TGV
Member
For spotters out there, I don't know if it's a usual place for y'all to hang out, but I was in Basingstoke station and was amazed at the variety of what passed through in a 30 minute interval: It was a weekday evening and there were:
Loads of South West EMU's and DMU's as you'd expect.
XC voyagers
FGW DMU's
EWS/DB 66 with container freight through to London on SWML
EWS/DB 66 with some kind of infrastructure train heading from the Reading line towards Southampton.
Double-headed Freightliner 66's on very long container train routed via Reading line presumably towards B'ham?
67's top and tailing a rake of what looked like Royal coaches - I noticed one of them had the name plate "The Queen's Messanger"
A steam loco of some type (large, 4-6-2 or similar? I'm no spotter so I didn't get name or number) with about 12 vintage coaches.
On the way back as I stepped off the train, the yellow Network Rail HST passed through too.
There was a lone spotter at the Eastern end of platform 4/5 with a camera and seemed quite happy and relaxed - I know there's a lot of controversy about staff harassing enthusiasts, but this guy was clearly enjoying a good variety of stuff with no problems.
So there you go. Don't know if it's a popular spot for those of a notepad n' numbers nature, but if you're in the area I'd suggest you stop for a while. It looked more interesting than most stations I've seen recently.
Loads of South West EMU's and DMU's as you'd expect.
XC voyagers
FGW DMU's
EWS/DB 66 with container freight through to London on SWML
EWS/DB 66 with some kind of infrastructure train heading from the Reading line towards Southampton.
Double-headed Freightliner 66's on very long container train routed via Reading line presumably towards B'ham?
67's top and tailing a rake of what looked like Royal coaches - I noticed one of them had the name plate "The Queen's Messanger"
A steam loco of some type (large, 4-6-2 or similar? I'm no spotter so I didn't get name or number) with about 12 vintage coaches.
On the way back as I stepped off the train, the yellow Network Rail HST passed through too.
There was a lone spotter at the Eastern end of platform 4/5 with a camera and seemed quite happy and relaxed - I know there's a lot of controversy about staff harassing enthusiasts, but this guy was clearly enjoying a good variety of stuff with no problems.
So there you go. Don't know if it's a popular spot for those of a notepad n' numbers nature, but if you're in the area I'd suggest you stop for a while. It looked more interesting than most stations I've seen recently.
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