Great Western Coffee Shop

I've just purchased my copy of the new FGW Network Timetable (^3.00 from all good FGW ticket offices!) and amongst the wealth of information therein are a couple of pages of information on the named trains that FGW run, with a little history behind the name.

It is nice to see a little bit of tradition, harking back to the days of GWR (with a nod to SR in one case). Whilst today's HSTs may not have the romance of steam days of yore, it is still nice to refer to your journey by the name of the service you used.

Here is the information as printed in the timetable (with a little editing on my part). All timings Mon-Fri, unless stated.


The Pembroke Coast Express (Summer Only)
The Pembroke Coast Express runs between London Paddington, Swansea and West Wales, and serves towns on and around the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, that was established in 1952. It is the only park in the UK designated because of its spectacular coastline of rugged cliffs and sandy beaches, and covers a total area of 240 square miles.

The Royal Duchy
1206 Paddington to Penzance
1400 Penzance to Paddington
The Royal Duchy is named after the Duchy of Cornwall, one of only two Duchies in the UK. The eldest son of the reigning monarch inherits the title upon birth or upon his parent's succession to the throne.

The Cathedrals Express
0643 Hereford to Paddington
1822 Paddington to Hereford
The Cathedrals Express is named after the three cathedral cities on the route between London and Hereford. Oxford cathedral (established 1542), Worcester cathedral (est. 743), and Hereford cathedral (est. 676).

The Red Dragon
0730 Carmarthen to Paddington
1745 Paddington to Carmarthen
The Red Dragon (Welsh: Y Ddraig Goch) is named after the mythical beast that appears on the Welsh national flag. Although the flag was only granted official status in 1959, it is claimed to be the oldest national flag still in use, however the origins are now lost in history and myth.

The Mayflower
1106 Paddington to Plymouth
1500 Plymouth to Paddington
The Mayflower is named after the ship that transported 102 Pilgrims and crew from Plymouth on a 66 day voyage to the new world of America in 1620.

The Bristolian
0649 Weston-super-Mare to Paddington
1800 Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads
The Bristolian was inaugurated in 1935 by the Great Western Railway as an express service between London and Bristol. The name has been in use ever since, a tradition continued by First Great Western.

The Atlantic Coast Express (Summer Only)
The ACE was first introduced by the Southern Railway in 1926 running from London Waterloo to several resorts in Devon and Cornwall. The service now operates, in the summer, from London Paddington to Newquay.

The Cheltenham Spa Express
1148 Paddington to Cheltenham Spa
1431 Cheltenham Spa to Paddington
This service was named in 1923 by the Great Western Railway. It was the first train in the world to be scheduled to run at over 70mph when, from September 1932, it covered the 77.25 miles between London and Swindon in just 65 minutes.

The Cornish Riviera
1006 Paddington to Penzance
0844 Penzance to  Paddington
The Cornish Riviera was named by a public competition announced in the August 1904 edition of the Railway Magazine, the prize being 3 guineas (^3.15). The name (originally The Cornish Riviera Limited and referred to simply as 'The Limited' by railwaymen and women) has applied to a morning service between Paddington and Penzance since 1904, ceasing to be used only during the two world wars, making it the oldest surviving named train in the country.

The Night Riviera
2350 Paddington to Penzance (Mon-Fri)
2145 Penzance to Paddington (Mon-Fri)
2345 Paddington to Penzance (Sun)
2115 Penzance to Paddington (Sun)
The Night Riviera was named in the 1980s to complement the Cornish Riviera day service and coincided with the introduction of new air-conditioned sleeping cars. First Great Western refurbished the carriages for this train in 2008.

The Merchant Venturer
0730 Paddington to Penzance (via Bristol Temple Meads)
This service is named after the Society of Merchant Venturers, a private entrepreneurial and charitable organisation that was formed in 13th century Bristol. In the 19th century the society helped to fund the building of Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge and members of the society also helped establish the Great Western Railway.

The Golden Hind
0505 Penzance to Paddington
1803 Paddington to Penzance
The Golden Hind was first introduced in the summer of 1964. The launch broke the then record for the time of a Plymouth to London journey. The train encouraged one commuter to buy the first ever 1st class annual season ticket from Taunton to Paddington.

The Saint David
0745 Paddington to Swansea
1128 Swansea to Paddington
This service is named after the patron saint of Wales (Welsh: Dewi Sant). St David was born sometime between 462 and 512 and was official recognised as Wales' patron saint in 1120.

The Torbay Express
1000 Paddington to Paignton (Mon-Fri)
1415 Paignton to Paddington (Mon-Fri)
1630 Paddington to Paignton (Sat)
0720 Paignton to Paddington (Sat)
The Torbay Express runs between Paddington, Torquay and Paignton and was introduced by the Great Western Railway as one of its premier holiday trains to the popular resorts of Torbay.

