A new millennium but the same old pastime 
This was a three man move and once again I'm indebted to 45135 for additional gen.
Things were starting to decline by this time and, although it was very enjoyable, there wasn't anything really spectacular.
So it seems that when I originally wrote it, I padded it out a bit with an inordinate amount of food and alcohol ingestion gen
Anyway, once we knew that the world hadn't come to a grinding halt at midnight on the 31st of December 1999, we could start preparing and this is what we did.
I have no photos of the move itself, so have included a few relevant shots in order to pad it out even further
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our next all liner took place in April 2000.
We decided to start the evening before, which was Tuesday the 11th, and get ourselves into position for a productive start.
Myself and one mate boarded 1v67 (18:05 Newcastle-Bristol) at Leeds with another mate boarding at Wakefield.
The first loco of our holiday being 47854.
We baled at Brum for some fish and chips and a Stafford ticket then did
87019 to International.
At International, 37415 was stood at the front of the Holyhead service
so we boarded and bagged a compo, good move-or so we thought.
We observed 47634 and 47712 on the front of a Euston - New Street service and then
settled down.
Just before departure the compartment door flew open and two drunken
Irishmen staggered in,
"Alright lads, any room for us?"
We departed on time and our new found friends began to regale us with tales
of friends and relatives who had either died of cancer or committed suicide!
Charming.
At Stafford our rovers became valid and one of our co-habitees went to
"find something to drink" - we never saw him again!
On arrival at Holyhead we had an hour and a quarter to kill so we
mooched around the station, observing the comings and goings of various
empty trains.
The service we were doing back was the 04:15 to Birmingham and the
train engine was an old friend of mine - 37429.
The return was uneventful as far as Crewe, we slept in the compo and
were not disturbed by anyone.
At Crewe, however, 37429 was removed from the train and replaced by 37401.
After we left Wolverhampton we passed through Bescot and caught sight
of our first 67(005).
At Brum we piled up to the Victoria cafe (the first call for us on
many a move that started at Birmingham) for a full English breakfast (well we were
on holiday) and then it was off to Scotland.
We staggered our journey to Scotland, getting 86231 BNS-Warrington,
87032 Warrington-Carlisle, pub lunch at Weatherspoons then 87021 to Glasgow.
We had some time to kill so we boarded 87032 for a trip to Motherwell. We
then did a spot of unit bashing, travelling on some 303s before they
disappeared from the scene.
We did 303034 Motherwell-Glasgow central low level. En route we passed
Motherwell depot and it's line up of withdrawn 37s.
We then did 303045 from low level to Partick for 320306 to Queen
Street.
From Glasgow we travelled on a pair of 156s (485/499) on the 18:12 service to
Fort William and Oban.
We bailed at Bridge of Orchy and visited the Bridge of Orchy Hotel for a few
pints before returning to the station and awaiting our trip on the "Fort
Bill beds".
The train duly arrived and we were all happy to see the relatively low
mileage 37411 on the front.
After checking in and depositing our baggage in our berths we visited the
lounge car were we partook of a glass of Glenfiddich.
We then retired to our beds.
I find it very relaxing, lying in bed listening to the sound of the jointed rail and feeling the sway of the coach.
On arrival at Euston we had to carry out two tasks, firstly we had to
identify the loco that had hauled us from Edinburgh - a result! 90018, a
requirement for one of the lads.
The second task was breakfast, we visited a small cafe next door to the
"Head of Steam" pub and partook of a "Breakfast Bap".
Suitably refreshed we set off in search of 73002, stored at Kirkdale
(Merseyside) and a machine that one of our party needed for sight.
To get to the right area of the country we jumped aboard 87016 which we
did throughout to Liverpool.
From Lime Street we went via Liverpool Central to Ormskirk (passing
Kirkdale and a derelict 73002 en-route), then to Chester via Central and
Hooton. The units involved were 507009, 507017, 507033 and 508138.
Here's 507017 a few years later:
EMU 507017_2005.05.25_4_Hightown by philwood55013, on Flickr
At Chester we had time to go for a quick drink before covering "The
Irish Mancunian" , the loco-hauled Holyhead to Manchester Piccadilly
service.
The traction for our trip was 37421.
The plan now was for us to go to our own homes for the night.
After arriving at Manchester we had to split up. One of the blokes had to go back
early as there was a poor bus service in the area where he lives.
