42346 & 42050 – 17:49 & 18:37 Friday 24th October

42346 & 42050

It was (another) awful day for the trains again.

Broken down engines and signal failures on the way to work and broken down engines and more broken down engines on the way home.

But did this descend me into my usual state of apoplectic rage against FGW?

No, amazingly I remained in a cloudy of fluffy optimism and even spent the time chatting about Leo’s legs. (It’s a long story…..)

I wonder if it’s anything to do with the fact I now have 9 days stretching in front of me when the nearest I will get to a train is a plate of paella……?

P.S. For the spotters, it was 42346 Carriage E on the 17:49 Worcester Service and 42050, Carriage B on the 18:37 (well, 19:07) to Frome.

42258 & 42129 – 23:30 Wednesday 22nd October & 18:00 Thursday 23rd October

42258 & 42129

A very quick update as I’m tired and to be perfectly honest not a great deal worthy of note has happened.

Last night I caught the last train home, that being the 23:30 Swansea Service and sat in Carriage 42258, which as you’ll see from the photo was a carriage with the VOLO TVs. That means it should have been a Carriage D or perhaps a Carriage E but for some strange reason I think it was a Carriage B.

Tonight I was definitely aboard a Carriage E, namely 42129 on the 18:00 Bristol Service.

And that’s it, apart from saying hello to FGW’s new Twitter person, Anne (well I haven’t exchanged tweets with her before anyway) who is rather partial to red seat ears.

Red Seat Ears

42558 – 18:05 Monday 20th October

42558

Tragedy!

No, not the trains this time, they were running surprisingly on time and even though the 18:05 Frome Service had for some reason a smattering of kids about it (accompanied by posho mother who had obviously taught them to refer to bottled water as Evian) there was still room to get a cosy window seat in 42558, who was playing at being a Carriage E on this night.

No the tragedy was only discovered as I made my way home through the driving drizzle that’d I’d left my very favourite @EverardsTiger brolly aboard.

But all may not be lost, not only has @FGW Ollie given me the number for lost property but Everards themselves have tweeted back to say that if it’s not found they may be able to “sort something out”!

So it’s true, every rainy sky does have a silver lining!

42176 – 18:05 Monday 13th October

42176

Did you miss me?

Probably not but just when you can’t believe a week’s worth of travel can get worse than anything previously experienced something comes along which sets your mind at rest that there really isn’t a limit to the incompetence of some organisations.

@nationalrailenq looking directly in your direction.

So anyway onto this week which tonight was a leisurely return journey home inside 42176 which was playing a VOLO-less Carriage D on the 18:05 Frome Service.

41157 & 41140 – 11:07 & 16:35 Sunday 5th October

41157 & 41140

Another Sunday outing? Another two 1st Class Carriages?

That can surely only mean one thing; the BGC and Mrs BGC have been using up more complimentary FGW tickets……

…..and you’d be right.

A day trip to Bristol was the order of the day and what better way to make that journey than on the 11:07 service to Swansea and sit in Carriage M (my first ever Carriage M) which was 41157.

There was too much good stuff to cover in this blog, but the return was made in 41157, Carriage L.

Must stop now…….it’s Antiques Roadshow.

42510 – 18:00 Friday 3rd October

42510

A little of a misleading title here because my journey on 42510, a Carriage E on the 18:00 service to Bristol Temple Meads was absolutely as uneventful as a non-event in a plain white box filled with nothing.

But my journey on the Frome service (in Carriage 42217 a duplicate from the 5th of August) was something of a conundrum because Carriage 42217 is a Carriage C and that means it has the big toilet with the funny flip-up seats outside it.

I chose to sit in one of them today which isn’t something I would normally do because it not only means you’re in the way of disembarking people but you also look like a garden gnome pervert with a fetish for toilet goers because your nose ends up almost rubbing against the automatic sliding toilet door. But anyway there I was minding my own business like any self respecting garden gnome pervert until as we left Theale I realised that I had a choice to make……

I could see other Thatcham regulars in Carriage C and I knew that they had seen me but if I now got up early and stood by the door, it would look like I was one of the #EarlyStanderWankers who plague the journey into London. These are the people who start getting their things together and causing a disturbing kerfuffle even before we’ve reached Old Oak Common and it’s all in a valiant attempt to just be one of the first off the carriage. I mean, the very very earliest you should be standing is round about Westbourne Studios and if you’re getting up around Royal Oak or the Crossrail works then, please, be my guest, even I’m usually putting on my jacket around there, but honestly, if you’re packing away your laptop or banging up the little table and we’re still outside Pall Mall Deposit then you’re a tosser…..period. In fact you’re worse than a tosser, you’re an #EarlyStanderWanker

But on the other hand, if I left it late and waited until there was a queue formed around the door then when I got up I would basically “push in front” of half the queue because half the queue would be round my funny flip-up seat. Which surely would make me a #PushInWanker ?

