RMweb Premium newbryford Posted June 10, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 10, 2012 I once got off a train "by accident" early. Three of us had been spotting/gricing in Scotland for the day and decided to get off at Carlisle and then catch the next southbound train to our parked car at Preston. It wasn't particularly late, but it was a Saturday. Much to our dismay, the next southbound wasn't until the next morning. In those days, there used to be a blackboard in one of the office windows detailing trains and we noticed a southbound excursion that was due a crew change. My friend, who was (still is) a signalman, enquired at the office about the train and was told it wasn't due to stop at Preston, but as he was staff, they would arrange a special stop order for Preston for him. Our plan was hatched in that we would seperate and then board the train from two different coaches. Once on board, the two of us "found out" that the train wasn't due to stop at Preston, so we searched out the guard. He inforned us that we were lucky in that there was an unscheduled stop for Preston as they were dropping off a member of staff (my mate) who was already in the guard's compartment. We had to pretend that we didn't know each other all the way to Preston. Approaching Preston, the guard ushered us to the door and warned us that it wouldn't actually stop, just slow down................. we all bailed at about 15mph. Cheers, Mick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted June 11, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 11, 2012 In my student days, travelling back from Bristol early for the weekend, and in a hurry to get back in time to take out girlfriend. I arrived at Victoria to find massive Friday evening queues at the ticket office (it was not long after the SE ticket office had been closed). So went instead to the 1st class booking window (no queue) and bought single to Bromley South where, in my experience, all trains stopped. Made a dash for the train on Platform 1 (right the other side of station) and just got on despite ticket collector at barrier insisting on stopping me to clip ticket. Got into 1st class compartment where there was only one other passenger. He gave me a rather old-fashioned look and was clearly looking forward to the guard coming to check tickets and chuck out the scruffy student who certainly would not have a 1st class ticket. Guard duly arrived as we passed through Penge and also looked pleased at the prospect of nabbing said student. Both surprised to see me get out first class ticket so collector pleased to gain revenge by telling me that train was non-stop to Chatham! Wanted to charge me for fare to Chatham but I pointed out that ticket collector at barrier should have looked at the ticket and not allowed me to board. After waiting at Chatham for train back, I was just as late getting back home as I would have been if I had left Bristol at the usual time! Not overcarried but on the wrong train, a friend got on his train to Sevenoaks (he thought) at Holborn Viaduct. Fell asleep only to wake up at St Helier. Mighty confused as the only St Helier he knew is in Jersey and he could not work out how he could have got there without taking a ferry.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted June 11, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 11, 2012 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! London Midland Region used to run Merrymaker tours to Mystery Destinations. A couple on holiday in Llandudno decided to go on one and ended up in Margate. So they decided to go home for a cup of tea while waiting for the return trip. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltic17 Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 My best one was probably Clifton Carriage Sidings, York for some class 08 shunter haulage in the 1980's. I arrived at York station and boarded a rake of Mk2's for Doncaster. I just made it onboard in time and because of the curves at York couldn't see the engine on the front. After a few seconds we were off! - but in the wrong direction! - it turned out to be ECS heading for the washing plant at the old Clifton sidings. After a few minutes on board the guard was surprised to see me to say the least! - he said stay on board and we'd be back at York inside 15 minutes and indeed we were. All good fun and a bit of track ticked off the list! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Great topic! Still on the mystery tours, I grew up in Kent (Medway Towns), with grandparents in Thanet. Went to study in Leicester, and one weekend picked up a mystery tour, hoping for some exotic haulage and new ground to cover. What should turn up but the Leicester standard fare of an ETH Peak, heading south, changing over to a 33 at Cricklewood, and a nice trundle round London and down the North Kent line to Ramsgate. On the plus side, my co-passenger Duncan got a local tour guide for free. As for shunters, while doing the East Mids Rover, there was a portion working joining at Sheffield heading south, which had an 08 take it back out of the bay and onto the front portion. There was a very strictly enforced "not for public use" where the guard would watch out for gricers boarding and turf them off. I turned up with a newspaper and empty coffee cup, mingled with the passengers getting off, jumped in and quickly spread out my "disguise". To my surprise it worked, with the obvious gricers turfed off, while I was apparently half way through the Times crossword with an empty coffee. Luckily the guard didn't inspect the crossword answers too closely. