Tim Dunn
@MrTimDunn • 75,355 subscribers
Railways & buildings. Historian, geographer, presenter @UKTV #TheArchitectureTheRailwaysBuilt & #SecretsOfTheLondonUnderground. 🏳️🌈. Own views, obvs
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If you’re looking for a Father’s Day present (or for a rail/tube person any time) can I put UK Departure Boards Boards into your consciousness? Uses live data from UK rail, tube & bus stops. Both useful & mesmerising. 3 sizes, 20% sale now on. (Not an ad, I’m just a happy owner🤓)
Tim Dunn61,535 Aufrufe • vor 8 Tagen
![Whilst most ppl will remember Roy Hattersley for his political life, he was also an expert (& advocate for) trams. He described double deckers on BBC Timeshift: “they had a galleon capacity: they almost floated along [with] a clanging noise, somehow detached from their movement, so you felt they had certain ethereal qualities as they came past”](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2066893592929427866/amplify_video_thumb/2066892971773964289/img/DTn2UdGvS1ccUrFJ.jpg)
Whilst most ppl will remember Roy Hattersley for his political life, he was also an expert (& advocate for) trams. He described double deckers on BBC Timeshift: “they had a galleon capacity: they almost floated along [with] a clanging noise, somehow detached from their movement, so you felt they had certain ethereal qualities as they came past”
Tim Dunn28,701 Aufrufe • vor 6 Tagen
Today I had the privilege of hosting the launch of one of the best pieces of railway design that I’ve seen in years. We launched the new British Railway Clock at London Bridge: and it is beautiful. It is elegant, graceful, simple and clear. It is a symbol of unity and of precision, with impeccable design heritage and subtle modernity. Created by Design Bridge and Partners and finely tuned by experts including two of Network Rail’s superb in-house railway architects, it is the result of international competition, run by Network Rail, the Design Museum and Royal Institute of British Architects. It is so good that when I first saw the prototype in motion, I actually cried. I often have horology on the mind, you see. This digital display matches the data feeds online and in stations, giving clarity and rapid understanding. The iconic double arrows logo – gently, calmly, and almost mesmerizingly, separates and glides around the dial every minute, with a little flourish - on the hour. Digital is crucial here: it matches the other timepieces you see in a station or app environment, and is easier to comprehend in a split moment than a full analogue face. That’s sensible. I understand that there is another version which can be used on platforms too, with seconds counted rather than just indicated. Gerry Barney, designer of the double arrows, has endorsed it: Margaret Calvert, signage and font designer extraordinaire has been a judge on this and I met her today: she loves this clock. Several other stations are launching this on display boards too. An android phone AND watch version is in development too – Apple is a bit more complex to work with - and merch from the Design Museum is on sale in a pop up shop in LBG station until Friday afternoon. It’s about time that we had something this good.
Tim Dunn509,044 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten
Last night Tower Bridge bascules were raised to let the world’s last sea-going paddle steamer in to berth in London. The historic Paddle Steamer Waverley decks were packed with hundreds of passengers; there are sailings to/from here for the next week or so, and still a few tickets left.
Tim Dunn332,616 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten
Locomotion №1 doesn’t sound like other engines. It doesn’t go “chuff”. An ancient animal: an iron dinosaur of the Georgian age. In the early hours of Sunday it hauled itself on the East Coast Main Line at Darlington and, sighing, gently clunked off into history & into the night.
Tim Dunn122,488 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten
Tomorrow! £1 train rides on one of London’s oldest miniature railways, at Ickenham. Train rides 12-5pm, around both 5 inch gauge circuits & through the tunnels. You’ll find Ickenham Miniature Railway behind the Coach & Horses pub & the village pump. ⦵Met/Picc, 5 min walk.
Tim Dunn10,496 Aufrufe • vor 17 Tagen
Waverley: the world’s last ocean-going paddle steamer. Our walk home tonight “er… just happened” to coincide with her glorious arrival through Tower Bridge once again. She’s doing a return trip to Southend tmrw, then home to the Clyde until next year. It’s the best ship, of all.
