Techniquest's Review of 2022
Well it’s fair to say, from the outset, that 2022 was a completely different year to the one I expected. It started off quite well at least! Let’s discuss the year month by month, it seems the only logical way to do it. Without further ado, here’s my look-back on 2022.
January started on New Year’s Day with a small trip to score my penultimate GWR IET, the last one coming just 2 days later. 9th January 2022 was soon upon me and that was a positioning day to Cheshire ahead of a week off. My year of cycling started well on the 10th, with a Gran Fondo ride being just scraped by before the trains back to Winsford from New Brighton. The following day, I was up early for a couple of nights away in Glasgow, with some cycling during the surprisingly warm (for Scotland at least!) weather as well as a fair bit of red-penning. Clearing the ScotRail 156s was a big highlight, as was the exploring around Glasgow on foot and by cycle. 14th January saw me on a last minute trip to Nottingham, and the day after another last minute trip to Derbyshire to finish the 170s once and for all. Or at least that’s how it was at the time! 18th January saw me go and clear the 168s at long last, as well as making excellent progress with the GWR 387s. The final one would fall in 2022, but not for many months! The renumbered TfW 153/9s were finally cleared on the 26th, clearing TfW at long last except for 769421. It and 769426 were broken at the time, the latter has still never entered service and may never do so.
February was a little less intense, starting on 1st February with hunting 769s in Manchester in combination with some speed walking. A week later, I had gone out for a 769 with TfW which didn’t end up producing. My last TfW 153/9 ended up producing again here by chance, I could have saved myself the expensive trip to Ludlow in January! Thankfully I had the opportunity to go cycling while in the Welsh capital, and I ended up in Barry Island before returning to Hereford. A week later, and yes when I did this review I did wonder if I had a pattern going on that month, and I was up north again chasing my last Northern 769. It had been intended to do that in combination with some cycling, but a broken 175 heading north put paid to that idea mostly. Some got done, and some walking, but not what I’d planned. The final 769 with Northern did at least get done, with some walking, and I finally ticked off Styal which had been on my list to do for a very long time back when I did stations. 27th February rounded off the month’s action, with 800013 to Kingham. Ah yes, this was meant to be a trip to Hanborough but I accidentally bought tickets to Honeybourne. With a last minute ticket to Kingham also sourced, I ended up riding to Stow on the Wold, a very pretty place, before continuing up through the hills up to Broadway. Another place worth exploring fully one day, and the day ended on 802019 back to Hereford.
March began with 175007 to Cardiff on 7th March, with the aim to get 769421 in the book at long last. Amazingly, it actually produced this time and with the status of 769426 still being permanently broken that cleared the TfW 769s too. Quite, the active 769s were all done, as even at the time of typing this on 12th December 2022 the GWR 769s were yet to enter service - A few days after typing this, a leaked announcement has confirmed that the GWR 769s are to go off-lease in early 2023, so unless something crazy happens the 769s are definitely cleared now. GWR is too, I should be pleased as it means many trips to the Thames Valley area are now cancelled, it’ll save me a good few hundred pounds! Back to the review! - The day after I did 802006 to Great Malvern, which given I had 170535+170517 back to Hereford looks to have been a visit to the Malvern Hills. Absolutely stunning, and I always enjoy a walk up there. Once I eventually get the OS map for the area, I’ll no doubt be there more often. Or will I? All is to play for in 2023 after all, and that’s the only spoilers (I’m sure that’s not going to last!) I’m providing for now! 14th March and I was in Cheshire, this time only on walking missions both on the 14th and 15th of March. I recall now that the short trip to Liverpool on the 15th was to try out the hire bike scheme. It was absolutely awful, let’s not go there right now!
On the 16th of March, I was in Manchester and I seem to recall that I did some of the hire bikes provided by Beryl (my log for those bikes has them nicknamed as Beryl Bees, I can’t remember the official name right now though!) which I absolutely loved. I also recall that I got rather wet on a ride from Salford to central Manchester! 21st March saw me head to London, and as I review my moves list for 2022 (which I’m using solely to make this review, I could have used my trip reports as well but this is already taking long enough!) I see that was the day I did some cycling from central London to Broxbourne via the Lea Valley. That was definitely a good bit of exploring, and it’s still on my list to do as part of a walking expedition one day. That day ended in an Airbnb (who we’ll discuss a bit more later in this review) near Hayes and Harlington. The day after, I walked almost all the way to Heathrow, in a bid to save money on a bus fare on a beautiful day, but while the walk was pretty good (so much so I have the walk from Hayes and Harlington to Heathrow lined up for January 2023, oops there’s another 2023 spoiler!) I still had to pay TfL £1.65 for the short bus journey on the final bit, I’m sure it used to be free from the North Perimeter Road to the bus station. 22nd March saw me on my first flight of 2022, with G-EUUO flying me to Zagreb for my first visit to Croatia. While I’m here, this was my first use of Terminal 3 at the mighty London Heathrow. I absolutely 100% prefer Terminal 5, but we’ll be here all day going on about that, so I’ll simply say that I’m keeping my eye on which terminal is used there in the future. If Terminal 3 is in use, then I’m so determined to avoid it that I’ll book something else! I’d best check my January 2023 bookings for that matter, and yes I know I said no more spoilers for 2023 but I can’t resist dropping in a few teasers! If anyone is surprised by my casually dropping in spoilers, they don’t know me too well!
