Juliano's World Frenzy/Tech's Trip Reports

[shredder1]

I think that's the one with a tough-to-do bay platform, at Crumpsall? I haven't been up the Bury line for years, indeed I think the line is required for M5000 action. As is Altrincham, and there are plans to change that eventually.

As for heavy rail vs Metrolink on the Oldham line, I remain unconvinced one is definitely better than the other. Both have their pros and cons, without question. If it wasn't so slow, I'd say the improved connectivity and frequency of Metrolink was better. It's way too slow a journey for me, I just can't be dealing with that again any time soon!

Attached are a couple more photos from Chester, just because I can I also attach a random photo of my favourite workplace mug from today's pre-work coffee, as well as some photos of 175009 and 175101 on the 1853 from Hereford to Manchester Piccadilly. I do have another photo, that I rather like, but the forum insists it is too big. Despite being the same size as the others!

In other news, I've got my first hotel stay in a good while coming up on Thursday There's more red pen action on the way, as well as a big life goal due to be achieved on Friday afternoon

My memories go back to the Oldham loop when it was a proper rail centre with 5 stations and a large goods yard, and a loco shed at Lees, with double headed Black 5s, Crabs and Jubs heading for the seaside, Ive watched it decline over the years, but Im an enthusiast of course, for the travelling public Metrolink is a better option I admit.

 

[Techniquest]

My memories go back to the Oldham loop when it was a proper rail centre with 5 stations and a large goods yard, and a loco shed at Lees, with double headed Black 5s, Crabs and Jubs heading for the seaside, Ive watched it decline over the years, but Im an enthusiast of course, for the travelling public Metrolink is a better option I admit.

Some different memories to me then! I did it in the mid-2000s when it was solid 142 territory out of the bays at Victoria. That was a long time ago!

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EDIT 2214, 30/08/23 (previous post at 1751, 30/08/23):

Tonight I'm on a major nostalgia trip, which started by doing something very different. Even though when I read this in years to come and wonder what else I was doing, that's not to be disclosed. Not yet anyway, but for Future Techniquest's sake this was the beginning of the New Way! On my recent Metrolink trip, I could not find any record of doing the Trafford Centre line and that was bugging me. I've now discovered why it wasn't mentioned on here when I did it, as I had no trip report up at the time. That had confused me endlessly, and while doing something else I first got to looking through some old photos. Thinking I was never going to find it, I found it in the folder marked 'First Cycling Holiday' and there it was. The photo I was looking for, which was of 3114 at into Trafford Centre. Which it's no longer called I seem to recall. I noted it was taken on 6th October 2020, and I already knew I had some 2020 moves noted on the old phone. The first file was missing 3 months of data, and I was getting really annoyed that I couldn't find out more details. I was seriously regretting not ever doing the trip report for the cycling holiday, which nearly 3 years later still hasn't been done!

This is completely relevant to this thread, as I'm about to reveal why. Looking for my 2019 notes, which I knew I had seen somewhere on the same old phone, I stumbled across an untitled Google Docs file. The nostalgia was already beginning, as I found old mileage notes for my Apollo Phaze mountain bike amongst other things. I found the missing data for 2020 as well as 2019, as well as other data like an old version of my wants lists. It's practically a treasure trove of history, a fantastic dig into my past, a fascinating insight into what I was doing at the time. Granted, there's a lot of stuff I regret not recording properly, like where I used the trains to position myself for a ride then join the train again elsewhere for example. I think that may be a job for a cold winter day, linking up all these old notes and matching them up where possible with fuller notes.

So what's the big reveal? Well, while I'm going to be rather busy this week as I'm on another Manchester trip tomorrow after work, on said trip I will finally achieve a life goal, something long overdue is coming to the thread. Those who've been paying attention both to this post and to the thread for the last few years will know what's coming. Yes, finally, about time too! Nearly 3 years late, I am finally going to get my First Cycling Holiday 2020 trip report typed and shared on here!

I can also reveal I *may* be bringing back my long-closed nostalgia thread! More importantly, the other big news that can be shared is that my 20 year railway anniversary trip is nearly organised! I considered doing it old-school, with a pen and notebook, not using RTT, not doing walks between stations and such like. However, that's just not practical and ignores all the development of oneself over the 20 years, so that's just not happening. I might actually invest in a notebook to write up my trip report and notes as I go along, which would be a nice ode to the past, but I've not made up my mind yet. The whole trip can't really be done the way I'd have loved to do it, but I'm quite happy to do it the way it's going to happen. All will be revealed in due course, it's only around a month to go and I'm already excited to write the trip report, not to mention buzzing about sharing the experience on here!

Like I say, I'm off to Manchester on the 1753 tomorrow, so I won't have time to do any of the above yet but it does mean there's going to be a current trip report coming soon too. The driver strike is going to be a frustration, but there's plenty of good stuff to be done in Manchester. As long as the weather holds out at least

 

[Blindtraveler]

If you're going to go old school I think you probably need to pay a visit to a certain cheap shop near Wigan northwestern station for a pack of very cheap nasty pens that are wrote last very long and see how many you get through in writing your old school trip report, which you will later regret as you'll then have to type it all up as well so we might wait as long for it as your cycling holiday one that is evident. I must also point out perhaps somewhat predictably that the Oldham loop would have been better being left as constant 142s, even now

 

[Techniquest]

If you're going to go old school I think you probably need to pay a visit to a certain cheap shop near Wigan northwestern station for a pack of very cheap nasty pens that are wrote last very long and see how many you get through in writing your old school trip report, which you will later regret as you'll then have to type it all up as well so we might wait as long for it as your cycling holiday one that is evident. I must also point out perhaps somewhat predictably that the Oldham loop would have been better being left as constant 142s, even now

Oh my days, I had forgot about the dodgy Papermate pens! Thank you for the reminder of that! I've now finished typing the notes from 2020 onto the MacBook, and got a fair way into the 2019 notes typing. Quite a lot of memories enjoyed as I went along which was nice, especially where I compared how I am now to how I was in 2019!

Once I get the 2020 cycling holiday trip report started, it'll only take a couple of days and I think even if I did go old-school and write a trip report up in a notebook then it would not be a long process to type it up from that. Unless the weather makes a break for it and gives us some unseasonably nice weather in the meantime!

 

[Techniquest]

31/08/2023 - Tech's Stronger Than Yesterday, Part 1

Honestly, for most of the journey to Shrewsbury, I was trying to decide upon a trip report title. Amongst other songs, Britney Spears' Stronger (don't ask about my taste in music, it's very mixed) came up on YouTube, and that was it, I chose the title after that. Given it reflected upon a lot of self-improvement works recently, it just seemed like the right choice! We'll be here a long time if I discussed what was going on and how it all went down, but let's just say that after a number of weeks of issues I was finally back on track!

Work over-ran by a handful of minutes, which wouldn't be an issue normally, but I was going for the 1753 from Hereford to Manchester Piccadilly. So I marched back to base as fast as I could to get ready for the train, during the preparations I found the train was running rather late. I could have stopped and had a good meal first, but never mind. The walk back from work had been dry, but the ride to the station was rather wet! I had considered leaving the Blue Beauty behind, but that absolutely did not feel like the right choice in this situation. I could have waited indoors a bit longer, which would have meant not getting wet but it was too late by the time I was ready to go, I was buzzing for Manchester!

So why Manchester again, less than a week after my last visit? Well it's no secret that I love Manchester, and as hinted in the previous trip report there was something I had wanted to do. More details will be revealed in Part 2, and if there wasn't a railway driver strike going on the following day I suspect the plan would have been majorly different. Anyway, I had booked the event for Friday afternoon, and I had originally expected to go up on a morning train. Well that was until I realised I could make it more of an adventure, and booked a Premier Inn in Manchester city centre for less than £54. With around 48 hours notice, I thought that was an exceptionally good price!

Amongst other things, I had unfinished business with Metrolink and I was determined that this would finally be resolved on this adventure. I'd also discovered the 1753 was normally a 67+Mark 4 set, and on this occasion it was too. The 1726 to Chester was running very late, and that was 197048. I wanted that one, but given I had the Blue Beauty with me (and I had a cycle reservation on the 1753) I wasn't going to get the red pen out for it. Eventually the Manchester service arrived, and 82200 was the DVT on the front of the ex-Grand Central set. 67012 was reportedly on the back, but I hadn't looked and would do so later in the journey.

All in, I wasn't really enjoying the slow journey and we lost more time at Leominster and Ludlow, having already been 28 minutes late out of Hereford. By the time the train was approaching Whitchurch (Shropshire), I was feeling ready for bed to be honest. This was despite having had a coffee before leaving the house! I was hoping that I'd feel a bit more alive when I got to Manchester Piccadilly, and that I'd still want to do some exploring after checking in at the Premier Inn near St Peters Square. I had 5 trams I wanted on Metrolink, plus the currently long-term out-of-use 3027, so I was hoping at least a couple of them would be available. I also wanted to get some good food inside me, the stomach was getting irritated!

After Crewe, I was fed up of the journey, we had lost so much time it was getting ridiculous. 2035, and I'd finally reached Stockport where I finally confirmed it was 67012 on the back. The rain was coming down quite a bit too, and I'd had some music on to help motivate me onwards. I'd been going to walk some more streets in Manchester, to tick them off, but if it was raining then my main concern would be keeping dry. Quite, where I was going to lock the Blue Beauty overnight was a key concern, but I was hoping inspiration would hit me upon arriving in Manchester. A nice and juicy Delay Repay claim was due to be filed, that's for sure!

Eventually, arrival was at Manchester Piccadilly's platform 3 at 2046, 31 minutes late. That will be a nice bit of money back from TfW, considering an Off Peak Return currently retails at £66.20! I was on a flexible ticket as when I first looked at fares, the difference was maybe around £5 between the Advances at the time and the flexible fare. It just made sense to give myself the option to change it up if necessary, and by the time of booking the fare the difference was less than £2. Thankfully, the rain in Stockport was not in Manchester, and the cycle parking area at Piccadilly had been improved since my last visit with a cycle. There's covered double-deck bays now, so much more protected than the old ones.

After that, a stroll into town along the tram line gave me an idea, and initially I dismissed it as crazy. The need for a filling meal was very real, and I found myself at Burger King at Piccadilly Gardens. £8.29 for a regular Vegan Royale meal, expensive but just what the doctor ordered. Only a few days prior to the trip, I'd launched fully into a mission to cease my ever-increasing lazy ways that I'd been in since changing jobs, and work properly on the food intake at the same time. I'm happy to report that while there's still a long way to go, things have reversed and I'm finding myself being active more again. I'm still not able to do the long days of cycling that I used to do, but that's been the case for a long time. The important thing is that the resolve is strong, and I've already made progress.

