FQ's trips around the globe

[HMS Ark Royal]

Obviously, Quinn lives in HMS Ark Royal! It has been pieced together, refurbished and placed in the River Leam.

Alternatively, it's just a houseboat in the River Leam.

I wondered why it was painful to sit down - its because Quinn is in me

 

[backontrack]

OK, that's weird. I think we all know that it's just a regular houseboat. Sorry, but HMS Ark Royal (boat) hasn't been pieced back together or anything.

Long Itchington I believe, Lord Tram, my eldest brother used to live in Bishop Itchington for a good while, I never ever saw a river there when visiting, mind you, we spent the majority of it in the Butchers Arms pub, many moons back that though.

Having looked at Google Maps, it appears that the river is a short distance to the south of Long Itchington.

 

[sprinterguy]

Having looked at Google Maps, it appears that the river is a short distance to the south of Long Itchington.

A position on the Grand Union Canal there seems far more likely than a river borne one.

 

[backontrack]

You're right.

 

[Kite159]

I could see the boat being moved towards Banbury area yesterday to grab pictures of HSTs on diversions

 

[FQ]

Hi all! Just got back now. I will now announce who is correct. Sprinterguy, you win. At Long Itchington on the GU canal with a 7 by 70ft pair of boats. The first day kind of went wrong because on the approach to the Napton flight, we discovered that the alternator on the engine had blown so we had to go 3 hours out of our way to get to a chandlery on Christmas eve. Then we got back on course.

Kite - I tried to persuade them to get to Banbury for the Monday so we could take the trams to Marylebone. I failed

I hope everyone had a nice christmas!

 

[backontrack]

Hi, Quinn! Did you have a good Xmas?

 

[FQ]

I did, yep. A nice day truly in the middle of nowhere. You?

 

[backontrack]

Brilliant! Just came back on last night with a new avatar and profile picture.

Did you watch any of the festive TV?

EDIT: This is just general chat, so might be better to PM. We were just trying to find out where you live. :P

HMS Ark Royal is convinced that you're actually inside him. I pointed out to him that that sounded a bit weird. :P

 

[FQ]

Where did you head to? I like the avatar!

No festive TV, The TV that we have is on the other boat and is disconnected so we can only watch movies anyway. Will probably watch the Doctor Who christmas special later though.

I'm ok with having it in this thread if you are. I'll say now though, prepare yourself for some reading later. I have 3 trip reports to post as soon as my brother gets off the computer.

 

[backontrack]

We stayed home, I meant that I'd come back onto the forum.

I asked as I didn't know whether or not if you'd seen the Agatha Christie thing they had over the weekend. Apart from that and Doctor Who (which was phenomenal, BTW) then we didn't really watch much TV - except for movies and the news coverage of the floods.

 

[FQ]

Didn't even know that they had i on. We watch everything through bbc iplayer.

Looking forward to watching DW it whenever we get a chance to.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Here is the first of the three. I will get the other two up ASAP.

The last of the Midland dusty bins

As the title probably says, today, the 20th of September, was about getting the final London Midland 321 in on its last turn. 20th of September? Isn't that a Sunday? It was indeed but since it is the day that my favorite EMU in London Midland would be leaving to Scotland (actually, this particular one is now working with London Overground but lets not be pedantic). The final turns are the 15:07 from Watford to St Albans Abbey and the 15:28 back so those are the two that I was going to get today, with some company. It isn't actually Nathan that I would be going out with today, but Kite159 from the forum who should be fairly easy to identify because of the fact that he would be carrying his well used bike to get the last few shacks on the Abbey Line.

I had the usual Sunday morning routine: get up, Karate suit on, head to Southam for the 10:00 start of Karate, home for 11:15 then that's where it changed. Usually it would be warm Danish (cinnamon swirl for me) and then chill out for the day. Today it was getting to Rugby for the 13:20 to Watford, which meant leaving home at about 12:40 for the drive to Rugby. The whole family came along and I think the plan for Torin, Mum and Dad was to head out for coffee and cake after (kindly) dropping me off for the ex Crewe dez, not that it makes much difference on Sundays as all 350s go via Northampton. I got to Rugby with about 15 minutes until my train so there was ample time to say bye to my folks and brother, buy my return to St Albans Abbey and get up to platform 5 for my train, via platform 2 of course in order to get the number of the body snatcher and dison up there (57 and 92). I then got ready for my train, hoping beyond hope that it would be a winner of a kind that isn't a 350/2. I was absolutely horrified when dud 350264 arrived, already pretty full. I only just managed to get a pretty terrible seat, which was next to someone and, after departure, there were quite a few people standing in the vestibules (or sad excuse for one). It took the loop so I was in for a very long journey to Watford.

I couldn't see any locos in DIRFT at Crick but even if I could then they wouldn't be IDed. About 20 minutes after leaving Rugby, it arrived at Northampton. Ages left to go in a rammed 350/2. How lovely...

After it arrived at Northampton though, the doors didn't open for some reason. I thought this strange at first but the moment after the guard said the reason why and after the doors were unlocked, I was off the train in an instant. Why? We'd just coupled to a second unit that would be with us all the way to London! Since this unit had came out of Northampton depot, I knew that it would be very lightly loaded and I was correct as winner 350370 was pretty much empty and I got a bay of 4 near to the front of it. How excellent! Because I listen to the guard’s announcement, I go from a terrible seat next to someone in a 350/2 to a bay of 4 with a table to myself in a 350/3! This made the ride in the now 8-coach train much nicer and soon we were rolling out of Northampton and towards MK. We had a nice fast run between the two and after checking if the Euston stopper had a winner on, as that's the only other train that I could catch to get to Watford on time, I relaxed for the journey. This is because it was double duds 350126 and 350239. The guard on my service said that we stopped at Bletchley on the way but we raced through non-stop, much to my surprise. It turns out that the guard was wrong and that this service isn't meant to stop there. It was RA after Leighton Buzzard so after stopping there, we accelerated and crossed over to the fasts at Ledburn Junction for some high speed dezzy action. It definitely felt like a shorter run after Leighton and soon we were slowing for Watford Junction. I got off, along with a lot of other people and instead of heading for the Abbey line platform; I headed out of the station and down the high street. Why? Well, earlier in the day I had checked to see if there was anywhere to get something to eat near the station as I had half an hour until the Dusty left. It turns out that there was a cafe about a 2-minute walk down the highway called the Junction Cafe. I headed to it and walked inside, ordering a cheeseburger to take away. I watched the chef make it and £3.20/10 minutes later; I was heading back to the station, ready to board my dusty bin on the last London Midland run.

It was already in the platform when I got there so I headed to the motor coach (thanks to Lord Quest for telling me which coach this was) and got a seat to eat my burger. I had arranged to meet Kite in the motor coach and had told him what I was wearing so he could locate me. I thought that he would be the only one carrying a bike but there were quite a few people but after finishing my 1/4 pounder, Lord Kite of Grateley came up to me and said hi. He sat in the bay of 4 opposite and we had a nice chat about trips and stuff as winner 321413 whirred away, taking me down the St Albans Abbey line.

Kite’s required shacks on the line were Park Street, How Wood and Garston if I remember correctly. He had formed a plan, which, naturally, involved his bike. Apparently it’s a short ride from Park Street to How Wood so Park Street was his first shack on the line. I continued through to St Albans instead of getting a required shack because this was the penultimate move of the dusty and I wanted the full run both ways. The guard told passengers on the train just before St Albans Abbey that they shouldn’t be surprised when a different train is there later in the day and then said the reason why. I thought that that was a pretty nice gesture of the guard.

