Marooned!!

[STKKK46]

I got extremely lucky back in January 2010, having travelled to Keynsham to meet a girl I wanted to get with. Get to KYN in time for train back to Temple Meads so I could get the 2030 back to Birmingham.

Standing on the Bristol platform, a HST pulls in. From Bristol. A quick word with the guard and it turns out there had been an explosion outside Temple Meads and this train had been stuck outside. Nobody was supposed to get on but I explained my situation and fortunately was allowed to get on with the promise of getting as far as Bath as there was no information available. Bearing in mind I had college the next day and my parents had no idea where I was this was quite worrying. Get to Bath and it's announced I can get as far as Swindon on this train so Mobile Internet comes out. Made a 3 minute connection there to Reading, which had a 2 minute connection to Leamington for a 5 minute connection to Leamington for the last train back to Solihull. Nightmare doesn't even begin to explain it!!

That's the closest I have ever been or would ever want to be!

 

[FenMan]

I got caught out on a Nice-Paris Bercy motorail sleeper in June 1989.

The plan was to arrive early morning in Paris, spend the day with friends and then take the late afternoon Boulogne train and the hovercraft back to the UK.

Unfortunately, in the middle of the night, a petrol tanker decided to jump off a bridge in front of us, leaving the train stranded. After several hours at a standstill in the middle of nowhere we got moving and were diverted to a route running east of Paris.

It had turned into a hot summers day and the atmosphere on board became increasingly, ahem, "close", not to mention mutinous! Food and water had run out early in the morning and it wasn't until midday that SNCF managed to load some crates of bottled water, but no food.

We then endured the "fun" of a 17-car train being manouevred extremely slowly around various marshalling yards in greater Paris (for over two hours) to get back to Bercy.

We arrived eight hours late and never did get to see our friends. Hot, sweaty, tired and hungry, we hotfooted it across Paris just in time to catch the connection to Boulogne.

Those were the days!

 

[37078xotTE]

Once got on the wrong service from Crewe going home to Shrewsbury (having just done an overnight to Scotland) in the mid 80's, ended up going towards Stoke and as it was the last train of the night we bailed at Alsager, dark, bleak and nowhere to shelter, my Dad was not best pleased when I rang him come and collect us!!

 

[Track Basher]

Nearly Stranded #3

06/05/89

A group of us booked on an day excursion to Spalding Flower Festival but continued on to Peterborough as the carriages had to go there anyway. A cheap way to get around the country when BR ran these trains. None of us had been to Kings Lynn but this did not quite work by train as there was insufficient time.

We worked out it was possible to catch the rail bus link and return via Ely and this get the line. This worked fine until the DMU was late between Ely and Peterbourough. We stopped by the carriage sidings. We stayed there watching our special train leave the sidings into the platform in front of us and we looked at the window as the tail lamp disappeared into the distance.

Some quick thinking then took place. We managed to blag our way to Peterborough on the following HST which was considerably quicker than the special that went via Spalding and Lincoln. We then explained our predicament to the nice lady as customer information who arranged with the signalman for the train to stop and pick us up.

The rest of our carriage had wondered what had happened to us and we got a round of applause when we took our seats at Doncaster.

Nearly Stranded #4 - The closest I have come.

22/08/94

It is a long story how this happened by me and my wife had ended up touring France and Italy by train and ended up in Corsica. We then sailed back to Nice and spent the night in a hotel. There had been quite a bit or railway industrial action when we had left home. This was in the days long before the Internet and Mobile Phones so had to find a call box to call my parents to see if there were any strikes due. The reply no not in the next few days.

We then attempted to get on the TGV to Lille Europe but it was fully booked. As we could not get this one train there was no point trying any later train back as there was no connection back to the UK. We would be in Paris again. No point doing that so decided we would catch the overnight sleeper and motorail train from Marseille to Calais.

We booked our sleeper than had a day in Marseille. Caught the sleeper all the way to Calais then the bus from Calais Ville to the Hoverport and booked singles back to Dover. On arrival jumped into a taxi and asked for the station and the driver says "You'll be lucky they are on strike today". Thanks Mum! We could have stayed an extra day in France.

We managed to get to London before everything shut down and had to rent a car to get back to Lancashire.

 

[Sprinter]

I remember one night (with another forum member) when we were trying to get back from Exeter to Lyme Regis. We arrived back in EXD (from Cornwall) in time for the 2015 towards AXM, however this was shown as being heavily delayed (or so the next train screen said)...it was not a panic at that time as I knew the last bus from AXM to Lyme Regis was at 2220, so the 2115 train to SAL would also suffice.

However the 2015 just disapeared off the next train boards without any explanition and the 2115 was similarily heavily delayed and also failed to reach EXD. The next train at 2230 was the last train of the night and was not showing on the boards at all, butv with it being the last train it can't just be cancelled without warning, so we waited and a 159 thankfully showed up around 45 late!

