Galvanize
Member
That reminds me...back in the Summer of 2004, heading to Mid Wales to visit my Auntie and the cousins. 3 of us, me, Mum and my brother booked on the 10:45 I think it was from London Euston, worked by 390044 “Virgin Lionheart.”, think we were booked to take it to Wolverhampton then change there for an Arriva Trains Wales service towards the Cambrian Coast.So Pendolino for Pendolino at Tring. Not an everyday move.
So we left Euston, quite a busy train I seem to recall, but we got our booked seats in Coach C around a table. Nothing untoward until we started slowing down just after Berkhamstead...and we stopped in the platform at Tring. Sat there for about 5 minutes, could hear the various Beeps and Buzzers going off, Driver and TM communicating with eachother. Eventually the TM announced there was a technical fault onboard the train, which the Driver was trying to attend to, and warned the lights May momentarily go out as he was gonna do a Reboot to cure the fault. Sure enough that happened. Eventually got moving again!
But a few minutes later...the brakes came on hard, as we approached Leighton Buzzard. And we stopped in a heap. Another 5 minutes passed, TM announced that the Fault had returned, and that the Driver was going to attempt another Reboot. Sure enough the lights went out again. Nope...no joy! So we sat there for what seemed like ages. TM announced that there was a possibility of summoning a “Thunderbird” to tow the train to somewhere like Bletchley or Milton Keynes Central where the train would terminate, but there’d be a bit of a wait, anyone who needed tickets endorsed or whatever, please come to the office in Coach C. Other trains began to overtake us on the slow lines, some of them being VT services that had become stuck behind us. Believe the driver tried rebooting a third time, but it wasn’t having it! TM announced that if anyone wanted any refreshments from the shop during the wait, people could have them free of charge. As I was sat nearby...I was near the front of the queue, so managed to get a few things!
A little while later, the TM announced that the plan had changed again, while a Thunderbird was on the way...it would still take a little while to get to the train, so another VT service heading towards Birmingham would be stopped additionally at Leighton Buzzard on the slow lines to pick us all up. This duly happened, a mk3 set hauled by an 87 (sorry, can’t remember which one!) soon arrived to pick us all up, and we alighted from the Demic Pendo at Leighton on the Down Fast, crossing to the mk3 set on the Down Slow, and it was a case of take any available seat. I believe we were now almost 2 hours late, so our connection in Birmingham/Wolverhampton was long gone, however the TM of the mk3 set announced that anyone going towards the Cambrian Coast, tickets would be valid on the following service, but reservations wouldn’t be guaranteed!