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More hard driving on a trip to Warrington – and a cracking breakfast
To my surprise my enthusiastic endorsement of the hard charging, highly competent, drivers on the East Coast Main Line in last month's column failed to bring down the wrath of the safety taliban or even the SPAD focus groups. On the other hand there was much positive feedback from readers who enjoyed some real world stuff for a change.
So here we go again, but travelling with Virgin West Coast for a meeting in Warrington in September.
After a gentle stroll up the Euston road (thanks WAGN) I settled into the Mk3b First Class coach 10 min before departure. Coffee came round at 08.24 ( a timing freak, me?) and we pulled out on time at 08.25.
Having wound out through the buddleia, the driver opened up and it was clear he, or she, meant business. The smart, friendly staff took breakfast orders by Watford , which we reached at 08.39 after the only bit of poor regulation, which meant that we crawled round Bushey curve.
Shortly after, the toast basket came round and I was assured it would return. Breakfast proper soon followed and it was as good as any I can remember. Sausage spicy, bacon just so, mushrooms tasting of mushrooms and as for the fried bread – crisp without being case hardened, fried but not fatty.
Only one thing was wrong. The cold tomato garnish. Grilled, yes, cold not before lunch
More coffee arrived at 09.00 followed by Chef clearing up the breakfast plates, who was duly complimented..
At 09.10 the toast basket returned as promised. Virgin is now the holder of the Captain Deltic Croissant of the Year Award 2002. It was crisp and flakey and so hot that the butter melted into the pastry. Sorry, getting carried away.
After that I gave the Psion a good thrashing, noting only brisk progress and no exceedances on my Mk 1 human ride meter. We were five late at Warrington which, given all the WCML horror stories, seemed not bad.
Coming back I caught the 12.44 which was running six late. Lunch was being served so I took a seat near the trolley where Chef was making up baguettes. I chose a pastrami filling and, sorry to go on, it was melt in the mouth quality. The only complaint was the side helping of crisps. Who is it in Virgin who likes ‘root vegetable' crisps? Is it because beetroot is red?
Anyway, while I was being fed and watered, it was noticeable that we were getting off to what Cecil J Allen would have called a ‘sparkling start'. This was seriously determined driving, but with that finely honed anticipation which means that progress is so smooth that the average traveller would not have noticed the pace.
Except, I should add, at the right places. As on the Midland Main line, running at line speed round some curves generates cant deficiencies that really test even the Mk 3's supple suspension.
You can tell this is happening by the way the normally smooth lateral ride starts to nibble at curves with, occasionally all the travel being used up and the bump stops coming into play at places like Rugeley and Weedon. Vertical ride, remained good throughout.
As with my GNER trip, station stops were the acme of professionalism. Walk the brake in to avoid a jerk, finish hard braking at the ramp, then roll along the platform at, I guess, 10-15 mile/h followed by an imperceptible transition from moving to stationary.
Encouragingly there seems to be more of this ‘proper' driving around than I imagined. A reader described an approach to Warrington where he was convinced that either the driver had forgotten the stop or was going to overshoot. The train was still carrying some speed at , the Ship Canal bridge, but a controlled approach ended in a gliding stop with no sensation of a final jerk and within inches of the stop point on the platform. ‘Real drivers still exist' he enthuses.
In my case, aided by some excellent regulation and a straight in approach to Euston, we arrived 7 late, having lost only a minute since Warrington . This sort of thing does make you wonder about claims that the West Coast is suffering from ‘decades of neglect'. It certainly showed where some of the £2billion of renewals has been well spent.