A thread on missed stops got me to thinking about trains that missed stations.
https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/missing-a-stop.82810/#post-970936
While I have heard or read about such events. there was one that I experienced in person. It began by my outsmarting myself on my second trip to France. Instead of departing Paris to Freiburg, Germany on Easter evening, I booked the trip to depart on Easter Monday evening, not knowing that the French celebrated Easter Monday by making a mad rush to train stations on that Monday night. This was at the very dawn of computerized reservations. Few trains required or offered them.
Paris, naturellement, was wonderful. One never runs out of obscure streets full of history, or strange piles of things. I mention this because it explains a certain lack of clear-headedness.
Gare de l'Est was a madhouse. A station clerk cranked a chain driven sign system, hanging large sign panels that listed destinations, train names for some, numbers for all and track numbers. Every so often, he would advance the string of panels. On the departure of one on the left of the chain, a new train would appear on the right and a stampede toward that track would occur.
It quickly became apparent that in response to the rush, the SNCF was running extra trains in addition to the evening and night trains listed in the Indicateur Offficiel for Grandes Relations. We were there in time for the 22:15 departure of the real Orient Express but 2nd class was crammed with people heading to Central and Eastern Europe. As it departed, we saw that a second section made entirely of 2nd class cars followed it out of the station.
Providing much of the rush was the French military. For unpleasant historical reasons they had major training facilities in the east of their country, as well as forces in southern Germany. That meant that the extra trains were not going as far as we wanted; they were relieving the potential load on the two scheduled night trains.
Even though the Orient Express had been an interest since childhood's colorful Great Trains of the World, missing it gave me a chance to watch how the station operation worked. As the station emptied out, we placed our baggage on a trolley, positioned ourselves back far enough from the gates for now empty tracks where we could still watch the chain signs pop up. And waited. Ready!
A little before midnight, a long string of dusty green coaches was backed in. Set!
The chain ****** into motion and a panel for the 00:10 express to Strasbourg emerged. The proverbial "last train from Paris." Go!
We rushed ahead of the crowd to the train and secured window seats. Yes, there was a second section following, but that was it for scheduled trains that night. We would arrive in Strasbourg at 07:00. There was not much countryside to see on that schedule, but stations were busy. At dawn I stepped across sleeping French soldiers in the vestibule in order to reach a restroom for a quick shave.
More to come.
https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/missing-a-stop.82810/#post-970936
While I have heard or read about such events. there was one that I experienced in person. It began by my outsmarting myself on my second trip to France. Instead of departing Paris to Freiburg, Germany on Easter evening, I booked the trip to depart on Easter Monday evening, not knowing that the French celebrated Easter Monday by making a mad rush to train stations on that Monday night. This was at the very dawn of computerized reservations. Few trains required or offered them.
Paris, naturellement, was wonderful. One never runs out of obscure streets full of history, or strange piles of things. I mention this because it explains a certain lack of clear-headedness.
Gare de l'Est was a madhouse. A station clerk cranked a chain driven sign system, hanging large sign panels that listed destinations, train names for some, numbers for all and track numbers. Every so often, he would advance the string of panels. On the departure of one on the left of the chain, a new train would appear on the right and a stampede toward that track would occur.
It quickly became apparent that in response to the rush, the SNCF was running extra trains in addition to the evening and night trains listed in the Indicateur Offficiel for Grandes Relations. We were there in time for the 22:15 departure of the real Orient Express but 2nd class was crammed with people heading to Central and Eastern Europe. As it departed, we saw that a second section made entirely of 2nd class cars followed it out of the station.
Providing much of the rush was the French military. For unpleasant historical reasons they had major training facilities in the east of their country, as well as forces in southern Germany. That meant that the extra trains were not going as far as we wanted; they were relieving the potential load on the two scheduled night trains.
Even though the Orient Express had been an interest since childhood's colorful Great Trains of the World, missing it gave me a chance to watch how the station operation worked. As the station emptied out, we placed our baggage on a trolley, positioned ourselves back far enough from the gates for now empty tracks where we could still watch the chain signs pop up. And waited. Ready!
A little before midnight, a long string of dusty green coaches was backed in. Set!
The chain ****** into motion and a panel for the 00:10 express to Strasbourg emerged. The proverbial "last train from Paris." Go!
We rushed ahead of the crowd to the train and secured window seats. Yes, there was a second section following, but that was it for scheduled trains that night. We would arrive in Strasbourg at 07:00. There was not much countryside to see on that schedule, but stations were busy. At dawn I stepped across sleeping French soldiers in the vestibule in order to reach a restroom for a quick shave.
More to come.
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