Plan for the day
My railrover ticket commences on Tuesday 14 May but there is a well known easement on railrovers allowing departure on a sleeper train on the day prior to commencement, so although I have to get myself to London Euston on another ticket it will be valid for the sleeper berth I have booked for tonight.
The plan for overnight is:
| Plan Dep | Train No | Journey | Plan Arr | NRT Miles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:45 | 1S26 | Euston to Carstairs | 06:15 | 400 |
| 06:40 | 1B26 | Carstairs to Edinburgh (11) | 07:30 |
Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.
Operations on the Day
My initial journeys are not covered by the Rover – I have to get from home to London Euston so take the 20:40 Sandhurst to Guildford (2O90) and then the 21:15 Guildford to London Waterloo (1P72) and the Northern line. Buying the right ticket proves impossible as neither guard has the right sort of machine to produce a ticket allowing TfL travel. So I buy a ticket to Waterloo and then use my Oyster card which needs topping up – so debits my account with £20 – it all adds up.
SWR have a points problem at Woking and a freight train waiting a driver at Clapham Junction which leads to a significantly late arrival, although it is questionable if I would succeed with a delay/repay claim. The train unusually uses the Windsor Line Shed (the old International station) and terminates in platform 23 so we snake across numerous points to reach this destination – and it will depart as a train to Reading.
The sleeper is sitting on platform 1 at Euston and is ready to board once I get to the station. I find my cabin (sole occupation) and dump my bags before heading back to the club car for a glass of red wine and coffee. I return to the cabin by departure and try to sleep but the noise seems oppressive and I can sleep on most trains! After nearly 30 minutes we rumble to a halt – at Watford Junction. Hmmm.
I settle down again and this time sleep for about an hour and overall I reckon I get around five and a half hours, with the alarm going off at 06:20 shortly before breakfast – ordered last night is delivered to the berth.
As the linked times reveal there appears to be plenty of slack in the booked times as we are running late at one point and yet easily recover to arrive on the working time which is a chunk earlier than the public times.
Rolling Stock
Class 92 top and I assume tailed as the one at the rear at Euston took my portion onwards to Edinburgh after the train was split at Carstairs – I woke to find the train at rest there – and so it was an early awakening. It was light and so I could watch the world pass by as we headed in to the capital city.
This is the relatively new Mark V coaching stock which had a torrid time at introduction and on which I believe a lot of money has been spent to achieve decent service quality since delivery. Certainly having slept reasonably well and not been uncomfortable I did not have a problem. Trying to sort out one or two things between bags is not easy given the limited space but all essential needs are met and the noises seemed less of a problem once we were running smoothly.
There was water on the floor of the toilet, source not immediately obvious and some of the initial clunking noises did not give the right impression, although not preventing sleeping once I became used to them. I did not find the bar stools in the club car at all comfortable. Service was generally friendly and it is a convenient way to get from the south to Scotland.
Ticket Checks
Absolutely none – the sleeper berth booking was checked a couple of times by the sleeper staff as it is bought separately from the all line rover but the physical ticket was not checked at all.
Summary
Well apart from the delays into Waterloo a very solid start to the rail rover – ending up in the right place at the right time, breakfast consumed and ready for the day ahead.