Back on the platform

[Kite159]

An excellent day all in all

 

[gtis]

Nice report really glad you liked your trip to south Yorkshire looking forward to read your next journey
I quite fancy Peterborough myself
Neil

 

[palmersears]

Lovely stuff, 206 winners is bloody good going!

You'll enjoy Brum and Reading, plenty of variety. Just be aware you'll need to do plenty of walking at both!

If you're going to try and do Anglia alongside Peterborough then you need to set aside a full day (we're taking first possible train from Stafford and last train back) as you need to visit both Norwich and Ipswich to grab all the possible Anglian stuff.

I also don't think you necessarily need to confine yourself purely to Clapham Junction when you go to London. An hour or two on the Southern side and then the same on the SWR side will do, after that the duds pile up pretty quickly. World is your oyster but I'd go for London Bridge, Bethnal Green, Stratford or West Hampstead Thameslink. Depends how long you plan on spending in the capital though to be honest.

Leeds is another where you need to get your walking shoes on!

 

[03_179]

I enjoyed reading this. Reminds me when I got back into it over the past few years.

 

[47403]

Well Mr Train, a cracking read that mate and a very very productive day for the book of sights. 206 new sights is a tremendous haul. Roped in a fair few blunts(91s) there too and you keep nabbing GB sheds I'm after for sight too. Not that I'm bitter, they'll be here long enough to eventually catch up with.
Some canny trips lined up there. I like Man Picc and Reading is on my to do list too.
Invest in a dictaphone if your going to Clapham jct and incorporate it with a trip to Wandsworth Road, Stratford and Ealing Broadway for freight.
The local maybe a let down after that lot though.

 

[Skymonster]

206 - very impressive, even if it did include a few coaches / wagons!

As for your next trip, I think Reading is an excellent idea although I'm not sure you'd get that much out of Birmingham New Street. A lot of the traffic is Cross Country (some 170s, as well as 220/221s) and Virgin West Coast (221/390s), London Northwestern (350s). Yes, you will also pick up a few West Midlands Railway 323s and 170s as well as one or to Welsh 158s but in two hours they will only represent a start rather than major inroads. Instead I might be tempted to walk over to Moor Street where in two hours you could get the majority of the WMR 172s as well as a few Chilterns. Maybe I am biased though, because I dislike New Street!

As to your other ideas, Peterborough is like Doncaster except the Northern / Trans Penine are replaced by Great Northern (700s and maybe a few 365s) and a few Greater Anglia 170s. Given you've already broken the back of the LNER fleet, I think you'd need to mix Peterborough with somewhere else (maybe Norwich as suggested) to make it a profitable outing.

I think Manchester is a great idea, although extending it to Leeds too in a single day is maybe asking too much if your primary aim is maximising sightings - there's a lot of units to get around Picadilly and Victoria. Perhaps instead of combining Manchester and Leeds, do just the Manchester area for a day and then make a separate trip to Sheffield and Leeds (perhaps during the RHTT season if you really want to catch the 20s out and about)? I think Manchester is likely to be more profitable to you than Sheffield and Leeds. Having said that, others may have different opinions...

 

[03_179]

206 - very impressive, even if it did include a few coaches / wagons!

As for your next trip, I think Reading is an excellent idea although I'm not sure you'd get that much out of Birmingham New Street. A lot of the traffic is Cross Country (some 170s, as well as 220/221s) and Virgin West Coast (221/390s), London Northwestern (350s). Yes, you will also pick up a few West Midlands Railway 323s and 170s as well as one or to Welsh 158s but in two hours they will only represent a start rather than major inroads. Instead I might be tempted to walk over to Moor Street where in two hours you could get the majority of the WMR 172s as well as a few Chilterns. Maybe I am biased though, because I dislike New Street!

As to your other ideas, Peterborough is like Doncaster except the Northern / Trans Penine are replaced by Great Northern (700s and maybe a few 365s) and a few Greater Anglia 170s. Given you've already broken the back of the LNER fleet, I think you'd need to mix Peterborough with somewhere else (maybe Norwich as suggested) to make it a profitable outing.

