New and improved diary back and running at https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/diary.html

Can I ask members as they post up date specific stuff to add a link to the Coffee Shop Calendar too please.

 
Our meetings at the tail end of last year in November proved the desire for an ongoing Melksham Transport User Group, and within a friendly environment in which other groups and organisations see the value in what we plan and want to partner / work alongside.

Committee meetings are scheduled for the 3rd Thursday in alternate months - starting 16th January.  Plus four public meetings and four newsletters a year, and more planned.  More to be added at https://www.mtug.org.uk - probably after the first new committee meeting

 
Search is back in full glory - https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/search.html - loads of other buglet adjustments too.  Like system remains to be made less clunky; emails ARE going out but I still need to improve the "street cred" of our backroom server to help fussier mail recipient clients accept them.

 
Slightly off-topic (as you might expect from me) but is anyone else bemused by the spelling of ‘Bridgewater’? It seems the Earls added the ‘e’ in the middle at some point…

 

Thanks - missing "/" in URL which I have fixed.

 
weblink showing error on accessing 2025 delays.
Will email error as can't attach here

 
We're evenly split between those of us who never work on the train, those who do so only occasionally and those who so do regularly or routinely.  Interesting to learn ... not sure how much it proves.   I did not ask about whether you access the Coffee Shop from the train ...

 
800 follow up posts on this thread in 2024 - and THANK YOU to everyone who has helped me maintain the log.  I really appreciate it and it's going to be just as important (but I hope nothing like as busy) for 2025

And for 2025, I have split off our first event of the year into a new thread at  http://www.greatwesternrailway.info/29726 ...

 
Would have thought resourced from Westbury,last train and crew return to Westbury,then an early start for another crew and unit heading to Weymouth.

 
I can certainly recommend one to the DfT: see https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=25806.0 

The SDR South Devon Railway is not to be confused with the SDR Stockton & Darlington Railway, even in the minds of the DfT, hopefully. 

 
Cancellations to services between Trowbridge and Chippenham via Melksham

Due to heavy snow at Westbury disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Train services between Trowbridge and Chippenham via Melksham will be cancelled.

Customer Advice
Due to engineering works in the Westbury area, rail services are already disrupted.

Rail replacement road transport was in operation, however due to the snow, some coach operators are standing down and therefore the advertised rail replacement road services may not run.

 
The first major blockade for moving the existing railway sideways is next year. It will be longer than this year's three days. I think this year was preparatory work by NR, such as moving cabinets and other equipment out of the way of the HS2 construction teams. They will then start building the northern part of the station on land that does not have any operational railway on it.

 

Thank you

 
Does anyone know if the planned work at OOC over the Christmas shutdown was completed?

I ask because prior to the shutdown I thought I had read that the work being undertaken was to slew lines (and presumably related infrastructure) into new positions for what will become the new OOC station.

But I’ve just seen a YouTube video post New Year and the line look like they are in the same place.

So did events unfold that meant the planned work could not be completed ? Or am I mis-remembering what was actually going to occur?

I’m left wondering what was actually undertaken during the extended shutdown?

 
How do GWR crew the early starts and late arrivals at Weymouth please?

Thanks in anticipation

 
Currently still not receiving email notifications.
Just tried a bounce test for my internal mail, and that's working OK.

As matt1j says, I press LIKE. This takes me to a new page with 'like wot he said earlier', so have to press the back button to return to the current topic.

 
Now there's a good question!

There WAS talk of one, back in October I think, of one earlyish this year to celebrate Railway 200. It's gone quite quiet these days though, so ideas may have have changed & moved to operator sales instead - no one knows currenty

 
Yes, the Manchester Ship Canal company (now Peel Holdings) had to buy out the Bridgewater Canal in the 1890s prior to the construction of the MSC.

 

I reluctantly gave up on the struggle recently and started using a third-party host to send transactional mails. I use Amazon's SES, which allegedly stands for "Simple Email Service" though nothing with AWS is ever simple. But it works and the emails get delivered, which means I no longer have to answer queries about "my registration email hasn't arrived, how do I log in". There are lots of alternatives which tend to be easier to set up, but at a higher per-email cost.

https://www.mail-tester.com is really good for diagnosing mail deliverability issues though not foolproof.

edit: AWS in this case isn't Automatic Warning System (prevents SPADs aka Signals Passed At Danger) but Amazon Web Services (prevents SPADs aka Server Panics And Dies).

 

Indeed. I am still trying to fathom it out.

 
It's one of those proposals where a railway reopening would be a no-brainer in a sane country (Bridport 12k population, tourist potential, route mostly unobstructed). But as this is the UK it's out of the question and even a cycleway will take years of negotiation. I often wish we'd had the foresight to "rail-bank" former trackbeds as happens in the US.

 

AFAIAA at that point a tramway would be just like a bus lane, and simple traffic lights maybe all that is required.

 
It's going to be an eight-figure sum to fix. Peel Holdings (who own the canal) can afford it, but I suspect they will try and get some money out of Government to do so.

There were negotiations a long time ago for British Waterways, as was, to take on the Bridgewater from Peel - I remember reporting on it for Waterways World. But BW were worried about maintenance liabilities and nothing ever came of it. I wonder if this might be a prompt to reopen that discussion.

 
Thanks Grahame.  Yes those £12 fares between Melksham and Penzance are excellent value fares.  Though as you say, it appears they do offer fares as cheap as this at times anyway.  So this suggests this isn't really a sale.

I was looking at doing a trip from Bristol down to Plymouth and Penzance last month, to get a last journey or two on the HST's.  I didn't bother in the end.  But the fares I found then were actually around £10 from Bristol to Plymouth, and around £12 for Penzance to Bristol anyway. 

This sale isn't half as good as the GWR sales they've had say 6 or 7 years ago.  Back then it was quite easy to find bargain advance fares such as Bristol to London for £10 and a number of other destinations for excellent prices.  Not the case in this sale.  No bargain advance sale fares to/from places like London, Oxford, Southampton, Portsmouth, Worcester, Cardiff, etc.  They're just the same prices as normal.  A number of other people commenting similarly on the GWR Facebook page.

Is there going to be a Great British Rail Sale this year?  I think I'll wait for that instead!  That was very good last year and I think back in 2023 too.  It blew this current supposed GWR sale out of the water!

 

Those are very scruffy highlights at present - as you click on an option the artefact moves to the thing you have selected

 
Just noticed on the ‘look and feel’ selections, there’s some sort of artefact following the selected options about:

 

The white Truronian Mercedes in your photo doesn’t have a toilet.

Ours are the blue Megabus branded Interdecks. Toilet is located on the middle stair case. 

 

But if you call it a "Tramway" you might do better?   Haven't Blackpool, Edinburgh and Manchester been able to expand in the current ere? The Chur to Arosa service is an interesting potential precedent and now that we're outside the EU just like Switzerland ...

 

The things some people get up to in the early hours! 

 

An small industrial paternoster lift that is alive and well and can be seen in the branch of McDonalds on Praed Street nearly opposite Paddington station.  It lifts food from the kitchen in the basement.  It's new - it would have been installed in the past year or so when the branch was opened.  The floor of each lift platform is like a comb, which passes through a fixed facing comb at servery level, and the food item gently slides from the platform to a holding area, from which staff assemble the the customer's order.  I was impressed at how this makes excellent use of space in the confined site.