Great Western Coffee Shop

From the Wiltshire Times (http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/15395926.Freight_train_damage____costing_us_millions___/#comments-anchor)


Comments within and added to the end of the article indicate that not everyone agrees with Martin's views  ;)

I'm surprised he didn't also point the finger of blame at all those additional passenger trains that have been running up and down through Trowbridge since Dec 2013.

And no doubt cows will yield sour milk, hens will cease to lay, horses become extinct, and anyone riding upon one of these "fire breathing iron monsters" at more than 25 MPH will be suffocated by the rush of the wind.

Or to bring it up to date, pigeons will explode, newts be endangered, and property prices reduced.

Would it be too cynical to imagine that Mr. Valatin's house might be near the railway too...?

It's doesn't take much research to confirm that your imagination is fairly close to the truth.

A quick Google search and look at maps will show you that St Margaret's Hill runs up from the town onto the hill above the railway tunnel between the station and the river. No 34 doesn't actually appear to be directly above the tunnel, but it may be close enough to hear trains and perhaps feel vibrations as they go through.

I am not posting any personal data here that wouldn't be easily found by a member of the public online if they looked


 ;D :D

.............I'm about 100 yards from the GWML and only a few miles from Heathrow, noise/vibration issues are real but everyone chooses where they live...........to be honest I rarely notice it, in fact the GWML was strangely silent last night!  ;)

I wonder whether he did his homework before moving in? You'd think, as an architect, he would know how....

It's over six months since Oxford to Bicester reopened.  Shouldn't all the houses in north Oxford have been reduced to rubble by now?

We have a house under the rail viaduct at angarrack. Only train I notice is the night riviera normally, or the occasional charter. I don't notice the regular stuff

I'm still waiting for the announcement that the Class 387s are going to be retrofitted as bi-mode, in order that the electrification can be removed through the Goring Gap.

I reckon you've a long wait for that one!

I understand that there are one or two stretches of railway tunnel close to building foundations in  London. Of course London would not experience anything like the intensity of traffic of Trowbridge or Bradford upon Avon, so could not expect to experience the same Jericho Walls effect.

As for the Goring Gap, I was going to suggest, in an equally serious vein, that twin 8m tunnels could be bored between Pangbourne and Didcot. However given a cost (HS2/European averages) of c£50M/km and all that steelwork not needed, with clip on overhead conductor rail, it might even have worked out cheaper....

Alternatively, rather than bi-mode 387's, there's still traction available at Didcot MPD to haul through the gap. The smoke and steam would hide the ugly series 1 OLE.

Welcome to the summer silly season.

OTC

I do hope you're right!