The Things You See When Travelling By Train

Saturday proved to be a very special day. It involved an early start for a Saturday morning and I have to confess to feeling a bit nervous as we boarded the train because we were attending the birthday 'event' of a special friend but I did not know any of the other guests (except Robbie). The journey to Tamworth seemed endless, mainly because there was a woman opposite us who loved the sound of her own voice. I saw her travelling companion nod a couple of times, but other than that it was a monologue and she hardly paused for breath. The whole carriage was forced to listen to her talking about the problems she is having with her computer, the difficulty of getting used to a new phone and the problems she had encountered when buying a car. I was getting increasingly agitated, she was the sort of person who gives women a bad name, she could have solved all those problems herself if she had shut up and given herself time to think!


I was thankful to arrive at Tamworth and leave the woman on the train to bore her fellow passengers all the way to Crewe. A quick visit to the Ladies did nothing to lift my mood, it was grim. It didn't look especially old but it was dirty and smelly. I was able to lock the door but as there was no door handle the only way to get out was to hook my finger through a hole in the door (where a previous lock had been fitted) and pull the door open. There was no hot water and it was clear that there had been nothing but cold water for some time because the knob had been removed from the water heater. I put my now cold wet hands under the dryer to find that it made an interesting noise but it didn't work so I gave up and left with my hands still wet. Is this really what we should expect from a modern railway?

At that point we left the real world behind for the day and began a rather special adventure. The birthday boy was waiting to meet us outside the station and we boarded a lovely old Midland Red bus and headed for the top floor. The conductor who looked a bit like Pte Godfrey from Dad's Army came upstairs and issued us with a ticket (in old money of course) and the journey back in time began. The tickets were narrow strips of paper similar to those used by United Counties buses in my childhood, the Northampton Transport buses that I remember more clearly issued small square tickets of different colours depending on the fare paid.


I had not travelled on top of a double decker bus since, well lets just say for more years than I care to admit. I had forgotten how much fun it was and how much you could see. The seats were surprisingly comfortable and practical, better than those on the only modern bus I have travelled on recently. There was one concession to the modern world that I was very grateful for - the 'no smoking' rule. In my childhood the top of a bus was a fog of cigarette smoke, how times have changed.

The bus took us to Birmingham to pick up more guests and then on to Kidderminster. I was really surprised, I am not really a 'bus person' and I hadn't expected to like it, but I loved every minute of it. We pulled up outside the station and I couldn't wait for the next part of our adventure. We had plenty of time to explore the station but with two bookshops I could have spent the entire day there! A visit to the toilets proved that it is possible to provide clean, pleasant, functional facilities - so why do so many stations struggle to meet even the most basic standards?


We had a lovely cup of tea (or in Robbie's case, coffee) at the cafe next to the museum and bookshop. I couldn't drink it fast enough, I couldn't wait to look at  everything. I loved the bookshop, I bought a book about old stations in Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough and a book about Ivor the Engine - I love Ivor the Engine and I want to share Ivor stories with my nephew Oliver. I wish they would do a dvd with all the Ivor the Engine episodes on it, it is the irreplaceable voice of Oliver Postgate that makes Ivor extra special.


Robbie made most of his purchases at the other book stall, a couple of 'train spotter' type stock books and a pile of lovely train photos. When he found the photos he got so excited that he almost jumped up and down with pleasure. Before long it was time for us all to meet up ready to catch our charter train. The birthday boy was running around like a demented sheepdog looking for two stragglers while most of us stood around chatting. My 'weird magnet' was working well, a little man (he was considerably shorter than me) entered the station area from the platform and marched straight up to me, shook my hand and launched in to a long explanation of why steam trains are better than diesels. I didn't tell him how much I like diesels or the conversation would have lasted all day. Suddenly he stopped talking about trains, informed me that he had important things to do and marched off in the direction of the refreshment room. I think Robbie was quite shocked.

When we arrived at Bridgnorth we had time to go and explore. Robbie and some of the others went off to experience the funicular railway. I had to choose between the bookshop and Robbie and the bookshop won hands down! I now have a wish list of books that I want. After exploring the station I got back to the train in time to have a chat with one of the other guests, then the others came back and it was time to head back to Kidderminster. We had profiteroles on the way back, they were lovely, much lighter than usual and we finished off with a nice cup of tea. I know that this was an extra special trip, but if on-board catering can be this good it seems a shame that Cross Country can't even master the art of making a drinkable cup of tea!


All too soon we were back at Kidderminster and boarding the bus back to Birmingham. For me the best part of the day was the people, it may sound odd to say that I felt totally at ease when I was with a bunch of people that I didn't know but that is exactly how it felt. It really was a lovely day and I will remember it for a very long time. 

On The Buses

George Row, Northampton

It's Heritage Weekend, many buildings and places of interest in Northampton were open to the public, but the highlight for Robbie was the old buses. They were taking people on tours around the town via an assortment of interesting places. Robbie didn't seem to mind that some of the buses had never been used in Northampton or even Northamptonshire, but it mattered to me. It was nice to see a couple of our old red buses, but it would have been lovely to have seen one or two of our old green (county) buses. 

This is the bus that Robbie travelled on today

This bus is rather like the one that I used to catch to get home from school it brings back a few memories. I often travelled by bus in those days but I have probably only been on a bus about twice in the last twenty years. I don't really have good or bad memories of buses, they just took you to where you wanted to be and if you were very lucky they were on time. 


As a very young child, I often travelled on the bus to my aunt's house and back. I liked that because our journey took us past Castle Station and my aunt usually let us sit on the top deck so I could look out of the window and see everything going on at the station. There was much more going on in those days, and the bus paused at the traffic lights I could look across towards the goods yard. So I guess for me buses were just a means of seeing the things that I wanted to see!

This is the bus that took me home from school

A Northampton bus conductor

The conductor used to have a little machine with different coloured (and different priced) tickets on rolls, so when you paid your fare he or she just pushed a lever and produced the correct ticket. Most conductors were reasonably cheerful, but when someone decided to modernise the world and change to one man buses the drivers seemed to be as miserable as sin. I disliked one man (or should I say person) operated buses and for me that was when bus travel took a turn for the worse and became something to avoid if at all possible.

Northampton bus tickets

I lived and worked in Sheffield for a while in 1983 and I liked their buses very much because the drivers were not miserable and payment was simple. They had a hopper thing to drop your coins in and the ticket that was produced had an imprint of the coins that you had put in. As far as I recall it was called a videmat ticket machine. I haven't seen that system anywhere else but there again I don't go out of my way to travel by bus. 

So for those like Robbie who are interested in anything with wheels, here are some pictures of the other buses that were out and about in Northampton on Saturday. Robbie is so obsessed that he will be back 'on the buses' on Sunday