...and I'm sure we can all think of other examples where singling has led to a lack of resilience. When lines are singled to save money, their capacity is not halved - it is reduced by one or more orders of magnitude.

I'm going to take a wild, crazy guess that No.8 is Harwich International...

Ooh look: https://goo.gl/maps/JhjAPvDhze8MrKoD6

Couple of queries/clarifications: in the document you refer to a new station at Ashton Park - what/where is that? Also, much though it pains me to point it out, for 'Bristol Metro' read 'MetroWest'...

What a nice day for eating trifle!

According to strava we took about three-and-a-half hours to cover the route, which was just over 10km. Probably the first half-hour of that was taken up wandering around Chepstow trying to find something waterproof for my daughter, whose coat was by then on its way to Cheltenham..!

Edit: checking more closely, our 'moving time' was about two-and-a-quarter hours. We were each carrying about 10Kg on our backs - lighter camping equipment is, I am told, available!

It's not just NR^» (Network Rail - home page). The GWSR have a bent set of points at Broadway after someone apparently drove a very heavy kettle through them in the wrong direction. They plan to install plain track and send the broken bits away for specialist repair, which suggests a similar timescale; meanwhile everything going into Broadway has to be topped and tailed...

Correct! It is at the northern end of the site, at about the point where the loop would have ended.

My daughter and I took the train to Chepstow on Sunday and walked along Offa's Dyke to the Beeches Farm campsite - a beautiful spot on the hill overlooking the Wye Valley. The next morning we walked down the hill to Tintern Station for a well-earned cooked breakfast. Thoroughly enjoyable (and heartily recommended); all the more so because we were very lucky with the weather!

Why, you are getting dangerously close..!

It's at the periphery, but it's facing into the site - if that makes sense! I suspect that some people might walk their dog as far as the signal and then, after a few moments of contemplation, turn back towards the main site.

The site is not primarily a railway heritage site - it is more a centre for walkers.

No cycle track here...


Looking at a diagram of the area, I think there was a bracket signal close to this location - but it would have faced the other way. I suspect that the choice of colours for the arms may have had more to do with looking pretty than being authentic. There is some very lovely railway heritage in the vicinity though...

A very good start. As far as I can tell (and if I'm wrong about this then I apologise - I'm not seeking to mislead!), it may have been rotated by 180^o for decorative purposes, if that helps.

So: Where was your furry fiend on Monday? Tintern - grahame

Yesterday I had the pleasure of travelling from Bristol to Bridgwater and back on short-formed ex-HST^▸ (High Speed Train) sets - and it really was a pleasure! I was trying to put my finger on why this experience was so much better than the previous DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit)'s - and then I read MarkHopwood's post, and it was obvious.

It is odd how we've almost tuned out the hideousness of vibrating internal combustion engines; we live with their soul-destroying awfulness and hardly even notice. The motors in the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) are without doubt a lot better than their wheezy grumbling predecessors, but I can't help noticing how my spirits lift somewhere east of Chippenham when they shut down... is it just me?

For me, there are a lot of journeys I'd like to be able to take by train but can't - because trains don't go there (any more)...