Sorry for taking a while to reply guys - I've been rather busy.
That was a good trip. I like the HST photos especially the ones taken at Swindon, I worked on the platforms there many years ago.
Thanks! It was certainly a fun trip. I'm glad you worked on the platforms - was that with valenta engined trams for before that?
Excellent reports again FQ, great pictures too.
Hopefully I'll get some more Class 43s next year, but that depends where I go for my ALR.
Cheers! You'll need to get them next year as it'll be the last full year (except Scotland, EMT and XC).
What was dodgy about the tickets?
I was using a weird loophole.
Seven day season day 5 - The hunt for a dud
As per the title, Saturday the 10th of December was to be spent chasing a dud! I was on the lookout for 43086, the reason being that Nat was with me and it was his last GWR one, so we wanted to get it. Dad was granted a lie in and Nat's mum was going to take us to the station in time for the 07:21 to Brum so I got up at my 06:30 alarm and got ready before Nat got here at 06:50. I then headed to his mum's car and we were soon leaving the car and heading to the ticket office. Nat got his ticket before we headed up to the platform, where we were only waiting for about 10 minutes before our first train of the day arrived. Well, sad excuse for a train. One of Chiltern's now 9 170s was soon arriving,
168327. This was my first time having it in this guise, and it was only on a run from Manchester Piccadilly to the airport before this, so it was good to get a bit more mileage (and most certainly better than it being 322 or 329, both duds for 100). The unit was certainly a bad one, whistling constantly when you got above 30mph (something that a lot of 168s have had trouble with in my experience but it was even worse on this one). When you were braking, everything would rattle and vibrate madly too. How I hate the 170s!
We were soon arriving at Moor Street, having seen Earl of Mount Edgcumbe (a kettle) waiting to leave Tyseley yard with a charter ECS. At Moor Street, we found out that the Marylebone cat was running slightly late for the second Saturday in a row. It was only slightly late today though, and was arriving at Moor Street at the same time as us. I was pleased to see GT pushing it today, and I got to hear the brilliant noise of a cat's engine as it thrashed out of Moor Street before we had to head for the bat cave, which was reached at about 08:05.
We headed to platform 11, getting there before the tram had arrived. It was soon arriving, and I was very glad to see that it was the pair that I wanted,
43303 and
43384. Nat didn't want this one, his preferred partnership being 304 and 301 (because 301 was his lowest mileage XC powercar at 69 miles), but 303 was my lowest mileage of Cross Country's bunch, being at a mere 226 miles. 384 was also fairly low on 511, so the extra mileage would do both good. We easily got a good bay of 4 on this service, which is much quieter on a Saturday than a weekday, and we were soon heading away from Birmingham.
It was very surprising to pass 43207 and 43378 around Stoke Works Junction, and we hypothesized that it was the 09:03 from New Street to Edinburgh, tram hauled today due to the timetable change so it didn't need to come north on the Sunday. This was correct, proven by a look at RTT and, in the evening, a look at some gen. Vote!
We were soon approaching Bristol, running on time today. At Bristol Parkway, I'd noticed a service at 09:34 to Swindon, so I was worried that there were engineering works preventing trains from running past Swindon. This was made even more of a worry when I saw the departure board at Temple Meads, saying that there was a service to Swindon. At 09:42? That's not right! I then looked again and it showed the 10:00 to Padd as well, just like normal. I asked a member of station staff, who said that the Swindon services were just extras for the Bath Christmas market. Excellent. We decided to take the 09:42 as it got us into more stuff at Swindon, giving us more chance of getting 43086. That and the fact that it was double requirement for 100
43070 and
43176, the latter also being needed for the year! This service was very lightly loaded, and it wasn't until on board after hearing the guards announcement that we found out that it was only stopping at Bath and Swindon. Non-stop through Chippenham!
The service was very, very empty, there being us and one person in the coach between Bristol and Bath. It was set down only at Bath, where the second person in the coach left, so we were the only people in the coach for the rest of the ride to Swindon. As we were passing the junction to Phillips Marsh, a tram set passed coming out of the depot. I didn't catch the front one but, by his reaction, Nat had: 'Eighty-six. Damn it!' I saw 063 on hte back, saying that it had changed formation yet again (correct formation on Thursday, reverse formation on Friday, correct formation again on Saturday)! I immediately did an RTT check and we found out that it was to work the 10:30 Paddington from Temple Meads, which we could get from Chippenham by taking 070 and 176 to Swindon and stepping back. That's a plan!
