Wednesday 24th October 2018 - Once Upon A Time It Was The Mecca
A required trip to the glory that is Crewe gave me an opportunity to visit what was a Mecca of the railways in my younger days. Sitting at the south end of the platform offered many hours of enjoyment as loco after loco would be seen working around the yards and not to forget the many many loco hauled passenger services that would be constantly appearing. I'd been warned that it is not what it was and wow was that proven to be correct. Anyway my day started with a trip on the 1024 Virgin service to Liverpool Lime Street and was at least a bit of new haulage with
390112 offering the power to Crewe. Sat on the Basford Hall side of the train allowed me to spot a couple of Colas locos in the yard with these later being confirmed as
66846 and dud 56105. This was a good start as Colas stocks have proven hard to come by thus far. There were also 3x FLR 86s raked together but unfortunately too far away to identify and as there were also others elsewhere in the yard TOPS was of no use this time around. There were also a few 66s knocking about waiting to drag containers off around the country but again the distance proved too much in gaining any identification. We pulled into platform 6 and upon alighting I immediately heard that lovely low growling sound of an idling 68 and was pleased to find TPE
68032 sat in the north bays awaiting a driver training run to Wavertree Junction
TPE Class 68 68032 at Crewe by
The_Train
A quick check of the departure screens showed nothing else was due into these bays anytime soon so I strolled down to the other end and was rewarded with
08631 performing some shunting duties in the Holding Sidings before
323223 entered the book as it arrived into P1. My steady start continued with a TfW 175 arriving from Manchester on route to Wales,
175009 doing the honours with
150279 arriving into the bay platform 7 having arrived from Swansea. It was the bay at the opposite end that would yield the next success as TfW
150281 arrived from Chester before I snagged another 175, in the form of
102, just before I had to head out into the glorious confines of the town of Crewe. As I headed towards my appointment I realised it was on the same estate as the Virgin Talent training site and I was sure that I'd read somewhere that the remains of the one Pendolino I was never going to see on the National network was around there somewhere. As I had a few minutes to spare I strolled around and was rewarded with the sight of the infamous
390033 (1 driving car and a coach) which is used as part of the Virgin training process having been involved in the Grayrigg derailment. Unfortunately as I was slightly rushed I forgot to grab a photo but still that completely finishes off the 390s for me (even though I'd classed it as complete without 033 previously) so there was at least an unexpected surprise to the day.
Having completed my appointment I was back on the walk to the station and to be quite frank was keen to get back off the streets and to the sanctuary of the station. There is something about Crewe that makes me very uneasy. Anyway I was back on the station and having walked straight past the Tesco Express that
@Kite159 told me about it had to empty my wallet to purchase a sandwich on the platform....costly but at least this was reasonably nice to eat. As I munched away I was soon back up and running with
323228 being the next Northern unit into the book but it was a good 20 minutes of dud Pendolinos and Voyagers before my next winner arrived thanks to TfW
175005. Crewe was disappointing me in so many ways, the memories from my childhood were that of a fantastic station with lovely structures holding up the great big roof, but now these structures were looking old, worn, tired and unloved and the roofing has great areas that have been removed. Despite this the sight of the first 319 perked me up a bit as
364 entered the book before we had a bit of loco action.
@palmersears had offered a bit of gen regarding a 57 moving around Crewe and as much as I'd missed it earlier in the day it returned to the station having spent a bit of time at the Arriva depot. Unfortunately it was dud 57303 but this was soon followed by
175105 as I continued to slowly improve my TfW numbers. I also grabbed another Northern winner as
323224 made an appearance in platform 1 and it was this same platform that offered my next success in the form of
319376. More of the very limited loco action next as a flask train passed by with 68002 and 68018 working Valley Nuclear Electric to Crewe Coal Sidings
DRS Class 68s 68002 and 68018 working through Crewe by
The_Train
I was operating on a winner every 20-30 minutes by this time and was struggling to stay interested, not because of this stat but more with the lack of activity - there is only so many Pendolinos you can watch. However, the winners did keep coming and
175002 was next as it headed towards its final destination of Manchester Piccadilly having come from Carmarthen. I'd decided that the next Pendolino to Stafford would be my haulage home so I went to grab a coffee to help me through the final hour but as I queued I spotted some lights in the distance that certainly didn't look like those from a unit. As the lights edged closer it became apparent that we had a surprise visitor (couldn't find anything on RTT) so I bailed out of the coffee queue and dashed down to the south end to find a RHTT with Colas 56s, in the form of dud 078 and winner
087, at either end
Colas Class 56 56078 at Crewe by
The_Train
Colas Class 56 56087 at Crewe by
The_Train, on Flickr
Once this had departed I went back to grab my coffee and headed over to platform 5 from where I was able to chalk off
319446. There was another Derby shuttle in the bays as well but as with all of these today, 153326 was a dud but before my journey home I was able to nab another 319 as
367 pulled into P1 before
390046 arrived to take me on the short journey back to Stafford. The darkness made spotting anything in Basford impossible and despite being able to see a couple of TPE 68s in the Arriva shed, there was too much distance to make any form of ID. During my journey back I did a quick scan of RTT and saw that there was a freight run due through not so long after my arrival so I hung around to see FLR
66607 working 620G 1502 Bow Depot Flhh to Tunstead Sdgs
Sight Summary
Winners:
20
Classes completed:
1 - 390 Pendolino (Again!!)
Sub classes completed:
N/A
Haulage Summary
Winners:
2
Total Mileage:
48 miles
Classes completed:
N/A
Sub classes completed:
N/A
Network Rail Class 73 73951 passing Stafford by The_Train
Network Rail Class 73 73952 at Stafford by The_Train
DRS Class 88 88010 at Stafford by The_Train
DBC Class 66 66140 passing Stafford by The_Train
GBRf Class 66 66720 at Stafford by The_Train
Although I guess someone will tell me Caroline has got driving controls in it and is therefore a pseudo-DVT cum DBSO type thing...
