The white Truronian Mercedes in your photo doesn’t have a toilet.

Ours are the blue Megabus branded Interdecks. Toilet is located on the middle stair case. 

 

But if you call it a "Tramway" you might do better?   Haven't Blackpool, Edinburgh and Manchester been able to expand in the current ere? The Chur to Arosa service is an interesting potential precedent and now that we're outside the EU just like Switzerland ...

 

The things some people get up to in the early hours! 

 

An small industrial paternoster lift that is alive and well and can be seen in the branch of McDonalds on Praed Street nearly opposite Paddington station.  It lifts food from the kitchen in the basement.  It's new - it would have been installed in the past year or so when the branch was opened.  The floor of each lift platform is like a comb, which passes through a fixed facing comb at servery level, and the food item gently slides from the platform to a holding area, from which staff assemble the the customer's order.  I was impressed at how this makes excellent use of space in the confined site.

 
From YouTube: 30 minutes

As an ex-narrowboater myself, I feel every sympathy for them.

CfN.

 
Now this is remarkably topical, as I have just this moment been able to ask my daughter to measure my own horizontally outstretched arms, finger-tip to finger-tip, even while she is cooking a late-night snack. 

She gave the answer as 182 centimetres - which I promptly converted to 72 inches, in old money.

Therefore, I am the traditional fathom wide.

Chris.

 

Peoples arms have on average got longer, and finger tip to finger tip is now nearer 2 metres than 2 yards, in many cases.

 
I do not believe it is realistic to expect the railway to reopen, despite ‘proposals’ by some groups.

https://www.facebook.com/maidennewtonbridportrailway/?locale=en_GB

https://www.bridportnews.co.uk/leisure/bestofbridport/19009071.community-railway-plan-bridport/

 David Shepherd looked at buying it just after the closure. The sticking point then was the cutting at Wytherstone which was in clay and slipping, which continues to this day and is part of the Nature Reserve.
Dorset Council seems to have a long term plan to make a cycle path over it but progress is slow. The section between Toller and Maiden Newton is being discussed with the farming community.
https://dorchestertransport.org.uk/2024/11/cycleway-on-former-railway-line-from-maiden-newton-to-bridport/
If they can get this opened then it will be possible to cycle from Maiden Newton to Loders. There are also plans to get some of the trackbed as a cyclepath from Loders to Bridport but it will not follow all the previous alignment.

 
Mark, I do admire wholeheartedly your optimism - but there is no way you will get any new level crossing, anywhere.

Portishead found that out - the hard way. 

Chris. 

 
I'm not going to even try to quote anything specific from this BBC item - it's being updated continuously.

Please: let's all be careful out there! 

Chris.

 

Second best to a bridge* might be to raise the road to trackbed level, flat crossing of the forthcoming shared use route with priority for the latter and a 'Give way' for users of the road. Road users stay dry, shared use path benefits from the lift in status, and also a continuous route.

Mark

*IMHO

 
Were you expected to jog up & down and sign autographs after disembarking? 

 
Last time I got on a rail replacement service at Westbury it was a very comfortable executive coach whose day job was as Taunton Town FC's team transport.

 

Maybe - or maybe I didn't look enough.  Whole variety of coaches at Trowbridge and I suspect the one with loos may have been in use on the longer (Salisbury) runs.

 
I visited Dilton Marsh yesterday and it's good to see a now-decent timetable on display





However, the station is closed until 24th January and any indication of what time the rail replacement bus are running is notable by its absence



Researching online at 12:30 (everyone in Dilton Marsh has a mobile phone, right?), I was disappointed to learn that there was no bus to replace the 12:37 train, and the bus to replace the 13:37 train wasn't due until 13:50 which meant it would miss the bus from Westbury to Melksham.  Oops.

 
The 4 vehicles my employer are supplying from down here in Devon for this rail replacement do have toilets! You just got unlucky having one without a loo I guess

 
Just wanted to say a 'Thank you' for all the effort that has gone into this.

Cheers

 
You appear to have some engineering work down your way on the Sunday which will curtail the cheap fares

 
Naivity perhaps, but trying to look for LOS - SWI on 14/3 returning on 16/3.  Have found an exceptional £ 11.00 out single, but the returns options are showing no advances of any time.

User error on my part, or should I leave it a few days to book?

Cheers all.

 
The trackbed from Toller to Barrowlands Lane has recently been upgraded and a sloped path now leads down to the lane. From here you can access the trackbed at the adjacent Powerstock Nature Reserve all the way to Loders, with a pit stop at the Marquis of Lorne at Nettlecombe!
The lane by the bridge floods whenever there is heavy rain, largely caused by run off from a nearby farm.
The plan is to remove the bridge and raise the level of the road to reduce the risk of future flooding. It is only the second bridge to have been removed, the other was by Powerstock station which was done to allow access to a farm for HGVs bringing cattle feed etc to it.

 
From The Metro

 
The link's to Facebook. The photo is from one Craig Munday. There cannot be many places where a passenger service calls at a manual signal box at the platform of a disused station in order to pick up a (virtual?) token for onward travel and the photographer was lucky enough to encounter exceptional weather conditions and lighting.

Mark

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10162847613639769&set=gm.1361702471907741&idorvanity=384010423010289

 
If they remove the bridge, I suppose that would be the end of the proposal to reopen the railway right through to Maiden Newton.

 
We travelled from Salisbury to Bristol on Sunday afternoon, taking the rail replacement service from Salisbury to Trowbridge. Everything worked well and ran to time (the coach making quite prolonged stops at Warminster and Westbury), and the train at Trowbridge was waiting at the platform, ready for us to board when the coach arrived. Since we had many bags, I was relieved that the vehicle was a coach, with a luggage compartment under the seats, rather than a bus.

 
BTW I also asked Faresaver about the possibility of using one of their double deckers for the first 271 Melksham-Bath which I've been catching intermittently in my commute to Bristol, instead of the 100% train (or replacement bus) option. The single decker 271 is full before it reaches Bath which puts me off using it, and they do use a double for at least one service (1715 Bath-Melksham).

Just got a response from 'a director':

 
From the Dorset Echo


Always sad to see old infrastructure go - especially where there has been discussion as to a potential future rail use.

 

yes - that was probably to do with this:

 
I wasn't able to quote or reply to anything yesterday, but this seems to be resolved now