Ive just started reading this, and its a very interesting and fun read! makes my own holiday blog on facebook (17 days combining a Severn and Solent Rover, Freedom of the South West Rover, Thames Rover, plus a day on a London travelcard) look dull by comparison. Thanks for the link!!!
Reading through it now myself, a thoroughly interesting read.
It's also a very good account of how things can go pear-shaped whilst on an all-liner.
Someone earlier in this thread mentioned that the average enthusiast could probably book combinations of advance-purchase fares and so forth that would make a week's rail travel much cheaper. Whilst this has the potential to be true, it also limits your options too much for my personal taste. After all, you could be at Kings Cross waiting for your booked train at 1610 to Leeds (instead of getting the 1600 Aberdeen and changing at York so as to get some proper traction in). You could see the HST off and wish you'd booked a ticket to York on it instead and then put up with a 91 and MK4s instead going direct. Granted, you might prefer that but at least with an all-liner you can say "Stuff it, I'll get that train instead. I got here earlier than planned and the other's a faster run anyway and a HST at that" or something, rather than sticking to a totally inflexible plan.
Then there's the option of following a particular piece of traction around on its passenger runs all day. Again, unlikely to be able to do that easily on most traction, especially long-distance stuff where that HST, 91, Voyager, Meridian etc could be stepped up to do a different service or whatever. Unless you've got an all-liner.
Up to the individual at the end of the day but I know full well I couldn't book cheap tickets for my trains and routes of choice for a week's worth of travel!
