Recent Public Posts - [guest]
| Re: Trees near the railway In "The Lighter Side" [366478/30860/30] Posted by bradshaw at 19:48, 4th October 2025 |      |
2Cardiff Bay
| Re: Trees near the railway In "The Lighter Side" [366477/30860/30] Posted by grahame at 19:34, 4th October 2025 | |
I was gonna go for 2, but the sign is a bit too helpful. 
1. Starcross.
1. Starcross.
Ooops ... and yes.
Chris is correct that 8 is not the strawberry line. 7 is not the river Frome.
| Re: 2025 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury In "TransWilts line" [366476/29726/18] Posted by grahame at 19:24, 4th October 2025 | |
18:35 Westbury to Swindon due 19:17
19:44 Swindon to Westbury due 20:29
19:44 Swindon to Westbury due 20:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to a tree blocking the railway earlier today.
19:44 Swindon to Westbury due 20:29
19:44 Swindon to Westbury due 20:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to a tree blocking the railway earlier today.
So crew out of place / out of hours??
The whole system needs a rewrite ... Realistically, it can't be done
Realistically ... it won't be done. You would be amazed what can be done with a little bit of code, especially when it can be applied over a complete network with a need for special code lines.
| Re: Trees near the railway In "The Lighter Side" [366475/30860/30] Posted by Clan Line at 19:18, 4th October 2025 Already liked by Chris from Nailsea | |
I was gonna go for 2, but the sign is a bit too helpful.
1. Starcross.
1. Starcross.
You beat me to it - by about 20 secs ! - on 1 & 2 !!
| Re: Trees near the railway In "The Lighter Side" [366474/30860/30] Posted by JayMac at 19:16, 4th October 2025 | |
I was gonna go for 2, but the sign is a bit too helpful.
1. Starcross.
| Re: Trees near the railway In "The Lighter Side" [366473/30860/30] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 19:00, 4th October 2025 | |
I discounted 8 as being The Strawberry Line (local to me) because it isn't - but I do offer a bid for 7. Bridge over the River Frome at Stoborough, Dorset.
| Trees near the railway In "The Lighter Side" [366472/30860/30] Posted by grahame at 18:26, 4th October 2025 | |
On a windy day, my thought turns to trees. Can you identify these?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
| Re: Blind bus passenger left stranded over pass rules - Sheffield / Derbyshire, 2025 In "Buses and other ways to travel" [366471/30852/5] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 18:06, 4th October 2025 | |
Possibly the local councillors responsible for that 'local government bureaucracy' wanting to make themselves credible for re-election?
| Re: Blind bus passenger left stranded over pass rules - Sheffield / Derbyshire, 2025 In "Buses and other ways to travel" [366470/30852/5] Posted by eXPassenger at 18:00, 4th October 2025 | |
Thank you for your post, LiskeardRich.
That imposed lack of 'discretion for drivers' I find shocking. In my previous role, as a grocery delivery driver, we were given 'unlimited discretion' as to how to handle 'unhappy' customers.
In the course of ten years, I had to use that discretion on only a few occasions - and when I did, it cost my employer just a few pounds, in terms of extra mileage when I did a redelivery within my shift, for example. The amount of positive feedback from grateful customers more than justified that financial cost, in terms of ongoing goodwill.
Your summary of the various rules imposed by different councils simply shows how much the bus fare and concession system needs to be rationalised. If I were blind (and I'm not, yet), how could I easily know what those local rules are, and how they may vary from parish to parish?
That imposed lack of 'discretion for drivers' I find shocking. In my previous role, as a grocery delivery driver, we were given 'unlimited discretion' as to how to handle 'unhappy' customers.
In the course of ten years, I had to use that discretion on only a few occasions - and when I did, it cost my employer just a few pounds, in terms of extra mileage when I did a redelivery within my shift, for example. The amount of positive feedback from grateful customers more than justified that financial cost, in terms of ongoing goodwill.