23rd March was a full day in Zagreb, in some fantastic weather, and it was a lot of walking that day which I wasn’t complaining about! 24th March saw me return from a beautiful city, where I’d had not only a bargain package trip but I had stayed in my first Sheraton Hotel. Let’s just say very quickly that it was absolutely amazing (seriously stunning, my favourite hotel ever and just WOW! I could spend a long time waxing lyrical about the hotel), and my minimum standard of accommodation was forever changed! I did allow some Airbnb stays later in the year, but we’ll cover that later in the review as a stay in Scotland again changed my entire view of the world! On the return to the mighty Heathrow, I had my first 387s with Heathrow Express and scored one of my last 387/1s on the GWML. Two more Heathrow Express 387s remain to be done, and yes in January 2023 I will 100% be looking for them, sorry not sorry for the spoiler! Oh yes, and now I remember the other hotel which changed my view on hotels forever, easyHotel Paddington. I won’t go on too much here about it, but that place was horrible and I forever binned any future plans using that hotel chain. A decent quality Airbnb became the new minimum standard, and I couldn’t get out of that horrible hotel quick enough. To go from the incredible luxury of a Sheraton to the dump of easyHotel Paddington was just mind-blowing, a life-changing experience, a ‘what am I doing with myself?’ time! 25th March saw the month’s travels finish with LNWR and WMR taking me back to Hereford via Birmingham.
April’s travels didn’t start until the 13th of April I see, although I fail to remember why. That day was a Gran Fondo day on The Beast, my nickname for my hybrid touring cycle. That machine has done me so proud since I got it on 5th January 2021, although she is currently out of action until I give it a good clean-up and take it in for some new parts and a thorough service. Well in excess of 7,000 miles has been done on The Beast, I don’t actually have a current total right now. It’s on my list to do! I remember that this ride was exhausting near the end, and that I was very lucky that the booked train back from Telford Central (let’s not talk about the people there!) was running late otherwise I’d have missed it. It featured a pair of 153s and a 158 back to Shrewsbury, the first and so far only time I’ve had a 153 on that line. A week later, I was back on a cycle tour, which I see started in Colwall and ended in Cheltenham. Ah yes, this was the day I went to TGI Fridays in Cheltenham and had a disappointing experience. We could talk for some time on my love of TGI Fridays which started quite some time ago in Gloucester, but I’ll spare you all that story except to say I never expected to enjoy the place! Surprisingly, that’s it for April, wow that was a quiet month!
May was a lot more exciting compared to April! The action started on 5th May, which was an exhausting and challenging day, with a 100 mile cycle ride from Wrenbury to Shrewsbury via all manners of routes around Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. Yes, 100 miles in one ride, and I did have to cheat on the final few miles to ride around Shrewsbury and tour the pretty town. I covered all of the details in a trip report, and I remember seeing a 197 on test at Wrenbury when I got there, thinking it wouldn’t be long until they entered service en masse. I’m sttill waiting for that, and TfW need to hurry up with getting the class in service! 11th May saw me return to Cheshire on a surprise visit to Winsford, the day after featured some trains in Cheshire too. 22nd May must have been a cycle touring day with the only thing in my log being 150237 from Leominster to Hereford. The action proper resumed on 25th May, with a visit to London and the travelling on the newly opened CrossRail line from Abbey Wood to Paddington! I still haven’t been back to properly explore Canary Wharf and Paddington’s stations, but then there’s been a change of focus which I’m continuing with into 2023! The trip also featured some cycling and walking, as all of my best trips generally do these days! 26th May and I was on the way back to Hereford via Birmingham.
