Like I said in the title:

Pangbourne Parish Council website

I vaguely recall that when the new bridge was built the old one was left in place because some sort of pipes ran underneath it.

A couple of years ago I'd just driven over the bridge towards Pangbourne when I met a very large lorry on my side of the road inching backwards towards the village.

I surmised that the driver had belatedly realised there was a weight restriction on the bridge. Dunno where he thought he was going to turn around - I suppose he could have gone down into Beale Wildlife Park had he been aware of the layout there. And Pangbourne Station car park would have been an option. A mile down the road, a police car was coming the other way, perhaps to help the driver.

Locals will know that on at least two occasions recently lorries have damaged buildings when trying to turn up the steep hill in Streatley. My casual Googling led to a lorry drivers' forum where members spoke of the problems of delivering heavy equipment and components to the correct side of the Thames for the electrification programme.

Marlburian

Warnings:

1. I'm going to continue Sid's diversion (after observing that 20 months ago I explored the trackbed from Calne to Chippenham).

2. My Specialist Subject is "Military Wiltshire 1897-1920", meaning I can be very boring about military railways in the county.

Despite its name, the Amesbury and Military Camp Light Railway carried civilian traffic to Amesbury and on an extension to a civilian station at Bulford. In 1914 a branch was built over the River Avon through Lark Hill Camp and eventually terminating at an airfield close to Stonehenge. Jeffery Grayer, Rails Across the Plain, is an excellent history.

As for the military railway from Hungerford to Chipping Norton, this was obviously a hypothetical exercise, hence the removal of actual railways from the map. Neither town had much military significance (though the former hosted troops camping on the Common and convoys of lorries moving along the Bath Road). My first thought was that the line would go north west through Aldbourne and then one side or other of Liddington Castle to Chisledon, where the MSWJR had found a way to Swindon. The east-of-Hungerford solution would have taken the route to Newbury and, presumably, thence north along the route actually chosen by the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton line.

Any other route between these two would have had to go over hilly country before somehow having to get down the very steep escarpment into the Vale of the White Horse.

Marlburian

Was it really the case that the footbridge was 30 inches too low? I visit the station two or three times a week and was never aware of this calamity, nor of any resolution of it. And I frequently chatted to Ernie, the very popular,  ticket man, now retired in Thailand, who expressed his own views on aspects of the station modifications.

I did hear a rumour from another passenger that the bridge was a couple of centimetres too low, though I did wonder whether this discrepancy related to a couple of threaded studs in the concrete footings that were not quite in the right position.

There were problems with the ducting designed to carry electric cables behind the fence on platform 4. Soon after it had been installed, it had to be replaced with ducting of larger size.

Marlburian

A couple of my friends have been caught out by doors on coach 8 not opening. One had her earphones on and didn't hear the announcements but managed to scoot up into Coach 7 and get off. Another failed to emerge from the train and when I phoned her I got a certain amount of invective: there were no warnings she claimed (which I doubt), "no one on the train" to ask, and she didn't know where it was going. For once in my life I was masterful: "Don't worry, dear. In two minutes' time the train will stop at Pangbourne and there'll be one back to Tilehurst in 20 minutes. Or I'll even come and collect you from Pangbourne" - which I did.

The platform extensions remain unfinished.

Marlburian

I have no problem at all with spaces dedicated to drivers with disabilities (though, as at supermarkets, I wonder about some of the motorists who park in them - and I do appreciate there are "hidden" disabilities). It's just that with a bit of imagination several spaces for others could have been delineated.

I have peered up at various posts to see if there are CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) cameras on the tops, but haven't spotted any. And there  aren't any signs reinforcing the prohibition of parking. I guess the lines are meant to drop a broad hint and may not be enforceable in law. I park on them for a few minutes at quiet times to pick up and see off friends, but they are ignored by many others in the evening rush hour.

Marlburian

On Friday a youth was circling the concourse at Charing Cross station on an e-scooter - I wasn't sure if this was specifically against the bye-laws?

E-scooters, traditional scooters and roller-skates can be great ways of getting around, and e-bikes are now becoming popular. Trouble is that they don't mix well with road vehicles, pedestrians and, indeed, each other. A friend of mine who cycles around London curses e-bikes and scooters using cycle lanes. And there's a sizeable minority of users of these minority forms of transport with "attitude".

Pity, as well as environmental considerations, they take up far less space, both on the road and when parked, than solitary commuters in their SUVs.

Marlburian

Online vaping shop: Can I use my vaping device on a train in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)?

Dunno how up to date it is.

