The Various Random Mutterings of Kite

[Kite159]

18th May – A West Midlands Weekend - Part 1

The base of this plan was to do a few bay platforms in the rough West Midlands area, based on a plan from early March which got pushed back due to the snow, and revised due to not needing the two bays at Northampton and also with some bonus shack revisits along the way. I managed to grab a £5 advance on the 19:23 Virgin service towards Coventry during a seat sale so I had a couple hours to play with in London in the end deciding to focus on some London Overground stations I previously visited using London Underground services but didn’t log the LU stuff at the time.

I finished work a few minutes early on the Friday, getting home to pick up my pre-packed bag and a short walk to the station for the 14:59 service towards Waterloo, once more it was a triple 159 formed of 159006, 159105 & 159003 which I took to Basingstoke, changing onto a busy 444009 working up from Weymouth for the non-stop run towards Clapham Junction, where I made my way across to platform 1 to take a seat on 378219 working the next service towards Stratford. The train got busier as time went on but eventually departed for the short hop to Kensington Olympia, where I had a short fester (making use of the free station toilets) before 377703 took me to Shepherd’s Bush as a mere time wasting linear leap, annoyingly this was one of the few 377/7s I need for 10 miles but that can wait for another day. 378214 was up next to Willesden Junction, crossing over the platform to board 378222 to Kew Gardens.

Kew Gardens isn’t a nice station to get between platforms due to having to leave the gateline to use a subway, but I made it across in time to board 21303/21304 for a time wasting linear hop to Gunnersbury before 378205 took me to Acton Central. A short break before 378222 took me to Willesden Junction, changing over to AC during a lengthy fester, but meant the North London Line was done. At Willesden I made my way down to the low level platforms to board a late running 3236/3533 to Harlesden closely followed by 3262/3565 to North Wembley, where my rough plan-on-the-go was thrown into the bin as for some reason I had North Wembley down as an island platform, but it didn’t matter as the connection was missed. A short fester but sadly the next train southbound was 378207 which was my “required” move to Euston, I was hoping for another Bakerloo service but that was delayed.

A Bakerloo line service arrives into Harlesden

Once at a busy Euston, I grabbed something cold to drink from Sainsburys before waiting for the platform to be announced (or get highlighted on RTT, as the one it was showing would have been hard to go from as it was being used by another service). Eventually it updated to platform 3 so I made my way over to the top of the ramp before the train was announced to beat the big rush onto 390042 grabbing my reserved seat and settled down for the trip northbound, calling at Watford to pick up (cue another “wisdom of the Norm” moment as a couple people ignored the “Reserved from Watford Junction” on the table opposite and were kicked out when those passengers boarded). Next stop was Coventry where I alighted for a short fester before 153366 rolled in on the Nuneaton shuttles, noting that the Leamington shuttles had been cancelled due to a broken down train. I stayed on this 153 to Coventry Arena and made use of my 40 minutes here to pop to the large Tesco for something to eat (getting wished a Merry Christmas by the self-service till), and noting a large design flaw with the station, the platform information display unit for the Coventry platform is right down at the northern end and the unit stops at the Southern end. Anyhow 153366 returned (less a passenger trying to chance a free trip by claiming to have boarded the train by mistake when claiming to want Birmingham International). I had only previously alighted here and made use of a couple buses back to Coventry station.

153366 departs Coventry Arena

I will say the £2.50 evening off-day return fares for the West Midlands area is very good value for money, as it meant I could board the next service towards New Street, rather than waiting around for a 350 stopper, which saved a good 20 minutes as 390043 rolled in to take me swiftly to New Street, for a short walk to the Birmingham Central Backpackers hostel to check in, I think I got the same bottom bunk as I did back in November time last year, but sadly it wasn’t the best of nights as a nearby nightclub was having a disco until the early hours.

 

[Kite159]

19th May – A West Midlands Day Ranger (Part 2)

After not really the best of sleeps, I rose from the bed, and headed for the roughly 10 minute walk to New Street, purchasing my rover from the ticket office and heading to the platforms below, taking a seat on 221121 working a Birmingham – Crewe – Manchester XC service, handy because it had plug sockets to give my phone a charge for the short trip to Wolverhampton, where the train to Shrewsbury was sat as expected on platform 6 to score that bay. 170502 was leading with 170505 on the rear, locked out of use for some 170 drone to Telford Central, where I somehow managed to make a tight connection (which isn’t easy especially with the temporary ramps to the footbridge) to 158831 & 158826 working towards Birmingham for a speedy run back towards Wolverhampton and then onwards to Smethwick Galton Bridge.

My plan had myself not making that connection at Telford so I was now roughly 30 minutes ahead of myself, so it was a short wait in the sunshine before 323220 rolled in from Wolverhampton to take me the single leap to Smethwick Rolfe Street, this time the connection was made to the Wolverhampton bound service (as my previous visit the 323 was late so I walked back to Galton Bridge), formed of 323215 to Sandwell & Dudley, connecting nicely onto 221114 on a Birmingham New Street terminator. Time to grab some breakfast from Tesco Metro (and also a nice carton of fruit juice to try and wake me up), as I returned to New Street to board 323205 to Perry Barr, making the connection onto 323220 to Duddeston for a short wait for 323215 to take me to Witton, for the return of 323205 to New Street. For these two stations, I had previously used a route 68C bus between due to cancellations so I needed a board at Witton & alight at Perry Barr.

I was back on track with my plan (having scored both those two stations), so it was over to a Leicester bound 170639 for the short hop to Coleshill Parkway, and employing use of my first station walk in a fair while, walked back along the road towards Water Orton, a reversal of my moves from September 2015, arriving in good time to pick up some lunch from the Tesco Express outside Water Orton station. An unusual station this as it is an island platform however due to the track layout one side gives access towards Tamworth and isn’t used by that many stopping services (as far as I can tell, only used by the 17:39 Birmingham – Derby peak time extra during the week), with Birmingham bound services from the Leicester direction having to crossover to serve the other side of the island. Anyhow it was a short wait before 170398 rolled up to take me back to Birmingham New Street; I managed to get a seat on this busy service which was also a bonus.

170398 arrives into Water Orton

Next up was a short wait before Cardiff bound 170104 rolled in, and I was expecting this one to be busy but in fact it was rather quiet, certainly in the leading coach there wasn’t that many on board for the long run towards Lydney, with around 15 minutes to get across the level crossing and take a seat in the shelter before a mostly empty 150258 rolled in for the 19 and a half mile trip back to Gloucester, my fingers were in crossed move as I felt it take the crossover and arrived into platform 3 at Gloucester (which ticks another bay off my list, although I have a vague memory that I might have used it back in Feb 2015 as I seem to recall boarding a Fishguard service at Gloucester when on a FOSS but like Lancaster platform 1 it was a bug.

150258 at Gloucester

The next Cardiff bound service was showing as “formed of 2 coaches” so I had a bad feeling, but not only was it a mileage requirement of 170521 but once more it was mostly empty. Back towards New Street with the music of David Bowie on my iPod when looking out of the window, and once at Birmingham I popped out quickly to purchase a new pair of trousers as I had noticed the pair I had on was starting to split in their usual place. Back to New Street and it was a short jump onto 350130 & 350107 working the next LNWR stopper to Euston, where my revised plan was to bail at Stechford but I had noticed the 323 was still at Birmingham International caught behind a late running 390 towards Scotland which allowed me to take a gamble to stay on to Lea Hall (which is normally a -1 from Birmingham, which is why I needed this one for boarding a train at as I had previously walked to Stechford during my 28 minute fester back in August 15).

My gamble nearly backfired on me, but eventually 323240 arrived to take me back to New Street running around 10 minutes late, so it was a fast walk across to platform 10b to await the arrival of the train from Worcester, which was formed of 172213 to take me to Hereford (and yes it was very cosy on board). I had a quick social with Techni and a meal in a Spoons before returning to the station with a large smile as 170633 on the next Birmingham service was sitting in platform 4, the only weekly service booked to use this bay in Hereford. Back to New Street and other than a loud bang around Longbridge (certainly made me jump, sounded like the train hit something) it was uneventful and mostly quiet. I came up with a couple ideas to waste some more time rather than heading straight back to the hostel to listen to some block rockin beats, I headed over to platform 5a to board 323240 to Stechford, returning on 350368, and made my way across to board a busy 170510 on the final service to Rugeley to Bloxwich. Evidence of the future wiring is coming along around the station, it has some masts up.

Once more I was heading towards Birmingham New Street, this time on a quieter 170512, both times running via Aston. At New Street it was a slow walk back to the hostel, which the room oddity only was around half full (although I believe this hostel has a policy of not allowing potential customers to book only Saturdays). A better sleep as the nightclub was quiet, although there was still some outside noise but you can’t really get rid of that (without double windows and AC). 3 more bays into my book, plus 7 more stations revisited.

