At some stops on the D1 in Bath, the on board announcements do advise alighting passengers to watch out for cyclists.

Many years ago I was stuck by a cyclist as I got off a bus on the way to school.   I think my mother was more annoyed about the paperwork she had to fill in to get my NHS glasses replaced.

 
I'm sorry.

CfN.

 

Not much notice of these changes.

 

As with so many horrors (not limited to linguistics), it originated in the USA and has travelled across the Atlantic.

So it's their bad.

 
Waay off topic, but not worth starting a new topic.

"My bad" has rapidly crept into our usage (as do many other words and expressions).
Is this a lesser form of sorry perhaps.

Our children use it frequently.
We still use "sorry".

Too pedantic? 

 
On that first link, autumn sunlight and a full minute's 'Engine idling' recording from the railbus at the platform at Cirencester Town. This might be 2025, but easy to imagine it clearing its throat to alert the passengers on board and then bus-rumbling its way into the long cutting that took the line away from the terminus, its signature sound distinctly audible to the solitary figure waiting at Chesterton Lane Halt.

Mark

https://recorder.google.com/e8304697-ffed-4483-a50f-3e78f2a8157b


http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/c/chesterton_lane_halt/index.shtml

 
Delays to services between Reading and London Paddington

Due to damage to the overhead electric wires between Reading and London Paddington:

Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed. Disruption is expected until 12:00 26/10.

 
What is the difference between an island bus stop and a floating bus stop?

An island bus stop is a stop at which you board or leave your bus from a pedestrian area - a patch of pavement - set between or beyond a cycle lane and the main motor vehicle lane.  You can stand and wait on the island for your bus, and as you step off an arriving bus you are in pedestrian "territory". (@)

A floating bus stop is one which is across a cycle lane - as you board the bus, cyclists give way to you to cross their lane, and as you get of the bus, they'll give way to you. You get directly off and on the bus from the area that is shared with that other wheeled traffic, which is supposed to give way to you.

The bus services bill has - I understand from TravelWatch SouthWest - a late addition that bans floating bus stops.  Probably on safety grounds (though no reason needs be written into an act) as there have been incidents with people whizzing by on cycles and scooters and knocking into people just getting off the bus.

Here are some pictures - and it turns out there are not that many of "pure" floating bus stops - there is often a little island large enough to use to step on and off the bus, but too small to linger on for more than a few seconds - certainly not to wait in a crowd or in the rain.

Swindon's new bus boulevard - an island which includes all the facilities


London - another example of an island with shelter


Bath - an island perhaps, but one you can't realistically wait on - so is it really a floater?


Bath again  this is a floater for sure?


And here is a definite floating bus stop. Step off straight into the cycles who are not even asked to slow!


In Melksham - a basic bus stop on a shared use path. And this is the closest stop and main stop for the doctor's surgery.


There is concern that, whilst safety is paramount, banning floating bus stops will make it far harder and more expensive - and sometimes impractical or impossible to provide a bus stop at all.  And there is further concern as to the status of exisiting floating bus stops - whether they will need to be changed (and if so on what time scale) and whether bus stops may be lost in the process, or limuted funding diverted away from other improvements to fix somthing which - yes, is a concern - but perhaps should not be the priority that a law change makes it.

@ - "We" are not helped by the term "floating bus stop" being in quite common udage to define what are technically both floating and island bus stops. In fact, this post may raise some eyebrows as to my definition.

See also ...
https://road.cc/content/news/safety-fears-raised-over-bath-cycle-lane-floating-bus-stops-297941
https://www.route-one.net/news/shared-space-floating-bus-stops-design-in-england-to-be-paused/
https://cbwmagazine.com/calls-for-ban-on-floating-bus-stops-in-london/

 
Seven years ... quietly there, the Coffee Shop's Facebook Page.   Time and technology has moved on a little; I still do the odd share to there, but now it provides an https link to a page that should be more (but not totally yet) responsive to screen size and with an image from my library.

Somewhat testing here to see if this works.  For regular Coffee Shop members, you'll see a picture I took while waiting in the "Station Pub" in a nearby town, watching my train tracking from the bar, and checking on bus pictures taken earlier in the day.  No coffee but rather a fruit cider - after all, it *was* the evening and I could relax and have an occasional sip or alcohol.

