Where was I today - 1.11.2025

[whole diary]

[grahame]

[Phil]

(2) is Devizes, the London end of the tunnel that's now a shooting range

[eightonedee]

1 is the Salisbury Paddington.

[grahame]

Indeed - Devizes and Salisbury.  I made a trip on the 272 bus at 08:00 Melksham into Devizes and then the X2 onward to Salisbury, journey time about 2 and a quarter hours which included a 45 minute layover in Devizes, back on the 14:30 bus from Salisbury, similar layover.

The X2 is a recent innovation - and a victory for common sense. 

Until not-long-ago, the bus from Devizes to Salisbury studiously avoided the direct road after Shrewton, when it diverted off through a number of lovely little villages, and dawdled into Salisbury via the A36.  This was route 2 and the journey was even longer. And whilst it passed a couple of miles from the Stonehenge visitor centre, it seemed to studiously avoid calling there.   Tourists visiting Devizes, with really good archaeological exhibits in the museum and a link on the 49 bus to Avebury - the other stone circle - had to go into Salisbury on the 2 and then double back on the tour bus run by the same company to get to Stonehenge.  A 30 minute drive in a hire car, but way over 2 hours by public transport between places that people naturally want linked by public transport.

Buses on the 2 now alternate with buses on the X2 which does serve the Stonehenge visitors centre and take the direct load into Salisbury - a considerably quicker journey.   There are also some extra short journeys out from Salisbury and back on the 2, in part "paid for" by the bus operating time saved by the X2 as it runs via the henge.  I suspect there may also be one extra vehicle.

Routing Devizes - Salisbury buses via Stonehenge has long been a 'campaign' in Devizes and I have certainly added my voice, and good to see the change. It provides a more attractive journey for through passengers from Shrewton and north there of to Salisbury,  anti provides that usable link from Devizes to Stonehenge.  Whether or not the change has been triggered by campaigning, by growing traffic or subsidy which allows the extra vehicle for the short journeys, or because the X2 can be run with a double decker (only single deck yesterday mind), I don't know. 

I was delighted to see that - even on an obscure November Saturday - we were carrying multiple passengers into Stonehenge who got off there from the Devizes direction. And on the way back, in a howling and wet gale, multiple soaking passengers joined us.   Also very interesting to see us picking up passenger all the way in to Salisbury City Centre from Devizes Road Top ... whether that is attraction off another local bus, or indeed that other local bus is replaced at some times by X2 journeys helping free up a vehicle for the short journey 2s, I know not.  But oversll, from my slim evidence, it's working out well.

The X2 from Devizes is described as "Salisbury via Stonehenge" but the X2 from Salisbury I described as "Devizes direct" - no mention of Stonehenge on the signage, and I suspect this is done to protect the Stonehenge Tour bus from abstraction; the bus itself does admit the call.  It was also stated concern (not sure how true it is) that there was a worry than a public bus between Stonehenge and Salisbury would damage the commercial income of GoAhead who run the 2, the X2 and the tour bus.  On my journeys yesterday, no-one joined the bus at Stonehenge towards Salisbury, nor did we drop anyone off there later in the day; not unexpected as the visitor centre is an attraction where natural selection is morning drop offs and afternoon pick ups.

[grahame]

Yesterday was very easy - how about today

[bradshaw]

Taw Valley Halt, Swindon and Cricklade Railway, showing engine run round

[Chris from Nailsea]

Blimey, bradshaw: is there anywhere on the rail network that you don't recognize? 

[grahame]

Taw Valley Halt, Swindon and Cricklade Railway, showing engine run round

Yes - now renamed "Swindon Mouldon Hill"

[Mark A]

Ah ... fond recollections of a trip there, one wet August bank holiday, through a part-gridlocked Swindon on a bus and then a walk though a teenager-haunted underpass, and a twenty minute solitary wait in what wanted to be driving rain before the very welcome appearance of... a train, hurrah!

Mark

[bobm]

Blimey, bradshaw: is there anywhere on the rail network that you don't recognize? 

Should have had the courage of my convictions.  I thought that was the location but dismissed it because of what looks like a platform in the left foreground.   Looking at my own photos I can now see it’s the way the footpath from the park is built.

And I am a blooming member of the railway!

[bradshaw]

CfN thanks but it was an educated guess. It is not a railway I have visited and the photo did not strike any chords on those I have visited. That led me to this one. Then it was a check using the OS^▸ (Ordnance Survey) Map app and Google Street view, there is a photosphere at that location. That the AC^▸ (Air Conditioning, or Alternating Current (electricity), depending on context) Railbus was operating today helped.
The A C Railbuses, W79975/6 ran the Yeovil shuttle from December 1964, going to Town until it closed in 1966 when they diverted to Pen Mill until transferred to Ayr in January 1967

[grahame]

Ah ... fond recollections of a trip there, one wet August bank holiday, through a part-gridlocked Swindon on a bus and then a walk though a teenager-haunted underpass, and a twenty minute solitary wait in what wanted to be driving rain before the very welcome appearance of... a train, hurrah!

Mark

Parallels - or similarities - today.

The train from Melksham ran, and on time.  42 passengers on board - not bad for the first train on a November Sunday morning.  Got to Swindon ... and followed the instructions to get a bus from Fleming Way.



Having confirmed that at the 16 to Blundson - the one recommended on the railway's site - does not run in a Sunday (and the train is only running on a Sunday - duh!) - I looked to work out what runs to the Tawny Owl at Taw Hill.  Not easy - lots of routes and final destinations, all less than frequent on a Sunday, and a fun time was spent visiting their various stops and trying to work out intermediate stops and times.

Found myself a bus ... swiped on ... but in chatting with the driver he suggested a different one "I take an hour to get there and he's direct" ... so dropped back and off we set ... first stop turns out to be the (main) railway station!   Anyway - through some of the 'burbs I hadn't been in before and we must be getting close. And - oops - I think we have overshot; stop names are little streets and not the areas, so for all the electronics telling me where we were, I was lostish.  Which did result in a very pleasant walk back down a bridleway.  


 
Waymarking leaves something to be desired in places, but a bit of common sense got me to the Tawny Owl, then under it and the track up to the station.  Although online I had read that the railbus was running, the gate was locked with feasrsone spikes, signs taled about next trains being 27th and 28th September the Sundays in October and then Santa ... which did not bode well for 2nd November.  No-one else around on the track to the station gate, and the time came and went for the train to arrive and it didn't. I was just about to give up ... Plan "B" to follow the old canal. When the railbus appears.   I was, I confess, wary it was going to go back with the gate remaining locked, but the guard came down, took the chain off, and threw the entrance open. Phew!