This thread is for talking about railways, and things related to railways, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - that means we're all about big intercity trains, modest rural trains, long freight trains, trips, tracks, (deep breath) trams, subways, stations, and a partridge in a pear tree~.

If you're unfamiliar with train travel, take a look at National Rail's journey planner, at nationalrail.co.uk/ - tell it where you're travelling from and to, and it'll show you a few options before handing you over to a train company so you can buy a ticket. For the same journey, they'll all charge the same price, so it doesn't matter who you buy one from. The best option for overseas visitors would be to use thetrainline.com/ - it'll support your language and payment card.

Here's a few links:
~The Man in Seat 61 (seat61.com/) - easily the best rail travel resource out there.
~A Visual History of Railway Rolling Stock in Great Britain (gaelan.me/br-stock/)
~Geoff Marshall (youtube.com/@geofftech2) - likes trains. Mostly harmless.
~Jago Hazzard (youtube.com/@jagohazzard) - London train history. Ditto.

...and some cool 'open data' stuff:
~Realtimetrains (realtimetrains.co.uk/) - live train timetables: ideal for keeping on top of ETAs and platforms.
~Openrailwaymap (openrailwaymap.org/) - not quite 'Google Maps for railway infrastructure', but close.
~TIGER (tiger.worldline.global/home/) - live station departure boards.
~Traksy (traksy.uk/live/) - live signalling information.

What's happening?
~Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill: bills.parliament.uk/bills/3732/ - (mostly) renationalising the railway.
~Phase One of High Speed 2 (Birmingham-London): hs2.org.uk/
~Belfast Grand Central: weaverscross.co.uk/belfast-transport-hub/
~The Transpennine Route Upgrade (electrifying the Liverpool-York mainline): thetrupgrade.co.uk/
~The Midland Main Line electrification (still no website!)
~The East Coast Digital Programme: nextgenerationrailway.co.uk/