Recent travels by FGW

[whole diary]

[Phil Farmer]

Last week, having no work, I decided to take some time out to cover a number of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) branchlines, which for various reasons, I had not travelled before.
On one day, I bought a Devon One Day Ranger Ticket, at Bodmin Parkway, with a view to covering all the Cornish Branchlines on that day.
I was sold my ticket by a very helpful lady at Bodmin, who appeared to be a jack of all trades, selling tickets and performing train despatch duties who knew exactly how to find / issue the ranger ticket, unlike some Ticket Offices.
I duly caught a train to St Erth and travelled th St Ives branch, then to Truro via Penzance for the Falmouth line, followed by a train to Par for the Newquay line.   By the time I had reached Bodmin again, it was past 1900hrs, and I decided that I had obviously under estimated the time needed to complete all Cornish branch lines and called it a day. Thoroughly impressed by the stock provision, on the main line I travelled on class 150 / 153 combinations, two class 150's on St Ives line and the smallest train being a single 153 unit on the Falmouth line all well presented, on time and with the conductors making frequent ticket checks - on one train two full checks.   
My only comment about the trip, was that all the branches are marketed as scenic lines and for a lot of the journey appeared to travel through dense undergrowth, offering no scenic view at all ( St Ives excepted ).
On another day I went to Liskeard and took the branch to Looe. Having used the car park adjacent to the Looe platform at Liskeard and tried to pay on the train, unfortunately the conductors ticket machine was broken and so I travelled to Looe and back for nothing.  Finally I travelled from Gunnislake to Plymouth and return and was struck by how slow a speed, the first few miles were travelled at - little more than walking speed.
All in all, they were all excellent journeys, in goog clean stock, well patronised in some cases but never overcrowded.  Well done First Great Western.

[Zoe]

On one day, I bought a Devon One Day Ranger Ticket, at Bodmin Parkway, with a view to covering all the Cornish Branchlines on that day.

How did you cover Cornwall on a Devon ranger?  Would it not have been a Ride Cornwall ranger?

[Phil Farmer]

Whoops, sorry, yes it was a Cornish Ranger, and very good value at ^10.00 for both train and bus travel

[vacman]

Whoops, sorry, yes it was a Cornish Ranger, and very good value at ^10.00 for both train and bus travel

don't you mean a "ride Cornwall", if you were impressed then please let Customer services know, people are quick to complain but very seldom compliment, glad you were impressed with gods country
Noiw some history/interesting fact, the Line Between Gunnislake and Bere Alston is actually a light railway and, correct me if i'm wrong please folks, I'm led to believe it's the only "light railway" on the national network, hence the slow speed! However, if you compare a rail journey from Gunnislake to Plymouth with the road journey you would understand why people take the train, and infact why the line survived in it's present guise.

[inspector_blakey]

I think that the Central Wales Line is also technically a light railway: downgrading it to this status was the reason BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) was able to keep it open and operating rather than closing it.

[vacman]

I think that the Central Wales Line is also technically a light railway: downgrading it to this status was the reason BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) was able to keep it open and operating rather than closing it.

doubt it, when I travelled on the Central Wales line we were certainly doing more than 25mph.

[matt473]

I think that the Central Wales Line is also technically a light railway: downgrading it to this status was the reason BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) was able to keep it open and operating rather than closing it.

Don't think it is as it has occasionally been used for freight diverersions which I doubt would be allowed on what is classed as a light railway. They do however have restrictive Route availability due to weaker bridges along the line so this may be where this information has come from

[grahame]

AFAIK^▸ ('as far as I know') ...

The Central Wales is notable as being the only line that was proposed for closure BEFORE Beeching, but remains open to this day.

The Plymouth, Devonport and South West Junction (Bere Alston and Callington) is the only line built under a light railway order which remains even partially open to passenger traffic as part of the main network.

There is at least one other standard gauge light railway - probably more - running as preserved lines.

[welshman]

Although parts of the Heart of Wales line are categorised as "fragile", almost every sort of passenger train has been seen in guest capacity including HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)); 175; Western, 37, 47 and in 2008 even a Deltic and coaches as well as steam various.

Piccies on YouTube to prove it.

The line is gauged W6A for freight but not liked because of the low line speeds and long distance between the passing loops.

[vacman]

I think that the Central Wales Line is also technically a light railway: downgrading it to this status was the reason BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) was able to keep it open and operating rather than closing it.

Don't think it is as it has occasionally been used for freight diverersions which I doubt would be allowed on what is classed as a light railway. They do however have restrictive Route availability due to weaker bridges along the line so this may be where this information has come from

Nearly all preserved railways are classed as "light railways" despite such loco's as Deltics, Duches', Kings and Castles using them, it's more to do with low speed than actual weight.