A 153 had, unfortunately, been let across the junction and into Chippenham before us, so we crawled up to the junction and were only doing about 50mph through the station. Definitely not the race that I was hoping for! We gained speed OK after that though and were soon arriving at Swindon. Remember how my camera had lost charge the day before? Well, I stupidly hadn't remembered to charge it again, so still had a dead camera. I knew from past experience that, if you give the camera a bit of time, it will be capable of taking one more photo before dying again (but it won't do that again), so I decided to use that on 43070, which was required for a photo.
Swindon HST by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
We had a few minutes before our tram to Chippenham, which was an ex Paddington and was running a few minutes late. We got in position for it and, after a couple of minutes, required for both 100 and the year (both sorted by Chippenham)
43135 was arriving, with required for 100
43162 along for company. Score! It was a very busy service, and we didn't have any time to get to the other end of the train and into a declassified 1st class coach, instead standing for the journey, along with many other people. It didn't last long and we were soon alighting at Chippenham, where many more people tried to cram on than get off. We watched it leave and, only a few minutes after the rear powercar had faded into the distance on that set, our Paddington bound tram was approaching. As expected,
43063 was leading, and Nat was thrilled to confirm that it was indeed
43086 on the back. When we moved out of Chippenham, he'd cleared his third company's trams for the year (and his third overall), Grand Central and Cross Country being the others. I was pleased for Nat and we managed to get seats on board. Good ones too - a couple of priority seats that were reserved from Bristol and Bath, but no one had shown up.
At Swindon, the train got really, really busy. People were crammed into the aisles and the vestibules were completely rammed. Is it wrong to feel smug in that case as we had seats...? The journey continued and, even though we were sat down, it was nice to get off into the fresh air at Reading. We watched 086 thrash off, Nat very glad to have finally got it, before changing platforms for our next service, the 11:59 to Temple Meads. My luck must have run out with 135 and 162, as this was double duds
43195 and
43144. 195 wasn't exceptionally high mileage, at 156.75, but 144 was fairly high for a GWR powercar at 254, but we got them anyway. I did an RTT check to see what we could do in our remaining time, knowing that we'd need to be on the tram an hour later in order to get onto 'S51. I found out that we could take this to Chippenham for another tram back to Swindon in order to get onto the one an hour behind, so we decided to do that. This service wasn't too busy but it was full and standing upon departure from Chippenham, where we only had about 10 minutes to kill until our next set.
The fester passed quickly and we could soon see another blue powercar approaching. Dud for 100
43194 was leading, and all you need to do is take exactly 100 off that number to get the rear one, required for 100
43094. We got seats on board this one and were soon getting off at Swindon.
A platform change was had, going via the station Smiths to get a choccy bar each, before having a short fester. The 13:32 to Temple Meads was running slightly late today, and we both groaned when the front powercar was seen -
43186. This is a powercar that we've both had considerable mileage off and had several times (9 times after this occasion). We'd also seen what was with it at Temple Meads anyway, and avoided it for that reason - another annoying powercar,
43143, which was also high mileage and had been had many times. We got on anyway and got seats for the journey, which is the main thing really. The trip went smoothly and we were soon getting to Bristol again. When we got there we saw many enthusiasts stood at the end of a platform so we decided to check if anything decent was due, using the arrivals board first. Sure enough, a charter from London Victoria was due in at 14:35, but we'd have gone by then. Using a signaling board, we tracked 1S51 as it neared Temple Meads, going up onto platform 3 when it passed Bedminster. We were soon in position and when
43384 and
43303 arrived we found out that 1S51 is much less busy than on weekdays too. A bay of 4 was chosen in the quiet coach and we were soon on the way. I did an RTT check and found out that we would have a +9 at Tamworth onto a 170 back to Brum if we headed there. We decided to do this, as it was an extra 17 tram miles and would only get us back an hour later.