The 15:28 back to Watford was much busier than the outward but I still retained the bay of four in the motor coach, although the one that Kite was sitting in on the way up was now taken by a group of 4 normals. The dusty bin arrived at How Wood, a few minutes after leaving St Albans and picked Kite up again. His plan now was to take 413 to Garston (or was it Bricket Wood that he needed?) and then wait for the 319 from there but he decided to have a plan change and took 413 all the way to Watford, where it arrived on time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hang around to see 321413 head away from platform 11 at Watford Junction for the last time as I had a train to catch from the mainline platforms. So after saying bye to Kite, who was waiting for the 319 (it was 319216), I headed away from the last London Midland 321 and over to the more modern LM traction – a dez. Or to be more precise, 3! Forming the 15:50 to New Street via Northampton, double duds 350126 and 350239 leading winner 350106! 126 and 239 are two that I had seen earlier at MK and flagged because they were duds but it seems that they had found a friend at Euston that, because it was on the back, would be taken off at the Hampton of the north. I’m not referring to Hampton-in-Arden, which is near the north end of this journey, but of course the miss-leading Platypus station. Platypus station is my nickname for Northampton station because when you look at the new station from the road outside, it looks like loads of random things stuck together, kind of like the platypus, which has a duck bill, beaver tail and otter feet. I think I know the answer to this question anyway but do you know how the platypus was created? Come on, it’s an easy question! The answer is no. Well, there is a story, which I will tell you now.

One day in the start of the universe, god was sitting in his apartment feeling bored when his mate came round. “Fancy a couple of beers god?” He then replied, “I would, but I’ve got this platypus to make”, holding up an empty box marked ‘Platypus’. His mate insisted that he should come out and eventually god agreed and they headed to the local pub.
Once they were both there, they got themselves a couple of beers each and drank them very quickly. Then God said that he had to go back to design the platypus but his mate was able to persuade him to have another few beers. After that, God decided to head for the road but not before his mate said “How about one for the road?”
“Yep, that sounds good!” God said and he drank another pint on his walk home. He then got back to his house and picked up both the box labeled ‘Platypus’ and another box labeled ‘Assorted animal items’. The assorted animal items box was full and included a duck bill, beaver tail and otter feet. He headed across to his bed with the boxes but halfway down he tripped over and spilt the contents of the assorted animal box all over the floor. In anger and annoyance, he threw the assorted animal box across the room at the wall before scooping up everything that had just landed on the floor into the ‘Platypus’ cardboard box and putting it next to his bed before collapsing in a heap on top of it and falling asleep.
The next morning, God woke up and tried to remember what had happened the day before. He just remembered the words ‘make platypus’, so he picked the platypus box and said “Hmmm. I don’t remember making this. And why would I make an animal like this? But who’s me to argue with... me? Anyway, who cares? It’ll confuse the hell out of people in the future!”
So with that, god created the platypus using just the stuff that was in the box and came up with one strange animal!

Hang on. Ok, that was completely made up. But I hope you enjoyed it anyway! So, that’s the platypus tangent over. Back to London Midland. Although, after a trip to the beginning of the universe, a London Midland unit of any kind seems quite a letdown! But I can’t talk about the start of the world all of the time!

I boarded the trio of dezzes, thinking that the rear unit, 350106, would be the least crowded because it was just going to Northampton. I was wrong and it was, by far, the most full of the three 350s. But I guess that’s just normals getting on the first door that they come to at Euston. I decided to head into the next unit and ended up sitting in the front coach of 350239, with a bay of four to myself. I now had to decide whether I should take this pair straight through to Rugby or not. There was a Crewe service 7 minutes behind at MK and, since I fancied a Greggs custard slice, I left the train there and headed out to the car park and towards Greggs at the corner... To find it closed! I keep forgetting that it’s a Sunday and not a weekday/Saturday. Instead of a custard slice, I settled for a costa muffin, not getting a creamy cooler because I didn’t want to risk there not being enough time for my train home.

I began eating my muffin on the platform while waiting for my train, which came in with double duds (no change there then), 350110, the project 110 dez and 350119. 119 was to come off at Northampton but was equally as full as 110 so I just got a seat next to a family of 3 for the torturous ride, wishing that I hadn’t left the trio at MK. I called Dad to say that I would be at Rugby 10 minutes later than planned before attempting to relax. It eventually arrived at Northampton where it had a 10-minute wait before continuing to Crewe, stopping at Long Buckby before Rugby. But it was at Northampton that I struck gold. There, sat in the platform next to us, was the three dezzes that I had been on from Milton Keynes. 350106 was, of course, uncoupled from the other two but I didn’t hesitate at getting off 110 and back onto 350126 and 350239, where a bay of 6 was sourced in the latter, all to myself. Perfect! Going from an absolutely heaving 4 coach to a virtually empty 8 coach. Virtually luxury, if that’s possible when you’re talking about London Midland. We left 10 minutes before the Crewe train and raced along the line. I debated whether I should leave at Long Buckby for a shack attack but since I had a comfy seat, I decided to continue to Rugby, where I got off and headed out to the spot were I knew Dad would be. I was going to get the bus back home but Dad decided to be very kind and pick me up so when I got there, a five-minute wait was had before he appeared with the dogs and we headed back after a very, very fun afternoon out. And Kite, it was very nice to meet you!

 

[Kite159]

But I guess that’s just normals getting on the first door that they come to at Euston

OMG the train isn't due to depart for 5 more minutes, better jump on at the first available door just in case it departs

I had a brilliant example of that yesterday with a trio of 375s heading towards Ramsgate via Margate, pair of /3s at the front and a (high density 3+2) /9 at the rear, the rear unit looked rather busy, but I was in the middle coach of the 2nd 3-car unit and it was empty, people just jumping on to get a seat in a high density unit turning down the offer of proper tables up front!

 

[Techniquest]

Crikey that trip report took a while to get done!

Glad I could be of assistance with the motor coach gen, no point keeping knowledge to oneself!

Glad too you had a good festive time Lord Fish, as always the trip report was a great read and the platypus thing was hilarious!

 

[FQ]

Thanks guys! Normals are a strange lot, that's for sure. Lets get on the very rear coach, not checking the ones up front! On 1H62 before (15:55 Moor Street-Marylebone), I've seen loads of people crammed into the vestibule of the first coach or two nearest to the barriers and then the ones up front completely empty. At least it gets you decent seats though!

EDIT: I'll say now that I got a £10 Costa gift voucher as one of my christmas pressies. Creamy coolers... :drool:

 

[FQ]

The second is here.

September big bash day 1: New Day, new rover

September’s main bash was a 3 in 7 Freedom of Severn and Solent (FOSS). I had done all of the work to have 3 days off for this trip in advance so, with my Dad getting the 06:26 from Leamington to Brum each day, I decided to do one in order to lower my GWR tram requirements from 32. I was hoping to get at least 16 tram winners over the three days, which doesn’t seem so hard. I was glad to be setting my alarm on the 20th of September for 05:15, which might seem crazy but it meant that I was going to be heading out on the bash. Why else would you set you alarm for 05:15? How will it go?

