I have, yes 

I turned up at Paddington at 2215 for the 2228 train to Swindon, saw the blank departure boards and then eventually noticed a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) staff member telling people that there were no services and that the only alternative was Elizabeth Line to Reading and then taxi at our initial expense, but didn't get any idea of the cause, so I assumed it was flooding that hadn't affected my outward journey at 5-6pm. Due to some faffing about with some photos I'd taken at the ROH I eventually turned up to find the next EL^▸ (Elizabeth Line - Transport for London line from Reading and Heathrow in the west through central tunnels across to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.) train leaving in 5 minutes was also the last service of the day.

With no organised staff at the northern end of Reading to direct proceedings a black cab eventually turned up and £111 later I was at Swindon station. On the M4 I did look to see what the potential cause of all this was and surprised to see it was an incident between Readiing and Didcot, and wondered how this can mean a total closure of all GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) departures to anywhere (not even terminating at Reading). What would the people turning up for the last PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-SWI^» (Swindon - next trains)/BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) have done, taxi from London?

 I hope they don't start installing one on Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventoux or the Tourmalet 

Yep, I was on it....it left Paddington full and standing, 39 minutes late and then we were held outside Slough for what was announced as problems related to the points failure although was described as due to an incident the police were attending. We were then held at Slough station due to a medical emergency with an ambulance in attendance...certainly plenty of passengers that were bored to death near me.

Over the years we have become more aware of the limitations of our little train – most importantly the lack of accessibility, a value that we hold steadfast at the centre of our organization. We believe that our zoo should be accessible to all, but the access and size of the Jungle Express Train meant some of our visitors could not enjoy it.

Is it right to assume that although some of the track may have to be moved following the new aviary and entrance plans what killed the railway was the idea that unless everyone is able to fit on to the train then nobody will be allowed on the train?

I tried to catch this train yesterday, even got to sit on it for a few minutes before the train was taken out of service, this was because the whole of the 'northern side' of the front carriage, including the side windows, was completely covered with an unauthorised silver and yellow paint scheme courtesy of a local graffiti artist, and the driver declared it couldn't be used as he couldn't see out of his cab's side window. We ended up using the stock that arrived in Swindon at about 0955

I was on the 1832 Reading to Swansea train (to go to Swindon) that ended up sitting at Didcot station for just over an hour and a half and can confirm that bottled water, apples and oranges were provided by people on the platform there. Nobody said anything about buses or taxis though

I felt rather sorry for the people that took the advice of the train manager (to catch the 2005 back to Reading before heading to south Wales via Basingstoke and Salisbury!) as our train eventually carried on it's journey at about 2020hrs

Celebs I've spotted but never talked to on the railway network are:

Sophie Dahl at Paddington
Claire Grogan at Victoria
Alan Bennett at Reading
Michael Grade at Salisbury
The bloke that played Boycie on an SWT^▸ (South West Trains) towards Waterloo
Ken Loach at Bath (he's a regular at Bath on a Sunday afternoon)
Jeremy Guscott at Bath
Julia Davis and her Mighty Boosh husband, Julian Barrett at Bath
Jon Richardson at Swindon (I had never heard of him before watching some comedy panel show the night before!!)
MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post - a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London, depending on context) Margaret Hodge at Bath
Robin Ince (comedian) at Paddington

I'm afraid your post loses all credibility and respect because of your typo and poor grammar ..........

Well that was a minor nightmare getting back from Bath to Swindon with the 1513 cancelled and then the 1543 being diverted after off loading Swindon people at Chippenham....for an hour's wait with no information until a replacement bus turned up. Total delay a few mins short of 2 hours.

Well it's arrived already...astonished given that I chose free delivery!!

It's fantastic....especially for ^5

Regarding the maps and illustrations....there is a publishers note at the start that states that due to the size and condition of the original maps they have been unable to reproduce them in there entirety....they do include street maps of Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester, Hull, Leeds, Glasgow & Edinburgh...the writing on the maps is tiny...there also a small selection of illustrations including a page of cathedrals, castles of England, views of Edinburgh, London (including the crystal palace) views of the Isle of Wight, abbeys of England, some Welsh bridges....and some adverts including insect destroying powder, a sewing machine, a glass and china shop in Oxford Street with prices.

Hope this helps

The difference is stated in a couple of the reviews for both versions of the book on the Amazon website.

The ^20+ version is a bigger sized paperback, published a couple of months earlier than the one I mentioned. It apparently has all the maps and the adverts of the original....the cheaper one is apparently the same dimensions as the original and a hardback. According to someone that bought both, the hardbacked cheaper version lacks the maps and ads. That said one of the reviews for the cheaper book says that it contains maps too.....so maybe there are fewer maps rather than no maps. When mine arrives I'll see.

I don't know if someone has already mentioned it but you can now buy a hard backed facsimilie of the edition of Bradshaw's guide used in the programme from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bradshaws-Handbook-Facsimile-Famous-Guide/dp/1908402024/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327264597&sr=8-1

A bargain at ^5. I ordered mine on Friday evening after finally deciding to google it after all these episodes and noticed that only the day before the Daily Mail had printed this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089047/Bradshaws-Handbook-railway-guide-breaks-Amazon-bestsellers-list.html

edit....it looks like they are currently out of stock for now (maybe I got the last one as mine is already been dispatched) but in the meantime you can read it online thanks to these links (as its out of copyright)

http://lacithedog.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/michael-portillo-bradshaws-guide-and-great-british-railway-journeys/

I was at Bradford on Avon for the first time in a while and........they've changed the announcer!!!! My beloved  Digital Doris has been changed for some unappealling imposter!!!! Has she gone from the whole line!!???

I am...distraught.

The new screens look alright though

 

And the tunnel in the picture would indicate he'd have no time to see what the driver was doing to even decide to take the picture of it. It's a pretty unremarkable view and moment until you see the paper by chance when you are going through the pics once you've stuck them on the computer. Maybe the photographer regularly checks what the driver is doing or simply spotted it as he zoomed in to the front of the train to check for sharpness.