You keep your Italianate facades to yourself. 

 
Yesterday's picture has confirmed the two countries I'm visiting for a holiday.

Here's a couple stations and a 'railway' location we visited today. One guess each.

1.


2.


3.


4. This is the start of a railway overbridge. What's the location and what's it's TV drama significance?

 
Thanks, as ever, for your work sorting that out, grahame.

It's all a foreign language to me, as an innate Luddite.

 
And Bradshaw comes along and poaches the goal!

Correct!

Here's the more 'classic' shot of the station with its Italianate facade.

 
Ooops - sorry about some slow running this afternoon ... 86,000 requests from a single AI learning bot ... to give you an idea, the second most active visitor has made just 2,400 requests.   The servers copes well for the most part - though your may have seen the occasional "Bad Gateway" as the receptionist tries to contact a very busy worker

 
Way off subject.

Many years ago I had a job arranging travel for our overseas engineers. The occasion that sprang to mind in this case was an engineer travelling across the Middle East on a cheap flight during the Haj was a little disconcerted when one of the passengers apparently fired up a primus stove in the aisle. I said he was joshing but insisted that was the was the case. Another result of not providing catering?

 
From the BBC:

 
Dublin Connolly Station

 
02/05/2026 - Exeter To Poole
DIG 0914 (OT)>EXC 0922 (OT) : 2T11 EXM>PGN : 1 x 166 (3 Cars)
EXC 0930 (OT)>SAL 1116 (OT) : 1L36 EXD>WAT : 2 x 159 (6 Cars)
SAL 1134 (OT)>SOU 1204 (OT) : 1F61 WSB>PMH : 2 x 158 (4 Cars)
SOU 1224 (OT)>POO 1224 (OT) : 1W63 WAT>WEY : 2 x 444 (10 Cars To BMH), 1 x 444 (5 Cars To POO)
Tickets (All with Senior Railcard, 2 Pax, Price Per Person): DIG>PIN Off Peak Day Single £2.85, PIN>SAL Advance Single £11.70, SAL>SOU Anytime Day Single £8.45, SOU>POO Advance Single £6.50

2T11 lightly loaded to POL where around 25 pax boarded. Tickets but not Railcards checked.
1L36 was fairly well loaded from EXC and plenty of pax boarded at AXM & SHE. Tickets but not Railcards were checked. And as seems to be fairly common on these WoE services the on-train PIS was not working properly - it was stuck on 'Next Station Exeter Central' all the way to Salisbury and in between these messages displayed random 24 hour clock times. Why doesn't the TM just turn the bloody thing off if they can't get it to work?
There were no ticket checks between SAL & POO - hardly assisting the reduction of fare evasion!

03/05/2026 - Poole To Exeter
POO 1032 (1034)>SOU 1123 (OT) : 1W36 WEY>WAT : 1 x 444 (5 Cars To BMH), 2 x 444 (10 Cars To SOU)
SOU 1157 (1158)>SAL 1226 (OT) : 1F66 PMH>WSB : 2 x 158 (4 Cars)
SAL 1247 (OT)>EXC 1438 (1444) : 1L29 WAT>EXD : 2 x 159 (6 Cars)
EXC 1456 (OT)>DIG 1501 (OT) : 2F14 PGN>EXM : 1 x 165/1 (3 Cars)
Tickets (All with Senior Railcard, 2 Pax, Price Per Person): POO>SOU Advance Single £5.75, SOU>SAL Sunday Out Single £6.95, SAL>PIN Advance Single £7.55, PIN>DIG Off Peak Day Single £2.85

No ticket checks POO>SAL. SOU was a bit mad dealing with the fallout from the Southampton Marathon.
On 1L29 the Wi-Fi was inoperative. A passenger sat opposite us had got the TM to reboot the system but it was still 'Computer Says No'. Tickets and railcards were checked (wonders will never cease!).
1L29 was delayed 5 minutes at Axminster West Junction waiting for the late running 1L52, which itself had had to wait at PIN for 1L25, to clear the single line from HON. That was the only noticeable delay on the whole trip. Double Track PIN>YVJ Now!

