

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:yycqm7uzpp5uagobc2pi4umy/post/3mv6y3nayl32g

#photos #railway #ferroviaire

#London Northwestern #Railway will introduce a new hourly direct train service from #Birmingham New Street to #Manchester Airport from May 2027, reconnecting the West Midlands with the airport by rail for the first time in decades.

The service will be introduced in two phases. From 13 December 2026, trains will run between Birmingham and Crewe, calling at 12 stations, including new stations at Darlaston and Willenhall. From May 2027, the route will be extended to Manchester Airport, calling at Sandbach, Holmes Chapel, Wilmslow and Styal.

The direct service will remove the need for passengers to change at Crewe, Wilmslow or Manchester, providing a simpler public transport option for travellers. It will also add services for communities across Birmingham, the Black Country and Staffordshire.

LNR said the service will improve connectivity while offering a more sustainable way to reach one of the UK's busiest airports.
https://www.londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk/about-us/news-desk/london-northwestern-railway-announces-direct-train-service-birmingham-manchester

#London Northwestern #Railway will introduce a new hourly direct train service from #Birmingham New Street to #Manchester Airport from May 2027, reconnecting the West Midlands with the airport by rail for the first time in decades.

The service will be introduced in two phases. From 13 December 2026, trains will run between Birmingham and Crewe, calling at 12 stations, including new stations at Darlaston and Willenhall. From May 2027, the route will be extended to Manchester Airport, calling at Sandbach, Holmes Chapel, Wilmslow and Styal.

The direct service will remove the need for passengers to change at Crewe, Wilmslow or Manchester, providing a simpler public transport option for travellers. It will also add services for communities across Birmingham, the Black Country and Staffordshire.

LNR said the service will improve connectivity while offering a more sustainable way to reach one of the UK's busiest airports.
https://www.londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk/about-us/news-desk/london-northwestern-railway-announces-direct-train-service-birmingham-manchester

#London Northwestern #Railway will introduce a new hourly direct train service from #Birmingham New Street to #Manchester Airport from May 2027, reconnecting the West Midlands with the airport by rail for the first time in decades.

The service will be introduced in two phases. From 13 December 2026, trains will run between Birmingham and Crewe, calling at 12 stations, including new stations at Darlaston and Willenhall. From May 2027, the route will be extended to Manchester Airport, calling at Sandbach, Holmes Chapel, Wilmslow and Styal.

The direct service will remove the need for passengers to change at Crewe, Wilmslow or Manchester, providing a simpler public transport option for travellers. It will also add services for communities across Birmingham, the Black Country and Staffordshire.

LNR said the service will improve connectivity while offering a more sustainable way to reach one of the UK's busiest airports.
https://www.londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk/about-us/news-desk/london-northwestern-railway-announces-direct-train-service-birmingham-manchester

#London Northwestern #Railway will introduce a new hourly direct train service from #Birmingham New Street to #Manchester Airport from May 2027, reconnecting the West Midlands with the airport by rail for the first time in decades.

The service will be introduced in two phases. From 13 December 2026, trains will run between Birmingham and Crewe, calling at 12 stations, including new stations at Darlaston and Willenhall. From May 2027, the route will be extended to Manchester Airport, calling at Sandbach, Holmes Chapel, Wilmslow and Styal.

The direct service will remove the need for passengers to change at Crewe, Wilmslow or Manchester, providing a simpler public transport option for travellers. It will also add services for communities across Birmingham, the Black Country and Staffordshire.

LNR said the service will improve connectivity while offering a more sustainable way to reach one of the UK's busiest airports.
https://www.londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk/about-us/news-desk/london-northwestern-railway-announces-direct-train-service-birmingham-manchester

Departure from Kirkby Stephen. 8 August 2026. #railway #photography

Departure from Kirkby Stephen. 8 August 2026. #railway #photography

Departure from Kirkby Stephen. 8 August 2026. #railway #photography

Departure from Kirkby Stephen. 8 August 2026. #railway #photography

Departure from Kirkby Stephen. 8 August 2026. #railway #photography

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/09/tuesday-september-8-2026/

Ukraine strikes key Russian military railway bridge in occupied Crimea

What other enemy targets did Ukrainian forces destroy?

