Railways around Coventry

Hi MR - hope you are well - and thanks for the great photo That looks like the place with the "hand car wash" premises (green fencing) to the extreme right in the photo. Did you take this photo on the WarwickshireRailways.com site - as you seem to have been standing in the same spot in space, if not time?

Hi & thank you 3Spires, You are most welcome.

No! I'm know I'm getting on, but not quite THAT old!

My advice: don't have any truck with that old photo.

Bit of a problem. As is well known, we use the trains a lot, and have planned to go to London both this and next weekend, to EUS (handy as it's on the Northern Line tube). Not on business, you understand, but social - different sets of friends with birthdays. But Euston will be completely closed for 3 consecutive weekends, starting this Saturday. The excuse given is that they're doing work for the HS2, so it looks like HS2 is going ahead, even though the country can't afford it. How dare they close Euston! And for another white elephant. So it's a case of using the slower Chiltern line from LMS to MYB. Reckon that train will be packed!

Hi Slim I do hope that you have a comfortable journey.

Perhaps Warwick Parkway might be a better bet?

I had considered that, but it means a car journey with expensive parking, and increases the journey time. It's more convenient to get the train from KNW to LMS on the outward, then get a late bus Sunday evening (there being no trains at KNW on a Sunday!).

Hi all Please note that there are no trains serving Coventry next weekend.

Full marks to Chiltern. Train service to London and back excellent this weekend. (It was a nuisance that the Bakerloo line was closed all weekend, but that's another matter.) And a lot cheaper than going West Coast line to Euston: only £20.15 return, valid on all weekend trains. I intend to use that route again, as opposed to the West Coast line. Virgin Trains don't deserve the business. Long story short, I had a ruck with VT over an incident where they cocked up ages ago. It has taken over 3 months of failed telephone calls ("we're sorry, we're not answering the phone today") and emails which were totally ignored, for them to reply to me by post with a letter that implies I'm responsible for checking and correcting their mistakes, but as a gesture they're refunding me by way of an enclosed travel voucher, which I didn't want as I had made it quite clear I wanted the money putting back into my bank account. Their website is deliberately over-complicated and difficult to use, and it proudly assures you they will settle your claim within 28 days. Contrast that with West Midland trains. Recently there was a couple of incidents in north London, a trackside fire and a fatality (suicide usually), causing numerous cancellations from Euston and my train was over 3 hours late departing. Their online claim site was straightforward, and the full refund was paid into my bank account before the end of the week. There's a site called TrustPilot, and the numerous reviews show are that my experience of VT is par for the course. They don't want anyone to contact them, and are hoping the general public will get fed up with being ignored, then go away so they end up pocketing a lot of cash. Well I'm not the general public!

Railway & bus photographer Ken Jones has sent me this photo which he believes was taken in Coventry in the early 1960s but asks if anyone can recognise the location.

Websters brickworks sidings?

Morning all A sad scene near to Coleshill, blocking all services between Nuneaton & Birmingham this week.

Train 4L22 Hams Hall-Felixstowe, hauled by Class 66 66727 - at low speed, Whitacre Junction - only eight minutes into its journey

Hams Hall?????????? I bet it was full of BMW engines.