The Lemon Fool

Must be more interesting than mine. Waterloo to Barnes and return. Nothing happened. Carriages are clean and nearly empty. End of brief report.

Between Crayford and Slade Green I saw a couple of emus in a field,

Must be more interesting than mine.

Correct. I was planning to walk a section of the Thames Path and hoped to see some interesting plants and wildlife. Not really emus though. Also saw a heron in a moat, a rat and when I got home, a flying male stag beetle in the garden followed by a newly fledged Pied Wagtail.

My latest trip was to the Fool social from Tunbridge Wells to Charing X and back. All wonderful. All on time. Almost thought I was in Switzerland for a while. In my 58 years circling the sun I've never experienced better rail travel (in the UK). C.

Last September, returning on a week-end trip from Llanelli via Cardiff to Paddington.

Waiting at Cardiff with about a dozen other passengers ,when announcement states that due to a problem ,train is delayed 20minutes.

When , after 40 minutes, train arrives ,the platform is heaving with what seems a football crowd. Scramble for the doors ( "After you , Claude " is obsolete today ) and managed to get a seat ( pre-booked and reserved, some hope ) in what resembles a sardine tin.

A few stops and more passengers embark.

My last trip was also to the Social Evening. Up to London a slightly delayed Southern service to Victoria, on which the free WiFi worked well, and I got a lot done, although touch screens and moving trains do not work well together.

Homeward bound it was Gatwick Express stock, working a Southern service. WiFi worked but no internet connection. I recharged my mobile from the plug by my seat. Plenty of 4G on the way, though. Table seat both ways, and enjoyed a snack on the way home. I put my rubbish in the bin at the door on alighting, but it was almost full.

TJH

We drove to a nearby station that gets a lot more trains than our local walking distance station. Journey to that London was uneventful. On the way back, there was an "incident" at an intervening station. Most of of the trains were affected. It was close to midnight, and they were talking about the network shutting down early. No trains to where we'd parked the car, or our local station. Then a trains appeared on the board that went to the station where the car was. We hop on. The guard announces the train won't stop at the station we want, but the one after that. We decide to stay on, rather than get stuck in that London, we'd be closer to home. Try to contact number 1 son, who'd recently passed his driving test, to come and pick us up from our new destination. He fails to respond to texts, phone calls, messages, etc etc. We end up at a taxi rank gone midnight. It was getting rather feisty and anarchic. Boy checks his phone before he goes to bed, and then has to drive to somewhere he knows the directions to, and that's how we end up sitting on the steps of a cathedral at 1am. He picks us up, drives us to our car, and we all drive home. A late night.

Next time we went to that London we drove to our nearest end of the line tube station instead.

Rail companies are like airlines - they are a law unto themselves, and passengers are an inconvenience.

didds

My latest was HST back from Reading after a short hop on a Thames Turbo effort
It made me realise;
How much I like Class 43 HSTs
How poor the replacement Class 800s are ('progress' ?)
How much I hate Class 165/166 Turbos

Virgin West Coast, Manchester to London Euston.
(First class - I only go on UK trains first class or else it's vile and it only costs about £70 as opposed to £35-45 cattle class)

All on time. Sandwiches, crisps, chocolate etc served at seat. Tea coffee and booze (if wanted).
Never had a problem with Virgin trains.

Even the worst train is better than the dreaded
Rail Replacement Bus Service (shudder)

My last train journey was on the Tamar Valley line. A very scenic branch line from Plymouth following approximately the Devon/Cornwall border.

A little DMU with no luxuries, but it was on time both ways, and pleasant enough. And no issues over carrying my bike, so I can do the several miles home long after the last bus of the evening has gone (as well as a shorter journey at the other end).

Manchester Victoria to Durham. Nothing happened. I was really suffering after 5 days on the tiles in Liverpool/Manchester.

AleisterCrowley wrote:My latest was HST back from Reading after a short hop on a Thames Turbo effort
It made me realise;
How much I like Class 43 HSTs
How poor the replacement Class 800s are ('progress' ?)
How much I hate Class 165/166 Turbos

If I had known you were a trainspotter then we could have discussed such matters in depth the other evening. It might also have given us more space around us

Euston to Leicester via Milton Keynes and Nuneaton. An odd route chosen to avoid the dreaded bus replacement service cited elsewhere. I could only use Virgin trains on the first leg, which meant I had to let a couple of Northwestern trains go, annoyingly. And since the previous Virgin train had been cancelled, we were packed like sardines.

Odd that Virgin run diesel trains on an electrified line, but what do I know?

That'll be because that train continues beyond the electrified section of line. Probably to Holyhead or Shrewsbury.

The latest wheeze is the bi-modes, like GWR's class 800s, which can use electric power under the wires, then diesel to get to the places that National Rail has failed to wire up.

TJH

The electrification is still 'ongoing' -causing havoc on the Reading <> Newbury line until late November
Class 800 are bi-mode electro-diesel, Class 802 are designed for 'mainly diesel, uphill'
The Class 801 are electric only, but they converted some to bi-mode 800s

PinkDalek wrote:Must be more interesting than mine. Waterloo to Barnes and return. Nothing happened. Carriages are clean and nearly empty. End of brief report.

Mine, in the middle of May on a Friday to meet up with friends was nearly as uneventful, other than on both the journey in and then again home there were what I could only describe as people going to/from office parties. Which struck me as odd for the time of year. But, Witham to Liverpool Street and return was, as you say, uneventful.

Wonderful!

Slarti

For a short while, when I first started working in London, I used to commute from near Brighton.
The Thursday/ Friday night London> Brighton services were a bit lively sometimes, particularly around the buffet car.

Recently from Gatwick to Southampton - train late and then the operator decided to terminate the service en route. Nightmare journey as I had 4 heavy suitcases (don't ask) me.

I think there is only one weekly train here, it goes to Iraq.
[Cue: /Monty Python; You think you had it hard; When I were a lad; Iraq!? that's nothing]

DiamondEcho wrote:I think there is only one weekly train here, it goes to Iraq.

Blimey, Bognor has changed a bit since my last visit