Trivia - Furthest you've seen someone carried beyond their intended stop

[londonbridge]

Have posted this before but was on the way back to London from a Sunderland home game, at York two Scottish lads in Man City colours boarded, conversation struck up, "where are you heading back to"? The reply: Dundee. They jumped off at Doncaster but we didn't tell them there was no train to get them home that night.

Furthest I've been overcarried (also posted before) was when I arrived at Kingston on the way home from work and boarded the first train that came in, having missed an announcement that it would run non-stop to Waterloo (I wanted Clapham Junction) and the train behind (which was on time) was the stopper.

 

[Nottingham59]

A friend from University was changing at Reading to go to Effingham Junction. Was told to get the next train from Platform 4a. Well, the next train to arrive occupied the whole of Platform 4, so she got on it. Next stop Exeter.

 

[colchesterken]

Many years ago I was living in Ipswich and working in Colchester, Got to the station there was a train in the platform station staff blowing whistle, rushed saw one of the paper window stickers saying Colchester & Liv St jumped on as we were going past the sand depot at Marks Tey
I realised it was non stop to London. I spoke to the guard he said sorry that was the last journey he signed the window sticker as my pass
Had a trip to London and back, 2 hrs late for work got put on the late shift to make up time!

 

[thenorthern]

A couple of years ago I boarded a train to Manchester Piccadilly at Birmingham New Street and there was another passenger who wanted to go to Wolverhampton.

There was a diversion in place and the train wasn't stopping at Wolverhampton and at the time for some reason CrossCountry didn't serve Stafford on Sundays. The next stop was therefore Stoke-on-Trent. As you can imagine the passenger wasn't very happy and she had an argument with the guard claiming that there was no announcements. He then asked me if I had heard the announcements that the train wasn't calling at Wolverhampton and I said I had (Given I am a train person he probably had good luck as not calling at Wolverhampton would be something I would notice).

After that because the conductor was of Indian heritage she claimed that no one was able to understand his accent when he made the announcement. The guard then said that he had been doing the job for 40 years so he knew what he was doing.

 

[Ben Bow]

Last train from Manchester to Hull a few years ago, after leaving Brough chap asks "where do I change for Newcastle?" ....

 

[Spartacus]

Last train from Manchester to Hull a few years ago, after leaving Brough chap asks "where do I change for Newcastle?" ....

Was that one the one that got the rare Milford Jn - Gas Wood Jn curve? Got a mate who track bashes who needs that but never wanted to have to spend a night in Hull to do it!

 

[JBuchananGB]

Have to mention this one again. On train from Liverpool Street to Southend. Approaching Romford, when young couple enquire with two very large suitcases enquire whether this is the train to the airport. Which airport? Stansted Airport. All I could suggest was they catch next servic e back to Liv. St from Romford and try the Stansted Express. Will never know whether they caught their flight!

How about shortest overcarry? Was on way to Forum meeting at Liverpool from Southport. Merseyrail were running late so the train I boarded at Birkdale was announced to be skip-stopping. The next stopping train about 2 minutes behind. Gent boarded at Waterloo intending to go to Bootle (New Strand or Oriel Road) Had to go as far as Sandhills.

 

[philthetube]

I am surprised there are not more tales from staff who have woken passengers at termini.

I once woke a guy at Mill Hill East, on the last Northern line Service from London.

He lived in Clapham and had had his wallet nicked while asleep.He had travelled London , Morden, Mill Hill. He was supposed to be flying out of Gatwick to America at 7am the following morning, taxis, understandably, wouldn't take him without cash. I often wondered how he got on.

 

[Royston Posh]

Pre-pandemic I used to do Cambridge to Norwich on a fairly regular basis. The quickest trip back is usually the East Mids train (for Liverpool Lime Street) as far as Ely with a change for the last skip down to CBG.

On more than one occasion the ticket check has revealed passengers for London Liverpool Street heading towards the Midlands. Generally they get noticed before Ely and pointed South - no problem. However a couple of years ago I was heading for Manchester from Cambridge and the passenger who started in Norwich hoping to get to London was only identified somewhere North of Peterborough...

