Post-Festive Pot Pourri (12)

Only they aren’t tunning in the town centre.

At least TWO people from Church had informed fbb of a “model railway” in a shop in Axminster. The shop was once the domain of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, back in the days when he was a hairy trendy.

His “River Cottage” food emporium is located near Axminster. In the middle of the town was his “Canteen” (called “The Canteen” in an outbreak of stunning originality) caff and deli. The fbbs visited once and once only having decided not to take out an extension om their mortgage for a second visit. An Eccles cake, albeit stuffed full of Eccles, and a cuppa was nearly an unwell gastropod. (Sick squid – GROAN!)

And that was when a fiver was a fiver.

The caff is now closed and the model railwayS are displayed in the window.

So when fbb was taking No 3 son back to his homebound train, he diverted to see the models. It was raining hard and dull (dreich as Mrs fbb might say) so the pictures below are of very poor quality.

But no trains were running, indeed, no trains were in sight …

… but lights were on throughout. The two layouts nearest to the window were, even by fbb’s bodge standards somewhat basic.

At the back of the window display was something fbb did recognise. It was a model of the Cannington Viaduct on the Lyme Regis branch.

At a distance and through a monsoon, fbb could not evaluate the model – but it was recognisable.

Upon viewing the sownlas extract, there was a train” But it was very, very static.

Disappointed!

No 3 son lives at Haywards Heath and chooses to visit the fbbs by train with a change at Clapham Junction. The connection is not slick but does cope well with anything up to 20 min of late running.

No 3 buys a Saver Return with Network Card discount.

Seemples.

Only it isn’t. Here is No 3 son’s assessment of the process.

The first oddity is that the “system” expects you to choose a specific train when your ticket is valid by any train! There are, of course, restrictions on outward travel (after 1000?) but no restrictions for the return journey.

Many occasional users panic if they miss their “booked train ” which isn’t booked at all an think they cannot travel!

Crackpot!

So the second oddity was the reservation.

The lad was issued with a “coach reservation” for the journey from Axminster to Clapham Junction!?

But South Western Railway (SWR) does not DO reservations. The franchise predecessor, Stagecoach, gave up on reservations very early in its occupancy of the franchise chair.

So why a meaningless “coach reservation” for a journey without reservations?

Crackpot!

But it gets worse. A standard Saver is usually valid on ANY return train and certainly is so from Axminster to Haywards Heath.

So why did SWR and National Rail web sites say …

… “Tickets not available” on most Journeys on 27th December. Because of space constrains only the arrival times at Haywards Heath are shown above.

Crackpot!

Of course tickets were available!

No 3 son travelled quite happily on the 1206 from Axminster despite there being no tickets available and despite having “booked” but not booked the 1006. 

How many enquirers will have been discouraged from travel by this daft and utterly meaningless note?

VERY Crackpot!

Why have the technology people made travel so unnecessarily complex and, frankly, off-putting.

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Major London Interchange

Former terminus of East London line

Scottish station

Loco with weird boiler

A London terminus

Station east of |Leeds

American road and rail intersection 

Track at newark

Founder of bus company

Scottish village

Govt Transport Policy

Track junction

Finchley Road Underground 

Elizabeth Line line