Today I was meeting up with someone who provides absolutely brilliant support to people in the Railway Family and has been a true inspiration, personally, for me. He is part of the reason for relaunching my fundraising challenge of travelling all of Britain’s railway lines, as I could see how much the charity he works for makes a difference. This is Mike Roberts (@birdsnestsblog) of the Railway Mission. Mike is a chaplain who supports people in the Railway Family during tough times and devotes his time to the railways. Mike has been in contact with me since day one of starting my original crowdfunding page back in January 2020. He had so many plans for me, but we then went into the UK’s first lockdown in March 2020; so all had to be put on hold. Although we couldn’t meet in person he would occasionally surprise me with packages in the post, with train memorabilia enclosed, which would always put a smile on my face. As we eased out of the lockdowns, we tried to meet up many times but there was always something stopping it. That is until today.
Mike messaged me a few weeks ago to ask if my mum and I were free at all during the summer. After a few messages back and forth, we arranged a day and I was very much looking forward to finally meeting him. I had never met Mike in person before, but we had exchanged many messages on Twitter. He was even kind enough to have a video call with me, during a very difficult time for me, which I appreciate so very much. Notwithstanding this, I was still quite nervous about meeting him for the first time – as I am with any new person. As the day drew closer, I did start to get a bit more anxious but, as I was soon to find out, there was no reason to.
During our messages that Mike sent to my mum and me, we found out that he was planning to come down from the Preston area. Therefore he had to complete a 150+ mile journey, so he was due to be in Gloucester at about 11:30. The plan after he had arrived was to head to Bristol Temple Meads to; see a few trains, have something to eat and then head back up to Gloucester.
The day came and we headed to Gloucester station to meet Mike. There was a fair amount of traffic due to the ongoing road works and redevelopment happening outside the station. We arrived at the station at about 11:30. My dad had driven us, so he dropped my mum and me off and we headed into the station.
As we came into the station, Mike’s train had just arrived on platform 4 and was formed of a two-carriage class 170 unit (170 115). This was the 1V06 09:07 Nottingham to Gloucester CrossCountry service. The sea of passengers came over the footbridge and headed for the gateline. We kept our distance from passengers heading for the exit and waited for Mike. Before too long, I spotted Mike heading through the ticket barriers and we wandered over to him.
Once we introduced ourselves, we went over to the ticket machine and purchased tickets for my mum and me to Bristol Temple Meads. After the tickets had been printed, we went through the gateline and waited on the platform for the train to Bristol. I quickly showed Mike the art deco Gloucester station poster that I designed and had been put up in the station. We got a quick photo with the poster and within about 10 minutes our train, to Bristol Temple Meads, pulled in. This train was formed of a two-car class 165 (165 119) working 2F14 the 11:41 Gloucester to Warminster. The train was running about 10 minutes late on arrival to Gloucester, but this didn’t cause us any problems as we weren’t rushing to get anywhere.
he train was surprisingly busy and there were very few seats available. However, we managed to find a set of two adjacent airline seats and sat down. I sat next to Mike and my mum sat on the other set of seats. After a few minutes, we were on the move and heading for Bristol. Mike very kindly gifted me quite a collection of railway-related memorabilia, including; calendars, notebooks, fact sheets and even the legendary Arlo’s Adventures written by Bessie Matthews (@bessbbe). More about that later.
Mike and I started chatting about all manner of things ranging from trains to my home life to graphic design. I usually struggle to talk to people I have never met before; however Mike is a genuinely lovely person, and I can clearly see why he is so well respected in the Railway Family.
We were now approaching Bristol Parkway. It is very obvious when you are approaching the Great Western Mainline from the Gloucester area. This is because slowly more and more overhead line equipment appears, and before long you are fully enclosed by the gantries and wires; that is when you know you are on the mainline.
At Bristol Parkway, as usual, there were many Freightliner class 66’s and freight wagons. After Bristol Parkway, we called at Filton Abbey Wood and soon after we were on the final approach to Bristol Temple Meads.
I hadn’t been to Temple Meads since August 2020, when I met up with a Great Western Railway train driver and a couple of other railway friends. So, it was great to be back in the architecturally brilliant, Brunel station, which is Bristol Temple Meads.
We arrived 6 minutes late, so we managed to make up some of the time the service lost at Gloucester. As we alighted, I grabbed a quick photo of the train and then we waited on the platform. Mike was checking (on RealTimeTrains) to make sure there weren’t any special train services or freight trains coming through the station. Alas, there was nothing. We, therefore, decided to head out of the station and go for a little walk to the waterside. Heading out of the station it was rather busy, but we managed to make our way out of the gateline without too much trouble.
