Just three months after the Scotland move and finally thawed out, it was time to hit the rails again. This time I went with two mates and a good time was had by all.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We started on Saturday the 2nd of June, leaving Wakefield shortly after
midnight on one of the overnight holiday trains, hauled by 47819.
The front coach was a declassified MK2 FK, which meant a very nice run to
the South West in first class comfort.
At New Street 47819 was removed and replaced by 47852, a loco that later
found a bit of notoriety, and the cutters torch, when it decided to dive
head-first into the turntable pit at Old Oak Common.
D'oh!
Anyway, its kamikaze antics were still several months in the future and we
experienced no problems on the run to Bristol.
Many of the overnight Summer Saturday services to Devon and Cornwall used
to spend a couple of hours or so stood at Temple Meads to ensure that
holiday makers didn't reach their destinations too early, this meant that
you could change to other services and this we did.
In order to get down that bit quicker we leapt aboard the first thing to
depart, which was worked by 47812.
After reaching Newton Abbot we headed to Taunton on either a tram or a unit,
(it's not recorded) and then did 47355, now of course a Fragonset engine, to
Exeter.
We wanted a change from 47s and so we took a spin on the Waterloo route,
going out on 50037 and returning on 50003.
Upon arriving at Exeter we observed 50024 on a Paignton service.
A 50 along the sea wall is never to be missed and this one wasn't.
It was the middle of the afternoon now and the weather was boiling so we
decided to do the tourist thing and get an ice cream.
We left 50024 at Teignmouth and caught 47355 on its way back North, we did
this for just four and a half miles to Dawlish Warren as this was were we
had decided to purchase the aforementioned ice creams and sit in the sun on
the sea front.
After consuming our ices it was back to the job in hand.
47452 was utilised to get us to Teignmouth and 47532 took us to Exeter where
I had my first encounter with celebrity duff 47581.
It was in NSE livery but still carried its "Great Eastern" nameplates.
We bailed at Newton Abbot in order to cover the following Paignton service,
which was worked by 47605, to Torquay.
The day was wearing on now and we had decided to head up to the smoke and
come back down to Plymouth overnight.
47539 was done to Exeter, where we bailed for a Waterloo service.
We were hoping for a 50 but were more than happy to accept what we got -
33030!
Absolutely Hellfire with a capital H.
A couple of 50s were present of Exeter stabling point so presumably the Crompton was used to get it back to its Southern region home:
50036_1990.06.02_1_Exeter_& 50008 by philwood55013, on Flickr
As we thrashed up the hill from St. Davids, the driver was hanging out of
his cab window with a roll up dangling from his lips.
Memories!
Here's the view from the front window:
33030_1990.06.02_2 by philwood55013, on Flickr
The hugely enjoyable Crompton was done to Basingstoke where we bailed for a
thumper to Reading.
We were hoping for something interesting into Paddington but nothing
materialised and so we had to endure a tram.
At Paddington the down beds were stood in with 47810 on the front.
Much more interesting for me was an Oxford service with 47714 on the front.
714 was one of the first 'shoves' to have made the transfer to Old Oak
Common from Scotland and it was gleaming in fairly recently applied NSE
livery.
I had not managed to get the erstwhile "Grampian Region" in Scotland (in
fact, in its previous life it had been 47511 "Thames" so it was not so much
a hello, more of a welcome back) so I decided to do it.
Here it is in a few days later:
47714_1990.06.07_Paddington by philwood55013, on Flickr
Neither of my mates were interested so they staked a claim on the 'Night
Riviera' and I headed off to Reading.
This service left Padd about half an hour before the sleeper but the beds
are very slackly timed so I ended up sat at Reading for nearly an hour
before 47810 appeared and I rejoined the merry band of travellers.
It was worth it, though, as this was the only time I had 47714 until it was
resurrected for use on Anglia services.
We managed to get a bit of kip behind 47810 and left the train at Plymouth.
Our plan was to rope in a few more 50s and so it was a tram to Exeter and
another bash on the Waterloo route.
50050 was the first loco we had and we did this to Salisbury.
The rest of the day was spent visiting such places as Sherborne and
Templecombe (I did a Waterloo - Exeter run recently on a 159, it was the
first time I had done this route since the demise of the 50s and stopping at
stations like those brought back some great memories, even if the traction didnt) and we enjoyed 50001,50002, 50003 & 50027 as well as another run on 50050.
