Hornby, the train set makers, have created Hornby Digital Sound that brings locomotive noises to each individual train. The old system made it’s sounds from a single box located near the model railway tracks, but now each train that has the Hornby Digital Sound system built in has it’s own speaker that can emulate sound far better.The trains also have a system built in that can change the sound effects as they travel around the track. If the train goes through a tunnel then the noise will be more echoed just like it would should a full sized train go through a tunnel.Several new trains have the new Hornby Digital Sound system already installed which includes the LNER Herring Gull class A4 that costs £234.99. Others include the Diesel Electric Class 50 Illustrious that costs...

Passengers have to transfer to a rescue train as under-fire service breaks down on the way into LondonEurostar suffered another setback last night after hundreds of passengers became stranded when a train broke down on its way into London.British Transport Police said a rescue train was sent out to pick up about 700 passengers after the train stopped running near Ashford in Kent at around 10pm.One passenger who was returning from France told Sky News from the train that it suddenly came to a stop and the lights on the train went out."It's getting fairly hot but people are very calm, very relaxed," he said.He said that the rescue train turned up shortly before midnight to take the passengers onwards to London.Eurostar said the train stopped following a "major technical problem", which had...

A drunk woman fell off a platform onto the tracks at Koenji Station on the JR Chuo Line in Tokyo on Monday night but had a narrow escape from an incoming train after a man jumped onto the tracks and laid her between the rails.The woman, 20, who was drunk and feeling sick, got off a train at the station and fell onto the tracks at around 9:15 p.m., according to police and other sources. The man, a 24-year-old company employee in Tokyo, immediately jumped onto the tracks and found her unconscious and unresponsive.As a rapid train heading to Tokyo Station was approaching, the man laid the woman in the 1.06-meter-wide space between the tracks and took shelter himself in a space under the platform. The train passed right above the woman's head and stopped without hitting her.The woman...

Dramatic CCTV footage from Argentina has captured the tense moment when a small van got stuck on the train tracks as a train approached.It happened as a series of cars were filmed going round lowered safety barriers meant to halt traffic for the oncoming train.The footage shows a passenger on the back of a motorcycle jumping off to push the van out of the way of the path of the train. He only just manages to get the vehicle off the tracks in time, and then jumps back, narrowly missing being hit by the train himself.After the incident the man exchanges a triumphant "high five" gesture with the motorcyclist, who hugs him with...

A Florida woman, 66, said she has to crawl between two railroad cars in order to go anywhere from her own home after being trapped by the cars.Aretha Brown said a train parked 40 cars on the tracks that run in front of her Callahan house on Dec. 27 - and just left them there.Brown said she must crawl under the cars even to go to her own mailbox, or else walk 20 minutes to get around the train. She struggles to keep her Sunday best clean when she goes to church. It's very difficult making her way under the train with a bag of groceries. "My house is falling apart and I can't get anyone to come and make repairs because they won't climb under the train," Brown said.With news...

Regular readers may be aware that steam trains are semi-regular visitors to London, and if at a weekend, I quite enjoy going to watch them. Today was a special occasion as while the train itself is a regular visitor to the Capital, to catch it in a snowy landscape is a rarity. The 35028 Clan Line train is running out of London via Richmond, and back in again this evening via Streatham, and a trawl through Google Maps suggested that the quiet North Sheen train station might offer a good vantage point to get steam and snow in the same photo. There are a few other locations which might have offered a better (aka, more distant) view, but you then run the risk of a modern train getting in the way just as the steamer passes by. I’ve been in a few places before where that happens and the...

China is an emerging country that is has fast growing technology and the ultra fast CRH train is proof. The train is being touted as the world’s fastest train. The train runs at about 245 miles per hour and can reduce a 664-mile journey to a three-hour ride. That same journey would have taken seven-and-a-half hours on a regular train. China is attempting to revolutionize the way that trains work and how fast they can go. The trains wee built by a company called Bombardier. The company built the trains using advanced aerodynamics. The trains also use less energy when traveling and are more stable. A ticket on the train cost about $140 for first class and $90 for second class. China isn’t the only country that is expected to have ultra fast trains. Other countries might follow...

On Sunday morning, the Circle Line uncurled slightly into a spiral, and to commemorate the death of the circle, a small group decided to take the very last ever train to run right round the whole circle line on the prior Saturday night. Starting at Tower Hill and looping round the network back to Tower Hill about an hour later. Although I had consulted widely to confirm that the timetable was correct, I popped into Tower Hill earlier that evening to double-check with the staff. I needn’t have bothered as the woman behind the counter seemed completely incapable of understanding the simple question I was asking and kept replying with the same incorrect information about the very last train to leave the station. Fortunately, the barrier staff understood instantly what I wanted and...

