This is where it all happens! A look inside the signalling centre at Liverpool St. The guys & girls here set the paths & signal the trains for an enormous area! Proper behind the scenes unsung heroes of the railway. There were so many screens and it was all incredibly high tech!

Before we begin our visit, we have to sign in an sort our passes. No exemptions, so Stripey needs one too 😆

Today, we're visiting London Liverpool Street station, but this visit will be a little different to the 100 million passengers who pass through here every year 😉

Promising Austin a model railway for a couple of years, which was bold as I don't possess the skills to build one 🤣 then the hyper focus kicked in & I decided to get it built. Worth every single second when I just heard him whisper 'I love this' while running it 😊

400 miles, 8 hours, 4 different operators & challenging conditions, but we're home on time. All went smoothly for us today, but you can guarantee there was an army behind the scenes doing their best for us passengers for which we are very grateful. Cheers to the railway folk 🍻

With the weather, potential disruption and work/school looming tomorrow, we've made the decision to cut our trip short and head home early. Austin is as easy going as ever though, we've just spent breakfast discussing how and when we will come back to Stirling to try again 😊

Much has changed throughout the course of our adventures over the years, but one constant has been when waiting for dinner after a day on trains, Austin has always taken to drawing his very own fleet of made up trains and stations and telling me all about them 😊 & I love it.

We're back at the station now and there's time to inspect the locos that brought us from Edinburgh to Inverness this morning. At the front was Class 66 753 but an interesting loco was helping behind. Class 73 970, 60 years old but still proving useful. A lovely old locos indeed.

I wonder where Austin is off to? Ps. His plushie friend is a pretty good clue 😉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🛌

Happy new year! Thank you all so much for being a part of our adventures & especially to everyone who went above and beyond to make 2025 a great year for Austin, we appreciate each and every kind gesture. We'll be back with more of the same next year 😁 🚄🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇩🇪🇳🇱🇮🇹🇱🇮🇨🇭 🇨🇵🇩🇰🇸🇪🇸🇯

Merry Christmas from ours to yours. Wishing you all health and happiness for the festive season and beyond 😊

The fun didn't stop with the simulator! We even had a look around an Azuma and class 91 cab. We really have had the best hosts today. The lengths that people will go to to make something special for Austin means the world. The railway family really is a special group ❤️

Sometimes, it's nice to slow down & soak up the atmosphere. Train stations at Christmas are buzzing with people heading home for the holidays, musicians, excited travellers and of course, some lovely decorations. We decided to catch the later train today and enjoy the moment 😊🎅

Here we have the UKs newest intercity trains! The EMR class 810. Entering service earlier this month, they will be serving the Midland mainline between London & Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby (& others) First impressions are that they look great! Time to hop on and test them out 😊

We're back in London and switching mainlines from the West Coast to the Midland, we decided to walk from Euston to fully appreciate the magnificence that is St Pancras hotel, and we spotted the famous pink Mclaren 🚘 but we're here in search of the UKs newest intercity trains 😁

If anything comes close to trains, it would be plushies! Imagine Austin's delight when our friends at Avanti sent him a plushie of their mascot Turbo 😁 we thought it only right that we take our newest team member out for a quick spin on the West Coast Mainline!

Some sane people would question if there was any point in a 2 hour visit to York, we would say there are actually lots of points 😆 🥁 Stocking up at monkbar models for our model railway project. These will keep me busy for a while!!

3 months ago, Austin told me that he wanted a break from adventures. I didn't know why at the time but it turns out it was because someone had made fun of him for being into trains. This broke me tbh 💔 but after lots of deep chats, he's over it & going to ignore them. So... 1/2

Leading the way in, and propelling us on the return is 43093 which apparently was the last HST off old oak common back in 2018! Excited for the journey, but aware that this will be our final HST ride in England! End of an era!

There are many ways to pass the time on the train, but you just can't beat a game of GWR Top Trumps 😁 pretty sure he'd play this for hours if he had the chance!

2 years ago today, we were setting off on our first ever sleeper train, the Caledonian Sleeper to Aberdeen. What a trip this was 😁 I'll never forget how excited we both were that evening

👀🇬🇧 755 422 is the first of our units to carry the Great British Railways coming soon branding.

It's been a while since we've had an adventure, and it looks like Austin has doubled in height since we were last at Kings Cross 😆 nice to meet @tank621.bsky.social on our journey in this morning.

I'd wanted to take Austin along to a Duxford airshow for so long and we finally made it today! Although wind stopped a few of the displays, we did get to see some lovely machines including the mighty B17 Sally B. Austin has confirmed that he would like to come back next time too!

