42067 18:37 Tuesday 26th August

42067

I am too too too tired to write anything about today’s journey in 42067, which was Carriage B on the 18:37 to Frome, other than everything was strangely not just on time, but early (yes, really) and to note that it’ll soon be time to harvest the rhubarb at Reading Station.

42383 18:00 Thursday 21st August

42383

I tried to bag myself a couple of Carriage Bs tonight, got one and got one duplicate.

The one I got was 42383 which was Carriage B on the 18:00 Bristol Service.

And now for an extra long, long weekend.

42315, 42504 & 42118 – 18:37, 18:00 & 18:37 Tuesday 19th July & Wednesday 20th July

42315

42504 

42118

Nothing exciting happened yesterday, well certainly nothing to compare to Monday’s excitement, other than when the train (in a duplicate carriage) that took me to Reading set off the Train Manager’s announcement informed people that it is illegal to sell things on the train. Very strange seeing as I’ve never heard that particular warning before and coming just one day after yesterday’s on-board episode of Only Fools and Horses.

Oh, I sat in 42315, a Carriage D, on the 18:37 to Frome to get me home.

Today it was all aboard a duplicate Carriage A for this morning’s adventure into town which ended just outside Theale when FGW asked me to wait for the next two hours in a field. Apparently a freight train had broken down just outside Reading and had blocked all lines in and out of the Station.

OK, not really FGW’s fault but again we were victims of the inability of the railways to take any sort of action when something untoward happens and get us moving again. Instead we had to wait for something to shunt something else out of the way and with just the taste of Jess’s stroppy twitter reply and a free black coffee in my mouth we were back on the way before you could say 120 minutes of pain in the back side.

This evening it was aboard a very boring 18:00 Bristol Service in Carriage E, 42504 and 42118, a Carriage B on the 18:37 to Frome. This time it was a mere 12 minutes late. So 10 times better at being late than this morning.

See! And you lot think that things never improve!

Free!

42066 18:37 Monday 18th August

42066

The start of a new week and it was an exciting old journey home after boarding the 18:03 to Penzance and taking a seat in 42252, which although turned out to be a duplicate carriage, didn’t stop the fun and games kicking off when a certain cheeky chappy skipped up the aisle with a jaunty step, merrily waving a long stick in the air with a mobile phone glued to the end.

Turns out that the “stick” is a “selfiepod” and going from what the chap was saying, I could purchase one directly from him for the princely sum of £10.

Actually I could probably do with one as I’d only just taken this snap of a fellow passenger who thinks it acceptable to hog seats with runner beans. Just imagine the shot I could have got if I’d got a stick with a camera on the end?

I have to say he was more “silver spoon” than “barrow boy” but not used to having my train journey turned into a mobile version of Petticoat Lane I tweeted @FGW to see whether this was an bonus extra service to try to regain some of their customer’s trust. (This is an ongoing subject at the moment.)

Grant, ever one to crush a young entrepreneur’s dream, was soon on the case, but his tweet gave me the impression that the man with the stick had just been catapulted through the buffet car window as we passed through Taplow.

Feeling like a complete cad I promised @selfiepod a mention on tonight’s blog and then went beyond the call of duty by trying to peddle their wares to Grant himself. Noting Grant’s reluctant to appear in any photographic format (has he got an extra eye or something?) I instead connected “Mr Pod” with the ever delectable queen of purple, Rebecca the Ambassador from Cardiff - @fgw_cdfcentral and no sooner had you said Cilla Black it looks like we should all start ordering our top hats and buttonholes.

Mind you, any previous guilty feelings I had were soon dispelled when I reached home and found that “Mr Selfie” was not only claiming he was simply explaining the selfiepod system to interested parties (how come I know it’s a tenner then Mr Dragon’s Den?) but had captured himself with FGW’s Jess!

Now unless there’s a Train Manager going by the same name, the last time I saw the “proper” Jess she looked like this – how she’s let herself go!

(She's the one on the right BTW, not the one in the middle)

Oh, my journey was completed on 42066, a Carriage C on the 18:37 to Frome.

44049 18:00 Friday 15th August

44049

I celebrated the journey home with a trip in 44049 which was Carriage A on the 18:00 service to Bristol.

And what was I celebrating?

Why, the wonderful “silver medal” that First Great Western had won by being the 2nd least trusted Rail Operator in the country.

Keep up the good work lads and lasses and next year the top spot might be yours!

60531 - 09:26 Wednesday 13th August

60531

Wait a minute BGC! 60531 isn’t a First Great Western Carriage number!

No it isn’t, you’re right, but after a couple of dull and deadly boring updates, I can promise you that today’s missive is as wild and exciting as your most wild and exciting dreams that feature someone wild and exciting.

And that’s mainly due to the fact that not only was I taking the normal FGW work-horse into Paddington, but I was then skirting around the Circle Line to St Pancras and taking an East Midlands train to Nottingham.

Well I thought it was going to be Nottingham, turned out it was actually East Midlands Parkway but that wasn’t before I’d cast my mind back to the adverts of the 70’s and came up with the classic line from the Tunes cough sweets man.

Classic

FGW’s Grant very graciously wished me a good journey which led to a chain of tweets which I can only describe as disturbing in the levels of flirtatiousness that he then took them too. I mean, I don’t even know what this bloke looks like and there’s no way I’m travelling up to the East Midlands with some kind of minger.

Flirty!

Anyway the journey was completed, on time and with a seat (inside 60531 which was a Carriage B), which is all that most commuters really want anyway, so all I can say in comparison between East Midlands and First Great Western is that the toilets on the East Midlands trains are roomier, definitely space to swing a cat and give everything a good old shake, but the coat hooks are better on FGW. They do have them on East Midlands but they’re right in front of the windows, which mean you may miss seeing the picturesque dumps of Leicester and Loughborough whizz by.

My East Midlands train.

Toilet humour @EMTrains style - East Midlands Parkway Station 

The journey home was made aboard 42293 which was also a Carriage B, (and a bloody duplicate) but this time on the 18:30 to Western Super Mare. Alighting in Reading I noted with interest that the air conditioning issue which seems to affect all trains at the moment was also affecting the waiting room on Platform 7.

Chilly

Ollie didn’t quite seem to get the joke but luckily Leo was on hand to pull things back to the subject of the Carriage Capture and it looks like with now a whopping 97 carriages in the bag, my photo of Grant should be guaranteed!

Oh, final note. If I saw you the full photo of the chap in the sleeping bag you’ll see that I’ve been well and truly captured myself by the young lady in the foreground. Any more lapses like this and soon my cover will be blown and there’ll be a purple waistcoated lynch mob waiting at Thatcham Station one morning.

Busted!

42321 18:00 Monday 11th August

42321

Look I’m sorry, it’s not my fault nothing is happening at the moment.

The most exciting thing tonight was me sitting next to a sweaty cyclist who very politely let me out at Reading, before I joined the Frome Service and sat in Carriage B, 42321.

Perhaps tomorrow I’ll start a fight, or sit in the luggage rack, or maybe let off a big fart…….or maybe not.