Great Western Coffee Shop

Following on from the discussion about an alleged 19 coach train (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=18792.msg332291#msg332291) I was thinking about the Zone numbers painted on the platform.

What is the highest number you have seen?

Mine is 12

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

But where?

I am wondering if it might be Plymouth, where I believe a train of 150 / 158s can come in behind a long distance express.

No afraid not.

It could be Reading, for one, though some other places have platforms as long.

While the zones are obviously meant to correspond to coaches, these vary in length, so which are they based on? They have actually been marked at 20 m spacing. This seems very odd for Reading, where the trains you'd need zones for have 26 m coaches, and most of the rest are 23 m. But even platforms 4-6 (where 20 m coaches are the rule) are long enough (260 m) for 12 zone marks.

The through platforms are longer, of course, and while the marks can be seen on Google Earth they can't be read and only the ends of the platforms are visible. So P14, which is clearest, would have 14 if they run all the way between the visible marks at the ends (and P12-16 are all 280 m long). P8-11 are even longer, at 320 m, but do not seem to be marked over their full length.

SWR announced a pilot scheme to put zone markings in a few stations, but I have no idea when. (SWR don't date their news items, and this one is not even in their "news" listing (which is dated).)

Well you are much closer than Plymouth but not quite correct. 

Markings have appeared at Pinhoe station, identifying Zones 1 thru 6, which is interesting as the Up platform is 'front three coaches only'

The original pilot scheme list was Sway, Haslemere, Brockenhurst, Hilsea and Clapham Junction's platform 9. So it looks as if they may have moved on to a general deployment. Mind you, I'm not sure there is enough room on a platform largely occupied by copers and a wide blinding yellow knobbly strip.

Whilst it's obvious Melksham would qualify, I'm wondering if Taunton has a zone 12.

On those lines ... Are Zones 1 and 2 combined into a single "Zone 12" at Dilton Marsh  ;D

I am not sure if Taunton has a 12, but the photo is not from there.  (Nor indeed Dilton Marsh)

Just for Melksham ! 

(https://i.postimg.cc/7ZtHKB1s/zone2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/FYcXRVB3)

Didcot/

Well we are narrowing it down.

Looking at a map it is east of this guess and west of an earlier suggestion of Reading.

Probably SWR - Basingstoke?

Nope.

Hook ?

No.

Time for another clue I think - it isn't an SWR station.

Goring & Streatley?
Or possibly Cholsey?

No on both counts.

For the sake of all our sanities I will reveal it later today if it isn't identified by then!

I am very tempted to suggest that if it's not an intermediate station between Didcot and Reading, then it's somewhere much further north. A map of the UK suggests that and east-west band takes in some of the east midlands, perhaps Doncaster and head out to sea near Scarborough.  Scarborough has (or used to have) the longest station seat so perhaps (ha, ha) it has the highest stop number.

It might of course be Gloucester.

It might but it isn't - getting colder now.

Reading West has a platform long enough for a 12 car train and is west of Reading and east of Didcot.

Spot on!

It is on the down platform although I am not sure how often it is used.  It is by the reversible signal at the London end of the platform.   Four coach 387s use zones 7 to 10 so a five car IET, which uses the same same stop board, would presumably be 7 to 11.

The Google Earth pictures of there are, for some reason, a lot fuzzier that for Reading. It's just possible to confirm that the markings here are also at 20 m spacing. So, for a five-car IET, centre to centre of vehicles 1 and 5 is 4x26 m=104 m. So if the first one is in zone 7, the rear one will be five zones back in zone ... 12. Funny old world!

(Note that, strictly speaking, zone 7 is within coach 1, not the other way round. In this case zones 9 and 10 are within coach 3. With coaches shorter that zones you can get one that's between the marks, leaving it unclear which it might belong to.)