Latest news with #trainspotting
BBC News
12-08-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Oldest work experience student yet fulfils his railway dream
A lifelong railway enthusiast has seen his dream come true with a ride in the cab of a train at the age of Barker, who lives near Goole, East Yorkshire, wanted to be a train driver when he was younger, but he ended up taking a different after a member of the team at rail operator Lumo heard about his passion when their paths crossed during a recent journey, Mr Barker enjoyed some belated work experience."I didn't realise this could happen to me," he said. Mr Barker was born in a house next to Doncaster railway station, and he remembers trainspotting there."I remember sitting on a lady's garden wall in the next street overlooking the goods yard and watching the trains go by," he 1951, when he was 15, he followed his uncle by going to work on the became a messenger boy at the goods yard and he went out on his bicycle to pick up and deliver goods around the he turned 16, he became an engine cleaner, and he rose through the Mr Barker said the Beeching Cuts of the 1960s halted his dream of becoming a train driver, and with a family to support he switched to a career in the power industry. He always missed being around trains, and after his wife died in 2021 he began to increase his trips on the was on a recent trip home from Edinburgh that he met Rachel Firth, customer experience and innovation manager at train operator Lumo, who he told about his railway Firth arranged for Mr Barker to step into the cab, decades after his original career path had gone in a different enjoyed a first-class journey with Hull Trains from Selby to London King's Cross before enjoying the ride of a lifetime in the cab of an electric Lumo train from London to Newcastle. "It brought back a lot of memories because I used to go down there when I was a fireman on on the railway," he Barker described the experience as "unbelievable" and said his friends waved at him from a platform at Darlington with 90 added that he would "treasure" the experience and it was something he would not Firth said: "Charlie's passion and background were truly inspiring. We often talk about careers on the railway beginning young, but why shouldn't they also come full circle later in life?"We were delighted to make him our oldest work experience recruit yet." Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
The Sun
07-08-2025
- Automotive
- The Sun
Hidden UK train station is swallowed by nature after 4 decades with eerie pics showing rows of moss-covered locomotives
EERIE snaps of a UK train station swallowed by nature reveals rows of moss-covered locomotives. The train graveyard was unearthed by urban explorer Tokyo Scott. 5 5 5 The 21-year-old stumbled upon the haunting site located in the Scottish Highlands and documented her experience exploring the former station. Spooky images show rows of derelict engines which are barely recognisable after being engulfed by rust and moss. Other snaps show shattered windows, collapsing chimneys, and rotting train cars - offering a fascinating window into the past and the fading echoes of industrial life. Tokyo has come across over 10,000 abandoned vehicles with a collective value well over £1 million. "Over one million for sure, trains are worth a lot," she said. 'The abandoned train station stands silent in the misty Highlands, its weathered timbers and rusting tracks slowly vanishing beneath creeping moss and heather. 'It was crazy how long they had been left there, that's what surprised me the most. 'How they could be dumped and left to rot with no one interested in them. 'When we found the freight train, I love trainspotting and trains so it was a dream come true. 'Some people think trespass shouldn't be allowed, but others appreciate that I'm showcasing abandoned places that will never see the light of day otherwise.' Dark underbelly of UK's new City of Culture plagued by soaring unemployment, 'spiced-up' druggies & 'roaming XL Bullies' It comes after a haunting graveyard of rotting vintage vehicles has been captured in the British countryside by another urban explorer. Images show rusting motors lined up, including a nostalgic 90s Cadillac, in various states of disrepair. The scrapyard, which inhabits a crumbling UK farm, also includes dusty Micras and Volvos. The latter takes up most of the space, where a lineup of once eye-catching 240s and 244s eerily sit. Some of them don badges and stickers from their last days on the road. One Volvo in particular is likely a more recent addition as it sports a fresh-looking exhaust warning sticker. But others have seen better days. Some have been stacked, used to prop up even more scrap, their roofs caved in under the weight of other forgotten vehicles. 5 5
The Guardian
21-07-2025
- The Guardian
Thrill of the night train: from Vienna to Rome on the next-gen moonlight express
Toasted ham baguettes in hand, we cheered as the new-generation Nightjet drew into Vienna Hauptbahnhof. It was a little before 7pm, and as the carriages hummed past I felt a rush of joy, like celebrity trainspotter Francis Bourgeois, but without the GoPro on my forehead. For more than three years I've been documenting the renaissance of sleeper trains, and I'd wondered if I might one day tire of them. But the thrill seems only to intensify each time I embark on another nocturnal adventure, this time with my two daughters – aged eight and five – who were already arguing over the top berth. The first four carriages were designated for travellers to the Italian port city of La Spezia, the other seven carrying on to Roma Tiburtina, where we would alight at 10am. Once in Rome we had 24 hours to eat classic carbonara, dark chocolate gelato, and bike around the Villa Borghese before taking a train to Florence. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) has played the lead role in resuscitating Europe's night trains. Towards the end of 2016, ÖBB launched its Nightjet network on 14 routes, using old rolling stock it bought from Deutsche Bahn. Then, to the delight of train nerds like me, it launched a brand-new fleet at the end of 2023, and now operates 20 routes across Europe. We were now on board this high-spec service, which smelled of freshly unpacked furniture, the carpets soft underfoot, the lighting adjustable to disco hues of neon blue and punk pink. We were booked into a couchette carriage, which mostly comprisesd mini cabins designed for solo travellers preferring privacy. Placing shoes and small bags in lockers, passengers can open a metal door with a keycard and crawl into their single berth, drawing the door closed around them, and not have to look at another human until morning. Last year I had trialled the mini cabins from Vienna to Hamburg alongside a tall friend who had likened the experience to sleeping inside a bread bin, though I hadn't found it as claustrophobic as I'd feared, just a bit