Great Western Coffee Shop

As part of her Melksham history work, Lisa uses a CZUR Smart Book Scanner (https://czur.co.uk). I've had a chance to try it today ... a whole folder of 16 images (32 page leaflet) and uplaoded it ((here)) (http://www.wellho.net/oldpix/2020_04_07_09_54_35/) - Thames Traveller timetable from winter 1986 / spring 1987 from Network South East

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/olddonkey0.jpg)

Planning more to follow - the scanner is in isolation with us ... as are 1000 other things that need to be done!

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I am aware of scanned document archives - no attempt to compete with them as I wouldn't have the reason, motivation or patience - but I will sprinkle in some documents of interest.

May be of interest although anoraks no doubt have their own copy. I'll try to make a better copy later or find an A1 scanner.
In the late 50s I was given a route map. Makes an interesting study. Can't put too much reliance on the details but e.g. I see the RHDR is shown (the original BR Dungeness station closed many years before) yet it also shows going past Hythe to Sandling as the was the original intention in 1920s that never happened.
I'd be interested if anyone can identify a feature defining what year the map represents.

Yarmouth station on the Isle of Wight closed 1953, so as no Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway is shown I would suggest it is after that date.
Over to the experts to slice the salami finer!

Border Counties Railway (Riccarton Junction to Hexham) closed 1956 (passengers) not shown

Dornoch closed 1960 is shown.

So between 1956 and 1960?

Princetown (closed 1956) is also not shown.

Ashburton (closed 1958) not shown

Mortonhamstead (closed to passengers in 1959) not shown ... however Teign valley line closed in 1958 to passenger trains IS shown; perhaps it remained available for passenger diversions if the sea wall was closed as well as to freight until 1961 when it was shut completely.

The Abingdon branch is missing.  That closed to passengers in 1963.

Thanks for all the advice. From other considerations, I know it was no earlier than 1958 and no later than 1962. From the responses looks like 1960, give or take a year?

Can narrow it down even more than that, the Midland & Great Northern in Norfolk is not there (closed 1959) but the Melton Constable bit that survived beyond Sheringham is - that closed in 1964.

That backs up your thought of 1960. 

The line to Turriff closed in 1966 - so that places the map later still. Of course there's no guarantee all previous changes had got onto the map!

it looks like the Kingham - Banbury line is truncated at Chipping Norton.  This was the case from 1951 until the service was withdrawn in 1962

That map appeared on Flickr some time ago and, as others have already noticed, there are some incosistencies in it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/93936890@N02/41085827862/

I spotted a few things immediately and here is the comment I left on Flickr:

"The line from Berkeley Road junction (shown on the map between Bristol and Gloucester) to Lydney across the original Severn Bridge is not shown. This closed officially in November 1964 although it had been "temporarily" closed between Sharpness and Lydney since 1960 when the bridge was damaged.

Leaving that to one side, the Chepstow to Monmouth and Ross on Wye line closed in January 1959 is not shown, whilst the Bristol to Frome line via Radstock is shown, and this closed in November 1959. That might suggest (mistakes permitting!) that the map dates from the start of the 1959 Summer timetable."

In addition, the line style used (ie generally straight lines rather then curved ones) first appeared in that style on the national railway map, if I remember correctly, in 1966.

Now that the matter has come up again I begin to wonder whether this was an official map at all, or if it was something put together by a third party based on the 1966 map. It could theoretically be done quite easily if the places not served by rail by then (eg Dursley) were marked on the map. Indeed, if it were a later creation in post-PC days one could probably scan the original map and reproduce the typeface and font for one's additions.

Just a thought, and if anyone wants to shoot it down in flames please do so  ;D

Or it could be that sloppy mistakes did also happen in the British Railways days...  ;)

Cholsey to Wallingford and Uffington to Faringdon Branches missing

Edit closed in 1959 and 1951 respectively

..but the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton, all the way to Winchester, is - I think 1960 is a pretty good guess.

Just based on the lines in and around Aberdeenshire, it looks as if lines closed outright (like Turriff, lifted within a year for road improvements at bridges) were removed, while those closed to passengers were sometimes left in place - so their stations are still shown even if they had in fact closed.

