1. appears to be at Saltash.

 
Also for sale - Venns Cross Station building https://www.stags.co.uk/properties/21987319/sales

On the Somerset / Devon border

 
And GWR have started today with 09:08 Bristol-Weymouth cancelled

The next direct train from my station Bradford on Avon is 18:22
just a 9 hour gap !

There is no trains today from north of Westbury that will get you to Weymouth before midday, hopeless for anyone doing a day trip

 
Correct so far:

0 Paddington - stuving
2 Prague hlavní nádraží  - DR7835
3 Arbroath - broooklea
4 Italy (somewhere!) - eightonedee
5 York - Chris from Nailsea
6 Marlow - Mark A
7 Usti nad Labem - Chris from Nailsea
8 King's Cross - eightonedee
10 Ebbw Vale - stuving
11 Brighton - TonyN
14 Prague hlavní nádraží  - DR7835

Which leaves these (can anyone be more specific about number 4?), several of which are in the GW area.

1.


4. Italy (somewhere!) - eightonedee


9.


12.


13.

 
The not-so-long but still complex history of Fishguard Harbour - on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishguard_Harbour_railway_station


With Fishguard, I get a feeling of a still-latent giant of a prospect for environmentally friendly international travel.  Issues to be sorted out along the way, but in a parallel universe and with political will, it just could be done, perhaps.

 

Oops. Next train to Weymouth arrives there at 13:45 - real killer for day out.   There is an earlier one - 09:00 from Westbury getting to Weymouth at 10:29 which sounds feasible as an alternative until you ask the question "will intending passengers find out about that in time" and "will those from north of Westbury have a suitable connection".

Journeyheck is not offering any alternatives / suggestions

 
From the BBC:

 

Ah, yes: they could do well with another platform at Westbury. 

 
That reminds me of my days having to commute into Bristol on a Wessex Trains 143 ... 

 
7.  Again, from the Czech Republic - Usti nad Labem.  One of our Coffee Shop forum members lives there. 

 

Huzzah!  I shall have a proper look at it when I get back to Bristol.... hopefully tomorrow.

 

Spot on.  A spot for a quiet tea or some other beverage just a short distance from the station.  A bit dull and windy when I was there (the weather, though the description may apply to me too, I suppose) but never the less some gulls, some ducks, and even the flash of a kingfisher.  And a row of cormorants which are pretty standard for the spot!

 

Yes indeed. The "whole" is very impressive with the historic station building sitting beside the platform tracks opening onto Platform 1, with the main road outside, and the modern station below the road - on several layers - amd opening out into a park that provides pedestrian flow around a square and into streets down towards the city.

 
The cafe at RSPB Radipole, the SWRAC is the South West Regional Assessment Centre and they run the cafe there.
They are a Specialist College & Alternative Education Provider in Dorset supporting SEN for young people aged 16-25.

https://swrac.co.uk/

 
2. Also the Czech Republic. The less aesthetically notable present day main entrance hall at Praha hlavní nádraží /Prague Main Station?

 
10: Ebbw Vale - across the green from Ebbw Vale Town station. A chunky bit of steel rolling mill.

 
Today the 1206 Gloucester to Weymouth was cancelled (faulty train)

The 12:30 Cardiff-Portsmouth which follows it, started at Cardiff with 5cars, was reduced to 3 cars at Bristol, then lost 8 minutes by time got to Trowbridge and was terminated at Westbury. 
(What bright spark in control thinks it is a good idea to try and put a 3car & 5car train passengers into a single 3car, then hope the door congestion doesn't affect keeping time)

Real time trains suggesting following Portsmouth train only got as far as Westbury too

 
That looks like the cafe on the causeway to Isle of Portland (map bottom left....partly obscured so may be wrong)

 
From Journeycheck today
16:22 Par to Newquay due 17:14
16:22 Par to Newquay due 17:14 will be cancelled.
This is due to a late running train being in front of this one.