I woke to my alarm and, surprisingly, I wasn’t feeling to tiered given the time of the morning. After getting dressed, trying hard not to wake my brother, who was still completely out, I headed onto the other of the two boats and got teeth cleaned before getting a drink and saying hi to Dad, who had just got up. I had asked on the forum the night before for some gen on 43189, Dad’s last GWR powercar so I was hoping that I would get a reply on that to get it later in the day as it was also with another winner. But checking at home means checking at stupid o’ clock in the morning and also firing up the laptop and hub, which I didn’t want to do. This meant reverting to the phone later in the day but, given the alternative, that’s the option that I would prefer. Anyway, we headed out of the door for about 05:55, after Dad had made himself a coffee of course (to take on the train) and took the nice, dark drive to Leamington, parking in a free spot about a 10-minute walk from the station. We had listened to the radio on the way and it seems that everyone was at New Street, on the day of its opening. Because of this, we decided to go for brekky there at one of the new shops after getting off the 165 from Leam. After a pleasant enough walk to the station as it began to get light, we headed onto platform 2 just in time to see 66594 rolling through on an intermodal. This is one of the services that Dad regularly sees in the morning, sometimes with Gurkins, sometimes with Bettys. We headed quite a way down the platform while waiting for the train and during this time, we had to listen to the delightful noise of a London Midland 172 going through the engine test. If you want to know what sort of sound that it makes then try and imagine a cat caught in a lawnmower, while a brutal murder is taking place, while a terrible load of notes on a trumpet is being played. The highlight of it though is seeing the 172 open all of its doors, including the ones that have no platform next to them. All of the doors open at the same time and in the age of ‘no freedom, no fun’, also known as ‘Health and safety’, I’m surprised that it’s allowed, on the off chance that a normal gets on the train that isn’t due to leave for an hour and a half and then walks straight over and hurts themselves when they fall out the second door. Hands up who thinks that health and safety is stupid! I’m expecting at least 1,000,000 people in Doleham alone as you’re allowed to vote more than once here! Anyway, lets get off the topic of the vultures of fun now and back on with the rail stuff.

We had to walk down the platform slightly in order to get in line with the 2-coach stop board because, as I’ve already said, the 06:24 to Snow Hell is formed of a 165 which, today, was winner 165018 and also my favorite 165 after this run. I was first on the unit, at least at the front set of doors, and turned left immediately after getting on, grabbing the very front bay of 4 on the surprisingly lightly loaded train. I was informed that it gets much busier further along the line though, but just with commuters so taking a bay of 4 for two is no problem here. As expected, the train filled up more at Warwick and Warwick Parkway but at the former, most people turned right and took a seat above the engine. Poor souls, although it is their choice as they could have turned left. It was a very nice ride down to Brum as my company was superb and I do like traveling in the morning before sunrise in both trains and cars because it makes me feel like the bash is truly on. And it was!

We got wedged out by two commuters after Dorridge (or was it Solihull?) but there wasn’t long left until Moor Street, where we were to get off to head over to the New (new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new) New York, sorry Street. We passed Bagpuss on the first Kiddy to Marylebone around Bordesley but other than that, we passed no other locos before our destination, Moor Street. How I want moor! (I’ll get my coat). Dad usually gets off at Snow Hell but since we wanted to get to the other Birmingham hole, the best of the three main stations would have to do today. The barriers were swung wide here and we were among the last of the people to leave the train, being part of the aftermath of the wave. The huge display at the front of the new concourse lit up the path between the two stations, which was growing in light from the sky. We began guessing how long it would be until the electronic display gave up but it seems that we were both wrong with 0-24 hours! We headed in the new entrance and oh my! It’s amazing (please don’t kill me Lord Quest!)! It has a huge glass dome over the top letting in the non-existent light and a huge open space with departure boards saying where the trains are going and saying which ‘lounge’ to go to. Lounge? Yep. New Street is now taking an airport style approach to stations by designating different entrances by colour such as ‘blue lounge’, ‘yellow lounge’ and ‘red lounge’. It doesn’t only say this on the departure boards but also in the announcements at the very end saying for example ‘please enter via the yellow lounge’. Not only this but all of the seats and stuff are upstairs (but even then there aren’t many) and it tries to make passengers stay upstairs until there train is due. But one of the biggest changes in a word that I hate when used in the rail sense. Barriers. New Street now has lots of barriers but they are programmed to give your ticket back because you will probably have to pass through several sets of barriers to get out of the station. With New Street now being a station that I use a lot, I know that first hand.

There was just a scattering of people around along with BBC News, Five Live and a few more radio stations. Naturally, we avoided them all and headed over to a little café in the corner called Joe’s for a sausage baguette. It was all posh drinks there and not fancying anything hot, I decided to flag a drink, as the juices were small and overpriced, not to mention that there weren’t many juices. I don’t like fizzy drinks so they were out so I decided to get one from Smiths after having breakfast. It was pretty hard to persuade the staff that I didn’t want a drink but when we had the saussie baguette, it was a very nice time, with very good food! They were a bargain price for what it is and I’m glad we chose that.

My train to Worcester is scheduled to leave the bat cave at 07:59 so we had a good while until it would appear to take me away, hopefully with at least one of my last three winners on! Not a chance! But I still had hope... Dad had to leave for work at about 07:40 so with a final goodbye for the day, I set off for Smiths and grabbed two drinks for £3 before heading down to the platform for the 07:59. This is a service that comes in from the Cross City line so I was expecting it to arrive with lots of time until it was due to head out but I was wrong and it arrived a few minutes late at 07:57. There was loads of people waiting for the train so I was glad to see a 4 coach formation arrive... and even more glad to see that it had one of my last three on the back of the terminating service, so the unit leading on the Hereford train. The back unit of the Hereford service had much less people crowding onto it than the front one, so I headed to 170516, the dud rear unit and got a bay of 4 opposite someone. I felt a jerk, which worried me slightly because it felt like we were uncoupling. Because of this, I headed to one of the normals sitting on one of the seats in the vestibule and asked if it was the Worcester train. She said that it was where she was going so she definitely hoped that it was! I sat back down and waited for departure but a few words struck me with horror from the guard over the PA. He said ‘Hello everyone, welcome to this 07:57 London Midland service to Walsall. Calling at...’. I was up quicker than a photographer would be if a railtour came around the corner and sprinted to the front unit, leaping on just in time for winner 170514 to leave. Loads of other people left 170516 and ran to 514 as well so I wasn’t the only one. It was stupid that there was no mention that the rear unit wasn’t on the Hereford train but at least I made it and got a seat: a bay of 4 next to three people, which is better than everyone else who had got off 516. It left at about 08:03 and I got off 516 at 08:01 so there was time but not much. I’m just glad that I made the connection!

I had got this months edition of Rail Express while in Smiths at New Street so I had some reading material for the not very nice run towards GWR land. Since it was full and standing upon departure from New Street, it got much busier on the way to Worcester Foregate Street where most of the people got off, including me. It arrived on the right hand side platform if arriving from Droitwich/Shrubbery covered hill and everyone who got off headed straight down the subway. I still needed to get my Freedom of Severn and Solent as ticket clerks at both Leam and Snow Hell didn’t know how to issue one. Luckily, the ticket clerk here knew how to issue one immediately (it seems that they have to type FOSS) so with just over five minutes to spare until my train away, I headed up to the platform that my service was due in on and got a seat to wait for my service. This was the 09:03 from Foregate Street and was my ride into the action with winner 158763 working hard to get there. I got a decent seat near the front of the unit and just relaxed for the ride away. This was my first journey using this particular rover and, although I was only out for three days this week, it felt like I could go anywhere on it. But it’s obvious that I couldn’t. I had a vague plan for getting in and out of my rover and, with today being Monday, I knew that the 09:12 out of New Street was hauled (and before anyone wanders what I mean – I mean hauled by one loco and pushed by another. So a tram) which is 10:00 from Cheltenham. Because of this, I had decided to go via Worcester today and make use of this service to get me into the action at Bristol.

