Welcome, you have seen the pictures (we hope!) so we thought our viewers might be interested in a little more background to our trips and an insight into some of the crazy things we get up to. Railway enthusiasts will be able to relate to our activities fairly easily but, for those who don't, here is a rough guide to what motivates:

Taking pictures, easy - no different to taking pictures of any other subject.

"Track bashing" - attempting to cover as many routes as possible in any country, some people take this further and literally try and cover every line, platform, siding, crossover etc, but that is a little too extreme even for us.

"Traction bashing" - a bit like train spotting but trying to have a ride behind every item of motive power rather than just seeing it. Again, this can have extremes like trying to travel in every coach, but life is too short in our opinion; we are not even bothered about multiple units let alone individual coaches.

Some of you reading this will remember the late lamented "European Report" magazine which appeared on a monthly basis and contained locomotive diagrams, various peoples trip reports and other useful information. This has provided the inspiration for us to start this blog and will record our trips abroad as well as the odd outing in the UK and might even add the occasional article from former years, some of which have also previously appeared on the excellent Six Bells Junction website.

9th & 10th January 2018 - A lucky trip

August 22, 2021  •  Leave a Comment
Tuesday & Wednesday 9th & 10th January 2018 For the two days following the railmotor trip, the main tour group had a free day in Zürich followed by a trip to Arosa on the RhB; we had a Global InterRail burning the proverbial hole in our pockets so chose to have a day on the Gäubahn into Germany on Tuesday which netted three new locos for haulage a...
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8th January 2018 - Brewery Bonus

July 29, 2021  •  Leave a Comment
Monday 8th January 2018 Our reason for staying in Zürich paid off this morning; all we had to do was to catch a train for the two minute journey from Hardbrücke to the main station in time for a 9:28 departure whereas the main tour group had to come from Bern, though their luggage was transferred for them. Today would be our third trip with steam...
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7th January 2018 - To Bern for steam

June 30, 2021  •  Leave a Comment
Sunday 7th January 2018 It was an early start this morning as we had to get to Bern to join a Railway Touring Company tour which was departing at 8:30. The main tour group were staying in Bern but we had booked on a train only basis so had to do our own thing accommodation-wise, hence the week in Z ürich. There was a method in our apparent madness...
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6th January 2018 - Onwards and westwards

May 31, 2021  •  Leave a Comment
Saturday 6th January 2018 A slightly earlier start today as we had a long journey (around 528 miles) to Zürich for the final leg of this trip. We started off with the 7:38 to Wien Hbf with about 50 minutes there before catching the main train of the day, a Railjet service from Budapest to Zürich so time for a tea top-up in Ströck. The ÖBB on-line...
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5th January 2018 - A Tale of two Banskás

May 31, 2021  •  Leave a Comment
Friday 5th January 2018 Our last full day in Bratislava, so it was out to view the selection of trains departing around 8am; the only required loco was on the 8:01 to Košice via Zvolen so that was the first move sorted. As the train trundled east, we toyed with the idea of having a “bash” on the Nové Zámky class 240s but without a printed timetabl...
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4th January 2018 - Bobbing around Brno (again)

April 30, 2021  •  Leave a Comment
Thursday 4th January 2018 One problem we have found travelling on ZSSK trains is that the conductors use a rather large stamp instead of the more usual ticket “grippers” to cancel tickets; not an issue with single tickets but it can cause problems when using a ticket for multiple journeys such as an Interrail or FIP (staff) pass as many conductors...
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3rd January 2018 - Delay Dodging

April 30, 2021  •  Leave a Comment
Wednesday 3rd January 2018 There was a good selection of trains at Bratislava hl st to choose from around 8am so we went out at the same time as yesterday to see what was on offer. The same shiny new “Vectron” locomotive (383 102) was on the 8:03 to Košice so, deciding that it was trying to tell us something, we boarded that train. A new class 240...
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2nd January 2018 - Third Time Lucky

March 31, 2021  •  Leave a Comment
Tuesday 2nd January 2018 One of the main priorities for this trip was to get the line between Trnava and Kúty in the book, our first two attempts being scuppered by engineering work on the first occasion then the second go ending in less than 3kms when the train we were on bowled some poor unfortunate soul over on a level crossing. This time, we d...
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1st January 2018 - Happy Republic Day

March 30, 2021  •  Leave a Comment
Monday 1st January 2018 Happy New Year! The only task for us today was a fairly simple one, get to Bratislava, but (as usual with us) not via the most direct route. Eschewing the Metro after last nights “rip-off”, we took the short walk to Déli to catch “Citadella” but taking a seat in the portion to Szombathely until Celldömölk where we changed t...
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31st December 2017 - Farewell 2017

March 28, 2021  •  Leave a Comment
Sunday 31st December 2017 After yesterday’s excitement, we wanted a more relaxed day so wandered over to Keleti after breakfast to see if there was anything that we fancied going for a ride with, and one of the first things we clapped eyes on was a CFR (Romania) class 477 on an IC service to Brașov, standing out in its red and grey livery amidst a...
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