A lifetime legacy of Virgin Trains

I’m going to have to admit something: it’s quite tricky typing with tears on the keyboard.

And the reason I have tears on the keyboard is I’m still trying to take in what Virgin Trains did for my son, Edan, at the weekend. I think in the world of any committed train enthusiast it counts as monumental.

Edan celebrates his love of Virgin Trains

For those who want the backstory you can read my open letter to Richard Branson here and an interim follow up here.

With just over a week left on the West Coast franchise, we knew that Virgin Trains were kindly organising a surprise for Edan, whose world revolves round trains and the West Coast Mainline.

It didn’t escape our attention that they needn’t have done anything. It would have been easy to do nothing, or send him a signed photo, or something quite low key.

But I suppose that is not the Virgin way. To say they knocked-it-out-of-the-park-and-then-some redefines the word understatement. They created a “once in a lifetime” experience for Edan that he will indeed remember for a lifetime. They literally handed over a part of their legacy that will keep their history alive and he will treasure it forever.

A magical weekend

The day started with a complimentary trip to Blackpool. (Well actually, the day started getting stuck at the entrance to the car park and then discovering there were damaged overhead lines just outside Carlisle. But fate was on our side and it didn’t end up sending our plan off the rails).

We rode on a Pendolino (390141 formerly City of Chester) to Preston and then changed onto a Super Voyager, which gave Edan the chance to explore the whole train and create another “Train Files”.

The trip to Blackpool involved a one-hour turn around during which time Darran, the local Train Driver Manager, spent the whole time showing Edan the ropes on 101 Squadron - the Super Voyager we rode there and back on.

He showed Edan practically everything there was to know about the train and how it operates, including what was behind all the secret cupboards! And he left him with a very treasured and special memento to take away.

We honestly thought, WOW, after that train experience and the chance to give a station announcement back at Carlisle, it’ll have been an amazing experience etched on his memory.

Little did we know what else was planned.

The Pendolino we travelled back to Carlisle on was in reverse car order (which was a first for all of us and pretty cool for an enthusiast like Edan) so when we stepped off, Edan ran back along the platform to see the name plate (of course!)

Being met at Carlisle

As he did so, we were met by a team of Virgin staff and a photographer who had been waiting for us at the other/normal end of the platform. They took photos and waved off a few trains before taking us to platform 4 to be presented with a gift. Amazingly we managed to keep Edan in our sights for once, because his usual modus operandi at Carlisle is to run round the platforms trying to see every single train!

I think it was at this point we were given some branded cookies and other goodies and I was already just overwhelmed at the generosity and warmth of the staff. Then we were asked to wait with the photographer while the Virgin team went off to get something else. I’ll be honest, I was thinking maybe they’d got a cake, or a model train or something.

It was then I saw them coming back down the platform trying to disguise-something-that-was-pretty-un-disguisable and realised what was happening.

I froze inside, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

There was a nameplate being brought down the platform. Onlookers were bemused. Other rail enthusiasts stopped in their tracks; one asked “What’s Happening!???”

Stuart - the photographer - readied himself; Katie on the Virgin team approached Edan as asked if he knew what it was? He knew. She asked what name he thought it was and turned it round to reveal CLIC Sargent. I just filled up inside, I could barely swallow or stem the flow of tears. This is how you reduce a grown man and doting Dad to a crumbling wreck, in case you ever wanted to know. Thankfully my creaking knees held out.

I have to help you understand just how momentous this gift was.

Edan is presented with the CLIC Sargent nameplate

During age 1 - 2 we lived right next to the West Coast mainline. Since age 3 Edan has been devoted to these trains and we’ve been devoted to travelling the length and breadth of the country to help him see them.

They are so intertwined with his existence and knowledge, it’s no word of a lie to say that by age 4 I was fully confident that if he’d ever got lost at Edinburgh Waverely station (which has 19 platforms) he’d have been able to find a train home to Carlisle or Dumfries entirely unaided.

Week after week after week, he has raced to stand in front of the nameplates and pose for pictures. Month after month he has braved the weather on platforms to see them race by and shout out the name, much to the bewilderment and bemusement of other travellers.

He has been so close to all these nameplates, both physically and in his heart, but never once has he touched one. They are a permanent fixture in his childhood but, despite the lure, never once has he crossed that forbidden yellow line.

These are valuable pieces of rail memorabilia and we know that some of these plates will go to raising money for charity. By my amateur calculations, this nameplate has travelled millions of miles - easily to the moon and back several times. The privilege granted to us by Virgin Trains is certainly not lost on us.

And there’s something else that I think even Virgin don’t know: CLIC Sargent is a charity, of which the Sargent half was, of course, founded in memory of Sir Malcolm Sargent, the musician and orchestral conductor. Although we don’t have the full family tree, to the best of our knowledge he is indeed a distant relative.

All of this is swirling in my head as the flashgun starts to fire and snaps me back to my senses.

We take some photos, Edan gets hugs from everyone and then head back to the office where he is allowed to make a platform announcement, toot the horn of a freight loco and is taught to dispatch it by Katie.

Of course, it’s not all over for Edan, he stays another hour on the freezing platform while all the hubbub dissipates and eventually it feels like we’re the only ones there! We’re quite used to that!

Finally, we leave; carrying a remarkable piece of history with us.

A million thanks won’t really cut it

I don’t really know where to begin with saying thank you. Also, I can hardly begin to imagine what strings were pulled to make this possible!

What I do know is that a lot of people - most of them behind the scenes - must have gone way above-and-beyond to make this happen; and they are forever going to be in our memory. (Let’s face it, we’re going to have a fairly substantial permanent reminder on the wall!)

We have to give a special mention to Darran (Driver Manager) and John (Driver) at Blackpool for showing Edan the ropes on the Voyager. We’d like to thank Katie and the team at Carlisle who treated us like part of the family (not forgetting Paul who let Edan take control of the station mic).

And at the beginning of all this is someone anonymous in the social media customer services team (one of whom is only known to me as ^BT), who took the effort to reply and say “leave it with us and we’ll see what we can do”.

Clearly this also couldn’t have happened without being masterminded by Laura from Corporate Affairs who we were delighted to meet at Carlisle. Laura: I don’t know how you did it but it was extraordinary.

You are all very special people.

History in our hands

This is indeed the end of an era, but also the end of a chapter. A new chapter begins on 8th December 2019 and it’s comforting to know that the staff of Virgin Trains (at least all the ones I spoke to) are hopeful and positive about their next chapter. Ever since its creation, the railway has always touched and transformed millions of lives.

Once again I thank the special folk at Virgin in the deepest and most heartfelt way possible and at the same time wish them the best of luck on the next leg of their journey.

And let’s be honest, we’ll still be seeing you on the platform most weekends!

Thank you for making a difference. Thanks a googol !!

Nik x