763 was soon arriving at Ashchurch, a shack that seems hard to get but one that I’ve had, and seen a deltic race past at. It was ages ago mind and the deltic was on a tour (55022) but since we were in the area, it had to be seen! The rest of the journey passed smoothly and I saw 66002 en route. Why is this special and why did I mention a piece of GM tat like that? One reason. It’s one of Nathan’s last few DBS/EWS/EW&S/ANYL (any name you like) 66s to see so I decided to pass the gen onto him although, being locked in a hell cage every weekday, tortured with words and chalk (give yourself a biscuit if you guessed that I was talking about school), he couldn’t really make use of it. Never mind, at least I tried!

158763 dumped me at Cheltenham station, a basic station, kind of like the one you expect to find at Scotscalder or Plockton or Denton or something like that. OK, maybe not that bad. But it wasn’t the nicest of stations, that’s for sure! I got a few photos of the 158 as it left before retiring to a station bench under the canopy, which, despite it not raining at the time, didn’t hesitate in dropping loads of water over me. I had a good long time until the train that I was due to catch would arrive so I fired up my tiny phone and spent ages trying to get onto the forum. But when I did, it was worth it as my request for gen had been answered by Minilad. Thanks again for the gen on 43189, it helped a lot. Why? Because it was on the Bristol turns for the day! Lucky, lucky me! And, while on the topic of trams, a few minutes before my train arrived, 43183 and 43154 arrived on an ex Paddington service. It was now raining and due to the platforms not being as long as you’d want, a photo was out of the question. But after watching that pair head out towards the sidings, the Ashchurch side of the station, I saw a Cross Country tram front come around the corner and into the station. It was 43366 and 43301, neither of which are particularly high mileage but are definitely nowhere near the lowest either. Still, they worked as a perfect way to get me where I needed to go with plenty of thrash! I contemplated leaving the train at Bristol Parkway but there would be quite a wait until the next tram from here so an extra 6 miles was needed to get to Bristol Temple Meads. 31601 was at Barton Hill and was my first ‘heritage’ bit of traction, except trams. This was my first time solo at Bristol Temple Meads and, having just missed a Paddington bound tram, I had a 25-minute fester until the next, which was already in the platform. This did give me the chance to get all of the units at the station and cab 43366, where two very soche drivers where. One (jokily) offered me a cab ride and the second driver then said to him that I might accept the offer and that they would have company to Taunton. Rest assured, I said...

Yes (jokingly). So the two drivers slammed the powercar door and gave me the controls to leave. And we raced down the line, with me in the driver’s seat of 43366...

Daydream mode off. How many people did I convince? I had a nice rant with them before getting out because it was time for it to leave and with some mega thrash, the second southbound XC tram left Temple Meads. I then got numbers off all of the units in the station and headed back over to the single Great Western tram in the platform, which had a load of mk3s sandwiched between duds 43021 and 43015. The former would be leading me on the 11:00 to Paddington. I had no plan or no timetable or anything but ended up getting off at Bath just because it was a place to get off. It would be about 20 minutes until the next tram back to Temple Meads but while I was in the process of shutting the doors on the tram that I had just left, I noticed a 150 paired with a 153 arriving. Because of this, I sprinted through the subway and onto double winners 153368 and 150234. I took a seat in the 153 for some DBT for the journey back to Bristol. It was running a few minutes late and kept on loosing time on the way to the point that it made my connection at Temple Meads onto the 11:30 to London a plus 1. Then a -1. And then it rolled past with a double dud tram but it still didn’t make me feel any better at missing it. I called Dad to tell him the bad news and ask him for advice. It was get a timetable and don’t get off at Bath, making your base Temple Meads. Apparently in order to get more winner trams, I should base myself out of Swindon as everything stops there, including Cardiff and Swansea trains. I decided to go with this advice and went to the information desk and asked for a timetable showing every intercity service out of Paddington. What did I get? A timetable with most services missing, including some from Bristol, all from Swansea and the West Country, no Herefords or anything decent really. So I had to make my second call to Dad to ask him for some more times in order to get me onto 43189 later in the day. The advice was brilliant and I was staring at the line from Taunton at about mid-day waiting for an ex Penzance tram to arrive. This was after I saw the Paignton tram, the service that I would have got from Bath if I hadn’t gone for the cart, had a winner and a dud on. Oh well, it’ll teach me in future. The ex PZ tram came in about 2 minutes late with double duds 43151 and 43143 providing power. Since it had come from the far west, it was a lot busier than most services but I managed to get a good enough seat for the journey ahead: the very back seat on the right hand side. And we pulled away.

A pair of Freightliner 66s was passed around Oldfield Park but other than that and a load of trams, there was nothing much between Bristol and Swindon. I, naturally did a bit of window hanging on the journey and somewhere on route, 43192 and 43131 rolled by on a Bristol train. The latter of the pair is required so I knew that I could get a winner later on by baleing off 189 at a certain winner shack. Eventually, the pair that I was currently on arrived at Swinedon, sorry, Swindon, and I left it and ran onto the other platform, even though it wasn’t needed. Although it did give me a good chance to see a Swansea bound tram leave. It was now about 12:45 so I had a good 10-minutes until my next train was due to arrive. During this time, 66708 rolled through on 6M40, a train that is due through Leamington at 15:00. I let Dad know that 708 was on it as he had a chance of seeing it on his train home later in the day. He thanked me an by the time that phone call was over, it was time to leap in the air. Hello winner 43079! 079? Yep, 189 was the powercar with this one so double whammy as it was indeed winner 43189 on the other end! I was very glad to get this one and Dad was called immediately to give him the good news that I had just got 189. So I now had two tram powercars that Dad hadn’t. 43311, which I had got on my North East Rover and now, obviously, 43189. This pair raced down the Great Western Main Line but I was off at the first stop, the winner shack of Chippenham. This was because I had a +14 or something like that until another winner tram would appear again. I made sure a shot of the rear powercar was obtained before watching them thrash away on the last little bit of the journey.
Bristol bound at Chippenham by fishquinn1, on Flickr

Chippenham station is a three-platform station but only has two lines through it. How? Simple. The first platform you would come onto after buying a ticket is the platform with no line but very well preserved and goes as far down in the Bristol direction as the other two. You then go over a footbridge leading to an island platform where the two others are. It’s quite a funky layout but isn’t the nicest of stations when building work is going on for a new footbridge at the Bath end of the platform. Chippenham is also home to Siemens Rail automation as said on the station signs. Dad also heads to Chippenham fairly regularly for work so I knew that the buffet did brilliant food. It was about lunchtime but with the time available I couldn’t get anything. It was a pleasant enough stay, which included seeing 70808 hammering through light engine and shortly I had my third tram winner of the day, 43131, which oddly enough still had 43191 on from earlier on. This was a dud but it got another winner in the book, which was good news according to me. I took this pair back to Swindon where I noticed that the Swansea bound service, the 13:38, hadn’t yet passed. It was arriving as we were so a mad dash under the subway saw me onto an unknown pair to what I thought would be Bristol Parkway although, in actuality, it could be a late running Cheltenham service for all I knew. I was luckily right about it being the Swansea and it turns out that it was double duds 43193 and 43130 that would be taking me for the fast dash to Bristol Parkway. Although it’s quite a dull run, it is full whack so you do get some mega speed from a tram. Window hanging is obviously hard at this speed but it is fun for brief moments. I didn’t know how long the connection would be for a tram back to Swindon at Parkway but hoped it wouldn’t be to long. I wasn’t very happy when a set passed us about 2 minutes before I would have got off it. This gave me a plus 30 or so here and with nothing around (I had no binos and there was nothing much in Stoke Gifford), I just set camp up on the platform. There is nothing for lunch that I was willing to pay for (about £4 for just a sarnie or prat a manger, the ching taker) so a long half hour later, I was watching another tram set come in, this time with double duds (no change there then) 43197 and 43091. This was the 14:31 from Parkway so I didn’t have much hope of making the 14:55 to Temple Meads, which would be a -3, but decided to form a plan around that anyway. Chippenham was the only place I could think of to get lunch as I saw a Sainsbury’s local outside the station and it feels like there would be a chippy for a doner nearby too. I got a vestibule for some thrash after Steamy SPAD junction and shortly after that, we were slowing for Swindon. The Bristol train hadn’t yet passed us but it pulled to a stand about half a minute before us. LEG IT! I was first off the tram and easily the first down the stairs to the subway and up the others onto the platform where a tram set was waiting. I leaped on the door that was open next to the subway and got a seat, gasping for breath. I heard the door slam shut and then it pulled off, heading away from Swindon. I obviously couldn’t get the numbers of them but after checking at Chippenham, where I got off, I found that it was double duds 43174 and 43169 that had transported me all the way here.