170633 at Hereford

20th May – West Midlands Area, Part 3

After checking out of the hostel, it was to New Street via a Tesco Express near to Moor Street for something to eat & a cold drink (for it was already warming up). My first move of the day was onto a quite odd Redditch service, but it seems the first Redditch service of the day is semi-fast, calling at University & Longbridge only, and with time to kill before the Hereford service I wanted to catch I decided to give it a go. 323218 was the unit at the far end, and after waiting for a late running ECS towards Longbridge to depart, we eventually got going 10 minutes late and to be honest it felt odd not calling at Selly Oak & Northfield on a 323. Although due to the track layout it had to slow down at Kings Norton & Barnt Green, but it was certainly a bit unusual. No time to hang around Redditch as I changed ends and returned to University, randomly checking to see what the connection times was like (a +10 reduced to a +2), however I decided to check Worcester to see the connection times there only to find the 11:33(ish) GWR service cancelled.

That is the only booked use of platform 3 at Worcester Shrub Hill, so there would be no point heading towards Worcester now, so I decided to head towards Gloucester on the next XC service, just as something to do, so it was a short wait before a quiet 170518 & 170521 rolled in for the near 50 mile run to Gloucester, nothing else to do other than to make use of the free WiFi at the station to check out options, sadly Cam & Dursley has an infrequent service on Sundays so I couldn’t get myself ahead of my rough plan, so I headed out of the station to have a little look around, returning for the 12:XX service towards Cardiff Central (via Bristol), which would be starting from platform 1 (which I think is a platform score). I was happy because it was my only GWR 150 below 10 miles, 150232, so onwards to Yate, mainly because I wanted the coverage between Cam & Yate by GWR service, and dear god didn’t that 150 sing running at a good speed.

A short 15 minutes later it was onto a busy 150249 back to Gloucester, before the return of 170521 & 170518 (bit busier this time round) to take me back to University, bit of a time wasting move with 323218 to Northfield and 323213 back to New Street, I set about walking to Snow Hill, getting a bit lost along the way (I carried on instead of turning right!). Eventually I reached Snow Hill to take a seat on 168110 which would be taking me to London (it was a lot cheaper than Virgin). Other than a stop at Bordesley because someone was on the closed station beyond the safety fence, the only other unusual event was not calling at Leamington Spa (points failure) and calling additionally at Wembley Stadium.

323213 rolls into Northfield

Once at Marylebone it was to the underground with 3245/3551 taking me to Baker Street, crossing over to board 96007 & 96044 to Waterloo (needed some 96 motor noise). After picking up dinner from Tesco it was onto the 18:45 Waterloo – Salisbury Fast service formed of 159102 & 158882 to take me to Andover (calling only at Clapham Junction to pick up), where I managed to get a lift home to get home around 45 minutes earlier than expected (I was aiming for the 19:15 which sadly has been decelerated in the new timetable to call at Whitchurch). Sadly my day didn’t go as planned as platform 3 at Worcester escapes me (it is one of those odd ones where sometimes the train will go from 2B without RTT updating due to the manual signalling). I’m back in Birmingham at the end of June from a railtour so I suspect Worcester might be attempted again (as I don’t quite fancy heading to Liverpool during the Lime Street closure)

Next week is a lucky escape as I had previously planned an Lancashire day starting in Birmingham, only to change due to the limited service from Birmingham towards Wigan (it was mainly for the oddity of a 390 to Blackpool North), so it was changed to “Lincolnshire, Attempt 2”, basically a reworked attempt at scoring Doncaster P2 & Lincoln P1, which was thwarted back in March by a broken down 66. Anyhow am I right in thinking the additional Derby – Skegness HST is standard class only (allowing passengers to sit in the First Class area)?

 

[Mag_seven]

Anyhow am I right in thinking the additional Derby – Skegness HST is standard class only (allowing passengers to sit in the First Class area)?

For what its worth, RTT states that the services contain "Seating: first & standard" taking 1S01 0840 Derby to Skegness as an example:

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/J16460/2018/05/26/advanced

I would contact EMT to clarify.

 

[Kite159]

For what its worth, RTT states that the services contain "Seating: first & standard" taking 1S01 0840 Derby to Skegness as an example:

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/J16460/2018/05/26/advanced

I would contact EMT to clarify.

Indeed I shall, appears to be a one-off with the main HST extras starting in July.

 

[Kite159]

For what its worth, RTT states that the services contain "Seating: first & standard" taking 1S01 0840 Derby to Skegness as an example:

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/J16460/2018/05/26/advanced

I would contact EMT to clarify.

Was standard class only, at least after Nottingham with announcements that seats were available in those FC coaches.

Although it was the HST rack which has the rogue FC coach in the middle of standard so I was sitting comfortable for the slow trip to the eastern front

 

[Cowley]

If I don’t read trip reports for four weeks I end up needing a whole evening to read yours Kite.
Good to catch up with it all though.
It’s the railtours that I’m probably the most interested in, especially the unusual bits of track etc. Oh and also, which part of the trousers is “the usual place”?

 

[Kite159]

If I don’t read trip reports for four weeks I end up needing a whole evening to read yours Kite.
Good to catch up with it all though.
It’s the railtours that I’m probably the most interested in, especially the unusual bits of track etc. Oh and also, which part of the trousers is “the usual place”?

Crotch area

 

[Andy Pacer]

You mention purchasing a rover for the second day of your West Mids trip, which one was it? I was a bit puzzled by the inclusion of Lydney.

 

[Cowley]

Crotch area

Ah. I always do the knees.

 

[55013]

Well that was the usual varied and interesting mix of moves.
Thanks for posting.

 

[adrock1976]

Crotch area

My mum would refer to that incident as "having had a PJ Proby moment". (For older readers, PJ Proby is a singer who was popular in the 1960s and was famous for wearing trousers that had split at the crotch onstage).

Back to railway matters, it was nice of you to have been in my native West Midlands again. The platform that would elude both of us at present is Platform 1 at Stourbridge Junction heading northbound, which is used for the Town shuttles. I don't think that was ever used for passenger services northbound even before the 139s took over.

 

[Kite159]

You mention purchasing a rover for the second day of your West Mids trip, which one was it? I was a bit puzzled by the inclusion of Lydney.

West Midlands Day Ranger with a day return from Bromsgrove to Lydney (pre-purchased to get a seat reservation for University to Lydney also in case of query by the guard)

 

[507021]

Great reads, Kite. I haven't had a day in the West Midlands for a while, I'll have to put that on the "to do" list.

 

[Kite159]

25th May – Return to Birmingham

The original idea of today was a Lancashire Day Rover however due to the 390 to Blackpool not running I decided to swap ideas over (and a bit of a lucky escape with regarding the Northern strike), anyhow like last week I managed to pick up a £5 advance in a recent Virgin West Coast sale and made up a rough idea what to do once in Birmingham, like last week it would be a quick shack grab just to do something to pass the time.

I finished work, drove home, got changed and walked to Grateley station, purchased my ticket (I really should go back to buying tickets in advance just to save the potential hassle of a queue), and the 14:59 service was running a few minutes late. It was a school train started back in Sherborne so when 159016, 159007 & 159002 rolled in it was busier than usual, but I managed to grab a seat for the run to Waterloo, regaining a couple minutes of the lost time along the way. Straight down to the Bakerloo (noting that one of the escalators which has been out of action for rebuilding for a few months have swapped over), and straight onto 3532/3254 for the run to Kensal Green.

The biggest issue with my record keeping back in 2015 was I didn’t keep any note of London Underground stock, so for the stations on the shared section from Queens Park to Harrow & Wealdstone I need to revisit to grab an unit number (although for my rules I’m not having a separate list where I need to alight & board from a Bakerloo & also a 378 for it to count, if they share the same track). Anyhow a short wait before 3561/3242 took me to Stonebridge Park where it terminated as I made my way across to the other platform for stalker 378207 to take me to Queen’s Park, crossing over to the Bakerloo tracks for 3252/3567 fresh from the sidings to Baker Street, with 21051/21052 on the world’s slowest trip to Euston Square the end of my little London Underground session (the good news is that the Watford DC line is now cleared).

378207 arrives into Stonebridge Park

This evening I was booked on the 18:03 Euston – Wolverhampton (the one which after Birmingham New Street is meant go on a little adventure via Bescot), due to earlier issues this set didn’t actually arrive from Glasgow until around 17:55 so it was a quick turnaround, boarding 390039 around 18:05 and grabbing my reserved seat for this busyish service (fast to Rugby). My original plan was to bail at Birmingham International for the 323 stopper to New Street to grab a revisit of Adderley Park, but the 323 was already gone by the time the 390 had arrived (which meant one slow crawl to New Street, I think it was around 20 minutes late by the time it reached the station, with some of that delay caused by a late running 350 between Coventry & Birmingham International. Change of plans time, and with time to kill before the next Rugeley service I decided to pay a visit to one of the Virgin branded TVMs to pick up one of my tickets for the Saturday, a single to Nottingham (where the Lincolnshire Rover would kick in). I dare say it was probably the first time those TVMs have sold a ticket from the station I used ).

