Today should have seen the official unveiling of the latest of GWR▸ 100 Great Westerners. 802 011 had been selected to carry the name of artist Sir Joshua Reynolds.
The plan was it would come off North Pole depot and spend half an hour on platform 8 at Paddington before heading to Penzance as the 12:03. Unfortunately for the assembled dignitaries the unit it was as coupled to failed on the depot and the ceremony had to be cancelled.
I understand various options were considered including sending out the five cars of 802 011 and leaving the other set behind but that was discounted as you really need 10 on the 12:03. That’s more important than a naming ceremony.
In the end the 12:03 was formed of an HST▸ and left around five minutes late.
As for the ceremony it will be reconvened for another day although with the train already carrying the vinyls it will be seen around before then.
Well if nothing else at least the "dignitaries" may now be able to empathise with the paying customers a little more. That's a pretty typical GWR customer experience......except there rarely seems to be an HST lying around to slot in so they were lucky in that respect! (Did that mean another service was cancelled?)
