42056 & 42305 – 18:03 & 18:37 Thursday 12th February

42056 & 42305

Well quite a busy old day all told.

Firstly, I spent the whole of my morning trying to decipher this tweet from Grant, who did explain that it was something about buying new spanners or something, but even now I think he was trying to get something past us.

And then in Carriage E, 42056, on the Penzance service home I was forced to share my seat with a bloke with terrible BO who spent the whole journey to Reading performing an extraordinary array of over-exaggerated yawns. I mean, I was getting the message, he’d had a hard day at work, but did he really have to share it with the whole carriage? We suffered a slight delay and as we pulled into Reading, the TM announced why we were running late which set Mr Attention Seeker off into another round of tuts, shrugs, sarcastic laughs and much head shaking. Unfortunately some women encouraged him by engaging him in conversation which gave him the ideal opportunity to launch into a bizarre anti-FGW tirade which all centred around the motto “Transforming Travel” – which, to my knowledge FGW have never used as a slogan anyway.

“Oh, Transforming Travel! Pah! Never in a million years. Transforming Travle, my left foot!” etc

Just as I was preparing to move I noticed an iPhone cable on the floor under the seat. I picked it up and asked Mr Transforming Travel if it was his.

“Oh, no it’s not mine,” he said as he took it and put it in his pocket, “I thought it was yours.”

Which means he was not only a thief but a selfish twat that wasn’t even going to ask me if I’d maybe dropped my cable. A selfish thieving twat. A selfish thieving smelly twat.

And in other news aboard the 18:37 to Frome, I read the tragic news whilst sitting in Carriage B, 42305, that FGW Twitter hero Leo is leaving the company. He was the only one who understood me!

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

42346 & 42050 – 17:49 & 18:37 Friday 24th October

42346 & 42050

It was (another) awful day for the trains again.

Broken down engines and signal failures on the way to work and broken down engines and more broken down engines on the way home.

But did this descend me into my usual state of apoplectic rage against FGW?

No, amazingly I remained in a cloudy of fluffy optimism and even spent the time chatting about Leo’s legs. (It’s a long story…..)

I wonder if it’s anything to do with the fact I now have 9 days stretching in front of me when the nearest I will get to a train is a plate of paella……?

P.S. For the spotters, it was 42346 Carriage E on the 17:49 Worcester Service and 42050, Carriage B on the 18:37 (well, 19:07) to Frome.

42362 18:03 Tuesday 8th July

42362

After yesterday’s excitement on the Carriage Capture today was a complete let down. There was a single capture on the way home with 42362 going in the book, although a nice snap of the number on the VOLO TV control system is always a delight.

There were no Ambassadors anywhere to be seen so this particular little black book remains almost empty. At least good old Leo was on had with possibly the finest quip seen on the FGW twitter feed so far……

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…….

44010, 42184 & 42515 – 06:57, 18:03 & 18:37 Wednesday 25th June

This does say 44010 - Honest

 42184 & 42515

Another reverse formation 06:57 today but Carriage A on this particular train was still a new one for me, so that’s 44010 in the bag and the less said about the Whispering Bob Harris look-a-like that plagued my quiet carriage slumbers with hissing folk music the better.

Tonight’s return got off to an inauspicious start when the peace of the 18:03 to Penzance in which I was safely ensconced in Carriage B (42184) was shattered by that most dreaded announcement that the departure would be delayed due to a problem with the train.

The best thing you could say was that at least the announcement was made early enough to allow me and several others to leap around from Platform 4 to Platform 2 and get aboard the 18:00 which wasn’t suffering any problems. The only downside was that I ended up in Carriage 42029 which turns out to be a duplicate.
The final leg of the journey was made about Carriage E, also known around these parts as 42515, where I pondered whether my 10 minutes sat in 42184 could count as a capture or not. Luckily FGW’s big cat impersonator Leo put me out of my misery by declaring that the 10 minutes had surely counted as “intent to travel” and hence should be declared a capture.

With the way that this thing seems to be dragging on I’m only too glad to do so.

44024, 42291 & 42212 – 06:57, 17:49 & 18:37

44024

42212

Nothing to report in terms of the carriages – It was a new Carriage A (44024) on the way to work and a combination of a Carriage C (42291 – alas a duplicate) and a Carriage D (42212) on the way home. 

The most exciting thing was sharing a seat with a female cyclist who was wearing a yellow cardigan, a day-glo orange vest and carrying a bright green bag. She was coughing so hard she dropped her helmet (a red one).

But the interesting thing was getting a reply from Leo (remember him – bushy beard, doesn’t clear up after himself) about what Carriage X might mean. He was helped by @Paul_MK5 who sounds like he’s forgotten more about trains than I will know in two lifetimes. Anyway Carriage X might mean any of the following:

A spare carriage used for outsize baggage.

A carriage on the way to a depot.

Used on a 6 standard class carriage train to stop 2 carriages having the same letter.

An extra car on “special” 9 car sets.

A replacement for a 1st class carriage.

So basically anything you want it to be. Mystery solved. 

Excelsior!

Another bonus post – Introducing Leo

Unfortunately it was another duplicate carriage this morning so that meant another failure to capture a carriage for the Carriage Capture, which will obviously be just as much of a crushing disappointment for readers of this blog as it was for me.

But never fear because luckily Lovely Jess, perhaps sensing an impending disaster on the carriage front, had chosen today to send me the first of my Carriage Capture reward photographs. It’s obviously a duty for me to share it with the wider world and so I reproduce it here for everyone’s enjoyment. So ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, may I present to you, FGW’s finest (for now anyway) Mr Leo.

Get a load of this ladies....Grrrrrrr!

The obvious comment to make is that Leo has taken his name very literally by growing a superb mane of golden whiskers to surround his face with. This no doubt gives him super tweeting powers, but not enough tweeting power to tidy up his fast food drink cup from behind the laptop………Jess, you need a get a grip!