Originally Posted by Jimmie76
.....and Eurostars on their way to North Pole (Eurostar servicing depot) which I'm told will stop when they stop using Waterloo. So when the Eurostars move to St Pancras there will be some spare train paths (as I'm told they're called) on that part of the line.
This was voted in the rail press as one of the great excuses of all time during Winter last year. There was some snow / ice on some points on the GW mainlne out of Paddington that caused a seizure. On a delayed FGW service from South Wales into London the pax heard the following tannoy announcement.
"Ermmmm, this is Shaun, your senior conductor speaking. I'm sorry for the delay on this service into London but it is due to snow at the North Pole". Priceless.
My favourite is one I personally heard a few years ago. A common cause of train delays is something called a bridge-strike when a lorry hits a low bridge. In railway speak these are known as a "bridge-bash". Now on the line from Reading down to Taunton there is a very low bridge near Devizes for some reason known to Network Rail as "The Chocolate Poodle", (IIRC it is named after a former pub's nickname that used to be next to the bridge). So when the train I was on came to a grinding halt about 3 years ago the following tannoy announcement was made:
"Errrmmmmmm, well ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry for the delay but we are have been informed there has been a bridge-bash at the chocolate poodle".
To say there was looks of utter bewilderment on other pax faces would be a real understatement.