Ukraine's Defense Forces carried out a series of strikes on Russian military facilities in Crimea, as well as in the Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions. The targets included a railway bridge, command posts, and other facilities, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/ukraine-strikes-key-russian-military-railway-1788785226.html

#WarOfAggression #Ukraine #drone #Zaporizhzhia #Luhansk #railway #Crimea #bridge #occupied #warfare #army #war #Russia #DeepStrike #WarCriminal #invaders #occupiers
#перемогаYкраїни

Sunday, August 23, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/08/sunday-august-23-2026/

Sunday, August 9, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/08/sunday-august-9-2026/

Thursday, August 6, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/08/thursday-august-6-2026/

#traintracktuesday

North Point, 北角, Hong Kong

(Details In The Alt Text)

#AltText #NoAI #No2AI #Photography #Photo #POTD #PhotoOfTheDay #Travel #TravelPhotography #China #Railroad #HongKong #People #Railroads #Railway #Railways #Street #StreetPhotography #Unban #City #Cityscape #UrbanPhotography #Tram #Trams #Track #Tracks #StreetCar #StreetCars #PublicTransport #Transport #CityLife #北角 #香港 #香港島

#traintracktuesday

North Point, 北角, Hong Kong

(Details In The Alt Text)

#AltText #NoAI #No2AI #Photography #Photo #POTD #PhotoOfTheDay #Travel #TravelPhotography #China #Landscape #Railroad #HongKong #People #LandscapePhotography #Railroads #Railway #Railways #Street #StreetPhotography #Unban #City #Cityscape #UrbanPhotography #Tram #Trams #Track #Tracks #StreetCar #StreetCars #Market #Markets #PublicTransport #Transport #CityLife #北角 #香港 #香港島

Continuing my #Wikipedia25 celebrations, the second Random Daily Article I read was about the Argo Wilis, which lead me to learning an unexpected amount about Rail Transport in Indonesia!

🔗 https://danq.me/wp25-rail-in-indonesia

Again, the #blogPost has an accompanying #podcast episode.

#railway #transport #publicTransport #Indonesia #Wikipedia

Encore d’autres contributions pour #wikipedia

Articles illustrés :
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A9nitra
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_de_Casa-Port
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasbah_de_K%C3%A9nitra

#kenitra #casablanca #train #railway #gare #gareCasaPort #cigogne #stork #parc #fortress

Nouvelles contributions à Wikimédia Commons et #wikipedia

Articles concernés :
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_de_K%C3%A9nitra
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigogne
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebou
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasbah_de_K%C3%A9nitra
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_de_d%C3%A9sir

#kenitra #cigogne #photography #railway

Atesh partisans sabotage railway line in Russia’s Smolensk Oblast

#Atesh #partisan group #sabotaged #railway line in #Russia's #Smolensk Oblast, disrupting the transport of #military #cargo toward #Bryansk & #Kursk Oblast

A transformer cabinet on the railway was destroyed , causing logistical delays for front line Russian forces

“We will keep striking targets in Russia and passing intelligence to the Ukrainian Defense Forces”

https://kyivindependent.com/atesh-partisans-sabotage-railway-line-in-russias-smolensk-oblast-group-claims/

#RussiaInvadedUkraine #StandWithUkraine

Неадекватная стоимость исходящего трафика у некоторых облачных хостеров

Пользователи часто поднимают вопрос неадекватной стоимости исходящего трафика (egress) у отдельных облачных провайдеров. Если обычные хостеры не тарифицируют этот трафик, то некоторые другие сервисы устанавливают специальные тарифы . Как показывает практика, это может стать неприятным сюрпризом для клиентов.

https://habr.com/ru/companies/ruvds/articles/806689/

#ruvds_статьи #внешний_трафик #egress #тарифы #VPS #Bandwidth_Alliance #Civo #Cloudflare #Heroku #OVHcloud #Scaleway #Hetzner #Linode #Oracle_Cloud #Backblaze #Bunny_CDN #DigitalOcean #Entrywan #UpCloud #Vultr #Flyio #Koyeb #Alibaba_Cloud #Microsoft_Azure #Amazon_Web_Services #Railway #Zeabur #Google_Cloud #Vercel #Render #Netlify

