Recent Public Posts - [guest]
| Re: Homeward bound - but where did I take these pictures? In "The Lighter Side" [381731/32696/30] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 11:20, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
Thanks, stuving.

4. Gare du Grau-du-Roi, Gard, Occitanie, France.
Noting grahame's confirmation that he and Lisa were 'on the InOui' and knowing that they were travelling from the south of France towards Paris, I did a bit of my 'digging' on the internet.
The Gare du Grau-du-Roi is the southern terminus of the Saint-Césaire to Le Grau-du-Roi railway line.
CfN.

| Re: Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2026 In "Across the West" [381730/31163/26] Posted by ChrisB at 09:52, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
On Remembrance Sunday too....when a lot of people have need to travel early. NR ought to have this in mind when planning works
| Re: West of England Line - Soil Moisture Deficit Update - 10 October 2025 In "South Western services" [381729/30889/42] Posted by Mark A at 09:33, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
Is this just reinventing a previous generation of sleeper train? All those handbasins and i believe other appliances too, draining straight on to the track. (There are two issues with that, one being the obvious one and the other being more subtle in that the, er, treatment would have been distributed on the basis of passenger need rather than the trackbed thirstiness...)
(Apologies to anyone in the industry reading this and whose memories have been stirred by this observation...)
| Re: More RMT strikes on the Tube starting 26 November In "Transport for London" [381728/32699/46] Posted by TaplowGreen at 09:18, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
A strike designed to stop people having the choice of a shorter working week and more time off is a strange choice to make.
| Re: Homeward bound - but where did I take these pictures? In "The Lighter Side" [381727/32696/30] Posted by stuving at 08:54, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
... 3 might easily be the last one guessed!
Thanks, stuving

But are you suggesting that my previous identification of 3 as Paris, Gare du Nord was wrong?
CfN.

