Can you help identify the places / events from the last year?

[whole diary]

[ellendune]

And while I am at it:

5.3 is Exeter St Davids

and I think 9.3 is Birmingham New Street

and is 18.1 Newport?

There I have looked closely at all of them now and that is all I can do.

[grahame]

And while I am at it:

5.3 is Exeter St Davids

and I think 9.3 is Birmingham New Street

and is 18.1 Newport?

There I have looked closely at all of them now and that is all I can do.

Right on all counts. At Exeter for the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Community Confernence in June, postponed from February. At Newport on my way to work in Liverpool ... at times that Club55 has been running in Wales, it's cheaper to go up via the borders than via Birmingham - but, goodness I always feel that the new Newport station is cold and bleak, and I have memories of at least one occasion where I've seen the Shrewsbury-and-beyond crossing the river Usk on its way out as my delayed train from Trowbridge has been pulling in.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Set 6, 1.  Weston super Mare;

Set 6, 4.  Westbury;

Set 15, 3.  Yeovil Pen Mill.

I think. 

[grahame]

Set 6, 1.  Weston super Mare;

Set 6, 4.  Westbury;

Set 15, 3.  Yeovil Pen Mill.

I think. 

You think correct in every case.

The Westbury picture was on Warminster Vintage Bus Running Day in October ... the Yeovil picture on a Summer Sunday trip that should have been to Weymouth, but overrunning engineering works forced a switch to buses, which weren't initially available then came in insufficient quantity and we aborted the trip.

[Tim]

12.3 is the Caledonians sleeper at Euston?
16.1 is Birmingham Moor Street
I've a feeling that 17.3 is Chippenham, but also that I have seen the picture before and got it wrong before.

[grahame]

12.3 is the Caledonians sleeper at Euston?
16.1 is Birmingham Moor Street
I've a feeling that 17.3 is Chippenham, but also that I have seen the picture before and got it wrong before.

Birmingham, yes. Chippenham, yes.  But I don't think that's Euston from memory (started / ended there on my trips on the Caledonian Sleeper, mind!)

[brizzlechris]

Set 2, Image 4: Cheltenham Spa
Set 16, Image 3: Bath Spa

[grahame]

Set 2, Image 4: Cheltenham Spa
Set 16, Image 3: Bath Spa

Correct on both counts. 

Cheltenham Spa always seems such an incredibly busy station ... and is a significant changing point for us travelling up from Melksham and / or Chippenham to the midlands and north;  I've been there on several occasions this year, connecting northbound and southbound from / to the original TransWilts trains - the ones that were running even prior to December last year.  I'm reminded as I post a picture of Cheltenham Spa about some of the issues that have arisen with others taking pictures there; a seemingly different local interpretation on railway photography there to almost anywhere else.

The barriers at Bath Spa, you'll notice, are open ... and I stood there during that period, late in the evening and in the company of a very well known rail advocate and campaigner, watching people's travelling habits.  We had no way of knowing who had tickets and who hadn't, but we noted very few people using the ticket machines, and wondered at the potential significant loss of revenue that was happening here.  I was awaiting the train to Chippenham to connect with the last bus (the one that takes train tickets) to Melksham, but from a minute or two delay it slipped back as it (I understand) had got stuck behind a local on its way in to Bristol from the west.  A classic example of where a few minutes delay to a train can lead to a very significant 'hit' on the arrival time at the final destination.   There was good news that evening though ... and for Melksham from Bath there's also an option of  bus some 80 minutes later.

[grahame]

I've just completed all the remaining answers for you ... rather than run on into next year.  A huge variety of places visited in 2014, with some missing even from this set of 72.   Hope you enjoyed guessing which was which, and perhaps taking a look back at some you missed!

