Interesting fact, the Exmouth to Exeter line actually survived the Beeching cuts, he had suggested it should be closed. I've been told that it's the only line that didn't get cut but can't be sure if this is true (anyone know?). This line is now used by millions of paying customers every year now and has even had an extra station added to it in 2015. The trains are well used through the day but especially as a commuting line to Exeter. There was another line that used to finish at Exmouth and joined the mainline at Sidmouth junction, this one was closed in the Beeching cuts and can now be cycled on as far as Budleigh Salterton. There was also a line that went from the station down to the docks.
You can actually get off at Lympstone Commando station but you cannot leave the station. The MOD have acknowledged they cannot stop members of the public from alighting there.
"regular people are not allowed to alight there!" OH BOY GET STRAPPED IN FOR PEDANTRY TIME There was a bit of a legal tussle between Network Rail and the MOD a few years ago because the MOD wanted to ban regular people from alighting at Lympstone Commando, but a court ruled that the station itself was Network Rail property, not the MOD, so the MOD can't stop people getting on or off trains there. However, the only way out is through the army base, so once you get off you can't leave until the next train comes along.
You can tell Geoff isn't a trainspotter, after getting off a 158/159 at Salisbury he gets on a gwr 158 and says that he's never been on one of these class of train 😂
Nightmare regular commute. Exeter Central to Salisbury; change for Eastleigh; replacement bus via Southampton; do several circuits of Southampton to cover suburban stations (Southampton Central closed for maintenance); bus carries on to Ashurst New Forest and Brockenhurst where we were dumped on Winter nights to pick up a connection to Christchurch. Over 4 hours in the middle of Winter - every Sunday for 3 months.Happy Days!
Westbury! It was there, two years ago, that, because of a trespasser on the line outside Castle Cary, I had finally to accept that I would miss my light from Heathrow to Jo'burg, and where I exchanged calls with my travel agent who brilliantly fixed me on the next flight - which still met my onward flight to Windhoek, Namibia.
Geoff : that theme music!!! Is it just me or is anyone else transported back to educational/schools programmes on VHS circa 1990? Enjoying the ATS story so far. Keep it up!
Very smart additions to the package- interviewing charming train riders and anecdotal notes of meetings with passengers and observations of the journey- makes the content very appealing. ■ Liked the segment of missing connections and positive recovery. Terrific couple interactions. Best of Luck on the adventure (!!)
Watched all four episodes. wonderful. Cant beat the railway to get around. I spent a very nice holiday in Hale. Looking forward to watching the rest of the story.
You had shown the creatively named "Nogg Inn", but missed the wonderfull chance to also show "The Tides Inn" towards the end in Weymouth, unless I am jumping the gun and that appears in day five.
Hello Vicki, hello Geoff, you did a great job and it seems you have fun. Saw now all videos in a row (no ISP via landline atm) and I am excited for the next one. Have a nice Sunday and do not have too much stress next week.
Platform alterations at Westbury are a regular occurrence and a right pain. I once saw a party of French school children with heavy luggage have to transfer from platform 2 to 1 to then a few minutes later told to go back to platform 1. Network rail blame it on capacity problems and there is an idea to reopen platform 0, but no doubt only if someone else pays for it.
The train you do not know is a GWR refurbished Class 158 Express Sprinter DMU train. It is a sister train to the Class 159 that South West Trains use on their West of England Line between London Waterloo - Salisbury - Exeter. For your information, GWR mainly use their Class 158 on the Cardiff - Bristol - Bath - Southampton - Portsmouth route, which is incredibly busy!
@Diogo Macena - I like to refer to myself as a railway enthusiast as I take photographs of trains and ride aboard trains. I do a lot more than note the class and number of my train.
Kind of makes me want to jump across the pond and join you! I know this a Herculean effort, but you two seem to enjoy it. I do appreciate the little snippets of history and random passenger comments. Enjoy the videos and eagerly await each one; but am really looking forward to when you do Norfolk -- having been in that area a few years ago.
I'm loving these videos. Love the talky bits you do with members of the public. How about bleeping the expletives with different train horns. Would just add to the great humour in the videos.
i’ve been rewatching this series i am in love with you guys’ passion ! honestly i have been a train nerd since very young and this is my comfort series ❤️ love from cornwall
it's a class 158 you caught Geoff. You'll be on loads of them too. In Wales, the east midlands, northern England and if you're finishing at Wick it'll be a 158 that gets you there from Inverness and Thurso too.