The #EastCoastRailLink (#ECRL) has achieved 62.4% progress overall

Construction is proceeding smoothly, with the #Kelantan phase of the project at 75.8% so far

Two stations are being constructed in Kelantan: #KotaBharu for #passengers only & #PasirPuteh for passengers & cargo

The alignment to the integrated transport terminal in #Gombak, #Selangor, is expected to be completed on schedule in Dec 2026 and services will commence in Jan 2027

Read more: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2024/03/25/ecrl-more-than-60-complete-says-malaysia-rail/

#rail #railway

The #EastCoastRailLink (#ECRL) is anticipated to contribute a 3.8% increase to #Malaysia’s gross domestic product (#GDP) by 2047 by enhancing trade, boosting tourism and stimulating regional development

The ECRL project is more than just a #rail link cutting across #Kelantan, #Terengganu, #Pahang and #Selangor, but can also serve as a cornerstone for economic growth and social progress

Read more: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/03/09/ecrl-could-boost-nations-gdp-by-4-says-zafrul

#railway #raillink #train #trains #passenger #passengers #railways #rails

#Finland #Helsinki #Pajunen #rails #railway https://www.deviantart.com/pajunen/art/Rails-1022998432

The Transport Ministry is considering rolling out daily #expresstrain services between #Ipoh and #KualaLumpur, and not just during festive seasons

Transport Minister Anthony Loke would discuss with Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (#KTMB) on providing one or two express services a day for the route

A daily KL-Ipoh express train would be helpful for Ipoh residents needing to work in Kuala Lumpur or the #KlangValley

Read more: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/02/1011155/transport-ministry-look-ipoh-kl-express-train-service

#KTM #KTMIntercity #railway #rail #train #ETS

The Cabinet has approved a proposal to build a new #railway #station in #Seremban and #upgrade nine others in #Selangor under the Klang Valley Double Tracking project (#KVDT2)

The new Seremban station would be known as Seremban Sentral

The nine #stations to be upgraded are #SalakSouth, #Bangi, #PantaiDalam, #SeriSetia, #BatuTiga, #PadangJawa, #Klang, #JalanKastam and #PortKlang

Read more: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/01/19/new-train-station-to-drive-growth-in-seremban-says-loke

#KTM #KTMB #mainline #rail #SerembanSentral #train #KlangValley #NegeriSembilan

Illicit goings-on beneath the New Town setts: the thread about the life and crimes of the Scotland Street Tunnel

Scotland Street, on the northern firnge of Edinburgh’s Second or Northern New Town; not the grandest or longest such street, but certainly one of the more interesting. But what draws me to it is what you cannot see – the 1,052 yard long tunnel running a few tens of feet beneath its granite setts. Previous threads have looked in detail at the construction, engineering and operation of the tunnel, its terminus at Canal Street Station or tragic accidents during its service life. No, as the title suggests this story is about the various criminal goings-on that it attracted in its short service life from 1847-1868.

Things start getting going in our story in February 1858 when an urgent telegram arrived at the Leith Police station with a description of a man wanted in Aberdeen for thefts and who had fled that city on the steamer Sovereign, bound for Granton.

Two detectives were despatched from Leith to Granton station which was adjacent to the steamer quay. Here they managed to identify their mark but instead of clapping him in irons then and there, they boarded the same compartment on the Edinburgh train as him, and only announced themselves to him once they started heading south towards Scotland Street.

They made the suspect “aware of his predicament” but did not handcuff him. At Scotland Street Station their train was detached from the locomotive and attached to the haulage rope which would pull it up the tunnel incline to its destination at Canal Street. With a jerk, the train moved off into the darkness – there was no carriage lighting.

So you can imagine the look of surprise on the detectives’ faces when they emerged into the light at Canal Street Station only to find they were now alone in the compartment! Their man had somehow managed to slip silently out of the carriage in the pitch darkness of the tunnel! After alerting the railway authorities, the detectives trudged off back down the tunnel to search Scotland Street Station. On arriving there and interrogating the staff, it was found that a porter had seen a man emerging from the tunnel who had climbed over a fence, never to be seen again. The police had to be consoled in retrieving their suspect’s luggage, in which the items he had been accused of stealing in Aberdeen were found.

