An Unexpected Surprise

This afternoon I caught a Chiltern Railways train from London Marylebone to Banbury.

There was something unexpected waiting in the Up Goods Loop when I got there.

Oh, and the weather wasn't particularly nice.

For those interested in such things, the steam engines in the video are GWR 4900 Class 4965 Rood Ashton Hall and GWR 4073 Class 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. Both trains have been featured on this blog before, but never at the same time.

Farewell Inspector Gadget

I for one will am very sad to see you go.

I've read the book.

I've read every post.

I've read the cretins, and ignored them.

A day the Blogosphere will do well to remember.

Inspector Gadget, I wish you well.

Parker

It's Jason Statham. What do you expect? A fairy tale.

It's a 15 certificate for a reason. Lots of wincing in the cinema. Plenty of blood on screen.....

Jennifer Lopez does the totty well.

There's a reasonable story line. Worth a couple of hours of your time.

The 1750 Train - My, was that a Mistake

I am lucky in that my job is relatively flexible. This means that I usually catch a reasonably early train to work and a reasonably early train home.

Today I was a little later than usual leaving work, so I had to catch the 1750 Chiltern Railways train from London Marylebone. I also had a party to go to to wish a friend 'Bon-Voyage' on a trip to Australia. She leaves tomorrow.

Problems, problems, problems.

• The train is supposed to be a six car train. Tonight it was three carriages long. That is a significant reduction in capacity on a busy train. The train was absolutely rammed more than five minutes before it was due to leave.
• We did not leave on time. In fact we left eleven minutes late. Apparently the driver was delayed on an in-bound service and a replacement had to be found.
• The slower 1753 train (bound for Aylesbury) left in front of us, two minutes late. The 1750 Sardine Special (which left Marylebone at 1801 and which terminates at Bicester North) caught up the slower train before Denham. A quick analysis showed that we would be a minimum of 19 minutes late from High Wycombe. It would not be possible to overtake the slow train.
• In the event the train left High Wycombe 21 minutes late and arrived into Princes Risborough the same number of minutes late.
• This is where it got annoying.
• Someone took the decision to hold the late running train at Princes Risborough to allow the 1815 & 1818 Marylebone departures to overtake it.
• The original 1750 then left Princes Risborough 32 minutes late. It then left Haddenham & Thame Parkway 35 minutes late and terminated at Bicester North 34 minutes late, according to the Working Timetable.

If the train had been allowed to leave Princes Risborough without being held, It would have arrived at Bicester at about 1906. It would not have delayed any Southbound trains, but would have delayed each of the following two trains by a few minutes. This is a potential problem approaching Banbury - a freight train and a Cross-Country train to York might have been delayed.

The reality is though that passengers for High Wycombe and Princes Risborough would have been better off if they had caught the 1753 from Marylebone.
Passengers for Haddenham & Thame Parkway and Bicester North could have caught the 1818 train and got home earlier.

All in all, catching the 1750 was a bad mistake tonight if punctuality was your aim. The train was badly overcrowded and deeply unpleasant for many. Passengers for Haddenham and Bicester would have been deeply dischuffed to see two trains overtake them.

To rub salt into the wound, the train, while 34 minutes late into Bicester according to the Working Timetable, was actually 'only' 29 minutes behind the Public Timetable, meaning that Charter Claims for late running might be declined, while claims for Haddenham & Thame Parkway will be valid and honoured without quibble.

I have said before that running the railway involves make many tricky decisions with often conflicting priorities. I do not claim to know how to run the railway better than those that do, but instead simply present a passenger's view. Many passengers will however have been deeply hacked off this evening.

More Research Required

I travel a lot by train, but this was different.

The train travelled underground and was just one carriage long.

One station was at ground level, while the other was accessible only by lift.

I need to find out more, but does anyone know what sort of train this is?

Yucky yuck yuck

It was all go at the hotel.

After issues with the accounting system, there then followed an announcement that Norovirus was in the hotel and that some staff and residents had been affected.

Not good.

Breakfast was no longer a self-service buffet. Room cleaning regimes were changed and the toilets in public areas were closed.

All sensible things.

For our part, we used new plastic cups to serve the drinks at our nightly parties.

Nobody in our group got sick.

Phew!

Innocent!

Apparently the CCTV showed me paying for the wine.

Well that's OK then.

Well that's a first

I was recently staying with a group of friends in a hotel. Each evening we had wine with our meal.

We were offered the choice of adding the cost of the wine to a room bill or paying by cash. We opted to pay by cash.

On the first evening we paid by cash.

On the second evening we paid by cash.

On the third evening I was told that we hadn't paid for the wine from the previous evening.

The hotel staff were mistaken as I had paid the bill on each occasion on behalf of the group.

I went to bed, apparently branded a criminal and being told that the manager would be checking the CCTV.

