Weymouth - summer weekend loco-hauled services - 2008

[whole diary]

[devon_metro]

Times
Bristol TM^‡(resolve) 0909
Keynsham 0916
Oldfield Pk 0924
Bath Spa 0927
Bradford O-A 0941
Trowbridge 0949
Westbury 0959
Frome 1010
Castle Cary 1025
Yeovil PM 1042
Maiden Newton 1106
Dorchester West 1124
Weymouth 1138

Weymouth 1658
Dorchester West 1711
Maiden Newton 1724
Yeovil PM 1744
Castle Cary 1801
Bruton 1807
Frome 1819
Westbury 1838
Trowbridge 1845
Bradford O-A 1853
Bath Spa 1908
Oldfield Park 1912
Keynsham 1920
Bristol TM 1930

[Timmer]

If it hadn^t been for the fact that I decided to go out and about on Saturday, I would have not known it was running. The only ^publicity^ I have seen regarding the additional was an A4 page stuck onto the booking office doors at Frome Station Saturday morning showing the times of the additional and the other trains between Bristol and Weymouth, which certainly wasn^t there on Friday afternoon.

Hopefully the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) publicity machine will swing into action and start publicising this extra service and soon.

Whilst on the one hand, FGW certainly deserve praise for running the train throughout the summer rather than on certain dates, they also deserve critism for the way in which they have dealt with this, but then again I'm not surprised given FGW's "love" of the ex-Wessex empire.

They do indeed deserve praise as this is going to cost a lot of money and they don't have to run this extra services as part of their franchise. It was a shame that all this wasn't sorted out over the winter so it could have been included in the printed summer timetables, but we must remember that there is a third party involved in running extra trains and thats good old Network Rail.

Although crewed by EWS^▸ (English Welsh & Scottish Railway Ltd, now known as DB Schenker Rail (UK^▸ (United Kingdom))), it is advertised as a First Great Western service, and should be treated equally as such. I am led to believe from the on-train staff that there are negotiations on-going to enable the train to run on weekdays (presumably during the school summer holidays).

Hopefully this will happen as its needed during the school summer holidays, Sundays too IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion).

Perhaps if FGW used the train on an actual timetabled services between Bristol and Weymouth ^ like Wessex used to do ^ then they might get more benefit out of it.

Couldn't agree more with you. This would also free up units to boost other busy summer services in Devon and Cornwall. The only problem now with doing this is that Weymouth line trains now also run beyond Bristol to Gloucester/Worcester/Great Malvern which didn't used to happen when Wessex Trains ran the Weymouth line.

[Graz]

If this were to operate in the weekday it would benefit me immensley. A northbound train leaving Frome at a sensible time- 1819 - would mean I could once again travel from Frome. And I like going on Loco trains too

[Steve44]

16:58 Service was cancelled today according to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) site, Member of train crew unavailable.

16:58 Weymouth to Bristol Temple Meads due 19:30
This train has been cancelled.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.

[Timmer]

16:58 Service was cancelled today according to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) site, Member of train crew unavailable.

16:58 Weymouth to Bristol Temple Meads due 19:30
This train has been cancelled.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.

Bit of a shame that. Does anyone know if the 09:09 ex Bristol down service ran?

[devon_metro]

Down service ran. Might be due to the riot at Bath!

[swlines]

I get the feeling the LHCS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Coaching Stock) is on the 1730 WEY - BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains)...

[Timmer]

I get the feeling the LHCS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Coaching Stock) is on the 1730 WEY - BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains)...

That would be the most commonsense thing to do.

[CliveD]

The LHCS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Coaching Stock) did indeed work the 1730 Weymouth Bristol TM^‡(resolve). I understand the 1251 Gt Malvern Weymouth (which forms the 1730) terninated at Westbury on the way down.

[BRADNOCK]

Sorry to seem dumb but what is the LHCS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Coaching Stock)

[devon_metro]

Loco Hauled Coaching Stock

[grahame]

Sorry to seem dumb but what is the LHCS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Coaching Stock)

One of the less common acronymns, so not dumb at all.

I've added it to our acronym page at
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/acronyms.html

[Timmer]

Here's a useful timetable from the Heart of Wessex Rail Partnership showing times of the extra loco service to Weymouth as well as services either side of this train both in the morning and the return journeys from Weymouth late afternoon:

http://www.heartofwessex.org.uk/downloads/Loco%20mini%20poster.pdf

[Graz]

There's also a poster on platform 2 at Oldfield Park advertising this service- it doesn't mention it's loco powered but there are 4 loco photos! This is the first and only publicity I've seen so far.

[Timmer]

There's also a poster on platform 2 at Oldfield Park advertising this service- it doesn't mention it's loco powered but there are 4 loco photos! This is the first and only publicity I've seen so far.

You kind of get the impression that the person at FGW^▸ (First Great Western) who made up the timetable poster was rather chuffed about the return of LHCS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Coaching Stock) to the Weymouth line so added a few pictures showing the loco in action around various parts of the country to promote what you can expect.

Still nothing about this extra service on the FGW website though.

A few people were on platform 1 with their cameras as I went past on Saturday morning waiting for it's arrival at Oldfield Park. Seems even skips (class 67s) are photogenic these days!