Were there any interesting/unusual driver/platform announcements?
I don't believe that there were any platform announcements aside from those made telling us when to re-board or, at Amersham, to try and arrange the chaos around the sales stand. There were also a few to see it off at Wembley Park. But I was riding, of course, so can't say for sure. On board, it depended on the driver - there were a few but nothing out of the ordinary, more just saying where we were getting too, and whether the doors would open or not. An announcement was made as we were about to traverse Watford North Curve. It was also interesting that most of the drivers stuck to their 'customer training' about telling us when we were held at red signals, too. I expect many on the tour would have liked as long on board as possible? But it certainly provoked an interesting conversation amongst us in the front of 5034/coach A.
Additionally, as you do with some photographers, they go to extreme lengths to get their pictures. At Chesham they had gone past the white line, some down the ramp, and one nearly stepping on the sleeper at the bottom!
I think passengers should be pre warned before the trip and if after a warning they make no movement away from the danger zone, they should be excluded from the tour.
The saddest part was the final journey and whistling at all the stops. The best bit being when it the train went over the bangs!!!
Regards photographers, from what I saw up at the front is that a lot of station staff were quite pragmatic towards photographers straying beyond normally accessible points as long as they weren't on the track - so, for example, to the ends of ramps on platforms or up the stairs to the signal cabin at Ricky! At the 'buffers' end at Chesham a lot of people were going to the far end of the train, although not onto the concrete block.
I fully agree about the last run! It was a very emotional trip to say the least. I didn't hear the bangs as they were at the other end, but it was something very fitting and we had all hoped would happen!
hope someone takes time to write up a full report for this trip
I am working on a combined write-up from my time out on Wednesday and yesterday! Should be done shortly, just working to a print deadline for my magazine at the moment, as well as a couple of Uni bits...
Jack
