Famous people/celebrities you've met on a train

[dangie]

I think this will be one of these "show your age" type threads.…

.…I also met Wilfrid Pickles and Hattie Jacques outside Hyde Park Corner station.

You can say that again

 

[Lost property]

Quite a few, but those that stand out are

Tom Baker on a slammer ex Charing Cross (he dressed exactly like he did in Doctor Who)
Rishi Sunak (in his previous job) on Avanti (on time)

If you travel first class London - Manchester often enough its almost impossible not to catch a celeb sooner or later.

I was unaware Sunak had actually had a job that involved working for a living.

However, this may explain why he now prefers to use a helicopter to gallivant around the UK (but not for much longer)

 

[Trackman]

Alan Carr on the Tube. Can’t remember where, or which line. He didn’t have glasses on and looked hungover.

Reminds me of the time I saw Craig Charles at Euston one Sunday morning, I was stood next to him and was going to say hello, but he looked in a right state.

 

[elbows47]

I'm 44 but genuinely clueless who it is. I do know who Paula Wilcox is though!

I bet that was a right laugh!

It was!

 

[mm333]

On a HST heading north from Kings Cross c. 1991, I sat across the first class aisle from Andrew Neil. I was able to read his correspondence and he was on his way to give a speech in Middlesbrough. He was editor of the Sunday Times in those days.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Coming up to Paddington from Neath on a winter Sunday - some well known Welsh individuals - the very courteous Wynford-Vaughan - Thomas and Hywel Bennett.


Who, I can see being asked......

 

[Mikw]

Although i never said "Hello" i sat opposite Charles Bronson once on a train in Spain.
I didn't bother him, i don't have a Death Wish......

 

[70014IronDuke]

I hope this counts – well, half counts - he was on the train, I was on the platform.

Trainspotting at Didcot in, I think, Easter hols, 1964. A Hymek pulled in and stopped on a passenger train, pronounced a failure. A minute or two later, a girl trainspotter on the same platform ran up and said: Adam Faith's on the train. (He was still famous, sort of, although he'd faded from the music scene by then, shunted into pop oblivion by the Beatles etc).

Sure enough, a carriage or two in the down direction, there was he. I got his autograph – still have it somewhere – I cut the page out of my spottin' logbook and stuck it into an autograph book.

I think a Hall came off shed to drag his train on westwards.

An hour or two earlier that same day 34037 Clovelly had come past on the avoider with the Pines Express. I only had four Bulleids underlined at the time and one of those was – you've guessed it – 34037!

Coming up to Paddington from Neath on a winter Sunday - some well known Welsh individuals - the very courteous Wynford-Vaughan - Thomas and Hywel Bennett.


Who, I can see being asked......

Well, I remember him, although I'm guessing I only became properly aware of him in 1975, when working at Landore. At the time there was a series on his life on TV every Sunday evening. I think I've mentioned it before on some thread - it was very interesting, although the only bit that sticks in the memory was him recounting going into Bergen-Belsen soon after the British army had liberated the concentration camp. There was film footage, of course, and he said something on the lines of: "I knew then that whatever the cost, this war had been worth fighting for."

I think he may have recalled supporting Dylan Thomas with the train fares to London or some such.

 

[317 forever]

In 1985 I was on a train with the professional darts player Leighton Rees. I'd never heard of him, but the guard pointed him out to me, so I asked him for his autograph anyway. I still have it somewhere.

More recently, I was standing directly behind Noel Fielding in a long booking office queue.

Leighton Rees could almost be the name of a train station

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I hope this counts – well, half counts - he was on the train, I was on the platform.

Trainspotting at Didcot in, I think, Easter hols, 1964. A Hymek pulled in and stopped on a passenger train, pronounced a failure. A minute or two later, a girl trainspotter on the same platform ran up and said: Adam Faith's on the train. (He was still famous, sort of, although he'd faded from the music scene by then, shunted into pop oblivion by the Beatles etc).

Sure enough, a carriage or two in the down direction, there was he. I got his autograph – still have it somewhere – I cut the page out of my spottin' logbook and stuck it into an autograph book.

I think a Hall came off shed to drag his train on westwards.

An hour or two earlier that same day 34037 Clovelly had come past on the avoider with the Pines Express. I only had four Bulleids underlined at the time and one of those was – you've guessed it – 34037!