He did a 158 over the Pennines while the two of us that remained travelled to Wolverhampton
(47812 Manchester-Macclesfield, 47854 Macclesfield-Stockport and 47841
Stockport-Wolves).
At Wolverhampton some tea was purchased and then we sampled 47701 back to
Manchester.
After 47701, we had the anti-climax of a 158 to Leeds (158907), I then
did 144006 to Wakefield where my Car was parked.
I started on the Friday by doing 321902 from Wakefield to Leeds, where I
met up with one of my mates. From here we did 308161 to Bradford Forster Square where
we met the third member of the trio.
Today's plan was to cover the Anglia 86s so we staked our claim on the
08:37 service to Kings Cross, sat back and relaxed. The loco for this
service was 91004 and it performed faultlessly to ensure an on-time arrival
at Kings Cross.
From Kings cross it was the underground to Liverpool Street,
lunch at the Weatherspoons pub there, then 86217 to Colchester.
Our usual move when hunting Anglia sparks was to cover Colchester-Ipswich.
We had bailed at Colchester on the northbound leg as we had seen 86221
stood at the buffer stops in Liverpool St. Both of my mates required 86221 and they were hoping that it would work the next down service.
It didn't.
We did do 86220, 86232 and 86235 Northbound and 86246, 86217 (again) and then 86205 through to Liverpool Street.
From Liverpool Street we did the underground to Paddington for the 18:33
service to Plymouth.
The train this evening was formed of loco+stock as the allocated tram had
failed.
This incident showed the truth in the statement "It's an ill wind that
blows nobody any good", more than 99% of people on the train were very
unhappy with this news but three blokes in coach A were quite chuffed.
There is no disputing that the train was wedged though.
As we headed West (the loco was 47811) we had to rely on other passengers
to keep us amused.
A particular favourite was the man who informed his girlfriend (via his mobile phone) that our original train had been replaced by "A steamer" and that he would ring again when the train reached "Tiverton Broadway".
After arrival at Plymouth we had a mooch round, observing, amongst other
things, brand new 67016 in the parcels bay.
We then took our places on the "Night Riviera" coach which stands at Plymouth for a couple of hours prior to departure.
The engine on the sleeper was 47830 and it got us into Paddington bang
on time.
Although none of us required any Gatwick Express 73s we decided to travel
on some as it would almost certainly be the last chance we got – or so we thought at the time!
With this in mind we did the tube across to Victoria and had a look around.
Sadly there were notices up informing people that services were half-hourly
rather than the usual quarter-hourly.
This meant that we could only really do one service as the wait for a
different loco at Gatwick would be too long for us.
We decided instead to go to Brighton, where we had time for some breakfast and then do
the 09:18 Brighton-Edinburgh "Sussex Scot"
We achieved this by doing 73206 on the first Gatwick that was available,
then 319435 to Brighton.
The loco on the 09:18 was 47831 and we, suitable replenished, took our
seats for the ride to Kensington Olympia.
The journey had an amusing moment when the train arrived at East
Croydon, with the guard announcing "This is not the Victoria service, this
train does not go to Victoria.", the train started moving and then people began exclaimed
"What do you mean it's not going to Victoria?"
The guard had obviously seen it all before and didn't bat an eye-lid, although I did hear some passengers complaining that it was the guards fault for mentioning Victoria at all!
Damned if you do and damned if you don't?
From Kensington we made our way to Milton Keynes on a variety of units
(313110, 313121, 321428 + 321429) as we had heard that 90146 was on the
Holyhead-Euston service and one of our party needed it.
The freightliner 90 appeared as promised and was duly done to Euston,
immediately followed by 87015 back to Milton Keynes.
At this point we had no firm plans on how we were going to make our
way home.
This all changed when EWS’ 90036 arrived on an up service.
We jumped aboard and set off to Euston.
Once in the capital we walked over to Kings cross and arrived just in time to see a Leeds service pulling out.
We decided that, rather than sit around waiting for the next Leeds
train we would just jump the first thing that stopped at Doncaster and
change there. This turned out to be 91017 which we left as planned at Donny
before catching 91026 on to Wakefield.
I started at Bradford on Sunday morning, having caught the bus to the
Interchange, I met one of the lads and we set off walking to Forster Square.
The first train we did was formed of 308145 which was on a Bradford - Leeds
service.
On arrival at Leeds, we met up with our mate and then waited the arrival of
the Sundays only Derby-Newcastle service.
When it appeared it had Fragonset 47712 on the front.
