The Permanent Way
The Platelayers Arms


I have actually seen a pub next to a former level crossing called;

The Silent Whistle


which gives me a thought for another;

The Chime Whistle

The Wires Down

Going off topic this thread isn't it but here is my pennyworth.

For electric vehicles a small meter no bigger than a box of matches could be fitted with a sensor to record the hours the power pedal is in use and can be used to determine an equivalent to the vehicle fuel duty payable on a specific vehicle. Thus a motorist wouldn't be paying twice when for example one takes a foreign holiday and returns to a flat battery.

A similar system was used by plant hire companies years ago and may still be used today whereby the hire charges are based on a low rental fee over a long term, and I mean years, plus a ' use by the hour ' charge.

How this ' electricity fuel duty ' was payable to HMRC is another matter but I would assume that it could be payable in advance by means of a smart card which would become the electric cars equivalent of an ignition key.

Going back many years now my return journey from Weymouth - Bristol one Saturday had a trolley service on it and it was on a sick 155, yes 155 before they split them to build a driving cab ' in the middle ends ' and re-classify the resultant single car units 153's. The cause of the illness was an engine failure on one of the two cars but the unit manfully struggled all the way back to Bristol and further as I left the service at Yate. I think the final destination of that service was Birmingham International, it was a Saturday and the operator was the Provincial Railways division of British Rail.

Severn Bridge tolls to be scrapped by the end of 2018. That was a news story headline item on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Radio 4 Today programme at 0600 this morning whilst I was in the bathroom but I didn't catch the rest of the item but it has been repeated on the 0630 news headlines.

With all councils having to pare back on spending with councillors proposing cuts to libraries, cuts to leisure services, cuts to, well you name it, and now cuts to opening hours of opening of park and ride sites one item I NEVER SEE PROPOSED CUTS TO are COUNCILLORS ALLOWANCES.

When I was an elected member of a LA we didn't get any allowances but we could claim any reasonable out of pocket expenses. Them were the days when you stood for election with a desire to serve the community you lived in. Them were the days when arms were twisted to get one to stand to force a contest in a council ward.

THEN came the 1974 Local Government Act and what that brought with it.

No more arm twisting, it was an open door to easy money and candidates had to endure the process of having to appear before selection committees of the local political parties because so many wanted access to this easy money. If unsuccessful at one of these meetings one could always try their luck and stand as independent.

I didn't stand for a second term as I did not agree with councillors being paid in this manner particularly because as an elected member of a LA your employer, by law, had to allow you reasonable time off with pay for civic duties.

Todays announcement comes just days after HMG announced the go ahead of HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) then why not cancel HS2 and invest the money in completing the previously committed electrification projects. I am no economist but it does not make sense to me to go ahead with HS2 and HAVING to borrow the whole cost of that project thus lumbering our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren et al with having to repay the loans and interest thereon for this vanity project. Will we see all the bridges constructed, embankments built, cuttings gouged out, tunnels bored, electrification masts erected and OHLE wires installed only to be informed by HMG in, what 2022, that the project is so expensive that the trackbed will not be ballasted and thus no sleepers will be laid without which the rails that the HS2 trains will run on will cease to exist and thus the project will be converted into a HIGH SPEED INTER CITY METROBUST road.

The months closure of the Badminton line is to facilitate a further attempt to alleviate flooding at Chipping Sodbury.

This plan is to install new drainage on both sides of the tracks, to excavate a 5 metre deep trench and install a 1050mm pipe as a culvert before back filling and reinstating the tracks. In the former goods yard at Chipping Sodbury the plan is to rip up the northern most siding and relaying it nearer the running lines and then to extend and deepen the lagoon to give it a storm water / flood water capacity equivalent to that of 4 1/2 Olympic sized swimming pools. This will, I was told, provide sufficient capacity for that 1 in 100 year storm to which I responded to my informant that, we get at least one of those every year now !!!!

Whilst the line is closed for the above work the HOPS electrification work train will be at work 24 hours a day / 7 days a week and at the end of the months blockage we should see electrification masts at Westerleigh Junction. The Sodbury tunnel will use the same supply system set up that was installed in the Severn tunnel last year but Alderton tunnel, being only 500m in length will have traditional OHLE.

At Bristol Parkway the fourth platform will be built and the other 3 will be extended to cater for the new 80X trains and the Hatchet Road bridge will be closed to road traffic whilst repair and reinforcement work is carried out on the structure. 

As far as I can asertain you can still access the car park via the main station approach, The Incline, unless there has been changes since the past weekend.

From Journey Check today :-


Melksham: Ticket Vending Machine problem
The ticket vending machines are out of order at Melksham station.
Additional Information
Please purchase tickets at the ticket office or, if unavailable, at the first available opportunity to do so when no other means of purchasing them is available at the station.
Last Updated:14/07/2017 08:10


I bet Grahame is surprised that Melksham now has a ticket office !!!!

Will know more tomorrow after a progress meeting.

The replacement of the Hatchet Road overbridge is to take place during this closure and NR^» (Network Rail - home page) are taking advantage to have 24 hr / 7 day a week working to install piles and erect stantions on the Westerleigh Junction to Parkway line and also on the Charfield line towards Yate station to enable the 80X trains to reverse back to Parkway on the down line in cases of emergencies arising after a London service had departed Parkway. The up Charfield line being signalled for two way running at this location. The up London line was signaled for two way working but this facility was removed a few years ago as it hadn't been used since the facility was installed although the signal gantries which held the controlling down signals for the up London line may still be in situ as they are the location of the down line signals. Also Cheltenham - London services are diverted via Parkway, I suppose the installation of OHL^▸ (Over-Head Line) from Westerleigh Jct. towards Yate will be used for up pantograph / down pantograph actions for such diverted services as there is a PW^▸ (Permanent Way) speed restriction over this stretch of curved track.

Apart from peak hours London services will also NOT be calling at Parkway in the previous 2 week period either as electrification will close the line from Westerleigh to Wotton Bassett.

I was thinking more of a re-instated Bradford North curve acting as a diversionary route when Bathampton to Thingley is closed for engineering works or other times when the direct route is unavailable for traffic.

A typical example of this is a local high street, 28 foot wide kerb to kerb, 6 foot car parking bays marked both sides of the highway leaving just 16 foot for two 8 foot 6 inch buses to pass each other. Even the village idiot can work out that that isn't going to work, something the highly paid planners can't do, then they wonder why there is congestion.

.... and reinstate a single line Bradford North curve, not so sure about grade separation at Thingley though.