Set 1
1 Westbury / 153 381 celebrates 1st year of TranWilts improved service
2 Reading - Stuving
3 York
4 Westbury - Duncan Hames, MP^▸ (Member of Parliament), a key player in the TransWilts improvements

Set 2
1 Chippenham / disused platform - Chris from Nailsea
2 Melksham - TrainWest exhibition, Christie Miller
3 Burton-on-Trent
4 Cheltenham Spa - Brizzlechris

Set 3
1 Oxford - Stuving
2 Banbury
3 Sheffield
4 Stratford-on-Avon - view towards Honeybourne

Set 4
1 Westbury Leigh
2 Melksham - Town centre bus stop for catching metro route 14 (horrid stop!)
3 Paddington - Ellendune
4 Taunton 

Set 5
1 Blackpool North
2 Claire Perry in Melksham - Chris from Nailsea
3 Exeter St Davids - Ellendune
4 Cambridge Busway

Set 6
1 Weston super Mare - Chris from Nailsea
2 Swindon - Ellendune
3 York - Ellendune
4 Westbury - Chris from Nailsea

Set 7
1 Glasgow
2 Wolverhampton
3 Radstock - aspirations of a link to Frome, and concern at First Bus price changes
4 Scarborough, Cliff Lift

Set 8
1 Melksham / station car part - Chris from Nailsea
2 Dilton Marsh - Chris from Nailsea
3 Melksham
4 TransWilts between Swindon and Melksham

Set 9
1 Bristol Temple Meads - Chris from Nailsea
2 Carlisle - Ellendune
3 Birmingham New Street - Ellendune
4 Trowbridge - Chris from Nailsea

Set 10
1 London Victoria - on our way to the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) for anACoRP briefing
2 Scarborough
3 Motherwell - getting off the sleeper at 06:54
4 TransWilts between Swindon and Melksham

Set 11
1 TransWilts / MRDG^» (Melksham Railway Development Group - about) HQ^▸ (Headquarters)
2 Westbury - old station master's house
3 Elstee and Borehamwood
4 Cambridge, guided busway at Milton Road - Stuving

Set 12
1 Weymouth - thetrout
2 Swindon - Ellendune
3 Glasgow
4 Lancaster

Set 13
1 Neath
2 Melksham - awaiting the train to go and see Santa
3 MRDG Santa wrapping party
4 Swindon - North Wilts canal passes under railway

Set 14
1 Chippenham
2 Melksham / Carnival, July 2014 - Chris from Nailsea
3 Melksham / new shelter - Chris from Nailsea
4 Bradford-on-Avon

Set 15
1 Westbury
2 Hatton
3 Yeovil Pen Mill - Chris from Nailsea
4 Warminster

Set 16
1 Birmingham Moor Street - Tim
2 Trowbridge
3 Bath Spa - Brizzlechris
4 Scarborough - after evacuating the Spa Ballroom due to a fire alert

Set 17
1 Swindon
2 Glasow Subway - Bignosemac
3 Chippenham - Tim
4 Stevenage

Set 18
1 Newport - Ellendune
2 Liverpool Lime Street
3 Bath Spa - Chris from Nailsea
4 King's Cross - Ellendune

[Chris from Nailsea]

I've just completed all the remaining answers for you ... Hope you enjoyed guessing which was which, and perhaps taking a look back at some you missed!
...
Set 4
1 Westbury Leigh
2 Melksham - Town centre bus stop for catching metro route 14 (horrid stop!)
3 Paddington - Ellendune
4 Taunton 
...

Thanks for posting those missing answers, grahame. 

However, I have to say that I am still struggling to work out Taunton from your image (not for the first time, as our readers will know. )

What part of Taunton station is that?

[JayMac]

That'd be grahame stood at the western end of Platform 2 looking at the, not in passenger use, bay Platform 1, and across to the newly laid engineering/stabling sidings which also form a headshunt for Fairwater Yard, allowing engineering trains to shunt without occupying the through lines.

Rare to see a passenger train stabled there.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for that excellent explanation, bignosemac.  Of course, it's the other bay platform. 

I obviously need to spend even more time at Taunton, researching possible photographic locations ... 

[ellendune]

That'd be grahame stood at the western end of Platform 2 looking at the, not in passenger use, bay Platform 1, and across to the newly laid engineering/stabling sidings which also form a headshunt for Fairwater Yard, allowing engineering trains to shunt without occupying the through lines.

Rare to see a passenger train stabled there.

Ah you mean the one that ought to be used for trains to Minehead!

[grahame]

That'd be grahame stood at the western end of Platform 2 looking at the, not in passenger use, bay Platform 1, and across to the newly laid engineering/stabling sidings which also form a headshunt for Fairwater Yard, allowing engineering trains to shunt without occupying the through lines.

Rare to see a passenger train stabled there.

Ah you mean the one that ought to be used for trains to Minehead!

 

I think this is the one that ought be used for Minehead: