Trips on 2nd & 3rd March (Chard & Thame)

Trips on 2nd & 3rd March.

2nd March – Exploring Chard & Somerset

My original plan for today was to catch the 07:05-odd train from Salisbury to Bath for a short fester for an IET to Weston Super Mere (cheap £5 advance), catching the bus towards Cheddar to walk the old railway line (branded as “The Strawberry line” towards Yatton (then probably picking up a ticket back to Salisbury when I was closer to Yatton as GWR seems to sell advances on the day for Yatton – Salisbury).  A nice gentle start to March, as I went to bed on the Friday the weather forecast showing a bit of rain overnight but light showers ending around 10:00 & overcast for the remainder of the day.

When I woke up on Saturday morning around 06:00, I checked the weather forecast once more, seeing that it had changed to being 90% chance of heavy rain until 2pm.  A couple minutes of thinking before I decided to ditch the £5 advance to Weston and instead researched a couple other places, highlighting that the forecast for south Somerset was showing as dry with a couple light showers forecasted for the late afternoon, so I dusted off a plan to walk the short disused railway path from Ilminster towards Chard, fitting in a couple random bus routes.

With my new plan in my head, I drove to Salisbury station, parking in my usual area (saves £5-odd for parking at the station) and because I had some time to kill, headed towards Sainsburys in the city centre to grab some supplies before heading to the station to board a lightly loaded 159104 & 159009 on the 07:47 service for Exeter.  I was surprised when in the Gillingham area to see snow on the ground, only a light dusting but still quite surprising.

Snow around Gillingham (Dorset)

Nothing unusual happened along the way to Axminster, the couple of minutes the train lost at Salisbury due to a late running GWR service was made up by Yeovil due to planned dwells, so I easily made the tight +7 connection to the 09:10 route 30 service to Taunton (with bus 33554 painted bright green).  This was an interesting route once outside Axminster following the A358 (with some nice views) before heading towards South Chard before reaching the town of Chard itself where the bus got quite busy.  After leaving Chard it headed via a couple of housing estates (passing the former Chard station) and onto the main road towards Peasmarsh where it turned to head towards Sea and Ilminster, where I alighted at the bus stop on Orchard Vale near the town centre to begin my walk.

First (Buses of Somerset) bus 33554 (SN58 CGE) in Ilminster on a route 30 (to Taunton)

The first section was following a footpath alongside the Shrudrick Stream before picking up cycle route 33 on a path running behind some houses which joined up with the route of the old Taunton - Chard railway line.  The first section of this path was in a cutting with some puddles to navigate before reaching the rebuilt platform at Donyatt Halt.  My walk continued as it reached an section where the old railway route has been built over forcing a detour via a couple of country lanes towards Peasmarsh, passing a waste water processing plant and onto the route of the old railway line once more.

The next section was quite scenic and was quiet, some nice history with the old railway fence still being in place to guard against a drop with some nice woodland.  The path passes Chard reservoir and the route of the long disused Chard canal with some nice old bridges.  The railway path comes to an end on the northern edge of Chard, the route of the railway beyond lost under modern developments with the cycle path taking a less direct route towards the town centre.  I had a little detour to photograph the former Chard station (now used as offices & a shop) before heading towards Tesco and wasted some time swinging via St Mary's Church before heading into the town centre to wait for the next bus (after doing some shopping).

Donyatt Halt on former Taunton - Chard railway line

The next route 99 service (operated by First) with bus 44534 (featuring some dodgy looking seats), the less frequent service compared to the route 30.  Departed with around a dozen passengers on board, half of which had alighted by the time the bus left Chard with the remaining half dozen staying on board all the way to Taunton.  No takers as the bus made its way across the countryside (with some nice views from high ground) towards Combe St Nicholas, Buckland St Mary & Staple Fitzpaine, picking up some more passengers within Taunton itself.  An enjoyable scenic route which gave me 25 minutes to waste in Taunton (time used to visit a branch of CEX to have a nosey) before boarding the next route 30 service to Axminster with bus 34469.  Quite busy on departure but lost around half the passengers by the time the bus reached the M5 and outskirts of Taunton.

This bus went direct along the A358 from Taunton towards Ilminster (not the comfiest bus as it was a bit bouncy at speed).  After Ilminster the bus carried on back towards Chard and Tatworth and I alighted at the first stop within Axminster at Millwey Court as I had another short walk planned to waste some time (otherwise I would be sitting at Axminster station for 30 minutes).  This walk took me along a permissive path alongside the A358 to pick up the cycle route path across a field passing the football club.  A short section of walking along the road on North Street before a footpath between the railway line & a waterway near Tesco took me to Axminster station arriving with 10 minutes to spare before the next train towards Waterloo.

159007 departs Axminster for Exeter

The next Exeter train arrived & departed before 159018 & 159021 rolled in on a London service.  I located a decent seat in coach 4 of 6, settled down and relaxed for the journey back to Salisbury.  Nothing unusual happened along the way as I did research into options for the Sunday, trying to decide which of the 3 options I should do.  Anyhow back at Salisbury, and a short walk to my car before driving home as the temperature dropped quite fast.  An enjoyable day, I got lucky as other than a couple of short showers the rain kept away, the old railway line was quite nice in places.

3rd March – Phoenix Trail (Princes Risborough to Thame)

Late on Saturday evening, I made my decision to put back the old railway line in Okehampton & also a couple on the south coast back until the temperatures improved (as de-icing my car at 06:00 or 07:30 in the morning on this cold foggy morning wouldn’t have been much fun), instead I decided to head towards Oxfordshire to walk the Phoenix Trail, a path running along the former Wycombe railway line which linked Princes Risborough & Oxford, running towards the town of Thame (beyond Thame the railway has been mostly lost to modern developments).

