Great Western Coffee Shop

I've just blogged a year of memories, but my pictures have all got mixed up. ;-)

Can you name the four places and / or identify the picture otherwise for any of the sets?

For the first 24 hours, please identify as many as you can WITHIN ONE SET ... if you get 'em wrong you can have another go.

The images are all at http://www.wellho.net/mouth/4367_A-year-of-rail-memories-.html where clicking on an image will display it larger and to a much higher quality!

COMPLETE ANSWERS now published in reply No. 23

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/montage_1.jpg)
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/montage_2.jpg)
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/montage_3.jpg)
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/montage_4.jpg)
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/montage_5.jpg)

COMPLETE ANSWERS now published in reply No. 23

Identified so far ...

Set 1
1
2 Reading - Stuving
3
4

Set 2
1
2 Chippenham / disused platform - Chris from Nailsea
3
4 Cheltenham Spa - Brizzlechris

Set 3
1 Oxford - Stuving
2
3
4

Set 4
1
2
3 Paddington - Ellendune
4

Set 5
1
2 Claire Perry in Melksham - Chris from Nailsea
3 Exeter St Davids - Ellendune
4

Set 6
1 Weston super Mare - Chris from Nailsea
2
3
4 Westbury - Chris from Nailsea

Set 7
1
2
3
4

Set 8
1 Melksham / station car part - Chris from Nailsea
2 Dilton Marsh - Chris from Nailsea
3
4

Set 9
1 Bristol Temple Meads - Chris from Nailsea
2 Carlisle - Ellendune
3 Birmingham New Street - Ellendune
4 Trowbridge - Chris from Nailsea

Set 10
1
2
3
4

Set 11
1
2
3
4 Cambridge, guided busway at Milton Road - Stuving

Set 12
1 Weymouth - thetrout
2 Swindon - Ellendune
3
4

Set 13
1
2
3
4

Set 14
1
2 Melksham / Carnival, July 2014 - Chris from Nailsea
3 Melksham / new shelter - Chris from Nailsea
4 Trowbridge - Chris from Nailsea

Set 15
1
2
3 Yeovil Pen Mill - Chris from Nailsea
4

Set 16
1 Birmingham Moor Street - Tim
2
3 Bath Spa - Brizzlechris
4

Set 17
1
2 Glasow Subway - Bignosemac
3 Chippenham - Tim
4

Set 18
1 Newport - Ellendune
2
3 Bath Spa - Chris from Nailsea
4 King's Cross - Ellendune

COMPLETE ANSWERS now published in reply No. 23


Edited to reflect answer given so far

I have put these pictures in as a new set of images at the top of pages too.

Can anyone tell me where any were taken, or are you blown away with engineering work discussions  ;)

17.  Claire Perry MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, at Well House Manor, Melksham, 29 August 2014.  (I'm really sorry I wasn't able to attend that Melksham Transport Links event, for various reasons.)  ;)

Set 17, picture 2. Glasgow Subway.

Something rather suspicious about that character in Set 13, Picture 2.........

As for Set 12 Picture 1 - Weymouth with the Summer Special Weymouth Wizard HST :)

That's shown in set 5 picture 2  - yes indeed.  Picture with Anne Lock, long time person behind the move for a station in Corsham, and Peter Blackburn, Chair of MRDG and Vice Chair of TransWilts Community Rail Partnership. A very interesting meeting indeed which informed the minister, showed her how busy we have been, and impressed us with her knowledge very quickly into the job.  However, we also got sense of hurdles to be jumped and goalposts drifting to ongoing service from after the trial period.


Correct as far as you go.  Would anyone care to name the station, though, like we normally do  ;D . I took the opportunity of giving a course in Glasgow to take a ride on the subway - more to learn a little about the network than because of a specific need / I could have walked.   Fascinating at the small size - the tunnel diameter makes London's deep tube look massive.


I'm not sure I see anybody "suspicious".  I do see a key TransWilts CRP supporter who was a rock as usual on that day. Santa Claus was coming to town!

Yes, Weymouth with the Wizard HST.  The Wizard was advertised along the TransWilts line section where it doesn't go (Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham) and didn't connect, but Dad and I took a trip to Weymouth.  We let the official connection go at Westbury (packed, and Dad's getting on) and took the Wizard half an hour later.  A slow schedule and as I recall delays along the way too.   Well - we went more for the journey than a full day at destination, so not a bad day.   Overall, there were engineering overruns, weather issues, and all sorts of other issues that made TransWits to Weymouth a bit of a flop compared to how it went in 2011; having said that, people had other choices in 2014, and they were a great success, allowing us to offer Weymouth as a headline marketing tool, but not promote it to the degree that we put more passengers on that line than it could cope with at the peak.

