Great Western Coffee Shop

A precursor to a bumper picture quiz this weekend. Just a straightforward where were we. With a bonus point for spotting the error.

(http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt68/bignosemac/102_0010_zpsfb4757e6.jpg)

Lympstone Village. The train's heading for Exmouth (at least that's what the white lights indicate), but presumably the driver's been a bit keen on setting the destination for the return journey.

Correctly correctington. You got both the location and destination blind error.  ;D

Meanwhile I was looking out over the misty River Exe towards Starcross and Powderham Castle..

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/lymp1203.jpg)

That may not have been mist ... many years ago, I enjoyed contributing towards some considerable amounts of black powder gunsmoke across that estuary.  ;) :D ;D

You weren't in Wiltshire on Weds 5th March (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=13683.0), were you Chris?

Did you visit the hallowed fields of DAL?...

Absolutely not. That would've required a Rail Replacement Bus. Don't do them unless... absolutely, last resort, hell freezing over, no other option... necessary.  :P ;) ;D

Mind you it is hard to know what's running at the moment and whether you need a bus.

Bignosemac asked platform staff at Bristol Temple Meads which way the 09:45 Cross Country Service was going to Exeter, as it has been diverting via Westbury because of the closure at Bridgwater.  He was told, despite the line having re-opened, the train would still go via Bath and Westbury.

As we stood at the far west end of platform eight we became less convinced that was going to be the case.  So my travelling companion took the obvious step of asking the driver who was waiting to take over the train and lo and behold it was running via the direct route and arrived in Exeter 20 minutes early, allowing us to make a brief trip down the Exmouth branch.

Real Time Trains had the 19:44 listed as running via Westbury on Tuesday... It didn't and ran via Bridgwater instead. Controversially this rather upset me... As the purpose of the journey was for a bash around Westbury. I ended up taking a HST via Melksham as a replacement ;D

Because of the lead time in producing short term diagrams the stock and crew are still showing as being routed via WSB. It was felt prudent not to re-issue them as delays are still being incurred running through Bridgwater due to ongoing signalling problems. (I know problems with one signal led to it having a reflectorised fixed distant strapped to it in stead of relying on the colour light). The situation is improving on the mainline route though, to the point that some trains are running half an hour earlier than those shown in the amended timetable - handy for those already on board, not so good for those who rock up to the station wanting to board, though there's generally an FGW service not too far behind.