And so it begins!

By Saen Kazak
Welcome all!



I decided to start this site to since I've a whole lotta time on my hands and there are a lot of things regarding railways and transit routes in and around London and Essex that I would like to document and talk about. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm very much a nerd for metro systems and city data. I will do everything I can to try and figure out why certain aspects of a rail system or road system or other transport route is laid out the way it is, how best this achieves its purpose and how well this weighs up against other metro systems and transport routes around the world.

To an outsider this may all sound rather complex and, to put it bluntly, boring and monotonous. I'm going to try and make sure the topics I talk about are simplified to a comprehensive level but still allow there to be enough juice for other train nerds like myself to question the information I give and consider it without 'dumbing it down' too much.

Just a little bit about me...won't dwell too long! My name's Saen and I'm seventeen. I live on the fringe of London, just west of a rather blocky sub-city called Romford and I currently attend sixth form in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex studying Physics, Maths, Geography and Computer Science at A Level having achieved 3 A*s, 6 As and 2 Bs at GCSE.

My first interests in the whole transport and city development area sparked at the ages of around seven or eight as started to become particularly drawn to different types of maps, specifically road and rail maps. It's hard to describe when most eight year olds today would rather play Fortnite or [insert current trend here], but I would spend my hours drawing fantasy maps and naming the roads as my own. Fun passtime! The clock would tick by whilst I'd be glaring at my latest christmas present...an atlas (yes, one of those old things!) trying to work out how to get from my house to Great Yarmouth (easy, follow the A12) or whatever other place or town captured my eye. It really was quite fascinating for me! I also wrote some books at a young age too and I'd spend a great deal of time drawing up maps for the fantasy worlds I created in my books. I also had a period where I became obsessed with tall buildings and cityscapes (perhaps due to the new arrival of this rather clunky building near where I live).

Fast forward a couple of years and starting to travel on the train to school each day peaked my interest again and I began to appreciate the rail network in its mastery, both as a map and as a functioning system that seamlessly worked together in all its entirety. I became interested in the development of new rolling stock, platform layouts, stopping patterns as well as the engineering side of the railway such as motors, signalling and track infrastructure. I find it all quite incredible how everything works together and keeps the world moving, both metaphorically and physically.

On that note, I do hope you enjoy the content I put out! Even if you aren't a transport nerd I sincerely hope you can find some interest in some of the content I post. Hopefully I can intrigue you into the world of the railways and the metro systems, and if not, perhaps I can give you something to drift off to before bed. I'll see you again in my next (and first proper) post. Enjoy and stay safe!

Note: I'm writing this during the time of the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe. So yes, I have been off school for two to three weeks. Any photos I post over the next few weeks will not be photos I have taken, during, the last few weeks as I'm not going to break lockdown rules and put people at risk to catch photos of trains. That being said, this blog is not about COVID-19 and I'll try not to mention it unless it's directly relevant. Stay well and stay indoors!

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