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And not from 2024 (have we lost our sense of humour?)

Birmingham New Street 2022….

Birmingham New Street station has once again joined in the fun for April fool’s day by revealing ‘plans’ for slides down to platforms from the main concourse.

If you clicked on this link excited to find out more, unfortunately metal slides won’t be a feature for passengers at Britain’s biggest station outside of London.

Despite them potentially being a fun way to catch your train, standard stairs, lifts and escalators will continue as the concourse connections.

2016 in York….

Flying Scotsman sees red

“Virgin Trains has today announced that customers will soon be able to catch a steam train to work, as it’s revealed that the original Flying Scotsman locomotive will be joining its fleet later this year on its East Coast and West Coast routes.”

So said Richard Branson’s jokers, with the special offer of 25% off your ticket “for customers who help shovel coal on their journey”.

Apparently the National Railway Museum had agreed to release the Scotsman back into service:

The makeover will be taking place at the museum in York, where fans of the iconic engine can watch the transformation as it’s painted during the museum’s fantastic Scotsman Season.

2013, BBC and elsewhere….

Train spotting ‘goes 21st century’.  Could train spotting provide the key to the future of the rail network?

From today numbers on the side of trains, traditionally noted down by enthusiasts, are being replaced by barcodes which spotters can more simply photograph on their smart phones and upload online.

Some are up in arms but the brainwave from North Yorkshire Moors Railway has wider implications for the rest of the network.

Northern Rail has adopted the idea and is asking passengers to join in taking photos of trains while they wait at stations to help provide more network information and cut costs.

Countryfile, 2012.

Contractors digging a section of HS2 outside Birmingham have discovered a series of parallel rows of monoliths running for hundreds of metres. Some archaeologists believe the stones, which are laid end-to-end, form the basis of a primitive tramway system. “The position of these huge granite stones is unlike anything we’ve ever seen from this period,” said Professor Doug Deaper, from the South Shropshire Neolithic Institute, who led the investigation. “At first I assumed they had fallen this way, perhaps having been originally set out in a circle as is normal for most structures and monuments for this period. But when we looked at the geophysical survey of the area, we found that the stones ran for 2km in an almost-straight line.” Ground mapping sensors create a geophysical survey of the subsoil in a field./Credit: Getty Closer examination of the stones revealed groove marks where either wooden or stone wheels may have carried carts of quarried stone, wood and other vital resources between settlements. Further lab testing found traces of animal fat around the grooves, which may have been used to grease the chassis of carts. “The HS2 archaeological excavations have already unearthed numerous remarkable finds, but this is the most astonishing of the lot,” said Rob Attar, editor of BBC History magazine. “If confirmed, this will transform our understanding of Stone Age Britain and may offer a radical new solution to the mystery of how the creators of Stonehenge transported the giant megaliths that make up the monument.”

And Copenhagen 2016…

Residents of Copenhagen who visited the square in front of the town hall were greeted by a strange sight. One of the subway cars from the city’s new subway, which was under construction, appeared to have burst up through the pavement. The subway car actually was a retired vehicle from the Stockholm subway. It had been cut at an angle and loose bricks were placed around it, to give the illusion that it had crashed up from below.

The stunt was sponsored by Gevalia Coffee, whose advertisements had an ongoing theme of vehicles popping up in strange locations, with the tagline “Be ready for unexpected guests.”