Arrived at AXM near midnight with the station master promptly locking the station up as soon as the train departed! We wondered into the Tesco next door to enquire about taxi numbers, despite thier best efforts with everyone they could think of, all the taxi companies had closed for the night!

Cue a 5 and half mile walk back to Lyme regis along mainly unlit country roads taking about 2 hours (thankfully that way round is mostly downhill)!!!

Sprinter.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

My longest delay has been at Par after a Voyager failed to make it twice up the hill towards Newquay. Overall delay topped 2 1/2 hours, half of which was spent on the Voyager. There is absolutely nothing at Par, not even a vending manchine.

Same here. Was doing a ride cornwall ranger and came back from Newquay and the next train back up to Truro was delayed by about 3 hours so we were stuck at Par. No vending machines, snack shop was shut, not a soul in sight apart from the drivers in their messroom. We had to walk about a mile to the nearest shop just to get some food.

 

[jnjkerbin]

Northing too bad springs to mind.

Probably the worst was St Erth. I was going back to Penzance after having had a daytrip to St Ives. I hadn't planned my trains and had a 50 minute wait for the next train west.

Bring on the 2tph stoppers from Plymouth to Penzance I say!

Joe

 

[Requeststop]

Late 1970's: Working at the now closed Coryton refinery close to Stanford -le-Hope and staying in Southend. Went to London for some reason, Circle line tube delay meant that I just missed the last Shoeburyness service from Fenchurch Street. Gates at Fenchurch Street Closed. Fortunately, there was a timetable at streetlevel , so saw there was a service just after 5:30-ish from Liverpool Street to Southend going over the Stratford-Barking line. Walked around to Liverpool Street, really shattered, sat around for 5 hours, unable to sleep. Looked at the departure board 5:15ish for the platform for the train only to discover that it was cancelled. Walked back to Fenchurch Street and caught the first service back to Southend from there.

Other than that a very long overnight wait at Crewe for a connection to Chester in the early 70's. Not a pleasant experience.

 

[37372]

Peterborough... Back in summer 2007 I decided to do an ALR. As a 15yr old with a PRIV I decided that now was the time to do one before I turned 16 later that year.

Anyway, last day of the rover, a Saturday. I'd stayed at a friends house the night before and when I set off I had no plan. Headed south and did Stansted and a couple of other lines in that area. I ended up on the wrong train at Thorpe-le-Soken and ended up going to Walton and back, by now it was early evening. Made my way up to Norwich assuming there'd be a Peterborough/Nottingham-bound service but nope, none. So I headed across to Cambridge, nothing there either. I began to get worried as it was now late evening so I caught some all shacks service to London hoping to make a late night train back up north. I had just missed the last Doncaster/Sheffield trains from Kings Cross/St Pancras by a matter of minutes... oh bugger.

Quick phonecall home to explain things, festered at KGX for a bit and then decided to get the 01omething to Peterborough to doss. Kicked everyone off the station upon arrival at PBO to lock up. I had only £2 on me (enough for a child PRIV single home as my rover had expired by now), only a Tshirt on, and my phone was now completely dead. I spent the night wandering around the city centre, then sheltering in a luggage trolley booth outside the station and watching a track possession as it was cold and raining heavily by then.

Caught some stupidly early morning RRB to Stevenage for warmth/sleep, I don't recall any of that journey. Got to Stevenage about 0630/0700ish where I was faced with a wait of 3 hours until the first Sunday morning GNER service back to Doncaster.

Needless to say I was greatful of the bacon sandwich and cup of tea when I got home at dinnertime...

 

[plymothian]

If I wasn't staying with someone I knew I would have been stranded in France for 2 days when the Eurostar went tits up due to the snow a couple of years ago. I had to change my TGV ticket 3 times to get back to Paris because of the ever changing updates from E*.

 

[60163]

I was marooned once when i fell into a blue vat of paint, then while climbing out of it, fell into a red one.


My prolific apologies to the memory of Ronnie Barker

 

[deltic1989]

I was marooned once when i fell into a blue vat of paint, then while climbing out of it, fell into a red one.


My prolific apologies to the memory of Ronnie Barker

Your coat sir??

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Also when on an unplanned trip to Whittlsey on a Weekend from Mansfield. Decided to go up to Worksop and Retford. Should have taken about 2 hours via Nottingham, we soon saw...
Got to Worksop, 50 minutes to next train to Retford, we thought f**k it let's go the caff, which was good. got the train to Retford to find out it was about 4 hours till the next train down south, about 7 till the next train direct to PBO. Me and my dad were proper ****ed off at this point so we had to wait four hours to get to Grantham. Waited around, no facilities, boring. Only good thing was me making the journey planner run out of paper and watching the trains speed through. After ages made it to PBO, to add to the hell a two-hour wait to the next NXEA, at the time, to Whittlesey. At least the station had facilities and loads of trains.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

When did you go to Retford? It gets 1tp2h to Peterborough and roughly 1tph to London If you don't mind me saying that sounds a bit like bad planning as opposed to being marooned. Retford town is only 3/4 miles from the station you know, a fairly nice place...

