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On this day
29th Mar (1913)
Foundation of National Union or Railwaymen (*)

Train RunningCancelled
12:30 London Paddington to Weston-Super-Mare
13:15 London Paddington to Cardiff Central
14:12 Newbury to Bedwyn
14:19 Westbury to Swindon
14:57 Bedwyn to Newbury
15:14 Swindon to Westbury
15:22 Newbury to Bedwyn
15:28 Weston-Super-Mare to London Paddington
15:50 Bedwyn to Newbury
15:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
16:15 Newbury to Bedwyn
16:23 Westbury to Swindon
16:55 Bedwyn to Newbury
17:36 Swindon to Westbury
18:37 Westbury to Swindon
20:13 Swindon to Westbury
21:16 Westbury to Swindon
22:30 Swindon to Westbury
Short Run
10:55 Paignton to London Paddington
12:35 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids
13:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
13:42 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
13:46 Bristol Temple Meads to Warminster
13:55 Paignton to London Paddington
14:36 London Paddington to Paignton
15:42 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
16:35 London Paddington to Plymouth
16:50 Plymouth to London Paddington
17:03 London Paddington to Penzance
17:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
18:03 London Paddington to Penzance
18:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
19:04 Paignton to London Paddington
20:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
21:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
Delayed
09:10 Penzance to London Paddington
10:04 London Paddington to Penzance
10:20 Penzance to London Paddington
11:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
12:03 London Paddington to Penzance
12:15 Penzance to London Paddington
13:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
13:15 Plymouth to London Paddington
13:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern
14:03 London Paddington to Penzance
14:15 Penzance to London Paddington
15:03 London Paddington to Penzance
15:15 Plymouth to London Paddington
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:15 Penzance to London Paddington
19:04 London Paddington to Penzance
etc
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March 29, 2024, 14:41:39 *
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Author Topic: Swindon Parkway  (Read 5375 times)
Bmblbzzz
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« Reply #15 on: March 12, 2020, 18:25:18 »

Post was being sent by train till the late 1980s, wasn't it? I don't suppose that was a huge tonnage but it might have accounted for a bit more revenue.
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eightonedee
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« Reply #16 on: March 12, 2020, 19:08:01 »

If I recall correctly the postal trains ran well into the  current century. I am pretty certain that there were still Post Office trains at Platform 9 at Reading when I started commuting by train again in 2001. This was also the platform where locomotives ran around their trains on the south coast to the Midlands and north trains that became (or had just become) Cross Country trains.  How on earth did they fit them all into the old station?
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eightonedee
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« Reply #17 on: March 12, 2020, 19:17:21 »

Just checked on Wikipedia- they ran until January 2004.

End of thread drift.....
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Robin Summerhill
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« Reply #18 on: March 12, 2020, 19:41:37 »

Has anyone ever seen an equivalent graph of goods traffic for the whole of railway history? I went looking for one, and could only find one from the start to around 1900, and another from 1983 on. Between those two dates the gross tonnage shifted fell from over 500M tons to about 150M tons. As so much of that latterly was coal and other bulk commodities, I'm sure revenue fell by a lot more. It was the small loads (wagonload, part-load and parcels) that pretty much vanished due to the influx of lorries after WW1.

Probably some avid researcher or three has done a book on it.

They may well have, and the decline certainly started after WW! when the War Ministry were selling off surplus equipment, and so many men had learned to drive during that war.

In essence, Beeching threw in the final towel on wagonloas traffic when it became clear that it was costing far more to move the remnants of it than the railways got in the rates they received for carrying it.
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Robin Summerhill
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« Reply #19 on: March 12, 2020, 23:15:58 »

I know there was a signal box at Hay Lane, but I was not aware that there was ever a station there.  It is now well positioned on the edge of West Swindon, near to the proposed new western part of the new Wichelstowe development and next to Jn 16 of the M4, but before 1970 it would only have been near a few scattered farms. 

If I remember the history books correctly, it had a brief existence as a terminal station when the GWR (Great Western Railway) was being built westwards from Swindon. It didn't survive after the onward extension to Wootton Bassett and beyond.
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infoman
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« Reply #20 on: March 13, 2020, 06:57:55 »

Adam Crozier was in charge of Royal Mail  from 2003 to 2010 when profits increased dramatically.
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