Not at all - I meant 5 (very similar late at night) which Bob_Blakey has now done.
| Re: West of England Line - Soil Moisture Deficit Update - 10 October 2025 In "South Western services" [381726/30889/42] Posted by grahame at 08:49, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
How about this for a seriously off-the-wall, and possibly completely batsh*t, idea?
You've all heard of the RHTT (Rail Head Treatment Trains), so I would suggest the running of RLMT (Railway Line Moisturisation Trains) which, with a configuration change, could use the RHTT stock to spray rainwater into the 'four foot', and subsequently the underlying soil, during the increasingly common heatwave periods.
I'll get my coat.
You've all heard of the RHTT (Rail Head Treatment Trains), so I would suggest the running of RLMT (Railway Line Moisturisation Trains) which, with a configuration change, could use the RHTT stock to spray rainwater into the 'four foot', and subsequently the underlying soil, during the increasingly common heatwave periods.
I'll get my coat.
Nice one - but I suspect you'll have a problem of several orders of magnitude if you tried that ... at the least you would need to redouble the line to get all the extra water trains through.
Recent article in Somerset Live highlighting once again the issues of the Mule
| Re: More RMT strikes on the Tube starting 26 November In "Transport for London" [381725/32699/46] Posted by grahame at 08:41, 8th November 2026 Already liked by GBM, Mark A | ![]() |
I used to be - note past tense - rather anti-union. But these days, sadly, I see a significant case for them in standing up for the rights of the people doing the job on the ground. From local personality clashes and inadequate managers who bring needless distress to good workers through to the much more systemic approaches taken by some employers to save money / reduce costs / increase profits at the expense of those doing the hard work at the coal face. On the other hand though, I sometimes get the feeling that organised worker groups are putting the interests of their members, and perhaps their political interests, as an absolute priority above just about everything else.
In some of the more extreme cases, no-one comes out smelling of roses - in fact they can all give the appearance of being little (or big) sh*ts - without consideration of the greater good and - in rail example terms - without due consideration for the passenger, and for the wider benefits brought by having a consistent, reliably operational public transport system.
Rather sadly, I can offer no practical solution as to how to solve these issues ... I would love to see east/west rail open for daily traffic. I would love to see the tube running on what will be some of the very busiest days around Christmas. I would love to see catering and proper reliable train services of appropriate length running. But getting more in the wage packet of staff, and more in the pockets of shareholders (which is more becoming the taxpayer) seem to be a priorities with teeth, where the passenger voice - the customers for whom the services run - seems muted and toothless.
| Re: Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2026 In "Across the West" [381724/31163/26] Posted by TaplowGreen at 08:28, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
Cancellations to services between Oxford and Reading via Didcot Parkway
Due to engineering works not being finished on time at Didcot Parkway all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 11:30 08/11.
Train services between Oxford and Reading via Didcot Parkway may be cancelled or delayed.
Customer Advice
What has happened?
-
During overnight maintenance works, engineers have encountered an issue that is expected to take longer to resolve. As a result, GWR cannot currently run between Oxford, Didcot Parkway and Reading. The line is expected to remain closed until at least 11:00.
-
What are we doing about it?
-
Network Rail are attending, but the fault is not expected to be fixed until after 10:00.
| Re: West of England Line - Soil Moisture Deficit Update - 10 October 2025 In "South Western services" [381723/30889/42] Posted by Bob_Blakey at 08:22, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
How about this for a seriously off-the-wall, and possibly completely batsh*t, idea?
You've all heard of the RHTT (Rail Head Treatment Trains), so I would suggest the running of RLMT (Railway Line Moisturisation Trains) which, with a configuration change, could use the RHTT stock to spray rainwater into the 'four foot', and subsequently the underlying soil, during the increasingly common heatwave periods.
I'll get my coat.
| Re: More RMT strikes on the Tube starting 26 November In "Transport for London" [381722/32699/46] Posted by Bob_Blakey at 07:55, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
Not for the first time the RMT take the view that they should be the primary arbiters of how the London Underground, and also the National Rail network - see East-West rail info, should be run.
| Re: Homeward bound - but where did I take these pictures? In "The Lighter Side" [381721/32696/30] Posted by Bob_Blakey at 07:44, 8th November 2026 Already liked by grahame | ![]() |
5. Gare de Nimes
| Re: Landline switchover could cut people off in emergency, minister warned In "The West - but NOT trains in the West" [381719/32670/31] Posted by Bob_Blakey at 07:41, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
Would the provision of satellite phones to seriously isolated communities solve this perceived problem? Satellite telephony can be configured to bypass the use of ground based infrastructure.
| Re: Homeward bound - but where did I take these pictures? In "The Lighter Side" [381718/32696/30] Posted by grahame at 07:33, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
1. Paris, Gare de Lyon - stuving
2. Melksham - JohnM
3. Paris, Gare du Nord - Chris from Nailsea
6. London, Paddington - PrestburyRoad
7. InOui buffet car - stuving
8. London, St Pancras - stuving
9. Chippenham - Chris from Nailsea
Which leaves
4.

5.

No. 4 HAS been identified in personal message to me and no. 5 remains unidentified at all; both are phyically distant from home.
| Re: To 'stockpile food' is now our Government's official policy, apparently In "The West - but NOT trains in the West" [381717/32456/31] Posted by broadgage at 04:36, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
Official concern seems to be considering LONG TERM power outages, not just food shortages.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ck5ynnj05z8no
Friends in Stonehaven, Scotland had a two week power outage, and several shorter ones. They were very glad of a diesel generator.
Here is the official report into the prolonged power failure in Lancaster, to which reference is made in the above article.
Since the publication of that report things have got worse ! The local radio station, with very dated technology was the main source of information. Reporters were sent out in cars to the affected areas, and sent reports by phone to the studio.
Standard copper phone lines (that worked in a power cut) are now extinct or about to be. Replaced by fibre optic which requires electricity.
| Re: Homeward bound - but where did I take these pictures? In "The Lighter Side" [381716/32696/30] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 01:06, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
... 3 might easily be the last one guessed!
Thanks, stuving

But are you suggesting that my previous identification of 3 as Paris, Gare du Nord was wrong?
CfN.

