I've been a subscriber to Jago's YouTube channel for several years. He has been historically London centric with his public transport content but has recently (ahem) branched out. Also producing more long form videos such as this one.

This one being an excellent episode. Jago has a warm, humorous, easy going style, with just a little bit of railway politics for historical context. This is just the sort of railway content I enjoy. Even when the subject is something I already know a fair few facts about.

Oh, and that new footbridge is a nice design - a little different from the usual modern Network Rail accessible bridges. Still looks out of place in St Erth though.

 
The term track stones is used to help the hard of thinking…

 

Put me in mind of the GWSR's racecourse station, and my conversation with the relevant authorities as to the desirability of an adjacent  bus stop for the... scheduled bus service that passes the station.

Huge shower of earth as everyone dug their heels in - couldn't posssibly be done... H&S... fast road etc etc. This was when the Gloucestershire Cycle Spine with its extensive alterations to the road there was not yet building and Something Could Surely Have Been Done, but noooooooooh. So, even with the speed limit on the road having been dropped to 40mph, bus passengers continue to have the opportunity to enjoy a half mile hike through the racecourse grounds to the station there ...

Mark

 

Yes, it's bananas.

Mark

 

You can operate bi-directional working if Network Rail have the staff to provide a pilotman.

The downside is, they won’t be able to do anything with the stranded until whilst trains are running.

 

OpenTrainTimes shows 5E13 on the up line from Plymouth approaching Newton Abbott ... but the down line open. Sadly, it shows that the lines are NOT signalled for bidirectional working, which scuppers the change of even one train an hour past the one that can't move.

 

Engineers are due onsite at 20:00 to assess the unit.

 
Probably tempting fate but the sleepers haven’t been cancelled, yet. 

 

Simple. Those stranded will get taxis.  No coach company in the Exeter area can provide coaches, limited number from Plymouth.

The unit is a wheelskate job.

 
From GWR......"Due to the volume of people expected to travel this afternoon, obtaining suitable road transport has not been possible, therefore we do advise customers who can, delay their travel plans".

........so what happens to those who are stranded? Sounds as if people are being told they can claim back taxi fares.....assuming they have sufficient means to pay up front for what could be some very lengthy journeys.

 

Whilst Gloucestershire might have decided on a way forward, Wiltshire has got itself in a complete muddle on strategic plans.  Not directly related to WEMCA but Wiltshire councillors have directed their planning teams to try and get too few new homes etc.  Or put new town and expansion where there were no transport (and other) facilities.

Basically Planning Inspectorate have told Wiltshire to heavily amend proposed plan (which will take time, and need to incorporate the Angela Raynor increased housing target because effectively restarting with new targets, rather than in progress when new targets announced), or they abandon 8 years preparation.  Council will vote to choose which option in May at a full Council meeting.

https://www.localplanservices.co.uk/_files/ugd/017f5b_41ba1d6878834f45ad1450539c829d5c.pdf

So looks like Wiltshire might soon be rudderless when it comes to a strategic plan.

However with no suitable reversing points at WECA boundary, and trains having to continue into Wiltshire, will be interesting to see how this will progress, especially if leads to new developments not where they were expected, and thus transport flows changed.

 
With apologies if this has been posted elsewhere, and I've missed it: it seems Gloucestershire is interested in joining WECA:

Source: Gloucestershire County Council

 
It was the 11:48 from Penzance to Exeter St Davids.

Train is unable to be moved.   Passengers being evacuated.  No reports of any injuries.

Line likely to be closed until later this evening.

Train is just short of Newton Abbot West junction, so trains can still operate to/from Paignton.

 
 Sounds serious, multiple cancellations.

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/newton-abbot-train-fire-live-10880177

 
Superb 30+ minute video released today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8UbdxinHuU

 

Built in 1940, Railcar 22 is having a holiday over easter in Somerset

 
Gartell - two hourly service  Mondays to Fridays from either Pen Mill or Templecombe stations, passes Common Lane (58 service Yeovil to Wincanton)

https://www.firstbus.co.uk/api/timetables/pdf?opco=41&service=58&day=mf&print=pdf

Last year the Gartell ran services on two Thursdays in August, a Bank Holiday Monday, and two Sundays

 
Going back to Tavistock viaduct.  Here is a glimpse from 2019.

 
I found this video, posted rather obscurely on something called 'Face Book', which gives an indication of how things have progressed: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1533852407867827

Incidentally does anyone else find it odd that Network Rail feel that they have to call ballast 'track stones', assuming that people who are interested in railway maintenance wouldn't know what ballast was? Next they'll be calling the rails 'shiny steel strips'...

 
Talking about viaducts in Shepton Mallett....................Kilver Court gardens are well worth a visit - all that is missing is the steam train going by !

 
Back in the mid 80s I was weekending from Scotland to my then home in Hampshire. The Royal Navy provided transport to/from Edinburgh Airport, I received "mileage" for the flight to Heathrow and a rail warrant from Woking to Eastleigh.
The clever bit was the Rail-Air coach from Heathrow to Woking. BR would not accept a rail warrant, as it was a coach - the coach operator would not accept a coach warrant as the bus carried the BR Logo and therefore was a train !! In the end the Navy paid us mileage instead for that bit. I have often wondered if they ever resolved that bit of stupidity - perhaps GBR will. 

