Where've you been by accident ?

[Rivercider]

Several from me over the last 35 years.

 

Went to Potters Bar (first stop), in the 1970s, foolishly thinking all 2 car DMUs from Kings Cross must stop at Finsbury Park.

 

Got in the wrong 2 car set at Norwich (there were 2 trains in the same platform, and headed for Lowestoft instead of Ely, got off at Brundall.

 

Coming home off night shift in the TOPS office only once ever overslept and went one stop past home to Highbridge.

 

Once after skittles (and plenty of beer) ended up at Exeter St Davids and was woken up as the set was ready to go ECS to the sidings,

I got the up sleeper to Taunton were the Chargeman recognised me from working in Bristol, and let me kip in the staff room until the first train to W-s-M.

 

cheers

[DavidR]

Back in the early 80's, had to travel from Lincoln Central to Gainsborough (GN/GE joint line to Doncster). Train standing in platform said 'Barnsley' (although there was no through service from Lincoln). Asked Railperson if this was correct train, got an affirmative reply. When it turned left and headed for Newark, I knew I was in trouble. Conductor said "wrong train", I replied "wrong destination on front". He checked and came back with red face. Luckily I was able to get out at first station (North Hykeham) and with three others got taxi back to Lincoln.

Apologies all round on return to Lincoln and Supervisor put all four of us in a taxi to Gainsborough and refunded taxi fare from NH.

[bike2steam]

Me and a mate were going down to Basingstoke (from Waterloo) to pay the loco shed a visit, on a Bournemouth train timetabled to call at Basingstoke - but it didn't - sailed on to Winchester where we offloaded along with a couple dozen other irate passengers ,and went back to B. Incidentally the loco that day was 35007 Aberdeen Commonwealth.

[Fay Singpoint]

I managed an (unintentional) trip round the Kennington Loop during a day out with my mother many years ago to see Billy Smarts circus at Clapham Common.

[D6975]

Many years ago, waiting to go across the pennines from Leeds, I asked a member of station staff if this was the Liverpool train.

Affirmative reply.

I got on.

As we passed Holbeck I realised that it was heading towards Sheffield (first stop).

Turned out to be a Poole train, the bloke on the platform had obviously misheard me.

 

Not as bad as the American couple asking at Swansea where the connection for Llandudno went from, having arrived from Padd.

Puzzled looks from the staff, who asked to see their tickets.

When buying their tickets at Padd, they'd asked for tickets to Llandudno, Wales.

They'd been told which platform to go to and to change at Swansea.

I'm sure you can guess what it actually said on their tickets!

 

On an excursion approaching New St, signal check at 5 Ways (as per). Commuters get on thinking it was a normal cross country service and they'd get to New St a couple of mins early.

We stopped at Saltley for a crew change, so they were lucky that they found the guard in time to pass a message to driver and we let them off at Tamworth.

The next stop in a station was in Yorkshire.

[kevinlms]

Not me, but a colleague at trade school in Oz told me he had a habit of falling asleep on the way home and was often woken by the guard at the end & had to catch another train back - about 3 stops on a suburban service.

 

One night was particularly bad, he did the usual end of line trick and caught train back, missing his stop again, by 3 or 4 stops. Crossing back to the Down line, he caught the next train, intending to change at the junction, but fell asleep again and went down the wrong branch. Realising his mistake when he woke up, he transferred to the Up platform and this time managed to get off at the junction. Transferring again to the correct Down train, this time he managed to stay awake long enough to get off at the correct station, so 5 trains, when he was on the correct one to start with.

 

So delayed about 2 hours, with his wife waiting at the station to pick him up. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall that night!!!

 

 

Kevin Martin

[Bellcrank]

Back in the early 1970's,(or was it late 60's) a friend and I booked tickets for the "Witney Wanderer" an excursion that gave an opportunity to travel along several local branch lines around Oxford before they were finally closed and disappeared.

