‘ScotRail are sorry to announce...’ 27/10/17
It felt like ages since I'd booked this-but the day for another Scottish adventure was finally here! After the traditional ‘oh s*** I'm going to miss my train...’ I found myself on Warrington Bank Quay's platform 3 with not much time to spare before the 06:15 ‘Virgin Super Voyager to Glasgow Central'
I boarded in coach B mentally questioning what was so super about dud 221111 as I found my seat, which unusually had an excellent view! That is, assuming one likes to stare at a plastic panel for 3 hours... as I don't, I wandered down the train and made myself at home in coach D. The TM arrived fairly quickly and at this point I discovered the passengers across the aisle were from Liverpool. The onboard shop opened later than usual at Preston so I packed everything back into my bag and went for a drink. Upon returning to my table, I found the reserved seat opposite had now been taken. I worked on my massive (now cleared) Rail Miles backlog and daylight eventually came between Penrith and Carlisle. We seemed to pick up a lot of passengers at Lockerbie, which soon became apparent by the sudden influx of Scottish accents. The weather between here and Glasgow was typically Scottish really... fog followed by brilliant sunshine then rain then fog then sun... I could have swore I saw a wee bit of snow when stopped at a peg outside Motherwell whilst awaiting to do the ‘Cambuslang Crawl' (as I shall now call it!) This service always gets stopped at a peg then a slow run through the suburbs of Glasgow behind an EMU.
I moved forward near Uddingston in preparation to alight and get an SPT Daytripper quickly (as I mentally thought I had less time than I did). Arrival into Glasgow was slightly early despite the slow run (as is usual, both the slow run and early arrival!) I was glad to get off the Voyager-but as soon as I got off, I immediately wanted to get back on! It was warmer in Warrington 3 hours earlier than it was in Glasgow, it was SO COLD! Anyway, I headed downstairs to the Low Level platforms as the main ticket office was quite busy. Here's a fun fact-the manufacturer of the lift down to the low level platforms are (or certainly were when it was built-as there's a plaque in the lift stating so) headquartered in the business park less than 2 miles from my house!
I purchased a Daytripper and headed downstairs to board winner 320303 to Hyndland. I noticed some disruption due to a farce at Rutherglen IIRC, but nothing that'd affect me. Whilst onboard, I got a phone call from a friend who had got gen I was in Glasgow and was on a TPE 350 himself. He'd had all the shacks I was going for, but we were on the same train home. I bailed at Hyndland and waited for the train to leave. And waited. And waited. It was announced as ‘delayed' due to waiting for a traincrew member, and now my Helensburgh train (6 car 334) was stuck behind. I purchased a badly needed hot chocolate, and was told ‘aye, even by Glasgow standards it's bloody freezing pal', which was a relief! The 320 eventually moved 10L. When my friend did the shacks I'm headed for, his plan wasn't as good as mine-something I rubbed in a fair bit on the phone. He did Cardross and Craigendoran first-however I had different ideas.
I boarded double winners 334004+334037 and took a seat in 334004-which was a private train on the non stop run to Dalmuir. At Dalmuir, we either picked up at Ticket Examiner or he was in the front unit. Thankfully upon arrival at Helensburgh Central, I hadn't missed my bus! I exited the station and crossed the road to join Wilson's of Rhu Optare Solo YJ17 CPN working service 316 for the 9ish mile run up to Garelochhead. There were 3 other passengers on the bus-I asked the driver to let me know when we were at Garelochhead station, to which I was told the nearest stop was ‘by a wee Spar shop'. Thanks for the gen on the shop! I knew the stop was some distance away from the station anyway. We lost two passengers within Helensburgh and then we set off for a fast run up to Garelochhead. I was already in love with the scenery-to which on the pendo home I would be told ‘meh. You’re easily impressed-wait until you get to Corrour and Glenfinnan!’ The driver really had his foot down and it was a good fast run up to Garelochhead (emphasis on the up). My fellow passenger bailed in Rhu village-which is the only significant settlement en route, with the exception of the MoD base between Rhu and Garelochhead.
I took advantage of the supply raid in the Spar, which really was tiny and set off towards the station. It was an extremely steep uphill walk, which took me by surprise, but I soon reached the gravel platform and took a seat on the bench. I had about 15 minutes, and it was beautiful. A really quiet station with an excellent view over Gare Loch. But then my peace was shattered by someone with a leaf blower just off the platform...