 

[zero]

I swear this is a true story.

On 24 December 2013 I was route bashing in NSW, Australia.

I took the 1702 from Maitland to Scone arriving 1823. I wandered around the town until the return service at 1906.

The destination display on the side of the train had an error and continued to show "Scone" after departing.

We arrived at Muswellbrook, a single-platform station, several minutes late (scheduled 1923). A man and his child ran out of breath towards the train just as the doors closed. The guard reopened the doors and let them on.

As soon as the train started moving they started shouting in despair as they had intended to get the 1934 service to Scone. There was nothing the guard could do so they had to travel to Singleton, and find another way to travel the 76km back or miss Christmas morning. (Although a Saturday service operated on Christmas Day, and it's summer so in extremis they *could* have waited outdoors overnight - I did in order to get to Bathurst later on that trip.)

The UK equivalent of this would be getting on the wrong train at Forsinard with no other way to get to Wick that night.

 

[jumble]

Have to mention this one again. On train from Liverpool Street to Southend. Approaching Romford, when young couple enquire with two very large suitcases enquire whether this is the train to the airport. Which airport? Stansted Airport. All I could suggest was they catch next servic e back to Liv. St from Romford and try the Stansted Express. Will never know whether they caught their flight!

How about shortest overcarry? Was on way to Forum meeting at Liverpool from Southport. Merseyrail were running late so the train I boarded at Birkdale was announced to be skip-stopping. The next stopping train about 2 minutes behind. Gent boarded at Waterloo intending to go to Bootle (New Strand or Oriel Road) Had to go as far as Sandhills.

It is so easy to do
Fairly recently my self and senior forum member who will remain nameless unless they want to also confess were travelling to meet a few other forum members for a walk
We arranged to meet on the train but were chattering so much that we never even noticed we had missed our stop.
We had to jump on a bus and were able to meet the rest of the party a couple of miles along the walk so not all was lost..

 

[mirodo]

I am surprised there are not more tales from staff who have woken passengers at termini.

I once woke a guy at Mill Hill East, on the last Northern line Service from London.

He lived in Clapham and had had his wallet nicked while asleep.He had travelled London , Morden, Mill Hill. He was supposed to be flying out of Gatwick to America at 7am the following morning, taxis, understandably, wouldn't take him without cash. I often wondered how he got on.

I once woke up in Mill Hill East as well! Intended to travel from Balham to Tooting Broadway, but fell asleep due to the booze! Also the last train of the night - I was very kindly given my own private tube train which dropped me off at Finchley on the way back to the depot, from where I got 2 night buses home, arriving some time after 3am, with only a few hours sleep before a 9am start at work the following same morning.

 

[Envy123]

My mother was on a very late running Thameslink service to Peterborough a while ago. Upon leaving Finsbury Park, the driver announced that it would be running nonstop to Peterborough. One guy expressed frustration in front of my mother as he wanted Stevenage!

 

[Gloster]

In 1977 I was Railrovering around Scotland and coming back on the sleepers from Fort William (I think I got on at Crianlarich), aiming to catch the Inverness sleepers from Glasgow. I can’t remember whether I got in the wrong part of the train, missed the station I should have changed at (Dumbarton, Dalmuir, Westerton?) or just thought the train went into Queen St. like the Down train to Fort William. The guard put me off at Springburn, where we stopped for some reason (crew change?) so I could get an electric to Queen St. Otherwise I would have been heading south, first stop I know not where.

In the early 1980s a friend was coming back to Exeter from the north on a Friday night and caught one of the overnight services to Cornwall. It appears to be a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing, as he believed that, although it wasn’t advertised as stopping at Exeter, all trains did. This one didn’t and he had to go through to Plymouth. Even if it had stopped to change crew, the stop might have been on the old middle road rather than the platform.

