A special #SaveAwaySunday 27/08/17
Two reports in two days?? I know. I don't normally report on my Merseyrail mileage bashes, as I'd never stop typing-but this one was something special.
The day didn’t start off too well, as the train I was going to get-the 12:03 from St. Helens Central into Liverpool was cancelled. As I already would have had a longish wait for it-and I wasn't willing to wait for ages, I decided I was going in on the bus.
As such, Rainhill was the station I got a lift to today. I went to the station to get my ticket, as for some daft reason they can't sell SaveAways on the bus-even if you have the pathetic bit of plastic Merseytravel have decided to call a Walrus Card. The ticket seller informed me I'd missed the train-as a train had left Rainhill 10 minutes ago, checked my driving licence (thanks to whoever from Northern/Merseyrail saw my complaints about that-I've not had a problem at all since I made that post!) And gave me a ticket. To the buses! Stagecoach MCSL's winner E300 number 27904 was taking me into Liverpool today on route 10A. The journey was, quite frankly, horrendous. The bus was busier than normal due to the train cancellation, and it took ages. Also, to the people sat in the middle of the bus, there's a time and a place for vodka shots, but on a full and standing bus in the middle of the day is NOT it!
Anyway, I made a note of the time we arrived at Lime Street so I could complain to Northern (12:52-I boarded nearly an hour previously) but stayed on to James Street. Feeling quite like we'd gone back to Phase 2 of the Wirral line track renewal works-I alighted at James Street and headed underground. To the trains! (Finally!) An Ellesmere Port service arrived, which I flagged as that route is so dull, and crap for mileage accumulation. A West Kirby arrived, which was flagged as I've had 250 miles on that unit (I'm trying to do it vaguely in stages, I tried not to use units I'd had more than 100 miles on until I had more than 75% of the fleet for 50 miles for example). A Chester arrived, formed of 508112, so I took that. I took a bay of 4 in the front coach over the motors for the 40 minute journey to Chester. Hooton-Chester comes in as my favourite part of the network, for the 70mph speed limit! The journey was great fun, as usual, and at Chester I had two choices to make. Stay on, or bail and wait for 30 minutes.
That's easy! Do both. Confused? I stayed onboard 508112 to Capenhurst (someone has to use that station!) And after a 7 minute fester picked up the Southbound service. Thankfully, it was a unit on less than 250 miles, 508131. It was however on 207 miles-something which was going to change. The 5 mile 12 chain journey back to Chester provided some amazing thrash, as ever. I started to work out how far I'd have to go to clear the unit for 250 miles, and soon had the answer. Capenhurst via Liverpool and Chester! The journey into Liverpool got fairly busy, but not too bad. A guard I know really well boarded at Birkenhead Central and he took the train for a few circuits. We had a catch up (inbetween the safety critical stuff a guard (and ONLY a guard) has to do obviously) for a bit, and I stayed onboard through to Chester. I needed a PNB fairly urgently, but due to the tight turnaround at Chester, there wasn't time. As such, I stayed on the train to Hooton.
The guard disappeared after Bache as someone pulled a bottle large bottle of vodka out of her bag-and all Merseyrail services are dry trains in line with the Merseyrail Byelaws. The passenger, who also had her feet on the seats-another byelaw-simply decided to call the guard a ‘bald headed b******’ and keep her feet and vodka where they were...
We said goodbye at Hooton, and by complete coincidence as they have free roam of their part of the network, 2 Byelaw Enforcement officers were waiting on the platform! The guard went over to them and asked them to ‘do him a favour’-which was presumably to go and deal with the abusive passenger! The Byelaw Enforcement officers have to stay on their side-either Northern or Wirral Lines. They are given lines to focus on-say, New Brighton and West Kirby but as long as they are being productive, as far as I know, they don't have to rigidly stick to their given route. It'd be a good job for an enthusiast if it weren't for all the people you have to deal with! Hopping on and off Merseyrail all day-yep, I can definitely see the appeal there!
I went for my very urgently required PNB, wandered into M to Go for something to do and came out with a £1 cola slush. As you do...
