Beer & Rail - Latest News

03/05/2012 - June and I are back from our latest trip - a few days in Belgium for the Mercia Charters "Cause and Effect" railtour and also to pay a visit to the Zythos beer festival. I was stewarding on the railtour and I have to say that I didn't enjoy it as much as some of our recent tours due to various incidents and problems. Most of the passengers seemed to have a good time though, despite us not making it across the border as originally planned (but that's another story!). I seem to have rocked the Mercia boat now by my post tour stewards report but what I put together was an honest view of what I think went right, what went wrong and what could have been improved on. I thought that a professional railtour operator would take the comments seriously but instead they've been taken personally and I seem to have been marked down as a trouble maker which is a bit of a kick in the teeth after working my socks off....

As for the beer festival, well it was our first visit and we were both very impressed. Despite being 4km from Leuven station it was easy to get to the Brabanthal as free buses had been laid on running every fifteen minutes. In the end we were there for eight hours due to the good beers and the good social. As the glasses are only 150ml in size, it's easy to sample numerous beers without getting too sozzled!

The index page photo features a slightly unusual view of the Grand Place in Bruxelles, one of the prettiest main squares that I know of. It is taken from the doorway leading to the inner courtyard of the town hall on Monday 30-04-12.

06/04/2012 - Today's a rather noteworthy anniversary for me - completing 20 years service on the railway! It's flown by but boy how things have changed! I wonder what the next twenty years will hold?!?

As I'll be in Belgium at the end of the month stewarding the Mercia Charters "Cause and Effect" railtour I thought I'd dig out a photo taken five years ago to use on the index page, CFL 1817 pausing at Goebelsmuhle on 28-04-07 while leading the "The Dark Frontier" railtour.

31/03/2012 - I've been sampling far too many beers in the last few weeks with a visit to the Burton on Trent beer festival, a CAMRA trip to Sheffield (presenting the beer of the festival from BOTW7 to Thornbridge Brewery at their Greystones pub), a day trip to Bruxelles and a weekend in Lichfield celebrating a freinds birthday! I think I'll take it easy for a week or two!!

10/03/2012 - Well I've survived a week of nights despite still not feeling 100% and having a rather croaky voice. I have managed to finish my Indian trip report though and it can be found here. It does seem to be lacking something though, possibly because I was a bit under the weather for half of the holiday but I hope you still enjoy reading it.

I've also set up a test Flickr account as a possible replacement for my old Fotopics site and I've uploaded my Indian railway photo's to it.

29/02/2012 - June and I are back from a fortnight in Goa. It was a great holiday although not without its problems as I picked up the lurgy from someone on the flight out so spent most of the holiday coughing and sneezing!! The weather was incredible, the hotel and beach were excellent and the trains were as outrageous and entertaining as ever. Hopefully I'll get a trip report written up in the next few days - once all the washing & ironing is finished!!

The index page photo for March is a shot taken at Cansaulim, our local station in Goa. Krishnarajapuram based WDM-3A "Baldie" 14024 pulls away from a signal check with train 17315 after an unscheduled stop to pass train 12742.

09/02/2012 - January seems to have flown by and I'm amazed that I've now spent two months solid in the UK!! All that will change next week though so keep your eyes peeled for another trip report.

February's index page photo is a scenic shot of the old bridge and cathedral in Hereford - hard to believe that it was taken just two weeks ago in the middle of our supposed Winter!

Unfortunately, our loco shed at Moreton Park has suffered another break in - very frustrating considering we've not really got anything worth stealing! A lot of time and effort will go into repairing the damage again, time which could be better spent working on the track and the loco's.....

Other news in the last few weeks; June and I were able to attend the "Beer on the Wye 7" volunteer meal in January which included visits to three rural Herefordshire pubs (Yew Tree Inn at Preston-on-Wye, Carpenters Arms at Walterstone & Crown at Longtown) as well as a trip to Golden Valley Ales. A most enjoyable day and it's nice to know that our efforts at BOTW7 were appreciated - roll on BOTW8!

June and I spent last weekend in a snowy Lichfield, visiting friends and spending Saturday evening at their local beer festival, held in the ornate but fairly small Guildhall. This was followed up with a small snowball fight and nightcap / game of darts in the Duke of York. Hopefully this coming Saturday will see us paying a visit to Ludlow Brewery for their beer festival although it might depend on how my night shift goes on Friday night!

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Click here for 2008 news.