Spot on - and of course it's the FIRST of the month today!

Indeed - and even today battery trains are emerging technology.  So what links Euston, the Volks Electric Railway, the City of Truro and the Drumm Battery train?

No - that comes up later in the month.

It is indeed City of Truro ... so what's true of the City of Truro and the Volk Electric Railway and those the pictures od [[woops - nearly gave them away]]

No. 2 is, correctly, identified as the Volks Electric Railway.   No. 1 is NOT Bristol and no-one has answered (nor guessed) pictures 3 or 4, nor the connection.

Looks like a gap off Swindon from 15:14 to 22:30

Mark Hopwood has replied to Transport Focus - mirrored ((here))

A brave try - it's annotated to me as being somewhere completely different, though I'm ver much aware that old prints can get mislabelled.  I have been around a long time, but this picture predates my memory ... any other offers?

Ah ... now I did think of it as being worthy of comment, but refrained.  It "feels" delicate to make too much comment on industrial relations at times.   Realistically, one or two comments here are hardly likely to cause wide-spread upset.

It is good news that the RMT have voted to accept the deal that was on offer, though it's my understanding that it doesn't last very long and more negotiations will be needed next year.  But it really feels like one hurdle has been cleared only to leave another firmly - perhaps more firmly - in place with ASLEF.

1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th December 2023 - significant disruption on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services
3rd and 7th December - very limited services or no service on many GWR routes

Details From GWR / Journey Check

Due to industrial action:

Train services running across the whole Great Western Railway network may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 09/12/23.

Customer Advice

From Friday 1st to Saturday 9th December, members of the ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) union are engaging in Industrial Action short of a strike. This is likley to result in some short notice cancellations or alterations to services across the GWR network. Please check both your outward and return journey before setting out for the latest information.
***
As a result of this, services on Sunday 3rd December will be severely disrupted. No long distance GWR services will operate on the following routes:
- between London Paddington and Weston-super-Mare via Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads
- between London Paddington and Devon/Cornwall
- between London Paddington and South Wales

Services on other routes are subject to short notice cancellation and will be extremely busy. We strongly advise passengers to travel before or after the weekend wherever possible. Your ticket will be valid for travel up to and including Tuesday 12th December.
***
This advice particularly applies to passengers intending to travel to Bath this weekend for the Christmas markets or rugby. Services to/from Bath will be extremely limited and busy, and an extensive queueing system will be in place to control entry to the station. We therefore urge you to travel to Bath after the weekend, or by using alternative transport to these events.
***
In addition, an extremely limited service will be in operation across the GWR network on Thursday 7th December, when members of the ASLEF union are engaging in strike action. Many stations and routes will not be served at all, with services that are running expected to be busy. If you intend to travel where trains are operating, please check both your outward and return journeys. Online journey planners have been updated to reflect the services that will operate on these days.
***
Furthermore, a rolling programme of strike action by the union affecting other rail operators on different dates during this period of Industrial Action has been announced. Passengers are advised to check their entire journey before setting out.
***
To help customers during this period, tickets for Saturday 2nd December to Friday 8th December can be used the day before or up to and including Tuesday 12th December. If you are unable to travel, our refund policy remains in place. Further information and full details can be found at gwr.com/strike.

Further Information

If you arrive at your destination 15 or more minutes late because your GWR train was delayed or cancelled, you can claim Delay Repay compensation. Please keep your ticket and visit GWR.com/DelayRepay

---

I have started a separate thread to highlight the issues for the next 10 days. I am not locking the topic, but ask for more general follow ups to be ((on the running union action thread)).  In any case, I will probably merge the threads come 10th December.

From Wikipedia

90 years ago today, the first GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Diesel Railcar made its first run - WikiPedia tells us


38 were built, of which three have survived into preservation - just one operational at present.  There were the precursors of the bubble cars and then the class 153. I would argue that single carriage multiple units these days are useful as extra carriages onto other trains (or in pairs) but a diagram that works with a single carriage train is a hard one to make a case for.  That view many vary on lines that support both longer distance fast services and still have a number of intermediate stations to be served.

Maybe - and yet there are so many own goals it just washes over.   

Wednesday's problems were caused as I understand it by level crossing problems between Warminster and Salisbury, with a need have additional staff (on trains and/or on the ground?) to get trains past, and as far as I can gather a lack of that extra staff availability.    Those of us who are reasonably well informed know that it was a problem with roots beyond GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) (Network Rail infrastucure) but it was an excellent reminder from newcomers that the gloriously complex mess of organisations involved.


Indeed in the near term.   There is a need for the wider community to look at the long term (strategy) to provide for a proper environment in which the short term and medium term issues can be fixed.  That sound very generalised; to be more specific, much of it is to work will all political parties to have policies in their headlines which will encouraged them in the right direction in 2024, 2025, 2026 and beyond.

1st December - welcome to the Great Western Coffee Shop Forum's advent quiz.

Each day, a new set of questions - plan is for there to be four every day - and they'll be vaguely on topic and with some commonality. Questions will typically be posted in the morning, but no guarantee of time; in due course I'll come back and confirm the answers, though frankly most will be easy, or obvious once someone has pointed them out.

Please have a go at just one question each, and you might like to have a go and work out the link too. Should anything be left unanswered at midnight, please feel free to fill in all of the rest.

Where are these, and what is the 1st December common link between them?

1.


2.


3.


4.

No - it's the word "travelling" in the subtitle.  Here is the (PHP) code