Great Western Coffee Shop

Can you identify my journey ... whole day timetable printed.

outward:

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

return:

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

Why might I want just over 2 hours at this destination in the next few days?

Possibly on the Severn Beach line, there are three stations with stops two minutes apart, but teh 19:40/50 departures don't fit especially as the 19:50 seems to overtake the 22:40.

You're 'hot' ... and there is a solution to the overtake.

After a lot of timetabling cross-referencing, head scratching and the odd expletive, I think I can confidently predict that you are travelling from Melksham to Stapleton Road and return on Sat 24th Oct. I do like a mental challenge and this one was quite fiendish; I were like a dog with a bone once I started.

The 'overtake' anomaly is because you have the option of returning from Stapleton Road at 1950 via Filton Abbey Wood and doubling back to Temple Meads, then on to Bath Spa to change onto the train you could catch from Bristol Temple Meads by going in the right direction from Stapleton Road at 1940. That was a bugger to work out as NRE website don't like giving you travel options that feature a wait of more than 45 minutes. It would rather put you on a train in the wrong direction and give you two smaller waits at Filton Abbey Wood and Bath Spa than one big wait at a nice comfortable station with lots of facilities! Madness.

As for why you are pitching up at Stapleton Road, I have no idea. I cannot find any events listed in that area, unless there is something going on in the Community Gardening Hub that isn't advertised.

Going shopping in IKEA could be another possibility, although I can't see you struggling home on the train with a Billy^ bookcase ;D

You're correct ... as was your further analysis about the 'double back'.   The timetable was as emailed to me as a personal timetable by the South West Trains site - a really useful facility for 'whole day' personal timetables.


A Billy would be tough on the train (though I have carried some odd an awkward things by rail in the past - a story for another day) but I could manage a Bobby flowerpot.   I'm meeting up with a bunch of the FOSBR folks - idea being to co-ordinate things between the Wiltshire and Bristol groupings as trains run through one area and into the other.   The GWRUS talks of Chippenham to Clifton Down

Tickets ... I am being offered:

Anytime Day Return - 9.00
Off-Peak Day Return - 9.40

Why on earth would I go for "off peak" rather than "any time".  Both fares are 'via Bath' and ARE offered for the service that doubles back at Abbey Wood.

A fares anomaly....who'd've thought it.  ;D

You're gonna like this.....Buy your Off Peak Day Return (CDR) to any station on the branch to Severn Beach and it's only ^7.60. As I'm sure you know, alighting/joining short is perfectly acceptable, so go for a Melksham-Montpelier CDR. Okay, so you won't have the joy of doubling back at Filton Abbey Wood, but do you really want to? Kill 47 mins at Temple Meads instead by taking the 1940 from Stapleton Road.

There you go, grahame. Saved you half the cost of pint!! ;D

(EDIT: Actually, keep the 1950 as an option, in case there are problems with the 1940. Even though the 'doubling back' would not normally be permitted with the cheaper 'branch' fare, you'd face little problem explaining to the staff on the train from Abbey Wood, bearing in mind the final train you have to catch at Chippenham.....)

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

Thanks for the tip ... outbound journey perfect (and a change to travel on a ticket / under a circumstance that illustrates another recent thread).    Return journey .. I actually caught a train a few minutes earlier, and alterted to the fact I needed to get back to Melksham sharpish to take the 'late shift' which I am now on, transferred to the bus in Bath and spent more than I had saved on an extra single.   Still - nice to see how well the Train -> Bus connection now works in Bath.

And sorry I couldn't make it......was too emotional after Rovers lost to Yeovil :'(

(Oh and I forgot!!)

No problem ... I admire honesty.  I've documented by journey here (http://www.wellho.net/mouth/2477_By-train-.html). How much can you work out from the pictures, and can you tell me which pictures weren't actually taken in the right locations?

Well, there's bound to be at least one Taunton picture there ...  ::)  ;D

If there was I didn't spot it!.

And an amusing little travelogue of the journey (http://www.wellho.net/mouth/2477_By-train-.html?txt) grahame.

There are actually at least two. :-X

Yes, very funny, grahame!  ;) :D ;D ;D ;D

Hmmm ... I used library pictures for "Rail Campaigners" and "meeting" which didn't need to be location specific; true, they happened to be in Somerset. There are a couple of others which were also taken away from the point on the journey they're illustrating, and not Somerset. 

Hmm, in turn. Now I'm rather intrigued. :-[

Setting aside the 'pints (of milk)' picture, which could clearly be generic, I thought all the other photos appeared to be quite specific to your actual journey ...  ::)

The only 'suspect' ones I can now suggest are the 'diesel engine' and 'driving / traffic' pictures.

I, as an ex-pat Tauntonian, am also intrigued. The pics are a bit small with no hypertext links to larger images so it's a bit difficult to place them! The milk bottles could be outside my sister's house in Taunton, as she's in the shrinking minority that still get milk delivered!

To be fair, bignosemac, you probably wouldn't be able to identify the very small picture of 'meeting' as the TravelWatch SouthWest venue in Taunton (I was there, and I had to look closely! :-[ )

However, the picture of some 'rail campaigners' should be a bit easier (I'm second from right, by the way). ::)

Well if you were at a TravelWatch SouthWest meeting then the pic would've been taken somewhere on the Somerset College of Arts Technology campus. Right?

No it was taken near the taxis outside Taunton station.

K. Need better spectacles.  ;D

Although, looking at it again, 'clock' clearly isn't any of the clocks at Bristol Temple Meads ... and is 'single track' actually the single track at Stapleton Road, or rather more generic? ::)

Yep .. "Diesel Engine" was actually taken at Stapleton Road, although it refers to a train leaving Temple Meads, the "Single track" is actually the curve at Melksham (is the track that good on the Beach line?), and the clock is (!) at Hedge End from earlier this month.  Traffic / driving are Melksham (so that's in order) and Cambridge (so I'm in line to get my knuckles severly wrapped on that one :D )

I did think (later) of adding 'click to enlarge' but that would have taken an awful lot of time I didn't have to prepare all the images!

Thanks, grahame!  I very nearly added: "... or even the lovely new curve at Melksham?" !!  ;) :D ;D