June started on 2nd June with a family trip to New Brighton, and I recall thinking that would be my final time to New Brighton on a 507, before the 777s enter service. Even on 13th December 2022, we are still waiting for a 777 to enter service, and like with TfW’s slow progress MerseyRail need to hurry up and sort themselves out! 3rd June and I must have been heading back solo for work, which featured a pair of 153s from Crewe to Hereford. That at least cleared the main line to Cardiff on the class at long last, I’d had Nantwich to Shrewsbury and Craven Arms to Ludlow as gaps for such coverage until this trip. The action resumed with a red pen spree in Manchester on 9th June, and as I’d arrived with a fair bit of time before the off-peak would begin I also got some cycling done with a ride from central Manchester to Bury and then to Rochdale. I remember looking at riding to Bolton but riding completely unknown roads in the strong wind was not too pleasant a thought. It did allow me to see just how bad the cycle space is on Northern’s 158s! A modest number of Metrolink trams and some 195s got done, as did 68031 to Stalybridge which ran late so I ended up walking to Ashton under Lyne and paying extra for the tram from there. 12th June I had a ride on 800313 from Pershore to Hereford, so I clearly had a crazy cycle ride that took me all the way to Pershore.
As I edit this late into the night on 19th December, I should check with my Strava logs but this must have been the day I finally finished the A438 between Ledbury and Tewkesbury. That climb a few miles east of Ledbury was a beast, and I remember the amazing vegan lemon cake and coffee in Tewkesbury now. I also remember the rush of testosterone when trying to keep up with a much fitter cyclist. That sure put the body through its paces! That feels like a much longer time period than just 6 months ago! 2 days later, and similar must have happened on the 14th of June with 175106 from Leominster to Hereford. It’s really bad that I don’t really remember some of these cycle rides, but I do now remember it was a pre-work ride. Yes I remember now, June was the month I was going for gold on Strava. I never did claim that jersey! June ended with a WMDR in combination with some cycling. Sadly there were no scores, but I did get a good bit of cycling done and I finally cleared, for the first time, the 1,250km challenge on Strava when I arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon. I’d been feeling rough that day, but I’d done 66 or so miles the day before on my Carrera road cycle, which I was still getting used to having got it second hand only a couple of weeks beforehand. Indeed, I made myself get used to it the very same day I got The Blue Beauty (my nickname for the Carrera) and fast with 48 miles of cycling from Gloucester to Hereford via Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire. It was nervous-going up the A417 out of Gloucester, while I tried hard to adjust to a completely different riding style to that which I was used to. This was my first ever ride on a cycle with ‘droppers’, and you know what? I think if I tried to keep up with that cyclist on The Blue Beauty I might have actually managed it! The ride on a new-to-me cycle up the A449, in hot weather, was evil but let’s not go there right now, except to say a handling issue saw me collide with some barriers, it was a moment I’ll never forget! It’s fair to say I put the body through a lot in June 2022, but I *was* at the peak of my physical fitness and had never been stronger or fitter. That soon changed!
July started very badly, as I ended up fainting on the bathroom floor on 1st July, and more than 5 months later I’m still nowhere near as strong or as fit as I was. Yes 1st July is the day I discovered I had contracted the dreaded Covid virus, and I am still very grateful Tour de France helped to keep me occupied during the long recovery! Let’s not discuss how hacked off I am that things have changed forever since then, I have a lot of opinions there! If you thought this review is long, then bear in mind I haven’t included as much detail as I’d like, or discussed some topics I’d love to discuss more! 17th July and I was finally able to get back and do some limited activity. Slow (by my standards!) walking was all I could manage and even then that was never a guarantee. The meet with forum legend Kite159 was cut back to hardly anything, due to delays caused by rail replacement buses on the way to Birmingham, but the first meet in over a year at that point was better than nothing! It was also the first day of passenger service on the new Edgbaston Village line with Midland Metro, and I scored a whole ton of the new trams that day too. There was then nothing until 28th July, and I was going to Birmingham again with family for the Commonwealth Games’ opening ceremony. The morning after it was attending a swimming session with them, that is watching not participating! 29th July was all about the journey back to Hereford on solo 172005, which wasn’t much fun!
