Great Western Coffee Shop

Been featured on BBC spolight news for the south west of England on Friday evening.

Available for 24 hours only on the play again facilty.

While compiling that report Paul Clifton posted this picture on Twitter.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/weysig.png)

Clearly glowing red despite the vegetation.  Be a worry if it was showing any other aspect.  It is the exit signal from the line to the harbour which, as we know, has been largely lifted!

Also available on BBC South Today.

A must for all Weymouth transport fans.

Joining the lifting of that disused track to current issues with passenger numbers on the railway?  I’d say it’s two completely unrelated stories.

If he wants to know why the signal is still working?  It’s a significant cost to fully alter the signalling system, so as in probably hundreds of other examples, you have a red signal leading from or to nowhere.  I suspect that as that line is still usable up until just beyond that point, there’s been no urgency to remove it, I believe it would still need a small fixed red pointing the other way on a set of buffers?

I heard somewhere the quay branch stub is being retained as a storage area, so the signal has to remain lit as it is lamp proved, if no lamp, then stub cannot be signalled into.

The sectional appendix still showed 21 ch (say 400m) available, which I think is about the length between the junction with the single track section of the main line, and the gates on the north side of Jubilee Cl near that signal.   Possibly a bit longer than needed for any reasonably expected use?

Paul

Title should probably be Weymouth station front; the seafront is unaffected, and was glorious when I visited a couple of weeks back.

This does look as though it should be a big improvement, and on a related note although much of the old tramway through the streets has been removed there is still a section through a car park which I suspect will survive for some time as it seems unlikely to bother anyone or need any maintenance.  I remember watching the boat trains creeping through the town in the early 70s.  A fascinating but distinctly cumbersome and archaic operation, and quite a spectator sport with the almost inevitable wait for a badly-parked car to be moved out of the way.  I could see why it stopped running before the boats did.

I was pleased to see that the local bus fleet still lives in a proper garage opposite the station rather than being stored exposed to the elements on a patch of wasteland as is more typical nowadays; particularly beneficial given the sea air.

From
https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/roads-highways-maintenance/highway-improvements/weymouth-branch-line-track-removal

My partner caught a train from Bath to Weymouth last week, which arrived an hour late, and said that when she tried to get off at Weymouth, the platform was so crowded by people waiting to board it, that it became dangerous to try to walk down the platform, and especially beyond where the end of the train was, as she felt she would get pushed off the platform by the crowds.

Although I haven't experienced it that overcrowded, there have always been large crowds on the platform when I have got off, and it does make it awkward to get out of the station easily. The platform certainly doesn't feel like it has enough capacity for the demands on popular services.

Is this an issue that is being addressed at all?

Is this platform 1 that you are referring to froome? If so, I agree that there isn't much capacity on this platform when there are passengers waiting for the incoming train on a busy summers day.

Probably, it is the one on the left if you stand in the station foyer.

Weymouth station was cut right back at a low point and these days is woefully inadequate on a nice summer's day. Even in the least destructive options in things like the Serpell Report, Weymouth was to only be the terminus of a line running from Southampton and that platform is just a token "we had better provide something for the moment" for the moment while the old GWR line to Yeovil dies.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/serpell_c1.jpg)

Further data - from OpenTrain Times, and for NLS via out map page

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/wey_now_1.jpg) (http://www.wellho.net/pix/wey_now_1.jpg)
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/wey_now_2.jpg) (http://www.wellho.net/pix/wey_now_2.jpg)

Click on the images to see them bigger

The platforms normally used by SWT are the 1957 excursion platforms. The rest of the station was demolished in preparation for electrification and a new, short platform built for the GWR services

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/weymouth/

Quite surprised at the amount of made ground to the left of the railway in Weymouth since 1900.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=14.136666666666667&lat=50.61924&lon=-2.44919&layers=168&b=4

Mark

We did the history of this not long ago (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=26383.msg322057#msg322057). The land sort of made itself.

Thanks for this.

Ooh, maps.nls.uk has 1:500 mapping of the station:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/231274875

Mark