42570 17:45 Wednesday 30th July

42570

Although there was only a single Carriage Capture today, all of my trains today ran on time, so congratulations to FGW for meeting your contractual obligations as far as I was concerned today.

In fact things ran so smoothly I made it onto the 17:45 Swansea service into 42570 which is one of the new Carriage E’s. Due to the smooth journey to Reading I nearly made the earlier train home but my Commonwealth Games standard sprint from Platform 10 to Platform 1 only gained me the sight of the 18:12 disappearing into the distance. I therefore had to capture the carriage with a long distance lens and make do with a wait on Platform 7 by taking another photo of Luke with a new colleague called David.

David

David, as one will note and he won’t mind me saying this, is slightly more mature than the usual young bum-fluffed (including the ladies) Ambassador. So keen was David to take up his position as an Ambassador and spend his days hanging around the concrete monstrosity that is Reading Station that he gave up his job on the board of ICI and has never been happier.

In his spare time you can find David in his garden shed which houses the largest collection of “dirty” Victorian postcards in Europe. David created his own unique cataloging system to put the 43,000 cards in order and he’s finding this is coming in useful when knowing which train is due into which platform. Although he has this extensive collection he’s still after the ultra-rare “Butler Frottage” card from 1843. If you happen to have one lying around be sure to slip it into his pocket the next time you see him.