Roving Around On The Rails: Thames Rover. Day1/Part1 (080115)

PLEASE NOTE: I did not complete all three days of this rover, but I will share what I did on the two days I did do the rover.

Taking advantage of my last year of Child Fares, I decided to do some rail rovers. The first of which would be a Thames Rover. The Thames Rover, issued by National Rail is available to purchase at any manned ticket office for £45 Adult, £22.50 child, and £29.70 if in possession of a Railcard. Find out more here.

We started the first day at London Paddington, with the 0918 departure which was pathed as an Adelante (Class 180). This working is known to be subbed for a Turbo, so you can imagine the relief when the ECS move came into Paddington as an Adelante.


We boarded, took our seats in the front coach, and set off for Charlbury.

We timed how long it took the Adelante to get from 0-100mph as we pulled out of Slough. It took around 3 minutes. In train terms, thats bloody quick. The equivalent HST takes 3 times that to get to a ton!

The interior of the Adelante is clean, and sharp. Much better than a Mk. 3 coach. The seats are not as high backed as those in FGW HSTs so it gives the impression of a less cluttered, and spacious atmosphere.


The first class seating area is even more spacious than Standard Class. With 2+1 seating, it offers maximum comfort for those with more money than sense. (Sorry, that's the Socialism talking :P )

We alighted at Charlbury, after an almost 2 hour journey, but we barely noticed it. We were too caught up in the beauty of the Cotswolds. Charlbury is a little secluded country station, with a 3 a week bus service. The station offers a GWR style ticket office complete with name plaque above the counter, one ticket machine, a car park, and a lovely garden full of flowers.

Our train arrived to take us back to Reading. It was pathed to be a turbo, but an Adelante took its place.



Continued in Part 2...