You're probably going to need quite a long time to read this report! I hope you enjoy it anyway though!
Welcome back old friend
Mum had arranged to go up to see one of her old friends who lived near Chester and to see her parents in Penyffordd. She had also said to Granny and Gramps that I would be coming too, getting them (mainly Gramps) very excited. Gramps loves me coming up to stay because we play chess and droughts together and head out for coffee and cake, and just have a good time. Unfortunately, mum didn't let me know this before saying that I would come, so I made other plans with Torin, Dad and a friend of ours that needed help getting his boat (which really was a basket case and kept failing) down the Wolverhampton flight. Mum was very disappointed to hear this but heading up on the Saturday and back on the Sunday just wouldn't work for me. I didn't want to let mum (and obviously my Grandparents down) but I really wanted to do some locks again too. I told Mum my reasoning for not coming and it was at that point that she said to me that she wanted to head up on the Friday and didn't want to drive so the train would have to be an option. That coupled with a chat with Dad while on 68014 back from Birmingham about a week before made me make my mind up. But that was after 1 thing that hit me after leaving Moor Street on 'Gingertom'. I was up in North Wales on a Saturday. Hello Thomas Telford!
Some of you may not know what I meant at the end of last paragraph. 'Thomas Telford' is the name of 67014 (the best shovel. If you don't agree then *puts finger to the door*
) and Shovel 14 had been working on the North Wales Coast Manchester diagrams for a while. During the height of summer, the loco hauled set had been working on weekends on the North Wales coast. This meant that if I headed up (by train) then I could get one of my favorite locos in for the next day before returning home on the Sunday (by train). Bring it on!
It was tough to wait for the week for this trip and, having not wanted to go at the start, this had really turned around! Dad and Torin had to get to the top of Wolverhampton flight for whenever Jim needed them (he was tackling Wolverhampton flight on Friday) so they decided to head with us on the train until Wolves. Neither Dad nor I would travel directly from Leamington to Wolverhampton (3 guesses why), so I formulated a plan, taking a Cat to Brum, for a 170 to Shrewsbury for a 175 to Wrexham because, and I checked, Mum would not go via Liverpool, Chester, Cardiff, Hereford or Inverness. I had packed my back in advance for this trip so come 09:25 on Friday morning, I was all ready and almost bouncing up and down (although on the boats that probably isn't a good idea. It hurts when you hit the roof). Thanks to some friendly forum members helping us with tickets to use, we managed to get some bargain walk up fares for the journey.
We (Me, Mum, Torin and Dad) got to the station in good time for the 10:04 to Brum, and it was good to because we had to wait for a while before being served in order to buy the tickets. Then, it was only a short wait on the station for the unknown cat, which rolled in as...
'Bagpuss' (68010)! I bet you thought it would be 'Custard' (011). We all piled in the front coach and, I managed to get one of the 2 partition bays of 4 (the spot where there is the glass halfway down the coach), me being on the forward facing window seat. We all chatted for the journey, knowing that I wouldn't see Torin or Dad until Sunday afternoon and shortly after getting on, the thrash from Bagpuss ended and we all had to get off.
I had been cheeky while planning this and, instead of getting the 11:05 to Shrewsbury in my plan (for a pair of 158s forward), I decided to put us in on the 12:05 from the black hole (it sucks the life from the midlands) for an ex Cardiff service onward, which should be a 175 instead of a 158. As I said, Dad and Torin were coming with us on the 170 to Wolves so we had a bit of time to kill in Brum before the train (1h 20m). So the first thing we did was get coffee and cake from the Centenary Lounge (brilliant cakes there) and for the first time there, I stayed inside to eat/drink. Usually I just go in, get a coffee for Dad to take out and then stand the platform sides of the barriers waiting for him to appear from work. We spent about 25 minutes in there and with about an hour left until the train, we went wandering to see what was where. Unfortunately this involved wandering through a shopping center but after that we were all ready to retire to the station, getting there at about 11:30.
The first thing that I noticed when entering the bat cave was that the 11:17 to Plymouth was running 25 minutes late. So while Mum, Dad and Torin headed into M&S, I ran over to platform 12 to see 43321 and 43207 arrive and depart (getting a few photos too.) 43207 is by far my lowest XC tram for mileage, at 6 miles (Temple Meads to Parkway) so it was good to know that it was out and about. When I would get a chance to have it again, this time for some decent mileage, is unknown though.
I headed back up to my folks and brother to say that all was ok before heading over to the navigation street footbridge in order to get the numbers of everything in the station. This took me about 7 minutes and after I got back to them, they were gone! It doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist to know where they were - just a rail enthusiast! Without any hesitation, I headed over to platform 4C, the platform that I knew our Shrewsbury train would leave from. Sure enough, they were all there and, with a few minutes until it was due to arrive, they were all on the platform ready. The inbound service was slightly late and during the waiting time, Dad received a phone call from Jim, the person that they were helping on the boat, saying that they were still stationary, due to yet another problem on the boat but they were hoping to be moving shortly. Sound familiar? If not then try replacing the boat bit by train. How about every XC 220/221 you've ever traveled on? Eventually the London Midland 170 (does anyone have any nicknames for these? I'm getting tiered of using the number 170. Look! There it is again! 170, 170, 170, 170, 170. Ok, I'm done. 170.) arrived and we all climbed aboard the very front door of the service (the furthest we possibly could from the normals on a 2-coach cart) and turned right, securing a bay of 4 for the 4 of us on the right hand side. Another (elderly) gentleman went in the bay of 4 next to us (the one on the left) and got himself comfy. This is important info for something that happened just after the sad Sandwell and Dudley (it is no co-incidence that Sandwell and Dudley's station code is 'SAD'). Well, we set off on dud 170501 a couple of minutes late and the journey went very smoothly. Until Dudley Port, where this family of 6 came up taken a look at the seat numbers for all of the seats, and then whispered it to the Dad of the group. He then came forward and told us and the poor old man that they had reserved all of the seats in the two bays of four (equaling 8) for the 6 of them! The old man moved without question and Mum, Dad and Torin were about to move when I said to them that there are no reservation labels and that there are none on the whole train. That, and this service is unreservable. But, not wanting to create a scene, we all moved into a bay of 4 above the fowl 170 engines for the remainder of the evening. This made the journey to Shrewsbury even worse, all thanks to a lying family. Even mum knew they were lying after I explained! Wolves came, meaning that we had reached the line that has a few billion shacks on but it also meant that Dad and Torin had to leave us now. It was a shame to say bye to them but, with mum wanting to do a bit of reading, I also got my book out, hoping that by reading the journey would fly by. It didn't.
I looked up from my book after what seemed like ages of reading and taken a look out of the window. It was just countryside so I was expecting that we were somewhere near Shrewsbury, after Wellington. Then, about 2 minutes later, we arrived at Telford. Rats! It surprised me to see a 158 and 150 there on a New Street bound, but not as much as it did the first time I saw that combo at the bat cave! I regretted my actions at putting us on the London Midland cart vice 158 now but clung onto the fact that I would have a pretty high chance of getting a winner 175 to Wrexham. I started the next chapter of the book and got about half way through when it was announced that we were (finally) arriving at Shrewsbury. We had a plus 10 or something like that here so plenty of time to transfer from the bay platforms to platform 3, which involves going through the subway, passing through barriers, out the main station entrance and up some steps in the wall next to it. Luckily I knew where I was going because there aren't many signs and we got up onto just before the ex Cardiff arrived. I was very miffed to see that the unit taking us to Wrexham on the 13:25 would be dud 175104. We got on and ended up sharing a bay of 4 with someone on the busy service which, despite arriving 5 minutes before it was due to leave, left about 10 minutes late. This made the absolutely thrilling (sarcasm mode off) journey complete and with some annoying noise from the train all of the way, it was the worst journey that I have ever had on a 175. And that lasted for a while. Just over 24 hours (no more spoilers now, continue reading and you'll find out why). It was nice to get back out into the fresh air of Wrexham and I actually forgot that we were being picked up by Granny here and began walking over to the Borderlands line platform
. Mum reminded me that Granny was picking us up so I spun round and we headed out to the car park and into Granny's car for the slowest ever ride between Wrexham and Penyffordd (and I have been on a Borderlands unit on that route!) This was because we got stuck behind a tarmac laying thingymabob and Granny was to precious about her car to move around it. Eventually we got to Granny's house where a nice evening (which included taking Gramps out for coffee at the local coffee shop) was spent and I eventually headed to bed for an early night at just after 22:00. This was after hearing that Dad and Torin were having a terrible day of it with the boat failing again and them going nowhere, missing the last bus, the transport they used to get to the boat. This meant that they had to walk for about 5 miles back to Wolverhampton station for a pendo to New Street and then a cart from Leam. Poor them. But back to the report with six words. Read on for the main event!
