Great Western Coffee Shop

Notices up at Nailsea today announcing the arrival of turbos from Monday 23rd. Some longer distance services are being split in two at Bristol and Taunton presumably as the turbos and not cleared south of Taunton or towards Cardiff.

Maybe this will provide a modicum of relief in terms of the chronic shortage of rolling stock in the area...

I actually don't have to go in to work on Monday - so I'll be down at our local station to take a few photos of this historic development at NLS!  ;) :D ;D

I read, on another forum, that the diagrams will be:

2C61 0524 Bristol Temple Meads to Taunton
2D02 0633 Taunton to Bristol Parkway
2C65 0812 Bristol Parkway to Taunton
2D08 0938 Taunton to Bristol Parkway
2Y14 1112 Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare
2D12 1209 Weston-super-Mare to Bristol Parkway
2Y18 1312 Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare
2D16 1410 Weston-super-Mare to Bristol Parkway
2Y22 1512 Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare
2D22 1610 Weston-super-Mare to Bristol Parkway
2Y26 1712 Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare
2D28 1816 Weston-super-Mare to Bristol Temple Meads

5E04 0345 St Philips Mrsh to Taunton (Monday Only)
2E04 0602 Taunton to Bristol Temple Meads
2C63 0721 Bristol Temple Meads to Taunton
2D06 0836 Taunton to Bristol Parkway
2Y12 1012 Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare
2D10 1110 Weston-super-Mare to Bristol Parkway
2Y16 1212 Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare
2D14 1310 Weston-super-Mare to Bristol Parkway
2Y20 1412 Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare
2D18 1510 Weston-super-Mare to Bristol Parkway
2Y24 1612 Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare
2D26 1716 Weston-super-Mare to Bristol Parkway
2Y28 1812 Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare
2D30 1908 Weston-super-Mare to Bristol Parkway
2C25 2011 Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads

2C90 2001 Bristol Temple Meads to Taunton
5C90 2121 Taunton to Taunton Monday to Thursday)
5C90 2124 Taunton to Bristol Temple Meads (Friday Only)

This does not include the split of the 1800 Cardiff Central to Taunton. In addition at least one source that gives train diagrams does not give the split at Bristol Temple Meads on that journey (even though it is on the posters) and also indicates that the evening Taunton to Gloucester run survives.

Cheers,
Dave

The 0633 from Taunton was indeed a turbo this morning.

For the record ...

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/tau_tur_001.jpg)

Just saw 166219 go through Bath Spa on its way west.

This was posted on another forum...

https://youtu.be/hUzhYfwMqOM

Taunton.  :P

Closer than most of your guesses  ;D

GWR website now has some idea of the planned schedule of introduction of Turbos onto those services which don't yet have them. More information here: https://www.gwr.com/about-us/modernising-gwr/january2018

Love or hate the Turbos I will be glad not to have to put up with 150s on services to Gloucester (although I don't mind the 153s: if I get a 150 & 153 combo I sit in the 153) and I think I might not be the only one.

Dave

Many thanks for that link Dave.   I'm summarising below (may split the thread later)

---

More Intercity Express Trains

Our new Intercity Express Trains will start running to Oxford, Worcester, and Great Malvern; as well as more services on routes to Bristol Temple Meads and South Wales.

Dividing trains

Some services may divide during the journey. Check the part of the train you board continues to your destination, before you join the train.

Electrostar Trains now running to Didcot Parkway

Most of our London suburban services between Didcot Parkway and London Paddington will use our new, longer, faster Electrostar trains.

These trains provide more comfort with:
* at-seat power sockets
* improved air-conditioning
* over 1000 more seats into London Paddington during morning peak-time
They will run mainly with 8 carriages.

At some stations, the platforms aren’t long enough for the train. You can walk through the whole train however some doors will not open at certain stations.

Dividing trains

Some services divide during the journey. Please check the part of the train you enter continues to your destination, before you board.

Travelling to/from Oxford, Bedwyn and Thames Valley branch lines

These trains will only run between Didcot Parkway and London Paddington, calling at intermediate stations.

To/from:

Oxford, Radley, Culham or Appleford – change at Didcot Parkway. Direct High Speed services will continue to run to/from Oxford
Henley Branch Line – change at Twyford
Marlow Branch Line – change at Maidenhead

Food and drink

There is an at-seat food and drink service on-board.

More Turbo Trains in the Bristol Area

From January 2018, we’ll be introducing more Turbo trains to the region, running between Bristol Temple Meads and, Cardiff Central, Taunton, Weston-super-Mare and Gloucester; as well as running between Swindon and Cheltenham.

These trains will provide more comfort, improved air-conditioning, and over 1000 more seats into Bristol Temple Meads during morning peak-time.

Throughout the year we’ll be modifying these trains to include at-seat power sockets and accessible toilets.

Trains will be up to six carriages in length.

From February, Turbo trains will be operating in the Avon Valley on services to Southampton and Weymouth and extending to Portsmouth in the summer.

Hopefully, they won't suffer the problems currently happening to some of the Turbo services on the Severn Beach Line.

I was on Platform 5 at TM at 1100 today. The 1116 rolled in and was left idling. Then 2 orange jackets arrived with plenty of buckets and a stirrup pump. They proceeded to start with the middle carriage, then moved to the carriages in front and behind. Then they jumped off the platform and moved round the other side of the train.
1130 came and went and then my Class 158 Gloucester bound train was diverted to platform 3 . As I left at 1145, the turbo was still in darkness with 30 passengers left on board. So what happened after that is a mystery. It does not augur well for the turbo rollout on Jan 2nd does it ?

I can shine a little light on the mystery of the 1116:



Had you been at Temple Meads at 1516, you would have seen history repeat itself. Hopefully, Cllr Mhairi Threlfall was planning on making her way back to Severn Beach on that train.

Proceeded to start what?

I was one of the 30 left on the train. We were told the train was dead at just the time the Gloucester train pulled out.  >:(

Pumping?

Pumping what?

Just pumping.

It was the staff Christmas Dinner yesterday and the fitters over indulged the Brussels sprouts.

 :P ;) ;D

From my data feeds ...


One would hope - if correct - that's very short term storage indeed?

More hopefully

I assume some 387s have still been stored at Didcot recently, this morning a loco came down from Leicester to presumably drag them to Reading TCD which occurred at 10:30, the same time as those turbos headed in the opposite direction.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/K96281/2017/12/28/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/K96283/2017/12/28/advanced

Yep that’s exactly what happened.  Turbos will need local door operation equipment and ride height mods undertaken, so will only be in storage for a short while until they can be dealt with as the whole cascade can’t be done at the same time.

Just how many turbo units are at Bristol now?

I see that 3 x 150/1s have departed north; anything else gone.

Got my first turbo today, the 0655 from Bristol Parkway to Taunton, on the new Platform 1 at Bristol Parkway.

Shame that nobody had cleaned the Turbo before using it this morning, and still in original First GWR blue livery.  At least it worked and had three carriages so no overcrowding.

7 more 150/1s due to go north on 3rd February and the others progressively until April.     Many HSTs have gone to Scotrail via Works for Mods.

8 x 3 car turbos are off Thames Valley and in works, due out as the 150/1 units go north.   Further 3 x 2 car turbos retained at Reading for a few weeks to provide extra capacity as 387 teething issues ease out.    The works on 4 of the 8 units at this initial stage include single / selective door mods for the Weymouth line.

Those trains have had a few exterior designs. The original livery was for Network South East followed by one or two for Thames Trains.