Today I was going on a little adventure to the South Coast of Devon. This trip was for good reason, I had been invited to a very special Great Western Railway train naming. And I had a personal involvement in the event! So, I knew that I needed to make every possible effort to attend and to get to the event in person.
Before I continue with today’s adventures let’s take a step back as you might have noticed my blog has been very quiet lately. I realised last week that it has been nearly a whole year since my last post, which isn’t great at all on my part, but there have been good reasons. I have been quite unwell for part of the year with varying severities of mental illnesses and have been tied up with lots of other commitments, hence taking the foot off the pedal on the railway side. I am very happy to be writing this blog today and the trip to Devon really reignited my passion for the railways and reminded me how beyond amazing the Railway Family are.
Right, let’s get back to the present day and I can explain a little bit more about the event and my involvement in it.
A few weeks ago, I received a very exciting message from a Great Western Railway (GWR) employee, Paul, asking me if I would like to do some design work for a train naming. The design was for a train naming event, where GWR were going to be naming a train ‘Dame Agatha Christie’. The brief was that the poster needed to be in keeping with Christie’s golden era, Art Deco, and include some well-known landmarks from the Great Western network.
Over the past few years, I seemed to have built up a bit of a reputation for my Art Deco-style posters. The Art Deco style that I reproduce isn’t a 1:1 replica of the traditional Art Deco art form, but instead an Art Deco-inspired style with my very own modern twist. So, this design definitely felt within my remit. There was one minor constraint and that was that the design needed to be completed in just over a week. That wouldn’t have usually been a problem, but in the week leading up to the deadline I was due to be on a course of Equine Therapy which would use up a lot of my time and energy. However, I thought, “You don’t receive opportunities like this every day!”. So of course, I had to say yes! I started work on the design immediately and over the course of a week, where I ended up spending 10-15 hours on the design in total, I had a finalised approved design. I will reveal the design itself a bit later on in the blog, so stay tuned!
During the design process, GWR invited my parents and me to join the Agatha Christie train naming event in person at Paignton station in Devon as one of their guests. I was honoured to be invited to such a prestigious event and after receiving the details of the event, my parents and I began planning the best, and most importantly the least stressful, way to make our way to Paignton. I was still hesitant about going as I was worried about how I was going to feel whilst travelling by train after having a tricky experience earlier in the year.
During one of my most recent train journeys back in March 2023 I was suffering gravely from trauma-induced symptoms and found myself feeling extremely hypervigilant throughout the entirety of the trip. That feeling was truly horrible and not something I had ever felt before. It felt like one of the only passions I had was slowly being wrenched off me and I had absolutely no control over it. I would not wish that feeling on anyone. It left me in a very dark headspace for a prolonged period afterwards. I thought I would share a little quote from a personal piece of writing I typed on the train home that day:
“I didn’t enjoy anything about today… Almost like I’m doing it for someone else… Going out, to do anything, is really stressful and not worth the effort. Being ill really is rubbish”
That note written in March sums up how I was feeling. I have put a lot of work in since then and I am starting to make small steps of progress, but with every two small steps comes one or two or three steps back, but hopefully, slowly, I will make progress. Indeed, I have made progress since March, even if it has been so incredibly hard. There have been improvements but also some challenges along the way, but that’s recovery for you. One of these steps forward was for me to go and just watch trains rather than actually travelling on them. That was such a powerful step to take. It took time and perseverance but it showed me that my deep love and passion for the railways hadn’t waned away completely and there was a spark somewhere in me. I think it’s like when you are lighting a match; it may take a few strikes before you get a flame, but the flame always comes. For me, it took many strikes, in the form of going out and watching trains on bridges, foot crossings, and fields, but the flame in me ignited eventually. The flame turned into a blaze and eventually, the railway bug was flowing around my whole body once again. This almost certainly won’t be the last time I will have to climb those steep steps but I got quite a way up this time and as you will read this trip helped enormously with that.
My parents and I looked at numerous different options and ways to get to Paignton. Eventually, after careful consideration, we settled on a plan. The plan was as follows; drive to Digby & Sowton station (near Exeter) then get the train down to Exmouth before getting a train to Paignton station itself. Going to Exmouth sounds a bit of an arbitrary choice on a trip where I needed to go in the opposite direction but there is good reason. The idea being that I have never travelled beyond Digby & Sowton in the direction of Exmouth, on the aptly named Avocet Line, so it would tick off some new route for the fundraising challenge I set myself in 2020.
