Great Western Coffee Shop

The new year's only - err - new, so not many "where's this" pictures available yet.

Can anyone identify these three?

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/fwt1.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/fwt2.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/fwt3.jpg)

For everyone headed back to work tomorrow - what kept you away :D - and welcome 'back'.   Seriously, have a good year travelling everyone.  Many you have less weather and other delays and more opportunities to sit in 2015 than you did in 2014.

2.  Reading Viaduct.   :D

Yep  ;D

1. Staines?

Don't know where No.1 is, but unlikely to be Staines with a 159 passing through?

My thinking of Staines is because from the photo it appears to be 2 platforms with slight curve (which I think Staines has) - plus if it was this weekend, services are on diversion as Wimbledon is closed, so the 159 isn't completely unexpected.

I'm not overly familiar with the SWT network though, so I could be completely wrong :D

It is indeed Staines (and, yes, I was surprised to see the 159!)

I stand corrected, apologies for the bum steer!

Just leaves no. 3 - my final destination station yesterday evening;   I'm working near here (walk from station to hotel and hotel to the company) so no more journeys for me until Thursday.   The Conductor who sold me the ticket on Sunday (I joined at an unmanned station with no TVM) hadn't sold (m)any tickets there before from what I can gather, so not an easy one to identify.  But shows the true value of having a network and not just major stations!

Farncombe?

Nope, sorry - but this picture is going to be a tough one without further clear, so thank you for trying.

As a [further?] clue ... you might like to note that as part of my journey I was on the viaduct at Reading, and later I was on the platform at Staines.

Just a choice of 10 then.....:-)

3. Shepperton ?.

Sorry - a very difficult one ...


It's Syon Lane

Obscure indeed ... but I see they do at least have hotels, even in such deepest 30s suburbia.

More seriously (though only marginally), would that journey be easier if anything comes of the idea of reopening the Brentford branch?


I can't see any sign of such a proposal published by Hounslow, so it is probably more of a suggestion of an idea. And it would still mean two changes via Crossrail if it is a Windsor-style branch, and you can't see that being a welcome addition to the franchise.

Of course there are other possibilities, like connecting to the Hounslow Loop, but they mean land take and big civils work so look even less likely. And on the most optimistic timescales, it would only happen several decades into your active semi-retirement ... 

Passenger numbers at Syon Lane have rocketed over the years, and where I'm teaching more or less backs on to the old Brentford branch.  There are 4 trains per hour each way at Syon Lane, and the crowds pour out and into their workplace in the morning peak.  But Sunday's just hourly, and passengers were very few when I arrived.

I did look at Ealing, District to Acton Town, Piccadilly to Osterley and other alternatives - a Brentford branch with good connections all the way would have worked for me, but by the time I travelled on a local train to Hayes and Harlington or Southall and changed, it was just as good to go cvi a Staines.

"I see they do at least have hotels" ... a generous use of the word "hotel" for where I am.  One to write home about, and one to hold up as an example tour team of how NOT to do it.