Great Western Coffee Shop

Journey by Journey => Portsmouth to Cardiff => Topic started by: Bmblbzzz on June 02, 2018, 21:00:13



Title: Freshford platform extension
Post by: Bmblbzzz on June 02, 2018, 21:00:13
Visiting Freshford yesterday, I noticed that both platforms are being lengthened by about a carriage length, which would make them 4 carriages long. The work appears very nearly completed but I didn't notice any information on the station about it. I'm not sure which 4-carriage services might call there – on the way out we had a 2-car which terminated at Westbury, on the way back a 3-car which terminated at Bristol TM but I'm not sure where it had come from – but I guess it would be some Portsmouth to Cardiff services.
(No, this hardly warrants a thread to itself, but where else would it go?)


Title: Re: Freshford platform extension
Post by: Timmer on June 02, 2018, 22:57:24
5 car Cardiff-Portsmouth and Weymouth services (3 car 166/2 car 165) will call at Freshford.


Title: Re: Freshford platform extension
Post by: Bmblbzzz on June 03, 2018, 19:30:55
It's longer than I guessed, then.  :)


Title: Re: Freshford platform extension
Post by: Timmer on June 03, 2018, 20:06:28
It's longer than I guessed, then.  :)
Not sure. It may be to just accommodate 4 of a 5 car set.


Title: Re: Freshford platform extension
Post by: stuving on June 03, 2018, 23:15:13
It's longer than I guessed, then.  :)
Not sure. It may be to just accommodate 4 of a 5 car set.

It's on network Rail's list of platforms to go to 5-car length. The full list for project W009 (West of England DMU Capability, oddly) is:

Operational length No of platforms   Stations and platforms
                         to be extended to be extended
1 car (23m vehicle)    2 Dilton Marsh – Platforms 1 and 2.
3 car (23m vehicle)     1 Melksham - Platform 1
5 car (23m vehicle)     7 Bradford on Avon – Platform 2
Freshford – Platforms 1 and 2
Lawrence Hill - Platform 2
Stapleton Road – Platform 1
Trowbridge – Platform 1
Warminster – Platform 2
6 car (26m vehicle)     3 Kemble – Platform 1
Stonehouse – Platforms 1 and 2
They also note that:
"Works to address stepping distances are only required at specified stations; Freshford Platform 2 and Stonehouse platform 2."


Title: Re: Freshford platform extension
Post by: Bmblbzzz on June 04, 2018, 11:11:42
Yes, we noticed the big step down and out! Oddly, there are one or two "slabs" of P2 which have been moved out by a couple of cm. They didn't line up with the doors on the train we took, if that was the intention.

Funny, and encouraging, to think this station is being extended. I remember having to "flag down" trains there in the 80s/90s as it was a request stop! Mind you I also, just about, remember the neighbouring Limpley Stoke station being closed in the 70s (or could have been the 80s).


Title: Re: Freshford platform extension
Post by: Red Squirrel on June 04, 2018, 12:11:17
...or 1966


Title: Re: Freshford platform extension
Post by: Bmblbzzz on June 04, 2018, 13:30:33
...or 1966
How bizarre and tricky memories are! I would have sworn I remember going through Limpley Stoke station when visiting family there in the 70s. I distinctly remember my grandfather talking about the station being closed and giving his ideas as to why it had been closed but Freshford hadn't – and he didn't even move there till 1971! (And in 1966 I wasn't even born!)



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