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Bradford-on-Avon and Trowbridge

2006 August 31 (Thursday), 256 miles.

The day started overcast, if not quite dull, and I decided to take a look at Bradford-on-Avon. After seeing a coal train from Portbury pass through on platform 3 I left on the 1040 to Southampton Central. The journey was uneventful, and Bradford-on-Avon station was delightfully well-preserved, the public-facing wall of the ticket office decorated with framed photographs of trains passing through dating back to the days of steam. There was also a commemorative plaque to a longstanding member of staff.

The station buildings on both sides were extant, though ivy on one had reached as far as the roof. The gardens contained a lot of berberis, flowering later than I've seen it before.

I caught the next train to Trowbridge, on which the guard with the handlebar moustache was working again. At Trowbridge both of the HSTs I was planning to see went through within a couple of minutes of my arrival, and before I could get into position to photograph them. Not to worry, Trowbridge wasn't the most attractive of stations, though it had a quince tree bearing nearly-ripe fruit growing next to one of the platforms, perhaps the remains of a long-abandoned station garden. I took an opportunity to go back almost immediately to Bradford-on-Avon and enjoy the surroundings a little longer before going on to Southampton.

At least, that was the plan. I'd even found a comfy window seat with a table to settle into where I could alternately write up my notes and gaze out of the window, but at Westbury station I caught the unmistakable sight of a diesel loco and a rake of heritage coaches. When I then heard a whistle I thought I'd better investigate its source.

The train itself, Steam Dreams' "The Cathedrals Express", was leaving, but the source of the whistle was a Black Five which had just detached and was the object of the attentions of a bevy of photographers, including a number who had been at Westbury waiting for regular trains. After the Black Five left, so did I, only to see it again at the east end of Salisbury station.

The approach to Southampton was interesting, a patchwork of reedbeds and grazing with the River Test meandering among them. Interesting in a different way was Millbrook freight terminal, the origin or destination of many of the trains I see going through Oxford and Banbury. Central station was a somewhat gloomy affair surrounded by a lot of run-down infrastructure, and no freight passed through while I was there. The next train back towards Westbury was the "coast to coast" Portsmouth Harbour to Plymouth. This had been on my "to do" list for a while so I got aboard.

At Salisbury I saw the Black Five for the third time. It had been turned, presumably for the return leg of the excursion. At Westbury I asked two members of railway staff when the Black Five would be back. Their response was the same: "what's a Black Five?" When I told them it was the big black steam loco which had been there a couple of hours earlier they were nonee the wiser about its return journey, so I went on to Taunton. I was surprised by how many passengers travelled from Southampton and points east to Taunton and points west, including a "boisterous" young family on a day trip from Devon and apparently fuelled largely by sugar and other additives.

Unlike Southampton Central, Taunton is not blighted by ugly buildings and its canopies are translucent. It has clearly seen better (and busier) days, but it's nevertheless a quite pleasant place at which to wait for a train.