railwayhistorian.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Today's appeal from the History learned societies over the existential university crisis will of course get filed in the bin by Ministers and civil servants. But it got me thinking about where we are now with all this. (1/4) www.history.ac.uk/news/more-ev...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

British Higher Education in full retreat - because no-one will get a grip and show responsibility.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Apparently, alongside all the other joints we have, it’s been decided that our biggest one - English and History - is to be scrapped, despite it not requiring a single bespoke module and therefore saving £0. Vandalism. Again.

submitted 4 days ago • 45 comments

1/8 This post exemplifies how X is pushing right wing historical revisionism. Like all effective propaganda, it blends cherry picked truths with untruths, to create false equivalence.

submitted 4 days ago • 12 comments

Get it done. www.standard.co.uk/news/transpo...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

I especially agree with the points made below that many people just don't know about what universities do and how they operate in the local economy of their region...

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

An act of grotesque vandalism is taking place in British universities inews.co.uk/opinion/colu...

submitted 16 days ago • 3 comments

Correct. And the UK's own governments will do zero to prevent this immense national act of self-harm. inews.co.uk/opinion/colu...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Re-upping this for the second shift. It's too good to miss!

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

An irritating design issue of the London Overground Class 710 trains are these door buttons. If people lean on them between stations on arrival it doesn't function. Just now, someone's bag was pushing the button and no one could get on from outside. I had to go to another door.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

A case in point: I won £25k in MHRA funding exactly a year ago. A month later my job was put at risk of redundancy and 3.5 months later it was axed. Had it not been for the heroics of colleagues at the University of Bristol who shepherded it over there, my project would have collapsed wasting £150k

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

We - that is @entandsoc.bsky.social - are so excited to publish this brilliant new essay from Michael D. Bennett and Mike Anson: "The Compensation Agency Business: London Merchants, Bankers, and the Payment of Slavery Compensation, 1835-46."

submitted 17 days ago • 2 comments

We cherish everything we publish, but occasionally something special comes along. So, we're delighted to present Michael Bennett & Mike Anson's "The Compensation Agency Business: London Merchants, Bankers, & the Payment of Slavery Compensation, 1835-46." This ... www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

submitted 17 days ago • 2 comments

Imagine a revolutionary method of transport which offers so many benefits but where the appropriate level of safety and vehicle maintenance is decided by Californian tech investors who are seeking rapid financial growth. Let’s talk about Lime in London! www.londoncentric.media/p/lime-ebike...

submitted 19 days ago • 39 comments

It's Nation Umbrella Day apparently - so why not some Hans Unger and a c.1955 poster for British Railways, London Midland Region, & travel in Rail Comfort? Some "Blood & Custard" livery as well! #railways #graphicdesign #poster flic.kr/p/dhzbVn%E2%...

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

If the UK was really, really smart, it would now plough tens of billions into research centres and take in all the American academics fleeing the US. Spoiler: the UK is not smart. 🇬🇧

submitted 20 days ago • 89 comments

"I had a crisis of conscience halfway through writing my biography of Gene Roddenberry, when I realised I just really did not like this guy..." Great guest post by @lanceparkin.bsky.social, on the relationship between an artist, their work, and their audience

submitted 20 days ago • 16 comments

A tacit admission here of what Cardiff University has been doing for years, along with others - destroying the rest of the sector in a bid to stay afloat. Now they've realised even that's a wasting asset. Without structural reform the whole sector will inevitably and inexorably fail.

submitted 21 days ago • 4 comments

Oooo. Look what they have revealed during works at Richmond Station - a bit of railway history. #Railway200

submitted 21 days ago • 4 comments

Oooo. Look what they have revealed during works at Richmond Station - a bit of railway history. #Railway200

submitted 21 days ago • 4 comments

You know you are looking at early railway files when it's a roll. This doc - RAIL 220/38 - lists the "Classification of Merchandise Tonnage, conveyed to and from Liverpool along the Grand Junction Railway", July-Dec 1847.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Brilliant day at The National Archives, including meeting up with the amazing volunteers who are transcribing records feeding into the Railway Work, Life & Death project. And great to spot #RailwayHistory at #Richmond - the LMS sneaking proper south! #Railway200

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

When ordering a cheese board tonight, a staff member in the pub said tomme was "a type of cheddar" 🤦 Oh dear...

