The Bristol Railway Archive

Further to my earlier post on this thread about the 1430 Paddington to Bristol via Devizes in 1959, I've just checked that timetable and found that I lied - it left at 1435 and went through to Weston

For anybody interested in this example of how the railway used to be just over 50 years ago, here are the public times from the 1959 timetable, plus info from the working time table from the same time west of Bedwyn:

Paddington 1435
Reading 1516-1519
Newbury 1542-1545
Hungerford 1600
Savernake 1614-1616
Woodborough 1628
Patney & Chirton 1633
Devizes 1642-1646
Holt Junction 1659-1701
Bradford on Avon 1708-1710
Freshford 1715
Bath Spa 1729-1732
Oldfield Park 1735
Bristol TM 1752-1810
Bedminster 1813-1814
Nailsea & Backwell 1825
Yatton 1830-1832
Puxton & Worle 1839
Weston Milton 1845
Weston Super Mare 1848

The train was shown in the WTT as being "4 star" between Newbury and Bristol which probably suggested that a "Castle" would have been used on it.

So there you are - it was once possible to get a through train from Woodborough to Puxton & Worle and have a "Castle" on the sharp end as far as Bristol

It's true that XC would take a share of the revenue generated between Bath and Bristol, but with just the one train a day, that amount would be miniscule. It's more likely that XC saw the potential for through passengers from Bath to the north and would keep all the revenue from Advance tickets sold for that train.
Quite by chance yesterday at Reading, whilst waiting to take 1O22 on down to Bournemouth, I noticed that FGW run a Paddington - Bradford On Avon train, leaving Reading at 17.38 and calling at most B&H stations to Pewsey, then Trowbridge and BOA. Presumably this continues on to Bristol, but of course would not be advertised as such at Reading.

That will be 1C90 the 1706 ex Paddington using a HST and calling at:-
Twyford, Reading, Theale, Thatcham, Newbury, Kintbury, Hungerford, Bedwyn, Pewsey, Trowbridge, Bradford-on-Avon, Bath Spa and Bristol TM arriving at 1937. It was introduced last year.
It misses out Westbury to avoid reversing which would then necessitate a further reversal via Parkway to put it right way round on the Marsh.