Gloucester station

[D854_Tiger]

So who wanted to get rid of Eastgate. Was it the City Council or the railway or both. Whatever, it hindsight it looks like a mistake.

 

According to the timetable, GW class 158 services heading for Bristol are only allowed three minutes for the reversal, whereas XC Cardiff bound trains trains (not reversing) are allowed five minutes for the station stop.

 

Some HSTs heading for London are only allowed five minutes to reverse.

 

It doesn't seem as if stopping at Glouceater Central, rather than the old Eastgate station, is such a great impediment to journey times plus, if my memory serves me well, I don't remember departure via the Tuffley loop was particularly rapid, given the need to await a path across all those level crossings.

[david.hill64]

So who wanted to get rid of Eastgate. Was it the City Council or the railway or both. Whatever, it hindsight it looks like a mistake.

Definitely the council and probably both.

 

From the council's point of view the Barton St level crossing (at the down (London) end of Eastgate) was a nightmare for road traffic as it was on a crossroads effectively restricting or blocking road traffic movements in four directions. Even if you didn't want to enter Barton St, the queue of traffic often blocked traffic on the other routes. Because of the location of the crossroads other road solutions (bridges tunnels) were not feasible even if they could have been afforded. 

 

It might have been better to have kept the London and Swindon services going via Central as this would have reduced the number of train movements through Eastgate. Yes, this would have meant a reversal at Central but they have to do that now anyway. BR's costs would not have been reduced though the rationalisation with resignalling reduced the trackwork considerably.

 

If you didn't know there are no signs at all in the area of Eastgate that there was ever a railway there. Even the High Orchard branch to the docks is now a road.  

[Phil Bullock]

So trip up to London yesterday

 

Gloucester fare - £166

 

Evesham fare - £64

 

No prizes for guessing which way I travelled.....

 

Phil

[MJI]

According to the timetable, GW class 158 services heading for Bristol are only allowed three minutes for the reversal, whereas XC Cardiff bound trains trains (not reversing) are allowed five minutes for the station stop.

 

Some HSTs heading for London are only allowed five minutes to reverse.

 

It doesn't seem as if stopping at Glouceater Central, rather than the old Eastgate station, is such a great impediment to journey times plus, if my memory serves me well, I don't remember departure via the Tuffley loop was particularly rapid, given the need to await a path across all those level crossings.

 

Used to be a lot longer, often around 10 minutes, either swapping the loco, or more often running around. But there was quite a huge range of trains at the time.

 

Most passenger trains were Peaks or 47s, the odd 50, or rare 37.

 

NESW were mainly 47 and some Peak.

NWSW were mainly Peak.

 

Was basically not well organised as it was two companies with different requirements, Central was good for GW, Eastgate OK for  LMS.

 

Having Central is only least worse rather than best solution.

[£1.38]

At least there is only one track gauge to worry about. Broad and standard gauge would have complicated things even more, especially when Bristol to Gloucester was broad gauge.

[melmerby]

Used to be a lot longer, often around 10 minutes, either swapping the loco, or more often running around. But there was quite a huge range of trains at the time.

 

Most passenger trains were Peaks or 47s, the odd 50, or rare 37.

 

NESW were mainly 47 and some Peak.

NWSW were mainly Peak.

 

Was basically not well organised as it was two companies with different requirements, Central was good for GW, Eastgate OK for  LMS.

 

Having Central is only least worse rather than best solution.

Eastgate didn't exist for the first 50 years of Gloucester Railways all trains went to the site where Central now is.

The GW had a through station and the Midland had a terminus immediately south of and adjacent to it.

It was 1896 when the new Eastgate was opened and all Midland trains then used that, the former site was turned over to goods traffic.

I still think some sort of combined station could have been rustled up around the triangular junction. Not quite Central but enabling cross platform changes.

 

Keith

[locoholic]

I would have thought that there was enough demand for a regular interval "M5" train service, calling at Bromsgrove, Worcester, Ashchurch, Cheltenham, Gloucester, + new stations at Quedgeley, Stonehouse and Charfield, as well as Cam & Dursley and Yate, before Bristol,Parkway and T.M. The traffic on the motorway is appalling, as is the traffic in the centres of Worcester, Gloucester, Bristol and, of course, Birmingham.

[Joseph_Pestell]

I would have thought that there was enough demand for a regular interval "M5" train service, calling at Bromsgrove, Worcester, Ashchurch, Cheltenham, Gloucester, + new stations at Quedgeley, Stonehouse and Charfield, as well as Cam & Dursley and Yate, before Bristol,Parkway and T.M. The traffic on the motorway is appalling, as is the traffic in the centres of Worcester, Gloucester, Bristol and, of course, Birmingham.

 

Ideal for an open access operator so long as capacity can be found at the Birmingham end.

[MJI]

I would have thought that there was enough demand for a regular interval "M5" train service, calling at Bromsgrove, Worcester, Ashchurch, Cheltenham, Gloucester, + new stations at Quedgeley, Stonehouse and Charfield, as well as Cam & Dursley and Yate, before Bristol,Parkway and T.M. The traffic on the motorway is appalling, as is the traffic in the centres of Worcester, Gloucester, Bristol and, of course, Birmingham.

 

 

Real pain when my driving licence took a short holiday nearly 30 years ago.*

 

Worcester Gloucester is a bad service.

 

* that strange car following my bike was a plain clothed copper who hated bikes according to a friend in traf pol.

[TheSignalEngineer]

I would have thought that there was enough demand for a regular interval "M5" train service, calling at Bromsgrove, Worcester, Ashchurch, Cheltenham, Gloucester, + new stations at Quedgeley, Stonehouse and Charfield, as well as Cam & Dursley and Yate, before Bristol,Parkway and T.M. The traffic on the motorway is appalling, as is the traffic in the centres of Worcester, Gloucester, Bristol and, of course, Birmingham.

We used to have them, now sadly no more. Not regular interval but this example was from the 1964 New Street WTT.

 

Edited July 9, 2017 by TheSignalEngineer