European Railroad Discussion > Riding on Chiltern Railway

I'm currently on holiday on a narrowboat on the Oxford Canal. Yesterday I had to temporarily leave the water to go to London for a longstanding appointment. I caught the 08:06 from Banbury, returning on the 13:10. It's been 18 months since I last rode a Chiltern Silver train and had forgotten what excellent trains they are. Stepping aboard through the wide plug doors and into the saloon there's that minor jolt; 'Is this first class?' Of course it isn't but it certainly looks it. And off we went, pulling in to Marylebone on time at 09:07. The return was even better, the 13:10 arriving in Banbury at 14:05, fully five minutes early. 68 miles in 55 minutes with one stop (High Wycombe). And all in the comfort of a rebuilt Mk 3.

Other train companies, train builders and the DfT could do a lot worse than take a lesson from Chiltern on décor and seat design.

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Thanks for posting your interesting photos and narrative.
ALLEN

Great stuff, many thanks. I fully agee with your sentiments as well.

As I'm at present stuck at home convalescing it makes me quite envious.

Keep it up!

Interesting photos.
I remember Marylebone in the 80's, primarily occupied for a few old DMU's, but mostly pigeons.
What a change.

spflow Wrote:
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> As I'm at present stuck at home convalescing it
> makes me quite envious.

Sorry to hear that, nothing too serious I hope.

Oh to be in England. Many of us across the pond are very jealous.

Posted from Android

Re interesting photos,
Seem to recall a number of steam trips running out of Marylebone station in the 1980's that where very interesting.
Flying Scotsman was among the ones I saw.
Graham.

In April 2013, I rode a Chiltern DMU from Marylebone to Harrow-on-the-Hill (and returned to London on the Metropolitan Line). Marylebone is smaller and not as busy as other stations in London (o.k., by London standards:) ). It was a pleasant place to grab lunch before boarding my train. I was impressed by how comfortable and quiet Chiltern’s DMUs were.

Tom Coughlin
Stow, MA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/18 05:34 by tomcough.

tomcough Wrote:
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> I was impressed by how comfortable and
> quiet Chiltern’s DMUs were.
>
> Tom Coughlin
> Stow, MA

I agree, and in one way they are actually better than the loco hauled sets. The class 168 DMUs seats are aligned with windows, which is not (and never has been) the case in standard class Mk 3 loco hauled cars.