This is 50027 arriving at Templecombe:
50027_1990.06.03_Templecombe by philwood55013, on Flickr
After finishing up at Templecombe on "Fearless" we headed back to London,
doing 50044 to Basingstoke for a DEMU to Reading.
We were a bit earlier than we had been the previous night and so we had a run to Oxford on 47579,
returning to Reading on 47834 and then 579 again into Padd.
Once again, the 23:bungle service to Oxford was in the hands of an ex 'shove',
this time 47715, still in tatty Scotrail livery, so we decided to do that
to Reading rather than 47802, which was on the beds.
At Reading, we went and sat in the waiting room were we met a very strange
man who was off to France "to paint".
He was telling everyone in the place about his plans and the fact that he
was making his way to Slough to get a passport!
He then whipped out a few bread rolls and a tin of Heinz spaghetti with
which he started to make a pile of pretty nasty looking sandwiches.
He very politely offered them around and the offer was equally politely
declined by everyone present.
When the 'Riviera' arrived we noticed that the front coach was a half brake
that was the 'wrong way round', in other words, the guard's area was between
the seats and the rest of the train. This invariably meant that 'normals'
would stop when they got to the front coach, not aware that there were more
seats further on.
Naturally this meant that the seats in the half brake were often empty when the rest of the train was full.
This time was no exception and we ran to the front and ensured ourselves of
some decent sleeping space.
It was just as well that we had some reasonable space as we had come up with
a crazy plan to swap over to the up sleeper at Bristol.
This was actually achieved, but we were knackered to say the least.
47822 was the loco on the up.
We had decided to spend the Monday bashing EDs on the Gatwicks.
Somewhat bizarrely, for reasons I can't remember, rather than do 47822 into
Paddington and then do the tube to Victoria, we bailed at Reading and did an
unit direct to Gatwick.
It might have been to score the track, who knows?
The locos that were out that day were 73203/206/208 & 210.
We also did 73135 which had been 'loaned' to the Gatwick Express fleet to
replace 73205 which was being used on Channel Tunnel related test trains
with 83301 (ex 33115).
They had not renumbered 73135 into the 732xx series due to the fact that its
transfer into the fleet wasn't permanent!
It should have become 73213 but by the time they decided that it would be
staying with Gatwick Express, 73112 had joined the pool and had been given
this number.
For some reason, 73135 became 73235 rather than the much more logical 73214.
Anyone know why?
Anyway, here's the anomaly at Gatwick Airport:
73135_1990.06.04_Gatwick by philwood55013, on Flickr
Because of some late running we only managed to get five locos in before we
had to depart as we were heading home.
We did a 319 from Gatwick to Kings Cross Thameslink and then 91009 to
Wakefield.
As with the last all-liner that I had done, we had decided not to stay home
overnight, so it was a case of home, bath, warm meal, clean clothes and back
out!
We were now heading to Scotland and, after getting a lift to Huddersfield
from the long suffering wife of one of the lads, we suffered a Sprinter to Manchester and a 304 to Crewe.
After a couple of nights of not sleeping properly we were all knackered and
all three of us were spark out when we arrived at Crewe, requiring a
vigorous wake up call from a member of station staff.
We headed for Inverness, our journey to Carstairs being behind 87027 with
47512 taking us forward to the Highland capital.
Sprinterisation was fast taking hold in Scotland and the number of loco
hauled services had reduced even from what I had seen on my freedom of
Scotland, 3 months previously.
There were some good things to be had, though.
At that time there was one Inverness - Kyle round trip that was loco hauled
in the summer.
This was because it contained the observation car that had been converted
from a class 101 DMU.
We did this from Inverness behind the very Scottish 37418 "An Comunn
Gaidhealach".
At one of the stations en route there was a coach load of American tourists
who were baffled by our obvious enthusiasm and as we thrashed out of the
station we played to the audience with much flailing and there were many
cameras aimed in our direction.
There must be a few Americans showing their holiday snaps to their family
and friends and saying "We photographed these strange guys, I don't know
what they were doing"
Unfortunately, the timetable was such that we couldn't do the 37 to Kyle and
back as we wanted to cover the Fort William sleeper so we bailed at
Strathcarron and in complete contrast to the outward journey we returned to
Inverness on a 156.