Winner 156476 arrived around 5 minutes late to take me one stop down the line to Helensburgh Upper. The train was fairly busy, but I managed to get a pair of seats no trouble at all. The single platform of Helensburgh Upper was soon reached and I was initially surprised to see a few passengers on the platform who didn't board that unit. Then I remembered the Oban train was due in 15 minutes! Winner 156477 soon appeared up the very steep gradient and I boarded the very warm train. Again, I got a seat without trouble and marvelled at how impressive the scenery was. I wasn't expecting the line to be so twisty and I must admit the masochistic side of me did kind of fancy a pacer on here...
ANYWAY! My next shack was Arrochar & Tarbet where I'd already decided I was in love with the West Highland Line! The unit had to wait a few minutes to leave as an oil train was occupying the adjacent platform and unsurprisingly fouling the points, and was now about 10 minutes late-as it was delayed near Cardross waiting for the ex-Oban I was on to pass. I took a seat in the waiting room, dug into my supplies relaxed for 75 minutes. I had absolutely no signal-and hadn't done since around Rhu, so downloading a film was off the cards. Ah well. I emerged from the shelter about 10 minutes before the train was due, and found a normal sat on the platform! We started talking-she found shack scratching both brilliant and a bit mad at the same time... (which if I'm honest is pretty much what most people make of it!) I asked if she used this line often, and was told ‘not anymore-it's too unreliable' hmm... our train arrived about 5 minutes late, which seemed typical, to take us towards Oban and Mallaig. As such, it was a 6 car 156-which is a weird sight to this Englishman used to 2 car units even at peak times! The units were winner 156449, fresh dud 156476 (hello you!) and dud 156445 which I took to Ardlui, the limit of validity of my SPT Daytripper.
The Southbound service arrived into Ardlui about a minute after the Northbound (honestly, it's like I planned that to happen...) and I boarded dud 156447+winner 156474+dud 156492 back to Garelochhead. I couldn't stop photting the spectacular scenery out of the window, to the point that I reached the limit of my phone memory. Err... oops. Things were hastily deleted so that later shack sign phots could be taken. I went for a PNB then alighted at Garlochhead, mentally planning when I could possibly do the WHL proper. The Oban branch (and possibly Upper Tyndrum) are reachable in a day from Warrington, but the Fort William/Mallaig shacks would require a hotel up here. I had a bit of a wait for the bus, which was spent mainly on the station before taking on the descent to the main road. I was quite worried when I looked at the bus times as the times on the bus stop and the times online were drastically different. Thankfully the world wide web was correct as the same Solo I had earlier rolled up to take me back to Helensburgh Central. Once there, winner 334038+dud 334035 were waiting to leave for Edinburgh. I sat in the dud as that had plug sockets fitted. The journey to Edinburgh takes a long time. In fact, I only just in Scotland when my train to Helensburgh that morning departed Edinburgh! I bailed two stops later at Cardross for a very short fester before heading north.
Double duds (GRR!) 334012+334028 soon pulled in to take me one stop back to Craigendoran. I'd been told how exposed this station was, and it sure was! Thankfully it had warmed up a fair bit from this morning-but it was beginning to cool again now. The station soon became rammed with schoolkids and the units soon returned from Helensburgh. I boarded 334028 this time and was in urgent need of a PNB, however helpfully the facility was locked out. Great. I'd planned to change at Dalreoch, but I'd worked out I could make the Balloch train at Dumbarton East so I remained onboard for an extra two stops. Good move as winner 320321 was pulling in on a Dumbarton Central turnback as soon as my unit released the doors. I wasn't hanging about! I jumped on and went straight in the bog. The unit arrived at Central before I'd emerged, but it didn't matter to me!
A friend was meant to be meeting me-but he misunderstood my message and bailed out of the Balloch train at Dumbarton East-a decision which would later prove to be a very good one indeed! Winner 318257+dud 320302 arrived at Dumbarton Central to take me towards Balloch. The train was surprisingly well loaded as it had left central Glasgow ahead of the main rush, but anyway I bailed at Alexandria-where I took refuge in the waiting room as it was now quite cool. The units soon returned and I bailed a few moments later. I was then informed that the Balloch train thst my friend was on had an issue at Dumbarton Central and was now over 10 minutes late. Great... doubled the fester at Renton then! But that was just the start of it...
They ‘pulled a Merseyrail' and ran it non stop from Renton to Balloch! This didn't matter as a) I was half an hour ahead of my plan and b)I could claim delay repay. A 320/3 and 320/4 sped past, then the PIS decided to update to cancel the train. I spoke to a helpful person on the help point who I assume was based in ScotRail's control-shame on the TOCs south of the border who use NRE and you spend 5 minutes trying to get the person on the phone in India to understand which station you’re stood at! He told me that the next train would definitely be calling at Renton-as that was about 8L and I was concerned the same thing would happen. The Airdrie train immediately went to ‘delayed', which I wasn't concerned about as the train had missed it's departure time from Balloch.
