After the last few weeks being away on weekend trips, it was back to day trips for the next couple of weeks. Although my original plan for the Saturday went into the bin due to a landslip between Bristol & Wales.
24th February – Frome to Midsomer Norton Disused railway walk.
My original idea for today was to head towards Newport then walk the canal towards Cross Keys before switching to a disused railway route towards Hengoed, then spend a few hours doing some odds & sods within South Wales (new platforms & track on the Ebbw Vale line etc). I woke up around 06:20 and decided to check RTT to see what I was due to have on the 07:30 service from Salisbury to Cardiff (Sprinter or Turbo) where I noticed it was showing as terminating at Bristol Temple Meads. A quick look at the GWR Journey Check website highlighted that there had been a landslip between Patchway & the tunnel resulting in single line working and a reduced timetable (with the trains to/from Portsmouth getting terminated at Bristol). I decided as it would be a 30-minute fester at Bristol Temple Meads both in the morning & in the evening on likely busy trains from the Taunton direction to park the idea into the sidings for the time being (waiting for TfW to get back to me to refund my unused advances for Warminster – Newport, as I was going to buy the Salisbury – Warminster ticket on the day).
With Cardiff out, I had to come up with an alternative plan, in the end picking a disused railway line walk I had on my list to make use of the £2 bus fare scheme whilst it lasts. After de-icing my car, it was a drive to Salisbury parking in my usual area (which has gotten a lot more popular since SWR hiked the parking charges up at the station), heading to the station to buy a ticket to Trowbridge and boarding the 07:30 service formed of 158798 to Trowbridge. I guess in hindsight I could have probably saved some money by booking to Warminster to use a Frome Bus service to Frome for around £3.50 (that operator isn’t taking part in the £2 fares). Leaving the train at Trowbridge I headed towards Sainsburys in the town centre to grab some supplies for lunch and waited for the next Faresaver operated route X34 rolled in from Chippenham to take me to Frome Market Place (a busy Enviro 200 bus MK13 KUB which emptied out in the town centre area).
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| 158798 departs Trowbridge Station |
At Frome, I soon headed away from the marketplace towards the station to pick up a path back towards the town centre which went via the Rodden Meadows, before carrying on with a path following the river Frome via the suburbs of Frome towards the Spring Gardens area of the town, the tarmac path coming to an end all of a sudden (part of it is being upgraded as part of the Frome Missing Link project, to provide an easier route to link up with the Collier’s Way path which makes use of the route of the old railway line which branches off the Whatley Quarry branch near Great Elm a few miles outside Frome. I reached Spring Gardens, crossing over the branch line on a foot crossing and had a short section of walking along the road to reach a footpath which eventually picked up the Mells River coming out near Hapsford. This wasn’t my original idea to how to reach Great Elm as I was originally going to follow the East Mendip Way out of Frome but missed the junction in a maze of paths.
After the riverside footpath it was back onto the road, thankfully a lot quieter than the road earlier on and I headed towards the railway near Hapsford to pick up an work in progress extension to the Colliers Way path (bit of a rough path suitable only for walkers at the moment) which followed the Whatley branch line to the junction where the old GWR Bristol and North Somerset Railway route came away and the extension path went along the old alignment on what felt like railway ballast. This section was very quiet with some beautiful views of the countryside as it continued to meet the tarmac path of the older cycle path which unusually runs alongside the old railway track, with the track still in situ (but heavily overgrown in places).
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| "Time to pretend I'm a train" Former junction of the Radstock line from the Whately Quarry branch |
It was now onto the tarmac path which ran alongside the old track in a section I can only describe as being very quiet (both in terms of other path users & noise, when I stopped walking the only sound was bird song and the soft sound of running water). The view was quite nice as well of Somerset countryside. I saw no evidence of the former Mells Road station as the path continued heading into a woodland cutting towards Kilmersdon, a few puddles along the way due to recent rain but nothing major. The railway route headed north as I decided to try and get a photo standing on the old railway track itself, only to end up on my rear end as I slipped on the wooden sleeper (ouch!).