Footnote: This trip was entirely the idea of SWTSMBO who saw it advertised on Facebook (which I stopped using several years ago). However I was happy to go along as the concert involved 3 singers, a four piece band and, most importantly because I attend all of their dates at the University of Exeter Great Hall, a sizeable chunk of the Bornemouth Symphony Orchestra ensemble which made for a brilliant evenings' entertainment. The Poole Lighthouse - my first visit - was an excellent venue.

 
 

 
Ireland - Dublin?

 
Close - but go down a bit. 

 
Northern Ireland?

 
Feel free to answer CfN or Mark A.

They're will be another one later this evening when I get back to my accommodation.

Along with an outbound trip report if I don't crash out. I've been up mountains, into the (pretend) bowels of an ocean liner and to the coast.

 



23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of trains because of extra safety inspections.

Additional Information
Due to a unit failure we are unable to operate this evenings Sleeper service between London Paddington and Penzance.

We have arranged for this service to be operated by one of our regular Intercity Express Trains which will offer a Standard and First Class seating service only. There will be no accommodation facilities.

And a rude awakening for those on the Up sleeper tonight.....

21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:09

21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:09 will be terminated at Reading.

It will no longer call at London Paddington.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
The 1152 London Paddington to Hereford was terminated at Hayes & Harlington due to a problem with the brakes (MN). Subsequently:

 

Just naming existing services

 
From the BBC:

 

Indeed - lost in April 1966, and re-opening in May 1985.

Looking at my Summer 1991 timetable, there was a Monday to Saturday train at 07:44 to Swindon, and a train at 17:30 from Swindon that called at 17:57 returning, with an extra train on Saturdays from Swindin at 14:30 getting in at 14:57.   We have come a long way since then - there are now 9 trains timetabled each way Monday to Friday, and 7 each way on Saturday and Sunday.

We have come a long way back but we have a long way to go ... social media comment from yesterday:

 

Trigger's broom strikes again!

 

One has certain members of this Forum frothing at the mouth and one doesn't! 

 
The failed sleeper from last night has now failed on its way up to Reading. Currently dumped in Highbridge loop.

Tonight’s down sleeper likely to be cancelled.

 
I have merged several topics here, as they all relate specifically to Charfield station.

The original headings of most posts have been preserved, where possible.

CfN. 

 
I - managed - to leave Calne out of my "spoiler" list.   This has often struck me as a branch which - had it survived a further 20 years - would now be the terminus of a service from Bristol ... calling at stations along the way that remain, plus Saltford, Bathampton, Box, and Corsham.

 
Ah, Highworth. I visited the station site using the relatively frequent bus service, on a sunny day post Covid, when Highworth came across as stunned rather than sleeping. The wall in the photo alongside the alley from the road called 'Windrush' was a puzzle. On the site of the goods shed, it doesn't align with the structure, but looks to be built partly with bricks reclaimed from the platform face.

That aside, the railway, on a rural site, obliterated by the later housing, at the edge of which a length of trackbed untouched since the line closed immediately asserted itself.

On old maps, the line through Highworth station very much suggests intentions to head on, but it's not clear to where - though at some distance and across the young Thames, the Fairford branch beckoned. If it's ok I'll imagine a Bristol to Oxford train service via Witney - a rather unlikely relief for the capacity issues on the Didcot to Oxford line.

Mark

 

They wouldn't need a bunch of keys: just one (redacted). 

 
... and, very nearly, Melksham. 

 
There's an interesting distinction between 'The Flying Scotsman' and 'A Flying Scotsman'. 

 

I rather think the residents of Littlehampton would take umbrage at the suggestion that they live in an inappropriate place. 

 
Some nice info at https://charfieldtrainstation.commonplace.is/