New person on the train

I mentioned a few weeks ago about a chap I spoke to at the station. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of trains and stations. He has something to do with railways. (David, I know you read this page sometimes - you are henceforth know as TrainMan.)

Here is his picture that I sneaked the other day: (Sorry about the quality but undercover photography really is quite difficult.

Anyway, TrainMan has shared with me some truly bizarre (and really quite geaky facts). I have shared some of them below for your delight and delectation:

1) There is a branch line south of Oxford.... This is (apparantly) the Cowley Works line built in 1972. (Honestly this is what TrainMan told me).

2) The signs at Kingham and Charlbury stations used to be painted different colours - it apparantly used to be black on white rather than white on black as illustrated below:

This level of observation is a little beyond me.

3) At Oxford station, there is apparantly a building just behind platform 2 which has a special window in it. If, on a cold winter's night you are waiting for your train, you can press your little face up to the window and you will be able to see the status boards of all the trains on that bit of line. The excitement is almost unbearable.

TTF.