Great Western Coffee Shop

Here are some stories that haven't made it - because there's no picture to illustrate them, perhaps because they are fake news, or perhaps both.   Can you identify any stories which may have a grain of truth in them, and where the images are from?

1. New faster express trains to Cheltenham Spa with alternate trains from London (Paddington) now calling at Cheltenham Spa before terminating at Gloucester
(https://www.wellho.info/pix/stokart1.jpg)

2. Passing loop suggested by Network Rail at or near Melksham so that trains can leave in both directions at the same time
(https://www.wellho.info/pix/stokart0.jpg)

3. Second platform being installed at Newquay
(https://www.wellho.info/pix/stokart9.jpg)

4. Narrow gauge connection from Maiden Newton to West Bay opens on 18th June 2027
(https://www.wellho.info/pix/stokart3.jpg)

5. Buffet cars return to the Swansea to Portsmouth and Waterloo to Barnstaple services
(https://www.wellho.info/pix/stokart6.jpg)

6. Portishead Station to be re-opened on a budget with change in Network Rail rules to allow platform access by foot crossing at times the trains are at a stand.
(https://www.wellho.info/pix/stokart5.jpg)

7. New Passage Station to be re-opened for train ferry service to Rosslare avoiding Wales
(https://www.wellho.info/pix/stokart8.jpg)

8. Barmouth Ferry - preparations are underway for the 2025 season
(https://www.wellho.info/pix/stokart7.jpg)

9. New rental scheme for Segways for tourists in Caephilly
(https://www.wellho.info/pix/stokart2.jpg)

10. With a lack of rail replacement road vehicles available, GWR are going back to more sustainable and traditional alternatives.
(https://www.wellho.info/pix/stokart4.jpg)

3 is real, but your photo is I think Eastern Europe?

1.  Dean Forest Railway.  Someone there has a mischievous sense of humour, placing that header on it.  ;D

It might just be a reference to the benefits for Cheltenham passengers of bearing in mind that at certain times, taking a train from Cheltenham to Kingham and a change onto a London express there would be able to beat the timings of the 'Cheltenham Flyer'. The flyer may have done Swindon to Paddington in record time but its schedule from Cheltenham to Gloucester and then Swindon via the Stroud valley was... pedestrian.

Mark

10 is at the coast below Santorini.  I pity the donkeys that carry any obese tourists up to the town - it's a long hill.

As for 'fake news' story, I'll plump for it being fake.

5.  A glass of Port, enjoyed on a train with Coffee Shop forum member broadgage, perchance? :P

4 - Hey, we're back on Rugen, the island off the North German coast that has featured recently in competition pictures! But there the old narrow gauge railway survived from construction and opening in 1895, through the traumatic years of the early and middle 20th century and the DDR until today.

So never any need to try to find an economic case for building a new narrow gauge railway along the line of an old standard gauge track closed and lifted 50 years ago. I cannot see this ever happening, so definitely fake news.

Picture is at Putbus, Rugen.  The proposal for a narrow gauge railway is a real one but to my knowledge has not been making progress in recent years and the re-opening date is certainly fake.  It's one of those proposals that you take a look at, say "nah!" but have to add a caution of "but you never know" as stranger things have happened.

Pictured - Ostseebad Binz station on the Baltic coast of northern Germany - the part that used to be East Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostseebad_Binz_station

Correctly identified the picture as Parkend.   I have often wondered about the reversal in both directions at Gloucester on the London (and sometime Swindon) via Stroud Valley trains and have wondered about trains from Swindon calling at Cheltenham Spa, then Gloucester, then heading back up the Stroud Valley - alternate trains each way round.  Issue with lack of a crossover south of Cheltenham Spa, and line occupancy during the reversal operation?   There was a proposal for a south facing bay, wasn't there?

Did VT0 / Operation Princess trains from Swindon to Birmingham (9.2002 to summer 2003) call at Gloucester?