 Hello, thank you for joining me. This is my second video I've made during lockdown from my house Last time I talked to you a bit about Transpotting and you know what it is and what people do and what you know, just how you'd be a train spotter really This video we're going to talk about something else to do real enthusiasts and that's called track bashing now Track bashing basically is traveling on track for the fun of it You know not necessarily if you need to get to the end line, but just because you know you want to now I Like to when I track that I do try and you know get out at the end of the line or wherever along the line and have a Look round, but I do also there have been days where admittedly have literally gone to the end of the line and come straight back Just to tick off the track now the way I kind of do this is I have this this is my older book and this is my Current book now as you can see the both a bit You know looking a bit worse way around the edges because these are real work courses These go out every time I go on the train with me and what I do for home I have my need to copy which I don't touch much and you know stays nice and Neat looking and doesn't get worn away down the edges now as I go track bashing What I do is I am I tick off the lines of I've done so these books are basically like a road Atlas but of railways and They show all the main lines all the heritage lines all the metros all the tramways This is obviously of the UK. So let's find an area to start on them Where should we start? Okay, the border of England and Wales now I don't know how well you can see that but you may notice there's a few different colors now yellow is my kind of Introductory thing that means that this is the camera in line from Shrewsbury. Oh, Trabarist with it means I've been on it on a multiple unit. So, you know, that's diesel or electric now Some lines. So just gonna show you this one north of here nor for Shrewsbury up towards rex and that is green That means I've done it on a local train So I know the one and only time I've done local nor for Shrewsbury was on rexman shops here was on their penultimate day Rexman shops are a great little train company that ran from London, Maryland to rex them. But unfortunately Their trains and people just didn't use them enough, but they were local or a class 67 and three or four mark freeze So they were great, but unfortunately they had to stop running. So I went and traveled on their penultimate day I did use them before that though. So if it's green, it means I've done it on a local train now There's also quite a lot of pink stroke orange. That's when I that's just a color when I go over them That is steam. So I've done steam from my hunt lift Goes off the page but around the Cumbering Coaster as fast per fairly when they used to do steam specials and around the Cumbering Coaster did that on them 4MT and 7607 9 I think it was and then the next year I did on a black 5 so done that with steam And of course all the little narrow gauge railways most of the heritage railways I've done with steam There are some heritage railways, which I've done either with a multiple unit or on a diesel locomotive train So that's kind of what track bashing is now Again, I take it that wherever I go I track bashed. So that's the main lines of Britain when it comes to The smaller lines so the heritage lines and miniature railways. I've got these books here now These aren't maps. It's just really a guide to all the miniature railways So what I would do if I've been to one of these miniature railways I've class it as done now. This is where we kind of overlap my miniature rail abrasion series Those of you who watch miniature rail abrasion series will know it's my ambition to visit every single one of these railways When I say that I mean I will visit every heritage railway in the UK But I'm kind of focusing more on miniature railways at the moment This book Little Puffers has a mixture of miniature and narrow gauge. Again, I'll do them So that's it's a form of track bashing. So you might say go on the Romney harm dim church railway and You'd say go from Hive all the way to Dungeon S around the loop and back and to me that's track bashing and Back on the main lines. There are some Where it gets more complicated because when you get into Frey only line, so let's just have a look Manchester here There's some red lines their Frey only lines around Manchester now I've done them on rail tours rail tours are probably the best way to do these Frey only lines Another way you can sometimes do them is trains get diverted. So You might go on the train and They're doing engineering work so the train goes a different route and it takes a bit of Frey only track Some of these Frey only lines or in fact, most of them are often very short They might only be, you know, a quarter of a mark might be a curve. So an example of What was a Frey only line at the time that I did is it did cut So you've got the Great Western main line and then you've got a line north to Oxford and then you have trains from London that go As if they're heading from London, they go to the right of dick at railway centre Forming one side the triangle, but there's also another side It's a trains coming south from Oxford can head towards Swindon. That's known as the Fox or curve And that is a Frey only line But I've done that on an HST when they were diverting HSTs over Chilton line I went to Swindon on HST and I did that bit of track. So that's a way of getting to do the red Frey only lines So, you know, it can be done. I'm I'm confident I will do every passenger line in Britain as for the Frey only lines, you know, I take them as and when I go I'm not gonna go out my way to go on them but I do go on some of the rail tours, you know to get those sections of track and If I there has been a hot time where I've gone on a train like when I went to Swindon purely because it was being Diverted and also I just wanted that I wanted to do an HST on the Chilton main line So that that's how I get those lines done. Now when I go abroad I've got a whole series of other ones got one of France was Spain and Portugal now in these I have done Compared to the UK very little amounts France. I've done, you know, a fair amount Hardly anything. I've traveled through France quite a lot. I've done a few main lines one or two branch lines Germany, I've done all bits. I've done all the hearts and I've done a few narrow gauge lines around Dresden and You know one or two other bits in the Cologne area, but I still serve only scratch the surface And Germany is just so many railways wherever I'll ever get them all done. I don't know and Austria some amazing railways But again, I haven't done a huge amount Slovak and Czech Republic formally Czechoslovakia again, I've not done a lot All I have done Prague by steam so somewhere in here. There's some track that I've done with steam I've done steam in Germany a couple of main line tours now this one. I find the most interesting Southeast Europe and Turkey so it comes to former Yugoslavia. Some of those countries are so small It's quite easy to do them. So I haven't been to Kosovo yet But I probably could do the whole of Kosovo as a rail network although it's a bit unreliable I've been told but Montenegro You've only really got a line north from Montenegro to Belgrade a line south down to bar and then a branch line up to another town So I could do