The UK government has FINALLY released their Transport Decarbonisation Plan, and in this week’s #RailNatter we’ll be looking at whether it’s worth the paper it hasn’t been printed on… I have so many questions that need answering, frankly. It’s a classic page-turn, so do join LIVE to get involved! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis . Join in the discussion at https://garethdenni...
Jul 28, 2021•2 hr 36 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast This week we’ve the pleasure of being joined by Iain Kitt, who will use British Transport Films to guide this #RailNatter through the story of rail freight’s twentieth century decline… We look at the key figures and establish if the common villains actually had anything to do with this trend, or whether there were bigger things at stake. Indeed, we explore how this is actually a story of innovation against almighty odds, and one that is now, ever so slowly, paying off again. Join LIVE to get inv...
Jul 21, 2021•2 hr 47 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast Right, well it is high time we had another proper live #RailNatter like the olden days, so your wish is my command… I’m back in the chair this week to talk about the Great Central Railway, why it was brilliant, why that doesn’t make it some form of panacea today, and to talk about how engineers choose between reusing existing alignments versus creating new ones. Join LIVE on Wednesday at 7pm! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loo...
Jul 14, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast This week’s episode is charging forwards at an increasing rate of knots, as Steve Wood guides us through the ways that we can make trains faster… And no, Hyperloop is not the answer! We cover the law of unintended consequences, bang the “the railway is a system” gong a few times, and point out that playing with the slow bits may well be far more useful than playing with the fast bits. We also touch on HS2 and get a signallers perspective on the beauty of Colton Junction! I’m properly on holiday ...
Jul 07, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast We’re back for a proper live #RailNatter episode, and this time Danny Scroggins is joining us to talk about the three generations of conventional signalling control and the three generations of conventional signalling interlocking… You’ve been asking for signalling episodes, so this one should really hit the spot! Join LIVE to ask your questions and get involved! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://pa...
Jun 30, 2021•2 hr 29 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, the British rail industry returned to Long Marston after a year’s hiatus, as Rail Live 2021 kicked off… Whilst lots of us in the industry have been sorely missing the event, lots of you don’t get to visit at all, so I thought I’d dedicate a nice long episode towards showing you what it’s all about! First up, I walk through the site and give you an overview of what visiting is like, what sort of things you get to see and why it happens in the first place. Then I’ll pick out some things...
Jun 23, 2021•2 hr 53 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast Hello from the mid-Rail Live pub! As a result of my being down in Stratford-upon-Avon (recording next week’s #RailNatter !), this week’s episode is a pre-record and we are revisiting track gauge once more… Having established why standard track gauge is 4ft 8.5in, now we will spend an hour working out why it *isn’t* 4ft 8.5in! Do join in LIVE with the chatter as I’ll be dropping in to say hello! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw l...
Jun 16, 2021•1 hr•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast This week’s #RailNatter is picking up after our Welsh railway network episode ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyJBN… ) – and this time we are in SCOTLAND! What should the Scottish railway network actually look like? I’ll take a more analytical look at things and think about how our “algorithm” might be improved to create optimised and realistic rail networks entirely automatically… Join LIVE to have your say! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/gareth...
Jun 09, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast IT’S HERE! The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail has FINALLY been published, and we’ve had almost exactly a week of everyone shouting about it. But what does it actually say? What doesn’t it say? What is missing? Will it mean real positive change or more of the same? Well, in this beefy #RailNatter two-parter, we’ll be doing the now-traditional page-turn to attempt to answer all of these questions, and more… Join LIVE at the usual time to share your thoughts! Download the report here . Enjoyed this?...
Jun 02, 2021•2 hr 14 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast IT’S HERE! The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail has FINALLY been published, and we’ve had almost exactly a week of everyone shouting about it. But what does it actually say? What doesn’t it say? What is missing? Will it mean real positive change or more of the same? Well, in this beefy #RailNatter two-parter, we’ll be doing the now-traditional page-turn to attempt to answer all of these questions, and more… Join LIVE at the usual time to share your thoughts! Download the report here: https://www.go...