We did this to Newcastle and went to the "Head of Steam" for a roast
beef dinner, then it was back to the station and 91024 to Motherwell.
We had bailed at Motherwell in the hope of catching the following VWC service.
Unfortunately it was running very late.
When it did eventually appear (87024) time was getting a bit short (we
were going to Bridge of Orchy for the sleeper again) and we had about 20
minutes to purchase supplies and get across Glasgow.
A feat which we managed with room to spare.
The rest of the day was basically a repeat of Wednesday night -
156465+156449 on the Oban/Fort William portions, then to the pub for a
couple of pints, then back to the station to see what our nocturnal power
would be.
In the event it was 37419 which pulled into the station, bang on time.
After that it was a glass of whiskey followed by bed.
A good start to the day - the spark that had brought us from Edinburgh was 90031.
The week before we had started the move it had become apparent that the
highly required 37406 had moved to Cardiff for Valley line services.
It wasn't just me that needed it, we all did.
So, once we knew where it was we knew we couldn't ignore it.
Today was the day we were going to try and catch it.
The problem with going for the Rhymney services is that you had to endure
long tram mileages or, even worse, plastics.
In this case, though, we considered it worth the pain.
The journey from Euston to Bristol was via Milton Keynes, Euston (again)
and Birmingham (we had time to kill, even after our customary breakfast.).
Locos involved were 87019, 86260 and 87010.
From Birmingham we took 47845 forward to Bristol.
From here we took a short hop to Bristol Parkway on 43006 / 43062
From Parkway we did a fgw tram to Cardiff (43187 / 43016)
We were now in a position to see what would happen on the Rhymneys.
The first tractor came off the depot at about 16:40, it was obviously in
Regional Railways livery - it must be (and it was) 37420.
We stood around waiting for 420 to depart until 16:48 and then turned to look once more at the depot.
Slowly a triple grey 37 appeared from the depot and came to a stop.
Is it? Isn't it?
It is!!
We piled aboard 37406 and grabbed suitable areas to enjoy the thrash.
The train departed on time, 406 giving it some hammer up the bank to
Cardiff Central.
To say I was pleased would be an understatement, I hadn't just scored a
loco for haulage, I'd also cleared my 37/4s, just as they were starting to
disappear. Thirdly, it was my first score of the week.
Here she is a few years later, at the same location:
37406_2006.11.25_5_Cardiff by philwood55013, on Flickr
We now had to return to Birmingham and it was done like this : 143602 to
Cardiff, 43016/187(again) to Bristol Parkway, then 43063/43123 to New Street.
Once at New Street we had a bit of time to kill before we once again embarked on an overnight syphon bash.
We did 47851 followed by 47828 (Brum-Coventry and back) and 90014 to International.
Once at Birmingham International we boarded the train, headed by 37429
and grabbed our usual compo.
Just before departure we had a knock on the door and a voice spoke
those familiar words
" Alright lads, can I come in"
The thing about this chap was that he only had to go to Stafford,
which meant no chatter to Holyhead!
The other thing about him was his compulsion to "tell all". He said
that he had come back from a week in Belfast with his girlfriend. Meanwhile
he told his wife that he was working in Bulgaria!!
I can foresee problems for that fellow.
The last day!
It began at Holyhead with the 04:15 to Birmingham, which was powered by
37426.
After arriving at Birmingham we leapt on 86251 to Stafford, followed by
47840 to Stoke.
The next part of the move was to get to Euston, which we did via 90012
Stoke - Milton Keynes and then 87026 to Euston.
This is 87026 at Euston in 2006:
87026_2006.06.30_1_Euston by philwood55013, on Flickr
We then returned to the midlands on 86229 (to Coventry) and then headed back
down south on 87019.
At Milton Keynes we again reached a parting of the ways, one lad staying on
87019 and doing a 91 from Kings cross.
The two of us that remained had a more elaborate plan though; we piled back to Birmingham, on 86260, got some tea and did 47747 to Wolverhampton.
At this time there was a Virgin service that was booked a 158 but unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, a unit shortage had seen it go over to loco haulage.
It was booked to be top ‘n’ tail 47s and was a Portsmouth-Blackpool train, which we did from Wolves.
The loco on the business end was 47814, with 47841 DIT at the back.
We travelled on this all the way to Blackpool and then boarded 158775
for the last of the day's York runs, arriving at Bradford Interchange at
23:30.
And so we came to the end of another all-liner.
