Techniquest
Veteran Member
A rather productive trip there!
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Kristofferson
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Did I read that right... 45 minutes on a 150?
We're spoiled down south, I tell you.
We're spoiled down south, I tell you.
It was a good trip!
45 minutes on an ATW 150 in the Borderlands line is quite nice. What you don't want is an hour and 5 minutes in a Northern one from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Oxford Road or an hour and 25 minutes in a London Midland one from Hereford to Birmingham New Street!
The next trip report is on its way. One that was spoken about quite a lot on here. Can you guess which one?
I have a London Midland Great Escape coming up on Thursday so there will be another report for that too.
45 minutes on an ATW 150 in the Borderlands line is quite nice. What you don't want is an hour and 5 minutes in a Northern one from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Oxford Road or an hour and 25 minutes in a London Midland one from Hereford to Birmingham New Street!
The next trip report is on its way. One that was spoken about quite a lot on here. Can you guess which one?
I have a London Midland Great Escape coming up on Thursday so there will be another report for that too.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Sorry to hear you've been unwell, I did wonder where you'd been lately!
Sorry its late! I have another trip lined up for Saturday to Sheffield to get a few Northern winners and trams but after Sunday I won't be on the forum much if at all for about 2 weeks as we are heading out on the boats. So it will probably be a while until the next trip report is up. I will also mention that I lost my flickr login details for my old account so here is a link to my new one.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132216911@N06/
Highland Chieftain and the Cally sleeper
After 2 months of waiting for this huge trip it finally came. The week before the trip came I was really excited so imagine how I was on the day! We had booked all of the tickets in advance so they were all in my bag when we left the boats at 07:40 on the 18th of March.
Mum dropped us off in the car park with 20 minutes until our train to Brum was due at 08:23. With the landslip at Harbury now clear, I noticed a lot of new trains including an 08:08 to Marylebone and an 08:18 to Stratford. Our train was about 3 minutes late, which meant we had time to see 68011 leave Leam on its way to Marylebone. This is the first Chiltern cat I have seen on a silver set. Just after the cat had gone over the bridge just south of the station, dud 168111. We couldn't get good seats on it meaning that by Warwick Parkway I had missed 2 liners. The rest of the journey was boring as usual and it wasn't long before it was arriving at Moor Street.
Strangely the barriers were open meaning I could keep the tickets so it wasn’t long until we were walking through the main doors at New Street with just over 25 minutes until our train, the 09:30 to Euston. But I glanced over at the departure boards on the way in (while walking and not bumping into people. A lot better than the normals there) and suddenly noticed that our booked train was caped! I immediately told dad and we ran over to the VT customer service and asked if our tickets would be valid on the 09:10. The person that talked to us said that it is usually only valid on trains after but since we were going to Inverness she took our tickets away, stamped them and gave them back to us so they were valid on the 09:10. We had to sprint to get to the platform in time but we made it and after a trip to the buffet, we headed down the train to a declassified first class coach. I didn't even know the pendo I was on until Euston. It turned out to be winner 390046.
It was fun to hammer though Rugby; the first time I have been non-stop on a VT service since they were loco hauled! But at Milton Keynes, things started to get risky (again). The guard announced that due to an overhead wire problem at Watford, we couldn't use the fast lines so everything had to cram onto the slows. Luckily the wire problem, which was caused by a pendo, was between Bletchley and Leighton Buzzard and we were back on the fasts at Ledburn Junction. I didn't get either of my required 350s for sight, 350369 or 350375 but I did bag a 378 at Willesden. In the end the train terminated at Euston about 15 late.
We exited the rank station as quickly as possible and taken the short walk over to St Pancras to view what was there. The first port of call was the EMT platforms, as I wanted to see an EMT 'tram' idling ready to work its move to Notts. I paid no attention to the horrible units next to it and after 2 minutes we were walking away from the Midland Mainline platforms to the main Eurostar bit to get the numbers of them. The next port of call was the M&S for a snack to have on the sleeper later in the day. This came in the form of a few mini sausage rolls, a pack of crisps, a couple of pork pies (for dad) and sweeties! Then it was over to WH Smith for the latest edition of Modern Railways to read on the train to the north. Dad put the magazine and the food that wouldn't fit in a plastic carrier bag in my bag before I was allowed to go over to the 395s. There were 4 in total. There were 2 of them in platform 13, one out of service. 2 of them were winners for sight, which made it better. My first 2 in a while!
Once I had finished getting numbers at St Pancras we headed across the road to Kings Cross and I was really surprised to see that the barriers were closed on the VTEC side! I didn't bother checking the suburban side as anything that was leaving I could see at the end of the Intercity platforms. So we both pushed our tickets though the barriers and headed over to the pair on the 12:00 to Inverness. The gen we got in the morning was confirmed by sight as double winners 43314 and 43208, 43208 being a winner for dad! Not the dream team (43315 and 43367) but it still had a winner for him so definitely not bad! We headed to the far end of the station to get the thunderbird and confirm that the front one was 314. We stood there for a few mins before walking back down and seeing one of the 91s in the horrible new livery arrive. It truly does look foul! After one last look around the cross for one of my last HST power cars we got on board and walked to our booked seats in coach M.
