Great Western Coffee Shop

As we move forward post-covid, more people are going to be working from home and making visits to their office on perhaps just one or two days per week. Which means they can live further from the towns and cities, spread out more through the countryside.  Here are 10 stations in the countryside, where there is plenty of undeveloped land around the station and there are towns and / or cities within day return business work - some might be a long day, but that's fine for one or two days a week if not for five.

Can you place the stations?  If you need research help ...  http://new.passenger.chat/better/map.html?stn=CUM will take you to a new station page (with links to a station approach map, a wider area map and (if you scroll down) a region map or whole UK map to navigate wider.  Half of these maps are of GWR locations

1.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_1.jpg)

2.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_2.jpg)

3.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_3.jpg)

4.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_4.jpg)

5.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_5.jpg)

6.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_6.jpg)

7.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_7.jpg)

8.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_8.jpg)

9.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_9.jpg)

10.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_0.jpg)

I should add (for any member / reader who just happens to live within the mapped area) that these ten have been chosen at random, and not evaluated.  There are probably darned good reasons why development would not work at many of them, and there is no need to start writing to your MP to object, nor to start planning how to spend a windfall if you own land in the area.

10 is Kintbury

Number 6 is Tackley - the Cherwell and the Oxford Canal very distinctive at this point.

4 is Portsmouth Arms

No. 5 is Breich. I just thought I'd better check before posting "Wot no Breich?".

I have had "what - no Pilning" on Facebook  ;D

I was hoping that at least one of the Dorset villages would be included, and lo and behold, no 2 is Chetnole.

So we have ...

1. C?xxxxxx
2. Chetnole
3. H?xxxxxx
4. Portsmouth Arms
5. Breich
6. Tackley
7. L?xxxxxxx
8. M?xxxxxxx
9. C?xxxxxxxx
10. Kintbury

8 I think is Mottisfont and Dunbridge

1. is Charlbury....

Yes ... and


sorry, no.

The four remaining are all distinctly difficult. 
* One of them was the former (pre 1948) GWR, but is not on the current GWR.
* Another was on a GWR joint line prior to 1923.
* A third may be thought of as being the exact opposite of Great Western.
* The fourth comes from the land of Fiona's parents.
(but those clues are not in the order or the missing identities).

1.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_1.jpg)

3.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_3.jpg)

7.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_7.jpg)

9.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/remotestn_9.jpg)


I have been up late watching the snooker and now need to snooze ... today's quiz in the morning.

3 is Harling Road, on the line from Thetford to Norwich, and thus originally Great Eastern.

I must admit that until 5 minutes ago I had never heard of this station, but a trawl through some eastern maps located it.  ;)

I'm not sure how well this link to Street View (https://www.google.com/maps/@52.4538842,0.9101193,3a,75y,91.35h,78.34t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sllJph1gdAMw8QB5V4OSqBw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656) will come though, but it gives some idea of an old fashioned station with a signal box and level crossing, looking around at a cluster of houses. I think there's an hourly train service passing through each way, but at present just the occasional call.


From Wikipedia:

I looked up Harling Road to Norwich at around 9.30am today, a direct service of about 20 miles at the most to the nearest city, and it showed me the first train was after 4pm today and was the one in the opposite direction to Thetford, where you had to change onto a train that went back through the station non-stop. The fare is nearly ?16 single (two tickets needed). So I suspect very little used.

Harling Road	06:52	07:53
Norwich	07:25	08:30

Norwich	15:48	17:27
Harling Road	16:14	17:57

3794 passengers, year to 28.2.2020 - that's perhaps 7 people into Norwich each weekday, and 7 back. Logical service designed for the specific office job / education in Norwich market, but without a late return.  Can't help wondering if traffic would increase if the 19:27 off Norwich called to set down on request ... but then does the railway want to bother with that little bit of extra business on what is supposedly a mass transit system?

Current service pattern and numbers vaguely reminiscent of Melksham figures a decade or two ago - but then we have a station with a walkable urban catchment.  Back to the top theme of the post ... residential development around a station such as this, better service, and people who work from home most days would love it, commuting into Cambridge or London on their carnet of 10 trip in 2 months for the price of 9.

9 Clunderwen  ??

Helped by the "joint line" clue - 7 is Little Kimble

Little Kimble was on my "rat run" from Luton to Oxford, Swindon and beyond ... way back in the last millenium (on the road, not rail).

Both correct - which leaves just no. 1.   The two above (and Harling Road) were not easy ... and I suspect No. 1 is even harder.

Final question, from "Far far away" ... it's Commondale. (please forgive if that spell checks to Commendable ) - http://new.passenger.chat/better/map.html?stn=COM . An example of a station on the line to Whitby - which winds it way through the countryside serving a collection of remote stations, with six trains each way per day including an extra morning one in recent times that now makes the line useful for commuting into Middlesbrough ...

I was puzzled by that map - what looks like a sizeable river coming out of one side of a bridge with not even a tiny stream going in on the other. Is it a very wiggly canal and a tunnel? A river culverted under a road? No, it seems, just dodgy cartography.