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

#ICYMI this week's blog post looks at the 1921 #Abermule #Railway disaster. It killed 17 & injured 36 - we look at what our coming data release says about the staff involved, & about how seeing accident sites benefits our understanding of the past: www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/railway-staf...

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

A very interesting article. #TrainsNotPlanes theconversation.com/expanding-he...

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

The Welsh Government have called for a review of the university funding system across the UK. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 29 days ago • 5 comments

That's interesting; I am compiling something and on Friday last week I looked at how many X followers I had - 8,317. Now, I have 8,200. People I presume are jumping ship in droves.

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

Victorian railway companies and the built environment:

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

It would be an opportune moment for countries like the UK to recruit some really significant talent, had we not totally ballsed up our our own higher education system

submitted 31 days ago • 19 comments

You know the worst thing about this? They'll be back for an even bigger redundancy round in less than two years, because the more you cut, the more you undermine your own foundations. www.walesonline.co.uk/news/educati...

submitted 31 days ago • 1 comment

I've always told you the truth about the university crisis, haven't I? Always got my predictions right, indeed perhaps a bit on the cautious side? Well, my view now: there is a non-zero tail risk of a rapid implosion of most of Britain's HE system over the next two years. Stark, but true.

submitted 31 days ago • 10 comments

At times like this, it's worth sharing this report by Alex Chapman that argued there was no economic benefit from airport expansion. Labour are pursuing it becuse it is cheap and they're still in the thrall of a false narrative peddled by airport operators neweconomics.org/2023/07/losi...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

Are we allowed to talk about building HS2 in full (including the eastern leg) rather than airport expansion in the middle of a climate crisis?

submitted 30 days ago • 8 comments

Oidhche Bhlas Burns - Happy Burns Night. In 1930, the Royal Academician Norman Wilkinson painted this poster for the London, Midland & Scottish and London & North Eastern Railways, showing the birthplace of Robert Burns. #BurnsNight2025

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

Oidhche Bhlas Burns - Happy Burns Night. In 1930, the Royal Academician Norman Wilkinson painted this poster for the London, Midland & Scottish and London & North Eastern Railways, showing the birthplace of Robert Burns. #BurnsNight2025

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

A few thoughts on @garethdennis.bsky.social's book. Not quite a formal review, but some of the ideas within are intriguing, and others probably require a more careful positioning.

submitted 37 days ago • 2 comments

A duo of deliciousness - the scraperboard covers to Birmingham City Transport's 1939 "Transport Facilities" maps - day & all-night services. Birmingham's trams were doomed by this date to be replaced by motor buses - the city was a reluctant trolleybus operator. #transport ↘️ flic.kr/p/5SkTGd

submitted 37 days ago • 1 comment

Over 2025 the literature, history and transport teams of Aston University will be running in person events for @railway200.bsky.social Our 1st event on 11 Mar (1730) is titled "Birmingham Railway Histories". Details & booking can be found below #Railway200 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/railway-20...

submitted 38 days ago • 1 comment

Over 2025 the literature, history and transport teams of Aston University will be running in person events for @railway200.bsky.social Our 1st event on 11 Mar (1730) is titled "Birmingham Railway Histories". Details & booking can be found below #Railway200 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/railway-20...

submitted 38 days ago • 1 comment

COMING SOON! The next @ihr.bsky.social Transport & Mobility History seminar: Building a British Rail in Britain: Advocating For a Nationalised Industry 1960-90 Lewis Smith, Brunel University 13 Feb 2025, 17.30 UK, online #Railway200 Booking free - all welcome: https://buff.ly/4gT5fwT

submitted 42 days ago • 1 comment

Not sure how to get involved with #Railway200? 🤔 Simply sharing messages with your friends and followers helps spread the word about how our railways continue to shape national life, and the benefits #CommunityRail can bring to our climate and communities 🌍 @railway200.bsky.social

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

Yesterday, I finishing transcribing the Grand Junction Railway's 1833 subscriber list. The largest single amount was subscribed by William Rutson: £16,500. His father was a Liverpool merchant who traded in West Indian goods and his grandfather funded 45 slave voyages.

submitted 46 days ago • 2 comments