KingEdwardII

Unfortunately, the video does not deal with the route and timing for the interchange between Elizabeth line trains arriving/departing from the main line platforms and the trains on the subterranean Elizabeth line platforms, which is the what I really want to know about. I've picked up that the interchange at Liverpool Street involves: - ideally be in the Eastern end (front) of the Elizabeth line train from Paddington - leave the Elizabeth line station from the eastern entrance ("Broadgate") - go into Liverpool Street mainline station and head direct for the high numbered platforms (right hand side as you enter the building from the front) - timing unclear at the moment... You need to check out/check in at both Paddington & Liverpool Street, but if using Oyster or Contactless Card, then you will get the benefit of the maximum charge for the day in any case. Yours, Mike.

This page has an update which deals with the Elizabeth line: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations-and-destinations/stations-made-easy/london-paddington-station-plan ...although it isn't the clearest map I ever saw! It does show the escalators and the lifts, including the connection to the Bakerloo. Yours, Mike.

Anyone got experience of the changeover between Elizabeth line trains at Paddington and at Liverpool Street? How long it takes, how complex the route, etc...

Indeed. When advising on designing data centres for high availability, one of the serious risks is "the man with the digger" accidentally chopping through the cabling (both data and power cables). Who needs a planned attack when sheer incompetence will do the job far better? Serious data centres typically have 3 or more separate sets of cabling using different physical routing for just this issue. Even then, care needs to be taken regarding the wider networks that the cables are attached to, to avoid single points of failure in the network providers systems. Yours, Mike.

With that much at stake, I strongly recommend that you invest in a good multimeter to enable you to test things before applying the voltage to anything. Yours, Mike.

Actually, the Elizabeth line is at least as good as the alternatives for an East/West journey even in its initial state which require a change at both Paddington and Liverpool Street if going on the eastern branch to Shenfield. Indeed, I think it will be faster if the real change times are less than those in the National Rail system, as seems likely to me. I am sure that journeys to Abbey Wood are going to be faster than any current alternative, even with the single change required. I'm planning on using the Elizabeth line to go from west London (Hayes) to Stratford on 4 June for the Hockey internationals - my only concern relates to the various Jubilee events and the potential for crowding, but that would affect any route I could choose. Yours, Mike.

Because Hayes to Stratford is the journey that I am planning. Hockey internationals at the Lee Valley stadium... The alternatives are the North London line from Richmond/Kew to Stratford or the same pair using train/tube via Waterloo. At the moment, with the changes at Paddington & Liverpool Street, it's a toss-up between all 3 alternatives - they all take somewhere just over an hour (with the really pessimistic change times used by the app). But I am looking for an excuse to use the Elizabeth line - and this is my first journey that could reasonably use that route. Yours, Mike.

The National Rail website and app correctly display the Elizabeth line services for journeys from Hayes to Stratford, although they make too much allowance for the connection times at Paddington & Liverpool Street. Yours, Mike.

I think that this deserves national ringing of church bells and the cermonial dunking of the Mayor of London in the Thames!! Next I shall have to invent a pretext to travel on one of the shiny new trains right through central London... Yours, Mike.

I agree - the overall amount of power involved is not so large. It is a very different story with the power requirements of both EVs and home heating, which will require enormous amounts of additional electrical power to achieve the poorly thought out NetZero ambitions. The limitation on railway electrification is the treasury and the inability of the politicians to make the necessary finance available. Yours, Mike.

They seem to be running with the idea of making it all a damned sight more expensive all round. However, why should we reduce demand for travel? The ready availability of the means to travel is one of the key elements of modern civilisation. I see no good reason to reduce its availability. Yours, Mike.

Indeed, where any politician makes noises about the need for "Net Zero", I now poke them in the ribs and remind them that when the chips are down and the government is required to come up with hard cash for electrification projects that only they can fund, they are time and again found wanting. And if they try to insist that we the public should spend our money on expensive items like heat pumps and electric cars, they get a very dusty response from me. It is truly shocking that so many of the main lines in the UK are still not electrified, let alone the many secondary routes. Yours, Mike.

Sam, Have you tried connecting the USB/Ethernet adapter directly to the tablet, without the power charger? Yours, Mike

No, most certainly not. My Macbook Pro uses USB-C charging @ 20V, for example. There is a USB Power Delivery standard that supports voltages of 5/9/15/20 V and maximum power up to 100W. They are working on a revised version of this standard to support even higher voltages and more power, aimed at the power tool market. Yours, Mike.

I use MTB MP1 point motors and they, like other slow action motors, will keep the switch blades fixed at the end of travel, without the need for a spring. Indeed these motors work best with the spring removed. Yours, Mike.

I think that the GWSR extension to Broadway - a significant "somewhere" in tourist terms - has made a big difference to the attractiveness of the GWSR to the general public. The terminus at Cheltenham Racecourse is significant for racedays (they run race specials) but Cheltenham itself is yet another significant place for tourists. Yours, Mike.