August began on 3rd August with my heading up to Birmingham early doors to attend a morning athletics session of the Commonwealth Games, before later that day finding myself in an utterly rancid hotel in Coventry. So much for the adjusting of hotel standards eh? That evening I went to my first ever cricket match, it was cheap and as I was going to be in the Midlands again the next morning it had made sense to do something a bit different. Ball sports and me, however, just don’t go hand in hand. Edgbaston Stadium received a great big tick though! 4th August was another athletics session at Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr, in a cheaper seat this time for reasons I honestly don’t remember, so they can’t have made a lot of sense! Imagine my frustration when I found out after the event I could have gone and watched some of the road cycling event in Wolverhampton for free! I’d instead opted to take a punt on the Chiltern 165 on the Leamington Spa stopper (this being months before the allocations were visible in Real Time Trains) before returning to Hereford. I didn’t think I’d like the athletics all that much, but that was the highlight of the Games for me. I might not enjoy ball sports, honestly no-one needs my opinion on football, but I can get well behind athletics, the dedication involved, the sheer skill and talent involved, I’m usually a bit jealous but always in awe. 8th August and I was back with family in Birmingham for the Games’ closing ceremony. That was lousy, we left early as did a lot of other people, but we got to enjoy the bus back into the city as we had some Australian hockey players celebrating their gold medals. Some very happy, friendly and a little bit intoxicated men, but they had earned their celebration and everyone on that shuttle bus had a great time too! 9th August was simply a positioning move back to Hereford, ready for work, on a pair of 172s.
By then, I was doing a little better with the Covid recovery but it was still affecting me. 17th August and I was back on a cycle tour, riding from Stourbridge Junction to Penkridge to fill in some annoying gaps on my map. That was exhausting enough, the fitness of June was (and still is!) much missed! 21st August has a round trip to Ledbury showing with 172005+170514 outward and 800321 back. I’m guessing that was for some cycling coverage! 24th August and I must have getting fitter again, or at least more confident, as I went on a short-notice trip to Somerset with my Carrera. The forecast had called for dry weather, with some sunshine too, so that morning I’d gone out in the dhb shorts, an orange Primark athletics t-shirt and had applied sun cream for the planned 40+ mile tour. To say I was fuming when heavy rain started when I arrived in Taunton is an understatement! Cycling through the Quantock Hills had not been planned, and while it was beautiful the scenery could not be properly enjoyed in that heavy rain. By the time I had found my way to Bridgwater, no easy task with a soaking wet cycle which struggled to slow down on the twisty and downhill route, I was more than fed up and more than a bit wet! Thankfully the day got better with some GTi HSTs and later, when the weather cleared up enough, some more cycling, and I finally got that curve out of Newport onto the Ebbw Vale line done. A bit more cycling also got squeezed in while at Pye Corner once the weather behaved again, so I’d managed to salvage something from the day but it still annoys me that my grand tour of Somerset’s towns and villages never got to be done after all! August ended with a cycling day with 153906, 153318 and 150260 doing the honours between Hereford and Leominster in each direction on 28th August.
September began on its opening day, with 1st September being a Gran Fondo day and I cycled all the way from Hereford to Llandeilo. I still remember the agony in the lower back on the final few miles into the Carmarthenshire town, although bear in mind this ride was a little over 72 miles on The Beast with a lot of weight in the panniers! The long journey to Craven Arms on 153318 was most welcome I can tell you that much, and it was surprisingly enjoyable. I hadn’t done the Heart of Wales in quite some time, and I remember telling myself I’d have to return soon to do some more exploring. I still haven’t been back, but maybe soon, that will depend how early 2023 goes! 7th September and it was a day of stormy weather, and it ended up being a family shopping trip at Merry Hill, with us taking trains to and from Cradley Heath. Thankfully we missed the worst of the weather! 4 days later and I was back on the rails on 11th September, and with thanks to Strava I see this was classed as a memorial cycle touring day to the late Queen Elizabeth II. The idea being to take on some of the best of England, and I certainly achieved that with some cycling from Charlbury to Hanborough via Oxfordshire towns and villages such as Shipton, Ascott under Wychwood, Burford and Witney. I had never been to those places before, and Shipton certainly surprised me considerably. 15th September and as I studied my notes I exclaimed “Ah yeah of course!” upon examining my moves. For a moment, I couldn’t work out why I’d done 175108 to Cardiff Central, then 387148+387165 to Newport before connecting onto 170271 to Risca and Pontymister. The penny dropped, as the expression goes, when I suddenly remembered what I got up to. This was the continuation of the Queen Elizabeth II memorial cycling, this time taking on some of the best of Wales.
