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Parsley Sidings (fictional location)

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Blinkbonny

Blinkbonny

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I am immensely confused as to the exact location of Parsley Sidings as featured in the Radio4 Extra documentary series: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dlyyp/episodes/guide

It appears to be a small country station, answerable to St Pancras, with only a few trains per day (most of which habitually run late) and yet it boasts a full complement of staff including Station Master, Ticket Clerk, Signalman, Porter, and Refreshment Room manageress.

And wherever it is it seems to have the power to divert the "Brighton Express" to Glasgow with just one simple points setting error!

On this evidence not only was Beeching entirely justified in his famous "Axe" but the Privatisation of the Railways couldn't come soon enough. <(
 
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nlogax

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Am I missing something here? Parsley Sidings was a fictional location for the sake of a radio comedy and completely subject to the fiction-based whims of the writers, including the staff that resided there and the services that ran through it.
 
Fawkes Cat

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skyhigh said:
Erm, I wouldn't really class a 1970s radio sitcom as a documentary? Or is that the joke and my sarcasm detector needs re-calibrating?!
Click to expand...

I'm hoping it's your sarcasm detector.

If not, I'm PM-ing the OP with this wonderful deal where I sell them London Bridge...
 
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Ken H

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Blinkbonny said:
I am immensely confused as to the exact location of Parsley Sidings as featured in the Radio4 Extra documentary series: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dlyyp/episodes/guide

It appears to be a small country station, answerable to St Pancras, with only a few trains per day (most of which habitually run late) and yet it boasts a full complement of staff including Station Master, Ticket Clerk, Signalman, Porter, and Refreshment Room manageress.

And wherever it is it seems to have the power to divert the "Brighton Express" to Glasgow with just one simple points setting error!

On this evidence not only was Beeching entirely justified in his famous "Axe" but the Privatisation of the Railways couldn't come soon enough. <(
Click to expand...

Woodford Halse?

:)
 
pdeaves

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Calling it a documentary is the funniest thing I've heard about Parsley Sidings. I personally find it all too contrived and barely on the amusement scale. Others may have differing opinions!
 
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LAX54

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Blinkbonny said:
I am immensely confused as to the exact location of Parsley Sidings as featured in the Radio4 Extra documentary series: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dlyyp/episodes/guide

It appears to be a small country station, answerable to St Pancras, with only a few trains per day (most of which habitually run late) and yet it boasts a full complement of staff including Station Master, Ticket Clerk, Signalman, Porter, and Refreshment Room manageress.

And wherever it is it seems to have the power to divert the "Brighton Express" to Glasgow with just one simple points setting error!

On this evidence not only was Beeching entirely justified in his famous "Axe" but the Privatisation of the Railways couldn't come soon enough. <(
Click to expand...


A documentary ? ! lol :)
 
Cowley

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pdeaves said:
Calling it a documentary is the funniest thing I've heard about Parsley Sidings. I personally find it all too contrived and barely on the amusement scale. Others may have differing opinions!
Click to expand...
No you’re right it’s terrible. :lol:
I gave the first four episodes a go (I love the radio adaptation of Dads Army), but I couldn’t put myself through any more and I’ve removed them from my downloads now.
 
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sprunt

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Neil Urquhart said:
It also seems to be run by some ex-army type, possibly a Captain Mainwaring?
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Well, after the scandal where it emerged that he, rather than his assistant at the bank was that teller's father it's no surprise he ended up working on the railway is it? :D
 
krus_aragon

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Cowley said:
No you’re right it’s terrible. :lol:
I gave the first four episodes a go (I love the radio adaptation of Dads Army), but I couldn’t put myself through any more and I’ve removed them from my downloads now.
Click to expand...
I gave it a try many months ago. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that didn't take to it.
 
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Ken H

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HaggisBotherer said:
Probably gets terribly upset about carriages in the railway scenes in films being not quite the correct shade of obsessive as well ;)
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biggest howler was in Porridge when they showed a loco hauled service leaving St Pancras to the sound of a DMU
 
Busaholic

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M.R. James story dramatised on Radio 4 today, with Mark Gatiss. At the end the Boat Train from Victoria to Dover Marine was accessed by the protaganist at West Croydon!
 
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Calthrop

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Just seen this thread for the first time: could "Parsley Sidings" have been suggested to the creators of the radio thing, by the real-life station -- passenger-served until 1954 -- of Parsley Hay; where the Cromford & High Peak freight line diverged from the Rocester -- Ashbourne -- Buxton branch?
 
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