Great Western Coffee Shop

Greetings all,

In addition to the changes to the London Paddington services from December 2019 the GWR website informs that, regarding the Liskeard - Looe line, the timetable is to be "significantly recast to enable an hourly service to operate throughout the day between the busiest stations on the line. This will allow 15 round trips throughout the day on the line, in place of current 12, with off-peak services operating every two hours at intermediate stations."

Could well give Plymouth Citybus a run for their money between Liskeard and Looe on end-to-end running?

HTIOI,
Dave

Presumably current request calls will be no stop. And no competition train vs bus, train wins every time

TBH out of all the Devon & Cornwall branch lines the Liskeard - Looe route is the only one I have never travelled on: I have been fortunate that, either through work or leisure, I have managed to do all the others at least once. I hope to ride the Liskeard - Looe route at some point though.

As for the calling patterns I have checked the timetable for Monday 16th December and the calling pattern in each direction for weekdays (not sure about Saturdays and Sundays) is this:

Liskeard - Looe:
Stoppers depart at: 0557, 0712, 0830 (CJ), 0936, 1136, 1336, 1540 (CJ), 1744, 1947, 2105
Non-Stoppers depart at: 1036, 1236, 1436, 1644, 1847

Looe - Liskeard:
Stoppers depart at: 0629, 0748 (CJ), 0905, 1106, 1306, 1506 (CJ), 1714, 1917, 2136
Non-Stoppers depart at: 1008, 1208, 1408, 1616, 1816, 2023

(CJ): Denotes train also stopping at Coombe Junction Halt. Other stopping trains calling Sandplace, Causeland & St. Keyne only by request.

HTIOI,
Dave

What I cannot understand is, why doesn't Network Rail install a portacabin type building on the platform at CJ Halt and electrify the point at CJ and whist the driver is running from end to end of the unit the guard/conductor/train manager can insert the SLT into an instrument in the portacabin which changes the point to the Looe or Liskeard direction and switches a  Coombe Junction signal to yellow with a directional feather and so ALL services on the branch can serve CJ in the time it takes currently to apply the brakes to stop the branch unit, clamber down, walk to the ground frame, unlock it, pull and push the levers of the ground frame to set the route required, lock up the ground frame, walk back to the unit, clamber back on board and reverse the unit to wherever.

An image of the timetable changes as seen on the GWR website:

The points have to be maintained in the Liskeard facing direction which means that any train to/from Looe has to stop south of the junction. As the guard has to get out anyway, it removes any advantage of moving the signalling equipment to the station itself.

Stopping doesn’t really add that much time to the timetable considering the line speed is 25mph.  Even for a request stop, you barely have to slow!

Still sadly no services allowing Cornish Travellers to enjoy a Saturday Evening in Plymouth and travel by train. Madness.

Our a Saturday evening in Truro.  For those wanting a late night train service from a night out in a great Cornish Town, which has a service each way stopping after 2300, may I recommend Lostwithiel.  https://www.lostwithiel.org.uk/ (https://www.lostwithiel.org.uk/).

Coming up on 5th October is https://www.cornishciderfestival.co.uk/ (https://www.cornishciderfestival.co.uk/) All welcome !

Probably down to Network Rail line closures for overnight engineering work

What Coombe Juction needs is Electric points, signals and operation from a panel in Liskeard box then every train would serve Coombe Junction Halt and whilst the Driver changes ends the points will set for the other line.