Great Western Coffee Shop

(This Long Marston being the train storage place in Warwickshire.)

Somewhere did I see a photo of GWR IEPs and a sleeper set playing jigsaws in the sidings at Long Marston? Was this something to do with the need for somewhere safe to tuck rolling stock out of the way at times when North Pole depot is inaccessible owing to HS2-related works?

Mark

There's Warwickshire (Long Marston)... then there's the freight depot near Swindon (South Marston).  Similar names, different places.

There are 8 places named Marston in United Kingdom.

https://geotargit.com/citiespercountry.php?qcountry_code=GB&qcity=Marston

And a brewery.

(We used to moor our boat just down the road from the Marstons Brewery in Burton. At one point Marstons Pedigree sponsored the English cricket team. When the Ashes came along there was a big banner on the brewery gates proclaiming: "England has history. Australia has previous.")

Thanks for that link, useful to see the names on a map.

*Looks out at the rain falling on a damp island*

Marsh-Tun... Saxon times... the name for small settlements in boggy places. Not applicable to certain villages near Cheltenham.

*Then, thinks of Rushy Platt* *Shudders*

Still, at least history will not have seen the need to build a canal through 'Rushy Platt', let alone two railways.

*Checks*

Oh.

Mark

Wasn't Long Marston Ministry of Defence land where the Euro Nightstars were kept before being sold to Italy?

I was on a rail tour that took us there and before we entered the army came on board to say we couldn't take photos because munitions were stored there.

Our tour, The Pen and ????  then went on to Stratford-upon-Avon and we had an open top bus tour.

Sure that wasn't the Kineton depot? turn left at Fenny Compton on the way to Stratford.....

Long Marston had a huge army depot - "R.E.M.E. Central Park" that was connected to the Stratford upon Avon - Cheltenham main line.  At one time, there were several miles worth of tracks around the depot, serving numerous warehouses and sheds.

There was a Birds scrapyard at LM too, just to the south of the Army sidings

Most of the former Army Depot, together with the former RAF Long Marston airfield,  has been turned over to housing development.  Most local folks believe it's not the greatest idea to plonk thousands of new homes in the Warwickshire countryside without much by way of public transport.  Grand plans to reinstate tracks to Stratford upon Avon appear to have fallen silent.  And even a plan that could fairly easily be achieved (you'd think) of reinstating a passenger service on the remaining stub of railway from Honeybourne to the LM storage sidings has gone MIA

The plans are still current & out there - there have been two recent bids under Restore your Railway prepared by professional rail planners, and funded by Promotion Group & local councils - but the DfT felt we weren't 'North' enough & turned it down, twice.

It was The Pen and The Sword tour. I am sure I have the trip guide for it somewhere.

It was at Kineton. Wikipedia has an article about the Nightstars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightstar_(train)#Delay