Rat Run (Part 2)

When I put down my microphone last Friday we were just about to plunge into Shildon Tunnel. In Locomotion, the Dr Who script I’m almost ready to pitch to the BBC, navvies digging this hill hole in 1840 unwittingly rouse the monstrous Shildon Worm sparking four episodes of creepy/claustrophobic capers involving animal-loving S&DR financier Joseph Pease, no-nonsense loco engineer Timothy Hackworth, and the sixteenth Doctor (who reliable sources at the Beeb tell me will be played by Basil Brush not Billie Piper).

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Bounce the Bogen: Turn 1

Splendid – we now have enough volunteers to begin Bouncing the Bogen! In Turn 1, thanks to orders issued by half a dozen game Cornerites, kit jangles and leaf springs flex on the heavily wooded western side of the river, and, inside Schloss Nottingheim, boots beat quick tattoos on cold cobblestones.

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Rat Run (Part 1)

Few parts of the UK have had such a profound impact on the world as the mineral-rich corner of North-East England I’ve picked as the venue for this Tally-Ho Corner rail tour. A pioneering rail network conceived and constructed two centuries ago in County Durham demonstrated the viability of long-distance, loco-reliant, public railways, and in doing so ushered in the Industrial Revolution’s second phase.

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