So what did I do when faced with such a dilemma?

I did what any self respecting commuter would. I got up early but hid in the vestibule of Carriage B so no-one saw me.

Well, what else could I have done? At least I avoided being an #EarlyStanderWanker……

…..or a #PushInWanker.

42245 & 42070 – 18:03 & 18:37 Wednesday 1st October

42245 & 42070

Just when you thought you had all the possible excitement that the Carriage Capture could possibly deliver, along comes a journey that fair takes your breath away……or maybe not, but at least “something” happened today.

Firstly though, it was a very mundane 18:03 Penzance service that took me from Paddington to Reading in Carriage E, aka 42245. The only thing of note here was another arm rest-hogger who compounded his oafishness by playing Candy Crush for the whole journey like some sulky adolescent Kevin.

Pouting lips when all you can’t do is line up three cherries isn’t a good look mate.

I then changed at Reading for my regular late Frome service and plonked myself down in a very innocent looking Carriage D, aka 42070.

It was just when we left Theale that I heard raised voices in the vestibule and from the bits of conversation I could pick up it seemed that the Train Manager was having a go at a passenger who had tried to leave at Theale but had found that the doors were already locked.

“Well I ain’t paying for a ticket to Thatcham then” said the failed disembarkee to which the TM retorted with some excuse about having already given the signal to the driver to leave.

But obviously this got the TM’s goat somewhat riled as he then stomped into our carriage and demanded to see all tickets. (And it was a “demand” there wasn’t any “asking” about it.)

Now this is very strange. I get my ticket checked every day, usually in the mornings just when I’ve fallen asleep but I’ve never seen a ticket check be carried out 3 minutes from Thatcham and never seen one carried out with such ill grace by such an obviously annoyed TM.

So as we’re all digging into inside pockets and purses for the vital bits of paper, a lady comes walking up the aisle to get to a door ready to leave. She is no doubt absolutely kicking herself now by choosing to come this way as the TM blocked her and demanded her ticket as well.

Well you know what’s going to happen next don’t you. She only had a Reading travel card and Mr Charming decided that this was good enough to not only charge her for a ticket but to also slap on a penalty fare as well. £24 for Reading to Thatcham, a bargain of 10 miles in anyone’s book.

Now look, let me be very clear here. I’m no fan of fare dodgers and I have nothing against TM’s checking tickets or even the Revenue Protection goons which FGW position at the barriers every now and again – although why the pick the most miserable sour faced prunes for this job I don’t know why – but there is a thing called discretion and also a thing called manners and as it became clear from the lady’s story (her car had broken down and she’d found herself stranded in Reading) this was more of an oversight than a deliberate go at fare dodging. Yes, she should of course have bought a ticket, but instead of helping her on what had already been probably a very shitty day, or at least playing fair (fare – geddit!) with her by just charging for a single ticket, the TM was just on autopilot to make an example of the lady and raise some more profits for the FGW shareholders.

The stand off ended when the TM, who had now captured the lady’s travel card and refused to return it, barged past the rest of us who by now were queuing up to leave at Thatcham, yelling how he was “going to make a report” and how he had “every right to keep this travel card”.

Now I don’t know if the lady will make a complaint. I would guess not seeing as, at the end of the day, she was in the wrong and probably knows she’ll get no change out of the wonderful FGW 3 week turnaround complaints system, but I on the other hand certainly will be.

Because whether or not someone has paid or not, they deserve to be treated with dignity, politeness and fairness. Something the majority of the TMs do do, let me again be clear on that point, but for Patrick, (for that was his name) to be so obviously acting only according to his annoyed mood and desperate to “win” the stand off to act in this way was just not right.

Oh, and Patrick, in the unlikely event you read this……saying “madam” to someone does not equal politeness. I’m sure your mum would agree.