Great Western Coffee Shop

Although there are no trains (or very few) services running Christmas Day there will be many people working on the railways, they will be manning Signal Boxes, Electrical Control Rooms, Operations Centres also there will be drivers, track workers engineers carrying planned project or renewal works, and there will be staff coming in to repair the damaged caused by the recent flooding.

Not for them can they enjoy a pint tonight or a glass of red (or white) over the next few days so while you are having a pint tonight, tucking into your turkey with all the trimmings with a nice glass or red (or white) please take a moment to think of all the railway staff working, many of them outside over night and more than likely in the rain, this Christmas to repair and improve the railway.

+1

Thanks for getting me where I needed to be in 2012. 

Ditto.

Cheers. guys!

Indeed: in a way, this forum wouldn't even exist without the railway staff, so best wishes to all of them - particularly those enduring a very soggy Christmas out on site, working on fixing the mess caused by our recent weather.

Chris.  :)

As with so many posts on here you learn something new. I'd appreciated there would be staff out working on the line but had realised the need for signal boxes, control centres and the like to be staffed.

It also made me think how some staff will have to watch their celebrations on Boxing Day if they are rostered to work on Thursday.

So a hearty thanks to them all.

Although there are no public trains on Christmas Day the Railway is still "open" so has to be "maintained operational" there are also engineering trains that will be on the move and possessions to take and lift, commissioning of new systems.

bobm is in the Teignmouth area over Christmas (on a limited connection) and has sent me the following to post - THANK YOU, Bob

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/landslip1.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/landslip2.jpg)

Bob writes:

And keeping the best picture until last

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/landslip3.jpg)

I look in awe at the scale of that hillside, and think "gosh - what a job even at the best of times, let alone over Christmas".

Looks like the same location that suffered a landslip a couple of weeks ago. Even in the relative dry of last week water was still gushing down the cliff, the cliff under constant supervision by NR staff and the line subject to a 20mph TSR in the up direction and 50mph TSR in the down direction.

Interesting to note that that location is one of the shallower cliff sections that did not have netting fitted a few years ago.  At least the cliff fall fence appears to have done its job and stopped a mass rock (red sand) fall onto the running lines.