Great Western Coffee Shop

I wonder why I slept in on Wednesday - then I realised that Tuesday I had travelled on seven trains, a bus, made 2 ferry crossings and walked in total 7 of 8 km.   Put that way, doesn't look as if I was being too lazy!  Lots of learning ... and passenger watching and getting a flavour of flows.   Quietest train - 2 passengers.  Busiest single door operation - 29 off and 3 on.  Both on the same diagram and within 20 minutes of each other!

Solution to lack of pushchair space in the carriages:

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

Can anyone tell me my destination, or hazard a guess where my counts came from?

Do I detect narrow gauge rail there?

Narrow Gauge leading to ferry from Hythe to Southampton

Correct, and the possibly the oldest electric train in daily service in the world - unless you know better?

Now - where was my train with 2 passengers, and where did 29 get off and 3 get on, single door?

I would say 29 off 3 on might be Melksham but I'm trying to think where the unit might have been before to have only 2 passengers.

For once the answer is not Melksham ;D - and I would be disgusted at having just 2 passengers on any Swindon to Westbury train at any point on the journey!

The Hythe Pier Railway was electrified in 1922. The locomotives date from 1917, having started life under battery power in a munitions factory in Avonmouth.

The Volks Electric Railway in Brighton has been in operation since 1883. It has rolling stock dating from 1901 that is in operation, with stock built in 1892 under restoration. These though aren't locomotives, but are trains when used in multiple. Operates daily from Easter to October.

The Schynige Platte Railway in Switzerland uses electric locomotives that were built in 1914. Summer time daily service.

So, there are older electric 'trains', but possibly none older than Hythe Pier's, that are in use daily throughout the year.

Some more pictures:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/hpr1.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/hpr2.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/hpr3.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/hpr4.jpg)

Maybe not quite the oldest ... but the oldest in daily use all year.  Traffic a bit thin on a cold February midweek morning but I understand there is a good commuter flow, and it's attractive for the leisure market in anything but the most brutal of weather!

The only place I can think of with a single door operation that might have that number of passengers is Dilton Marsh.  The 2 passengers would than be on the corresponding warminster leg

Correct - two passengers arrived at Warminster on the 15:00 from Frome.   The return service at 15:28 (headed of Great Malvern) carried 55 passengers of whom 29 got off at Dilton Marsh.   Now ... as that's school traffic and there is no easy parking / pickup up point at Dilton Marsh, it's a pretty good pointer to the significant walkable residential catchment that station now has.  A confirmation that usage isn't low because of a lack of population - more likely to do with the unmatched services provided for round trips, and the long wait if you miss a train back.