Great Western Coffee Shop

From my library - can you identify (a) the year and (b) the route.   Please only chose one timetable each for the first 24 hours - your choice as to where you tell me when, where, or both.  Anecdotes welcome.

1.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ttx_20211205_1.jpg)

2.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ttx_20211205_2.jpg)

3.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ttx_20211205_3.jpg)

4.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ttx_20211205_4.jpg)

5.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ttx_20211205_5.jpg)

6.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ttx_20211205_6.jpg)

7.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ttx_20211205_7.jpg)

8.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ttx_20211205_8.jpg)

9.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ttx_20211205_9.jpg)

In view of the response so far I am guessing that the timetables shown are for services provided by railway air services and operated by lead balloon.

7. It's a 6-hour journey and includes a sleeper so I'll guess Penzance-Paddington, and about 1970

Edit: the footnotes imply that it's a year in which Good Friday fell on 9 April, so that restricts it to 1971, 1982, 1993 or 2004: so I'd like to amend my year-guess to 1971

Number 9 must be the obligatory Melksham answer  ;) as it looks like it is from the 'A to Z' list of departures for Melksham. The journey times would suggest the destination is Salisbury. The 19:17 weekday departure being shown as a connection instead of a through service leads me to believe that this is for the upcoming timetable change so the year is 2021.

A very slow take-up ... caused in part (I'm sure) by my shockingly late posting of the quiz.


You are correct in date - it's the timetable that ran to 2nd May 1971.  Not Paddington to Penzance though - sorry.


Correct in all you say.  The A to Z poster will be displayed in the Market Place bus stop as from the end of this week and I gave you a sneak peek ahead of time.  I'm so glad that the only change / loss is that 19:17 direct service now involves a change. With over 30 minutes at Westbury, not sure if the term "connection" is appropriate.

Number 2 looks as if it could be the Minehead Branch, in the days when there was a summer Sundays rail service and for the rest of the year, no trains but a bus ride was offered instead, so around 1968 - 1970

Now that a day has elapsed may I have another go please?

5 I guess might be the Stroud Valley line - Gloucester to Chalford by Railmotor.  There's a lot of request stops and the stations/halts are close together.

Hmmm.

I'd nip out of the station, find a local pub, have one pint of an excellent local real ale, then return to the station, ready for the next train.

That would be an ideal 'connection', for me. ;)

5 is a late 80s/early 90s service - the RR is Regional Railways, but the franchise abbreviations (CT/WW etc.) haven't kicked in yet. Notable that there's a "regional express" type service at the first two stops, at 10.23 and 12.40, which presumably then peels off and goes somewhere else. But I haven't figured out any more than that...

Yes ... date *around* right - I'll check when I'm back in the "library"


No. 5 is NOT the Stroud Valley, I'm afraid. And, yes, now a "free for all" here.

Judging by the dates of the Sundays, I'd say 1967.

5 looks geographically like Plymouth - Gunnislake, with a smattering of main line trains stopping at the suburban stations. The sort of scenario where I always think there's potential for a suburban service, but only a rural-type offering.

Spot on - and 30 years later that timetable (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/nrt/137%20Plymouth%20to%20Gunnislake.pdf) looks little different.  I too have wondered about potential there - understand there are fast and frequent buses though ... and I'm not sure how convenient North Road is for many people going into The City. 


Edit - I asked Google for route St Budeaux to Plymouth - this gives an idea of the competing bus service:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sb2ply.jpg)

... and 5 minutes in each of those is walking to and from the bus stop!

Is 3 the Par to Newquay branch?

A series of dated trains perhaps (columns headed A and B), with a number of other trains from further afield (many travelling long distances overnight)? If it is, it’s likely pre-1980s I would think; perhaps 1978, or 1972 given the dates for the Saturdays. Certainly pre-dates the days of removing the local service to allow the long-distance trains to run (shades of TransWilts…!).

It IS indeed the Newquay branch - and there must have been multiple platforms at Newquay and sidings in use there at the time too.  The days of overnight trains on a Friday night from the likes of Bradford and Wolverhampton, arriving with holiday makers from the Midlands and North and taking last week's holiday makers back home later in the day.   I really wonder how Robert and Dorothy would have entertained Joseph and Mildred from 06:00 until being allowed into their B&B mid afternoon ...

7 is, I think, a long way from GW territory - looks suspiciously like the southbound timetable for the Highland Main Line (including mainline arrival times at King's Cross). If it's 1971, the last three lines are presumably Edinburgh, Newcastle and Kings Cross

No, but you ain't far out

I did think of that, given the hint of "oss", but the timings are way too quick for those to be Edinburgh and Newcastle - even today. So I guess, if this was before the line was speeded up, it would be Edinburgh-Kings Cross. With proper express trains - just one stop!

Yes, it is.  Days of the 10 a.m. Flying Scotsman and (as I recall) the 4 p.m. Talisman

And not only - I found the 1964 list of named trains with very similar timings, and with The Talisman also leaving at 8 a.m. and The Heart of Midlothian at 1:30 p.m.. Both of those called also at Berwick-upon-Tweed and Darlington, and THoM at York too. They are all still visible, if unnamed, in 1971.

Train	Edinburgh (dep)	Newcastle (arr)	Kings Cross (arr)
The Talisman	8:00	10:00	14:15
The Flying Scotsman	10:00	11:55	16:00
The Heart of Midlothian	13:30	15:33	20:10
The Talisman	16:00	17:55	22:00

And then there was The North Briton (starting from Glasgow Queen Street, ending in Leeds), and one of the sleepers was The Night Scotsman.

There were three platforms at Newquay - one of which didn't have a run-round loop - when I visited the signalbox in the mid 1970s and several sidings, although fewer than there had been.  Passenger trains could arrive at and depart from either of the platforms.  Summer Saturdays must have been very interesting.  I've an idea that trains couldn't be run-round in the sidings.  That does seem bizzare and it might just have been something that the signalman said because at that moment some pointwork was not in use