Great Western Coffee Shop

At about 10.15am today, a very strange train went through Maidenhead.. At first I thought it was a freight train as the engines at either end were the ones that are always seen on freight trains.. However as it went through, I saw that  it had a mixture of midland mainline carriages and virgin carriages.. And there were passengers on board.. It was on the relief line but didn't stop...

Have FGW run out of engine units now?

Was it a charter train?? ex virgin mk2 coaches probably

Quite possibly a charter to Cheltenham for the races?

Ooh yes.. thank you... I didn't think of Cheltenham.. I think I saw the same train at Paddington when I got there Tuesday morning... That would explain it then!

1Z32 Paddington to Cheltenham running Tue to Friday this week for the Festival. Scheduled service rather than a charter I believe.

Yup, 0940 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa. Here be the timings!

Destination                Booked timings
London Paddington                 0940
Ladbroke Grove             pass   0943
Acton West                 pass   0946
Southall                   pass   0951
Heathrow Airport Jn        pass   0957
Slough                     pass   1003
Maidenhead                 pass   1011
Twyford                    pass   1019
Reading                    1025 ~ 1032 (PU ONLY)
Reading West Jn            pass   1034
Didcot Parkway             pass   1047
Wantage Road               pass   1052
Challow                    pass   1057
Swindon                    1106 ~ 1107
Swindon Loco Yard          pass   1132
Kemble                     pass   1142
Stroud St Mary's LC        pass   1151
Standish Junction          pass   1203
Gloucester Yard Jn         pass   1207
Barnwood Jn                pass   1209
Cheltenham Spa             1216

Thanks, Tom!

But, (and I'm probably going to seem like a newbie here!), is this scheduled service (rather than a charter) still given a 'zulu' headcode?  From previous posts in this forum, I thought a Z headcode was a temporary/replacement service?

"Z" is used for services outside normal timetable, hence why the specials to Cheltenham given the Z headcode.

If those were the timings of the 09:40 what was the driver doing pulling the train himself?

Slough 23 mins vice 16 for a Trubo Padd to stop.

Reading 45 mins for 36 miles! Then a 7 minute stop!

Swindon 1 hr 26 for 77 miles. Under 60 avaerage.

Then Swindon loco yard pass 11:32 having left Swindon at 11:07! Waitng for an Up train on the single line from Kemble?

Presumably it ran Relief line to Didcot or was it serve breakfast before they got to Cheltenham.