This was a three man move and once again I'm indebted to 45135 for additional gen.
Things were starting to decline by this time and, although it was very enjoyable, there wasn't anything really spectacular.
So it seems that when I originally wrote it, I padded it out a bit with an inordinate amount of food and alcohol ingestion gen
Anyway, once we knew that the world hadn't come to a grinding halt at midnight on the 31st of December 1999, we could start preparing and this is what we did.
I have no photos of the move itself, so have included a few relevant shots in order to pad it out even further
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our next all liner took place in April 2000.
We decided to start the evening before, which was Tuesday the 11th, and get ourselves into position for a productive start.
Myself and one mate boarded 1v67 (18:05 Newcastle-Bristol) at Leeds with another mate boarding at Wakefield.
The first loco of our holiday being 47854.
We baled at Brum for some fish and chips and a Stafford ticket then did
87019 to International.
At International, 37415 was stood at the front of the Holyhead service
so we boarded and bagged a compo, good move-or so we thought.
We observed 47634 and 47712 on the front of a Euston - New Street service and then
settled down.
Just before departure the compartment door flew open and two drunken
Irishmen staggered in,
"Alright lads, any room for us?"
We departed on time and our new found friends began to regale us with tales
of friends and relatives who had either died of cancer or committed suicide!
Charming.
At Stafford our rovers became valid and one of our co-habitees went to
"find something to drink" - we never saw him again!
On arrival at Holyhead we had an hour and a quarter to kill so we
mooched around the station, observing the comings and goings of various
empty trains.
The service we were doing back was the 04:15 to Birmingham and the
train engine was an old friend of mine - 37429.
The return was uneventful as far as Crewe, we slept in the compo and
were not disturbed by anyone.
At Crewe, however, 37429 was removed from the train and replaced by 37401.
After we left Wolverhampton we passed through Bescot and caught sight
of our first 67(005).
At Brum we piled up to the Victoria cafe (the first call for us on
many a move that started at Birmingham) for a full English breakfast (well we were
on holiday) and then it was off to Scotland.
We staggered our journey to Scotland, getting 86231 BNS-Warrington,
87032 Warrington-Carlisle, pub lunch at Weatherspoons then 87021 to Glasgow.
We had some time to kill so we boarded 87032 for a trip to Motherwell. We
then did a spot of unit bashing, travelling on some 303s before they
disappeared from the scene.
We did 303034 Motherwell-Glasgow central low level. En route we passed
Motherwell depot and it's line up of withdrawn 37s.
We then did 303045 from low level to Partick for 320306 to Queen
Street.
From Glasgow we travelled on a pair of 156s (485/499) on the 18:12 service to
Fort William and Oban.
We bailed at Bridge of Orchy and visited the Bridge of Orchy Hotel for a few
pints before returning to the station and awaiting our trip on the "Fort
Bill beds".
The train duly arrived and we were all happy to see the relatively low
mileage 37411 on the front.
After checking in and depositing our baggage in our berths we visited the
lounge car were we partook of a glass of Glenfiddich.
We then retired to our beds.
I find it very relaxing, lying in bed listening to the sound of the jointed rail and feeling the sway of the coach.
On arrival at Euston we had to carry out two tasks, firstly we had to
identify the loco that had hauled us from Edinburgh - a result! 90018, a
requirement for one of the lads.
The second task was breakfast, we visited a small cafe next door to the
"Head of Steam" pub and partook of a "Breakfast Bap".
Suitably refreshed we set off in search of 73002, stored at Kirkdale
(Merseyside) and a machine that one of our party needed for sight.
To get to the right area of the country we jumped aboard 87016 which we
did throughout to Liverpool.
From Lime Street we went via Liverpool Central to Ormskirk (passing
Kirkdale and a derelict 73002 en-route), then to Chester via Central and
Hooton. The units involved were 507009, 507017, 507033 and 508138.
Here's 507017 a few years later:
EMU 507017_2005.05.25_4_Hightown by philwood55013, on FlickrAt Chester we had time to go for a quick drink before covering "The
Irish Mancunian" , the loco-hauled Holyhead to Manchester Piccadilly
service.
The traction for our trip was 37421.
The plan now was for us to go to our own homes for the night.
After arriving at Manchester we had to split up. One of the blokes had to go back
early as there was a poor bus service in the area where he lives.
