Day 1, Part 1: Tricky train travelling

It's 21:27 and I'm sitting in bed at my hotel room typing this, so sorry if there are some errors! For once, auto-correct is my friend, not my enemy! 🙂

Torquay is a nice place, but I'd have to wait quite a while to discover that, for reasons that will become apparent later. After the normal journey across London (although surprisingly less tedious than usual), the 11:06 to Plymouth awaited me on Platform 2. It didn't just await me though, it was rammed, with only a few seats to spare! There were signal problems in the Reading area, so here's the real time information:

Station, Expected dep - real dep (DELAY)

London Paddington, 1106 - 1106 (ON TIME)

Reading, 1133 - 1150 (17 LATE)

Pewsey, 1203 - 1222 (19 LATE)

Westbury, 1221 - 1242 (21 LATE)

Castle Cary, 1239 - 1302 (23 LATE)

Taunton, 1302 - 1327 (25 LATE)

Tiverton Parkway, 1315 - 1342 (27 LATE)

Exeter St Davids, 1332 - 1359 (27 LATE)

Newton Abbot, 1352 - 1418 (26 LATE) arrival time

The Class 43 that hauled the very late 11:06!

And then, on the way to the toilet via some running, this greeted me!

43002 or 253001 hauling a Torbay Express service towards London Paddington 

And, on the same platform, 150232 pulled in working a service to Paignton. Admittedly the one after the planned 14:10 (14:42 leaving Newton Abbot), but I only arrived about 30 minutes late!

150232 in the new GWR livery, taking a service from Exmouth to Paignton.

That's it for Part 1. Part 2 (about the second part of the day) will be coming soon.