 

[ATW Alex 101]

it was about 3 years ago and it was on a weekend can't specifically remember when, I definately remember though that the service was very infrequent. The train we got on from Worksop terminated at Retford rather than Lincoln.

It was all down to bad planning, my nan lives it Sutton-in-ash and we have relatives living in Whittlsey so we drove to my nans and she has no internet connection so we just had to pick the valid routes we knew off the top of my head,so essentially we did meff up due to not checking. We don't really like venturing too far into the town if it isnt within 2 to 3 minutes away and espescially if we have never been to Retford

 

[Track Basher]

The final installement.

Nearly Marooned #5 - A lucky escape

We like to go to Glasgow Model Railway exhibition each year. In 2007 BMI Baby were doing very cheap tickets Cardiff - Glasgow and back so we decided to fly. Cheaper than the train. The exhibition was on 23/02/07. Had we gone on the train we would ahve come home on the first train in the other direction after 390033 derailed in Cumbria. Some of my friends were on this train and it did not get to Crewe until well into Saturday as it had to go back to Carlisle before heading down the S&C.

Nearly Marooned #6 - Glasgow again 20/02/09

We had once again gone to the exhibition then headed to Edinburgh to do the 67s on the Fife Circle. The train home was late coming into Edinburgh was delayed and hence late going back. It lost further time heading south and missed the last train from Crewe to South Wales. Virgin had to provide a taxi Crewe - Abergavenny (nearly £300). Not bad for a £10 fare. Didn't get home until after 3 a.m.

Nearly Marooned #7 - Christmas Trip 30/12/11.

We had been to the far north and stayed overnight in a hotel in Inverness. Travelling home via Aberbeen, Edinburgh, Birmingham N St and Bristol Parkway. Left Inverness at 09:00 and all went fine to Wigan where we stoped because of cows on the line. Only picked un an hours delay. We carried on to Cheltenham where our train terminated and we were put on the following train but we stood for 4 hours waiting for the fatality to be cleared up. Should have been home at 22:00 but at midnight were still in Cheltenham. Thrown of the train again onto the Cardiff train behind and arrived in Cardiff 5 minutes of the last departure west. Cross Country then provided a taxi white knuckle ride down the M4.

 

[Tracked]

Deliberately Marooned:

Kyle of Lochalsh last July, ALR visit that involved setting off from Doncaster at 6:15 and going via Perth and then Aberdeen. Because I had about 8 minutes for the first change at Edinburgh, and also because I knew I would oversleep for the first train back to Inverness, I didn't book a hotel. Spent the night in the bus shelter and on the platform, had to go and get food in KoL otherwise would've asked if I could stay on the train overnight (and got refused no doubt!)

If I'd missed the connection with the Night Riviera a few days later then I'd have spent a rainy night in Penzance!

Cancellations:

Stuck in Battle for half an hour due to lineside fire, due to lack of time to go back into the town I stayed on the station. Did hear bloke halfway accross the car park on his mobile phone, loudly apologising to his mate for sleeping with his girlfriend, which was entertaining for those of waiting.


Heckington April 2012, nice windmill at the station, but after that and having a pork pie from the village shop, not really enough things to do in the hour I was spending there. The perfect place then to be held at for another hour when the train gets cancelled then ... :roll:

 

[Welshman]

Heckington April 2012, nice windmill at the station, but after that and having a pork pie from the village shop, not really enough things to do in the hour I was spending there. The perfect place then to be held at for another hour when the train gets cancelled then ... :roll:

How I sympathise with you.
There's not a lot to do, especially if the little museum on the platform is closed.
And the local bus services are not what you could call frequent, either.

*******************************************************

Whenever I see the title of this thread, I always think of the episode in, I think, one of Ian Rankin's "Rebus" books, where Rebus is sitting in a pub pretending to be stuck with the crossword, and when a friend offers help, he replies: "Eight letters - stuck on a desert island"
"Marooned" the helper replies.
"Make mine a double, then" Rebus replies.

 

[317666]

Speaking of marooned, when I was on the first Cambridge - Liverpool St train on a Saturday morning, which stops at all stations round the Seven Sisters loop, I saw somebody in a sleeping bag with a suitcase, fast asleep in the shelter at Rectory Road. I'd hazard a guess he'd missed the last train into London the night before and had decided to sleep on the station until the morning.

 

[Mark_re]

At this very moment, I'm in a hotel overlooking Cologne Hbf, courtesy of Deutsche Bahn. I arrived yesterday morning and left my bags in the automatic baggage deposit machine. I went to the station to collect them, in time for the 2228 to Dresden Hbf, to find that all of the machines had broken down. There were about 30 hugely annoyed people standing around. I eventually convinced the DB ServicePoint to put me up in a hotel only after
my train had left. Also got a refund. And my bags back this
morning. Could be much worse!

Mark