Companion on train

On 29.3.12 I was travelling from Edinburgh to Bristol, and had to change trains at Birmingham New Street. There were a lot of people on the platform waiting for the train. I had booked seat 03 in the Quiet Coach F. It was a long platform, and I wanted to know which end of the platform coach F was likely to be. There were no officials around to ask, so I wondered whether one of the people in the crowd might know. I was waiting in the centre of the platform, with perhaps 200 people around me. I picked on an elderly man with a stick, who looked intelligent and harmless. He said he didn't know, but was also wanting coach F. We stayed put till the train arrived, then had to walk some distance to coach F. I sat down in seat 03, and a few minutes later the elderly man arrived and sat in his seat 02, next to me. We then had an interesting conversation for the rest of the journey. He was going on to Cornwall. I told him I had been to Cornwall many years ago for an archaeological dig at Gwithian. He turned out to know the archaeologist in charge. That did not surprise me much, because the population of Cornwall is not large, and influential people tend to know each other. But I thought the chance of speaking to one in 200 people, and selecting one who was going to sit next to me in a coach of about 75 people, was quite low. Helen