Following the meal, during the wait for which I saw 3131 on an Airport working, I made a beeline for the Premier Inn near St Peters Square, the one next to the tram line. Again the crazy notion came to mind, so I thought I'd go for it. I went for a run to the hotel! It was only 0.4 miles, and I was not setting any land speed records, but it was a start. I've been trying to get into running for a long time, but whenever I do I find I go too big, too soon. This time, I'm going to try and be more sensible and get better at short runs, then build up from there.

After checking in, and it was so nice to arrive in Manchester again I must add, and it was great to be at a good quality Premier Inn again, I was soon back outside. There was some more running, around 0.6 miles this time, focused around the St Peters Square area as I was hunting Metrolink trams too. Soon enough, winner 3141 produced on an East Didsbury working, which I took to Cornbrook. It felt like a long wait for the next tram, but I joined dud 3096 next. So if it was dud, why join it, I hear you ask. Well I had 3 stops left to do on Metrolink, all on the Trafford Centre line. I was taking 3096 to Parkway, and I had plenty of time before the next tram towards the city once off the tram. A look at Maps followed, and sure enough, I had to go for it!

Yes, this loony decided it was a good idea in the rain to run to Village, my penultimate Metrolink stop to visit. Something like 0.7 miles is all it was, and I was there in no time at all. I still had lots of time, but thankfully I'd taken my headphones with me which got the energy pumping! The first tap-in complained about something, but it worked the second time, which made me a bit concerned Metrolink would charge me an incomplete journey again. That happened twice on my last visit, and the response made it clear they thought I'd done it wrong. Let's not go there though, I remain less than convinced about both Manchester and London's contactless payments!

Dud 3111 turned up to take me one stop east to the final stop I wanted on Metrolink, Imperial War Museum. I would never have thought that would be the last one to do! I must add quickly that Crumpsall and Shaw & Crompton are partially wanted, now they have bay platforms, but they fall into the nice-to-have option. So that was that, I had done all the Metrolink stops, that called for a celebration and that would occur during Part 2!

With the next tram 12 minutes away, I had checked Maps and MediaCity UK was really close. I could tick off an item from my Part 2 list, which was to cover the MediaCity UK Footbridge. It took only a handful of minutes to run the 0.3 miles or so to the Metrolink terminus, and I joined double duds 3098+3093 for a journey to Cornbrook. Wow it takes a while to get through the Quays! I had bailed fully expecting to jump onto 3131, which I had estimated would be behind my pair of trams.

As it turned out, I had a small wait for a Rochdale tram which produced winner 3145. To St Peters Square I went with that! I was down to 3 active trams to score, 2 of which I still wanted for sight. With the next Victoria tram a dud one, I strolled back to the hotel and called time on the day. Somehow I'd not noticed it in the room before, but I had a bath available. Now that had to be taken advantage of, I don't have one in Hereford and while my shower's awesome, a relaxing bath had been sorely missed. That sure made me feel better!

After that, the day ended just before midnight with the update to this trip report, along with a decaf coffee. You may notice I was feeling a bit fed up on the northbound journey, but the vibe changed once in Manchester and I had a good feed. Which even I noticed as I typed this up, it almost felt like a huge bout of anxiety had gone. Almost as if there was a huge wave of motivation, inspiration and endorphins going on. I wasn't complaining, as I liked the new feeling!

 

[SuperLuke2334]

Glad you had a good first evening Tech! Let's hope you get some scores tomorrow.

 

[Kite159]

A good first day in Manchester

 

[Techniquest]

Glad you had a good first evening Tech! Let's hope you get some scores tomorrow.

A good first day in Manchester

Thanks for the responses both I'm now back from Manchester, and I'm proud to bring you all Part 2!

01/09/2023 - Tech's Stronger Than Yesterday, Part 2

I nearly re-named this trip report after finding Captain Jack on YouTube last night. No, not Captain Jack Sparrow, this is the Captain Jack anyone who grew up with Dance Dance Revolution will be very familiar with! I may keep that for another trip though!

Having finally hit the hay around 0100, I was awake at 0639 but managed to stay in bed half-awake until 0733. Upon opening the curtains, I saw that I had a beautiful day outside in Manchester, which absolutely got me inspired to hurry up and get ready to go outside! The shower in this room, number 104, was incredibly powerful and I want it in my house, that was a fantastic way to start the day! Coffee, a couple of biscuits and some music got me all fired up ahead of sourcing breakfast. Yes I could have simply done a Premier Inn breakfast, but for what I would have these days I don't see it as good value. I also preferred the idea of finding something more interesting nearby, and I could not remember if Vegan Shack did breakfast or not. Only one way to find out! Well, two and I went for the latter which was to look at their menu online. I didn't know they had an outlet in Croydon, but that is me absolutely sold on a London trip soon! Sadly I didn't see a lot on there that I really liked the sound of, 3 hash browns sounded awesome but I wanted more than that and the other stuff had fake egg in it.

In the end, breakfast wasn't had until nearly 10am, as I'd decided to camp out at St Peters Square to hunt my last 3 active trams. I'd gone for my first ever Black Sheep Coffee visit, and while it was nice I didn't think it was anything worth making an effort to choose over elsewhere. After well over an hour of hunting, I got bored and got food from Greggs. I know, I felt awful enough about it too but I was getting irritable and they were close by! Service was pretty slow, not helped by people who insisted on slowing things down by using promo codes, scanning their Greggs app etc. After a while, I gave up on the trams and headed off to Piccadilly's mainline station to pick up the Blue Beauty.

As well as new and improved cycle racks, there's also a very welcome air pump and tools available. My rear wheel was feeling like it's got a pinch puncture, as it was not as full as it should be. So the pump was very useful! The road surface in the Piccadilly area was pretty terrible, I must say, and it did get better eventually after joining the A6. Ever since the fateful trip along the A6 from Stockport some months back, I've been wanting to get Manchester to Stockport done on the A6, to clear the frustrating gap. Apart from the traffic, the ride wasn't too bad and I stopped off at Decathlon. Having found the new helmet I want, I knew I needed £69 for it and that would have to wait for another time. I eyed up the road cycles too, but sensibly left with just 3 SiS tropical gels. My absolute favourite flavour of the SiS range!

Back on the move, I first rode over to the railway station in Stockport as I needed to link up with some previous coverage. With that successfully complete, I made my way over to the A560 towards Cheadle. Keen observers will have noticed I walked that road in the opposite direction a while back, following the scoring of my last 331/0s. I kept with the A560 past Gatley railway station, once the traffic allowed it which took a long time. I was going to follow the A560 all the way to Altrincham, but when I saw an option to join the B5166 towards Styal I jumped at it. That cleared a coverage gap, and linked up with some now-long-ago coverage from Wilmslow to Styal. It's been a long time since I scored that station!

Once I was past Styal's railway station, I kept going and that road took me to a junction for Handforth. Oh good, I know where that is! I kept with that route up and along the B5358 and before too long I was back in Cheadle. A brief break was had in the village to decide upon my next options, and I saw that the 1325 and 1425 from Manchester Airport were both 197/1s that I wanted. I'd been tempted, I won't lie, but it was decided that heading back to Manchester on two wheels was my preferred plan. So I turned off for Didsbury and onwards up the B5093. That took me through places like Fallowfield and Withington, and the B5117 took me into Manchester city centre. I filled in some coverage gaps in the city, and realised I could still do Itsu for lunch.

So that is exactly what I did, and my usual veggie meatballs with Asian vegetables and teriyaki sauce rice bowl was the meal. £7.99 very well spent, and I was wanting coffee quite badly. I had plenty of close-by options, but I opted for the trek to Tim Hortons on Market Street. The logic being the stroll, by my standards that is, through the city centre would be a bonus. A large Dark Roast was sourced, and I set about doing some more tram hunting. As was expected, I was unsuccessful but it was worth a try. A walk along different routes was up next, and by the time I got to a Tesco I was overheated and needing to cool off. Insufficient time (and insufficient hydration) had been given to waiting for lunch to settle in after all, and a Calippo for £1.40 did the job really well.

It was soon time to get cycling again, and I got some more new coverage in the city before I found myself on the A665. I was going to keep going for a while, and see where I ended up, but time was now ticking by quickly and I had the day's main event ahead. That would need a lot of energy, and I was right about that! I saw a sign directing me to Sportcity, and initially I followed that but got very frustrated by traffic. Roadworks were to hold me on a significant hill, no I think not! I branched off and joined the A664 back to the city. Eventually, I arrived at Piccadilly's mainline station and secured the Blue Beauty again. I was by now feeling shattered, there had been some big drops of the hammer along the way after all.

A Sainsburys Supply Raid got me some chocolate, vegan-friendly of course, amongst other bits and it was deemed essential to get some of that in me and fast. It was nearly 4pm, and my main event began at 5pm. There was no chance of me missing that, and I bought a Zones 1 & 2 Metrolink day ticket for £3.50. I would not likely get much use out of it, but anything would do. Double duds 3064+3081 took me to Velopark, and by now it should be a bit clearer as to what I was doing.

Yes, I was finally visiting the National Cycling Centre, and my first ever velodrome! I had booked an Intro to Velo session for £14.50, and this was my main event. This is what I went to Manchester for, above all else. The clearing of Metrolink for stops was a mere bonus! The smile on my face upon walking from the tram stop to the velodrome was massive, and a big smile was a feature of the whole session. I had arrived rather early, but this was not a problem. I took advantage of the shower facilities to freshen up somewhat, and I have to say that was extremely welcome. I've never been on a track cycle before, nor have I worn proper cycling shoes with cleats on them. Cleats are the bits that clip into the pedals, and I was a bit nervous about wearing them but in the end I was fine. I might well have to go and get some for the Blue Beauty!

After a safety briefing, the session began a little later than planned with a couple of slow laps around the concrete circle of the track, so we could get used to the fixed gear cycle. These machines don't have brakes, and to slow down you change the speed of your pedalling. There's no freewheeling down hills on these! After the introduction to the rather amazing machines, it was up onto the pale blue bit slightly further in, to get more practice then after a few laps it was up to the dark blue line. It took a lot of confidence to get onto the wooden surface, partly because it's on quite an angle like all velodromes. The sound of the wheels on the boards, and the sound over the taped bits kept sounding weird but I eventually adapted. The fear of falling off or crashing was very real, but eventually I got the hang of it.

I think it was around 35 minutes of proper track action, and from what I saw I was the only one who didn't stop for a water break. No bottle cages on these cycles! I just kept going, and after around 10 minutes my confidence was pretty good. I was having a great time, I wasn't wanting to stop for a few minutes of hydration and then start again! The knees would have liked a stop after a good 20 minutes of near-enough non-stop pedalling, but I kept at it. The session came to an end at 6pm, and based on 30 minutes (I didn't keep an accurate check) around the track at an average of 28 seconds per lap (again, not too accurate as I only kept checking near the end of the session) then I didn't do too badly. Depending where you ride around the track, and a lot of the time I was on the higher parts, the distance around the track is between 250 and 280 metres I think. Based then on 250 metres per lap, I sure got a lot of distance done!

