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Went up to London for the Proms yesterday and when I got to Guildford station, the train on the next platform was announced as an Olympic cycling special - no cycles allowed on this train.
My immediate thought was "why?" - do they expect competitors to cheat by hitching a lift on the train. It was actually the train taking spectators to the stations nearest the cycling route through Surrey. Did they worry that spectators would try cycling alongside the competitors?
When my train had got to Woking and was waiting to leave, I heard a hoot and a steam locomotive went past. (It was pulling just a tender, no carriages, so could it be called a "train"?) Then my train overtook it a few minutes later.
I caught only glimpses of it as I passed it, but it appeared to in LNER blue, making it fifty miles south and about 70 years late for its normal environment. In fact, it looked a bit like the Mallard - if not that locomotive, one of its class.
My immediate thought was "why?" - do they expect competitors to cheat by hitching a lift on the train. It was actually the train taking spectators to the stations nearest the cycling route through Surrey. Did they worry that spectators would try cycling alongside the competitors?
When my train had got to Woking and was waiting to leave, I heard a hoot and a steam locomotive went past. (It was pulling just a tender, no carriages, so could it be called a "train"?) Then my train overtook it a few minutes later.
I caught only glimpses of it as I passed it, but it appeared to in LNER blue, making it fifty miles south and about 70 years late for its normal environment. In fact, it looked a bit like the Mallard - if not that locomotive, one of its class.
