I’ve caught a couple of trains over the festive period, and whilst this is not particularly exciting news, it has been a while since I’ve travelled on the railway. I wanted to test out the Trainline app, which recently updated to include in-app purchasing via Apple Pay, and my findings were thus: HOW did any of us manage to navigate train travel without this app? From the off, it is insanely helpful.

A marvellous video from the BBC has emerged, showing three trips from London to Brighton via train from three very different time periods. The journey was filmed in 1953, then thirty years on in 1983, and then this year, another thirty years on. The videos have been sped up and put side by side, and it makes for one of those viewings that I find oddly compelling. I thought more would be distinctly different, but aside from the type of train whistling past, it’s only in London that you can see real differences.

I’ve become a little bit obsessed with a new game on the iPod/iPad, and it’s called Train Conductor. The premise is quite simple - trains appear on the tracks and you have to direct them to the correct destination. Sounds like a million other Flight Control/Traffic Control style games. There are lots of extras, though. There are two kinds of levels - the daytime shift has you steering trains to avoid each other, whilst the nighttime shift has ghost trains that can pass through each other, but require other attention.

When I first introduced the concept of the A-Z Adventure to my parents, they instantly knew where I should go for D. They had recently been to the Didcot Railway Centre and suggested it as a potential candidate. My mother is a particular fan of steam trains, so when I decided I would go there, they felt a second visit would be worthwhile. The Didcot Railway Centre is essentially a small stretch of land between two railway lines.

I have just found out about a new park opened in New York called the High Line. I don’t ever intend on travelling to New York, but if I did I would want to go and see this. The High Line railway opened back in the 1930s, as a way to stop pedestrians getting knocked over by freight trains. The tracks ran alongside the big warehouses, allowing buildings to have openings straight onto the trains.