FGW Ollie on tour for charity: 5 - 10 March 2012

[whole diary]

[John R]

Also now starring on the Fact Compiler's excellent Railway Eye blog.

http://railwayeye.blogspot.com/

 

[JayMac]

Yes, well done to my fellow moderator inspector_blakey and well done to the Fact Compiler for publicising.

[inspector_blakey]

*cough*

What on Earth makes you think it was me...?

Oh, I see. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

With my apologies to John R for treading on his toes, so to speak: a link to that specific item on the Fact Compiler's Railway Eye blog is at http://railwayeye.blogspot.com/2012/03/man-travels-entire-fgw-network-by.html 

[JayMac]

I shall hopefully catch up with Ollie tomorrow (Weds 7th March) at Castle Cary, to cheer him along and bash a little with him down to Weymouth and back to Westbury. I'll report back here on his progress and (with Ollie's permission) post a few photos of what will be almost his mid way through the challenge.

No harm in posting the link again to the donation pages. Ollie has reached his initial sponsorship targets, but all further donations will be greatly appreciated by the two charities who are the beneficiaries of this challenge.

http://www.fgwollie.com/tour.php?page=index

Edited to correct date. bignosemac 

[bobm]

We should have a forum uniform - try finding Ollie on a train of 200-300 people.  Still I did spot this rather unfortunate misprint on the carriage labels.  At least it is spelt correct in the list of calling points.....

[inspector_blakey]

It's almost worse that they got it right the second time.

I have another FGW^▸ (First Great Western) window label at home somewhere that spells "Carmarthen" correctly but advertises "Pemrey and Burry Port" as a stop. Bring us back to the old question: who (if anyone) is proof reading this stuff?

[Ollie]

I shall hopefully catch up with Ollie tomorrow (Weds 6th March) at Castle Cary, to cheer him along and bash a little with him down to Weymouth and back to Westbury. I'll report back here on his progress and (with Ollie's permission) post a few photos of what will be almost his mid way through the challenge.

Yep see you tomorrow (7th March)

We should have a forum uniform - try finding Ollie on a train of 200-300 people.  Still I did spot this rather unfortunate misprint on the carriage labels.  At least it is spelt correct in the list of calling points.....

Not sure where you tried, but in the end I didn't join this service until it got to Swansea (originally planned as Swindon)

*cough*

What on Earth makes you think it was me...?

Oh, I see. 

Many thanks for this

[bobm]

We should have a forum uniform - try finding Ollie on a train of 200-300 people.  Still I did spot this rather unfortunate misprint on the carriage labels.  At least it is spelt correct in the list of calling points.....

Not sure where you tried, but in the end I didn't join this service until it got to Swansea (originally planned as Swindon)

Swindon to Newport.

[inspector_blakey]

Many thanks for this

It struck in a moment of inspiration whilst I was failing to sleep last night! At least something useful came out of my insomnia...

[JayMac]

Taking on the mantle of Coffee Shop roving reporter just for today, I joined Ollie for but a small part of his charity challenge.

Thus far, he's on schedule with only minor delays to contend with. I joined Ollie at Castle Cary this morning, after facing my own problems with minor delays; initially it looked like my connection from Taunton was going to miss Ollie's train to Weymouth. Fortunately, his train was also slightly late, so I didn't have to rush like a mad 'un across the footbridge at Castle Cary.

Located Ollie on the Class 150, where, although looking a little tired, he seemed pleased to see me. The gift of a bottle of pop probably helped! No trolley service on the looooong drag to Weymouth.

A quick turn around at Weymouth (that's my shortest ever visit to the seaside!), where I barely had time for two lungfuls of nicotine, and off we headed back to Westbury. The guard was somewhat surprised to see us heading straight back, but Ollie soon explained the purpose of his journey and I added that was tagging along to offer moral support.

I left Ollie at Westbury from where he was heading off to Portsmouth Harbour, before returning later in the day to Bath Spa, thence to Swindon for the 1844 to Salisbury via Melksham, before using SWT^▸ (South West Trains) to make a positioning move to Basingstoke to pick up the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) BSK^▸ (Brake Standard Corridor (carriage))-RDG^‡(resolve) service.

Just heard this minute that Ollie is about to board a Turbo at Basingstoke.....

With Ollie's permission, a few photos of him from this third day of his challenge:





It's not to late to donate. See: http://www.fgwollie.com/tour.php?page=index

[grahame]

Ollie has just reached his final station - he's now at Paddington.   Congratulations!

Over the last five days he has passed through every FGW^▸ (First Great Western) served station - that's no mean task - including those with the sparsest of services



Always cheerful (I don't know how he kept it up) and posted with his permission - Ollie gives a "thumbs up" to Melksham on Wednesday evening.

It's not to late to donate. See: http://www.fgwollie.com/tour.php?page=index

[JayMac]

Challenge complete. Congratulations Ollie!

I hope you haven't been put off trains for life. 

And it would appear that the railway gods were on your side this past week. No major delays necessitating on the hoof replanning or use of the spare day.

Well done that man!

[Ollie]

May I take the opportunity to thank all of those on here who have sponsored me. Both charities are truly worthwhile causes, and I am so grateful for the support that has been given to me.

So thanks again.

I hope Graham doesn't mind me adding that I will be making available 2 pairs of 1st class tickets for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) available to be bid on.

Hope to have more info on this a bit later tonight or maybe tomorrow.

Thanks everyone

[Ollie]

Here is the link for how to bid for a pair of 1st class FGW^▸ (First Great Western) tickets: http://www.fgwollie.com/tour.php?page=tickets