Departure from Cheltenham was 5-late, but we should make the time up so have a roughly right time arrival at Tamworth. This really didn't happen and we had a fairly slow run to Ashchurch, coming to a stop at a red signal not long after. We were there for about 5 minutes before moving forward with a red signal, crawling over the troublesome Pirton crossing with the same at Wadborough before speeding up again, being 15-late by Abbotswood junction. We came to a stop before another level crossing later on, eventually moving on from that one fairly slowly. It seems that there was only one crossing, Oddingley, we didn't have any problems on before Stoke Works Junction, reached about 25-late.
We had a fairly decent run down most of the cross city and eventually got to New Street, 20-late. We knew that the connection at Tamworth now certainly wouldn't be made and, not wanting to be any later back at Leam than 17:45, we bailed at New Street. After waiting for the tram to leave it was straight over to Moor Street. We'd missed the 16:15 back to Leam so had to take the 16:55, so we'd wait at Moor Street for a while before getting it.
168110 was waiting in platform 4 when we got there, so we headed over and got decent seats (well, the best you can on a 168). It was a busy service for some reason and we got wedged out in our bay of 4 all the way back to Leam. Still, it isn't a very long journey is it?
We were soon at Leamington, where we headed out into the carpark and immediately located mum. We piled in the car and, after dropping Nat back off, we were getting home after a great day, but the largest score of the day certainly wasn't mine.
Seven day season day 6 - When everything goes wrong
Day 6 was my last day. Why would day 6 be my last day of a 7-day season? I decided not to go out on the Sunday (rubbish connections and stuff), so it was Monday the 12th of December that I headed out next. As you can probably get from the title, this day didn't go well, but you'll need to find out why by continuing to read!
Another stupidly early rise of 05:30 made me feel like I was on an ALR but just because of the tiredness. Dad had to wake me because, even though my alarm went off, I silenced it and then fell asleep again. We were heading for the station at 05:50, and got there with about 10 minutes until 'G01, which was soon arriving with
165006. We got the usual seats and I was asleep by Warwick Parkway, using my jacket as a pillow again. In fact, I've missed 1H15 (a cat that we should pass around Small Heath/Bordesley) every time I've done the trip on 1G01 on this trip (due to being asleep, with my head away from the window or something). We'd soon left Moor Street and we got ready to get off after the cart had stopped at Snow Hell. The heat of the unit was excellent and, even with a fleece made for the mountains of Canada, it wasn't too pleasant. We were soon out of the cold (although not as soon as I'd have liked) and in Wetherspoons, ready for brekky. Neither of us were in the mood for an HDOAP (heart disease on a plate) this morning, so we looked at what other options they had, and decided on American style Pancakes with maple syrup (and bacon in dad's case). I also got my orange juice, dad going for his endless coffee, and it set me back only about £8.50. The pancakes were very good, with not too little and not too much maple syrup and, apparently, they were even better with bacon and became dad's thing to get for brekky when he was in there. We spent the time chatting in there and the 45/50 minutes past very quickly, as it was soon time to part ways as dad had a day in the office and I had a day out on the trams. Poor dad...
As always, the 08:12 to Plymouth was leaving from platform 11 so I headed down there and was only on the platform for a couple of minutes before my tram was arriving. It was an 'oh, why' moment when the number came into view, as it was dud for 1000
43304 leading. This was a powercar that I'd had 13 times before this run, which would put it up to 15 after getting on 'S51. It was already the powercar that I'd had the most, so another couple of runs would just make it even more so. At Temple Meads I found out that it was still
43301 on the back, putting it to 852.5. Not bad considering that 18 days ago it wasn't even cleared for 100!
I got a bay of 2 without any trouble and we were soon heading towards Bristol. No problems were encountered on the way, so they've probably got a fix on the troublesome level crossings, even if it isn't permanent. The run was uneventful but pushed 43304 over the 1300 barrier, and I was soon alighting at Bristol Temple Meads. I watched 304 thrash off into the distance before turning my attention to the empty platform 15. A tram set should have arrived, so I went to check where it had got to, using a departure board, but found out that it was running about 25-late. Oh well, that's one set I won't see then!
