Tom

25 from 25! Review of the year/advent calendar from a very busy year of travel. Starting with a journey on the most northerly line in the UK, the Far North Line. To get to Thurso, trains have to reverse here at Georgemas Junction from Inverness.

Last one from abroad. Quickly went back to Liechtenstein🇱🇮 Two photos of Nendeln station, one from 6 months ago and one from now. Station has been completely transformed for the better with new platforms, track and shelters!

Innsbruck and Seefeld🇦🇹 Some great views of mountains in the distance. When I went to tick the stations between them, the weather turned a bit misty so some of the views disappeared

Across to 🇦🇹 and to the lovely city of Salzburg! Also had some singing trains to get to and from Salzburg🎵

St Margarethen! It's the border town for 🇨🇭 and 🇦🇹 and also where there is a Stadler factory! A couple of Siemens units also seen though.

Moving further east now, with a journey on a bronze flirt to take me there!

Also spent some time just east of Interlaken, ticking stations that are next to Lake Brienzersee!

Can now say I've ticked every station on Berner Oberland-Bahn network from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald! A lot of detaching and attaching units at Zweilütschinen for portion working, all done with 1 minute dwell time! Not that many stations but all very pretty.

While jungfraujoch is the top, the rest of the Wengernalp Bahn is still worth visiting too, with beautiful places such as Kleine Schidegg and the skiing town of Wengen. The trains are pretty fun to ride on too😍

Highest station in Europe, Jungfraujoch is now ticked! Only -10° up top, and while one view was covered in a thick layer of fog, the rest of it was clear and it's truly magnificent .

Properly into Switzerland now and into the territory of BLS. Ticking a few stations near Spiez and Kandersteg. Some quite nice views around here!

First stop: Dole🇫🇷. A nice pretty walled town. Then from there onto a very twisty and scenic line to La Chaux De Fonds to get me into 🇨🇭

Time for another trip away! As usual, Eurostar providing a smooth start to journey.

Slightly difficult day yesterday in Gogledd Cymru with multiple operational challenges, however still got some stations on the Conwy Valley line ticked! Betws-y-Coed and Tal-y-Cafn were lovely😍

2100 stations ticked so that leaves just under 500 to go! A few nice stations on the Sheringham line ticked.

One year on I'm back in Anglia, and just like last year I've landed the weekend of the first named storm of the year. Flirts and piddly stations are mega of course, but a 5 mile walk between 2 of them in mostly torrential rain definitely tested my patience for them!

Used the ferry to get to/from the Isle of man! Out on full sized boat Ben My Chree from Heysham, then back on Catamaran Manannan into Liverpool! The Catamaran was rather quick🛥️

Some more highlights from the Isle of Man🇮🇲 Manx Electric Railway and the Snaefell Mountain Railway. Bravely decided to walk up the mountain so this was a very needed train back down the hill!

Gone away to a new place for me, Isle of Man🇮🇲 Starting out with a trip on the Isle of Man Steam Railway out to Castletown, Port St Mary and Port Erin on the south west of the island. It seems a very pretty island with a relaxing pace of life so far😍

A trip towards Brighton and Seaford last weekend on a unseasonably warm day. Southease definitely the standout station, really lovely place to wait an hour at!

Incredibly, the HSTs have been around for 50 years! Limited to Scotland now in passenger service, but served the country extremely well in previous times! True icons of the UK Railway.