Search results

Welcome to the forum, Alastair - and I like what you're saying here! Let's also add the electrification of the GWR line from Thingley Jcn to Temple Meads. It's shocking that that comes under 'Not gonna happen', at least for a while.

Glad to have brought back 'happy' memories, ThinController! Remember the subway at the station? It was so poky and narrow that if a full train unloaded on the down platform, so that passengers had to go through the subway to exit the ticket barriers, anyone wanting to get ON the train didn't...

Re Scotrail new HST livery: I haven't seen this one yet so I googled it, and am amused to see that one of the Edinburgh landmarks it depicts is (unless I'm mistaken, and I'm open to correction here) the Royal Scots Greys monument in Princes Street Gardens. Maybe the designer was a Deltic buff...

Can't help with a photo, but can offer an anecdote. I worked at that station in the 1970s. It was a dreadful, cheap, flimsy place, not at all suited to the city it represented. One of my colleagues one day kicked the office wall in frustration and his foot went right through it!

Another vote for IC Swallow and Class 50s with large logo. I also like the Pendolino new livery 'flowing silk' on the driving ends but really, really don't like the plain carriages now it's done away with the black strip along the window line. Somehow the carriages now look fat and bloated...

Thanks so much for your replies - I feel a trip to Weston coming on!

Does anyone know what became of the ex-First Bristol (and ex-Badgerline before that) Volvo B10M D705 GHY that operated the open-toppers on the PZ-Lands End run a few years ago? It was one of my favourites but I've been out of touch for a while (illness...).

Try standing from Bristol to Edinburgh. Or being a short person with little legs. I once saw a child having a panic attack on the platform because the train (4 cars, Paignton to Dundee) was so jammed that she was too terrified to board it. We were meant to have increased service, as you say, but...

Controversial, okay, but offensive, no! Crank? I'm insulted. Live and let live, my friend!

Presumably your tongue is firmly in your cheek?!

Great point, Rail Blues. Those of us who consider ourselves both nostalgists and enthusiasts might be nostalgic for practicalities that made rail travel so much more pleasurable than it is now: when West Country to Scotland services had 8 coaches instead of 4, for example, and when you could...

# At Bath today, the Taunton train (which has a lot of stops to list) had a 4-page screen. The list of stops took up the first two pages, then the third page was - #ItsComingHome. Not much help for someone rushing on to the platform and wanting to check whether this train was for Bridgwater or...

Today's travel (Nailsea-Paddington and back): pretty good timekeeping, but the HST was a car short so lots of reservations void, no air con, no electric to charge phone. Same set coming back! Left Padd full and standing right through the carriages as well as the vestibule. Held at Temple Meads...

Today I'm travelling from Nailsea to Paddington and back. On the two occasions on which I've returned on an IET, it's been terminated at Bristol each time. The last time this happened, we had to exit a 10-car IET and pile into the 2-car 1827 ex Temple Meads to WSM - that was 'cosy'. Will today...

Appleford

On the other hand, if you're travelling long distance in the USA on Amtrak, from major stations like Chicago Union and NY Penn, you can't even SEE the platforms from the station. When the train is ready to board, they'll open a gate and escort you into the subterranean darkness where an awesome...

Ah, thanks. It's listed in our profiles, which is why I wondered.

Oh I so agree. If only I knew how to 'like' a post on this forum! (Is there a button I'm not seeing?)

Exactly right, and it's not just termini: Bristol TM has 14 platforms (numbered 1--15, before anyone corrects me, but there's no 14!) and a late-announced platform change can mean a long walk down a platform, waiting for the lift, walk through the subway, up in another lift, and another long...

I wonder why? When I booked, the collection fee was automatically added to the cost. Maybe they've changed it recently after people complained?