Great Western Coffee Shop

Pinching an idea from north of The Border ... in The Herald (https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17455435.cool-list-the-best-scottish-railway-journeys/) ... what would you nominate as the ten best rail jouenys in the area the forum covers?


I have some ideas ... but want to see what other members come up with first ...

I think Exeter to Newton Abbot has to rank highly. When the sea isn't too angry - although that can add a certain frisson to the trip along the sea wall, particularly in a DMU with open hopper windows.

1 Gunnislake branch
2 Par to Luxulyan and walk back along Treffery’s old line.

The Severn Beach line isn't half bad either. The line out of central Bristol leads eventually to the suburbs before seeing the river Avon open out into the Bristol Channel. There are the industrial areas around Avonmouth before the long flat run to lonely Severn Beach itself. I remember when the line went on to Pilning too..

St.Ives Branch.

The sea wall at Dawlish must be in the list as must the journey over the Tamar bridge, the St. Ives and Exmouth branch lines, the Severn Beach line alongside the River Avons horseshoe curve. The line between Trowbridge and Westbury with the view of the Westbury White Horse. The approach to Penzance with the St Micheal's Mount. The Looe branch. The Windsor branch with its views of Windsor Castle. Finally the stretch of the West Somerset line giving views towards Dunster and the Castle. These are ten from me.

Gloucester to Chepstow along the river Severn is something of a "must see". Splendid view over the Severn Estuary for a considerable amount of the journey but does this satisfactorily qualify as a forum territory line?

Such good suggestions .. here are 10 contenders from me.

Bath to Salisbury
Bishop's Lydeard to Blue Anchor
Churston to Kingswear
Liskeard to Looe
Lynmouth to Lynton
Plymouth to Gunnislake
Seaton to Colyton
St Erth to St Ives
Starcross to Newton Abbot
Totton to Fawley

Mind you ... some of the other suggestions are so go good they are musts which means that some of mine have to drop out of the top ten ...

St Michael please!  ;) ;)

Paignton to Kingswear. One of those routes that really should still have main-line trains, but the steam does add to the atmosphere.

Bristol to Weymouth

Salisbury to Exeter with its varied landscapes as is passes along its geological journey.

Thanks, GBM; you've reminded me that I need to get some new underpants.

My nominee: Bristol to Portishead. I did it in (gosh was it really?) 1985, hauled by an Ivatt 2MT as I remember it. Glorious views of the Avon Gorge, though they could improve them by cutting down some of those ruddy whitebeams (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/countryside/5323350/Whitebeams-spread-their-leaves-in-Bristols-Avon-Gorge.html)... ;)

Special mention perhaps for the short hop from Bristol Temple Meads to Keynsham where, after departing briefly through a cityscape you then emerge from a short tunnel suddenly into the Avon Valley with no sense of the city still surrounding you.

That's the thing with Bristol; it has a way of sneaking up on you. Despite having done it hundreds of times, I can still be surprised and delighted when I come round the last bend of the M32 and descend from the dull tedium of the countryside into the complex, confusing, exciting jumble of madness that is Bristol. Shhh! Don't tell anyone! They'll all want to come and live here!

Again, depending on how widely you interpret "the South West", could I put in a word for the Golden Valley line between Shapperton Tunnel and Stonehouse?

Here's TravelWatch SouthWest definition of the South West (meeting details {{here}} (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=20715.msg259054#msg259054))

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

The Coffee Shop also takes in the Thames Valley and South Wales and looks like

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

Well, based on the second map I'd like to add Smallbrook Junction to Wootton to the list of best railway journeys in the south and west.

If Waterloo to Weymouth is included, then the whole route from MI6 to seaside at Weymouth, on a rather 'cool' class 444.

My thoughts are going round to the top ten WORST bits of the south west rail network, if there are any.

My thoughts went through there too; many towns might have their short sections that are less than beautiful. The stretch that goes behind the outside of the yard behind the out of town departure store, past the back of modern mid-rise housing that's blocked off from station access, noting the industrial materials dumped by the old good shed which is historic but clad in protective corrugated iron to stop it collapsing before pulling into a station that's utilitarian where once there was a building of beauty and great historic interest. Pulling out after our stop, we pass immediately behind a modular building built on the old platform - so close to the edge that the platform can no longer be used for passenger trains and past the decayed and fenced off steps up to the main road - a lost station access. We pass under the bridge and behind some warehouses of little architectural merit, behind the car park of the local supermarket and past the sewerage farm before starting to come into the countryside ... note the low sheds which I suspect are a battery chicken farm; not sure if it's still operational.

Plymouth North Road has to be a strong contender.

Well, make the most of it because its all going to be redeveloped soon.  That should transform it ::)

Not the worst, but always intriguing the number of cemeteries by the railway. Presumably because the dead didn't complain about the noise.

Going back to the unmissable journeys in the South West, I took a sunny Sunday in June trip up to Umberleigh last year. The countryside was in its prime along the route, with a magnificent bed of wild watercress along side the track bed at Copplestone. Umberleigh itself such a picturesque and peaceful station, and after my walk I got to relax on a platform bench seemingly stuck in time...

Also, all the other Devon & Cornwall branches, the Dawlish route, the Okehampton Sunday trip and, as previously stated, Salisbury to Exeter for its intriguing geology.. the Cornish mainline on a bright and breezy Summer’s day... Pretty much all the network, then.

Parson Street to Bedminster. (I should get out more...)

 ::) ;D ::)

Campden Bank, through the tunnel and on to Moreton-in-Marsh, and gradually descending through the Evenlode Valley to Wolvercote Junction always, whetever the time of year, is full of interest and beauty

West Somerset Railway, particularly the view of the Quantocks which is on the left, as you climb from Williton towards Stogumber

S'nerth - S'nives

Parts of Gunnislake Branch, particularly Bere Alston to Gunnislake

Exeter to Newton Abbott

Trowbridge to Castle Cary (possibly continuing towards Dorchester, but I'm not all that familiar with it)

and

Castle Cary on towards Taunton, over the flatland and Athelney (for sheer spookiness, to my mind)