Now that's never happened to me before!

We are all doomed

Based on what happened last night:

Snow = Rain
Bargain = Expensive
Eating Out = Rubbish
Cold = Cold

Yes, I am all Lemsip'd up. Grrrr.

A Busy Time of Year

Today I have been running round like a blue arsed fly.

The day started as usual at about 0510. I've lost track of the number of meetings I've had and have just finished travelling.

Hopefully the days ahead will be more enjoyable, though it is currently raining - and it's cold.

Does anyone have a shoe horn?

The 0744 Silver Train from Princes Risborough, supposedly provided by Chiltern Railways,was cancelled again this morning.

The 0715 from Bicester North ran 10 - 15 minutes late and Chiltern Railways got it to stop at Princes Risborough to fill the long gap that would have been caused by the cancelled train.

The 0744 is usually full and standing (calling at just High Wycombe and Beaconsfield).

So today we had all the passengers from the Bicester Train, plus all the passengers on the Princes Risborough train. To say the train was full would be mild understatement.

There were probably about 150 people left on the platform at Gerrards Cross.

Train currently due into Marylebone at about 0831. Lots of annoyed commuters. Not a good start to the day.

Somewhere revisited

Over the weekend of 20/21 October 2012 I was in Brussels to see Saracens beat Racing Metro at the King Baudouin Stadium on the North West edge of the city.

While queueing to get into the metro station after the match, I spotted through the gloom and the security fence the silver balls of the landmark Atomium.

Efforts at taking photographs were a complete waste of time. I tried, but the pictures never made it off the camera.

Yesterday on a crisp winter afternoon, without a cloud in the sky, I had the opportunity to rectify the photographic omission. I didn't actually go up the 'building' as I had been forewarned
 that the top sphere was closed for maintenance. I was also a little tight on time.

Having just looked at the website, I may have to go back again! It is a good thing that Brussels is not on the other side of the World from where I am...

It really was a lovely day, provided one dressed appropriately!

Choices choices

Currently sat in a bar.

"A small beer please."

... "Which one sir? We have forty six."

Ooops. Eeeek. Hick.

Missing in Action

On Saturday evening I suggested that Chiltern Railways might have a problem this morning with their Silver Trains.

Here is exhibit number one:

Hopefully all the Princes Risborough passengers will be able to board the extra train at 0755 (the 0749 from Haddenham & Thame Parkway). It is usually packed to the gunnels, but a lot of people are not travelling today due to the icy roads.

I shall now slink back to my work and carry on. Stay safe.

Racing Metro 28 - Saracens 37

A week ago I was waking up to the morning after the night before. That was when Saracens had beaten Racing Metro in the Heineken Cup by 37 points to 28. The match was on 12th January 2013. Certainly a night to remember.

I am no expert on rugby but can say that it was probably the second most exciting rugby match that I have ever seen. No prizes for guessing which match takes the top spot!

Before leaving the bar the night before, I had said that I would post a few photographs of the match on-line, so here they are.

I should say that my experience of taking sports photographs is extremely limited, so this is the best you get from me. Enjoy.

Oh - Today is Saracens last ever match at Vicarage Road in Watford. As I look out of the window it is currently snowing, so hopefully everyone can get to the match safely, to say goodbye to Chateau Grim in style.

Class 67 Problem Tonight at Bicester

Traction power for the Chiltern Railways Silver Trains(and for the old Blue and Grey set) is provided by Class 67 Locomotives.

Tonight the 1706 Silver Train from London Marylebone left London three minutes late. It trundled through North West London and even took the scenic route around the South Ruislip Loop.

The train was booked to run non-stop to Bicester North, before calling at principal stops to Birmingham Snow Hill. The train is then supposed to run empty from Birmingham to the depot at Stourbridge Junction, arriving there just after 2000.

Well, tonight the train eventually limped into Platform 1 at Bicester North just before six o'clock with a technical fault, and the service was then cancelled. Northbound passengers were transferred to either the following Statford-upon-Avon service which left Bicester at 1824 or the next Birmingham service which left at 1837.

Neither the original driver, a replacement driver or a fitter sent to repair the problem were able to fix the train, so Platform 1 (the Northbound platform) at Bicester North was blocked for some hours. Fortunately the track and signal layout allows trains to use platform 2 in either direction, so that is what happened for every Northbound train until just before eleven o'clock this evening.

Eventually a rescue locomotive was sent up from Wembley Depot, attached to the front of the broken down engine, and the train was hauled up to Banbury, leaving Bicester at about 2150.

Apparently DB Schenker who lease the engine are to send a couple of engineers down tomorrow to try to fix the problem, hopefully in time for the start of the working week on Monday.

So, currently there is a set of Silver Train carriages not where they should be (though they could be en-route to Stourbridge, I don't know). There is a Class 67 locomotive out of action, and the Blue & Grey set of carriages sat at Wembley without an engine.

