OK, so here's my next adventure.
I was accompanied by 45135 and I am, once again, indebted to him for the considerable amount of unit gen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next rover that I did was another two man move in October 2000.
We started on Sunday the 15th of October in poor style with 155343 from Bradford Interchange to Manchester Victoria. Things could only get better from there.
We made our way over to Piccadilly, using tram 1018 and began the cranking in earnest with 86258 which we did to Crewe, from there it was 47733 to Liverpool.
There was nothing worth doing from there, so it was 156423 out to Wigan North Western in the hope of picking up a West Coast spark.
We had sleeping accommodation booked on the up Edinburgh sleeper and so we were Scotland bound. 90014 was taken the 15 miles to Preston followed by 87001 to Carlisle.
One of the reasons we had decided to do this move today was, being a Sunday, there were engineering works in place and this meant diesel haulage from Carlisle to Glasgow via Kilmarnock.
It was 47737 that did the honours and a very enjoyable run was had.
After the usual walk across Glasgow it was 170415 from Queen Street to Edinburgh.
We waited to see what the 90 on the Carstairs portion was and we were mightily surprised to see it was 47744. I like electric locos, but was more than happy to have this bonus diesel haulage. The loco forward from Carstairs was more conventional traction in the shape of 90021.
We planned to spend the day doing Anglia and so, after arriving at Euston, we headed over to Liverpool Street. We headed out, as usual, to Ipswich, on 86221 and then headed straight back to London on low mileage 86230.
Despite never being big unit men we did occasionally dabble with the older, more at-risk, units and neither of us had ever had a 310 or a 312 so a trip to Fenchurch Steet seemed like a good idea.
We also fancied getting the Romford to Upminster line in, so we made our way over via 321442 to Romford, 321334 to Upminster, 317303 to Barking and then what we hoped would be the first of several slam door units, 312798 into Fenchurch Street – a winning station
)
In the event, it was the only one we had, because as we approached the terminus a gen message came through. 37606 was booked to work the Brighton – Glasgow service as far as Birmingham New Street.
This couldn’t be allowed to get away and so timetables were hastily grabbed and a plan was formulated.
We soon dismissed most stations as being impossible to get to in the time available, but Leamington Spa was do-able.
We fired over to Euston and caught 86424 to Birmingham International in order to connect with an HST (43123/43122) that would take us to our rendezvous point.
37606 was made with ease and was duly roped in for the 28 mile run to New Street.
Here is 37606 a bit later on in its career:
37606_2013.03.10_1_York by philwood55013, on Flickr
We decided we would spend the night on the North Wales Coast and so we did a few things locally.
We did 86222 to Stafford, 90012 to Rugby, 87012 to Crewe, 86212 to New Street, 87011 to International and 87002 back to New Street.
The night was to be spent dossing on the Holyhead service and I was more than happy to see my favourite 37, 37429 pull in to New Street.
It was October and the temperature was dropping, but never mind we would be warm as toast in our compo.
Ha.
The best laid plans and all that.
There was engineering work taking place on Anglesey and the service was terminated at Bangor.
All the punters for Holyhead were put on a bus, but we rejected that and so our planned fester of around at hour at the port was replaced by about three hours stood in the cold watching 37429 shunt the stock and then stand in the sidings until near its due departure time to Brum.
Needless to say we were pretty shattered when the return service left (with a bus load of passengers ,ex Ireland) and so we settled down to try and recoup some of our lost sleep.
The service was New Street bound, so to avoid the need to run round for the return trip, after leaving Wolverhampton it ran via Bescot and Aston. We were absolutely shattered and so elected to stay on board as the train headed back to North Wales.
We bailed once again at Bangor, feeling much better, after just over 400 miles of 37429 thrash. Most of which we didn’t hear.
Still, what a monster. 37429 RIP.
37401 then took us East to Crewe.
A round trip to the exotic location of Wigan followed, with 87031 and 87017 providing traction.
We were heading to our own beds for the night and we started our homeward trip with 87029 from Crewe to Stafford, followed by 47807 to Manchester.
Now it was back to units and we did 158743 to Huddersfield where I bailed in order to catch a service to Brighouse, which is where I was living at the time. It was the mighty 158901 (sarcasm) that took me there, followed by an evening stroll home.
The next day began with a bus into Bradford and 91006 from Foster Square to Leeds.
After meeting up with my travelling companion it was off to Manchester on 150270.
I could have just caught something from Brighouse to Huddersfield, but that would have meant missing out on a whole 14 miles of 91 haulage.
An old fashioned “Stockport leap” was next on the agenda, with 87001 taking us for just under 6 miles from Piccadilly.