By now I was really hungry and decided that instead of giving myself a +15 onto the next, that a +30 would be much better. Half an hour fester when the trains are half hourly? Surely it would be 45 minutes if I flagged the 15:25 service. Nope because Dad had called me to say that the 17:30 out of Temple Meads to Leeds (the last northbound XC tram) had 43207 as one of the powercars. I had cleared the Cross Country trams for haulage but 207 is by far my lowest (and Dad’s lowest and Nathan’s last one for haulage) at just over 6 miles. This was a Temple Meads to Parkway hop on the 9th of April 2014 as the end of our Brunel day that year. Both Dad and I required it that day so it would be crazy not to take it then. But since it was still incredibly low mileage, I knew how I would be getting home that day. This meant that I needed to get to Bristol and didn’t want to head via Swindon on the off chance that I missed the connection. Besides, I could probably do a Bath leap when I’m there. I headed out of the station into the car park in search of both a cashpoint and a chippy that does doners and just after I crossed the road leading into the car park, someone told me that they liked my tee shirt. It’s a blue one with the BR logo on and it isn’t the first time that I have had that said to me. I saw two potential doner places but had to go right into the heart of town, about a 5-minute walk both ways from the chippy, in order to get some cash out. Chippenham isn’t the nicest of places but at least a late lunch could be sourced. I headed to the kebab house that I thought would do the best and splashed out about £4 for a small doner meat, walking back up the hill to the station after purchasing. I now had about 10 minutes to eat before my train and, looking forward to getting some decent food, I took a long strip first. And found that it was dry, tasteless and tough to bite. All in all, I think it’s the worst doner that I have ever had. I didn’t finish it, leaving a little bit in the bottom but it was good timing to as the time I threw the rest of the waste of money in the bin, my tram rolled in. I leaped in the air after seeing the leading powercar – winner 43063. It was dud 43025 on the back but I had now had four tram winners today already and still had the chance to get a couple more although, I doubt that will happen. I was hoping to have got at least 5 on my first day, hopefully more but I was unlikely to get that. Still, there was one winner on this train so I was lucky there! There was some decent thrash from both powercars and after Wash and the capital of Aussie gardens we were arriving at Bristol. Temple Meads. I had a plus 10 here onto another set back out to Bath so, needing a drink, I headed over to Smiths which was annoyingly on the other side of the barriers. My ticket obviously didn’t work the annoying things so I had to get a member of staff to zap me through but after that, finding a drink was easy and I walked back out of the barriers a few minutes later armed with two orange and carrot juice bursts. They’re probably my favorite juice to get while I’m out and about. I’m guessing you know why I had to say juices and not just drinks. Mmmmmmm. Creamy coolers... Delicious, amazing creamy coolers... Get me a creamy cooler... *snaps out of it*.

I headed over to the set that was forming the 16:30 to Padd and knew that it would be duds for the day 43169 and 43174 on it. Because of this, I only had a slight chance of getting another winner today and that’s if I get a mega stroke of luck and have a required pair as my last GWR ones of the day. I alighted at Bath a few minutes’ later and changed platforms for my unknown pair back. I resisted a choccy bar in Pumpkin and 20 minutes later, I saw a pair of blue powercars approaching. I leapt into the air. It was winner 43010 on the front of my set back to Bristol. It was quite a busy train, with lots of people boarding at Bath, probably after a day in this amazing suburb city. I decided to let other people have seats and got myself a vestibule window so I could get some wind in my hair and some tram sounds in my ears. What bliss!

The tram set arrived at Bristol on the far side platform meaning that I was closest to the door in my coach. I swung it open and immediately headed to the end of the platform in order to get the rear powercar. Holy moly! Winner 43086!!! I was so happy that I almost didn’t see Betty number 3 approaching the station on a coal train. It was the noise that alerted me and I didn’t even look before my camera was out. Why? Because just from the noise, I knew where and what it was. Kind of like a cake or homemade chips if you swap noise for smell. I walked the Betty down the platform, watched it leave then walked through the sandwich shop, sorry subway, to get to the platform that the 17:30 to New Street was due off from. I had my fingers crossed, even after I saw a tram coming around the corner and I was in luck as 43207 was leading 7 mk3s and 43321 to Leeds tonight. I could tell that this would be a busy train because it was a rush hour service out of Bristol to Cheltenham, Birmingham, Derby, Sheffield and onward but it didn’t stop me from getting on very quickly, after lots of people had got off. A bay of 4 opposite someone was sourced (right hand side, backwards facing, window side seat), which had a window and a few minutes later, another commuter sat in the seat diagonal to me in the bay of four. No one sat next to me during the journey and, after Cheltenham; the third commuter to join left the train. The one opposite me had boarded at a station before Temple Meads and still had his music in. Now, before anyone complains, I couldn’t hear a sound from his headphones, which were not a pair of rubbish apple ones. Has anyone ever wandered why it’s a pair of headphones or pair of trousers or something like that? No, neither have I.

The sun shone onto the fields as we headed back, lighting them up and giving us a mega shadow to put into them. Thankfully I wasn’t in a library and there weren’t two shadows from the same thing. But still, just to be safe, count the shadows. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. That’s all from our train so I reckon that I’m safe where I am. Unless...

207 and 321 arrived at New Street nearly 10 minutes before they were due off, giving me a chance to head up front and say hi to the driver and ask if I could take a look in the cab. She said that I could and also got a photo of me in the driver’s seat, which was really nice. From now, 43207 is my favorite Cross Country tram. It was always a tough choice between that and 378, which is close second. I exited the bat cave via Navigation Street footbridge and began the walk across town towards Snow Hell. I had a nice long time to get there and just over 5 minutes later, I was entering the station. My train was on the boards and as I got down to the platform, I saw a 7-coach formation waiting me. And leading said formation is mega low mileage 168109! I’d only ever had 109 once before today and that was just on a Warwick Parkway hop in order to get another winner back when I still needed some 168s. But if one of them is going to be needed for 100, then the other can’t be as it was mega high mileage 168217 on the back. This one is on around 140 miles after this hop so it will rival my other high ones soon – 168214 and 168215. In fact, all of the 168/2s are over 100 except 168216, which is at about 90 and 168219, which is at about 40.