On this occasion, having finally done a 387 between Cardiff and Newport, leaving just Newport to Bristol Parkway to be done before I could claim coverage from Cardiff to Paddington on 387s, I cycled from Risca to Cardiff via National Cycle Network routes up to Merthyr Tydfil and, after refuelling in Tesco’s cafe, it was down to Cardiff on the Taff Trail. I wouldn’t recommend some of that route on anything less than a mountain bike! There was a lot of nice scenery along the way, don’t get me wrong, and it was well worth doing but I won’t be cycling between Cardiff and Merthyr again. Especially not north of Pontypridd! That ride did more or less clear National Cycle Network’s Route 8 between Merthyr and Cardiff though, I think there’s a small bit in Cardiff Bay to finish off but that will be easy to do. If I ever get the chance to, I would love to finish Route 8 up to North Wales! 18th September and I must have needed to get out of the house on a day off, with a few hours spent in Worcestershire cycling out of and back to Great Malvern with 800308 taking me there and 802022 returning me to base camp. There were some gorgeous views on that ride, eventually I will get back out that way to do some more of that part of Worcestershire! Those of you keeping track will notice there’s a LOT on my to-do list! September’s train action ended on 22nd September was another day of trains positioning me to and from some cycling, the main cycling taking me from Honeybourne to Moreton-on-Marsh. Oh yes, now I remember! This was meant to be a ride to the Gloucestershire-Warwickshire Railway to do the extension from Toddington to Broadway. That didn’t happen due to a burst tube on the way, with a recovery taking me to Evesham where it got changed. I did eventually make it to Broadway, but with time to spare I decided to go ‘hell for leather’ to Toddington and attempt to make the train from there instead. Which didn’t happen either, as I diverted to try and find the viaduct for a photo. That didn’t happen either, as I ended up with a rush of adrenaline when I discovered Stow on the Wold was only 11 miles away. That climb up the B4077 (I think!) was an absolute beast, but the speed I got to enjoy later on was awesome. A good explore of the pretty town was done on foot, after a much needed recovery cake and coffee as I’d put a mega ton of effort in to fly along the road and the final couple of miles with its deceptively tough climbs nearly defeated me! Maxing out at 37mph on the way to Moreton in Marsh was epic, 37.3mph I believe is my record and that feels incredibly fast on a cycle!
After a couple of weeks away from the rails, I was off to London on the 9th of October for a combined red pen spree with a meet up with Kite159. The weather was incredible, and some exploring of London on foot was mandatory! With a 458/5 score, as well as two 450s, we hit up LU for the trek from Waterloo to Tower Hill. Once the water bottles were filled, and GPS signals activated, the legs were put into exploring mode (a very different mode to my more usual pace, and that has reminded me that I have yet to pencil in my next speedwalk record attempt) and we had a great time walking some of the Thames Path. After a while, at Limehouse Cut I recall, we took on the canal towpath to somewhere in the Stratford area before a shared-use path to Stratford High Street. This summary of the walk doesn’t even remotely do justice to how much fun it was! It was onto the DLR for the short leap to Stratford station, before some more red penning and covering the new line to Barking Riverside. I’d not done it yet at that point, and another walk exploring the upcoming new part of London was quite fun too. Back to central London with a little bit more red penning, including what is likely to be my last ever 321 score, we parted ways at Waterloo and I went after my last GWR 387. With 387174 scored, as well as another 345 (I still want plenty of those), it was just heading to Mill Hill Broadway for an Airbnb stay. The day after, it was back to Hereford via Birmingham having done National Express on the way to London. 12th October had me on 175107 from Ludlow to Hereford, which I recall was the return to Hereford after a Gran Fondo cycle ride. Memorable if only for the absolute soaking on the final few miles in Ludlow, as well as the horrendous single-track road somewhere in the wilds of Herefordshire. I don’t have a desire to go back to that specific part of the county though, so at least it cleared it! October ended on 31st October with day 1 of the 7 day First Class ALR, and I took advantage of the chance to say farewell to the LNWR Class 319s while I had the chance. The 333s were finally finished on this day, and despite part of the idea of the ALR was to explore places a lot with some trains thrown in, there just wasn’t much exploring! The red pen was kept busy during day 1 though, with 10 scores before ending the day and the month in Aberdeen. When I’d booked the Premier Inn, I’d expected to be doing the Aberdeen to Penzance Voyager throughout, for the novelty, but it wasn’t running.
