Request stops - GWR list

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Is there a full list anywhere of all the request stops that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) operate, and serve?   Are there any at which only some trains are "by request" and some always stop?

[Richard Fairhurst]

I can give you two "old GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)" stations where some trains stop by request and others always stop: Bearley and Claverdon. Chiltern services always stop, West Midlands services are by request.

(Was 2004 the last time these stations were served by Great Western services, as part of First Great Western Link?)

[BBM]

Geoff Marshall (of YouTube fame) has produced a PDF map dated September 2025 showing all of the request stops on the National Rail network, hope it helps with finding GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ones:

https://www.geofftech.co.uk/downloads/RequestStops.pdf

(The orange box in the top right shows some exceptions to the rules)

[grahame]

The Geoff Marshall map was especially useful - thank you.  I have come up with the following 23:

86996   LYC   Lympstone Commando
54078   UMB   Umberleigh
31072   LEL   Lelant
25276   EXN   Exton
21854   MRD   Morchard Road
21580   DMH^▸ (Dilton Marsh Halt)   Dilton Marsh   
19860   YEO   Yeoford
15102   DOC   Dockyard
8488   LAP   Lapford
7648   NTC^▸ (New Track Construction)   Newton St Cryes
7090   YET   Yetminster
6528   BGL   Bugle
6498   KGN   Kings Nympton
5230   ROC^▸ (Rail Operating Centre - a centralised location for railway signalling and train control operations for a specific route or region)   Roche
3542   SCR   St Columb Road
3196   LUX   Luxulyan
2642   CNO   Chetnole
2468   THO   Thornford
2108   CAU   Causeland
1586   SKN   St Keyne Wishing Well Halt
966   SDP   Sandplace
596   PMA   Portsmouth Arms
160   CPN   Chapleton

Agreed about the 2 which are sometimes-request, and I can add (according to sources) Dockyard to that - IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) operated services always call if shown in the timetable, but others only on request.  Only Dockyard and Dilton Marsh are on what I would describe as "main lines" ... I was at Dilton Marsh yesterday and look what came through at 15:33 - the exact time that the potentially-stopping train called.  None of the seven of us on the platform tried to flag it down. 



As well as the joiners, between 15 and 20 got off - school traffic from Warminster.  I then got on with the others waiting and we set off. No ticket check.  We stopped at the signal (awaiting a platform?) just prior to Westbury for a couple of minutes and move on and into platform 1 just after an SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) service headed south passed us.

[bobm]

Sorry 15-20 got off a freight train?

[Chris from Nailsea]

They were possibly the illegal immigrant stowaways.

[grahame]

Sorry 15-20 got off a freight train?

  . ... Freight came thru at time passenger train was due ... passenger train 10 minutes behind.

[grahame]

Lympstone Commando numbers are astonishing - would that be because there tend to be whole troups of commandos or recruits arriving at the same time, or is there traffic well spread across trains.   Also looking at some the other flow metrics - how peaky are they - right down to Dockyard.   With Dockyard, is there still a significantly larger flow to and from the dockyard with certain trains?    Thanks for your help on this

[Pb_devon]

Babcock, the Devonport Royal Dockyard operator, is actively reducing the amount of on-site car parking for staff. They are paying for an extensive network of bus routes morning and evening.
Maybe this has resulted in an increase in Dockyard Station use? Is there a similar increase at Devonport and Keyham stations?

[grahame]

Babcock, the Devonport Royal Dockyard operator, is actively reducing the amount of on-site car parking for staff. They are paying for an extensive network of bus routes morning and evening.
Maybe this has resulted in an increase in Dockyard Station use? Is there a similar increase at Devonport and Keyham stations?

Thank you for that.  Another question if I may - what is visibility like at Dockyard - both for the train driver seeing people on the platform flagging them down, and for people on the platform seeing the train approaching while standing well back from the edge?

[Chris from Nailsea]

- what is visibility like at Dockyard -

Not good, if there's fog on the Hamoaze.