Don't think anyone's mentioned Raynes Park in SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) land.

OK first post here for a while, the lack of activity is explained below 

Real name Adam, joined here when I used to brave the daily commute from Twyford/Maidenhead into Paddington. A change of job and a house move meant a change of commute, and for a while I was a creature of the North Downs line, from Farnborough North to Guildford.

Another change of job and house move later (and now with a family as well) I am no longer a rail commuter. We are based in the New Forest, but I still follow all things GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) with interest. In fact I think I have progressed from serial whingeing commuter to rail enthusiast!

Looking back over this thread, thare are fewer posts than before (used to be daily)- can we deduce that the service is getting slightly better? (The emphasis is on the "slightly") The cancellations now seem to be more due to train faults rather than staffing issues. Are the recent train faults IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) or HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units))?

Isn't this going to lead to a bit of a stock shortage? We have 11x (?) 387s going to Heathrow Express, I'm sure on the assumption that 345s would take over the Reading work. The 769s are very very late (Northern haven't got theirs yet, and I think that the Welsh franchise are in front of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) in the queue as well).

Speculation time....

However it's effectively an EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) shortage, and there are some in storage available now (365s). Although not ideal, any train is better than no train, and Scotrail have proven what can be done on short notice.

That'll be the one.    All these forums get confusing- nearly posted it in the radio section of DigitalSpy... 

It's being reported on another forum that Porterbrook are looking in to the practicalities of converting some Class 319s to bi-modes (or tri-modes even)- a possible solution for the North Downs? 4 car units, Diesel on the non 3rd rail bits. Possibly an interim solution for the Thames Valley branches (not Bourne End though) as well?

James Madden and Nathan Rao's "forecasting" are the butt of many jokes over on the Netweather forums. Madden is an "alternative" forecaster (ie reading the tealeaves or something). I think they work on the stopped clock principle- it's still right twice a day.

 
What course does the Lumberjack Song appear in? What about the Dead Parrot module? 

Wow, the queues to get in at 10:30 this morning! Right back to the roundabout by the fruit & veg market. But all credit to the organisers, it moved, and quickly. Spent a great morning there, and just about managed a bacon butty before the rain came. Spent a bit of time explaining to the little one why we were allowed on the tracks today, when I've always given him the lecture about keeping off  He was more fascinated by the Pandrol clips than the rolling stock, because we have one at home used as a bookend. All in, well worth the trip.

I'd love to know the grand total raised for Springboard today- it must be a sizeable amount.

The rules are so wishy-washy in the existing PF^▸ (Penalty Fare) areas anyway- I know it's been discussed numerous times before, but as GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have made a business decision to make most of their TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) card only, PFs are unenforcible if you have the ability to pay the fare in cash. There are numerous reasons why you wouldn't want to use, or have a credit or debit card. There's no legislation in this country requiring you to carry one on public transport.

Just booked mine- there are still over 1000 available- kids tickets are getting a bit low though- 130 left, but I'm wondering if these figures are simply so that Eventbrite's systems can function, rather than actual maximum capacity. We waited till the weather forecast was published- it's looking fairly good, a few showers around, but certainly not a wash out. I may regret bringing a 2 year old though  He's more of a bus enthusiast. Fortunately he no longer needs his pushchair, and will be fine on his reins.

Stafferton Way car park (multi storey next to Homebase) is run by RBWM and is only ^4.50 for the day. I think the walk to the station is comparable to the walk from Shoppenhangers Road, if not slightly shorter. I used to park there when I used to do the Maidenhead commute. However I do understand if you're coming from any direction other than Braywick Road it's a bit of a swine to get access to without doing a circuit of the town centre.

The Daily Express' "We're all gonna die" weather headlines are the in joke over on the Netweather.tv weather enthusiast forums. They're always written by the same hack who always has the same private forecaster providing this information. Said forecaster is a practitioner of "alternative forecasting" techniques (seaweed?)

A simple standard question surely could be asked by both ticket clerks and TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine)- "fastest or cheapest?"- works in Italy.

I presume the drive for the 2 to 3 car increase on the Shalford runs is more due to having to run this as a 166 rather than 165 after the 165 first class removal?