Great Western Coffee Shop

Just my luck... I was on a day trip to the I.O.W with two of my younglings, firend and two of hers, grampy and brother. We were going on 0901 off Westbury, arrived in plenty of time, thought it odd not to have moved off on time then noticed the guard walking past the window towards the front..... then the announcement "delayed blah blah, falied freight train blah blah.... as a result of privatisation....... no spare locos for miles (in the old days  yawn......)
Then came a pleasant and unusual surprise.... the SWT Waterloo was coupled to the rear and we went via Yeovil Jnct to Salisbury, very pleasant run, only spoiled by terminating at Salisbury and not understanding announcements for various reasons (excitable children, frustrated adults ::)) and missed our chance to jump on 0958 Wsb to Phbr (Salis 1135) next stop Fratton some poor souls that originally got off at Wsb had now joined us at Salisbury having waited all that time on a platform whilst we had a pleasant detour.
Having missed a sailing we were on the Island just long enough for a meal and a wander rather than a paddle aswell.
All told a good day tho 8)

Wow, that was a pleasant surprise! :) Luckily that day I had to get into work late so I just missed this!

Moonraker, I'm jealous you got Pen Mill to Junction.

I've never done that route, missed out a few years back on a Hertfordshire Rail Tour round the coast Margate to Weymouth, no driver with route knowledge so we went via Westbury back to Salisbury.

 

You will get a chance this Autumn as FGW services from London to the Southwest will be diverted via Yeovil on weekends whilst engineering work is carried out between Taunton-Exeter sometime in Oct/Nov I believe.