Great Western Coffee Shop

I may live on the TransWilts line - a railway that connects five towns in Wiltshire, with some extensions to three more ... but from there I can reach over 2500 destinations in Great Britain by train.

Now - where can you see that I have been?   

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sob000.jpg)

All of these pictures are from my train trips in recent years and this spring and summer I've a lot more journey options!

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sob003.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sob001.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sob004.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sob002.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sob005.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sob006.jpg)

If you can identify the location of ALL SIX of these, please post where they are!  ;D

Fairly sure I know all locations, but I'll answer just the one to let others have a go.

3. Crofton Beam Engines, next to the Berks & Hants Rly and Kennet & Avon Canal, between Bedwyn and Pewsey

5. Bont y bermo.

Et en anglais, s'il vous pla^t? Je sais qu'il doit ^tre ^crit en gallois, mais pour les indig^nes de l'Angleterre leur propre langue trop serait utile!

Now then, how does one go about setting up a poll on this site? The questions being: Do you think it is wrong to refer to places in Wales by their Welsh name?

6 is Paddington  :)

Or 5 is Paddington if we're not counting the first picture (otherwise there would be 7)

1. Melksham
2. Barmouth Bridge
3. Weymouth
4. Crofton (Pumping Station)
5. Bristol Temple Meads
6. Paddington
7. Glasgow central

Spot on - the second set is all places you can now get to, comfortably and at a decent time of day, from the first station. The picture showing a whole load of people looking excitedly it the direction of a train arriving is much more a thing of the past now, as trains arrive about once an hour through the day  ;)

Just a small observation.  Don't you have a Yellow Line on the platform at Melksham............ :o ;) :D

No yellow line at melksham.

Linespeed is 40mph - I understand a yellow line is only mandatory where line speed is 100mph.  It was also put along platforms where slamdoor stock used to call in the days before central locking.

That's correct.   The speed of trains that don't stop at Melksham Station isn't high enough to warrant it, as it's on a corner (or as much of a corner as you get on a mainline railway) so they are all going slowly (or as slow as express trains go for such a corner).

Bearing in mind that the users of this station are likely (for a year or two anyway) to be relatively unfamiliar with train travel and the need for care, even if the timetable shows nothing until their train, we enquired about yellow lines.  The capital cost of providing them apparently isn't the big concern - the concern is the operational cost of keeping them clean and smart.

We have a (self imposed) limit of trying not to attract more than 120 users per train for safety reasons at the station. And - before you ask - we're looking at lower numbers when the train's a 153 rostered service.


I had *slightly* different figures to those ... but principle applies.

Of course, if we did have yellow lines there might not be much space left for passengers

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

and they might be ignored anyway

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

I think you meant 2, rather than 5.  ;) :D ;D

I wasn't sure which way the pictures were running, so saw BNM has numbered Crofton 3 and worked from there.

You can't expect me to be good with numbers.  ;D

Dim siarad Cymraeg? Yn Saesneg, Barmouth Bridge.

Well, I can see why you didn't take up accountancy!  ;) :D ;D

Meanwhile, of some concern to me, from a personal safety on the railways point of view, on the subject of lines on platforms is this:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sob000.jpg)

I think we need to get a line painted across the end of the level part of the platform, with a warning sign that the public should not proceed beyond that point onto the slope down towards the track.

Nor at Glasgow Central, it would seem from the photo. Tactile paving seems to be replacing yellow lines, or is that just low-speed stations?

Is siarad the way you spell the word which I believe is pronounced 'sharad' and translates as 'speak'? Don't know what 'Yn Saesneg' could be though. And shouldn't the Welsh for Barmouth Bridge be 'Pont Abermaw', since there's nothing before the word Pont to mutate it and the Welsh for Barmouth is Abermaw (mouth of the river Maw).

Sorry, might have been talking nonsense there because I can't actually speak or read Welsh, I've tried a few lessons and haven't really got beyond 'dim sharad Cymraeg' but I've seen enough road signs etc. to know things like Barmouth is Abermaw.

Why not? It's a ramp, it's part of the platform and it can be walked on safely. Just so long as they don't get all the way to the bottom and put their feet on the ballast. You make an intersting choice of wording though, where there are such signs it often says: "Passengers must not pass this point of cross the line". Some pepole on the platform may not be passengers, so the wording of the sign does not apply to them even though it probably should (although not in the case of one such sign at Aberystwyth which is daft, as there is recently refurbished perfectly serviceable platform beyond the sign).

Y Bermo is a colloquial name for Barmouth, and similarly for the bridge. Indeed a Class 37 was named Bont y Bermo back in the 80s.  I would agree with pont v bont, but have only ever seen it referred to as bont - maybe the rules are bent for what is a colloquial name as it is more alliterative. I am a long way from an expert on mutations, although I did once question with a welsh speaker whether the sign Croeso I Comet outside a branch of the now closed retailer was incorrect and he confirmed it should really have been Croeso I Gomet.

And yes, siarad is pronounced sharad.

On the 8th December 2013 there was a somewhat faded sign - although you might have had to stray quite a way down the ramp to actually read it!

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/melk3003.jpg)
(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/melk30032.jpg)

However by March it had been replaced by one similar to this one at the other end of the platform

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/melk30033.jpg)

As an aside, I love this picture of yours, Bob.  I recall you took it just after getting off the train, and it shows the bus into Melksham Town Centre, Melksham Forest, Queensway, Snowberry, Campion and Bowerhill passing just before people have had a chance to get from the train to the nearest stop {which isn't as near as it should be, but that's another story}

I did indeed, after which I then walked into town for a meeting. I could then catch a bus from outside the meeting venue which dropped me directly outside Trowbridge railway station!

I took a look at the (new) signs at Melksham Station today.  The sign at the north end says "Passengers must not pass this point or cross the line" and it is situated at the bottom of the ramp. So I suggest that it's reasonable for people to assume that it's OK to walk as far as the sign - in other words all the way down the ramp.

... which is clearly nonsense.  The reason all of those galvanised metal gates and rubber mats have been installed at stations such as (just for example) Nailsea & Backwell and Keynsham is to try to stop members of the public from leaving the level part of the platforms.

Members of the public have no need to go down the ramps at the ends of platforms: they will not be able to board any train from down there, and the closer they get to the tracks, the greater their danger.  They also choose to place themselves in the firing line, so to speak, of any discharges from the toilet flushes on those many trains still operating without retention tanks ...  ::)

... getting a short sharp shower of...

... shurely not?  :o ::) ;D