Searle
Established Member
I quite like the three things in the title format, I think I might do it more 
I was gonna write this up earlier but then I started playing Minecraft again so I got distracted, but oh well.
On Monday I had planned a trip up the Chiltern Mainline, and then on past Stourbridge and Worcester. The day started with a terrible 06:45 alarm (never welcome), and I was quickly showered and walking down to Hertford North, catching the 07:33 to Moorgate (as always a semi fast service), consisting of 313055 + 313052 which unusually left from Platform 2, usually used for Northbound Services. I knew I had to get to King's Cross, and I generally prefer making it by a FCC service, so I looked up on OTT when one was due to depart for King's Cross. As usual, there was one departing 3 minutes earlier than my train was due to depart, but it was delayed by about 5 minutes, much to my delight. As we trundled along the slow lines through Hornsey and Harringay, we slowed down to a crawl as I saw the service I wanted shoot through beside us, unfortunately making up time, and it was long gone by the time we eventually arrived at Finsbury Park.
Because of this, I made my way down to the Victoria Line, changing for the Hammersmith and City line at King's Cross, which was my first ride on the S7 stock, which came as a surprise. I alighted at Baker Street, and arrived at Marylebone after a quick trip to a Tesco Express and McDonalds. I found two Mainline services in Platforms 2 and 3, and fortunately the gateline staff allowed me through to get a quick snap of them, redeeming my faith in Chiltern staff after I was only allowed 'a few pictures' the week before.
London Marylebone by Mikez2605, on Flickr
After waiting for my service to be announced, I joined 168002 for the 09:15 to Birmingham Snow Hill (taking a very impressive 1 hour 39 minutes to Moor Street). This was also the first time that I noticed the huge difference between Class 168/0 and 168's, they look completely different!
I jumped off at Moor Street to grab a couple of pictures of 67012 as it formed another Mainline service back down to Marylebone, with 168111 standing beside it, giving me quite a nice reflection shot.
Birmingham Moor Street by Mikez2605, on Flickr
I then joined the 11:01 service to Stourbridge Junction, where I got to see the Parry People Mover for the first time in real life, it's adorable! 139001 was on the shuttle today, so got the 11:39 to Stourbridge Town and the 11:44 back to Junction. Not the smoothest of rides (on of the roughest actually!), but a fun ride nonetheless After that I caught the 12:02 to Kidderminster on 172344, and then on to Worcester Foregate Street on 172342.
Stourbridge Shuttle by Mikez2605, on Flickr
Kidderminster by Mikez2605, on Flickr
So far everything had run very smoothly, this was the bit that the most could go wrong though. I caught a FGW HST west from Worcester Foregate Street, as far as Ledbury, where I had 7 minutes to change onto another HST coming back the other way. Had a great time leaning out of the window (sorry, I can't help myself!), and the Herefordshire scenery was really nice now the sun had come out. Fortunately, after briefly losing my camera, I alighted at Ledbury, two minutes early, and our train waited for the single line section ahead to become unoccupied.
Ledbury by Mikez2605, on Flickr
You can see the length of the HST essentially swallowing up the platform, it was the same at seemingly nearly all of the stations along the line to Hereford, and as we left Ledbury, the poor guard had to read them all out again! I stayed on this service until Worcester Shrub Hill, where fortunately we arrived on time, so I could catch the 14:15 service back to Foregate Street (run by 158655 for FGW), and then on to the 14:23 service into Birmingham New Street, on board 170505 for LM. While I was on this service, I checked National Rail Enquiries to see how the Chiltern Mainline, and it wasn't good. Apparently due to a person hit by a train, there was 30 minute delays to services through Banbury, so I decided to catch a Virgin service from New Street to Euston, and avoid the delays (I was tempted to excess my ticket earlier in the day, because I was going out in the evening and could have done with being back a little earlier).
I caught 390115 on the 15:30 from New Street to Euston, after asking the guard, who just shrugged at me! This kept up my streak of always stopping at Milton Keynes Central when passing through (I've been on 8 services through it and always stopped there), before arriving into Euston at 16:59. Had a nice leisurely walk down Euston Road in the sun (where I picked up an Evening Standard and learnt about Thatcher's Death!), before jumping on board the 17:23 from King's Cross to Finsbury Park, and then the 17:30 on to Hertford North, arriving back home at 18:01, rounding off a pretty decent day.