 

Afterwards I read in the local paper that a hapless commuter had unwittingly boarded the train at Oxford planning to travel the few miles south to Radley.

He got to Radley ok but went hrough it, up the branch to Abingdon, with a stop to look round the closed station. Then back through Radley almost into Oxford only to stop, go back the other way and take a run up the Thame branch to Morris Cowley, again with a look round at the end of the journey. Then finally back through Oxford (with no opportunity to disembark) up the Branch to Witney, and yes he would have been able to look around the yard there also. I can't quite remember how long the journey lasted but finaly he would have been bought back to Oxford probably in a very confused state.

 

To myself like all the other enthusiasts on board it would have all seemed very normal, interesting, exciting. I can't help but wonder what he must have thought as the hoards all poured out onto the tracks of the deserted stations.

 

Tim

['CHARD]

On an excursion approaching New St, signal check at 5 Ways (as per). Commuters get on thinking it was a normal cross country service and they'd get to New St a couple of mins early.

We stopped at Saltley for a crew change, so they were lucky that they found the guard in time to pass a message to driver and we let them off at Tamworth.

The next stop in a station was in Yorkshire.

 

Hehehehe.

 

I once bunked a Class 1 checked at Five Ways one Summer Sunday afternoon, comprising Mk2 PVs, thus no door locking. This would've been '84, and spotted by the irate guard who didn't quite manage to locate me before I detrained at New St. Hell, the Sunday bog-cart service was sparse in those days!

 

Much more recently, boarded a northbound service at the Cross to meet a rail journo pal at Peterboro, without checking what the first stop was. Hello from York, after an apologetic phone call to reschedule.

 

And in 2009, surely one of the most spectacular overcarries of my railway 'career' was on the Caley Sleeper, asking to be put off at Watford (request stop by prior arrangement - straight through), or Crewe (for a Holyhead back to Brum). First awoke at Slateford, a few minutes outside of Haymarket and Edinburgh. The date I awoke - Friday 13th, and I'd booked a day's leave through superstition, which was then spent blagging my way back to the starting square.

[OldSutt]

This not about falling asleep, but catching the train at the wrong station.

Many years ago I took the fast train from Ghent to Brussels to go to the Expo 58 park (that's where you will still find the Atomium), about a half an hour.

After an exhausting day at the exibition, I walked back to the station(all stations look the same when you are tired) and caught a semi-direct train back to Ghent. The ticket collector expressed suprise at me going to Ghent.

So did I when after 3 hours we arrived at Ghent having travelled all over Belgium, so it seemed.

[Western Scottish]

Port Glasgow! All trains on the Inverclyde runs stop at Bishopton ,my station........................except for some curious reason the 17.25 from Glasgow Central. Guess which one I got on! Got up as train approached station , thought it strange it wasn't slowing down . Caught the sniggers of the other folk in the carriage as we shot through the station and I , like a real tulip, am the only one standing at the door! Port Glasgow here I come.

[The Stationmaster]

And in 2009, surely one of the most spectacular overcarries of my railway 'career' was on the Caley Sleeper, asking to be put off at Watford (request stop by prior arrangement - straight through), or Crewe (for a Holyhead back to Brum). First awoke at Slateford, a few minutes outside of Haymarket and Edinburgh. The date I awoke - Friday 13th, and I'd booked a day's leave through superstition, which was then spent blagging my way back to the starting square.

Not quite in this vain but I have done exactly the opposite - and got off a train at a station where it didn't (normally) stop. We had a track circuit failure at my local station and all trains were being stopped at the protecting signal and talked by. So I tipped off the Guard when getting on that we'd be stopping at so & so and I'd be getting off - and got a bemused look. I got an even more bemused look when we actually stopped there and I got off, closed the door and gave him a handsignal that all was well with the door. Quickest journey home from work that I ever had but alas the track circuit failure was sorted that night and it was back to normal commuting times the following day.

