Advent Quiz - 2019

[whole diary]

[Reginald25]

Guess. Swindon Town.

[Red Squirrel]

Can I guess that tomorrow's is Taunton?

[stuving]

Guess. Swindon Town.

In Graham's absence (undergoing gainful employment, I believe) can I offer this from BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Wiltshire ten years ago:

Swindon's other railway station
By Neil Lover
Railway Historian

Swindon Station in Old Town existed for just 80 years

Many years ago, Swindon's Old Town used to have its very own railway station.

People familiar with Old Town will know the site where the station once stood is now Signal Way industrial estate, and the old track that lead to it is now a cycle path spanning Old Town.

The station existed for just 80 years to fare-paying passengers.
...

[grahame]

Yes, Swindon Town today.  And it probably won't be Taunton tomorrow.

Running North - South through Wessex were a number of lines
The Didcot Newbury and Southampton (DN&S)
The Midland and South West Junction (M&SWJ)
The Wiltshire Somerset and Weymouth  (WS&W)
Bath - Westbury - Salisbury - Southampton (does it have a name?)
The Somerset and Dorset (S&D^▸ (Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway))

The mid 20th century wasn't kind to them - by 1970 only the Bath to Southampton line was left, with traffic from the south coast to the Midlands and North running via Reading to the east, or traffic destined for the far south west coast via Taunton and Exeter.  Part of the WS&W remained open to passenger trains, though threatened under the Serpel report, and part lost its scheduled passenger services apart from one train each way on Summer Saturdays - good to see that's made something of a comeback, though still broken at Westbury as a through route for passengers.

Seeing a separate thread spinning off for Yatton to Clevedon ... not beyond the bounds of sanity. But I don't seen any case in the forseeable future for the M&SWJ between Hays Lane and Ludgershall, through Swindon Town station.

In Graham's absence (undergoing gainful employment, I believe) ...

Yes, writing Ruby code this week. Great fun. Working with micro-framework for a web appliaction that I'm choosing to call "monorail" as it's very much cut down from Ruby on Rails.   The place I'm working isn't a part of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) that many people want or need to stay, so I'm sitting writing this waiting for the train back to my digs up the line.

[Rob on the hill]

This is how the site of Swindon Town station looks like now:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5494161,-1.7749864,3a,75y,296.5h,87.07t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sV2ojL346-60wtfmbE1U3zg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

http://swindonsotherrailway.co.uk/

The building that was the M&SWJR head office still stands today.

[grahame]

No, not Taunton ...

[PhilWakely]

Somewhere on the Ffestiniog ?

[Reginald25]

Ravenglass and Eskdale?

[martyjon]

Is there a Bath connection with today's picture ?

[ellendune]

Somewhere on the Ffestiniog ?

Yes I would say that it is just south of Tan y Grisiau by the power station.  The photo is perhaps not what it seems at first as the train appears to be using gravity which the old Ffestiniog did long before the reservoir was built. I would suggest that this is some sort of reenactment as the power station is in the picture.  Incidentally it could not now run all the way by gravity now because there is now a summit on the deviation round the reservoir.

[grahame]

Somewhere on the Ffestiniog ?

Yes I would say that it is just south of Tan y Grisiau by the power station.  The photo is perhaps not what it seems at first as the train appears to be using gravity which the old Ffestiniog did long before the reservoir was built. I would suggest that this is some sort of reenactment as the power station is in the picture.  Incidentally it could not now run all the way by gravity now because there is now a summit on the deviation round the reservoir.

There seem to be a surprising number of modern re-enactments - a whole page about it at
https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Gravity_slate_trains

But as you say, the deviation means they can't run all the way (since gravity does not work uphill) and this must have been a special re-enactment as the usual run is downhill form Ddault

[bradshaw]

Pedant alert
Gravity still works when things travel uphill, just acting to decelerate rather than accelerate.

[johnneyw]

Somewhere on the Ffestiniog ?

Yes I would say that it is just south of Tan y Grisiau by the power station.  The photo is perhaps not what it seems at first as the train appears to be using gravity which the old Ffestiniog did long before the reservoir was built. I would suggest that this is some sort of reenactment as the power station is in the picture.  Incidentally it could not now run all the way by gravity now because there is now a summit on the deviation round the reservoir.

The Ffestiniog gravity train was featured and re-enacted on a recent episode of Steam Train Britain. Apparently it's run a few times each year as an attraction/demonstration for the line's customers but only in a viewing capacity. The braking requirements are show to be quite complex requiring a chief brakesman (is that a word?) at the front with a number of additional operatives with brake handles on other wagons. The chap at the front uses hand signals to indicate how many of them need to apply their brakes at any given time.

[Western Pathfinder]

Not wishing to derail this at all however!
Just in case you're not feeling festive yet try this https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_title&v=cD3QlR98--A&ebc=ANyPxKpKc7X_Z2L-l5uzLzec3t22CesBXHbguCI5tiJ21ixY-cCM9sEtjZnC19ydCS3uikduBicApwhqhsYfdRa6vU6q6mIHIA.

[rogerw]

Very good, although some of those horns are a bit out of tune