You would think that police accompanying prisoners through the tunnel would have been more careful in future. You’d think, but they weren’t, and in January 1864 a prisoner by the name of Peter Brown managed to pull off the same trick. Brown, (aka John Graham, aka John Farrel, aka Robert Young) had been detained in Larbert a few days previously by Superintendent Gray for the crime of stealing a silver watch, a pair of trousers, a vest and a shirt from the house of Widow McKay in the High Street of Falkirk. He had been cooling his heels in Perth Prison ever since, but was now to be brought to Edinburgh for the purposes of identifying him for other offences. A single officer was to accompany him, who at least took the precaution of handcuffing him. They took the 145PM from Perth, which had to cross the Forth by steamer from Burntisland to Granton, before picking up the train again for the short ride into the city centre via the tunnel. Once again, an unlucky officer emerged at the Canal Street terminus without his charge.

He had actually noticed his prisoner missing while in the tunnel but groping around in the dark for him, all he had managed to do was to upset his understandably surprised fellow passengers. Telegraphs were sent off and the policeman ran off down the tunnel in pursuit. Half way back down, the prisoner’s cap was retrieved. Back at Scotland Street Station, a porter once again described seeing a man emerge from the tunnel before existing the station, never to never be seen again. Once again, the Police were left empty handed and with egg on their faces. The Stirling Observer expressed surprise that a felon who was so “peculiarly dull-looking” could have managed to outwit the authorities with such “a daring piece of cleverness.”

Thefts were common on the railway. That very same day that the fugitive from Aberdeen had given the Leith Police the slip in the tunnel – Friday 12th February 1858 – James Ross, “a perfect adept in the light-fingered art” plead guilty at the Edinburgh Police Court to pickpocketing eight half-crowns from a lady at the station the previous day; for his efforts he received 60 days hard labour. In July 1859, a woman travelling from Leith to Edinburgh was relieved of £6, 17s 3d from her purse by three “Cockney gentlemen” who joined her in a first class compartment at Bonnington Station and left again in peculiar circumstances at Scotland Street, loudly claiming to all in the carriage that they had bought the wrong tickets and wanted instead to go to Granton. The victim arrived at Canal Street to find her purse empty, and immediately gave a description to the Police. There was a problem with a “Swell Mob” of Cockney pickpockets in Edinburgh that summer and the Police knew where they liked to hang out in the howffs of the West Port. Detectives Youdall and Leadbetter were efficient in their duties, picking up Richard Myars in a “thieves den” before finding John Tonner and James Clark hiding under a bed in their lodging house in the nearby Grassmarket. They had £7 between them, despite previously pleading to the Police that they had insufficient funds to leave the city. For their troubles their £7 was given to the victim in compensation and each got 60 days in the Calton Gaol, before being run out of town.

In October of that year, a most unusual “crime” took place in the tunnel – the transport of illicit cookies! A Mr Nottman had bought six cookies from Mr Robert Young, the licensee of the refreshment rooms at Canal Street Station and was observed to do this by PC Donald Bain. Nottman and his cookies boarded the train for Scotland Street Station and was followed by PC Bain, followed in fact all the way to his house in Bonnington where he intended to eat said cookies. The consumption of the cookies “off premises” was a clear violation of the Forbes Mackenzie Act under which premises were licensed.

The Procurator Fiscal (in Scottish law, the Public Prosecutor), Mr Linton, was keen to enforce this particular act to the full extent of his powers and had Robert Young and Nottman sent before Sheriff Hallard to explain themselves. Despite a good defence by the solicitor Mr Rollo, WS, and good character references, the Sheriff said he had no alternative but to fine Young £1 5s for his crime of selling off-sales cookies (the alternative was 10 days imprisonment!); Nottman escaped with a ticking off. This was the third such conviction within a week in Edinburgh, on Friday October 7th, Bailie Cassels at the Police Court applied the same fine to David Doull of Princes Street for selling “a few penny tarts” and Mr Ridpath of the North British Railway refreshment room for selling “a number of muffins” for consumption off premises.

