Man of Honour
- Joined
- 12 Jul 2005
- Posts
- 21,567
- Location
- Aberlour, NE Scotland
I always preferred the non streamlined Bullieds, gorgeous looking loco's. Still, being a Cornishman I have a soft spot for the WR diesel hydraulics, especially the "Westerns" with their Maybach magic!! Modern trains have nothing on them plus they are so damn uncomfortable!!
At the begining of the month I went home to Penzance, Cornwall for my dads birthday, just over 720 miles by car but this time I decided to go by train which turned out to be a big mistake. The price was excellent £98 down and £99 back up when using my veterans railcard, I couldn't have done it cheaper by car. It was 16 hours each way though which is over 4 hours longer than if I drove. Anyway, on 7th I boarded my first train from Elgin to Inverness, a Scotrail class 158 DMU which wasn't too bad. At Inverness I boarded the Highland Chieftain, a LNER Azuma (class 800/801 IET) to London Kings Cross. My backside was numb within ten minutes of leaving Inverness and I had almost 8 hours on this train. The only good thing I have to say about this train was the at seat catering service. There is a bar code on the back of the seat in front of you and you scan it which opens the menu on your phone. You order what you want, pay for it and it's delivered to your seat. I ordered a cup of Earl Grey tea and a slice of Dundee cake for £3.50 which I thought was very fair for on train catering. When it turned up my cup of tea was one of the best brands, Taylors of Harrogate and the Dundee Cake was fresh and moist. I was glad to get off that train. I see the underground is just as crowded with impatient people as ever!! Across London to Paddington for my last train, another class 800 IET!! This was a GWR service although there was nothing great about it. The train was filthy externally with dirty seats and carpets plus no aircon working which was very bad on a hot day like that day was. By the time I arrived at Penzance at 22.25 I was in agony and I had it all to do again in a few days.
Back up on 11th July it was more of the same except every train was late. First they wouldn't let anyone on the train at Penzance because they couldn't get the two five car units to "talk" to each other so we left five minutes late. By the time we arrived at Paddington we were 20 minutes late (this was to become a common theme for the rest of the day) although I had plenty of time to get to my next train at Kings Cross which would take me to Edinburgh. Another LNER Azuma which was 22 minutes late by Peterborough and still a long way to go. At Newcastle we had a driver change and left for the non stop run to Edinburgh 23 minutes late. The driver drove the nuts off that train and actually made up 10 minutes so we arrived at Edinburgh 13 minutes late. I only had five minutes to catch my next train which was leaving from platform 19 so I had to leg it and just made it. This was a Scotrail 3 car class 170 which replaced a failed 4 car HST so people were crammed in like sardines and of course yet again no aircon. The saving grace was that it had the most comfortable seats of the trip. This got to Aberdeen 20 minutes late meaning I was going to miss my next train. Worrying about my next tickets validity they announced that they were holding the next train for passengers on ours to be able to catch it. Thank god for that!! So onto my last train, a pair of Scotrail class 158's and that driver also gave it welly trying to make up the lost time. By the time I got off at Elgin the brakes were stinking and you could clearly smell them in the interior of the train.
I won't ever be doing that again. The price was excellent but the seats were so painfully uncomfortable, there is absolutely no give in the seats of the IET's and when it becomes time to refurbish them I hope they actually think of the passengers and give them some comfort. They could learn a lot by going to a preserved railway and travelling in a MK1 or MK2a/b/c coach which were the height of standard class comfort on the railways. I can only assume that as the IET's are Japanese designed and built (Hitatchi) that they were thinking of Japanese people who tend to be smaller than us. Whatever they were thinking the seats are not fit for purpose although there was loads of legroom even for me (6'2" with long legs). The seat pads that you sit on are barely a step up from the wooden seats of third class from long ago.
Anyone lucky enough to be going to The Greatest Gathering at Derby celebrating 200 years of the modern railway?
At the begining of the month I went home to Penzance, Cornwall for my dads birthday, just over 720 miles by car but this time I decided to go by train which turned out to be a big mistake. The price was excellent £98 down and £99 back up when using my veterans railcard, I couldn't have done it cheaper by car. It was 16 hours each way though which is over 4 hours longer than if I drove. Anyway, on 7th I boarded my first train from Elgin to Inverness, a Scotrail class 158 DMU which wasn't too bad. At Inverness I boarded the Highland Chieftain, a LNER Azuma (class 800/801 IET) to London Kings Cross. My backside was numb within ten minutes of leaving Inverness and I had almost 8 hours on this train. The only good thing I have to say about this train was the at seat catering service. There is a bar code on the back of the seat in front of you and you scan it which opens the menu on your phone. You order what you want, pay for it and it's delivered to your seat. I ordered a cup of Earl Grey tea and a slice of Dundee cake for £3.50 which I thought was very fair for on train catering. When it turned up my cup of tea was one of the best brands, Taylors of Harrogate and the Dundee Cake was fresh and moist. I was glad to get off that train. I see the underground is just as crowded with impatient people as ever!! Across London to Paddington for my last train, another class 800 IET!! This was a GWR service although there was nothing great about it. The train was filthy externally with dirty seats and carpets plus no aircon working which was very bad on a hot day like that day was. By the time I arrived at Penzance at 22.25 I was in agony and I had it all to do again in a few days.
Back up on 11th July it was more of the same except every train was late. First they wouldn't let anyone on the train at Penzance because they couldn't get the two five car units to "talk" to each other so we left five minutes late. By the time we arrived at Paddington we were 20 minutes late (this was to become a common theme for the rest of the day) although I had plenty of time to get to my next train at Kings Cross which would take me to Edinburgh. Another LNER Azuma which was 22 minutes late by Peterborough and still a long way to go. At Newcastle we had a driver change and left for the non stop run to Edinburgh 23 minutes late. The driver drove the nuts off that train and actually made up 10 minutes so we arrived at Edinburgh 13 minutes late. I only had five minutes to catch my next train which was leaving from platform 19 so I had to leg it and just made it. This was a Scotrail 3 car class 170 which replaced a failed 4 car HST so people were crammed in like sardines and of course yet again no aircon. The saving grace was that it had the most comfortable seats of the trip. This got to Aberdeen 20 minutes late meaning I was going to miss my next train. Worrying about my next tickets validity they announced that they were holding the next train for passengers on ours to be able to catch it. Thank god for that!! So onto my last train, a pair of Scotrail class 158's and that driver also gave it welly trying to make up the lost time. By the time I got off at Elgin the brakes were stinking and you could clearly smell them in the interior of the train.
I won't ever be doing that again. The price was excellent but the seats were so painfully uncomfortable, there is absolutely no give in the seats of the IET's and when it becomes time to refurbish them I hope they actually think of the passengers and give them some comfort. They could learn a lot by going to a preserved railway and travelling in a MK1 or MK2a/b/c coach which were the height of standard class comfort on the railways. I can only assume that as the IET's are Japanese designed and built (Hitatchi) that they were thinking of Japanese people who tend to be smaller than us. Whatever they were thinking the seats are not fit for purpose although there was loads of legroom even for me (6'2" with long legs). The seat pads that you sit on are barely a step up from the wooden seats of third class from long ago.
Anyone lucky enough to be going to The Greatest Gathering at Derby celebrating 200 years of the modern railway?
