Mega yikes to those huge delays last night, I see I'd have been on the 1634 from Holyhead at some point as well. Very much counting my lucky stars and grateful to the divine intervention for going to Derbyshire instead of North Wales!
I've been going to post on this thread some positivity since Saturday morning, it's been a bit of a crazy week. Anyway, last Saturday I had the privilege of getting a MK4 set on the 0953 from Hereford, and I took full advantage of the opportunity to upgrade to First Class. It was an ex-GC set, and so I had the really nice First Class to enjoy. I took a single seat facing another on the right, and enjoyed the views all the way. Having got back from the USA the day before, I had a new appreciation of the UK, and the beauty of Herefordshire and Shropshire was most enjoyable.
I also took advantage of a meal on board, the first one in months. Excellent comfort levels were enjoyed, timekeeping was near enough spot-on all the way and on-board crews were all very good. I thoroughly enjoyed my journey, by a long way the best I've had on TfW in a long time!
I also took 67020 on an ex-LNER set out of Manchester on the 1630 to Swansea, having walked over from Salford Crescent in just 22 minutes (no easy feat with Saturday crowds!) but bailed at Crewe to do other things. I didn't try the ex-LNER First Class, I could have done looking at it but I had decided to change plans on the approach to Crewe. Perhaps if I'd upgraded to First on the way out of Manchester I'd have stayed on!
What do I think of the black livery on 67020, now I've seen it a bit better? I'm not a big fan, it looks a bit out of place somehow. Perhaps if it was black all over with some red swooshes or a thick red stripe, it might then look better. Maybe if the MK4s were also in black it would look better, but enough livery discussion!
Anyway, some photos!