This was not the only time the railway found themselves on the receiving end of the Edinburgh Sheriff Court. On this day, November 29th, in 1861 the Edinburgh Evening Courant reported that Sheriff Jameson awarded 5 guineas damages to Mr Robert Riddel, a merchant of Blairpark, Ferry Road. The defendant in the case was the Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway company which ran the Scotland Street tunnel. Riddel sued the Railway for their treatment of him on the 6th November when, after buying a 1st Class ticket from Bonnington to Edinburgh with friends, they found the carriages full so they sat instead in 2nd class. Riddel was annoyed that this sort of thing happened too often, and so at Scotland Street station he asked the ticket collector to refund him the difference. When the collector declined, Riddel kept hold of his ticket (he was meant to hand it in) and said he’d take the matter up instead at the Canal Street terminus with a higher authority. The ticket collector was having none of it, fetched the station master and the pair physically ejected Riddel from the train. He was “severely sprained in one of his hands” and detained against his will at Scotland Street before being refused a refund or onward transport. In finding for Riddel, the Sheriff set a precedent that passengers were entitled to a refund if they could not travel in the means which they had paid a ticket for due to a fault of the railway. Riddel let it be known that he was contributing his damages to the relief fund for the victims of the recent “Heave Awa Land” disaster.

Our last “crime” goes back to the previous year, a “laughable incident” that was widely reported in July 1858 under the tongue in cheek heading of “A Merchant’s Last ‘Stroke of Business’“. It involved an unfortunate but persistent woman of “prepossessing appearance“, one who ultimately had the last laugh. Our heroine arrived in Edinburgh from London in early July by steamer. Her purpose was marriage to “a commercial gentlemen belonging to this city“, their courtship having taken place by correspondence. She had with her all her possessions and with these boarded the train for Scotland Street where she was met by her lover.

“After many tender words were said” her fiancée went to retrieve her luggage from the van only to find it was empty. Both were astonished and after an hour of enquiries the man began to start having doubts about his bride and came to believe she was not whom she claimed to be. He imagined he was to marry a comfortably off woman, but now feared she had nothing to her name besides the clothes she stood up in. They had planned to be married then and there but he managed to put her off and “excuse himself” on account of his business arrangements. His jilted bride-to-be retreated back up the tunnel to the City to make more enquiries at Canal Street and find herself a hotel. From here, she sent word to her lover to please come and join her when he was done with work. But he never did. Distressed by her lack of spouse and lack of luggage, she returned to the station and was advised to take the train back down the tunnel to the steamer quay at Granton in case it was there. Imagine her surprise when at Scotland Street she saw all her belongings on the platform!

Disembarking from the carriage, she hurried up the stairs and down again to the other platform. To her horror she found not only her luggage but also her late fiancée, “waiting evidently to proceed on a long journey” and directing a porter to load her things onto a train for Leith! “He could make no answer when interrogated by the lady“, being “completely dumbfounded” at seeing her. In the most persuasive terms, she made him agree to “put off his journey” and marched him and her luggage back up the hill to Edinburgh and married him on the spot! His “business speculation over”, he instead was obliged to “retire to spend the honeymoon in the quiet seclusion of the country“.

The Scotland Street Tunnel soldiered on for a few years more but its new owners, the North British Railway, couldn’t wait to get rid of it when the acquired the Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway. They built and opened a diversionary line and closed the tunnel on May 22nd 1868 with all traffic through it ceasing immediately. The tunnel spent the next 20 years doing nothing and was largely forgotten about, but popped up in the newspapers every now and again. Commander J. C. R. Johnston wrote to the Scotsman in April 1870 suggesting that it be used for horse carriages and carts, to bypass the gradients of the New Town, an idea still suggested for cycling and walking.

Ten years after closure Robert Kerr & Co., a whisky broker and blender in Leith, announced in the Scotsman that they intended to use the tunnel as a bonded warehouse for Wine and Spirits. Nothing came of this idea either. It would be almost another decade before a permanent use was found for the tunnel – from 1887 to 1902 the Scottish Mushroom Co. used it as an industrial-scale mushroom farm! Two tons of mushrooms a week could be harvested (when mould wasn’t killing them off).

The mushrooms grew on immense quantities of manure which was hauled straight into the tunnel by a steam engine on the old rails. Workers deep inside and working in the darkness with only the flicker of candles banked it up in huge piles as mushroom beds. The railway yard at Scotland Street was used as a manure transfer, storage and mixing depot. Horse manure was the main source – it came straight from Piershill Cavalry Barracks and also from the council’s manure depots where the “scaffies” deposited their collections.