47758, absolutely gleaming in recently applied EWS livery worked the Cross Country service that we took from Stockport to Preston and then it was “Effing Howard”, 87015, to Crewe.
The good old days, 87015 on the left and sister 87018 at Carlisle in 2003:
87015_2003.10.18_1_Carlisle_& 87018 by philwood55013, on Flickr
We were heading to London, but as is often the case on these moves, that meant going two stops forward for one stop back.
90010 took us from Crewe to Nuneaton, then 87009 whisked us back North, to Stafford.
We edged closer to the capital with 90006 to Milton Keynes and then edged away again with 87007 to Coventry, followed by 86430 to International.
The final leg of journey to the smoke was done on 47853 from International to Paddington.
The power for the down sleeper was 47811 and we were soon in the land of nod.
We had recently found out that, amazingly, booked 08 haulage could still be had on the 21st century railway.
This was achieved by travelling on the single coach that was the Plymouth portion of the sleeper.
At Plymouth, the gronk dropped onto the coach (which was at the rear out of Paddington) and shunted the sleeping passengers into platform 8, where the coach sat until it was considered a reasonable time to wake everyone up and turf them off.
The 08 didn’t do the work on the up as the train loco came off the front and collected the coach.
This ensured that the Plymouth portion was always at the London end.
47811 was the loco for the main bit of the journey, but we made sure we were up when the train reached Plymouth for the star turn.
I didn’t quite believe the gen so it was with delight and relief that I enjoyed my brief run on 08645.
Over the next few years I managed to clear the Plymouth 08s in this manner.
Next up we had decided to do some DMU bashing!
This was unheard of and nearly brought down the government.
Probably.
Anyway, what we had in mind was a trip to Gunnislake, which was required track for us both.
We bailed off the sleeper coach and caught the first service up the branch, which was worked by 150241.
Once back at Plymouth we headed West in order to meet an XC service.
To do this we had to endure 158817 as far as Liskeard.
Lovely (more sarcasm).
47841 eased our pain and we took this to Bristol, where more unit mileage awaited us.
At this time there was a Bristol to Oxford service worked by a class 165 and we did this throughout.
47841:
47841_2004.08.14_3_Crewe by philwood55013, on Flickr
Don’t ask me why we didn’t stay on 47841, maybe it was to score the West curve at Didcot, which we duly did. 165126 was our ride on this journey.
We had decided to have another night in our own homes and so it was now time to head North.
47741 was done from Oxford to Birmingham International, with 90146 then taking us for a short trip to Coventry.
Next up was 87021 to Birmingham.
The next journey was a disaster.
The plan was to do 47844 to Leeds and then get something home.
Unfortunately, the train met with problems en route.
Sadly these were not the sort of problems that can be resolved by attaching a nearby freight loco to the front and so we didn’t even have the compensation we deserved.
Arrival in Leeds was after pretty much everything had departed.
My mate managed to make the last service to his local station but I was bowled.
I joined something that vaguely resembled a queue of irate passengers at the station manager’s office and was eventually put in a taxi with three other folk, all heading somewhere different.
My arrival in Brighouse was a tad later than I anticipated.
Undaunted by the previous day’s shenanigans I was up bright and early on the 20th.
We were off to Scotland.
This time I didn’t go for the Forster Square 91, instead it was a bus to Huddersfield, a reunion with my mate and 156470 over to Manchester.
Another Stockport leap got us going for the day, this time the mileage barely grew behind 90004.
90007 did slightly better on that front, taking us to Macclesfield.
47828 then powered us to Preston.
A nice lengthy run followed as we did 87024 from Preston to Glasgow before strolling over to Queen Street and catching 158716 to Aberdeen.
Oh, how I missed those 47/7s on that run.
Talking of 47/7s, it was one of the RES versions that was our traction for the sleeper, 47773 and after purchasing and consuming grub from a nearby take away we took up our berth.
The first haulage of the last day was 90040 which replaced the 47 at Edinburgh and took us through to Euston.
Here is 90040 after taking me for an identical journey four years later:
90040_2004.07.07_5_Euston by philwood55013, on Flickr
From Euston we headed North behind 87021, which we took to Birmingham, before visiting Milton Keynes behind 87013. It was back into Euston on 86243 before we began our journey home as this was our final day.
Winsford crash victim 87027 “Wolf Of Badenoch” was our next haulage. This was good news for my mate as it was his last 87. We did it through to Macclesfield before bailing in order to do 87024 to Stoke. We did this as we had a bit of time and wanted to squeeze every last drop of value from our rover.
The next, and last, loco of the week was 47812, which we did to Piccadilly.
We finished on 158778 which we did across the Pennines and back to our home ground. I disembarked at Huddersfield for a bus home and another move had come to an end.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So there you go, hope somebody enjoyed it
I was accompanied by 45135 and I am, once again, indebted to him for the considerable amount of unit gen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next rover that I did was another two man move in October 2000.