Low mileage 323216 was on the next Walsall stopper, so it was onwards to Walsall (also gave me a chance to use the free WiFi to check up some bits & pieces), crossing over to platform 1 (which I believe could probably be one of the last times I use this platform as I don’t believe it is getting wired up as part of the Chase Line wiring, instead any services towards Rugeley will use platform 2). Anyhow it was a short wait before 170513 rolled in to take me a couple stops north to Bloxwich North (having grabbed Bloxwich last Saturday). I had forgotten how evil this station is to cross platforms, as I had a short fester before 170504 & 153366 rolled in to take me back to New Street, I dare say a few free rides tonight as the guard remained in the front 170 leaving the 153 unstaffed (and as per usual the gates at New Street were wide open).

170513 departs Bloxwich North

Once back at New Street, it was a case of popping via Tesco Metro for something to eat before walking towards the hostel, this time against a large flow of people heading back towards the city centre. Same room as the previous week but this time a top bunk in a busy room, thankfully this evening the nearby nightclub wasn’t playing loud music until the early hours but other than a loud snoozer it sounded like some prats were attempting to break the land speed record on the road outside in the early hours.

-----

26th May – The return to Lincolnshire

Basically the idea of today was another attempt at grabbing Doncaster platform 2 & Lincoln platform 1, having been bowled out in March by a failed 66 between Sleaford & Lincoln. The rough plan was pretty much the same plan as back in March, but this time with added HST. I managed to book myself onto the 07:06 (ish) XC service to Derby before the timetable got changed around due to the blockade south of New Street, with that service turning into the 07:09 (ish) to Glasgow Central. It was easy enough to grab a table seat in coach B of 221135 for the trip to Derby, being a bit strange departing the wrong direction from New Street, heading towards Selly Oak before turning left to join the Camp Hill line to go over the Moor Street lines and underneath the WCML with the regular route joining in from the left. No new track for me, but certainly an unusual routing due to the engineering works.

Once at Derby I noted the new platform coming along nicely on the former goods lines, as I settled back noting the large crowd building on platform 4, waiting for the Skegness HST. This rolled in with low mileage 43047 leading and 43060 on the rear, it was the set with the rogue 1st class carriage in the middle of standard class, which is where I headed (bit of luxury for the long trip, also the plug sockets might have been the main reason). The HST filled up along the way, a couple announcements from the guard to “remind that anybody standing, there are seats in the first class coaches as this is a standard class only service”. Anyhow nonstop to Grantham where it reversed before carrying on towards the Eastern Front, pausing at Sleaford & Boston only, but the journey dragged on and on until we eventually reached Skegness.

43047 at Skegness

I had roughly 45 minutes to kill before the next service back towards Sleaford, so I visited the nearby Morrisons for lunch, returning to the station with 156406 & 153376 sat on platform 3, not only was this a platform score (oddly the next service was being shown on the screens as going from platform 5, which would certainly have been unusual), but 153376 was my last EMT 153 in my book for sub-10 miles. I took a seat in the leading coach of the 156 as it was quieter than the 153 for the trip back towards Sleaford, one of these days I will return once more to Skegness as I need to revisit Havenhouse & Thorpe Culvert, my plan features a nice walk from Wainfleet to Havenhouse (and probably a nice hour fester at Thorpe Culvert).

Anyhow an hour later, the 156+153 combo reached Sleaford, where I bailed, crossing over to a busy platform 3 for the next Lincoln service, today formed of 153381 & 153374 which not only did it arrive into Lincoln a few minutes early, it was a bonus as it was sent into platform 1 instead of platform 2 (Brucie Bonus!). This meant a quick rejig of my plan as I no longer needed to fester around Lincoln for an hour for a Sleaford service (which I wouldn’t have been pleased as looking at RTT that was put into P2 instead of P1!). The 14:10 Lincoln – Doncaster service this afternoon was formed of a moderately busy 156414, but the joy of scoring platform 1 at Lincoln was replaced with disappointment as the 156 went straight across the flyover in the south of Doncaster to come up to terminate into platform 5 (as there was a 144+142 combo being stabled in platform 2 due to the strike), ugū .

153381 at Lincoln

Anyhow these things happen, as I change ends of 156414 for the run back towards Gainsborough Lea Road for a short linear connection onto 144014 to Lincoln, not only did I need the station for boarding a train I needed the coverage of Gainsborough towards Saxiby on a Northern service. Once at Lincoln I exited the station to grab something cold and wet, before returning to board the next Leicester service, formed of a busy 156473. This service has an odd calling pattern as it randomly calls at Lowdham, which is where I alighted from the train for a bonus shack score. Sadly I had a 45 minute fester here, the seats weren’t that great and there wasn’t a lot of shade, but eventually 158810 rolled in on a Matlock service for a tiny leap to Burton Joyce. 10 minutes later the next train from Lincoln rolled in, formed of 156498, to take me to Nottingham. A couple little extra stations in the bag which was unexpected, but it was time to go back onto my rough plan with the next Skegness service, formed of 153319 & 158846 to Bingham.

I turned down 156406 & 153376 on the opposite platform, instead waiting around 12 minutes for 158857 to roll in from Norwich to return me to Nottingham, where I headed out of the station to pick up some dinner before returning and relaxing. Solely due to cost I had booked a Nottingham – London ticket which was routed via the ECML, so it was a short wait before a busy 158783 rolled into Nottingham from Liverpool, detaching from an unknown 158 and running non-stop to Grantham for a 20 minute wait for the final southbound service of the evening, which was running around 5 minutes late. On what could probably be my final Virgin East Coast service, it was DVT 82231 leading, with 91102 at the rear doing the pushing on a lightly loaded coach F, as I settled back to watch some programs on my tablet. Bit of a hassle around Finsbury Park as we had to wait for a platform to become free to get routed via P2 instead of P4, so arrival into Kings Cross was around 10 minutes late, but I was enjoying the sights of the electrical storm.

Straight to the Underground, with 11011/11012 taking me to Oxford Circus, and 3243/3547 to Waterloo, arriving into a station where the storm had broken and it was absolutely throwing it down, the sky was throwing a light show and 159019 working the 23:40 was hiding in front of a 450. Thankfully by the time I got back to Grateley the rain had stopped allowing me to quickly walk home without getting too wet (I saw the lightning in the distance so the storm wasn’t that far away). After doing a couple minor jobs (mainly putting a rough outline of an idea of another Lincolnshire rover down before I forgot about it) it was straight to the land of nod after a busy day.

I shall leave you with this picture of a 158 arriving at Bingham
158857 arrives into Bingham

Next weekend, sees a return to railtours, this time my first overnight tour with the SRPS’s “Routes & Branches”, taking a 86 (& 37) across various lines in the Glasgow area.

 

[Kite159]

28th May – A trip to Weymouth

Originally I was going to head to London today to pick up some odds & ends dotted across both the national rail & LU networks, but I had a last minute change of heart and after checking decided to ditch London and instead pay a visit to Weymouth, making use of the additional summer Saturday (and bank holiday) service from Grateley. Also this plan meant a slightly later start which is always nice with a couple hours extra sleep.

A short walk to the station where I picked up my tickets, and for the first time this year crossed over to platform 2 to board a service, the 07:51 to Weymouth, formed this morning of 158888 & 158890, it was a quiet coach (heck after Salisbury I was the only passenger in the 3rd coach of this 4 carriage service) but it was a slow journey as due to pathing restrictions on the Heart of Wessex meant some festers, 28 odd minutes at Gillingham, the unusual move of going via platform 1 at Sherbourne and into platform 1 at Yeovil Junction for another fester when the driver changed ends, before going down the hill to Yeovil Pen Mill where the train started to fill up (this being the 2nd southbound service of the day, the 1st being at ~ 07:30 in the morning), and with a fast run (skipped the three request stops), brief pause at Maiden Newton & Dorchester West before joining the mainline to terminate at platform 3 at Weymouth.

I had roughly 45 minutes in the busy seaside town (bank holiday weekend, plus glorious weather meant lots of crowds), made use of popping to a nearby Tesco Metro for supplies for lunch and with a couple pictures of the beach, I returned to the station to await the next GWR service, which had gone in on top of the 158s. 153325 was leading 153368 & 150244 on this quiet service (nearly had the front dogbox to myself with the lovely green LM seats), putting in a request so I could do a little walk. I was the only passenger alighting at the small village stop of Yetminster and it was a reversal of the moves I did back in July 15, a short walk through the village (passing the local pub and a little Spar) before a short section on a moderately busy lane to reach the tiny and remote Thornford, the village itself is around a mile away judging by a signpost. Nothing much to report on this tiny station, it has a bench inside a little enclosed waiting room area, a flight of steps to the road and a picture of a 166 with a message about how some of these suburban London cast-offs wouldn’t be able to stop as they hadn’t yet been fitted with SDO controls.