While waiting for my next set I noticed that it said that there was no coach B in the service today. This meant that it was short formed. I wasn't very happy at this as this service is heaving at the best of times, let alone in the middle of the Bath market, and I could soon see dud
43172, in the 'Harry Patch' livery, arriving with 7 coaches as required for both 100 and the year
43191. Excellent - that's 10 GWR ones now required for the year, including crash damaged, out of service 43160!
Being one of the first people on the train gave me a seat, but I made sure that an elderly gentleman got one before I did. I swapped seats at Bath and ended up in one reserved to Swindon and, sure enough, the person with the reservation came along then. There was no point in even attempting to get to the vestibule at this point so I just lay my jacket on the aisle floor and sat on that, using a seat as a back rest. It certainly wasn't comfy and it was surprising to see wires when I next looked up, as I was completely out of it due to listening to my excellent audiobook, Firestarter, by Steven King. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes supernatural sort of things.
We were soon going over the Reading flyover, at which point I stood up, and were getting to the station. We were running a few minutes late and the 11:12 Swansea was missed, although not much was lost, with just one requirement for 100 (OK, I was kind of annoyed at that at the time). Still, what will the 11:27 Temple Meads bring? The answer? Incredibly good luck! I was very happy to see required for both the year and 100
43128 leading the set, but even happier when I saw the rear one...
As required for both 100 and the year
43140! Double requirement for both - I can't remember the last time that happened! I got on board and found myself a couple of decent seats before re-playing my audiobook (I'd paused it on the approach to Reading) for the journey. It was great to get another couple of powercars scratched off the 'required for 2016' list and one of them (128) off the required for 100 list. One still remains on there, but at least two have passed milestones so far today (191 was also cleared for 100). Before I knew it we were passing the virtually unused branch into what I believe is a car plant thing, and arriving at Swindon. I hastily shoved my I-pod into my pocket in case I needed to make a dash for the 11:58 Paddington and, sure enough, it wasn't yet in. This meant I ran under the subway, to see it coming to a stop when I got to the other end. I knew I only had a shot at identifying one powercar here, so headed for the front one. Unfortunately my running sent my I-pod and headphones flying out of my pocket and onto the stones of the platform - luckily neither were damaged. I think I bemused the catering staff though, even more so when I picked up my I-pod and headphones to continue running to the powercar, identifying it as required for both 100 and the year (I'm doing really well, aren't I!)
43141, and then running to a 1st class door before looking back down the platform, noticing my I-pod case on the floor, and running to get that before hopping on board
!
I got on board and chilled out, finding out that it was required for 100
43163 on the back after bailing. The audiobook went back on and we were soon on the move.
After getting a couple of miles out of Swindon we came to a stop. I went to investigate, finding out that we were just stopped at a red signal, and sat back down in my bay of 4. Then, about 10 minutes later, I headed back to the vestibule window, finding out that we were still stopped at the red. The guard had come over the PA a couple of minutes after we'd stopped, saying that he was just contacting the driver and would let us know what was going on when he did. I then moved to the right hand side window and looked both ways, surprised to see a tram approaching running 'wrong line' from the Swindon direction. The 12:11 from Swindon to Paddington had just overtaken us! Still, I didn't feel bad about flagging that set, as it was a couple of duds, although I'm sure Tech would've been hitting himself, as 43002 was on the back. I sat back down and, a few minutes later, the guard said that the reason we'd stopped was due to a failed freight train in front of us and that we'd gone too far forward to cross over to the other line in order to pass it. I thought that we'd be stuck until the freight had moved but the guard then said that we'd reverse back towards Swindon so we can cross over to the other line to continue through to Reading. About 10 minutes after the announcement we reversed along the line for about a mile before waiting for 10 more minutes. It was then forward again at speed, passing a dead 70011, which got moving only a few minutes later. I'd checked RTT and found out that my chances of getting 'S51 were now very low as I'd need to pull off a connection onto the 13:12 Swansea at Reading (which would put me onto 'S51 at Bristol Parkway) which was currently booked to miss looking at RTT. I looked at other options and found out that I'd need to head back via Banbury or risk 1E63 from Temple Meads. I would have immediately done the latter on any other day but, as the timetable change had occurred one day before, I didn't want to risk it no longer being hauled (but it turns out that it still is).
We were soon approaching Reading, and I was in position to try and run for the Swansea if I needed to. Alas I didn't, as my connection was leaving Reading when we arrived. Darn it. The moment I left the tram I gave dad a call again to say that I'd missed the only train that would put me onto 1S51, but he'd done some search and found out that it was running 10-late at Totnes, so the Cardiff at 13:40 would put me onto it at Bristol Parkway with a +4. This was an excellent plan, so I decided that it was time for pies, with 25 minutes.
