42564 18:37 Monday 7th July

42564

In terms of the Carriage Capture it was a day of mixed fortunes.

The hustle and bustle of the disembark from the morning train at Paddington meant that I wasn’t in a position to get a snap of the number and thinking that it was probably going to be a duplicate anyway I found myself in a complete state of indifference I wandered away without noting anything down at all.

The return journey was a bit more interesting. Firstly Carriage F on the 18:03 Penzance Service had obviously only recently become a Carriage F by the evidence of the hastily placed letter stickers on the ends of the carriage. My records show that I’d already been in 42014 when it was a Carriage B in a former life back in May.

42014 - Now appearing as Carriage F

Getting off at Reading was made marginally more amusing when I spotted this professor of ingenuity ensuring that every journey with FGW meant a journey with a seat. I say hats off to this fella and Leo seems to agree with me.

The 18:37 Frome Service was similarly made marginally more interesting when it looks like this is another new refurbished carriage (a Carriage E) as its number, 42564 doesn’t appear on my list of numbers. Another question I’ll have to ping Ollie’s way before my logging system become too far out of kilter.
Finally if this morning’s lacklustre effort at capturing the carriage makes me suspect I’m getting slightly jaded with the Carriage Capture then my new found fan base amongst the FGW Ambassadors (shout out to @fgw_cdfcentral and @fgwcardiff) might provide the inspiration for a new collection scheme, Ambassador Capture!

Tonight victim is Luke, who I spotted lurking on Platform 7 at Reading.

Luke, 23, has just graduated from Lincoln University with a 2:1 in Contemporary Archaeology but always knew he wanted to work in the travel industry after fond memories of countless camping holidays in Skegness. Luke was known by the nickname of “Chippy” whilst undergoing his training as an Ambassador with FGW because he was always hooving up any left over chips in the FGW canteen. His ambition with FGW is to make an announcement over the in-train on-board PA system telling passengers that “this is a peak time service and anyone with an off-peak ticket will be forcibly disembarked at Taplow without their luggage.”

Jesus, I’m so bored. Someone take me out for a drink…….