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| Colliers Way path (former Bristol and North Somerset Railway route) between Great Elm & Kilmersdon) |
The path came to an end in the town of Radstock, with modern developments built over the route of the old track as I reached the town centre, heading east along cycle route 24 which now was running along the route of the old Somerset & Dorset railway. I took this section towards Foxcote where the off-road mixed used path came to an end, the old railway route lost between this section & Wellow (where the path returns for the section leading towards Bath). Maybe one day I will get round to walking the section between Wellow & Midford, making use of that Westlink DRT bus scheme (which seems to include Freshford station & Wellow).
At the end of the path at Foxcote, I did a U-turn to head back towards Radstock, making use of a bench to have my lunch as a short shower arrived lasting around 5 minutes. After lunch I carried on back towards Radstock and then onto the “Radstock – Norton Greenway” path, running along the route of the old GWR route (with the Somerset & Dorset route higher up an embankment and being a muddy path before that crossed over the greenway path on a lovely bridge, I only wish I climbed up the steps to have a look from the top.
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| Norton-Radstock Greenway (former GWR Bristol and North Somerset Railway route) in Radstock |
Radstock gave way to Midsomer Norton with a short section of narrow path where the railway had been lost before the path terminated in the Thicket Mead area of the town. I switched to the Wellow Brook Walk (which parallels the railway line) towards the town centre, cutting across the shopping area and up a steep hill to reach Midsomer Norton South station, home of the Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust which during the spring/summertime they run trains along a short section of preserved railway. On reaching the old station, I climbed up to a path running along the route of the old Somerset & Dorset railway line back towards Radstock (labelled as “Five Arches Greenway”). I reached the end of this path before switching to the road to head along Welton Road, passing a pub called “Railway Hotel” onto the A367 where I finished the walk at the bus stop outside Bath College.
The first bus towards Bath was a First bus (I will get my coat!) route 172 (with double decker 33660 branded as “Mendip Xplorer” on a Bristol – Midsomer Norton – Bath service (something I will be adding to my list to do). This bus headed towards Bath via Peasedown St John and some steep hills. At Bath bus station, I had around 45 minutes to kill before the next Warminster bus so I headed towards the city centre with a random ex-Swansea bus passing (I couldn’t go to Wales, so Wales came to me). I noticed since my last visit there is a new Morrisons Local close to the station, and I do like Morrisons doughnuts (mmm Doughnut).
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| Not the 34 to Neath |
Back at the bus station and into a big queue for the next D1 service for Warminster via Trowbridge (brings back memories of doing this bus route last May) with an Enviro 200, Bath City branded, 67096 on this busy service. This was quite a posh interior featuring seat back tables and armrests, along with some decent legroom. It departed rather busy heading away from Bath going towards the outskirts of Bathhampton and Bradford on Avon, the bus emptying out as the journey continued. I alighted at the bus stop nearest to Trowbridge railway station getting lucky with a delay to a Portsmouth bound service formed of 158950, grabbing a table seat putting my phone on charge and relaxing for the journey in the dark towards Salisbury.
At Salisbury, after a visit to the toilets to wash my glasses, it was back to my car to drive home after an enjoyable long walk (18 miles) along some old railway routes. The only thing holding me back from recommending the section from Great Elm to Radstock is the connection between Great Elm & Frome (although there is an infrequent Frome Bus operated service between Frome & Great Elm [and Great Elm & Radstock] which looks like it would be a good route to do at some point. My feet were glad to get home and out into the fresh air, the only issue I’ve got with my current walking boots is my feet sweat a lot more.