All good things must come to an end, and I absolutely loved it. I had spent quite a bit, according to my spending log, but in truth I was not caring too much at that point. I'd had an amazing time, and over 3 hours later I was still smiling. By the time I left the National Cycling Centre, it was 1821 so there was no way I'd make it to the 1830 from Piccadilly back to Hereford. At the tram stop, I bumped into two of the others from the velo session and we chatted all the way into Manchester. Double duds 3074+3082 took me to Piccadilly Gardens, where I went to Vegan Shack for some 'chicken' nuggets, a regular portion of Shack Fries and a can of Fanta Fruit Twist. £8.45, but a much needed feed. I had expected the body to be in bits after the velo session, but it coped really well!

Back to the trams I went, and I was rather lazy and joined double duds 3006+3022 to Piccadilly. I had a day ticket, and I wanted some more recovery time, so why not! I was soon by the cycle racks again, and while I finished my food I kept an eye on the next few trams that went by. Just in case I'd have been better off waiting, but that was not the case. I'm not a big fan of the 'chicken' nuggets to be honest, especially so when 6 of them costs £5. That was not good value, but it helped to fill the enormous hole in the stomach!

197047 and 197012 arrived from South Wales 6 minutes early, and I made a beeline for 197012 as the pair were to be split in Manchester. Winner 197012 would work the 1930 to Cardiff Central and 197047 was due to work the 2030 to Cardiff Central. The latter was dud, so I'm glad I didn't have that! This was my first time on a 197 beyond Slade Lane Junction to Shrewsbury, and so would clear Manchester to Cardiff on the class. 197012 would also become, by some measure, my highest mileage 197 and the first to be had for 100 miles. The map update was my priority, as was some music, followed of course by the trip report. All of that took until Ludlow!

150270 stabled at Crewe looked a bit out of place in platform 10, which has only recently come back into action. 350104 was in the Eurovision 2023 livery, which I hadn't seen before and I think that it looks really good. Arrival at Ludlow was at 2126, and I have to say I was tired. Work was less than 12 hours away, which was why I was going to do the 1830 from Manchester. However, the main thing is that I'd had a great time. No running on Part 2 of this adventure, as cycling was my main goal.

Imagine my surprise when I alighted in Hereford at 2150 to find 197047 had gone along for the ride! OK, make that two 197s cleared for 100 miles then! 18 minutes later I was back at base and the trip was complete.

So, was it all worth it? 100% yes! A fantastic experience at the velodrome, which had been on my wishlist for a long time. I cleared Metrolink for stops, something that had been on the railway to-do list for many years. 2 more M5000 trams scored, and a winning 197 on a mandatory journey. Lots of new cycling coverage too, so overall it's hard to complain really!

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Attached are photos from the National Cycle Centre, including a selfie and a photo of the track cycle I had

 

[Kite159]

Sounded like an amazing experience of track cycling

 

[Techniquest]

Sounded like an amazing experience of track cycling

Oh it was, I didn't know if I'd like it and it is hugely different to road cycling. However there's still a big smile on my face!

Some more photos, and this time they are:

1) 197047 at Manchester Piccadilly
2) 197012 at Manchester Piccadilly
3) 350104 in Eurovision livery at Crewe

 

[Bald Rick]

Good day in the velodrome. First time I did it I had the thing that apparently most beginners do and after about 15 minutes try to freewheel - and nearly had my knee ripped out of it’s socket! I also got quite dizzy after going round and round at what felt like lightspeed. Glad you enjoyed it.

 

[Techniquest]

Good day in the velodrome. First time I did it I had the thing that apparently most beginners do and after about 15 minutes try to freewheel - and nearly had my knee ripped out of it’s socket! I also got quite dizzy after going round and round at what felt like lightspeed. Glad you enjoyed it.

Oh you notice it hard when you try and stop don't you! Such a different experience to that of a road cycle!

I've seen the Geraint Thomas Velodrome is only 2.4 miles from Newport station, and yes I am absolutely all over planning a visit if I can. Quite, I'm going to have a look right now, if I'm able to book a session for Friday I think it may have to be done

 

[Iskra]

Wow, the Velodrome looks cool! Glad you had a great time

 

[Techniquest]

Wow, the Velodrome looks cool! Glad you had a great time

Oh it is, and I didn't fully appreciate how different it looks on TV to the actual place until I went there. I haven't had that feeling of awe upon arriving somewhere since St Pauls Cathedral in December 2022.

I looked up the Newport velodrome, they don't make it easy to book an intro session that's for sure! The Lea Valley Velodrome in London, that one is more expensive by a long way compared to Manchester but it would be money well spent. Something tells me I'll be booking that before too long!

 

[Techniquest]

08/09/2023 - The Portway That Wasn't

I wasn't going to do a trip report, but changed my mind on the train back to Hereford. So, the days leading into my day off during a heatwave were spent trying to decide where to go. So many ideas, so little time! All I knew was that I wanted to make the most of the weather, and I feel I did well with that. I think everyone will agree that I made some good choices!

After breakfast, following a night of sleep that wasn't the best but could have been worse, I finally made a decision. I won't list all my choices, my to-do list was massive and still is! There was a winning 197 due at 1011, and this was a little after 0800. There was no way I was willing to waste that long waiting for a 197, and I got myself moving with just enough time to join 67008 to Newport on the 0849 to Cardiff Central. I'm not an enormous fan of the ex-LNER Mark 4 sets, they're nice but I prefer the ex-GC sets. Either way, the journey to Newport went by nice and fast, and my planned short connection onto the 0942 to Portsmouth Harbour worked out nicely.

165101 was in charge of taking me to Bristol Temple Meads, and what is happening next to platform 15? There's been a lot of demolition there, and I have to confess I cannot remember what was there before. It sure opened up the views, and I made my way outside. The reason I'd chosen Bristol? Well I had recently watched Steve Marsh's excellent video on YouTube, in which he highlighted some of Brunel's achievements. The Clifton Suspension Bridge I had walked under a long time ago, with forum legend Kite159, but I'd never been over it. That was to change at long last! However, one of the other key reasons for visiting was to do the new station at Portway Park & Ride, but the next train was at that point around 25 minutes away.

So with some glorious weather, I declined a coffee stop and got moving. Bristol's not my favourite city for cycling in, I'm not going to lie, and that opinion is still the same. I just don't feel the vibe I do with cycling in Manchester, London and Glasgow. I made my way over to the suspension bridge via some of the hills of Bristol, I sure did not enjoy those but I conquered them. Around 408 feet of elevation gains in the 3.8 miles I did to my first stop!

The bridge lived up to expectations, a most enjoyable experience and the brief company of two cyclists who were off to Clevedon as part of a 50km ride was most welcome. However I made my first stop at Ashton Court, where I enjoyed a piece of carrot cake and a coffee. £6, so not cheap but it did support an independent business, a win for the local economy! It was already really warm, and I made my way to the A369. My plan was now to take it to Gordano, and link up to the shared-use path alongside the M5 and tick off Portway Park & Ride. From there, I was planning to bail at Clifton Down, walk to the suspension bridge and get my photos of it and the views.

Well, that soon changed and I chose to follow the A369 to Portishead instead. I'd wanted to visit the town for a long time, just one of those curiosities of seeing what a former railway town was like. It was an effort in places, much more so heading into Bristol so I'm glad I wasn't going that way! The town looked quite nice, and the stop next to the marina was pretty nice too. Except for nearly children screaming their heads off on the other side of the marina! Onwards and upwards, and I followed a B road to Clevedon. There was a more coastal road that I had looked at doing, but I somehow missed that. Eventually I arrived in the town and parked up at Queen's Square.

A bit of a stroll-around saw me pop into Lidl to get some water, and I also walked away with some new cycling gloves and anti-bacterial gel. As you do! It was deemed too hot for coffee, but I was still craving caffeine. Having seen a sign about Clevedon's pier, I simply had to go and have a look. It is signed as being England's only Grade 1 listed pier, which does make it rather intriguing. That would have to wait for another time, I had places to be and I wasn't feeling much like a stroll down a pier. Pedalling furiously along a B road, absolutely! Don't ask where the logic in that was, I have no idea!

Eventually I reached Yatton's railway station and I parked up with 20.8 miles on the clock since the cafe stop. The shade was absolutely beautiful, no question of that! I soon made my way over to the cafe on platform 1, and £2.80 later I had a very nice coffee in a proper mug, which I fully enjoyed on the platform bench. I had so many things I could go and do from here, and having discovered the 1500 to Cardiff Central would be due to have a Castle HST (I prefer the term GTi HST personally!) on it, well that was shaping my afternoon moves quite a bit.

With some much needed caffeine in my system, and having recovered somewhat from the heat, I eventually settled on doing some of the Strawberry Line. This shared-use path follows the old railway from Yatton towards Cheddar, and I'd been wanting to do it for ages. In glorious weather, although I wouldn't have time for all of it I could at least introduce myself to the route. Just as I started, I stopped to talk to a man from Sustrans who was out fundraising. For those unaware, Sustrans is a charity which looks after the National Cycle Network and promotes walking/cycling wherever possible.

After a good while spent chatting, and I finally got around to joining the Sustrans supporters, I got moving. Not before having seen what I recall was 68034+68018 on a northbound flask train, that was a nice sight and something I regretted not being in place for to get a photo! The surface on the Strawberry Line, also known as National Cycle Network Route 26, is firm but that fine gravel on the first bit. The surface went rougher further on, with a couple of narrow 90 degree bends, and I wasn't really enjoying that bit at all. I was considering changing plans at Congresbury, where Route 26 crosses the A370, but decided to keep going for a bit and see how it went.

Fortunately, the surface along to the outskirts of Sandford was better. Firmer, couple of rough patches on farm crossings but generally better. It would be a challenge after some rain though! The route follows the road for a short time through Sandford, which is soon to change with a brand new section around a new electricity substation. That wasn't quite ready to be opened yet though, and time was ticking by fast. I wanted to be on that HST out of Yatton, as I was wanting to go and do Portway Park & Ride and get some food. Lunch had been completely missed by now, and I was craving an Itsu meal in Bristol.

So I turned off onto Puxton Lane, which was a nicely quiet but narrow country lane on a good surface. That took me to the A370, and I pedalled along as fast as possible. That road took me back to Congresbury, and Yatton wasn't that far away by road so I went for it. Congresbury looked like a nice little village, a shame there wasn't time for a fuller explore. Fortunately the traffic kept to the A370, and I took the B3133 towards Yatton. An unexpected short but surprisingly tiring hill was done next, and I was impressed with how big Yatton is. I'd expected a small town, but it's much bigger than I thought. It absolutely needs a better explore some time, and the downhill section was appreciated!