Thornford Station

The next northbound service was a first for me, requesting a SWR service to stop, as 158890 & 158888 was returning to Yeovil Junction working a shuttle service, I took these to Yeovil Pen Mill for a short fester before a late running 150248 rolled in (I dread to think how bad the return service would have been, 166202 was also spotted working on this line today), it was moderately busy for the trip back to the south where I bailed at Dorchester West for the short fast walk across the car-park to reach Dorchester South (once more a reversal of the walk I did back in July 15). I had a split plan just in case I couldn’t make the first London service, but thankfully “plan B” wasn’t required as I made it to the station in time for the ‘fast’ service formed of 444031. I was expecting this to be bad (long weekend goers returning home to London) but in fact it was very lightly loaded [especially in coach 4]. As it was a fast service it skipped Wool & Moreton but called everywhere else towards Bournemouth, joining up with 444021 for the fast run to Southampton Central, calling only at Brockenhurst along the way. Once at Southampton Central, I decided to take up the option of a linear hop on 158880 (as it was required for the year) to St Denys, crossing over to the middle platforms to await 450566 to take me to Hamble.

The heat hit me as soon as I got off this busy 450, it had gotten quite warm, but thankfully my wait wasn’t for long before a busy (the previous GWR Portsmouth – Cardiff had been cancelled) 450040 rolled in to take me to Sholing. A quick pop to the little shop outside the station for a couple cans of cold pop before walking along the road to reach Woolston, with 450040 returning from Southampton to take me to Netley, to clear this line for boarding & alighting. The 3rd diagram of the Solent stoppers was 450554 which took me back to Southampton, cursing at myself for not checking the progress of a 158 towards Salisbury as we were held on the junction near the depot for it to pass, had I known it was running late I could have bailed at St Denys to save myself a walk. Ah well, the walk to Millbrook was kind enough, the only time you interact with cars is when walking across the car park at Southampton, other than that it is a slightly overgrown in places footpath between the fence of the railway & the busy road (but not one to do during the hours of darkness).

Millbrook station

Eventually I reached the basic island platform at Millbrook, it features a bench underneath a little bus shelter giving some shade, but not a lot else, even the Permit to Travel machine was out of order. I had a couple options available, my original plan was to head to Basingstoke for a tight connection onto a Waterloo – Salisbury service, until I noticed that particular service was being extended to Exeter (running non-stop from Yeovil to Exeter Central, that could have been a nice run) due to the kickball (Exeter kickball team was playing a kickball game at Wembley) so that service could be quite cosy. Option 2 was a GWR service to Salisbury for a SWR from Exeter to Grateley, again which could be busy with folk heading back to London. Anyhow 158881 returned me to Southampton (I was expecting 158880 to return), and my mind was made up with the GWR Brighton – Bristol service featuring a quiet looking 158954, which even had working AC in one of the coaches!

This 158 took me to Salisbury, for a short wait onto 159001 & 159019 for the trip to Grateley, reasonably busy but I managed to get a seat for the near 11 mile trip, the good thing this option got me home 30 minutes earlier, after a busy day in the warmth of a bank holiday Monday. The novelty of a SWR service to Weymouth was ticked off, plus 9 more stations revisited.

Weymouth beach

 

[Kite159]

31st May – A Thursday evening trip to Sunny Sudbury

I was booked onto the lowlander sleeper to Edinburgh tonight, and with finishing work at a decent time allowed me to have a good think, thinking at what to do when in London (as potentially I had 5 hours to play with). Several options popped into my head, eventually I made up my mind and put together a completely rough idea, so rough it could have been used as sand paper. I had decided on some Turbo based noise out of Marylebone and also the Greenford branch.

So it was a simple case of heading to the station (thankfully the rain held off) to board the 16:59 service, which today was formed of 159016 & 159002 and it was a crawler eventually arriving into Waterloo around 18:27 so option 1 of a quick time wasting 345 spin out of Paddington was put into the bin, and with nothing really better to do I headed back to Clapham Junction on 707003/707002 transferring across to 377431 & 377119 for the run to Victoria, mainly for a mileage move on 119 as it was previously only in my log for 58 chains (and I wonder if anybody can guess which move that was). Anyhow once at Victoria is was to the chaos of the Victoria line as far as Oxford Circus on a busy 11037/11038 where it appeared the Bakerloo had sort of recovered from a signal failure as it was a sub minute wait for 3548/3255 to Marylebone.

With time to kill, I headed out of the station and to a nearby Tesco Express for something cold to drink before returning to the station to board 165012 working a Gerrards Cross service, unusually going from the buffers at platform 1 (very un-Marylebone like) to take me to the limited service station of Sudbury & Harrow Road where around a good dozen passengers got off the service, passing a gang of youths smoking some drugs in the waiting shelter and I headed to the bus stop, to leap onto a route 92 service to a bus stop between Sudbury Hill Harrow & Sudbury Hill (bus TE1720). I headed across to Sudbury Hill for a quick spin on the Piccadilly Line as I needed this station for both alighting and also for boarding with unit ID. 210/111 took me to Sudbury Town, returning to Sudbury Hill on 193/108 (word of warning, Sudbury Town is one of the few where you have to leave the station to cross over to the opposite platform.

165012 departs Sudbury & Harrow Road

Once back at Sudbury Hill (all this Sudbury action, it gets confusing), I walked along the street to reach Sudbury Hill Harrow station, which I needed to board a train from. This was taken care of with the final London service of the day a low mileage 165011 for the short run to Marylebone. Once at Marylebone it was to the underground with 3556/3234 to Paddington, and 345014 for the run to West Ealing for my first experience of a beeper at Paddington (they can certainly shift though). At West Ealing I had a couple options, first was to walk to Castle Bar Park or take a bus which would give a tight +3, as it wasn’t raining I set about for the short walk through the housing estate to reach the basic Castle Bar Park, where I boarded an empty 165137 to take me to Greenford. I had previously boarded a train here, but it was before I started to log numbers so it was required. A short turnaround and it was back towards Ealing, getting off at Drayton Green, crossing over to the opposite platform for the same unit to take me back to Greenford.

165137 at Greenford

My next move was onwards to West Ruislip with 91039/92246/92426/91229 where I had roughly 15 minutes to kill before the next Marylebone service was due, so after a quick PNB it was a short walk to the Chiltern platform, normally a bit of a bugger to do due to poor connections (and being a long trek out on the Central Line), so I was glad to get West Ruislip in my book with 165024 rolling in, the driver hopping out of the cab for a little walk (due to this service being booked to sit on the loop for 5 minutes to allow a 168/3 from Oxford to pass). Once more it was back to Marylebone with another few shacks revisited (only Chiltern served shacks left are the two poorly served ones on the Stratford-on-Avon branch & the Princes Risborough – Aylesbury pair), plus getting the Greenford branch done was a bonus as I shouldn’t have to worry about it again.

Once at Marylebone it was once more to the Underground with 3253/3558 taken to Oxford Circus and 11001/11002 to Euston, where I met up with Daniel (Blind Traveller) for the short walk across to a busy Edinburgh seated portion, not many unreserved seats (and after Watford there was 3 empty seats, I swapped my usual single seat for a seat next to Dan to have a mild catch-up. Anyhow I forgot to mention it was winner 90045 at the front, so another Freightliner 90 into my book

And I think this is a good time to say “To be continued”

90045 at London Euston

-------------

A brief look back of May

Another busy month for me, with the first trip of May being on the 4th to visit the reopened station of Kenilworth, a simple trip there & back via Coventry, this was followed by another railtour on the 5th May featuring some 20s from Victoria (a 66 from Reading to Victoria) to visit the Mountfield Gypsym Siding & Dungeness also featuring a pair of winning 73s, a nice short day railtour compared to some.

The 6th May was a trip to Glasgow via Edinburgh, picking up some shack revisits along the way, didn’t all go to plan as Glasgow Central was closed down early to allow repairs to overhead wiring, I returned South on the same day via the sleeper which was diverted via Mount Florida & Shotts, just for the novelty of a 73 heading that was. A bonus was scoring 87002 on a drag back from Wembley; shame the 92 wasn’t required though. Bank holiday Monday was a trip to Orpington via Slade Green before focusing on revisiting some shacks in South West London and also a visit to Windsor.

