An unusual set of circumstances led to some extended delays around the single line overnight.

Both sleeper services were routed via Melksham and both were running late.   The Up sleeper lost half an hour coming through Cornwall while the Down service was delayed by 50 minutes due to an incident east of Swindon.   The pair usually cross in Somerset.   This morning it was between Trowbridge and Westbury.



However behind the westbound sleeper was a queue of trains at Chippenham waiting for the single line to clear.   A couple of them had been allowed to run early at previous points in their journey.  The closure of the line through Chipping Sodbury for overnight engineering work also added to the pressure.  The second in the queue was just waiting for the one in front to take the single line before it could continue towards Bath Spa.



The up sleeper was delayed on the approach to Bradford Junction for 45 minutes while a pair of trains used the single line.  The message on Journeycheck suggested it had been delayed by a late running train in front.   I suppose it was - by the down sleeper!



In all it took nearly three hours for the congestion to clear as other trains joined the queues at both ends.   The worse delay I have seen was a freight train which approached Chippenham 12 minutes early but was 83 minutes late by the time it got to Trowbridge.

In the middle of the night perhaps it doesn't matter so much - but it shows what a knife-edge capacity along the single line is on at times.

 
I can't see Imber being returned to civilian habitation as it remains a useful training facility, although, ironically, the army had to construct the nearby "village" on Copehill Down (complete with railway siding and vehicles) to better replicate the sort of buildings, including cellars, that the British Army might have to fight in in Europe).

(And something would need to be done about the poor mobile-phone reception!)

In recent years I've become conscious of the increased use of the central ranges north of Larkhill.  (Imber is in the western ranges.)  Time was when one could go there on a Sunday and be reasonably sure that they were not being used and one could access the rights-of-way.  But on several occasions in the past few years the Salisbury Plain Training Area website has shown no artillery firing taking place, only for me to drive down and find the red flags were up and there were army vehicles whizzing around.  A year or two ago the flags were down, so I trudged up the old Salisbury-Devizes road for two miles from Bustard, only to find a barrier was down across it.

Recently the SPTA website has tweaked its guidance, but still does not indicate military use other than firing.

No doubt one might be fairly safe in assuming that the army takes Christmas Day and adjacent dates off, but on most winter days the Plain is not particularly inviting.

 
As has been said… frequently. 

 

Very, very close - you are just two stations along the line.  At Langogne we stopped for a crew change, then at  La-Bastide-St-Laurent-les-Bains to pass the train coming the other way.

Here is La Bastide:

 

This worries me. Not the re-opening of Imber which (if any senior politicians or cool servants have been up there on the 23A) has well connected public transport and housing and a church that could be brought up to modern standards to form the hub of a new town. But also with political decisions taking the opportunism of short(er) term money saving even in a sphere they are apparently committed too.   Could money be saved by mothballing the Badminton and Langport cutoffs, with London to the West and South Wales routed via Gloucester, via Bath Spa, and via Honiton?

 

Indeed - we had a regular train service from Swindon to Westbury from December 2006 to December 2013 - it ran about every 12 hours.  It has improved since then, but to this day we remain in search of a frequent service, for example as suggested by the Bath and Wiltshire Metro which would run every 30 minutes, though perhaps not completely regular because there might be a gap from 00:30 to 04:30 midweek.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel

There have been some noble (and nit so noble) failures in the railway world, and some of them are associated with great engineers who had other magnificnent successes but these cases results were not as planned:

Leader
Drumm Electric Train
Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore
4DD trains
Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway
Advanced Passenger Train
Waterloo and Whitehall Railway
Class 769 trains
Brill Branch
Cardiff Railway (Treforest)

 

…and staying on topic, there is regular coffee.   

 

Normally it’s to get money out of the people paying using airline points for their ticket. So the ticket price of $376 is what you pay for with the points, then on top of that you have to pay the surcharge in cash. So essentially with the points you’re getting a 30% discount, which to my mind makes the points less attractive than if you can pay for the whole thing in points. There is something on BA in Europe where you can essentially pay for most of it in points.

 
Actually, having been encouraged by two of my fellow admins here on the Coffee Shop forum, I'm now inclined to inflict offer you another YouTube clip, in support of my ongoing campaign to recognize Richard Trevithick as the earlier inventor of railway steam locomotives.

From YouTube, see https://youtube.com/shorts/miwshkCqxHU?is=_g_LdAXh3gqjiZFt - and sorry if it's portrait rather than landscape format (or vice versa) - but that's just how it is on YouTube.

CfN.

 
From the BBC:


Imber could be re-opened, then? 

 
Easy for you to pronounce, stuving. 

 

There's also the "Pictish symbol signs"! I think that station is La-Bastide-St-Laurent-les-Bains.

 

A couple of points from me, if I may?

That is not the admin team here on the Coffee Shop forum. 

The two words - which are not the same, but which do rile me, when they are misused - are 'regular' and 'frequent'.  Regular could be 'once every one hundred years', whereas frequent could be 'every few minutes', for example.

CfN. 

 

 
I'm going to sound like a complete fossil - I recall a notice on the, er, left luggage office at Teddington Station, a list of items that was positively Edwardian, I think I recall 'Gramophone' and am sure I recall 'Pair of sculls' but can't remember if the notice distinguished between those and oars. Perhaps 'Primus stove (must first be emptied of fuel)'. The last begs a question - when the railways were still accepting accompanied motorbikes carried in the guards van on long distance passenger services, but insisted that the fuel tanks be empty, what did the travelling motorcyclist do with the excess fuel?

 
In terms of usage, it is also quite handy for gigs at the prospect building.

 

The Portuguese even make a feature of it on the lines out of Lisbon:

https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/portuguese-railways-are-surfer-friendly

 
Interrail isn't ending, but Eurail is - to be merged in. From my email:

 
They could be quite useful on the Portishead Line.

Sorry. CfN.     

 
Going off on yet another of my occasional tangents:

On the RMS Titanic, in 1912, the engineer officers way below decks managed to keep all the lights on - until the final moments of the sinking.

Is there an analogy here? 

 
Possibly because that huge poster was a trip hazard in the concourse? 

 

As Webmaster, I couldn't possibly comment ...

 

It seems the news IS now announced, and I can share what loos looks like pretty definite timetable changes:


It's notable that the K1-175 timetable is dated "to 12th December 2026" and that suggests to me that the changes will be with us until the end of First's operating contract and perhaps beyond.

Edit note: Typo corrected, for clarity (and to spare grahame from any embarrassment). 

 
Just walked through the subway at Temple Meads.
The new entrance was being inspected by a party including Mark Hopwood.
When I walked back a few minutes later the poster about the opening had been removed not sure why and I had a train to catch so no time for further investigation.

 
Temporary reduction in service from Monday 7th...

https://www.cornish-times.co.uk/news/train-gremlins-lead-to-gwr-announcing-cancellation-of-services-until-further-notice-942797

 

despite the units being refurbished at Wolverton Works. - so am I reading this wrong, they were refurbed and then it was discovered they had corroded, leaking roofs etc or was that addressed as part of the refurb? (in which case why do they seem to be fit for little more than the scrapyard post refurb?)

 
According to Modern Railways, GWR has announced a plan to improve the situation.

https://www.modernrailways.com/article/gwr-revises-175-plans