Great Western Coffee Shop

In contrast to my 'very bad day' thread, today was an exceptionally good journey on my 1728 Warminster- Oldfield Park travel home. Thumbs up to FGW on this occasion.

- Train pulled in to the platform 10 minutes early at Warminster, an unrefurbished ex - Alphaline 158
- Clean windows and a table, surprisingly comfortable chair!
- Clean train
- Windows were all open in the carriage- the airflow was very welcoming on the very warm, sunny day we had. Marvellous views
- No yobs
- Train only just over a third full until Bath
- Nice conductor! He let me go on to Oldfield Park even though I only had a Bath Spa ticket today!
- Departed on time at all stations, we had green lights all thje way through, even on the approach to Bath Spa where we arrived there 4 minutes early. Usually the train stops before Bathampton Junction or in Sydney Gardens before Bath Spa
- Arrived Oldfield Park 1809, also early.

If only it went like clockwork like this all the time- I'd be happy to pay more for such a service!

Good one Graz,I've seen the date, it must have been a really souped up 158 to knock 10 minutes off the running time for the twenty miles from Salisbury.

How do 158s ride at 125 mph?

I wasn't intending to fool anyone, that was the truth! :) that said, maybe it was FGW's April Fools joke to passengers on that train! (Just kidding, it usually is good! ;) ). It didn't originate at Salisbury, that service is the 1728 Warminster- Great Malvern evening stopper. It starts from Westbury to serve Dilton Marsh, terminates Warminster and usually hangs around on the track south of platform 2 for 10 minutes, but in this case it was only there a few minutes before coming back to platform 1.

I must say though, it was much faster than normal!

Warminister to  Great Malvern  ???

Meaning the air conditioning was out of service!! Have the refreshed 158s had anything done to the air con?? Unlikely, 158s are rubbish in hot weather, roll on summer.

It wasn't one of those stiflingly hot days where I would be begging for the Aircon though (a bit early in the year!) just one of those days where fresh air from outside was very welcome in contrast to the rather stuffy air inside the carriage should all the windows have been closed.

eightf48544 - FGW run a few services from Warminster to Great Malvern throughout the day, and Great Malvern to Westbury on the way back ;)

Still the old stuff as some have the non standard variety. The purple paint has clearly worked wonders  ::)

Rather strange things happening today...

-The 1728 today was a 3 car refurbished 158
-The front engine seemed awfully quiet- I realised at Trowbridge it was unwell(!) as the lights went out followed by the whole train stalling, the driver having to turn the ignition. The front engine carried on but sounded rather dodgy all the way back. The train stalled at Avoncliff and Bath too
- Lots of people on at every station, 10 on at Warminster... good thing it was a 3 car- it was pretty much full after Bath Spa. I'd say it was an 'unusually large passenger flow'!!
- 8 on at Avoncliff- a new record! I couldn't believe the crowd on the platform!

Well,the amount of units I have seen with windows open doesn't make good reading!