Thanks for reading!
I was gonna write this up earlier but then I started playing Minecraft again so I got distracted, but oh well.On Monday I had planned a trip up the Chiltern Mainline, and then on past Stourbridge and Worcester. The day started with a terrible 06:45 alarm (never welcome), and I was quickly showered and walking down to Hertford North, catching the 07:33 to Moorgate (as always a semi fast service), consisting of 313055 + 313052 which unusually left from Platform 2, usually used for Northbound Services. I knew I had to get to King's Cross, and I generally prefer making it by a FCC service, so I looked up on OTT when one was due to depart for King's Cross. As usual, there was one departing 3 minutes earlier than my train was due to depart, but it was delayed by about 5 minutes, much to my delight. As we trundled along the slow lines through Hornsey and Harringay, we slowed down to a crawl as I saw the service I wanted shoot through beside us, unfortunately making up time, and it was long gone by the time we eventually arrived at Finsbury Park.
Because of this, I made my way down to the Victoria Line, changing for the Hammersmith and City line at King's Cross, which was my first ride on the S7 stock, which came as a surprise. I alighted at Baker Street, and arrived at Marylebone after a quick trip to a Tesco Express and McDonalds. I found two Mainline services in Platforms 2 and 3, and fortunately the gateline staff allowed me through to get a quick snap of them, redeeming my faith in Chiltern staff after I was only allowed 'a few pictures' the week before.
London Marylebone by Mikez2605, on Flickr
After waiting for my service to be announced, I joined 168002 for the 09:15 to Birmingham Snow Hill (taking a very impressive 1 hour 39 minutes to Moor Street). This was also the first time that I noticed the huge difference between Class 168/0 and 168's, they look completely different!
I jumped off at Moor Street to grab a couple of pictures of 67012 as it formed another Mainline service back down to Marylebone, with 168111 standing beside it, giving me quite a nice reflection shot.
Birmingham Moor Street by Mikez2605, on Flickr
I then joined the 11:01 service to Stourbridge Junction, where I got to see the Parry People Mover for the first time in real life, it's adorable! 139001 was on the shuttle today, so got the 11:39 to Stourbridge Town and the 11:44 back to Junction. Not the smoothest of rides (on of the roughest actually!), but a fun ride nonetheless
After that I caught the 12:02 to Kidderminster on 172344, and then on to Worcester Foregate Street on 172342.
Stourbridge Shuttle by Mikez2605, on Flickr
Kidderminster by Mikez2605, on Flickr
So far everything had run very smoothly, this was the bit that the most could go wrong though. I caught a FGW HST west from Worcester Foregate Street, as far as Ledbury, where I had 7 minutes to change onto another HST coming back the other way. Had a great time leaning out of the window (sorry, I can't help myself!), and the Herefordshire scenery was really nice now the sun had come out. Fortunately, after briefly losing my camera, I alighted at Ledbury, two minutes early, and our train waited for the single line section ahead to become unoccupied.
Ledbury by Mikez2605, on Flickr
You can see the length of the HST essentially swallowing up the platform, it was the same at seemingly nearly all of the stations along the line to Hereford, and as we left Ledbury, the poor guard had to read them all out again! I stayed on this service until Worcester Shrub Hill, where fortunately we arrived on time, so I could catch the 14:15 service back to Foregate Street (run by 158655 for FGW), and then on to the 14:23 service into Birmingham New Street, on board 170505 for LM. While I was on this service, I checked National Rail Enquiries to see how the Chiltern Mainline, and it wasn't good. Apparently due to a person hit by a train, there was 30 minute delays to services through Banbury, so I decided to catch a Virgin service from New Street to Euston, and avoid the delays (I was tempted to excess my ticket earlier in the day, because I was going out in the evening and could have done with being back a little earlier).
I caught 390115 on the 15:30 from New Street to Euston, after asking the guard, who just shrugged at me! This kept up my streak of always stopping at Milton Keynes Central when passing through (I've been on 8 services through it and always stopped there), before arriving into Euston at 16:59. Had a nice leisurely walk down Euston Road in the sun (where I picked up an Evening Standard and learnt about Thatcher's Death!), before jumping on board the 17:23 from King's Cross to Finsbury Park, and then the 17:30 on to Hertford North, arriving back home at 18:01, rounding off a pretty decent day.
Thanks for reading!
