Today I re-visited Fovant for the first time in some years with the aim of following the route of the military railway as best I could. A bit disappointing (as is the Whitewicks' video to which there is a link in the first post). Even when knowing (more or less) where to look, I saw hardly any traces. The only suggestion was where the track ran along the eastern edge of the village on a "ledge" carved out of the hillside but now on private properties. About 20 years ago a resident - the aforementioned Peter Adcock - showed me a small stone retaining wall and also a rail embedded in Green Drove  south of Greystones,  that has disappeared. (The public footpath linking Fovant and Greystones was completely covered by crops; it was indicated by a waymark at its western end, but nothing at all at the eastern end, not even a gap in the hedge.)

I was struck by some of the gradients the trains had to tackle. I'm guessing that a camp railway hadn't been intended (elsewhere in Wiltshire they were laid very early in the construction of the camp), but the roads were reduced to quagmires after the very wet winter of 1914-15, leading to a necessary afterthought.

EDIT: Where I vaguely recall the rail to have been was a length of wood that I thought might have been a sleeper, though it looked very rounded. Having consulted Peter A Harding's The Fovant Military Railway,  I see that he too thought it was a sleeper. (After closure, local residents acquired many other sleepers.)

Further story in the Reading Chronicle

The reporter, James Aldridge, has form when it comes to not knowing what's already been published.  Recently he noted that a planning  application had been submitted to  remove the cash machine from NatWest in Tilehurst, adding that the reason was not  known.  Yet his news website  has several times covered the imminent closure of the branch.

I had a scan at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading today and had to slip on a gown in one of the changing rooms.  In the other changing room a member of staff, presumably, had parked his e-scooter.

(And to switch to another of my pet dislikes, phone zombies, I was walking back through the town centre, feeling a little groggy after 45 minutes of being zapped, when I had to  avoid an electric mobility wheelchair whose young driver was intent on her phone.)

Pangbourne station death: Fatality near Reading on May 16

With a photo of Reading Station.

The series is "Steeltown Murders", set in the Port Talbot and Swansea area, mostly c2003, with flashbacks to 1973.

I found it difficult to keep interested, and I can't recall in which era the train made its two appearances.

I did wonder about the train, though not whether the locomotive was anachronistic, just how the makers of the series had contrived to include it as background - presumably to add to the atmosphere.

I had to visit Green Park today and lamented that the station had yet to open, so I travelled by bus. Just as well, because steady rain started as I was about to leave at the end of my appointment.  I scurried the 130 metres to the bus shelter, getting there just as the rain became a downpour, but still with wet legs. I was some 15 minutes' walk from the station so would have got drenched.

Earlier I'd walked to the station in pleasant, warm sunshine.

Inevitably there's a lot of over-priced tat and "special  souvenir" material being produced - and purchased, and most of it is likely to prove a poor investment. I spotted  ten 1st-class stamps (half showing the late Queen, half the new King) in a frame at £81.99 (postage is free, however).

I've yet to  find much in the way of Coronation stamps churned out by small islets, the exception being four from the Pitcairn Islands at £12.50.

This model locomotive seems acceptable, though surely tacky is the QIIE memorial  train.

I am, of course, aware of historic "Coronation Class" locomotives.)

I can't recall the last time I saw a traffic warden. Probably in London, before Lockdown. Have they ditched their traditional uniforms with peaked hat for something more 21st century and less conspicuous?  Though now and then the local news websites do publish a league table of Reading roads where tickets have been issued.

Troops also arrived by train for the rehearsals.

Marching back to Waterloo.

Bet there was a very damp smell in the carriages with all those wet uniforms. Close-ups of the procession  showed a lot of  moisture on bearskins.

"Members of the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Commonwealth forces travelled to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)'s busiest railway station on Saturday morning on board seven South Western Railway trains and two chartered West Coast Railways trains," says the Mail. I wonder how the other eight trains were scheduled.

(The article brings to mind all the military trains taking soldiers to and from Salisbury Plain in the early 20th century.)

Inconsequential observation, just to say I visited Witney early this morning and was very impressed with the town centre: interesting old buildings, a good range of shops, several bank branches that so far have escaped closure, buses running at 0730.

5,000 troops arrive at Waterloo Station

The Evening Standard website can be a bit fussy about the number of  times one accesses  it. Other versions of the story  are available, courtesy of Google, including the Daily Mail's

Perhaps not amusing or irrelevant, but hardly inspired:

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/23495276.reading-train-driver-warns-danger-kids-caught-tracks/

They are comparable parking restrictions close to Tilehurst Station that were gradually extended as motorists became more and more willing to walk further from their cars to save parking charges.  In the 1990s cars were parked either side of Carlisle Road and on Oxford Road itself. One of my neighbours, then in his early 30s, couldn't be bothered to walk the nine minutes down to the station, parked his car on the road and got it shunted by a vehicle pursued by the police. Houseowners painted their own yellow lines,which the Council quickly removed.

Parking in Carlisle Road is now banned until 1500 on weekdays and there are varying one-hour restrictions in the middle of the day in Oak Tree Road, where commuter parking was proving a real nuisance.

Or, worse still, two or more people arrive with bikes, only to find there's room for only one machine. Who takes the space, who rides?

(Reminds me when I took a train from Reading to Dorking to watch the Olympics cycling road race near Dorking in 2012. The train filled up at Reading and people were arriving with their bikes only to be turned away. The roads between the two places aren't direct, but I used to reckon it was about 37 miles by bike, so the disappointed riders - well, some of them - could have ridden there in a couple of hours and still caught the race.)