Donations can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/f/raising-steam-marathon

I've just ... erm, hand-cranked, him £10. 

Many years ago now, when I was commuting into Bristol from Nailsea, a Pacer approached the station with red lights displayed to the front.  A semi-uniformed member of railway staff, who I assumed was also catching that train on his own way in to work, discreetly gestured to the train driver that his lights were not right.  The driver promptly corrected them, with a nod of acknowledgement to his colleague on the platform as he passed. 

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

... or the Thunberg Thunderbolt. 

Until about 100 years ago, Nailsea wasn't more than a group of three rather small village centres, built on a slight hill above the surrounding often flooded areas, gradually becoming a town.  According to Margaret Thomas, a local expert historian, in her 'The Heritage Book of Nailsea' (ISBN 0 86023 535 1), the name was generally spelled 'Naylsey'.

That's perhaps academic, anyway, as my local railway station is actually just within the parish of Backwell. 

Colt .357 Magnum.



Sorry, did I really just say that out loud? 

Oh, so they got me (yet) again.   

It would quite possibly have been, had I been able to log in to Twitter.  I can't, so it wasn't.

It wasn't Nailsea & B(l)ackwell, by any chance, was it?   

I really do wish them all the best - but I honestly can't see it actually happening.

They are apparently basing their projections (partly) on commuter demand?

How many people actually commute from Cirencester towards London, never mind into London itself?

And, from Tetbury? 

Chris from Nailsea here.

That's exactly who I am: I'm Chris, and I've lived in Nailsea, North Somerset, for the past 20 years. I was born in Plymouth in 1959 and lived there, in Plymstock and Elburton until I was 14, when my family moved to Bristol.

I had no real contact with the railways, other than family days out on steam trains, but those are what I remember.  In particular, I have a memory of my father carrying me (aged about three) down a platform on Plymouth North Road station to say hello to the driver of one of the first diesel trains there. I remember that the driver gave me a small metal enamel badge of a diesel train - probably the worst thing to give a toddler, with the benefit of hindsight!  No, I don't have it now, and no, I don't think I swallowed it then. 

Moving forward many years now: when I was married and my family had moved to Nailsea (via Portishead, which is where I developed my keen interest in the re-opening of that particular branch line), I used the railway to get in to work in Bristol.  Except that it didn't, all too often.  Wessex Trains services were basic, unreliable and often unapologetic.  It was something of a relief when First took over - but in the early days, they weren't much better.

That's around the time that I joined the Coffee Shop forum. It was the last week before Christmas, and I was so frustrated that I couldn't get answers to my questions about 'how can things be going so wrong?'. I then stumbled across this online forum, while searching for such information, and found what I was looking for. I promptly signed up as a posting member, and was welcomed into the family here. Within months of my joining, I was very flattered (and indeed embarrassed) to be invited to become a moderator here. Since then, I have genuinely enjoyed my time on this forum, interacting with so many characters - mostly good, and only sometimes rather more challenging.

Returning to my experience on the railways: In the financial crash of 2008, I was made redundant, so I no longer needed to commute into Bristol. However, I did subsequently do some railway-related activity with the Severnside Community Rail Partnership (Hi, Keith and Heather! ), liaising with teams of Community Payback offenders doing unpaid remedial work at railway stations and car parks, for example.

Moving on yet again, I am now a grocery delivery van driver partner with Waitrose. We live in interesting times. 

Indeed, welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, drakehouse. 

It's been rather spooky, driving past the station car park at Nailsea & Backwell during the day in the past couple of weeks, seeing it absolutely deserted.  There have still been a few cars parked in adjoining residential side streets, which could be assumed to be rail users avoiding the charges for the official car park, but it's still a remarkable change from what was considered 'normal' only a few months ago.

Gregg's only Nailsea store also closed

They opened a few years ago, but then closed last summer for something like 6 months for a complete rebuild of the premises.  Then, when they re-opened, a couple of months ago, they promptly had to close down again because one of their staff returning from holiday abroad was diagnosed with Covid-19.  They are still closed. 

Excuse me! 

I was born in March 1959 and was named Christopher.  Somewhere, I have an original cutting from the Times, or the Telegraph, announcing my birth.

The Coffee Shop forum member now known as Chris from Nailsea.

We are now straying far from the original topic, but I'd like to add my response here:

I am a partner and grocery delivery driver with Waitrose: I can assure you that we are all doing everything we can to offer delivery slots, and make those deliveries, to as many people as possible.  However, we only have four vans in my branch, and we cover a wide area: there is only so much we can do.

Chris from Nailsea. 

I drove my van past Bristol Airport yesterday: the car parks were deserted, and the aircraft aprons were gridlocked. It was rather spooky, seeing the opposite of what is normal - and the silence was also incredible.