 
An advert on my data feed had me looking and making use of the extra hour of the night. Some of these have published a program for the start of 2026, some not yet.  Who have I missed?  Who do you recommend?  [Disclaimer - I very rarely travel on or study these specials or even photograph them - main interest is general public rail and increasingly road transport]

https://www.statesmanrail.com/trips-tours/
https://www.belmond.com
https://westcoastrailways.co.uk/railtours
https://midlandpullman.com/trips-tours/
https://vintagetrains.co.uk/train-rides/
https://www.ukrailtours.com/shop/
https://www.railwaytouring.net

 

Very thoughtful and interesting report - thank you.  Sadly, it has confirmed my decision not to make the trip today, and to leave your report as the record of a Coffee Shop member who has.

It would be lovely to see a Sunday bus service from Kemble ... Google (which is good for multimodal suggestions) is suggesting a 2 hour and 11 minute journey today, a 30 minute journey tomorrow, and 9 minute drive. Quicker today to walk (1 hour and 49 minute, just over 4 miles) or cycle (27 minutes) today. And walking, cycling and your private car, you can start NOW without a wait.

I can't even put the bike on the train ... for the train has turned into a bus this morning.   Read not "Rail Replacement Bus" - read "Alternative Public Transport" and I note that I cannot use my bus pass on the bus ...  they expect me to pay rail prices for what is (for what I need) the inferior bus service.

 

My own bad for not reading JayMac's very kind invitation message, offering me a lift in his car down to Taunton, before I eventually read it - after the event.

Thanks anyway, Finn. Biscuit for you.

 
Below was the first PC that I was exposed to way back in 1979 - the Commodore PET with its particular version of BASIC [courtesy of Wiki-Commons Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr].

Though I cut my programming teeth at a tender age on a TI-58 that I took to uni - that taught me program [sic] logic. When it came to the Commodore's BASIC, it was just a shift in language statements.

My favourite is the programmer that was sent out to the shops by his wife'

   "Get me a pint of milk, and if they have eggs, get me a dozen".

He arrives home with 12 pints of milk,

Wife: , "What the actual.. ? !!!"

"They had eggs."

 

That is all far too true, grahame.

My (elderly) father lives in Cirencester.  If I needed to attend to him at any time, it would require a car journey.

 

No need - in fact totally logical for you with all the circumstance, and for some others too.

 
My grandad (* 1908) had the most amazing driving licence. Every conceivable category including (what was then) tracked, road roller and trolley vehicle - and he never sat a test in his life.

Apprenticed as a motor mechanic in the late 1920s, he was sent out to the Post Office with his 3/6 to get a driving licence, (radio and dog licences were also available at the same counter) and off he went. Grandfather [sic] Clauses assured the rest, and he drove thus to his dying day.  Not behind the wheel, I must add.

 
Your bad what?

 
Purely for the record (and I may have posted this personal information before, on the Coffee Shop forum), I have a squeaky clean driving licence for manual and automatic vehicles, which I've held since August 1986.

It has stood me in good stead, enabling me to drive various delivery vans in a previous employment, for example.

Personally, I'm not a particular fan of automatics - but that's the way things are going, apparently.

My advice to any young driver applying for their driving test is to just go for it - with the current waiting lists, anything is better than nothing, and you can hopefully upgrade it at some time in the future.

CfN.

 
I stumbled upon the Severn Beach Miniature Railway Facebook page today.  Quite a few recent posts, one of which went into some detail about the latest developments including their wait for planning permission, designing stations, rolling stock and an appeal for loan of excavation/fence posting equipment.  Seems that the Severn Beach steam dream is still alive.

 
Another update, from the BBC:

 

But so many of those algorithms developed in user code are learning material for firmware which is learning material for code in hardware. I celebrate these building blocks onto which we can build magnificent applications and solve problems we could not solve without them.


Ah yes - my predecessor as the Tektronix sales rep for the West of England (Swindon to Penzance) sold you the 4010s.  I sold Rolls load of 4014-1 options 1, 30 and 34 when I moved from tech support into sales (with messages from many that technical people cannot sell!) .  Glad you found them far more productive than the smaller ones - none of which were MY sale to you 

The 4016 was quite a late addition to the Tek dumb screen range.  I recall when the very first one arrive at Heathrow and got dropped in its box off a forklift and I had to pop down to Heathrow to evaluate the damage as "the expert" on a device I have only seen up to that point on a brochure.

Learned a lot in my just-over-a-year in sales, the South West becoming the best in the country and the only one that made target.  British Aerospace, Westland Helicopters, Geothermal Energy Project a nd a number of other very interesting places with military links.  And of course Rolls!  My sales manager (RIP, Peter) supported me as I failed to make all the expected subsidiary targets like number of customers visited per day - I think I manage to do 42% of what the powers that be wanted.

