Good read though, no doubt those festers were a little cooler than when I did the shacks in the July heatwave. Remember absolutely roasting on the platform at Hutton Cranswick!
Thanks.
It was cold, but I must admit to preferring cold and dry to warm and sticky any time (cold and wet isn't much fun, though!).
There's always the land trains...
I believe at least one of them is dud :grin:
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December is tricky for decent moves, largely due to some event that takes place near the end of the month and causes huge increases in crowds in the weeks leading up to it.
With this in mind, my monthly day out was always going to be at the start; so it was on Fri the 2nd that I embarked on my last trip of the year to London.
Luckily I had managed to get a cheap seat on the 07.13 from Wakefield, which was nice.
Even luckier, it was low mileage 91114 that was providing the power.
My reservation was in coach C but as there was someone else sitting in the adjacent seat I went through to nearly empty, unreserved, coach D.
I knew there were no further stops so I wasn’t going to deprive anybody of a seat.
I sat on the right until after Doncaster in order to view the GBRF locos parked up South of the station.
Unfortunately it was still dark, so I saw a few dim shapes but nothing identifiable

After that I move to the left to see what was on Peterborough.
Happily it was light by this time and I scored 66771 for sight.
Durham Cathedral at Kings Cross:
91114_2016.12.02_2_Kings Cross by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
My aim for today was more 315s as I think the end could well be nigh for these workhorses.
With money being a bit tighter at this time of year I decided to forego the 395 move that I’ve done on my previous couple of trips to the East End.
It was down to the underground and
21486 to Liverpool Street.
Although I was after the Peps I also fancied bumping up my 317 and 321 numbers so when faced with a choice of dud 315816 or a required 317/7 I plumped for the latter.
317732 became only my fourth member of the subclass for haulage as I took it to Cheshunt.
This was the rear unit with dud 317889 leading.
EMU 317732_2016.12.02_Cheshunt by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
I just missed a required 317 on a Statford service so chose to do the next thing back to Liverpool Street, which just happened to be a winning pair of 379s.
The fact that I’ve spent most of my time in that part of the capital chasing the older types meant that I’d only previously had four members of the class, so adding
379011 and
379012 to my list was a bonus.
Once back at the terminus it was over to the TFL platforms as it seems to me that it’s their 315s that are likely to disappear first.
The next service to depart had unrequired 315834 on the rear so I made my way to the front unit.
This was a winner,
315827, so was duly boarded.
Not needing any of the stations on the Shenfield line meant that I decided that winning units was to be my priority.
EMU 315834_2016.12.02_Gidea Park by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
Most of the journey to Gidea Park was spent watching for the other sets and trying to compile a full list so I knew what to aim for.
I had partial success with this and had spotted a couple of requirements so a plan started to come together.
My fester at Gidea Park was fairly short as one of the sets that I hadn’t observed turned up with another winner.
315823, which had 315833 on the front, was employed to take me back to Liverpool Street.
I knew that the next couple of departures were dud pairings so I mooched around to see what else was available.
A nice required 321 was spotted on a train that stopped at Romford and just had to be done (my chasing of 315s and 317s has meant that my 321 numbers remain appallingly low).
321422 was the unit in question.
After this it was back to 315s.
By now I knew most of the pairings that were out and knew that six wanted units still remained, two of which were running together.
A series of moves that would get all six for decent runs had been calculated.
After leaving 321422 I watched a couple of dud pairings go before my first target,
315848 arrived, running with 315819.
These took me to Brentwood where I hung about for a bit before doing them back to Romford (thus saving the extra ching in going to Shenfield).
Another winner was running behind these and was taken through to Liverpool Street.
This was
315821, which was paired with 315849.
I had a bit of a wait now as my remaining four units were on consecutive services.
Getting all four for ten miles required a bit of thought but I had managed to work out how to do it.
315855 was first, running with 315822, to Romford.
315830 followed for a short run to Harold Wood.
315830’s companion was 315844.
Next up was the wanted pair,
315820 and
315839.
I sat in the former as far as Brentwood where I left in order to meet back up with 315844 and 315830 which I took as far as Goodmayes in order to get 830 past the ten mile mark.
That target was still achievable for 820 and 839 as well and I achieved it by going in the latter from Goodmayes to Liverpool Street.
With eight new TFL 315s in the bag, leaving me seven to clear; I was happy to flag the ones that had come out for rush hour, avoid the wedge-fest and do something different.
Double winners
317504 and
317505 were different enough for me and I could do them to a new shack.
Broxbourne was my first new station of the day, although I didn’t stay long as it was over the footbridge and on to
317656 for a run to Tottenham Hale.
It was now time to head home, so it was down to shack score number two,
Tottenham Hale (LU) for
11045 back to Kings Cross.
Obviously I was hoping for another low mileage 91 home so wasn’t disappointed when I saw it was the same loco as this morning.
Even after today’s 350 mile round trip 91114 remains below a thousand miles, although it’s within touching distance now

In summary, my last big move of the year gave me seventeen winners for haulage and a couple of new stations.
Not too shabby, I feel.