When Francis Bourgeois and Niall Horan (what a combo!) got together to go trainspotting at Liverpool Street Station, they had quite the day.
In recent years, the 22-year-old train fanatic has exploded on social media with humorous fish-eye footage of him getting a little too enthusiastic over passing trains.
Now, the media celebrity has his own Channel 4 show, with One Direction’s Niall Horan, 29, as his most recent trainspotting guest.
The couple didn’t even get to their objective in what turned out to be a comical 10 minutes of them bumbling through their day on the tracks – with an additional track from Niall thrown in for good measure.
Francis started the day with lofty ideas of taking Niall from Liverpool Street Station to Harlow for some train watching.
Except that once the couple met up – with Niall not in disguise, according to Francis’ prediction – they boarded a train that never left.
An announcement cut their conversation short as they settled down for a gorgeous voyage and talked about Niall’s grandfather, who the singer revealed was one of Ireland’s last steam train conductors.
The train had been cancelled. Oh no!
Undaunted, they set off for another – only to discover that the train had been cancelled yet again.
Niall burst out laughing, and Francis threw his hands over his mouth in disbelief.
The musician joked: ‘I feel like I’m in The Office or something.’
It was OK, though, since Francis rushed on the platform, followed by a hobbling Niall who stated he had a “dodgy knee.”
While their plans for Harlow were dashed, the sad couple boarded a third train, this time to Shenfield.
However, this was also cancelled after the optimistic couple boarded for the third time owing to a trespasser.
Niall felt this was amusing and burst out laughing in the train, much to the amazement of his other passengers.
Finally, they boarded a fourth train and sped out of London to Francis”surprise’ – a voyage on a 1950s ‘Class 117’ train.
Niall and Francis ask the driver for some ‘tones,’ meaning train horn trumpeting, and he gladly obliges.
Niall even tried out the horn, generating a noise similar to ‘flatulence,’ as the two had just described.
To cap off what appeared to be a wonderful day, Niall took out his acoustic guitar and played his new song, Heaven, while Francis peered out the window via his fish-eye lens.
Francis said the song was ‘beautiful’.
Cute.