I got up at 06:15, feeling, well, the same way any normal person would feel having just got up at quarter past 6. I prepared my bag for the day, making sure that my plan was in it in case I needed it later in the day. Then I got everything done that had to be done before I headed out and went onto Granny's Ipad for a bit before Granny got up. I had said that I would walk to the station but she wouldn't have it and said that she would take me to the station for my train, the 07:47 to Bidston, giving me a plus 5 onto a Llandudno bound 175. A connection that should be easy if my 150 was on time. Nathan said that he would try and get up to spend the day but I knew that this was highly, highly unlikely to happen as his folks haven’t let him go past Stafford solo yet.
We headed out of the house at about 07:35 with ample time until the train was due. I wasn't very happy to see that the boards at Penyffordd station shown it as 3 late. The semaphores at Penyffordd were still down at its departure time and eventually a 150 came around the corner from the Wrexham line and stopped at the signal just before the station. It was then set and winner 150253 rolled in about 7 late. That's my connection at Shotton out then. I got on and got a seat for the absolute stagger forward. I asked the guard why it was late and why we were staggering when he came round to sell me my ticket, a 4 zone North Wales Rover, validating me from Chester to Bangor. He said that it was because we were following a slow late running freight train and he said that I wouldn't make the connection at Shotton. I got off anyway and saw that I had 55 minutes until the next one, meaning that the first part of my plan had to be chopped off. This was going from Shotton to Llanfairfechan (apparently pronounced clan-ver-vecan according to the guard on board. It's said quickly too. One mystery solved!) and then meeting Thomas Telford there. Because of the delay, I would now just be able to go from Shotton to Llandudno Junction to meet it. Not letting that irritate me too much, which was a very hard task, I saw a footpath leading away from the Chester bound platform with a sign saying that it was also a cycle path. It looked like it was following the line between Shotton and Bidston so I decided to go for a stroll and hopefully find Hawarden Bridge so I could shack scratch it. I later found out that this path was a named one and was called 'The Chester Millennium Greenway'.
It was a pleasant walk down the tree-covered footpath and after about 2 minutes of walking, the trees vanished and in front of me was a ramp leading up onto a big bridge that was spanning the river Dee. I immediately recognized it. This was the bridge that the Borderlands line trains cross just before Hawarden Bridge and, as I have crossed this bridge many times by train, I knew that there was a footpath crossing the same bridge and leading to the station. So, with no hesitation, I ran up the ramp and crossed the amazing ex Swing Bridge. Ex Swing Bridge? Yes, the central part of the bridge once swung away to allow ships to pass but is now welded shut. You can still see the old equipment towards the middle of the bridge though. It was opened on the 3rd of August 1889, after only 2 years of construction, which began on the 16th of August 1887. Anyway, back to the present.
After crossing the bridge, the footpath continues past the station but I didn't want to continue. There was a gate leading to the tracks, where a rickety foot crossing was to get to the other platform. I crossed over and stood on one of the two platforms, glad to finally get this tricky shack in the book. Although, quite frankly it isn't too tricky to get as I just proven! In fact, excepting the two Wrexham stations, Shotton and Bidston, it is probably the easiest to get on the route, being only a 5-minute walk from Shotton!
Rarely used shack by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Rarely used shack by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Hawarden Bridge is a basic, barren station with very little around but I found it quite a nice one. There was a fairly nice view towards Shotton and a big curve facing Bidston, with a signal box a little further on. The only facility around is a little, run down bus shelter on the Wrexham bound platform and other than that there was just a station sign, PIS board, platform and plenty of trees. I didn't spend to long there as I wasn't really waiting for anything and, with ages left until my train, I wandered out and back onto the footpath, making the decision to walk a little further down The Chester Millennium Greenway to try and see the train that 150253 was stuck behind in Dee Marsh sidings.
It was a pleasant 10-minute walk and it surprised me to see loads of people, using quite a few ways of getting around. Walking, running, cycling, hoverboarding and flying (I might have made those last two up). There were lots of people out and about for before 08:30! I tried Nathan on his mobile, knowing that if he were coming then he would already be on the move. It went straight to voicemail, which tends to indicate that he wasn't going to be meeting me because his phone wouldn’t be turned off if he were out solo. I then tried him at home, and got an answer from Steve, his Dad saying that Nathan was currently on the train to Crewe! Sounds like I'm going to be having company today!
I eventually reached the end, where the path is parallel to Dee Marsh and taken a look to see what was there. Unfortunately, due to the high abundance of undergrowth and thousands of wagons even standing right next to the fence at the railway line, I couldn't get the number of the donut (class 60) in there. After 5 minutes of trying to get into a viewable position for the number, I gave up and headed back onto the main footpath and began retracing my steps to the big bridge where, since I still had time until my train, I headed down the steps just after the little station and headed down, leaving the railway line and following the river...
For all of about 250 yards before I stopped, got my camera out and got a few photos of the bridge and the river. Time was now pushing on though and, wanting to get a drink from somewhere in Shotton before my 175, I crossed back over the Dee and followed the path to platform 1 at Shotton station.
I now had about 10 minutes until my train so quickly ran to the main high street and it looks like I had some good luck charm around as right across the road was a newsagent. Unfortunately the road I had to cross, even with a crossing, was very busy and it took me ages to get cross. Luckily, after grabbing a Summer Fruits Oasis, there was no queue so I got served immediately and got back to the crossing, where a wait of about 2 minutes was required before I could cross. I headed up to the high level platforms to take the little passage from there to the low level ones. During this time, 150253 appeared again and I noticed that its destination board had 'Crewe' on it. This tends to indicate that it had been working the Chester-Crewe shuttle the day before and the driver hadn't yet changed it. 150254 was on the other Borderlands line turn and, as it was a dud, I didn't care which of the two I would be getting back to Penyffordd later in the day.
After getting photos of those two units, I headed onto my platform and just stood fairly close to the end of the platform waiting for the Llandudno bound train to arrive. It eventually arrived about 1 late at 09:04, the same time that winner 175110 was meant to leave. It was surprisingly busy (actually, now I think about it, it isn't too surprising. It's a Saturday service going to a popular tourist destination and loads of hellholes on route (Prestatyn, I'm looking at you), not to mention the fact that it would be a short wait for shovel 14!) But that didn't stop me from getting a bay of two to myself on the right hand side. Book out and I read for most of the journey, except the bits that I was looking at the sea for around Colwyn Bay. But, after a very slow journey, I was getting off into the fresh air of Llandudno Junction, ready to wait for the Saturday’s only crowd clearer. It would make much more sense to run the relief service just before the service train, to attract more people onto that one because Normals always cram onto the first available train. They didn't do this with the extra that day (or indeed any time that it had actually been running), with a Mancc bound 175 leaving just before what should be my train appeared around the corner from Bangor. I had both fingers and toes crossed as I saw a DVT appear and leaped into the air after seeing that it was a silver shovel. Sure enough, it was the one, the only, the best (and no-one can say that I'm wrong here) Thomas Telford! Welcome back old friend! I was, of course, referring to 67014. It still had 15 minutes before it was due to leave so, I swung a door open to take a look at how crowded the rear coach was (the one next to the shovel) and found out that there was only one other passenger at the very front end of the coach. I got off the train, camera in hand and said hi again to 'my' loco and get a load of photos before getting a bay of 4 on board, waiting for it to leave.
Extra shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I called Dad to tell him that it had appeared on my turn and then headed to the window for some Thomas Telford thrash! We were off like a shot and very soon we were slowing for Colwyn Bay. There was no beach there at all due to the tide being in but I knew that Colwyn Bay would be a brilliant shack to get, just so I could have a play in the sand for a bit. We thrashed on, stopping at Abergele and then every other shack towards Chester. The guard came down to my end of the train just after Rhyl, and just said to be careful that I don't get brake dust in my eye after checking my North Wales rover. It was very, very nice to get shovel 14 again and with Nathan too, who was to join me at Chester.