I arrived with around 12 minutes to spare as it turned out, but that was good for some rest in the shade. I had my ticket to Bristol, and a plan in place, but I suddenly had a brainwave. With some careful planning, that one took over from doing Portway Park & Ride, and indeed Itsu. I joined 43027 and what turned out to be 43187 (I hadn't had time to check the back before departure) all the way to Cardiff Central, as this could easily be my last chance to do an HST on such a journey. The fleet is being withdrawn slowly, and services using the HSTs are getting fewer in number. That was especially due to be the case on 11th September 2023, so basically my last chance with the way the new diagrams were looking. Therefore the opportunity to do a decent journey on them was taken.

The journey to Bristol went by really fast, and due to signalling problems during the day the previous train had been cancelled. So the HST got rather busy, but perfectly manageable and near enough on time. Until we got held on the ramp out of the Severn Tunnel, which was not terribly pleasant as the air conditioning was not working terribly well. Eventually the train arrived for another wait at Severn Tunnel Junction station, but I was grateful not to be on the pair of 158s that were running over 2 hours late! Fortunately we were on the Down Main to Cardiff, so we recovered some time. The IET on a Carmarthen service ahead of us had lost 25 minutes after Severn Tunnel Junction, thankfully that didn't happen to me and I arrived with a good bit of time to go and get food. It was gone 1630 by the time I did that, so the hunger was real!

Some wedges and two doughnuts from Greggs would do in a hurry, better food would follow later I told myself. The 1701 to Rhymney was in the hands of 231001, and the air conditioning on board was amazing. I'd loved the good weather and did what I could to enjoy it while it lasted, but the opportunity to cool off after around 90 minutes on a rather warm HST was just amazing. Stepping off the 231 at Heath High Level, back into the heat, was like stepping off an aircraft into the heat of somewhere like Spain, it hit hard!

8 minutes later, my penultimate 231 arrived, and I took winner 231010 to Cardiff Queen Street. The amount of drunk people both on that train and at Cardiff Queen Street was an eye opener! Granted, I'd forgot it was a Friday evening, but even so that was just unbelievable. I won't even discuss the nightmare fuel some of the people looked like, this was the sort of image that once seen, it cannot be unseen! Trust me, my stomach stopped moaning about being fed! A mental note was made to avoid Cardiff at the weekend from now on!

Thankfully my final 231, winner 231009, was on the next Penarth train to rescue me from the 15 minutes of watching the descent of humanity. These 231s were not on my list to do originally, but the option came to mind and I absolutely had to go for it. I would save money on a future trip, and I'd not need to return to Cardiff any time soon, so it made sense. Bristol's exploring would have to wait until a time I could combine it with other stuff! After the leap down the ramp from Cardiff Queen Street to Cardiff Central, the class was cleared and I was very pleased about that. A very big item on the list of railway things-to-do that was, and attention can now be paid to other places and other things!

I knew that later on I'd get a craving for food, and I had some time to spare, so I went on a bit of a walkabout in Cardiff's city centre. I won't be doing that again any time soon, given half of the world had descended onto Cardiff to fill every pub they could get their hands on. The city centre in general just had a completely different vibe to my last visit, and I ended up in Sainsburys near Cardiff Queen Street. Coming out of there with not much that I really fancied, I made my way back to Central and turned a corner to find a man and woman finishing their re-dressing after a certain act. All I can say is that I'm glad I've seen Cardiff previously in a more respectful light, as if this was my first visit I'd never return!

Back at the sanity of Cardiff Central, and reunited with the Blue Beauty, I made my way upstairs and took a photo of 67015. With the sun setting, I think the photo came out well, and I saw the 1825 to Chester via Crewe was indeed going to be a 197 as it often is. Usually, it's been a 197 I've wanted but not this time, it was dud 197044, so I left it in the hope 67015 would actually turn up on the 1855 to Manchester Piccadilly. Thankfully it did, and with the Blue Beauty secured I found a seat near the front for some 67 noise. With an even better seat after Cwmbran, I finally chilled out and started typing the trip report a while later. Nearly a day and a half later, it was finally finished, although to be fair I was too tired to even do my map update when I got in. I'd been looking forward to that too! Oh and I got some good food when I got in, and that sure felt better!

So overall, despite not doing the new station, I'd say it was a very succesful trip. The exploring of Bristol will be kicked up a gear on a future visit, and the 231s being cleared at long last was an enormous tick. No more trips to Cardiff any time soon, I'm very happy with that! All that exploring in Somerset was really good to do as well, I'd like to explore more of those coastal towns one day but I've finally seen them at least. Finally doing the Clifton Suspension Bridge on a cycle was excellent, I will do it on foot next time and get photos! It was definitely an enjoyable day, one that didn't go to plan but in a mighty good way!

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Photos attached are:

1) Portishead Boat Lift with sneaky bike-selfie
2) Clevedon Clock Tower
3) Beach at Clevedon, a bit too stoney for my liking!
4) Artwork on the cycle hire container at Yatton
5) Clevedon Pier and another sneaky bike-selfie
6) Yatton running-in board and general scenery at the north end of the Down platform
7) 67015 at Cardiff Central as the sun started to set
8) 150250 heads north while 231009 arrives at Cardiff Queen Street

 

[SuperLuke2334]

Sounds like a good day Tech! Sure you'll get round to Portway at some point....

 

[Kite159]

Sounds like a nice trip congrats on clearing the 231s as well

 

[Techniquest]

Sounds like a good day Tech! Sure you'll get round to Portway at some point....

It was indeed, and I nearly went down there today but I've got other plans!

Sounds like a nice trip congrats on clearing the 231s as well

Thanks, a long time coming but they're finally out of the way. I was going to do something non-TfW today, but that sure changed!

 

[Purple Train]

Sounds like you had a productive day all round! I don't know the south end of Bristol all that well, but it seems like that may have to change soon. Have you cycled the Bristol-Bath railway path before?

 

[Techniquest]

Sounds like you had a productive day all round! I don't know the south end of Bristol all that well, but it seems like that may have to change soon. Have you cycled the Bristol-Bath railway path before?

The majority of it, yes. There's some of it at the Bristol end that I haven't due to getting lost on the way over from Newport last year, and partly because of some works on it at the time.

Attached are a number of photos from yesterday's trip, the report for which I'll finish proof-reading in a bit. Due to the sheer amount of photos I want to share, this is just some of them and more will come later

In order:

1) Mileage sign on Route 49
2) Locks on an un-navigable part of the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal near Malpas, Newport
3) New pedestrian overbridge over Newport railway station
4) 47746+47802 approach Newport on an ECS working
5) The same 47s at Newport
6) 43154 at Newport heading to Cardiff Central
7) Metrobus' 39341 at Bristol Parkway on route m4
8) Buses at Cribbs Causeway Bus Station
9) Another view of buses at Cribbs Causeway

 

[Kite159]

Those Metrobus routes are something on my list of things to do within Bristol. Is the footbridge over Newport platforms open?

 

[Techniquest]

10/09/2023 - The Portway That *Nearly* Was!

Well this trip turned into something much bigger than planned, but it would tick off so many things it would be money very well spent! The original plan, which will get detailed below, has been on the to-do list for a long time, and the weather forecast suggested it could be the day to do it. Sadly, not yet, but I'm happy with what came out of the day, as I'm sure everyone will agree by the end of this trip report!

With much sweating, due to leaving the house with just 15 minutes before the train was due to leave, leading to having to switch from a power walk to a run on the positioning move, I was on 150245 on the 1006 to Fishguard Harbour. No, not even I'm crazy enough to do that all the way, not a chance. I was melting on the roasting hot train, which finally cooled down a bit after Abergaveny, and the forecast said light rain, 30% chance, in Blaenavon at 11am. No problem I figured, it'll be fine. Well the light rain started as soon as I alighted, but by the time I reached Pontymoile Basin on the canal, about 0.7 miles later, it was not too bad.

£2.50 for a surprisingly good sugary coffee and bottle of water, then the rain really came down. I had a bad feeling that I'd be stranded, soaking wet in Blaenavon with no buses back to Pontypool, so I bailed out of that and decided I'd be better off filling a coverage gap on my map between Cwmbran and Newport. As you do! So I set off alongside the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal, which is also part of National Cycle Network's Route 49. I'd done the riding up that route a long time ago, and cleared the canal bit for walking between Pontypool and Cwmbran earlier this year. The route to Blaenavon and between Cwmbran and Newport were both still required, and the former had been meant to be done on this trip. Oh well, it'll happen eventually I'm sure!

By the time I got to Cwmbran, the rain had stopped and I was by now regretting my choice to abandon Blaenavon. I had a much more exciting plan in place now though, and it was a mighty long walk to Newport. It felt like it would never end, but eventually I walked under the M4 in the Malpas area and joined up with National Cycle Network Route 47, also alongside a canal. A bit further on, I took advantage of an opportunity to leave the canal in the Queens Hill area for some all-time new coverage. The rest of Route 47, I had a plan to do that on a future walking adventure, by this point I was around 8 miles in and really craving a good bit of coffee!

I saw that the new pedestrian overbridge above the east end of Newport's railway station was now available to do, so I took full advantage of that! I stopped at Triple Two Coffee in the end, and the chocolate brownie looked amazing. The coffee was actually pretty good, £5.40 all in but while I'd not go for the brownie again I'd make a stop for coffee. At the station, 9.7 miles had been done and my feet had had enough for the time being.

After collecting my tickets, because somehow I'd gone for the collect at station option vice e-ticket, which I don't normally do, I got to the platforms just in time to see a double-headed West Coast Railways Company ECS working, with 47746 and 47802. That was an unexpected sight! I made my way over to join 802003+802005 for a leap to Bristol Parkway, this was the first part of the new plan, and I found out the on-board trolley was selling vegan KitKats. £2 a go, but I was absolutely getting one of those for later! In no time at all, I was at Bristol Parkway and the memories of many hours spent doing leaps between Newport and Bristol Parkway led me to a nice bit of nostalgia. A very different era, it must be said, but some good times and the new era's proving to be even more exciting!

My next mission was to get a bus to Cribbs Causeway, and to get me there was 39341 with Metrobus/First on route m4. Due to very light traffic, the journey was complete in 12 minutes, and to join the buses on this route you tap on at the front and tap off at the back door. Which is great, but how does one know the fare? That was rather annoying me! They're nice buses, I must add, but at the front seat on the upper deck it was rather toasty!

So, why Cribbs Causeway? Well, I'd been going to visit there for many years, and even back in my bus spotting days I never got it done. This was to finally change, I was curious as to what was there, and I knew that there was an Itsu there according to their app. That was where my rather late lunch was to be had, and my usual order was devoured in no time. I even started my Christmas shopping, as I'd seen something my brother would like and while expensive at £30 it just had to be bought. A bit more exploring of the shopping centre, and I had to stop myself buying more stuff in a few shops, I was back out by the buses. A few routes caught my eye, but the good weather was absolutely not getting wasted any further, so having scoped out the route from the bus, I knew the walk to Bristol Parkway would be a good one to get done.