We had time for a quick run to Nairn and back before we went to Glasgow and
this was done on 47641, followed by 47595.
One of the remaining Scottish 'shoves', 47703, took us South.
We left Glasgow on one of the fantastic 303 units which we did to
Helensburgh Lower.
The next job was to purchase fish and chips and a quantity of alcohol
before walking up the incredibly steep hill to Helensburgh Upper.
We had a while to wait for the sleeper and spent the time consuming the
drink we had bought.
In retrospect this might not have been the best idea we ever had as one of our group was
not a big drinker at the time and he had purchased a bottle of pretty strong
cider and he drank the lot in double quick time.
When the sleeper arrived it was 37410, which was very nice, and a couple of us took up
positions at the front windows in order to give it some serious bellowing on the trip to Glasgow.
Our luckless chum, however, didn't join us at the windows, he just collapsed in the first
bay of seats.
The thrash through the Glasgow suburbs was fantastic and we really enjoyed
hammering through the underground stations that normally only saw EMUs.
We felt that Gary was missing a great time so I went to fetch him.
Oh my God!
He was slumped in his seat and there was a big pile of vomit next to him!
We figured that BR wouldn't take kindly to this and so, being loyal and true
friends, the pair of us panicked, grabbed our bags and legged it to the next
coach.
We had visions of being turfed off at Glasgow Central and having to spend
the night there and we didn't want that so we reasoned that, as he had been
stupid enough to get into that state, he could sort it out himself.
Shortly afterwards he came staggering down the train to look for us.
He said "Where's my bag"
"Down there, where you left it"
He staggered back the way he had come, then turned around, almost a full
coach length away and shouted over the top of numerous slumbering passengers
"You're responsible!"
Then he was gone.
He returned a little while later, slumped into the bay opposite (no way was
he sitting next to either of us!) and fell asleep.
Back to the job in hand.
The syphon worked the train to Shields Road depot and 86252 was used to drag
the stock back into the station.
The loco from Glasgow through to Euston was one of the 'souped up' 86s,
86103 "Andre Chapelon".
Wednesday the 6th was another day dedicated to getting in 50s.
We started by doing the tube to Paddington and 47822 out to Reading to see
if any Hoovers were working inbound commuter services.
Sadly, none were and so we did 47547 back to Padd but there were no 50s
there either so it was back out to Reading on 47573 and the usual thumper
move to Basingstoke.
A 50 was at last captured and we did 50030 to Andover, then 50005 to Woking
and 50049 to Basingstoke.
We still wanted to do one of the dwindling Old Oak fleet out of Padd so we
made our way back there, via Reading, then a tram.
This time we got our reward as 50035 "Ark Royal" was stood on one of the
evening commuter trains.
The train was, as you might expect, wedged but we had the front vestibule.
Anyway, I enjoyed a good bellow from the front window between Paddington and
Reading and then it was back across to Basingstoke for 50007 to Exeter.
Yet another tram was done, this time to Newton Abbot, and the up 'Riviera'
was once again our mobile sleeping accommodation.
The loco was 47802 and we did it to Reading in order to again observe the
inbound commuter stuff.
This was a good move as the first thing we saw was 47576, significant in
that it was my last ETH 47 for sight, so I was chuffed.
A few seconds after scoring it for sight, I scored it for haulage, doing it,
not surprisingly, into Paddington.
Shortly after that we left Paddington, for the last time that week, on 47715
which was done to Reading.
Next up was 47809 "Finsbury Park" to Oxford and 47579 back to Reading.
Here's 47579 arriving at Oxford with the ECS for our train:
47579_1990.06.07_Oxford by philwood55013, on Flickr
We had decided to head back to Scotland for another run of the Fort William
sleeper, hopefully sans vomit this time, and so we next headed up to
Birmingham on 47812.
At New Street the 47 was replaced by 90028 which we did to Preston.
There were a number of loco hauled 'locals' around Preston at that time and
so we had decided to cover some of them and then do the Northbound 'beds'.
First on the agenda was a service that we could make at Leyland.
Only four miles but it beats festering so we did a unit down.
At that time the diagram we were going for was often worked by RTC goyle
31970 and we were hoping that it would produce for us.
We were somewhat disappointed when 47534 rolled in, but we boarded
nevertheless and went back to Preston.
Next up was a unit to Blackpool North for another of the loco hauled turns.