I got a seat in the back coach of 109 (217 was locked at the moment but open at Leam) but couldn’t stop myself thinking of creamy coolers. “Stuff it” I said as I got out of my seat and ran to the Costa just outside the station. “Damn it” I said when I saw that said Costa was closed. Luckily I got my seat back and I just sat back, relaxed and tried to enjoy the 23.25-mile journey that ends at Leam. Dad was waiting for me in the usual spot so I headed out and told him about my day. 6 winner GWR powercars and a further 5 winner units, one of them being one of my last three London Midland 170s. Lets see if I manage to get another 10 tram winners over the last 2 days of my rover then...

Red and blue by fishquinn1, on Flickr

 

[FQ]

And the third. Backontrack - I watched the Doctor Who about half an hour ago. Excellent episode and I like how it continues to a certain episode in Series 4.

September big bash day 2: The hunt continues

Beep. Beep. Beep. I turned my alarm clock off and got out of bed on the Thursday. It had been 3 days since my first day and I really wanted some more tram action. Although the time was 05:15, I got up quickly before heading onto the other boat and making a packed lunch for myself. I didn’t want to get another really late lunch again and have it turn out to be a naf doner, so making my own sarnies was the best way to guarantee that. That, and it saved money. Dad got up at half past and got his coffee ready so we could head out in good time for the train. A nice morning drive to Leamington was had and shortly we were parking. I had taken a blue jacket with me, just for the walk between the car and station because it was a cold walk and it didn’t feel cold later in the day. We got to the station and headed up top to see one of the station staff that I knew very well would be dispatching our train. We had a nice chat about boats and where I was going today before the train came in, today winner 165003. We didn’t go for the bay of 4 today and instead sat down in a bay of 2, which had no window view. Not that there was much to see anyway! We chatted away as the journey progressed and before I knew it, the cart was entering the Snow Hell tunnels. This is after seeing ‘Gingertom’, the best cat, in the platform at Moor Street. We didn’t hang around at Snow Hell, getting out of the pit of a station that it is as quickly as humanly possible and heading towards a certain sandwich shop that Dad said we would get brekky from. Subway (the one next to Greggs on the walk to Snow Hell from Moor Street) was empty apart from staff and two mega melts were sourced along with a coffee for Dad and an orange juice for me. This was an absolute bargain, being £2.75 each. Dad kindly paid again and about 5 minutes after walking in, we were heading back out and heading towards Dad’s work.

Dad had said that the plan was getting a sub each (both were on Italian bread this morning) and then taking it to his work to eat there while I waited for my train. We entered his work after a couple of minutes of walking and headed up to the eating area to devour the subs. They tasted amazing, that’s for sure and I’m very glad that we went for this option. After everything was gone, Dad took me to his desk and shown me what he was currently working on. It was very funky stuff and it was nice to spend the half hour there with him. Dad would have loved to come and do a FOSS with me but unfortunately that wasn’t an option for him, as he needed to do work today. He kindly walked me down to New Street where we said bye and I headed over to platform 12, ready for my train out of Brummingham. It came in at about 08:10; due to leave 2 minutes later and I happily got a seat fairly close to the front of the train. It was surprisingly quiet, that is until 43357 and 43285 thrashed out through the New Street tunnels and onto the Cross City line. I had made a request for some gen the night before, this time a few of my winner powercars, most of them ones that I had seen on Monday but hadn’t been able to get. I checked my phone to find that my request had been answered by HA25322. My request involved 43009/018/069/142/176/187 (the green one)/191/193. 43193 was an error in my typing and I meant 194 but it’s my stupidity that made me miss out on the gen for that one. I saw a good way to fall into 187 and 188 later in the day and formed a plan for the first bit of the day. The tram raced along and the guard on the train was very soche and really wanted to get down the train quickly. He started at the back and headed forward to the front, where I was, and got to me just after University! Nothing much of note on the journey, except I got complimented on my tee shirt again by the guard. I was wearing the same one as Monday so I won’t describe it again. My tram left Cheltenham about 4 down, because they stuck a 323 in front of us out of New Street. I didn’t want another 25-minute fester at Temple Meads after getting there so I had built my plan around getting off at Bristol Parkway, which I did. It was a +6 here onto my train to Swindon, the 09:31 to Paddington so I crossed over and stood at the end of the platform, waiting for the train. I saw it coming around the corner and I was very lucky as leading the set was winner 43034! Dud 43145 was the loco on the back but I got a seat on the train and enjoyed the race east. My plan involved making a very tough connection at Swindon but I thought that I could pull it off, since I had done with a similar connection on Monday. I smiled after seeing the other platform at Swindon empty as 034 and 145 arrived in the one opposite. I still ran onto the other side and got in position at the end of the platform in order to get both powercars. I hoped that a winner would appear but it was 43023 and 43135 that were arriving on the 09:55 to Bristol. Both of these were duds but at least I was moving again, this time to Chippenham. I was window hanging for this ride and for one of the first times; I had to show the guard my FOSS. She asked me where I was heading and when I said Chippenham, she asked if she needed to call anyone to pick me up. Honestly, do I look that young? I said that I was ok and she moved on checking the rest of the train.

I got off where I said I would and due to the delay to the service, I had only a +10 until the Swindon train. I headed to the end of the platform to wait for the tram so I could get both powercars before boarding. It came in on time with dud 43148 and winner 43160! That’s two winner powercars already and I wasn’t even trying! This was good because I had already achieved half my target of 16, currently being on 8. On the journey back, I called Dad to say how I was getting on, named a bridge, had half of my sarnie because I was hungry and blew up the earth. The last wasn’t true but all the others were, including the bridge thing. How? There is a large footbridge between Wooton Liquorish Allsorts junction (Bassets make Liquorish Allsorts. Get it?) and Swindon, which is where most trams coming from the west slow down for the station. Almost all trams that I had been on while doing my FOSS had slowed here so I named it ‘Tram slow bridge’. Why else ?

After getting to the station, I had a quarter of an hour wait until the Paignton train that I hadn’t waited for at Bath on Monday. The one that had 43191 on. Remember? Well, that service had the green tram set on today, namely 43187 and 43188. 187 is a required powercar so I wanted to get this set for two different reasons. To say that I had had ‘the green one’ and the other to obviously get the winner. I thought the livery was quite good on the trams but thought that it would be the same on the inside as Dad had said. I didn’t think that they had done anything in the inside and was very surprised after boarding dud 43188 and winner 43187 because they had completely changed the interior.
The old and new trams by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I got my little digital camera out and got a few photos of the interior before sitting in one of the seats and enjoying the ride, noticing that 43069 was working a Paddington bound service as we left. What will that come back out on? I’ll want to track it down though, whatever it is!

