Posted by Jock on November 28, 2005 at 10:29:23 from 84.64.108.217 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: Letter posted by Jim McDowell on November 27, 2005 at 17:37:33:
There is a way of planning railway journeys on line, but you have to visit the GERMAN RAILWAYS online train finder to do it!
Using this system it's possible to plan journeys all over Europe. Bruton to Windermere is a snip:
dep 09:18 Bruton
dep 09:31 Frome
dep 09:44 Westbury (Wilts)
dep 09:50 Trowbridge
dep 09:56 Bradford-on-Avon
dep 10:14 Bath Spa
dep 10:17 Oldfield Park
dep 10:24 Keynsham
arr 10:35 Bristol Temple Meads
dep 11:28 Bristol Temple Meads
dep 11:38 Bristol Parkway
dep 12:12 Cheltenham Spa
dep 13:03 Birmingham New Str
dep 13:19 Wolverhampton
dep 13:55 Crewe
dep 14:26 Wigan North Western
arr Preston 14:41
dep 15:31 Preston
dep 15:52 Lancaster
dep 16:10 Oxenholme Lake District
dep 16:14 Kendal
dep 16:17 Burneside
dep 16:23 Staveley(Cumbria)
arr 16:33 Windermere
Our modern day Dot would have two changes of train and would have to cope with her heavy suitcase by herself at Bristol. Ransome's Dot would have had the benefit of: porters, the wonderful Somerset and Dorset Railway and the amazing Pines Express. Her father would have planned the route meticuously using "Bradshaw". I leave it to someone who knows much more about the history of Britain's railways than I do to provide the details.
PS. I realise that I should have used tables for the timetable extract, but I can't do the HTML for tables yet. If some kindly soul were to post a hyperlink to a decent HTML tutorial on tables then I'm good for a pint!