Every year I do an All Line Rover, usually in March.
This year, my start date was March 2nd. also, the day that The Beast from The East hit us.....
My original plan, starting in Weston-super-Mare was to head up the East Coast Main Line, visiting Grantham and York, and then return home.
Issues began as we approached Didcot. It was announced that Paddington was closed due to dangerous conditions, and we would instead terminate at Reading.
Then we were held at Didcot, being told that Reading was now gridlocked.
I decided to change here, and try and head to Oxford, and get to London from there. Waited for ages for the train to Oxford (showing on the board as "due"), but it never came. Instead, I gave up, and took the next train back to Bristol. I should have quit there and then,
Upon arriving in Bristol, I noticed that there was a delayed XC service to Plymouth. Unable to resist the lure of the Dawlish Coast and Devon Banks in the snow, I got on. We made it to Plymouth with no issues, despite the snow. I then took the same train back from Plymouth. Since all was now going well, instead of doing the sensible thing and heading home, I got overconfident.
I noticed from checking times online that I could change at Exeter onto the Waterloo service. I figured I could go as far as Basingstoke, then head back to Reading, then get a GWR service home.
Then we got stuck outside Templecombe. Frozen points. after a long delay, we reversed. All the way back to Yeovil Junction, where we were told we would be diverted via Yeovil Pen Mill. This pleased me, as I had never been on the Yeovil curve before! After more long delays, we were off again, but I realised that I would never make it to Basingstoke. So I got out at Westbury, where I knew I could get a train to Bristol, or Taunton.
The next service was a GWR to Exeter, stopping at Taunton, so I got on that. I was then announced that we would also be stopping at Frome. Then things got really bad. Due to multiple points failures, we got stuck at Frome for an hour. Eventually, we returned to Westbury, and were told that the train would now run via Bristol. Well OK, at least I would be heading home.
We then crawled to Bristol. Multiple unplanned stops along the way. Finally, upon the approach to Temple Meads, we stopped again. Station gridlocked. Multiple frozen points. No trains departing to anywhere. We were stuck outside the station for an hour.
By this time I realised I would not be getting home, and booked myself a Travelodge for the night.
The nest day I returned to Temple Meads. Waited two hours for a train back to Weston-super-Mare. which then took an hour instead of the usual 30 minutes. Then I went home to bed. I didnt even bother getting up the next day, so the first 3 days of my All Line Rover were basically ruined.
I resumed on Sunday, with much of the snow having already melted, but with GWR still using it as an excuse to cancel multiple services (actually caused by a driver shortage)
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