The Railway:First Great Western Series 2

[387star]

Good editing of swearing I imagine

 

[trainophile]

Good editing of swearing I imagine

Not even a 'bleep' to be heard!

 

[anti-pacer]

"Excuses, excuses"!!! What the ****?! Is the guy blind?

Clearly some morons in Reading!

On a positive note, the tracks were spotlessly clean at Reading station. It's a pity Network Rail don't pay the same attention to Leeds.

 

[AmeralGunson]

"Excuses, excuses"!!! What the ****?! Is the guy blind?

Clearly some morons in Reading!

On a positive note, the tracks were spotlessly clean at Reading station. It's a pity Network Rail don't pay the same attention to Leeds.

Of course they are clean at Reading. All of the lines through the station have only recently - in real terms - been laid. Will "they" ever peel off the blue protective plastic film off all that stainless steel one day or has no-one realised yet I wonder?

 

[anti-pacer]

Of course they are clean at Reading. All of the lines through the station have only recently - in real terms - been laid. Will "they" ever peel off the blue protective plastic film off all that stainless steel one day or has no-one realised yet I wonder?

Ah right. That'll explain it then!

 

[bussnapperwm]

How filming of a program usually goes when it comes into background people like passengers, notices are displayed to say that filming is taking place and that anyone objecting to being filmed to speak to the film crew.

 

[fgwrich]

Of course they are clean at Reading. All of the lines through the station have only recently - in real terms - been laid. Will "they" ever peel off the blue protective plastic film off all that stainless steel one day or has no-one realised yet I wonder?

Er... The blue under the canopies? Sadly that's the colour it is. Another design brief wandering from the original station plans showing stainless steel to the rather ugly blue metalwork under rather naff and still leaking canopies.

All in all it was a good episode though, rather well put together and focusing more on the reasons why people couldn't travel to their destinations on time or as easily - I remember being caught up in the disruption caused by the maidenhead flooding rather well. As for those who seem to think FGW was to blame for all of this including that idiot who seemed to put the blame of the weather at FGWs door as if it was controlled by FGW... Oh Dear... :roll:

 

[Rapidash]

I think you felliws may have let the red mists appear a bit quick on the 'excuses, excuses' bloke. He then said 'we all know you control the weather!' Sarcastically which is why the platform bloke made a joke about doing a little dance

 

[SpacePhoenix]

In all seriousness, what are they finding to film stuff about? It might not bother me but I do wonder if there's really much call for yet another series like this - after the original series of this, All Aboardast Coast Trains and The Railway:Keeping Britain on Track, what else is there to cover?

What channel was the East Coast Trains program on and how long ago?

 

[Envoy]

What channel was the East Coast Trains program on and how long ago?

It was originally on Sky as they commissioned the series. About 6 months ago, it was repeated on the Freeview channel called 'Pick' - which is owned by Sky and is used to show some of their programmes to a wider audience in order to gain advertising revenue.

 

[SkinnyDave]

I think you felliws may have let the red mists appear a bit quick on the 'excuses, excuses' bloke. He then said 'we all know you control the weather!' Sarcastically which is why the platform bloke made a joke about doing a little dance

That was someone behind him that said that & well said

 

[jon0844]

including that idiot who seemed to put the blame of the weather at FGWs door as if it was controlled by FGW... Oh Dear... :roll:

I took that as a joke and don't believe the person saying it was serious in any way. There might be an awful lot of idiotic, arrogant, passengers out there but I can't imagine any would seriously accuse FGW of being responsible for the weather.

 

[TDK]

The general public don't care on why a train isn't running and they also don't care on what excuses are given all they care about is getting home and most of them will initially blame FGW for not having a submarine service to replace trains, it is the World we live in and it will never change there is always someone somewhere that will complain about the most trivial or most serious disruption.

 

[colchesterken]

As I see it the problem with emergencies is there is no "fat controller " to take over and plan recovery
In the old days they would have turned trains round, stopped short I assume as everything is running at full streach there is no spare stock to slot in an empty train to take excess passengers
They should have a "hot spare" at Reading to run in emergency

 

[WelshBluebird]

The damage at Dawlish still amazes me every time I see it. Not just to the track and seawall either but the road and the front of that house.

 

[GodAtum]

The problem is informtion, the TOC should say dont bother waiting for a train, make you own way to wherever you want to go.

 

[Envoy]

Looking at the damaged seawall at Dawlish, surely it would have been obvious to anyone who has studied coastal erosion in Geography GCSE, that the old wall was not likely to last? I really wonder if some large blocks of stone could have been brought by rail from quarries in the Mendips and then lifted by crane to the seaward side and dumped - even if the footway was destroyed.

