The wife and I were discussing one of her carers this morning we couldn’t remember if she had been here before or was she a newbie, it was the latter. I came up with the “Mystery Carer” tag and straight away the memory of the British Rail mystery tours 1970s came to mind.
I have only ever been on one of these tours before but remember them being popular and mainly run on a Saturday/Sunday and sometimes in mid-week on a Wednesday, which was the one I took. I was bored one day so took a trip to the bus station with the intent of just riding a coach anywhere, somewhere. I had done it before on a number of occasions but I don’t know why but this day I walked over to the Railway Station and ended up taking a “Mystery Tour” to somewhere.
Passengers would board the train bound with no idea of the trains destination that was not disclosed until we were some way into the journey. The story goes that not even the driver and his crew had a idea of the final destination until he open sealed orders.
The train was pretty empty that I do remember maybe the rest of the bored Cardiffians knew something I didn't and to top it off there was no catering car so until we reached our destination I was foodless and nothing to drink. However, I was expecting a trip to the beach and some seaside town but I soon found that was not to be …. Bloody Salisbury. The weekend trains tended to end up at the beach due to more family traffic the guard told me, City tours in the week for the older clientele but I was a young seventeen.
We were to have a four and a half hours stopover in Salisbury under 18 so the pub was out of the question anyway I wouldn’t have the bottle to try on my own. I found a café close to the station and had something to eat. I had no interest in Salisbury or the Cathedral after eating I found a park not far from the station and parked myself on a bench for a few hours with a hand full of newspapers. Lucky it was a fine day it would have been a nightmare in the rain. Before heading home I had a quick walk along the River Avon and did a bit of window shopping before jumping back on the train and home.
Thinking back probably the highlight of the day was the train journey looking out of the window. I made the decision I would never again clamber on the mystery tour train ever again. Any of you had a mystery tour courtesy of British Rail why not leave a comment.
not been on one
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