With a stop at Tesco Express near Bristol Parkway's station, for some much needed cold drinks, I had completed the walk in just over 45 minutes and that wasn't going as quite as direct as I could have done. I was very pleased with the new coverage, plenty more to do one day and I had now scoped out some future cycling too. More adventures to come, just a case of when I'd get them done! CrossCountry were running rather late, so with a big crowd I joined 165132 for the journey into Bristol instead. The air conditioning was absolutely on-point, I was loving it! What I wasn't loving was my foolishness with not bringing a charger with me. That was just not clever whatsoever! Low power mode enabled, and the journey to Bristol Temple Meads was complete in no time.

The extended wait for what turned out to be 166205 on the 1646 to Severn Beach was getting annoying, granted the delay was only 5 minutes but I had places to be and I was getting most impatient. Perhaps I should have done that part before Cribbs Causeway, but I was still satisfied I'd chosen well. I had never done 166205 with its fake leather seats, yes really! It's had them for years, I hear you saying, yes indeed but it's just always avoided me! I had some chavvy women with me in the seats next to the cab, and my patience was gone before Clifton Down. I now had a choice, go to Portway Park & Ride and tick off the new station, or bail at Clifton Down and do the walk over the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

The weather was still on-point, rather warm and humid, but it was a no brainer to choose the walk over the new station. Twice in a week I'd nearly done it, but twice I'd prioritised other stuff. To be fair, I was over the moon with the choice once I got there, the views were amazing and I took so many photos, I was really enjoying it and if time had been on my side I'd have done other things in Bristol like the Cabot Tower, and the view of the bridge from a little further up the road. I realised I could ignore the walk back to Clifton Down, and walk through Bristol for some more new coverage and make it onto the 1818 to Cardiff Central. That would get me to Newport with just enough time to make the 1855 to Manchester Piccadilly, so I just had to go for it!

The heat and the sunshine was just amazing on the power walk, and while I got to Bristol Temple Meads with around 10 minutes to spare, I found that the 1818 to Cardiff Central had been cancelled! It had been showing on Real Time Trains as being on time, if I'd known I would have done other things in Bristol! Ooh the railway has an annoying tendancy to frustrate me so often in 2023! With a cold drink sourced in the WHSmith, which I see now has a decent size Costa outlet inside and sells a surprisingly big range of M&S products, I was down to around 17% charge after the epic walk. With no other option, I put the phone onto flight mode for around 75 minutes and eventually I was on refurbished 166215 on the 1844 to Cardiff Central. It left 10 minutes late for reasons unknown, thankfully this was not a big concern as I had amazing air conditioning and a decent connection time in Newport.

The journey was over surprisingly quickly, and I had just under 27 minutes to wait in Newport. My feet were hurting, and I didn't have enough charge to put Strava on, so I did a slow paced stroll and finished off that new bridge by doing the stairs on both sides. As you do! A visit to Tesco Express got me two bananas for the journey to Hereford, and before too long 150231 arrived to take me to Hereford.

Overall then, a pretty successful day after it had looked like a complete loss of a day to begin with! The walk to Blaenavon still eludes me, but I'd now done a few things on my to-do list and filled in some coverage gaps. I've also created plenty more gaps, but I'd scoped out some future cycling as well, and the highlight has to be the Clifton Suspension Bridge. That was an excellent choice, the alternative having been to hang around Portway for around 40 minutes for the 166 back. My feet would be feeling better the day after for having done that, but my sense of adventure really feels good for doing the bridge, so a case of 'short term pain, long term gain'!

I still have plenty of walking and cycling options in Bristol some day, as well as Portway Park & Ride, but for the time being I'm happy to leave Bristol alone for a good long while again. Where's next? Well to be honest, I've no idea. It appeared that the heatwave is ending as I finish typing this the morning after, so it was very much up to the weather on my next day off! Oh, and with some rounding down I came to a total of 20.5 miles of walking logged on Strava! That doesn't include things like the stroll in Newport on the way back or around Cribbs Causeway, so it was definitely a high mileage walking day!
-------
Attached photos are:
1) Interior of 166205
2) Eastern end approach of Clifton Suspension Bridge
3) From the western end, a view of an icon of Bristol
4) Selfie next to the suspension bridge, it just had to be done
5) A view of the tower at the western end of the bridge
6) A view of the side of Clifton Suspension Bridge
7) An east-facing view from one of the walkways
8) A scenic view of the cliffs from the bridge
9) Bristol Temple Meads viewed from the end of the road

Those Metrobus routes are something on my list of things to do within Bristol. Is the footbridge over Newport platforms open?

It is indeed, I did it yesterday. I've had to be fairly selective over my photos, I took a lot yesterday hence splitting it into two sets. It spoilt the reveal in the trip report, but I hope it is still a good read

 

[Techniquest]

15/09/2023 - Tech's Thames Valley Training

For 3 solid days, I chopped and changed my mind on what to do with my day off. I had the following as an example of options to choose from:

Chiltern station scoring (but would have to leave 1 of them for another time, due to a blockade);
Luton Airport DART coverage;
Travelling on a couple of bus routes of interest out of Oxford (X5 and 280);
Nottingham walking expedition;
Swansea walking expedition;
Tawe Valley cycling along Route 43;
Sightseeing and walking expeditions in Derbyshire, including things like the Heights of Abraham;
London red pen fest;
Thames Valley cycling and trains.

As you can see, a number of options there, and that's just some of them! My exploring and my railway to-do lists are both very long, and to explain my logic on my selection would take a trip report-length story on its own. So to cut an incredibly long story short, I had consulted my wants list and knew how much the fares would be on some of my options. The weather forecast, in the Met Office app at least, was promising much better weather in the south. Gales and a big band of rain in the north and central England were promised, that knocked out a couple of options. Making the most of the promised good weather was essential, considering it's mid-September and opportunities to go cycling or power-walking would soon be minimal.

The Thames Valley trip was a recent addition to my list, having been inspired by a forum member's discussion on trains between Marlow and Maidenhead. It had inspired me to get the relevant Sustrans map out, and from there I was hooked on the idea of some cycling and trains in the Thames Valley. So, late in the evening leading into the trip itself, I'd decided to look and see if I could get a cycle reservation on my trains of choice to/from Reading. I could, and there was no going back now, I was sold on the idea and nothing else would do! It would mean an 0400 alarm, but it would be worth it. £52.70 later, I had my Anytime Day Return booked and I just had the small matter of trying to get adequate rest before the trip.

That was no easy thing to do, given how excited I was, but I got around 5 hours of good sleep before waking at 0330. Somehow, it was still almost 0500 before I left the house and I had to dash back as it was. I'd left my bib shorts in the room, as I'd been convinced I'd freeze otherwise on the journey so went out in full-leg gear. That was a mistake, and I set off again at 0504. 19 minutes to get to the station, pick up tickets, load the Blue Beauty and get settled in on the 0523. Anxiety ruled supreme as I pushed the body and mind hard to make the walk as quick as possible. With no lights, and a fear of night cycling anyway, there was no other way of doing it. To my amazement, I made it at 0518 and finally settled into a table seat at 0522. 800310 was in charge of taking me to Reading, and it was time to chill out for a couple of hours!

Much studying of the map and pumping tunes took place until just before Oxford, where it was time to change into the dhb bib shorts. The fog was mighty unexpected, so I put my plan to go pedalling straight away on hold. I'd put sun cream on too, as the forecast had called for sunshine in the afternoon and rather warm temperatures. The coffee on the IET was most welcome, as was the vegan KitKat, which was an expensive treat at £4 all in, but absolutely essential for the busy day ahead!

An on-time arrival in Reading had been welcome, as was the sight of former London North Western Railway Class 230s on Reading depot. I never did get to have a 230 on the Marston Vale line, but it is what it is. 230003, 230004 and 230005 were all welcome ticks in my book. I popped into Pret and got a sugary filter coffee for £1.80, then I got my Anytime Day Return to Reading Green Park for £4 at the ticket office. I had plenty of time to queue up and get it, so I figured I might as well, the ticket office may not be there next time I'm in Reading!

165117 was in platform 2 and nicely warm on the 0823 to Basingstoke, so I jumped on to warm up a bit and enjoy my coffee. Reading Green Park is a relatively new station, opening at long last earlier in 2023, and the opportunity to fill some time and tick it off was taken happily. It was still foggy at Reading Green Park, and I was by now getting a bit frustrated by that as I had plenty of cycling to get on with. I still had a couple of things I could do in Reading itself on foot, so I decided that would be the best option. Plans could be made again after that!

The weather was clearing in Reading town centre, so I went for a walk to Decathlon. I had to wait several minutes for it to open at 9am, but got some much needed supplies and tried on the jersey I wanted. It didn't look as good as hoped so I left that behind, and afterwards it was into the town centre for some more walking coverage and more food. I got some OK food from Wenzel's Bakery, but I didn't enjoy it as much as hoped. After getting lost somehow, and no I don't know how either, the weather had now finally cleared completely, so it was back to the Blue Beauty for some cycling! The plan was to cycle to Windsor for some exploring and then some SWR trains.

It started well, I was following the A329 out of Reading, then I ended up turning off for Shinfield. I'd seen it on the map during the map study session, and I was convinced that was the way to go. I got somewhere near there, then ended up on the A327 in an easterly-ish fashion and found myself eventually on a shared-use path alongside said road. Which was great, until the uphill bit which became a bridleway and had a rough surface! Somehow I got up that, and the ride down the hill was great until I had to try and dodge a whole load of broken glass. I'm not convinced I managed that, but I briefly considered following the blue sign that read 'Aldershot 14'.

I had railway stuff of interest to do in that area, so nearly did it until I saw the rough surface. No thank you! I followed a B road to Wokingham instead, and that took me up and down some signficant hills in places. The wait at the level crossing was far longer than it really should be, but eventually I got to navigate my way around the twisting route that the A329 towards Bracknell follows around Wokingham. Soon enough, it appeared that road was going to become quite a nasty one, so I changed route and followed a B road towards Binfield. That got me to Bracknell's outskirts, and I couldn't resist a photo of the sign marking 'Met Office Roundabout'! By some measure, their app is one of my most heavily used ever!

I was followed signs for Windsor again after a stop, then I saw a B road for Martins Heron. That name sounded familiar, and it was a nice ride until just after crossing what appeared to be a very big road. It was scenic, don't get me wrong, but those gradients drove me nuts with tired legs! Imagine my dismay when I found I'd effectively turned around on myself when I reached the A3095! A blue sign pointed me along a shared-use path towards Crowthorne, and upon arriving there I found a cycle shop, Berkshire Cycle Co. My rear tyre was losing air and I felt it only wise to get it looked at while the opportunity was there.