It'll be interesting to see what Monday morning brings.

Les Machines de l'île

I was in Nantes last weekend to see Saracens play Racing Metro 92 in the Heineken Cup. More on that on another occasion.

While in the bar after the match on Saturday evening, I was talking to some other travelling supporters and mentioned that I intended to visit the castle the following morning, before catching my train home.

"Oh, don't do that," I was told "... go and see The Elephant".

Eh? Why would I want to go to the Zoo? A quick explanation followed and so just after nine o'clock on Sunday morning I headed off to Ile de Nantes to see the giant elephant which is possibly the main attraction of Les Machines de l'île.

The Machines of the Isle of Nantes project has been set up in a former run down shipyard area, a twenty minute walk from the city centre, partly I suspect simply to become a tourist destination in its own right.

First of all, the project is shut during 2013 from 7th January through to 15th February. From a practical perspective, this meant that I didn't pay anything to see a distinctly sleeping giant elephant, but also had the place pretty much to myself - I saw two other tourists wandering around and a solitary security guard sat near the elephant's rear end.

The elephant itself is an impressive beast, though during it's winter maintenance it did appear to have the mechanical equivalent of elephant snot coming out of it's trunk. Probably of slightly more interest and fun on a Summer's day rather than a foggy winter morning with everything locked up

The trip to see The Elephant helped fill the morning before I caught my train back to Paris. It wasn't a waste of time, but I suspect that a visit to Les Machines de l'île will be slightly more interesting when the site isn't closed for its winter maintenance period. For more ideas on things to do in Nantes, you could do worse than read this article from 2009.

No horseplay here

I spotted this sign in the window of my local butcher's shop window yesterday evening.

"100% BeefBurgers - £8.00 per KG - Only available after 2.30 at Haydock!!!"

We are lucky to have such a good butcher in the area, particularly one with a sense of humour.

If you buy your meat at such an establishment, I suspect that they have a pretty good idea that the food chain is reliable and that they know where your meat comes from. It is also likely to cost more than buying 'value burgers' from a local supermarket.

Apologies for the quality of the picture. My camera phone is very old.

Jack Reacher

I first went to see Tom Cruise in a film over 25 years ago. It was Top Gun and it was in one of the smaller screens at a cinema in Leicester Square. I guess the film must have been out a short while by then.

Over a quarter of a century later and I think Mr Cruise has weathered a little better than me. I suppose the money and the lifestyle probably helps a bit in that regard.

Anyhow, a few weeks ago Mr Cruise was doing the chat show circuit plugging his latest film, Jack Reacher. I didn't pay a huge amount of attention, but with a spare evening on my hands last week, I decided to give the film a go.

I am pleased that I did. It was on a very large screen (always good for action movies) and actually has a plot with a proper storyline and some semblance of believability.

I don't tend to read high brow books or go to see arty films. I like John Grisham, Ian Fleming and Tom Clancy. Mock me if you like, that's fine.

Anyhow, this is an action thriller that I enjoyed going to see. Yes Mr Cruise is good (he does all his own car stunts in the film) and the supporting cast are all OK. There are some funny scenes. There is some tension, but not to much as to want to hide behind the sofa.

Go to see this film if you like action adventures with a reasonable plot. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Westway: A Portrait of a Community

If you ever do run out of ideas for something different to do in London, IanVisits is always able to provides plenty of food for thought. His whole website is a treasure trove of information - for the latest updates and snippets of news, you could do worse than follow him on Twitter. Plenty do.

So, having heeded my own advice and with a little time to spare, I headed down to The Crypt at St Martin-in-the-Field in Trafalgar Square to take a peek at 'The Westway: A Portrait of a Community' an exhibition by photographer Paul Wenham-Clarke.

First of all - The Crypt

What an outstanding piece of architecture and use of space. Go visit if only to experience the building. The Café in the Crypt underneath the nave of the church must be one of the largest in London and well used. Anywhere slightly hidden away and this well used is worth a try.

The Exhibition

It's about the community underneath The Westway, the A40 flyover in West London. There's a bit about Crossrail too.

At first I was underwhelmed. A few photographs in the foyer area and I thought that was it. To be fair, many of the pictures are really rather good. Photography is, quite literally, painting with light. The quality of the light in some of the photographs is quite mesmeric. However there is more...

I thought I was done, so wandered into the Café to have a look at the vaulted ceilings. There, to the right, I found the bulk of the exhibition, hidden away in what seemed to be the Café's overspill area. There are a small number of pictures about Crossrail but most of the exhibition is about the travellers that live in the area and the local school & it's community.

Don't be rushed. There are plenty of pictures to grab your attention and a number of story boards that really make you think about what really goes on under and around The Westway.

The exhibition is open until 28th February 2013. There is no charge for entry.