#Railnatter

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How to build your own train simulator | #Railnatter 273 Aug 13, 2025

Show notes

We're joined by Daisy from newly-formed ProCab Simulators as she tells us the tale of taking a bunch of bits, wires and programmes and turning them from a fire hazard into a working - and ACCESSIBLE - train cab that works with off-the-shelf train simulator games. It's a story of knowledge, networks, determination, ADHD and the rail industry stepping up!

Plus a bit of news that's worth catching up with, including Czech driverless trains and the Messina Strait.

To support Daisy's continuing projects, chip in £5 (10% goes to charity): https://pay.sumup.com/b2c/QL1DM76W

Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://merch.railnatter.uk. Join in the discussion at https://discord.railnatter.uk. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

An engineer's tour of the Railway Museum's New Hall | #Railnatter 272 Aug 06, 2025

Show notes

My visit to the New Hall at Locomotion in Shildon is FINALLY WITH YOU. See why I think this is the best bit of the whole railway museum, including York...

Australia's surprising rail transformation story - with Chris Brownbill | #Railnatter 271 Jul 23, 2025

Show notes

It's the second half of our chat with the wonderful Chris Brownbill, and this time we are looking to the future. Urban and high speed rail plans feature!

This Scottish town is a nightmare | #Railnatter 270 Jul 16, 2025

Show notes

One of the most severely and regularly gridlocked regional bottlenecks in Scotland sits slap bang on the top of Fort William, and in doing so it is throttling the life out of the town and surrounding communities. Plans to fix this are now in development, so in readiness for looking at those, we consider what options are available, and work out how to save the Highlands' biggest town in the process.

Railways we desperately need, cancelled in favour of roads | #Railnatter 269 Jul 09, 2025

Show notes

The Department for Transport has published the list of projects that it is progressing, and those it is putting on ice... We take a look at the 50 projects that made it.

See the full list here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/green-light-for-over-50-road-and-rail-upgrades-supporting-over-39000-new-homes-and-42000-jobs

How North Wales will demolish car dependency | #Railnatter 268 Jul 02, 2025

Show notes

Transport for Wales recently released their plan for a public transport network for North Wales, and it is actually very good. We'll take a look, and pick out why Westminster is incapable of delivering this sort of strategic thinking.

Why the UK economy will continue to fail | #Railnatter 267 Jun 25, 2025

Show notes

A couple of major things to cover this week that will set the direction of the UK economy for... a bit. Until this government changes their mind again. Those are: the new Industrial Strategy, and the Comprehensive Spending Review from earlier this month. Both talking about where money will - or indeed will not - be spent to make the country work better. And we are taking a closer look.

Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://garethdennis.co.uk/merch. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

Russia's railways WERE the best in the world - with Milo Edwards | #Railnatter 266 Jun 18, 2025

Show notes

Readers of The Book will know that, pre-hot war (we'll get there), Russia's railways were ranked the best in the world by modal share. But how? And what does this look like?

Who better to join us than the UK's official* vibes ambassador to Russia, Milo Edwards? Nobody, that's who. Milo lifts the lid on his experiences as we work out what's good, bad and weird about Russia's railways.

Milo's website is here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/

Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://garethdennis.co.uk/merch. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

A history of Australia’s railways - with Chris Brownbill | #Railnatter 265 Jun 11, 2025

Show notes

Chris Brownbill (https://railmaps.com.au/) joins us this week to take us on a quick jaunt through the history of Australia's railways - in the process busting a few myths, talking about a major tragedy and helping explain how the Aussie railways nearly beat Japan on the Top Twenty national railway list...

Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://garethdennis.co.uk/merch. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

Burnham is key to northern high speed rail network | #Railnatter 264 Jun 04, 2025

Show notes

This week we are looking at the proposals of the Liverpool-Manchester Railway Board, the collective of combined and local authorities across the north west of England wanting to finish off the Manchester bits of HS2 as well as the western end of whatever the trans-Pennine high speed line is called today.

We'll also be talking about Great British Railways and its latest hint at branding in our new, as-yet unnamed back-end segment!

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