Thanks again to everyone who responded. As far as I know it was an official BR document as it came from a BR source. I do know that it must have been 1962 or before as I moved away then, and no longer regularly was in contact. My feeling from other constraints is that it was no later than 1961, and I would be unlikely to remember receiving it much before 1959, hence 1960 is my best assessment.
Of course in those days, errors could not be corrected at the touch of a keypad, and possibly if they were not significant, were let through. I also don't know what the target audience was, if not for posters etc, maybe less thorough proofing took place.

Here's one that recently came into my hands.  Wonder how much those fares would be in present day terms?

(http://cbrailways.co.uk/PhotoAlbumsPro/1379866239/Sampford%20Peverell%20Halt%20Opening%20Poster.jpg?cache=0.26389233439656623)

While on the topic of old documents -
Melksham Station - some history
Melksham and Trowbridge Stations were built by the WS&WR rather than the GWR, to a design by Geddes and Nolloth, and were opened in 1848. Like Bradford-on-Avon they were built in Bath stone in Gothic style. Melksham had the typical tripartite structure of the WS&WR whilst Trowbridge, like Bradford, had separate entrances for 1st and 2nd class, as well as a gabled wing at right angles to the main building. The other platform shelters showed the same split with Melksham having a flat roofed, rectangular building while those of Trowbridge and Bradford  reflected the gothic style of the main building.


Melksham built by Thomas Lewis for £2,861
The accommodation changed but little over the years, the greatest changes being in the goods department. The plan(fig17.xx) shows the layout in 1877, to the south of the station was a siding to the flour mills. In 1885 a grain siding was built to serve the malthouse erected by Mr J. Taylor, this ran behind the signal box, at the same time t he down siding was lengthened and connected into the up line. BoT approval was given for a new up siding in 1893, probably and extension of the one there rather than a new one. The down siding was lengthened in 1901 to accommodate a siding for Mr J. Spencer. A major improvement was carried out in 1903 when the goods shed was improved and four mileage sidings were laid behind it. To operate these a new signal box was built to the east of the old one.
Staffing was 1861:Station master, 3 porters, 3 policemen
1881 Stationmaster, clerk, 3 porters, 1 lad porter, 1 signalman, 1 policeman

....and Melksham signalling layout can be seen here: https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/html/gwb/S388.htm

Red Star Parcels played an important role in the early history of Independent Local Radio in this country.  The first two stations opened in London in October 1973 but were quickly followed by ones in Glasgow and Birmingham just as the three day week came in.

Most of the studios where national commercials were recorded were in London.   Broadcast quality circuits were expensive to book so many if not all were despatched on reel to reel tape via Red Star.  Even in 1976 into the early 80s it was still the method of choice and one of my first jobs was to go to the local depot to pick them up on a daily basis. 

It's hard to comprehend now just how limited land lines were then, in both bandwidth and quality.Two parallels from the same time:

Pye developed "sound-in-syncs" for BBC TV, the forerunner of NICAM sound. This sneaked a sampled data channel for sound into a blank bit of the TV signal, avoiding the need for a separate audio line to the transmitter. Those lines were often really telephone lines, noisy and of narrow bandwidth - the samples were taken at 31 kHz, but compressed to fit in the available 10 bits. This was brand new when we had lectures on it in 1971, along with other exciting bits of TV kit - like the UK/USA standards converter, all done with switches and delay lines!

At the time the best data lines were 4800 Baud (in this context bits/s), so the fastest link within the same town was a mag-tape in a bicycle pannier.

And shown as a main line too!

Merthyr, Tredegar, and Abergavenny not there - closed 1959. 1960 looks right.

Can anything be gleaned from the style of lion and wheel in the top right corner?

Assuming 2s equals £0.1 then from https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1927?amount=0.10 (https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1927?amount=0.10)

Not bad then. 2s 0d in 1928 for a 3rd class Cheap Day Return, Sampford Peverell Halt to Exeter St.Davids. The nearest current equivelent fare in 2020 (Tiverton Parkway to Exeter St.Davids) for an Off Peak Day Return, is £6.30.

I tend to go by the pint of beer equivalent. In 1967 beer, in Portsmouth, was 1/8d a pint, say 9p. Now it is around £4

Interestingly, 1/8 (9p) in 1967, using that Inflation calculator, is £1.64 now.  When was a pint of beer last £1.64?  It's a while ago.

2 Shillings (10p) in 1927 was equivalent to 7/- (35p) forty years later.