Great Western Coffee Shop

Pictures posted in the order they were taken

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_1.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_2.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_3.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_4.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_5.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_6.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_7.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_8.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_9.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_0.jpg)

The 2nd one looks rather like Gatwick

Melksham from one of the Emirates via Paddington, Reading and Bath.  There is more detail than that which I'll take a stab at once others have had a go. 

The class 150 looks like Bath, and the HST must be Reading. Is the one above that at Acton?

Very interesting answers ... you're heading in the right general direction - those answers are all warm, but there are incorrections / inaccuracies too in all of them.

Fifth one is platform 3 at Hayes Harlington, so assuming the airport is in fact Heathrow?

And the train is in Heathrow Connect livery.  So definitely Heathrow.

For the first one I'd guess North Africa, maybe Tunis or Algiers.

Unless it's Melksham after twenty years of climate change and the financial overspill from Digital Devizes.  :D

The "obvious" answer for 1 & 2 is Bahrain. But why, if you land at Heathrow T4, and get an HC train that will go to Hayes, you need to get off at T1,2&3 to get a picture of an HEx train I can't imagine.

I'll try King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh, or King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, for number 2.

Top two don't half remind my of my time in Houston, TX.

Where the first picture was taken was said to be modelled on the USA and Texas was mentioned.


You have the correct country there ... an airport serving a city that's approaching a million in population, part of a province of around four million, but no direct flights to London, necessitating a short international hop at the start.  A lack of pictures at that intermediate point; I was purely transfer in the terminal, after dark and doing other things like catching up on emails.


Treat me as a newby to the trains from Heathrow.

The third picture is a shuttle from T4 to T2/3/Central and the fourth the train running the connect service onward from there, in spite of the colours being HEX. It may have come from T4, but the only train showing on the board at T4 was to Central, and on the principle of "get the first available train as far as you can", I took it and changed.  The shuttle was a 4 car unit (don't know the number) although I seem to recall an 8 car unit on the books for the shuttle; the 'connect' was 360 205, identified from a second wider photo.   Perhaps someone can tell me if this was the normal train / mode of operation and where the connect came from. Maps showed it to start at Central?

On another topic - there is (now?) a ticket machine at T4 selling walkup tickets to offline stations.  At upper screens, it did only offer prices that took my breath away, but then on a later screen said "there is a cheaper ticket if you do 'not via London'; I was fortunate enough to know the geography and that that this would work for me.   Thankful for small mercies - it DID offer, but pity the newcomer who arrives at T4 and doesn't know what to buy ... I might well have been taken in by one of the official touts and spent more than I needed going via HEX; probably as a newcomer would have researched, booked on line and collected from one of a couple of machines also allowing that.

Picture 2 is the King Fahd International Airport, Dammam.

As for T4 trains, I could be several years (and service revisions) out of date - and it's not a link I've used, that I can remember. It looks as if HC now serves T1,2&3 only and HEx shuttles to T4. But from what you saw, they do seem to like cross-liverying.

That was my next choice. I'll admit, I did have some 'inside' info that grahame was in Saudi Arabia this week.

Indeed - the first picture being taken in Dharhan outside the guest house where I was staying - there's no real chance of anyone working that out but it was journey's start (by taxi).   The bus stop outside didn't have any indication of routes, times, fares ... some things don't change the world over!

Not sure on the Connect / Hex side of things and liveries - yes, that was certainly a 'connect' train but with the purple not the orange.

Then ...
- Hayes and Harlington
- Reading
- [not identified]
- Bath Spa Station
- [not identified]
- Melksham.

Here are those two remaining pictures ... remembering that the originals are in order.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_7.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/24h_9.jpg)

Well... the Train Station health and fitness sign is on the corner of Station Approach, Frome, but I can't quite see how that fits into your itinery!

You are correct, Alan.

 I flew straight back into the UK (06:00) and went to a meeting about buses at the Cheese and Grain at 11:15 "direct" from the airport.    I didn't post more obvious pictures of Frome ...

Is the remaining picture Bath Bus Station?

And is that a fluttering bird in the picture?

Yes, and yes.    I went down to the bus station so what literature was available, whether there was a map showing services operating from there up yet, what was showing on the departure boards etc ... bay 14 had no destination panel on it but just the exposed framework with wires running through it and a couple of pidgeons sizing it up as their new home.   Should say "271 Devizes and 272 Bowerhill via Melksham" but there's a limit to what you can write on a pidgeon.

Could always use them to send a message to First Bus Towers in, where is it this week, Norwich?

Carrier Pigeon might be more effective than email. I've had no response to an email sent six weeks ago.