That was also a good opportunity to coffee up, and I visited Two Sisters. A large black coffee and a piece of tasty flapjack, which I have to be honest I forgot what was in it, came to a massive £7.40 so it wasn't cheap but it did support a local independent business. That's a win as far as I'm concerned! After 30 minutes, the Blue Beauty was ready so I collected it, £12 for a new tube and fitting etc, it could be worse!

Onwards and upwards, past Sandhurst and when I saw the station there on an elevated embankment I remembered doing that one on a ranger ticket many years ago. Meanwhile, avoiding a nostalgia trip for now, I was on the A321 towards Camberley. The weather was not quite as sunny as it had been, but it was still nice. Soon enough, I was pedalling up the A30 and that rising gradient wasn't much but it was enough to notice! Eventually I reached Camberley railway station, where this bit of the adventure was ending. A winner station, and I had plenty of time to work out my next move. Windsor still featured on my list to do, as did the 3 stations between Staines and Windsor.

Which is what I went with, a Camberley to Datchet Anytime Day Single at £12.40. First up was winner 450003 to Ascot, and I'm not going to lie that was a dull and boring journey. The wait was not massive for double duds 450078+450097 to Staines, and I used the time on that journey to consult my Sustrans map. The update of which was already highly anticipated! The air conditioning was also really appreciated, and I had 15 minutes to connect onto a train to Windsor. I regretted not checking the 458s waiting to journey behind the 450s, as I wanted both 458512 and 458518. D'oh!

Winner 450072 and dud 450018 took me one stop to winner station Wrayburys, and it turned out to be a nice little village. Crazy traffic though, schools kickout had begun! I was cycling up to winner station Sunnymeads, which was not signposted on the road and by Liquid Leisure I had to stop and see where I was! Which turned out to be a good move, as I got to watch an Emirates A380 on approach to the mighty Heathrow Airport. The sound was awesome, and I eventually found the unmarked stairs to the track. A road of some description past some housing was then seen, where that goes I have no idea. There was a lot of aircraft on approach over Sunnymeads, so my wait there was really enjoyable!

Double duds 458522+458526 took me the small distance to winner station Datchet, and I believe only Ashford (Surrey) remains to clear the route from Reading and Windsor to London Waterloo for stations visited. I would need to check, but I think I'm right with that. It is on the list of things to sort out! I was eventually on the way to Windsor, traffic was awful, and by the time I got there I was seriously decaffeinated and getting fed up. If there's one thing anyone should know about me, it's that I turn into a pretty unproductive, miserable person when seriously in need of coffee!

So I opted to do Windsor on a separate adventure one day, it would be much more suited to a walking expedition anyway, and made my way along the A322 I believe to Slough. That took on a rather fast elevated road, not what I was after so I was glad to get off that. Let's not count how many close-passes I had in various places today, it was too many!

Eventually, I found where I was in Slough and to be brutally honest, I didn't see much of it. I wasn't terribly impressed with the place, but I was feeling the need for coffee and fast. When I eventually found my way to the railway station, I was over the moon with that. No more cycling for a while, no more exploring, the coffee mattered too much. So much so that I ended up spending £3.73 in Starbucks opposite the station. That's just a medium black americano, nothing fancy! However, it was worth every penny to get myself back to being myself again. I had just under 15 minutes for the next Elizabeth line service to Reading, and that turned out to be winner 345033. I was very pleased with that, my first 345 beyond West Drayton and no, don't ask me how annoying that coverage gap is, a winner was certainly appreciated!

Given I'd not really done much for lunch, food was a high priority in Reading. I had, however, got a second wind thanks to the coffee and so did a bit more coverage around Reading first. That got me a bit more accquainted with Reading, a town I'd barely explored before, and I passed a few restaurants of interest but I preferred the idea of sitting in the fresh air with an Itsu meal. After locking up, that's exactly what I did, and I'd been to Itsu enough times to fill the loyalty app for a freebie. I wasn't complaining about that, £7.99 saved is a good deal! I also got a twin pack of Greggs glazed ring doughnuts, I needed sweet food too and it's fair to say the meal did not take long to devour!

With a banana and some crisps for the journey also sourced in Tesco Express, I got a few little bits of coverage done to fill some gaps, then at 1731 I called time on the activity. It was time to chill and begin the epic trip report catch-up, when I'd last touched it I'd been on the way back from Reading Green Park. Lots had happened since then! Eventually the train rolled in, and I'd been reserved in coach H. Imagine my disappointment then when I found I had 802019 on the 1800 to Hereford. A 5-car IET vice 9-car IET, coupled with the 1744 to Newcastle having been cancelled, meant it was a challenge to get on and of course no reservations were loaded.

After Oxford, Hanborough and Charlbury the train did empty out a fair bit, especially after Oxford, so I went and got a seat. I'd hoped for an empty table to do my map update, but it could wait! With the trip report update all done by Kingham, it was time to get the headphones out! Later on, the map update got done and, as is usually the case, I studied the map for future ideas too. The whole journey back to Hereford, to be honest, passed by really quickly and it was into Hereford just a couple of minutes late. A march back to base camp followed, and some more food was devoured. The crisps didn't get touched on the train, but they were soon gone after I got back, along with some other unhealthy food!

As I finish typing this up around 24 hours later, the weather forecast was looking pretty rubbish for the following few days. So I was mighty glad to have had an expensive day out, 100% worth it to see out the summer! The bad weather was already putting plans on hold for my next day off, and with very little time left to enjoy the remaining part of the year I was already dreading how I was going to get through the winter!

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Not many photos this time!

1) Met Office Roundabout sign in Bracknell, just had to be done
2) Emirates A380 flying over Liquid Leisure, near Sunnymeads
3) The Three Guineas pub building at Reading station.

 

[Kite159]

A busy day in Surrey+ Berkshire

 

[Techniquest]

A busy day in Surrey+ Berkshire

Oh yes! A very productive one, hopefully I'll go back soon enough to clear out some more 345s and get some of those coverage gaps cleared!

17/09/2023 - Tech Owns The Run

The trip report title certainly gives away plenty about the cardio parts of this day out!

The weather forecast was not on my side on this day off, and I spent a lot of time making a decision. South Wales was out, given the yellow weather warning, and most other places were out due to engineering works. Other stuff was out due to unfortunate timings of trains and buses, and I settled with sticking with the original plan. I'd received word a few days prior, thanks to forum legend Kite159, that the Midland Metro extension in Wolverhampton city centre was finally opening on this day. It had been long awaited, and I'd already basically walked the route it takes through Wolverhampton on my previous visit to the Midlands, but it still required covering on a tram!

So I made my way to the station and joined 172340 on the 1005 to Birmingham New Street, with a plan in place. I was going to bail at Bromsgrove and use my +26 onto a pair of 323s to go and get lunch, as well as some novice level running. This notion will be more fully explained later into the trip report. I was then going to bail off the 323s at Kings Norton to do the canal walk up to University, and link up with some previous coverage there. The trams would then be done following a coffee break.

Or so it was, until I investigated what was happening with Chiltern out of Birmingham Moor Street. A lot of 6, 7 and 8-car formations on their trains to London, which could only mean one thing, a big event in Wembley. I was suddenly rather glad I wasn't doing a day out in London, as I had nearly booked coach tickets the night before! However, of specific interest was 165011 on the 1212 Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone, which was one of my last 6 165s to get for haulage. That was that then, I already had a ticket to Solihull so I chucked out the previous plan.

172340 got rather busy after Worcester, not helped by two trains towards Birmingham after this one being cancelled. The journey was mighty dull to be honest, so I was glad to have had plenty of mobile data and my headphones! Arrival was on time, and I first made my way to Boots to pick up a meal deal. A Dark Roast, with sugar on this occasion, from Tim Hortons was also essential, and I had a slow stroll to Birmingham Moor Street station. My old nemesis 168, the last of the class I wanted for haulage, 168325 was at the front of the 1212 to London Marylebone, with winner 165011 and dud 165014 on the back. Unsurprisingly, I took a seat in 165011 and finished my coffee.

I had 36 minutes in Solihull before a 68 was due, and I had a plan in place to hopefully fill the time well. I had also scored 196114 on Tyseley depot for sight, leaving one more 196/1 to see to clear the class for sight. It seemed to be taking way too long to get the 196/1s out on Hereford services, which is annoying me and my red pen! Straight out at Solihull station, no hanging around apart from a 'I must be crazy, am I really doing this' moment. What was I up to?

Well on the way into Solihull, I'd loaded Strava up and added the September 2023 5k running challenge to my list. Initially, I was just going to do some smaller runs, to build up the cardio-vascular strength and stamina. I'm not well trained in running after all, power walking yes but not running! I went for gold though, and with more stops than I'd like, especially near the end where the breathing got difficult and the sweat was very real. I was in my Adidas Own The Run tights today, and my Mr Incredible t-shirt, those who follow me on Strava will already know my running is normally done in said t-shirt. Hence the Mr Incredible On Tour hashtag on Strava!

Anyway, without going on too much about it for now, I had a few minutes to spare and I'd got 3.5 miles under my metaphorical belt, clearing the 5k by a decent amount. I thought I'd been sweating buckets on the run, but when I sat down on the Chiltern Mark 3 set into Birmingham, I really got the sweat on. Why? The heating was set to some ridiculous level, absolutely no need for such nonsense at this time of year. In the middle of December, fair enough, but that was not the case and I was glad to get off at Birmingham Moor Street! The racket off 68008 was pretty epic though, I rather enjoyed that!

The main event of the day, in terms of trains anyway, was coming up but I couldn't be bothered walking into the city centre. So I opted to wait the best part of 10 minutes for 172222+172343 to The Hawthorns. Nice and easy interchange with the Midland Metro was required, and I'd rather enjoyed a protein shake while waiting for the 172s. Well, apart from the after-taste but I'd be here all day going on about that!

The next tram was dud 41, and there were some huge gaps in service. I decided to vote with my feet, and took to another run! Initially that was just to Kenrick Park, and I won't lie it was a struggle as I'd not refuelled adequately. With more dud trams and big gaps in service, I kept going to Trinity Way and after seeing I still had time to fill, I finally gave up at West Bromwich Central. That last 660 metres felt like a long way! Still, I was pleased I did it as I need to get better at the art of running.

Dud tram 51 took me on a mileage move, but not the longest I'd do on this trip. £5 later, I had a Zones 1-4 day ticket, and while strictly speaking I only needed Zones 2-4 I could easily make use of the all zones pass. So why was I on Midland Metro? This was the first day of passenger service on the Wolverhampton city centre extension, branching off just before Wolverhampton St George's and serving Piper's Row (next to Wolverhampton Bus Station) and Wolverhampton Station. It only felt right, on a day with less than great weather in most places, to get the extension done. I'd walked alongside the route on my previous visit to the Midlands, so I knew it wasn't going to be exciting, but it still needed to be done!

