Coombe Junction - passenger numbers and platform facilities - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Many thanks for your update here, Richard! 

[LiskeardRich]

I will have my children as the wife is away, but will be there subject to weather, I am most likely to leave earlier than the group to allow for a slow walking 4 year old and meet the group at the junction in time for the train ride back up.

[John R]

Maybe Pilning next (if we're quick!)??

[Pb_devon]

Rich and Richard,
We'd really appreciate some pics and feedback after the event.  Good luck on Saturday.

[LiskeardRich]

108 passengers - paid through the organiser to bulk purchase.  Photos to follow later. Sunday Cornwall  independent and tv crew present

[LiskeardRich]

I've now uploaded my photos to Flickr.
Can be found here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82289286@N06/albums/72157665931719633

[Chris from Nailsea]

Many thanks for posting those excellent pictures, richwarwicker! 

They certainly show the difference between an 'ordinary' day and a special event such as today. 

[LiskeardRich]

I walked down about 10-15 minutes before the group due to having 3 children under 5 in tow so had time at the station as normally would be expected. I did notice around half a dozen ramblers walk through the station, it is on a public footpath through the valley.
Perhaps if there was a weekend late afternoon evening service then It may get well patronised as I imagine many walkers/ramblers may use to avoid the massive hill, I certainly wouldn't want to walk up the hill to Liskeard. Or even make every service a request call as the train only stops a few yards short to do its reversal. The driver would be able to see if anyone is present as long as they weren't hiding in the hut, but there is a whistle point on approach anyway.
Currently at the weekend there is 2 services each way in the morning. The 1052 to Liskeard being the last train that calls on a Saturday.

[grahame]

Love it ...  shows traffic can be raised anywhere.  You would need a platform capacity risk assessment if you had any more!

[RichardB]

I walked down about 10-15 minutes before the group due to having 3 children under 5 in tow so had time at the station as normally would be expected. I did notice around half a dozen ramblers walk through the station, it is on a public footpath through the valley.
Perhaps if there was a weekend late afternoon evening service then It may get well patronised as I imagine many walkers/ramblers may use to avoid the massive hill, I certainly wouldn't want to walk up the hill to Liskeard. Or even make every service a request call as the train only stops a few yards short to do its reversal. The driver would be able to see if anyone is present as long as they weren't hiding in the hut, but there is a whistle point on approach anyway.
Currently at the weekend there is 2 services each way in the morning. The 1052 to Liskeard being the last train that calls on a Saturday.

Thanks for the photos, Rich.  Great stuff.  I'm up in Nottingham so couldn't be there today.

While the two calls in each direction (Mon - Sat) can certainly be shifted, given the historic low use of Coombe Jn, the bigger priority is to make sure the Looe Valley Line trains have the best possible connections at Liskeard and, of course, more stops at Coombe Jn wouldn't help this.  There really is no traffic and not much likelihood of it apart from events like today.  The station's current usage isn't anything new, I'm afraid, and it's not without a lot of trying, which has greatly increased use of the branch line itself, I'm pleased to say.  Sorry to be a wet blanket.

The issue with making it a request stop in all trains is that the trains would have to be timed for the request stop to be used, hence in practice, all trains would end up calling at Coombe Junction.

[SandTEngineer]

When the Cornwall Resignalling finally surfaces, Coombe No.1 Ground Frame will be abolished and the connection will be power worked from TVSC^» (Thames Valley Signalling Centre - about). The time saved from not having to operate the Ground Frame twice for each journey could then be used to allow reversal at the halt rather than at the junction points

[Pb_devon]

Thank you rich for the photos and reports.

[LiskeardRich]

I walked down about 10-15 minutes before the group due to having 3 children under 5 in tow so had time at the station as normally would be expected. I did notice around half a dozen ramblers walk through the station, it is on a public footpath through the valley.
Perhaps if there was a weekend late afternoon evening service then It may get well patronised as I imagine many walkers/ramblers may use to avoid the massive hill, I certainly wouldn't want to walk up the hill to Liskeard. Or even make every service a request call as the train only stops a few yards short to do its reversal. The driver would be able to see if anyone is present as long as they weren't hiding in the hut, but there is a whistle point on approach anyway.
Currently at the weekend there is 2 services each way in the morning. The 1052 to Liskeard being the last train that calls on a Saturday.

Thanks for the photos, Rich.  Great stuff.  I'm up in Nottingham so couldn't be there today.

While the two calls in each direction (Mon - Sat) can certainly be shifted, given the historic low use of Coombe Jn, the bigger priority is to make sure the Looe Valley Line trains have the best possible connections at Liskeard and, of course, more stops at Coombe Jn wouldn't help this.  There really is no traffic and not much likelihood of it apart from events like today.  The station's current usage isn't anything new, I'm afraid, and it's not without a lot of trying, which has greatly increased use of the branch line itself, I'm pleased to say.  Sorry to be a wet blanket.

The issue with making it a request stop in all trains is that the trains would have to be timed for the request stop to be used, hence in practice, all trains would end up calling at Coombe Junction.

You mention connections at liskeard, when I was living in Redruth we always wanted to visit looe, however never did due to poor connections at liskeard. I haven't looked recently but there was always a long wait at liskeard.
Today I caught the 1751 liskeard to Penzance, passengers from the branch only made the service due to late running on the main line, as the branch line was scheduled to arrived a few minutes after the main line was scheduled to depart.

[LiskeardRich]

Radio Cornwall picked up on the occasion giving a fair bit of coverage pre-event, and now post event. Radio Cornwall have a video from the day on their Facebook page. The camera man didn't travel so no internal footage from the trip.
The amount of media coverage can only do good for the station in the next few weeks at least!

Ps I got near the front for the tv camera, my daughters bright pink coat stands out like sore thumb!

[Surrey 455]

I've now uploaded my photos to Flickr.
Can be found here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82289286@N06/albums/72157665931719633

Not knowing the area, I do hope that your photo at the link below is of a disused part of the  track. Looks a bit dangerous / pointless to me. 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/82289286@N06/26936563211