Great Western Coffee Shop

Posted to Bluesky, the black and white photo shows a passenger train crossing a shortish viaduct in sunshine, with an impressively dark-skied backdrop. It's a still from a video. Does anyone recognise the location?

Mark

https://bsky.app/profile/btfstills.bsky.social/post/3l4irillb7i2x (https://bsky.app/profile/btfstills.bsky.social/post/3l4irillb7i2x)

An aside, the film itself is hosted by BFI, and on their page about it they provide a link to the complete video.

However, follow the link and you'll likely see the message that you are an unregistered user, and a link to help understand the issue and perhaps proceed with registration.

Follow *that* link and you'll hit a tarted-up 404 error (page not found).

At this point, you might be moved to inform BFI about the issue with their web site, you'll return to the previous page, and, *yes*, there's a link 'Contact and feedback', which you select, and it works. A contact form appears, you fill it in, hunt for the curiously unobvious submit form and...

Warning: require_once(warn.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/admin/htdocs/scripts/feedback.php on line 3

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'warn.php' (include_path='.:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear') in /home/admin/htdocs/scripts/feedback.php on line 3




This is a roundabout way of thanking the people who keep the Coffeeshop running. OK, Graham in particular, because I'm pretty certain that if the forum software was even slightly starting to follow the considerable lead in disgracefullness set by the BFI site this morning, he would not be able to sleep until it was running straight and true.

Mark

Possibly on the Stroud Valley line; a named train; possibly the ‘Cheltenham Spa Express’.

Glenfinnan viaduct? It has the right curvature

Unlikely - with a "Hall" class locomotive and a train of ex-GWR stock. The Hall would probably have removed to platform edges all the way from Glasgow Queen Street!

Ah, despite being a still pulled from a film, the image is carried by Getty (and others) with the caption:


UNITED KINGDOM - OCTOBER 19: British Railways steam locomotive, 1951. This Hall Class 4-6-0 locomotive with the 'up' 'Cornish Riviera Express' from Penzance is crossing a viaduct near Liskeard, bound for Paddington station in London. The Hall Class locomotives were built for the Great Western Railway in the 1930s. This is a scene from the British Transport Films production, 'Train Time'. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

The viaduct itself is still a bit of a mystery: 'Near Liskeard' provides a choice of viaducts and it's not immediately obvious which one would have 8 arches and be slightly curved, with a lane dropping down beside the line and also signalling at the far end of the structure.

Mark

https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/british-railways-steam-locomotive-1951-this-hall-class-4-6-news-photo/90747757 (https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/british-railways-steam-locomotive-1951-this-hall-class-4-6-news-photo/90747757)

The same film is available on the British Transport Films DVD compilation 'On and Off the Rails' (which I have here, and suspect other members may have as well)

Very strong look of the Glynn Valley (between Bodmin and Liskeard) about it - perhaps Penadlake viaduct?

(https://live.staticflickr.com/7366/26314142613_0b38e43ebf_b.jpg)

Link to image source: https://flic.kr/p/G6hRQ2 (https://flic.kr/p/G6hRQ2)

This is a gorgeous picture!

Thanks! That's it, isn't it.

Mark

Thank you for that Mark - BUT I am slightly embarrassed.   The core for members runs well, with the hard work of content contribution done by the members, and the management done by the team of moderators and admins which includes yourself.   I can sit back and let it run.  You readers are where the real time input is. The server, and members, *do* email me if things go seriously wrong, for them, and (yes) I note quickly

Away from that core, there is much work to be done (and being done at the moment). You won't see too many error messages as the server puts most of them into a file for me to look at - I can do something about them where site visitors can't - sometimes I do but at present there's a backlog of ancient code - witness the individual station pages for example.  "On this day" reported 19 years today since I registered "Save the Train".

Where I am not resting on my laurels is with wider requirements that will be encouraging to others in addition to our core membership.  Over 50% of web traffic is on phones now,  everyone prefers https not http and we have a ceiling on what we can do with GDPR and cookie considerations.  Watch this space, but don't hold your breath.

Lisa and I were busy signing new wills and powers of attorney on Wednesday - so, yes, looking ahead and all the password and key things are in a document safe folder.   Id doing so, we have frightened the kids, who have been asked for signatures on the PoAs.  They were re-assured that we're AOK  and just being careful when we told them about the holiday we have booked for May 2026.  We haven't booked our tickets to Southampton yet - don't even know what colour the trains will be of if they will be 158, 16x or 175s - but we remain flexible for the future.   

There has been a discussion on an Interrail Facebook group that I read about the one thing which is most vital to you on your journey.  For me, my laptop ... even with hearing, site and other things not being what they were (I never had a good sense of smell, as those around me may attest) it remains a vital window to the world no matter where I am.

I'd agree with that one.  I've lost count of the number of times I've gone around this forum, tidying up grahame's typos.  ;D