10th November - Thames Day Ranger

Been a while since I had done my one and only Thames Day Ranger. So I decided to do another and get the Marlow branch scratched off.

I left Plymouth on the 0748 train to Reading. For some reason we were held at Castle Cary for 8 minutes which led to the train getting later and later. I arrived at Reading with 1 minute spare for a connection to Maidenhead, which I missed. Not critical as i was able to catch another train and still make connection to Marlow.

I found the correct platform and got on the train. However it went nowhere and we got moved to another train due to a fault. Now I was going to miss my connection to Marlow by 3 minutes. However my luck was in. They held the train at Maidenhead.

So I headed off to Marlow to scratch off that bit of track. By the time I returned to Maidenhead (all on schedule) I was getting hungry. Curry for lunch in Wetherspoons was just the ticket. A quick walk to "The Bear" for lunch and then "The Greyhound" for another pint before 1332 to Paddington. Now the hunt for my last 3 FGW HST power cars was on.

I looked round at Paddington to see if any of my required power cars were present. There wasn't much in at this time an waited to see what would arrive. To kill time I saw a required Turbo so caught that to Ealing Broadway. My return to Paddington was also a winning Turbo. Another look round gave nothing of any reward. So it was onto a Bedwyn service a it was a winner. First stop Reading. At reading I got on the next train back to Paddington. It was an hst that stopped at Slough. Having seen a Turbo leave Reading a few minutes earlier that was required I noticed that I would overtake it and could catch it from Slough. I did this and noticed a winning power car! It was heading the wrong way and a quick look at its next couple of diagrams meant this one would have to wait another day!

Back at Paddington again there were no power cars. So I hopped onto a Heathrow Connect to Ealing Broadway and then another turbo to Maidenhead. It was then an HST to reading before another back to Paddington.

It was now getting on with time. So started making my way back to Reading. I bailed at Maidenhead to see if the train behind was a winner. It was and I then bailed at Twyford. The train behind was a dud but one heading east was good. So back to Maidenhead and one last chance for another winner back to Reading. It was!

At Reading I waited for my train home. A reasonably good day. No power cars but 13 winning units and a bit of new track. Guess I can't complain too much, I did get a winning power car on Monday!