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southernman46 Posted June 16, 2012 Author Share Posted June 16, 2012 Slightly different but still railway related.......... In 2010, I turned up at Ally Pally on 24th Feb, having mis-read the date for the Festival of Railway Modelling (actually 24/03/10) - I didn't actually discover this until I'd paid to get in....................to the Classic car show that was on - clearly classic car enthusiasts look the same as railway modellers...........God, did I feel a muppet. and Mrs SM didn't have to laugh quite that loudly I'm sure........ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium kevinlms Posted June 16, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 16, 2012 I did a similar thing to Southernman46. I turned up at a preserved railway once on a Tuesday, having read their timetable and expecting trains to be running on Tuesdays & Thursdays. However, I'd managed to get the week wrong, as the week I was there, the trains actually ran on the Wednesdays only mid-week starting that very week. Fortunately, the shop was open, so I managed to get some books etc, so not entirely wasted. I haven't been back, as it is a long way from Australia. Kevin Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bert Cheese Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Malvern Link...I got my Worcester stations mixed up while returning from the SVR one day a long time ago, I was supposed to be heading for Oxford way and realised something was amiss when unfamiliar scenery started appearing and a threat of ending up somewhere near Wales... Gloucester...I wanted to go to Chippenham, but had a hearing bypass at Reading and boarded the Cheltenham Spa Express HST which left me a bit flummoxed when it went the wrong way at Swindon. Kemble and Stroud looked a bit "One horse" for my liking so I bailed out at Gloucester and got the next HST back to Swindon. All good fun at the time, and being a Priv holder it didn't matter if I got lost really......most summer weekends were spent out and about looking for the declining numbers of Class 50's. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMJ Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 When we were at school a friend's father worked for BR at York and so family members had discounted travel.. He mentioned one day that his mum had caught the local train from Leeds and got off as usual at the first stop. She thought this doesn't look right as there is a tunnel at the end of the platform! She had got off at Morley (Leeds - Huddersfield) rather than getting off at Woodlesford (Leeds Sheffield etc). When I was a student studying in Sheffield I had a combination of tickets allowing me to travel in West & South Yorkshire. One day I got on a train in the north bay and thought oops when it started to head round the curve into Darnall rather than heading towards Attercliffe. But I often used to go for alternative ways home. One day I went to Donny and caught the ex London train. They were doing ticket checks and the guard was training a new member of staff. He looked and said these cover the journey. Both he and I knew full well that I should only have been on a stopper rather than the schnell zug and didn't want the hassle of trying to book someone for not nescessarily having valid tickets! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold daveyb Posted June 17, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 17, 2012 I ended up in Bedford carriage sidings having slept through St.Albans (and having had a skin-full in London). After a long walk and longer wait an irate girlfriend turned up - I ended up marrying her (but not just 'cos she picked me up from Bedford) though she is no longer married to me (but her new husband is a nice chap and he wouldn't dream of being that irresponsible). Stations are draughty places. At a similar time period in my life, we were doing some rugby watching in a town centre pub in St.Albans and one of the group had not turned up. Upon getting in touch with him it transpired he'd missed the last train from KX/St.P the previous night and had stayed in a hotel in the city (this was long after the newspaper/mail/milk trains had ceased). After a wait of about 40mins he still hadn't arrived and further phone calls revealed he had pulled my trick and slept past St.Albans and gone to Bedford. We all laughed and suggested a wedding etc and no-one really minded because his girlfriend (a genuine Pg 3 model - Mel,21 from Watford) had joined us and was joining in the mirth. Quite sometime later, he still hadn't arrived... Next call reveals he has fallen asleep twice - missed St.Albans (fast train) and also ALL of London and is now awaiting a train back north from Haywards Heath. We carried on our motions and were pleased when he finally arrived in a taxi from the station (about 5 hours late) in cab marked Harpenden Cars. You've guessed it, he missed St.Albans again! I used to wake people up at stations on late trains, but stopped after one chap took offence and got violent. The tussle that ensued was not particularly serious and I didn't fair as badly as him falling down the stairs at Didcot - but it was actually his stop and had I not bothered he'd have been in Oxford. You can't help some folk... