I found myself looking at various ways that passengers cross the line today ... wondering if a solution is any nearer for Pilning or if no-one's thinking about doing anything there any more ...











I understand that none of these would be acceptable to all parties for Pilning - but they do remind me of the widely different options employed in places, some of which may be novel to the UK

 
Another one.....Eurostar this time.

https://www.aol.co.uk/eurostar-chaos-passengers-complain-slowly-152817520.html

Customers described being stranded on board train with no working toilets or air conditioning

 
According to Rail Advent, the VLR Innovation Centre operators have fallen into administration.  What the impact on the the Coventry VLR will be is not yet clear.  The article is a fairly short one at present, link below.
Not a good day for VLR in a wider context either.

https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2025/07/very-light-rail-innovation-centre-operators-fall-into-administration.html

 

But yet Evening Star in Green was something of an oddball - a freight loco switched from black because it was the last of a dying breed.

Question (to which there is no answer ... or as many answers as we have members) - should bank notes not have something on them that's current and looks forward to the future?   I appreciate that we've has lots of dead famous people - but also things like iconic buildings or architectural significance that show the solidity of the country.  And on that basis

£5 - Class 230 battery train, suitable for local journeys and a potential workhorse for little things
£10 - Class 158 - beloved workhorse of medium distance services
£20 - IET - covers a lot more than a 158, even if you are uncomfortable in it / spending it
£50 - Latest Eurostar train - showing the significance of big fast journeys and international connections

 
As we're in Railway 200 year, Rocket, Ciry of Truro, Mallard and the HST would give us one loco for each 50 years.

If the theme were less general, 4 iconic steamies might be selected from Mallard, Flying Scotsman, City of Truro, King George V, Duchess of Hamilton, Evening Star, Lord Nelson and a Battle of Britain/West Country....

The illustrations would be amazing!

Iconic British diesels? Harder to define....an HST for sure, a Deltic, a Western and an 08 maybe?
If note colour is a factor...

£5 Blue - Mallard in LNER blue
£10 Brown - Brighton Belle 5BEL in umber/cream
£20 Purple - HST FGW livery
£50 Green - Evening Star in BR Green

 

The Kent dc locos (later class 71) were a year earlier
The first class 81 was November 1959

 
These damn trees go much too fast . . .

 
A pacer on the fiver?  Might get some change. 

 

As your describe, though, it's just a small part of a vey big subject over a massive region.  The line is indeed lovely - as are a number of others.  The other two who were with me on the train into Felletin were fit looking gentlemen - one with a walking pole and I suspect he we off to explore the countryside routes.

The soli is sandy and the grass brown around Felletin - but still it's notable how much overgrown it has been allowed to become since pictures taken less than a year ago.  It's much greener up the valley, and indeed the tree hit a branch which to entangled in the mechanism, and the driver and her train manager got doen trackside to pull it out.   I wonder in these green parts how much the greenway will be kept clear of encroaching growth.  Temperatures fell tropical.

 

Indeed - I noted an empty hospital / medical facility in Felletin and much else that I wonder how it survives.  Mentioning the old line that used to go onwards to Ussel ... I noted a bus stop at the top of Station Road, in traditional British style without any indication of what celled there ... but on my walk back though the town past the bus stop there was a coach just leaving - pretty well empty - toward that destination.    The town was - infested - with cars looking for the most central possible parking spaces and making it hard to photograph without someone's darned private vehicle making the view far less special.

I am lost for words at the loss of service and the loss of opportunity for the community.  The service is effectively gone already - 2 trains a day (as we know from experience) does nothing; I don't know the whole economic and public sentiment background here and potential markets to understand and could not from a single visit. It's my understanding that it can / could be done and indeed "our' Lee had been very much involved with that in Brittany with what I believe is some success.

The return train DID fill somewhat on its return - just 14 passenger legs (3 humans, one with 2 dogs) from Felletin but picked up at places along the way, some very much larger ... and of course being just a single carriage it can feel busy without really being mass transit.

There are other lines radiating from Limoges - trying a bit more today.  Some such as the line to Poitiers seem to only run part way - to Le Dorat - on my timetable planner and are then buses-pretending-to-be-trains and finding an up to date map of what is really trains is tricky.  Some may be being (re)built and with justified rail replacement - massive  work going on at Limoges station itself.  Other services so thin that they are virtually unmarketable because of it, or only fit for narrow traffic requirements not the general traffic of the area.

 
as long as its not one of idea/s mentioned on another non rail forum to have flowers on the notes.

What ever next? smelly notes of roses?

 

 

I guess it depends how you define "first".  I thought the Class 81 was the first fleet of electric locos that BR received.  However, I know which one of the two makes for a more impressive illustration.

 

Just to be pedantic shouldn't it be this?