May 26, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re diving back into the history of British DMUs in this week’s #RailNatter – and this time esteemed guest Dr Kevin Tennent and I will be setting our sights on the dreaded Pacer! Given these trains ran their final Welsh services last week, it felt like a good time to pick through the common myths surrounding them: first and foremost that their poor quality was a justified compromise to allow the “saving of rural railway lines”. It’s not true, and in this episode, we’ll tell you why!Join LIVE a...
May 19, 2021•2 hr 45 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast This week’s episode of #RailNatter is diving into the government’s “Bus Back Better” report… That’s right, we’ve hopped over to the dark side! Is the paper any good? Do I actually agree with most or even all of it? There’s also A LOT of news to catch up on… Join LIVE on Weds at 7pm to go through it all! Download the report here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publica… Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https:...
May 13, 2021•2 hr 38 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast Given that government is still prevaricating on the critical need to electrify Britain’s railways, this week’s #RailNatter is once again going to explore the question: why bother? A couple of weeks ago, RIA (the Rail Industry Association) published another report laying out the incontrovertible evidence supporting conventional electrification. With the aid of the facts and figures held within, we’ll topple every tired argument against electrification in turn. Join LIVE on Wednesday at 7pm to h...
May 06, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast On the 12th August 2020, a High Speed Train derailed near Stonehaven, killing three people including the driver and conductor. With the RAIB having just published their interim report on the incident, this episode of #RailNatter is going to pick through and pull out the key findings thus far, exploring what we know and what we still don’t know. Join the discussion LIVE on Wednesday at 7pm (UK time). Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis ...
Apr 28, 2021•2 hr 16 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast We’re doing an impersonation of WTYP this week… Because #RailNatter is going to unpick the tale of the Tesco tunnel collapse in Gerrards Cross! Why did the tunnel collapse? Why was that structural form chosen? Why was the tunnel needed at all? What even is Tescos? Join us LIVE to find out answers to all this and more! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis . Join in the disc...
Apr 23, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast It’s another Welsh episode! The Welsh railway network is a mess – in fact, there isn’t really a “Welsh” network at all, it is just a series of branches of the English one… In this week’s #RailNatter , we are discussing why that might be, how we might reverse that state of affairs, and – ultimately – what a useful and realistic Welsh railway network might actually look like! Join LIVE to have your say and to see what I think… Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://p...
Apr 23, 2021•2 hr 30 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast We are joined by not one but TWO guests in this week’s #RailNatter … Alistair Baldwin and Kelly Shuttleworth were the joint authors of the Institute for Government’s excellent paper “How governments use evidence to make transport policy” that was released in February, and I am very pleased to say that they will be joining us for a classic #RailNatter page-turn of that very report! Join us LIVE to ask your questions and share your thoughts! Download the paper here: https://www.instituteforgove...
Apr 23, 2021•2 hr 42 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast In a change to the previously advertised schedule, I’m filling in with a pre-record in this week’s #RailNatter (we’ll have our first dual-guest episode next week)… We’re covering the origins of “standard” track gauge! We’ll bust open the myths about horse’s bottoms and Romans (see also: the Space Shuttle episode) and look at the far more interesting reality of early railway infrastructure development – and not for the last time I am sure! Join LIVE(ish) to keep up to date with the chat, even i...
Apr 23, 2021•56 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast This week’s #RailNatter is a return to the railway colouring-in book! In the previous Crayonista episode, we listed seven top tips for creating vaguely useful or realistic railway alignments. This time I’ll be jumping into Google Earth and looking in more detail at the process of actually creating sensible alignments using these top tips… Where are we linking up? Well, I will be attempting to add Wetherby back into the national rail network! Join LIVE to watch along and have your say! Enjoyed ...
Mar 25, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast We’re flicking through another PDF on screen today, and this time it is the rather exciting Rail for All report created for the Scottish Greens. No other UK party has created a document like this in modern history – and the country is all the worse off for it. But does it hold up to scrutiny? Join LIVE to find out. Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis . Join in the discussio...
