Where can I find out..........

[chuckles1066]

........which service my train performed prior to the one I'm using (if that makes sense)?

Let me explain.

I left the gym a little earlier today and thought, what with it being a Friday and the traffic a little lighter, I'll trek across to Filton Abbey Wood and catch the same service that I would have caught from Patchway.

The advantages to me are that on the return home many more trains stop there (political clout or what!!) and it means I don't have to rely on the solitary 18.21 from Bristol Temple Meads as there are alternatives.

I turn up and see that my train is delayed but there is an 08.50 service calling at Stapleton Road and Lawrence Hill before arriving at Temple Meads.

So I jump on and at 9.03 we're in Temple Meads........I jump off and stare at the departures board and notice there's a 09.05 service to Westbury, calling at Bath Spa.

How convenient, that'll do me.......except the platform is showing as the one I'm stood on. And the station announcer is telling us that "the service has terminated at this station".

Someone else was obviously confused as well because the guard called out
"this is now the Westbury service"........so we got back on!

Sooooo........where can I find out that the 08.50 from Filton Abbey Wood to Bristol Temple Meads turns into the 09.05 Bristol Temple Meads to Westbury?

TIA

 

[yorkie]

Ah, this is called 'diagramming', ie allocating a unit to work specific services.

Basically you want to know what a particular service is 'diagrammed' to work next.

Sometimes they get posted online.

Here are FGW diagrams from 2008.

Some of the more 'interesting' diagrams (past and present) can be found at Thejunction.

Diagrams are crucial to haulage 'bashers' (people who want to travel behind a particular loco or type of train) e.g. until around 4-5 years ago you could travel behind Class 37s, Class 31s, Class 47s etc, but unlike in the 1980s you couldn't just turn up anywhere and get on one, you had to know where to look!

 

[142094]

I've been told that some diagrams are 'commercially sensitive', more often that not when two TOCs run on the same line to the same destinations. Some of the ones that are still up on the web are quite close to what happens, but of course will be slightly changed through the years.