Day 5
Part 2
After being held outside Central for a few moments, we arrived into Pfm 3 13 minutes down, and off I went to the advertised Pfm 2 to catch the 1716 WAG express. Part of me secretly hoped that the driver of 67001 earlier was wrong, and that I would get it after all. With a supposedly Paddington-bound HST (43xxx+43087, the 1655 I think) occupying Pfm 1 and going nowhere soon, there were a lot of shuffling around and never-ending platform changes on the auto-announcer. I don’t think anyone would find it very fun to discover with very short notice that their train had changed to Platform 0.
The 1712 Maesteg (formed of 142077) left at 1716 from Pfm 2, where the 1716 was also shown to be leaving from. Then the WAG express just disappeared from the screens altogether. By this time the HST had left Pfm 1 (on control’s order to proceed to Newport only) but it was not shown on the boards there either. I frantically tried to seek out what had happened, and eventually realised that it was till at Canton depot. A manual announcement finally came on informing everyone that there would be a “good 15-minute delay” to this service.
The loco finally appeared on the horizon, but I wondered why it looked odd. There was some sort of “slash” halfway along and ATW don’t have that. As it drew closer, it all made a lot of sense. It was not an ATW loco after all, it was Chiltern’s 67012, explaining the slash I saw in the livery. I tried to take a picture but the lighting on the platform was awful. Everyone quickly boarded, many through the First Class door at the back of the rake (and I wonder why
). A bay of four at the very back of the coach (hence the train) was completely unreserved so I settled down there.
We left Cardiff 14 minutes down – not too bad considering the hooha caused by all the problems at Slough. The guard took my supplement, and then one more. I count nine pax in First on leaving Newport. This is a lot more popular than I originally thought. Previously it was more or less around five pax except when some forum members decided to take a trip on it a couple of years back. The menu appears to be the same as the one I had a while back, albeit with trout changed to lemon sole in one of the main courses with a biro. The host was apologising for the lack of hot drinks. “They are not particularly needed” I thought to myself. I ordered a Welsh cider and an icy water. She was again apologising that they may not be that cold since the fridge wasn’t working properly. That said, when it came it was pretty well chilled.
The rake felt different to normal and I wondered whether it was some sort of backup set. It still had proper ATW First Class antimacassars though and the aircon was working in full order. That’s another thing I didn’t know.
Food orders were taken on departure from Newport. I ordered asparagus for starter, lemon sole for main and strawberries and clotted cream for dessert, deliberately avoiding options I had chosen before. Soon after the smell of cooked (burnt?
) food filled the carriage.
Starter was served not long before Abergavenny and main at 1835, a couple of minutes before we arrived at Hereford. As with all fish dish, portion size was on the small side. I like fish, but I am more a steak person, and in comparison I think I prefer their steak option. The strawberries were not particularly sweet, but with some lovely clotted cream they were still pretty damn good.
Sitting in this environment, topped with the golden sunset, typing up the trip report or just enjoying the world go by is a wonderful feeling. By now my eyelids were starting to fight each other and coffee was served just at the right time.
We passed Shrewsbury Town’s “new” ground (? – never been since they moved from Gay Meadow so not sure) on the way and I honestly cannot say I have ever noticed before that the station straddles the River Severn. I can’t think of any other station except Blackfriars which sits above a body of water.
What I was not expecting was that by now the delay had accumulated and reached the 30-minute mark. My connection at Chester was +21, which by now looked dangerous even if we could make up time. Even if the Virgin were late by a similar margin, we would then miss the rare move from Wrexham. All things considered, this was not going to turn out well. After Shrewsbury we were put behind the local stopper and we once again came to a grinding halt at Gobowen, waiting for the stopper to clear the long section all the way to Wrexham (according to the guard). “That was some long section” I mumbled to myself. We finally moved off from Gobowen at 2008, 39 minutes late, after a 158 zoomed past us in the opposite direction. The Virgin had arrived at Crewe only six minutes down therefore I resigned to the fact that I was not going to make that connection, consequently bailing at Wrexham, 41 minutes late at 2022.
Greeting me in Platform 3 was 150284. At least another winner and the move is definitely on. That is good enough for me. The Virgin unit turned out to be Alstom-liveried 221115. (I required no Virgin Voyagers.) We set off from Wrexham General a few seconds early, but not before I found someone’s phone left behind on a table seat. I handed it to the less-than-impressed guard, who tried ringing the stored numbers, but I don’t think she got anywhere.
Settling down at a table, I found out that my onward connection at Shrewsbury back to Newport had left Piccadilly (booked 2030) 18 minutes late due to a late inbound working. It seemed that nothing escaped the congestion at Central today.
I sat back to relax. The smell of rotten leaves, presumably mixed with the scent of cow dung, was most pronounced along the way. The whiff quickly disappeared as we neared Shrewsbury.
The day (punctuality-wise) then went from bad to worse. The Cardiff train was already late, but then got stuck at Crewe waiting for a driver, or so I was told – quite believable given the circumstances today. It then got later, and later, and later. It arrived at Crewe at 2124, 18 down, and eventually left at 2203, 42 minutes late.
Just to rub it all in, while I was waiting, the darned 175110 pulled in at around 2200 on the 2139 Holyhead service. Arrrrrrgh!
Finally 158837 slowly trundled into Pfm 7 just before 11 o’clock, departing 51 minutes late. On other days, given how late the train is, I would jump off somewhere en route to try my luck at scooping the next one in too, though I had already found out that it would be 150284 tonight so I stayed put. We arrived at Newport 48 minutes behind schedule and it was a swift exit from the station for me, but not before witnessing someone’s dangler hanging out by the station barriers by Platform 1 as Friday night went into full swing and someone took the liberty to relieve himself, totally unawares that trains were still coming into the station with people onboard. “Naughty, naughty,” was the response from the middle-aged woman walking behind me.
Photos:
(1) "A Shropshire Lad" dragging the WAG express.
(2) A Welsh dragon cider anyone?
(3)-(5) WAG express evening meal.
(6) 150284 waiting at Wrexham General Platform 3 ready for a service to Shrewsbury.
(7) Virgin (221115) at Wrexham General.
(8) Old market hall(?) visible from Shrewsbury station and lit up nicely at night.
(9) 153303 after arrival at Shrewsbury on the final HoW of the day. 150284 had been shunted into Platform 6 in front of it.
(10) Someone needs to dust the canopies I reckon.
, but what is a trip without a little accident? Tomorrow is going to be wonderful, I hope.
hock:. Furthermore it never rains, it pours. As we departed Shrewsbury, I realised that I was not the only one enjoying my cool mango smoothie for the previous few minutes. Seems that you cannot take your eyes off it for a second. 
