Can anyone help?

[Johnny's nanny]

Hi

I am a complete train novice but have a grandson who although not 4 until October, absolutely loves trains, we look at trains in books, talk about them, his parents take him on trains-regularly as they live in West London, and as I live fairly near Quainton, we try to go seberal times a year when they have special Steam days.

BUT-he loves all sorts of trains-including Fast trains, bullet trains, and all I know is what we see in the books I have bought him

The museums near to us-such as Quainton, the Great Western in Swindon etc all concentrate on steam-which although he loves he also talks a lot about modern technology.

How do I go about finding out when an express train is available at a normal train station? Are there any museums that include modern trains? Where are all these fabulous hi speed trains that look so futuristic in books?

Apologies for askinbg what seems to be daft questions to a host of experts but can you give me some clues on how to discover the answers on the internet?

[Tony]

Hello Johnny's Nanny, Welcome to the forum.
You will see many express trains at Leighton Buzzard on the West Coast Main Line or Slough on the Great Western main line. or for the Channel tunnel trains, you would probably need Ebbsfleet East of London.
Best of luck with the refrain "Are we there yet?"

[steam for ever]

Hi there, and a welcome to the forum from me too.

If you want to see steam trains on the main line, you can use this website to find out when they are running and where:
www.uksteam.info

Once on this site simply look to the right of the page and click either 'this week' or '2011 tours'.

I hope that helps.
SFE

[62440]

Hello Johnny's nanny and a warm welcome to the forum. I think that you will find this link useful to show where the main railway lines are. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/passenger_services/maps/

Also available on the national rail website are timetables for all the services and station plans of what's whereon each station. A word of caution though, not all stations are of an open nature, some have platform tickets available, some don't. Personally I like to get out into the country and find a quiet spot by a rail line, an afternoon in summer with birds singing and the trains going past; perfect!

Hope this helps, don't worry about asking questions, we'll do our best to come up with the answers for you.

Regards, 62440.

[Belmont Road]

Hi welcome,

In west London you can watch modern express trains going out of Euston at many places. I used to go to Willesden Junction in my train spotting days. It might be more difficult to get on the platforms now, perhaps another member can advise on that.

St. Pancras is a must see place, to me its amazing to observe how its restored and you can see the hi speed trains from the high level section for free. ( You can't go on the platforms unless you are travelling though.

There are some fairly modern exhibits at the National Railway Museum in York, but its mostly from an earlier age, but they do have some very good interactive exhibits especially for children.

Good things in the Science Museum in London too.

[chuffchuff]

Take him on a trip to Ashford kent on the high speed service ( 38mins from St Pancras). Fair bit goes on to keep him interested, splitting and joining trains,
Pantographs going up and down on the "Javelins", odd freight train if you're
there at the right time and Eurostars going over the viaduct next to platform 6
Nice breakfast roll available at the cafe in the station entrance, or Maccy D at the
Outlet centre 5 min walk or courtacy bus
If he'd like a trip along the bottom of the White Cliffs by the sea have a trip to
Dover and back

If you're really lucky and there's plenty of time at St Panc and you're good at fluttering Eyelashes he might be able to look in the cab, depends on who the Driver is, on the whole they are a good lot

Hope this helps

Are we there yet

[Johnny's nanny]

Thanks to everyone for the wide range of great suggestions-I live 30 minutes from Leighton Buzzard and have the leaflet so that's on the list, plus finding a spot in the countryside to set up a 'watching' zone. The Ashford trip from St Pancras would be something special to do maybe in half term when I didn t have 18 month sister with us!

Johnny went on Eurostar to paris last december and was caught up in the snow storn delays but the French railway staff were fantastic and everyone with children had only fairly short delays although the journey back on the train took 6 hours! All very exciting to a 3 year old.

Any ideas of country venues in North Bucks/Oxon/South Northants?

We are looking forward to the launch of the Inter City Agility train this autumn though I cant seem to find out when that will be but it should certainly go from a London station.

[keith morgan]

To jonnys nanny, i agree that the west coast main is probably the best place to see a mixture of trains including pendelinos, and freight, maybe Milton Keynes would be near to you and also include a little shopping.