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Chepstow and Lydney

2006 August 30 (Wednesday), 147 miles.

Today got off to another interesting start with something unexpected, this time a coal train from Portbury passing through Temple Meads.

I caught the 1043 to Gloucester (1009 Weston-super-Mare to Cheltenham), and things took a turn for the bizarre at the first stop when I was joined by a "family": two women of around 20 and 40, a teenage boy, two younger girls who kept their distance from the rest, and a man of about 60 in a spectacularly gold-braided cap which said "US Air Force". He certainly wasn't American, but periodically shouted "tickets please" through a loudhailer down the train to the rest of the passengers. This was as sophisticated as his conversation became, other than to mumble something about Asda to his kin and occasionally berate them for their awkward behaviour. They replied with a similar vocabulary. They seemed harmless, but that may have been because I knew I'd be getting off at Gloucester.

En route to Gloucester there was a remarkable amount of maize (aka sweetcorn) growing in fields adjacent to the track. This I deduced to be this year's tax-laundering crop. In most recent years it's been rape.

Air Chief Marshal Megaphone and his tribe detrained at Gloucester and waited for a train to the midlands. I headed for Chepstow.

Since my last visit to Chepstow the sidings which ran behind the down platform had been severed and all but one removed. I noted that the station footbridge was not only an original and local 1892 construction (though somewhat tatty and abused) but with a couple of gas lantern housings attached. They'd been converted to electric, of course, but with energy-efficient bulbs.

After staying long enough to see a couple of diverted HSTs pass through, I walked to Wye Valley Junction, or rather, the remains of Wye Valley Junction to see a few more. A couple of lengths of rail from the point had been removed but much of it was still there, as were the ground frame levers and rodding. I stayed there for a couple more HSTs and a chat with a dog-walker about the Wye Valley line and the shortsightedness of the Beeching cuts before walking back to the station.

From Chepstow I went to Lydney, one stop back towards Gloucester. I was only expecting to see a couple of HSTs go through before catching the next train to Gloucester, and after they went through I went to take a look at Lydney Junction, the southern end of the Dean Forest Railway. There was an unexpected bonus when the bells rang and the barriers closed at Lydney Junction crossing, and a steam train crossed the road with the DFR's last service of the day to the junction and back to Norchard.

Thence to Gloucester, Cheltenham and back to Bristol by Vermin Voyager. We hadn't gone far when the PA burst into life with a broad Bristolian voice. "Hello. It's Nigel again, the bloke in the shop. We're still open, we're still in coach D, and we've still got some lovely bacon rolls, though the burgers are gone. We've also got stuff like magazines and playing cards, so come on down, the price is right!" It loses much of its impact in print.

Passing through Bristol Parkway I was able to confirm what I'd suspected on my outward passage: the clocks on the now-disused mail platform have somehow become out by twelve hours; they read 0702 instead of 1902. Odd.