Southeastern Highspeed | Ramsgate Originally uploaded by kpmarekSo today was the first day of Southeastern's radical new timetable. I had two very different experiences. On the way to Cannon Street things were not going smoothly. Firstly it was pretty clear that everyone from the old 07:03 Charing Cross train and everyone from the old 07:13 Cannon Street train had decided to get the new 07:03 Cannon Street train together. Add on top of this that the train arrived 5 minutes later and you have one very uncomfortable journey in. :( Hoping that with train being on time and the "Oh my, there's a new timetable today?" crowd gone things might be a little better tomorrow. The trip home... was absolute bliss. Cannon Street trains home were not only on time... but absoltely empty and not only...

Quad bike crash with train kills twoTwo men on a quad bike have been hit by and killed by a train in Cardiff.The accident happened at about 4.15am at Rumney, British Transport police said. The empty stock train had been travelling from the Canton depot in Cardiff to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The accident was being investigated.A spokeswoman for Network Rail said train services to Cardiff were disrupted but the majority had resumed. "There are still some reduced services between Portsmouth and Cardiff because there was some damage to the track and we are carrying out work on that."Passengers concerned about their travel arrangements should contact the train operator or National Rail Enquiries, she said.Transportguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this...

She got a bag stuck trying to get on the MBTA train and what happened next is pretty scary.A 34 year-old Quincy woman was trying to board a Red Line train at South Station, Boston when the doors closed on her pocketbook. The train began to move away with her bag wedged in the doors.The woman ran alongside the moving train shouting for help. At the last minute, she let go prior to going off the end of the platform but she collided with a wall.The MBTA says they launched a thorough investigation of the incident. As a result of the MBTA’s investigation, the train attendant, whose primary responsibility is ensuring that doorways are clear of people or objects, has been fired. The operator of the train was given a ten-day...

Yesterday morning I was to take the early train to Brussels. Other Presbytery members were going too on the same train so i asked one to book a cab. He said it would be 5.40 am from church. At 5 a.m. I thought I should check my ticket To my horror I realised the train left at 5.55. Mt friends were on a later train. Throwing my packing in my case I phoned for a cab. It was slow coming, arriving about 5.20. I thought I had missed my train. Check in was ending in 5 minutes. I got to the station about 5.45. Approaching the check in I said I was too late. No they said, phoned the train and told me to go through security. I ran to the train. I was in carriage 17, farthest but one. I boarded breathless and a minute later we were off on the 2 hour trip.Eurostar is one of the world's best...

This lunchtime, a visually distinctive steam train charged through North London on a trip down to Kings Cross. The Sir Nigel Gresley is not only visually noticeable, but it also holds the speed record for a post-war steam train. Unlike the older “boilers on wheels”, this train is beautifully streamlined and sleek in appearance. Hence, worth watching out for! I wandered up to Alexandria Palace station to watch the train pass through, but not only did my camera jam at a most infuriating time, but also the train charged through the platform at a speed that would put an intercity train to shame. Taking photos at intermediate stations has the advantage of few crowds, even if you only get to see the train for a few seconds. Following down to Kings Cross on a vastly slower, modern...

As I am betting you are probably aware, the Circle Line is shortly to be uncoiled and turned into something that is still called a circle, but is most certainly not. As with most changes on the train networks, there is inevitably a moment of handover from old to new. I’ve been having a thought, and decided that it would be quite fun to catch the very last ever fully circular circle line train (yes, I am that sad). By my calculations – that is the 23:37 train from Tower Hill on Sat 12th Dec, running anti-clockwise round the network and finishing back at Tower Hill about an hour later. An earlier train at 23:07 is the last clockwise train. If thinking of getting up early to catch the first less-than-circle circle line train, then be warned that they have already run the trains...

A dog which made headlines around the world after he lost his owner and caught the right train home has died.Archie the labrador became separated from owner Mike Taitt in 2005, so the impatient dog boarded the train at Inverurie in Aberdeenshire. Archie got off the train when it stopped at Insch and was spotted by a signalman, who contacted his owner. Neither fellow passengers nor railway staff realised that the black labrador was unaccompanied. The Insch station signalman Derek Hope logged Archie's arrival as Incident no. 822344: "Unaccompanied doggie gets off train. There was the train conductor standing with Archie on the platform saying he had got on at Inverurie and didn't have a ticket." Mr Taitt said at the time "He is a very intelligent dog. I am sure he can read a timetable....

