Advent 2017

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Christmas - or rather advent - is starting slightly late this year!    1st December was a chaotic day as consultations and follow ups to them rained down upon us, so let me start with not one but two pictures on 2nd December, on what's going to be an (almost) daily series in the run up to Christmas.

1. Where is it

2. What thoughts and stories does in conjure up?

Picture for 1st December:


Picture for 2nd December:

[SandTEngineer]

I'll start then....
2nd December
Location: Post Office Railway at Mount Pleasant (ex) sorting office.
Memories: My Father-in-Law was a postie there for 25 years.

...and I know the 01 December one, but will leave it to others to have a go....(but CfN to note its not TAUNTON )

[grahame]

I'll start then....
2nd December
Location: Post Office Railway at Mount Pleasant (ex) sorting office.
Memories: My Father-in-Law was a postie there for 25 years.

Correct - I was lucky enough to see it in the 1970s when it was operational, and took the tourist trip a couple of weeks ago.  They have done a very good job in the presentation and the postal museum across the road, yet somehow it felt a bit hollow.  And I felt really old when I noted that the trains in the museum that I recall seeing weren't the final ones running but the generation prior to that.

[Chris from Nailsea]

.... (but CfN to note its not TAUNTON )

No curved platforms at Taunton - even I know that! 

[SandTEngineer]

Well, as nobody else is in the xmas spirit just yet I'll answer the 01 December one as well then

Location: Swansea Station
Memories:  First visited in 1968 on a tour of South Wales scrap yards.  To be honest, took much more interest in the surrounding infrastructure, so not many photographs of scrapped steam locos in my collections.  Here is a photograph looking the other way, taken in 1969 (I think):


Image (c)2017 SandTEngineer

[grahame]

Well, as nobody else is in the xmas spirit just yet I'll answer the 01 December one as well then

Location: Swansea Station

I suspect the Christmas spirit has got diluted in the flood of technical documents this year!

Although I'm getting to be a regular at Swansea, it's not an old stamping ground for me an that picture is, for sure, Swansea but not as I would have known it.   There was a second Swansea station in those days, right?

[SandTEngineer]

There was a second (LMSR) station at Swansea but that had closed by the time of my visits.  Something I have just realised is that the sidings in the right distance in my photograph are now the new IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) stabling/maintenance sidings!

Now, somewhere I have a photograph of the South Wales Pullman (Blue Pullman) coming into the station.  I'll see if I can find it in the boxes.....

[grahame]

Let's see how you (all?) do with this one which has a very limited GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) service at present

[paul7575]

Let's see how you (all?) do with this one which has a very limited GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) service at present

Southampton Airport Parkway

Paul

[grahame]

Let's see how you (all?) do with this one which has a very limited GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) service at present

Southampton Airport Parkway

Paul

Correct - just two GWR trains per day at present, one from Cardiff to Portsmouth and the other from Portsmouth to Westbury.  Sad really as it's such an excellent airport;  here in Wiltshire we have a direct service from Salisbury going there ...

[Adelante_CCT]

Just beaten by Paul... Yes Southampton Airport

As a child we went on random trips to airports, usually to Gatwick to have a coffee and watch some planes land/take off from the viewing gallery, invariably catching the 14:50c back to Reading (via Olympia) for the sheer fun of it. Once or twice for variation we went down to SOA, a very sparse place in those days IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly), very empty with just a handful of planes all day, I don't even recall a coffee shop in the terminal.

I did fly to Jersey on a tiny plane once, although on that occasion we drove rather than went by train.

[grahame]

It certainly has changed ... 21 flights out tomorrow morning (and I eliminated codeshares from my search - so real departures!)

[paul7575]

When I was still working I often did day trips from Southampton Airport to Glasgow or Edinburgh, typical check in times of 30 mins or less, and the time to get from the plane to the taxi on return was really excellent, it was quite unusual to have to wait for your luggage, it was almost always in reclaim when you got there...

Paul

[Rhydgaled]

There was a second Swansea station in those days, right?

There was at least three at one point I think; at least I've heard three names:
Swansea High Street (still open)
Swansea St. Thomas
Swansea Victoria
Did these three names belong to three different stations, or was one renamed? And was there a fourth?

[Worcester_Passenger]

Attached is a scan of the area from the Railway Junction Diagrams 1915 book. There's a total of six termini:

High Street is the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) station, still open.

Victoria was the LNWR^▸ (London North Western Railway) (and later LMS^▸ (London Midland Scottish - 1923 to 1948)) station that served as the southern terminus of what is now the Heart of Wales line. Closed 1964 according to Wikipedia. The 1910 Bradshaw has 12 departures Mon-Fri, 17 on Saturdays, nothing on Sundays.

St Thomas was the MR^▸ (Midland Railway) (also later LMS) station for their line that came in by way of Hereford and Brecon. This was on the east side of the river. 8 departures Mon-Fri (of which three got to Hereford), 16 on Saturdays, nothing on Sundays

The Swansea and Mumbles railway had a terminus at Rutland Street, near to Victoria.

The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway (part of the GWR after 1923) had a station near to St Thomas for a local service to Port Talbot and Treherbert. 7 departures Mon-Fri, 11 on Saturdays and two on Sundays.

The GWR had another station at East Dock, for a local service by way of Neath Low Level to Resolven and Glyn Neath. 8 departures/day.