| Re: Landline switchover could cut people off in emergency, minister warned In "The West - but NOT trains in the West" [381715/32670/31] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 00:30, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
From the BBC:
What happens if all the lights go out? This is the plan for a 'Black Sky' event
It was a Saturday night in early December when Roger Kemp realised something was very wrong.
"I was halfway through a Scandi crime drama when everything went off," the professor at Lancaster University told the BBC. "Streetlights were off. The sodium glow that we can see over the horizon from Morecambe was off."
The next day he went for a walk. "[It was] almost like a zombie movie," he said. "People trying to find phone reception, wondering where things were, and there was a huge queue at the one working telephone box."
At 22:45 on 5 December 2015, the River Lune - which flows directly through Lancaster - had flooded, and the electricity supply to 61,500 people in the city went.
Households lost light and heat, some water supplies also began to fail because they relied on electric pumps. The railway station closed. So too petrol stations and shops. Most cash machines didn't work. Traffic lights failed.
The two communication systems that survived were copper wire landline telephones and FM radio. The local commercial radio station The Bay had an emergency generator and one landline and a reporter was sent outside the affected area to ring in with information.
Three months later, Kemp, a professor of engineering with a specialism in safety and electrical systems, gathered people together to look at everything that had gone wrong.
"It is perhaps ironic that, in a society with huge commitment to digital infrastructure, the most reliable source of news was a commercial station using technology that would have been familiar to the engineers on the 1960s Radio Caroline pirate radio ship," the subsequent report concluded.
For Kemp and others in the field of civil contingency, Lancaster was a warning. When a town loses power for several days, our connected world falls apart. This kind of disruption has been given a name: a Black Sky event.
At a recent summit on UK resilience, the conversation focused on the need for the UK to be able to withstand a Black Sky event for a minimum of 72 hours.
"We are nine meals from anarchy" is a phrase often heard in the civil contingency world. A brutal reminder of the fear that three days without food would be enough to turn a crisis into chaos. If a Black Sky event takes out electricity, water, shops and communications, there is a good reason the government wants us to have our own supplies.
The much talked about "Be Ready" campaign is designed to help ready us for all sorts of possible crises, but the government says there is no specific threat to the grid. Regardless, a Black Sky event is definitely at the backs of people's minds.
In a major emergency, we are being told to hunker down and turn on an FM radio, as thousands did in Lancaster. This is why the BBC has its own Black Sky plan.
(BBC article continues)
It was a Saturday night in early December when Roger Kemp realised something was very wrong.
"I was halfway through a Scandi crime drama when everything went off," the professor at Lancaster University told the BBC. "Streetlights were off. The sodium glow that we can see over the horizon from Morecambe was off."
The next day he went for a walk. "[It was] almost like a zombie movie," he said. "People trying to find phone reception, wondering where things were, and there was a huge queue at the one working telephone box."
At 22:45 on 5 December 2015, the River Lune - which flows directly through Lancaster - had flooded, and the electricity supply to 61,500 people in the city went.
Households lost light and heat, some water supplies also began to fail because they relied on electric pumps. The railway station closed. So too petrol stations and shops. Most cash machines didn't work. Traffic lights failed.
The two communication systems that survived were copper wire landline telephones and FM radio. The local commercial radio station The Bay had an emergency generator and one landline and a reporter was sent outside the affected area to ring in with information.
Three months later, Kemp, a professor of engineering with a specialism in safety and electrical systems, gathered people together to look at everything that had gone wrong.
"It is perhaps ironic that, in a society with huge commitment to digital infrastructure, the most reliable source of news was a commercial station using technology that would have been familiar to the engineers on the 1960s Radio Caroline pirate radio ship," the subsequent report concluded.
For Kemp and others in the field of civil contingency, Lancaster was a warning. When a town loses power for several days, our connected world falls apart. This kind of disruption has been given a name: a Black Sky event.
At a recent summit on UK resilience, the conversation focused on the need for the UK to be able to withstand a Black Sky event for a minimum of 72 hours.
"We are nine meals from anarchy" is a phrase often heard in the civil contingency world. A brutal reminder of the fear that three days without food would be enough to turn a crisis into chaos. If a Black Sky event takes out electricity, water, shops and communications, there is a good reason the government wants us to have our own supplies.
The much talked about "Be Ready" campaign is designed to help ready us for all sorts of possible crises, but the government says there is no specific threat to the grid. Regardless, a Black Sky event is definitely at the backs of people's minds.
In a major emergency, we are being told to hunker down and turn on an FM radio, as thousands did in Lancaster. This is why the BBC has its own Black Sky plan.
(BBC article continues)
| Re: Homeward bound - but where did I take these pictures? In "The Lighter Side" [381714/32696/30] Posted by stuving at 00:21, 8th November 2026 | ![]() |
I reckon I know the location of 4. However, to give Coffee Shop member stuving the opportunity to answer (and I have yet to see him at loss for the answer, to anything!
), I shall hold back from posting here for the time being. I just don't want grahame's theory to be proved right.
CfN.

No, on you go Chris, it's what the quiz is about. I shall just say that 8. is the Eurostar's other end, at St Pancras International. And since I now know 5 as well, 3 might easily be the last one guessed!
), I shall hold back from posting here for the time being. I just don't want grahame's theory to be proved right.CfN.

| Re: Homeward bound - but where did I take these pictures? In "The Lighter Side" [381712/32696/30] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 23:37, 7th November 2026 | ![]() |
3. Eurostar train, terminus - has to be Paris, Gare du Nord.

| Re: Homeward bound - but where did I take these pictures? In "The Lighter Side" [381711/32696/30] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 22:41, 7th November 2026 | ![]() |
Most pictures should be recognisable, though one (or 4!) is a "stuving special" 
4.


4.

I am speculating to myself that No. 4 will be the last to be identified and if anyone (including those who have answered already) fancy the challenged of proving me wrong, please go ahead 

I reckon I know the location of 4. However, to give Coffee Shop member stuving the opportunity to answer (and I have yet to see him at loss for the answer, to anything!
), I shall hold back from posting here for the time being. I just don't want grahame's theory to be proved right.CfN.

| Re: New station at North Filton - now named as 'Bristol Brabazon' - ongoing discussion In "Bristol and Bath (WECA, now WEMCA)" [381710/24927/21] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 19:01, 7th November 2026 | ![]() |
From the BBC:
New Bristol railway station opening date announced

The new Bristol Brabazon Station will have an hourly service to Bristol Temple Meads
The opening date for a new railway station in Bristol designed to serve the new town Brabazon and the future Aviva Arena has been announced.
Bristol Brabazon Station - near the site of the former North Filton Station - will welcome its first passengers with an 07:10 service on Monday 23 November marking a return to passenger trains on the currently freight-only Henbury Line.
An hourly service will run between Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Brabazon, also calling at Lawrence Hill, Stapleton Road, Ashley Down and Filton Abbey Wood.
There are further plans for a new station at Henbury, which is expected to open in 2028. The 23 November will mark the first time passenger trains have used the Henbury Line since 1964.
The Mayor of the West of England, Helen Godwin, is responsible for transport in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset. She said the opening of the station would be "a major milestone" for the region.
"For the first time in more than 60 years, passengers will be able to travel on the Henbury Line, making it easier for people to get to work, education and leisure opportunities - with more work planned to enhance the station before the Aviva Arena opens," she said.
Great Western Railway managing director Mark Hopwood said the station was key to further development. "Stations are catalysts for new homes, jobs and investment," he said. "Bristol Brabazon will connect the growing Brabazon community and in time the new Aviva Arena to Bristol and beyond."
He added: "With work continuing to reopen Portishead and Pill, this is about more than track and trains. It's about unlocking access to jobs, education and opportunity, and giving a real boost to the wider regional economy."
Bristol Brabazon station will open in two stages and will be unstaffed initially with two platforms, while the station building will come into use when the Aviva Arena opens.