He did a 158 over the Pennines while the two of us that remained travelled to Wolverhampton
(47812 Manchester-Macclesfield, 47854 Macclesfield-Stockport and 47841
Stockport-Wolves).
At Wolverhampton some tea was purchased and then we sampled 47701 back to
Manchester.
After 47701, we had the anti-climax of a 158 to Leeds (158907), I then
did 144006 to Wakefield where my Car was parked.
I started on the Friday by doing 321902 from Wakefield to Leeds, where I
met up with one of my mates. From here we did 308161 to Bradford Forster Square where
we met the third member of the trio.
Today's plan was to cover the Anglia 86s so we staked our claim on the
08:37 service to Kings Cross, sat back and relaxed. The loco for this
service was 91004 and it performed faultlessly to ensure an on-time arrival
at Kings Cross.
From Kings cross it was the underground to Liverpool Street,
lunch at the Weatherspoons pub there, then 86217 to Colchester.
Our usual move when hunting Anglia sparks was to cover Colchester-Ipswich.
We had bailed at Colchester on the northbound leg as we had seen 86221
stood at the buffer stops in Liverpool St. Both of my mates required 86221 and they were hoping that it would work the next down service.
It didn't.
We did do 86220, 86232 and 86235 Northbound and 86246, 86217 (again) and then 86205 through to Liverpool Street.
From Liverpool Street we did the underground to Paddington for the 18:33
service to Plymouth.
The train this evening was formed of loco+stock as the allocated tram had
failed.
This incident showed the truth in the statement "It's an ill wind that
blows nobody any good", more than 99% of people on the train were very
unhappy with this news but three blokes in coach A were quite chuffed.
There is no disputing that the train was wedged though.
As we headed West (the loco was 47811) we had to rely on other passengers
to keep us amused.
A particular favourite was the man who informed his girlfriend (via his mobile phone) that our original train had been replaced by "A steamer" and that he would ring again when the train reached "Tiverton Broadway".
After arrival at Plymouth we had a mooch round, observing, amongst other
things, brand new 67016 in the parcels bay.
We then took our places on the "Night Riviera" coach which stands at Plymouth for a couple of hours prior to departure.
The engine on the sleeper was 47830 and it got us into Paddington bang
on time.
Although none of us required any Gatwick Express 73s we decided to travel
on some as it would almost certainly be the last chance we got – or so we thought at the time!
With this in mind we did the tube across to Victoria and had a look around.
Sadly there were notices up informing people that services were half-hourly
rather than the usual quarter-hourly.
This meant that we could only really do one service as the wait for a
different loco at Gatwick would be too long for us.
We decided instead to go to Brighton, where we had time for some breakfast and then do
the 09:18 Brighton-Edinburgh "Sussex Scot"
We achieved this by doing 73206 on the first Gatwick that was available,
then 319435 to Brighton.
The loco on the 09:18 was 47831 and we, suitable replenished, took our
seats for the ride to Kensington Olympia.
The journey had an amusing moment when the train arrived at East
Croydon, with the guard announcing "This is not the Victoria service, this
train does not go to Victoria.", the train started moving and then people began exclaimed
"What do you mean it's not going to Victoria?"
The guard had obviously seen it all before and didn't bat an eye-lid, although I did hear some passengers complaining that it was the guards fault for mentioning Victoria at all!
Damned if you do and damned if you don't?
From Kensington we made our way to Milton Keynes on a variety of units
(313110, 313121, 321428 + 321429) as we had heard that 90146 was on the
Holyhead-Euston service and one of our party needed it.
The freightliner 90 appeared as promised and was duly done to Euston,
immediately followed by 87015 back to Milton Keynes.
At this point we had no firm plans on how we were going to make our
way home.
This all changed when EWS’ 90036 arrived on an up service.
We jumped aboard and set off to Euston.
Once in the capital we walked over to Kings cross and arrived just in time to see a Leeds service pulling out.
We decided that, rather than sit around waiting for the next Leeds
train we would just jump the first thing that stopped at Doncaster and
change there. This turned out to be 91017 which we left as planned at Donny
before catching 91026 on to Wakefield.
I started at Bradford on Sunday morning, having caught the bus to the
Interchange, I met one of the lads and we set off walking to Forster Square.
The first train we did was formed of 308145 which was on a Bradford - Leeds
service.
On arrival at Leeds, we met up with our mate and then waited the arrival of
the Sundays only Derby-Newcastle service.
When it appeared it had Fragonset 47712 on the front.