 
I should add that the East Somerset Railway is NOT unique in being hard to reach by public transport. There's an irony in attraction about old public transport celebrations being only randomly accessible by public transport.  The Swindon and Cricklade railway is another interesting one ... as it the West Somerset - astonishing that as it should be providing a public transport rail service from all over the UK to Butlins and Minehead.  And I have yet to reach Gartell and Stafold Barn ...

 
written 22nd March 2026 ...

As the crow flies, it's about 1km from Mendip Vale station to the main road at Shepton Mallet.  As the bus rider coming to yesterday's diesel heritage day by public transport, it was a 4km yomp.  There IS a bus that runs part of the way - the 162, every 4 hours, Monday to Friday, which isn't much use for a transport attraction that's open on Saturdays, Sundays, and only occasionally during the week.



I set out on the 07:15 bus from home ... change at Bath onto the 08:10 service on route 174 to Shepton Mallet, there just before half past nine, and grabbed a coffee and breakfast in a cafe. And set out to walk.  Signage for the walk is virtually non-existent, or I am blind - any directions apart from immediate town centres seemed set up for motorists; as a pedestrian I blithely turn right on "No right turn"s and walk to the end of cul-de-sacs, often finding paths going through.

I got to the main cross roads on the outskirts of town, wishing I was a crow, and puzzled by a brown heritage sign looking to turn me right when I felt I should be going straight. Looked at a map on my phone which gave me no clue as to whether or not there was a shorter route, and a local gentleman came up and asked me if I was lost.  I explained where I was headed, and he didn't know about access to Mendip Vale either ... but he did advise that the road to the main station at Cranmore - perhaps a 7km journey - had no footpath beyond Doulting and was dangerous on foot; I re-assured him I did not plan to use the main road. Thanked him, and set off.

The age of chivalry lives.  A big THANK YOU should he read this to Jonathon, who picked up his car, drove along the start of the road, pulled over and offered me a lift - which I accepted - to Cranmore Station itself.  Like me, he's retired and wasn't in any particular rush for the day - beyond that, I know nothing of him other that he's a gent, a good driver, a car a darned sight cleaner than ours, and that he was amazed at the full car park at Cranmore Station where he dropped me off.  10:28 - I got onto the platform just in time to see the 10:30 leaving, and perfectly happy with that - I had not intended to catch it, it looked rammed, and I wanted a look around anyway.

[Story of the day would go here - 11:30 train (dmu) to Mendip Vale, 11:45 train back to Cranmore though is said "Bath Spa" on the front, 12:30 GWR railbus back to Mendip Vale taking - literally - the last seat]

Mendip Vale Station is set in a delightful wooded cutting.  It is ever so slightly more accessible than Manulla Junction, the totally isolated junction for Ballina in western Ireland. There is a "permissive path" along the edge of the railway land from the station back beside the boundary fence to the byway that crossed the railway about 800 metres to the east - the only way to go west to Shepton is to go east along this path.

The word "path" is perhaps generous. Someone (official I am sure) has cut steps up the cutting from the platform to the top of the bank, and along the way there are various signs pointing out holes to be avoided. The path provides all the features you might expect of an adventure walk - ups and downs, trees to dodge, slippery bits alongside barbed wire you don't want to fall into, awkward steps and rises and it shares the way with a little stream at one point.  From the top of the cutting at Mendip Vale, it falls away to a valley that the railway spans on an embankment and bridge, and rises again as the railway runs into the next cutting to emerge between trees and bushes on the little road that crosses that cutting, now not 1km but 2km from Shepton Mallet.

A lovely walk, yes, I enjoyed it, but as a recommended day out for this summer's timetable / public transport brochure, no.  I think of my online friends who I have met up with at the Coffee Shop and even here I could not realistically recommend it. 

The warmest day of the year yet ... and I haven't changed out of my winter coat - the one that Lisa took so long to get me using last autumn because it is so warm. By the time I got to Shepton Mallet (and found the bus stop - another lack of waymarking) - 30 seconds before the bus arrived - my shirt and the coat were soaking with sweat.

12:44 from the platform, 13:10 at the road bridge, 13:48 bus. Got off in Radstock for a much needed pot of tea in the mining museum - but that's another story.

The East Somerset Railway is a wonderful attraction. Don't try to go by public transport.  But great to meet up with rail enthusiast friends there, some of whom I know "both ways" and others who know me from the publicity I encourage in public transport advocacy work and I vaguely recognise, but I am (apology due - I know my limitations) unable to put a name to the face.  A really good day - in terms of providing public transport, the heritage bus and train businesses rarely do anything, but then they don't pretend to. What they DO do is to provide an excellent and interesting day out, an excuse to see places and to travel, a learning experience, exercise, and a friendly social interaction where we all look out for each other in our sometimes maverick ways.

 

But are the lifts at Dawlish working now? Well... no, one of them is out. (The one on platform 2, it's reliability over the past month, 41% but neither are exactly stellar and of course if they take it in turns to break, as they both serve the same route across the footbridge the reliability figures can be combined.)

Mark

 
... in an attempt not to type 'Bath Road, Shepton Mallet' before others had had a go. Though on first sight I was fixated on it being the viaduct by the station site in Tavistock, but was thinking 'However did Graham get to Tavistock at this hour?'

Mark

 
Sorry if I have been asleep on the job.

What is happening to RailAir links in the great new Great British Railways wonderland. I don't know what the current contractual relationship between the ROC and the RailAir provider.

From a passenger point of view will things carry on seamlessly? (Innocent fool?).

 
From the BBC: