When I arrived to book on Friday I knew something was up as there were four managers stood around the desk all with Connect radios clutched to their ears. There’d been a one-under at OXO but happily the person had come out in one piece and in comparatively rude health. Service was about to resume after 20 minutes or so but when I checked Trackernet to locate my train I discovered that it had been put away in a depot somewhere. I also noticed that on the EB there was nothing between BEG and HOL and the train behind that was at SHB, it was going to take a lot of work at Wood Lane to get the service back to anything like normal for the evening peak.

Ten minutes after I was due to pick my train up the DTSM told me to go to HAI where one was waiting for me in the depot. Unfortunately the nearest train going to HAI was a good half an hour away at TCR so in order to get me back on time they decided that a spare would work the train out onto the platform while I travelled on the cushions to meet it.

Sadly something went awry, my train came out late, I got held at BEG and LIS to regulate the service and there was blocking back from WHC to NHG. By the time I reached NOA I should have been heading back EB from EAB and by the time I was supposed to be going into HAI depot I was only just pulling into LEY over 20 minutes down. And it was raining.

Fortunately the DTSM had been keeping an eye on things and calculated that by the time I got to HAI, stabled the train, walked out and then made my way back to LES there was the distinct possibility that there wouldn’t be enough time for me to have my meal break and then pick up my second half. So rather than have to send a spare to EAB and back I was taken off at LES by a spare with an umbrella. Which was nice.