As we are now beyond the 'one guess only, please, for the first 24 hours' rule, I'm going to have a stab at a few locations for those images.  ;)

Set 2, 1.  Chippenham (from the currently disused down platform);

Set 8, 1.  Melksham Station car park;

Set 8, 2.  Dilton Marsh;

Set 9, 1.  Bristol Temple Meads (looking south west, towards the Bath Road bridge);

Set 9, 4.  Trowbridge;

Set 14, 3.  Melksham Station (new shelter being installed);

Set 14, 4.  Trowbridge (from the footbridge);

Set 18, 3.  Bath Spa (grass growing between the tracks gives it away ;D ).

Sheer embarrassment prompts me to identify various characters portrayed in Set 14, 2.  Bernard Lane of FoSBR, David Redgewell, John Money and ... cough ... myself, among others.  Melksham Carnival, 12 July 2014.  :P

I'm not sure I quite follow how the pictures in a set are meant to be linked. So while 11.4 is the start of the Cambridge Guided Busway, where it sets off from Milton Road towards St. Ives, 1.2 is Reading, and 3.1 is Oxford - so what?

The "pictures from the year" - 72 of them - have been randomly ordered using the algorithm at http://www.wellho.net/mouth/4368_Shuffling-a-list-Ruby-and-Python.html (complete program at http://www.wellho.net/resources/ex.php?item=r107/randimages ).  I felt - perhaps not correctly as responses turn out - that 18 questions with 4 step answers would be a nice change from 72 simple questions.  I have also set myself a problem in going back and writing in which is where ... I will tackle that later today.

18.4 Kings Cross?
12.2 Swindon?

Yep, that's King's Cross WITH trains, and Swindon from an express 'special' passing none-stop

I have added a listing of the correct identifications made so far after the picture in the first post in this thread at
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=15116

CfN - many thanks for all you answers - so many that I'm not commenting individually on each of them, but each a memory for me!

Edit to add - set 14, no. 4 - NOT Trowbridge, rather Bradford-on-Avon

I don't know how I missed 4.3 - Paddington P8
I think 9.2 is Carlisle

Some of the easy ones are sticking - any offers on set 6 (with 3 our of 4 in FGW territory)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/my1_20.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/my1_21.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/my1_22.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/my1_23.jpg)

or on set 15, which also features 3 out of 4 in our area:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/my1_56.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/my1_57.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/my1_58.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/my1_59.jpg)

6.2 is of course Swindon.  I did not spot it before.  The photos are so small.

And is 6.3 York?

Right on both counts.

York, on my way to the Association of Community Rail Partnerships AGM and annual awards.  Much as I have spoken against such awards in the past, we did enter two categories (failed to meet the entrance requirements though - my error), and found the whole exercise to be very useful in taking a careful look at how others would see us from outside, and the awards event very useful in learning and making contacts with other CRPs and with TOC team members.

The pictures are all available larger (see note in my original post) but I appreciate that to see them that way you need to look at them on a one by one basis ...

And while I am at it:

5.3 is Exeter St Davids

and I think 9.3 is Birmingham New Street

and is 18.1 Newport?

There I have looked closely at all of them now and that is all I can do.

Right on all counts. At Exeter for the FGW Community Confernence in June, postponed from February. At Newport on my way to work in Liverpool ... at times that Club55 has been running in Wales, it's cheaper to go up via the borders than via Birmingham - but, goodness I always feel that the new Newport station is cold and bleak, and I have memories of at least one occasion where I've seen the Shrewsbury-and-beyond crossing the river Usk on its way out as my delayed train from Trowbridge has been pulling in.

Set 6, 1.  Weston super Mare;

Set 6, 4.  Westbury;

Set 15, 3.  Yeovil Pen Mill.

I think.  :P

You think correct in every case.

The Westbury picture was on Warminster Vintage Bus Running Day in October ... the Yeovil picture on a Summer Sunday trip that should have been to Weymouth, but overrunning engineering works forced a switch to buses, which weren't initially available then came in insufficient quantity and we aborted the trip.

12.3 is the Caledonians sleeper at Euston?
16.1 is Birmingham Moor Street
I've a feeling that 17.3 is Chippenham, but also that I have seen the picture before and got it wrong before.

Birmingham, yes. Chippenham, yes.  But I don't think that's Euston from memory (started / ended there on my trips on the Caledonian Sleeper, mind!)

Set 2, Image 4: Cheltenham Spa
Set 16, Image 3: Bath Spa

Correct on both counts. 

Cheltenham Spa always seems such an incredibly busy station ... and is a significant changing point for us travelling up from Melksham and / or Chippenham to the midlands and north;  I've been there on several occasions this year, connecting northbound and southbound from / to the original TransWilts trains - the ones that were running even prior to December last year.  I'm reminded as I post a picture of Cheltenham Spa about some of the issues that have arisen with others taking pictures there; a seemingly different local interpretation on railway photography there to almost anywhere else.