We did this to Newcastle and went to the "Head of Steam" for a roast
beef dinner, then it was back to the station and 91024 to Motherwell.
We had bailed at Motherwell in the hope of catching the following VWC service.
Unfortunately it was running very late.
When it did eventually appear (87024) time was getting a bit short (we
were going to Bridge of Orchy for the sleeper again) and we had about 20
minutes to purchase supplies and get across Glasgow.
A feat which we managed with room to spare.
The rest of the day was basically a repeat of Wednesday night -
156465+156449 on the Oban/Fort William portions, then to the pub for a
couple of pints, then back to the station to see what our nocturnal power
would be.
In the event it was 37419 which pulled into the station, bang on time.
After that it was a glass of whiskey followed by bed.
A good start to the day - the spark that had brought us from Edinburgh was 90031.
The week before we had started the move it had become apparent that the
highly required 37406 had moved to Cardiff for Valley line services.
It wasn't just me that needed it, we all did.
So, once we knew where it was we knew we couldn't ignore it.
Today was the day we were going to try and catch it.
The problem with going for the Rhymney services is that you had to endure
long tram mileages or, even worse, plastics.
In this case, though, we considered it worth the pain.
The journey from Euston to Bristol was via Milton Keynes, Euston (again)
and Birmingham (we had time to kill, even after our customary breakfast.).
Locos involved were 87019, 86260 and 87010.
From Birmingham we took 47845 forward to Bristol.
From here we took a short hop to Bristol Parkway on 43006 / 43062
From Parkway we did a fgw tram to Cardiff (43187 / 43016)
We were now in a position to see what would happen on the Rhymneys.
The first tractor came off the depot at about 16:40, it was obviously in
Regional Railways livery - it must be (and it was) 37420.
We stood around waiting for 420 to depart until 16:48 and then turned to look once more at the depot.
Slowly a triple grey 37 appeared from the depot and came to a stop.
Is it? Isn't it?
It is!!
We piled aboard 37406 and grabbed suitable areas to enjoy the thrash.
The train departed on time, 406 giving it some hammer up the bank to
Cardiff Central.
To say I was pleased would be an understatement, I hadn't just scored a
loco for haulage, I'd also cleared my 37/4s, just as they were starting to
disappear. Thirdly, it was my first score of the week.
Here she is a few years later, at the same location:
37406_2006.11.25_5_Cardiff by philwood55013, on FlickrWe now had to return to Birmingham and it was done like this : 143602 to
Cardiff, 43016/187(again) to Bristol Parkway, then 43063/43123 to New Street.
Once at New Street we had a bit of time to kill before we once again embarked on an overnight syphon bash.
We did 47851 followed by 47828 (Brum-Coventry and back) and 90014 to International.
Once at Birmingham International we boarded the train, headed by 37429
and grabbed our usual compo.
Just before departure we had a knock on the door and a voice spoke
those familiar words
" Alright lads, can I come in"
The thing about this chap was that he only had to go to Stafford,
which meant no chatter to Holyhead!
The other thing about him was his compulsion to "tell all". He said
that he had come back from a week in Belfast with his girlfriend. Meanwhile
he told his wife that he was working in Bulgaria!!
I can foresee problems for that fellow.
The last day!
It began at Holyhead with the 04:15 to Birmingham, which was powered by
37426.
After arriving at Birmingham we leapt on 86251 to Stafford, followed by
47840 to Stoke.
The next part of the move was to get to Euston, which we did via 90012
Stoke - Milton Keynes and then 87026 to Euston.
This is 87026 at Euston in 2006:
87026_2006.06.30_1_Euston by philwood55013, on FlickrWe then returned to the midlands on 86229 (to Coventry) and then headed back
down south on 87019.
At Milton Keynes we again reached a parting of the ways, one lad staying on
87019 and doing a 91 from Kings cross.
The two of us that remained had a more elaborate plan though; we piled back to Birmingham, on 86260, got some tea and did 47747 to Wolverhampton.
At this time there was a Virgin service that was booked a 158 but unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, a unit shortage had seen it go over to loco haulage.
It was booked to be top ‘n’ tail 47s and was a Portsmouth-Blackpool train, which we did from Wolves.
The loco on the business end was 47814, with 47841 DIT at the back.
We travelled on this all the way to Blackpool and then boarded 158775
for the last of the day's York runs, arriving at Bradford Interchange at
23:30.
And so we came to the end of another all-liner.
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