 

[tony6499]

How long did it take to get the field covered with water back to full working ? That looked pretty bad too

 

[455driver]

How long did it take to get the field covered with water back to full working ? That looked pretty bad too

The field was the whole Somerset levels (I have satellite pictures of before and during the floods, it looks like the coastline is completely different), I think it was about 2 months for the water to drain and get the signalling sorted out.

 

[6Gman]

The problem is informtion, the TOC should say dont bother waiting for a train, make you own way to wherever you want to go.

It's a long walk from London to Penzance!


--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

They should have a "hot spare" at Reading to run in emergency

The problem with that is that people crowding onto a booked train would say "Why don't you use that train that's been sitting there all day doing nothing"!

You can't win.

 

[455driver]

They should have a "hot spare" at Reading to run in emergency

The FGW fleet is very tightly allocated with very little slack, if you want a hot spare which services are you going to cancel to provide it?

 

[Cletus]

The field was the whole Somerset levels (I have satellite pictures of before and during the floods, it looks like the coastline is completely different), I think it was about 2 months for the water to drain and get the signalling sorted out.

Plot spoiler!

 

[Parallel]

I just watched this and thought it was very good documentation of all the flooding and severe weather we had last winter. I was actually trying to get home one evening and even the taxi had to find two alternative routes due to trees in the road. It was actually quite scary at the time!

It just shows how much of a standstill it all comes to, I remember at one point there was severe flooding between Weston Super Mare and Taunton, Castle Cary and Taunton and there was also a landslide at Crewkerne, meaning that for a short amount of time (a couple of days?) there was no services in and out of Devon at all, and that was on top of Dawlish!

 

[dgl]

I just watched this and thought it was very good documentation of all the flooding and severe weather we had last winter. I was actually trying to get home one evening and even the taxi had to find two alternative routes due to trees in the road. It was actually quite scary at the time!

It just shows how much of a standstill it all comes to, I remember at one point there was severe flooding between Weston Super Mare and Taunton, Castle Cary and Taunton and there was also a landslide at Crewkerne, meaning that for a short amount of time (a couple of days?) there was no services in and out of Devon at all, and that was on top of Dawlish!

I think the line at Crewkerne was not closed for that long (less than a day I think) and I think this now shows what an important line the WoE is. esp. with whiteball tunnel at wellington closed and services from Paddington being diverted on to it.

 

[47802]

I think you felliws may have let the red mists appear a bit quick on the 'excuses, excuses' bloke. He then said 'we all know you control the weather!' Sarcastically which is why the platform bloke made a joke about doing a little dance

I have some sympathy for the customer yes the railways were badly affected but that partly comes down to the fact the railways have little resilience to deal with such a situation not just on FGW but on many lines throughout the country, and then if you look at alternate modes of transport that becomes difficult because they are then overwhelmed by people who would normally travel by train.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The problem is informtion, the TOC should say dont bother waiting for a train, make you own way to wherever you want to go.

Then they'd get slated for stranding people.

I watched it and I thought it was handled pretty well given that their network was falling apart around them. I normally have no lack of criticism for fGW - they do have major shortcomings - but this was not one of them.

On the subject of "don't bother", London Midland got slated a while ago in the Press for saying to a student on Twitter (who asked that question) don't bother waiting for a train, go to the pub for a couple of hours while it blows over. They really can't win.

Neil

 

[HowardGWR]

I have been disappointed with some of the contributions here. I don't think it seems to have got through to some (remarkable when you assume all here are railway supporters) just what was faced late last year in the SW.

When the Broome crossing (north of AXM) and the Cowley junction gave way, as well as the other things mentioned above, there was literally no railway west of Castle Cary, Bridgwater, or Yeovil, for several days, effectively.

I expect the programmes will cover these issues in later episodes.

 

[Butts]

Really good episode, and not a stag party in sight! Next week we have a rugby crowd apparently, so more like the original series. Think they used all the good stuff (i.e. most interesting) up tonight .

I enjoyed it more than the shows in the first series. It appears from the spoiler it is on course to deteriorate.

 

[notadriver]

Regarding the tube strike - why weren't people simply getting on tfl buses from Ealing Broadway into London?

 

[SamYeager]

Really good episode, and not a stag party in sight! Next week we have a rugby crowd apparently, so more like the original series. Think they used all the good stuff (i.e. most interesting) up tonight .

IMHO I think it's important to think what was the intended purpose of the series. Obviously "entertainment" is high on the list however I believe that giving a representative example of what happens on the railway is also pretty important.

Realistically, stag parties, football and rugby crowds will tend to happen pretty frequently unlike major infrastructure challenges such as flooding.