Less than three hours old

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Here are two pictures I took within the last three hours.





Both are in the same town.  And I am still in that town now.

Where am I [Rating - quite hard!]

[Btline]

Blue Ridge, Georgia?

[Chris from Nailsea]

On this particular occasion, I regret that I was not standing next to grahame when he took these photos - but I think you're in with a good shout, Btline: see http://www.blueridgemountains.com/blue_ridge.html 

[grahame]

Blue Ridge, Georgia?

Spot on, BTline ... I rated that 'quite hard' and the first guess - within 30 minutes - was correct.  I'm impressed. It's 8 hours from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) territory, and there are fewer trains calling than at Melksham or Newton St Cryres ...

[grahame]

On this particular occasion, I regret that I was not standing next to grahame when he took these photos - but I think you're in with a good shout, Btline: see http://www.blueridgemountains.com/blue_ridge.html 

This is a personal trip for once - visiting very close family in their new home which is in a building that actually staddles the Tennessee / Georgia border.  The full story is emotional, and one to be told to a few close friends but I can tell you that the weekend is going well.

The very first train of the season runs today, at 11 a.m. local time, and like a number of preserved railways in the USA it's the only train of the day.  I don't know whether or not we'll be on board - so you may see further reports.   But we did go downtown (about a mile from where we're staying) to find out the schedule yesterday, and found the train in and being readied for the season. What would have been a summer evening (weather wise) in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) ... blossom on the trees.

[Btline]

I've a confession to make!

Greetings to the new members who signed up yesterday ... but whom I didn't get a chance to authorise for about 12 hours.  My apologys for the delay - I'm always especially keen to check the "bona fide"s of sign up requests very quickly indeed as the last thing you want as a newcomer saying "please may I join" is to be told "we'll get back with you".

Regrettably, we do have to look at each sign up request and sanity check it, even with the "please retype this word" option turned on, and there is no easy way to automate this.  We're looking to exclude people who have no interest in public transport, nor in the South West of England, South Wales or Thames Valley - the requests from people who, when you research them, seem to spend their lives selling pharmaceutical products via the web 

Yesterday's hold up?  I was travelling from Melksham to Blue Ridge, Georgia - regrettably unable to use FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s excellent servives to Gatwick due to lack of anything at the time we needed at the Melksham end - it's an old story, but it's the sort of frustration that lay behind the creation of "The Coffee Shop" in the First place.

Still - it's the first time I've got one of these right!

[Chris from Nailsea]

Commendable honesty there, Btline - and I must admit that I, too, had seen that same post from grahame, just previously!

[johoare]

I can't believe I didn't try this one and get it right, Must try harder!.. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

 

[grahame]

Hey ... detective work like reading my other posts is all part of the 'game' ... but perhaps *I* should try harder to leave fewer vapour trails behind me.  I *do* try to avoid clues that are too obvious like having the name of the place in the image name, mind you!

Jo - keep watching as I'm sure to be putting up more puzzlers from time to time.  Yet in a way, these games are a bit like the national lottery, where everyone starts off thinking they could be a winner at the start of the show, but by the end ... (I am not a lottery player, b.t.w.)

We're still in Georgia - still just up the road from the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway which started its season yesterday with a run from Blue Ridge to Copper Hill and back, and there's another run today. We didn't (and probably won't) be getting a chance to ride but as you saw from the pictures, I did go down to the railroad to have a look around on Friday evening.

The train has 10 cars - all look in good condition, freshly painted for the season, and with a GNER^▸ (Great North Eastern Railways) (Georgia North Eastern Railroad) locomotive on each end.  There's a complete special needs car, an unpainted (aluminium?) car of *that* certain age ... tourist cars without windows, and vintage enclosed cars.  They're each huge by British standards.  And these cars run on track which - though well maintained - is to a far lower standard that I would expect to see even on a UK^▸ (United Kingdom) preserved line.  A few pictures to give you an idea:









The other thing that strikes me as so different is how here, in Blue Ridge, I can wander up the main street where the railway track runs in its own grassy right of way and be positively encouraged onto the track; there's a stream too, and footbridges that lead you nowhere but the lines, and they look well used.  Roads cross with nothing but a white line to show the traffic where to stop, and an RR and an X on the road.   Now I'm sure that the daily train's pace makes a snail look fast, and it's clearly audible and can pull up short of any obstruction ... but it's still an amazing contrast to the UK.