42273 & 42276 – 09:07 & 19:13 Saturday 15th November

42273 & 42276

What’s this? The BGC out and about on a Saturday?

Well, to be frank, yes I was and not just me. I was joined on this weekend jaunt by a veritable rag tag bunch of reprobates who all have a tenuous connection to the West Berkshire branch of the Campaign for Real Ale - @WBCAMRA.

I have no doubt the trip will be covered in much more detail by everyone’s favourite train nerd, @SlowpokeSam in his superb Beer Branches blog, but you could probably sum it up in the succinct way the FGW Train Manager did when he checked our tickets on the way to Westbury.

“Off to Bath for the rugby then?”

“Nope.”

“Ah, drinking then?”

42773 – Carriage B on the 09:07 to Westbury

42276 – Carriage F on the 19:13 to Newbury

42558 – 18:05 Monday 20th October

42558

Tragedy!

No, not the trains this time, they were running surprisingly on time and even though the 18:05 Frome Service had for some reason a smattering of kids about it (accompanied by posho mother who had obviously taught them to refer to bottled water as Evian) there was still room to get a cosy window seat in 42558, who was playing at being a Carriage E on this night.

No the tragedy was only discovered as I made my way home through the driving drizzle that’d I’d left my very favourite @EverardsTiger brolly aboard.

But all may not be lost, not only has @FGW Ollie given me the number for lost property but Everards themselves have tweeted back to say that if it’s not found they may be able to “sort something out”!

So it’s true, every rainy sky does have a silver lining!

42081 – 18:37 Wednesday 23nd April

42081

Well it all kicked off as I waited for the Frome service on Platform 7 at Reading.

The tweets were flowing in, the platform boards were flashing around, the best website in the world realtimetrains.co.uk was updating faster than the speed of html and the message that was being received was that there was a signalling problem at Hayes!

After I’d picked myself up from the floor and sent the obligatory sarcastic tweet to FGW it turned out that services didn't seem to be affected at all and certainly trains were running out of London quite normally.

This was very good news not least because I wouldn’t be late for the West Berkshire CAMRA Community Pub of the Year presentation for 2014. So it’s congratulations to the Tally Ho! of Hungerford Newtown and congratulations to Carriage 42081, the first Carriage C of the Carriage Capture.

Now try drinking 3 pints of ale on a school night and say that 10 times.