42257 & 42008 – 17:49 & 18:37 Tuesday 20th January

42257 & 42008

Well hello everybody. Firstly I’d like to apologise for the delay in tonight’s blog entry. The blog was updated about 8 minutes later than normal and I do heartily apologies for any inconvenience this will cause to you. Hopefully I will be able to make up some of this time by droning on and on and on and on and on and generally either sending you to sleep or making you dash your head against the window so hard you forget your name and where you were travelling to.

I am delighted to be able to announce that alongside the fully stocked Extress Café, which is serving a range of hot and cold snacks, hot and cold drinks, hot and cold porridge and hot and cold levels of service, tonight’s blog is brought to you by Train Manager supreme, Kimberly.

Please take great care when taking your seat about Carriage B on the 17:49 to Worcester Shrub Hill by sitting down gently in Carriage 42257 and making sure that you are not going to land on an upturned Brompton bike.

On disembarkation to change trains to the 18:37 to Frome please take great care when opening the doors to Carriage C, which you’ll find between Carriage B and Carriage D and tonight, is labelled with the number 42008. In fact, opening the doors may well take too long and delay the train even longer than the 10 minutes it takes the miserable-as-sin platform staff to dispatch it, so instead can I encourage all passengers to enter and leave the carriage by using the windows which I have helpfully opened beforehand. You assistance in this matter will be most appreciated.

The next stop in five and a half hours will be some God forsaken place in the east of England but I will tell you now that only the front five carriages will be platformed there. So just in case you’re too damn stupid to work out that the first five letters of the alphabet are A, B, C, D & E, only carriages A, B, C, D & E will be platformed there. In the meantime I will ask you all to sit back, relax and let me repeat this and other meaningless drivel instead of walking up and down and checking tickets.

42577 – 18:00 Friday 16th January

42577

Well let’s finish the week with a bit of a story and for those who have the joy of following me on Twitter (other Twitter’ers are available) it’s not about Reading MP Alok Sharma (@AlokSharma_RDG) having a slap up tea and bun festival with First Great Western and announcing it as a major breakthrough in better conditions for commuters.

What it is about is the seeming inability for women to put any sort of filter on what’s coming out of their mouths when they are blathering into the phone in public.

As I sat down in Carriage E on the 18:00 to Bristol Temple Meads (42577) I was soon accosted by the women next to me as she rang up her other half and proceeded to announce the results of her blood tests in relation to her ongoing fertility treatment.

This was then followed by another woman from the other side of the carriage answering a call from her mother and proceeding to announce to the carriage in how much pain she was currently in and what medication she’d taken that day which wasn’t having any effect on her symptoms.

As we pulled into Reading my seating partner (remember, the one who can’t get up the spout) was one of the most politest people ever, seeing without prompting I was preparing to disembark and leaving my way free with a kind word and a smile. I was almost tempted to add a “hope you get
pregnant!” to my thanks.

The train home was an unfortunately duplicate but it did feature a crazy mentalist who decided to put on a dance show in the space where wheelchairs usually go.

Mentalist

If it wasn’t for the fact he looked like he could stab me at any moment it might have been quite entertaining!

44020 & 42253 – 06:57 & 18:35 Wednesday 14th January

44020 & 42253

Well how about this for a treat, a morning capture captured in full glorious Technicolor!

44020 was my quiet carriage of choice on the 06:57 from Bristol Temple Meads this morning and even the 10 minute delay couldn’t spoil my delight in capturing this superb photo.

My travel home was also delayed due to work commitments, so not FGW’s fault, but it did mean I could sit in Carriage B on the 18:35 to Exeter and capture 42253.

Wowzers!

42574 – 18:03 Tuesday 13th January

42574

Sometimes there are interesting things to tell you about my latest Carriage Capture.

Sometimes there isn’t.

Tonight I say in 42574, Carriage E on the 18:03 Penzance server.

Bye.

44003 (again) & 42310 – 18:03 & 18:37 Wednesday 7th January

44003 (again) & 42310

I thought I was definitely on for a new capture when I spotted 44003 making up Carriage A on the 18:03 Penzance service as its door stickers were a different colour than the normal gaudy pink and blue. But it seems I did travel on this one already back in May last year.

But 42310 was a new Carriage C on the 18:37 to Frome at least.

And if that isn’t enough, here’s a picture of 150002 which is standing in for 150001 at the moment.

150002

It’s a long story………..but hilarious!

No, seriously, it is.

42027 – 18:37 Tuesday 6th January

42027

I must have secretly have asked for some on-time trains for Christmas as once again everything was running more or less to clockwork and rather empty to boot.

Alas the train to Reading was a duplicate but Carriage D, 42027, on the 18:37 to Frome was a new one in the book.

Hurrah!

42281 & 42175 – 18:03 & 18:37 Monday 5th January

42281 & 42175

A new year but not a new blog I’m afraid so it’s back in the saddle for some more FGW Carriage focused fun.

And to be honest it was quite fun today. Firstly all the trains were on time and secondly the 18:03 Penzance service (in which I sat in 42281 Carriage B) was as deserted as Katie Hopkins’s Christmas card list.

When we pulled into Reading, the 5 people who were sat in the carriage with me all got off, leaving a totally empty carriage rattling down the line to Taunton.

Deserted 42281

Alas, 42175, Carriage B on the 18:37 Frome service was rather fuller with far far too many #BagSeatWankers for my liking.

But………..and this is the important thing……….everything was running as smoothly as Ollie’s baby face and I just know this will continue all year. Yes?