We decided the best way to achieve our plan was to buy a ranger train ticket, specifically the Devon Day Ranger. This ticket is very reasonable, costing just under £30 for three adults (with railcard discounts) and allows unlimited travel after 9am in Devon. That means you can travel on all the Devon branch lines (Okehampton, Barnstaple, Exmouth, Paignton & Gunnislake) as well as the mainline routes between Tiverton, Axminster, Exeter and Plymouth. So basically, as the name suggests you can travel anywhere on the train in Devon. These types of tickets are amazing for me as it allows plans to flex at a moment’s notice and you can change the structure of the day to mould around how I am feeling. I knew Digby & Sowton station has no ticket office, as it is an unstaffed station, so we decided that we would buy the Devon Day Ranger in advance from our local ticket office, Gloucester. We just so happened to be in Gloucester the day before the naming so we duly bought the tickets then. With tickets in hand, it was all starting to feel real!
The night before the naming we got an earlyish night, as we had to make an early start the next morning to ensure we had ample time to get to Paignton to help reduce my anxieties.
The day came and we all were awakened at 6am by multiple alarm clocks ringing (we couldn’t risk not waking up after all!). After having a little breakfast, my mum, dad, myself and even our dog, Bella, got in the car and my dad embarked on the drive down to Digby. The weather was very changeable throughout the journey, with rain, sun, clouds and even a rainbow! Luckily for us, there was little to no traffic on the trip down and we arrived at Digby at about 08:45. That was perfect. There was a train, which just so happened to be the first train that we could board with our tickets at 9am on the dot. That started the day off well.
After we parked our car in the free Park & Ride carpark at Digby & Sowton station, we crossed over a footbridge and arrived a few minutes later on the platform. As we crossed over the bridge a train had just pulled into the station and, what felt like, hundreds of school/college-aged young people disembarked and were filing off the platform and making their way to, what I would imagine to be, college. That was quite daunting as a lot of the trauma I suffer from stems from the education sector. I tried my best to just regulate my emotions and just watched the train depart and grabbed a quick photo (much to the college student’s amusement, don’t think they had seen a railway enthusiast at Digby station before!).
Soon enough our train rolled into the platform which was formed of a two-car class 150 (150 219) train, still in its retro dark blue and bright pink First Great Western livery. The plan we had formed was if the train was really busy, we wouldn’t board. My heart dropped as the train pulled in and it looked absolutely rammed. However, much to my surprise the train pretty much emptied, once again with mostly young people, so we decided to board to embark on the roughly 20 minute journey to Exmouth. That might have been a mistake, as you will read a bit later on. This train was the 2F09 09:00 Digby & Sowton to Exmouth.
Once we all boarded the train, we found a table seat in the rear of the second coach and sat down there. I was slightly nervous as to how our dog Bella would cope onboard the train, especially after a nearly two-hour car journey, but she seemed absolutely fine and relaxed on my mum’s lap. We called at all stations to Exmouth bar Lympstone Commando (which is a request stop). This was all new line for me, and I had little idea as to what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by how scenic the Avocet Line was. As the name suggests the line is home to avocets and we did actually see a couple of these elegant birds on our short ride to Exmouth when the line hugged the shoreline. It was quite overcast on the journey down, but nevertheless, it was a very pleasant ride. By the time we got settled on the train and we were past a few stops I began to feel myself release some of the tension in my body and the railway spark started to ignite further.
After a little while, we arrived into Exmouth some two minutes early! When the train arrived into the platform, there was a sea of passengers waiting to board the return service towards Exeter and Paignton. My anxiety began to spike. We were all going to alight the train and stretch our legs before the aforementioned train reversed and embarked on the journey towards Paignton, but we thought it was probably best to stay on board to keep our seats. Although, I decided to hop off and grab some quick photos of the station as I had never visited Exmouth before. It was quite nice to get a bit of fresh air and move about before getting back on board a rather busy train.
Our two-car train soon reversed and was back on its way north on the Avocet Line. The class 150 was now working 2T12 the 09:24 Exmouth to Paignton. As the train stopped at its first calling point of Lympstone Village the train got increasingly busier to the point where people were beginning to stand in the aisle of the train. My anxiety was becoming higher and higher. A small positive was we made a call at the request stop of Lympstone Commando, which we missed on the outward journey, to allow a solitary passenger to disembark. At least I can say I stopped at every station on the Exmouth to Exeter line!
I suggested to my parents that we alighted the train at Topsham as the train was becoming incredibly busy. However, we ended up deciding to stay onboard in the hope that some of the passengers would alight at Digby & Sowton, similar to what happened earlier in the day. Alas, the train just got busier and busier and very few passengers left the train at Digby. By that point, we thought it would probably be preferable to travel to Exeter St. Davids rather than leaving the train at an earlier station and being left effectively stranded at a station in the suburbs of Exeter waiting for another train.