I love what they have done with the inside now. It’s green seats and nice wood tables but the fact that it was a pretty full train didn’t make the experience... complete. There are no more pink ears on the side of seats, which, lets face it, look very tacky and it feels like there is more space for some reason. My plan only had me on this green set until Chippenham but where I was in the train is directly next to the footbridge it seems. This is good because it meant that I could dash over the bridge and onto the platform with no line in order to get a photo or several from the end of that platform instead. The two green powercars have the sort of headlights that the VTEC and XC ones have positioning wise and they have the letters GWR on the side. But these letters aren’t painted on. They’re stuck on and are about an inch out of metal. It looks really effective, that’s for sure. But I still prefer the blue livery on them, that being my second favorite on a tram powercar. I think that the Cross Country LIVERY is the best. I had to be careful there to not to form the sentence that Cross Country is (not) the best. See, I couldn’t even write the sentence there! Anyway, back to the decent evening meal: ham and chips. I don’t see why egg was excluded from the name of Chippenham. Then it would be ham, egg and chips instead of just ham and chips!
A green Chippenham tram by fishquinn1, on Flickr

I headed back onto the other platforms after watching that pair head away to Paignton, glad of what I had currently achieved. 3 winner powercars on my second day by 11:00! I hadn’t even managed 1 until nearly 13:00 on the Monday! Things were going well, that’s for sure. I had seen a 59 at Wooton Basset Junction but I couldn’t get the number. I thought that I would get it on the way back but I had a moment of luck and just under 10 minutes before my tram would come back, there was a ‘stand well away from the platform edge. The next train on platform 2 does not stop here.’ Then, after about 5 minutes of waiting, rivaling even Tamworth on the advance notice, 59101 came through on freight. This was a winner for sight so I was very happy to get the number. But 5 minutes advance notice for a non-stop? Everyone would have forgotten that there was an announcement by then and might be standing next to the platform edge! Probably more health and safety stuff. Ineffective and annoys the rail enthusiasts. That’s basically the definition of it! It was a pleasant enough wait until one of the blue sets arrived, with dud 43037 and equally dud 43153 along for company. To quote the Simpsons – Doh! I still had some gen to get a few more but of that, 009 was on west of England stuff via the Desert, 018 was next on my hit list, 069 was supposedly on maintenance, 142 was my target after 018, 176 was at Old Oak until I was heading home and 191 was not allocated when the gen was posted. I still had two that I should be able to get so that was my plan. Off the dud pair at Swindon and a simple change of platforms where I had 45 minutes to view stuff and see if a winner would appear before 018.
Swindon by fishquinn1, on Flickr
The Swansea was double duds but it gave me a chance to sit down for 15 minutes until I was back on my feet viewing the 11:55 Temple Meads train. I wasn’t waiting here for another half hour, that’s for sure as it was dud 43177 leading with winner 43185 pushing. Dibs! I boarded, got a seat and formed a plan for a bit later in the day, which included where to take this pairing to. After a couple of minutes of decision-making, I had made my choice. I had gone for Bath because it would be a half hour wait until 43018 and lets face it, Bath is a much nicer place to waste spend a half hour than Chippenham. I left the train and thought about heading out into town in search of a creamy cooler but after seeing what the weather was like, I opted to stay put. This turned out to be a good move as I saw one of my last 158/9s for sight working a Pompy train. I headed over to the Paddington bound platform and stood there, watching a tram roll in. I said to myself that I would only take it if a double winner shown up because I had a good plan lined up, getting my two winner trams and a winner cart (hopefully). I have to say that I was sorely tempted after seeing that it was winner 43033 on the back but stayed put and made 033 my priority over all other ones to get tomorrow. It was a long half hour but when the 13:00 to Bristol was announced, I was on the other platform waiting up front. I knew that it was 43137 with 018 at that time so I was really, really annoyed to see dud 43056 leading the train. Of course, the back powercar could still be required but I thought that unlikely. I was right there because it was dud 43141 on the back, as found out at Temple Meads. What a waste of time! Had I known, I would have been on 033 out of Bath immediately.

I had 25 minutes here, ample time to get unit numbers and get a drink from Smiths before my train away. My plan had me on the 12:41 to Bristol Parkway in order to fall into 142, which would be a +40. Sure, one hell of a tiresome connection but It’ll do for a winner. There were two Bettys and a Red Death in Stoke Gifford but the way they were lined up needed a photo.
Stoke Gifford trio by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I then headed onto the other platform to see the Paddington service before it and check for a winner. There was a dud leading the set but for some reason, I recognized it. 032, 032, 032, 032, 032. Oh! 032! Of course! 43032 was the tram powercar going round with winner 43191, the one that wasn’t allocated this morning! Woohoo! I got on board and then had to make up a new plan. I would have a +30 onto a Temple Meads tram or 43142 to Reading. The Bristol train would get me to Chippenham for a winner back to Swindon although it would be slightly risky because I used the RTT platforms to see what it would be. After it arrived and left Padd though, not before. Because of this, I thought that my gen would be slightly more stable. Also, 43142 isn’t confirmed on its particular turn, as 018 shown. There might have been a set swap at Paddington before it went to Cardiff. Also, it was non-stop to Reading so I was slightly out of the FOSS zones had I decided to go for that option. Choices...

It was tough seeing a Cheltenham train leave with 43040 on, one of my winners. This is the only direction that I wouldn’t travel on in order to get winners at this point in time for obvious reasons. There is no way of getting back. I helplessly watched that powercar leave before putting it onto my ‘try really hard to get tomorrow’ list. 018, 033 and 142 were already on this list. I stood at the end of Swindon station for a while before seeing my train approaching. This set was formed of duds for the day 43023 and 43035. It was on this pair that I decided upon todays escape route and the plan to get there. Today, I was going to go for the Golden Valley in order to get to a 158 to Worcester and finally a 172 to Snow Hell for a cart home. My plan to get onto the Golden Valley service was also worked out and as I stepped off at Chippenham, I knew what I was doing. Just after leaving Swindon on this pair, 43142 had passed us while working the 14:58 to Paddington. I couldn’t get it later in the day but at least I knew that it was out, which is something I suppose. After 15 minutes of waiting for a Paddington bound train, winner 43069 rolled in with dud, but my favorite GWR one, 43129! This set was supposed to be on maintenance at Old Oak today according to my gen but it looks like it was turfed out this morning to work, which is definitely good news for me. My plan had me on these until Swindon (surprise, surprise) where there was a tight connection onto another unknown tram. 59102 was passed at WB junction and another one of my winners heading west on a Swansea train (031), securing itself on the request for gen tomorrow, was passed just before Swindon. I got off my pairing and instead of running through the subway, I just crossed to platform 3 and two minutes later and ex Cheltenham service rolled in... With duds for the day 43034 and 43145. 034 was a winner until this morning and then I get it twice in one day! Typical! I still boarded and got myself a seat for the dash to Didcot, where there was an easy connection onto a Bristol bound service (something like a +10). Right behind that Bristol service would be my tram to Cheltenham so I had a fallback option if I missed the connection because both stopped at Didcot. I didn’t think I would miss the connection but our train was running about 5 late so if it lost a few more minutes then the connection would be sucked away quicker than New Street sucks life from the midlands. With Snow Hell so close by, causes the West Midlands to get sucked into the Black Hole and its accomplice in Brum. Anyway, I’m in Didcot, not Birmingham!

I crossed platforms at Diddy, knowing that I’ll easily make the connection here as we had made up a couple of minutes between the two. Then, the 16:12 to Bristol rolled in with duds 43063 and 43163. What are the odds that I would get the two trams ending in 63? Who cares! With these two as duds, I thought that my score for today would be the same as the day before at 6. My final GWR move of the day had a little chance of throwing up a winner but I didn’t think it would. At Swindon, I had a plus 10 onto the 16:38 but I knew it would arrive about 5 minutes before it was due off. It was due off platform 3 and as I was walking down the platform towards the back, the front powercar appeared. My eyes widened and I sprinted to the back of the train and leaped in the air. Leading the set was dud 43137 with winner 43018 at the back. Score and a half! There were quite a lot of people waiting for this service and it really surprised me to see that there were lots of people already on it that didn’t intend to get off here. In fact, there weren’t any seats that weren’t next to people on the train after it had left here, and that’s with 8 coaches! Imagine the 153 on here or even the 158/150! They would be heaving! I was really surprised because I thought that after Cheltenham, it would act as a branch line service and would be very lightly loaded. I didn’t bother with a seat and instead got myself a vestibule window to get some thrash as we headed up towards Kemble. The whole Golden Valley route is required track so it was good to get it but I thought that it was meant to be scenic. The bit before Kemble couldn’t be less so and it kind of resembled one of the battles from Lord of the Rings. Ok. Maybe not that bad. But it wasn’t a nice route before we emptied out about half the train at the little shack of Kemble! Why the heck would there be so many people wanting Kemble, which can’t be confused with Kimble. Why did I say this? Well, Dad, Nathan and I were on a 68 (68009) from Marylebone to Leam one morning and at Princes Risborough, Dad asked if there were any intermediate stations between Risborough and Aylesbury. We could both only remember Little Kimble at the time but Nathan said it as Little Kemble and was adamant that it was that and was spelt the same way as Kemble on the Golden Valley. In the end, I had to take my phone out to show him that it was Kimble. So, don’t confuse them!

