Great Western Coffee Shop

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

OK - it's NOT FGW served, and I don't think that anyone's going to have a cat in h**l chance of placing this without some clues .... but I'm giving it a go for a day or so.   Then the clues will start.

Frogland?

Looks Austrian to me

Two creditable attempts - thanks, gents.  You're right to suggest that its not in the UK, but the countries you have chosen aren't actually the right one(s) and they don't share borders with the right one either  ;)

Commonwealth (Canada or Australia) or US?

 ;D

The location even has a British name ...

New Melksham?

 ;D

Curiously, "Melksham" is one of the very few British place names that does NOT seem to have been reused overseas.   I am told that this is because:

a) People who live in Melksham are very happy there and don't WANT to set up colonies

b) The train service is so cr*p that they can't actually get out of the town even if they want to

It could also be - let's face it - because:

c) The folks from Melksham haven't exactly been "get up and go / act" types - something the DfT rather relied on when they slashed the TransWilts service

d) It's a peculiar name!

Perhaps I should add that one of those IS right ...

British Columbia?

Victoria?

If we knew where grahame went on holiday it might give us a clue.


I'm tending towards Australia, but may be wrong.

The picture was taken within the last few days, and the time where I am located at the moment is 07:27  ;)

Canada or US?

Go for US because of the fences but then again the telegraph poles could be Canada.

 

Its on the east coast of America then.

Yes, USA (eightf48544) and East Coast - or at least Eastern time zone (Devon_Metro).  You may find out a bit more by researching where I am at the moment  ;)

Carlisle Station

If we look at the geometry of the shadows of the telegraph lines, then we have some useful information. Especially if the photo is moderately recent (because we're currently v close to the autumn equinox).

If the line is running east-west, then the angle at (local) noon will correspond to the latitude. My protractor (you can start to see how old I am) gives this as 21.5 degrees - slightly to the N of a place called Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

So we're probably not talking about an east-west line.

If the line is running north-south, then we're looking at a photo taken at about 11:00 or 13:00 local sun time. Interest now centres on the shadow of the telegraph pole instead of the wires. Doesn't look as if this is at much of an angle to the platform - perhaps the same sort of 70-80 degree angle.

So my money is on somewhere reasonably far south in the US. Probably Florida, but possibly Georgia. There's more British tourism into Florida, so let's go with that.

But when I start looking for British names on railways in Florida I draw a blank. Florida's names are much less British-settler than the states further north. I'm not seeing anything in wikipedia that fits the bill, either in Florida or Georgia.

Is it possible that this is a station (sorry - depot) that no longer has a passenger service? That would explain the neatly-manicured grass (which did originally suggest Switzerland).

its  Carlisle Station

im sorry new Carlisle Station http://www.vrcpa.org/images/jpg/ncgare.jpg (http://www.vrcpa.org/images/jpg/ncgare.jpg)

mod edit: that's one heck of a big photo, so I've changed it to a link just in case anyone is reading this on a slow connection

So much for astro-navigation...

Well, I was impressed. I really wanted you to be right!

It is, indeed, Carlisle Pennsylvania

Edited to add ... and NOT New Carlisle, Ohio nor New Carlisle, Indiana  ;)

I'm very impressed by all the geometry and angle of the sun stuff.  It was indeed middle of the day - last Saturday - but I think the line is running more East - West at this point.   I AM on a slow connection here today ... so I'm not going to check this via Google Maps!

I've looked at the maps. Line does seem east-west through the town. But (alas) Carlisle PA is about latitude 40 degrees N so I'm way out!

im confused .... do i get a gold star?

No... I thought Graham discounted "New Carlisle" up there?

but the station is new carlise .... or is the station at new carlise just identical?

ps sorry for the picture being over sized i didnt know how to fix it

No, sorry, relex109, but your New Carlisle station is the one in Quebec: See http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_vogel/2114478372  ;)

You got a gold star for Carlisle ... then rather tarnished it by adding in the "new" ... which it ain't.

