I was digging through some papers and found the 1997 Devon County Council press release about Devon's purchase of the station and Meldon Viaduct, the great refurbishment of the station and the new Summer Sunday services.   Thought it would be of interest so here it is -

Great report.   That would be a very long day out even if there were no buses and trains were running normally.  I quite often do Plymouth - London day trips (combination of Brentford FC^‡(resolve) or the odd meeting) and that's enough for me!   

Here's SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)'s press release about the Cl455 they have returned to BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) blue and grey.  Well, OK, not quite but near enough for me.  Looks great and I've seen lots of photos of it popping up on social media over the weekend.

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/other/news-and-media/news/2024/march/south-western-railway-and-francis-bourgeois-reveal-retro-british-rail-look-for-class-455-train

I very much sympathise with what you say, Graham, and hope a way can be found for a heritage railway to accommodate an everyday regular service alongside their heritage operation but the compromises that would need to be made are immense which I think is really why it hasn't happened yet.

On the Swanage Railway, at a guess, I'd be fairly confident a regular hourly SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) 158/159 in each direction could be fitted onto the line around a heritage service but the Swanage Railway itself performs an important public transport function between Norden, Corfe Castle and Swanage at heritage railway fares so, while the SWR service, at SWR-style fares, could miss out Norden, it certainly couldn't miss out Corfe Castle and if it then took part of the Corfe Castle - Swanage traffic, that would damage the Swanage Railway's revenue, probably quite badly.

On the West Somerset, things would need to be radical - the line would need to be relaid (like Okehampton was), resignalled and the line speed increased (it's a long way at 25MPH if you're just trying to get from A to B).  Would be good in many ways but understandably complete anathema to many on the West Somerset who, while seeing a heritage service retained, would see much else thoroughly changed. 

None of us who'd like to see a regular everyday service reintroduced should ever forget the railway was lifted to Swanage by BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) and the Swanage Railway rebuilt it and were it not for the West Somerset, the Minehead line might today be a long distance cycle trail with miniscule, at best, prospect of reopening as a railway.

Quite a conundrum.

This Network Rail tweet and short video is good.

https://twitter.com/networkrailwest/status/1756015328448872836

Great to see how quickly this project has progressed.

It's worth a go, though.  If it works, could mean that a similar initiative is rolled out on the suburban and outer suburban overground networks. 

I've lived in Plymouth for more than 25 years and don't agree with you at all about the City Centre.  We're going through the mill with the current works and they've certainly taken an age but overall I still think the City Centre is great and better than when I moved here.  The history of why it is as it is - the Abercrombie plan etc - are so important and become increasingly so as the years go by.  It's good that English Heritage is so protective of the City Centre's post War heritage.

The Hoe, Barbican and the proximity of Dartmoor are indeed great.  I'd say the Hoe looking out of Plymouth Sound is a world class view, not well enough known (and that's despite huge and great efforts by Visit Plymouth).   

No.

Surprised to see Lossiemouth (was there in late October) and Padstow on the list.  Ealing Mead seems to just be a small part of Ealing - Ealing itself shouldn't be on the list. 

Here we are - all of these short films are on this DVD

https://www.panamint.co.uk/scenic-branchlines-of-devon-cornwall-dvd#:~:text=DVD%20Region%200%20PAL.,and%20presented%20by%20John%20Doyle.

I have a VHS of these videos (and still have a player too).  Certainly he went to both Looe and Barnstaple and then went back to a number of the lines around 1990 (he went to Gunnislake then too which I don't think he did in 1976).   Hope the BFI post the rest.

How evocative is the sound of the DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit)!?   

Excellent news.  Congratulations to Keith.

An initial pair of trains between Basel and London, one each way daily, would be brilliant and I'd be confident it would be a great success.   

230001 is lined up for the Greenford Branch trial, evidently.  Anything long term will depend on how that trial goes.....

Bit of a classic in today's West Briton (the local paper for Truro, Falmouth, Redruth etc)

Up to date list of Go-op's Directors   https://go-op.coop/go-ops-directors/