29/12/25 - Exeter To Pontefract
DIG 0843 (OT)>EXD 0856 (OT) : 2T10 EXM>PGN : 2 x 150/2 (4 Cars)
EXD 0916 (OT)>PAD 1131 (1136) : 1A76 PNZ>PAD : 1 x 803/0 (9 Cars)
TfL» Underground Paddington > King's Cross St. Pancras (H&C Line)
KGX 1310 (OT)>WKF 1507 (1509) : 1D16 KGX>LDS : 1 x 801/1 (5 Cars)
WKF 1542>PFM 1605 : 2A21 LDS>KNO (Cancelled - Traction Equipment Failure)
Tickets: DIG>PAD Senior Railcard Advance Single £30.76, Railcard TfL Underground £1.85, KGX>WKF Senior Railcard Advance Single 1st Class £46.40, WKF>PFM Senior Railcard Anytime Single £2.70

2T10 very lightly loaded. Tickets but not Railcards checked during the SJP stop.
1A76 was fairly well loaded. Tickets but not Railcards were checked in the Bruton/Frome area by a TM who was following the refreshment trolley along the train! Service basically ran as scheduled until Langley after which time was lost,  due to ‘congestion’, resulting in a 5 minute delay reaching PAD. Of note was a delay approaching RDG when 1A76 was held to allow the 14 late 1L12 from Carmarthen to cross to P11 in front of us. It would surely have  been easier to run 1L12 into P10 and 1A76 into P11 to avoid the conflict. I would guess the hand of ARS was involved but due to the wait time at RDG 1A76 was still able to depart on time.
1D16 was very busy presumably as a result of it being a 5 car Azuma. I don’t know if it was a 9 or 10 car service before the recent ‘more services’ timetable change. Tickets but not Railcards checked shortly after departure from KGX. After an almost completely on time journey arrival into WKF was slightly delayed waiting for the late running 1E40 XC RDG>LDS service to clear the platform.
2A21 was cancelled when the allocated 158/8 2 Car unit failed completely shortly after leaving LDS. For good measure it blocked the line to WKF for quite a while.We decided to take a taxi to Pontefract. The next service to PFM was 2A23 LDS>KNO which would have got us to our destination at 1705 but was delayed until 1747 so I have submitted a Delay Replay claim to Northern on that basis.

30/12/25 - A Day Out At The NRM
It seems to have changed it's name to just the Railway Museum. Surprisingly busy perhaps because Flying Scotsman was present. Much changed since my previous visit.

02/01/26 - Pontefract to Exeter
PFM 1145 (1146)>WKF 1210 (1212) : 2A10 KNO>LDS : 1 x 158/8 (2 Cars)
WKF 1222 (1225)>KGX 1423 (1427) : 1A19 BDQ>KGX : 1 x IC225 (6 Cars)
TfL» Underground King's Cross St. Pancras>Paddington (Circle Line)
PAD 1552 (OT)>EXD 1815 (1821) : 1C88 PAD>PNZ : 1 x 803/0 (9 Cars)
EXD 1847 (OT)>DIG 1859 (OT) : 2F29 PGM>EXM : 1 x 150/2 (2 Cars)
Tickets: PFM>KGX Senior Railcard Advance Single £20.70, Railcard TfL Underground £1.85, PAD>DIG Senior Railcard Advance Single £40.25

We were a little worried about the connection from PFM to WKF as the service was provided by the same 158 unit that had failed us on the previous Monday!
1A19 was very well loaded. It left LDS a couple of minutes late, lost a little more time on the run to DON and then failed to make up any of the delay on the rest of the journey arriving at KGX 6 down.
I posted elsewhere in this forum that 1C88 was very lightly loaded - a single 150 unit would probably have sufficed! It ran as booked to RDG where it waited for a scheduled 9 minutes. I assume this was to get the train past an engineering closure in a convenient way as it was routed via the Relief Line between Airport Junction & Slough. Time was then lost following a late running NBY service and also by slow running past the location of the suspected Up Line track defect. Not for the first time the annoyance of cr*p scheduling at EXD saw 1C88 booked to arrive at 1815 (actual 1821) with 2F28 to Exmouth leaving at 1818 thereby failing the minimum connection rule. The holding of the BNP connection was apparently a completely different scenario. I refuse to believe that GWR, the DfT and/or GBR couldn’t sort this nonsense out.
There were no ticket / railcard checks on either of the local services.