Monday 24 August 2009

2009 Railway Garden Competition #XXV

This just in from Tim...

Pictured is Hawarden Bridge taken a couple of weeks ago.


Do I win a prize?

Alas no Tim - but Network Rail are certainly in the running if Hawarden still looks this piss-poor today.

Can any readers supply more recent pictures?

All bets off at Derby

Good news for York!

Provincial backwater Derby has abandoned its grandiose plans to become the UK's 'Rail Capital'.

According to This is Derbyshire...

PLANS to build a £15m centre for the UK rail industry in Derby have been scrapped.

The UK Rail Centre was intended to provide a showcase venue for the industry but the East Midlands Development Agency admits it has failed to attract investment for the project.


Derby was chosen ahead of York by the Railway Industry Association and the Rail Sector Advisory Group for the right to house the centre in 2005.

Alas.

Despite the East Midlands Development Agency spending £1.95m in 2006 on a 2.6-acre site close to Derby station no additional external funding has been forthcoming.

The design for the proposed centre also proved slightly contentious, with its eye catching 32m ventilation tower being nicknamed the traffic cone.


Perhaps apt now that this particular avenue for regional grandstanding has been closed off.

NRES maps the future

This just in from the son of John...

If you are travelling to Dublin Ferryport and need local information then the National Rail website provides the following helpful map:


You have to zoom out a long way though to see any useful landmarks...


Perhaps Messrs Hall and Green (Stationers to Lord DafT Vader) could ask NR to shift a couple of their major stations into this Equatorial paradise?

Pointless signs 10#

This just in from Lee...


With thanks to readers of the WNXX Forum who suggested Lee forward this to Eye.