Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 20:55 28 Mar 2024
* Bus plunges off South Africa bridge, killing 45
- Easter getaways hit by travel disruption
- Where Baltimore bridge investigation goes now
- How do I renew my UK passport and what is the 10-year rule?
- Passengers pleaded with knifeman during attack
- Family anger at sentence on fatal crash driver, 19
- Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
28th Mar (1992)
MOD Kineton tour, branch line society (*)

Train RunningCancelled
18:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
18:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
19:23 Reading to Gatwick Airport
19:33 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill
19:35 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
19:59 Gatwick Airport to Reading
20:13 Swindon to Westbury
20:20 Reading to Shalford
20:49 Newbury to Bedwyn
20:54 Reading to Gatwick Airport
20:56 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington
21:16 Bedwyn to Newbury
21:30 Shalford to Reading
21:53 Newbury to Bedwyn
22:25 Bedwyn to Newbury
22:30 Gatwick Airport to Reading
22:47 Newbury to Bedwyn
Short Run
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance
17:03 London Paddington to Penzance
17:30 London Paddington to Taunton
17:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
18:03 London Paddington to Penzance
19:04 Paignton to London Paddington
19:29 Gatwick Airport to Reading
20:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
20:11 Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads
20:42 Bedwyn to London Paddington
21:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
Delayed
16:15 Penzance to London Paddington
Additional 17:26 Castle Cary to Penzance
19:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
23:04 Reading to Bedwyn
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 28, 2024, 21:05:08 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[118] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[116] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[89] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[46] Return of the BRUTE?
[38] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[28] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: A forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Poll
Question: Please choose one:  (Voting closed: January 12, 2023, 18:49:57)
LNER» (London North Eastern Railway - about) - 3 (7%)
SR(resolve) - 9 (20.9%)
GWR (Great Western Railway) - 19 (44.2%)
LMS (London Midland Scottish - 1923 to 1948) - 3 (7%)
I don't have a favourite - 9 (20.9%)
Total Voters: 43

Pages: 1 [2]
  Print  
Author Topic: Which Big Four railway company is your favourite?  (Read 2594 times)
JayMac
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 18894



View Profile
« Reply #15 on: January 15, 2023, 19:18:22 »

Partly where I was brought up. Partly Brunel.
Logged

"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

- Sir Terry Pratchett.
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #16 on: January 15, 2023, 20:05:37 »

Does this just come down to where you were brought up, or is there more to it than that?

People might be biased by where they were brought up - but how could anyone complete with the company that brought you ...
* Only international passenger trains
* The ultimate 0-6-0 (Q1 class)
* Schools class - most elegant and powerful 4-4-0
* Steam locomotive with thermic siphons, bogies and cabs at each end
* First heavily electrified mass transit railway
* First double decker train in the UK (United Kingdom)
* and was the only company with separate network on an island

Edit to correct typos
« Last Edit: January 15, 2023, 20:57:41 by grahame » Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
JayMac
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 18894



View Profile
« Reply #17 on: January 15, 2023, 21:06:26 »

* and was the only company with separate network on an island

The LMS (London Midland Scottish - 1923 to 1948) owned the Northern Counties Committee network in Northern Ireland, post grouping.
Logged

"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

- Sir Terry Pratchett.
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #18 on: January 15, 2023, 21:21:18 »

* and was the only company with separate network on an island

The LMS (London Midland Scottish - 1923 to 1948) owned the Northern Counties Committee network in Northern Ireland, post grouping.

I was thinking standard gauge but neglected to be specific to that ...(my excuse)
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
CyclingSid
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1918


Hockley viaduct


View Profile
« Reply #19 on: January 16, 2023, 07:05:51 »

Quote
People might be biased by where they were brought up - but how could anyone complete with the company that brought you ...
* Only international passenger trains
* The ultimate 0-6-0 (Q1 class)
* Schools class - most elegant and powerful 4-4-0
* Steam locomotive with thermic siphons, bogies and cabs at each end
* First heavily electrified mass transit railway
* First double decker train in the UK (United Kingdom)
* and was the only company with separate network on an island

Were they the only company who collected tolls on road bridges (Hayling and Stetning branches)?
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #20 on: January 16, 2023, 08:06:09 »

Were they the only company who collected tolls on road bridges (Hayling and Steyning branches)?

Caledonian / LMS (London Midland Scottish - 1923 to 1948) collected tolls on the Connel Bridge
« Last Edit: January 17, 2023, 07:00:15 by CyclingSid » Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
rogerpatenall
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 321



View Profile
« Reply #21 on: January 16, 2023, 16:00:47 »

Does this just come down to where you were brought up, or is there more to it than that?