A short week at work followed as I was back on the rails on the Thursday to head towards Stockport, making use of an early start on the Friday to grab some shack revisits in the Manchester area (Ardwick towards Bredbury), before grabbing the bay platform at Bolton before my plan fell to pieces, the 68s were cancelled which allowed me to grab Leyland, before some random micro-gricing moves, getting bowled out by a lost connection at Lancaster but regaining time due to a late running pacer on a Blackpool South to grab part of the revised layout around Kirkham. Back to Lancaster to grab platform 1 at the expense of the bay at Blackburn, before heading back towards Manchester for some 67 based fun to Newton Le Willows before once more my plan fell to pieces with the 319s towards Wigan being delayed & cancelled. However I did get a Voyager to Blackpool North for a novelty move, before returning south to Wigan.

My final railtour of the month was a BLS/565 tour to Norwich, sadly both West Coast 37s were dud from Wigan to Crewe, but it was a pair of winning 37s after Crewe. A divert via Walsall lost out on some track, but overall a good leisurely day, scoring the Nuneaton North Curve on the way back towards Crewe, before a 323 run to Stockport. The Sunday was a South Pennies rover, revisiting Strines & Mossley, before a novelty of an EMT HST from Leeds towards Sheffield (via Moorthorpe), another 399 was scored in Sheffield, before another HST with IC70 seats was taken from Leeds to Kings Cross. I had a quick revisit to Kentish Town before I headed home with some noisy 159s.


The following weekend saw me heading towards Birmingham for a West Midlands Day Ranger, making use of a few hours in London to grab some shack revisits on the London Overground network, and also Coventry Arena. The Saturday was mainly to score some bay platforms using a plan from March time, with Wolverhampton P6, Gloucester P3 & Hereford P4 falling into my book, along with some shack revisits around the rover area, the Sunday was meant to be an attempt at Worcester bay, but that was cancelled, so I ended up in Gloucester anyway for some 150 based noise to Yate and back to Birmingham for a run to London via Chiltern.

The following weekend (this being from Friday the 25th May) it was another overnight stay in Birmingham, this time grabbing a couple extra shacks on the Watford DC line (I still need to alight from a Bakerloo at Queens Park and board a 378) before grabbing Bloxwich North on the Chase Line. The Saturday was a Lincolnshire rover, the main feature being a HST to Skegness, grabbing platform 1 at Lincoln with an unexpected bonus move, sadly platform 2 at Doncaster was lost when the 156 went into P5, but I made up for it with a couple bonus shack revisits on the Lincoln – Nottingham line. A late finish going via Grantham so I had a lazy day on the Sunday, to rest for a day of shack revisiting on the bank holiday Monday, mainly with a trip to Weymouth on a pair of 158s, grabbing my last couple on the Heart of Wessex line, before a few around the Southampton area, it being a productive day.

My last trip of May was a pre-sleeper trip to London, revisiting the various Sudbury stations, and also stations on the Greenford loop plus West Ruislip to clear some more stations from that part of London, finishing the move off with a winner 90 to Carstairs.

Month in Stats
5958 miles covered
0 new units (probably the first time for a while my red pen hasn’t come out for units)
10 new locos (2x 20, 2x 37, 1x66, 3x 73, 1x 87, 1x 90)
1 new light rail (1x399)
A couple more new London bus routes used (92 & 213)

Looking ahead to June

A trip to West Wales next weekend (GWR HST to Pembroke and the bay at Whitland), followed by an as-yet unknown weekend (it was going to be a trip to Greater Anglia land, but as the Yarmouth air show is on, I won’t bother, currently deciding between a trip to Devon/Cornwall or a trip to the North Downs), another sleeper move to Edinburgh before a railtour to Goole/Hull at the end of the month.

 

[Kite159]

1st June – Pottering around the Central Belt

The main reason for heading to Edinburgh was for the SRPS Railtours “Routes & Branches” overnight & day tour, a tour which ticked a few boxes for required baker track. I will return after a semi-decent night’s kip on the sleeper, for the trip towards Edinburgh behind an unknown electric loco, finding out at Edinburgh that it was in fact winner 90047 to make it a double winning trip on the sleeper. I had word that a required 68 was on the Fife circles, so it was a repeat of the moves made back in April, with 170471 taken to Inverkeithing (and probably the first ever time for me that the guard has checked tickets between Edinburgh & Haymarket).

The half-circle service was being hauled by 68006 (which was good in a way as that one tends to be a lot more busier than the full circle service), a couple other services came and departed before 68033 came around the corner and straight into my book. Good to get one of the TPE reserve 68s into my book on an easy time wasting leap (and it looked like me and Dan weren’t alone in doing a similar move). At Edinburgh I had time to pick up some bits for breakfast, and drop Dan off at the bus stop so he could head home for some more sleep, as I headed back to the station buying my ticket and headed towards the 09:25 Shotts stopper service for I had a couple targets in my sights along that line (mainly because Edinburgh in general is quite good for required shacks to revisit).

68033 arrives into Inverkeithing

The 09:25 service was a Haymarket 158 (I think it was 730), but sadly it got cancelled due to “track circuit failure”, that threw a spanner in the works as I came up with a revised plan and boarded a 156513 on the next semi-fast service via Shotts, happily also a mileage requirement, as I sped along the Shotts line to have a look at the process of the wiring, knowing the rebuilt Livingstone South platforms, but a lot of masts were up as well as a small section of wires, a lot better process than the line from Preston towards Manchester that be for sure.

Anyhow I alighted from the 156 at Shotts, crossing over via the long footbridge to the other platform for 156511 to take me back one stop to Fauldhouse (which was required for alighting, after boarding a service there last year after walking from Breich International). A short connection before another mileage requirement rolled in, this time 156432 to take me to Holytown where I made the connection back onto 156513 for the short hop back to Carfin, and onto a nice 45 minute fester in the sunshine. Thankfully Carfin has a decent seat which always helps with long festers (which was spent reading some newspapers & magazines I had in my bag).

My next option I had 2 options, either a stopper back to Edinburgh or attempt a tight connection at Bellshill for a Lanark to get me back to Edinburgh in the comfort of a XC Voyager (or a fester for the same unit back on a semi-fast to Edinburgh). I decided to play my luck with 156457 taken to Bellshill, it was 2 minutes late into the station however the Lanark was also 2 minutes late so the connection held as I crossed over the handy footbridge just as 318260 & 318253 were rolling in. Around 5 minutes later I had alighted at Motherwell to see what would have been a rare sight, a TPE service calling at the station (but it appears that since the timetable changed all the TPE services call at Glasgow apart from the final Glasgow – Manchester service).

350401 departs Motherwell

I popped out of the station to grab some lunch & some cold bottles of pop from a “Savers” (as they tend to be cheaper than Poundland), before returning with 221139 for the fast run back to Haymarket, the plug socket coming in handy for a quick boost of electricity to my phone. A quick PNB later it was onto a late running 390155 to Edinburgh where I had some time to kill, sadly my original plan of bailing at Kingsknowe and walking to Slateford will have to wait until later this month. It had begun to rain which did a good job at clearing the air, as I waited for the community bus to Bo’Ness which Dan had kindly booked for me (route C19, cost £6 single). It was going fine until we hit heavy traffic on a dual carriageway out of the city, with one eye on the clock it was a nail biting finish as the bus terminated in the little bus station at Bo’ness and I had a fast walk to the station to grab my seat, arriving at something like 17:27 for a 17:35 departure. That was too close for comfort, but the original start time was 45 minutes later but due to various Network Rail works closing parts of the network overnight meant some parts of the overnight tour had to be retimed to beat the block.

My recent run of avoiding those narrower bench seats in the centre of the coach came to an end, with 37703 hauling the 7 coaches along the Bo’Ness & Kinneil Railway to reach Manuel (the first bit of required track for me). 37025 took over with the connection to the mainline and a pick up at Linlithgow before using the loop for a 380 to overtake before carrying on to Edinburgh for another pick up. A reversal at Edinburgh meant that86401 was now in charge for a fast run to Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High, another break allowing time to grab something hot from the takeaways around Queen Street before returning to the train on platform 7.

37025 was back in charge for the loud run up the Cowlairs incline, that 37 made such a racket, turning right to head towards Springburn and onwards to Duke Street, pausing to allow a 334 to pass on the single lead junction before the train used the City Union Line towards the south of the city, rejoining the electric network around Shields Junction and the driver opened her up for a storming run towards Ayr. This time of night the service trains were reduced so there was no pathing stops in various goods loops along the way, but as the sun was setting as the train reached Ayr, under the shadow of the former station hotel

37025 at Ayr

86401 was back in charge for the run from Ayr (must be the first time a 86 has been to Ayr in a while), heading back towards Kilwinning, before taking the south facing chord to reach the Largs line (another small piece of required track). A nice run it was to Largs arriving just before midnight onto the lesser used platform 1. Another reversal as the train returned towards Glasgow, sadly the planned use of the “Terminus chord” to reach the Maxwell Park line was declined due to a signaller trying to say it was under an emergency procession, so it was into Glasgow Central for a unscheduled reversal.