The manure was mixed when it was at the peak of fermentation, resulting in “a strong effluvia aris[ing]“. As you can imagine this did not go down too well with the residents of Scotland Street and their neighbours. The city’s energetic Public Health officer, Dr Henry Littlejohn, was also alert to the danger it posed and had the midden relocated to Warriston, 500 yards from human habitation. After these initial teething troubles, the Scottish Mushroom Co settled down to business and once again the tunnel faded from popular consciousness. And that might have been that for our story had it not been for a rather amusing and farcical occurrence in 1889.

In November of that year it was announced that Arthur James Balfour, the Irish Secretary, was due to attend a banquet dinner of Unionists and Tories in the Waverley Market on December 5th.

Balfour was from the Maitland Balfour family of Whittingehame, East Lothian, and a distant relation of the Balfours of Pilrig and enjoyed significant local interest and popularity. The organisers could not find an establishment large enough to host the event and so had turned to the city’s covered fruit and vegetable market, with fully three quarters taken over for the banquet. The same could not be said of Balfour’s popularity back in Ireland where his ruthless actions against Irish Nationalists earned him the moniker “Bloody Balfour“. The authorities therefore feared the dinner at Waverley would be targeted by Nationalist reprisals and become “a modern Guy Fawkes“. They feared a bomb would be smuggled into the undercroft of the Waverley Market, or even worse, into the Scotland Street Tunnel itself. Such a device it was said “would extinguish Unionism and Toryism in Scotland perpetually” given “every member of any note” was to be present.

A significant police detail was therefore imported to provide protection for Balfour and the dinner, and set about combing the venue for signs of anything untoward. It is important to note that these were not local officers and so were naive about local matters. The police were able to obtain duplicate keys to the gates of the tunnel at its southern end, and entered to search. They neglected to tell the North British Railway what they were up to and set off down the dark tunnel with only a few lamps to guide them. The police didn’t understand what the funky piles along the tunnel were. They boldly pressed on down but their courage failed them when some of the men working the mushroom beds suddenly popped their heads up from behind the manure banks and enquired “Wha’s there?” The officers fled back up the tunnel and could not be convinced to return until it was explained to them what went on down there those days. A thorough search was made of the operation, but all that could be found was manure, mushrooms and the “spawn” used to sew the beds

The Evening News reported that “the mushroom men were left laughing both at the timidity of their visitors and the fruitlessness of their visit”. Balfour’s dinner passed off uneventful with a banquet for 3,000, “1,000 ladies in the galleries” and seats for 8-10,000 public spectators.

You may wonder why I’m writing about the Scotland Street Tunnel yet again. Well I do have an ulterior motive, as my learned friend Leslie Hills just so happens to have a new book out now about two centuries of life above ground in Scotland Street. Most conveniently, it’s out in all good bookshops and is launched on Friday 1st December! “10 Scotland Street – the story of an Edinburgh home and its cast of booksellers, silk merchants, sailors, preachers, politicians, cholera and coincidence“. If you are reading this and you like my threads about Edinburgh and Leith history, then you probably like going down the sort of historical rabbit holes and off on tangents, so you’re sure to like Leslie’s book too as it will take you from a door on Scotland Street and around the world! I find a pleasing symmetry that Leslie’s book details what was going on just a few tens of feet above the tunnel at the same time as the shennanigans I have just been relating to you were going on tens of feet below the people in her book. Be there! I was very honoured to be able to contribute in a small way to this book and am only too pleased to commend it to you too.

Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.

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Keretapi Tanah Melayu's (#KTM) Komuter service and Electric Train Service (#ETS) are experiencing disruptions of between 15 and 30 minutes from the original schedule on Wednesday (Nov 29).

This was due to a #train #derailment incident at the #KlangValley Double Tracking project engineering 1 (KVDT1) at KM387.755 between the Kuala Lumpur Station and KL Sentral Station at 4.05am

Read more: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023/11/29/ktm039s-komuter-ets-trains-experiencing-delays-of-up-to-30-minutes-today

#KTMB #KVDT #KVDT1 #KualaLumpur #KLSentral #delay #disruption #KTMKomuter #railway

The upgrades on the automatic fare collection system for the #KTMKomuter network in #KlangValley are almost complete.