The Capitals United
0558 Swansea to Paddington
1645 Paddington to Swansea
The name 'Capitals United' was originally used between 1956 and 1963 by British Railways and has been reintroduced by First Great Western to highlight the continuing importance of the rail link between the capitals of England and Wales.

Did not know there were that many!

I only knew of the rivieras, the red dragon and......

...I apologise........


the cathedrals (non)express

Can they be done under the trades descriptions act?

As we're in the lighter side

The "You were up HOW early"
05:19 Gloucester to Southampton

The "Via Melksham - can you spell that?"
17:02 Worcester Foregate Street to Southampton

The "You'll be able to stop for breakfast before you go in to work"
07:02 Westbury to Cheltenham

The "Marginal time"
19:35 Westbury to Cheltanham

Thank-you grahame. I was actually going to end my post with suggestions for other named trains that FGW (or its passengers) might consider. So in the spirit of what grahame has started, over to the forum.....

(Oh, and in the timetable book The Merchant Venturer is also listed as running; 1600 Bristol Temple Meads to Penzance. Shome mishtake shurely....)

0517 Malvern to Paddington
The (not) right on time

1751 Paddington to WOS
The whats the point

Just a gentle reminder, if I may: could we please all use 'reply', rather than 'quote', whenever possible ... ?

Bit cheeky pinching the ACE name especialy as it was the Western Region which closed all the SR lines west of Exeter.

Is Brass A..... still used for the Golden hind?

Point taken!

Its a bad habit........

The Squalid Hunk of Junk
All FGW trains headed west of Plymouth of an evening.

Or perhaps even more appropriate in this case:

"The perhaps if the Passengers didn't treat the train like a rubbish dump, dooby13 wouldn't have to moan all the time about the state of his trains and be forced to go have a love-in with XC"

Or does it need shortening a bit?  8)

So passengers only treat Worst Late Western trains like rubbish dumps - funny that...

passengers treat all trains like rubbish dumps and have been doing so since time began

No, Cross Country do it for you  :D

Doesn't really make sense but WHATEVA

Polite request to all concerned, please can we keep this discussion good-natured?

There are plenty of other discussion boards all over t'interweb where you can troll to your heart's content. This ain't one of them!  :)

I shall explain; the condition of Cross Country is more akin to a rubbish dump, thus there is no need to drop litter as its already a wasteland.

Eh?

Express ?

I specifically said it was nothing to do with the word express

Maybe FA's got something against cathederals. Perhaps it can be renamed The Herecesterford Express.

Hmm.  Excessive use of the word 'cathedral' - as well as further unnecessary use of 'reply with quote', possibly?  ;) :D ;D

Pronounced "Hesterford", or course.  ;D

Closest yet - but not in the context you mean it........

In England and Wales a city by definition has a cathedral.  It is the possession of such an institute that confers city status.  Hence "......named after the three cathedral cities on the route...." contains a completely inappropriate use of the word "cathedral" since  "......named after the three cities on the route...." has exactly the same meaning.

Any town in the UK can apply to become a city whether it has an Anglican cathedral or not. There are 18 cities without Anglican cathedrals (some do however have a Catholic cathedral).

There are 16 towns which have cathedrals but no city status.

City status does not apply automatically on the basis of any particular criteria.

Interestingly Hereford briefly lost its city status in 2000 when it lost its city council in local government reorganisation. It re-applied for city status later in 2000, which was granted. Rochester in Kent also lost its status for the same reason, however it has not re-applied.

Now that contradicts everything I was taught growing up.....

But then I do come from a city which states "if you want a cathedral we've got one to spare"

Head ... brick wall ... (http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/imoksmiley.gif) (http://www.millan.net)

After taking a deep breath: using 'reply' rather than 'quote' makes it easier for the rest of us to follow the quick wit and repartee of the discussion.

Wouldn't that be The Avonmouther?  ;)

The Phantom
Any train allegedly scheduled to run between Worcester and Gloucester.

Good one bignosemac.

Naming trains, though, can be excellent marketing and we shouldn't really be poking fun in a negative way (yes, I know, I was probably the one who started it).  How about a TransWilts service named as follows:

07:02 Westbury to Swindon ...
07:40 Salisbury to Swindon ... The "Swindon Commuter"
10:31 Salisbury to Swindon ... The "White Horse"
13:31 Salisbury to Swindon ... The "TransWilts Express"
16:24 Salisbury to Swindon ...  The "Cathedral City"
19:32 Westbury to Swindon ...

