You mean realising that not everyone is going to/from Paddington, and therefore stopping at one of the biggest railway interchanges in the country makes railway journeys more attractive for those on the various lines radiating out from there. Especially when you consider how poor the frequency to intermediate stations between Reading and Taunton is, so not many opportunities for changing further down the line.

This morning there was a Block to Electric Traction between Maidenhead and Didcot Parkway while the wires to Newbury were tested. This saw the stopping services between Paddington and Reading or Didcot Parkway either split at Maidenhead with Class 387 EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) east of there and Turbo DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) west of there, or Turbo DMUs running throughout. It was planned to finish around 1100 but overran by about a couple of hours. Unfortunately it was mostly 3-car 165s replacing 8-car 387s (as there probably aren't enough units to have all services as double units), so there was a lot of overcrowding from about 1000 onwards until the wires were available again and the 387s could run west of Maidenhead.

I do hate how exaggerated this thing about the "massive" steelwork is. Yes the ones for the tensioning equipment where wire runs start or finish are quite big, but they need to be able to withstand a lot of force. Unfortunately you can end up with several of them near stations where there are many crossovers. But for plain line the normal Series1 twin-track cantilevers look much better than the old Mk3 system (both normal length and extra length ones).

Mk3
Southall: https://flic.kr/p/22t5QDW
Southall again: https://flic.kr/p/MVUWhx

Series1
Pangbourne: https://flic.kr/p/HKLVrK
Pangbourne again: https://flic.kr/p/21BYR51
Maidenhead: https://flic.kr/p/21KWQqy
Iver: https://flic.kr/p/DGs7ff (although one of the massive tensioning ones were just out of shot)

Update posted on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Journeycheck

When the 2tph Paddington to Hayes & Harlington service transferred from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to TfL^» (Transport for London - about), they retimed the service slightly by departing 1 minute later and adding public timetable padding before arrival at Hayes. This broke the connection at Hayes & Harlington with the next GWR trains going further west! * The minimum connection time at Hayes & Harlington is 4 minutes, which used to be met in most hours. But now the public timetables only show a 1-3 minute difference between the TfL arrival and the GWR departure

1407, 1415 and 1421 from Southall towards Paddington all cancelled, reason given as All these are running non-stop from Hayes & Harlington to Paddington

Screenshot from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Journeycheck page showing live information for trains from Southall to Paddington. Nothing in the "Line Updates" list.

I had a great day at Imber. Managed to go on LT700, RMC1461 (both 3 times each!), RMC1485 and 69502. I was quite fed up of RMC1461 at the end as it was a bit too bouncy 😂 RMC1485 was better, but I'd have preferred LTs to have turned up for me more! At least Abellio's LT700 was an excellent bus, although it was a shame I didn't get to go on any of the other two Euro 6 ones (Metroline ST812 or RATP London United LT1000). I don't like the engine sound of the Euro 5 ones (Arriva LT1 and Stagecoach LT264) . Shame there was no Volvo B5LH this time as it would have been funny to see it struggle with the short gears on the hills (last year
RATP London Sovereign sent their VHR45203 which is a B5LH with the LT body).
Shame about the train journeys to/from there though Things started off good from Southall with the 0757 to Reading (ok it was 5 minutes late by Ealing Broadway due to a delayed freight train, but the DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) timetable and driver showing off the Class 387 acceleration allowed that time to be recovered by Twyford). Unfortunately from Reading the train to Westbury was cancelled (0903 towards Paignton), so I had to instead to use the 0905 service to Basingstoke (165130) and then the 1007 to Salisbury (9-car 159). Usually that 1007 actually has a portion direct to Warminster but due to the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) strike it was terminating at Salisbury. So I then had to stand on 158798 which was the Brighton to Great Malvern service, arriving at 1132, about 82 minutes late compared to my original arrival of 1010. Passengers on that Brighton to Great Malvern train actually had a scare as their train was being announced as terminating at Westbury due to a shortage of staff, but luckily it actually ran through in the end.

On the way back I didn't mind about which way I went, but the 1803 to Cardiff Central was cancelled due to a shortage of staff, with the unit 158766 passing through ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) about 10 minutes later . So I had to go the other way towards Salisbury at 1810. But due to the SWR strike there was a +50 connection with the train towards Basingstoke, so instead I stayed on to Southampton Central where it was a good connection with the northbound XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service at 1920, which I stayed on until Reading and had no issues until Southall (even managing to time myself perfectly for the 2018 booked DMU service, which produced 165109).

Last night I was considering going that way on the return hopefully if I've done everything by then then I'll go that way

Hoping to be there today. Although GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have already made my journey difficult as the 0957 arrival at Westbury (0835 from Paddington, 0903 from Reading) has been cancelled due to a shortage of staff 

And in the evening the same applies to the 1653 from Westbury towards Paddington.

Looks like the 1R06 1757 London Paddington to Reading (calling at Slough, Burnham, Maidenhead and Twyford) is a DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) this week, while the 2R60 1759 London Paddington to Reading (calling at Ealing Broadway, Southall then all stations) is an EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit). This was originally the case from January but in February they swapped the units to make the stopper a 5-car DMU and the faster one an 8-car EMU.

In May they started dismantling the massive blue gasholder which has been there since the 1930s (state of progress last week. Some of the smell may be from there, but the asphalt factory built a few years ago near the A312 bridge is also responsible for a lot of complaints in the area.

At Southall I've had no issues buying an Off Peak Day Return for Boundary Zone 6 to Reading, and for Southall to Reading.

People manage with going before or after their journeys, just like would happen while travelling by other land-based transport. Or indeed while being out and about in public as toilets aren't always easy to find. I regularly travel on Class 707s (no toilets) for 40 minutes and have grown up using the London Underground so maybe I'm just used to it rather than not going far from a toilet just in case I may need it.

The Class 345s are, just like the S8 Stock on the Metropolitan Line, a suburban train designed as a compromise to cater for the majority of shorter peak hour journeys but with also some features aimed at the longer travellers. The layout is needed in order to cope with the huge demand for travel in the peaks (and for much of the day in Zones 1-3) plus also to get people on/off trains in a timely manner. Users of Southall, Ealing Broadway, Stratford, Forest Gate etc would love to actually be able to board the trains in the peaks (especially during disruption) instead of having to leave early in case their train is too full and they get left behind. The 387s used temporarily are seriously poor at coping with crush loads with their narrow doorways and aisles (the old 165s had a bit more space around the doors).

Paddington/Ealing Broadway to Southall has a gap of… 1 HOUR 45 MINUTES this evening! a station with over 2.5 million passengers per year! Now that the 2142 has left Paddington, the next train is at 2327. The 2203, 2227, 2233, 2303 and 2312 are all cancelled. The 2210 and 2259 from Paddington are running but they don't call at Southall normally and they will not stopping there additionally either.

Even the three stations east of Reading with less than 300,000 passengers per year have a better service this evening Acton Main Line has the 2259. Iver has the 2210 and 2259 (2227 cancelled). While Taplow has buses from Slough due to engineering work. The other station with less than a million passengers per year is Langley and that has the same service level as Iver.

Edit: Screenshots of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) JourneyCheck attached