['CHARD]

From the Old Dalby site, a tale of mistaking something far more deadly for an unfamiliar platform:

 

"The view looking south towards the station on 31^st December 1968 showing the higher bridge parapet on the Up side. This was raised after a wartime fatal accident when an unsuspecting soldier disembarked from a train in the darkness onto the bridge from where he fell to his death on the roadway below."

 

http://www.old-dalby.com/images/Old-Dalby4%2031-12-68.jpg

[highpeakman]

In our business we used to have many visitors from the US which we used to take around various parts of the UK to meet customers. Many of these guys were well travelled and wordly wise and could cope with making their own arrangements but some needed watching all of the time. On one occasion we had a gentleman who insisted on staying in central London although it made many of our meeting arrangements very difficult. To accomodate this it was arranged that he would catch a train from Stevenage to Kings X, stay overnight and catch a train out again in the morning to meet up with me. He was taken to Stevenage and I escorted him to the train for Kings X and had told him clearly where to get off (It's easy, it's the end of the line!) and even wrote it down to make sure. I rang him 5 hours later to check and he had only just got to his hotel! When I asked why the journey had taken so long (thinking there had been a signal failure or something) he admitted that he had fallen asleep on the way to Kings X and had only finally woken up when the train had returned to Peterborough on it's next journey out! He stayed on the same train and then went back to Kings X again! Luckily he stayed awake this time! We were a little surprised that he finally made it back to Stevenage the next morning although not on the train he was supposed to be on (the result of confusion over Kings Cross Tube station and Kings X Main).

 

We frequently made use of trains to despatch our visitors from one part of the Uk to another, always being escorted to and from the stations and trains but it was always a lottery when waiting to see if they actually turned up.

[John M Upton]

Back in the 1960's a friend of my Grandmother's was trying to get to Crawley from London Bridge and somehow managed to travel around the Crystal Palace Loop Line back to London Bridge not once but twice!

 

Removing little old ladies and lost Chinese tourists bound for Eastbourne at Hove or Portslade is a fairly frequent occurence for me during the Summer months as inevitably they are sitting on the Littlehampton portion...

[PhilJ W]

Back in the 60's many bus and coach companies in resort towns used to run 'Mystery tours'. One elderly couple from Cambridge visiting Great Yarmouth decided that as the weather forecast was not to good they would take a mystery tour by coach. The 'mystery tour' was to Cambridge!

[JeffP]

On a day trip by car to Nice, I'd already done the works and shed of the Chemins de fer de la Provence at Lingostiere, to the NW of Nice, plus the small shed at their station in Nice, and was spending time on Nice SNCF station.

 

However, I knew of sidings with locos at Cannes La Boca, so boarded a train for Cannes.

No sidings in view, so stayed on the train, only to find it pulling INTO said sidings, and berthing.

 

After two VERY hot hours in the train, I managed to get one set of doors opened. Undeterred, I toured the sidings, taking photos, then walked along the road that parallels the Med back to the station, where I bought a litre of ice cold water and downed it almost in one, and caught a train back to Nice.

 

Scary and hot, but I laughed at it later.

[RANGERS]

Not a rail one but in my days in coach operations I was travelling passenger on the front seat of a National Express service from Cambridge to Kings Lynn. The coach had started it's journey in London and arriving at St Ives, near Huntingdon, the driver stepped off to unload luggage followed by half a dozen bronzed Aussies, the first of which said to me "which way to the beach then?".

 

He was a bit miffed to learn it was about 50 miles to the nearest one, even less amused to be told it was about 300 from the one they were looking for!

 

'Seems the booking clerk at Victoria had just issued a ticket to the first St Ives which came up on the booking system and directed them to the appropriate bay. The ticket was correct, the destination was correct, so nobody questioned it.