Marlburian

The capacity of short-stay parking on the concourse at Tilehurst Station has diminished over the years, what with hatched lines reserving a space for an ambulance (always slightly annoying when the driver ignores it and parks close to his Portacabin), two spaces dedicated to disabled drivers, another for the station staff member (who works only mornings), and another surrendered to an electrification gantry. But outside peak hours four or five cars could happily be parked so their drivers could wait for and see off passengers.

Then "they" painted double-yellow lines, leaving just one formal parking-space for short-stays. Curiously "they" did not extend the yellow lines in front of bollards protecting the cycle storage units, and it's possible to leave a car there for a few minutes. With a bit more imagination, at least four more short-stay bays could have been created.

The double-yellows are routinely ignored when more than a couple of cars are at the station for a few minutes. And they are completely ignored in the evening rush-hour when friends and families collect commuters, with cars spilling back onto the busy main road.

Marlburian

Hi Grahame, and thanks for that. Whilst you were posting, I was looking at Timetable T10, thanks to a link elsewhere on this Forum. I'd sussed out that blue-shaded times meant that one would need an Anytime ticket, but hadn't picked up on Note "A". So that's reassuring, though I hope that the ticket lady has realised this too. Up to now, when I've bought a One-Day Travelcard for the 0855 she's always asked if I'm staying on the train to Paddington. In fact, I've forestalled her by assuring her that I am.

(Let it be whispered, ever so softly and just between you and me, that up to March I might just have switched on to the Central Line at Ealing Broadway ..)

Curiously T10 suggests that a couple of "easements" for off-peak tickets in the evening rush hour will continue for semi-fast 1840 and 1920 departures to Tilehurst and beyond, as well other semi-fasts to Reading.

As you say, "complicated". I'll be at Tilehurst Station mid-morning on Tuesday and shall collect a new timetable - and ask the ticket lady how Monday went ...

I won't be travelling to London until February, so hopefully by then the dust will have settled.

Marlburian

Thanks for pointing that out, Red Squirrel. Of course there's the other curiosity that Midgham Station is actually in the village of Woolhampton but was named after another, even smaller, village a couple of miles away to avoid confusing travellers wishing to go to Wolverhampton and Wolverton.

Marlburian

Midgham Station featured briefly in a 1943 film advising American soldiers on:


How to behave in Britain

Around 22.45 in the film, the soldier arrives there and walks past a sign for the Reading company C & G Ayres. He wants to get to Cirencester, but the station-master seems to think he means to get to Chichester and tells him to change at Reading! There's a sign saying it's Midgham Station. His train comes in drawn by a tank engine running boiler-first. But it leaves bunker-first, with a footbridge in the background that definitely isn't Midgham - this would have been a piece of stock film inserted into the footage made for the film.
 
To get to Cirencester in those days, the soldier would have travelled from Reading to Kemble and changed on to the branch line for Cirencester. A longer route would have been to head west to Savernake Station and change onto the Midland & South Western Junction Railway through Marlborough and Swindon.

Marlburian

As another newbie I hope it's OK to piggyback on this thread as my comments relate to the new timetable and local stations between Reading and Didcot.
 
Nowadays I only travel off-peak from Tilehurst, including to London. A few days ago, I looked at the new timetable on the National Rail website and twitched about new restrictions on travel, with the first service on which off-peak tickets to London are valid apparently being the 0947 - until now it's been the 0855. But GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s own timetable suggests off-peak fares will still apply to the 0855 (which gets into Paddington shortly after 1000). The very pleasant ticket lady at Tilehurst reckoned that off-peak would only apply to the 0927 and subsequent services.

Incidentally up to last week the National Rail website was suggesting that off-peak fares to Reading would be available for morning rush-hour services  - too good to be true, and the glitch has now been corrected.

It's a minor pain that off-peak tickets will no longer be valid in the evening on semi-fasts to Tilehurst and beyond (42-45 minutes' journeys). The ticket lady pointed out one can still use the TFL^▸ (Transport for London) trains - 65 minutes to Reading and no loos!

(With regard to there being no toilets, I wonder how this will affect Friday and Saturday night "revelers" who have spent the evening drinking?)

Hullo! I've been using Tilehurst Station since 1974 for commuting either into Reading or to London. I've seen lots of changes there: the demolition of the old goods shed, a new waiting room on Platform 4, a new footbridge,  electrification. I have memories of waiting on cold December mornings, with the ticket clerk popping out of his office to shout "0710 ten minutes late" and dashing back in to groans from passengers!

Generally I've been satisfied with the service and the staff.

I'm interested in railway history and have visited the sites of many former stations and track beds. I also research "military Wiltshire 1897-1920", including the movement of thousands of troops and their equipment for annual manoeuvres and mobilization in 1914. (Lavington and Patney & Chirton stations were frequently used by military trains.)

Marlburian