Alle afleveringen
328 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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#RailNatter Episode 77: Can I natter for an hour in the Railway Museum North Shed?
1 september 2021 · 1 uur 7 min
I’m back in the National Railway Museum North Shed at long last! Lees meer
Tonight’s #RailNatter brings you all a challenge: can I talk unscripted for an entire hour in the North Shed? Will I survive microphone malfunctions, battery overheating and a general lack of oxygen to bring you a non-stop hour of treats?
See what you need to do to visit the museum (you still need to book ahead): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQYmi…
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 76: High Speed 2 – building Britain’s longest railway tunnel
25 augustus 2021 · 1 uur 8 min
It’s another on-location #RailNatter! Join me and a motley crew as we explore one of Europe’s largest construction sites – High Speed 2’s Chalfont Lane staging point for the construction of not one, not two, not three but FOUR record-breaking things: the UK’s first and second longest railway tunnels, the UK’s longest railway viaduct, and Europe’s largest chalk habitat regeneration project. Lees meer
This episode will look in detail at the HS2 Chiltern Tunnels, getting up close and personal with a tunnel boring machine and touring the factory that manufactures the tunnel lining segments. We’ll also go for a bit of a walk to explore the far reaches of the site…
Watch an excellent and decidedly more concise video from the day, with me popping up here and there, by @Geoff Marshall.
See the official HS2 Ltd TBM tour with the brilliant Adrien (as heard in this podcast too)
Watch the YouTube release of this podcast (for the visuals!)
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 75: Bessie’s Ballast – raising money for Samaritans (in style)
18 augustus 2021 · 1 uur 11 min
This week’s #RailNatter is an utter delight, with Bessie Matthews joining us to talk about her role on the railway and her incredible (and wonderfully artistic) efforts to raise money for Samaritans by making the most of a big bag (and later a much littler bag) of ballast… Lees meer
Join in LIVE(ish) at 7pm on Wednesday!
Find out more about Samaritans here: https://www.samaritans.org/
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 74: A page-turn through the UK’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan (Part 2)
11 augustus 2021 · 1 uur 38 min
PART TWO 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. Lees meer
It’s a classic page-turn, and you can see what whent on in the live chat on YouTube.
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 73: Is electrifying motorways really a good idea?
4 augustus 2021 · 1 uur 20 min
We’re getting back to our #RailNatter roots in this week’s episode, as I’ll be doing a mostly “big face” Q&A to talk about the e-Highway plans proposed by the UK government for trial on the M180 near Scunthorpe. Is putting catenary over a motorway a good idea? How will it actually work in practice? Is this yet another distraction technique for a government desperate not to actually invest in rail? Lees meer
Tune in 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 discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
This was Ela’s first proper upload. How did she do? Tweet Gareth and tell him!
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#RailNatter Episode 72: A page-turn through the UK’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan
28 juli 2021 · 1 uur 36 min
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… Lees meer
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://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 71: What happened to all the freight?
21 juli 2021 · 1 uur 47 min
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… Lees meer
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 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://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 70: Reopening the Great Central is no alternative to HS2
14 juli 2021 · 1 uur 9 min
Right, well it is high time we had another proper live #RailNatter like the olden days, so your wish is my command… Lees meer
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 loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 69 (nice): How to make trains go faster
7 juli 2021 · 1 uur 23 min
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! Lees meer
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 this time, so whilst you can all join LIVE I will in fact be entirely unable to… So fingers crossed this launches when it is supposed to!
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 68: The three generations of signalling control and interlocking
30 juni 2021 · 2 uur 29 min
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… Lees meer
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://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 67: Rail Live 2021!
23 juni 2021 · 1 uur 53 min
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! Lees meer
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 that particularly interested me, like the Merseyrail Class 777, the Network Rail NMT, the Network Rail helicopters and the Vivarail Class 230. There’s lots of other stuff to see as well – plus a lot of cameos from past and future #RailNatter guests!
I round off with a good long chat with Nigel Harris, managing editor of RAIL magazine and the man in charge of making Rail Live a reality each year.
I’ll drop into the chat LIVE, so do join in the fun as there are lots of easter eggs strewn about for you to spot!
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 66: Why isn’t Standard Track Gauge Four Foot Eight And A Half Inches?
16 juni 2021 · 1 uur
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… Lees meer
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 loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 65: What should the Scottish railway map look like?