Your summary of the various rules imposed by different councils simply shows how much the bus fare and concession system needs to be rationalised. If I were blind (and I'm not, yet), how could I easily know what those local rules are, and how they may vary from parish to parish?
But that is the difference between a shop that wants to retain customers and local government bureaucracy that is looking to minimise the costs of a service regardless of the long term effect.
| Re: Shadow and visions of the Pink Panther In "Introductions and chat" [366469/28904/1] Posted by JayMac at 17:54, 4th October 2025 Already liked by Chris from Nailsea, grahame | |
Hopefully no coffee based smeg ups with Kryten.
| Re: Where Were We On 20th & 26th September 2025 In "The Lighter Side" [366467/30856/30] Posted by grahame at 17:46, 4th October 2025 | |
I know, but I'm not saying yet - other than to record here that neither of them are Melksham or Taunton.
My sister lives in France.
CfN.
My sister lives in France.
CfN.
The first is in France of course, although it hasn't always been so!
The second picture is a bit further away at St Moritz in Switzerland.
One of the city's tram lines is international - runs into Germany. And beware the hotel with the wheelchair accessible room .... which has steps you can't avoid to get into reception in the first place.
| Re: Weather updates, from across our area - merged posts In "Across the West" [366466/29177/26] Posted by grahame at 17:44, 4th October 2025 | |
The "Melksham" line gained national recognition and was even featured in paintings, such as Arthur Wardle's "Three Greyhounds on the Valley"
or
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1137142141/art-print-three-greyhounds-on-the-valley
At https://melkshamnews.com/melksham-times-past-21/ in our Melksham News, a local historian wrote a piece on these dogs last month.
Melksham Tom was one of the greatest stud dogs in the country during the 1930s and was the sire of more track winners than any other greyhound.
| Re: Where Were We On 20th & 26th September 2025 In "The Lighter Side" [366465/30856/30] Posted by DR7835 at 17:35, 4th October 2025 | |
I know, but I'm not saying yet - other than to record here that neither of them are Melksham or Taunton.
My sister lives in France.
CfN.
My sister lives in France.
CfN.
The first is in France of course, although it hasn't always been so!
The second picture is a bit further away at St Moritz in Switzerland.
| Re: Pegswood - commuter service changing to become useless to current customers In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [366463/30859/51] Posted by ChrisB at 17:24, 4th October 2025 | |
Oh, I remember something very similar in the upper Thames Valley with FGW.....
| Re: Weather updates, from across our area - merged posts In "Across the West" [366461/29177/26] Posted by matth1j at 17:14, 4th October 2025 | |
The "Melksham" line gained national recognition and was even featured in paintings, such as Arthur Wardle's "Three Greyhounds on the Valley"
or
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1137142141/art-print-three-greyhounds-on-the-valley
| Re: No trains will call Gloucester 27 September- 5th October 2025 In "Cross Country services" [366460/30703/43] Posted by ChrisB at 17:05, 4th October 2025 | |
Obtaining RRS on schooldays at such short notice isn't easy...
| Re: No trains will call Gloucester 27 September- 5th October 2025 In "Cross Country services" [366459/30703/43] Posted by John D at 17:03, 4th October 2025 | |
The engineering works are overrunning
Now announced no trains on Monday 6th
Cross Country say they will update journey planners sometime Sunday. Those with tickets for Monday can travel Tuesday or Wednesday instead
TfW say they will publish timetable and update journey planners soon
GWR have entry which includes 2 maps of the bus services, one weekends (and now Monday 6th) and one for Monday-Fri (but not Monday 6th)
Actually it's all got rather confusing, with some of the info less than clear
| Re: Passenger sadly died in December 2018, GWR subsequently fined £1 million In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [366458/20778/51] Posted by grahame at 17:03, 4th October 2025 Already liked by Chris from Nailsea, eXPassenger, Mark A | |
And now on the BBC - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20ej7rkj3ko
Reading the bits about the duty of care and attention and the lack of the risk - which was know about - not being taken seriously / speedily enough - it is probably right that someone should pay a substantial penalty. But as even in such matters, I have an uneasy string of questions such as "where does the money come from" and "where does the money go" with corollaries, depending of the answers, about whether it deters something similar happening for the future, and whether it removes funding from important projects, some of which could actually be being done to make the railway better.