86401 & 380107 at Largs

This did mean 86401 was back in charge for the run towards Larkhall, issues with the signaller aside meaning an extended fester before being given access, sadly we went into platform 2 (and didn’t use the loop). 37025 was back in charge but the train was the wrong way round, and with a reversal at just beyond Haughhead Junction where the Larkhall branch joins up with the line towards Motherwell, 86401 hauled the set towards Cumbernauld where it was rumoured we would go into the turnback siding but the driver didn’t want to use it as the condition beyond the 6 coach mark was unknown. This move upset someone who I was sat opposite (having shifted location to an empty table for the overnight section) who was on the tour for two pieces of track and both were missed out on.

Running late now, but 37025 was once more in charge for the run towards Balloch via Maryhill (Hyndland area was blocked, hence why the 37 had to be leading due to the slight lack of wires). A quick reversal as daylight had broken, with 86401 taking us back to Dumbarton Central to arrive into P3 from the west, and 37025 towards Helensburgh Central (using P3). Although the late running at this point cost us our path so once everybody was back on board, 86401 put in a good performance for the run back to Edinburgh via Bathgate, arriving around 25 minutes late (got caught behind a stopper from Dalmuir).

2nd June – Routes & Branches, Day 2

At Edinburgh I had time to grab breakfast and items for lunch later on in the day (as there wasn’t any other breaks), before returning to my original seat and 86401 resumed its journey heading East to reach North Berwick fitting into a gap in the service before it goes to half hourly. 37025 was back in control for the trip back towards Edinburgh, going via Millerhall yard and after a brief pause for some points to get clamped before the coaches came to a rest opposite the new depot full of 385s. 86401 detached from the train for its work was done, and 37403 attached to the rear (it was originally going to be a 73/9 but it was swapped over for a 37).

Back onto the main ECML pausing slightly at Edinburgh for a crew change before carrying on towards Haymarket turning left onto the Edinburgh Suburban line to go a large loop back towards Millerhall area and back onto the ECML for a short section to head onto the line towards Leith Docks, which doesn’t see that much traffic these days, judging by the amount of trees and branches were bashing the side of the coaches, eventually the 37 reached the Network Rail limit with 37403 taking charge for the first time today.

(Former) Leith Docks area

The route taken was back onto the ECML and onto the Edinburgh Suburban line, this time taking the opposite side of the Haymarket triangle (required track for me) to head onto the line towards the Forth Bridge, across the bridge and the train headed towards the Townhill Down Goods Loop just beyond Dunfermline Queen Margaret station, 37025 was back in charge for the full circle, making use of the Inverkeithing north curve (another nice bit of required track ticked off), although it was running late due to having to wait for an Edinburgh service (where we were due out in front of it), this meant an extended wait in a goods loop north of Kirkcaldy for a service to overtake and missing a path on the inner circle as we were meant to have gone in front of a Cowdenbeath starter. Had we made the path we wouldn’t have got stuck but an unit had broken down around North Queensferry which meant trains were backing up, sadly the Cowdenbeath – Edinburgh service was at Dunfermline Town so we got caught up in the issues.

Eventually the block got cleared and we got going on the freight line towards Alloa, although now running late it meant a planned stop at Stirling was removed (sadly in the end this didn’t happen as we rolled in alongside a Glasgow fast), but a rerouting via Croy (instead of via Cumbernauld) meant some time was recovered. Turning right onto the line towards Maryhill all was going well until the signaller decided they wanted to send us towards Westerton instead of via Anniesland, resulting in a brief reversal so the signal could be reset and a unit allowed to escape from the branch. A brief pause at Glasgow Queen Street low level for passengers for the main tour to alight before the “add-on” section began, with a slow acceleration out of Queen Street (don’t want to be setting the fire alarms off now), and along the Bathgate line, turning right before Coatbridge to use the chord which goes behind the back of Whifflet and into Mossend yard where 3 coaches were detached due to a length limit with the turnback siding at Neilston.

37403 at Glasgow Central

37403 was back in charge for the run back to Glasgow Central arriving around 40 minutes late, by which time I was tired and wanted to get back towards Haymarket, so I bailed, avoiding the crowd and swinging via the Co-Op for a salad meal-deal I headed towards Queen Street for the 20:00 service which “wouldn’t be calling at Falkirk High today”. 380013 was leading 380114 on this busy service as I grabbed a table seat in the front, as the driver reminded passengers that this train wouldn’t be calling at Falkirk High (and as usual no ticket check) and any passengers should alight and catch the 20:08(ish) Falkirk Grahamston service. Anyhow this meant I got the chance to experience an EMU out of Queen Street High Level (made easy work of the incline) and being on one of the first passenger EMUs to go via Falkirk Grahamston (without calling) on the recently cleared line.

Anyhow I alighted from the train at Haymarket and walked the short distance to my hostel for the night, which I will post about later. Needless to say I was soon asleep in my top bunk (and thankfully the other people in the room were all there by 22:00). A good little tour, very challenging with my first overnight tour, but some odds & sods now covered in my Baker, shame we missed out on that chord in the Glasgow area but maybe the BLS will do a 314 farewell tour.

--------

Coming back home on the Sunday wasn't the best as I was around 2 and a bit hours late into Kings Cross caused by the first train having a fault which couldn't be dealt with remotely by the driver so it was a super cosy 220 to Newcastle, followed by a cosy 185 to York then by a cosy 180 to Kings Cross which got caught up in earlier delays, returning home after the half term week meant many suitcases

 

[noddy1878]

Wow! That was loads to catch up on! So jealous! The South Pennines is valid on the new Chord in Manchester by the way.

 

[Kite159]

Wow! That was loads to catch up on! So jealous! The South Pennines is valid on the new Chord in Manchester by the way.

So I've heard, a handy extension for the rover

(One rover which I can see being sold a bit more in the next few years to various bashers getting the 68s on TPE services, along with the West Yorkshire Rover)

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Kite, good to see that you're still out and about - and also finding the time to write up your outings. Must have felt rather odd not getting the red pen out for any units during the month of May

 

[55013]

Most enjoyable stuff.
You remind me that I still need 37703.
I must keep an eye out for it having a running day.

 

[Kite159]

9th June – Onwards to West Wales

Beware the following trip report features a pacer:
143605 at Cardiff Central

A trip to West Wales was on the cards today, for a couple reasons, the first was to grab the Whitland bay, 2nd was for the novelty of a HST to Pembroke Dock and thirdly as a line of rediscovery to Milford Haven. The main part was that bay which required an overnight stay in Cardiff which saw me make use of 158954 for the long trip to Cardiff Central from Salisbury on the Friday evening, making use of the YHA in Cardiff.

My first move of the day was on the 05:33 Cardiff Central – Milford Haven service, formed of a lightly loaded 175102 on this service which calls at all the stations towards Carmarthen, and I mean all the stations, even those three before Bridgend, by Baglan I was bored, the two request stops of Kidwelly & Ferryside were skipped and I decided to remain on board for a further 10 miles to Whitland on grounds that I know there is a nearby Co-Op which would be handy for a breakfast supply raid (and mainly something cold to drink). Although I did have a minor issue heading back to the station at Whitland where I misjudged the height of a pavement and came down hard on my left foot.

The next service was the first GWR Pembroke HST, this one being formed of a lightly loaded 43069 & 43164 to take me to Saundersfoot (which was required for boarding), with a short fester before 150280 rolled in to take me back to Whitland, a pause outside the station before the unit turned right to use the bay platform at Whitland (which I believe only sees use during summer Saturdays as the timetable for the Pembroke branch is messed up with the HSTs, afterwards the unit shunts ECS to platform 1 to form a service towards Swansea.

150280 in the Whitland bay

During my 30 minute fester I managed to get a nice picture of the token exchange for a Tenby short working at Whitland signal box, and where it was tempting to grab my remaining trio of shacks on the Pembroke line I decided to stick to my original plan, afterall it had been nearly 4 years since I visited Milford Haven.
150254 pauses at the Whitland signal box

The unit taking me to the end of line was 175009 and to be honest I fell asleep, I woke up as the train was arriving into Milford Haven, so made use of the turnaround time for a slow walk to the Tesco next door to grab a carton of juice (and also lunch) to try and wake myself up a bit. 175009 was busier heading back out and it wasn’t long before the unit arrived at Carmarthen for a brief 40 minute fester, which I spent by going for a little walk to the river bridge before returning to the station, grabbing a nice table seat on the Paddington – Pembroke Dock HST service, formed this afternoon of 43079 leading 43156. A nice bit of speed towards Whitland before the HST went onto the slow branch, this is an odd semi-fast service which skips some of the stations but why randomly call at Saundersfoot instead of Narbeth or Kilgetty (as there is bugger all around Saundersfoot station) and Manorbier (another station with nothing much around). Anyhow the HST soon arrived into Pembroke Dock, the end of the line.

