Wrote too soon

Things seem to be running a bit more to plan today.  This has popped up, though
 
There's always something 

The divergence between the public timetable service and reality on the route has become a disgrace.  I can't understand why the press haven't picked-up on the way  passengers are being treated by "GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)"; it should surely be headline news.  You'd think those at the top responsible for this omnishambles would, if they had any honour and self-respect, resign.

JourneyCheck 29/01/2018
 
11:22 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street due 13:44
11:22 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street due 13:44 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 13:55 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 16:27
13:55 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 16:27 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

When was the last day on which the Cotswold's line service ran as advertised?

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) should give-up this route and let an operator who cares run it

I couldn't find this train journey on the Chiltern site just now.  Maybe it has gone?  It was on my 'to do' list 

Sorry - this is an observation, rather than an addition to the event log ...

What a way to run a railroad?

Cotswold Line passengers are ill-served by "GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)".  I suppose the much vaunted upcoming new timetable (well, vaunted in the Evesham Journal, if that qualifies) will just mean "GWR" have even more trains to pick from when they're randomly cancelling services because they refuse to pay for proper resources, like having enough staff, or, y'know, trains that work properly.

I worked on BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) including a spell as signalman at Moreton in Marsh.  I can say there was no occasion I can recall when a train service got cancelled throughout.  On the Cotswold line, it now happens multiple times per week.  Cancelling a train in the London area may not have a great impact in that area; there are very likely other services for passengers' journeys.  But out here in the sticks, cancelling a train can mean a huge gap in the service.

I know I'm not the only one from the Evesham area who, needing to be in London, will drive to Oxford Parkway or Warwick to take a Chiltern service.  At least I can be fairly confident of getting there and back without hassle.

"GWR" need to either buck their ideas up, or hand the route over to an operator who actually cares about running trains

I was thinking of Harold "Larky" Blackmore, actually, whose big-railway career ended on the Taunton District.  After retirement, he spent a good many years "part-time" getting the West Somerset Railway into some kind of fettle, after all the years of neglect.  Anything he didn't know about PW^▸ (Permanent Way - the railway track) was, frankly, not worth knowing.

The knocking of branches on the roof and sides of the unit we were travelling in was quite pronounced, and the exterior finish (a vinyl wrap, I presume) showed the scratches left from the encounters with the trees.

Fires start in the dead undergrowth and will spread to live vegetation, when hot enough.  Possible ignition sources include discarded, empty glass bottles  and vandalism.  In my days working on the railways, I saw both. 




You obviously have superior knowledge.  But I will say that the old-school P-way inspectors (whose role seems to have been superseded these days) preferred to cut trees down before they got too big, citing pressure on slopes and the loosening effect on the soil (usually clay on embankment sides) when trees move in the wind, particularly when the soil is wet.  Maybe they were just looking something for their gangs to be working on in-between those lucrative Saturday night/Sunday morning relaying jobs?  The PWI I am thinking of had 50 years experience on the railways of the westcountry.

Excessive vegetation, trees and shrubs leads to damage to rolling stock and risk of lineside fires and subsidence of cuttings sides and embankment slopes.  Think of the downwards pressure exerted on a slope by a hefty tree.  Roots can also affect drainage.  A couple of years back I took a trip down the Newquay branch and back.  The two-car unit was badly bashed from the sides by overhanging trees.

I think many of the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway folks would have something to say about this!

But I do agree.  If only BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) hadn't been allowed so conveniently to shut the route in 1976.

The WSR held a diesel traction gala last weekend (10 & 11 June 2017) and a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) operated DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) shuttle was supposed to have operated between Taunton and Bishops Lydeard, with 7 out and back services from Taunton planned for each day.

In the event, the shuttles were cancelled and a rail replacement bus with GWR representative on-board was substituted, for "operational reasons", I gather.

[Edit to correct spelling - on-board, not on-beard  ]

My earliest train travel memory was a trip from Bridgwater to Weston-Super -Mare when I was about 3 years old, with my mother and her mother.  The main memories are the (very shiny) green DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) arriving at Bridgwater and then manouvering the pram containing my younger brother off the train at Weston.

I'd been a railway enthusiast for ages before that, according to my mother, getting very excited by the diesel shunter that would cross from Bridgwater (WR) yard towards George Hooper's Timber yard (where Sainsbury's now is) and on to the docks.  My dad worked at Hoopers, so I'd often see this little shunter trip.

We later moved to Milverton, and I remember Saturday morning trips to go swimming (actually, near drowning  )  in James Street Baths, Taunton, with my dad, whose Royal Marines style swimming lessons were not child-friendly.  I remember spending most journeys standing on the plates of the gangway connections between two coaches, riding them up and down as they would buck quite wildly (these were not buck-eye coupled coaches!)  Very happy days, although I still can't swim very well.

The line speed on the branch was 55 mph.  No bits of 60 mph (officially at least, although the Swindon & Gloucester RCW Cross Country sets did roll well  )

When I was involved in laying out the signalling for the re-opening, we had to design for a line speed of 40 mph (for DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit)), as was stated in the Light Railway Order (1975) which gave the legal basis for the WSR to operate the railway.  At the time, this was particularly relevant for the AOCL^▸ (Automatic Open Crossing (Locally monitored). A level crossing without barriers that is observed by the train crew before they proceed over the crossing) crossings at Dunster (Sea Lane), Leigh Woods and Roebuck Gate, as well as the pedestrian crossing at Watchet (Goviers Lane).

The use of the 40 mph limit never happened, as the year-round DMU service we intended didn't materialise.  The costs of the Running Powers Agreement (for the Norton Fitzwarren - Taunton portion, using the former Up Relief line) and the maintenance and inspection regime for the vehicles proved prohibitive for the penniless WSR of those days.

The line evolved into the heritage railway that exists today, and I know many of those now involved would absolutely resist the ideals us pioneers had, back in the 1970s

perhaps I should add that after working for BR as a signalman, I was employed by the WSR as its first Operating Superintendent, from 1976 to 1979.

With the boundary between the BR^▸ (British Rail(ways))(WR) London Division and the West of England Division near Lavington, I think Bedwyn was chosen as the last station in the London Division.  Beyond that, into the territory of the Bristol folks running the West of England Division, there was a far grater zeal to shut stations and reduce any remaining services to as little as could be got away with.  London Division tended to keep stations open and stopping services remained a thing on their rails.  But cross that divisional boundary, and different rules applied.

So would it have been impossible to turn the unit at Worcester, round the triangle, and thereby avoid all the inconvenience to passengers?
Today's railway baffles me