 

[etr221]

Story I heard in Chicago was about someone heading home north from downtown, on the L Owl (all night) service.
Fell asleep, half wakes two stops past his (still going north) - not to worry, train will reverse in a couple of stops, he'll get off at at his stop, southbound. Falls asleep again, half wakes a couple of stops beyond his, going south. Decides to change (crossplatform) in the downtown subway to the northbound train (2 trains running service). Falls asleep again, half wakes half way to south end of line. So round again, falls asleep again, wakes one stop beyond his, southbound...

And on the busses, story was someone fell asleep on first Owl service run (so c Midnight) - waken by driver about seven - 'I'm off duty, here's a transfer'... Not sure how many round trips he'd done.

 

[Peter0124]

I don't recall missing my stop before but did have a very close over-carry going from St Pancras to Finsbury Park (Next stop was Stevenage so I would've been well outside the TfL travel card validity and would've had to explain to the examiner on the return, if in the event they showed up).

I never knew that stations had platforms on both sides of the track so I was trying to open the door for one of the sides (as I had begun to see the platform appear on that side) and it wouldn't open, I went up about 2 or 3 coaches of the 700 trying all of the doors on the same side and they still weren't opening, until I realised that it was the right-hand platform the train was boarding from and quickly opened a right hand door and left.

Does anyone know why stations like Finsbury Park have 2 platforms for one track? I find it very confusing.

Attached is a picture from Finsbury Park showing one track with 2 platforms, taken from Wikipedia

 

[contrex]

goodness knows how he ended up catching a service going the wrong way, his American accent...

Because in the US & Canada the trains run on the right? Newfoundland kept left-hand running until 1947 though.

 

[TheEdge]

I once came across a girl with a ticket from Ipswich to Brighton at Manningtree, heading back to Ipswich.

She didn't realise she had to change train and station at Liverpool Street and had sat for half an hour on an empty train before heading back to Suffolk.

 

[PeterC]

I once came across a girl with a ticket from Ipswich to Brighton at Manningtree, heading back to Ipswich.

She didn't realise she had to change train and station at Liverpool Street and had sat for half an hour on an empty train before heading back to Suffolk.

Reminds me of an early music hall song about a day trip to Southend on one of these new fangled railways. The ticket clerk says "change at Tilbury" so he goes to Tilbury but they don't have his change.

 

[43367]

Have seen a few get on the 06.30 Bradford F Sq - Kings X get on at Leeds for Doncaster and only realise it is next stop London as we leave Wakefield, an overcarry of about 170 miles, although I think a few people started to get wise to this and bought tickets to Doncaster when they really wanted to be in London and pretended to be over carried

 

[route101]

Impossible (perhaps fortunately), as the Fort William seated coach is always detached at Edinburgh Waverley, so everyone has to disembark there regardless of whether they’re a ‘local’ or an ‘overnight’ passenger. I’m fairly sure, though, that the guard would check to ensure that they got off in the right place and did not end up at Waverley at midnight- CS staff are usually good at this and it’s not as though there’s much train to go through (just one seated coach with 31 seats- though only 15 or so of these are reserved on the Fort William section).

Last time I used the sleeper from Glasgow, tickets were checked on platform.

When I was younger I chummed my pal on a Euston bound train at Glasgow, next minute the doors closed and I'm off to Carlisle.

 

[Bevan Price]

My first year on the railway I treated myself to a 7 day Priv Scottish rover (£9.50 I think).
On the Tuesday evening I picked up a southbound sleeper at Perth intending to change at Carlisle for the Stranraer sleeper.
Unfortunately, I found an empty, warm, MK1 compartment to lie down in. I woke up in the daylight, and after consulting my SK Baker rail atlas, realised I was 15 minurmtes away from Euston.
I had to wait for a Birmingham service worked by a New Street guard to get me back north.

Also on a rover, I had a similar start. Did Glasgow to Carlisle on a sleeper, the only train then doing the now part closed route via Paisley, Dalry & Kilmarnock. Did manage to alight at Carlisle and waited for the Euston - Stranraer sleeper.