This was 31457 and we all enjoyed the run back to Preston.
There were still another couple of turns to cover and so it was 86261 to
Lancaster to do an ex-Barrow service, the engine on this being 31416.
At Preston we were pleasantly surprised to see NB 47108 waiting to
head North and so we it to "Brief Encounter" country, i.e. Carnforth.
After doing a unit back to Preston it was sleeper time.
The last day started with 86212 to Shields road, the train being dragged
back into Glasgow Central by 86228.
The syphon forward was the very nice 37423 and our plan was to bail at
Helensburgh Upper, walk to the Lower station, avoid the off-licence and get
a unit to Glasgow.
However, when we got off it was absolutely urinating it down and so we opted
for more syphon mileage and got back on.
Not only more mileage, but more sleep as well!
The first unit of the day was booked to pass the sleeper at Rannoch and so
that was were we bailed.
On arriving back at Glasgow we decided to head up to Perth and see what was
happening.
As I mentioned earlier, there had been a substantial reduction in loco
hauled services and the 'shove' diagrams had all gone over to sprinters, so
it was a plastic out to Perth, 47704 to Edinburgh, 47550 back to Perth and
another plastic to Glasgow.
A brisk walk over to Central was next and, after watching some paramedics
and police officers try and strap a drunk, vest wearing, tramp to a
stretcher, whilst being assaulted with umbrellas by his two female friends,
we began the journey home.
86212 was the traction to Preston and, while they carried out the loco
change, we spotted 31970 backing on to a Blackpool service.
We leapt off and prepared to go and enjoy the goyle.
However, it was now quite late and we had a few alarm bells going off in our
heads so we had a look at the timetable.
Bugger.
It was impossible to get back to Preston until the following morning.
Unbelievable.
We had to re-board the service we had come in on and do 47851 to Manchester.
That was the last loco of the move as we had to suffer plastic home.
Still, that was better than spending the night in the open at Blackpool.
All in all, another excellent all-liner, very enjoyable with good haulages
and lots of laughs, even the vomit incident can now be looked back on more
kindly.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that's move number 4. There'll be no more for a while as it's my wife's 50th birthday next week so we're off on our jollies. Sadly, it's not an all-liner.
Cheers,
55013
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We started on Saturday the 2nd of June, leaving Wakefield shortly after
midnight on one of the overnight holiday trains, hauled by 47819.
The front coach was a declassified MK2 FK, which meant a very nice run to
the South West in first class comfort.
At New Street 47819 was removed and replaced by 47852, a loco that later
found a bit of notoriety, and the cutters torch, when it decided to dive
head-first into the turntable pit at Old Oak Common.
D'oh!
Anyway, its kamikaze antics were still several months in the future and we
experienced no problems on the run to Bristol.
Many of the overnight Summer Saturday services to Devon and Cornwall used
to spend a couple of hours or so stood at Temple Meads to ensure that
holiday makers didn't reach their destinations too early, this meant that
you could change to other services and this we did.
In order to get down that bit quicker we leapt aboard the first thing to
depart, which was worked by 47812.
After reaching Newton Abbot we headed to Taunton on either a tram or a unit,
(it's not recorded) and then did 47355, now of course a Fragonset engine, to
Exeter.
We wanted a change from 47s and so we took a spin on the Waterloo route,
going out on 50037 and returning on 50003.
Upon arriving at Exeter we observed 50024 on a Paignton service.
A 50 along the sea wall is never to be missed and this one wasn't.
It was the middle of the afternoon now and the weather was boiling so we
decided to do the tourist thing and get an ice cream.
We left 50024 at Teignmouth and caught 47355 on its way back North, we did
this for just four and a half miles to Dawlish Warren as this was were we
had decided to purchase the aforementioned ice creams and sit in the sun on
the sea front.
After consuming our ices it was back to the job in hand.
47452 was utilised to get us to Teignmouth and 47532 took us to Exeter where
I had my first encounter with celebrity duff 47581.
It was in NSE livery but still carried its "Great Eastern" nameplates.
We bailed at Newton Abbot in order to cover the following Paignton service,
which was worked by 47605, to Torquay.
The day was wearing on now and we had decided to head up to the smoke and
come back down to Plymouth overnight.
47539 was done to Exeter, where we bailed for a Waterloo service.
We were hoping for a 50 but were more than happy to accept what we got -
33030!
