Or rechargeable batteries at least.....

 

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06 will be started from Swindon.
It will no longer call at Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

22:31 Swindon to Westbury due 23:12
22:31 Swindon to Westbury due 23:12 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

 

 
Here are the correct ones
0 Paddington - stuving
3 Arbroath - broooklea
5 York - Chris from Nailsea
6 Marlow - Mark A
14 Prague hlavní nádraží  - DR7835

But these are not
10 - not Swansea
11 - not Fishguard
13 - not Swindon

 
10. A guess - a memento of the copper works in Swansea

 
"Warminster Journal"

 
13. Swindon?

 
From the BBC:

 
0 is at Paddington - specifically on the linking walkway in front of the Paddington Square building. Quite what it links, or will, I'm not sure; it mainly seems to block off Tanner Lane (what was London Street) where the change in ground level is now incompatible with it continuing.

 
Only a week or so since the one at Bermondsey burned - and for the second time. If this relates to disposable vapes, they're... imposing costs on us all.

Mark

 
11. Fishguard harbour

 
... particularly if the on-board toilet facility is not available...

 
14: Czech Republic; The eye-catching "classic" entrance hall to Praha hlavní nádraží /Prague Main Station. (Admittedly the background does give a bit of a clue!).

 
From the BBC:

 
5.  York Station (UK), but without the tale of the fox - see also https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=29110.0 

 

"The lesson? It’s just best to pack your passport for any journey over to the Emerald Isle"

Amen.

 

Don't worry, it'll all be fine once it's renationalised under GBR 

 
6, Marlow?

 
3. Arbroath

 
I see bidding got to £57,000 but that didn't meet the reserve so it was unsold.  Will be interesting to see what happens from here. 

 
Pictures taken by ... myself on my travels .. showing the great variety that are railways.  I have lots of pictures with trains in them, but this series - over three days does not feature trains.  Just at or near railway stations.  For the UK ones, can you tell me the station; for the overseas ones, can you tell me the country and there's a bonus for the actual place.

0.


1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.


10.


11.


12.


13.


14.

 
77mph (decreasing) for 1.5 miles in a carriage not running on rails must be pretty scary.

 

35% cancellation in the last 4 weeks.
1636 Oxford  - Didcot also on 35% over the last 4 weeks which of course then forms the 1704 DID to Evesham.

As we all know since electrification was cancelled GWR has not had enough diesel trains. Cancelling the half complete electrification to Oxford was one of the most stupid decisions made. Thanks Chris Grayling, who has plenty of form with stupid decisions. 

 
Just a short note .please check your drivers license,whilst you may be entitled to drive until well into the future,the photo card does need to be renewed and the picture updated every so often 10 years at this time.

 
Probably the most popular train on the Evesham-Oxford section!

Certainly in term time.

 


Is this now the least likely to run as advertised service on the GW network?  Why is it even in the timetable?  They could just add it as a special excursion on the days when they can be a*s*d to run it

 
That latter paragraph is a currently, now option without referring to end September. It will surely be updated nearer the time.

 
Graham's 1965 timetable and people's reflections on the issues with it made me think: do we see the same practices in the current era, and to what extent?

That does prompt the question 'Current era?' - one measure would be 'Post 1997 and the arrival of the privatised railway' - an era that has seen strong growth for rail travel - a growth that in some cases wasn't anticipated in the way individual franchises were structured.

An alternative current era would be 'The Covid pandemic and after'.

Against a background of growth, what's not been seen is a wholesale shredding of infrastructure (Those photos of Devizes, 1965 and several other examples, not least the Great Central main line) - and the later smattering of irksome reductions such as Westbury's missing platform, or the Bradford junction north curve - these were pre-privatisation changes at a time when managed decline was still an anticipation.

Not so the Maindee curve, by Newport. Along with the buoyant services it carried, it was a victim of the new structure of the privatised railway, its singling will no doubt be quoted as a reason the railway cannot possibly reinstate the much-used services onto the Marches line from the west country and from Wiltshire.

https://www.branchline.uk/rail_chronology/Maindee-letter.pdf

Managing excess passenger flows using the timetable - in the west, with capacity on the network constrained by the shortfall in trains the railway's not at all averse to that and it's Weymouth that's the shining star in that dark firmament. The timetable's been habitually squatting on the potential for growth in passenger numbers to Weymouth - especially so since the loco-hauled stuff ended.


The underlying question must be 'How should the railway handle seasonal flows - and in a graceful manner?' The answer shouldn't be 'In July, deploy the winter minimum viable product' as business doesn't grow, and existing passengers suffer (hi, Cambrian Coast Line). Neither can it be a large strategic reserve of things on wheels that for most of the year do not turn them. Timetabling a summer-only higher capacity train but then very frequently turning it short of its branch line destination isn't exactly brilliant either (waves to Newquay).

I don't know the answer but in the West it would be good if the railway was in a position to step up and provide more for the journeys that, in a car, are awkward. Even on the major axes I'm rather missing the time when the GWR's marketing stated, albeit with a hyperbolic ambition 'With our new timetable we intend to empty the M4'.

 
RAIB have announced an enquiry into this incident.