P.S. Good on Brock for selling you the 4010s and perhaps the odd 4012 before the 4014 was released!

 
May I also please add my own apologies for my non-attendance at the meeting?

Three things intervened, for me: I overslept, having had a full-on day yesterday re-configuring our kitchen; the weather forecast was crap and it was already raining here; then I saw that the Bristol <-> Taunton trains were severely disrupted.

Sorry if I sound to be a bit of a wimp, but I just decided that it was all too much of a faff.

My own thanks to JayMac for his texted offer of including me in a lift in his car back down to Taunton - unfortunately, some time after I actually read his message. My bad.

 
2C67 the 0800 from Cardiff Central to Exeter St Davids, did terminate at Highbridge & Burnham, arriving there at 0942. It turned back to form 2Z10, the 0936 Highbridge & Burnham - Cardiff Central, actually departing at 0955.

GWR then restarted the service from Taunton at 1000 as 2Z67 running to 2C67s schedule to Exeter St Davids.

 

Receptionist server could not reach worker server.  Occasional blip, I think - thought your referer is strange.  Anyway, I paste the URL and got to the page and not a 502.

 

The timetabled Sunday train from Melksham at 08:38 to Swindon gets there at 09:02 ... and the bus from Swindon at 09:15 gets to Cirencester at 10:15.  Looks good

except

The Melksham train is replaced by a bus tomorrow ... which dawdles into Swindon after the 09:15 bus  has left.   Nice one!    Next bus to Cirencester gets there at 12:15.   4 hours, home to Cirencester - yuk.   How about driving for once?


Don't fancy that ... and as far as I can see, they don'e even bother to run a bus to Kemble to / from Cirencester on a Sunday.  And it's a bit far to walk.

Aborting my plans, I think. 

 
In 1982 I obtained executive committee approval to buy the first 12 IBM PCs for a major accounting firm, we already has some Apple IIs.  When the XT came out there was a special program on the diagnostics diskette to park the hard disk head before moving the machine.
I had an early Compaq Portable in the boot of my car for a week to see if the disk really could survive general use.

I remember that the New York office received a call from IBM marketing.  They said that sales were far, far higher than expectations and they wanted to know what they were being used for.

 
Visiting this today (full disclosure, in a vehicle, on a day when the M4 was closed between Tormarton and wherever, and took care to travel before things got completely silly).

The Cirencester station exhibition is a solid event with many volunteers on hand, tea, coffee, biscuits, pervasive access to the building site that is the interior of the station (and which housed an exhibition) and access also to the railbus - and at one point the organisers ran its engine, which sat there hunting in a conversational way.

It's certainly positive to finally see the building's interior as a work-in-progress.

By mid-morning Cirencester became impressively clogged with private vehicles: and at mid-day its car parks gridlocked. While the origin point of most of the people in those cars will not have been Kemble, that itself is shaped to some extent by available transport - and Kemble's still the local gateway to the national rail system.

With the cards falling slightly differently, there might now be a block of fast-charging equipment alongside at Kemble, and an appropriately scaled battery vehicle to shuttle back and forth to Cirencester, taking even less time for the trip than the 11 minutes booked to the 1950s railbus.

Not covered by the exhibition, a visit to one of the line's surviving masonry structures is a treat in terms of the quality of the work on display. Visiting the station building was a treat for different reasons - the bare bones of the interior often on display, the structure's brick core has gained various steel beams, and yet a sense in one upstairs room in particular of its significance in the year or so when the terminus at Cirencester was apparently very much a base for the team working on bringing the extension into existence, onward and through the Stroud Valley.

Oh, and thinking again of that railbus & wondering if there's another location that would be very much a fit for exhibiting it... ah... yes, but possibly much goodwill needs to be in place and then of course a bit of paperwork to tackle.

Mark

 
It's a great experience. I always try and do it every year if I can, as well as the one to Inverness & Kyle. They're only going to Fort William twice next year, due to Royal Scotsman taking the path to Mallaig on Day 2. So I've booked on the one in March from Birmingham.

Most passengers, as well as the train crew, stay at the Premier Inn as it's just a 5 minute walk across Morrison's car park to the station. So it's not actually too bad. One year I shared breakfast in the Premier Inn with the driver and guard, before they had to head off to the depot to get the train ready. Plus, Fort William station doesn't normally open until around 11 on Sundays, as the first train isn't until 11:41. So the station gets opened specifically for the charter passengers and then locked up again once we've left. Which is quite a fun experience.

 

There might have been - in the end it ran all the way & was only 5 mins late


All the Railway Bill contens to digest for a start....


Edit to correct typo
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