Transport Eclectica
Welcome to the world that is Whitchurch!
This site is basically a collection of pictures and maps and diagrams and sketches, and other odd things that have been discussed from time to time in the Usenet newsgroup, uk.railway. Note: the pictures aren't linked back to this page so you'll need to use whatever passes for a BACK feature in your browser. NEW! - a seating plan for TransPennine Express's new Pennine Class 185 units. And there's still one for Virgin's "Pendolino" trains, and another one for their Voyager trains. There's even one for One, though note that it is missing the new coach "H", i.e the kitchen/dining coach. I've dropped the seating plans for GNER's trains because they've changed again and I've not got up to date versions yet. Many thanks to Ivor Sleeper for scanning these plans for me. If you want a seating plan for Eurostar, you'll find a pdf plan on the Rail Europe website.
(PRIVATE and not for publication):
Simply a page of links to the things that always used to be labelled "(PRIVATE and not for publication)" but now, in a bizarre spin-off from the privatisation process, are freely available on the World Wide Web.
Night Mails:
The Travelling Post Office Page - top of the list and traditionally the most important service on Britain's railways, the one with priority even over the Royal Train. Sadly, the true TPOs with on-board sorting finished for good in January 2004, but this page will give you some idea of what it was like to work on these amazing trains.
Regular Timetabled Services:
The Gauge Page - a review of British & Continental Railway Loading Gauges.
The Map Page showing the extent of Britain's railways back in 1961 - before the infamous "Beeching Report" and the pruning of many branch and secondary lines. Also included are maps of the lines Beeching planned to close. This section also has a "post Beeching" map from 1969, and links to the 1935 Railway Clearing House map of London and the 1924 Ordnance Survey "One Inch" map of Bolton and Manchester. (The last two maps are kept on different servers from this page.)
The Requirements Page - the standard clearances and dimensions of British standard gauge railways as Required by the Minister of Transport in the 1950s.
The Tickets Page - British railway tickets, before and after APTIS. There's also a short section explaining APTIS tickets.
The Wheels Page - steam locomotive wheel types and the names used to distinguish them.
Plus a list of British Named Trains - still not quite comprehensive so
let me know of any more that I've missed out!
"Top of the world, Ma!":
A page of photographs taken from the top of the north cantilever tower of the Forth Bridge - the Forth Wonder of the World. (Many thanks to chums at Network Rail and Palmers (contractors) for getting me up there the easy way - by hoist!)
Dated Services:
Remember Camping Coaches? They're still around, and I'm pleased to give a mention to Railholiday of Cornwall, a family business specialising in self-catering holiday accommodation in converted railway vehicles. They have a BR Mark 1 Corridor Second based at Hayle, an LSWR Passenger Luggage Van dating from 1896, based at St Germans, and amazingly, a GWR Travelling Post Office that was originally built for broad gauge track back in 1889 (also at St Germans). The website includes lots of photos of these intriguing vehicles (see particularly the Virtual Tours of the Mark 1 and the Luggage Van).
For lack of webspace, I've had to delete the couple of maps from the Beeching Report that used to be here. You can now find them at the Railways Archive, if you don't mind downloading a huge (4.6 MB) file.
My scans of part of the 1924 Ordnance Survey "One Inch" map of Bolton and Manchester are on a different server from this one.
Refreshment Services:
Some fine advertisements for British Transport Catering Services are temporarily suspended for lack of webspace.
This site was last updated in October 2008 by the entity known as Joyce Whitchurch.
Find out more about J B Joyce & Co., the oldest firm of tower clockmakers in the world - established 1690. Or have a look at the Whitchurch Town Trail - scroll down about half way to find the Joyce Factory.
Comments on this site, or notice of any broken links, are always welcome: let me know.
Return to the top of this page.
![[image] The replica Joyce clock at Stalybridge station - click to find out more about the world's oldest firm of tower clockmakers](joyce3a.jpg "The replica Joyce clock at Stalybridge station - click to find out more")