I think Manchester is a great idea, although extending it to Leeds too in a single day is maybe asking too much if your primary aim is maximising sightings - there's a lot of units to get around Picadilly and Victoria. Perhaps instead of combining Manchester and Leeds, do just the Manchester area for a day and then make a separate trip to Sheffield and Leeds (perhaps during the RHTT season if you really want to catch the 20s out and about)? I think Manchester is likely to be more profitable to you than Sheffield and Leeds. Having said that, others may have different opinions...

Or Ely ?

 

[Kite159]

Peterborough will also get you EMT units (both 158s on Norwich/Centre of the Universe services plus 153/156s on Peterborough - Sleafords), XC 170s on the hourly Stansted Airport services & the 2-hourly GA 170s (which IIRC there is only 2 units on those services)

Reading will be a good day out, especially if you come in from the Oxford direction passing the depot where during the day there is a lot of 387s stabled

 

[The_Train]

If you're going to try and do Anglia alongside Peterborough then you need to set aside a full day (we're taking first possible train from Stafford and last train back) as you need to visit both Norwich and Ipswich to grab all the possible Anglian stuff.

I also don't think you necessarily need to confine yourself purely to Clapham Junction when you go to London. An hour or two on the Southern side and then the same on the SWR side will do, after that the duds pile up pretty quickly. World is your oyster but I'd go for London Bridge, Bethnal Green, Stratford or West Hampstead Thameslink. Depends how long you plan on spending in the capital though to be honest.

Is Peterborough mixed with Norwich and Ipswich a worthwhile day or will there be too much time travelling? If it's the latter then maybe I should do Norwich and Ipswich as a separate day and try and mix somewhere else into a day at Peterborough. I've got plenty of time to think this over as it won't be for a while considering how much of the LNER stuff I got at Donny.

As for Clapham, I'd assumed it would repeat quickly but wasn't too sure. Mixing a day with Stratford is quite tempting to be honest. Is London Bridge a terminus?

 

[The_Train]

Well Mr Train, a cracking read that mate and a very very productive day for the book of sights. 206 new sights is a tremendous haul. Roped in a fair few blunts(91s) there too and you keep nabbing GB sheds I'm after for sight too. Not that I'm bitter, they'll be here long enough to eventually catch up with.
Some canny trips lined up there. I like Man Picc and Reading is on my to do list too.
Invest in a dictaphone if your going to Clapham jct and incorporate it with a trip to Wandsworth Road, Stratford and Ealing Broadway for freight.
The local maybe a let down after that lot though.

Thanks mate, I was certainly amazed when I'd put everything into SpotLog (I go old fashioned with pen and paper on full days out now to manage my phone battery) and it registered over 200 winners. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that I'd bagged 23 of the 31 blunts....just makes trips to the ECML all the more difficult now haha.

Your idea for Clapham sounds interesting. Would trips to those stations fall under the ticketing those Londoners use?

 

[03_179]

London Bridge is both a through and a termini. Southern stuff terminate on the high number platfor,ms and the Southeastern ones are on the lower number platforms (Charing Cross and Cannon Street) and they can repeat quickly too.

Stratford is very busy and you'll get caught up in it all at time if noting all units, locos, DVT and carriage numbers.

Both Clapham and Stratford can get repeats quickly (in and out of the terminal) but the longer distance ones don't ... bit like the LNERs on the ECML.

 

[The_Train]

Reading will be a good day out, especially if you come in from the Oxford direction passing the depot where during the day there is a lot of 387s stabled

Yeah I'm keen to get there so hoping to sort it out for some time in the next 3 weeks. Would be nice to get the price down below £40 if possible but the quick trainsplit check I did earlier was around £45. This was via Moor Street and Banbury so assume this would be the route to take to go past the depot?

 

[The_Train]

206 - very impressive, even if it did include a few coaches / wagons!

Someone asked me for the number of the DT on the TPE test run through Stafford yesterday........and I had the answer for them

As for your next trip, I think Reading is an excellent idea although I'm not sure you'd get that much out of Birmingham New Street. A lot of the traffic is Cross Country (some 170s, as well as 220/221s) and Virgin West Coast (221/390s), London Northwestern (350s). Yes, you will also pick up a few West Midlands Railway 323s and 170s as well as one or to Welsh 158s but in two hours they will only represent a start rather than major inroads. Instead I might be tempted to walk over to Moor Street where in two hours you could get the majority of the WMR 172s as well as a few Chilterns. Maybe I am biased though, because I dislike New Street!

