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Juliano's World Frenzy/Tech's Trip Reports

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crispy1978

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Good trip report write-up Tech, and a good complaint write-up. I'd be pushing them for a decent refund as an absolute minimum.

Different hotels have different policies - I remember stopping at a Premier Inn, and I complained on a 2-night stay about two separate issues (fire alarm and loud drunk guests running up and down the corridor at 3am - they got thrown out!) and ended up getting my stay completely free! Be interested to see what you manage to get.
 
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Kristofferson

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Hotel chains tend to be quite good about that kind of thing. Smaller operations not so much - stayed in a serviced apartment in Cardiff the other week and, despite specifically requesting to AVOID a certain flat, we were put in it anyway with no refund or apology after a complaint!


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Techniquest

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Glad to hear my views are echo'd by the enthusiast community!

08/08/2016 - Tech's Almost There

Once again no pop culture or musical references this time. It's another afternoon getting a Heart of Wales shack scored. The title reflects how I'm nearly finished with the shacks on this line, how I've nearly achieved victory with this year's ambition to finally visit the last of the required shacks on this limited service line.

A supply raid is had at Spar before joining the bus to Llandrindod in glorious weather, much improved on the state of affairs earlier in the morning. I've left my earphones behind by accident, so I simply let the thrash off the Tempo fill the ear canals. It's still part of Tech's Bookwork Weekend, and I realise I've left my LU book at home. No matter, I can finish the required haulages list from the memo files on my phone. I've decided to remove the 442s from the relevant memo files too, their entering storage with no real future means I'm confident they will be scrapped soon enough. I won't go into why I'll be glad to see the back of them here!

150260 is my chariot this week and £5.30 gets me an Anytime Day Return to Cynghordy [pronounced King-ordy - Ed] and it's time for a combined breakfast and lunch before we slam to a halt just a couple of minutes into the journey. Normal service shortly later resumed, not a clue why that happened! I suddenly have a crazy idea for next Monday, one which will no doubt test my sanity, but it would kill two birds with one stone. I reckon you'll all know by now what I'm planning. So why am I going to Cynghordy on a bookwork weekend? Well the connection is a +199 so as the weather is acceptable for a long wait in the middle of nowhere, and I have plenty to do to keep me occupied, it made sense to get it done now! 3 hours should be more than enough to fully finish my bookwork, and I do have 3 bottles of beer as well as a book to help fill the time.

I say farewell to 150260, and Llanwrtyd to Milford Haven is cleared for shacks. Just Llangammarch and Builth Road left to go, truely the end is in sight now! I set up base camp in the shelter here, getting to work on the moves book. That's complete by 1332, after a short break the required haulages list will finally be finished! The stuff recently had already on the lists updated, after another break LU requirements are added. Next week I plan to create the 'Stuff needed for sight' list too, which will be far shorter! It took 3 hours including breaks, but the atlas, moves book and required haulages list is all done. I can't believe it took that long to do! The fester ends with some Nightcore at full volume out load, and unsurprisingly no-one else was getting on as it was when I got off. 150260 takes me back to Llandrindod, after a short fester it's the bus home. Oh, and the thrash on the uphill section this week is epic, phwoar!

For those wondering, next Monday it's a +221 at Builth Road on a linear bash [may God have mercy on me! - Ed] followed by the next train to Llangammarch for a +27 onto a train back to Llandrindod. I think a heavy amount of reading will feature next week!
 

FQ

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Good idea on doing it on a book work day! You're insane with your plan for Builth Road though!
 

noddy1878

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I'm hoping to hear from you soon, and it's worth mentioning that I'm sharing the exact wording of this complaint to fellow travellers. One of whom I know is already nervous that he'll have a disturbed sleep on his stay next month, and he specifically booked his stay (before my stay on this occasion began) because I gave easyHotel a glowing review on my 3 previous visits!

I am seriously hoping there is no alarms when I visit next month. I'll be a couple of days into a long week and will want as much sleep as possible! Time will tell!

As I already said, you have a lot of patience with those festers!
 

185143

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Whats the ching for the bus?

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Kristofferson

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That, good chap, is madness. But it got the job done! I can think of worse places to do bookwork than a platform too.

The longest fester I've had was a +150 at Watford Jct during disruption last year. Instead of staying on an incredibly slow moving LM service home, I bailed at Bushey and took the overground to Watford - hoping to meet the LM service there. Unfortunately, my 378 arrived at Watford after the LM service I'd bailed from had left, which unfortunately turned out to be the last LM train for two and a half hours!

In fact, that tale was my very first trip report... :lol:


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Techniquest

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Whats the ching for the bus?

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Ching on my local bus to/from Llandrindod is £5.10 return. I'm considering chickening out of that long fester, and return to my original plan of doing each of the shacks on seperate days. Alternative plans have been researched, but none work out. I'm not walking down the A470 for instance!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
15/08/2016 - HoW 2

Pop culture reference here, this time I make a loving tribute to a classic children's TV show, How 2. It's very challenging to find this on YouTube, so I can't link to what I'm talking about, but it was a CITV show with multiple presenters that showed you and explained how things worked and so on. It's up there with Art Attack [some of you will be tripping down Memory Lane like I am! - Ed] in the ranks of the best children's shows, and much missed too. The title is capitalised as it is on purpose, as today is about the Heart of Wales and that I have just 2 shacks left to get. I do hope that makes sense, and I appreicate the title is laid out better in a visual sense than it is when read, my apologies to those this affects.

