Great Western Coffee Shop

This one is probably one of those where you either know it immediately or you probably won't know it at all.


And it comes with an opening, possibly misleading, clue. I went there on a day trip from Chippenham, but not the sort of day trip that most people would ever think of doing...

With the difference in height between the metal work are we to assume that two tracks are diverging on different levels?

Yes

The bracken and blackberry plants suggest a sandstone geology

Stab in the dark.

Newton Abbot?

I'll have to take your word for that, geology not being one of my strong points!  ;D



You're going the wrong way from Chippenham :)

Equal stab in the dark, sandstone and the other way than Newton Abbot, could it be somewhere in Herefordshire? No, I'm not going to be more precise, cos I haven't a clue! Looks lovely though and I'm waiting to find the answer with my planning fingers itching.

Not Herefordshire I'm afraid, but I may have crossed Herefordshire on the way.

Stonehouse/Stroud way?

Shropshire?

Going in the right direction, but still a long way short.

As I said at the start, this one is easy if you happen to know about it, but hellishly difficult to guess if you don't.

If no-one gets it in the next couple of hours I'll post up the answer, but first I'll expand on the clue I gave at the start -" a day trip from Chippenham, but not the sort of day trip that most people would ever think of doing..."

I've already said that I might have crossed Herefordshire on the way, and I've also said that Shropshire was going in the right direction. But I haven't said, deliberately, that I travelled through either of those counties. What if I was in an aircraft at the time?

Ballyboley Junction?

I had to look that up so no!  ;D

And not anywhere in Ireland - Ulster or Eire

Carlisle?

Somewhere near Dornoch?

Balloon trip?

Sheffield Meadowhall, near the Travelodge.

Well nobody has got anywhere near yet, so I'll post up one final non-railway pictorial clue. And given there's only one place it could possibly be after you've seen it, the answer will become obvious if you know that neck of the woods:

St. John's then ... or just outside Douglas. Not the airport itself at Ronaldsway as the station there is still open, though the second least used airport station in the UK.

The junction of the Isle of Man Railway and Manx Northern Railway a little west of St John's where the two lines diverge as they cross the River Neb.

Ah yes - Ronaldsway International Airport station...


The reason for its lack of use is that the IOM Steam Railway doesn't advertise it as a call! It is a request stop for those "in the know" even though it is only 300 yards walk from the airport terminal building. When I was last on the island in 2017 I was staying at the Sefton Express Hotel which is even closer to the station, and got a remark from the guard when I asked him to stop three times on the same day!


The photograph is indeed of the twin bridges west of St Johns, where the Peel line (in the foreground) and the Ramsey line diverge. It was a much photographed location when the lines were open, because many trains were combined from Douglas to St Johns where the portions were split, and "races" often happened between the two drivers along here. The Peel train would have had the advantage of the gradient, but the Ramsey portions were usually lighter.

There was also a branch to Foxdale that once ran south from St Johns, and just east of the station that branch passed over the Douglas line. It is the only point on the Isle of Man where one railway is bridged by another.

As regards the day trip element, back in 2014 I found out that a small airline called Citywing were operating a twice daily service between Gloucester airport (Staverton) and Ronaldsway with an advertised flight time of 70 minutes. Leaving Gloucester at 0910 and Ronaldsway at 1710, it easily gave you six usable hours on the island. Regrettably Citywing went bust in 2017 (even more regrettably 4 days after I paid them £360 for two returns when we were going over for the Festival of Transport, but that's another matter...) and nobody else wanted the Gloucester route.

It is still possible to do a day trip to the Isle f Man today from Liverpool, Manchester or London City airports, but none of those is as convenient for me as Gloucester was. Easyjet fly to and from Bristol on Mondays and Fridays but only one trip on each day, so you can go from Bristol if you want a long weekend or most of a week on the Isle of Man (or longer periods of course).

There's also the combined Rail+Sail option to the Isle of Man with mainland trains to Liverpool or Heysham then Isle of Man Steam Packet ferry to the island. Quite reasonably priced for a short break and there are also Railcard discounts on the fares.

https://www.steam-packet.com/information/sailandrail

We ended up sailing from Heysham after Citywing went bust when we went in 2017. Although we took the car over (mainly because that's the easiest way to get to & from Heysham, an I had some books that I had to take over anyway), we had "Go Explore" tickets when we were there, which give (almost) unlimited travel on all rail, bus and tram routes.

https://www.gov.im/categories/travel-traffic-and-motoring/bus-and-rail/go-cards/go-explore/