Our dog, Bella, was also getting noticeably increasingly more anxious and she ended up sitting on my lap for part of the journey from Exmouth. The benefit of this was twofold, the first being that Bella was facing forward and didn’t have a stranger sitting next to her (as I was sitting next to my dad) but also secondly helping to calm me by acting as a kind of weighted blanket. I think this move definitely helped both of us to calm down. I have noticed that my relationship with Bella has developed massively over the past few months, even to the point that when I am feeling distressed at home she will actively come and find me and try and bring me back into the moment. Bella might do this by licking my hand, barking, snuggling up to me or just by being present in my time of distress. I appreciate my newly enhanced relationship with Bella hugely.
Once Bella was on my lap, I felt more grounded and less anxious. Soon enough we had left the Exmouth branch and were back on the Waterloo – Exeter mainline at St. James Park. After calling at St. James Park our next stop was Exeter Central. The train pretty much emptied here and Bella and I felt much more at ease. As the train was, comparably, relatively quiet now, we decided that rather than leave this service at Exeter St. Davids we would continue onboard this service to Dawlish. This would mean we would get some time on the beach in Dawlish before heading for Paignton.
Our train was now pulling into Exeter St. Davids, where this diesel multiple unit would reverse before heading towards Dawlish. As our train entered the platform at St. Davids, there was a Great Western Railway ‘Castle Class’ HST departing – heading for Plymouth. The train was running as what is known as ‘Empty Coaching Stock’ (under the headcode 5C98 08:32 St. Philips Marsh to Plymouth), which as the name implies, means that the train is running without any passengers onboard. Seeing the Castle Class brought much excitement to me as these trains on the Great Western network are rumoured to be taken out of service by the middle to end of next year. The Castle Class HSTs started life as the world-famous ‘InterCity 125’ trains. These trains have been in service since the late 70’s and only now are we beginning to see the permanent end of their time in regular mainline service. I have many a fond memory travelling by and seeing these trains when they used to operate the long-distance high-speed services so it is always great to see them. It’s like catching up with an old friend! Unfortunately, the Castle Class wasn’t stopping so could only get a photo of it through a rather mucky window, but nevertheless, it was still great to see it.
As our train came to a gentle stop, I decided I would hop off the train with Bella to allow her and me to stretch our legs before embarking on the remainder of the circa 15-minute trip to Dawlish. I had about 4 minutes to hop off while the staff onboard the train all switch ends to allow the driver to be located at the front of the train and the Train Manager and Revenue Protection Officer to be based out of the rear cab of the train. It’s a very slick operation, and achieved in an impressive time.
It helped to get off the train and move around while getting some fresh Exeter air rather than staying onboard. Sometimes moving around a little bit, especially outdoors, can do wonders for your emotional state. I think Bella was somewhat excited to leave the train but she was blatantly conscious that her parents were still on the train. So, after walking a few hundred meters, with Bella tugging on the lead to get back to the train, we hopped back onboard and settled down for the remainder of the journey west.
Soon after we reboarded the train the doors were beeping and hissing and we were off. This service is one of the faster services on the Riveria Line (between Exeter & Newton Abbot/Paignton) as the train doesn’t make a call at any station prior to Dawlish Warren. This means that we didn’t call at Exeter St. Thomas, the newly opened Marsh Barton station or Starcross. This proved somewhat beneficial to me as it meant that our train couldn’t get any busier before Dawlish. That helped me. I knew that I could just enjoy the journey for what it was and not have to worry or panic about busy station stops.
The class 150 train was now powering its way out of the hustle of the Exeter suburbs and making a break for the countryside, and most excitingly the sea! Particularly exciting for my mum.
As a result of several factors, me being unwell and the pandemic to name a couple, my mum hasn’t seen the sea for over 3 years. My mum has been desperate to get back to the coast, but whenever we have tried to plan something, there has been some kind of unforeseen issue (usually me, sorry mum!) meaning we couldn’t go. However, when GWR invited us to the train naming event in Paignton it seemed like an appropriate opportunity to try again. And this time, in some kind of miracle, we made it! When we first started planning today, we hadn’t expected to have the time to alight at Dawlish, but as we ended up arriving earlier than expected at Digby, it meant that we could attempt to get off at Dawlish.
As our train weaved its way towards Dawlish we caught our first glimpse of the estuary, which just so happened to be directly opposite where we were about an hour earlier in Exmouth. Unfortunately, we were on the right-hand side of the train when we should have been on the left to get the best views of the coastline. In all the drama I had completely forgotten about the sea wall and where you need to be positioned to get the best views. Never mind, but note to self to sit on the other side on the return journey (spoiler alert, I did remember on the return and in a very classy style, that’s enough said for now)!
