Trains in the UK: West from London

STRATFORD, England — Back at my London base for the first part of this tour, a hotel adjacent to the Stratford station. Unlike my first stay a week ago, I this time asked for a room with a railway view. (Clerk: “No one has every asked for that before.” I now understand why; you can definitely hear the train noise. The room came with complimentary earplugs, which was not the case on the other side of the building.)

The past few days have been busy. After concluding my second Caledonian Sleeper trip, this time from Glasgow to London, I spent a little time at the Caldonian lounge at Euston station (catching up on email, taking a shower — complimentary for those in the club and double rooms, and a bit more satisfying than the one on board the train. Having avoided much of rush hour, I then made made my way to Paddington station — slowly, I am checking off all the major London stations. After a bit of a look-around and a few photos, I caught a Great Western train to the west of England to visit Keith Fender, our UK correspondent.

That trip was not exactly flawless. First, credit where credit is due: when our inbound trainset was significantly delayed, Great Western Railways did some shuffling of equipment and came up with a replacement relatively quickly. In the U.S., we would have simply had to wait for the other train. As a result, our 11:03 a.m. departure from London Paddington was just eight minutes late.

After that, well … Great Western was quite good at apologies.

— “We apologize, but the seat reservations for this trip have not loaded. As a result, there will be no seat reservations on this trip. Please try to sit in your reserved seat if possible.” (I did sit in the window seat I had booked, because I boarded immediately at the originating station. I suspect not everyone was as lucky).

— “Good morning, I’m with the catering staff. The train came from the depot without have been stocked for catering, so there will be no refreshments available on this trip. We do apologize.” (Not idea, obviously, for a 3-hour, 10-minute trip over lunchtime. Even if it was only “trolley service” as opposed to a full dining car, there were no doubt some people counting on getting some food. Fortunately, I was not among them.)

— “We do apologize, but there are signal issues in the Taunton area. … So far, we have not been diverted. We will keep you posted on our progress.” (We would eventually be 30 minutes late, which is supposed to entitle me to a 50% refund. I have not yet tackled that, and understand it may be difficult for me to get as a foreign visitor.)

There were no apologies for the Wi-Fi, which was so bad as to be essentially useless — killing my plan to do a blog post during the ride. But then, my expectations were low in this regard, having happened across this article a while back.

Keith was waiting for me in Taunton, and we made the relatively short drive to Bishops Lydeard, the home of the West Somerset Railway, at 26 miles, the longest heritage railway in the UK. As it happened, there was a train running with a steam locomotive — not always the case on a weekday — because of a special “afternoon tea” event that included a large tour group as well as others there for that specific offering. Still, there was room for general passengers like Keith and I, and as Keith is a member of the organization, we were able to ride on his member’s pass.

Motive power for the trip was 2-6-0 No. 9351, a former tank engine built in 1934 and converted by the WSR to a conventional locomotive with tender, which extends its range quite considerably. The train included a variety of different eras of British Rail passenger cars.

The leisurely 3½ -hour round trip on the 10-station route gave us a chance to catch up on any number of things, as well as for him to fill me in on points of interest along the way. I’d say the WSR is well worth a visit, and could easily be worth a full day if you include some time to explore some of the intermediate stops, such as the coastal town of Watchet, once a port for coal and iron or shipments.

I had a chance to see a bit of Watchet myself, since that’s where Keith and his wife were gracious hosts for my one night stay. After a walk-around on Friday morning, Keith and I made about a two-hour drive  to the town of Westbury, which has a rather complex railway junction and sees a decent amount of freight traffic. We spent a few hours photographing trains there on a rare warm, sunny fall afternoon.

Then it was time for a train back to London from Westbury. Great Western did a bit better this time — our train was only about seven minutes late — although this wasn’t quite what I had in mind when I reserved a window seat:

That left the evening for dinner and, unfortunately, an hour or so of work (magazine deadlines keep advancing no matter where I am) before calling it a night. Today, after catching up on these blogging responsibilities, I’ll be off to see a Premier League soccer game. Tomorrow will likely be a train-free day — other than using them to get around for some sightseeing — before diving back into some feature work on Monday.