A train arrived a little before the booked departure time. No announcements, no display screen in use, no staff to ask. Boarded, and eventually realised - train was next stop Glasgow Central. No real harm, just annoyed that plans had gone astray.....
Eventually did Stranraer a year or two later by doing unit from Glasgow to Stranraer, then waiting for sleeper to Carlisle (via Ayr -- route between Dumfries & Stranraer had closed in the 1960s).

 

[ABB125]

As of yet I've never been overcarried on a train. My coat has though (along with all my tickets/money etc...)

At the start of 2018 my mum spent a few months commuting between Ashchurch and Bristol. On one occasion she ended up at University (Birmingham), though I'm not sure how given that no direct services from Bristol call at University... I can't remember how she got back, but she did eventually.

 

[4COR]

As of yet I've never been overcarried on a train. My coat has though (along with all my tickets/money etc...)

I too once let my jacket go on a day trip from New Street off to Derby with keys etc (while I went to the cricket at Edgbaston). Extra trip to pick it up - luckily remembered before it got to Newcastle....

 

[JamesC357]

One Saturday 3 or 4 years ago C2C were running a revised service whereby every few London bound trains were only calling at West Ham and Fenchurch Street after being all stations to Benfleet (where I got on). On this day I was going to London and had timed it so that I would get on one of these fast trains. After we left Benfleet the driver come on the tannoy and told us that the next stop was West Ham. This was followed by an expletive from a guy sat a little way behind who had also got on at Benfleet and I think wanted Basildon. I imagine he turned straight around at West Ham, but was still probably around an hour late! Let’s hope for his sake that all Southend bound trains were all stations!

 

[Scotrail84]

In 2005 I worked the 15.33 Edinburgh-Dunblane from what is now platform 8 at Waverley. It had a recognised connection at Stirling for Inverness and due to some disruption in Fife and previous cancellations the train (2 car 158) left Edinburgh full and standing with most people heading for Stirling. On arrival at Dunblane as I’m walking through to make sure everyone is off I came across a gentleman who asked when this train got to North Berwick? At that time the next train on platform 8 was the 15.43 North Berwick, to say he was unimpressed was an understatement and of course it wasn’t his fault.

Were North Berwicks not timed to depart Edinburgh at xx37 in those days?

 

[185143]

Remembered another one I've done myself. Boarded at Dawlish heading to Paignton. Was woken by the guard asking where I was travelling to, said Paignton. Was told we weren't going to Paignton.

I was sure he was taking the mick, then he disappeared to do the doors as we approached Newton Abbot. Then realised I was now travelling backwards. Oops.

And it was the last train on a Sunday night. Double Oops! National Express to the rescue on that one.

 

[WatcherZero]

I commute daily from Wigan to Daisy Hill, a few weeks ago I was on the train and we were held at the Hindley signals for about 5 minutes, then the train set off again on the wrong line. Few other passengers notice so after 10 minutes we go and confront the guard (who hasnt made any announcements) Guard explains that the points indicator had failed at Hindley as we approached so they could only turn on to the Bolton line and we would now be running non-stop to Salford Crescent and we would have to catch another train in the opposite direction to double back, which was annoying as many of us could have gotten off at Westhoughton and still walked to our destinations. It was 45 minutes after we arrived at Salford Crescent before one to Daisy Hill came as the majority were operating non-stop to Wigan to recover the timetable.

Anyway to cut a long story short for those that dont know the local area I was one stop about 4 minutes travel time away from my destination but it then took two hours to reach it.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I wonder if this thread has been inspired by the music hall song "Oh! Mr Porter" so often sang by Marie Lloyd in those far-off days, that had a chorus of.....

"Oh! Mr Porter, what shall I do?
I want to go to Birmingham
And they're taking me on to Crewe.
Take me back to London, as quickly as you can
Oh! Mr Porter, what a silly girl I am"

 

[Devon Sunset]

Were North Berwicks not timed to depart Edinburgh at xx37 in those days?

Actually I think you’re probably right, memory a bit fuzzy these days. I’m pretty sure it was a 322 that went up to Slateford to take up service from Haymarket.