Mar 24, 2021•2 hr 40 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast We’ve done it – #RailNatter is a year old! To celebrate, we’re getting all of the Patreon supporters on to talk about their favourite moments and episodes, and more importantly to hand out the GOLDEN PANDROL CLIP to the award winning episodes… Join the chaos LIVE at the usual time! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis . Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/...
Mar 24, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast Much as the situation appears to be improving year on year, the railways still aren’t safe enough, as we were tragically reminded of earlier this year with the death of Tyler Byrne at Surbiton station. But how has railway staff safety changed over the years? Is there anything we can learn from accidents from decades and even centuries gone by? There are few better people to ask than Dr Mike Esbester, who leads the Railway Work, Life & Death project out of the University of Porstmouth. We’ll talk...
Mar 24, 2021•2 hr 33 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast This week’s #RailNatter is harking back to the days of AOL and email chains (oh, and more recently, THAT daft Twitter thread about track gauge, horses bottoms and rocket boosters)… Yes, friend of the show John Morgan Christoph is joining us to bring his space and geology skills to bear and guide us through the more interesting spacey side-stories associated with this silly set of myths! Why did the Shuttle use solid rocket boosters? Why did they travel by rail? How did the railways help build ...
Feb 25, 2021•2 hr 4 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast It’s another solo #RailNatter , and this week we are also doing another page turn… This time we are picking through the West Yorkshire mass transit proposals. Are they any good? Is there anything that needs to change? What is the likelihood they will actually happen? Is there anything we can learn from them? All this and more, LIVE and with you lot asking the questions! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.m...
Feb 25, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast We’re back for another #RailNatter , and this one is somewhat topical… A month after everyone got a really good look at the inside of the US Capitol buildings, we are joined by the brilliant Ann Gavaghan (@anngav on Twitter) to talk about the tunnels underneath this complex of buildings. Join us LIVE as the secrets are revealed to ask all your questions! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis. ...
Feb 16, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast #TheArchitectureTheRailwaysBuilt has returned to our tellies, which means that Britain’s most effervescent ferroequinologist is coming back on #RailNatter ! One of the loveliest and most pleasingly knowledgeable railway folks out there, replete with his array of books, miniatures and scarves, joins us again to talk about his new series, with more behind the scenes goodies and hints as to what lies in store for us in future episodes. Join us LIVE to ask all of your questions and to see the two...
Feb 04, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast #RailNatter started with the first of the coronavirus lockdowns… With the virus having been around in the UK for around a year, and with passenger levels still at less than 20% of pre-COVID levels, what does the future look like for Britain’s railways? For Episode 46, we’ll look at a lot of the myths, forgotten realities and plans elsewhere in the world to get an idea of whether the doom and gloom currently being peddled is in fact misplaced… Join LIVE to ask all of your questions, make your s...
Feb 04, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast For Episode 45 of #RailNatter , we’re grabbing a copy of the National Infrastructure Commission’s “Rail Needs Assessment for the Midlands and the North”. This was supposed to be the stepping off point for a revolution in railway transport for the regions outside of London and the south, and yet it appears to have signified the start of a major abandonment of by the current government. But why? Join me LIVE to ask your questions as I flick through the report and explore its contents in detail… Re...
Jan 25, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast We’re back for our first LIVE #RailNatter of 2021… For episode 44 we are heading to South Wales, where James Bennett will update us on the progress of the South Wales Metro, and indeed explain a bit more about what it is. Will I have to hammer the #NotAMetro buzzer? What type of traction is being used where? How much of the system will be electrified? Join us LIVE for the answers to these and any other questions you might have! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at patreon.c...
Jan 20, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast That’s it! 2020 is finally over! It can only get better, right?! To celebrate, this episode of #RailNatter is a corker: we’ve got Justin Roczniak a.k.a. @donoteat01 off of Franklin and @Well There’s Your Problem Podcast bursting some preconceptions that us exceptionalist Brits might have about US railroads… Oh, and quite a lot of other stuff, too (this one ran long, as you might have imagined it might)! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw ...
Jan 06, 2021•2 hr•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast 
