Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2010-08-21 18:21:06 - Graham Ellis
It's going to be mostly pictures today ... a Thamseside walk - to Tilehurst by train, alongside the river with friends from the First Great Western Coffee Shop, then back from Pangbourne.
Passengers unload at Swindon from the 09:05 Westbury to Swindon via Melksham service. Even though the journey is only just over an hour, it involves 2 changes of train each way - at Swindon and Didcot. If you buy a return ticket from Melksham to Tilehurst, you'll pay 38 pounds. But if you buy Melksham to Didcot, and Didcot to Tilehurst, you'll pay less that 17 pounds in total. And remember those groupsave tickets where you can get 4 for the price of two; that brings it down to less that 9 pounds a head!
You'll notice that the picture at the top shows quite a crowd coming off "the Melksham train" at Swindon, but this picture shows an apparently deserted Tilehurst station. Thing are not always what they seem - the telltale signs of numerous open doors will indicate to you that people have already boarded at each possible location, and I can tell you that our group was on the platform as I took the picture - but out of shot behind me.
After walking along a road, through a housing estate, over the railway and across some fields, we joined the riverside path. The diversion was well signposted and added a bit of variety to the walk, but what a pity there are gaps in the waterside section of the walk. We came to Mapledurham lock - a name that I've always felt to be very pretty, but alas the lock is merely picturesque rather than stunningly beautiful in this case
I'm a bit of a sucker for narrow boats - so I'm sharing a picture of one of these (rather than a more delicate white cruiser) here. There were some very smart boats around; the Thames is always a bit like that, but I also sensed rather more exceptional boats than usual - perhaps because the Inland Waterway's annual national gathering takes place close to here next weekend.
Gypsy and Jess - a nine month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier - enjoying the towpath. We met so many other dogs during our walk. Regular readers may have noted previously that Gypsy is a Lurcher - a Greyhound / Staffie cross - and it was interesting to be able to take a picture of her with one ... I can certainly see the origins there!
It's interesting being in an online forum with people. You'll read hundreds or thousands of things they write - you answer with comments, advise, suggestions (or simply learn about them). And yet you rarely meet. Picture, here, three other Coffee Shop stalwarts / regulars / members who in a way I knew very well already, even though I was only meeting two out of three of them for the very first time. I'm delighted to report what lovely people they are in real life too; the picture's a bit indistinct to protect their privacy - but that can certainly shout "that's me" on the forum if they wish.
A canal or riverside walk should always end in a pub ... and we ended up in "The Swan" at Pangborne - a pub where dogs are welcome and the food is excellent (if a bit nouveaux == small potions! And a walk back up to the station to catch the 14:31 to connect - connect - back to Melksham. "Hmmm - Melksham - don't know how you're going to get there" says the Train Manager on the Cheltenham Express from Didcot; I tell him of the service from Swindon, suggest he come and tries it for himself sometime, and I'm delighted to hear his announcement as we approach Swindon ... "Change here for South Wales, for Bath and Bristol , and for the connecting service to Chipenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh and Warminster.". Good on yer, mate! We could really do with that publicity for each connection - like I saw on my recent trip to Germany.
And talking about making sure that information is readily available, I took a look around at what was on offer at some of the stations I haven't visited in person before. I'm always in favor of providing plenty of data, but sometimes feel that the signage can go a bit over the top. To be fare, there were works underway on the information point, so I suspect there may be two generations of signs in place at the moment.
And finally, I wondered at the history of this passage which gets to to and from the Didcot direction platform at Pangborne. I was somewhat surprised at the platform numbering - with "Platform 1" being on one of the middle two tracks, and "Platform 2" being on a side track; somehow, it would seem more logical to label the tracks 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 and then have platform 1 on track 1, and platform 2 on track 2.
Passengers unload at Swindon from the 09:05 Westbury to Swindon via Melksham service. Even though the journey is only just over an hour, it involves 2 changes of train each way - at Swindon and Didcot. If you buy a return ticket from Melksham to Tilehurst, you'll pay 38 pounds. But if you buy Melksham to Didcot, and Didcot to Tilehurst, you'll pay less that 17 pounds in total. And remember those groupsave tickets where you can get 4 for the price of two; that brings it down to less that 9 pounds a head!
You'll notice that the picture at the top shows quite a crowd coming off "the Melksham train" at Swindon, but this picture shows an apparently deserted Tilehurst station. Thing are not always what they seem - the telltale signs of numerous open doors will indicate to you that people have already boarded at each possible location, and I can tell you that our group was on the platform as I took the picture - but out of shot behind me.
After walking along a road, through a housing estate, over the railway and across some fields, we joined the riverside path. The diversion was well signposted and added a bit of variety to the walk, but what a pity there are gaps in the waterside section of the walk. We came to Mapledurham lock - a name that I've always felt to be very pretty, but alas the lock is merely picturesque rather than stunningly beautiful in this case
I'm a bit of a sucker for narrow boats - so I'm sharing a picture of one of these (rather than a more delicate white cruiser) here. There were some very smart boats around; the Thames is always a bit like that, but I also sensed rather more exceptional boats than usual - perhaps because the Inland Waterway's annual national gathering takes place close to here next weekend.
Gypsy and Jess - a nine month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier - enjoying the towpath. We met so many other dogs during our walk. Regular readers may have noted previously that Gypsy is a Lurcher - a Greyhound / Staffie cross - and it was interesting to be able to take a picture of her with one ... I can certainly see the origins there!
It's interesting being in an online forum with people. You'll read hundreds or thousands of things they write - you answer with comments, advise, suggestions (or simply learn about them). And yet you rarely meet. Picture, here, three other Coffee Shop stalwarts / regulars / members who in a way I knew very well already, even though I was only meeting two out of three of them for the very first time. I'm delighted to report what lovely people they are in real life too; the picture's a bit indistinct to protect their privacy - but that can certainly shout "that's me" on the forum if they wish.
A canal or riverside walk should always end in a pub ... and we ended up in "The Swan" at Pangborne - a pub where dogs are welcome and the food is excellent (if a bit nouveaux == small potions! And a walk back up to the station to catch the 14:31 to connect - connect - back to Melksham. "Hmmm - Melksham - don't know how you're going to get there" says the Train Manager on the Cheltenham Express from Didcot; I tell him of the service from Swindon, suggest he come and tries it for himself sometime, and I'm delighted to hear his announcement as we approach Swindon ... "Change here for South Wales, for Bath and Bristol , and for the connecting service to Chipenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh and Warminster.". Good on yer, mate! We could really do with that publicity for each connection - like I saw on my recent trip to Germany.
And talking about making sure that information is readily available, I took a look around at what was on offer at some of the stations I haven't visited in person before. I'm always in favor of providing plenty of data, but sometimes feel that the signage can go a bit over the top. To be fare, there were works underway on the information point, so I suspect there may be two generations of signs in place at the moment.
And finally, I wondered at the history of this passage which gets to to and from the Didcot direction platform at Pangborne. I was somewhat surprised at the platform numbering - with "Platform 1" being on one of the middle two tracks, and "Platform 2" being on a side track; somehow, it would seem more logical to label the tracks 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 and then have platform 1 on track 1, and platform 2 on track 2.