25th February – Buses in Berkshire
My original idea for this Sunday was to drive towards Romsey, taking the train towards Southampton & on towards Chichester for an old railway line walk (the old line towards Midhurst) but due to the weather forecast not being the greatest I decided that could wait for another day and instead dust of a rough plan to have a bus day based in the Slough area to do some buses which had been on my list for a while. Due to engineering works it was a later start than usual with the 08:56 service taking mum & myself to Reading with 158886 & 158882 (featuring a shifty looking character heading towards Swindon without a ticket and not having funds on his card when the guard pounced on him, gave the impression of a County Line drug runner (no doubt the sort who would board the first train towards Swindon and jump the barriers at Swindon station).
Anyhow at Reading it was a short walk over to 345060 on the next Elizabeth line service to Slough, where we exited the station and headed to the nearby Tesco for some lunch supplies before making our way to the bus stop on Brunel way, next to the fire damaged bus station for the Sundays only route 12 operated by Thames Valley Buses (Monday – Saturday this route is operated by First bus) with Enviro 200 bus 669 on this service. The bus headed via the Slough suburbs (all the speed bumps) slowly emptying out in the Manor Park & Britwell area before heading towards Burnham (which seemed a pretty place) with the last passenger (other than mum & myself) alighted before doing the Sundays only extension to Heathrow Terminal 5, joining the M4 at Junction 7 for some speed towards the M25 at junction 4 before taking the terminal 5 Spur to arrive at the airport terminal bus station (which is a horrible place to wait as it's dark & gloomy).
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| Thames Valley Bus 669 (YX67 UYL, Ram Rai) at Heathrow Terminal 5 on a route 12 |
After a short break, the next bus was another Thames Valley operated service, a route 5 with bus 677 on this service back towards Slough going via Poyle & Datchet (some expensive looking houses) before carrying on after Slough town centre towards Cippenham (a suburb of the town) doing a loop of this housing area where we alighted at the stop at Braemar Gardens for a gentle walk via a waterside path and a couple of roads towards Moreton Way, the starting point of our next bus route, changing to a First bus operated route A4 for Heathrow Central bus station (getting lucky with a double decker 34387 as the next service was a Streetlite).
This was a faster route back towards Slough, going via the Trading Estate before following the A4 to bypass Langley and heading straight towards the airport on the Colnbrook bypass. An enjoyable route which got up to speed in places. Sadly, the Piccadilly line wasn't running so it was the long walk towards Heathrow central railway station picking up the free terminal transfer tickets and boarding the first available train towards Terminal 5, a Heathrow Express formed of 387137 & 387135 for the 1.75-mile journey to Terminal 5
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| 387135 at Heathrow Terminal 5 rail station |
I was in two minds with what to do next, as part of me was tempted with the Carlone Buses operated 442 towards Staines, but I decided that could be done on another day when I explore some of the bus routes in Staines, so it was onto another First bus double decker with 34386 on the next route 7 for Britwell. This followed a similar route (once away from Heathrow onto the A4) but went via Langley itself. Although the promised rain had arrived so it was a bit damp as the bus took us back to Slough, the section towards Britwell can wait for another day as we were getting hungry and had one eye on the time.
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| First Bus 34386 (SK19 EMJ) near Slough bus station on a route 7 |
Back to the trains at Slough station, and onto 387169 & 387171 on a Didcot service which was fine until after Maidenhead where it lost 10 minutes waiting for fast trains to cross over in front of it before calling at Twyford (due to a fallen down tree in Sonning cutting). This cut down the time we had in Reading, so we went for a takeaway option at Wendys to eat it when sitting on the next SWR service (which was starting at Reading instead of Waterloo due to the Wimbledon block) with 158882 & 158886 on the 18:12 service to Salisbury. Nothing unusual happened along the way and thankfully it wasn’t raining when we walked home.
The end of a nice little day looking out of the window, some more Heathrow bus services ticked off my list, I think from a glance at the Bus Times website the only ones left is that 442/X442 Carlone Bus minibus service and a weekdays only Woking – Hatton Cross via Terminal 4 service run by White Bus. Excluding the various TfL buses & buses which only run in the early mornings. Some more photos can be found on my Flickr, February for me has been kind with the weather allowing a bit of walking. Roll on March and longer days.
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