9 juni 2021 · 1 uur 19 min
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! Lees meer
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/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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Episode 64: The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail (PART TWO)
2 juni 2021 · 2 uur 14 min
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. Lees meer
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? 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/discord.
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Episode 63: The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail (PART ONE)
26 mei 2021 · 1 uur 21 min
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. Lees meer
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.gov.uk/government/publica…
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 62: Pacers were bad and saved nothing (with Dr Kevin Tennent)
19 mei 2021 · 1 uur 45 min
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! Lees meer
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 at 7pm on Weds to get in on the fun. 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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 61: Let’s talk about buses
13 mei 2021 · 1 uur 38 min
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! Lees meer
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://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#Railnatter Episode 60: Why bother with electrification?
6 mei 2021 · 1 uur 28 min
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? Lees meer
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 have your say.
Download the report here: https://www.riagb.org.uk/RIA/Newsroom…
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 59: The Carmont derailment (looking at the interim report)
29 april 2021 · 2 uur 16 min
On the 12th August 2020, a High Speed Train derailed near Stonehaven, killing three people including the driver and conductor. Lees meer
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 or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 58: That time Gerrards Cross Tesco fell on the railway
23 april 2021 · 1 uur 10 min
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! Lees meer
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 discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 57: What should the Welsh railway map look like?
23 april 2021 · 1 uur 30 min
It’s another Welsh episode! Lees meer
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://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 56: How governments use evidence to make transport policy
23 april 2021 · 1 uur 42 min
We are joined by not one but TWO guests in this week’s #RailNatter… Lees meer
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.instituteforgovernment.or…
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 55: Why Is Standard Track Gauge Four Foot Eight And A Half Inches?
23 april 2021 · 56 min
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! Lees meer
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 if I am not about to follow!
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 54: The Engineer’s Guide to Being A Good Crayonista (Part 2)
25 maart 2021 · 1 uur 13 min
This week’s #RailNatter is a return to the railway colouring-in book! Lees meer
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 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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 53: A page-turn through the Scottish Greens’ “Rail for All” report
24 maart 2021 · 1 uur 40 min
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. Lees meer
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 discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 52: The #RailNatter Anniversary Special
24 maart 2021 · 1 uur 3 min
We’ve done it – #RailNatter is a year old! Lees meer
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 51: Railway staff safety through time (with Mike Esbester)
24 maart 2021 · 1 uur 33 min
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. Lees meer
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 about both contemporary and historic safety incidents, and see what we can learn from both.
Join us LIVE as we chat about the project and what Mike has learned…
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/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 50: Space Shuttle Rocket Boosters (with John Morgan Cristoph)
25 februari 2021 · 2 uur 4 min
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)… Lees meer
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 the Kennedy Space Centre in the first place?
Join us LIVE at the usual time to find out this and more!
The Hyperloop paper is here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/…
The Native Land map can be found here: https://native-land.ca/
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 49: West Yorkshire mass transit
25 februari 2021 · 1 uur 29 min
It’s another solo #RailNatter, and this week we are also doing another page turn… Lees meer
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.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 48: Tunnels Under the US Capitol (with Ann Gavaghan)
16 februari 2021 · 1 uur 25 min
We’re back for another #RailNatter, and this one is somewhat topical… Lees meer
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. Join in the discussion at garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 47: The Architecture the Railways Built 2 (with Tim Dunn)
4 februari 2021 · 1 uur 16 min
#TheArchitectureTheRailwaysBuilt has returned to our tellies, which means that Britain’s most effervescent ferroequinologist is coming back on #RailNatter! Lees meer
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 of us quaff wine like it is out of fashion…
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 46: Coronavirus versus railways
4 februari 2021 · 1 uur 21 min
#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? Lees meer
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 suggestions as to what happens next, and generally get involved in the discussion!
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 45: A page-turn through the NIC’s strategic rail links report
25 januari 2021 · 1 uur 19 min
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”. Lees meer
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…
Read my piece on why the report was a failure here: https://garethdennis.medium.com/the-n…
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 44: What is the South Wales Metro? (with James Bennett)
20 januari 2021 · 1 uur 23 min
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. Lees meer
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.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 43: US railroads can be Good, Actually (with Justin Roczniak)
6 januari 2021 · 2 uur
That’s it! 2020 is finally over! It can only get better, right?! Lees meer
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 loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 42: Snow versus railways (with Alex Priestley)
30 december 2020 · 1 uur 1 min
Well, everyone is hopefully stuffed full of carb-rich food at this point, and given that (for British viewers at least) it is probably four degrees and drizzling outside, I thought it would be best for us to think about snowier times… Lees meer
Who better to join us to talk about snow than certified/certifiable snow nerd and in-denial Bahnnerd Alex Priestley? We’ll cover what snow is, how it impacts on the railway, how the railway deals with it, and two times we escaped snow-based railway calamity (and yes, we’ll mention snow sheds and jet engines mounted on flatbeds).