Well, like the various Birmingham suburbs and satellite communities. The sorts of places served by the Bromsgrove/Redditch to Lichfield line, for example. Or Wolverhampton or Walsall/Rugeley. Birmingham has a quite decent set of rail connections to these communities - and these are all part of the story for HS2, since not so many folk live directly in the middle of Birmingham city centre. For me, this is simply "joined up thinking" - you have to deal with the overall journeys that people are making, not just one piece. Otherwise, they are just as likely to leap into a car since it is less hassle. Yours, Mike.

Hmm, not the experience I've had with my wife's laptop. Twice Windows 11 has managed to lose the configuration relating to the keyboard and render the system unusable on bootup, even after a reboot. Checking through the various forums reveals that this is not an uncommon problem - fortunately those same forums also provide a practical solution to re-enable the laptop. Root cause appears to be a bug in Windows 11. Before you blame the laptop hardware, I'll point out that this is a standard unmodified Microsoft Surface 2 machine - i.e. an all Microsoft combination. Colour me unimpressed, since I'm the "expert" who has to sort out the mess. I simply don't get issues like this on the Mac and Linux systems that I have. I'm regretting not switching my wife's system over to a Mac the last time we had to buy a new machine for her. It would have saved me some hours work and a few grey hairs... Yours, Mike.

A week ago I finally went past the location of the new Curzon Street station in Birmingham, while travelling on a train from Coventry to New Street. It is an amazing sight - a huge long area dedicated to the new terminus, still at the "piles of earth" stage. I can't help but feel that they should really try to find a way to get a couple of platforms on the tracks into New Street, to enable folk arriving at Curzon Street to get to New Street with minimal fuss - the existing tracks go right along the length of the new station. The current plans leave a really awkward gap for anyone who needs to connect with local and regional services that are centred on New Street. Moor Street services are better connected, since the front entrance of Curzon Street basically faces on to Moor Street station, but a lot more of the West Midlands services centre on New Street. The idea of the tram connection is something of a second best in my view. Yours, Mike.

Unfortunately, I don't think the design of the new road makes any difference to those folk - the later protests at the A34 Newbury bypass were even more hysterical and the road design there is pretty bland and even used the alignment of the abandoned Newbury to Didcot railway line for some of its length. The biggest road design crime with the M3 at Winchester is actually the crazy junction with the A34 on the north side - a roundabout used to connect 2 really major roads (now with added traffic lights, of course). It has been a mess ever since it was constructed - there are plans to replace it with a proper graded junction, but as ever, those plans seem to be disappearing into the future since it's an expensive item. Yours, Mike.

Yes, it is all too easy to forget the living conditions for the navvies and their families, having to survive winters in one of the most remote and inhospitable areas in England in a series of shanty towns built near the construction sites. As many died from disease as from construction accidents. A grim story that HS2 thankfully will not repeat. Yours, Mike.

It's the standard M.O. of environmentalists. I remember all the fuss about the M3 route east of Winchester - frankly, the situation there now is much better than what went before, with the site of the old Winchester bypass now a green hillside overlooking the River Itchen. Much was made of the impact of the new cutting for the M3 - a "blinding white gash visible for miles". There, nature has taken over, as so often in chalk cuttings, with trees and brush growing over most of it, just as it has over the similar Victorian constructions along the railways. I suspect that HS2 will rapidly blend in to the countryside once construction is completed. Yours, Mike.

Yes, but be aware of issues: 1) there are a variety of socket types and you need to make sure that you buy a decoder that will fit the socket that is installed in the loco 2) being DCC ready just says that there is a socket that will accept a decoder (of the right type). It says nothing about the space that is available within the loco body to accept the decoder - this can be a tricky business for some locos, especially steam locos, with space being very limited and not necessarily close to the location of the socket. Decoder size can be a very important factor, as also how the decoder is connected to the socket - e.g. the decoder might be connected to the socket via a reasonably long set of wires that enable you to place the decoder into some convenient space inside the loco body. These factors influence which decoder to buy for a given loco. For some of the popular brands, like Zimo, you will find that they have a long list of decoders available, varying by socket type, size and functionality. Yours, Mike.

Currently, there are trains from Blackfriars to Sutton via Wimbledon, but not direct from KXSP. If you enquire on the National Rail app, KXSP - Wimbledon is always a connection using the Victoria line to Vauxhall, since the connection via Blackfriars is quite slow. The SWR connections from Wimbledon are also not great - for Basingstoke and beyond you might as well walk ;-). Some suggested routes from Wimbledon take you back to Clapham Junction... Clapham Junction is a good place for connections to the south and west - Waterloo is better only for some of the longer distance express services like Bournemouth, especially during rush hour. The interchange between Victoria line and Main Line at Vauxhall is not the best, however. Yours, Mike.

Very true. I have done that journey from Waterloo to/from St Pancras many times, luggage included. Not much fun. Changing tube lines is not much fun - some stations are better than others. Some of this could be fixed by having trains run between St Pancras and Clapham Junction - the lines are there, but no trains are scheduled to that route. I think that it would be worth sacrificing some of the trains between south/south east London and St Pancras in order to get this. 2tph would be fine to start with. I agree that CR2 would be a better answer, but I doubt I'll ever see that come to fruition. Yours, Mike.