Before long, our train was pulling into Dawlish Warren. We had toyed with the idea of disembarking here and then walking along the famous seawall to Dawlish, but after a quick Google Maps search, I found it was a forty-minute walk. Big no-no! We were tired enough as it was after a 6am start and didn’t need to purposefully add to that by walking nearly two miles! So, we stayed put onboard and after about 5 minutes we arrived at Dawlish itself.
As the doors released, we inhaled our first ‘proper’ sea air in three years. Absolutely lovely! We stepped down off the train and walked towards what we presumed was the way out. We weren’t really too sure though as Dawlish station has been undergoing some fairly major improvement work since we were last here. As luck would have it, we ended up going the right direction and crossed over the old footbridge (they’re building a gleaming new one as part of the works) and once we were over to the adjacent platform, we walked down a flight of steps and walked out through the ticket office. In my style, I spotted a new CrossCountry timetable so fashionably I picked one up to add to my rather large collection of railway bits and bobs!
Walking out the station we took a left, under the railway bridge and onto the promenade at Dawlish. It had changed quite a bit since we were last here as they have been undergoing major works to try and strengthen the sea wall to proactively defend the railway line against the everchanging severe weather. I think the works are mostly complete now, although don’t quote me on that!
I spotted there was a train due through so hot-footed it up a flight of steps in the hope I might be able to get a photo of it. I was a bit disorientated as it had all changed since I was last here but I managed to get a somewhat passable photo of the 9-car GWR class 800 (800 312) passing through on its lengthy journey from Paddington to Penzance.
After the train passed through my parents and I walked down towards the beach. We weren’t sure if dogs were allowed on the beach in Dawlish, but after spotting a couple of other dogs on the sand we could be pretty sure that Bella wouldn’t be breaking any laws! This was the first time Bella had ever been on the beach or been anywhere near the sea. As with most things with Bella, she was unphased and just wandered onto the beach as if it was her normal walk.
This was anything other than ‘normal’ for my mum, it was something she had wanted to do for so many years, and now she was here. My dad went and bought a couple of drinks, which on his return you would see the visible shock on his face by the price of these hot beverages. That’s British seaside towns for you, but you don’t come here every day do you? After a little wander on the beach, including me convincing my mum to go down to the sea itself and feel the salty water on her hand which led to Bella getting a tad damp (which I wasn’t very popular for!), we walked back up to the station.
We only had a mere 30 minutes in Dawlish before we needed to catch a train to Paignton to ensure we got to the main event of the day, the train naming! The walking, waiting and dithering took a good 15 minutes so ended up only getting about a quarter of an hour on the beach itself. Better than nothing, I guess!
Various photos taken at Dawlish
As we came back into the station, I noticed there was a freight movement, consisting of a piece of On Track Plant, a Tamper, working 6J44 the 09:56 Tavistock Junction to Reading Triangle Sidings (DR73905). On Track Plant, and more specifically Tamper’s, are typically used after major engineering works to help assist with multiple time-consuming tasks that this type of machinery can make light work of. I believe Tampers are used mainly to tightly pack newly laid ballast down to prolong the lifespan of the tracks and ensure levelness. I grabbed a quick photo of the Tamper passing through from the station footbridge before heading down to the same platform we arrived in on to catch our ride to Paignton.
After a few minutes of arriving at the station, our train (formed of two 2-car units 150 263 & 150 243) pulled in parallel to a train working the reverse of its service, heading back towards Exmouth. Our double 2-car unit looked rather full, but luckily the rear of the two units was pretty quiet and we found ourselves a free table seat. Our train was working 2T13 the 10:53 Dawlish to Paignton. The table seat we were sitting at just so happened to be opposite the bicycle area, so there was no one sitting adjacent to us, which was very pleasant. This did come with one minor drawback being that we were once again sat on the wrong side to get the views of the remainder of the sea wall section on the Riveria Line, from Dawlish to Teignmouth. We could still see the coastline but just couldn’t get the full effect of the breathtaking views.
Our train carried on gliding down the Riveria Line, making one station stop at Teignmouth before our on-time arrival at Newton Abbot. While we stopped at Newton Abbot, my dad (who is a keen Pokémon Go player) spotted, what Pokémon call, a raid and it was a race against time before our train departed to join. Luckily, he managed to take part in time which kept him amused for part of the journey.
