A brief summary of my long trip.
* Had to get 0755 (far too early for my liking!) via Castleford, due to lack of through trains on a Sunday.
* No less than 3 people sat in front of me within earshot had invalid railcards and had to pay the full SOS fare. All were offered the chance to get an SOS to the next station then buy their railcard there and get the next train, but all opted to pay huge amounts more (up to £60 instead of £20) to stay on the same train! Barmy the lot of them!
* Just missed Joy54/Seth's (delayed) train by about 3 mins at Newport, meaning I missed the 37s from Cardiff (as I had expected - I had to wait ages at Newport).
* Saw some kids trespassing on the line at Newport, went to film them but they'd already been discovered by staff. They then ran off, 2 of them were rather slow and I managed to get a funny video of their attempt to escape, in which one of them got his clothes stuck on a fence. Serves him right for trespassing!
* At Bridgend I finally got to board the 37, where I met the others. It was incredibly crowded though and attempts to get a window were unsuccessful. If the huge crowds are anything to go by this line will be a great success! Even the 4-car pacer that was operating was very well loaded!
* Managed to get a window for the journey from Cardiff Bay to Bridgend 8)
* The 37s did a NON-STOP run to Rhymney at about 6pm hock: , but unfortunately I could not take it or I'd never have got home!
* Had a very long journey back, again a long wait at Newport, a wait at Brum and 40 mins at Leeds, my bike chain came off on my trip back (20 min delay to fix it), I finally got home at 01:00!
Was it worth it? Well, yes, as fortunately I got (relatively) cheap tickets.
Hopefully others will post their reports on this meet below, I look forward to reading them.
* Had to get 0755 (far too early for my liking!) via Castleford, due to lack of through trains on a Sunday.
* No less than 3 people sat in front of me within earshot had invalid railcards and had to pay the full SOS fare. All were offered the chance to get an SOS to the next station then buy their railcard there and get the next train, but all opted to pay huge amounts more (up to £60 instead of £20) to stay on the same train! Barmy the lot of them!
* Just missed Joy54/Seth's (delayed) train by about 3 mins at Newport, meaning I missed the 37s from Cardiff (as I had expected - I had to wait ages at Newport).
* Saw some kids trespassing on the line at Newport, went to film them but they'd already been discovered by staff. They then ran off, 2 of them were rather slow and I managed to get a funny video of their attempt to escape, in which one of them got his clothes stuck on a fence. Serves him right for trespassing!
* At Bridgend I finally got to board the 37, where I met the others. It was incredibly crowded though and attempts to get a window were unsuccessful. If the huge crowds are anything to go by this line will be a great success! Even the 4-car pacer that was operating was very well loaded!
* Managed to get a window for the journey from Cardiff Bay to Bridgend 8)
* The 37s did a NON-STOP run to Rhymney at about 6pm hock: , but unfortunately I could not take it or I'd never have got home!
* Had a very long journey back, again a long wait at Newport, a wait at Brum and 40 mins at Leeds, my bike chain came off on my trip back (20 min delay to fix it), I finally got home at 01:00!
Was it worth it? Well, yes, as fortunately I got (relatively) cheap tickets.
Hopefully others will post their reports on this meet below, I look forward to reading them.