hard, chilly, and with a pillow as flat as a postage stamp. So I was curious to see how the carriage's four-person private compartments, for families and groups, would differ. Normally happy to share with strangers, I'd booked a whole compartment for the three of us: more to protect other hapless travellers from my children, who were now swinging off the berths like members of Cirque du Soleil, their sweaty socks strewn under the seats. With raised sides, the upper berths were safe for the girls to sleep in without rolling out, and I set about tucking in their sheets while they settled down to finish their baguettes. There is no dining car on the Nightjet, so we'd bought food from the station, which was now moving backwards as the train sailed out of the Austrian capital in silence, smoothly curving south-west. Two days earlier we'd arrived in Vienna by train from London, via Paris, and had checked into the Superbude Wien Prater, a curious hotel that appeared part art-installation, part hostel, with gen Zs slouched around worn leather sofas on MacBooks. With four-bed family cabins overlooking the Prater amusement park, it was a great location from which to explore the city, then finish the evening with a terrifying rollercoaster and a spicy Bitzinger wurst. A friend had described Vienna to me as a grand and beautiful 'retirement village', but, on the contrary, its green spaces, playgrounds and museums made it an easy stop for 48 hours with kids. Hopping off the Nightjet from Paris, we'd gone straight to my favourite restaurant, Edelgreisslerei Opocensky – an unassuming nook serving homely dishes such as stuffed gnocchi, and goulash with dumplings – before whiling away an afternoon at the Children's Museum at Schönbrunn Palace. Dressing up like young Habsburgs, the girls had swanned around in wigs and musty gowns, laying tables for banquets and begging not to leave – a far cry from our usual museum experiences. Before boarding this train we'd had one last run around the interactive Technical Museum, where the human-sized hamster wheels, peg games and slides had so worn out the children that my five-year-old was asleep as the train plunged into the Semmering mountain pass. It was still light as we swept around the Alps, my eight-year-old kneeling at the window and asking where local people shopped, so few and far between were signs of human life. Horses grazed in paddocks, cows nuzzled, and the occasional hamlet emerged from round a bend as though the chalets were shaken like dice and tossed into the slopes. In the blue-grey twilight we watched streams gleam like strips of metal, and spotted a single stag poised at the edge of a wood, before the train made a long stop at the Styrian city of Leoben, at which point we turned in. Like the mini cabins, the compartment was still too cold, the pillow still too flat, but the berths were wider and the huge window a blessing compared with the single berths' portholes – this one allowed for wistful gazing. Shoving a rolled-up jumper under my head, I fell asleep, waking at 7am to rumpled clouds and a golden flare on the horizon. Most night trains terminate soon after passengers have woken up, but this one was perfect, allowing us to enjoy a leisurely breakfast of hot chocolate and jam rolls while watching the Tuscan dawn breaking into song, and Umbrian lakes and cornfields running parallel before we finally drew into Rome – on time. When travelling alone I relish arriving with the entire day at my disposal, but with children it's hard work waiting until 3pm to check in to accommodation, so I default to staying at a Hoxton hotel if one is available. Its Flexy Time policy allows guests to choose what time they check in and out for free, and by 11am we had checked in, showered and set off to toss coins in the Trevi fountain, finding thick whorls of eggy carbonara at nearby trattoria Maccheroni, and gelato at Don Nino. To avoid the crowds and heat, we waited until 6pm to hire an electric pedal car from Bici Pincio at the Villa Borghese and drove around the landscaped, leafy grounds, relishing the quietness of the evening ride. Excited about the next adventure in Florence, the girls had only one complaint: that they couldn't ride there on the night train. Monisha Rajesh is the author of Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train (Bloomsbury, £22), published on 28 August and available on pre-order at Omio provided travel in a four-person private compartment in a couchette carriage from Vienna to Rome (from £357). Accommodation was provided by Superbude Wien Prater in Vienna (doubles from €89 room-only); and The Hoxton in Rome (doubles from €189 room-only)
The Sun
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Who is Francis Bourgeois and when will the YouTube star present The Grand Tour with Thomas Holland and James Engelsman?
FRANCIS Bourgeois is an influencer known for his trainspotting videos. The locomotive enthusiast and fashion icon is joining the new cast of Amazon Prime's The Grand Tour. 3 3 A fascination with trains Born on July 9, 2000, in north-west London, Francis had a love of trains from a young age. He revealed in an interview that he would often go to Willesdon Junction train station as a child to watch the trains pass by. Then, he would return home and draw pictures of the vehicles from memory. He explained: 'I was just fixated by these big machines. 'Ever since, I've had a passion for trains, cars, planes.' However, he was bullied terribly at school for his hobby which prompted him to sell his huge collection of train sets. Eventually, he decided to chase his dreams and went on to study engineering at the University of Nottingham. Finding fame The star rocketed to fame in 2021 when he started sharing videos about trains. They featured a distinctive style, with Francis attaching a fish-eye lens to his head. Within months, he went viral and built a fanbase of over 2.5 million followers as of May 2025. James May issues brutal response to working with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond again after Grand Tour stars split Opening up about why he shared his now famous videos, he said: 'I love to show how awesome trains can be as well as trying to make you smile, laugh and just try and bring joy. 'I want to contribute my passion for trains and also engineering to make the railway network a better place for everyone.' The influencer started partnering with iconic fashion brands, including Gucci, which include train imagery in his photoshoots. Joining the Grand Tour Francis will be presenting the brand new series of The Grand Tour with two other famous influencers. He will be joined by Thomas Holland and James Engelsman, who both run the Throttle House channel on YouTube. The trio will be replacing James May, Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson who left the show after a special episode named The Not Very Grand Tour. The BBC have not yet confirmed when the new series will launch.
