Bank Holiday Monday - pictures of a great train trip to Weymouth
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2013-08-27 09:27:05 - Graham Ellis
Bank Holiday Monday in Melksham and we woke to an overcast (almost threatening) sky... and I wondered how many people would be joining me on the train (change at Westbury) to Melksham. Publicity has been purely through the 'flyer' printer for us by First Great Western and distributed in the Melksham local paper - and that as no more than a bullet point on the front of a trifold, and a few lines with times and prices inside. The main purpose of the flyer was / is to say "yes, we have a train in Melksham", to provide them with the times, and to get them to start taking opportunities for shopping trips every Saturday to Swindon.
So how many showed up?
We had around a hundred people on that little 2 coach train as it left Melksham headed for Trowbridge, and I felt that was just about right - part of me wanted to have a seething crowd, but knowing that the connecting train at Westbury was likely to be quite busy, and that the evening train would also have the normal flows for a Bank Holiday Monday on it, I knew that to have pressed the marketing further - which we could easily have done - would have been irresponsible, and that point would have been noted by our friends and supporters at First and at Wiltshire Council, and written about in the local press, over and above the clearly suppressed need it would have emphasised.
I reckon this is just about right for a couple of hours on the train out of rush hour:
Weymouth beach was busy - gloriously sunny by this point, and it's still very much the traditional seaside; one of the few remaining Punch and Judy shows entertained us with all the old jokes - which remain the best - such as Mr Punch sitting on the baby and describing it as "Babysitting".
And what better for those of us who were actually quite tired from helping many newcomers to rail (such as the old boy who "last caught a train when I was demobbed from RAF Melksham" - which closed almost 50 years ago), and parents with children on a train for the first time ever, than an open topped bus ride
I find Portland a fascinating island... Dad and I got off that bus and spent a couple of hours there, walking in the rugged limestone wilderness from which building blocks have been exported the world over, seeing the magnificent lighthouse, enjoying an ice cream...
... and watching families playing on the soft safe grassy cliff top fields, and watching harder (perhaps foolhardy) youths jumping off the cliffs into the swirling seas below that were lapping up against the rocks with a soothing and sleep inducing rhythm.
And so back to Weymouth. We took in the view of the magnificent Chesil Beach on the way back on the bus...
... and marvelled at how much this seaside resort has to offer. We had missed... the harbour, the tower, Lodesmore park, the Beach, Notte Fort, the nature reserve, the shopping, the funfairs, and many more things. And we look forward to having further opportunities to make this trip.
But this article is writeup of the day out and so to the trip home. Crowds gathered at the Station for the 17:30 departure, and indeed part of the train was there when we arrived, but the extra two carriages were on a late incoming service and didn't arrive until after the train was due to depart.
There were announcements, but for newcomers to this world of rail travel the personal touch of having someone they had seen on the way down to reassure them that the train would be longer and, "yes, this is the right platform and part of the train" seemed welcome. Even when extended to 4 carriages, the train was busy but I only heard one or two grumbles - and there were a lot of bouquets to say "Thank you" which I must pass on to my management contacts at First. And a big THANK YOU to the Conductors of all four trains we were on - lovely people, professional in their approach in looking after rather a lot of people as well as the operation and safety of the train.
We left Weymouth nearly 20 minutes late, which was a bit of a concern as we only had 13 minutes to change at Westbury onto the TransWilts train for Melksham, Chippenham and Swindon. We stopped (as always seems to happen when running late) at all three request stops - Chetnole, Yetminster and Thornford, and the pulled into Castle Cary too late to leave in front of the London Express as we should have done - so that was a few more minutes delay. The Conductor, alerted to the fact that he had about 100 people on board for the TransWilts connection and that the majority of them were for Melksham, with the following train after the 19:32 on Monday being at 06:46 on Tuesday, made a couple of phone calls and had the connection held for us, in contrast to normal practise. The train change at Westbury worked like clockwork - straight across the platform, and within 3 minutes we were off on the local service. I just had time to say "thank you" to the previous conductor, and we left his delayed train, alas, being even further delayed, as we were given priority.
And so a happy homeward run - only where there's a good connection in the morning offering days out is the 19:32 carrying anything like a good load of passengers and they're happy passengers too, though tired after a long day of sun sea and fun.
Passengers left the train at Melksham through a single door - so no big group photo on the platform. Just lots of smiling faces. "Please let us know when we can do this again". "Are there any more trips like this planned". "Thank you for a great day" - that comment a bit misdirected, as really it was the railway and the people who work the railway who should be thanked. I know they're paid for it, but they do the job cheerfully and helpfully, even at times when they are thrown stressful or challenging circumstances, and perhaps they too would like to have been able to join us on the beach.
As a footnote, the people who came on this trip were different people to those who came in May - and I'm cheered by that; we tried a different publicity medium, and reached another fresh market. There are common factors though - once again, people feeling that they were very lucky to have heard about the trip at all, and suggesting ways we could market the product more thoroughly. I welcomed those suggestions - and indeed if we see a substantially repeating opportunity coming up (watch this space ;-) ) then it will be a case of following up lots of those suggestions. But for the moment, I simply have to agree with the people making the suggestions, and gently point out that had we promoted the day further, we wouldn't have given pleasure to all, but disappointed a whole lot of people at Melksham where they couldn't have fitted on the train, or Westbury where they may have been stranded.
Lots of interest in the Santa trip, provisionally set for 8th December. I must have a word with Santa and see if we can get some more presents - not only gifts for the children, but train services for that day so that he can see as many people as possible.
