The 37 hauled trains have had patchy reliability, to say the least.
Not all of it the fault of the locos, but I believe the services on the coast have got a rapidly worsening reputation among those that use it regularly.
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On Friday evening my wife received a phone call from one of her colleagues who is currently off work with a stress related illness.
This lady is suffering badly and Mrs 13, ever a compassionate soul, offered to meet up with her on Saturday and offer some support & advice.
Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth I immediately seized upon the chance of doing my own form of stress relief.
With any prospect of me achieving my 2016 challenge rapidly disappearing I needed to get some winners in the book and so I decided I would head to Birmingham.
I was up and out by 07.30 and drove to Solihull where I purchased my Daytripper.
I knew that the 68 diagrams would be worked by two from 68009, 68013 and 68014 so came up with a plan.
I would view the 10.04 off Solihull and, if it was 68009, would do it to Leamington, but otherwise I would give it a miss.
I had only previously had number 9 from Leamington to Solihull, in the dark, and it was required for a photo so felt I could justify the time penalty.
In the event it was 68014 that produced, so it was my painful duty to watch it leave.
I was sorely tempted to do it, but knew I needed to knuckle down and get some scores on the doors.
I can't believe I'm not on it:
68014_2016.03.05_Solihull by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
After photographing the cat depart I boarded 168214 and took that Moor Street.
I’ve had all the LM 172s and all bar one of the 168s, so there was no point in staying on that side of the city.
The short stroll to New Street was therefore “enjoyed” and the day’s first winner,
323217 was quickly roped in.
Now, where to bail?
The advantage of being new to the shack scratching game is that I can pick and choose where to go without too much fuss.
My spurious reason for choosing
Tipton was that I’ve been a reader of Viz magazine for many years and as anyone that has been a reader of that esteemed publication will know Tipton used to feature quite regularly.
I had a quick look round for Hugo Guthrie but he was nowhere to be seen.
No sign of Mayor Guthrie:
EMU 323217_2016.03.05_Tipton by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
After taking in the sights of Tipton I quickly left, on dud 170632.
This service spends a good ten minutes sat at New Street before going on to Walsall and so after looking on RTT I decided to bail there and do a Cross City service to my next required shack.
I bailed, went upstairs and found that I couldn’t get to platform 11 without going out through the barriers and back in again further on.
Genius.
Anyway, I got down to platform 11 and discovered the train was delayed, with no ETA, because of a failed freight.
Bah.
It was back upstairs, through one set of barriers, through the second set and back onto 170632.
Although I still need one coach of this unit I went back to the same one I had sat in from Tipton as it felt like cheating if I’d got on the required one!
The second new station of the day was
Aston and a short wait was had there before
323205 arrived, ostensibly on a Redditch service, although I knew it was unlikely to make it that far.
Sure enough, once at New Street the announcements began about the train not going beyond Northfield.
They were also announcing that services to Lichfield were all cancelled until further notice, so I elected to make my way over to a Liverpool service that was formed of required
350115.
I knew that the next service from Walsall was a required 323 and so I stayed on the 350 to Wolverhampton, where I knew I could purchase supplies, in order to return on another winner.
Sure enough
323240 produced as hoped and I took this to another new shack,
Witton.
323216 was next up and this was sample through to
Dudley Port.
I now had something different on the agenda and so my final winning 323,
323208 was taken for the short hop to Smethwick Galton Bridge.
323208 coming into Dudley Port:
EMU 323208_2016.03.05_Dudley Port by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
After heading upstairs it wasn’t a long fester before 172340 arrived to take me on to The Hawthorns and a bit of tram bashing.
If there’s anything guaranteed to increase your winnings in a short space of time it’s a stint on a tram network.
Especially when you’ve only had one of the current fleet before.
So, it was with some annoyance that I viewed the first arrival and it was the only one I’d previously had, number 30.
I let it go safe in the knowledge that the next one would be a winner.
It was
20 that produced, enabling me to score
The Hawthorns tram stop and shortly after
Dudley Street, Guns Village.
Consecutively numbered
21 was next up.
A winner approaches:
Birmingham Tram 21_2016.03.05_1_Dudley Street by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
I took this as far as
Trinity Way before 30 reappeared.
I contemplated flagging it but time was running out so I took it to
West Bromwhich Central to score the shack.
Winner
23 was next, to
Dartmouth Street.
Number 24 then arrived and my plan was to do this to The Hawthorns in order to make a 172 to Solihull so that I could cover the Chiltern 165 on the Leamington to Moor Street service as 165s provide by far the biggest list of my DMU requirements.
Sadly, my plan was put to bed when I boarded
24 and saw the ticket man stood next to a broken window and talking into his radio.
Apparently, some scrotes had just been chucking rocks at it and so the set was taken out of service at the next stop,
Lodge Road. It did mean I got an unexpected new shack in, mind.
I now had a quandary.
Everyone off 24 would be boarding the following service, which would make it too wedged for me, so I elected to head the other way
Dud 21 was taken to dud Dartmouth Street.
I had a look on RTT and calculated that my 165 plan could still come off.
Another dud, number 20, was taken and my last chance of getting to Solihull for the 165, a pair of 172/2s, pulled into The Hawthorns parallel with the tram.
Would I make it across in time?
Nope.
Never mind.
Winning tram
28 eased my pain by taking me to
Kenrick Park as compensation.
I could still make the 165 from Moor Street on its journey back to Leamington, but I had been hoping to get a ride in both coaches if it was a score.
My last tram of the day proved to be another requirement in the shape of
36 and I took this to Jewellery Quarter before heading over to dud for everything 172343 through to Moor Street.
In the event, I soon discovered that the 165 was a dud, although I needed one coach, so the ne’er do wells actions had lead to me scoring two more trams and a couple of tram stops.
Not that that makes it alright, of course.
I sat in coach 58820 of 165020, thus clearing the unit, back to Solihull and a stress free drive home, much better now that the roadworks have shrunk a bit.
I arrived home just as Mrs 13 was preparing tea and she had a surprise for me in that she had purchased crocodile burgers!
They turned out to be very nice.
So, in summary, six winning mainline units, the same number of new trams, four required stations and seven tram stops roped in.
Not too bad for an impromptu day out.
) and Dingle was done.