To get to the waterside from Temple Meads; we went out of the back entrance, walked through the car park and straight in front of us was the Bristol Feeder Canal. Mike was telling us about one of the last times that he was in Bristol. This was during the Shaun the Sheep (Shaun in the City) sculpture trail all the way back in 2015!
After we watched the comings and goings on the canal, we headed back to the station as we needed to get some lunch. I also wanted a photo of the frontage of the iconic Bristol Temple Meads station.
We took some photos of the facade of the station and the statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (the engineer who constructed the station). We then decided against buying a sandwich at the station, and instead we were going to go to the local Wetherspoons to get something to eat.
The Wetherspoons we were going to go to was back near the canal and was named ‘The Knights Templar’. It was extremely busy inside, so we decided to eat outside. The weather looked a bit inclement, but luckily there was some undercover seating. We didn’t even go inside to order, as Mike showed us how to order online. I was surprised by how straightforward it was to order on the Wetherspoons app and saved having to go to the bar of an extremely busy pub. My mum and I both had ham and cheese paninis with chips and a soft drink. It was surprisingly tasty for a pub lunch. We were constantly chatting over lunch, and once finished I had a look at train times to get back to Gloucester. There was a 14:39 GWR service back to Great Malvern which called at Gloucester. That gave us plenty of time to get back to the station and would even allow some time for train photography at Temple Meads.
Once back at the station, I had a look at the departure boards and saw that, as expected, the next train to Gloucester was indeed at 14:39. It was planned to depart from platform 13. I knew from previous experience that platform 13 isn’t great for taking photos of the main platforms – where most of the trains pass through. Instead, we went up to platform 6/8 which would give us a good view of the main train ‘shed’.
We saw a great variety of trains, including; class 43’s (High Speed Train), class 220’s (Voyagers), class 800’s (Intercity Express Train), class 166’s (Turbo) and On Track Machines.
After about 35 minutes of train photography, we headed over to platform 13 for our train back to Gloucester. I took a quick detour to go under the main station canopy to have a brief look at HST standing in platform 3, working a service to Cardiff Central. I took a quick photo and then went through the underpass to get to the platform we needed for Gloucester.
When we came up to platform 13, there was a pair of class 800’s waiting for their departure time, on the adjacent platform, to London Paddington. Both of the IETs were named, one Queen Elizabeth II (with the platinum jubilee crest on) and the other Kathryn Osmond. A number of train operating companies added the crests during the Queen’s jubilee in June 2022, but this was the first time I had seen a train with one on.
Soon after we took a photo of the IETs, our train pulled in from Warminster, now working 2E65 14:39 Bristol Temple Meads to Great Malvern. It was formed of a 3 carriage class 166 (166 213). Once the passengers alighted from the train, we hopped aboard for our journey back to Gloucester.
We sat in the declassified first class section as that gives you a bit more room on the class 166’s. The train was really warm, I think the air conditioning must have been broken. I wanted to get a photo with Mike on board the train with a poster I had created showing how much I had raised for the Railway Mission. Mike also wanted a photo with Bessie’s book, Arlo’s Adventures, so he could send it to her.
‘Arlo’s Adventures’ is a children’s book designed to educate young people about the dangers that the railways may present. It is expertly written and illustrated by Bessie Matthews; the perfectly designed illustrations do a great job at keeping the reader engaged. Also by making the book interactive (pick a path) it keeps the audience really intrigued to find out more. It has been published by the Community Rail Network, who help to educate people about the dangers of the railways, and I would imagine they use this brilliant book as a resource to help inform children. It is truly a hit with the Railway Family and the wider public. If you would like to read the book in a digital form, then here is the link: Link to E-Book.
After sitting in the platform for about 10 minutes we were on the move. I got chatting to Mike again and had an enjoyable, but hot, trip home. There was an irritating whistling sound on this particular class 166, but that didn’t really affect the enjoyment of the trip. We repeated the same route back to Gloucester, so nothing much to report.
On arrival to Gloucester, we said our goodbyes to Mike. He went over the footbridge to catch another CrossCountry service to Birmingham New Street where he would change to take him back up north. My mum and I headed to the car park to meet my dad, who would take us home.
I would like to thank Mike so very much for coming to meet me, and I very much look forward to our next outing. Also a well-deserved mention to Bessie for writing such an amazing book and for letting me have a copy.
If you would like to read more about me then here is a link to my fundraising page: GoFundMe
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