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
This episode is also the meaning of life, the universe and everything.
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#RailNatter Episode 41: What do the railways do at Christmas? (with Bonnie Price)
23 december 2020 · 1 uur 37 min
Yuletide Greetings, all! It’s the first of the #RailNatter holiday specials, and Bonnie Price has joined us to talk about what on earth the railways get up to when the trains are all tucked up in their depots! Lees meer
We cover what a blockade is, what sort of thing we do when they are in place, and why we both think the future of the railways would be brighter if we were more comfortable with spreading them around the year a bit more…
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at garethdennis.co.uk/discord.
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#RailNatter Episode 40: Four fatal derailments that changed the permanent way for good
17 december 2020 · 1 uur 42 min
Four post-war railway disasters changed the modern permanent way (a.k.a. track system) more than any others: Hither Green, Tattenhall, Ulleskelf and Hatfield. Lees meer
All of these fatal tragedies exposed cracks in our understanding of the way the permanent way worked, resulting in the industry learning, developing, and becoming safer. This week’s #RailNatter will explore the legacy of each in turn.
Join LIVE to ask your questions and hopefully see how important and powerful incremental innovation is.
Note that this episode contains images and descriptions of train derailments that some viewers may find upsetting.
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#RailNatter Episode 39: What is slab track and why is it good (with Ivana Avramović)
16 december 2020 · 1 uur 38 min
I harp on about slab track quite a bit, not least in relation to its improvement in the whole-life costs and impacts of intensively-used railway infrastructure… But what exactly is it, and how does it work? Lees meer
Well, Ivana Avramović is from PORR, which is the world’s leading manufacturer of slab track, and she’ll be joining us for tonight’s #RailNatter to explain all!
Tune in LIVE to ask your questions!
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#RailNatter Episode 38: Get an e-bike for Christmas (with Lindsay Broadwell)
3 december 2020 · 1 uur 31 min
This week’s #RailNatter is for everyone who thinks that cycling and railways are a perfect match… Lindsay Broadwell and I will be talking all things e-bike! We’ll touch on bike provision on trains, trolley buses and nuclear, too… Lees meer
See you LIVE for much chat!
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#RailNatter Episode 37: Why is it so important to tell people that Hyperloop is bad?
26 november 2020 · 1 uur 12 min
There’s been a lot of transport nonsense in the news recently: Hyperloop pretended it carried some passengers, Elon Musk’s Loop outed itself as completely useless, the Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro is asking for people to submit ideas as to what on earth it is… Lees meer
In all cases, real transport solutions are pushed further away. So I thought I’d do an episode of #RailNatter explaining why it is so important to trash talk this junk, how best to do it, and the best tools in your rhetorical armoury to make use of.
Join LIVE to ask all your questions!
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#RailNatter Episode 36: What exactly is sustainability? (with Simon Kendler)
25 november 2020 · 1 uur 49 min
In Episode 36 of #RailNatter, we are being joined by bona fide young rail professional Simon Kendler! Lees meer
Given that both of us call ourselves sustainable transport advocates, we thought it would make sense to discuss what exactly “sustainability” means in a transport context… What constitutes “sustainable” transport? Is it all about the colour green? Are railways sustainable? Is anything?
Join us LIVE to ask us your questions!
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#RailNatter Episode 35: Scenic Rail Tours Of An Hour In Length – Inverurie to Elgin
18 november 2020 · 1 uur 17 min
For Episode 35 of #RailNatter, we are trying a new intermittent format: Scenic Rail Tours of An Hour In Length (as requested by the Patreon people)! Lees meer
For the first episode, we are going back to my roots and taking a virtual trip from Inverurie to Elgin… What is there to see and do? What will we find out along the way? Will this format actually work?
Join LIVE to find out!