Well, I remember him, although I'm guessing I only became properly aware of him in 1975, when working at Landore. At the time there was a series on his life on TV every Sunday evening. I think I've mentioned it before on some thread - it was very interesting, although the only bit that sticks in the memory was him recounting going into Bergen-Belsen soon after the British army had liberated the concentration camp. There was film footage, of course, and he said something on the lines of: "I knew then that whatever the cost, this war had been worth fighting for."

I think he may have recalled supporting Dylan Thomas with the train fares to London or some such.

Wynford Vaughan-Thomas was deeply embededd in his Welsh background (not liked by Kingsley Amis - a one time Swansea University academic who wrote of his time there in sympathetic terms - especially "That Uncertain Feeling" and K-A was no supported of Dylan Thomas ! - both pilloried in "The Old Devils" - if interested , try and get hold of W-V-T's autobiography which is excellent. (Trust to Talk)

I met him several times and he really was enjoyable company and was quite well known (thanks to TV his support of the The Great Little Trains of Wales which he championed. Delighted that he is not forgotten.

Hywell Bennet - from nearbly Amman Valley to me - was known in my time for the TV series "Shelley" (a work shy geography graduate!) -but of course had other film roles - before that ... again an affable fellow traveller. .

 

[Jamiescott1]

Mary Berry on a train from Beaconsfield to Marylebone
Louis spence getting off a train at high wycombe when he was in panto there
Warwick davis from St pancras to lille

 

[renegademaster]

Seen Francis Bourgouis quite a few times now

 

[ls2270]

Indeed. I'm willing to bet it would also have been a stretch for most in their 40s and early 50s

Absolutely right! I’m 50 and have never heard of her!

 

[McRhu]

My ideal travelling celebrity companions would have been Will Hay, Alvar Lidell, or even Slade. Apart from my spurious sighting of Joan Collins at Partick Hill my only brush with modest celebrity was with a member of the legendary Easterhouse band Scheme (whose fame may not have radiated too far beyond the bounds of Glasgow).

 

[Whistler40145]

Once on a train from Preston to Blackpool North with Geoff Meade the Journalist

 

[adc82140]

Mark Hopwood on a FGW HST. Does that count?

Other than that, I once sat opposite David Icke on a Class 423.

 

[Trackman]

Although i never said "Hello" i sat opposite Charles Bronson once on a train in Spain.
I didn't bother him, i don't have a Death Wish......

If he was reading a newspaper, I'd move sharpish.

 

[McRhu]

Mark Hopwood on a FGW HST. Does that count?

Other than that, I once sat opposite David Icke on a Class 423.

David Icke? He rides a bike - usually.

 

[dangie]

Not sure if this should be in the ‘You know you’re getting older’ thread, but most of these famous people/celebrities I’ve never heard of. If I was sitting next to them I wouldn’t have a clue.

 

[adc82140]

David Icke? He rides a bike - usually.

And John Kettley is a weatherman.

 

[Mikw]

If he was reading a newspaper, I'd move sharpish.

Funnlily enough, he was!

 

[Crossover]

As per a few others, I have been on a train (same carriage) as Michael Portillo. He was filming for the BBC series and got on a train a few of us were on from Edinburgh to Manchester (Class 185 via Leeds on diversion due to works on the WCML). He was on from York to Leeds, but I believe was on the wrong train and should have been going to Doncaster.

Not a huge celeb, but I saw Mr Burton of Educating Yorkshire fame, waiting to board a train at Wakefield Westgate, a year or so after the show aired.

 

[M&NEJ]

1. Victoria Wood (Carlisle to Lancaster about 10 years ago)
and
2. As mentioned several times above, Michael Portillo in Preston station waiting room - he strode into the room and sat down opposite me so we exchanged smiles, while everyone else seemed oblivious, their heads firmly directed at mobile 'phones.

 

[Bevan Price]

I wouldn't recognise many so-called celebrities if I fell over them. My nearest encounter was someone who looked very like the (then) Labour Party leader, Hugh Gaitskell, waiting for a train at Earlestown station, but I did not speak to him. Some people rated him as potentially "the best Labour PM we never had" (he died rather young, before the 1964 election, and Harold Wilson got the job.