[big jim]

I once had an anebriated passenger get on the last train from crewe going to chester on christmas eve eve, he forgot to get off at 22.45 and the next stop was rhyl at about 23.30 where he said he would get off and wait for the next train, when i checked the timetable i realised i was the next train back at 02.30, i told him he may as well stay on the train to holyhead save sitting on a cold rhyl station for 3 hours.

 

As we were about to depart holyhead at 01.50 the unit had a door problem (well it was a 175!) so we ended up departing at about 02.50 getting back into chester at 04.15

 

On the same train was a guy who got on at holyhead going to bangor (i didnt charge him as we were so late) however who upon checking the train on arrival at brum there was a guy fast asleep under a coat, i woke him to tell him we had arrived, guess who it was, yep, bangor guy, he looked up and said "oh well wake me up when we get to bangor" i got off at chester and told the relieving guard what the score was

 

Last year going to manchester airport we should have got an ATW from crewe to wilmslow then changed for a northern service to the airport (originating from alderley edge) however getting to crewe a bit early i saw a northern train manchester bound so we jumped on that, a bit more time at wilmslow to change trains, as we aproached sandbach we slowed down way before the station, at that point it suddenly dawned on me that we were going into the back platform....

 

"oh no"

 

"whats up" said my wife

 

"the arriva train we should have been on is going to pass us here, and i bet the alderley edge train will leave before we get there"

 

Checked the timetable and sure enough the arriva went past and as i suspected the airport train left alderley edge before we got there

 

Ended up having to get off at wilmslow and get a taxi to the airport in time for check in, to top it off a load of roads were closed and it ended up costing us about £20!

 

Cant believe that despite my route knowledge and signing the route i forgot that passenger trains could use the back platform at sandbach

[DY444]

Ended up in Bournemouth Middle Sidings one sunny Sunday morning in 1983 after jumping on a REP+TC sitting in P2 and thinking it was a Waterloo train. The driver thought it was hilarious when he came through to change ends.

[wadave]

I read this some years back and can't vouch for the accuracy of the tale but the gent concerned had been celebrating at his office party in London on Christmas Eve and caught a late train from Waterloo to wake up in a railway siding in daylight. Knowing he would be in strife he eventually walked in with a cheery, "Merry Christmas" to be greeted with, "You're a bit late for that, it was yesterday!!"

[Tankerman]

My unexpected trip was due to a case of not knowing right from left, or rather assuming that the member of station staff I asked at Birmingham New Street meant my left and not his. I was travelling from Newcastle to Truro at the end of a course at South Shields Marine Tech, and had to change at New Street. When I asked, on the platform, which of the of the two trains I needed I was told "The one on the left" so I got in the one on my left and found myself leaving in the wrong direction. Fortunately it stopped at Tamworth so I didn't go too far back the way I had come.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Stoke, when the WCML was being unreliable in the 1980s. Has normal Western civilisation been established there yet?

 

Still, the airlines have done worse to me with diversions.

 

Shannon Airport. I actually made it back to home in the UK two days earlier than those who elected to stay with the offered onward flight

Gander. Makes Stoke look like the greatest metropolis on Earth.

Somewhere in the Sudan. Mars would have been preferable.

 

And my own entirely personal diversion, exclusively for me the plane put down in Cologne. Every been snatched off a plane by four heavies? I was stripped naked in a manner worthy of an Albert Camus novel. All part of the hunt for members of the Baader-Meinhof gang, to one of whom I apparently bear a most striking resemblance; but happily for my liberty, I lack some distinguishing feature presumably normally concealed by one's keks. The colleague I was travelling with still has hysterical laughter over the event on the occasions we see each other. He only got the intensive questioning...

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

The best one I heard of was a young lad who, upon his 18th birthday, decided to go to London from Reading to celebrate. He got on the last train to come home and fell asleep. He wasn't heard of for a day and when he re emerged, it turned out that he had an unintentional stop over in Cardiff! He arrived there to be woken from his slumber to be told that he was in sunny Wales and that he had to go home. He had lost his wallet, had no money what so ever and was now being asked to leave the train. He eventually ended up at a Police Station and having been allowed to call home, spent a night in the cells (door unlocked of course!) until arrangements for him to go home were made. The parents were less than impressed...