The day started with a walk to Grateley station in the cold to catch 159011 & 159012 on a London train to Andover, stepping back for 158880 & 159009 on the first SWR to Reading, which unusually went into platform 10(b) at Reading.  I had some time to kill before the next train so headed outside the station for a gentle stroll towards Tesco Express to pick up something to eat for later.  I always have a strange feeling walking in Reading town centre when most of the shops are closed and the streets are quiet, bit of a ghost town.

158880 at Reading Station, sadly not heading to Paddington

Anyhow back to Reading station and a late notice platform alternation for the 09:15 to Oxford (formed of 220008), I was late boarding, but I managed to grab a seat which was reserved from Oxford.  Departure was on time as the voyager zoomed towards Oxford where I alighted, noticing that the barriers for the side entrance next to the bays were wide open whilst the barriers in the main ticket office area were closed, seriously what is the point?  I exited the station for a gentle walk towards the city centre and the bus stop on Magdalen Street where the S4 service for Banbury starts from.  This bus route had been on my list to do for a while so decided to get it covered when I waited for arrival of a good friend from Hereford.

The bus to form the 10:00 departure rolled in (an Enviro 200, fleet 27712) as I cleaned a couple of the windows as they were wet inside.  Reasonably busy this bus as it departed Oxford heading north towards Summertown & Kidlington before picking up some speed along the A4260 before turning away from the main road to serve the villages of Tackley & Steeple Aston.  I noticed there was some quite bad flooding of the fields as the bus headed back onto the main road to head towards Deddington, doing a little loop to serve West Adderbury before carrying on into Banbury itself, terminating at the empty bus station.  An enjoyable little run, bringing back some memories of when I was younger, and my parents had a boat near Southam and would sometimes use the A4260 between Oxford & Banbury rather than the motorway (as there was a couple of nice pubs along the way).

Stagecoach Bus 27712 (PO11 BBZ) at Banbury Bus Station on a S4 for Oxford

Anyhow trip down memory lane over, as I headed towards the railway station (swinging via Morrisons to waste time) hoping that I would be able to board the Bournemouth XC service.  220032 rolled in and I even got lucky to get a seat for the run back towards Oxford, where I headed towards the next Chiltern service, getting myself comfortable as my good friend Jules arrived on an IET from Great Malvern. 165017 & 165039 took us towards Princes Risborough, first time I’ve been on this line for a few years as we had a little catch-up.  Alighting at Princes Risborough we headed south along a muddy footpath leading to a road bridge over the railway (passing the remains of a former EMR HST power car on the land used by the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway.  The next section was along a lane towards Horsenden to pick up a mixed used path (featuring a lot of puddles to navigate around), crossing over the railway track of the Chinnor line and onto the route of the former railway line.  The weather had certainly warmed up after the cold fog, a beautiful spring day in the sunshine, mixed with some cold winds.

Anyhow it was now onto the route of the old railway line, surface was reasonable being hard-core although some areas of mud & water due to recent rain but nothing that serious.  A line which soon ran into countryside where the only sound other than birds was light aircraft in the air.  We continued along the path, detouring at the site of the former Bledlow station (now a private house) before carrying on towards Thame.  No evidence of the former Towersey Halt as the path changed to smooth tarmac for the final few miles into Thame itself.  The former platforms at Thame remained along with what looked like to be a goods area as the path went into a cutting before turning a bit more urban as it went behind some housing.

Remains of platforms at Thame Station (Phoenix Trail)

Near the end of the path, the tarmac section turned north to head towards a leisure centre, but we decided to carry on along a very muddy path to come out next to the A329 road, marking the end of the railway path.  To waste a bit of time we headed along the road towards the leisure centre to do both sides of a triangle of walking routes to finish the walk at a bus stop near to Sycamore Drive.  An explore of the town centre will probably be done at some-point but we had one eye on the time as the next bus to Oxford was an Arriva operated X7 (featuring an Enviro 400 decker 5468, which was lucky as all the other X7 services we saw heading towards Aylesbury were Citaros).  This was an interesting bus route in places as it followed the main A418 towards the M40 (serving the motorway services) before heading via Wheatley and then a fast run along the A40 toward Oxford, approaching the city centre from the Headington direction.  After a slow crawl in the city centre, the bus reached the railway station where it terminated, I said my farewell to Jules as he had a longer wait.  I had a walk to the platforms watching a very busy 2 coach 165 depart on a Didcot service before a late running 802113 rolled in from Hereford.  I did my usual and headed to the northern end of the platform away from the masses whom there is only one door available, easily getting a decent seat as I settled down for the run to Reading.  Better than playing voyager roulette with the following Bournemouth train

165006 at Oxford Station

At Reading I popped out of the station, heading to one of the Sainsburys (which doesn’t close until 6pm on Sundays) to grab some dinner before heading back to Grateley on the 18:12 service formed of 158884 & 159020 which got quite busy at Basingstoke.  An enjoyable little day trip, one more bus route ticked off my list as well as a disused railway line walk.  In theory there are footpaths available to link Thame town centre with Haddenham & Thame Parkway station, but I suspect this time of year they will be muddy (as they cut across fields).  Sadly, the road between the town & station has no pavements so would be quite unsafe to walk along the road.   Anyhow back at home, I walked home and relaxed for the rest of the evening.  More photos can be found on my Flickr here, thanks for reading :).