Montenegro's network quite easily Bosnia Herzegovina Well, I've done from Tuzla to Dubai and down to Sarajevo I haven't done up to Banja Luca and I haven't done from Sarajevo down to Mostar and the coast So although I've done a few freight only lines in Bosnia on charter trains And as I mentioned in my other book in my other video about my book The train spotting book of this area because it includes industrial steam So I have done some freight only lines there So that that is basically what track fashion is now There is another form that I don't really get involved in but some people do and you know They really enjoy it and that's great for them Then it named the buffer kissing lot basically they'll have a train say on heritage railway And it will do every bit of track now I'm really just worried about saying doing station to station say if there's four tracks between two stations I'm not particularly I would just say once I've done it I've done it Unless you get a situation say like north of Watford The fast and the slow lines on the west coast main line take separate tunnels So I would say yes I need to have done the fast line tunnel and the slow line tunnel But some people will do every single bit of track And I mean every single bit track whether that's on a miniature railway or a heritage line Or on the main line and the way the reason I call the buffer kisses Is because when they get when the train gets to the end of a bit of track They will all walk through the carriages right to the very end So you know they are doing as much of the track as possible Now if that's what they enjoy doing then great, you know good luck to them I hope those who want to do every every single piece of track rather than every route I hope they get to do it if that's what they want to do You know, but I'm more just worried about doing every route So occasionally like another place to be some way of say like Manst rocks with road There's a bay platform that kind of the main lines are sort of going in one direction It sticks right out like that So I once went on a train it went into bay platform I was quite happy with that And another example I can think of in the British Isles Not in Great Britain but Dublin Houston There is another platform that's kind of away from the station So if I ever went on to train into that platform that I would consider a new bit of track There is also and I've done most of the track in Dublin It's the Phoenix Park tunnel which is like a link line Which goes um comes off the main line just before Dublin And it goes through to Glass Neven Junction which is on the Sligo line And there are a few passenger trains the next time I'm in Dublin I've got to go and do that bit of track and then I've done all of Dublin Haven't done all of Ireland yet I've still got to do the suburban lines around Cork And uh haven't been to Westport Ballinar or Sligo yet Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland might actually be the country The first country where I do every railway Because the only bit of railway main line I haven't done Is the Port Rush branch called Rain to Port Rush Only five miles That's the only bit I haven't done So um you know or Isle of Wight I know Isle of Wight's not a country but I have done Because that's fairly easy You've only got the island line And um the heritage line, the Isle of Wight steam railways I have done all the Isle of Wight As of yet there isn't a country that I've done every railway in But it would be easier on some of these islands Even the Isle of Wight I've not actually done I've been to the Isle of Wight I've not actually done the whole system Because I've not done the whole of the steam railway And um North I've been to the two miniature railways There's the Kroger Valley Railway Which is private as occasional open days There's also the Orchid Line I'm hoping to include definitely the Orchid Line Maybe the Kroger Valley in a miniature railway Britain series Because it's in British Isle so it counts So um watch this space on that one I can't say when that will be Um but yeah so islands Although they're not necessarily countries They would be quite an easy place Or I'll tell you the easiest place to do it Would be hard but once you've done it be easy Would be the Vatican City That is the world's smallest state railway It's basically a branch off Italian railways Into the Pope's back garden A few years ago they did do a charter train out of there So if I've been on that train I've literally got on it And after about two minutes I'll be in Italy And I'll be like right that's it done Italian state railways I don't know if any of the um People who want to do every bit of track have actually managed that I'll be very interested to know if somebody has But yeah the um Vatican state railways Pretty one the hardest to do But it would be it is the shortest It's the smallest state railway in the world And when I do all this track bashing And again when I go to um Cities where there's trams I will try and do the whole tram network There's quite a few places like that Well like London I've done every passenger railway in London And then quite a few freight ones But I haven't done every railway in London There's one or two freight curves I haven't done But when it comes to um Big cities with trams Well some cities have such a small network So like Toulouse in the south of France There's only two tram routes So I've done them I haven't done all of the metro in Toulouse Even though I could have done But I only had half a day And I wanted to see the cathedral as well So I kind of had to um You know weigh it up I thought right I'll do the trams Because they're above ground And I prefer trams to metros But I won't worry about the whole metro Because I do want to see the cathedral But then bigger cities like Budapest I've done quite a lot of the trams I've done all the metro in Budapest I've not done all the trams Because it's it's quite a vast network But I will I will do it one day Hungry setting second city Debritson I've I've done it all Because there's only two tram routes So again Track bashing really is Basically exploring track But the great thing I find about it Is because I've got other interests It takes me to other places So when I go to Debritson in Hungary I'll do the trams Then I'll have a look around city And go in the cathedral And do all the non railway stuff So um if I'm Even with my girlfriend Or my friends who aren't railway enthusiasts You know I do try and make it So that I don't you know They don't get too bored But um there's quite a few friends of mine And members of my family Who have had rare bits of track They perhaps don't realise it In the same way I effectively got a virtual CV For friends and family Of where they've been And I'll say to them Oh you've been on that rare bit of track And they're like oh okay cool So um that's basically what track bashing is So I hope you enjoyed this video Thank you very much for watching And um hopefully soon We should be out and about You know track bashing And visiting miniature railways All sorts of other places So thank you very much for watching Please do feel free to like, subscribe, comment I've got at least one more of these Indoor lockdown videos But it won't be about railway So watch out for that video To see what I'm going to tell you About that on that one It'll be another one of my interests So thank you very much for watching Goodbye