I therefore headed back to the Liverpool platform, due to my aforementioned dislike of the Ellesmere Port branch, picking up 508115. I had this unit on Friday-it still had its poster proudly proclaiming Merseyrail were the best train company in 2010 that I spotted on Friday. I have an eye for old posters on 508s-I found a map last year that predated Liverpool South Parkway! And Merseyrail not only let me have it, but actually posted it out to me. Because they're nice like that. (And I wasn't the Merseyrail Main Man back then...)
I soon was alighting at Moorfields for something very special. As I've already said, I don't normally report on my Merseyrail mileage bashes-but if I said my current mileage on the Merseyrail fleet for 2017 was 9,997 miles and 65 chains-you'll see why I've decided to do a report! I was Southport bound on 507004+507007. 004 was a welcome sight as it's been broken for ages! I didn't realise 007 was on the rear-I found out at Southport and was quite annoyed as that's without a doubt the thrashiest 507! At Bank Hall, exactly 2 miles and 15 chains from Moorfields, I ate my virtual cake sent by Merseyrail to celebrate. I did ask for real cake but that request was denied...
The trip up to Southport felt quite slow-we somehow lost 9 minutes on the way up to the Northernmost terminus of the 3rd rail network. It was nice to add just over 18.5 miles onto a low(ish) mileage 507 though. I got some phots of the unit when I alighted-I found my phot of the shack sign at Southport the other day with a unit wearing the previous livery in the background. I had a PNB and went to ID the front unit. Seeing which one it was, I took a seat onboard. At both Birkdale and Hillside, people were moving right up the platform and boarding in the 3rd carriage of the service. I was in there as I wanted mileage on 507007-however I got the impression my fellow passengers were all in there (coincidentally the unit that didn't have the guard in it(!)) For a different reason...
I bailed at Ainsdale for a chippy move and was waiting for the next service. However 508130+508117 arrived-both of which I've cleared for 250 miles so I flagged it. 15 minutes later (as that had been one of the re-instated bucket and spadexes) 508108+507023 arrived. I wasn't prepared to flag this as the next service was 30 minutes away. Thankfully 507023 wasn't cleared for 250 miles, so I took a seat on there. The train wasn't too busy, and I got a good seat without any trouble. I was going to be taking this train through to Hunts Cross but literally as I was about to type that (I'm typing this as I travel today), a couple a BTP officers entered the carriage and told us all we had to leave the train immediately, with the guard soon announcing the same thing. The BTP were taking an interest in the rear coach of the train, as were a couple of Byelaw Enforcement officers. It doesn't take a genius to work out what people were starting to think, given the world we live in...
Then we were all told to move to the Hunts Cross end of the platform-as far away from the rear unit as possible. Walking past the front coach of 507023, I immediately got a whiff of the problem. Something electrical, likely the traction motors given where I was, was on fire! It didn't seem too serious though as there wasn't much visible smoke-it was just the smell of it that was rather unpleasant. The platform was not evacuated, but I went upstairs to take advantage of a PNB once the train was cancelled. Obviously, I got a different smell in the bogs, but when I came out-the smell of 507023 was noticeable on the concourse level. It turned out a member of the public coming down the escalator noticed a problem and reported it to a BTP officer-no one on the train knew there was a problem...
I headed to the Wirral Line for a fill in move before my train home, 507013 providing some excellent thrash underneath the Mersey round to Birkenhead Central. I had a 7 minute fester-I could have probably made it to Green Lane, but decided to play it safe and bail at BC. After a short wait, I was soon watching the PEP come around the bend-it was 508115 again. I boarded and at Hamilton Square we picked up some Byelaw Enforcement officers I'd seen 3 times already! Most of them (and the guards) are used to me by now though-I used to get some really wierd looks!
Bailing at Lime Street, it was time to head upstairs. I was very surprised to see ex-Thameslink 319450 working the Manchester Airport service, only 3 319s are actually used on a Sunday! Anyway, I took an ex-First Class seat for the slog back to Newton-le-Willows. The stopper takes nearly 40 minutes-whilst the Monday-Saturday only express takes 20. The journey back wasn't too pleasant as many of the passengers were Liverpool FC fans who spent much of their journey expressing their dislike of Manchester...
