visit Cornwall and the Royal Albert. I defy anybody not to enjoy the trip west of Exeter as the Main snakes along the exe then strikes inland over Dartmoor before falling down Hemerdon into the not very scenic city of Plymouth…leaving North Road you shall see the docks then the RAB…Kernow a’gas dynnergh!
If you are down that way, I’d certainly agree with cogload that Exeter to Plymouth is one of the most scenic train rides in the UK - and the lines in Cornwall (west of Plymouth) still have an authentic Great Western Railway feel about them (lower quadrant semaphore signals etc).
If you are interested in London Underground trains, there is a lot of info here - http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tube/using/useful-info/technical/rolling/default.asp
The guidelines for commercial photography/filming on the Tube are linked off this page - http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tube/company/working/filming/ (and you do need permission for commercial photography), but I can’t find any mention of a general ban on photography on the Tube (having searched the TfL web site).
Tony
There’s no ban on photography on the tube. There is, however a ban on FLASH photography as it sets off the fire alarms, so you need to get a really fast film or take pictures on the 54% of the underground that isn’t actually underground.
The threat of something happening in London is just as great in London as it is anywhere .I travel to London nearly everyday and if i had never been before i would go.See the magnificent station of St Pancras that was used in the Harry Potter films, that is having its platforms lengthened to fit the channel tunnel trains.Next door is Kings Cross where platform 9 3/4 is located and you could travel to York from here.Beautiful city and the National Railway museum is free im told.I depart from Euston station - class 390 Pendolino tilting train, but also see Paddington station where the diesel High Speed Train departs.
Oxford station is a good place to go to see a variety of both passenger and freight trains. It’s only an hours journey from London Paddington and eveyrthing passes between its two platforms so you wont miss anything,
Cardiff Central is a good place to watch the world go by. It has three island platforms, Up Mainline, Down Main Line, and the third for the local Valley Line services, and the two mainline tracks between the respective Main Line Islands are for the freight trains.
East of Cardiff, the off peak pattern is 2 x HST services to and from London Paddington (1 terminating at and returning from Cardiff) and Sprinter services to and from Manchester (via Crewe), Portsmouth (via Bristol, Bath, Salisbury and Southampton), while west of Cardiff 1 HST each way (Swansea - Paddington) and the Manchester Sprinter service menitoned above, which continues to / starts back from West Wales, and a local service runs from the Valley Lines Island serving all main line stations to and from Maesteg.
On the Valley lines, in each off peak hour, Platforms 6 and 7 see 9 or 10 trains in each direction serving the Taff, Rhondda, Cynon and Rhymney valleys, as well as the one time coal exporting ports of Penarth and Barry, as well as a recently introduced service to Bridgend, calling at Rhoose to serve the nearby Cardiff Wales Airport.
Main line freight is mostly steel traffic made up mainly Concast Slabs and Hot Rolled Coils from Corus @ Port Talbot to sister Corus Plants @ Llanwern, Corby and Shotton, and with the remaining coal traffic generated in the area as well as that imported via Newport Docks, and normally results in about 1 or 2 freights through Cardiff Central every hour. Evening and overnight freights include Cold Rolled Steel Coils shipped up to Corus’s distribution centres in the Birmingham area.
The above will rarely exceed 20 x 100 tonne wagons, indeed the longest / heaviest freight of the day is the daily (Mon-Fri) Petrol Tank train from the last rail connected Milford Haven Refinery to Westerleigh, in Bristol’s northern suburbs. At 26 x 100 tonne tanks, this is very much a one-off, and its progress is closely monitored lest it get in the way of any express passenger trains. <