Yep, you're right ... it needs attention.   I have been learning the OSM (Open Street Map) file format over recent weeks and translating co-ordinates and tags into graphics. More work to be done and in due course these maps may become more sophisticated, more richly featured, and less quirky.  At least they are recognisable already, and I'm delighted to be highlighting footpaths, cycleways and railways to a greater degree than in most mapping, at the expense of subduing roads to some extent.  I know I have a water problem.

It would appear that I have three types of waterway in Commondale ...


To give you an idea of the data volume - I have nearly 1 Mbyte of data for Commondale - 12,000 lines of data and you're looking at just 9 of them.   Something approaching quarter of a million lines of data in something like this (which again has quirky waterways!):

(http://new.passenger.chat/map/stationmap.php?tlc=BRI&wider)

And it would appear that the problem is the the "Commondale Beck" is designated as a river from a standing start in the data set - nothing else flowing into it and nothing I can yet see that says "look, this is a little river".

In 1489 station maps I have so far on our server, there are 4701 rivers, 11623 streams, 1896 ditches ... I would have expected the Commondale setup to have a stream flow into a river, or something else (list follows of the various water features I have across all the maps), but apparently not - not even a pond or a moat.

      1   <tag k="waterway" v="boat"/>
      1   <tag k="waterway" v="derelict_dock"/>
      1   <tag k="waterway" v="dog"/>
      1   <tag k="waterway" v="fairway"/>
      1   <tag k="waterway" v="floodgate"/>
      1   <tag k="waterway" v="mill"/>
      1   <tag k="waterway" v="narrows"/>
      1   <tag k="waterway" v="planned"/>
      1   <tag k="waterway" v="pumping-station"/>
      1   <tag k="waterway" v="stop_lock"/>
      1   <tag k="waterway" v="water_gauge"/>
      1   <tag k="waterway" v="water_level_monitor"/>
      2   <tag k="waterway" v="debris_screen"/>
      2   <tag k="waterway" v="dry_dock"/>
      2   <tag k="waterway" v="intermittant"/>
      2   <tag k="waterway" v="lake"/>
      2   <tag k="waterway" v="port"/>
      2   <tag k="waterway" v="proposed_canal"/>
      2   <tag k="waterway" v="traffic_light"/>
      2   <tag k="waterway" v="winding_point"/>
      3   <tag k="waterway" v="basin"/>
      3   <tag k="waterway" v="elsan_disposal"/>
      3   <tag k="waterway" v="fish_pass"/>
      3   <tag k="waterway" v="moat"/>
      3   <tag k="waterway" v="tidal_channel"/>
      3   <tag k="waterway" v="winding_hole"/>
      4   <tag k="waterway" v="feature"/>
      4   <tag k="waterway" v="lock"/>
      4   <tag k="waterway" v="marina"/>
      4   <tag k="waterway" v="spillway"/>
      5   <tag k="waterway" v="steps"/>
      6   <tag k="waterway" v="sluice"/>
      7   <tag k="waterway" v="barrier"/>
      8   <tag k="waterway" v="abandoned_canal"/>
      8   <tag k="waterway" v="buoy"/>
      9   <tag k="waterway" v="disused_canal"/>
      9   <tag k="waterway" v="floating_barrier"/>
      9   <tag k="waterway" v="junction"/>
      9   <tag k="waterway" v="milestone"/>
      9   <tag k="waterway" v="pumping_station"/>
      9   <tag k="waterway" v="sluice_gate"/>
     10   <tag k="waterway" v="fuel"/>
     10   <tag k="waterway" v="pond"/>
     10   <tag k="waterway" v="proposed"/>
     10   <tag k="waterway" v="pump_out"/>
     10   <tag k="waterway" v="waste_disposal"/>
     13   <tag k="waterway" v="brook"/>
     13   <tag k="waterway" v="flow_control"/>
     15   <tag k="waterway" v="mooring"/>
     18   <tag k="waterway" v="yes"/>
     37   <tag k="waterway" v="sanitary_dump_station"/>
     38   <tag k="waterway" v="waterfall"/>
     44   <tag k="waterway" v="dam"/>
     54   <tag k="waterway" v="water_point"/>
    103   <tag k="waterway" v="boatyard"/>
    120   <tag k="waterway" v="derelict_canal"/>
    158   <tag k="waterway" v="turning_point"/>
    283   <tag k="waterway" v="dock"/>
    757   <tag k="waterway" v="weir"/>
   1550   <tag k="waterway" v="lock_gate"/>
   1896   <tag k="waterway" v="ditch"/>
   3114   <tag k="waterway" v="drain"/>
   3125   <tag k="waterway" v="canal"/>
   4701   <tag k="waterway" v="river"/>
  11623   <tag k="waterway" v="stream"/>

I have noted to take a specific look at what future developments do to the Commondale map ...

Funny - there's a clearly visible river runs through it (the bridge) in Google Earth's pictures!

The dataset is excellent but not perfect ... looking at the list of waterway features, I note both a pumping-station and 9 pumping_station (s) which looks like an error.   18 waterways of type "yes" have me scratching my head, as does the one of type "dog"!

Edit to add - dog poo bins (presumably alongside the Lee navigation) on the Bush Hill Park map area - http://new.passenger.chat/map/stationmap.php?tlc=BHK&wider=1 - NOT being shown on the map.