I once saw a tornado from the window of the London to Manchester train. It was, if I remember correctly, a summer's evening around 1999 or 2000. At that time my girl friend lived in London and I lived in Manchester - so we both did a lot of travelling backwards and forwards.
Somewhere, just about level with Birmingham, the sky got very black and I watched as a funnel shaped segment of cloud lowered itself to the ground about (I would guess) 4 or 5 miles away. Being an avid watcher of 'storm-chasing' documentaries on TV I was thrilled (although I imagine if I had been a native of the US mid-west I would probably have been under the table!).
When I got home I phoned my girl friend and told her about it. All she said was, "you've got an over-active imagination", but later that night I saw a news report which stated that several roofs had been damaged in Birmingham.