People might be biased by where they were brought up - but how could anyone complete with the company that brought you ...
* Only international passenger trains

Edit to correct typos


I am bored - and feeling pedantic. They may be the only company to bring international trains. They didn't bring only international trains but lots of others as well. But wait. Were the Hook Continental and its siblings not also international trains? Were the boat trains to Plymouth (think City of Truro) and Liverpool not also International trains?  If you mean actual trans-border stock movements, I am sure that i have seen photos of (freight) trains being loaded onto the ferry at Harwich.

So many questions. So many answers. That's what makes this forum fun.
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #22 on: January 16, 2023, 16:05:58 »

Quote
* Only international passenger trains
...  If you mean actual trans-border stock movements, I am sure that i have seen photos of (freight) trains being loaded onto the ferry at Harwich.

So many questions. So many answers. That's what makes this forum fun.

Indeed.  What I said and what you nearly surmised.  International passenger stock movements with passengers in that stock at the time.

Agree on the fun - noting http://www.passenger.chat/27089 which I was writing at the very same time you were posting!
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Red Squirrel
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 5190


There are some who call me... Tim


View Profile
« Reply #23 on: January 16, 2023, 16:39:13 »

Does this just come down to where you were brought up, or is there more to it than that?

People might be biased by where they were brought up - but how could anyone complete with the company that brought you ...
* Only international passenger trains
* The ultimate 0-6-0 (Q1 class)
* Schools class - most elegant and powerful 4-4-0
* Steam locomotive with thermic siphons, bogies and cabs at each end
* First heavily electrified mass transit railway
* First double decker train in the UK (United Kingdom)
* and was the only company with separate network on an island

Edit to correct typos

For most of the area covered by this forum, the GWR (Great Western Railway) shared its territory with other railways - the Southern all the way to the West Country, and the LMS (London Midland Scottish - 1923 to 1948) into Bristol and South Wales. Our choices don't just come down to where we are brought up.

So what makes the GWR unique?

At the heart of the GWR is what we could refer to as HS0 - Britain's first High-Speed inter-city railway, from Bristol to London. It's Engineer's Line Reference says it all: MLN, or Main Line. Was anything better built before HS1 (High Speed line 1 - St Pancras to Channel Tunnel)?

GWR's standard locos under Churchward led, through his protege Stanier, to the British Rail Standard locos. Evening Star was arguably the pinnacle of Great Western loco design. GWR locos didn't need lipstick or party frocks to make them look good or, more to the point, 'right'.

But perhaps the main thing the GWR had that set it aside from the other roads is that it alone survived the grouping:



It didn't have to contend with the upheavals or internal rivalries that beset the other three. It didn't just keep the name of a previous company - it survived, enlarged, with its culture and traditions intact.
Logged

Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #24 on: January 16, 2023, 16:57:40 »

Sorry to be a bit slow getting back to this, and thanks for all your votes and input. I finally succumbed to COVID just after Xmas, and have been out of commission for a week or so. But I'm on the mend now!

Good to see you back and repaired / recovering.   YOUR health comes even before GWR (Great Western Railway)'s position in the rail hierarchy ... including their way of inflating their mileage by being the "Great Way Round".  To this day, Taunton to Cardiff at 2 and a quarter hours on a through train to cover the less than 40 miles as the crow flies must be one of the longest diversions and slowest journeys in the UK (United Kingdom).    Just imagine what would be said if London to Tunbridge Wells ... or Rochester ...  or Haywards Heath ... or Guildford (similar distances) took as long  Grin
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
eXPassenger
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 547


View Profile
« Reply #25 on: January 16, 2023, 17:05:59 »


Good to see you back and repaired / recovering.   YOUR health comes even before GWR (Great Western Railway)'s position in the rail hierarchy ... including their way of inflating their mileage by being the "Great Way Round".  To this day, Taunton to Cardiff at 2 and a quarter hours on a through train to cover the less than 40 miles as the crow flies must be one of the longest diversions and slowest journeys in the UK (United Kingdom).    Just imagine what would be said if London to Tunbridge Wells ... or Rochester ...  or Haywards Heath ... or Guildford (similar distances) took as long  Grin

I look forward to the day that this is shortened by running a class 800 equipped with air bags down the railway pier at Burnham to reappear at Penarth or Barry.
Logged
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: 1 [2]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page