 
An angry blog posting from January about successive line closures in this part of France:

https://raildusud.canalblog.com/2025/01/busseau-sur-creuse-felletin-etat-et-region-prets-a-enterrer-l-un-des-derniers-vestiges-des-radiales-nord-sud-du-massif-central.html

The commenters are rather sceptical about disused railway trackbeds and structures being repurposed as voie vertes (greenways). But far rather that than ploughed up and forgotten, as happened to most of our Beeching-era closures. (There's a Facebook group chronicling the absolute destruction of the Great Central which just makes me weep.)

When I cycled through France in May I was astonished at the rate of voie verte construction - at both Cahors on the Lot, and on the Via Ardeche near to Vallon-Pont d'Arc, there were brand new routes that hadn't even been mapped on OpenStreetMap yet. (Pics attached.) It seems to be generally accepted that the rest of the Lot valley line will become a greenway, after the community rail endeavour finally gave up any hope of raising the inflated sums SNCF were demanding to put the railway back in good order. A tourist region like the Lot really ought to have good quality public transport, of course. But maybe little Felletin could get a voie verte.

 

Peak of design or the first of their kind?  Which in the UK would be the Class 81?

 
My contribution is to agree that an HST power car must be included.

As the £10 note, this giving it the widest coverage.

 
There's a lot of grumbling from rural France about the loss of local shops and services - medical in particular. But it's patchy; I think having a large town offering competition nearby is a big factor. Of course not having one means there aren't many jobs. On the whole, though, small towns in France do still have most of standard features you expect - including a restaurant doing proper meals - but it can be hard to see how they survive.

The Atlantic coast is a bit different. I've never made it all the way to Le Croisic, largely because there's not much there. It's a long coast, with similar little places all along that are doing fairly well. In some ways they are supported by all the holiday second homes, as well as local trippers and people working inland. The big towns and cities nearby help with the last two. Of course Le Croisic has the added feature that the trains serving St Nazaire and the built-up coast west of it (including La Baule, which is rather posh) need to stop somewhere before its wheels get too wet.

Second homes don't always have a positive effect, of course. But in France they are owned by people much further down the income scale, and in larger numbers, than here (3.7 million vs 0.7). They were built in large numbers from the 70s, when buyers wanted small new apartments rather than primitive old one to do up. More recently builders have even offered new-build tiny fisherman's cottages! So they don't compete to occupy the locals' housing, and are often let much of the year via local agents so they also supply further holiday visitors. The problems have been more with overdevelopment and building in the wrong places.

The countryside does have a holiday market, and gîtes, but it's mostly diffuse and only a few honeypot locations can do what the coast does to support businesses.

 
A detail from that article, the train that overnights at the terminus with the crew having a permanently-booked room at the nearby hotel.

Mark

 

There’s not a shortage of staff, there’s a shortage of fully trained staff; then there’s the potential to have staff off sick, failed medicals, maternity leave etc etc or off trains for operating incidents. This is factored in but this case fluctuate.


I don’t know. If you’re ex-BR staff I know you don’t have to give much notice should you wish to retire, a matter of weeks. 


I think this has been mentioned before, block week leave is all rostered in, the occasional day leave can be requested but will only a certain number will be authorised depending on the depot size. Some depots may only authorise two drivers daily leave. 


Agreed, tell that to the DfT! 

 
Please Grahame, this is the GWR Coffee Shop!

It has to be a (proper) Castle class,  not a Schools class!

 
Some more pictures - this time from Limoges to Felletin for the more rail folks

 

* An early locomotion - or Puffing Billy or rocket

* The peak of steam locomotive design - how about a 4-4-0 Schools class

* An HST Power car - has to be!

* Peak of electric locomotive design - what is the peak there?

 
https://railwayworld.net/2025/03/28/death-of-a-french-branch-line/


Picking up on Gareth David's article ... I took the opportunity to visit Felletin today while there's still a chance - I have written at https://grahamellis.uk/blog1647.html

 

Aren't Saturdays part of the working week? Presumably staff are rostered for these services? Is there just a general shortage of staff or is it a workforce management issue?

Have there been a lot of retirements or other departures?

Surely we can't have a situation developing where the whole weekend is characterised by mass cancellations due to staff absence?

I'm sure everyone likes having Saturdays and Sundays off but there is a service to be provided?

 
I'd suggest Puffing Billy, the oldest surviving steam locomotive as a possibile contender.  It has a certain Heath Robinson/steampunk visual appeal to it.

 

Indeed - we had the huge benefit of people knowing before they joined us what the job entailed.  Well actually not - it turned out to be a longer are far more permanent job than we planned.

 

Everyone knew when they joined the railway Sunday’s was outside the working wek, that’s the contract.


True. But current service disruption would indicate people like having their Saturdays and Sundays off

 

Wait and see! 

Are you being offered a Vote? 

 

It's fortunate that some people understand the concept of a "7 day operation".