However, RTT shows
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C42612/2026-08-29/detailed#allox_id=0
2N14 1338 Par to Newquay 175115 seems to have vanished on entering Goonbarrow Junction!
Then returned to Par at 1533 as 2N15.

Now parked in Par Chapel sidings as 5N15.

 

Indeed.  The hoardings have now been replaced with temporary barriers and a big poster saying the same thing.

 

You are indeed past 24 hours - all comers welcome.  I will fill in those answered already on the original when back on a landline.

This is where I am at the moment:

 
I think we're past the only one "go" on the first day, so -

8  King's Cross

 
Ah. I've unintentionally cast aspersions on class 158s - but can someone please invent a battery electric version of them.

 

Yes, an urgent need to discard the excess infrastructure - I was too young to witness much of that era and it riles me that from the way it was done that this comes across as the nationalised railway carrying out "External comms by timetable and by deed" on a railway that was still largely wedded to coal-fired steam power. That has resonances for the present day - especially in the west we have a railway run using far too much kit from 40 years ago in a world that's rapidly going electric.

Infrastructure... living in London during the sixties I was very aware of the changes to the local suburban line, with the freight yards disappearing. In 1982 or so, on a break in Paris and staying in a remote suburb on the Seine, downstream, walking up to its tidy station one evening, ticket office staffed despite that it was around 10.30 pm I was surprised to also find an extensive yard for freight, apparently in operational condition but with no signs of any activity for years, and every part of it wired with OHLE.

To further enjoy the excesses of SNCF infrastructure provision, its possible to do worse than set out on a Google Maps explore of Bordeaux, or more specifically the south bank of the estuary by Le Verdon-Sur-Mer, where you'll find a very generous provision of track / electrification. Good to see the electrification of course, but perhaps the track needed rationalising before it went in... and it has to be said that some of those lines are out of use.

Ah - and, just now, that European train tracker web site shows a service from Bordeaux approaching the terminus.

 
Looks great

 
11. Brighton

 
Just over 100 people on the train when it left Melksham - notable lack of kiddies for the most part; rather more people who can shelter in the pub for rainy periods.   A couple of dozen joined at Melksham and around a dozen got off there as well. [112/38]  Very damp - gentle rain and I'm soaked from the walk from home to the station.   The majority of joining passengers were dropped off by car - only a handful walked. No-one parked themselves, no-one cycled to the station, and no-one arrived on horseback ;-) . Happy with those numbers considering the weather.

Now in Westbury ... after a wait outside, I would presume for a platform.

 

Indeed, the Manchester to Waterloo train skipped Newport but reversed at Bristol Temple Meads. (For Newport there'd be quite a time penalty, & other services would be available). The event that put services onto the rhubarb curve was the move of the MOD to Abbey Wood and them closing down in Bath - a few direct services were put on to ease the change in location.

On travelling from Bristol up the Marches line, changing at Newport, on a number of counts that doesn't work well: it can be counted as a heavily suppressed passenger flow that the railway has arbitrarily and willfully decided to discard. I'm not sure why, for many inter-regional services, their franchise pattern adopted at privatisation has become a problem for the travelling public.

 
Interesting section on HEX tickets on Head for Points today
https://www.headforpoints.com/2026/08/23/how-to-get-a-discount-on-heathrow-express-train-tickets-3/comment-page-3/#comments

How to get a discount on Heathrow Express train tickets (2026 edition)
Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

It’s been a while since we last looked at the different ways of getting a Heathrow Express discount.

I thought it was worth an update, because the ways of getting a discount have shrunk since the removal of all group discounts, such as Duo Saver, over the last couple of years.  ...........continues............

 
From another forum re: 175s

You will never get them to work properly on the GWR. A good friend of mine worked on them in all over Wales in the last couple of years there before they were put into hibernation for two years plus. They were all on their last legs then and all need new computers in them. All sent to GWR with very little thought of need maintenance, just move then on and repair them as a when. No wonder their reliability is rubbish. But the new ones on the Welsh network seen Ok he says. They certainly don’t want them back.