125 Group "Journey Shrinker" Railtour. London Paddington to Swansea. 3rd October 2026.

Hi Everyone, As promised, here is my footage from onborard "The Journey Shrinker" Railtour by the 125 Group and operated by Railadventure. We start off on route to London Paddington, passing the ECS move for the tour at West Ealing Loop. Then the tour arrives into platform 1 around 10 minutes early, to allow for some extra time for pictures. We leave onetime at 09:12 and all was going well until departure from Swindon. Slightly up the line, 1C07 had come to a stop at Chippenham. Story goes either a signal failure or loco failure meant we were stuck at Wooten Basset for around 30 minutes. Potentially going via Chipping Sodbury and Bristol Parkway. Luckily the train moved on and we kept to our pathed route. On arrival into Bristol, the RHTT set meets us and passes us on the UT. We leave Bristol remaining the 30 minutes late one route to Cardiff Central. Or Piggy Central, if you know you know. Then departure from Cardiff was the last leg to Swansea. We arrived around 40 minutes late due to being stuck behind local services. Having around 60 minutes in Swansea, meant time was spent getting some more pictures of the tour before heading back. The return leg was much more successful to Bristol, going 4 minutes late at Cardiff to being a minute early to Bristol. Then the journey from there to Swindon was smooth sailing and a great to be taking to people all celebrating the same thing. At Swindon, we had another opportunity to stretch the legs and get some more pictures. Including the fabulous 125 staff getting a well deserved picture infront of the lovely repainted 43159. Then it was the hop and sprint to London and absolutely great to not only catch up to a cross country service going to Reading, but also overtaking it on the approach. Getting back to London on time and a very busy platform for the departing ECS move. An absolutely fantastic day and a great way to celebrate 50 years since the first High Speed Service.