40107 18:30 Wednesday 16th July

40107

Today (17th of July) the Queen is visiting the all new, all singing and dancing, all made of cheap wriggly tin leaky roof, Reading Station.

She is arriving by car which isn’t at all a subliminal message on the state of the trains.

I would love to be in the crowds, being kettled by some scruffy bunch of G4S security baboons, but in a strange quirk of last minute business affairs I will instead be winging my way to Zurich, where they don’t have a queen.

Anyway, I hope she enjoys her visit and that all the escalators are working, after all Phil is knocking on a bit now isn’t he.

Last night I travelled on 40107 which was Carriage F on the 18:30 to Weston Super Mare.

44014 & 42098 – 06:57 & 18:30 Tuesday 15th July

44014 & 42098

Today I got two trains and two entries in the Carriage Capture little black book.

44014 was Carriage A on my morning 06:57 service and 42098 was a Carriage D on a later than normal evening service.

You may now all go and do something more interesting.

42559 18:05 Monday 14th July

42559

It was not a good day for FGW……..seriously, not a good day.

Basically every single signal point across the network exploded at some point during the day and delays and cancellations were the order of departure boards up and down the country. Ah, but that’s not FGW’s fault is it, I hear you cry. Well, no, it isn’t, not directly anyway but do they help themselves curry favour with their customers when things do go wrong?

Well let me give you an example and I’ll let you decide.

I managed to make it aboard the 18:05 Frome Service and got myself a nice window seat in 42559 which was another one of the new refurbished Carriage Fs. All well and good I think until that most dreaded of all announcements rings around the train. – “Will the Train Manager please contact the driver.”

Turns out that the signals controlling some of the platforms have gone for a Burton meaning we all have to decamp from this train on Platform 10 and run around to Platform 5 where there’s another “set” waiting for us.

“OK, is that all you’re moaning about? For gawd’s sake, things do go wrong you know!”

And I wholeheartedly agree with you, things do go wrong and 99.9% of passengers know and realise this and aren’t the foul mouth louts that the train companies like to portray us on the TV. 

So what is it I’m moaning about? 

OK, so if I was in charge of this relatively minor disruption I would have got all my station staff to guide people from one platform to the other and maybe get them talking to the passengers as they transferred. “This way please ladies and gents, many apologies for this but please come through this short cut to the replacement train, again many apologies for the disruption.”

But no, that would be too difficult wouldn’t it and would require a small iota of empathy with this company’s life-blood. So what did they do? They lined the platform with blokes with whistles, who then proceeded to constantly blew them like they were herding sheep. There was no interaction or eye contact with the passengers, no recognition that this bunch of inconvenienced people where probably the same people who were stuck on train and at stations during this morning’s signal failures, no shred of understanding for anyone who perhaps had to do the multi-platform switcheroo with luggage, pushchairs, crutches or all three.

Look, I know they can’t lay on a liveried porter service that would grace the Orient Express, but for gawd’s sake don’t stand around like a demented drill sergeant, peeping a whistle like you life depended on it.

Seriously, don't do that.

44083, 42268 & 42006 – 07:15, 17:49 & 18:37 Friday 11th July

44083, 42268 & 42006

No, no, I’ve not been travelling on a Sunday, this is just the catch up from Friday’s commuting escapades which to be honest didn’t really amount to much.

There was 44083, Carriage A on the morning train and 42268 & 42006, a Carriage C and a Carriage E respectively on the way home.

Look, I never said this was going to be interesting did I!

40111 & 42048 – 18:00 & 18:37 Thursday 10th July

40111 & 42048

I’m too damn knackered after yesterday’s late night to write some sort of Scandinavian saga today but suffice it to say that I travelled on 40111, Carriage F to Reading and the 42048, Carriage D to Thatcham.

The only exciting thing was watching some young titty-head with lots more money than sense and definitely more bags than sense drag all his worldly possessions down a carriage and then create himself a sort of fort construction most of us stopped doing at age ten when our mums demanded we take the sheets off the dining room table.

Still, me old tweet compatriots The Colonel (@ACursedCommuter) and Legs!! (@bookwormbett) knew the score.

42288 23:30 Wednesday 9th July

42288

 

 

 

It was another morning train in reverse formation which makes the obtaining of the picture all the more difficult every time it happens. I just can’t risk life and limb being crushed under the stampeding hordes as they dash for the exits or find myself pinioned against the cycle racks at Paddington.

I did make a vague effort to video the number as I sailed past but the results were less than impressive and best consigned to the bin.

The return journey was also less than impressive.

Paddington to Reading was fine, albeit rather tired and sleepy as the Oranges and Lemons tour has been reinvigorated and there I was catching the last train home in what they call a tired and emotional state. The 23:30 to Bristol Temple Meads service was almost empty and Carriage B, 42288, provided a comfortable setting for half the journey home.

The second half though wasn’t as brilliant though as it was a replacement bus service which was leaving from “the north exit” as the PA system repeatedly squawked to all and sundry. Now I’ve been sailing through Reading Station for just over 3 years now on a daily basis and I’ve never heard any of the exits being referred to by any of the cardinal directions, never mind “north”, “west” or even “south by south-east”.

I went to the bus stop outside the front of the station, which is where every rail replacement bus since time began has left from but I think David Attenborough discovered more life in some African desert than there was here. I did bump into one smartly dishevelled man who was looking as lost as I felt and we soon established ourselves as kindred spirits trying to find out where this bus was.
We searched desperately for someone to ask but the station concourse was bereft of any FGW staff and apart from the Network Rail engineers and the girls in Tutti Fruitti coffee shop, who were both asked, we were no nearer locating the bus and as the persistent PA announcements were declaring, the bus was going to depart any minute.

A lack of options saw us sprinting across the bridge to the new exit (yes, apparently, this IS the “north exit”) and just about make it onto the departing bus by the skin of our joint teeth.
Quite why there either wasn’t a person directing people to this obviously well known “north exit” or at the very least a big sign with a helpful arrow I still can’t work out, but no doubt this saved Marky Mark part of someone’s wage or the cost of some marker pens so it’s all good?

Just as a friendly Post Script, my newly found lost friend turned out to be a lawyer and possibly the poshest person I’ve ever spoken to. And I don’t mean anything negative in that at all. He was witty and amusing and very complimentary to my blue trousers and yellow shoes, it was like chatting to an intelligent version of Tim Nice-But-Dim.

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……