Paignton & Exmouth 5.11.24

Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.

Operations on the Day

Today should be straightforward, local train to Reading, fast train to Paignton, local train to Exmouth, reverse back to Exeter St Davids and then a reverse of the outward journey.  The aim is to visit Paignton as I am not sure I have been there by train previously, although I have left the station by the Dart Valley Railway a few times, and Exmouth for a definitive first visit.

Sandhurst to Reading runs smoothly and the train is slightly early, having noted that at least temporarily the Happy Christmas bridge has lost the graffiti which has adorned it for many a year.  It will be interesting to see what it says tonight.

At Reading we depart on time but then Mr Pete Tong arrives.  For reasons not made clear we are making extra stops a Kintbury, Hungerford, Bedway and Pewsey.  At Kintbury at least one passenger is not in the right coach to emerge, despite the announcements and we are stuck for five minutes or so.  The other additional stops, all of which are of course places which should be passed at speed makes the delay greater.  On board the announcements do NOT say why the additional calls are made – apparently a previous service was cancelled – but the last time I sought extra stops on a service it was refused due to “pathing problems”, which of course this service will now be causing – however staff did know at Paddington that the extra stops were being made.

On board the information panels are confusing and conflict with the passenger announcements as it is reporting that the next station will be Westbury as the onboard system does not seem to know about the change in train plan and yet it is also saying that at the next stop there will be limited egress from certain coaches – which at least one person thinks is Westbury because the announcements are simply not good enough.  The information panels never show the right next station and yet can advise that the next station has short platforms – this is simply poor.  If making extra stops the panels need to be turned off and an announcements saying why they are off – if they cannot show the right information.

Last time I came this way earlier this year the service used the Westbury avoiding line but today we serve the station.  The mileages in the Sectional Appendix are odd around here and are worth noting (all still recorded in miles and chains and not metricated):

From Line of Route GW560:
Heywood Jn  is 94m 45ch
Westbury North Jn is 95mi 33ch / 109mi 49ch
From Line of Route GW500:
Fairwood Jn 97mi 02ch / 111mi 18ch
In consequence and using the back of envelope (literally) the avoiding line is 2mi 37ch.  Using the line through Westbury totals – 2mi 37ch.  So the avoiding line is as long as line through the station!

The connecting Weymouth service is then held at Castle Cary (the connection is normally at Westbury) – but again a short platform so people are running through the train to leave – and the slower train in front impedes our recovery time.

We are 15 late into Taunton and there is a delay repayment announcement – so that is positive I suppose.  Can we now recover more time as we head westwards?  Slight improvement arriving at Exeter St David’s about 14 late but I have only a 16 minute connection at Paignton.  If it were not a grey day I would be able to enjoy this picturesque part of the journey alongside the Exe estuary; it is always great to see those on the beach, mainly dog walking as rumble along.

However at Dawlish Warren it gets worse.  We are looped to allow another (Penzance) train to pass on the through line and then we pull forward to our stop at Dawlish.  Now considerably later we end up in Paignton some 18 late and as we approach the station my planned next train heads out of the station.

Departures from Paignton are half hourly so I wander over the footbridge to take a picture of the incoming train which heads into platform 2 and I join it to await departure back towards Exeter, retracing my earlier steps.  Ticket is checked just before we reach Marsh Barton.

At Exeter St Davids the service reverses leaving the former GWR line and taking up the L&SWR line which climbs up to Exeter Central at which point quite a few other passengers leave to access the City Centre.  We then swing on to the Avocet line which runs along the other side of the River Exe from the GW main line to the terminus of Exmouth.  The view of the Exe estuary is perhaps not quite as good from this side and now getting a little boring as this is my third viewing today!  The line is mainly single track with a crossing point at Topsham but enjoys a decent service frequency.  We wait slightly at Topsham as the other unit is slightly late.

A ticket check including amazingly a railcard request – perhaps I do not look my age – on the return to Exeter!

The London train is waiting patiently and I had allowed some spare time so am making a connection into my booked train.  A late departure due to an engine problem is announced – this line should be electrified – but reportedly resolved by the time we leave.  Slightly to my surprise there are refreshments on this service, so getting a coffee prior to departure was unnecessary.  Some other operators could learn a lesson – after all this journey is only a couple of hours long!

We seem unable to recover any of the lost time whilst running on diesel and there is no explicit pathing time until just before Westbury – which is only a minute.  It will be very tight at Reading – especially as we are over long in the station at Castle Cary where we lose another two minutes.  I note that generally approach to stations is often gentle and I suspect the leaf fall season is partially to blame to ensure that stops are made safely.

An annoyance throughout the day is that getting the iPad to connect to the train Wi-Fi reliably seems difficult.  The phone (which is much newer) seems to work reasonably well  but perhaps the older chips in the iPad are simply not connecting smoothly.  I try to upload files from the iPad to Dropbox – but that does not seem to work at all – Google Drive works but uploads the files with the same name which is not overly helpful.

Looks like the repainting is making progress.

Costs / Ticket Checks

Today cost more than I would have liked.  I did not book the outward Advance ticket early enough to get the cheap prices so the costs added up a bit:
Sandhurst – Reading day return: £4.90
Reading – Exeter St David’s: £35.95
Exeter – Paignton return: £6.75
Exeter – Exmouth return: £4.25
Exeter – Reading: £24.95
Total: £76.80

Rolling Stock

Little variety today with modern 800 units on the main line and class 165/6 units on the branches at both ends.  The former are the subject of some comment over ride and they are certainly noisier as they operate on diesel west of Newbury – so the cabin noise is inevitably higher than an HST.  Operationally losing time on the outward journey was a fact of life and with speed limits needing to be strictly observed the potential for recovery is close to zero.  The lost time generally had little impact on me – apart from getting home later than planned.  The microwave saved the day.

Summary

Disappointed by the time keeping.  Pleased to find some refreshments available on the return working – not needed but nice to know they are there.  Train loadings on the branch lines generally good and providing a solid reliable service for the local residents.