Transport for London has a new leaflet out explaining the forthcoming changes to the Circle Line (from 13 December). They are still going to call it the Circle Line, though it will be in the shape of a teacup, not a circle.I hadn't previously quite understood that the Hammersmith and City line will still exist as a separate entity. When TfL says there will now be a train every 5 minutes between Paddington and Hammersmith, I take it to mean a Teacup train every 10 minutes and a H & C train every 10 minutes. This is certainly a remarkable increase in overall frequency on that section, which used to be notoriously unreliable and sporadic, at least it was in the early 1980s when I was living in Shepherds Bush.Chaos can, I think, be expected on 13 December at Edgware Road. The leaflet makes a...

Collision, ITV's drama this week, reminds me of the 1949 Ealing film Chain of Events.As Wikipedia says: The film opens with a long shot of a Liverpool-bound train waiting to depart from Euston station. The train leaves with various characters on board.After dark, the train is still travelling north at speed when a light being waved by the trackside is seen by the driver. Alerted to possible trouble he applies the emergency brakes, but a road tanker stalled across a level crossing is looming up just ahead. Plainly, there is not enough room to stop. Just as the collision is about to occur there is a fade out, which is succeeded by a general view of the railway locomotive sheds at Euston, three days prior to the accident.Several personal stories are then told in a series of flashbacks which...

A train, yesterday. 200 Network Rail staff are preparing to head from Reading to Coventry for a conference, but they won’t be getting there via the rail service that they oversee. No, they’ll be going there and back by coach – as the prospective rail fares for them all was deemed to be too expensive. The BBC are reporting that taking the mob by road would work out as being £24,000 cheaper than going by train. The coach travel will set Network Rail back just £12 per head as opposed to the £135 that an open return train ticket would have cost. A Network Rail spokesman got his sums right when he understatemented: “Whilst we have no role in setting train fares, we use rail for the overwhelming number of business journeys. Occasionally, if there is a cheaper alternative, we will...

A 'drunk' woman who fell onto railway tracks in Boston, Massachusetts, survived a near-miss after an oncoming subway train managed to stop just inches short of her. CCTV footage shows the 26-year-old woman stumbling from a platform at the city's North station onto the tracks of an orange line service. After the three feet fall she then lies slumped on her back in the middle of the track.Other passengers standing on the platform begin to wave frantically at the driver, 27-year-old Charice Lewis, as the subway train approaches. Ms Lewis manages to pull the brake hard and the train comes up inches short of the passenger.The train driver, who is being praised for her quick reactions, said: "The people were waving, but they were waving too much, and they were really, really close to the yellow...

The world's smallest working model train set has been unveiled – measuring just 1/8th of an inch by 1/4 of an inch. At 1-35200 scale to the real thing, the five-carriage train travels around an oval route including a ride through a tunnel. Created by New Jersey model train enthusiast David Smith, the model was built using nothing more fancy than a craft knife and a steady hand. Mr Smith, 55, from Toms River, said: "This model train set is going to be part of the larger train set I have at home. "I am creating a fictitious village called James River Branch and this model train is going to be placed inside the model shop I am building as part of the re-creation. It is going to be a model train village inside a model, so it is very postmodern" Powered by a standard two-inch-long rotating...

Percy the cat uses North Bay Railway's train service weekly to travel to Scarborough's Sea Life Centre.Scarborough's smartest cat catches the train on its own and spends the day at the Sea Life Centre before travelling home using the popular service.He has no help and even knows the train times. He has been making the trip for the last four years. Staff at the Sea Life Centre say they see him most weeks wandering around before he gets on the train home.Sharon Jarvis said: "He has been coming here for years now. He lives near Peasholm somewhere."He gets on the train in the morning and then spends the day with us. He just wanders around and when a member of the public comes in and opens the door he sneaks through."He loves it here. He particularly likes watching the penguins but...

A Tube worker has been caught on camera abusing an elderly passenger, calling him a “jumped- up little git”. The employee lost his temper when the man politely complained about getting his arm stuck in a door for several seconds as he tried to leave a train. Mayor Boris Johnson said he was appalled by the incident. TfL today suspended the worker while it launched an investigation. In the video posted by a fellow passenger on YouTube, the worker shouts: “Ladies and gentlemen, this train goes nowhere until little man gets off.” Jonathan MacDonald, from Camberley, who works in Covent Garden, filmed the incident yesterday at 2.30pm. He said the well-dressed man's initial complaint was civil. “I saw an elderly man with his arm trapped in the closing door of a faulty train at Holborn...

A mother watched in horror as her baby fell in front of a speeding train when it's pushchair rolled off a station platform.Amazingly the baby not only survived, but only suffered minor bruises in the incident in Melbourne, Australia.This CCTV footage show how the mother briefly lets go of the pushchair which rolls away from her and onto the train tracks - seconds later it is struck by an incoming train.Luckily the driver of the train had seen the pushchair falling and slammed on the breaks. This combined with the fact the train was already slowing as it entered the station reduced the impact.The lad was carried 30 metres by the train before being rescued by other commuters… and will no doubt be shown this video hundreds of time throughout his life. The baby was taken to a...