06:18 Swindon to Salisbury ...
09:02 Swindon to Salisbury ... The "Cathedral City"
12:02 Swindon to Salisbury ... The "TransWilts Express"
15:02 Swindon to Salisbury ... The "White Horse"
17:55 Swindon to Westbury ... The "Swindon Commuter"
18:45 Swindon to Salisbury ...

The "Swindon Commuter" is excellent marketing telling people from Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury that there is a service that's designed and sold to give them a decent commuter service to Swindon.

The "Cathedral City" tells people from Swindon, Chippenham and Melksham that they do have an excellent, direct service to that place in the south of the county - Salisbury - that is so awkward to read by other public transport means.

The "TransWilts Express" is a reminder of how fast the train will get you from "a" to "b" in Wiltshire.  I know there have been arguments over the word 'express' here abouts, but at 35 minutes Swindon to Trowbridge, these trains are significantly faster than ANY other way of doing it

And the "White Horse" is in honour of Wiltshire, the tourist industry and the lovely county we have.  Let's take an opportunity to remind everyone.

Names for the other services?   Yes please - let's name them after some of the key player who have been working so hard behind the scenes in support of a sensible TransWilts service, or who will "own" the service and would be justifiably proud of the achievement.  I can think of four names (but I won't publish them here) from within the people at (or have been at) FGW, W(C)C and the DfT.

I hope I was poking fun in a light-hearted, rather than negative, way. ;)

The sterling work done by all concerned in promoting an improved service on the 'TransWilts' deserves recognition. So if things come to fruition in the future then maybe we can have The Train Wot Was Saved ;D

Yes - rather like the Titfield Thunderbolt, we could have the Melksham Marauder?  ;) :D ;D

Actually, I think we're moving on from naming certain services, towards naming the trains that will hopefully run them.

I can think of a couple of possibilities for such 'named units': the 'Andrew Haines' and the 'Graham Ellis'.

But then, perhaps I'm biased.  :-[

Personally "The Ollie" sounds good too :P

It always struck me with name / specially painted units that they were (and still are) liable to get way out of place ... so any marketing / advertising they provide may end up being out of place.  I've no objection at all to travelling from Chippenham to Salisbury in a unit branded for the Looe branch, nor for travellers from Newquay to Par getting a "visit Wiltshire" message - I think it would be a great idea but not exactly the heart of a marketing campaign.  Naming a train has a much more local effect IMHO, and there are a lot more of them - there must be between 150 and 200 units on FGW (?), but each running an average of (? again) 3 to 5 round trips per day.

I was very careful *not* to suggest names of individual, and to suggest that names be honoured from amongst the organisations involved in providing the service rather than those who campaign for it ... but there are people amongst us that I would be delighted to see selected. I would say that all such people should be people who have really done the hard work, or who have had real and brave decisions to make (even if those decisions didn't involve a big time investment), and not who just happen to be the figurehead name.

A few names of local services are slowly dieing or have gone altogether ....... Marlow Donkey some locals still use the name although most refer to the whole of the Maidenhead Marlow branch line when in fact it is only the section from Bourne End to Marlow

any others still around?

the Melksham Noctural Occasional still runs from time to time

not really a route specific name but i have heard FGW staff referring to the refreshed dmu fleet as sugar coated or polished turds.made me chuckle and having experienced some of the 158's i can agree when you look at the state some are now in.

I'm not recalling any named trains floating around of late.  Update, anyone?

Maybe another name for your Wiltshire trains, from the Wiltshire flag, the Great Bustard. There again liable to mis-spelling.

Not forgetting the "broadgage", and perhaps the "broadgage tavern" for a rebuilt or replica tavern car.
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/british-rails-short-experiment-with-travelling-pubs-36068/

The Grate Bustard?   ::)
This thread brought back a vague memory.  Back in the late 1980s/early 90s I'd fairly frequently take a Friday after work train from Temple Meads to Totnes where I'd get picked up by dad for a weekend in Devon.  As I recall, the late afternoon/early evening summer service that I favoured had a west country related name and was referred to as such on platform info displays and announcements.
Am I imagining things or was there such a scheduled service?

Yes, I'd been wondering about that too. They've disappeared from the PDF timetables and I don't recall the Cathedrals Express, at least, being announced for a while (though it's not one of the services I get most often, admittedly).

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/british-rails-short-experiment-with-travelling-pubs-36068/

They look to have been quietly dropped. The link on the GWR site that used to list them now redirects to the page listing the named IETs.

In the days of Swindon Panel the TransWilts service was frequently known as the Melksham Flyer.    Meanwhile the trains carrying household rubbish from London to Appleford or Calvert were christened "The Ken Livingstone".