#creditcard & #debitcard payments will be supported by all 57 Komuter stations throughout Klang Valley starting from mid-November.

Once the system is open to public, #passenger can just tap their credit & debit card directly on the reader on the newly upgraded Automated Control Gate (ACG) to make their payment.

Read more: https://soyacincau.com/2023/10/26/ktm-komuter-credit-debit-card-payments-mid-nov/

#KTMB #rail #railway #faregate

Those who have taken the train with #KTM will know that the frequency is anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes and if you miss a train, you’ll have to wait for quite some time.

Recently, a Malaysian radio DJ, JC decided to take the #train with KTM to avoid peak-hour traffic.

He was utterly disappointed when the train did not show up after more than 1 hour.

Read more: https://worldofbuzz.com/ktm-train-fails-to-show-up-after-msian-waited-for-more-than-1-hour/

#KTMB #MidValley #TamanWahyu #KTMKomuter #peakhour #commuter #rail #railway #KualaLumpur #KlangValley

Forgotten Fatalities: the thread about the Granton railway disaster of 1860

Recent threads about the Scotland Street Tunnel and the Granton Breakwater inevitably involved me touching on the history of the railway that ran between these two places and brought to my attention a striking image of a forlorn-looking steam engine lying on its side on the Wardie foreshore. How this locomotive came to be here isn’t “in the books“, so of course I had to find out more.

The answer to this anomaly was that it was the result of an accident which took place on the Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway‘s (EP&D) short section of track on the southern side of the Firth of Forth between Trinity Station and Granton Harbour. This event on the evening of Sunday 8th August 1860 would claim the lives of four people, injure six more and cruelly impact upon one family in particular.

The EP&D ran from its start at Canal Street Station (beneath and at right angles to what we now call Edinburgh Waverley), by gravity down the steep incline of the Scotland Street tunnel to a station of that name at its foot. Here, steam engines were attached to trains to haul them the few miles to Granton, via Trinity, or North Leith, via Bonnington. At Granton passengers could continue their journey onward across the Firth of Forth to Burntisland, by connecting paddle steamer. North of the Forth the railway carried on north to Perth and to Dundee (via a further steamer from the harbour at Tayport), explaining the full name of the company.

On Sundays there were usually there were only two passenger trains a day each way to Granton. On the day of the accident the 4:30PM from Edinburgh ran the three mile trip hauled by engine No. 32. At the terminus the driver detached his engine and shunted the carriages back into the platform to where it would later form the 8:10PM return journey. This pattern only took place on the Sabbath; Monday to Saturday there were sixteen trains each way and a much quicker turnaround was required, undertaken in a rather frightening manner known as “fly shunting” whereby the carriages were “slipped” (detached) while the train was in motion and a well-timed throw of the points directed the engine one way and the freely coasting train the other into the platform. The guard at the rear in the brakevan was responsible for bringing the train to a controlled halt by which time the engine was already in the process of re-positioning itself so it could re-attach at the front of the train and haul it back the way it had come.

There was nowhere at Granton for engines to wait for any period of time and so on No. 32 now returned the way it had come to while away the next few hours in the engine shed at Scotland Street. As it departed it began to pick up speed and ascend the gradient up to the embankment along the foreshore and parallel to Lower Granton Road. It crossed the bridge over the footpath access to Wardie Bay and passed over first one and then a second set of points as it rounded a gentle bend in the route. This is where disaster struck: as it approached a second, smaller, bridge (which carried it over the Wardie Burn, marked nowadays by a break in the seawall) the left-hand leading wheel of the engine jumped the rails and the locomotive derailed.

It continued to plough along the trackbed, derailed, for some 30 yards, ripping up tracks and sleepers and partially demolished the bridge. In doing so it was eventually tipped over the side when it hit the stone parapet. It fell a height of 9 feet down the embankment and then slithered 20 yards down the foreshore, coming to rest on its right hand side (not the left, as shown in the engraving, which may have either been reversed or show it during recovery).