After Newton Abbot, we continued on the mainline towards Plymouth before our train swung a left, over Newton Abbot West Junction and joined the Paignton branch. As I had never travelled on this line before, I could, metaphorically, get my red pen out and tick off even more new route! This trip today was most certainly helping to fill in my challenge progress map with even more completed lines, which felt great after having a prolonged hiatus of ticking off any new track.
Our train soon left the business of Newton Abbot behind it and we made our first stop of the Riveria Line branch line at Torre. After pausing and duly picking up a handful of new passengers, we made our way towards Torquay. Again, we stopped at Torquay for a matter of minutes and soon enough our next stop was Paignton.
As I had never travelled on this line before, I didn’t really know what to expect scenery-wise, and I was very taken aback by the scenic views between Torquay and Paignton. Bearing in mind that the distance between the two aforementioned stations is a measly 2 miles 13 chains the views were spectacular. The train travelled parallel to Hollicombe Beach and then Preston Sands before heading back inland. At Preston Sands, there were some lovely postcard-worthy beach huts which reminded us of our presence at a very British seaside town. Then a matter of minutes later we were pulling in over Paignton North Level Crossing and then we made our arrival into Paignton station some two minutes early. Impressive!
View of Preston Sands (left) and Hollicombe Beach (right)
Even though I had never been to this area before it seemed very familiar from a very geeky signalling simulation game I play (called SimSig) which covers the whole area that I travelled today. Including controlling the level crossing at Paignton! It’s a very intense game where you can sometimes have over 20 trains to control at the same time but it works perfectly for my ADHD brain which needs to be constantly occupied.
As our train came to a gradual stop at the terminating station of Paignton for this service which also happens to be the end of the line for mainline trains, we alighted and I walked to take a photo of the train at this newly ticked off station for me.
It might have been easy to forget in the blog so far (as I nearly did writing this!) that the whole aim of today was to attend the Agatha Christie train naming. Well, this is where the actual event starts, so apologies about the nearly five-thousand-word essay it took to get here! Back to the blog!
I wasn’t sure if the GWR team were here yet to set up and prepare for the naming, as it was about an hour before the actual ceremony was planned to start, but my mum caught a glimpse of something on the train that suggested otherwise. Out of the train coach window, my mum saw what she thought was the poster I designed as the stage’s backdrop on the opposite platform. I had my head facing the platform that our train was pulling into so I didn’t see it, but as I went to take a photo of the train we just arrived in on I saw it. The poster. The labour of love, time and patience. The largest, tightest time frame project I have completed to date. You couldn’t miss it. All those hours of work came together to create such a stunning and eye-catching piece of work (if I may say so myself (I know I am biased!)). The poster, as I expected, was the backdrop for the classic Great Western Railway train naming stage and it was definitely a ‘pinch yourself’ moment!
As we arrived in on Platform 2, we headed over the station footbridge because the train naming was going to take place on Platform 1. We made our way down to the end of Platform 1 to what looked like where we needed to be for the naming. There were already quite a few people, notably GWR employees, ready and waiting for the ceremony, so my mum went and introduced ourselves to one of the GWR staff members. We had a lovely conversation with GWR’s Dan and Thomas about the poster design and I talked to them about some of the design (including the landmarks on the poster; Big Ben (behind a curtain), Paddington Station, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Royal Albert Bridge, Bristol Temple Meads and Agatha Chritie’s very own Greenway House). They seemed very impressed with the work! They were slightly concerned though as because the poster was printed on a gorse material it was somewhat translucent. I didn’t know what GWR were going to print the design on, but being up close to it the effect of the poster was taken away from a little by the opaqueness. Luckily, Dan and Thomas had this slight problem in hand; and a duvet cover & pillow case (from a local Paignton shop) and not forgetting a screwdriver later, we had one non-see-through poster. Perfect!
Before and after of the poster rectifications
I also spotted Jack Boskett, a renowned professional photographer, and we had a quick chat before Jack resumed his photographer duties! The guests began to arrive and made their way down to the end of Platform 1. Cat, whom I met previously at the Poppies to Paddington event, was also present at the train naming today. Cat helped to make today so much more accessible to me by removing any pressure and leaving all the decisions leading up to the day in my hands. My parents and I had a quick chat and introduced her to Bella (apparently Bella is only the second dog to attend a GWR train naming; so quite the honour, Bella!). Cat headed off to ensure everything was in order before naming and we wandered further down the platform to keep ourselves away from the hustle and bustle.
While we were making our way down the platform, what looked like a cast of a theatrical performance arrived at the station. We assumed that they were related to the Agatha Christie train naming. That was the right assumption to make. They were actually the cast of the world-famous ‘The Mousetrap’ – one of Christie’s most successful plays. There were a couple of familiar faces within the cast, more about them later.