I headed over the footbridge and to the barrier, asking to be let through as I always do. This is where it all went wrong. Majorly. The barrier guy immediately thought that my ticket wasn't valid, and took me over to a couple of RPIs, who went to check where they were. They were highly unreasonable (and rude), wouldn't even look at any evidence that I gave and just kept on refusing to believe that it was valid. They said that I had no common sense and that the routing guide doesn't matter when it comes to fares. I was so, so tempted to just ask 'well, what's the point of it then if you just use common sense. Anyway, it's the railway - common sense will never apply'. They decided to charge me an unpaid fares notice of over £20 for the fare to my destination (I said that I had no money on me - I wasn't paying that easily), and they called mum and dad etc. In reply to my question asking if they knew about the routing guide, they just said 'we work here, obviously'. Again, I was really tempted to say 'I wonder if the people in Costa know about it, or the station dispatchers', but didn't. It took over half an hour before they told another RPI, who was actually very soche. She also didn't believe that the ticket was valid but she decided to take the investigation over and, immediately after doing that, decided to cancel the UFN that they'd written up and get me permission to travel to Worcester on the 13:52! I was very happy and, after 30 minutes, it was a relief to get away from the rude RPIs. A soche member of staff had been instructed to take me over to the 13:52 but he instead got out of the way of the RPIs, asked me if I knew where I was going and, once I confirmed it, said bye and let me go on my way
. I was going to go for it, even if it meant an awful 165 or 166, as I knew that one of the many RPIs dealing with the investigation in the end was going for it, so I didn't want her to see me go away from it. I wandered down onto the platform for it and, hoping for 'formed of 8 coaches', wasn't too happy to see 'formed of 7 coaches' on the PIS. A treble cart. Lovely.
It was a couple of moments later that it was all better. Just after the 'formed of 7 coaches', it said 'no coach C. Reservations in coach E'. 7+1 equals 8. It's a tram!
I was very pleased when I could see a powercar leading my service. Not just that, but it was
43152, a requirement for both 100 and the year, leaving me with just 6 GWR ones to get for the year including 43160! This and dud
43129 would probably be my last two GWR trams for the year (and maybe my last two trams), but I can't believe I got the number down to 6!
I got on board and we were soon heading towards Worcester. It was a low density set and was very lightly loaded, meaning I could get decent seats for the ride through Middle Earth. It was the first time I'd taken the Didcot avoiding line for quite a while and we were soon at Oxford. There was one good thing about this RPI problem. It was the next bit of my trip, as it was winner track after Moreton-in-Marsh. We were soon heading onward, through Minas Tirith, sorry, Kingham, and, after a fairly fun journey (I hadn't been on any of the route for ages), we were crossing the line that I should've been going under on 'S51 and approaching Worcester. I'd planned on going all the way to Foregate Street but a look at RTT showed that, by bailing at Shrub Hill, I'd be able to get home an hour earlier. It wasn't only myself I was inconveniencing now, it was also dad who had flagged 'H62 and was waiting for me, so I got off the tram set at Worcester Shrub Hill, 152 now past the 100-mile barrier, and changed platforms to wait for my 172. Yep, I was taking the hours journey via the dark side. KMN.
172218 and
172222 had soon arrived and reversed so I let dad know and put my audiobook on to drown out the noise. We'd soon passed Droitwich and had taken the line towards Kidderminster, where I identified 3 logs (all duds, obviously). We'd soon passed Stourbridge, where the train started to fill up, but it wasn't too bad and I alighted at Snow Hell. Dad gave me a call from the cart that I'd just passed when arriving, asking when I'd get there. This was as I was crossing over the footbridge to get onto the cart! I told him and wandered down the platform to get to dad on
168216. He'd made a visit to Greggs for me (I hadn't had a chance to get any lunch due to the RPIs), so I could have a late lunch. I was very glad and we were soon on the move, reading private eye for the journey back to Leam.
The day overall? Great score wise, but the freight train failure that lost me tram mileage wasn't good. The RPI experience? Terrifying and not exactly pleasant! Still, just 6 required GWR powercars for the year!
)