Tim Dunn81,286 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten
Just getting my proposal in early for the replacement of Euston station’s screens… (Obv this is part of my totally-flawless dream masterplan for Euston returning to “as opened” light & bright 1968 condition before shops & mezzanine were added: see end of video)
Tim Dunn125,052 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
My friends who run the pristine & extensive 2ft gauge Richmond Light Railway in Kent are having two public open days this year, as charity fundraisers. There are now fewer than 100 tickets left so do book this weekend for August or September. Link in comments below. Cheers!
Tim Dunn18,519 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten
Today, 2 Oct 1946 Paddle Steamer Waverley launched. Today, aged 79, she sailed under my feet at Tower Bridge. So, Happy Birthday to this incredible ship, the world’s last surviving ocean-going paddle steamer. Built for LNER to an old design, she’s still going strong. There she goes, again…
Tim Dunn47,284 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten
Surprising Monorail News: Alstom tells me that the first full-line trip on Cairo’s new 57km (ie world’s longest) driverless monorail was completed in a secret low-speed trial yesterday, using one of @alstomUK Derby-built sets. (Marge Simpson is said to be in a conciliatory mood)
Tim Dunn56,187 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
Here’s a surreal (part-sped up to fit twitter) half an hour of the people from the services (I’m not clued up on regiments, not my forte) streaming through London Waterloo station just now. They struck up their instruments in the taxis’ porte cochère and marched off into town
Tim Dunn99,921 Aufrufe • vor 3 Jahren
I’ve just witnessed - after decades of work by volunteers, and recent collaboration with Network Rail folk - the first passenger train in to Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway’s Princes Risborough platform to meet Chiltern Railways using its own, just-completed Independent Line! Happy Friday!🥰🤩🥳
Tim Dunn38,718 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
This is the long-closed Blake Hall station, on the former Epping-Ongar branch of London Underground’s Central line. (Now home to my friends Rog & Wendy). The heritage line in their garden is now Epping Ongar Railway - which has run through here since the tube trains ceased: and each Xmas they run these epic illuminated light trains at weekends. Passengers can book from Ongar station for a party-themed trip suitable for families, kids and adults. This loco is a #ThomastheTankEngine lookalike - with numbers and face removed - converted Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST locomotive No. 3781… once known as Linda, but now often known to those familiar with it, as… Dave - from Watercress Line. ;) The illuminated train concept is not new: the cta runs an annual Christmas Train on the L with electric stock and a Father Christmas Sleigh, but the first instance of a “train of lights” was on Dartmouth Steam Railway & Riverboat Co.. . There, the team was inspired by the Coca Cola trucks advert and reckoned they could do something similar: I’ll be heading down there to see my friends running it soon. . There are tickets available at both Dartmouth Steam Railway & Riverboat Co. and Epping Ongar Railway and both of them are fantastic nights out- and a way to play trains like you’ve never experienced before. Do go take a ride! 😍
Tim Dunn25,403 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten
#OTD 27th Sept 1825, LOCOMOTION № 1 ran along the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Now, Britain’s rail & heritage sectors have united to get this incredible replica train to do the same. So, hop aboard at 10x speed for your own ride… back in time! (PS. thx Kylie Minogue 🥰)
Tim Dunn29,534 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten
#OnThisDay 16 Feb 2019, late at night, we hand-shunted (on Wallace & Gromit style track) in to King’s Cross the smallest locos to ever enter it by rail: ‘Chaloner’ of 1877 and ‘Velinheli’ of 1886, and a tiny passenger carriage too! All to promote Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways
Tim Dunn38,896 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
I am in Birmingham, and obv, I came by train. So: In 1962, British Transport Films created LET’S GO TO BIRMINGHAM using sped-up shots from aboard the new Blue Pullman diesel driven by Ernest Morris. It ran to 5½ mins, so I’ve sped up some bits even more so i can fit on Twitter:
Tim Dunn73,254 Aufrufe • vor 3 Jahren