I'll take this opportunity to explain my plan for the day. It's very simple. You already know the first bit but after getting to Chester, Thomas Telford would be taken up to Bangor, back down to Crewe where it lays over for an hour before the next move. During this time, I was going to head out to Alderley Edge and back for two guaranteed winners and a new shack. Then, after getting back, Shovel 14 would be taken back up to Llandudno, which would be winner track after Llandudno Junction, and then to Shotton for a risky plus 8 onto the, now two hourly, Borderlands line service back to Penyffordd. Why risky? The last couple of Saturdays that the 17:58 from Llandudno, it had run about 10 late, throwing the connection in the bin and getting me back to Penyffordd at 21:32 instead of 19:24. Granny won't drive after dark (please. Don't ask me why) though and didn't want me walking back from Penyffordd station in the dark and mum agreed with Granny on the fact that the connection was to tight. So I was shoved into a tight corner. I would have to get off Thomas Telford at Ludo Junction and then come back to Shotton on a 175 to make sure that I could make the 19:09 back. Thankfully I managed to persuade Granny that it was 'impossible' for me to get an earlier train without my day being destroyed. Which is true. Anyway, back to the trip.
The DVT leading stopped at a signal just before the signal at Chester station and it was at that point that Nat called me saying that he had arrived at Chester and was waiting now. I gave him my current position and, after letting a 175 pass heading along the coast, we lurched forward and arrived on platform 4. I got off the door nearest to the shovel and saw Nathan walking from the footbridge towards me. I ran up to meet him and said hi before we got on, after getting plenty of photos of the best 67.
Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I knew that with a short turn around time at Bangor, I wouldn't have time to get any lunch and at Crewe I didn't have enough time to get anything either before a train to Alderley Edge, where I didn't want to leave the station, not to mention that I only had a plus 10 there. Because of this, I knew that I needed to get some lunch here so I was thinking on just grabbing a panini or something from Costa but with the queue outside, I decided to flag that (and a creamy cooler at the same time) by going to Smiths and seeing that the meal deal there was £2 more than at a Sainsbury's or Tesco for a worse meal deal sandwich wise. I didn't want to be really hungry later in the day though so I forked out a fiver for a sarnie, drink and pack of crisps before heading back over to platform 4 and getting on the same coach that I had been in for the ride down. This service was a lot fuller than the previous one, with loads of normals appearing, along with a bunch of enthusiasts. Because of this, the guard who was working our service, the same one who had been on my service from Llandudno, asked us to make sure that we close the door when normals crowd on. Obviously, he asked us to do this because it is the door closest to the stairs, the one that all of the daft normals would open and then cram into, without shutting it. Eventually, the shovel jerked forward and raced away from Chester and onto the North Wales Coast route.
Nathan filled me in on how awful his journey up had been but I, quite frankly, wasn't surprised. This is because he had got the 08:42 dez. It was a service from Rugby to Crewe, which goes via Stoke, stopping at most stations on the route. He then had to wait for a while before his train to Chester. This was the bit he hated most of it all and I couldn't blame him. It was a single 221 from Crewe to Chester and he only just managed to get on it, with passengers who turned up about a minute before it left not being able to get on due to the amount of people on it. Because of this, he couldn't even see Crewe Electric and had to suffer for a twenty-minute ride. I told him that that's what he should expect for traveling on one of those dreaded (I might not have used that particular word) things. Nathan was on the left, me on the right for this journey so I was in charge of getting all of the unit numbers.
Before this trip, I hadn't been past Ludo Junction for ages and ages and ages, (or, while I'm on the subject, Prestatyn) so I have completely forgotten what the line is like. It is all winner track for Nathan after Chester so after seeing the amazing sea views (admittedly not the best that I've had though) after Llandudno Junction, I called Nathan over to take a look as well. How I want to head out into the sea again as I hadn't really been there at all this year. It was a great ride with some absolutely brilliant traction and the great thing is that we still had the return journey to go! Most of the normals who had got on at Chester had got off at stations before Bangor so by the time it pulled in, it was mainly just the enthusiasts getting off. Nathan wanted to stay on board but I managed to persuade him to get off with me for some more photos of the loco.
Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on Flickr
This was a good thing too as all the doors on the train were shut and locked after everyone had got off and 67014 whirred into life and pulled the stock away towards the tunnel on a mini ECS move to get it in the other platform here. All of the enthusiasts (about 8 of us) crossed the footbridge and less than two minutes later, the train was back in the station, ready for all of the enthusiasts who had just got off it to climb back on. Nat and I got the same pair of windows that we had had all day and got back into our spots for the journey back, this time to Crewe. I was, again on the right hand side so Nathan had the sea views this time and we had TT pushing us again, racing through all of the little shacks between Ludo Junction and us. It was a nice, swift run and soon we were going around the corner just before the first calling point for this service. Unfortunately, there was a guard change here and we went from a really soche one who let us window hang to another, who was nice enough but didn't want us hanging. We respected that and went to get a seat, a bay of four on the...
Left hand side! This is because we would prefer to get some sea views than views of carts every half an hour, at least until Rhyl. So, now that we weren't having loads of wind blowing at us, we had a chance to catch up with each other so, while taking a look over at the sea of Colwyn bay, we just had a nice chat, which comprised mostly of Nat complaining about trips that he'd done. Until I shut him up on that particular topic and tried to open up a new one about future trips - nothing (much) for him to complain about there!
We both shifted over to the right hand bay of four next to us after Rhyl and I just picked off some unit numbers until seeing an odd pair heading towards Holyhead. This was a 158 and 150208! How often to 150s get to Holyhead I wander? They're certainly not holy that’s for sure. Although, now I think about it, neither are 158s, 175s and 221s, but that doesn't stop them getting to Jesus's head (sorry, Tech's got me in the bad pun mood!). It arrived at Chester, where a few people got on the train before it continued and absolutely raced away towards Crewe, a route served (mostly) by Arriva Trains Wales but is all in England! It was an absolute romp down the line until just after Crewe Electric, where not much, except the demic 90s up front, was IDable. But just after the depot, when we were in line with Crewe Heritage Centre, we ground to a halt and didn't move again for what seemed like an eternity. But after about two minutes, the guard came over the P/A to say that it was due to the platform that had been set for us being to long for the train so we had to wait for a platform that could fit us to become free. Then, about 5 minutes later, we moved forward and arrived on platform 6, where everyone got out. I now had a very tight connection onto my Alderley Edge train so I didn't have time to buy a ticket. Nathan didn't want to come with me so he decided to stay and do some spotting at Crewe for a bit instead. To be fair, I was only doing it for two winner units and a winner shack. Only! I don't know. What am I turning into?
After a very quick photo, I ran over to the 323 that was on platform 1, asked the guard if I could buy on the train and boarded after getting a positive answer. It was winner 323225 that would be my first Northern 323, 7 away from my favorite, 323232, just because of the numbers of how it can continue for ever with 3s and 2s. But, I got 225, not 232 so lets move on.
I was right at the back of the train and was the first passenger when the guard came down the train, just after we curved off on the Manchester branch. He sold me an overpriced return to Alderley Edge before moving on, checking the rest of the train. This was the all shacks stopper and it got a bit tedious after a while but we soon arrived at my winner shack, so I got off, crossed to the other platform and got my book out again to continue the chapter that I hadn't been able to finish before getting off my 175 earlier in the day. Since it was a plus 10 here, I was able to finish the chapter with about 3 minutes until my train back to the Westie. I stood on the platform looking down the very straight section towards Wilmslow and at the time it was meant to leave, I saw a pair of 323 headlights coming towards me. I couldn't help but smile after seeing the unit number. Hello 323232(3232323232)! I managed to get my favorite Starship without even trying! Me and one other man joined the train here and I got a good seat for the journey.
Starship 225 had stopped at two more stations than this one, both between Sherlock's church (my nickname for Homes chapel) and Alderley Edge, so we took off like a shot. On the London Midland 323s, you don't get to do any decent speed on much of the routes but this is most certainly different. My fave starship was absolutely hammering down the line towards Crewe and it was easily the best 323 run that I had ever had. That coupled with the endless number gives it a pretty good case to anyone for being the best one. That coupled with the fact that at Crewe, I went up to the guard and asked him if I could take a look in the cab of it. He let me so after a nice look at that, thanking the guard and getting a photo of it, I bade it goodbye and went over to platform 6, where Nathan was waiting.
323232(3232323232) by fishquinn1, on Flickr
The PIS board said that Thomas Telford would be leaving from this platform and sure enough, a few moments later 67014 re-entered the station. I got another couple of photos here before getting back on the train with Nathan and securing the right hand side bay of four that we had had earlier in the day.
Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on Flickr
It waited in the platform for about five minutes before we pulled off and swung over to the left and onto the line back to Chester, where Nathan would have to leave me for his train home. In theory, he could have continued to Flint but that would mean getting back to Rugby an hour later than he otherwise would, meaning his folks couldn't have an evening in. He decided that for an extra 12 and a half miles that it wasn't worth it so after 21 miles of shovel thrash, Nathan got off. And I followed.
Right, now before you read the next bit ask yourself why you think I would have followed Nathan off the train at Chester. Stupidity? Failure? Nope, neither of those. The reason I got off is because TT is meant to sit at Chester for 20 minutes before continuing. Because of this, I decided to hop off and get a few phots of 'my' machine here and say bye to Nathan, who was taking the 150 shuttle back to Crewe for a dez via Stoke to Rugby. Rather him than me! So after saying bye to him properly, I sat down and got my book out to start another chapter. But when I heard the whistle for us, I jumped into the bay of four next to mine to wave goodbye to Nathan, who was taking a video of us leaving, as Thomas Telford accelerated away on its penultimate move of the day, and my last (
)
Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I really enjoyed my last ride of Thomas Telford but Llandudno Junction came all to soon where I saw a winner 175 arriving on an eastbound service. But Thomas Telford meant more to me than a winner 175 so I got a few photos and then had to make a very tough decision. I could go for the winner 175, which wasn't due off for a couple of minutes or see Thomas Telford away. This was an incredibly hard decision, in fact deciding to get off at Ludo junction was a very hard decision too but this was harder. But I made my mind up.
Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on Flickr
So with a final goodbye to the best ever shovel, I ran over to winner 175002. What is it that made me choose this? Two words. Colwyn. Bay. Since this isn't the service that I was planning to catch away from the junction, it meant that I could get off one station down the line and kick around in the sand for five minutes. Sure, five minutes is pretty much nothing but it's something and Colwyn Bay is a winner shack anyway so as they say, 2 birds, one stone (poor birds. Killing two with a stone. That's just cruel.). It was sad to say goodbye to shovel 14 but I had to because if I missed this connection at Shotton then Mum would kill me, because she was spending the night over at one of here old friends so wasn't free to pick me up. The ride was short and I was very soon getting off at Colwyn Bay, exiting the station and taking the very short walk to the beach, where the tide was out. I didn't get all the way out to the sea but just kicked around in the sand for a bit before having to go back up to the station. My heart sunk after seeing what the PIS board said though. 'Formed of 2 coaches'. This will be heaving. I was partly wrong as winner 175010, which was working the 17:59, still had seats free but just next to people. I planted myself in a table seat with a family of 3 and soon we were racing along the coastline towards Shotton.
You might remember earlier in the report that I said that I was yet to have my worst 175 run and that it happened in just over 24 hours. Well, it was this one. Why you ask? Basically, today was the day of the Rhyl air show and it had just finished. It hadn't occurred to me throughout the day but now I was stuck on a 2-car cart I began to see the problem. And a problem it was. The 175 arrived at Rhyl and I saw that there was no way that everyone was getting on the train. And I was right, with loads of people not being able to get on 010, which upon departure was absolutely rammed. In order to get past everyone, I would have to get up at Flint for Shotton. It turns out that the family I was sitting with was also bound for Shotton so when I got up, they followed and I made it to the door 2-3 minutes before Shotton, and that's with people alighting at Prestatyn and Flint! I finally got off into breathing space and gave Granny a call to see if I should get dinner from a kebab house here or if she was going to cook. Granny said that it would be easier for me to get something while I was out so it was £3.50 well spent on a doner, which I ate on the high level platforms waiting for the 19:09. This was quite a long time away but it gave me good time to eat my amazing tea. But just after I'd finished it, I heard a noise. A noise that irritated me more than anything. A noise that made me more annoyed than if I missed a connection onto a winner and had to wait ages for the next train, which was a dud. A noise that annoyed me so, so much. That noise was Thomas Telford heading towards Crewe, running bang on time and would have given me a perfect connection onto dud for the day 150253 back to Penyffordd. I was still really annoyed when I got off, my trip having finished, even after a phone call to Dad, which helped improve my mood quite a bit. Granny was running about a minute late but her car arrived after I got into the car park, which was nice. I then headed back to Granny's house and had a few games of chess and droughts with Gramps before heading up to my room and going on the forum for a bit before reading my book and getting to sleep, knowing that my trip hadn't yet finished and that I still had the trip home the next day.
I usually get up quite early while at Granny's and the Sunday morning was no exception. I was planning to have a lie in but my brain had other ideas and I was up and active before 07:30. Mum was meant to be back from her friends at about 10:00 so I had a while until she would be back. In the morning, I helped Granny make Gramps's brekky and ate a bagel (mmmmm...) that Granny had made for me. Then, I went on the Ipad for a bit, waiting for Gramps to come downstairs to play some games. We had to take my brothers late birthday pressie back with us on the train. Easy I hear you say? Not so much when it's a 2-foot long wooden plank, also known as a long periscope for his new shed, something that he had been wanting for ages (the shed not the periscope. Although he thought that Granny's present was really funky).
Mum appeared at 10:00 and we were all going to head out for Coffee and Cake but when we got to the coffee shop, we found out that it was closed! Now that was irritating - I was looking forward to a milkshake and good cake! 12:15 eventually came though and we all piled into Granny's car for the 20-minute ride to Wrexham station. We got here with a few minutes to spare until the 12:38 to Cardiff, the train that mum and I were to take to Shrewsbury. Expecting a 175, I was happy, surprised and annoyed to see that it wasn't a 175 coming around the corner. It was, in fact winner 150208 and dud 158833! 150208 is the 150 that I had seen going to Holyhead from Chester the day before but it was with a different 158 today. It must be heading home to the Valleys now then. I was happy to see that it had a winner ATW 150 on, surprised for obvious reasons and annoyed because the unit that we had joined, the 158 as it would be a more pleasant ride, was very full and didn't have any bays of 2 free. This meant that we had to walk though the gangway into 150208, which was less loaded with the fact that we were able to get a bay of 2 together, although it's got to be the worst seats possibly in an Arriva Trains Wales 150. This is because there was no window view at all looking either direction, we were right above the engine (not usually a problem with 150s but this one was really rattly and sounded poorly) and the fact that we had some fans blowing hot air at our legs. But, it was this or standing so we sat. Luckily, at Gobowan, the two people in the seats right in front of us moved so we immediately moved into that pair giving a much better ride as we had a window. Eventually, the pair arrived at Shrewsbury and loads of people got off, a few heading over to one of the bay platforms, ready to get our service to Brum. This was a pair of 158s from the Cambrian Coast and the pair arrived with duds 158826 and 158823 on. It actually had three units when it arrived, the third of which was a winner but they took that unit off, much to my dismay.
It was a very full service but being some of the first people on the train, we got a bay of four opposite another two people. Luckily it was a forward facing right hand side one and accorded to mum, sat in the bay of four next to us was a famous singer from the 1980s who got asked for his autograph quite a few times during the journey. As we arrived at Wellington, there was a single Arriva 153 leaving on the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury shuttle but the reason I mention it is because it was 153353, my final ATW one for sight. This leaves me with very little of Arriva's fleet left to get for sight now, which was a major upside.
Because of it being Sunday, engineering work was all around and part of this was between Wolves and New Street via the direct route. Luckily, there are two services an hour that are going on a diversionary route so it wasn't all buses. These were the VT services, which were terminating at Wolverhampton today due to Stafford having more engineering works and being completely shut and, luckily, the Arriva 158s from Wales. This meant that we could stay on and, sure enough, after Wolves station we turned off at Portobello junction and then down the line towards Bescot via Darlaston junction. There was loads at Bescot yard but not all was IDable, the highlight definitely being Network Rail's 97303 and 97304. From there it was the usual route in via Soho east junction and eventually arriving in platform 1 at about 14:30.
The platform was very crowded and it took a while to escape the bat cave but when we did, it was a quick walk to Moor Street where we walked right to the front of 168005, which was working the 14:55 to Banbury, not continuing to Marylebone due to (surprise, surprise) engineering works. At least it meant that we pretty much had the coach to ourselves for the journey back to Leamington where Dad and Torin were waiting for us to head home.
All in all, I've had one hell of a good weekend and I'm glad that I went for this option. I'd now like to thank everyone that stuck with me to the end of this abnormally long report. I'm guessing you know that it's because it is three days put into one report. I hope you enjoyed the read and I will now say how many creamy coolers that I had. Give it a guess, knowing me. If you guessed the sort of way that you should have then you're wrong.
