Happy to oblige and that was also my answer - well Milano Centrale to be precise.

Dave

 
I think that third set might be a bit harder - correct so far

C0 Mora - Chris from Nailsea
C2 Rotterdam Centraak - stuving
C3 London Bridge - rogerpatenall
C4 Beauly - eightonedee
C5 Corfe Castle - bradshaw
C9 Milan - eightonedee
C10 Antwerpen Centraal  - stuving
C12 Castlebar - stuving
C13 Göschenen - DR7835
C14 Bewdley - DR7835

so outstanding:

C1.


C6.


C7.


C8.


C11.

 
B5 looks to be in France, from the 'Sor' or 'Sort' as the beginning of the possible word 'Sortie' on the sign at the top right of the picture.

 
Thank you Andy.
Was about to post the same in case anyone took the item seriously!

Cornish News is a spoof site (running throughout the year, rather than April 1st only).

 
0 Paddington - stuving
1 Saltash - stuving
2 Prague hlavní nádraží  - DR7835
3 Arbroath - broooklea
4 Italy (somewhere!) - eightonedee
5 York - Chris from Nailsea
6 Marlow - Mark A
7 Usti nad Labem - Chris from Nailsea
8 King's Cross - eightonedee
10 Ebbw Vale - stuving
11 Brighton - TonyN
12 Amsterdam Zuid - Chris from Nailsea
13 Plymouth - Chris from Nailsea
14 Prague hlavní nádraží  - DR7835

Just two left, and I think we have established that both are Italian, but the towns not yet mentioned in this thread

4.


9.

 

Noted - and the distinction may be between the Highlands which does NOT include Oban and the Highlands and Islands which does

From https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/Maps/LocalAuthorityRegions.aspx

 
B0 Reading - ChrisB
B1 Arnhem - stuving
B2 Wuppertal - PrestburyRoad
B3 Cattewater (Plymouth) - Chris from Nailsea
B4 Bregenz - stuving
B6 Taunton - Chris from Nailsea
B7 Inverness - eightonedee
B8 (London) St Pancras - TonyN
B11 Leven - brooklea
B12 Melksham - Phil
B13 Liege - oxviem
B14 Potsdam - DR7835

Just 3 to go - anyone?

B5. 


B9.


B10.

 
1. What's the difference between a Group (1a) and a group (1b)? 
2. What's the difference between a shop (2a) and our Shop (2b)?
3. What's the difference between a station (3a) and a station (3b)?
4. What's the difference between a stop (4a) and a halt (4b)?
5. What's the difference between reading (5a) and Reading (5b)?

Words are confusing with dual use!

1a. The West Wiltshire Rail Users Group (WWRUG) is an independent association which aims to maintain and enhance the rail services serving West Wiltshire. Meetings are held throughout the year, with prominent speakers from the rail industry, local government, and other relevant organisations giving informative talks on rail related issues. Members receive a regular newsletter in return for an annual subscription, currently £8 for an individual and £10 for a family. Web site at https://www.wwrug.org.uk . Next meeting 16th September 2026, when we welcome Peter West, who for many years was the Franchise Manager for Great Western for many years at the Department for Transport.  19:00 for 19:30 at the Bethesda Church Hall in Trowbridge - about 100 yards from the station.  Guests are welcome, but are asked to pay £2 per meeting (better to pay £8 up front to join?)

1b. A Facebook group is a community that connects people who share specific interests, and the West Wiltshire Rail Users (Facebook) group - note the lower case "G" - does exactly that. https://www.facebook.com/groups/wwrug  I'm one of the administrators of that group, and the other two are both WWRUG Committee members. It's public readable and so everyone can read and with admin approval anyone can contribute - and we welcome and encourage people to do so, to chat, to post news, to share views on west Wiltshire rail topics. 

1c. Online group members are welcome at public Group meetings and encouraged to join - bringing them quarterly meetings, newsletters and opportunities to get involved deeper at committee level, which is the heart of our campaigning and partnering for better services.

2a. A shop is where you buy things.  Typically lots of products all in one place where you go (physically or online) to select what you want, and which becomes yours for a financial consideration.

2b. Our Great Western Coffee Shop  (where you are reading this) has nothing to sell financially.  A coffee shop is somewhere to sit around and chant with others of similar interests - to share stories and news, exchange views and learn from them in a convivial and friendly environment.  The Great Western Coffee Shop is - in this vein - a meeting point of like and enquiring minds with a shared interest in rail travel across the wedge of Great Britain from London headed west to the Cotswolds, Wessex, South Wales and the South West of England. And being a meeting point amongst friends, talk often turns to related topics such as other public transport, trains in neighbouring area and sometimes beyond, and other topics of tangential interest in the areas covered

3a. A railway Station is a place where trains stop - a station on the railway.