The new Bristol Brabazon Station will have an hourly service to Bristol Temple Meads
The opening date for a new railway station in Bristol designed to serve the new town Brabazon and the future Aviva Arena has been announced.
Bristol Brabazon Station - near the site of the former North Filton Station - will welcome its first passengers with an 07:10 service on Monday 23 November marking a return to passenger trains on the currently freight-only Henbury Line.
An hourly service will run between Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Brabazon, also calling at Lawrence Hill, Stapleton Road, Ashley Down and Filton Abbey Wood.
There are further plans for a new station at Henbury, which is expected to open in 2028. The 23 November will mark the first time passenger trains have used the Henbury Line since 1964.
The Mayor of the West of England, Helen Godwin, is responsible for transport in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset. She said the opening of the station would be "a major milestone" for the region.
"For the first time in more than 60 years, passengers will be able to travel on the Henbury Line, making it easier for people to get to work, education and leisure opportunities - with more work planned to enhance the station before the Aviva Arena opens," she said.
Great Western Railway managing director Mark Hopwood said the station was key to further development. "Stations are catalysts for new homes, jobs and investment," he said. "Bristol Brabazon will connect the growing Brabazon community and in time the new Aviva Arena to Bristol and beyond."
He added: "With work continuing to reopen Portishead and Pill, this is about more than track and trains. It's about unlocking access to jobs, education and opportunity, and giving a real boost to the wider regional economy."
Bristol Brabazon station will open in two stages and will be unstaffed initially with two platforms, while the station building will come into use when the Aviva Arena opens.
| Re: New Oxford - Bristol direct service, ongoing developments and discussion In "Oxford, Didcot and Reading from the West" [381709/28355/22] Posted by ChrisB at 18:34, 7th November 2026 | ![]() |
It's not running the weekend that Paddington is shut (28/29 Nov) when changing at Didcot becomes the way again
| Re: The Coffee Shop servers are not teapots! In "The Lighter Side" [381708/32694/30] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 17:55, 7th November 2026 Already liked by johnneyw, GBM, rogerw | ![]() |
Catering at a TravelWatch SouthWest meeting in Taunton?
CfN.

| Re: The Coffee Shop servers are not teapots! In "The Lighter Side" [381707/32694/30] Posted by grahame at 17:45, 7th November 2026 | ![]() |
A stat I've just come across
28340 cups of coffee
27739 cups of tea
27739 cups of tea
and, yes, transport related. What is the stat about?
GWR seem less confident about the announcement if their app is anything to go by as I can't get any ticket/prices/times for the 23rd. Same story with the TrainSplit site.
Have just checked again with GWR and TrainSplit. Tickets to and from Bristol Brabazon are now bookable.
Yes, it seems everything is tickety-boo on most or all of the sites......sorry, couldn't resist.
Had a nose down Brabazon today. The entrance next to the Propeller Quarter student accommodation isn't very well signposted at present but the place looks nearly read to go. Here's a photo that I took:
| Re: Homeward bound - but where did I take these pictures? In "The Lighter Side" [381705/32696/30] Posted by grahame at 14:46, 7th November 2026 | ![]() |
7 is the buffet/cafe on the Eurostar
You were spot on ... until the last word. Buffet car, yes (what a lovely idea!), not Eurostar - nor on the Underground, GWR from Paddington or on the Melksham Flyer!
Correctly places on the InOui - which we took into Paris Gare de Lyon already identified.
| Re: Homeward bound - but where did I take these pictures? In "The Lighter Side" [381704/32696/30] Posted by stuving at 14:20, 7th November 2026 | ![]() |
7 is the buffet/cafe on the Eurostar
You were spot on ... until the last word. Buffet car, yes (what a lovely idea!), not Eurostar - nor on the Underground, GWR from Paddington or on the Melksham Flyer!
GWR seem less confident about the announcement if their app is anything to go by as I can't get any ticket/prices/times for the 23rd. Same story with the TrainSplit site.
Have just checked again with GWR and TrainSplit. Tickets to and from Bristol Brabazon are now bookable.














