35028. VSOE to Bath. 11/09/2013

We had the overwhelming pleasure to travel on this trip thanks to the extreme generosity of my colleagues and firm making it a retirement present. You can imagine how I was feeling when there was no sign of the stock by departure time, but my wife told me to stop worrying. The charming ladies of VSOE seemed to have little info with which to calm the travellers on the platform but could only offer..'The train is stuck at a red signal at Battersea and we are doing all we can to get Network Rail to change the signal!...' We had several versions of this until a grubby 67 finally turned up at about 09.25 and we were away exactly an hour late. Other sources on the train told me that the 67 had not been despatched from Banbury until very late that morning, instead of the previous evening. Others may know if that was the true reason. Anyway we had a pretty fine run with top speeds in the high 70s, although we lost several minutes climbing from Salisbury to Andover on the return run with speed in the low 30s- Dilton Marsh had brought us down to about 21-22 mph. Despite an interminable crawl back through the suburbs we were dead on time at Victoria..of course. If you ever get the chance to travel on the British Pullman, seize it- a fantastic experience. Thank you VSOE!!

 

Lucky chap. Thanks for the interesting report. Glad you both enjoyed your day. <BJ>

 

My video from Wednesday's VSOE to Bath with 35028, captured at Byfleet and New Haw, Bath Spa (taken from alongside the River Avon), Keynsham and whistling through Basingstoke (doppler effect on the whistle!):



James at SVN