Pembroke Dock Station

Like Milford Haven, I hadn’t been to Pembroke Dock for nearly 4 years, but that time I spent a good few hours with an overnight stay in the small town, so it was nice to be back, if only for 30 minutes. I returned to the station to take a seat in coach L, making use of a £12 advance first ticket to take me to Bristol Temple Meads (and quite frankly a rather good bargain considering that GWR 1st class is normally quite expensive compared to other intercity TOCs). I got a nice single seat and relaxed for the slow trip back along the branch, changing over to sit on the right hand side for the nice run from Carmarthen towards Swansea (very under-rated bit of line I find), it wasn’t the fastest as the train called at Ferryside & Kidwelly, but thankfully after Swansea the speed picked up.

My original plan was to get off at Cardiff Central and pay a short visit to the bay at Caerphilly, but I decided against that as a Cardiff – Caerphilly day return is quite expensive for the distance! Anyhow the chance of getting home 2 hours earlier won the day. I was meant to get off the HST at Cardiff to change to a Portsmouth 158, but that 158 were starting from Newport so it meant an extra 10 minutes in the comfortable armchairs. It was a refurbished (with plug sockets!) 158957 doing the honours to Salisbury.

This 158 was reasonably busy on departure from Newport with a large passenger changeover at Bristol, the service an hour earlier had been cancelled at Bristol so you had all the Warminster & beyond passengers boarding (I assume any passengers for Bath – Westbury would have caught a Westbury terminator), however made worse tonight as a Bristol – Paddington service had also been cancelled with London passengers told to board the 158 to change at Westbury... Reasonably full after Bristol... absolutely wedged out after Bath, left passengers behind at Bath, Bradford & Trowbridge as they were physically unable to board, someone in the middle coach got overcarried as they were physically unable to get off the train. Emptied out at Westbury but it was still reasonably full until Warminster with a large passenger flow at Salisbury, which is where I alighted and headed home, the end of an enjoyable day to West Wales.

Next weekend is an odd one for me; in that I still haven’t decided where to go (I suspect a trip to Newquay might be in order, if not a day on the Turbos), all depends on what engineering works are planned

 

[Mag_seven]

Glad you managed to get some HST action west of Swansea - during the current GWR driver shortage debacle, the HST's west of Swansea are often the first to go.

 

[Kite159]

Glad you managed to get some HST action west of Swansea - during the current GWR driver shortage debacle, the HST's west of Swansea are often the first to go.

Although it would mean a nice gap in services on the Pembroke Dock branch if GWR cancel a HST.
----
Anyhow today I took a risk with the issues on the GWML and paid a little visit to the Cotwolds Line, alighting at Combe (and I was actually surprised that there was a good dozen including myself alighting with one person boarding at this rural shack in the middle of nowhere), walking back to Hanborough and doing a time wasting move to Charlbury on grounds my first 800/3 was a tad late

One visit done, 2 more to go (alight at Finstock and probably walk to Charlbury, and alight at Charlbury walk to Ascott, train to Shipton then back to Oxford)

 

[55013]

Looks like a good time in South Wales.
I need all the stations West of Bridgend except Swansea and Fishguard Harbour.
That area must see a visit from me at some point.

I never even realised the 800/3s were in service!
Not that they feature too highly on my list of things to do.

 

[Kite159]

A briefish summary of my weekend’s travels

Friday

The weather was fine so I decided to pay a visit to the Cotwolds Line, almost called it off due to the delays around Southall, but in the end decided to go for it. 43042 & 43197 was the HST on the stopper which dropped me off at Combe (along with around 11 others, plus one boarder), for a walk back along the lane to Hanborough with a time wasting move to Charbury before 800305 took me back to Reading (itself running around 50-odd minutes late at this point), with a low mileage 166 to Basingstoke with a near miss due to it being held up at Reading West junction for a freight train to pass.

43197 departs Combe

Saturday

In the end I went to London, mainly for a Fares Workshop, but first I had news on my final 1973 stock and to be honest the diagram it was on couldn’t really been better as it was a 10 minute wait at Piccadilly Circus before 221 rolled in along with 150, which I took to Heathrow Terminal 4 (as it was needed to alight from a Piccadilly line). I made use of 360201 working a TfL Rail service took me to Hayes, with a pair of 387s forward to Paddington with a Hammersmith & City line service to Kings Cross, the location of the workshop

After the workshop I made a silly mistake with my memory, for some reason I had completely forgotten about visiting Hendon back in October on a required unit move, so I headed to the depths of Hell (otherwise known as St Pancras low level) with 700027 taking me to Hendon, on a bright side it was winner 700057 (and 100th 700!) to Farringdon where I managed to ID a Bedford bound 700/1 as being required, making a note when it would return. Next up was to Liverpool Street with a pair of 360s to Romford with a route 370 bus taken to Emerson Park for a short wait for 315802 to Upminster.

315802 arrives into Emerson Park

A quick hop to Upminster Bridge & back got my last 2 LU platforms in at Upminster, with a pair of low mileage 357s to West Ham, before transferring over to the S7s revisiting Whitechapel (as I needed to board) and also Aldgate East (needed to alight) [both I had done before but didn’t log the numbers]. Onwards to Blackfriars, then to Farringdon to intercept required 700147 for the tiny leap to London Bridge, with a pair of networkers to Waterloo East and a 159 home, with some dramas at Andover as someone decided it would be funny to pull the chord in the disabled toilet.

Sunday

The first of 3 semi-planned Sunday trips to Devon for station revisiting, 159103 took me all the way to Exeter Central where I visited the Tesco for a supply raid before a time wasting move to Newcourt on a 150 from the bay (with a couple 153s back to Exeter Central), a pair of lightly loaded 143s took me onto the Barnstaple line to Portsmouth Arms for a 30-odd minute wait (noting an old Pullman coach by the station). The same pacers took me back to Newton St Cyres with its local door only policy due to the very low platform.

A short wait before I flagged down a 150 working the Okehampton services for a run to Okehampton and back to Crediton before a busy 143 took me to Exeter Central, where I grabbed food before walking back down the hill to Exeter St Davids for a 159+158 combo which oddly didn’t run into another unit at Salisbury so it was quite busy when I left it at Grateley a couple hours later. Shame that the weather was a bit meh, couldn’t decide what it wanted to do at times, but sometimes having weather like that is better than a glorious hot day due to the lack of AC on the GWR stock working Devon services.

143611 pausing at Crediton signal box

More pictures are on my Flickr account if anybody wants to take a look

As for Mr 13:
800305 at Oxford

 

[Kite159]

So last night after getting bowled out at Perth*, I paid a little trip to Linlithgow to intercept the first Scotrail 365 operated service

And yes they sounded amazing as ever on that high speed bit of line from Linlithgow towards Edinburgh.



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* There is a service from Inverness which arrives into Perth around 21:00 which is 'booked' to go into platform 3 from the North, however it didn't do that as there was ECS on said platform. I've come up with another idea as the 06:39 Perth - Edinburgh on a Saturday is meant to start from that platform and that is a reasonable +45 from the Inverness sleeper, the other uses seem to be early early morning or late at night)

An unusual route taken this afternoon on the HST from Edinburgh (13:00 departure), due to issues with a train in front it got put into the slow line after Potters Bar and into the Up Slow 2 at Alexandra Palace going via platform 1 at Finsbury Park.

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Black and White pictures are cool
390044 passes Slateford (Black & White)

 

[Cowley]

Really enjoyed reading about the tour in Scotland. Lots of track that I need up there still.
Nice to see you enjoying a bit of Devon too.

 

[Kite159]

Sorry it be a bit late, but with the warm weather currently I didn’t feel like typing so much.

Looking back over June

The start of June was a SPRS Railtour in Scotland, and begins when I left off at the end of May on the sleeper to Edinburgh, 90047 doing the hauling from Carstairs to Edinburgh meant a rare case of both locos being required. A quick spin to Inverkeithing saw 68033 into my book before I did a couple shack revisits on the Shotts line, sadly a cancelled train earlier in the day meant a couple had to be dropped. A community minibus took me to Bo’Ness where I scored the heritage line, plus the connection to the main-line with some good 37 based noise (along with 86401 along for the ride).

The tour was a few little pieces of track dotted across the central belt, the odd curve in Baker and was overall a good day, but I think next time I will pay extra for 1st class, just for the extra space. The Sunday went a bit wrong with the voyager breaking down, resulting in another voyager to York for a 91 to London arriving a couple hours later than planned, but hey it was a free trip due to the delay money back from XC.

The 8th was a simple trip to Cardiff, staying in the YHA overnight for an early morning stopper towards Swansea, before grabbing Saundersfoot, the bay platform at Whitland and the novelty of a HST on the Pembroke Dock branch, returning to Newport in first class using a £12 special promotional advance fare. A rare day of rest on the Sunday was required to recharge the batteries.