Before the ceremony began, I took a couple of photos of the stage and my dad took one of me in front of my backdrop as a little keepsake from the day. When I say a couple of photos, I actually ended up taking over 700 photos over the course of the day (not quite sure how that happened!).
The ceremony began on time at 12:20 with Great Western Railway’s Daryn McCombe, Train Service and Performance Director, starting proceedings by informing guests about the various health and safety procedures that come hand in hand with the event being hosted at an active mainline railway station. Daryn then went on to provide the guests with a bit of background information about Dame Agatha Christie’s broad links to the railway but also more specifically her affinity with the Great Western. He also introduced the celebrated Agatha Christie Expert and Blue Badge Guide, Joan Nott, who was in attendance at the ceremony today.
Next to take to the red-carpeted stage was MP for Torbay, Kevin Foster, who talked a little about Christie’s links with the Torbay and the English Riviera areas. Kevin also spoke about the vast legacy Dame Agatha Christie left in the local areas and the positive impact that has had.
Matt Newbury, Creative Director of the Agatha Christie Festival, then took to the plinth and talked a little bit more about Christie’s love of the trains and how the railways featured in many of her novels.
The final guest speaker of the day, Mathew Prichard (Agatha Christie’s grandson), took centre stage and once again reaffirmed his grandmother’s love of the railways and how much Christie relished travelling by rail. Mathew also went on to recount a story or two from his childhood that trains played a pivotal role in. To quote Mathew, “Her [Christie’s] eyes used to light up at the prospect of travelling on these wonderful monsters, as she called them”. I think “wonderful monsters” is a very apt way of describing trains; for me, that phrase conjures up an image of a majestic yet complicated beast that has an element of anticipation and is found in a serendipitous encounter. Christie really is a ‘Great Westerner’!
To finish the ceremony Daryn informed us that the Intercity Express Train that was being named ‘Dame Agatha Christie’ was currently sailing towards us and would be due into Paignton station in a few minutes. Daryn thanked all the attendees for coming and left us eager for the train’s arrival. The train’s arrival would mark the end of the ceremony, and is clearly one of the most important parts of the day.
The various speakers at the train naming. (top left, Daryn McCombe, top right, Kevin Foster, bottom left, Matt Newbury, and bottom right, Mathew Prichard
Quite a crowd of regular passengers had gathered during the ceremony behind the barriered-off area of the platform looking on in amazement at what they just witnessed. Must have been a pretty exciting, unexpected treat for the passersby at Paignton station.
The tension on the platform was building waiting for the train to arrive, and with the cast of The Mousetrap in position for the photoshoot, the level crossing was lowered which signified the imminent arrival of the train.
The yellow nose of the Great Western Green Intercity Express train came over the horizon and before long the train entered the platform. The Mousetrap cast welcomed the train onto the platform by giving a very era-appropriate clap. I do wonder what the passengers of that train from London thought when they arrived into the, normally fairly sleepy, station of Paignton with a large theatrical cast all in their show attire clapping at them. Then to see a red-carpeted stage further along the platform, it must have all been quite a pleasant shock!
As the train slowed to a walking pace, there was an anxious wait while we waited to see if the train would stop in the correct position for the photos. You forget how long these 9-car trains are, but soon enough the Intercity Express Train slowed to a crawl before the unique light squeak from the train’s brake came into force signifying the train’s imminent stop. The train stopped. It was in the perfect position! The cast were lined up perfectly with the ‘Dame Agatha Christie’ vinyl. Phew!
The race against time commenced to complete the photoshoot before the train had to leave the platform to be stabled in the sidings before working its return working to London Paddington. Jack Boskett and the videographers sprang into action and started getting all the various angles they needed. The cast of The Mousetrap had their photos taken before some of the guests joined slowly in with the action. Even I got a group photo with the cast and crew! Cat made sure I was okay during the photoshoot as it was all getting a bit crowded and busy, which I appreciated massively! Thank you, Cat!
The cast of The Mousetrap, GWR employees, guests and me in front of the train
This batch of photos were taken next to the striking ‘Dame Agatha Christie’ vinyl, which very fittingly featured a magnified glass to illustrate the mysterious and detective theme of her novels and playwrights.
As I was capturing some photos of the newly named train (number 802 110, for the train enthusiasts amongst us) I noticed my mum and dad were chatting to one of the cast members of The Mousetrap. At that point, I didn’t know who they were. They were making an affectionate fuss of Bella, which she was enjoying very much. I wandered back over to them to find the actor my parents were chatting to was no other than the renowned Catherine Shipton, star of the BBC series Casualty playing ‘Duffy’. My mum has been a great Casualty fan for many years and for her, it was very exciting to meet such an iconic celebrity. My parents and I had a lovely chat with Cath, and even managed to sneak a few photos in while there was a pause in the official photoshoot.