New Street seems quite popular amongst others (in terms of variation not the fact you have to cope without any natural light) but your idea for Moor Street is tempting me more so. Need to do the maths now to get the cheapest tickets

I think Manchester is a great idea, although extending it to Leeds too in a single day is maybe asking too much if your primary aim is maximising sightings - there's a lot of units to get around Picadilly and Victoria. Perhaps instead of combining Manchester and Leeds, do just the Manchester area for a day and then make a separate trip to Sheffield and Leeds (perhaps during the RHTT season if you really want to catch the 20s out and about)? I think Manchester is likely to be more profitable to you than Sheffield and Leeds. Having said that, others may have different opinions...

Could I make a day of it around Piccadilly and Victoria? Worth going via Crewe for any of the yards?

Leeds does seem a good opportunity to pay another visit to Sheffield, this being even more worthwhile if I can bag those 20s

 

[The_Train]

London Bridge is both a through and a termini. Southern stuff terminate on the high number platfor,ms and the Southeastern ones are on the lower number platforms (Charing Cross and Cannon Street) and they can repeat quickly too.

Stratford is very busy and you'll get caught up in it all at time if noting all units, locos, DVT and carriage numbers.

Both Clapham and Stratford can get repeats quickly (in and out of the terminal) but the longer distance ones don't ... bit like the LNERs on the ECML.

Thanks for the information 03_179

 

[Skymonster]

Someone asked me for the number of the DT on the TPE test run through Stafford yesterday........and I had the answer for them

Hahaha... I might have guessed!

New Street seems quite popular amongst others (in terms of variation not the fact you have to cope without any natural light) but your idea for Moor Street is tempting me more so. Need to do the maths now to get the cheapest tickets.

I would suggest, if you are doing Reading via Moor St-Banbury (as you suggested elsewhere) you stick to Moor Street and leave New Street for another day. It only takes five minutes to walk between the two, but in a couple of hours you should clear almost all the WMT 172/2s and 172/3s as their longest runs are only about an hour either way from Moor Street. It is very relaxing because almost everything can be monitored from a bench on one of the two through platforms.

Could I make a day of it around Piccadilly and Victoria? Worth going via Crewe for any of the yards?

If you stop off at Crewe you can walk to the DRS depot at Gresty Bridge in about fifteen minutes (each way). You will probably be able to identify five or six locos outside. Basford Hall and LNWR aren't easy to see into from public roads, and the IEMD is further away in the opposite direction. But there's always the Herritage Centre if it's open - interesting to look around in itself and it also offers excellent views of the north end of the station. Having said that you won't pick up much at Crewe you haven't seen elsewhere (it's dominated by Virgin, London Northwestern and Northern electrics) except maybe some TPE/DRS 68s on driver training, an hourly EMT 153 and the regular Welsh 175s and 150s/158s - most of the through freight takes the avoiders that can't be seen from the platforms. However combining Crewe with Manchester Picadilly / Victoria could be a reasonable day out, albeit dominated by units rather than locos - Northern have a lot of 142s and 150s based out of Newton Heath plus 156s at Allerton and you could make significant inroads into those on the Manchester stations, as well as work on your TPE 185s and 350s.

I'm sure others will have different opinions though!

 

[palmersears]

Is Peterborough mixed with Norwich and Ipswich a worthwhile day or will there be too much time travelling? If it's the latter then maybe I should do Norwich and Ipswich as a separate day and try and mix somewhere else into a day at Peterborough.

There aren't actually that many DMUs to get in Anglia, 26 in total, but it takes time as they're often on longer distances routes, and spread across Norwich and Ipswich. When I finished them off I went straight to Norwich, then Ipswich, and then headed back to Peterborough until home time. It's the kind of trip where you need to be a bit flexible, as you could strike lucky and get most things done in half a day, so you'd want to head elsewhere, but equally it could be quite a long one and you'd want to head back later.

 

[The_Train]

Couple of visits to the local over the last few days starting with......