The next week was a trip to the Cotwolds line, alighting from a HST at Combe, and scoring my first 800/3 (plus boarding at Hanborough); the remainder will be done at some point (when it’s not so hot). The Saturday was a quiet day to London, grabbing my final 1973 stock on a run to Heathrow, a 360 back towards Hayes before a fares workshop. After the workshop I messed up by going to Hendon when it wasn’t needed, before I headed towards Emerson Park plus revisiting a couple LU stations before returning home via scoring of a 700.

The Sunday was a little trip to Devon, to revisit a couple stations on the Barnstaple line (Portsmouth Arms, Newton St Cyres & Crediton), with a quick visit to Okehampton. A nice day featuring some 143s on jointed track.

The 22nd June was a trip on the Highland sleeper, so I spent the afternoon/early evening picking up some odds & sods in the north of London, a few remaining stations on London Overground, and a couple stations on the ECML served by the Moorgate 313s. Just something to pass the time before boarding a busy seated coach for the Inverness part, sadly it was a dud 92 hauling me tonight, however it was replaced by required 67020 for Edinburgh towards Stirling. The Saturday was a mostly pottering day, a quick revisit to Fife saw me revisiting Cupar & Springfield, with some buses back towards Edinburgh Airport, a tram move and another bus saw me grabbing Slateford & Kingsknowe, also revisiting the rebuilt Livingston South. The evening was a trip towards the highlands on a HST, but sadly the microgrice around Perth didn’t produce (was hoping to go into platform 3 from the north). My disappointment was short lived as I made my way across to Linlithgow to intersect the first Scottish 365 operated service.

The Sunday was a lazy day, a HST took me to Kirkcaldy before a 158+170 back to Edinburgh, with a pair of 334s onwards to Livingston North as something to do before another LNER HST took me back to London, scoring a little bit of track with the loop from platform 1 at Finsbury Park back towards the main-line as the HST got put into the slows after Potters Bar due to a broken down 91 in front.

The last weekend saw me heading towards Birmingham for another railtour, but before my ticket became valid (making use of a Super Off-Peak return) I revisited Rainham on the C2C line, before making my slow way towards Euston via South Tottenham and Willesden Junction. A nice fast run to Birmingham New Street on a 350/1, before a tram move to St Paul’s where I checked into the Hatters Hostel. The Saturday was bloody hot day, the coaches were quite warm inside, I planned ahead and was wearing light clothing, but it was my first tour featuring solely 66s for a few months, one I was on the field of doing back in March before it got snowed off.

The main highlight on this tour was the Low Ellers Curve south of Doncaster, which links from the South Yorkshire Joint Line (still super slow) towards the goods yard, spotting a few new 80Xs in the IEP depot, before a jolly in Goole and a trip to the Hull Steel Terminal. A good day for track wise, but I was glad to get back to the hostel room later that night to have a shower to wash the sweat away.

June in figures

4552 miles covered
3 new units (2x 700, 1x 800)
9 new locos (3x 37, 2x 66, 1x 67, 1x 68, 1x 86, 1x 90)
1 new light rail (1x 1973 Stock)

 

[Kite159]

21st July – Return to the Hill

Over the past month I’ve been slowly revisiting various stations in the London zones, and I was left with just one National Rail station left within zones 1-6, one which has proved to be a right pain due to Thameslink related issues. So when I had a spare couple hours on my rough plan for this day I could fit a quick visit in.

It was onto the 05:59 service this morning for me, formed of a quiet 159018 for the mostly uneventful run to Waterloo (other than a nominee for fare-dodger of the month with a lady claiming to have boarded at Basingstoke just on the outskirts of the town (she was already on the train so came from Salisbury), she did a little runner on arrival into Basingstoke so got delayed heading to Woking. Anyhow once into London it was down to the warmth of the deep level tube with 51661/51662 used for the tiny leap underneath the river to Embankment with 21359/21360 for the 72 chain leap to Blackfriars, where I visited the little Tesco nearby for some breakfast.

Task number 1 for today was to revisit St Albans (City), a station I previously visited back in February 2014 when doing a London Midland Great Escape ticket for network coverage, where I used the station to bridge the gap between the branches, walking to St Albans Abbey for a 321 towards Watford. I turned down the first service at Blackfriars as it was a stopper to St Albans, instead hung back for 700143 for the run northbound, forgetting how fast these things can shift on AC. Annoyingly it was already in my book for above 10 miles, but soon enough I have alighted at St Albans (City) for a short wait to head back to London with 700133, turning down 700008 working a stopping service.

222006 passes St Albans City

Once at St Pancras, it was a short walk towards Euston, to board low mileage 350120 on the next Birmingham New Street service; it was departing from one of the platforms where the rear coach is hidden from view, which means the rear coach was a lot emptier than the first couple coaches. Fast to Leighton Buzzard then to Bletchley where I alighted from the train at a busy station. A southbound 350 had just departed with a Freightliner 66 on platform 5 hauling some containers and 150105 was on platform 6 for the next Bedford service, which I took for the tiny mile around the corner to Fenny Stratford. 5 minutes later 153366 rolled in (this service is an off-pattern departure from Bedford, hence why it was only a 5 minute wait instead of the more usual ~ 25 minutes. Back to Bletchley and onto a southbound Southern service formed of 377212 & 377202 to Hemel Hempstead, followed a few minutes later by a full & standing 350110 from Birmingham to take me to Watford Junction.

In the sunshine I sat on the bench waiting for the 319 to roll in, and the unit on the Abbey branch this week was 319216, a unit slightly underneath 10 miles which was a nice little bonus. I had forgotten how slow the St Albans Abbey branch is in places as the unit called at the delights of Bricket Wood & Watford North. I alighted at Park Street for a short wait for the same unit back to How Wood, where I had a short walk to a nearby Co-Op for some lunch. Returning to the station to take 319216 back to Watford Junction, another line complete in my book, and after a visit to the toilets at Watford Junction (for the loo on the 319 was locked out of use), I hopped onto 378227 for the short trip to Bushey via Watford High Street, before the return of 350110 from Tring to Harrow & Wealdstone, before 377205 & 377201 for the trip to Clapham Junction, a little bit of trouble changing over to DC around North Pole (sounded like only one unit wanted to change as it was a slow crawl into Shepherd’s Bush for both to reboot for a short delay. Thankfully the service got going again for the busy section to Clapham Junction, as I changed onto a SWR service towards Wimbledon, formed of 456006 & 455870, no idea where it was going afterwards.

Over to platform 9 with 700027 taken for the short distance onto the Sutton loop to the most famous station on the loop, St Helier. Doing the service anti-clockwise means a roughly 20 minute wait for the next Clockwise service, but it was a pleasant enough afternoon in a nice looking area, the station even featured a Permit to Travel machine! However I couldn’t say London was done until I boarded 700040 with the next St Albans via Wimbledon service, one I decided to stay on board all the way to Blackfriars, the rear first class area getting busy at Wimbledon with a large passenger flow at Herne Hill.

St Helier Station

A short wait at Blackfriars before the next Bedford service rolled in formed of 700134 for the short leap to St Pancras; this was more of a “random required unit” move than anything else. Once at St Pancras, I crossed the road to Kings Cross, met up with Lewis as we waited for the delayed inbound service of a Kings Lynn train to arrive. Eventually it rolled in and was 387118 & 387106, 106 being dropped off at Cambridge and the front area of 118 was quite busy, emptied out a bit at Ely though. We stayed on until Littleport, happy that it was a nice day for a short walk across the Fens.

This isn’t a walk I would recommend doing, where the road is pretty much flat and mostly straight, the A1101 road is quite busy, and once out of Littleport is no pavements and ditches both side of the road. Pretty mind in the countryside, pausing every now and again in shaded areas for drinks. The part from the turnoff at Burnt Fen has been recently resurfaced since I last used it a couple years ago when riding to Ely. Anyhow around a hour and 45 minutes later we had reached our destination, the one and only, Shippea Hill. But we weren’t alone as there was another gentleman waiting for the weekly Cambridge train who had walked from Lakenheath (which is even further). A nice little bench was required to rest before flagging down 170272 for the trip back to Cambridge North, the 170 was running a few minutes late which meant the hopeful connection to a semi-fast Liverpool Street service would have been lost at Cambridge.

170272 slows to a stop at Shippea Hill

A short wait at Cambridge North before 387116 rolled in from Ely on a semi-fast towards Kings Cross, a good 10 minute wait at Cambridge before the 387 continued towards Stevenage (calling at the major stations along the branch), before fast to Finsbury Park where we alighted as it was easier to get access to the Victoria Line. Next up was 11019/11020 which I took to Oxford Circus, saying farewell to Lewis on route, before 3262/3531 took me to Waterloo with plenty of time to grab a cold drink & a sandwich from Tesco before the 22:20 service formed of 159102 took me back to Grateley, the end of a good day.