Frome to Bath Spa, end of the afternoon, with a cycle

[whole diary]

[Mark A]

Accidentally cycled to Frome. Thankfully I'd checked the timetable, because after the 16:24, Frome has a 2 1/2 hour gap before the next train.

An hour before the train to Gloucester, there's one in the Weymouth direction, so a few people for that, after which Frome station, well maintained, spotless, was deserted. At one point, the sound of a train horn, nearby, suggested that something had just left the line from the quarry.

The cafe-in-a-shed across the road was closed (it's a tiny business, it closes at 3) and the bakery/food/drinks place had closed at three too, 'cos bakers are up early. Neither of the DIY sheds at the station has a cafe so a bit of a gap there given that the station approach if not the station itself remained busy as it's the location for a cluster of small businesses.

Cometh the hour, cometh the people and five minutes before the train was due the platform was reasonably busy, as was the train when it arrived.

The journey worked well, though not as well as returning from Avonmouth with a bike the other week. The Avonmouth train had a pretty flexible space for luggage and cycles. The Frome train was a 166, space for just 2 bikes and with a notice on the trains exterior to that effect. The official cycle capacity of 2 bikes was immediately full at Frome with myself and another who was heading for Trowbridge. The train's two bike cycle space was just too short for my bog standard touring bike, the other cycle person sat on the luggage rack and constrained his machine beneath that - and any more people travelling with bikes would have been testing whether the train manager had a pragmatic attitude to things.

Class 166s, even idling, are fantastically noisy from the platform, and Frome, with its overall roof, is a particularly good place to appreciate this aspect of their design. The racket they make isn't brilliant from within the train either it has to be said.

Once on the train, there was something that might have been a sobering continuation of something from the cycle ride. From Bath to Frome I'd used the Sustains path from Radstock much of which is on the old railway. Somehow, it shares the railway with the track, which has not been lifted, but after the weather of the last few years the installation is a monument to the flexibility of earthworks and indeed railway track. The track itself has in many places slowly moved itself - particularly to the inside of curves on embankments, where it now teeters on the edge of the earthwork. Turning to the cycle path surface, it appears to have been laid without a membrane beneath it - which can help mitigate earth movements - and the surface is in many places torn longitudinally as the earthwork has settled and spread. In the forty years or so since the line has seen a train, several of the under bridges now preserve the original trackbed levels while to either side the trackbed has dropped a few inches.

Which brings me back to the return on the train, and experiencing the same issue but on a live railway line. Between Westbury and Trowbridge there were a couple of places where the train rolled and spiralled noticeably giving the impression that we were on a piece of track with, thanks to this summer's heat and drought, a issue of subsidence and sideways displacement.

Mark

[IndustryInsider]

Lots of routes have very poor track quality at the moment thanks to the extremely dry summer.

I can’t remember a time since the aftermath of the Hatfield crash and the ‘cyclic top’ chaos when there have been more TSR^▸ (Temporary Speed Restriction)’s across the network.  It makes keeping time so much more difficult so is impacting on performance. 

And if there’s no TSR needed it’s a still a rocky and bumpy ride in places…though a good excuse to try and blame ‘the new trains’ for ride quality I suppose!

[Bmblbzzz]

From Bath to Frome I'd used the Sustains path from Radstock much of which is on the old railway. Somehow, it shares the railway with the track, which has not been lifted, but after the weather of the last few years the installation is a monument to the flexibility of earthworks and indeed railway track. The track itself has in many places slowly moved itself - particularly to the inside of curves on embankments, where it now teeters on the edge of the earthwork.

I've never been to Frome on the train but riding alongside the old track still, more or less, in place, is one of the best aspects of that particular path.

[Mark A]

It does, and I'm trying to think of another example. Some of the over bridges on the line from Radstock are quality constructions too.

It's curious that if we count the moribund track on the line to Radstock, what was the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth railway network, despite its occasionally poorly sited stations, has retained track over practically its entire length.

I didn't realise that the Frome avoiding line was opened as late as 1933. It's not even seen its centenary, let alone any catenary.

Mark

[CyclingSid]

I like the phrase

Accidentally cycled to Frome.

I presume like when the other half asks where I am going on the bike, "I am following the front wheel". Potential for seeing some where different, or differently.

[stuving]

I like the phrase

Accidentally cycled to Frome.

I presume like when the other half asks where I am going on the bike, "I am following the front wheel". Potential for seeing some where different, or differently.

My first thought on reading that was Frank Spencer ...