Copehill Village sidings

Though the "presenter" is a bit confused about rolling stock!

It's a long time since I visited the village and I can vaguely remember the track, but in those days they were devoid of locomotives and stock.

(And since I'm posting about Salisbury Plain, when I passed through Ludgershall in the summer the new housing estate west of the former station was nearing completion, though the embedded rails and warning signs for the spur that crossed the A3026 remained. An enthusiast for the M &SWJR was in Ludgershall in August, and was surprised to see how many wagons there were in the south yard. I didn't think that the "military line" from Andover was used nowadays, although talk persists of re-opening it to civilian traffic.)

The Reading Chronicle website has excelled itself, with an article about a suicide at a "Berkshire train station" that it doesn't name, with a photograph of a train in New York.

Yesterday I walked alongside the Kennet & Avon Canal east from Theale swing bridge as far as the railway line, where this crossing for pedestrians and cyclists is nearing completion. I guess this must be one of the most popular crossings in the area, giving Calcotians convenient access to the canal.

(For 19 years I did voluntary work at nearby Hosehill Lake and knew there was a WWII^▸ (World War 2 - 1939 to 1945) airfield close by; indeed, I used to cycle past some of the old buildings, now replaced by a modern industrial estate.) But I'd only just become aware that there were more buildings behind the Fox & Hounds pub. Cue for me to look at postwar maps to see their layout before the site was worked for gravel, then becoming a lake used by Burghfield Sailing Club The construction of the airfield was hampered by flooding, which still affects local roads, which occasionally have to be closed.)

The success of the Elizabeth Line has been celebrated in Reading, with a call for quicker train services to be introduced.


Admittedly nowadays I hardly ever travel by train east of Reading, but I would have thought that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) already provide some "quicker" stopping services between Reading and Paddington. I have a friend who opts for these when she visits me in Tilehurst from London on trains that stop at Slough, Maidenhead and Twyford. She prefers these to changing from and to fast trains at Reading.

About 20 years ago, my partner and I were walking alongside the Kennet & Avon Canal at Thatcham. We noticed a middle-aged woman looking sad and Maz, a very sympathetic lady, went up to enquire if she was OK. It  turned out the woman's son had died there, so Maz gave her a big hug. (We were on the Ridgeway above the Vale of Pewsey and noticed a stationary tractor with a man lying on his back about 15 yards away. Maz went over, but as she approached he got up - apparently he'd been having a snooze.)

I've mentioned before that I was waiting for a train in heavy drizzle at Tilehurst Station and noticed a girl sitting on a bench. When the train arrived, I got on, but the girl remained on the bench. Luckily there was a trio of Samaritan-style volunteers who'd got into the same carriage as I, so I pointed the girl out to them, and they scrambled off to offer help.

Grahame, not for a second did I think that your posting the image was any form of endorsement, rather that you did it only because it was a nice illustration - and one I found evocative. I only made my own post because of the coincidence of the company (of which I hadn't heard before) having just  featured in another forum which I frequent.

Reference the idyllic "poster" for Fisher Investments: there are half-a-dozen websites I visit daily, including a financial one where , coincidentally, someone asked about this company three days ago. The replies, one referencing comments elsewhere on the Web, advised caution about becoming a customer.

I guess that the turn-over of staff at pubs and other hospitality venues doesn't help. No doubt newcomers get some sort of induction training, but does it include "Angela"? Apparently not.

I think there's also a scheme whereby people with incontinence problems can produce a card asking to use the staff toilets. I wonder if this arrangement is also generally known to staff?

And I gather there are various ways that women can indicate that they're in an awkward situation. A very quick Google shows there are sites listing three or five ways, including this American one.

Who's going to replace them?

Typically for the Reading Chronicle, its headline says "Reading train station death: Person killed near Thatcham".

Before Lockdown, I sought several times to catch the very first Reading-bound service from Tilehurst Station on a Sunday morning, only for there to be a replacement bus service. (I would like to think that I knew this in advance.) On one occasion the bus entered the station forecourt where I was waiting, on another it stopped on the road outside the station and latterly one was meant to catch it from the regular bus stop at Kentwood roundabout.  I think that they only got around to stating on the departures board where to catch it on my last trip.

In mid-October 1914 some 31,000 Canadian soldiers arrived in Plymouth (most of their convoy having been diverted from Southampton because of a U-boat scare) and were taken by special trains to several stations on the edge of Salisbury Plain.
This photograph has been reproduced a dozen or more times, with varying captions. A copy in Libraries and Archives Canada describes it as "Troops of 3rd Brigade proceeding by bus from Plymouth to Salisbury Plain". The play "My Lady's Dress"  opened at the Royalty Theatre on April 23, 1914 and ran for 176 performances, an advert in The Times of Friday, October 23rd announcing  "Last 2 Nights", so it finished on Saturday the 24th, thus greatly limiting the time span of the photo.  The hut or tent in the background, together with the unsurfaced track, suggests that the bus had arrived on the Plain. There appears to be no information about bus journeys in appropriate war diaries.

The bus bears the name,"The National xxxx Car Company Limited", presumably the National Steam Car Company which was established by Thomas Clarkson to run steam buses in competition with the London General Omnibus Co. In 1912 the company was estimated by a competitor to have 27 buses in operation.

The New York Times of October 17 refers to "a long [Canadian] transport train of wagons ... motor trucks and lastly the commandeered London motor 'buses' arriving on the Plain”. Certainly Automobile Machine Gun Brigade No 1 and the Divisional Supply Column did drive to the Plain, via Exeter, Taunton and Heytesbury, an easier route compared with the hilly Exeter-to-Amesbury road.

It is a little difficult to believe that one or more London buses would travel the 200 miles to Plymouth and then 140 miles or more heavily laden to the Plain, and there would have been little need for them to collect soldiers de-training at Wiltshire stations, given the short marchable distances to camps. Unless the bus was already in Plymouth after delivering soldiers from the London area to troop ships there.

Lorry carrying hay-bales stuck under Reading railway bridge.

At least there shouldn't be any damage, and clearing up should be easier than usual.