| Re: Gloucester closure at end of September 2025 - effect on TransWilts In "TransWilts line" [366457/30715/18] Posted by ChrisB at 17:01, 4th October 2025 | |
Rewiring the entire signalbox is my understanding.
The job is complete, but testing won't be & this is going to over run into Monday.
| Re: 2025 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury In "TransWilts line" [366456/29726/18] Posted by ChrisB at 16:55, 4th October 2025 | |
The whole system needs a rewrite....it's every station & potentially any service. And how far in advance to prevent the change on a train (sayu) 10 mins before? Realistically, it can't be done
| Re: 2025 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury In "TransWilts line" [366453/29726/18] Posted by grahame at 16:50, 4th October 2025 | |
Do you know how complicated it is to change fares in the online system & TVMs? A LOT longer than it takes to remove a tree from a railway line. And then change it back again. It's not just a line of code.
Do you know how complicated it was to write the code to allow trains to be pulled out of the system and added in - and that's happening on the fly because it was written. I'm not suggesting a one off fix that has be be applied every time a change s made - I'm suggesting updating the code which makes it fit for the purpose of short notice train changes with short notice fare changes. This is hardly the first time that GWR have cancelled trains through Melksham.
| Re: 2025 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury In "TransWilts line" [366452/29726/18] Posted by ChrisB at 16:37, 4th October 2025 | |
Do you know how complicated it is to change fares in the online system & TVMs? A LOT longer than it takes to remove a tree from a railway line. And then change it back again. It's not just a line of code.
| Re: Weather updates, from across our area - merged posts In "Across the West" [366451/29177/26] Posted by grahame at 15:54, 4th October 2025 | |
I am grateful for the colon : otherwise I would think North Somerset was a very strange name for a dog......
In Bosnia, according to her pet passport, she was called Darling. When she was 'rescued' to the UK, she was renamed Ginny. She still doesn't speak English, though.
On a depressing afternoon as trains are falling (or rather trees are) like bowling pins ... you two got me thinking about dogs that share names with places. I found a social media thread with pictures of dogs called Adelaide, Amararillo, Aspen, Denver, Elba, Kemi, Kona, Nancy, Salem and Victoria. In reality, a lot of those places are named after people so it's a real wan of corms. Here in Melksham ...
"Melksham Greyhounds" refers to a historically famous line of racing greyhounds bred in Melksham, Wiltshire, by Henry Sawtell. The most notable among them was Melksham Tom, who was a leading sire in the 1930s. The "Melksham" line gained national recognition and was even featured in paintings, such as Arthur Wardle's "Three Greyhounds on the Valley"
| Re: Weather updates, from across our area - merged posts In "Across the West" [366450/29177/26] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 15:33, 4th October 2025 | |
I am grateful for the colon : otherwise I would think North Somerset was a very strange name for a dog......
In Bosnia, according to her pet passport, she was called Darling. When she was 'rescued' to the UK, she was renamed Ginny. She still doesn't speak English, though.
| Re: 2025 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury In "TransWilts line" [366449/29726/18] Posted by grahame at 15:28, 4th October 2025 | |
Well - there is the Tree
And - oh look - GWR, who have told us they will accept "via Melksham" tickets via Bath Spa in the event of a cancellation, have chosen NOT to offer that lower fare on their booking engine for such journeys. Cheeky - "a tree's blocking the route we would normally take you, so well charge you an extra £3.40 unless you know how to work the system to get the lower fare". If people choose to go via Bath Spa, the higher fare is justified. If GWR withdraw the direct route, them it's not.
