OK, so I thought I would try my hand at writing a more contemporary report, covering a recent Strathclyde Daytripper move that I did.
I’ll begin with an explanation of my approach to unit bashing.
Mileage is not important; it’s individual coaches that I go for. In order for me to “clear” a unit I have to ride on every vehicle that makes up the set and this has to be done between two booked stops, so none of that walking through the train when it’s on the move nonsense
153s are a bit easier to clear than 180s
What can I say? One of the great things about this hobby is that you can do whatever you want.
My game, my rules.
So anyway, back in 2012 the wife and I had a holiday in Scotland. It’s our habit to book a few nights in a Travelodge or similar and use that as our base. Once at base camp we drive to the nearest railway station and visit our required attractions by train.
This serves two purposes, one) it cuts down on the amount of driving I have to do and two) I quite like trains.
I always do my research and come up with interesting places to visit and what the best tickets for the job are. In this case it was the aforementioned Daytripper and we used it to visit places such as Ayr and Troon. The tickets we bought were scratchcards and so we got a job lot to see us through the week, I also bought one extra with the intention of returning for a fully fledged railway move at some point in the future.
Fast forward two years and I realised that I still had this unused scratchcard and it expired at the end of 2014. That would be a tenner down the drain and I wasn’t having that, so a plan was put in place.
I booked Friday the 24th of October off work and made my plans.
It was 156s that I was after as I needed (or at least hadn’t previously recorded) many of them for haulage.
I got up bright and early at 5am and set off on the drive. I had decided to make my way to Shotts as it has a nice big car park that’s free and seems relatively secure.
Shotts is the Eastern limit of the Daytripper , so no extra tickets would be required.
I made my way North by travelling via Skipton to the M6, then the M74, leaving the motorway about 12 miles from my destination. This is quite a nice drive usually and one that I admit to enjoying, particularly North of Preston. Unfortunately, on this occasion my trip was spoiled because at around 06.30 my concentration wavered and the darkness of the night was brightly illuminated as I was captured by the infamous speed camera at Kirkby Londsdale
Bugger! My own fault, of course, but it did put a dampener on the day.
Anyway, the rest of the journey went without problems and I arrived at Shotts at five past nine, with my target being the 09.19 to Glasgow.
When this arrived it was winner 156504 and I immediately went to coach 52504.
The one with the toilet.
Well, it had been a long drive.
Here is 156504 after arrival:
DMU 156504_2014.10.24_Glasgow Central by philwood55013, on Flickr
Once in Glasgow it was another winner, in the shape of 156502, out to Whifflet.
I did 57502 out and then came part way back in 52502, that’s one cleared.
After bailing off 156502 at Carmyle it was another winner in the shape of 156437 and, sat in 57437, I made the short journey to Bargeddie to pick up the third unit on the circuit. This was 156506 and I made use of 52506 back to Glasgow.
Next up was a round trip to Dunlop, using 156436 (52436) and 156501 (52501). I went back out on 156501, obviously after moving to 57501, bailing at Crossmyloof for no other reason than I like the name.
Here is the excellently named Crossmyloof, with 156501 in platform 2:
DMU 156501_2014.10.24_Crossmyloof by philwood55013, on Flickr
156435 was then taken back to Glasgow, sitting in 57435, before another round trip to Dunlop on 156509 (52509) and 156514 (52514). It was then time to head home as I didn’t want to be too late back, so it was 156504 (this time in 57504 – another one cleared) to Bellshill, followed by 57449, of unit 156449, back to Shotts . I intended to do a round trip back to Bellshill but the PIS showed the 17.19 as being “Delayed”, announcements gave the same information, with no ETA, so it was back to my car I went.
The drive back went without incident and I arrived home early enough to watch a recording of that evening’s episode of “Pointless” with the missus before bed.
All in all, an enjoyable day out, although not a patch on the moves of old, of course.