I alighted at Piper's Row, and eventually the next tram, number 30, arrived to take me to the final stop at Wolverhampton Station. The new track all done, the final part of the line being on battery power, I visited the Co-Op next to the station for an Insomnia coffee. The machine was playing up something fierce, so it took several minutes to get it done. Quite, it took two attempts to fill the large cup, I have a feeling that the machines will get replaced before long! £3.10 later, I was back outside just in time to take photos of number 45 arriving at the terminus. There have been, in the past at least, plans to continue the line onwards to make a loop back around to The Royal via a different route, that plan is potentially binned but who knows what will happen?

On my railway to-do list, for longer than I care to recall, has been riding the Midland Metro from one end to the other in one go. Today, that was being done at long last, and number 45 would be my chariot for my longest ever single journey on a Midland Metro tram. I got really bored, I'm not going to lie, and after a while I got the trip report updated. By the time I arrived in the city centre, there was some light rain falling which wasn't welcome! All available track was now done, both platforms in and out, at Edgbaston Village, and I took 45 back to Five Ways' tram stop.

I had an item on my exploring to-do list to tackle next, and that was making progress with walking coverage along the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. The rain started up at University, which was the marker for new terrain as I'd done University to Birmingham on my previous visit to the area. The rain was on and off for a while, and I took the canal as far as Kings Norton Junction. The goal on that one is to finish the walking coverage along the entire canal one day, there's a long way to go yet but it will get done eventually. I'd made good progress on this mission, and including the walk up to Kings Norton station I got through just shy of 6 miles. I'm not ready to try and run that much yet, but who knows when that might change?

I arrived with 12 minutes to spare for the 1719 from Kings Norton to Bromsgrove, and 323243+323215 were making a nice bit of noise. The rain was coming down quite a bit by now, so I was glad to have arrived when I did! The journey to Bromsgrove was over sooner than expected, a shame when the 323s were nicely vocal, but I had a mission to achieve and that was a run to Co-Op. It's just under 0.25 miles away, so it was hardly a long one, but I was exhausted and I got some New York Bagek Co bagels and some decadent vegan-friendly chocolate. 3 of the bagels got devoured in what felt like no time, I was famished. The late lunch had been almost 4 hours ago at that point, and there had been a fair bit of power walking since then.

Amazingly, I didn't devour the chocolate as well, but that would change the minute I got in, or at least that was the expectation. An effort is being made to try and improve the diet, which is going both badly and great in equal measures! It occured to me during the wait in Bromsgrove that it was very close to the 20 year anniversary of getting into the railway, and I had not exactly organised my celebration of this! With the recent news of more strikes and overtime bans coming up, I was going to need to rework my plan. I had options, and I wanted to celebrate this in style. A decision would need to be made in the next couple of days, and I had an idea going on but the blockade between Hereford and Shrewsbury was putting me off. 2 hours on a rail replacement coach from Hereford to Shrewsbury didn't sound like fun!

So, anyway, what was all this running about? Well as always, there's a long story behind it but this has been building up for a while. The most important part of this story here is that I was recently in Swansea on a family day out, and I saw that on 17th September 2023 was the annual Swansea Bay 10K event. Now I wasn't aware of that before, but it triggered an idea. Without getting into the technical details, I was determined to enter it! I missed out on the 2023 event, but I became determined to do it in 2024. So I basically had a year to get myself sorted for it, and this trip ended up being a proper launchpad for it! How it will go in the next year remains to be seen, but based solely on this trip there's a lot of progress to be made!

After arriving 2 minutes early at 1930, I was first off the train and first out of the station. I had considered running back to base, but the legs weren't feeling like it, so a power walk would do. All week I had been craving a visit to the chippy, so I did that and satisfied the stomach enormously with 10 onion rings and chips! Oh yes that felt better, and yes most of the 100 grams of chocolate was also enjoyed. As I say, I'm equally failing miserably at a better diet but also succeeding hugely, I've had trips where I have eaten much more than I did on this one, and with much less activity on those trips. So overall it's all progress!

Where am I considering going for this 20 year anniversary trip? Well, I have my heart set on some red penning but there's no way I can do a whole day of that and not have any cardio sessions along the way. London's tempting, as is Manchester. Birmingham's not being considered for this, nor are Bristol or Cardiff. Swansea has a possibility of featuring as that's where it all started, but I'm not too sure on that. I've even considered North Wales, what with the numerous 197s, and MerseyRail's 777s are just too unreliable to plan anything around them. I also hear the 319s are being retired from Northern very soon, so having a farewell spin on those was being considered. West Yorkshire would give me plenty of red penning opportunities, but the cardio sessions I wasn't immediately seeing options I liked. Glasgow would tick all the boxes, but to make everything work I'd ideally need multiple days and that wasn't a realistic option.

So there were certainly plenty of ideas floating around, and there will be a trip report for it when the time comes!

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Attached photos are:

1) 165014 at Birmingham Moor Street
2) 168325 at Birmingham Moor Street
3) Selfie after the 5k, as you do
4) 68008 at Solihull
5) 68008 and 168217 at Birmingham Moor Street
6) Midland Metro tram 51 at Piper's Row, Wolverhampton
7) Midland Metro tram 51 on its way back to Birmingham at Piper's Row (note the immediately adjacent bus station)
8) Midland Metro tram 30 at journey's end at Wolverhampton Station, will that bit of track ever lead to becoming a loop back round to The Royal?
9) Finally for now, Midland Metro tram 30 at Wolverhampton Station's single platform.

More photos to come soon!

 

[Kite159]

A busy day in the West Midlands

 

[D6130]

19/09/2023 - Tech Owns The Run

Sounds like you had a great day out....but 19/09/2023 is tomorrow!

 

[Techniquest]

Sounds like you had a great day out....but 19/09/2023 is tomorrow!

Oops! I didn't notice that, I'll edit the post accordingly, thanks for that!

 

[Techniquest]

I wasn't going to share this trip report, after much editing etc during and after the trip, but 4 days later I've decided that actually I will, so that it's there for the history books. There may be a day when I want to review the trip in the future, and it felt necessary to share it here after all. So, without further ado, here's what happened on my most recent adventure!

22/09/2023 - We Meet Again, Aylesbury!

There is a chance I'll change the trip report title, so in case I do I went with 'We Meet Again, Aylesbury!' and for good reason. I'll explain as I go!

The day before this trip, during a training course for work, I realised during a difficult task that I was not happy. With the task that should have been difficult but not overly so, yes but that was the lid popping off the saucepan of frustrations that was boiling over. Long story short, an emotional rebalance and reset was required! Did I get that? Keep reading to find out!

The right leg was still struggling after the running 4 days previously, Deep Heat was helping but the recovery was dragging on. The rest of the body was fine, just the right leg, and as much as the weather looked good (but chilly) for some cycling there was no way I could risk further injury.

With over-running engineering works in Dinmore Tunnels, the hoped-for trip to North Wales was off. I swear the railway loves to annoy me! I left the phone off all night, vowing to decide upon a plan of attack after waking naturally. That came just before 7am, and I'm not going to lie, that sleep was good. Even so, I still felt wound up. A full-on day of cardio would be fantastic, but not with the dodgy body, so I had to compromise and find things on my railway and exploring to-do lists to be, well, done. I had way too many options, and given the weather was due to be better in the east that's where I wanted to go. The effects of Hurricane Nigel were due to land over the weekend, so I knew my next day off would not be very active.

Eventually, I settled on two different options and I'd choose when I got as far as the railway was to take me on this occasion. By the time I hurriedly got dressed, I had around 17 minutes to go until the 0837 to Birmingham New Street. I was expecting 196s, so imagine my surprise to find 172222 on its own on the Birmingham service! Real Time Trains was not giving me any allocations on Transport for Wales, so that had played a big part in the decision making. There was a rather empty 158 sat there waiting to head to Cardiff, which would have been nice to do. Equally, that would have attracted peak-time fares, so probably just as well. The eagle-eyed will notice I had 172222 on my previous trip in the Midlands, and this journey to Worcester certainly would get a lot of mileage off it. I've been sort-of totting up mileages on a few classes again for a while, but not to the extent of digging out all my old records. That would be way too much work!

The journey to Worcester passed without incident, and I had around 44 minutes to fill. The bagel place has gone, which is a shame as I was finally in a position to try it! I was on the phone with my sister for some of the walk, and I was having a modestly paced stroll to try and fill in some gaps on my walking coverage of Worcester. I stopped off at Waylands Yard/Proper Coffee, as I'd only had 1 coffee all day so far and that's just not normal for me! The weather was lovely, and I still had plenty of time before the next move, so I took on a couple more streets. There was still lots of time, but I decided to take myself upstairs and finish enjoying my coffee. The cup was way smaller than I'd like for £2.90, and the carrot cake for £3.60 was to be enjoyed on the train.

Eventually, 800020 produced with the 0954 Great Malvern to London Paddington and I grabbed a table seat in a surprisingly quiet coach D. The carrot cake was nice, but I'd not rush back to that place. At Pershore, the trolley came through so I got another coffee and a vegan KitKat for £4. I now had to hurry up and make a decision before I reached Oxford, as I had 3 options for the day which appealed! Arriving 1 minute early into Oxford at 1128, I had tons of time to grab a Pret for the long journey. Which ended up being finished before the next stage started, due to delays on Route 280 from Oxford to Aylesbury.

This route had been on my list to do for many years, as has the X5 from Oxford to Bedford for that matter. I nearly gave up waiting, then a double decker came in displaying Thame. Not being sure if Arriva do that silly thing where the full route pretends to stop halfway along or not, naturally I checked first. That driver was a right miserable ol' wench, so I'm glad I didn't have her as my driver. Just as I gave up waiting for the bus on the 1143 departure to Aylesbury, and she had been the rather late 1128 to Thame, a Mercedes Citaro I think, arrived. This was Arriva's number 3031, and eventually I was on board BD12 DHJ. The wait continued, as the driver needed a PNB, and I was finally on the way at 1156, 13 minutes late.

The bus was so late we got overtaken by the following short working to Thame! The journey through Oxford city centre and Headington was so slow I could have walked to Headington and beaten the bus! There was a brief bit of speed along the A40 before turning off for Wheatley, and by now I was getting seriously fed up of the uncomfortable seat, not to mention the ultra-slow running. This was shaping up to be a contender for the award no operator or driver wants, Tech's Worst. Bus. Ever Award! I was wondering what would have happened if I'd done one of my other options!