Absolutely Hellfire with a capital H.
A couple of 50s were present of Exeter stabling point so presumably the Crompton was used to get it back to its Southern region home:
50036_1990.06.02_1_Exeter_& 50008 by philwood55013, on FlickrAs we thrashed up the hill from St. Davids, the driver was hanging out of
his cab window with a roll up dangling from his lips.
Memories!
Here's the view from the front window:
33030_1990.06.02_2 by philwood55013, on FlickrThe hugely enjoyable Crompton was done to Basingstoke where we bailed for a
thumper to Reading.
We were hoping for something interesting into Paddington but nothing
materialised and so we had to endure a tram.
At Paddington the down beds were stood in with 47810 on the front.
Much more interesting for me was an Oxford service with 47714 on the front.
714 was one of the first 'shoves' to have made the transfer to Old Oak
Common from Scotland and it was gleaming in fairly recently applied NSE
livery.
I had not managed to get the erstwhile "Grampian Region" in Scotland (in
fact, in its previous life it had been 47511 "Thames" so it was not so much
a hello, more of a welcome back) so I decided to do it.
Here it is in a few days later:
47714_1990.06.07_Paddington by philwood55013, on FlickrNeither of my mates were interested so they staked a claim on the 'Night
Riviera' and I headed off to Reading.
This service left Padd about half an hour before the sleeper but the beds
are very slackly timed so I ended up sat at Reading for nearly an hour
before 47810 appeared and I rejoined the merry band of travellers.
It was worth it, though, as this was the only time I had 47714 until it was
resurrected for use on Anglia services.
We managed to get a bit of kip behind 47810 and left the train at Plymouth.
Our plan was to rope in a few more 50s and so it was a tram to Exeter and
another bash on the Waterloo route.
50050 was the first loco we had and we did this to Salisbury.
The rest of the day was spent visiting such places as Sherborne and
Templecombe (I did a Waterloo - Exeter run recently on a 159, it was the
first time I had done this route since the demise of the 50s and stopping at
stations like those brought back some great memories, even if the traction didnt) and we enjoyed 50001,50002, 50003 & 50027 as well as another run on 50050.
This is 50027 arriving at Templecombe:
50027_1990.06.03_Templecombe by philwood55013, on FlickrAfter finishing up at Templecombe on "Fearless" we headed back to London,
doing 50044 to Basingstoke for a DEMU to Reading.
We were a bit earlier than we had been the previous night and so we had a run to Oxford on 47579,
returning to Reading on 47834 and then 579 again into Padd.
Once again, the 23:bungle service to Oxford was in the hands of an ex 'shove',
this time 47715, still in tatty Scotrail livery, so we decided to do that
to Reading rather than 47802, which was on the beds.
At Reading, we went and sat in the waiting room were we met a very strange
man who was off to France "to paint".
He was telling everyone in the place about his plans and the fact that he
was making his way to Slough to get a passport!
He then whipped out a few bread rolls and a tin of Heinz spaghetti with
which he started to make a pile of pretty nasty looking sandwiches.
He very politely offered them around and the offer was equally politely
declined by everyone present.
When the 'Riviera' arrived we noticed that the front coach was a half brake
that was the 'wrong way round', in other words, the guard's area was between
the seats and the rest of the train. This invariably meant that 'normals'
would stop when they got to the front coach, not aware that there were more
seats further on.
Naturally this meant that the seats in the half brake were often empty when the rest of the train was full.
This time was no exception and we ran to the front and ensured ourselves of
some decent sleeping space.
It was just as well that we had some reasonable space as we had come up with
a crazy plan to swap over to the up sleeper at Bristol.
This was actually achieved, but we were knackered to say the least.
47822 was the loco on the up.
We had decided to spend the Monday bashing EDs on the Gatwicks.
Somewhat bizarrely, for reasons I can't remember, rather than do 47822 into
Paddington and then do the tube to Victoria, we bailed at Reading and did an
unit direct to Gatwick.
It might have been to score the track, who knows?
The locos that were out that day were 73203/206/208 & 210.
We also did 73135 which had been 'loaned' to the Gatwick Express fleet to
replace 73205 which was being used on Channel Tunnel related test trains
with 83301 (ex 33115).
They had not renumbered 73135 into the 732xx series due to the fact that its
transfer into the fleet wasn't permanent!
