Great Western Coffee Shop

Where will be the first GWR place to see its final scheduled HST working?   It could well be Weymouth, with the departure of the Wizard on 9th September 2017 ...

Or Pembroke Dock

I wondered about that - but isn't that service in the SLC so should run until December '18 - i.e. next summer. There will still be HSTs around, and they're the only logical GWR stock for a Pembroke Dock <-> London service that summer, whereas the Bristol <-> Weymouth services are mostly unit trains anyway and there should  ;D be more of them around by next summer ...

You would think that this would be the last summer of HSTs on the Weymouth line but the way things are at the moment you can never rule out their return next summer.

If September the 9th is to be the last time, I'm sure GWR will let it be known so any HST enthusiasts out there can 'bash'* them one more time on this line.

*Rail enthusiast speak for traveling on a particular train of interest.

I thought the correct terminology is 'copped'...... :P

You could well be right with 'bash' referring to travelling on a particular line.

Interesting (but quite long) article on WikiPedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railfan)

I'm going for "copping" as collecting / gathering a line, picture, or something else for the first time. "Bashing" is the act of travelling a line, or using a service, for something beyond the bare requirement of somehow getting from A to B, and so can be repeated.

I copped the Melksham to Chippenham service about 15 years ago.   I have bashed it a number of times since (travelling with intent other than just travelling between the end points), and I have travelled it as part of my journey a heck of a lot more times!

Some pictures to record yesterday's final run of the Weymouth Wizard.  I feel it's dangerous in the current climate to be dogmatic about what will be running to Weymouth 12 months from now - either day to day, or on summer Saturdays - but it's quite possible this will have been the last appearance at Weymouth of a 125 on a scheduled passenger train.  I'll be making comment in one of our member's boards with an analysis / what may happen in future years - will post a link on this thread when I've done that.

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