It's all a bit steamy at Stafford - Saturday 8th September 2018

Through a combination of RTT and UK Steam I'd spotted a couple of specials heading through Stafford on Saturday so thought I'd head across for a look. Firstly it was a Locomotive Services excursion running from Preston to Stratford and making a scheduled stop at Stafford. This opportunity brought photographers out in their masses despite the very wet weather and the fact the service was nearly an hour late by the time we caught sight of it. Turned out that it was dud 46100 'Royal Scot' but still a sight to behold
46100 Royal Scot at Stafford by The_Train
46100 Royal Scot at Stafford by The_Train

I decided to have a wander home for a quick bite to eat before heading back for the next bit of steam and my walk home was rewarded as 66167 passed me by as it headed towards Ditton. My return to the station just over an hour later was instantly rewarded with more shed action as 66110 ran by on route to Grangemouth. The steam soon followed and even though it was a dud again it was still great to see 60009 Union of South Africa heading past as it ventured towards Chester
60009 Union of South Africa passing Stafford by The_Train

Nothing else of note occurred but I did manage to identify DR73930 which was sat in the sidings to the south of the station so all in all not a bad couple of visits.

Lured by the winners - Monday 10th September 2018

I had no plans to visit the station today as I had plenty in my itinerary to keep me occupied. However, this hobby has that ability to lure you into things that you maybe don't plan.....

I had a need to head across to town in the morning and as the weather wasn't too bad I decided to take the route through the park, which just so happens to take me past the station approach and indeed the station itself and would you believe it is managed to bag 66093 as it headed north towards Ditton. Having completed my activities and heading back home, I realised that I'd forgotten to pick something up in town so needed to head back across and having succeeded earlier, I took the same route just as 66555 went past with a rake of containers destined for Basford Hall. My luck was in so I decided to head onto the platform for a bit and see if it continued........it didn't, well not straight away anyway. I did get to see the TPE Mk5 test but it was dud 68020 but I was soon being blessed with the sight of my 2nd class 92 in a week as 92038 passed through taking 90048 to Crewe
92038 at Stafford by The_Train

66589 was soon following into the book sights as it hauled a Freightliner to Felixstowe and my luck was really in as even a Crossrail test happened and that helped me to nab 345048. I decided to hang around for the Toton-Crewe train as it has a habit of throwing up surprises and today was no different as 66742 passed by with 66587 in tow. The time had come for food so after 70007 (hadn't seen it for a while) went through I called it a day and had a wander home but not a bad day all in all

As always there are a few extra pics on my flickr

 

[The_Train]

I would suggest, if you are doing Reading via Moor St-Banbury (as you suggested elsewhere) you stick to Moor Street and leave New Street for another day. It only takes five minutes to walk between the two, but in a couple of hours you should clear almost all the WMT 172/2s and 172/3s as their longest runs are only about an hour either way from Moor Street. It is very relaxing because almost everything can be monitored from a bench on one of the two through platforms.

Yeah that's the plan to forget New Street and wander to Moor Street. Just need to plan a journey for as cheap as possible now

If you stop off at Crewe you can walk to the DRS depot at Gresty Bridge in about fifteen minutes (each way). You will probably be able to identify five or six locos outside. Basford Hall and LNWR aren't easy to see into from public roads, and the IEMD is further away in the opposite direction. But there's always the Herritage Centre if it's open - interesting to look around in itself and it also offers excellent views of the north end of the station. Having said that you won't pick up much at Crewe you haven't seen elsewhere (it's dominated by Virgin, London Northwestern and Northern electrics) except maybe some TPE/DRS 68s on driver training, an hourly EMT 153 and the regular Welsh 175s and 150s/158s - most of the through freight takes the avoiders that can't be seen from the platforms. However combining Crewe with Manchester Picadilly / Victoria could be a reasonable day out, albeit dominated by units rather than locos - Northern have a lot of 142s and 150s based out of Newton Heath plus 156s at Allerton and you could make significant inroads into those on the Manchester stations, as well as work on your TPE 185s and 350s.

I've had another thought about Manchester and I'm tempted by the Cheshire Day Ranger which I can start at either Crewe or Stoke so should only take the cost of travel to around £30. Could do Piccadilly and Victoria and maybe head towards Liverpool/Chester for the Merseyrail stuff. Can even head out from Crewe towards Whitchurch which I believe takes you past Gresty Bridge?

