The BeerTrain

  The Mariazell Railway is an electrically operated 760mm   ( 2 ft  5  15 ⁄ 16  in )   narrow gauge  line which connects the Lower Austrian  capital of Sankt Pölten   with the Styrian Alpine pilgrimage  centre of Mariazell .  The line was opened in stages between 1898 and 1907, with a now closed branch to Wieselburg an der Erlauf . The railway is currently operated by NÖVOG . Electrification (unprecedented at the time) began in 1911 (using Alternating Current ) as the route & traffic requirements were proving too arduous for the original Steam locos , 16 E series locomotives (still used today as class   1099 ) were delivered between 1909 and 1914. The experience gained from the electrification proved to be the benchmark for later projects of the same kind. The locomotive  design with two separate powered bogies  is widespread today. The route runs from St.Pölten to Ober-Grafendorf , the lines only majo...

We had planned a holiday with our 2 Grandkids for 6 nights in Falmouth, Cornwall, during the school holidays, so when it turned out they would be with us from the Friday night  I then booked an apartment in Topsham, Devon, for 2 nights above the Globe Hotel. Saturday 24/08   To avoid the Bank Holiday weekend queues at the motorway service stations I had found a pub (on Whatpub) to have lunch in, just off the M5 in Tewkesbury. It opened at 12am & we were in the door about 12.05. This was The Canterbury, we got served food & drinks straightaway in the empty pub.  Only 1 Real Ale available Belhaven Scorcher 4.0%, in reasonable nick. Then slowly onwards to Devon, quite bad traffic-jams from North of Bristol down to about Taunton then steady away through to Exeter. The Globe Topsham We checked in and unloaded the car (no parking outside / 1 way street) our apartment was above the pub - 2 bedrooms / kitchen / bathroom / dining room & a big lounge upstairs above all ...