I have only ever seen freight or ocassionally a Pompey train from the other platform at westbury. I think it's funny how you race off without looking at the screens. :)
Cheers for showing Gillingham and Tisbuty. Your taking it easy for all lines, mind you back when Exeter - Salisbury had loco's and coaches I'd be out all day on a South West Rover. Have a good trip anyway.
Goes to show you should always look where you are going I lived in Warminster for just over 6 years when I was based there and used to get the train regularly and I'd never seen that bus stop. Have slept in imber village though. Many times
This popped up as I was watching #3, woo hoo! Early video posting!! Had to pause to make a comment: I am so excited to hear you mention Peter Hennessy! I'm a historian of 20thC Britain & he is one of my heroes!! (Not to mention also a very nice man :-)) And now I get the title... Carry on. And I hope you can take some full days off!
I live in the Midwest part of the USA. Those little English sparrows are everywhere here. Apparently early English settlers missed their morning calls and so brought them to the US. Now there are millions of them and that little song is everywhere.
You went to the other Gillingham! I live in Gillingham, Kent you went through Gillingham, Dorset that always gets me on autocomplete address web forms.
Things to see in Weymouth: the old Wemouth Harbour station (still has tracks), the vertical view thing like a Lisbon elavadore now called Jurassic Skyline, if you're lucky Pelican of London (a working tall ship that you can go crew on) and a mini-version of London Bridge which is the same vintage and mechanism but smaller.
I'm a little behind on your videos. Your video brings back fond memories of Weymouth, and France. The first time I left Britain was for a day trip to Cherbourg, France from Weymouth where we were camping. Don't think that ferry runs any more. Been a while since I was down that way, but nice to see the sea front once more at the end of the video. Regarding the bus, I expect it would be at least zone 8 or 9 on the Oyster card.
According to Wikipedia Imber was to be used as a training facility for Urban Warfare by the US Army during 1943-1944 and was later by the British Army preparing for service in Northern Ireland.
The GWR 158 is truly magnificient, Northern variants have similar comfy seats and it's standard class only - crazy considering it's better than many first class seats!
Love the videos! Just a quick question if you are only doing 4 videos a week. Will videos cover multiple days or will you run behind and be posting for weeks after they've finished? Good luck Geoff & Vicki :)
Barnstaple railway station is my local station and it's nice to see a popular RU-vidr at my local station is cool and it's nice to hear you say the names right
at Honiton they only use platform 1 because they pass at Axminster they only use platform 2 when the Great Western Mainline is closed they diverted them via Honiton so to do so they have to use platform 2
That's interesting about Imber, but I'm not so sure that it's even a ghost village now: Google Maps doesn't show any buildings there at all, closer than a nearby church. (Approximate co-ordinates found via Wikipedia.)
Jack Sainthill Most of the buildings have been altered for military to emulate a warzone for training or destroyed but I see what you mean having just looked at google maps. I would presume as it's still an active military training ground they made them scrub out the houses and buildings.
+Celtic Goals 2016/17 Thanks for the info. I'm also wondering whether the 'official' location of the village was ever fudged a bit for security reasons. Cheers ;)
Looks alright on Google Maps to me www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.2368837,-2.0523398,913m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en I went there on the Imberbus last year. My photos are here: strolling.guide/imber
I'm sorry you didn't mention that the two Gillinghams are pronounced differently. The one in Dorset is pronounced with a hard G, the one in Kent with a soft G. I do wish the announcements in London Charing Cross would get it right. They keep announcing trains that make a sudden leap from Chatham in Kent to Gillingham in Dorset!!
There is an exception to the -cester rule: Cirencester is pronounced Siren-sesster, as spelled, and since my brother in law was born and brought up there, he should know. Apparently many years ago it was more commonly pronounced Sisster or Sissiter, but that fell out of favour. When you get to Slaithwaite on the Huddersfield-Stalybridge line, that is pronounced "Slow-it" with the first syllable rhyming with "cow". The last time I was on a train that called there, the guard came over the intercom and said in a homely West Riding accent "The next station is Slowit [pause] That's the place that namby-pamby, pampered Southerners think is pronounced [exaggerated Home Counties accent] Slaythwayt". The whole train (presumably all Yorkshiremen) cracked out laughing at this bit of Southerner-bashing.