 

[The_Train]

There aren't actually that many DMUs to get in Anglia, 26 in total, but it takes time as they're often on longer distances routes, and spread across Norwich and Ipswich. When I finished them off I went straight to Norwich, then Ipswich, and then headed back to Peterborough until home time. It's the kind of trip where you need to be a bit flexible, as you could strike lucky and get most things done in half a day, so you'd want to head elsewhere, but equally it could be quite a long one and you'd want to head back later.

So probably best to be looking at more flexible ticketing instead of getting tied down to certain trains? Sounds like I could make a day of it though as long as I have a few variable plans for the day

 

[Skymonster]

Glad to see you got another 60 at Stafford at the weekend - I must admit I thought that one was stored at Toton!

 

[The_Train]

Glad to see you got another 60 at Stafford at the weekend - I must admit I thought that one was stored at Toton!

The one I saw was in considerably better condition than those at Toton

 

[Skymonster]

The one I saw was in considerably better condition than those at Toton

Oh I don't know about that... I suspect 60009 had lots of smoke and steam coming out of it - often that's an indication that a breakdown is just around the corner!

 

[palmersears]

So probably best to be looking at more flexible ticketing instead of getting tied down to certain trains? Sounds like I could make a day of it though as long as I have a few variable plans for the day

If you can, yeah. Not always possible, but would help.

First time I went I did London the day before, cheap hotel in Ipswich that night, up early for a full day in Anglia then headed back to Stockport for just after midnight.

Ticket wise, there's an Anglia Plus day ranger that covers everywhere you need to go and provides that bit of flexibility. Then just get an Ely-Peterborough off peak single and you can head back whenever you want.

 

[The_Train]

Ticket wise, there's an Anglia Plus day ranger that covers everywhere you need to go and provides that bit of flexibility. Then just get an Ely-Peterborough off peak single and you can head back whenever you want.

That's good to know as I need to make use of day rangers more when I'm out and about

 

[47403]

Palmerears is right the Anglia plus is a good rover. A ride on the 37s to Yarmouth.or Lowesoft will take you past the front of Crown Point depot too. There's 2 gronks to look out for there too.
GA normally have some cheap advance singles to and from Ipswich where your Rover kicks in.

 

[noddy1878]

Wow! Just read your reports for your trip to Donny! Good going. Reminds me of when I got back into this hobby 8 years ago! Everywhere was winner after winner! Once I had exhausted that it was a haulage game! As others have said, Manchester is worth a look at definitely. As is Leeds (and that would require a lot of walking around!). In London, Clapham, London Bridge and Stratford are best for filling that book of sights. Barking is also worth a mention as you'll see the 357s (and handful of 387s) that c2c have. You'll also get a few London Overground units there. An hour or two would probably see you get most of what is out if you do it in the rush hour windows.

 

[palmersears]

West Ham/Barking for a morning or evening peak has a very high chance of getting you almost all of c2c. I did one 3 hour stint from 4-7 on a summers evening and got all but three of the 357s and all the 387s. Possibly one of the easiest TOCs to clear in the country I would wager.

 

[Kite159]

West Ham/Barking for a morning or evening peak has a very high chance of getting you almost all of c2c. I did one 3 hour stint from 4-7 on a summers evening and got all but three of the 357s and all the 387s. Possibly one of the easiest TOCs to clear in the country I would wager.

Agreed

I would say West Ham (or even Limehouse) will be better than Barking as it is only 2 tracks there, and you won't get any pester S7s blocking your view with the layout of Barking. You can recover the 172/0s with an hour (or so) at South Tottenham

 

[AJM580]

If you're looking to come to Anglia land, you'll see most of the 156 fleet in and around Norwich and Ipswich, The 153s tend to stick to the same branches, but one unit spends all day on the Sudbury - Marks Tey line (which is outside the rover area). 170s work mainly Norwich - Cambridge and services between Ipswich, Cambridge and Peterborough. Ely sees a fair bit of freight, including the Colas turns from Hoo jn - Whitemoor. Cambridge is good for emus as there's a mix of 317, 387, 700 plus the odd 365.

 

[alexf380]

I've just finished reading about your Yorkshire day and wow, what a monster read that was! Very many winners to be had, and congrats for passing the 200 mark in one day. You need to get yourself up to Scotland one of these days. Tonnes to be had up here!