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.

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…….