The Unreserved Coach E On Virgin Trains
I came back from Liverpool on the 14:48 train from the City. It wouldn’t have been my preferred choice, as it dropped me in the dreaded Euston at the start of the evening rush.
As I didn’t have a reservation and was travelling on an on-line off peak ticket at just £25.50, I made my way to Virgin’s unreserved coach E. There I sat in state in a backward facing window seat in a set of four with a table on which I laid out my paper and Private Eye. A young lady did sit opposite, but for much of the journey we were the only passengers in the coach.
After an hour or so, I went for some water from the shop in Coach C. It was a real obstacle course as the train was quite full and most of the coach in between was fully reserved, with a group of Scouse totties trying to find seats and blocking the gangway with their cases.
On Sunday, I’ll be coming back from Wigan after the Ipswich match. Again, I’ve not got a reservation and I’ll be checking out coach E first. If there is no space, I will probably pay for a Weekend First Upgrade. If the train’s occupancy is true to form, First won’t be very full!
If you want to know more about Virgin’s Unreserved Coach E, it’s all here.
Is There A God?
I was just twelve, when I watched Wolves beat Blackburn Rovers 3-0 in the 1960 Cup Final. Like many of the finals of that era, there was a serious injury to a player, which reduced Blackburn to ten men, as substitutes weren’t allowed. The Blackburn player was Dave Whelan.
Today, he was the Chairman and major shareholder of Wigan Athletic, as they beat Manchester City to win the FA Cup.
Either there is a God, or everything comes to those who wait!
Hip Transplants At Wigan
The BBC is running a story about the first hip transplants at Wrightington Hospital near Wigan in the 1960s. There’s a lot more in the Wikipedia entry for John Charnley, the surgeon who led the pioneering work.
At Liverpool University in the 1960s, I was in digs at Huyton. My landlord’s daughter, Sheila Vaughan, was one of the nursing sisters at the hospital and told us about the work there.
Sheila had been a very good golfer, who’d played in the Curtis Cup.
The Anonymous Widower 