It should have become 73213 but by the time they decided that it would be
staying with Gatwick Express, 73112 had joined the pool and had been given
this number.
For some reason, 73135 became 73235 rather than the much more logical 73214.
Anyone know why?
Anyway, here's the anomaly at Gatwick Airport:
73135_1990.06.04_Gatwick by philwood55013, on FlickrBecause of some late running we only managed to get five locos in before we
had to depart as we were heading home.
We did a 319 from Gatwick to Kings Cross Thameslink and then 91009 to
Wakefield.
As with the last all-liner that I had done, we had decided not to stay home
overnight, so it was a case of home, bath, warm meal, clean clothes and back
out!
We were now heading to Scotland and, after getting a lift to Huddersfield
from the long suffering wife of one of the lads, we suffered a Sprinter to Manchester and a 304 to Crewe.
After a couple of nights of not sleeping properly we were all knackered and
all three of us were spark out when we arrived at Crewe, requiring a
vigorous wake up call from a member of station staff.
We headed for Inverness, our journey to Carstairs being behind 87027 with
47512 taking us forward to the Highland capital.
Sprinterisation was fast taking hold in Scotland and the number of loco
hauled services had reduced even from what I had seen on my freedom of
Scotland, 3 months previously.
There were some good things to be had, though.
At that time there was one Inverness - Kyle round trip that was loco hauled
in the summer.
This was because it contained the observation car that had been converted
from a class 101 DMU.
We did this from Inverness behind the very Scottish 37418 "An Comunn
Gaidhealach".
At one of the stations en route there was a coach load of American tourists
who were baffled by our obvious enthusiasm and as we thrashed out of the
station we played to the audience with much flailing and there were many
cameras aimed in our direction.
There must be a few Americans showing their holiday snaps to their family
and friends and saying "We photographed these strange guys, I don't know
what they were doing"
Unfortunately, the timetable was such that we couldn't do the 37 to Kyle and
back as we wanted to cover the Fort William sleeper so we bailed at
Strathcarron and in complete contrast to the outward journey we returned to
Inverness on a 156.
We had time for a quick run to Nairn and back before we went to Glasgow and
this was done on 47641, followed by 47595.
One of the remaining Scottish 'shoves', 47703, took us South.
We left Glasgow on one of the fantastic 303 units which we did to
Helensburgh Lower.
The next job was to purchase fish and chips and a quantity of alcohol
before walking up the incredibly steep hill to Helensburgh Upper.
We had a while to wait for the sleeper and spent the time consuming the
drink we had bought.
In retrospect this might not have been the best idea we ever had as one of our group was
not a big drinker at the time and he had purchased a bottle of pretty strong
cider and he drank the lot in double quick time.
When the sleeper arrived it was 37410, which was very nice, and a couple of us took up
positions at the front windows in order to give it some serious bellowing on the trip to Glasgow.
Our luckless chum, however, didn't join us at the windows, he just collapsed in the first
bay of seats.
The thrash through the Glasgow suburbs was fantastic and we really enjoyed
hammering through the underground stations that normally only saw EMUs.
We felt that Gary was missing a great time so I went to fetch him.
Oh my God!
He was slumped in his seat and there was a big pile of vomit next to him!
We figured that BR wouldn't take kindly to this and so, being loyal and true
friends, the pair of us panicked, grabbed our bags and legged it to the next
coach.
We had visions of being turfed off at Glasgow Central and having to spend
the night there and we didn't want that so we reasoned that, as he had been
stupid enough to get into that state, he could sort it out himself.
Shortly afterwards he came staggering down the train to look for us.
He said "Where's my bag"
"Down there, where you left it"
He staggered back the way he had come, then turned around, almost a full
coach length away and shouted over the top of numerous slumbering passengers
"You're responsible!"
Then he was gone.
He returned a little while later, slumped into the bay opposite (no way was
he sitting next to either of us!) and fell asleep.
Back to the job in hand.
The syphon worked the train to Shields Road depot and 86252 was used to drag
the stock back into the station.
The loco from Glasgow through to Euston was one of the 'souped up' 86s,
86103 "Andre Chapelon".
Wednesday the 6th was another day dedicated to getting in 50s.
We started by doing the tube to Paddington and 47822 out to Reading to see
if any Hoovers were working inbound commuter services.
