 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: rob4
Date: 2012-08-06 15:31
Hi everyone
This morning I got off my train to work in London, and left my clarinet on the train's luggage rack.
It is a Buffet RC Prestige B flat with very obvious cracking (on the bit you hold with your left hand).
The serial number is 18 56 94.
It dates from 1978 and is a bit battered but much loved.
I cannot believe I have done this and am hoping some kind person hands it in to South West Trains lost property.
If anyone is offered this clarinet or sees it on eBay ect, I'd be forever grateful if you'd let me know via these forums.
Thanks
Rob
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Author: ned
Date: 2012-08-08 06:43
I will certainly let you know if it turns up in Australia.
I left my camera in the back of a taxi in Chicago in November 1985 and it never turned up either.
Good luck with your hunt, but I'd start saving up for a replacement instrument, if I were you.
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Author: Clarineteer
Date: 2012-08-08 12:08
A Swiss musician could have been playing his swan song last week after he left a Stradivarius violin, worth millions of dollars, on a train. But the priceless string instrument, which violinist Alexander Dubach was merely borrowing from a friend, quickly appeared at a Swiss lost-and-found office. After a five-day search, it was finally returned to its rightful owner.
So there is hope.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2012-08-08 12:38
rob4 -
Did your case have a name-tag on it with your contact information? If so, it's more likely than not that a good samaritan will return it to you. This has happened to me a couple of times, with a Bundy when I was in high school and a big notebook with all my notes from my first year of law school.
I don't know what the process is in London, but in New York you can and should get in touch with the police to get the instrument on their lost/stolen list. They can help you with putting pawnbrokers and other used merchandise sellers on notice.
The Clarinet & Saxophone Society of Great Britain may maintain a list of missing instruments. Also, check with Buffet, who may have a similar list.
Good luck.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-08-08 12:42
The only thing to do is contact Southwest Trains stating which time train you caught and the station you caught it from and they should be able to track it down if it has been handed in. It may have been found by one of the cleaners and kept safe when it returned to the depot or wherever it terminated at.
Depending where the train terminates, the carriage cleaners may have found it or maybe it was handed in by someone at another station along the route that train took after leaving London, so giving them as much info as possible should hopefully lead to getting it returned.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Steve L
Date: 2012-08-08 13:58
Might also be an idea to contact British Transport Police 0800 40 50 40 to report the item lost.
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Author: clarimad
Date: 2012-08-08 22:08
There are a number of auctioneers in the UK that sell items left on trains and airports etc so it may be worthwhile contacting them as well as the train operator. A couple of years ago I bought a Buffet E11 for an absolute song. It had been left on a train.
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Author: rob4
Date: 2012-08-10 19:20
Thanks for all replies.
Luckily it didn't turn up in Australia, but back in South West Trains lost property this afternoon.
I almost hugged the bloke.
It's all in working order too!
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-08-10 20:00
Glad you got it back!
Always keep a note of the serial number somewhere - best place for it is in your insurance documents.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2012-08-10 20:07
Excellent news! Good job you checked with the lost property office instead of just giving up. (Apparently a lot of people do just give up, to judge from the high-quality items that come up for sale in lost property auctions.)
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2012-08-13 14:03
Fabulous news!! My son once forgot his expensive camera on the floor next to an ATM machine inside a grocery store. He was heartbroken. We told him to go right away to the Customer Service counter... and someone had turned it in. So there are still some honest people in the world.... not in the Costa Rican bus, though, where our camera disappeared when we turned our backs.
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Author: DougR
Date: 2012-08-13 14:36
Dear friend of mine, a violist, took the train into town for a gig, got to the gig and went......where's my viola??? (he'd had QUITE a busy morning) he ended up taking a train out to the yards where it was found and returned to him. Punch line, it was a Matthias Albanus from 1640-something.
It struck me the other day how we really all are merely custodians of these instruments as they pass thru our hands...we can pretend we "own" them, but they're just in our hands momentarily as they pass on to someone else down the road. (hopefully voluntarily)
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Author: David Niethamer
Date: 2012-08-13 15:29
"It's all in working order too!"
So British Rail maintains an instrument repair service?!? ;-)
Glad your instrument was returned. I once left an Eb clarinet at a bus stop in New Jersey, and after one day of an advertisement in the local classifieds, a bus driver (next bus at the stop, as it turned out) called to arrange its return. I know your feeling of relief, even after all these years.
David
niethamer@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/index.html
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-08-13 16:29
While I've mislaid instruments, mouthpieces, etc. at home on a few occasions, so far I've never had the heart-stopping experience of leaving anything on public transport.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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