November kicked off with day 2 of the ALR, and that heavy rain in Aberdeen was seriously unwelcome. What a way to kick off a day’s travels! This day featured ScotRail HSTs as the main focus, with a journey all the way to Glasgow to start things off. The ex-FGW First Class interior was seriously welcome, partly for nostalgia and partly for just being pleasant! After a quick breakfast roll in The Glasvegan, sadly it was my last visit as it has now closed, it was onto another HST as it turned out. I’d been going to do some more 385s but there were lots of duds out so opted to take an HST to Inverness from Glasgow instead of Edinburgh. It was a bit too chilly in Glasgow to do a lot of exploring anyway! After some exploring of Inverness, I had managed to check into a dump of an Airbnb and this is what has put me off using them ever again. I was finally binning Airbnb, it took me long enough but now the rule was laid down as ‘if it’s less than Premier Inn, then I’m not doing the trip’. Obviously, in desperate situations, this rule will be binned. I have a similar rule with Travelodge and Ryanair, the former has been in place for a number of years. Some allocations of 158s had changed since leaving Glasgow, so the explore got cut short to make sure I got a 158 score in. The pleasant surprise of Nairn and its explore remains a highlight of the entire week, and yes I still wonder if I should have just done a Spirit of Scotland and connecting moves! Mind you, I suspect a lot of people would, from a choice of a 7 day First Class ALR and a 4 day Spirit of Scotland and connecting journeys, would choose the ALR! I’d had Aberdeen to Inverness on my list of desires for HST coverage for many years, so when one produced I could not say no to it. Another quick explore of Inverness later, and a visit to Burger King for a much needed meal, and I finally achieved that objective. Some red penning could not be resisted, so instead of getting to the Airbnb at a reasonable time (if one can call 2235 reasonable!) I would get back after midnight. A quick speed walk in Stonehaven filled some time before another Azuma score back to Aberdeen and a winning 158 as far as Inverurie, before changing to the surprisingly nice First Class on a 170 with a 158 for company. First Class on a ScotRail 170 made it quite a nice journey!
Day 3 of the ALR occurred on the 3rd of November, with an 800 to Haymarket to clear the North of Edinburgh LNER routes on the class. 4 more 385s got scored before my first 397 from Edinburgh, which I took to Carlisle and the weather was horrific on this day. Just a quick dash to Tesco and back (for some biscuits, I had a major sweetness craving that only biscuits dunked in coffee would resolve) was too much in that wind and rain! 390008 all the way to London was next, and that food was incredibly nice. LNER could learn a lot from Avanti on how to do proper food for vegans! After the short walk to St Pancras, a winning 700005 was most welcome for the slow leap to Blackfriars, which was followed by a speed walk to Waterloo. I’d never considered that walk before seeing it on Kite159’s Strava log. Much like Euston to St Pancras, I’ve added it to my favourite LU avoidance walks. Quite, I can walk much quicker than LU could move me between those two stations! The weather was not much better in the south of England (thankfully it had been dry in London) and my red penning of 444s got cut back due to delays. Still, 4 444s got removed from my wants list that night, so it wasn’t too bad. Thankfully I was back to Premier Inn, my days of using Airbnb were concreted into ‘avoid at all costs’ after the amazingly nice room in Premier Inn, I knew I couldn’t go back to Airbnb now. 3rd November and it was already day 4 of the ALR. I’d been going to do some exploring in Dorset, but the weather was not on my side, I did get some walking done in Southampton but it was not the planned Bournemouth and Weymouth explores which would have been more fun! I did get down to just 1 more 444 to get, and frustratingly as I was getting ready to leave Portsmouth the weather cleared up. By then it was far too late, I had a Premier Inn in Sheffield to get to and I was by now fed up of SWR, I wanted coffee and to get to somewhere more exciting. After another speed walk to Blackfriars from Waterloo, and a winning 700 to St Pancras Low Level, I finally got my coffee in the amazing First Class lounge at Kings Cross. I remember the first sip of that coffee, it had been my first in some hours and all was right with the world again, well from my perspective at least! Sadly, a Person Hit By Train incident meant my journey to Yorkshire was heavily delayed but it could have been much worse, I was in First Class in a comfortable environment with refreshments! Two more Azumas fell to my red pen once in Leeds, and a quick-fire speed walk around Leeds got me back in time for a Voyager to Sheffield, by which time I was ready to end the day!