3b. A fire station is - you hope - the last place you'll find a fire!

4a. A stop is where a train or bus stops for passengers to get on or off; on the railway, it's very much the same as a "railway station" and in the UK can range from Waterloo with goodness knows how many platform and passenger to Beauly where the only platform is so short that just one door of the train opens.

4b. A halt is where a train will stop - but only if there are passengers to drop off or pick up. There are a few remaining in GWR territory, including Lympstone Commando and Dilton Marsh where the passenger numbers are such that the train almost always stops anyway.  Others in the GWR area include places like Thornford, Sandplace and Portsmouth Arms (which is nowhere near Portsmouth) on lines that are quieter too, and the "halt" designation and operation remains logical.

5a. reading is a skill we learn - before or at school for the majority of us in the UK these days - that sets us up for life's progress in modern society

5b. Reading is a town in Berkshire, and one of the biggest railway interchanges in the region. South Western Railway, Cross Country, Great Western and Transport for London all operate scheduled passenger trains there, and for most people travelling, who's operating the train you arrive on and the train you leave on is of little practical consequence.  You just need to know who's website to drill down into for things like delay/repay claims, and if you're travelling as a group whether you groupsave ticket is valid on this or that operator.

Try also -
6. Flying Scotsman v The Flying Scotsman
7. Passenger v Customer
8. Barry Island v Barry Links
9. Usual (standard English usage) and usual as in "more trains needing repair than usual"

 
Yes, indeed. Fair amount of damp to sort out before they sign a contract though

 
The Highlands are already covered by a £2 cap

 
https://svr.co.uk/news/bewdley-express-rolls-out-for-first-commuter-journey-on-the-svr/


I wish the trial well.  I ... worry ... that people may try it out, but many who could make long term use of it will just make the odd journey knowing it's only running - err - 3 days a week for 8 weeks.

 
I bought a new car because it said it could be reversed faster than any other. It was a Kia Starmer.

 

In view of Mr. Starmer's categoric statement that he would stay as a backbench MP until the next general election coupled with his well deserved reputation for u-turning and/or lying this was probably an absolute certainty.

 

For "West of Scotland" I read "Glasgow Region".   Looks to me that it's not happening in Argyll and Bute, nor Dumfries and Galloway, so that places like Oban, Campbeltown and Stranraer are not covered.

 

Well, I ballywell got that one wrong, didn't I? 

I'll try again:

C0.  Mora järnvägsstation, if you'll pardon my possible mispronunciation, from my very schoolboy Swedish.

 
thanks DR7835

C9-Milan

 
Going off at yet another slight tangent here, but this was not entirely unexpected, surely?

From the BBC:

 
Many years ago (well, twenty, give or take one) we had a similar expert, Dave, in the morning ticket office at Nailsea & Backwell.  That was in the days of Wessex Trains (pah! ), but he was absolutely brilliant: what he didn't know about railway ticketing wouldn't even use up the back of a postage stamp.

CfN. 

 
Thanks for that link.

Mark

 

I have looked into this for a family member who was convinced a British airline had done this to them. I checked on the ITA Matrix https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search and found that the fare she was looking for had indeed gone. It wasn’t related to her or her prior searches it was just that fare had sold out. Someone else I knew at the time checked the actual fare buckets and the cheapy, non refundable, no changes bucket was now showing as 0. She bought the slightly more expensive fare and then when she was selecting her seats noticed there were very few unselected ones. Turns out it was a very popular and full flight.

 

Me, for example. 

 
From the BBC:

 
The old ticket office at Kensington Olympia (KPA) which was the old Motorail one from back in the days of old was staffed by an Ex-BR bloke who was fabulous. He knew everything and was always happy to do odd tickets that others would stuggle with, or check something in the fares manual for you. It has, since becoming an TFL Overground station, been closed and replaced by a portacabin type thing at the other platform entrance and a bank of ticket machines.

My gripe with GWR and their ticket machines at Paddington is that they don’t accept the three letter code for a station which I habitually type in first, before realising that it isn’t showing me my destination. This is really annoying if you’ve just arrived, a little late for the train you’re hoping to get. Also don’t understand why they took the ticket machine(s) away from the Taxi Rank at Paddington. Last time I was there there were HEX ones but not GWR ones, it may have been temporary ans they may have been put back subsequently. Still bloody annoying though.

