Totally offtopic, only Wednesday... it's been an 'Interesting' week - mods please ban me: but it's the mention of Newquay that's to blame.
I can date the following to winter 1977-1978 as I recall pondering the possibilities while walking up Galley Hill Road*, Swanscombe, to the railway station there on a trip home from work.
BR▸ at that time were advertising... were they called 'Merrymakers'?... a winter day trip from Paddington to Newquay, £2.50.
I didn't manage to buy a ticket before it sold out, and to this day have not been to Newquay.
So, on to the station. Swanscombe... the up side platform deep in its frostbitten cutting had precious little lighting but it did have a small enclosed waiting room with a one-bar radiant wall-mounted electric fire on a timeswitch. Press the button = a few minutes glorious and effective warmth.
Eventually the train, complete with compartmented passenger accommodation would arrive with a fizz from its shoes, and a glow of 'Nice but dim' incandescent bulbs, its interior slightly warm by that time of day - but less so for early starters on winter mornings, as the stock used to arrive well chilled, the occasional pause on the journey punctuated by the ticking of various metal components as they warmed (or cooled).
Also, that strange pungent upholstery-and-brake-dust smell, the fishnet weave of the luggage racks (that a few years later would save my life) the cement works pollution-etched and uncleanable windows, and that strange jugger-jugger-jugger noise that would start up at random intervals from beneath the carriages, even breaking the silence when the train was held at signals, both the sound and the timing of its appearance a complete mystery to many people.
All a far cry from the Western Region, let alone present-day
GWR▸ -land, but those trains... in some distant part of Kent, across windswept marshes and on moonless nights perhaps they're running still.
Mark
* Checking the location, Google maps has that road marked as closed - it is carried on a strip of chalk left when all around has been quarried - and now has a substantial bridge over the Channel Tunnel Rail Link for good measure. All this too much for the geology, and something has gone terribly wrong. If doing the commute now, how I'd get to work I don't know.
https://www.kent.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/road-projects/in-progress-road-projects/galley-hill-road#tab-1
Click on the map to explore geographics