The barriers at Bath Spa, you'll notice, are open ... and I stood there during that period, late in the evening and in the company of a very well known rail advocate and campaigner, watching people's travelling habits.  We had no way of knowing who had tickets and who hadn't, but we noted very few people using the ticket machines, and wondered at the potential significant loss of revenue that was happening here.  I was awaiting the train to Chippenham to connect with the last bus (the one that takes train tickets) to Melksham, but from a minute or two delay it slipped back as it (I understand) had got stuck behind a local on its way in to Bristol from the west.  A classic example of where a few minutes delay to a train can lead to a very significant 'hit' on the arrival time at the final destination.   There was good news that evening though ... and for Melksham from Bath there's also an option of  bus some 80 minutes later.

I've just completed all the remaining answers for you ... rather than run on into next year.  A huge variety of places visited in 2014, with some missing even from this set of 72.   Hope you enjoyed guessing which was which, and perhaps taking a look back at some you missed!

Set 1
1 Westbury / 153 381 celebrates 1st year of TranWilts improved service
2 Reading - Stuving
3 York
4 Westbury - Duncan Hames, MP, a key player in the TransWilts improvements

Set 2
1 Chippenham / disused platform - Chris from Nailsea
2 Melksham - TrainWest exhibition, Christie Miller
3 Burton-on-Trent
4 Cheltenham Spa - Brizzlechris

Set 3
1 Oxford - Stuving
2 Banbury
3 Sheffield
4 Stratford-on-Avon - view towards Honeybourne

Set 4
1 Westbury Leigh
2 Melksham - Town centre bus stop for catching metro route 14 (horrid stop!)
3 Paddington - Ellendune
4 Taunton  ;D

Set 5
1 Blackpool North
2 Claire Perry in Melksham - Chris from Nailsea
3 Exeter St Davids - Ellendune
4 Cambridge Busway

Set 6
1 Weston super Mare - Chris from Nailsea
2 Swindon - Ellendune
3 York - Ellendune
4 Westbury - Chris from Nailsea

Set 7
1 Glasgow
2 Wolverhampton
3 Radstock - aspirations of a link to Frome, and concern at First Bus price changes
4 Scarborough, Cliff Lift

Set 8
1 Melksham / station car part - Chris from Nailsea
2 Dilton Marsh - Chris from Nailsea
3 Melksham
4 TransWilts between Swindon and Melksham

Set 9
1 Bristol Temple Meads - Chris from Nailsea
2 Carlisle - Ellendune
3 Birmingham New Street - Ellendune
4 Trowbridge - Chris from Nailsea

Set 10
1 London Victoria - on our way to the DfT for anACoRP briefing
2 Scarborough
3 Motherwell - getting off the sleeper at 06:54
4 TransWilts between Swindon and Melksham

Set 11
1 TransWilts / MRDG HQ
2 Westbury - old station master's house
3 Elstee and Borehamwood
4 Cambridge, guided busway at Milton Road - Stuving

Set 12
1 Weymouth - thetrout
2 Swindon - Ellendune
3 Glasgow
4 Lancaster

Set 13
1 Neath
2 Melksham - awaiting the train to go and see Santa
3 MRDG Santa wrapping party
4 Swindon - North Wilts canal passes under railway

Set 14
1 Chippenham
2 Melksham / Carnival, July 2014 - Chris from Nailsea
3 Melksham / new shelter - Chris from Nailsea
4 Bradford-on-Avon

Set 15
1 Westbury
2 Hatton
3 Yeovil Pen Mill - Chris from Nailsea
4 Warminster

Set 16
1 Birmingham Moor Street - Tim
2 Trowbridge
3 Bath Spa - Brizzlechris
4 Scarborough - after evacuating the Spa Ballroom due to a fire alert

Set 17
1 Swindon
2 Glasow Subway - Bignosemac
3 Chippenham - Tim
4 Stevenage

Set 18
1 Newport - Ellendune
2 Liverpool Lime Street
3 Bath Spa - Chris from Nailsea
4 King's Cross - Ellendune

Thanks for posting those missing answers, grahame.  ;D

However, I have to say that I am still struggling to work out Taunton from your image (not for the first time, as our readers will know. :-[ )

What part of Taunton station is that?

That'd be grahame stood at the western end of Platform 2 looking at the, not in passenger use, bay Platform 1, and across to the newly laid engineering/stabling sidings which also form a headshunt for Fairwater Yard, allowing engineering trains to shunt without occupying the through lines.

Rare to see a passenger train stabled there.

Thanks for that excellent explanation, bignosemac.  Of course, it's the other bay platform.  :o

I obviously need to spend even more time at Taunton, researching possible photographic locations ...  :P ::) :-[

Ah you mean the one that ought to be used for trains to Minehead!

 ;D ;D

I think this is the one that ought be used for Minehead:

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