We're home after the best ever 2 weeks cruising around the Mediterranean onboard Arvia with P&O. Our first big holiday as a family, our first ever cruise & we loved every second. We've made memories to last a lifetime and I really hope we can make it back one day ☺️ @pandocruises

The final city of our cruise and Austin's 77th in all is beautiful Cadiz. Of all the places we've visited on this holiday, this really is the one you must visit! We've wandered through the lovely little streets and lounged around on the beach. A city with loads to offer!

Morning in Jerez & we were hoping to ride the Alvia to Cadiz, unfortunately, tickets weren't valid for this service but luckily we found out before we boarded! Still, at least we got to see one of the famous 'little ducks'. We'll have to come back for a ride with a valid ticket!

It's not always about the hustle and bustle of cities, sometimes it's a medieval French village on hillside for a bit of peace and quiet 😊

After visiting every English city last year, we were unsure what to do next. We've gradually been ticking off cities here and there and it seems we've now decided to see if we can get to 100 cities 'worldwide'. So here we are, bidding farewell to city number 73, Alicante 🇪🇦

Here we go 😁 we've been looking forward to this holiday for 2 year and it's nearly time to board. Abigail is excited, honestly 🤣 we're off to the Mediterranean aboard P&O Arvia and she looks magnificent! Time for 'Austin's Sail Adventures' 😁😁😁

We've received confirmation that Abigail is sound asleep so that us heading back to the hotel, we enjoyed our walk, especially this little footbridge over a level crossing a couple of minutes outside of Southampton, just sitting there watching the world and it's trains go by

As always, we are accompanied on this trip by some plush friends. Austin has made them little passports to ensure they don't get left behind 😍

Annual leave booked ✅️ School holidays ✅️ Bags almost as big as the kids ✅️ We're off for our family holiday 😁 sadly, there won't be many trains, but we considering a temporary rebrand to Austin's Sail Adventures 🛳 Anyway, here's a 444 to take us onwards to Southampton

Not wanting to miss out after Austin's visit to the inspiration train last week, Abigail was keen to check it out for herself & I'm pleased to report that she got stuck in & really enjoyed herself 😊 she seems to be acquiring a taste for days out by train so watch this space 😉

Inspiration take 2 today, this time, it's Abigail's turn 🙂 we're off for a ride to Lowestoft to have a nose around

That was lovely! You should definitely check out the @railway200 inspiration train when it visits your part of the world. A really well put together exhibition and another success for the railway 200 celebrations. Just enough time for a photo of the loco before we head for home.

We had a really enjoyable visit to the @railway200 inspiration train at Norwich this morning. Lots of really interesting hands on exhibits for all ages. A big thumbs up from Austin and me! 👍

We're at Norwich for some inspiration, but first, we were inspired by #class153 376 carrying out inspection duties. These little units sure do work hard to ensure the network is kept in tip top condition! Covering so many miles each& every day with their state of the art cameras.

One very chuffed little boy 😁 we missed George the Stourbridge junction cat on our last visit but I'm pleased to report that we caught up with him this time & he was on fine form. He was happy to demonstrate how he consumes his treats and inspected Austins friend stripey 😁 day made for both of us!!

We've only been at Loughborough for a few mins and we're off to a good start! Austin was pleasantly surprised to the point that he didn't even seem to mind that his teacake was knocked off the red bag 🎒🌪

I think this will take some beating for value! Child priv single from Stourbridge town to Stourbridge Junction... 15 pence 🤣 follow for more tips on how to make rail travel affordable! 🤣

We're off to the West Midlands today & I let Austin choose which operator we would travel with. Without hesitation, he decided on @chilternrailway and the lovely loco hauled mk3s 😁 the lovely business zone has got to be one of the best ways to travel with a standard class ticket!

Austin has figured out that asking to take the early train means that we have breakfast on the go instead of the boring healthy stuff at home 🤣 so here we are, up at the crack of dawn and on the way with our greggs breakfast!

Mixing it up a bit today 😍

Changing career & joining the railway this year was a big risk & not a decision I took lightly. Never doubted it was the right decision for 1 second but today, if confirmation were needed, it really was the best decision I ever made. I just found this in Austins school books 🥹

We're off on the St Elizabeths Hospice #hoptoit trail around Suffolk today to see how many hare sculptures we can find 😁 although Greater Anglia class 755 423 'pride' isn't part of our quest, Austin thought it worthy of a photo with Abigail.

Homeward bound as @AvantiWestCoast Evero #class805 013 stands ready at Wrexham. We've loved exploring North Wales and it seems a shame to be going home, but we'll be back! Plans are afoot for us to visit our last 2 Welsh cities later in the year and we couldn't be more excited 😁

Sure... you COULD spend 5 mins of your life walking to town, but why would you when you can have a return trip on one of the old underground trains for 80p 😁

We're back at the station after exploring the city of Bangor. But where are we go-go-going next? 😉🤣

Me: "can we have a room with a view for a little railfan please?" Premier Inn: ..... 😍