Welcome back old friend
Mum had arranged to go up to see one of her old friends who lived near Chester and to see her parents in Penyffordd. She had also said to Granny and Gramps that I would be coming too, getting them (mainly Gramps) very excited. Gramps loves me coming up to stay because we play chess and droughts together and head out for coffee and cake, and just have a good time. Unfortunately, mum didn't let me know this before saying that I would come, so I made other plans with Torin, Dad and a friend of ours that needed help getting his boat (which really was a basket case and kept failing) down the Wolverhampton flight. Mum was very disappointed to hear this but heading up on the Saturday and back on the Sunday just wouldn't work for me. I didn't want to let mum (and obviously my Grandparents down) but I really wanted to do some locks again too. I told Mum my reasoning for not coming and it was at that point that she said to me that she wanted to head up on the Friday and didn't want to drive so the train would have to be an option. That coupled with a chat with Dad while on 68014 back from Birmingham about a week before made me make my mind up. But that was after 1 thing that hit me after leaving Moor Street on 'Gingertom'. I was up in North Wales on a Saturday. Hello Thomas Telford!
Some of you may not know what I meant at the end of last paragraph. 'Thomas Telford' is the name of 67014 (the best shovel. If you don't agree then *puts finger to the door*
) and Shovel 14 had been working on the North Wales Coast Manchester diagrams for a while. During the height of summer, the loco hauled set had been working on weekends on the North Wales coast. This meant that if I headed up (by train) then I could get one of my favorite locos in for the next day before returning home on the Sunday (by train). Bring it on!It was tough to wait for the week for this trip and, having not wanted to go at the start, this had really turned around! Dad and Torin had to get to the top of Wolverhampton flight for whenever Jim needed them (he was tackling Wolverhampton flight on Friday) so they decided to head with us on the train until Wolves. Neither Dad nor I would travel directly from Leamington to Wolverhampton (3 guesses why), so I formulated a plan, taking a Cat to Brum, for a 170 to Shrewsbury for a 175 to Wrexham because, and I checked, Mum would not go via Liverpool, Chester, Cardiff, Hereford or Inverness. I had packed my back in advance for this trip so come 09:25 on Friday morning, I was all ready and almost bouncing up and down (although on the boats that probably isn't a good idea. It hurts when you hit the roof). Thanks to some friendly forum members helping us with tickets to use, we managed to get some bargain walk up fares for the journey.
We (Me, Mum, Torin and Dad) got to the station in good time for the 10:04 to Brum, and it was good to because we had to wait for a while before being served in order to buy the tickets. Then, it was only a short wait on the station for the unknown cat, which rolled in as...
'Bagpuss' (68010)! I bet you thought it would be 'Custard' (011). We all piled in the front coach and, I managed to get one of the 2 partition bays of 4 (the spot where there is the glass halfway down the coach), me being on the forward facing window seat. We all chatted for the journey, knowing that I wouldn't see Torin or Dad until Sunday afternoon and shortly after getting on, the thrash from Bagpuss ended and we all had to get off.
I had been cheeky while planning this and, instead of getting the 11:05 to Shrewsbury in my plan (for a pair of 158s forward), I decided to put us in on the 12:05 from the black hole (it sucks the life from the midlands) for an ex Cardiff service onward, which should be a 175 instead of a 158. As I said, Dad and Torin were coming with us on the 170 to Wolves so we had a bit of time to kill in Brum before the train (1h 20m). So the first thing we did was get coffee and cake from the Centenary Lounge (brilliant cakes there) and for the first time there, I stayed inside to eat/drink. Usually I just go in, get a coffee for Dad to take out and then stand the platform sides of the barriers waiting for him to appear from work. We spent about 25 minutes in there and with about an hour left until the train, we went wandering to see what was where. Unfortunately this involved wandering through a shopping center but after that we were all ready to retire to the station, getting there at about 11:30.
The first thing that I noticed when entering the bat cave was that the 11:17 to Plymouth was running 25 minutes late. So while Mum, Dad and Torin headed into M&S, I ran over to platform 12 to see 43321 and 43207 arrive and depart (getting a few photos too.) 43207 is by far my lowest XC tram for mileage, at 6 miles (Temple Meads to Parkway) so it was good to know that it was out and about. When I would get a chance to have it again, this time for some decent mileage, is unknown though.
I headed back up to my folks and brother to say that all was ok before heading over to the navigation street footbridge in order to get the numbers of everything in the station. This took me about 7 minutes and after I got back to them, they were gone! It doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist to know where they were - just a rail enthusiast! Without any hesitation, I headed over to platform 4C, the platform that I knew our Shrewsbury train would leave from. Sure enough, they were all there and, with a few minutes until it was due to arrive, they were all on the platform ready. The inbound service was slightly late and during the waiting time, Dad received a phone call from Jim, the person that they were helping on the boat, saying that they were still stationary, due to yet another problem on the boat but they were hoping to be moving shortly. Sound familiar? If not then try replacing the boat bit by train. How about every XC 220/221 you've ever traveled on
? Eventually the London Midland 170 (does anyone have any nicknames for these? I'm getting tiered of using the number 170. Look! There it is again! 170, 170, 170, 170, 170. Ok, I'm done. 170.) arrived and we all climbed aboard the very front door of the service (the furthest we possibly could from the normals on a 2-coach cart) and turned right, securing a bay of 4 for the 4 of us on the right hand side. Another (elderly) gentleman went in the bay of 4 next to us (the one on the left) and got himself comfy. This is important info for something that happened just after the sad Sandwell and Dudley (it is no co-incidence that Sandwell and Dudley's station code is 'SAD'). Well, we set off on dud 170501 a couple of minutes late and the journey went very smoothly. Until Dudley Port, where this family of 6 came up taken a look at the seat numbers for all of the seats, and then whispered it to the Dad of the group. He then came forward and told us and the poor old man that they had reserved all of the seats in the two bays of four (equaling 8) for the 6 of them! The old man moved without question and Mum, Dad and Torin were about to move when I said to them that there are no reservation labels and that there are none on the whole train. That, and this service is unreservable. But, not wanting to create a scene, we all moved into a bay of 4 above the fowl 170 engines for the remainder of the evening. This made the journey to Shrewsbury even worse, all thanks to a lying family. Even mum knew they were lying after I explained! Wolves came, meaning that we had reached the line that has a few billion shacks on but it also meant that Dad and Torin had to leave us now. It was a shame to say bye to them but, with mum wanting to do a bit of reading, I also got my book out, hoping that by reading the journey would fly by. It didn't.I looked up from my book after what seemed like ages of reading and taken a look out of the window. It was just countryside so I was expecting that we were somewhere near Shrewsbury, after Wellington. Then, about 2 minutes later, we arrived at Telford. Rats! It surprised me to see a 158 and 150 there on a New Street bound, but not as much as it did the first time I saw that combo at the bat cave! I regretted my actions at putting us on the London Midland cart vice 158 now but clung onto the fact that I would have a pretty high chance of getting a winner 175 to Wrexham. I started the next chapter of the book and got about half way through when it was announced that we were (finally) arriving at Shrewsbury. We had a plus 10 or something like that here so plenty of time to transfer from the bay platforms to platform 3, which involves going through the subway, passing through barriers, out the main station entrance and up some steps in the wall next to it. Luckily I knew where I was going because there aren't many signs and we got up onto just before the ex Cardiff arrived. I was very miffed to see that the unit taking us to Wrexham on the 13:25 would be dud 175104. We got on and ended up sharing a bay of 4 with someone on the busy service which, despite arriving 5 minutes before it was due to leave, left about 10 minutes late. This made the absolutely thrilling (sarcasm mode off) journey complete and with some annoying noise from the train all of the way, it was the worst journey that I have ever had on a 175. And that lasted for a while. Just over 24 hours (no more spoilers now, continue reading and you'll find out why). It was nice to get back out into the fresh air of Wrexham and I actually forgot that we were being picked up by Granny here and began walking over to the Borderlands line platform
. Mum reminded me that Granny was picking us up so I spun round and we headed out to the car park and into Granny's car for the slowest ever ride between Wrexham and Penyffordd (and I have been on a Borderlands unit on that route!) This was because we got stuck behind a tarmac laying thingymabob and Granny was to precious about her car to move around it. Eventually we got to Granny's house where a nice evening (which included taking Gramps out for coffee at the local coffee shop) was spent and I eventually headed to bed for an early night at just after 22:00. This was after hearing that Dad and Torin were having a terrible day of it with the boat failing again and them going nowhere, missing the last bus, the transport they used to get to the boat. This meant that they had to walk for about 5 miles back to Wolverhampton station for a pendo to New Street and then a cart from Leam. Poor them. But back to the report with six words. Read on for the main event!I got up at 06:15, feeling, well, the same way any normal person would feel having just got up at quarter past 6. I prepared my bag for the day, making sure that my plan was in it in case I needed it later in the day. Then I got everything done that had to be done before I headed out and went onto Granny's Ipad for a bit before Granny got up. I had said that I would walk to the station but she wouldn't have it and said that she would take me to the station for my train, the 07:47 to Bidston, giving me a plus 5 onto a Llandudno bound 175. A connection that should be easy if my 150 was on time. Nathan said that he would try and get up to spend the day but I knew that this was highly, highly unlikely to happen as his folks haven’t let him go past Stafford solo yet.