Photos of Cath, Bella, my mum and me
Thank you so much, Cath, for taking the time to speak to us (I am glad the cuddles with Bella helped while you are on tour and can’t see your dogs!) ?
The Dame Agatha Christie train was due out of the station in a matter of minutes, so we briskly made our way down the platform to watch the train depart while some more photos of The Mousetrap cast were taken. Even Bella made her way into the camera’s spotlight!
As the train began to pull out of the station, the cast performed an iconic wave as a gesture of farewell. Quite a touching moment seeing the train disappear off into the distance with a theatrical cast waving it off! This won’t be the last we see of Christie’s train today; oh no, we’ve got some more exciting antics to get to in a little bit!
As The Mousetrap cast dispersed, we headed back up the platform to say our goodbyes to the various GWR employees before we headed out to get a little something to eat as it was 1pm at this point! Our normal lunch time is 12pm so we were all feeling rather peckish (especially after the rather early start!).
We bid farewell to Dan, Thomas, Daryn and Cat and thanked them so much for inviting me to the naming today and for making it so special! I also saw my poster being rolled up into a tight roll, which was very interesting to see.
One final look at the poster and then poster being rolled up
After a quick bit of deliberating, we decided we would walk down towards the seafront and see if we could find something to eat. My mum had found a café on the seafront that I wasn’t sure about, but we had that as a last resort if we couldn’t find anything more suitable. Alas, we didn’t find anything that looked like our cup of tea so decided to head to this café called ‘Shoreline’.
Walking up to it I was pleasantly surprised! It was raised off the ground and had a terrace that was right above the beach. We checked it was dog-friendly as we had Bella in tow, which it was. Perfect! We decided we would eat on the terrace as it was such a beautiful day. It was very pleasant indeed!
We consulted the menu, which had a nice amount of variation, and we settled on our meals of choice. My dad and I had a margherita pizza and my mum had fish and chips (very fitting being on the coast). When we walked in I spotted they had a ‘proper’ pizza oven which made me curious as to what the pizza would be like. Being a quarter Italian, good pizza can be tricky to come by but I had high expectations for this! These expectations were more than met when a very Neapolitan-style looking pizza arrived at our table. Absolutely delicious!
Whilst we were waiting for our food, I was getting increasingly anxious about what train we would get back towards Exeter. I had initially planned to attempt to board the same train that was just named back to Exeter St. Davids. I didn’t think we would make that train as it was due to depart at 14:10 and by the time our food arrived it was 13:30. So to help settle my anxieties we decided to aim not to board that service but instead get a later train back north. The initial plan was still in the back of my mind though.
As we were just finishing our lunch, I looked at my watch and saw it had just passed 13:55. I speedily told my parents that we could still potentially make the Dame Agatha Christie train if we left now. My dad was still keen to get me onboard the newly named train, so as I took the last mouthful of my delicious pizza we rushed up and left. Luckily the mum had already paid, so we didn’t have to faff around with that!
The clock was ticking. I knew it took us about 10 minutes to walk from the station earlier so there was a reasonable chance we would make it. My watch ticked to 13:58. Then 13:59. As the clock struck 14:00 we were making good progress and we had just entered the high street. The level crossing was just about in sight. That meant the station was within a distance of a stone’s throw. It was now 14:05 and we were at the level crossing. Would we make it? We didn’t know the fastest way to walk to Platform 2; was it over the footbridge, or across the level crossing? We opted for the level-crossing route. I wasn’t 100% sure that we could access the platform from this side as I hadn’t paid much attention to this trivial detail (which is somewhat unusual for me given my normal level of observation skills). Luckily my parents noticed earlier that the ticket office was located on this side so there was most likely an entrance too! And yes, there was an entrance! We made it! The ‘Dame Agatha Christie’ was sitting patiently on the platform waiting for its forthcoming departure.
After a quick check of the departure board to make sure we were on the right train, which I was 99% sure we were but the pesky voice of doubt in my head thought otherwise, we hopped onboard the nearest set of doors to the station entrance. We made it with literal minutes to spare. Our train, 802 110 ‘Dame Agatha Christe’ was now working 1A87 the 14:10 Paignton to London Paddington.
My dad very kindly offered to pay to upgrade our tickets to first class for the short hop back to Exeter, so we walked down the carriages until we arrived at the first class section at the very front of the train. My mum went and looked for the Train Manager, but before she located them, she walked past a lovely Customer Host, Stephen, to whom she explained our predicament. By this point, my dad, Bella and I had caught up with her and Stephen reassured us that we could sit in the first class section and the Train Manager would be through to upgrade our tickets.