I got a seat after Kimble, sorry, Kemble, and looked at the view of chimneys. That is until Stroud, where it did become scenic and looked like several hobbit homes on the hill. The line became very twisty turney and it was lovely. The platform at Stroud was tiny and that’s where we passed 43040 again on its way back to Paddington. From here I enjoyed the ride and I got really lucky before Stonehouse as 47746 and an ashtray passed us on a kettle ex. It was nice enough after Stroud but the best bit of it all was on the approach to the station there, that’s for sure. All to soon, I had to leave the tram at Gloucester. Why Gloucester? Well, Gloucester is where it reverses to head to Cheltenham and the 158 to Malvern leaves before it does. This is a big shame but there is nothing I could do about it.

Gloucester is a winner shack and I never realized how long the platform is. It’s freaking giant! The 158 stopped on that platform, winner 158953, which seemed like a mega waste as my tram could have made better use of it. Or better still, the cally sleeper! Or an American intermodal ! I managed to get a bay of four to myself for the ride up past Cheltenham, Ashchurch and onward. I looked at RTT and made up a new plan completely. This plan was taking this unit to Foregate Street (I had originally planned to take it to Shrub Hill) and then pulling off a +2 onto a 170 to New Street so I didn’t have to suffer a long ride via the Dark Side. This connection began looking unlikely after 953 was held outside Shrub Hill for about 3 minutes to wait for a 180 to clear the platform. It then arrived at Shrub Hill and I saw that we were currently on time. But, we waited for longer than needed in the platform and left 1 down. The 170 wasn’t yet in the platform when we arrived but I still sprinted down the hundreds of steps and through the subway before going back up the hundreds of steps onto the platform, just as winner 153356 and dud 170509 had appeared. The 153 looked pretty much empty with most of the crowds getting on the 170 but a few other commuters and me just looked in the crowded 170 with lots of cans of cheap beer littering the tables and sat in the 153. I managed to get a decent table seat in it and listened to some DBT as we pulled away, beginning the journey to New Street. At Droitwich, 170510 was seen, one of my last two 170s needed for haulage. It had already left so there was no way that I could get it, not that I would anyway. It was a slog up Lickey incline. The 153 definitely couldn’t do it solo so it’s lucky that the 170 was there to help out! This service stopped at Barnt Green, one of my last shacks, but I didn’t leave it there anyway because I had worked a plan out for when I got to Brum. It arrived at 19:11, a few minutes late but this was bad news for me. The train that I was planning to get from Snow Hell left at 19:14 and left Moor Street at 19:15. I knew that there was no way that I would make the connection because by the time I had got out of the station, I would have less than two minutes left until the Marylebone unit. It usually takes me 3 minutes to go from New Street to Moor Street and I’ve done it in just under 2 minutes before but doing it in a minute wasn’t going to happen. Because of this, I would have to take the 20:15 back to Leamington but, with an hour to kill until my service, I had to choose what to do, preferably valid with a Leamington-Worcester season ticket. It took me less than a minute to choose a cat from Solihull to Snow Hell after a 172 out. The 172 to Dorridge left Snow Hell at 22 minutes past so I had to rush but knew that it would be easy to make the connection.

I entered Snow Hell station at about 18 minutes past and headed straight down to platform 3, where a pair of 172s was arriving. They were both duds for 10 miles, 172220 and 172212, but would do the job as a positioning move for my unknown cat back to Brum. It was dark now and I really didn’t want to shack attack Olton or Ackocks Green in the dark but a cat sounded like a brilliant substitute, if you’ll pardon the pun. What pun? Cat sounded like a brilliant substitute. Cats sound brilliant. Terrible, I know. At Solihull, I had a +17 onto the cat, which unfortunately wouldn’t make at Dorridge. Nothing interesting passed during my wait and after what seemed like years, I heard a rumble that could only be a 68. Sure enough, it was Custard that would be taking me back so I enjoyed the thrash that 68011 gave on the romp back to Birmingham. 5E90 passed just after departing Solihull with ‘Bagpuss’ on. After the timetable change when Oxford Parkway opens, neither of these services will be hauled! Most people in the front coach left at Moor Street but there was a few who stayed on for a bit longer. Me for example. I was only on for an extra 0.75 miles though to Snow Hell, where I had a simple cross platform change onto the 20:15 back to Leamington. This service was a single 3 coach and I couldn’t believe which one it was. Just like the night before, it would be 168109 making an appearance again! I get it once in 2014 on a tiny leap then nothing for over a year before it appears twice in the same week on the same run just an hour later! Not that I was complaining! It was an uneventful run back to Leamington where Dad was waiting and we headed home, me definitely ready for a late dinner that they had saved for me. But with 7 winner trams today (and 4 winner carts), I am on 13, just 3 away from my goal. Will I achieve it tomorrow?

 

[backontrack]

Liquorice Junction? I thought that was in Pontefract :P
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

EDIT: I'll say now that I got a £10 Costa gift voucher as one of my christmas pressies. Creamy coolers... :drool:

*spits out tea laughing*

Great. Now I'm covered in my own (cinnamon and orange flavoured) drool. :P

 

[Kite159]

Sounds like a good day in FOSS land

 

[backontrack]

Sounds like you spent some good time on the trams! I'm glad you liked Doctor Who.

I wonder why everyone is called 'lord' something. Lord Fish, Lord Quest, Lord Kite, Lord Spoon Goon of the Tyne, where does that come from?

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

Sounds like you spent some good time on the trams! I'm glad you liked Doctor Who.

I wonder why everyone is called 'lord' something. Lord Fish, Lord Quest, Lord Kite, Lord Spoon Goon of the Tyne, where does that come from?

I think somebody was being ultra polite - the exception being me where I am called Master as befitting my status as a naval vessel

#

Another great read and just what was needed in the dreary weather

 

[FQ]

Glad you enjoyed it.

Backontrack - I've no idea where the 'lord' bit came from!

 

[backontrack]

Hmm. Can I become a 'lord'? I am a reporter now!

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

Hmm. Can I become a 'lord'? I am a reporter now!

Welcome Lord Backontrack of The front 8 coaches

 

[backontrack]

Please, call me Lord Javelin. :P

 

[Kristofferson]

Took a while to read all that! Looking forward to the third part - are you not bored of HSTs yet?

 

[FQ]

I'm certainly do long reports! And bored of HSTs? Never!

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

I'm certainly do long reports! And bored of HSTs? Never!

The only thing to replace a Class 43 is another Class 43

 

[crehld]

Looks like you made much better use of an FOSS than I did, although I only really used mine as a cheap way to get from Worcester to Portsmouth! Good work on tracking down all those HST power cars - I'm really jealous as I only have 6 ticked off!

 

[FQ]

You need to get back down to FOSS land and do a 3 in 7! That'll get loads ticked off!

Which ones have you had out of interest?