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As the title says "Could have been a GREAT day except" for the inept and useless Great Western Railway.
Bold = Haulage, Red = Winner, All others are sightings.
If you are sensitive and dislike someone giving their opinion (based on over 30 years on the railway) then I suggest you stop reading. If you are a keyboard warrior I suggest you also stop reading and go troll someone else.
Leaving the house at daft o'clock we were heading to a local station when the wife suggested that there was a Night Bus in 5 minutes so we waited ... the bus disappeared off the indicator AND off the TfL app! Down at East Croydon on a different bus and in time (just) for a Thameslink.
9S00 East Croydon to Farringsdon 700113 (Non winner but cleared for 20 miles) [12m 11ch].
A short walk in to the bowels of Farringdon and on the the Elizabeth Line. 9T32 Farringdon to Paddington 345019 (Winner) ✅ [3m 44ch]. I still find using the Elizabeth Line quite surreal at time. Huge Cathedral sized stations that dwarf the people in them (despite them being soulless concreate boxes), a train every 5 minutes and the platform doors! All so different.
In to the lovely ornate station beautifully designed. This is where Paddington ended being good. 07:03 Paddington Penzance showing 'Please Wait'. So we did. Little to no announcements apart from the generic what is departing and hardly any staff. At 07:07 it changed to delayed. Looking on Traksy and RTT Nothing showing.
Over to the only two members of staff visible on the gateline who were busy chatting. Asking politely where the trains was got a shrug off one and the other then said there was something wrong in Didcot area.
Fair enough I guess. I asked if some announcements could be made. Got a less than happy 'ok' to that.
As I walked away, one went off somewhere and the other put the phone back in his pocket. It took a bit of time but eventually we got an announcement about a Overhead line fire at Didcot.
I popped to the Information counter asking the lady behind if there was any news on the Penzance she said she didn't know as her supervisor wasn't there. It is sort of strange as North Pole Depot is just outside Paddington that this was affecting units that could reach the station.
Eventually I saw on Traksy the ECS heading in to Paddington from North Pole Depot and heading to Paddington. Nudging the wife we headed towards the gateline. It arrived and the gatelines opened. We headed along on it and got ourselves seats, reservations were all cancelled it seemed and in other carriages it was a free for all. We left 29 mintes late!
1C70 Paddington to Newton Abbott 802021, 802007 (Winners and both cleared for 30 miles) ✅ [193m 48ch]
Arriving 65 minuts late at Newton Abbott We waited for our next train to Paignton.
2T19 Newton Abbott to Paignton 150219 (Winner and cleared for 5 miles) ✅ [8m 7ch]. This too was late but only by 7 minutes. This cleared the last bit of line for me.
After a walk, lunch and a walk on the beach I headed for the station and a trip on the Dartmouth Steam Railway. The last time I was there was 20 years ago.
15:25 Paignton (Queens Road) to Kingswear 75014 Winner ✅ [6m 57ch].
16:00 Kingswear to Paignton (Queens Road) 75014 non winner [6m 57ch].
We intended to catch the 17:05 to Paddington and was on the platform early to catch it. When wee looked up it said it was terminating at Exeter St David's. We decided to leave earlier on the local train.
2F27 Paignton to Exeter St David's 150265 Winner ✅ [25m 56ch].
What to do?
Well now there were even more problems with GWR so we decided to go for the direct train to Clapham Junction.
1L72 Exeter St. David's to Clapham Junction 159006, 159104 (Non winners) [176m 73ch] This was diverted due to Engineering works via Byfleet Jn and Viginia Water. A new route for me.
At Clapham we crossed over to platform 17 and caught 2O73 Clapham Junction to Selhurst 377702 (Non winner) [6m 60ch]
All in all a good day apart from GWR's poor customer communications