Weston Super Mare and Weymouth branches

Yep, just a week into the New Year and I'm back at Bristol Temple Meads. It's marginally more cheerful than when I was here last, despite the dismal weather. It was never really a day for the seaside, fog and rain keeping the January standards high. A small number of lines today that ends up being quite complicated in the event.

From Bristol, where I have arrived on the ubiquitous 125, I can choose a stopping or a fast service to Weston Super Mare, which is tucked away on a single line branch off the main line between Bristol and Taunton. I reason that the fast train will be emptier and more comfortable. Not so! I have a moment's doubt as I see a decent 158 arrive for the stopping train. Then a mangy single coach 153 arrives for the fast service. And FGW wonder why they have a poor reputation. This has come all the way from Gloucester! My displeasure at the state of the train is tempered by a poor bloke who helps his daughter on with her luggage and ends up going with us because he is slow to get off again. Luckily for him there is another train in the other direction quite soon at the first stop.

On to the branch, and Weston is of course, empty, and probably not very nice when busy, it being another traffic trap. I don't hang around. When I get back to the station I find a proper station pub on the platform. In retrospect I wish I'd stayed longer to sample its array of local beers and ciders, as the day was about to nose-dive. But, down to Taunton on a Voyager, a trip I really enjoyed. The driver really gave it some squirt, and it was just a comfortable place to be, watching the Somerset winter flying past.

A long gap awaited me at Taunton so I found the nearest decent pub. Heading back, I discovered my connection to Castle Cary, where I was to pick up the Weymouth train, had been cancelled. The next service was now going to make an extra stop there, but it was over an hour away. And think I have missed the connection now anyway. I opted to get the next Voyager back to Bristol. I got on the carriage with the conductor in it, and explained the situation. He said that was fine and invited me to sit in first class for nothing. It's so nice when you get staff who just do a bit more than they need to.

Back at Bristol I now have to wait for the next Weymouth train, there not being too many of them, so I head to the Wetherspoons in the newly developed docks. I've been here a few times now, it's not bad. Finally the second line of the day looms into site as I clamber on to a two coach Sprinter. The bit from Bristol through Bath, Trowbridge and Westbury I've done, then we're on to the main Exeter line for a bit until Castle Cary. Westbury is interesting because it still has a glass overall roof, despite being a small station, though it is a junction. Lots of less than busy stations had such constructions. Castle Cary doesn't seem to have a castle nearby, though it is now best known as the station for the Glastonbury Festival. It has a couple of pubs that I was going to sample until things started to go wrong.

We head through Yeovil (Pen Mill) then out of Somerset into Dorset. After a stop at one of the county town of Dorchester's two stations, we join up with the 3rd rail line from Waterloo before terminating at Weymouth. Even though it's now dark, I decide to follow the tracks to the ferry port. This is a single track line that continues on from the main station, actually through the streets, like a tram, down to to the docks. Because a live 3rd live would have been a bit dangerous in the streets, the boat train was coupled to a diesel loco at the terminus and hauled through the streets to the quayside, with two blokes in hi-viz jackets waving red flags leading it. I always meant to go and see it. but by the time I was in a position to do so, the practice had ended. There is hardly any interchange between rail and sea in the south now. The tracks are still usable, stuck in the tarmac, but the dock station is now a carpark. The platforms are still there, and I walk up the ramp and stand there imagining the scene that used to be.

Then, one last treat. (Doesn't take much to please me!). The 442 EMUs that run from Weymouth to Waterloo are the last coaches in the UK to have first class compartments, 3 seats each side with a corridor to one side. I upgrade for a fiver, and enjoy this luxury for one last time - this stock is being withdrawn next week. In this brave new privatised world, companies choose their own trains. South West has just bought a load of German trains to replace its slam-door stock and would prefer to replace the BR 442s with this and thus have just one set of maintenance, driver knowledge, etc for its long distance trains. Which is fair enough I suppose, though it would have been even better for to choose the SAME stock as Southern and South Eastern as in the BR days. Ggggrrr! The 442s were only built 20 years ago, but in classic BR style they recycled many parts from trains they were 20 years old then. Good use of resources, you and I think, not them. So they're out. Too good to waste, Southern are to use them on Gatwick and Brighton services - some common sense at last. As I go through the barrier at Waterloo, I sneak a quick photo with my 'phone, as I think these are really good vehicles and am sorry to see them being wound down. Oooh, dangerously like a spotter. Another day, two more lines.

London-Bristol
Bristol-Weston Super Mare
Weston Super Mare-TAunton
Taunton-Bristol
Bristol-Weymouth
Weymouth-London