We started on Sunday the 15th of October in poor style with 155343 from Bradford Interchange to Manchester Victoria. Things could only get better from there.
We made our way over to Piccadilly, using tram 1018 and began the cranking in earnest with 86258 which we did to Crewe, from there it was 47733 to Liverpool.
There was nothing worth doing from there, so it was 156423 out to Wigan North Western in the hope of picking up a West Coast spark.
We had sleeping accommodation booked on the up Edinburgh sleeper and so we were Scotland bound. 90014 was taken the 15 miles to Preston followed by 87001 to Carlisle.
One of the reasons we had decided to do this move today was, being a Sunday, there were engineering works in place and this meant diesel haulage from Carlisle to Glasgow via Kilmarnock.
It was 47737 that did the honours and a very enjoyable run was had.
After the usual walk across Glasgow it was 170415 from Queen Street to Edinburgh.
We waited to see what the 90 on the Carstairs portion was and we were mightily surprised to see it was 47744. I like electric locos, but was more than happy to have this bonus diesel haulage. The loco forward from Carstairs was more conventional traction in the shape of 90021.
We planned to spend the day doing Anglia and so, after arriving at Euston, we headed over to Liverpool Street. We headed out, as usual, to Ipswich, on 86221 and then headed straight back to London on low mileage 86230.
Despite never being big unit men we did occasionally dabble with the older, more at-risk, units and neither of us had ever had a 310 or a 312 so a trip to Fenchurch Steet seemed like a good idea.
We also fancied getting the Romford to Upminster line in, so we made our way over via 321442 to Romford, 321334 to Upminster, 317303 to Barking and then what we hoped would be the first of several slam door units, 312798 into Fenchurch Street – a winning station
)In the event, it was the only one we had, because as we approached the terminus a gen message came through. 37606 was booked to work the Brighton – Glasgow service as far as Birmingham New Street.
This couldn’t be allowed to get away and so timetables were hastily grabbed and a plan was formulated.
We soon dismissed most stations as being impossible to get to in the time available, but Leamington Spa was do-able.
We fired over to Euston and caught 86424 to Birmingham International in order to connect with an HST (43123/43122) that would take us to our rendezvous point.
37606 was made with ease and was duly roped in for the 28 mile run to New Street.
Here is 37606 a bit later on in its career:
37606_2013.03.10_1_York by philwood55013, on FlickrWe decided we would spend the night on the North Wales Coast and so we did a few things locally.
We did 86222 to Stafford, 90012 to Rugby, 87012 to Crewe, 86212 to New Street, 87011 to International and 87002 back to New Street.
The night was to be spent dossing on the Holyhead service and I was more than happy to see my favourite 37, 37429 pull in to New Street.
It was October and the temperature was dropping, but never mind we would be warm as toast in our compo.
Ha.
The best laid plans and all that.
There was engineering work taking place on Anglesey and the service was terminated at Bangor.
All the punters for Holyhead were put on a bus, but we rejected that and so our planned fester of around at hour at the port was replaced by about three hours stood in the cold watching 37429 shunt the stock and then stand in the sidings until near its due departure time to Brum.
Needless to say we were pretty shattered when the return service left (with a bus load of passengers ,ex Ireland) and so we settled down to try and recoup some of our lost sleep.
The service was New Street bound, so to avoid the need to run round for the return trip, after leaving Wolverhampton it ran via Bescot and Aston. We were absolutely shattered and so elected to stay on board as the train headed back to North Wales.
We bailed once again at Bangor, feeling much better, after just over 400 miles of 37429 thrash. Most of which we didn’t hear.
Still, what a monster. 37429 RIP.
37401 then took us East to Crewe.
A round trip to the exotic location of Wigan followed, with 87031 and 87017 providing traction.
We were heading to our own beds for the night and we started our homeward trip with 87029 from Crewe to Stafford, followed by 47807 to Manchester.
Now it was back to units and we did 158743 to Huddersfield where I bailed in order to catch a service to Brighouse, which is where I was living at the time. It was the mighty 158901 (sarcasm) that took me there, followed by an evening stroll home.
The next day began with a bus into Bradford and 91006 from Foster Square to Leeds.
After meeting up with my travelling companion it was off to Manchester on 150270.
I could have just caught something from Brighouse to Huddersfield, but that would have meant missing out on a whole 14 miles of 91 haulage.
An old fashioned “Stockport leap” was next on the agenda, with 87001 taking us for just under 6 miles from Piccadilly.
47758, absolutely gleaming in recently applied EWS livery worked the Cross Country service that we took from Stockport to Preston and then it was “Effing Howard”, 87015, to Crewe.
