Ive been extremely busy of late and havent managed to get on the forum much in the last month or so.
Unfortunately, Im currently stricken with a chest infection and can barely walk more than a few yards, therefore Im off work sick.
The upside of this is that I can sit at a computer and catch up on the forum goings-on.
I can also update my own reports with some witterings about our recent holiday.
As is our tradition Mrs 13 and I had booked a week in January at a Landmark Trust property; this time it was in a house overlooking the structure that gives the town of Ironbridge its name- the worlds very first iron bridge.
Our break began on Friday the 20th and we made our way down from Bradford via Nottingham.
You may think that Nottingham is a strange place to go through on a journey from Yorkshire to Shropshire but we had a very good reason for doing it this way.
My wifes best friend lives there and she had a hip replacement operation in the City Hospital on Thursday the 19th.
Mrs 13 was desperate to visit her and I was happy to make the detour.
My willingness to go along with this had nothing whatsoever to do with the presence of a tram network (actually, it didnt, that was just a bonus).
It had been many years since I had visited the NET system.
When I first started seeing my wife she lived in Long Eaton and I was working permanent nights.
My fortnightly rota was Monday to Wednesday nights one week and Monday to Thursday the next.
I would go home after my last shift, get a few hours kip then drive down to Derby, where she worked, to pick her up.
I would then spend the weekend in Long Eaton before heading back to work on Monday.
On my shorter week I would collect her on Thursday and then drop her off at work on Friday morning, giving me several hours in which to amuse myself.
Even though I wasnt into trams as such, I had never been on that system and it was a nice, cheap (£2.10 for a day ticket back then) way to kill some time.
Over a number of such visits I managed to get all fifteen of the trams then in operation.
Move forward well over a decade and I havent returned since those heady courting days.
The network has increased and there are 22 new trams for me to get.
As it was, I actually had 25 on my list.
Not for the first time my poor record keeping had come into play.
Not being that interested in trams back then meant that I had often not noted them down at all.
Last year I had a rummage through my garage and found a few old notebooks which proved a treasure trove of DMU, EMU and HST information.
One of them also contained a couple of NET moves.
These moves recorded trips on all bar three sets, 201, 205 and 207.
That made life a bit easier when I paid my return visit.
On the day itself we drove to Phoenix Park, the same place I used to go after dropping my good lady off at work in the old days.
I had done my research and found that there is a frequent free bus from Wilkinson Street which serves both of Nottinghams major hospitals, so it was obviously there we went, on my first new NET tram in thirteen years,
226.
We both alighted there and between us we located the appropriate bus stop.
A time of two hours was agreed and off I went tram bashing.
I had in mind a bit of shack scratching and the stop at the top of my list was, as is often the case, the one with the silliest name.
My chariot from Wilkinson Street was one of the original fifteen, but not just any of them it was one of my wanted three and finally
205 had a recorded move.
I took this through the city centre and left it behind at
ng2.
Catchy name, or what?
The moves that I had located from 2004 meant that many of the stops West of the erstwhile Station Street were dud so I decided to get a few more of them out of the way.
This also meant I was the right side of the city for my rendezvous with Mrs 13.
It was outright winner
220 that took me to
Bulwell Forest where I took the opportunity to visit the local Tesco for a PNB and to purchase some pop.
220 arrives at ng2:
Nottingham Tram 220_2017.01.20_1_ng2 by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
I arrived back just in time to join 220 once again, this time taking it for the short run to
Bulwell (which turned out to be nearer to the Tesco I had just been to than Bulwell Forest).
Consecutively numbered
219 was up next, to
Butlers Hill and time was running out.
I only needed one more stop on the Hucknall branch, Moor Bridge, but that would have to wait for another day.
I arrived at our meeting point at Wilkinson Street exactly at the appointed time.
There was, however, no sign of my wife.
I phoned her.
She informed me that she was currently lost inside the hospital and once she found the bus stop it was a good ten minute journey to Wilkinson Street and I might as well do some more trams.
This might seem like good news but I was a bit irked as it was coming up to four oclock and I wasnt relishing the drive to Shropshire in Friday rush hour traffic.
Nevertheless, I had to make the best of it.
As mentioned I needed one stop on the Hucknall line but I also needed one on the Phoenix Park branch so I decided to get the first requirement that was heading West and rope in whichever one was appropriate.
I was pretty pleased when I saw it was another of the big three,
207 that arrived heading to Phoenix Park and so it was
Cinderhill that got ticked off my list.
If I was pretty pleased with 207 I was overjoyed when the final member of my most wanted trio,
201 followed it four minutes later.
This was heading in the same direction and so I took it for the short leap to Phoenix Park.
When I had done the NET back in its more constricted days one of the platforms at the terminus was only used very occasionally.
As a result I had only done the other one.
201 arrived before 207 had left, meaning both platforms were in use.
I had no problem leaping from the former to the latter and thus getting a new platform in
I left 207 at Cinderhill as I wanted a longer run on 201 and all the stops between there and Wilkinson Street were dud.
207 leaves Cinderhill:
Nottingham Tram 207_2017.01.20_2_Cinderhill by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
This time my wife arrived at Wilkinson Street just a minute or two after me and it was back to the Phoenix Park and the car on board
225.
All in all a very productive couple of hours, with all three of the original trams that I have failed to previously record, four brand new ones and five new stops.
All because a ladys hip operation coincided with the start of our holiday.
I was expecting the drive to Ironbridge to be a nightmare and you know what?
It was.
Standing traffic on both the M42 and the M6 due to accidents meant a late arrival at our holiday home.
We were tired but both, in our own ways, very satisfied.
Over the following week trains and, indeed, more trams were to feature but Ill come to them in due course.