Sadly, none were and so we did 47547 back to Padd but there were no 50s
there either so it was back out to Reading on 47573 and the usual thumper
move to Basingstoke.
A 50 was at last captured and we did 50030 to Andover, then 50005 to Woking
and 50049 to Basingstoke.
We still wanted to do one of the dwindling Old Oak fleet out of Padd so we
made our way back there, via Reading, then a tram.
This time we got our reward as 50035 "Ark Royal" was stood on one of the
evening commuter trains.
The train was, as you might expect, wedged but we had the front vestibule.
Anyway, I enjoyed a good bellow from the front window between Paddington and
Reading and then it was back across to Basingstoke for 50007 to Exeter.
Yet another tram was done, this time to Newton Abbot, and the up 'Riviera'
was once again our mobile sleeping accommodation.
The loco was 47802 and we did it to Reading in order to again observe the
inbound commuter stuff.
This was a good move as the first thing we saw was 47576, significant in
that it was my last ETH 47 for sight, so I was chuffed.
A few seconds after scoring it for sight, I scored it for haulage, doing it,
not surprisingly, into Paddington.
Shortly after that we left Paddington, for the last time that week, on 47715
which was done to Reading.
Next up was 47809 "Finsbury Park" to Oxford and 47579 back to Reading.
Here's 47579 arriving at Oxford with the ECS for our train:
47579_1990.06.07_Oxford by philwood55013, on FlickrWe had decided to head back to Scotland for another run of the Fort William
sleeper, hopefully sans vomit this time, and so we next headed up to
Birmingham on 47812.
At New Street the 47 was replaced by 90028 which we did to Preston.
There were a number of loco hauled 'locals' around Preston at that time and
so we had decided to cover some of them and then do the Northbound 'beds'.
First on the agenda was a service that we could make at Leyland.
Only four miles but it beats festering so we did a unit down.
At that time the diagram we were going for was often worked by RTC goyle
31970 and we were hoping that it would produce for us.
We were somewhat disappointed when 47534 rolled in, but we boarded
nevertheless and went back to Preston.
Next up was a unit to Blackpool North for another of the loco hauled turns.
This was 31457 and we all enjoyed the run back to Preston.
There were still another couple of turns to cover and so it was 86261 to
Lancaster to do an ex-Barrow service, the engine on this being 31416.
At Preston we were pleasantly surprised to see NB 47108 waiting to
head North and so we it to "Brief Encounter" country, i.e. Carnforth.
After doing a unit back to Preston it was sleeper time.
The last day started with 86212 to Shields road, the train being dragged
back into Glasgow Central by 86228.
The syphon forward was the very nice 37423 and our plan was to bail at
Helensburgh Upper, walk to the Lower station, avoid the off-licence and get
a unit to Glasgow.
However, when we got off it was absolutely urinating it down and so we opted
for more syphon mileage and got back on.
Not only more mileage, but more sleep as well!
The first unit of the day was booked to pass the sleeper at Rannoch and so
that was were we bailed.
On arriving back at Glasgow we decided to head up to Perth and see what was
happening.
As I mentioned earlier, there had been a substantial reduction in loco
hauled services and the 'shove' diagrams had all gone over to sprinters, so
it was a plastic out to Perth, 47704 to Edinburgh, 47550 back to Perth and
another plastic to Glasgow.
A brisk walk over to Central was next and, after watching some paramedics
and police officers try and strap a drunk, vest wearing, tramp to a
stretcher, whilst being assaulted with umbrellas by his two female friends,
we began the journey home.
86212 was the traction to Preston and, while they carried out the loco
change, we spotted 31970 backing on to a Blackpool service.
We leapt off and prepared to go and enjoy the goyle.
However, it was now quite late and we had a few alarm bells going off in our
heads so we had a look at the timetable.
Bugger.
It was impossible to get back to Preston until the following morning.
Unbelievable.
We had to re-board the service we had come in on and do 47851 to Manchester.
That was the last loco of the move as we had to suffer plastic home.
Still, that was better than spending the night in the open at Blackpool.
All in all, another excellent all-liner, very enjoyable with good haulages
and lots of laughs, even the vomit incident can now be looked back on more
kindly.
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Well, that's move number 4. There'll be no more for a while as it's my wife's 50th birthday next week so we're off on our jollies. Sadly, it's not an all-liner.
Cheers,
55013