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dseagull Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 About 10 years ago, a 17 year old me went off to a forum meetup (Sports Interactive/Football Manager forums) in London. We spent most of the day in the pub, then, after we'd had a 'disagreement' in a very dodgy back street pub with a lunatic who had decided that it was OK to wrap himself in a Nazi flag to watch the England game (Denmark, WC2002 IIRC), decamped to one blokes flat in Islington, via the offfie. We got back there, he took himself off to bed leaving 15 blokes he'd never met before in his front room Anyway, for some reason, I bought a bottle of Southern Comfort in the Offfie. With a growing realisation that I needed to get back to Victoria for the 22.47, and running out of time, I proceeded to drink the bottle of Southern, neat as none of us had bothered to pick up mixers in about 45 minutes. Now I remember getting to Victoria station. The next thing I remember was getting woken up by a guard. I got off the train (in some sidings), and wandered around for a bit - wondering why I couldn't find a night bus or the 24 hour 'Easyeverything' Internet Cafe that was opposite the station at the time. It was only when I walked past a Royal Mail sign that I realised I was, in fact, in Hastings.... Slept outside the station, first train back to Polegate on Sunday morning. Ugh! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 5944 Posted June 18, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 18, 2012 Seated portion of the Highland sleeper. If you're going to Fort William, you have to change coaches at Edinburgh. Not easy at 5am after a couple of beers. I woke up, looked out the window, and thought "hmmm, I don't remember the Tay being on the way to Fort William...."! I bailed at Dundee and caught the first train back to Glasgow. I was only 6 hours late getting to Fort William. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanuts Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 when i was a porter at piccadilly had rather posh woman approach me and ask where the " Sheffield train " was consulted the boards " platform 13 five minuits " and off she went . three hours later am called to the station managers office and asked to explain why i told the woman that the "Romiley " train was on 13 " i didnt i told her where the Sheffield train was " was my answer" which is what she asked for " i added there then followed ten mins of denials and calls for me to be sacked from the woman before a collegue who had heard our original conversation backed me up ! to clever by half some people she had got on the Cleethorpes which went via Stockport and the hope valley not through Romiley Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coldgunner Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Had a little adventure to Brough, nothing special though, just hopped off the train I got and onto the following one. Quite uneventful really. I do like the short trip along the humber from Hull to sunny Doncaster. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thos Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 On my way home from Manchester Victoria, my train was always the first one of two on a platform. One day it was a bit snowy and the train I boarded turned out to be the previous one running late. It was going to, I think, Preston. I was reading my book and only noticed when we should have been arriving in Bolton. When we first arrived in Belgium my wife took a trip into Brussels. This involved a bus to Leuven and a train to Brussels. 'Leuven' is Flemish - in French it is 'Louvain' and is a very old university city and had been teaching in French for generations. Over time it split into French and Flemish sections.. In one of the previous linguistic disputes the French section was moved to a new campus university in Wallonie called 'Louvain-la-Neuve'. On the way home, she was looking for 'Leuven' or 'Louvain' and so caught the train to 'Louvain-la-Neuve' Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 In the 'should've known better' category I got on a train at Waterloo East back in the 90s intending to change at London Bridge, then found out it was first stop Tonbridge.