There were six people on the footplate when the crash happened of whom four were killed instantly; driver David Mathieson, his 9 year old son William Mackenzie Mathieson (out for an exciting Sunday trip), his brother-in-law and neighbour John Mackenzie and Andrew Morgan, a railway signalman hitching a lift back to Scotland Street. The fireman, James Bowling, had a lucky but painful escape, jumping from the tender as it left the tracks. He broke an arm and dislocated a shoulder amongst other injuries, but lived to tell the tale. A railway porter who was also cadging a lift, George Dall, found himself swimming in the waters of Wardie Bay from where he was pulled, miraculously unhurt.

Blacksmith Thomas Gillies, his wife and two children had been sitting on the sea wall below the embankment, enjoying their day of rest, when the engine came crashing down from above, passing inches away from where they sat. All were badly scalded by escaping steam but survived. A horse cab was summoned to take the injured away to the Royal Infirmary. Sheriff Gordon, Procurator Fiscal Paterson and Chief Constable List were on the spot within the hour. They appointed engineers Mr Hawkins and Mr Jardine to investigate, while the officials of the railway company appointed their own civil engineer, Mr Lorimer, to also make enquiries. The Board of Trade appointed Captain (R.E.) Henry Whatley Tyler, to write a formal report.

None of the investigating engineers found any fault in the permanent way, engine No. 32 or with the manner in which it was driven by Mathieson. Tyler noted that although there were minor defects along the way none “ would have caused a steady engine thus to leave the line“. The type of engine – built locally in Leith by R. & W. Hawthorn – had been used without problem for 15 years and the only derailment it had suffered had been caused by a fractured rail. He did however note that the engine was particularly light at 11½ tons, that it had poor weight distribution and that there was a very short wheelbase of just 6 feet. This made it liable to oscillate at higher speeds and Tyler’s educated guess was that the engine had been travelling fast enough (“but not imprudently so“) to set up such an oscillating motion. Without the weight of a following train to restrain such gymnastics it was able to jump enough to leave the rails at a position where the gauge between the tracks was slightly too wide.

Margaret Stewart Mackenzie, the driver’s wife, lost not only her husband but also her brother and eldest son that day. She was left a widow with three children to support; a 7 year old girl and boys aged 3 and 1 years. She was also four months pregnant and would give birth to a daughter, Sarah Clapperton Mathieson, that December. The members of the Mathieson and Mackenzie family – who all lived next door to each other on Duncan (now Dundonald) Street – were also interred alongside eachother at the Old Calton Burying Ground.

Given the loss of her husband and brother the Mathieson widow and children found themselves without any financial support and a public subscription was set up under the coordination of the Lothian Road United Presbyterian Church for their benefit. In September the Scotsman reported that “a woman who assumes different names and represents herself to the the wife of an elder of Lothian Road U.P. Church” was wanted by the police for fraudulently soliciting for donations to the fund. The 1881 census shows that Margaret Mathieson stayed on at 10 Duncan Street and was living there with her 80 year old mother (Margaret Mackenzie), two sons (David, 24, a clerk and John ,21, a piano tuner) and her daughter (Sarah, 20, a dressmaker). She was working as a laundress. Sarah Clapperton Mathieson married 4 years later to Robert Fotheringham and they moved nearby to Airlie Place and then Deanpark Street, with at least 6 children born. Margaret would join them next door at Airlie Place, where she died in 1911 aged 81, after 51 years a widow.

Marion Mathieson was about 64 years old when her son David died and lost her son and a grandson that day. The Caledonian Mercury reported the agonising news that this was her fourth son to die; one was knocked down in the street near the family home, another fell from Salisbury Crags and a third had drowned off Aberdeen where he was serving an apprenticeship. She was by this time a widow, living in a cottage in the village of Corstorphine where she would die in 1871.

Of the other victim, Signalman Morgan, he was buried at Warriston Cemetery. A correspondent called Fair Play wrote to the Scotsman soon after to ask for subscriptions for the case of “Mrs Morgan, a highly respectable widow“, the mother of the deceased signalman. He had been “her only hope of subsistence since he was 12 years of age” and that the “good feeling of the public” had overlooked her plight.

Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.

If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.

Explore Threadinburgh by map:

These threads © 2017-2026, Andy Arthur.

NO AI TRAINING: Any use of the contents of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.