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Hello everyone - quick update about yesterday's Rail Replacement Helicopter video.

The story was all over Swiss media on Monday, and I'm seeing a few comments saying that the helicopter has now become very busy with tourists as a result. 

(My video itself may now be adding a few extra people, although the channel's Swiss viewership is about 1.5%, so hopefully not too many. And to be clear, I asked permission before filming, for this exact reason.)

Basically, if you are planning to go to Linthal in the next few days to try and get on the helicopter, please be realistic. As I said in the video, tourists are LOW PRIORITY. If you do not live or work in Braunwald, you may face a very long wait, and if it gets really busy, you may not be allowed on at all. 

Also, please be aware that even if you manage to get a flight up, it doesn't guarantee you a flight back down.

Having said all that: it's is an absolutely gorgeous part of the world, with fantastic hiking trails, and it's 100% worth visiting even without the helicopter, if you ever get the chance. I'd encourage anyone to go there once the Braunwaldbahn is up and running again.

Thank you for your attention :) 

About a million of you have been asking the same question about my last video: why do the Llandudno cable trams have what looks like an electric pole, when they were powered by a cable, not an electric wire? 

And it's a very intelligent question! So I'll try and answer it here.

The poles were in fact used for communication. They connected to a telegraph wire that was strung up above the tracks. If the tram ever needed to slow down or stop in traffic, the driver would send a signal up the wire to the winding engineer, to tell them to stop winding the cable.

This required every tram to have two people on board - the driver at the front, and someone else at the back - making sure the poles remained connected.

The telegraph wire was in use right up until the year 2000, when it was finally replaced with a more advanced induction loop system. This is now used not only for communication, but can also detect exactly where the tram is on the track at all times. 

Meanwhile, the poles themselves were left intact, as they are part of the tramway's heritage.

Video here in case you missed it, or want to watch again:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkaZ9... 

If you are not already aware of what is happening right now, allow me to improve your day immeasurably with:

*** THE EUROPEAN TRAM DRIVER CHAMPIONSHIP 2023 ***

Featuring:
- tram bowling!
- tram snooker!
- and much more!

Live stream here: 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMI7U... 

You may have seen this already, but the legendary Geoff Marshall ( @geofftech2 ) has made his way over to Paris again! And this time he invited me along to explore the quirky 3bis & 7bis lines - the Least Used Lines on Le Métro. You can watch our adventures here:  https://youtu.be/X8rnlokK4GQ 

NEW VIDEO OUT NOW! 

But due to a schoolboy error, it didn't get published to your subscriber feeds, and you didn't get your usual notifications. Accidentally unticked the "notify subscribers" box in the video settings didn't I? 

And apparently once it's published, it's too late, you can't re-tick it and re-send the notifications. (I guess it would be open to abuse if you could). 

So. Er. This is embarrassing. Might reupload it if the views don't pick up soon. Anyway the point is: NEW VIDEO! 

Ever wanted a map of ALL the places you've seen in TTT videos?
 https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=18Avv8ENKUFllJieGN568CSVIYZr6oIcb&entry=yt 

The legendary Petter Holstad has updated his official Tim Traveller Map, showing every single destination ever featured on this channel. Which means it now includes Tim itself! Himself. Itself. Myself. Er. You know what I mean.

Anyway, if you're planning a European trip this year, and need to know where your nearest weird transport / unusual border / mediocre mountain is, look no further. This is the map of your dreams. (Well, this and Atlas Obscura). 

*** 300k Q&A KLAXON ALERT ***

Thank you very much to all 300k of you discerning and intelligent people for subscribing to the channel!

(I realise about 299k of you probably don't see community posts like this one, but thank you anyway)

A few months back I asked you to send in questions for a 250k Q&A video that I never ended up putting out - so I'd like to annouce that there will be a 300k Q&A and I will be using some of your questions from the non-existent 250k one! Also, you're welcome to pop any new questions below.

Meanwhile in case you need even more TTT content in your life:

- Yesterday I released a 7-minute video about a filing cabinet (yes, I know, SO MUCH CLICKBAIT on this channel):
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sxUP... 

- My French cousin makes a brief appearance in the latest Jay Foreman video: 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaEhv... 

Merci beaucoup et à bientôt ! 

*** CHEEKY GUEST APPEARANCE ALERT ***

I make a sneaky appearance in today's  @geofftech2  video! 

Geoff's been out exploring London's new Crossrail railway, which opens later this month, and will be "like the RER in Paris".

But what exactly is the RER? 

If only there was someone Geoff could ask... 

*** I'm about a week late but a massive THANK YOU to all 250,000 (Quarter Of A Million!) of you lovely and extremely intelligent people for subscribing to the channel! ***

Shall we have a Q&A to celebrate? I don't know if you have any questions left that I haven't already answered, but it's been about a year since the last Q&A so who knows. Let's see how it goes. If you have any Qs you would like me to A then please post them below. And if there's enough for me to make a video, it'll be along in the next few weeks!

As always, a warm welcome on board if you're new around here, and if you've been here for ages, thank you for sticking around for the last two years while nearly every video has been about France. With a bit of luck, we might have some videos from other countries coming up soon :)

(Not that there's anything wrong with France. It's a beautiful country. With some VERY enjoyable place names.) 

If you've seen yesterday's new video (or been anywhere near my Twitter in the last 24h) then you'll know this already, but legendary UK railway YouTuber  @geofftech2  has a new video out too. And I'm slightly biased, but it's a really good one! You can watch it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EtBK...