We walked down to the very front of the train, Coach L, which was completely empty of passengers with no reservations either! Perfect, a nice place to sit for the relatively short hop to Exeter St. Davids, even more special given this was the train that was named just a few hours earlier.
Before we sat down the train was in motion and we were following the same route we had taken previously, just in reverse. We passed through the same picturesque locations as before and this time we were sat on the right side of the train to get the best views of the Riveria Line. This was made even more special by being in first class and having the whole carriage to ourselves. The windows in first class feel bigger as the seats perfectly line up with them so you can get a stunning uninterrupted view of the coastline. Being so quiet really helped my anxiety and allowed me time to decompress after the previous antics in the day.
Once the train stopped at Torquay, Stephen, came and had a chat with us and asked us if we would like anything to drink. I went for a bottle of water and my mum and dad had a coffee. My mum also asked if we could get any snacks, as for me a first-class trip wouldn’t be complete without some cake! Stephen came back with some absolutely delicious lemon and poppy seed cake, from the legendary Pullins Bakery! Bliss!
My mum chatted to Stephen about my involvement in the design of the Dame Agatha Christie naming stage backdrop, which he was very impressed with. It’s always lovely for me to hear compliments about my design work (which I had plenty of today), it makes it all worthwhile.
Before long, we were back on the main section of the Riviera Line at Newton Abbot and after a short pause, we were back underway. We then called at Teignmouth, where after stopping we were back on the beautiful section of line along the Teignmouth and Dawlish seawalls. It made a big difference to be on the correct side of the train as you got the full effect of the beauty that this line has to offer.
We made our penultimate stop at Dawlish before we continued fast to Exeter St. Davids, where our journey on this train would end today. We still had the whole of the carriage to ourselves which was lovely (for both me and Bella, especially after this morning’s business).
The Dame Agatha Christie train was now approaching Exeter St. Davids and we prepared to disembark. Walking up to the vestibule we said goodbye and thank you to Stephen and alighted the train.
After we were on the platform, we walked down to the end of the train to watch the train depart. While we were chatting to Stephen, we realised that the train only had the Dame Agatha Christie vinyls on one side and end of the train so unfortunately, I was unable to get another photo of the name.
As the train left Exeter St. Davids Platform 5 a train (158 959) was entering the relatively newly refurbished Exeter Train Maintenance Depot which was a nice treat! We had a look at the departure boards to find the next train to take us back to our car at Digby & Sowton. There was one to depart in about 20 minutes which was perfect for us.
We decided to head out the station to let Bella stretch her legs so we headed over the footbridge and walked towards the ticket barriers. Luckily for us, our Devon Day Ranger ticket allows you to leave the station without losing your ticket so we put our tickets into the barriers and to my surprise they actually opened the barriers. In my experience most ranger and rover tickets don’t work in ticket barriers, so this saved troubling one of the gateline assistants.
After walking out of the station exit, we spotted some grass to take Bella to so we walked over to there. After letting Bella stretch her legs, we walked back to the station and went back through the ticket barriers, this time with the assistance of a member of gateline staff as the barriers didn’t like our tickets (strange!).
When we arrived back on the platform our train was due to arrive in a matter of minutes after another train departed first. The class 150 (150 202) arrived and duly departed and before long our train, a three-car unit (165 103) pulled in and we boarded.
This class 165 train was one of the newly refurbished units which looked very smart in the stylish GWR green and grey. We found a seat in the declassified first class area and settled in the final 20 minute hop of the day.
The train was fairly quiet on leaving Exeter St. Davids but after we arrived at Exeter Central the train quickly filled up with once again more college students. We must have been in sync with the college start and finish times! Luckily this service wasn’t quite as busy as this morning and definitely manageable.
After stopping at St James’ Park and Polsloe Bridge we were back at Digby & Sowton. We alighted the train and I took a few final photos of the day and we headed back out to the car park where we left the car some six hours earlier.
And that’s where this blog finishes, thank you for sticking with me through this over 8,500 word essay, I really appreciate it!
I just wanted to take the time here to thank all the Great Western Railway staff I encountered today, especially Cat and Paul who made this whole adventure possible. Also, to Cath who showed pure kindness and generously gave up her time to speak to us. This day fuelled and reignited a slightly fading spark for the railways and for that, I will be eternally grateful! And of course, thank you for reading this and bearing with me through my rambles and tangents. Thank you!
If you would like to read more about me then here is a link to my fundraising page: GoFundMe
A little video summing up the day in 1 minute:
Leave a Reply