Having reached this far in the story, you will have read my three grandson's account of our day out to Bristol on a train hauled by ex GWR Castle Class locomotive 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. This is my side of the story.
I have been a steam locomotive enthusiast since a young boy, as the boys have mentioned, I am also a model railway nut. To keep up to date with what's going on in the steam railway and model railway world, I subscribe to a couple of monthly magazines. It was in Steam Railway, one of those monthly magazines, I saw an advert for this trip to Bristol. The trip 'The Bristolian' run by Vintage Train of Tyseley, Birmingham, is a recreation of a regular train run in the days of British Railways. I thought it just the opportunity for a day out with my three grandsons. They were already familiar with my model railway layout and had run trains on it with some enthusiasm (including a couple of engines flying off the layout, when run at great speed). I knew I would enjoy the trip and I believe they would also, so I booked a table for four in the Pullman dinning car.
When we arrived at Solihull railway station for our outward journey, I caught the expression of some of our fellow passengers, when they saw three boys, each eleven, twelve and thirteen, would be on the train. The reputation built by the press etc., of today's youth preceded them. When they sat in the Pullman car, I thought I heard a groan.
Of course there was no need for them to be concerned, because the boys are well used to eating out, and their parents have ensured that please and thank you are to the fore. During breakfast they charmed one waitresses in particular, to the extent that extra's were no problem. Matthew struck up a friendship of one of them and promised her some chocolate, when we returned to the train in Bristol. You will have read he did keep that promise.
When the train left Solihull for Bristol, the boys immediately noticed the differences in the movement, noises and aromas of steam travel and settled down to enjoy the ride. Unfortunately, that all came to an end, when we reached our scheduled water replenishment stop at Oxford. Whilst we were at a standstill for the next hour or so, they brought out drawing paper etc., proceeding to produce cartoons relating to our predicament. Nathan produced a cartoon of a railwayman, showing great anger with a radius rod (the cause of our engines fault). I thought it so apt, that I showed it to one of the principals of Vintage Trains, who chuckled with amusement.
When it was announced that Vintage trains had arranged for us to move to Didcot for repairs, and that passengers could visit the Railway Centre free of charge, their enthusiasm returned. We left the train at Didcot station and walked the couple of hundred yards to the Centre, where we were greeted warmly by the staff. The boys were aware I wanted to photograph a particular engine in the shed, so off we went to find it. While I took photographs, they climbed on and off the steam locos that were open for this purpose. We then walked right across the site, to look at some of the Victorian railway machinery, such as a traverser, used to move carriages between tracks in the carriage shed. The turntable, used to turn locomotives to face the right direction when they hook up to their train carriages. I was amazed a the interest they exhibited.
Eventually, the time arrived to return to our train. On the way back to the station, we passed our steam loco, sitting over the inspection pit, waiting for the new radius rod. This was to arrive with D1755 a Type 48 diesel running down from Tyseley to take our train forward to Bristol.
The diesel arrived, passed on the radius rod to the engineers and off we went to Bristol. As we pulled out of Didcot, the boys said how much they had enjoyed the unexpected visit to the Steam Centre and how they were looking forward to getting to Bristol. Vintage Trains also announced that they had arranged with Network Rail for an unscheduled stop at Bath, which would give people leaving the train there extra time for sightseeing. We decided Bristol was the place for us.
You will have already read the details of our couple of hours spent in Bristol. So I will move on to Mattie and the chocolate for the waitress. She just did not believe he had actually remembered and bought the chocolate he gave her. A short time after we left Bristol, one of her colleagues came along to Mattie and thanked him, it transpired the chocolate had be shared among the table staff.
Having picked up our passengers at Bath, dinner was served, during which an announcement was made to the effect that we would be picking up the steam locomotive. It would be hooked up to pull the train including the diesel, back to Solihull. To achieve this we would be going into a siding outside Oxford. This would allow the free passage of service trains while we waited for a path into Didcot. After the waiting of an hour in the siding, a change of plan was announced to the effect, that due to pathing difficulties we would leaving the siding shortly and return direct to Solihull.
Now with the volume of delays and disappointments experienced during the day, you would have though the youngsters would have had enough. However, their response was, granddad it does not matter, had we been at home, we would probably been playing computer games or watching the TV and its been really comfortable here on the train. But unfortunately, there was more waiting to come, we waited over an hour at Banbury, again due to pathing problems.
Having eventually dropping passengers at Dorridge we were on our way to Solihull. Just short of Solihull, Matthew's waitress friend came along to speak with me. She said, that having been involved on these kind of trips for ten years or so, she had never met such polite and well behaved children and what a pleasure it had been to have them onboard. To reinforce the point, she was followed by one of her colleagues to make the same point. As we pulled into Solihull station, several passengers, all from our carriage, came to congratulated the boys on their behaviour and manners. What a tonic, both for them and me.
What a day it was.
Thank you grandsons!
Postscript. Despite the difficulties of the day, Vintage Trains kept us well informed about arrangements to overcome our problems. They could easily have curtailed the trip at Oxford. Instead, they negotiated with Network Rail to get the diesel down from Birmingham, arrange the stop at Bath and a later return time from Bristol. All of which meant extra cost too the company. In addition, they announced that they would be giving free vouchers to each passenger for the Shakespeare Express, a steam excursion from Birmingham to Stratford on Avon. Those vouchers arrived within two weeks. Their record for steam trips is that, this is only second trip out of 400 to experience these types of problem. I look forward to travelling with them again.