I used to be on LinkedIn, but when I retired I deleted it: I was getting irrelevant offers of jobs as a van driver ... in Lincolnshire, for example. 

These days I use WhatsApp on my phone and at home on the computer, and text messages on my mobile when I'm out and about.

I also use e-mail and personal messages on the forum.

Yes   - 10 (37%)
Yes - though odd exceptions OK on a timetable   - 14 (51.9%)
It doesn't matter   - 2 (7.4%)
No - clock face should be avoided   - 0 (0%)
Don't know   - 1 (3.7%)

They did similar in Fowey a couple of years back

In addition, he is accused of failing to pay fines worth £48,682 from separate prosecutions between August 2019 and April 2025.

Brohiri was ordered to pay back £3,629 in unpaid rail fares but he was not ordered to pay prosecution costs which the court heard amounted to £15,120.

Where/how is he going to find the money to pay that fine?

Clacton Express train saved from the scrap heap is fully restored


Brad Wright and a team of volunteers have finished the restoration of the Clacton Express

The restoration of a historic electric train has been completed, with members of the public able to have a look inside for the first time.

Brad Wright, 22, a railway enthusiast from Needham Market, Suffolk, bought the British Railways Class 309, also known as the Clacton Express, in March 2022. He had been restoring it along with a team of volunteers at the East Anglian Railway Museum in Wakes Colne, near Colchester.

Mr Wright said he was proud to have finished the work and have it on show during the Essex Electrics Exhibition at the museum on Saturday.

"It was great to get involved to save it, but to then donate it to the museum to ensure that it survives well beyond me... was my main goal – to make sure it was safe and preserved for future generations to remember," he explained. "I couldn't be prouder." He added he had felt "an immense amount of satisfaction" in completing the restoration.

Mr Wright saved the train from scrap in Sussex in 2022 and set up the Clacton Express Preservation Group – a non-profit group that offers support and volunteers to restoration projects.

The train was a pioneer of its time and operated on the Great Eastern Main Line from London Liverpool Street to Colchester, Clacton and Walton-on-the-Naze from the 1960s. It also ran to Harwich, Ipswich and Norwich from the 1980s before it was retired in the 1990s.

The Essex Electrics Exhibition celebrates the 40th anniversary of the lines being electrified to Ipswich as well as the 40th anniversary of the refurbishment of the Clacton Express trains. "They went through a big change in the middle of their lives," Mr Wright said. "That's how it's preserved now – just as it would have rolled out of the factory 40 years ago after that rebuild."

The team have given the train a complete restoration both inside and outside. Members of the public can look inside and enjoy other guided talks and demonstrations during the event.

Fond memories of a trip to Penzance and a real pasty - thank you GBM.

Serial rail fare evader fined £3,600 over 112 unpaid tickets


Charles Brohiri continued to travel without a ticket after being banned from entering Thameslink stations as part of his bail conditions

A "brazen" rail fare dodger has been fined more than £3,600 after failing to pay for a ticket on over a hundred journeys.

Charles Brohiri, 29, travelled without buying a ticket on 112 Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) journeys over a period of nearly two years. He was ordered to pay the unpaid fares and handed a three‑month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Brohiri, originally from Hatfield in Hertfordshire, but who has been homeless for three years, pleaded guilty to 76 charges of failing to pay for a rail ticket, and was convicted in his absence in August 2024 of a further 36 charges.

District Judge Nina Tempia said Brohiri had behaved as though he were "invincible," and showed a sense of "self-entitlement" in believing he could evade the rules. The court heard he had continued to travel without a ticket despite being banned last April from entering Thameslink stations as part of his bail conditions.

Prosecutor Lyndon Harris told the court there had also been a further 16 alleged offences since his last appearance in court on 15 January, including the day before his sentencing.

Judge Tempia, who took the additional alleged offences into consideration, said his "deliberate and repeated" behaviour would ordinarily have justified a prison sentence, but she believed probation services could help him address underlying issues.

Eleanor Curzon, for the defence, told the court Brohiri "expressed remorse and regret" for having continued to travel on the railway, "particularly the period when he has been appearing before you judge". When asked why Brohiri had continued offending, Curzon said it was "a pattern he had gotten himself into".

The court heard he briefly attended university and had worked as a waiter before becoming homeless and moving to London.

Curzon said that Brohiri had been sleeping rough on trains, in hospitals and in libraries. She told the court he had tried to seek help from charities but struggled to engage because of a "combination of a lack of support, a negative mental health space and not knowing how to go about maintaining support from services". She added that Brohiri had never acted aggressively when challenged and said his decision to become sober three years ago "demonstrated his capacity to change".

"He reiterated to me this morning that if he is given the opportunity to work with probation they can assist him in securing accommodation and employment," Curzon continued. "It is really these two factors which will put an end to Mr Brohiri's offending."

Brohiri was ordered to pay back £3,629 in unpaid rail fares but he was not ordered to pay prosecution costs which the court heard amounted to £15,120. He was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work, 12 months' prohibited activity requirement - which means he must not travel on any GTR trains - and to complete rehabilitation activity requirement.

"Be under no illusion if you commit any other offences and you do not comply with the requirement on this order you will be back in court," the judge warned him.

A spokesperson for Govia Thameslink Railway said fare evasion increased costs for passengers and "diverted public funding away from improving services for passengers".

"That is unfair both on taxpayers and on the vast majority of passengers who pay for their journeys."  The operator said stepped‑up enforcement in known trouble spots, along with improved reporting tools for staff, has reduced ticketless travel on its network to its lowest level since 2022.

Service will operate half-hourly throughout the day, hourly during the evenings and on Sundays. To provide additional capacity at busy times buses will no longer serve the Harbour and will terminate at the Coastguard Hotel.

Yeah, maximum linespeed is 40mph which you might just about reach down the hill between Castle Bar Park and South Greenford.

That’s why these 60mph units are a good fit for the branches.  None of the Thames valley ones are above 50mph and none of the Cornish branches go above 55mph.

Perhaps it’ll be a new unit design rather than this old D stock, but such speeds and distances are (mostly) suitable for battery trains using this technology.

A further week of disruption announced this morning.