We headed out of the house at about 07:35 with ample time until the train was due. I wasn't very happy to see that the boards at Penyffordd station shown it as 3 late. The semaphores at Penyffordd were still down at its departure time and eventually a 150 came around the corner from the Wrexham line and stopped at the signal just before the station. It was then set and winner 150253 rolled in about 7 late. That's my connection at Shotton out then. I got on and got a seat for the absolute stagger forward. I asked the guard why it was late and why we were staggering when he came round to sell me my ticket, a 4 zone North Wales Rover, validating me from Chester to Bangor. He said that it was because we were following a slow late running freight train and he said that I wouldn't make the connection at Shotton. I got off anyway and saw that I had 55 minutes until the next one, meaning that the first part of my plan had to be chopped off. This was going from Shotton to Llanfairfechan (apparently pronounced clan-ver-vecan according to the guard on board. It's said quickly too. One mystery solved!) and then meeting Thomas Telford there. Because of the delay, I would now just be able to go from Shotton to Llandudno Junction to meet it. Not letting that irritate me too much, which was a very hard task, I saw a footpath leading away from the Chester bound platform with a sign saying that it was also a cycle path. It looked like it was following the line between Shotton and Bidston so I decided to go for a stroll and hopefully find Hawarden Bridge so I could shack scratch it. I later found out that this path was a named one and was called 'The Chester Millennium Greenway'.
It was a pleasant walk down the tree-covered footpath and after about 2 minutes of walking, the trees vanished and in front of me was a ramp leading up onto a big bridge that was spanning the river Dee. I immediately recognized it. This was the bridge that the Borderlands line trains cross just before Hawarden Bridge and, as I have crossed this bridge many times by train, I knew that there was a footpath crossing the same bridge and leading to the station. So, with no hesitation, I ran up the ramp and crossed the amazing ex Swing Bridge. Ex Swing Bridge? Yes, the central part of the bridge once swung away to allow ships to pass but is now welded shut. You can still see the old equipment towards the middle of the bridge though. It was opened on the 3rd of August 1889, after only 2 years of construction, which began on the 16th of August 1887. Anyway, back to the present.
After crossing the bridge, the footpath continues past the station but I didn't want to continue. There was a gate leading to the tracks, where a rickety foot crossing was to get to the other platform. I crossed over and stood on one of the two platforms, glad to finally get this tricky shack in the book. Although, quite frankly it isn't too tricky to get as I just proven! In fact, excepting the two Wrexham stations, Shotton and Bidston, it is probably the easiest to get on the route, being only a 5-minute walk from Shotton!
Rarely used shack by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Rarely used shack by fishquinn1, on FlickrHawarden Bridge is a basic, barren station with very little around but I found it quite a nice one. There was a fairly nice view towards Shotton and a big curve facing Bidston, with a signal box a little further on. The only facility around is a little, run down bus shelter on the Wrexham bound platform and other than that there was just a station sign, PIS board, platform and plenty of trees. I didn't spend to long there as I wasn't really waiting for anything and, with ages left until my train, I wandered out and back onto the footpath, making the decision to walk a little further down The Chester Millennium Greenway to try and see the train that 150253 was stuck behind in Dee Marsh sidings.
It was a pleasant 10-minute walk and it surprised me to see loads of people, using quite a few ways of getting around. Walking, running, cycling, hoverboarding and flying (I might have made those last two up). There were lots of people out and about for before 08:30! I tried Nathan on his mobile, knowing that if he were coming then he would already be on the move. It went straight to voicemail, which tends to indicate that he wasn't going to be meeting me because his phone wouldn’t be turned off if he were out solo. I then tried him at home, and got an answer from Steve, his Dad saying that Nathan was currently on the train to Crewe! Sounds like I'm going to be having company today!
I eventually reached the end, where the path is parallel to Dee Marsh and taken a look to see what was there. Unfortunately, due to the high abundance of undergrowth and thousands of wagons even standing right next to the fence at the railway line, I couldn't get the number of the donut (class 60) in there. After 5 minutes of trying to get into a viewable position for the number, I gave up and headed back onto the main footpath and began retracing my steps to the big bridge where, since I still had time until my train, I headed down the steps just after the little station and headed down, leaving the railway line and following the river...
For all of about 250 yards before I stopped, got my camera out and got a few photos of the bridge and the river. Time was now pushing on though and, wanting to get a drink from somewhere in Shotton before my 175, I crossed back over the Dee and followed the path to platform 1 at Shotton station.
I now had about 10 minutes until my train so quickly ran to the main high street and it looks like I had some good luck charm around as right across the road was a newsagent. Unfortunately the road I had to cross, even with a crossing, was very busy and it took me ages to get cross. Luckily, after grabbing a Summer Fruits Oasis, there was no queue so I got served immediately and got back to the crossing, where a wait of about 2 minutes was required before I could cross. I headed up to the high level platforms to take the little passage from there to the low level ones. During this time, 150253 appeared again and I noticed that its destination board had 'Crewe' on it. This tends to indicate that it had been working the Chester-Crewe shuttle the day before and the driver hadn't yet changed it. 150254 was on the other Borderlands line turn and, as it was a dud, I didn't care which of the two I would be getting back to Penyffordd later in the day.
After getting photos of those two units, I headed onto my platform and just stood fairly close to the end of the platform waiting for the Llandudno bound train to arrive. It eventually arrived about 1 late at 09:04, the same time that winner 175110 was meant to leave. It was surprisingly busy (actually, now I think about it, it isn't too surprising. It's a Saturday service going to a popular tourist destination and loads of hellholes on route (Prestatyn, I'm looking at you), not to mention the fact that it would be a short wait for shovel 14!) But that didn't stop me from getting a bay of two to myself on the right hand side. Book out and I read for most of the journey, except the bits that I was looking at the sea for around Colwyn Bay. But, after a very slow journey, I was getting off into the fresh air of Llandudno Junction, ready to wait for the Saturday’s only crowd clearer. It would make much more sense to run the relief service just before the service train, to attract more people onto that one because Normals always cram onto the first available train. They didn't do this with the extra that day (or indeed any time that it had actually been running), with a Mancc bound 175 leaving just before what should be my train appeared around the corner from Bangor. I had both fingers and toes crossed as I saw a DVT appear and leaped into the air after seeing that it was a silver shovel. Sure enough, it was the one, the only, the best (and no-one can say that I'm wrong here) Thomas Telford! Welcome back old friend! I was, of course, referring to 67014. It still had 15 minutes before it was due to leave so, I swung a door open to take a look at how crowded the rear coach was (the one next to the shovel) and found out that there was only one other passenger at the very front end of the coach. I got off the train, camera in hand and said hi again to 'my' loco and get a load of photos before getting a bay of 4 on board, waiting for it to leave.
Extra shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on FlickrI called Dad to tell him that it had appeared on my turn and then headed to the window for some Thomas Telford thrash! We were off like a shot and very soon we were slowing for Colwyn Bay. There was no beach there at all due to the tide being in but I knew that Colwyn Bay would be a brilliant shack to get, just so I could have a play in the sand for a bit. We thrashed on, stopping at Abergele and then every other shack towards Chester. The guard came down to my end of the train just after Rhyl, and just said to be careful that I don't get brake dust in my eye after checking my North Wales rover. It was very, very nice to get shovel 14 again and with Nathan too, who was to join me at Chester.