 
The class 47s, as they became, first appeared in the early 1960s while Nottingham Victoria closed in September 1967.   So it was a brief co-existence.

 
Thanks, stuving. 

 

I presume that would replace the sadly missed Lady Foley's tea room at Great Malvern.

 
Duly inspired, I am currently refining my plans for an autumn visit.

 

C12: Castlebar - I thought that one looked familiar, though not by being the other Castlebar that I grew up close to.

 
29/08/26 - Exeter To London + Local Travel & Cricket
DIG 0914 (OT) > EXD 0926 (OT) : 2T11 EXM > PGN : 1 x 166/2 (3 Cars)
EXD 0946 (OT) > PAD 1209 (1214) : 1A77 PGN > PAD : 1 x 800/3 (9 Cars)
TfL Underground Paddington > Warwick Avenue (Bakerloo Line)
TfL Underground Warwick Avenue > Paddington (Bakerloo Line)
PAD 1824 (OT) > WEA 1836 (OT) : 9H66 ABW > HAF : 1 x 345 (9 Cars)
Tickets (All With Senior Railcard, 1 Pax, Price Per Person):
DIG > PAD Super Off-Peak Return £76.65
TfL Underground Single £1.95 x 2
TfL Elizabeth Line Single £2.15

I had originally booked to travel on 2T07 + 1A73 (DIG 0714 > PAD 1008) but the overnight/morning rain was obviously going to prevent any play at Lord’s until the early afternoon so I delayed my journey by a couple of hours.
2T11 was initially lightly loaded but a large number of pax boarded at POL. Ticket, but not Railcard, checked.
1A77 was also not very busy to start with but plenty of pax joined at both TAU & CLC. Service slightly delayed at CLC and then more significantly between Lavington & Woodborough due to residual heat related track issues (one particularly noticeable track dip) and arrived PAD 5 late.
Ticket, but not railcard, checked.
Static Standard Class trolley service, between coaches D&G, for only a short time. The customer host(s) was/were serving 1st Class most of the time.

On arrival in London the rain had essentially stopped so I did my usual one stop trip to Warwick Avenue and walked to Lord’s from there. The Bakerloo Line ride quality was awful!
After a rain shower interrupted afternoon of cricket play was suspended at around 1730 and finally abandoned about an hour later.
I made my way to the West Ealing Holiday Inn Express which had been significantly improved since my last stay there.

30/08/26 - Local Travel & Cricket + London To Exeter
WEA 0924 (0936) > PAD 0937 (0947) : 9W40 HAF > SNF : 1 x 345 (9 Cars)
TfL Underground Paddington > Warwick Avenue (Bakerloo Line)
TfL Underground Warwick Avenue > Paddington (Bakerloo Line)
PAD 1903 (1916) > EXD 2110 (2126) : 1C94 : 2 x 802/0 (10 cars)
EXD 2153 (OT) > DIG 2205 (OT) : 2F28 PGN > EXM : 1 x 166/2 (3 Cars)
TfL Elizabeth Line Single £2.15
TfL Underground Single £1.95 x 2
DIG > PAD Super Off-Peak Return (See Above)

Lots of late running & cancellations in & out of PAD in the morning. I don’t think you have to be a genius to figure out the primary cause was probably staff absences due to it being the first day of the Notting Hill Carnival.
9W40 was absolutely rammed and some pax were unable to board at WEA.
After the match ended (England victory) there were no issues on the Bakerloo Line but spectators leaving Lord’s were advised to avoid the Jubilee Line.
On arrival at PAD I noticed that 1C94 was already showing a departure delay of 7 minutes. That was somewhat optimistic because the incoming train, 1A26 from BRI, was already 20+ minutes late.
In the meantime our booked platform, 4,  was occupied for about 15 minutes by an Elizabeth Line 345 unit. Very odd.
1C94 eventually left PAD 13 minutes down and this level of delay hardly changed on the run to EXD.
Of note was the chap sat diagonally opposite me was found by the TM, who did a full ticket & railcard check - wonders will never cease!, to be travelling to Taunton on a railcard discounted Advance but didn’t actually possess a railcard of any kind. The passenger told the TM somebody else had booked the ticket for him. TM warned him about doing that in future and charged him £71.95 for a brand new ticket (your task, should you decide to accept it, is to figure out where the TM got that price from, I was unable to solve the riddle!).
And finally in an unexpected outbreak of common sense on our railway 1C94 was routed into P5 at EXD so intending passengers could do a cross-platform change to P6 where 2K15 the last OKE service of the day, which had been held for 8 minutes, was waiting. Well done them!