Great Western Coffee Shop

It might be FGW longest journey, 9 hours down Sunday night/Monday Morning but talking to a Sleeper Host one night, He told me from Exeter St David's to London Paddington, He's known the Sleeper to take 16 different routes.

Try naming them all, and via Westbury or Westbury Avoiding Line counts as the same route.

It used to go Taunton-BTM-Bath-Reading-London

Correct: Thats one down, 15 to go. That is one of the more common routes it can take.

Exeter-Taunton-Bristol TM-Bristol Parkway-Swindon-Reading-London
Exeter-Taunton-Bristol TM-Bath Spa-Swindon-Reading-London
Exeter-Taunton-Bristol TM-Bath Spa-Trowbridge-Reading-London
Exeter-Taunton-Weston Super Mare-Bristol TM-Bristol Parkway-Swindon-Reading-London
Exeter-Taunton-Weston Super Mare-Bristol TM-Bath Spa-Swindon-Reading-London
Exeter-Taunton-Weston Super Mare-Bristol TM-Bath Spa-Trowbridge-Reading-London
Exeter-Taunton-Westbury-Reading-London
Exeter-Taunton-Westbury-Melksham-Reading-London
Exeter-Taunton-Frome-Westbury-Reading-London
Exeter-Taunton-Frome-Westbury-Melksham-Reading-London
Exeter-Yeovil-Castle Cary-Frome-Westbury-Reading-London
Exeter-Yeovil-Castle Cary-Westbury-London
Exeter-Yeovil-Castle Cary-Westbury-Melksham-Reading-London
Exeter-Yeovil-Castle Cary-Frome-Westbury-London
Exeter-Yeovil-Castle Cary-Frome-Westbury-Melksham-Reading-London
Exeter-Yeovil-Salisbury-Basingstoke-Reading-London
London-Reading-Bath-Bristol-Bath-Westbury-Taunton-Exeter
London-Reading-Bath-Bristol-Bath-Westbury-Castle Cary-Yeovil-Exeter
Service used to run to London Waterloo for a few years before returning to Paddington

Normal routing to avoid overnight engineering work:
1. Exeter, Taunton, Bristol TM, Bath, Swindon, Reading
2. Exeter, Taunton, Bristol TM, Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Reading
3. Exeter, Taunton, Bristol, Bath, Newbury, Reading
4. Exeter, Taunton, Westbury / Westbury avoider, Newbury, Reading
5. Exeter, Taunton, Westbury, Melksham, Swindon, Reading
6. Exeter, Yeovil, Castle Cary, Westbury / Westbury avoider, Newbury, Reading
7. Exeter, Yeovil, Castle Cary, Westbury, Melksham, Swindon, Reading

Houston, we have a problem
8. Exeter, Taunton, Westbury, Bath, Bristol TM (loco onto other end of stock), Bath, Chippenham, Swindon, Reading
9. Exeter, Yeovil, Castle Cary, Westbury , Bath, Bristol TM (loco onto other end of stock), Bath, Chippenham, Swindon, Reading
10. Exeter, Taunton, Westbury, Bath, Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Reading
11. Exeter, Yeovil, Castle Cary, Westbury , Bath, Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Reading
12. Exeter, Taunton, Westbury, Melksham, Chippenham, Bristol TM (loco onto other end of stock), Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Reading
13. Exeter, Taunton, Westbury, Melksham, Chippenham, Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Reading
14. Exeter, Yeovil, Castle Cary, Westbury , Melksham, Chippenham, Bristol TM (loco onto other end of stock), Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Reading
15. Exeter, Yeovil, Castle Cary, Westbury , Melksham, Chippenham, Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Reading

All the above should be possible without having to provide additional Traincrew for route knowledge. At one stage it would also have been possible to send the train into London Waterloo rather than Paddington via either Acton or from Reading.

Say Timmer and Redskin 125, you sure covered that little lot, and came up with 1 or 2 that I didn't have, I didn't touch on Waterloo because the Sleeper host I spoke with wasn't on the Job when the Sleeper went to Waterloo.
However the only route you didn't get was,

Exeter-BTM-Gloucester (run round) Kemble-Swindon-Reading-London Padd.

And No don't ask me when the Sleeper went to Gloucester he didn't tell me.

And as a By the Way My Dad used to be a Driver and he once worked a Anglo-Scottish sleeper into St Prancras instead of Euston arriving about 8.30 instead of 6.30, sorry correction arriving 20.30 instead of 06.30 14 hours down now that's what you call late!
Mind I'm sure FGW could match that, if they put there mind to it.

It certainly isn't permitted to go via Basingstoke these days!

Why NOT?

How many High Speed crew sign that route then?

(http://www.helstondieselgroup.co.uk/waterloo.jpg)

Got one of theese have you Smokey??  ;D

Pilot Working?

Just a case of route knowledge then.

oooooo, you been naughty and stealing things?

Just borrowing it, they are welcome to it back  :o

I have ten of those- none sleeper- all different.

The reason I posted it was its from the sleeper  ;D  I have stacks of the things, was going through them this afternoon, found some interesting destinations/stopping patterns  :o

The new family carriage ones are pretty interesting. And yet there are still only 2 or 4 tables!

I've got a one were a HST called at nearly every possible stop Pad-Penzance

1905 Paddington - Penzance?

Calls Reading, Newbury, Taunton, Tiverton, Exeter, Newton Abbot, Totnes, Plymouth... *gets out timetable*
*can't find it* then basically every shack imaginable.

No Its from years ago, probably about 5 years ago.
Here is the stopping pattern:
Reading-Newbury-Westbury-Castle Cary-Taunton-Tiverton Parkway-Exeter St Davids-Dawlish Warren-Dawlish-Teignmouth-Newton Abbot-Totnes-Plymouth-Liskeard-Bodmin Parkway-Par-St Austell-Truro-Redruth-Camborne-St Erth-Penzance
There are three more stops (I think) that Pad-Penzance HST's called at from that timetable. What were they?
This is from the years when trains called at some stations alot less than now. There are six stops that most HST's call at now but used to be called at alot less. What are they?
Two questions for you there.

Totnes didn't used to get a very good service, nor did Tiverton parkway. Pewsey didn't, Westbury didn't and neither did Castle Cary.

That is two of them. The others don't get that mucha better service now. Nearly all HST's call Totnes and Tiverton now.

Strange me thought only GW service that went to Waterloo was the Sleeper,
except for Engineering diversion.

Taking of HST stopping Pattern, back when we had a decent(ish) railway HST stopped at KEYHAM (Plymouth)

If the North Curve at Bradford on Avon was still there that would add a few more as would the West Curve at Thingley junction also the East curve off the BTM avoiding line.

Trains with some of the most weird routings were the Starlight Expresses from London to Scotland in the 60s especialy during the electrification of the WCML south of Crewe, when they left from Marylebone.

The sleeper is off round Yeovil tonight! Routed via Bristol PW on Monday.

Indeed it is! Nice little journey on the Mule.

For the record, the timings (;D) are as follows:

I suspect that the up sleeper (towards London) has gone via Melksham and Swindon today as the system is not showing it as having reported anywhere between Fairwood Jn and Twyford!

I haven't got a Night Riv sticker yet. I remember for a while during the summer there was lots of 'rareish' ones in Swindon Help Desk on P4, the tempation some days to ask for 1 or 2 of the ones I didn't have was just too much sometimes.