I'll take this opportunity to explain my plan for the day. It's very simple. You already know the first bit but after getting to Chester, Thomas Telford would be taken up to Bangor, back down to Crewe where it lays over for an hour before the next move. During this time, I was going to head out to Alderley Edge and back for two guaranteed winners and a new shack. Then, after getting back, Shovel 14 would be taken back up to Llandudno, which would be winner track after Llandudno Junction, and then to Shotton for a risky plus 8 onto the, now two hourly, Borderlands line service back to Penyffordd. Why risky? The last couple of Saturdays that the 17:58 from Llandudno, it had run about 10 late, throwing the connection in the bin and getting me back to Penyffordd at 21:32 instead of 19:24. Granny won't drive after dark (please. Don't ask me why) though and didn't want me walking back from Penyffordd station in the dark and mum agreed with Granny on the fact that the connection was to tight. So I was shoved into a tight corner. I would have to get off Thomas Telford at Ludo Junction and then come back to Shotton on a 175 to make sure that I could make the 19:09 back. Thankfully I managed to persuade Granny that it was 'impossible' for me to get an earlier train without my day being destroyed. Which is true. Anyway, back to the trip.
The DVT leading stopped at a signal just before the signal at Chester station and it was at that point that Nat called me saying that he had arrived at Chester and was waiting now. I gave him my current position and, after letting a 175 pass heading along the coast, we lurched forward and arrived on platform 4. I got off the door nearest to the shovel and saw Nathan walking from the footbridge towards me. I ran up to meet him and said hi before we got on, after getting plenty of photos of the best 67.
Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on FlickrI knew that with a short turn around time at Bangor, I wouldn't have time to get any lunch and at Crewe I didn't have enough time to get anything either before a train to Alderley Edge, where I didn't want to leave the station, not to mention that I only had a plus 10 there. Because of this, I knew that I needed to get some lunch here so I was thinking on just grabbing a panini or something from Costa but with the queue outside, I decided to flag that (and a creamy cooler at the same time) by going to Smiths and seeing that the meal deal there was £2 more than at a Sainsbury's or Tesco for a worse meal deal sandwich wise. I didn't want to be really hungry later in the day though so I forked out a fiver for a sarnie, drink and pack of crisps before heading back over to platform 4 and getting on the same coach that I had been in for the ride down. This service was a lot fuller than the previous one, with loads of normals appearing, along with a bunch of enthusiasts. Because of this, the guard who was working our service, the same one who had been on my service from Llandudno, asked us to make sure that we close the door when normals crowd on. Obviously, he asked us to do this because it is the door closest to the stairs, the one that all of the daft normals would open and then cram into, without shutting it. Eventually, the shovel jerked forward and raced away from Chester and onto the North Wales Coast route.
Nathan filled me in on how awful his journey up had been but I, quite frankly, wasn't surprised. This is because he had got the 08:42 dez. It was a service from Rugby to Crewe, which goes via Stoke, stopping at most stations on the route. He then had to wait for a while before his train to Chester. This was the bit he hated most of it all and I couldn't blame him. It was a single 221 from Crewe to Chester and he only just managed to get on it, with passengers who turned up about a minute before it left not being able to get on due to the amount of people on it. Because of this, he couldn't even see Crewe Electric and had to suffer for a twenty-minute ride. I told him that that's what he should expect for traveling on one of those dreaded (I might not have used that particular word) things. Nathan was on the left, me on the right for this journey so I was in charge of getting all of the unit numbers.
Before this trip, I hadn't been past Ludo Junction for ages and ages and ages, (or, while I'm on the subject, Prestatyn) so I have completely forgotten what the line is like. It is all winner track for Nathan after Chester so after seeing the amazing sea views (admittedly not the best that I've had though) after Llandudno Junction, I called Nathan over to take a look as well. How I want to head out into the sea again as I hadn't really been there at all this year. It was a great ride with some absolutely brilliant traction and the great thing is that we still had the return journey to go! Most of the normals who had got on at Chester had got off at stations before Bangor so by the time it pulled in, it was mainly just the enthusiasts getting off. Nathan wanted to stay on board but I managed to persuade him to get off with me for some more photos of the loco.
Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on FlickrThis was a good thing too as all the doors on the train were shut and locked after everyone had got off and 67014 whirred into life and pulled the stock away towards the tunnel on a mini ECS move to get it in the other platform here. All of the enthusiasts (about 8 of us) crossed the footbridge and less than two minutes later, the train was back in the station, ready for all of the enthusiasts who had just got off it to climb back on. Nat and I got the same pair of windows that we had had all day and got back into our spots for the journey back, this time to Crewe. I was, again on the right hand side so Nathan had the sea views this time and we had TT pushing us again, racing through all of the little shacks between Ludo Junction and us. It was a nice, swift run and soon we were going around the corner just before the first calling point for this service. Unfortunately, there was a guard change here and we went from a really soche one who let us window hang to another, who was nice enough but didn't want us hanging. We respected that and went to get a seat, a bay of four on the...
Left hand side! This is because we would prefer to get some sea views than views of carts every half an hour, at least until Rhyl. So, now that we weren't having loads of wind blowing at us, we had a chance to catch up with each other so, while taking a look over at the sea of Colwyn bay, we just had a nice chat, which comprised mostly of Nat complaining about trips that he'd done. Until I shut him up on that particular topic and tried to open up a new one about future trips - nothing (much) for him to complain about there!
We both shifted over to the right hand bay of four next to us after Rhyl and I just picked off some unit numbers until seeing an odd pair heading towards Holyhead. This was a 158 and 150208! How often to 150s get to Holyhead I wander? They're certainly not holy that’s for sure. Although, now I think about it, neither are 158s, 175s and 221s, but that doesn't stop them getting to Jesus's head (sorry, Tech's got me in the bad pun mood
!). It arrived at Chester, where a few people got on the train before it continued and absolutely raced away towards Crewe, a route served (mostly) by Arriva Trains Wales but is all in England! It was an absolute romp down the line until just after Crewe Electric, where not much, except the demic 90s up front, was IDable. But just after the depot, when we were in line with Crewe Heritage Centre, we ground to a halt and didn't move again for what seemed like an eternity. But after about two minutes, the guard came over the P/A to say that it was due to the platform that had been set for us being to long for the train so we had to wait for a platform that could fit us to become free. Then, about 5 minutes later, we moved forward and arrived on platform 6, where everyone got out. I now had a very tight connection onto my Alderley Edge train so I didn't have time to buy a ticket. Nathan didn't want to come with me so he decided to stay and do some spotting at Crewe for a bit instead. To be fair, I was only doing it for two winner units and a winner shack. Only! I don't know. What am I turning into? After a very quick photo, I ran over to the 323 that was on platform 1, asked the guard if I could buy on the train and boarded after getting a positive answer. It was winner 323225 that would be my first Northern 323, 7 away from my favorite, 323232, just because of the numbers of how it can continue for ever with 3s and 2s. But, I got 225, not 232 so lets move on.
I was right at the back of the train and was the first passenger when the guard came down the train, just after we curved off on the Manchester branch. He sold me an overpriced return to Alderley Edge before moving on, checking the rest of the train. This was the all shacks stopper and it got a bit tedious after a while but we soon arrived at my winner shack, so I got off, crossed to the other platform and got my book out again to continue the chapter that I hadn't been able to finish before getting off my 175 earlier in the day. Since it was a plus 10 here, I was able to finish the chapter with about 3 minutes until my train back to the Westie. I stood on the platform looking down the very straight section towards Wilmslow and at the time it was meant to leave, I saw a pair of 323 headlights coming towards me. I couldn't help but smile after seeing the unit number. Hello 323232(3232323232)! I managed to get my favorite Starship without even trying! Me and one other man joined the train here and I got a good seat for the journey.
Starship 225 had stopped at two more stations than this one, both between Sherlock's church (my nickname for Homes chapel) and Alderley Edge, so we took off like a shot. On the London Midland 323s, you don't get to do any decent speed on much of the routes but this is most certainly different. My fave starship was absolutely hammering down the line towards Crewe and it was easily the best 323 run that I had ever had. That coupled with the endless number gives it a pretty good case to anyone for being the best one. That coupled with the fact that at Crewe, I went up to the guard and asked him if I could take a look in the cab of it. He let me so after a nice look at that, thanking the guard and getting a photo of it, I bade it goodbye and went over to platform 6, where Nathan was waiting.
323232(3232323232) by fishquinn1, on FlickrThe PIS board said that Thomas Telford would be leaving from this platform and sure enough, a few moments later 67014 re-entered the station. I got another couple of photos here before getting back on the train with Nathan and securing the right hand side bay of four that we had had earlier in the day.
Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on FlickrIt waited in the platform for about five minutes before we pulled off and swung over to the left and onto the line back to Chester, where Nathan would have to leave me for his train home. In theory, he could have continued to Flint but that would mean getting back to Rugby an hour later than he otherwise would, meaning his folks couldn't have an evening in. He decided that for an extra 12 and a half miles that it wasn't worth it so after 21 miles of shovel thrash, Nathan got off. And I followed.
Right, now before you read the next bit ask yourself why you think I would have followed Nathan off the train at Chester. Stupidity? Failure? Nope, neither of those. The reason I got off is because TT is meant to sit at Chester for 20 minutes before continuing. Because of this, I decided to hop off and get a few phots of 'my' machine here and say bye to Nathan, who was taking the 150 shuttle back to Crewe for a dez via Stoke to Rugby. Rather him than me! So after saying bye to him properly, I sat down and got my book out to start another chapter. But when I heard the whistle for us, I jumped into the bay of four next to mine to wave goodbye to Nathan, who was taking a video of us leaving, as Thomas Telford accelerated away on its penultimate move of the day, and my last (
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Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on FlickrI really enjoyed my last ride of Thomas Telford but Llandudno Junction came all to soon where I saw a winner 175 arriving on an eastbound service. But Thomas Telford meant more to me than a winner 175 so I got a few photos and then had to make a very tough decision. I could go for the winner 175, which wasn't due off for a couple of minutes or see Thomas Telford away. This was an incredibly hard decision, in fact deciding to get off at Ludo junction was a very hard decision too but this was harder. But I made my mind up.
Extra Shovel out and about by fishquinn1, on FlickrSo with a final goodbye to the best ever shovel, I ran over to winner 175002. What is it that made me choose this? Two words. Colwyn. Bay. Since this isn't the service that I was planning to catch away from the junction, it meant that I could get off one station down the line and kick around in the sand for five minutes. Sure, five minutes is pretty much nothing but it's something and Colwyn Bay is a winner shack anyway so as they say, 2 birds, one stone (poor birds. Killing two with a stone. That's just cruel.). It was sad to say goodbye to shovel 14 but I had to because if I missed this connection at Shotton then Mum would kill me, because she was spending the night over at one of here old friends so wasn't free to pick me up. The ride was short and I was very soon getting off at Colwyn Bay, exiting the station and taking the very short walk to the beach, where the tide was out. I didn't get all the way out to the sea but just kicked around in the sand for a bit before having to go back up to the station. My heart sunk after seeing what the PIS board said though. 'Formed of 2 coaches'. This will be heaving. I was partly wrong as winner 175010, which was working the 17:59, still had seats free but just next to people. I planted myself in a table seat with a family of 3 and soon we were racing along the coastline towards Shotton.
You might remember earlier in the report that I said that I was yet to have my worst 175 run and that it happened in just over 24 hours. Well, it was this one. Why you ask? Basically, today was the day of the Rhyl air show and it had just finished. It hadn't occurred to me throughout the day but now I was stuck on a 2-car cart I began to see the problem. And a problem it was. The 175 arrived at Rhyl and I saw that there was no way that everyone was getting on the train. And I was right, with loads of people not being able to get on 010, which upon departure was absolutely rammed. In order to get past everyone, I would have to get up at Flint for Shotton. It turns out that the family I was sitting with was also bound for Shotton so when I got up, they followed and I made it to the door 2-3 minutes before Shotton, and that's with people alighting at Prestatyn and Flint! I finally got off into breathing space and gave Granny a call to see if I should get dinner from a kebab house here or if she was going to cook. Granny said that it would be easier for me to get something while I was out so it was £3.50 well spent on a doner, which I ate on the high level platforms waiting for the 19:09. This was quite a long time away but it gave me good time to eat my amazing tea. But just after I'd finished it, I heard a noise. A noise that irritated me more than anything. A noise that made me more annoyed than if I missed a connection onto a winner and had to wait ages for the next train, which was a dud. A noise that annoyed me so, so much. That noise was Thomas Telford heading towards Crewe, running bang on time and would have given me a perfect connection onto dud for the day 150253 back to Penyffordd. I was still really annoyed when I got off, my trip having finished, even after a phone call to Dad, which helped improve my mood quite a bit. Granny was running about a minute late but her car arrived after I got into the car park, which was nice. I then headed back to Granny's house and had a few games of chess and droughts with Gramps before heading up to my room and going on the forum for a bit before reading my book and getting to sleep, knowing that my trip hadn't yet finished and that I still had the trip home the next day.
I usually get up quite early while at Granny's and the Sunday morning was no exception. I was planning to have a lie in but my brain had other ideas and I was up and active before 07:30. Mum was meant to be back from her friends at about 10:00 so I had a while until she would be back. In the morning, I helped Granny make Gramps's brekky and ate a bagel (mmmmm...) that Granny had made for me. Then, I went on the Ipad for a bit, waiting for Gramps to come downstairs to play some games. We had to take my brothers late birthday pressie back with us on the train. Easy I hear you say? Not so much when it's a 2-foot long wooden plank, also known as a long periscope for his new shed, something that he had been wanting for ages (the shed not the periscope. Although he thought that Granny's present was really funky).
Mum appeared at 10:00 and we were all going to head out for Coffee and Cake but when we got to the coffee shop, we found out that it was closed! Now that was irritating - I was looking forward to a milkshake and good cake! 12:15 eventually came though and we all piled into Granny's car for the 20-minute ride to Wrexham station. We got here with a few minutes to spare until the 12:38 to Cardiff, the train that mum and I were to take to Shrewsbury. Expecting a 175, I was happy, surprised and annoyed to see that it wasn't a 175 coming around the corner. It was, in fact winner 150208 and dud 158833! 150208 is the 150 that I had seen going to Holyhead from Chester the day before but it was with a different 158 today. It must be heading home to the Valleys now then. I was happy to see that it had a winner ATW 150 on, surprised for obvious reasons and annoyed because the unit that we had joined, the 158 as it would be a more pleasant ride, was very full and didn't have any bays of 2 free. This meant that we had to walk though the gangway into 150208, which was less loaded with the fact that we were able to get a bay of 2 together, although it's got to be the worst seats possibly in an Arriva Trains Wales 150. This is because there was no window view at all looking either direction, we were right above the engine (not usually a problem with 150s but this one was really rattly and sounded poorly) and the fact that we had some fans blowing hot air at our legs. But, it was this or standing so we sat. Luckily, at Gobowan, the two people in the seats right in front of us moved so we immediately moved into that pair giving a much better ride as we had a window. Eventually, the pair arrived at Shrewsbury and loads of people got off, a few heading over to one of the bay platforms, ready to get our service to Brum. This was a pair of 158s from the Cambrian Coast and the pair arrived with duds 158826 and 158823 on. It actually had three units when it arrived, the third of which was a winner but they took that unit off, much to my dismay.
It was a very full service but being some of the first people on the train, we got a bay of four opposite another two people. Luckily it was a forward facing right hand side one and accorded to mum, sat in the bay of four next to us was a famous singer from the 1980s who got asked for his autograph quite a few times during the journey. As we arrived at Wellington, there was a single Arriva 153 leaving on the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury shuttle but the reason I mention it is because it was 153353, my final ATW one for sight. This leaves me with very little of Arriva's fleet left to get for sight now, which was a major upside.
Because of it being Sunday, engineering work was all around and part of this was between Wolves and New Street via the direct route. Luckily, there are two services an hour that are going on a diversionary route so it wasn't all buses. These were the VT services, which were terminating at Wolverhampton today due to Stafford having more engineering works and being completely shut and, luckily, the Arriva 158s from Wales. This meant that we could stay on and, sure enough, after Wolves station we turned off at Portobello junction and then down the line towards Bescot via Darlaston junction. There was loads at Bescot yard but not all was IDable, the highlight definitely being Network Rail's 97303 and 97304. From there it was the usual route in via Soho east junction and eventually arriving in platform 1 at about 14:30.
The platform was very crowded and it took a while to escape the bat cave but when we did, it was a quick walk to Moor Street where we walked right to the front of 168005, which was working the 14:55 to Banbury, not continuing to Marylebone due to (surprise, surprise) engineering works. At least it meant that we pretty much had the coach to ourselves for the journey back to Leamington where Dad and Torin were waiting for us to head home.
All in all, I've had one hell of a good weekend and I'm glad that I went for this option. I'd now like to thank everyone that stuck with me to the end of this abnormally long report. I'm guessing you know that it's because it is three days put into one report. I hope you enjoyed the read and I will now say how many creamy coolers that I had. Give it a guess, knowing me. If you guessed the sort of way that you should have then you're wrong.
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