So any thoughts "Stick to the old stuff", etc?
Cheers,
55013
I’ll begin with an explanation of my approach to unit bashing.
Mileage is not important; it’s individual coaches that I go for. In order for me to “clear” a unit I have to ride on every vehicle that makes up the set and this has to be done between two booked stops, so none of that walking through the train when it’s on the move nonsense
153s are a bit easier to clear than 180s
What can I say? One of the great things about this hobby is that you can do whatever you want.
My game, my rules.
So anyway, back in 2012 the wife and I had a holiday in Scotland. It’s our habit to book a few nights in a Travelodge or similar and use that as our base. Once at base camp we drive to the nearest railway station and visit our required attractions by train.
This serves two purposes, one) it cuts down on the amount of driving I have to do and two) I quite like trains.
I always do my research and come up with interesting places to visit and what the best tickets for the job are. In this case it was the aforementioned Daytripper and we used it to visit places such as Ayr and Troon. The tickets we bought were scratchcards and so we got a job lot to see us through the week, I also bought one extra with the intention of returning for a fully fledged railway move at some point in the future.
Fast forward two years and I realised that I still had this unused scratchcard and it expired at the end of 2014. That would be a tenner down the drain and I wasn’t having that, so a plan was put in place.
I booked Friday the 24th of October off work and made my plans.
It was 156s that I was after as I needed (or at least hadn’t previously recorded) many of them for haulage.
I got up bright and early at 5am and set off on the drive. I had decided to make my way to Shotts as it has a nice big car park that’s free and seems relatively secure.
Shotts is the Eastern limit of the Daytripper , so no extra tickets would be required.
I made my way North by travelling via Skipton to the M6, then the M74, leaving the motorway about 12 miles from my destination. This is quite a nice drive usually and one that I admit to enjoying, particularly North of Preston. Unfortunately, on this occasion my trip was spoiled because at around 06.30 my concentration wavered and the darkness of the night was brightly illuminated as I was captured by the infamous speed camera at Kirkby Londsdale
Bugger! My own fault, of course, but it did put a dampener on the day.
Anyway, the rest of the journey went without problems and I arrived at Shotts at five past nine, with my target being the 09.19 to Glasgow.
When this arrived it was winner 156504 and I immediately went to coach 52504.
The one with the toilet.
Well, it had been a long drive.
Here is 156504 after arrival:
DMU 156504_2014.10.24_Glasgow Central by philwood55013, on FlickrOnce in Glasgow it was another winner, in the shape of 156502, out to Whifflet.
I did 57502 out and then came part way back in 52502, that’s one cleared.
After bailing off 156502 at Carmyle it was another winner in the shape of 156437 and, sat in 57437, I made the short journey to Bargeddie to pick up the third unit on the circuit. This was 156506 and I made use of 52506 back to Glasgow.
Next up was a round trip to Dunlop, using 156436 (52436) and 156501 (52501). I went back out on 156501, obviously after moving to 57501, bailing at Crossmyloof for no other reason than I like the name.
Here is the excellently named Crossmyloof, with 156501 in platform 2:
DMU 156501_2014.10.24_Crossmyloof by philwood55013, on Flickr156435 was then taken back to Glasgow, sitting in 57435, before another round trip to Dunlop on 156509 (52509) and 156514 (52514). It was then time to head home as I didn’t want to be too late back, so it was 156504 (this time in 57504 – another one cleared) to Bellshill, followed by 57449, of unit 156449, back to Shotts . I intended to do a round trip back to Bellshill but the PIS showed the 17.19 as being “Delayed”, announcements gave the same information, with no ETA, so it was back to my car I went.
The drive back went without incident and I arrived home early enough to watch a recording of that evening’s episode of “Pointless” with the missus before bed.
All in all, an enjoyable day out, although not a patch on the moves of old, of course.
So any thoughts "Stick to the old stuff", etc?
Cheers,
55013
Last edited:
