Imported post
Well although I had the intention of trying to meet up with you guys on the Saturday that idea quickly went out the window due to the wonders of our rail service...
The Plan:
Get up 6:30. Leave house 7:15. Get on train in St Albans 7:52. Get to Brum Int'l 9:39. Get in while it's quiet and have a look around whilst trying to persuade my mate to buy a drysuit so he's forced to take up UK diving (he was only looking for some basic gear + comp to use on holiday). Meet up with peeps at midday for a drink or two - which was the main reason for using the train in the first place. Leave reasonably early in order to avoid packed trains on the way home.
The execution:
Got up 6:30. Left house about 7:25 due to basically me faffing around and not getting my arse in gear.
In order to get to the station we wanted we walk past the main station in St Albans. At this point I check my watch and decide there's no way we're going to get there in time so decide to switch at the last minute which should add about 20 minutes to the journey and require a train switch in the middle but would be quicker than waiting for the next train at the other station. So in we go, buy tickets, get on train to Luton.
Get to Luton trying to get to Leicester. Ask someone which platform and he says the next train is cancelled and we'd be better off going to Bedford then from Bedford to Leicester. OK, no problem. Hang on, Bedford's back on the same line as we've just got off of - next train: 30 minute wait!
Eventually get to Bedford; OK, when's the train to Leicester. Ooh, only 20 minute wait this time
Get on train, next stop Leicester... or is it? I think they added about 4 extra stops in all, seemingly on the spur of the moment, so we get in about 20 minutes later than planned.
Leicester to Birmingham New Street - no problems!
New Street to International, next train 15 minutes. Decided not to risk finding our own way there and getting lost as it would probably be only a 15 minute journey at most. Train turns up, we got on. 5 minutes after departure time we're still there, told we're delayed due to signal failure. Well that's happened to me plenty of times, not normally more than a couple of minutes delay, no big deal (although remember that for later in the story, delayed due to signal failure, OK?). After a further 30 minutes we finally start moving. Fantastically though this was kind of made OK due to the sight of someone 'just' missing a train that had been sitting at the platform for 35 minutes
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About 5 minutes in we suddenly come to a complete stop in the middle of nowhere and see someone from the train running past the window. After a couple of minutes it's announced we hit something and they're checking to see what it was. By this time we're thinking the whole journey's been a bit ridiculous so expected them to discover we almost hit a leaf, but luckily it blew out of the way just in time so it should make a full recovery...
When the announced we'd actually hit a dog that set us, and to be fair everyone else in the carriage, off laughing until we'd had a chance to realise what they'd actually said and decided that was actually pretty bad. This was reinforced a short while after when we saw a very upset looking guy walking back to the front of the train...
Still sitting there but thinking fair enough, the guy we saw looked pretty shook up and it's not something I'd like to see. 10 minutes pass and another announcement comes on. Turns out that hitting the dog had somehow forced the train's emergency brakes on and they were having trouble disengaging them. Now, I'm sorry if you're a real dog fan or whatever but in the circumstances that was just about the funniest and last thing anyone expected to hear - was certainly a couple of minutes before the laughter died down. As we're still sitting there this was followed by coming up with headlines for the story, "Train delayed due to dog applying brakes", etc.
Once that had become boring we returned to waiting for the train to restart, talking rubbish, realising we were now actually on a train heading back south so should we just call the whole thing off and go home, etc. That was until I happened to overhear the conversation of the two women in the seats across from us. One asked the other, "I wonder what they tell other people back at the station? Do you think they tell them we've hit a dog?". To which I interrupted with, "No, I'd expect they come up with a slightly less unpleasant reason. Like signal failure." I think it must have been less than two seconds before her expression changed from one of slight puzzlement, whilst she thought this through, to one of the most horrified I've ever seen. If I hadn't already been wearing my coat I think I'd have had to put it on and move seats. Luckily my mate burst out laughing so I'm pretty sure they realised I was just joking...
Shortly after this the train set off and we finally completed the journey to Birmingham International. After 5 hours!
We then made our way into the show to meet up with another mate who'd driven up instead. By the time we'd had a quick look around to see what was about it was nearly 1 and as the other two guys aren't on YD we didn't bother trying to find anyone else. My mate got a reasonable deal on some X3's for £30 but I failed to convince him to get a drysuit
By the time we'd looked at the history of diving and the photo competition entries we decided to head home just on the off chance of similar train journey fun. Back at the station we found out we could use our return tickets to go the easy route back to Watford then skip across to St Albans, i.e. the route we should have taken to get up there in the morning. Somehow that still managed to take about 4 hours instead of the expected 2! Luckily for me I slept through most of it so I've no idea what hazards we had to overcome to make it back at all
So in summary; the show was pretty good although as I wasn't really looking at buying any kit it got a bit samey and I was really only bothered about the non-shop/holiday parts of the show. As for the trains, I think I've written enough now...
Same again next year then
Paul