Here’s the link to the NLS’s old mapping comparison website: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/
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#RailNatter Episode 34: A Correspondent’s Guide to Europe’s railways
11 november 2020 · 1 uur 40 min
This week, I am very pleased to say we have long-time audio-only #RailNatter listener (oh, and the Independent’s Policy Correspondent) Jon Stone joining us to talk about his experiences of mainland Europe’s railways during his time posted as Brussels correspondent… Lees meer
Where could Britain learn from our mainland railway colleagues? Is there anything that we do better? Just how terrible is #RailNatter in an audio-only format?
Join us LIVE where Jon will be answering these and many other questions.
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#RailNatter Episode 33: Would a fixed link to Northern Ireland work?
29 oktober 2020 · 1 uur 13 min
In Episode 33 of #RailNatter, we are looking at what a fixed link to the island of Ireland (via Northern Ireland) might look like… Lees meer
Should it be high speed? Are either a bridge or a tunnel possible? Should it link from Wales, England or Scotland? How much might it cost? Given that Boris Johnson likes the idea, is the whole thing completely nonsensical from an engineering perspective?
Join me LIVE for a chat all about it… But a warning: we may raise more questions than answers!
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#RailNatter Episode 32: The Island of Tube Trains
23 oktober 2020 · 1 uur
This week (or rather, a month ago as this is a pre-record), railway writer Richard Long is joining us to talk about the mysterious Island of Tube Trains, or the Isle of Wight as it is generally written on the map. Lees meer
This will be a #RailNatter full of tales of little engines, gauge clearance and a second chance for many a former metro train…
Buy Richard’s book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01DS2I7H4
Or here if you want to avoid Amazon: https://iwsr-store.solent.co/product/…
Find Richard on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/rclongauthor
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#RailNatter Episode 31: Is level boarding on trains really that hard to achieve?
23 oktober 2020 · 1 uur 31 min
This week’s #RailNatter aims to get to the root of an issue incredibly close to my heart, and something we as an industry do a very bad job of: actually letting everyone get on our trains. Lees meer
In Episode 31, we’ll be looking at the issue of level boarding: what do I mean by this, why is it an issue, and is it as hard to achieve as lots of people say it is? I’ll also look at why an industry in the 2020s still thinks it is okay to exclude huge numbers of people from using trains like everyone else.
Join us LIVE to ask all of your level boarding questions… This won’t be the last episode on this subject, either.
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#RailNatter Episode 30: Skills gap? What skills gap? (#RailWeek special with Harriet Glen)
7 oktober 2020 · 1 uur 30 min
It is #RailWeek! Which means we are having a special Rail Week-themed #RailNatter! Lees meer
In Episode 30, we'll be joined by brilliant transport planner Harriet Glen for a live, hour-long ASK US ANYTHING session! Interested in a career in the railways? This is the Q&A for you!
We'll be setting out to answer the following questions... What is the skills gap and how bad is it? Why do we have a skills gap? How can we look to address the skills gap?
As promised, here are some links to help with...
FINDING RAIL JOBS: https://www.railwaypeople.com/
https://www.morson.com/disciplines/ra...
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-...
OUTREACH:
https://stemettes.org/
https://www.thegirlsnetwork.org.uk/
https://www.wes.org.uk/content/educat...
RESEARCH:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...
https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/seeing-be...
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting me at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis.
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#RailNatter Episode 29: A hundred* ways for railway rails to fail
30 september 2020 · 1 uur 41 min
In this week's #RailNatter, I'm talking about all of the ways in which railway rails - yes, just the rails themselves - give up and stop holding trains up in the air. Lees meer
What's a squat? Fatigue got you down? Want to crack gauge corner cracking? Well, this is the episode for you...
Join LIVE to ask your questions and I'll do my best to respond!
*we won't be covering one hundred failure modes
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting me at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis.
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#RailNatter Episode 28: Quails on Rails (with Dr David Turner)
23 september 2020 · 1 uur 32 min
The venerable Dr David Turner is back on the show! In Episode 28 of #RailNatter, we'll be turning our attention to the humble quail... Lees meer
Why? Well, because it allows us to explore the shape and development of supply chains on the British railway network through time, including thinking about how they operate now. It also lets us look at wider international supply chains, and how for a long time freight across the globe moved through Britain (for better or worse). But most of all, because an episode on quails is what all of us need at this point.
Join us LIVE for the usual japes, and bring along something to drink!
Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting me at patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via paypal.me/garethdennis.