"BLAST FROM THE PAST"
T'other afternoon (Thursday) I had a couple of hours to spare, so I decided to do a little line coverage with the 'Day Saver' that I had in my possession (not a bad price at all really!). So, from Piccadilly my first movement was on 2H74 (14:49 MAN to HDF 15:28 ), which on it's return formed 2H73 (15:31 HDF to MAN 16:12), but with me bailing from the latter on it's Guide Bridge station stop at about 15:58. After having to go the long way round over a roadbridge to access the other platform, I walked into the station building and checked the connection time for the Rose Hill service. Once I'd checked this, and with The Killers blasting down my headphones (sorry Slash!)
, I turned around to find someone else now in the building - 'a ginger' by the ticket windows wanting to purchase a couple of platform tickets 
hock:
Who was it? Well, it was none other than our very own James 'MetCam' Palmer! I mean my connection was just 18 minutes at a station that's hardly a very main or busy one at that time in the afternoon, so what were the chances of us being there at exactly the same time with absolutely no planning involved whatsoever? He himself had only planned to be there a couple of minutes too (although I guess he could have been vegging beforehand - I don't suppose he'd admit to it if he were
). But yeh, I hadn't seen James in aaaages (a matter of years?), and this showed in that he said "Damon?" in a very unsure tone. I was very tempted to say "No" just to try and embarras him 
Anyway, we went down to the platform and talked about shed shunted further up, before a Northern Rail liveried 142 rolled in for it's 16:16 departure time whilst forming 2H54 (16:05 MAN to RSH 16:35). I believe James' movements came in the form of a 'real' bus back to Ashton-under-Lyne.
Progress on the Pacer was good (if a tad bumpy) with the guard acting in the same way as the one on the Class 323 earlier on, in the sense that he had to give the 'Day Saver' (printed on a slip of Metrolink paper) a good looking over - not sure why. Upon arrival at Rose Hill everyone else obviously exited the unit, but I remained in situ on a bench seat at the rear (now to become the front). The guard emerged from the rear cab after collecting his bags and asked "So where are you going?", to which I replied "Just doin' some lines mate".
The train departed a few minutes later on 2H59 (16:39 RSH to MAN 17:14 - via Guide Bridge 16:57), but with me planning to bail at Romiley. The guard did his tickets on this short section, and upon reaching me he took an interest in what I'd been up to. I explained I'd done Oldham Mumps to Manchester Victoria the previous day, as well as the Metrolink network south of Victoria (all sides of the Piccadilly triangle totally by chance), with the completion of Bury to Victoria coming that morning (Thursday). I'd then done (as outlined above) Piccadilly-Hadfield-Guide Bridge-Rose Hill, with the plan being to bail from his return service at Romiley, only to board 2H65 (16:45 MPL to MAN 17:10) - a connection of a rather nice four minutes - so I could cover the line via Reddish North. I opted out of Marple as I was meeting up with some folks in Manchester at a certain time so it'd have taken too long.
We soon arrived at the first station, Romiley, and the guard walked out onto the platform to brag to the (somewhat overheated and dead-looking) driver about his upcoming ten minute break on his ten hour shift. He then repeated "Ah, ten hours..." so I replied with a somewhat unwitty "You know you love Pacers really", to which he replied "Yeah.... but 10 hours?!".
Anyway, his 'via Guide Bridge' train (2H59) trundled off, with my 'via Reddish North' train (2H65) arriving soon after. Fairy uneventful (not that this story has been very interesting so far anyway!) to Manchester Piccadilly, with the aforementioned guard's train arriving into Piccadilly four minutes behind us (well, two minutes becuase we lost a little time). I have to say though, I prefered the Northern Rail Pacer to the Arriva one as the latter has some seats instead of the traditional bus bench, and this makes the door areas look a lot smaller and (in my opinion) more dull.
Errrm, yeah. So that was my story of the other afternoon.
T'other afternoon (Thursday) I had a couple of hours to spare, so I decided to do a little line coverage with the 'Day Saver' that I had in my possession (not a bad price at all really!). So, from Piccadilly my first movement was on 2H74 (14:49 MAN to HDF 15:28 ), which on it's return formed 2H73 (15:31 HDF to MAN 16:12), but with me bailing from the latter on it's Guide Bridge station stop at about 15:58. After having to go the long way round over a roadbridge to access the other platform, I walked into the station building and checked the connection time for the Rose Hill service. Once I'd checked this, and with The Killers blasting down my headphones (sorry Slash!)
, I turned around to find someone else now in the building - 'a ginger' by the ticket windows wanting to purchase a couple of platform tickets hock:Who was it? Well, it was none other than our very own James 'MetCam' Palmer! I mean my connection was just 18 minutes at a station that's hardly a very main or busy one at that time in the afternoon, so what were the chances of us being there at exactly the same time with absolutely no planning involved whatsoever? He himself had only planned to be there a couple of minutes too (although I guess he could have been vegging beforehand - I don't suppose he'd admit to it if he were
). But yeh, I hadn't seen James in aaaages (a matter of years?), and this showed in that he said "Damon?" in a very unsure tone. I was very tempted to say "No" just to try and embarras him Anyway, we went down to the platform and talked about shed shunted further up, before a Northern Rail liveried 142 rolled in for it's 16:16 departure time whilst forming 2H54 (16:05 MAN to RSH 16:35). I believe James' movements came in the form of a 'real' bus back to Ashton-under-Lyne.
Progress on the Pacer was good (if a tad bumpy
) with the guard acting in the same way as the one on the Class 323 earlier on, in the sense that he had to give the 'Day Saver' (printed on a slip of Metrolink paper) a good looking over - not sure why. Upon arrival at Rose Hill everyone else obviously exited the unit, but I remained in situ on a bench seat at the rear (now to become the front). The guard emerged from the rear cab after collecting his bags and asked "So where are you going?", to which I replied "Just doin' some lines mate".The train departed a few minutes later on 2H59 (16:39 RSH to MAN 17:14 - via Guide Bridge 16:57), but with me planning to bail at Romiley. The guard did his tickets on this short section, and upon reaching me he took an interest in what I'd been up to. I explained I'd done Oldham Mumps to Manchester Victoria the previous day, as well as the Metrolink network south of Victoria (all sides of the Piccadilly triangle totally by chance), with the completion of Bury to Victoria coming that morning (Thursday). I'd then done (as outlined above) Piccadilly-Hadfield-Guide Bridge-Rose Hill, with the plan being to bail from his return service at Romiley, only to board 2H65 (16:45 MPL to MAN 17:10) - a connection of a rather nice four minutes - so I could cover the line via Reddish North. I opted out of Marple as I was meeting up with some folks in Manchester at a certain time so it'd have taken too long.
We soon arrived at the first station, Romiley, and the guard walked out onto the platform to brag to the (somewhat overheated and dead-looking) driver about his upcoming ten minute break on his ten hour shift. He then repeated "Ah, ten hours..." so I replied with a somewhat unwitty "You know you love Pacers really", to which he replied "Yeah.... but 10 hours?!".
Anyway, his 'via Guide Bridge' train (2H59) trundled off, with my 'via Reddish North' train (2H65) arriving soon after. Fairy uneventful (not that this story has been very interesting so far anyway!) to Manchester Piccadilly, with the aforementioned guard's train arriving into Piccadilly four minutes behind us (well, two minutes becuase we lost a little time). I have to say though, I prefered the Northern Rail Pacer to the Arriva one as the latter has some seats instead of the traditional bus bench, and this makes the door areas look a lot smaller and (in my opinion) more dull.
Errrm, yeah. So that was my story of the other afternoon.
