Great Western Coffee Shop

From the Swindon Advertiser  (http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/15010316.Landslide_halts_trains_between_Swindon_and_Gloucester/?ref=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter)this morning:


Yet Real Time Trains says trains are running:

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced/SWI (http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced/SWI)

The only cancellation being due to a train fault.

Ahh Twitter now adds some clarity:

There is a large boulder on the line towards Gloucester.  Too heavy to move by hand apparently so pneumatic drills are being taken to the site near Sapperton Tunnel to break it up and remove it.

Some trains diverted though  ;)


That's the train I caught last Friday on my way up north - really a train of two halves (Westbury to Swindon and Swindon to Cheltenham Spa) though there is a growing through traffic - around half a dozen stay on the train each day at Swindon [[ that's in answer to a question another member asked me recently ]]

Boulder was discovered by the 05:19 Gloucester to Southampton Central via Swindon and Melksham.  Fortunately it was on the other line, although the train was checked over by fitters at Salisbury.

There's a platoon of NR's orange army on the tracks between Swindon and Kemble but I would suspect that's just routine work going on.

This is the offending object - as featured in the Swindon Advertiser. (http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/15010316.UPDATE__Landslide_halts_trains_between_Swindon_and_Gloucester/)

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

Blimey!  Good job nothing came steaming round that bend the other way as they'd have had little notice!

That looks like a couple of tonnes of sandstone to me. That could easily have been disastrous had it not been spotted in the opposite direction. I imagine that was an "Emergency! Stop all movements" moment.

Line towards Gloucester reopened at 17:20 with a speed restriction in place.

Further update and picture -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-38558776

Comment from online sources - "Very fortunate that the first train through was on the other line and that the driver of that other train saw it ...".  Big "thank you" to that other driver ... and if you (dear reader) are one of his colleagues, please pass on our thanks for his vigilance and prompt action.

Just to add a little bit to that.  NR had full knowledge of the risks at that site so not so much a suprise to them as first made out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-38567316

Perhaps we need "stone signals" ... as fitted in the Pass of Brander.   Talked about them before ...

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=5982.msg57889#msg57889

As long as they are semaphore! Purists would demand Lower Quadrant - personally, I am a UQ man. :)