Advent 2017

[whole diary]

[Surrey 455]

Trowbridge - Platform 1

I think you're right. I saw a reflection of a red train with openable windows and wrongly assumed it had to be a SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) service. Enlarging the photo I then tried to decipher the station name on the onward travel poster. I thought I could make out Weybridge but photos of the station that I found didn't back up my theory 

[JayMac]

That'd be a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Class 153 in the reflection.

I'm thinking the citizensrail.org branded 153325.

[grahame]

Trowbridge - Platform 1

Trowbridge - Platform 1

I think you're right. I saw a reflection of a red train with openable windows and wrongly assumed it had to be a SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) service. Enlarging the photo I then tried to decipher the station name on the onward travel poster. I thought I could make out Weybridge but photos of the station that I found didn't back up my theory 

That'd be a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Class 153 in the reflection.

I'm thinking the citizensrail.org branded 153325.

Correct down to the unit reflected in the window.   The 08:36 Swindon to Westbury at Trowbridge, loading 33/14

[grahame]

And for today:



with many thanks to SandTEngineer for supplying from his collection

[JayMac]

Sorry CfN.

It's my home town and your favourite place. 

Taunton.

Looking west from the country end of the station. I remember that impressive signal gantry from my childhood. Beyond it is the '40 Steps' footbridge which afforded excellent views of trains, and a thrill as they passed underneath. '40 Steps', with its railing sides, has been replaced with a modern accessible footbridge with solid metal sides. Meaning one can no longer 'spot' from it. Sad, but understandable, that it was replaced. Incidentally, neither side had 40 steps up to the deck. One side was around 32 steps, the other a few less due to differences in ground height. There was also a sloping change in deck height halfway across.

To the right of the picture is the Avimo factory. They made optics* for the military. Moved across town in the late 1980s and became part of the Thales Group. That latter factory closed in 2007. The site in the picture is now a housing estate.

Here's a 1939 aerial image of the Avimo site and country end of the station.


https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW061344 (Image reproduced complying with usage rights)


*No, not the ¹/₆gill/25ml kind. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

And for today:



with many thanks to SandTEngineer for supplying from his collection

Hey - I'd say that's cheating, posting another chap's pictures!   

[SandTEngineer]

Well CfN.  We were hoping you would guess it first (knowing how much you adore TAUNTON) but BNM beat you to it......

Out of interest the photograph was taken in late 1969 and as BNM has stated, looking West from the upside of the station.  The line to the right was the Minehead (and earlier Barnstaple) arrivals bay.  Where did all that infrastructure go......

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks, SandTEngineer. 

Yes, I am (or, rather, was) somewhat familiar with that particular bay platform, in my work with the Severnside Community Rail Partnership (supervising Community Payback workers in clearing vegetation, collecting litter, etc.).

However, that particular scene is somewhat different today - as you say, all of that infrastructure is long gone ... 

[grahame]

The scenes at Taunton are a sad reminder of how things were - and yet modern efficiencies allow far more trains to be run and more passengers carried on much less infrastructure.  If all that "stuff" had to be provided and maintained to what are the current modern standards, and staffed signal box by signal box at current wage levels, I really doubt that too much would be 'economic' as we know it.   Of course, if a similar amount of stuff on the roads hadn't been modernised (e.g. policemen on point duty, manual filling stations only) then there would be a similar high cost on road travel.

Yet I do look at scenes such as Taunton and wonder at whether we've gone too far in cutting back; that's a very well worn record indeed (and one that Chris Grayling has been playing yet again too).  Taunton is poignant as there's a perfectly good railway all the way to Minehead which (one can't help feeling, even when explained otherwise by both sides) could somehow be dual used.    And while we're on Minehead ... Swanage, Fleetwood, Fowey, Rawtenstall, Henbury and Kingswear?

[TonyK]

Here's a 1939 aerial image of the Avimo site and country end of the station.


https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW061344 (Image reproduced complying with usage rights)

A few years ago, I flew home from Dunkeswell to Filton. I had intended going easterly via Bath, but the weather to the east looked a bit murky, so we headed north-west instead. The view of Taunton station and surrounds from above is still impressive, especially with the turning triangle. Sadly, my rear seat passenger was so enthralled by the experience that he forgot that I had given him my camera until we landed, so I can't share.

[JayMac]

The turning triangle at Norton Fitzwarren isn't part of the network. It's privately owned by the West Somerset Railway.

[grahame]

OK - so where is this? ...

[Oxonhutch]

Harlech looking south. Castle is off to the left from where I looked down on the station.

[TonyK]

The turning triangle at Norton Fitzwarren isn't part of the network. It's privately owned by the West Somerset Railway.

I know, but it's a fabulous landmark. The three points should be labelled "Exeter", "Swansea", and "Bristol", to aid pilots who find themselves "Temporarily Uncertain of Position"*.

(*Lost)

[grahame]

Harlech looking south. Castle is off to the left from where I looked down on the station.

Yes indeed - Harlech.  Love that line.   Picture is a couple of years old - shed a tear when I went through some of the pics we took on that holiday with Dad.   Harlech itself felt 'poor' and much of Cardigan Bay seemed to have dropped as  it's lost the traditional holidaymakers taking their week away and being replaced by - well - insufficient to give it a bright / sparkling / positive air.