So it was indeed a gorgeous day weather wise, so I picked well with my day to do a long fester! The Volvo MCV is out on the 1110 to Llandrindod, I have a lot of mileage of this bus this year as it forms my commutes more often than anything else. It's not for nought that my user title on the forum is "MCV Top Man" as I have around 18,000 miles off the two MCVs in my local fleet! My October 6 day bash [advance notice, hashtag will be #TechsOctoberFest - Ed] in a shade over 2 months time has been all confirmed, and all booked except for tickets you can only get on the day/in the area. The hotel bill is set to be £165 so not a cheap trip by anyone's standards, but oh won't it be worth every penny! As is standard on my Heart of Wales trips, the bus leaves late and a 4 minute delay is not much, granted, but when there's only 12 minutes between bus and train, and a need to buy tickets, it is not appreciated!

£1.90 later and my Anytime Day Return to Builth Road is sourced. I had no need to worry about the connection in the end as the 0933 from Swansea was late, so plenty of time until our delayed departure anyway! 153320 takes me to winner shack Builth Road. A quick wonder around reveals a piv which appears to be closed, and nothing else here. I return to the platform, the entrance/exit from the station being into a residents' car park area with houses right next to it. My book is read for a while, with a lunch break had, and the occasional wander up and down the platform. A bunch of festival-goers turn up at 1413 or so, and after a while I need a break from their hippy status. They're eventually camped out on an embankment nearby and I make my way back to the platform to open a beer. Strong stuff but quite nice too. Cider would have been better in this weather but c'est la vie!

The fester is eventually over at 1551, a +216 over, as I leave Builth Road on 153327. £3.30 paid for a day return to winner shack Llangammarch, the excitement is now building! As I get off, the excitement reaches fever pitch levels, as I have FINALLY completed the Heart of Wales Line shacks! A celebratory beer, unique brew number 419 in my Untappd logs, had to be enjoyed while here, it has taken several years but I have finally got it done. 7 shacks in West Wales remain to be visited before all ATW shacks south of Shrewsbury are done. It won't be surprising to learn that I'm working on a plan for those, nor that I would love to find time in 2016 to do them!

153320 is back to take me to Llandrindod, and while I'm celebrating the clearance of the line's shacks in a way I'm sad as I'll probably not see this line again for a long time. I grab a half of a winner beer in Llanerch Inn before heading back to the Volvo MCV home, when I then bang a much needed meal on to cook and **** out for the remainder of the evening.

Now bring on next Monday, when I intend to get going on finding more winners!
 

crehld

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Well done on clearing the Heart of Wales Techi! A Herculean effort given the lack of service and some of the long festers. Those beers were well deserved indeed!
 

Cletus

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Just need to enter "Fred Dineage" in youtube. :)

I think I've done about 5 stations in the whole of Wales :oops:
 

Kite159

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I believe one of these might have come in handy for those epic festers ;)

de01large.jpg
 

Gathursty

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I had a nap in my car for an hour at Builth Road en route from Pye Corner to Minffordd. It is a very peaceful place at night. Interesting set-up where you can open your front door and have a railway station just on the left.
 

185143

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Seriously coming from the one that has finished Northern, very bloody jealous! Only 8 to go myself though, and with stricter rules!

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Kristofferson

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And that's how for now!

Well done Tech :) hopefully that's the end of the longest festers on the network.


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185143

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And that's how for now!

Well done Tech :) hopefully that's the end of the longest festers on the network.


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Far North and West Highland Lines?

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fowler9

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I've festered at Ollantaytambo for about 8 hours, there was a lot more going on than Techs festers on the Heart of Wales though. Well done my good man.
 

Techniquest

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Thank you all, most appreciated!

Not the end of the long festers, me and Kite have got some major ones coming up in May 2017. The Far North line needs dealing with, and I think a 3.5 hour fester is due at Scotscalder. I wonder how it will compare to Builth Road and Cynghordy!

Monday's bash is undecided yet, it'll either be more ATW shack scoring or a bit of a winner hunt. That's the preferred option, but I'll see what I decide by the weekend.
 

crispy1978

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I can imagine festers being OK providing you are prepared for them, and things are on your side at the time (weather, etc) - sitting at an isolated station on a warm summer's day with a decent book or music, your lunch and a couple of cold drinks of your preference actually sounds quite a pleasurable experience. Pouring down, with no coat and a bunch of noisy chavs on a 3 hour fester when your phone battery has died on a station with no shelter and no seats is quite the opposite!
 

185143

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I can imagine festers being OK providing you are prepared for them, and things are on your side at the time (weather, etc) - sitting at an isolated station on a warm summer's day with a decent book or music, your lunch and a couple of cold drinks of your preference actually sounds quite a pleasurable experience. Pouring down, with no coat and a bunch of noisy chavs on a 3 hour fester when your phone battery has died on a station with no shelter and no seats is quite the opposite!
I had nearly a 3 hour fester at Ty Croes yesterday which was lovely as I had downloaded a couple of TV programmes onto my phone. (aside from needing a pee for the last hour that is!)

My hour and a half fester at Llandecwyn last Thursday was awful. An hour stood waiting for a replacement bus, with no shelter whatsoever. It was quite wet.
 

Kite159

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Festers are good as it allows you to enter a chill out zone, although for me it requires a good seat, preferably in the shade.
 
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