4th November, day 5 of the ALR. The morning was spent chasing 222s, and the vegan sausage baps were incredibly nice, and EMR’s First Class service was way up there amongst the best of the week. Once I finally got to London, after changing my mind many times during the day on where I was going, I ended up on a very full 801 to York for a pair of 185s to Scarborough. I had not remembered the route being so dull and boring! After a full-on explore of Scarborough, it was onto 68029 to Manchester and I had thankfully missed the mass cancellations and issues caused by a Person Hit By Train at Slaithwaite. A speed walk to Piccadilly in the rain of Manchester got me a welcome break at the First Class lounge there, and I am still grateful to Avanti for providing fruit in their lounges! A 323 brought me back to Earth for a Standard Class only journey to Sandbach, where I picked up a bus to Winsford as I was visiting my sister. 5th November, day 6 of the ALR and it was a strike-not-strike day. With few options around, I ended up on a bus to Crewe for a round trip to London, where I did some 395s which were good fun. Two more of those in the book and I purposefully delayed my return to Crewe to sample my first refurbished Pendolino. I definitely think that was a good call, as it was really nice! A bus back to Winsford and a meal out finished the day, and 6th November saw the ALR finish. A journey to London saw me on a diverted 390 via the Midlands, and this was the first day of the connections at the west and east end of the CrossRail core finally opening. With those finally done, and a few more 345s in the book, I was out of ideas. The next Hereford train was cancelled, and I should have gone 395 hunting or any number of other things in London. For reasons still unknown, the brain melted away and I ended up on a 802 to Taunton via the Westbury avoider. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why I made that decision, or indeed why I left the comfort of First Class on a Voyager at Bristol Temple Meads to instead mix in with the masses on a GTI HST to Cardiff, to end the trip on a pair of 153s to Hereford. I could have gone via Cheltenham, had a meal there, changing again at Worcestershire Parkway for an IET to Hereford, but I didn’t. Oh well, whatever the reason was I was back in Hereford and into some seriously unforecast heavy rain. That was not the way I expected the trip to finish! November ended on 800302 from Ledbury to Hereford, the result of a puncture in Ledbury on what had been lined up to be a Hereford to Gloucester ride!
December was a very quiet month for adventures on trains, and like November there were adventures but on foot and buses. I’ve not detailed those here, but the November adventures in Oxfordshire and Brecon were excellent and good adventures. To summarise those quickly, I had great fun on walking missions around Brecon and Oxford, as well as taking in the scenery and making notes ahead of cycling tours. 4th December saw my first train in a while, with a GTi HST from Gloucester to Worcester and connecting into 800001 to Hereford, following a big cycle ride. It had been going to be a Gran Fondo ride, ending in Gloucester for some festive shopping then the HST, but the weather in Hereford delayed my departure and I missed the target mileage by 12 miles in the end. The body was screaming too much to even try anything more by the time I reached Gloucester anyway! 5 days later, I was on a mini day out in London with my Mum and little sister, with tourism the main focus of the day. With the many hours of travelling to/from London on WMR and LNWR, both ways in one day, it was a long day and life choices were being questioned before too long on the way back. I did score a winner on the Piccadilly line at least! The climb to the top of St Pauls Cathedral was exhausting but, strangely, did my quads in on the way down. On the way up, I’d have understood but coming down it should have been easy. Even a week later, the muscles were still giving me grief, nowhere near as much as they had done by the end of 7 days but even so that impacted me significantly. With the seriously cold weather, causing icy conditions, I was staying well clear of any cycling and on 14th December I had wanted a day out on the rails. With December filled with many days of rail strikes, this was not happening. I’d recently got OS map number 179, covering the Gloucester, Cheltenham and Stroud area. There just wasn’t much going on that day, and I chose to go to Gloucester and finally do the walk from Gloucester to Cheltenham which had been on my list for years. Gloucestershire’s pavements were in disgracefully icy condition, so the walk took longer than it would normally , 9.8 miles from Gloucester Quays to Pret in Cheltenham should have been easy but not in those conditions! It is however finally off my list of things to do, a list which shrinks occasionally by one item but is usually re-populated with about 7 more things to do!
As I finish typing this on 17th December 2022, and I have the proof-read to do yet (finally done that on 19th December), there was nothing of interest coming up for the remainder of 2022. There was the promise of potential walking or cycling on the 18th and 21st of December, but other than that I was finished for the year. What a year it was, full of ups, full of downs, lots of adventures and lots of health problems! The resumption of my World Frenzy series barely started, with just the trip to Zagreb in Croatia which was not the plan, however that was to change. On the days I’ve not been busy, I’ve been doing neuroplasticity works and that is coming on leaps and bounds. The mess of neurological connections is finally being untangled, and while there is still a lot of work to do it’s all coming together slowly. There was a lot I was meant to do in 2022, however while it’s all been delayed I have some projected target completion dates for at least some of it now. External factors have led to some of it all being pushed to the top of the priority list, which is a good thing. It’s taken 5 years and 8 days so far, but I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!
