Tom Anderson wrote:
On Sun, 16 Sep 2007, alex_t wrote:

So, did anyone from this newsgroup attended the tour(s)? First
impressions? :-)

Not me, but i know at least one lurker did.

Lurker! me? Well, probably.
Still, I will re-invigorate the Hammersmith Low Level Bus Station thread
if the thing ever even vaguely looks like opening. There is also the
minorly exciting news on TFL knocking everything behind my house down to
build the new Hammersmith & City Line signaling centre, which I welcome.
The blue glass hedgehog planned for the bottom of my road on the other
TFL land is however evil and must be stopped.

But I digress...

I don't know if he'll post
comments, but i'd bet my bottom dollar on photos appearing somewhere soon.

There are indeed some photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nuttyxa...7602054147851/

The tour was very good.
For one thing, it was easy to get to, starting from Ealing Common.
If I'd known tickets could be got on the day I think I'd have asked a
few others along, which probably would have made it all too crowded.

I've only ever been on one heritage railway and tripped to Beamish so it
was interesting to note just how many hard core railway fans were present.

The tickets were rather nicely printed on photo paper and allocated me
and my colleague any seat we wanted in Coach A. We sat at the back of
the coach next to the guards panel.

Amusingly despite numerous announcements a rather confused lady boarded
our carriage and after noticing the slightly odd demographic asked
sceptically if she was on the train to Ealing Broadway.

The stock has a fair turn of speed, with the ride lively but helped
enormously by the more giving less firm seats and we ran pretty much
non-stop all the way to Rayners Lane from Ealing Common. We then
reversed heading into town on the Met, switching to the Jubilee then
stopping and reversing again at Charing Cross which was eerie and
looking a little unloved.

A particular highlight was being able to see out of the front (or rear)
of the train as the drivers door was propped open.

After that it was a straightforward run up to Stanmore where everyone
detrained which a large number continuing for trips 2 & 3. I opted to
have some lunch but wound up managing to hit Finchley Road on the way
back just as the 1938 stock passed on a return journey back to Stanmore.

All in all a great experience, and the only thing I'd have wished for
would be to be able to go through Hammersmith or somewhere else more
familiar.

Also, I'd forgotten that the guards doors weren't interlocked with the
motion of the train and so when we first set off with the door open my
colleague found my momentary look of horror highly amusing.

If anyone involved is reading this, many thanks for a great day out.