 

There is also always the semi urban legend type story from Kent in the 1980s about the American couple that turned up at Chartham, on the last train and asked where the hotel near the navy base was! A conflict between the accent and the word Chatham was suspected...

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[Peter Bedding]

My particular journey started on Saturday 29th December 1962, from St Peter Port, Channel Isles to West Wight.

 

Plan A (booked well in advance) was to fly from Guernsey Airport to Southampton, then mainline train to Brockenhurst, make an easy connection to the Lymington Branch, then the ferry and home soon after lunch.

 

Unfortunately (and not immediately obvious on Guernsey) the weather changed and heavy snow started on or around the 26th/27th December.

 

So, setting off at sparrow's on the 29th, memsahib and I were soon advised that there would be no flights that day. "Present yourselves at the ferry terminal with your air ticket, this will be changed for ferry and rail tickets, and travel by sea". So we had a Plan B.

 

The weather was foul, north wind force 10. The ferry corkscrewed itself upwards, downwards, and sideways to Weymouth, where we arrived mid afternoon. The London train was on Weymouth Quay, and a sign which clearly stated "Change at Brockenhurst for Lymington and Yarmouth IW."

 

Memsahib and I thankfully boarded the train, which went off high speed into the dusk and snow storm. And high speed through Brockenhurst to Southampton, arriving late afternoon. I found an Enquiry Office, no more ferries that night from Lymington, but one more from Portsmouth to Ryde later that evening. So we had a Plan C.

 

With near-empty pockets and no valid tickets, memsahib and I blagged our way from Southampton to Newport via Portsmouth and Ryde. And it was getting late, and there was no let up in the snowstorm. We got to Newport before closing time and persuaded the Bugle Hotel to let us have a night's B&B. Plans A and B were history, but so far, Plan C was still working. We could catch our bus in the morning. Even on Sundays, Southern Vectis ran a service from St James' Square to Freshwater.

 

So at sparrow's on Sunday 30th December, we booked out of the Bugle Hotel, to be advised that there were no buses that day. So what, we thought. It's only 12 miles, we can walk and there's bound to be a lift on the way. Plan C was binned; Plan D had started.

 

We left our suitcases with the hotel (well, a glorified pub really) and set off. Sure enough, we did get a lift before we had got too far. A farm tractor and trailer had got through the snow drifts to deliver milk, and it was on its way home to Calbourne. We were offered a ride on the trailer, hanging onto the front rail. At Calbourne the tractor turned off and it was shanks' pony from then on.

 

Before we left the Bugle, we had phoned through to relatives at our destination, to let them know the latest change in itinerary. By mid day the friends wondered where we were, and set off to meet us, with flasks of hot soup and food. And so we met along the road between Calbourne and Freshwater, and had a late lunch, al fresco.

 

We were the only people on that road that day. Cars had been abandoned, covered by snow, and drifts covered the hedges. Sometimes it was easier to walk in the fields than on the road. When we finally got home, well after dark, it was some 30 hours later than planned. And we had had a free polar trek.

 

The snow largely stopped that day, but it was not until March when it finally thawed along the South Coast. The sea in sheltered creeks of the Solent froze, as did half the water mains. Extreme weather is not just a modern phenomenon due to "climate change".

 

So, yes. I remember Brockenhurst. I missed an easy connection there once.

 

PB

[Tom J]

When I worked on the platform at Newton Abbot we had one XC which was right away Taunton. We used to try and send one another away on that for a laugh, without success - until one morning we were overwhelmed with pensioners going home needing assistance, and both of us got carried away on it, leaving the platforms unmanned! Control never let us live that one down after the pager message they had to send out advising crews as to why they needed to self-despatch!