#express train

Cover of the menu at the dining car of the famous '400' (c. 1950s).

YCH comission for Disruptteo (Reddit).

Why I love traveling by train 🚂🚃

There's something magical about train journeys that never fades for me, whether it's a high-speed express or a nigh train.

Sitting by the window with a cup of hot tea, music playing softly in my ears and watching as the landscape changes outside is pure bliss. The rhythmic motion of the train and the soothing sounds of the tracks always full me into a peaceful state. At night, the gentle swaying of the train rocks me to sleep like nothing else can.

When the train makes a long stop, I love stepping outside a breath of fresh air and standing on solid ground for a moment it's a refreshing pause in the journey.

Train rides often come with interesting encounters. Sometimes I meet wonderful fellow passengers who add warmth to the trip. Other times, there are less pleasant neighbors.

For me, trains bring back the simple joys of childhood watching the scenery race by, feeling the excitement of a journey and cherishing the small yet beautiful moments on the tracks.

Unwittingly celebrated World Heritage Day last Saturday with a trip to the Swansea Model Rail Exhibition, from which I've been sorting & editing footage and uploading with the ultimate view of creating a YouTube compilation, so time now to feature the first model railway to have all footage taken now uploaded.

Box Station is an N scale model railway built by the Swansea Railway Modellers' Group, the original subject matter being a station on the Great Western Mainline between Bath and Chippenham. The nameplate of the signal box is now preserved at the National Rail Museum. Some of these videos I have slowed down from the original running speed as seen on the model last weekend so as to give a more realistic appearance.

It was also here that the Rev. W Awdry, author of the Thomas the Tank Engine books came to watch the trains passing through, as he lived nearby, and he himself relates how the stories were inspired by hearing the freight trains passing by night, banked by tank engines who would push from behind on trains too heavy to be hauled up the gradient by the main locomotive detailed for the run, and imagining the different puffing patterns of the different sized locomotives as being them talking to each other.

(via https://comic.studio/s/9138)