The parents of a Kent boy who has run away to try to catch a train have asked railway staff to put up warning posters to stop him getting into danger.Four-year-old Toby Friend, from Marden, has even tried to buy a ticket at the station, which is close to his house. He has climbed his back garden fence and crossed two main roads 15 times in his effort to reach the station. "He just loves the train so much ... he thinks he can go on his own," said his mother, Kirstie Field. "He just loves adventure. We don't drive, so apart from the occasional bus, train is our only transport. The first time he actually managed to get on a train and asked for a ticket," she said. "Luckily the train guard didn't leave the station, but there's always that worry that he's going to get on a train and not ask...

Another outing for the iconic restored 1938 tube train – this time on a Friday evening along the District line. This weekend (29th/30th Aug) the Upminster depot is open to the public for its 50th anniversary, and the 1938 train will be on display. Being normally stored safely at London Transport Museum’s Depot at Acton, the train has to get back – and so on Friday 4th Sept the 1938 stock train will be making its return to the depot, and you can be a passenger on that train. It will depart Upminster station at 19:52 and will run non-stop to Ealing Broadway – approximately 90 minutes. Tickets are £20 each and are limited to 150 places only. Book tickets for this event via their website or telephone 0207 565 7298. I’ve done quite a few trips on the train, and...

Today was the highly anticipated 1938 tube train run along the modern Jubilee Line extension, and a rare chance to visit the disused platforms at Charing Cross station. Although I have been on the train several times – the last one booking an entire carriage for a private group, this was still a chance not to be missed. As the excited crowd gathered at Stratford station, the tannoy repeatedly asked passengers for the 1938 heritage train to assemble by platform 13. Unlucky for those on the platform waiting for a normal train who were politely evicted – but lucky for the rest of us! Shortly before the train arrived, we were let onto the platforms and I noticed a nice touch in that the display indicator mentioned the train trip. Previous trips on the Northern Line have...

Being something of a virgin to train travel I recently wrote a piece about my experiences on the Wrexham and Shropshire train service for travel to London from Telford – a week or so ago I got to experience Virgin Trains in all its glory, oh dear, oh very dear. Here is an experiment – think First Class travel for a moment and let me know what sumptuous images jump to mind – looks good doesn’t it? Now, before I get started I want you to know First Class travel is usually way out of my budget (especially on the airlines), however for a two hour plus rail trip to London – First Class when booked in Advance can just about be in reach (though still a substantial sum of money). So, I opted for an Advance ticket using the Virgin Train service and for some reason, when booking...

An Amtrak commuter train struck and killed two pedestrians in separate incidents in Berkeley and Oakland on Friday afternoon, according to train officials and the Alameda County Coroner's office. The first incident occurred at 12:20 p.m. just north of the Berkeley Amtrak, said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole.About two hours later, Cole said, the same train struck and killed another pedestrian just south of the Oakland station near the intersection of East 12th Street and 29th Avenue. Officials with the Capitol Corridor train system, which travels between the South Bay and the Sacramento area, said it was the No. 535 train heading south from Sacramento to San Jose. There were delays to the system shortly after the incident, said spokeswoman Luna Salaver. According to the Alameda County...

No, not this oneAt 12:20 p.m. on Friday 3rd July an Amtrack commuter train struck and killed a pedestrian just north of Berkeley station. This resulted in an unscheduled delay of 1.1/2 hrs to the commuters journey before the train got underway again with a new crew. Two hours later, the same train struck and killed another pedestrian just south of the Oakland station. As Oscar Wilde might have said . . . To kill one pedestrian may be regarded as a misfortune. To kill two – looks like carelessness Read more here . . . Meanwhile, the UK Government has issued some travel advice for any UK citizens planning to visit the USA - If you see an Amtrak train (No 535) hurtling towards you – run like fuck !!!...

Nine confirmed dead and 70 injured after one train rams into rear of another in north-east of cityAt least nine people died and 70 were injured when a Washington DC metro train crashed into the rear of another at the height of the city's evening rush hour yesterday.One of the trains had stopped and was waiting for another train ahead to move out of a station when the second train crashed into it from behind. The front end of the second train jack-knifed into the air and fell on top of the first.The woman driver of the rear train was among those killed. Transit officials have now confirmed an earlier report which had put the death toll at nine.The city's mayor, Adrian Fenty, told a news conference that two people were in a critical but stable condition in local hospitals.A Washington fire...