My friend let me know the train had arrived in Balloch-I told him to bail at Renton and I was taking the next Northbound service. A short while later, I was informed that the train had failed. The driver was in the carriage looking inside panels and trying to fix a fault. The doors were locked-the passengers were told nothing and eventually someone cracked and forced a door open. Of course, the sheep mentality kicked in and passcoms were pulled, door released pulled all sorts. All because there was no one to a) assist the driver and/or b)update the passengers! (Are you reading, RMT?) There's a rank of railwayman in a perfect position to do both of those things... even my pro-DOO (yes, really...) friend stuck onboard admitted a guard would have made a big difference. (Can the SR Ticket Examiners use the PA? There was no TE onboard anyway, so it's not hugely relavent)
The 17:23 Balloch service was soon cancelled, as was it's return working. I buzzed the help point a couple of times to find out what was happening, but not a lot of information was available except ‘the driver is looking at a fault on the broken down train'-again, a second member of staff could and would update control. I was told at 17:40ish that the broken train was about to be moved. It passed me about 15 minutes later, and the sight of dud 318264 was very welcome indeed after nearly 80 minutes on the cold platform! I was in urgent need of a PNB so I boarded where the facility was and... guess what? Out of use! I was extremely unimpressed by this and sat down near the front. Thankfully there was a facility on the platform that I took immediate advantage of. My friend appeared from the pub and we reboarded the well loaded 318264 towards Glasgow. At Dalmuir he had the idea of bailing at his local Anniesland for the 156 to Queen Street. I checked it met the minimum connection time onto my pendo home, which it did. With Anniesland-Kelvindale being required track I said aye to that! I had planned to scratch Lochwinnoch, but that was well out the window now-I was fairly lucky to get back to Glasgow in time for my train home! If that ex Balloch had been cancelled too-I'd have been asking for a taxi. The person in control mentioned it'd been amongst the longest disruption he'd had. I was tempted to ask if he was new-but thought better of it!
Anniesland couldnae arrive soon enough! It was a relief to get off that dud 318, we headed for the bay platform. I wasn't too impressed to see 156477 again, still with it's Glasgow Queen Street-Oban window labels attached! We sat in a table seat in the middle of the coach, the nearest window label was err... ‘borrowed' for my bedroom wall. We were surprised to get ticket checked by the guard on this journey due to the very short distances between stops, and arrived into Queen Street with 30 minutes until my train home. We stopped in Poundland on the way to Central for a supply raid. There was an issue with the self checkout-the store worker tried to explain what the issue was, and showed me what she was doing-but her accent was that strong much of what she said was incomprehensible... I had a drink that was reduced to 50p, it scanned as £1-she tried to change the price but it wouldn't accept it! The manager came over and eventually found a loophole and off I went.
I said goodbye to my Glaswegian friend on the concourse, boarded dud ex-stalker 390148 and found my English mate who explained how he'd practically cleared the shacks served by the Barrhead stopper in the time I was stuck at Renton. He was, of course, soon rudely told where to put those shacks! It was dark, so there was nothing to see outside. We just had to engage in the challenge to stay awake... I needed a PNB when I boarded, but managed to forget about it until around Oxenholme. We both ended up having a PNB at the same time, thankful we weren't on 156s anymore with just one facility, and lost our unreserved table in the process. Doh! We soon found another in coach C however. The train was deserted-so to lose our seats was really unlucky! My mate bailed at Wigan to get a 350 to Manchester. I stayed on until the next stop-a town far superior than Wigan in every possible way, especially on the rugby pitch, Warrington. Unlike the last time I used this train, I didn't meet a drunk pie eater on a segway staggering up and down the carriage and I was soon alighting into the cold night at Warrington Bank Quay at the end of a long, tiring day.
For the record, I claimed Delay Repay from Northern in the first and second weeks of October, and claimed for the Renton farce from Scotrail last Monday (6th November). I received £11.90 in RTVs from ScotRail yesterday. And that was despite my claim being delayed by being subject to quality checks. I'll be surprised if I hear from Northern by Christmas-my last claim from the clowns took 4 MONTHS! They've really got a long way to go to improve! I really can't blame Alex Hynes for bailing out of that mess and moving to a far, far superior TOC! Anyway-rant over...
Shacks:10
Winner Units:9
Winner Buses:1
For the benefit of Quinn, I boarded the 156 as it was a refurb one and the other unit was a 142, much to your distaste as I remember. 
