Quote from: njee20 on December 06, 2025, 12:49:52 PMI accrued enough points for 2 cases of wine and 4 First Class returns from Kings Cross to Edinburgh.

I know that's a long journey but that's a lot of wine for 4 people to get through.

You can buy any tickets through any TOC website. They may favour their own tickets, but everything will be there.
 About 10 years ago whoever the east coast franchise holder was (NXEC?) had a great rewards scheme through their website. I bought all my tickets through them, including commuting to London (on Southern). I accrued enough points for 2 cases of wine and 4 First Class returns from Kings Cross to Edinburgh. They closed the rewards scheme annoyingly!

I refuse to use the Trainline website, I resent their booking fees, and I've heard of too many people having issues (probably of their own making admittedly, but hey ho).  They do provide their back end to other TOCs, it's actually the bulk of their revenue, so you often use them by default!

I had an irritating one recently. I was going from Gatwick to Birmingham. All the booking sites for the specific train I wanted routed me via the west London line, to pick up Avanti WC at Watford. I was comfortable going via London, there was bags of time, and you get a choice of seats rather than whatever is left by Watford. However, the WLL route was cheaper, and there were no corresponding returns, so it was actually impossible to buy that ticket as a return, nor could I book onto the train I wanted simply going via London. Instead I had to book my reservation on a different train and chance my arm I'd get the seats I wanted on the earlier one. Daft.

In other silly oddities. I commute from darkest Sussex to London Bridge. It's £49.80 a day. If I buy a ticket from Billingshurst to Aldershot, and a return from East Croydon to London Bridge it's £42. If I buy a return to either Potters Bar or Hatfield it's £39. Any of these options work fine to the London terminals. Everyone who commutes knows. I'm amazed no one has looked and wondered why so many people travel from Sussex to Hertfordshire every day. It's only day tickets. It's only for a few stations on the Arun Valley line, from Horsham (which is closer to London) it gets more expensive again. You can't buy a weekly that is cost effective. Can't have it as an e-ticket either, old school paper tickets only. Bizarre. I've saved thousands, mind!

If you are happy being restricted to one route/operator, it is often worth checking that operator's own app - there may be special offers that aren't available through third parties.

Hull Trains often have App-only deals (as you might expect from open access being allowed to be more flexible), but (DaFT owned/managed) Northern also have regular promotions.

Also worth looking at whether there is a "Rover" or "Ranger" ticket that covers your journey. Those are never included in search results. (Usually, the only restriction is on Morning Peak Arrivals/Departures at certain major stations)
As an example, last time I checked, the "Yorkshire Coast day Rover" covering the Hull-York-Scarborough triangle cost less than a Hull-York standard open Return.

We seem to have sprung a leak in the clubroom roof and Heatherley has copped it

Might be 42 degrees in Wollongong at the moment, but not in Bealman's backyard!

that is a lot of work with a huge bill to follow - 6 figures at least. hats off to the MYMR.
the only boiler work I was involved in was retubing 6106 at Didcot and a similar job on a traction engine - all boiler work is hard graft.

Regards,

Alex

Tried a few more when the daily limit on Copilot had cleared.

This wasn't a bad try, although it did derail the Jinty. It really fouled up the signal in front of the platform end so I erased that;


Another pretty good one, although it didn't seem to know about sheeted wagons - the one in front of the logs is more resembling a small tender now.


Now this one isn't too bad at all, it's had a good try at the nameboard.


Can't see much to complain about this one.


It had trouble with the nameboard here but at least it didn't replace it completely. It also struggled with spoked wheels but it didn't try and change the sizes.


Another very good try, my only real criticism here is the tunnel mouth.


It had a reasonable try with this one, but the tearoom roof was obviously asking a bit much.

I use Trainline for all my rail travel and will continue to do so, very user friendly and to date has meet my needs without problems or errors.

Note for tickets purchased on the day there is no additional small fee.

 
   I usually use the National Rail APP, useful for planning or buying tickets
  stay safe regards Derek

But finally met his Waterloo!