Thanks, we were a bit peeved at the time, but in retrospect we both have great memories of the whole trip.
That was then, this is now and a more contemporary trip needs reporting, so here we go.
Another month, another annual leave day taken and once more I was London bound.
Luckily I had managed to get a cheap-ish seat on my train of choice, the 07.13 from Wakefield.
This is pretty much solidly a 91 and after a year of mixed fortunes (despite all my London trips, I’ve only had three so far in 2016 – although they were my three lowest mileage ones) I was hoping it would be a sub thousand miles machine.
As the train approached the station I saw a DVT was leading, hurrah it’s not a HST.
82224 was on the front and the loco was 91102!
Bah, my highest mileage one.
By the time I got to Kings Cross 91102 was on 1803.67 miles, so 2000 is a distinct possibility.
On the journey South I had pondered my moves and decided to head East.
I was going to top up my 321s but otherwise it would be my usual haphazard approach which should hopefully gain me some winning units and one or two new shacks.
Time was of the essence. So I made my way over to St Pancras and dud 395006 for the five minute or so run to Stratford International.
The Docklands Light Railway provided me with my first winners,
134 &
127, as well as my first new shack because I stayed on until
Stratford High Street before going back to Stratford on
08 &
77.
It was on to the mainline now and my desire to get some 321s was immediately sated when
321355 and
321307 were boarded for a run to Liverpool Street.
More of the same followed, with
321432 and
321338 being my transport to Romford.
My intention was to wait twenty-five minutes for another pair back but as is so often the case I got distracted.
Dud 317887 was working the Upminster shuttles and I decided a dud unit was the ideal way to get a shack that had intrigued me for a while.
It’s only a mile and a bit to
Emerson Park and if it was a required unit I would have been tempted to stay on to Upminster for the mileage.
No such worries here and so the only intermediate station on the line was roped in.
I love the rural look of this location:
EMU 317887_2016.09.09_2_Emerson Park by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
Obviously I had missed the 321s I had planned on getting and didn’t fancy a fester so it was the first thing South, which was dud 315838 leading required
315859.
These were taken to Liverpool Street.
A couple of Shenfield line shacks were now on my agenda.
Winners
315849 &
315856 took me to
Goodmayes and they were followed by
315860 &
315837 to
Brentwood.
315860, with 321316 in the background, approaching Goodmayes:
EMU 315860_2016.09.09_1_Goodmayes_& 321316 by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
As is my usual practice I then did the same two sets back south, riding in the unit I hadn’t used on the North-bound runs.
I’m not a massive fan of the lines out of Liverpool Street and fancied a change at this point.
315837 & 315860 were left behind at Stratford and I made my way round to
Stratford High Level (DLR), leaving me just the Jubilee Line platforms to have cleared the numerous different sections of Stratford station.
93 &
81 were enjoyed all the way to their terminating station of
Canary Wharf.
Further DLR scores followed as I took triple winners
02,
37 &
36 to
Greenwich (DLR) and then the same three back to
Cutty Sark.
Hello again:
DLR 36_2016.09.09_Greenwich_& 37 & 02 by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
It seemed a bit daft to leave a short stretch of that line undone and so it was
38,
55 &
88 to
Lewisham and then the same three back, after moving from 55 to 38, meaning 88 will have to wait to be ridden in.
I did these to
West India Quay because I wanted to do the fantastically short run from there to Canary wharf – 10 chains.
24 and
59 did the deed and it only remained for me to leave 59, touch my Oyster on the reader and board 24 before I headed back to Stratford.
By this time I had achieved most of my rather vague aims for the day, only winning 317s eluded me, so it was into Liverpool Street on winner
315845, which was leading dud 315833.
I mooched up and down, looking for a likely candidate and my eyes happened upon a single unit working an Ely service.
317651 was duly enjoyed to Cheshunt before a pair,
317512 and
317658 arrived to whisk me back to Liverpool Street.
Rush hour was now taking hold and so I wanted to be away from the throng as soon as possible.
Nice winner
317509 provided me with the opportunity. 317509 had been my last member of the class required for sight and it was several years after seeing my penultimate one before I finally copped it at Cambridge in 2014.
This was a Cheshunt via Edmonton Green service and it was paired with dud 317881.
I stayed on these throughout to Cheshunt and arrived just after 18.00.
Another pair of 317s followed (my figures for these are starting to look almost respectable), with winner
317650 the rear unit of a pair working a Bishop Stortford to Stratford service.
317503 was on the front, not required but on our previous meeting it had gone by the number 317303, so it had been a while.
I did these to Stratford and began the journey home.
Unusually I wasn’t booked on the 20.05 off Kings Cross, as there had been no cheap tickets available, so I was on the 20.35.
This meant there was less stress on getting back although I do like to make sure I’m at the Cross in plenty of time as an hour early beats five minutes late when it comes to getting my train home.
With this in mind I had looked on RTT and seen there were several services from Stratford International to St Pancras between 19.00 and 19.30 and so I made my way there.
My final run on the DLR was provided by
131 &
152, naturally from Stratford Low Level to Stratford International.
I was prepared to wait a while for a winning 395 but I didn’t need to as the first one that arrive fitted the bill nicely.
This was
395018 and it took me from an enjoyable day to the chaos and frustration of Kings Cross.
I was inside the station by 19.20, a bit early but it gave me time to get some supplies.
I looked on RTT and it boldly stated that the 20.35 was on time and was already in the platform.
I mooched down and viewed the loco, 91130, which was nice as it sits on 980 miles, so would join the thousand-mile club.
Or not.
RTT might tell me that it’s on time, but the display on the station told a different story.
The 20.35 to Leeds was expected to depart at 21.10.
Bugger.
Obviously I was aware of the situation at Retford but was hoping that my train would be unaffected.
Either that or I would get some bonus 67 haulage through Lincolnshire.
I surmised that it was going to be a HST vice the 91 and the announcements backed this up as the repeated message was that the in-coming train had not yet arrived.
Annoyingly, my usual train, the 20.05, left on time.
Eventually the train was announced and everyone ran round.
As expected it was a HST, with the rear power car being 43307.
I had a reserved seat in coach M, a long way from the front, so I just didn’t have time to get the front power car.
Incredibly frustrating.
We actually left at 21.00, so only twenty-five late, although the diversion we were going to do around Retford would mean a much later than planned arrival.
The Wi-Fi wasn’t working and my signal was a bit intermittent but I did manage to fire off a quick posting to the TOPs request thread, although no reply as yet.
To make matters worse, I’ve done a bit of digging and found that 43307 was working with 43305 on Wednesday but 43302 on Saturday, so it could have been either.
If anyone can say definitively what it was with on Friday I would be most grateful.
The diversion didn’t even provide something different to see as it was dark
Arrival at Wakefield was at 23.51, some seventy-one minutes later than it said on my ticket.
Despite a rapid walk when I got off, I was still five coaches from the front when the train started moving, so I was unable to ID the front power car.
In conclusion, a very enjoyable day, bar the obvious, with no less than 32 requirements (16 mainline and 16 DLR) ticked off as well as 10 new shacks, all except three on the DLR.
I’m just 44 winners short of my target for year and with, hopefully, a few more winners (including a new class of loco) to come before September’s out I think I’ll do it
The ride through the Alps must have been exciting though, not many chances you get to do such a thing.
91125_2016.09.17_Shipley by Phil Wood, on Flickr
DSCN0642 by Ruth Wood, on Flickr
DSCN0866 by Ruth Wood, on Flickr
DSCN0893 by Ruth Wood, on Flickr
