Having arrived into Bruxelles-Midi onboard a Eurostar service from London, I had just over an hour to kill before I continued my trip to Düsseldorf by boarding another train bound for Dortmund. This would be another Eurostar service, although one formerly operated by Thalys before their merger with Eurostar, and I was looking forward to seeing the differences between the ‘red’ Eurostar that was new to me and the ’blue’ Eurostar that I was used to. However, before catching that train, I had some time for some dinner and so headed outside the station to find some food!

Less than four weeks after my quick trip to Ireland, I was heading back down to London ready to start another trip. This time I wasn’t heading for Ireland via Heathrow, but for Germany via St Pancras, a journey I’d be completing by just two international train services. My ultimate destination was Düsseldorf, but for the first leg of the trip was from St Pancras to Brussels, travelling with Eurostar in standard class.

Back in September 2024 it was announced that the process would be started to replace ScotRail’s Inter7City fleet, their short-set HSTs, marking the beginning of the final chapter of the iconic HST’s operation in the UK. In November 2024 I was in Scotland for work and with most of a day free, I found myself at Glasgow Queen Street early one morning with a plan to ride these iconic trains for more than 300 miles over some of Scotland’s railways. My plan for the day would see me travelling onboard four different Inter7City sets, as I headed to Montrose, Edinburgh, Perth and finally back to Glasgow.

Whilst I’d started my trip to Ireland by flying from Heathrow to Cork, I was ending it by flying from Dublin to Birmingham and so needed to make my way from Ireland’s south coast to the capital. The easiest way of doing this was by taking an Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) service from Cork Kent station direct to Dublin Hueston. Whilst the vast majority of Iarnród Éireann services are now operated by Diesel or Electric Multiple Units, the Cork to Dublin route is home to one of Ireland’s only remaining loco-hauled services, giving me the chance to try something a little bit different.

After a few days on the south coast exploring the railways, visiting friends and crossing the Solent to the Isle of Wight, it was time to head home. On my way down to the coast I’d travelled with South Western Railway (SWR) from London Waterloo to Dorchester South, but on the way back I was travelling via the quicker Portsmouth Direct line from Portsmouth Harbour through to London. As such I started my day in Chichester, catching a southern service along the coast to Portsmouth, where I’d start the journey back towards the capital in earnest.

The August Bank Holiday weekend saw me without any firm plans and, wanting to do a trip somewhere but not wanting to pay the peak air fares, I decided to visit some friends in Sussex, whilst building in some rail days of the south coast whilst I was down there. Having previously ticked off the majority of the line between Brighton and Portsmouth, Dorset and the Solent were my targets and so on the Bank Holiday Saturday, my trip started at London Waterloo with a South Western Railway (SWR) service to Weymouth.