I have a positive outlook on 2023 though, and the year’s fun is scheduled to start on 8th January 2023. That is a trip to Amsterdam on a Eurostar, a journey that has been on my to-do list since before the service started. Actually exploring the city, unlike my stop-over in the west of the city years ago, is a priority as is seeing more of the Netherlands. When I get back to London, the day after will be the year’s first flights from Heathrow to Inverness and back, for the first meeting with Kite159 of 2023. The new station at Inverness Airport was meant to be opening by then, but oh well, I can’t complain too much as I have a high-end hotel booked which includes a gym. No prizes for guessing what I’ll be doing that night! Once I return to base after the week of adventuring, I fully expect to have some insight and a Lightbulb Moment or two on how the rest of 2023 will go. Currently, as I try to predict what will happen, I have a feeling that I will find a way to make New Zealand actually happen. Santorini I still want to do, and I have my guidebook for that destination but I still haven’t opened it. That I do find surprising, but I think that trip will occur in 2024. If all goes to plan, then 2023 will not have room to fit in Santorini! I fully expect to fit in the last of my big and long-haul/ultra-long-haul adventures in 2023, which are all adventures I want to do on my own. They aren’t trips I want to share with anyone else, except of course with a trip report and photos! It’s not that I wouldn’t enjoy them with company, but they are the sort of adventures that just won’t work right with company. Once those are all done, and apart from New Zealand I have yet to finalise the last ones, then I will have more time for the shorter and much more ‘local’ trips. Places like Santorini and the French Riviera are local, in comparison with Auckland!
There are plans to do some more cycle touring in 2023, of course, and there will be some railway adventures in there somewhere. I absolutely want to do a Spirit of Scotland, and the Greater Anglia empire needs a revisit. Kent is overdue a revisit too to clear out some more 375s and 395s. The Isle of Skye I have on my list to do, but it may get pushed back to 2024. I have a desire to do the Speyside Way too, but I have yet to determine how to fit that in. The Cotswolds Way is also on my list to tackle, as is more of the Thames Path. At some point in 2023, I will actually get around to sampling the 196s and 197s, hopefully by the spring they’ll be easy to do and not need a lot of planning and hoping! Summer 2023 I hope to do some adventures outdoors, and yes there is a plan to feature the railway in them. In short, I don’t know for sure what I’m going to do on the railway. It does look like it’ll be used more for A to B journeys more than full-on days out, but like everything else it will depend on a number of external factors and the neurological connections being all plugged in where they need to be. If things go the way I want them to by 31st December 2023, I will be 6 years behind the original 2018 plan but I won’t mind that if the vision of 2023 turns out to be true!
So there’s lots happening in 2023, and the World Frenzy series will not only get a proper restart but may even see its conclusion. In years gone by, during the peak of the World Frenzy series, it was much more about ticking off places and not exploring them sufficiently. The mission objective has changed, and it’s less about marking off those countries I’ve been to on the map but much, MUCH, more about a proper explore. In the future, I might actually revisit places I’ve long said I will go back to, it’s been a little over 8 years since my visit to Stockholm and I have been saying ever since I went there that I would go back. New York City was last visited in March 2016 and I absolutely want to go back. Not that far from 7 years later and I still haven’t gone back, Budapest is of similar status from September 2019 and still counts as my favourite trip of 2019. 3 and a bit years later, I haven’t been back but I have good reason for that and the reasoning I had back then remains in place. Maybe it will happen in 2023!
In short, I have a lot of hope for 2023!
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I typed this up, over multiple days, on the MacBook, and I still haven't got around to sorting out all the photos and videos I'd wanted to share in this review. Nothing new there, I still have many MiniDV tapes which have been on my list to get converted to digital format, ready for sharing on YouTube, for years! I've got some of the photos on the MacBook though and I hope to get organised with the videos and photos. Currently though, I'm too busy listening to soppy music and enjoying the nostalgia it's triggering!
It's been quite the rollercoaster of a ride this year, and while it's not ending anywhere near as well as it should have, well let's just say after the trip report from the London, Amsterdam and Inverness adventure in January 2023 it could be a long time until the next one!
EDIT: As of 0125, I've got back on here to add just a very small number of screenshots and photos as highlights. There's plenty to choose from! The group photo was from a walk up Skirrid Fawr I did in the summer with some of my non-work, non-railway friends. I haven't seen them in a long time, perhaps it's time to change that! The Strava screenshots are from two of the biggest challenges I've ever completed, which are 8,848 metres of elevation gain on a cycle (that challenge was tough!) and of the 1,250km cycling challenge in June. Two of my greatest ever achievements there! As it's a railway forum, it only made sense to ensure I used mostly rail photos, and I include things such as one of my last GWR IETs, a 'bike-train' ScotRail 153, The Beast at New Brighton following the January Gran Fondo just had to feature too. A scenic view in Glasgow was mandatory, as was a 769 with TfW, and the awesome Beryl Bees make an appearance. As does a selife at Heathrow Terminal 3!
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Absolutely gutted, such a welcome place has gone. That will change my next visit to Glasgow, indeed Glasgow features less on my list of priorities to go back to now!
