'How very British': 'Dull man' makes 13-hour round trip to Northampton Railway Station to add rare ticket on famous wall

Railway enthusiast Neil Hughes from Barassie, Ayrshire, Scotland, recently made a 13-hour round trip to Northampton to add his local station’s ticket to the “All Aboard To Northampton” wall – a project collecting a classic train ticket to Northampton from every station in the UK.

The wall was started in 2020 by fellow enthusiast and railway station worker Elliot Badger. The project aims to display a standard card ticket to Northampton from every station in Britain – all 2,597 of them. Over 2,000 tickets are already on the wall, leaving around 500 yet to be added.

Writing in the popular Dull Men’s Club Facebook page, Neil Hughes described how he decided to make the journey after discovering his local station’s ticket was missing.

He said: “In my 63 and a bit years on this earth I’ve never been to Northampton. What’s more, I know little about that East Midlands town. It has a professional football club, a county cricket club and used to be the centre of shoemaking in the UK and that’s about it when it comes to my knowledge of the county town of Northants. Recently, however, I discovered another fact: The All Aboard To Northampton ticket wall at the town’s railway station.

“I discovered that a ticket from my local station did not yet appear on the wall and figured putting it right would mean an ideal day out for a dull man. The appropriate ticket was purchased and once I’d booked the return journey I was ready to go.”

Neil’s journey began with the 6.48am ScotRail from Barassie to Glasgow Central. From there, he caught the 8am Avanti West Coast service to London Euston, then continued on the 1.18pm London Northwestern service from Rugby, arriving in Northampton at approximately 1.38pm.

He wrote: “After disembarking I climbed the stairs to the station concourse and with some trepidation searched out the slot reserved for a ticket from Barassie. Had anyone sneaked a ticket in there between me buying my ticket and getting to Northampton? No! My ticket now sits proudly on the ticket wall and it’s all rather satisfying.”

Neil then had ‘an hour to kill’ before heading back and decided to talk a quick walk around the town.

He said: “I felt it only right to wander into the town and had a Boots Meal Deal (chicken and stuffing sandwich, cheese and onion crisps and a bottle of Diet Coke, thanks for asking) whilst sat in the Market Square.”

Neil returned to the station for his return journey, taking a train to Birmingham International, then an EasyJet flight to Glasgow, followed by an airport bus to Central Station and finally ScotRail back to Barassie.

He said: “I arrived home some thirteen hours after I set off in time for a take away curry with my wife, who for some reason hadn’t wanted to do the journey with me.”

The amusing post went semi-viral and nearly 1,000 people commented.

One wrote: “Great story! We all loved it, but probably because we too are dull.”

One said: “Awesome, how very British.”

Another said: “Very dull indeed – all the way to Northampton for a Boots meal deal.”

Another commented: “I live in Northampton and this absolutely made my day, love the little adventure you had! Hope the meal deal was nice.”

Another wrote: “You ate your dull meal deal in the largest ‘square’ market square in the country. Thanks for your visit and adding to our, now famous ticket wall.”

Another commented: “I know this is meant to be dull, but it is such a shame that you travelled all that way and didn’t see the Guildhall, All Saints Church, the museum and its terrific collection of shoes…”

Another said: “Northampton is very dull on the surface but in fact, it’s anything but. It was the capital of England for about 200 years in the 10th century. So important was it, parliament was held here a few times. And now, you can see Elton John’s giant shoes in the town museum!”