Great Western Coffee Shop

Standing on platform awaiting the 06:26, train come in from the wrong side.  Not THAT unusual except the train crew were not sure which train they were supposed to be.  They had been despatched as the second hereford but had to run up a different way because of signalling problems.  Sat at WOS for about 15 minutes before they announced it was going to form the train we were expecting.  I assume this was due to signalling problems that were screwing up arriva services.

So the Q is - where did the first hereford end up?  Did it vanish?  It stabled at hereford so should not have been affected by the signal issue since they were south of there.

Just wondering how a whole HST can vanish like that.

The Hereford HST failed and did not run.  You saw it's replacement probably fresh from Bristol.  They wondered whether to run it late from Malvern but decided to start it at Worcester pretty well on time.

Stop guessing! I was on duty this morning. 1P21 05:35 ex Hereford was stopped from using the Marches route running empty from SPM due to an engineering over-run. It had to back track via Newport & Gloucester to reach Worcester and was sent onto Hereford to form 1P26 06:43 to Paddington. The original 1P26 had made Worcester SH in time to be able to run at least some of the earlier service - i.e. Worcester - Paddington. Ironically, the new 1P26 had to miss Honeybourne stop due to traction problems, but at least both 1P21 and 1P26 ended up almost on time in London.

Trust says the set failed and was replaced.

Moreton Signalman told me what the driver said about where the train was to start from.

Which is interesting - IP21 left WOS as far as I can tell - 15 late but got into Reading ahead of schedule!  Buyt was still late into London?

Also - how come the crew - on arrival at WOS - had no idea what was going on!  They admitted that themselves

Its likely information from Swindon was not all that clear in the midst of the confusion.