There more of my Carlisle, PA, pictures at http://www.wellho.net/share/carlislepa.html and if you follow the "Gettysburg" link in there you'll come to pictures of that station in 1942 and last Sunday!

so i was correct and spoilt it by going too far.. well the stations do look very similar so you can see the confusion

Cheapskate. Pure gold doesn't tarnish :P

I'm not sure we're really talking 'gold rush' here, though?

As grahame's post explained, his picture was of the railway station at Carlisle, Pennsylvania: relex109's picture was of the railway station at New Carlisle, Quebec - about 1,000 miles apart!

Sorry, chaps!  ;) :D ;D

anyway i like this game... can we have another wezis?? pleaseeee

(http://www.marple-uk.com/railways/rt18_1.jpg)

try this one :0)

I know - but I've 'cheated', so I won't post the answer here.  :-X

Interesting to see if anyone else knows, though?

Chris  ;) :D ;D

Rose Hill?

i knew i should have rehosted the image!! but chris you thought it was marple :-) phil it was rose hill did you recognise it or use the 'method'

graham may take my gold star away now!

No, sorry, relex109: I didn't think it was Marple: I knew it was 'Rose Hill Station 1962' - see http://www.marple-uk.com/railways/c13_01.htm

Chris  ;D ;D ;D

I like to think of it more as "research" :)

I wouldn't have stood a cat's chance in **** otherwise - I struggle to identify old photos of stations I knew well as a lad (Wells, Winscombe, Cheddar etc) let alone places in other parts of the country, other than in the broadest of terms (distinctive Midlands region platform furniture, etc)

The link below might be up your street, Phil.
http://www.raildocuments.org.uk/gwpast/clevedoncheddarmartockyeovil1963tt.pdf

OK ... but most of the ones I have taken recently will be VERY difficult ... however, at the risk of starting an uprising of members who feel it's too far away I offer you ...

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ghgh1.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ghgh2.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ghgh3.jpg)

I'll make it a bit easier by telling you that all three pictures are taken within a few hundred yards of each other.  If you get them, here's one you'll really battle to get the address of  :D

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ghgh4.jpg)

Erm ... Gettysburg ...  ::)

... and, No, I didn't 'cheat' - it's a reference to Abraham Lincoln's 'Gettysburg Address'  ;D

Yes indeed, the lower picture is Gettysburg - the original station track lay along the area of difference coloured (sleeper like) floor slabs, and was a single terminal ptalform at which Lincoln arrived in Novermber 1863 to give the Gettysburg address, just 4 months after the battle of Gettysburg.

In those days, trains were "run around" by the use of a gravity siding, with the carriage(s) pushed up into a sloping siding, the engine run out of the way and the coaches allowed to run back into the platform.  They have a model to show it:

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

Didn't I read that the same system was still in use at Maiden Newton on the Weymouth line - for the Bridport branch train - as late as the 1950s?

I believe it was  used at Yelverton for the Princetown trains and also at Holywell.

It was still being done in the goods yard at Waddon in 1964. The 33 arrived from Norwood Yard backed its train over the crossover into the head shunt and was locked in. The loco accelerated forwards the shunter uncoupled the wagons and pulled the points after teh loc passed so the loco went one way the wagons the other. Another lost art of railway working.

The first three pictures (than no-one has guessed!) were taken at Harpers Ferry in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Harpers Ferry is situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers where the U.S. states of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet. It is well known for John Brown's raid on the Armoury in 1859 which was a spark priot to the American Civil War (thus my comment about the uprising).

There's quite a history of crossings of the Potomac here ...

Ferry 1747 - 1824
Timber Road Bridge 1824 - circa 1851
Bollman Truss Road and Rail Bridge 1851 - Circa 1865 (Destoyed in Civil war)
Second Bollman Truss Bridge 1870 - 1936 (swept away by flood)
Platt Truss and Plate Girder 1894 - present
Deck Plate Girder bridge 1930 - present


Almost reads as complex as the history of lighthiouses on the Eddystone Roack, doesn't it?