Before I had left Wheatley on this service, I'd got the headphones on, the noise of the engine had been looked forward to but by then I was ready to scream. I even considered, when the bus finally got there, alighting in Thame to do the Phoenix Trail, a shared-use traffic-free route to Princes Risborough. 8 miles from Thame, it would be a good walk but the rain was arriving and that plan was soon binned. Haddenham & Thame Parkway station was a lot further out than I thought, and there's no safe walking route from Thame. Leaving the station at 1303, with a booked arrival time at Aylesbury Bus Station of 1310, I was really regretting doing this route. Never again was my view, this had been £2 badly spent! For Future Tech's information, in case it gets forgot, there was a £2 bus fare cap on a number of operators at the time.

Arrival at the dump better known as Aylesbury Bus Station was 19 late at 1329, I hadn't been so glad to get off a bus in a long time! Fortunately the sun had come back out, so a quick explore was much more tolerable. To be honest, I didn't see much worth returning for, although the jacket potato van near M&S was most appreciated. £4 for a jacket potato and baked beans, money well spent for sure! I didn't hang around for too long in the end, and devoured lunch outside the railway station. I had lots of time to spare, but Aylesbury just didn't really appeal. Perhaps my view back in 2011, when I was last in the area for the Chiltern Class 121 'Bubble Car' workings and the track to Aylesbury Vale Parkway, was correct in that I was better off on the trains than exploring. In this specific case, I'd have to agree!

Now I think some of you will already know where this is going, yes I was going after some winner stations! I last visited the line north of Amersham way back in the mid 2000s, probably 2004, and I've had the 3 stations between Aylesbury and Amersham on my list to do for too many years. I had hoped to combine all these with some cycling and clear my Chiltern stations in one go, but that wasn't to be. Partly because the Aylesbury to Princes Risborough line was closed until late October 2023, and I still want one of the intermediate stations. One day, I'll get it done but for now the other 3 have proved very difficult to work into any sort of plan. This day was finally sorting them out, and I had even spied a potential option for some cardio!

With not a lot to see at winner station Great Missenden, I was glad to have alighted 165036 with just 8 minutes to fill. 165033 soon rescued me from the cold wind and rain, taking me to winner station Stoke Mandeville. That was certainly the loudest 165 departure I'd heard in a good long while, a pleasant reminder of the joy the 165s can bring! The sun was back out for my brief visit to Stoke Mandeville, and I was soon on 165027+165006 for the leap to winner station Wendover.

With the main mission of the day done, and just one more Chiltern station to do eventually, I was feeling like celebrating. A stroll into Wendover itself during my 20 minute wait seemed like a good idea! An expensive coffee was also sourced, in one of those dodgy edenware cups. They are a great idea, as they're biodegradable, but they almost always leak on me and this was no exception! Wendover looked a nice enough little place, but it failed to hold my attention for long. Thankfully, I still had my Pret cup from Oxford so I transferred the coffee and joined 165039 back to Aylesbury. From there, I should have just got straight on the first bus I saw with Oxford on it. Read on to find out why! Also, the eagle-eyed will remember that this was my last 3-car 165 to get earlier this year, that trip to Bicester in July 2023 already seemed like so long ago!

I'd seen the next X20 with Redline was at 1615, and I fancied giving a different operator my money for the journey back to Oxford. I had plenty of time on my hands, so went for a walkabout. That also included a visit to Sainsburys, and the first supermarket I'd visited in the UK with a receipt barcode scanner on the exit of the self-scan area. Let's not discuss how inefficient the self-scan host was, or how much having two of eight machines out of action really slowed things down. After a bit more exploring, I got near the bus station and swore down I saw an X20 going out at 1608. The timetables and supposedly live information boards said 1615 though, and that the 120 I'd turned down earlier on was timetabled to take only 8 minutes longer than the X20!

To cut a long story short, the 1615 and 1635 departures never showed up, no sign of them existing either. Let's not discuss how disgusted I was about the dump of the bus station, nor will I discuss the disgust at people walking around smoking and vaping all over the place! An Arriva Sapphire double-deck bus on Route 280 appeared to be my only sensible choice now, and I didn't want to endure it. I didn't have a choice but to do a different vehicle on that route in the end, some of us were turned away from the decker. Still, I got on Arriva's 3021 (BD12 DHP) and eventually it was away we went. This driver knew how to drive much better than the other one, and really made his Mercedes move once we got out of the boring place better known as Aylesbury. I make no apologies to anyone who lives there that reads this, it's definitely not somewhere I'm overly bothered about ever seeing again!

Much to my amazement, after Thame it was briefly just me and one other passenger, and we'd overtaken the double decker! A phone call with my sister helped to keep me company until then, and at 1734 the bus was at the Welcome Break services stop. The journey back to Oxford was, at that point, going smoothly but I knew I had only a +2 between bus and train in Oxford. That was just not going to work, no chance! Or was it?

1746 and we were on the roundabout going into Headington. It was absolutely time for the Danger Music, would we or wouldn't we make good time into one of the UK's nicest but most congested cities? I didn't realise that the Oxford Tube coaches, or indeed the Oxford to Heathrow coaches, went through Headington. Those are definitely two routes I'd like to do at some point, indeed the Oxford Tube was looking like such an option I had downloaded the app while waiting for the hopelessly late bus with Arriva! Every second counted on this journey, and at 1752 I was still modestly hopeful. I didn't want to have to deal with the 1849 to Worcester and change onto a 172, I wanted my direct train! However it was also a case of following a Route 400 decker with Oxford City. Whenever I got hopeful, the brakes would come on, so I did my best to not think about it!

1823 and I alighted the bus outside Oxford Castle. It just wasn't meant to be, just a few minutes quicker and it would have worked. A car driver kept stopped its rear end too far over into the bus lane for us to get by for ages, but perhaps I wasn't meant to get that train, who knows? I made my way in the cold weather to Itsu at Oxford Westgate shopping centre, and once sat down in the waiting area on platform 4 at Oxford station I got to eating. I have to be honest, I was disappointed, there was a strange taste to my meal that I didn't like. So much so I threw away some of it, and I never do that!

800313 took me out of Oxford, and I normally love my visits to Oxford, but this one felt marred by the buses. Perhaps I should have gone to Bedford on the X5 after all, that route has been on the to-do list for longer than the 280 after all. I did get 3 winner stations out of it, no winning haulages but I did score a town for proper exploring and a bus route off my to-do list. So in that respect, it was a productive day. All the delays and hassle on the buses though, that completely ruined the trip. I now have just one more Chiltern station to do eventually, and I'll be surprised if it isn't done this year. I want it done, same for the remaining stations on the Worcester to Oxford route that I've yet to do. Shipton and Ascott-under-Wychwood I've been on through a cycling adventure, but that's not the same! Finstock is the only station I've never set foot on, and all 3 of those stations are rather awkward to do!

A decaf and vegan KitKat from the trolley were thoroughly enjoyed, and the darkness falling so early compared to just a few weeks ago is unpleasant. Winter is definitely here, and I was still needing to find a way to deal with that. I was also incredibly aware that I still hadn't organised my 20 year rail enthusiasm anniversary trip, which was now just a week away!

Eventually I arrived into a cold Worcester, winter was certainly arriving fast now and it would soon be time for the warm hat and gloves to come back out! 172337 took me back to Hereford, this one (and 172331) always a special place in my heart, as it was one of my last two 172s to get for haulage. Wow that was a long time ago! The journey passed smoothly, and soon enough I was in an even colder Hereford. Even at the pace I was walking, an average of 4.9mph according to Strava, I was cold and therefore very glad to get indoors!

So, did I get un-wound as hoped? To be honest, not really. A little bit, but the hassle with the buses completely and utterly ruined the day. The thing that was to cheer me up in Oxford, a favourite meal, that failed in its mission too which I was not amused by. There were successes, but this was a bit of a dull day and one I'm glad is done and out of the way forever!

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Post-trip, 4 days later, I can provide some important updates. The day after, I attended a leaving do for one of the optometrists I work with, and during said evening I got to chat with a fellow athlete from work. I'd been trying to chat with them for weeks, but never had time, and I got lots of useful hints, tips and general chat about things like marathons. That was all very useful, and while it all should have been obvious really it was good to hear. It's not often my efforts on Strava impress someone, so you can imagine how good that made me feel!

The last 3 days I've been putting it all into practice, and on Sunday just gone I also went out to do the Single Line Working between Hereford and Leominster. Following the recent engineering works blockade in Dinmore Tunnels, the southbound bore was open and to use it northbound trains had to reverse at Moreton-on-Lugg signalbox, running wrong-line to Leominster and crossing back over there. Two very unusual crossovers in my local area done, and I finally laid eyes on the industrial shunter (from afar) on the Tarmac site at Moreton-on-Lugg/Marden Quarry.

Tonight, I managed to really put the body through its paces and I got through 4 miles of running. Almost 100% non-stop, except for two 20 seconds or less traffic stops. Lots of local running coverage now got, and I even set a new personal best for a 5k run. Considering less than 2 weeks ago I really struggled to do a 5k with multiple stops, although admittedly that was with weight on the back in the middle of the day, I'd say that's pretty good going!

The body's not quite back to normal yet, but it is getting stronger I feel. I genuinely feel that it is very possible I'll be able to do a 10km run again soon, and potentially without stopping in the near-ish future. Not at a fast pace, granted, but it is incredibly possible.

Does this mean I've given up on cycling? Definitely not, but the weather needs to sort itself out before I even attempt such a thing again. There's some incredibly stormy weather due tomorrow, so I severely doubt I'll be doing much but I can do indoor training if nothing else!

Have I got another trip lined up? Oh yes! I've got a long day in Manchester coming up on 6th October, I haven't got it all decided on what I'm doing that day but I do know that I'm going to do an awful lot. If the weather's good, plenty of exploring. If it's not as good, then it'll be an entirely rail-based focus! Anything in the meantime? Of course, but I'm waiting to see what happens with the weather before I commit to anything. If the weather allows, I'll absolutely be doing something exciting!

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Photos! I forgot to add them! In order, they are:

1) 172222 at Hereford
2) The coffee cup's funky design in Worcester
3) Arriva's 3031 arriving at Oxford Station on Route 280
4) 165025, shunter loco and other Chiltern stuff on Aylesbury depot
5) 165006 (with 165027 on the front) at Wendover
6) Aylesbury Station building
7) Clock tower in Wendover
8) That weird statue in the shopping/entertainment/dining complex in Aylesbury

 

[Kite159]

Other than bus related issues with slow running, sounded like a nice enough day.

I'm sure when I was looking at that Phoenix Trail near Thame there were some footpaths between the station & the town.

Those Arriva Merc buses are a bit bargain basement in terms of seats, longest I've had is High Wycombe to Reading on the 850. And in my view those self scan exit barriers are pointless, causes more waste as who would normally get a receipt if buying a meal deal and won't stop someone scanning fruit as carrots to fool the scales.