The good old days, 87015 on the left and sister 87018 at Carlisle in 2003:
87015_2003.10.18_1_Carlisle_& 87018 by philwood55013, on FlickrWe were heading to London, but as is often the case on these moves, that meant going two stops forward for one stop back.
90010 took us from Crewe to Nuneaton, then 87009 whisked us back North, to Stafford.
We edged closer to the capital with 90006 to Milton Keynes and then edged away again with 87007 to Coventry, followed by 86430 to International.
The final leg of journey to the smoke was done on 47853 from International to Paddington.
The power for the down sleeper was 47811 and we were soon in the land of nod.
We had recently found out that, amazingly, booked 08 haulage could still be had on the 21st century railway.
This was achieved by travelling on the single coach that was the Plymouth portion of the sleeper.
At Plymouth, the gronk dropped onto the coach (which was at the rear out of Paddington) and shunted the sleeping passengers into platform 8, where the coach sat until it was considered a reasonable time to wake everyone up and turf them off.
The 08 didn’t do the work on the up as the train loco came off the front and collected the coach.
This ensured that the Plymouth portion was always at the London end.
47811 was the loco for the main bit of the journey, but we made sure we were up when the train reached Plymouth for the star turn.
I didn’t quite believe the gen so it was with delight and relief that I enjoyed my brief run on 08645.
Over the next few years I managed to clear the Plymouth 08s in this manner.
Next up we had decided to do some DMU bashing!
This was unheard of and nearly brought down the government.
Probably.
Anyway, what we had in mind was a trip to Gunnislake, which was required track for us both.
We bailed off the sleeper coach and caught the first service up the branch, which was worked by 150241.
Once back at Plymouth we headed West in order to meet an XC service.
To do this we had to endure 158817 as far as Liskeard.
Lovely (more sarcasm).
47841 eased our pain and we took this to Bristol, where more unit mileage awaited us.
At this time there was a Bristol to Oxford service worked by a class 165 and we did this throughout.
47841:
47841_2004.08.14_3_Crewe by philwood55013, on FlickrDon’t ask me why we didn’t stay on 47841, maybe it was to score the West curve at Didcot, which we duly did. 165126 was our ride on this journey.
We had decided to have another night in our own homes and so it was now time to head North.
47741 was done from Oxford to Birmingham International, with 90146 then taking us for a short trip to Coventry.
Next up was 87021 to Birmingham.
The next journey was a disaster.
The plan was to do 47844 to Leeds and then get something home.
Unfortunately, the train met with problems en route.
Sadly these were not the sort of problems that can be resolved by attaching a nearby freight loco to the front and so we didn’t even have the compensation we deserved.
Arrival in Leeds was after pretty much everything had departed.
My mate managed to make the last service to his local station but I was bowled.
I joined something that vaguely resembled a queue of irate passengers at the station manager’s office and was eventually put in a taxi with three other folk, all heading somewhere different.
My arrival in Brighouse was a tad later than I anticipated.
Undaunted by the previous day’s shenanigans I was up bright and early on the 20th.
We were off to Scotland.
This time I didn’t go for the Forster Square 91, instead it was a bus to Huddersfield, a reunion with my mate and 156470 over to Manchester.
Another Stockport leap got us going for the day, this time the mileage barely grew behind 90004.
90007 did slightly better on that front, taking us to Macclesfield.
47828 then powered us to Preston.
A nice lengthy run followed as we did 87024 from Preston to Glasgow before strolling over to Queen Street and catching 158716 to Aberdeen.
Oh, how I missed those 47/7s on that run.
Talking of 47/7s, it was one of the RES versions that was our traction for the sleeper, 47773 and after purchasing and consuming grub from a nearby take away we took up our berth.
The first haulage of the last day was 90040 which replaced the 47 at Edinburgh and took us through to Euston.
Here is 90040 after taking me for an identical journey four years later:
90040_2004.07.07_5_Euston by philwood55013, on FlickrFrom Euston we headed North behind 87021, which we took to Birmingham, before visiting Milton Keynes behind 87013. It was back into Euston on 86243 before we began our journey home as this was our final day.
Winsford crash victim 87027 “Wolf Of Badenoch” was our next haulage. This was good news for my mate as it was his last 87. We did it through to Macclesfield before bailing in order to do 87024 to Stoke. We did this as we had a bit of time and wanted to squeeze every last drop of value from our rover.
The next, and last, loco of the week was 47812, which we did to Piccadilly.
We finished on 158778 which we did across the Pennines and back to our home ground. I disembarked at Huddersfield for a bus home and another move had come to an end.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So there you go, hope somebody enjoyed it
Last edited:
