On Friday 31st January my dad and I went on a special trip I was given for Christmas.
My mum took us to the station and I started to feel a bit anxious about the journey. I had been really looking forward to it since Christmas but now it felt very scary and I thought I didn’t want to go anymore – I just wanted to go home. My mum told me I would be fine and that I could call her anytime during the night and calmed me down enough to get out of the car and onto the platform.
We caught the 18:23 GWR train from Stonehouse to London Paddington. We called at Stroud then Kemble and next was Swindon which we stayed at for few minutes while the train changed from diesel to electric. This meant that the train could now travel at the top speed of 125 mph for the rest of the journey (which it did). The next stop was Didcot Parkway and then Reading. Just before Reading we saw the Train Care depot, where I saw our train for the evening which was formed of 8 coaches and two class 57’s. It was being cleaned and would follow us up to London Paddington later. I had been worrying throughout the journey so far, thinking I couldn’t do this, but when I saw the Night Riviera, I suddenly felt excited again. As we arrived into Paddington the train started to slow down and then I heard the familiar sound of the doors opening one final time. As we stepped off the train the magical feeling of being in London was even better than usual because of the lighting. The station was lit up in purple for the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz for the whole of that week.
We had a couple of hours to wait until we were able to board the Night Riviera sleeper train. We went across to platform 1 and saw the sculpture of Paddington Bear and also had a look around the Paddington shop. Then we went to the ticket office to go and pick up some new timetables and brochures. After that we sat on the bench outside the first-class lounge and waited until 9 o’clock. At last we headed into the first-class lounge and sat there until our train was ready to leave. They had upgraded the lounge since the last time I visited – new seats had been added that looked out over the station – so I chose to sit there as I could watch everything happening outside. We met two other fellow passengers who were just as excited as me to be travelling on the sleeper. I then watched the signalling diagram on my phone which told me where my train was (5C50/1C50). As I could see it approaching, I went outside to watch it come in. The locomotive on the front was Tintagel Castle – which I have a model of – and the one on the rear was Restormel Castle.
Boarding then started; we met our onboard host and she showed us to our room. When we arrived, the room was boiling hot so we put the air conditioning on and went and sat in the lounge car while it cooled down. My dad had a complementary cup of tea which came with some biscuits. We stayed in the lounge car until 23:45 when the train left bang on time. We then went back to our berth which by now had cooled down. I chose the top bunk so my dad had to have the bottom one! The room had bunk beds, a wash basin, wardrobe, lovely comfortable bed linen, complimentary bottles of water and a lot of plug and USB sockets. I tried to go to sleep but that’s when I started to panic again, I called my mum and at that moment I just wanted to get off the train. I had a long chat with my mum who told me to try and think about getting to Penzance in the morning and seeing the sea and lots of other things too. I didn’t think it was helping but it got me through a bit more of the journey. At Reading we stopped for 14 minutes and Restormel Castle uncoupled and went back to the depot. I had a few more calls to my mum and I stayed awake until just before Westbury and then managed my first bit of sleep until Taunton.
I was still feeling very anxious and told mum I wanted to get off at Exeter or Plymouth as I was still feeling worried and felt really sick too. My mum reassured me that I wasn’t going to be ill and that it was me being anxious that was making me feel like this. I went back to sleep at Exeter and then didn’t wake up again until Bodmin Parkway. I felt much better then as the night was nearly over and it was too late to get off at Plymouth! We walked right to the end of the train and looked out the back where the rear locomotive had been – it was a fantastic view and the first time I have ever looked out of the back of a mainline train. Then we walked all the way back to the front of the train to the seated area of the train. We walked back one coach to the lounge car and started chatting to our senior onboard host – Neil. He was telling us about what happens if the sleeper has any failures and what they do – it was really interesting. Next, he phoned back to our on-board host to get our breakfast. My dad and I both went for the bacon roll, it was delicious. We went back to our cabin and packed up our bags ready to leave the train in Penzance. We then saw the man we met the previous day and started chatting to him again – sharing stories about our train journeys. Then it was time to say goodbye to our cabin (E01L & E02U). We walked to the back of the train ready to leave, we lowered the window and took some videos and photos from the inside of the train. We were then approaching Penzance station; the train came to a halt and then I heard the familiar sound of the slam doors opening and closing.
Leaving the train, we took a deep breath of sea air and then walked to the Night Riviera Lounge. My dad had a drink and I sat down and watched the train leave the station. The Night Riviera was now ready to go back to the depot, a member of network rail guided the train out of Penzance station safely as the driver was at the rear of train and couldn’t see anything! I had made the entire journey – I couldn’t believe it. We went for a walk around Penzance and sat down by the sea front. The beautiful blue sea looked amazing in the winters sun. We bought some sandwiches from Tesco’s and walked back to the station and had a cup of tea. We then caught the 10:50 GWR service to Cardiff Central which was formed of a set of 4 Mk3’s and HST’s (43098 + 43004). It called at all stations to Newton Abbot. The scenery in Cornwall is beautiful, I would recommend that if you are in the area to do a train trip there. At Newton Abbot we then ran fast until Exeter and got some lovely views of the sea at Dawlish. Then we continued onto Taunton and finally Bristol. We got off at Bristol platform 3 and walked down to the underpass and up to platform 7. We then caught a GWR class 166 to Cam and Dursley. My mum came and picked us from the station. My dad and I were exhausted but my mum was so proud of me for completing the whole journey and I had enjoyed it. Hopefully I will get to travel the sleeper again but will take my mum next time.
Thank you very much GWR for a wonderful service!
A quick video summing up the 8 hour journey in 37 seconds 🙂
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