Stories from the Race Trains

As usual the race trains provided some amusing anecdotes.

We heard of one punter who placed a £10 each way bet at rather short odds on horse number 15 but when he went to collect his winnings found he had specified the wrong race.  He let the bet stand and number 15 came in at very long odds on the next race giving him a very handsome win. We were able to help him with that.

Our Champagne was on sale for £38 a bottle, £8 a glass.  One passenger felt that £38 a bottle was ok but he objected to paying £8 each for the glasses to drink it from! He was happy when we explained that empty glasses were free.

An order for drinks from one compartment came to well over £100.  The size of the order was justified on the grounds that half of the drinks would be left in the carriage for the evening when it was probable they would have no money left to buy drinks with.  Makes sense to me.

Many of our volunteers feel that waistcoats are appropriate wear for stewards on these trains and the most sartorial match their bow ties as well. One volunteer appeared in the morning in a smart green waistcoat and bow tie in the colours of the Irish flag. By the evening he was in a normal GWSR tie having sold the bow tie to a passenger for £50.  Nothings too much trouble for our customers.

Finally one very “happy” punter said keep the change when offering £150 for an £80 order but our volunteer felt that that was just a little too generous given the condition of the customer. We hope no one is ripped off on our railway.

A big thanks to all our volunteers from every department that helped make these trains a great success again.

Richard Summers