Bank holiday service on the Marston Vale line today with 230003 and 230005 doing the honours. This is a big development for us and i took advantage to pop to Ridgmont to the Hertigate centre and tea room there followed by a run to Bedford and back. No issues reported.
230003 was displaying what I believe is known by those in the spotting fraternity as "thrash" and "clag" on pulling away!
PS the Heritage centre tea room at Ridgmont does a great cake and tea. You should visit if you are in the area.
As I was planing a visit on Monday, I kept an eye on the reliability for the previous couple of days and it *seems* to have settled down. Adding in yesterday and today so far that makes four days of fault-free running I think.
Got the 15:55 from Bedford to Bletchley, 230003 if I remember correctly, I was favourably impressed - clean & bright, good acceleration, only issue was that the power & USB sockets were not working (in my 4 seat bay anyhow) a few slightly concerning grinding noises.
The rest of the journey didn't go as well; 16:41 Bletchley to Birmingham/Crewe/Rugeley taken out of service at Northampton, everybody across the bridge onto a replacement - which then left without the conductor, stopped and eventually reversed back supposedly to pick them up, but then was then *also* taken out of service for reasons unknown (possibily the driver in for 'tea and no biscuits' for leaving without the conductor?).
Third time lucky on yet another service, we actually got to Birmingham (no Crewe or Rugeley though!), although both toilets were out of order on the 4-car unit I was in.
There were some *very* pissed off people who'd had to drag heavy luggage across the bridge at Northampton *twice*.
**Conductor is what WMR seem to prefer, on these services at least.