42382, 42073 & 42233 – 07:15, 18:00 & 18:37 Monday 30th June

42382

42073 & 42233

It’s a sorry state of commuting affairs when the first thing you do upon waking to the dulcet sounds of the alarm clock is to check your train time phone app to see if your train is currently running on time. Well although it’s a pretty sorry thing to do, but today it worked out quite a fortuitous thing to do as my usual 06:57 was damn well cancelled (due to staff shortages…..poor FGW, poor) but knowing this fact so early allowed me to skip shaving and still get down to the station for an earlier stupid Turbo train to Reading.

From there I able to get some train or other that I’ve never been on before, including carriage 42382 which was Carriage B on this particular set. 

The return leg was seriously disrupted by an earlier fatality at Southall and all trains out of Paddington were delayed, cancelled or in a right old mucky state due to the returning Glastonbury hordes.

At least the 18:00 Bristol train left on time with me in a cosy window seat in Carriage D, or 42073 as he sometimes prefers to be known as. A completely unremarkable journey apart from when we drew into Reading. There was a young lad in the carriage, maybe about 13, travelling with his mum and he was doing than nervous anxiety thing especially as he had to sit apart from her. As me and my travelling partner got up to leave he saw his chance to grab the double seat for his mum and himself but in his enthusiasm to get there quickly he blocked me in. Instead of graciously asking him if I could get by first, I instead snapped out a stroppy “do you wanna let me off first?” which had him cowering into an apology and by the time I got to the door I felt like a complete heel. 

Bloody commuting, turning me into exactly the sort of dick I detest!

The last leg was completed aboard the usual Frome service and another Carriage E ticked off the list as 42233 was captured in the book and I can go home and feel even worse about myself.

40108 20:35 Friday 27th June

40108

I did get on a train this morning but due to the hazards of looking like a spotter knobby boy when trying to get the picture I thought I would be able to remember the number, and possibly I could have done until the three after work pints that made it slip my mind.

I do remember 40108 though which was Carriage F on the 20:35 Plymouth Service which meant I had to do a sneaky switcheroo at Newbury and return on the 21:23 that leaves Newbury 4 minutes after I arrived on the other side. It was either that or wait for over an hour at Reading, and new station or no new station, no-one but no-one wants to do that on a Friday night.

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.

44055 & 42010 – 06:57 & 18:22 Tuesday 24th June

44055 & 42010

Only 7 carriages on this morning 06:57 which meant a whole lot of people standing for over an hour, but not me who used my over-active spider senses to line myself up with the re-positioned Carriage A and still score both a hit with 44055 as a new carriage and a seat to boot!

The return journey home was courtesy of Carriage 42010 another new one for the books. It was a regular on-time journey only ruined only by the half dozen or so absent parents who all took it on themselves to ring their kids at the same time. We had “Oh, did you go swimming at school did you? Did you get wet?” (really?) to “Barnaby, Barnaby…..where’s the cat? Where’s the cat?” and various other banalities which had me on the edge of throwing myself through the nailed shut window until the chap opposite restored my faith in humanity by declaring in the best train phone conversation every.

“Hi, I’m on the 18:22. Bye”

44040 & 42259 – 06:57 & 19:15 Monday 23rd June

Remember me? The boring ninny who moans on trains? Did you think I’d given up on the Carriage Capture Quest?

We unfortunately for everyone who can read the written English word I haven’t and even though FGW seem to be treating me as persona non grata (unanswered emails anyone?) I’m continuing with the mission and after today can knock off two more carriages.

44040 was my Carriage A of choice on the way to work and 42259 (a duplicate) my Carriage C on the way home.

Alas I seem to be out of capturing practice as I failed to take a photograph of either so instead here’s a picture of a hole in the floor.

It’ll mean something to someone somewhere……..

42277 & 42513 – 18:00 & 18:37 Friday 6th June

I got on two trains tonight – 42277 was Carriage B on the 18:00 Bristol Temple Meads service which I caught to Reading and 42513 which was Carriage E on the 18:37 to Frome.

Then I got off the trains.

It’s not going to get any more exciting as Monday morning next week sees my last train for two weeks. How will you cope without the updates?

Probably very well…..

44003, 42211 & 42285 – 06:57, 18:03 & 18:37 Thursday 5th May

 

Oh yeah baby! Back in the swing of things with a three carriage haul today.

This morning’s train was as quietly boring as ever (44003 – Carriage A on the 06:57) but things got more interesting on the way home when @slowpokesam and FGW’s very own floozy, Jess started making electronic eyes at each other over the subject of on-time trains.

But after this bit of fluffy nonsense it got all dirty and grimy with both Jess and Grant defending FGW’s right to “chuck turds around the country” (my words not theirs) with gay abandon. There’s obviously more to this story than meets the eye (now we know why Network Rail engineers wear goggles on the tracks) but anyone who isn’t outraged by a company who deposits human effluence “willy nilly” has a screw loose.

Anyway, I’m off now to curl one off on my drive.

42263 & 42221 – 18:03 & 18:37 Wednesday 4th June

42263 & 42221

Just as I was bemoaning the fact that the last handful of carriages have all been duplicates, the homeward journey threw up two new victims in the form of 42263 (Carriage D on the 18:03 Penzance) and 42221 (Carriage E on the 18:37 Frome.)

That’s all. You can go back to watching this excuse of an England team struggle against Ecuador.

42108 – 18:30 Monday 2nd June

42108

A week’s holiday with only a single carriage captured meant that the first day in my new job should have been an ideal opportunity to get back on the wagon (so to speak) and get some numbers in the little black book.

Alas the journey into town turned out not to be that opportunity as Carriage A on the 06:57 was a duplicate, so it wasn’t until this evening’s return trip that I was able to capture the number of 42108 which was performing the role of Carriage B on the 18:30 service to Weston-Super-Mare.

I could go into details about how the train was delayed due to some tit-head trespassing on the line near to Twyford or about how the FGW station team turned the train around like a Formula 1 pitstop or even how the chap next to me staked his claim on the armrest by spreading his legs as wide as possible and plonking his John Thomas between us……but I’m too tired. Good night.