Great Western Coffee Shop

Arrived at Paddington at about 12.30 - there was a full scale alert on platform 1. In attendance numerous BT Police, PCOs  (hobby bobbies), security suites with earphones, gold braids, orange tabards, blue NR staff, et al. And the whole platform cordoned off with crash barriers. All were getting in each others' way, mainly blocking the views of a scattering of pax. with their ubiquitous tablets. Why so? Belmond Pullman had apparently arrived with Tornado at the front. Well so what? Why all the security? No-one could tell me.

A few months' ago they had had Flying Scotsman on platform 11. No security whatsoever.

Last year Princess Anne arrived at platform 10. No fuss, no major security arrangements. She was just like an ordinary passenger albeit accompanied by a couple of suits.

And last year (or year before?) there were the Brussels bombings. That day there was NO SECURITY AT PADDINGTON WHATSOEVER - ZERO, ZILCH, SFA. Ditto. for other terrorist events and alerts.

So WTF was all the aggressive security about this lunch-time?

Seems like there is more security for a steam loco. and a bunch of old Pullman coaches from the 1920s, than when there was or is a real terrorist alert. Appalling waste of police time and money.

Maybe a VIP on board the Pullman? Royalty for example.

I'm sure someone will enlighten us further to exact details of the excursion, though I noticed numerous children and some disabled, so I'm assuming some sort of charity special, possibly as Chris says with VIP onboard

Duchess of Cambridge joins Paddington for a dance
The Duchess of Cambridge joined Paddington for a dance on a station platform during a surprise visit to a charity event.
She and Princes William and Harry were at Paddington Station to meet a group of children who have been helped by their charities.
While Harry did not seem keen to join the famous bear for a boogie, the Duchess appeared happy to join in.

Bit of over reaction in the OP if you ask me. A glance at the BBC news headlines would have saved him all that ranting and raving.

Yep, he's getting a reputation for this on uk.railways too....

PCSOs are full time staff not 'hobby bobbies' Special constables are the ones (unkindly) given that name.   

There's some difference between security, crowd control, deterrence and officials stopping people doing stupid things (like getting in front of moving steam trains). Security is not necessarily visible, and deterrence may be blokes and blokesses around in uniform and appearing to be doing very little.

Seems I was right - William, Kate & Harry along with Paddington Bear himself.

In the front page on tonight's Standard and all over Yahoo! News

@CJB666 time to request that you have a think ,about the attitude you adopt when you are posting .
Special Constabulary Officers  ARE MOST DEFINITELY NOT HOBBIE BOBBIES.
And give of their time and effort in order to support their colleagues ,be they PCSO or full time serving Police Officers ,and a very good job they do too .
I would strongly urge you to remember that ,the next time you have need of police assistance,or just benefit from the reassurance that their presence provides
Thank you.WP.

All that security was there for a very good reason. To keep a shameless celeb stalker away from the great and the good.

That said, Hugh Bonneville was very accommodating.  :P

(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B8VBuNEcQ7EgWkRLSW5NdmJWMzA)

I did consider asking the lead character of the film for a selfie too. But I didn't fancy getting one of his long hard stares (https://youtu.be/q_XjlVrrU_A).

'Major security alert' with uniformed police standing around chatting and members of the public openly aiming cameras at nothing in particular  :o

Mind you, both BNM and I were hastily shoo'ed along from our position on the footbridge by a uniformed policewoman (neither of us aware of an impending arrival).

(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B4gC2QiJLRu3RlVuOTVOVHZRZ1k)

One does wonder why Tornado was in attendance as the Beano was pulled out of Paddington by a Class 67 which just went around the Greenford loop and back into Paddington. Tornado was just used to move the ECS into and out of Paddington.

I think that being pulled by steam is a rather abstract form of enjoyment, most enjoyed by adults (at least nominally so). For kids, seeing Tornado at the station is going to be a bigger thrill, isn't it?

Had a sighting of Mark Hopwood out in public been  reported?

There was more security there than there has ever been during any of the terrorist attacks in Europe - total waste of police time. During the London, Brussels, Paris, etc., bombings etc., there was usually NO visible increased security whatsoever at most (all?) British transport hubs. That shows the real priorities of the authorities who are supposed to be protecting US. Meanwhile there was yet another fatal stabbing at Parsons Green due to TM withdrawing 'stop and search.'

Are you suggesting that Mark Hopwood isn't worth protecting?

I suppose it depends on what you mean by a 'transport hub'. If you mean major railway termini, airports etc then that statement is patently untrue.

Can you please quote the statistics/evidence, or are all of your sweeping statements based purely on fantasy? Regardless of my views on the royal family, I think high profile targets, be they people or places are worth protecting. Don't forget they have lost one of their family members at the hands of the IRA, so clear evidence exists that they are a target.

How do you know the police would've stopped and searched the perpetrators of the Parson's Green stabbing prior to that event? Do you have a crystal ball?

Who’s the man in the green? I can only assume the man with as you highlighted many chins and a cap must be the celeb...he’s the only one of the two I recognise!

I take it you've never seen Downton Abbey then, rich?

I were brilliant in that.  :P

His Lordship Baron BigNoseMac of Chard it is then .

In a certain light Hugh Bonneville looks a bit like Derek Fowlds to me.

More like Paul Burrell

Seeing Hugh in that green suit made me wonder if he'd given the acting job a miss and had gone to work for GWR !!..

The most concerning thing about this 'major security alert' is that our future Queen was seen dancing with an illegal immigrant.  :P

Can’t say I have lowered myself to such!

Just so you know, the accepted derogatory term for PCSOs is "plastic pigs"