Home from Turkey yesterday, having followed the Scotland independence vote on the way home.  I’m not risking any political comment on this blog, but I guess I’m glad it was a ‘no’ – I’m British rather than English.  But I was just a little amused by this unfortunate photo of the East Coast main line, predictably published by the Daily Mail.  Still, I don’t think the Scotsman had a monopoly on untruths (so no political comments, please – I just think this would make a good model!)  Moving quickly on…..

My Turkey visit was a good one.  Good weather (apart from one afternoon successfully dodging thunderstorms and torrential rain), good food and good company.  And no punctures.  Here’s a shot on that afternoon, with the ground covered with hail, looking just like snow.

As for trains, I we passed a number of interesting rural stations, sometimes with goods stock in place.  But there was no chance to stop for a few photos.  I saw two goods trains, both headed by red and silver USA style hood diesels that are very different to the Russian style green electrics seen over the border in Georgia.  Perhaps the most interesting was a train of massive stone or concrete blocks.  Loading on bogie flat wagons was a single layer of blocks along the length of the wagon, and two layers over the bogies, where the weight could be concentrated more.

Hopefully the blog will now return to near normal (whatever that might mean), with no overseas trips planned, except for my annual pilgrimage to the N-club meet in November.