Great Western Coffee Shop

Apologies for the ad-filled link...

Royal Mail to ditch its train fleet (https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/royal-mail-to-ditch-train-fleet-as-part-of-major-shake-up-to-delivering-post/ar-BB1pJYT1)

That's very disappointing news.

When we first moved to Nailsea, some 30 years ago, we could hear overnight the distant sounds of the mail train powering along the main line.

It was rather quaint, in a sort of WH Auden way (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmciuKsBOi0&ab_channel=FilmPoems).  ;D

Night time trains are even better when they rattle past close-up.  There used to be quite a bit of traffic on the railway overnight - parcels, mail, newspapers, sleeping-car trains, milk tanks and, of course, stone, all used to provide my all-night train set.  Very special to be there overnight in summer with all the windows of the 'box open and the lights out, watching and hearing the trains go by.  The Up sleepers, powering up Brewham, hauled by a D1000 and getting louder by the second, is something that I'll never forget.  Also the sound fading away of anything heading west, down Brewham bank.  Milk empties used to rattle well - but they ran in the daytime

Apologies for being a bit misty-eyed now

The Networker based fleet of EMU's is being phased out,

The charges for electricity & maintenance were rising in October, so road becomes cheaper....