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 I was once on what I was sure was a West Ruislip train on the Central line. Soon after leaving N. Acton I realised we were going down the Ealing Broadway branch and kicked myself for both misreading the indicator board at St. Paul's and not listening attentively enough to the driver's announcement at N. Acton. Then the driver came on the PA to say how surprised he was to be heading for Ealing as it really was a Ruislip train. The Central Line can throw tantrums (though it's better than it used to be) but I've never met that one before. One that was my own fault was on my first France Vacance trip- a week in February because I had leave to use or lose so I took trains heading south till it stopped being cold . I was heading for Nice from I think Bayonne and had to change trains at Avignon. I somehow managed to get on a train going North instead of South and ended up in Grenoble. In those days the SNCF branch to Digne was still working so I got to Nice a day later than planned via a lovely run through the mountains on the metre gauge CF de Provence finishing in the then magnificent (now apart from its facade mostly demolished) Nice-Sud station so a mistake that turned out well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted July 29, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 29, 2012 I was once on what I was sure was a West Ruislip train on the Central line. Soon after leaving N. Acton I realised we were going down the Ealing Broadway branch and kicked myself for both misreading the indicator board at St. Paul's and not listening attentively enough to the driver's announcement at N. Acton. Then the driver came on the PA to say how surprised he was to be heading for Ealing as it really was a Ruislip train. The Central Line can throw tantrums (though it's better than it used to be) but I've never met that one before. That famously happened to 'District Dave', and he was the driver! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike morley Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I and most of my friends used to live in Feltham, but the pub we frequented was The Swan, on the Surrey side of Staines bridge. One evening we took considerable liberties with "drinking-up time" and, slightly worse for wear, weaved our way back to Staines station, arriving just in time to see the tail lamps of the last train home disappearing into the night. We had just finished establishing that even if we pooled our remaining resources we still didnt have enough for a cab home when a 33 hauling a ballast train train trundled through at about walking pace. We exchanged glances and without hesitation leaped aboard. Needless to say, the train was doing 40 by the time it got to Feltham and didnt slow down enough for us to get off until we reached Kew, by which time we were further from home than we'd been when we jumped aboard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Market Harborough Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark alden Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 I did an F&W Scottish railtour once and the train split, one portion went to Fort William, my portion went to Inverness and Northwards. I woke up expecting to be in the front on the Inverness portion expecting to hear da-dum-da-dum, the rear wheels of the loco (booked 2 x 26) and the front wheels of our coach on the track joints. I actually woke to diddly-dum.... diddly-dum and silence.... I was at the rear of the Fort William portion and had to suffer a coach via Loch Ness to get to Inverness bugga..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
seahorse Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 On a recent journey from Derby to Sheffield, there was an apology for a delay to the journey. We were routed via Darnall instead of Dore - apology indeed - we were very pleased, and wondered how much would we have had to pay to persuade them to go that way! I wonder that people do not get the wrong portion every day at Shrewsbury - the Aberystwyth and Pwllheli train arrives and the annoncement clearly states that the front two coaches are for Aberystwyth. Train then departs back the way it has come. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike morley Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 I wonder that people do not get the wrong portion every day at Shrewsbury - the Aberystwyth and Pwllheli train arrives and the annoncement clearly states that the front two coaches are for Aberystwyth. Train then departs back the way it has come. I travelled this route a few times a couple of years ago and in those days (and possibly still now) further confusion was caused if you tried to either check train times or book tickets via the National Rail website because it claimed a change of train was required. If that wasnt bad enough, the site could not make up its mind whether the unnecessary change of train should be made at Mach or Dyfi Junction! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike morley Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 (and possibly still now) I've just re-checked the National Rail website and found it still thinks you need to change trains, but it does at least appear to have made up its mind that the change of train you do not need to make does not need to be made at Machynlleth Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Q Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 Not quite the Same but! While in the RAF I applied (from Benbecula), for Neatishead, or Norfolk or East Anglia, as my next posting so they sent me to Northumberland and the guy I worked with who wanted Northumberland, to Neatishead and they wouldn't let us swap!? I now live down where I wanted after twenty years, but managed to pick up SWMBO while up north... The Q Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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