There was someone sat opposite the ones we had booked and ours were backwards facing left hand side. All dad and I had to do was look at each other to know that we weren’t going to sit there. We saw that coach M was the only of the First Class coaches which was filled with reservations so we found a nice bay of 4 on the left hand side in coach L and sat there ready for the 8 hour trip. I got the magazine out of my bag to have a read of that while dad fired up the laptop to do a few thing on there. He shown me how many wifi options there were and I laughed after seeing what they were called. BN19 was one of them. One for every 91 and every HST there at the time! In the end he had to wait until we had left to go on there as we had no idea which of the networks for our tram! I got to read the first page of the mag before putting it away as the train was pulling out of the cross. My first ever time on The Highland Cheiftain, 12:00 London Kings Cross-Inverness!
I missed most of the passing units as they were on the right hand side but I still managed to get a few 313s en route. We passed 37607 and 609 just before Alexandra Palace and 70807 just after followed by lots of units. At Hornsey I could only get a 317 by the coach number and that was it and at Welwyn it wasn't much better, only being able to id a Dusty Bin. Orders for lunch were taken followed by orange juice and the beef cottage pie that I had ordered was really good and the ginger cake stunning. In fact it said what I was having for tea!
Once we had passed Hitchin and dads old house I decided to go on the laptop to type up my observations of what I had seen so far that day. I took a short break for Peterborough to see what was in the yard. It housed a winner 66, 66703 but none of the new ones unfortunately. Hopefully Donny will bring more luck. I didn't get any numbers between Peterborough and Doncaster except an EMT 158 at Grantham. Roberts Road was full of coal wagons but I did manage to identify 5 66s, a winner 68 (001) and a 70 on the approach to Donny. Only one of the 66s was a winner and that was blue death 755. Right before the station I scratched a winner 144 but that was it on the winner front until Newcastle. York produced a few diesel dezes (185s) but not much else and from there, it was only a load of EWS coal trains that passed until Darlo and then not much from there on to Newcastle. Tyne yard was busier than I have ever seen in but together dad and I only managed to get 2 red deaths in there. Isn't the flyover that blocks your view just brilliant! Juice was plentiful throughout the journey and the catering crew was really soche so that helped to make the journey be even more enjoyable. The journey to Edinburgh was nice with even more juice being served and the views over the coast made it even better. It didn't feel like we had been on the train for nearly 4 and a half hours by the time we reached Scotland's capital city. I managed to get a few winners for sight on the journey through Princes Street Gardens to Haymarket and then onward to Falkirk Grahamston. Food was ordered just after Haymarket and came around Falkirk, the same as lunch but this time I decided to have the crisps too. It was as good as the one I had for lunch. I used the laptop to see when trains were scheduled to pass us between Stirling and Perth so I could be at the vestibule window to get the numbers in case they were winners. None were but it was fun to be able to window hang for the first time in the trip.
At Perth dad and I were keeping an eye out for the 37 that had hit a rolling tree in the area but we couldn't see it so we thought it had been moved. The climb up through the Highlands was fun with great views and being able to see some snow! In the end the catering team just filled up dads coffee mug as they passed, as he hadn't turned coffee down on the whole trip.
I popped to the vestibule window at Aviemore to get a photo of the lit up canopy and the Chieftain but after getting some tram thrash as it left I headed back to my seat for the final 40 or so minutes to Inverness. On the last 2 minutes I saw an EWS Red Death sat in the yard. Wasn't expecting that! It was a shame to get off my now 2 highest mileage HSTs at Inverness but it was a relief to stand up again and bag a winner shack. After getting off and finding out that the Shovel that was to take us to Edinburgh was required, we walked through the open barriers and through to the concourse. For the first time ever I watched a train from Wick arrive and about 20 minutes before the sleeper was scheduled to leave, we boarded and put the bags in our berth and got a few shots of the loco on the front, 67030. Then we both headed back to our berth and put the camera back before heading to the window to get some 67 thrash as we left. Not long after that we were heading back to our berth and then to the lounge car. I got a hot chocolate, which came with a little piece of shortbread, and I had finished it by Aviemore. Dad and I headed back to the berth after finishing our drinks and we opened up the M&S bag that we had got at St Pancras and got out the mini sausage rolls. After finishing our snack, dad headed to bed while I crossed off the numbers of the winners that I had scored that day. I did this in my platform 5 book. After that I was really tiered too so I got to sleep with my alarm set for 01:00.
I woke up when my alarm went off, about 15 minutes before Waverly. I wanted to be up here to see which 67 was on the Fort Bill sleeper as it was definitely going to be a winner since 67007 was down south. We stopped just short of Edinburgh Park station for a few mins before continuing through Haymarket and through to the main station. I got a winner 170 in Haymarket depot and another one stationary at Waverly. I was still really tiered but I made sure I stayed awake long enough to see the shovel on the Fort William train. It was 009. Only 2 of the shovels left to get for sight now, 67004 and 67011. I got back in bed but made sure I stayed awake at least until we had departed and the last thing I saw was the lights of Haymarket station.
My eyes shot open around Polesworth to a load of wagons racing by. Dad was up and at that point I had already had a worst timing of the day point. The train had a pair of DRS cats on it. It turns out that they were both dud but still, it’s annoying! I got dressed and then taken a look at my alarm clock time expecting it to say that it was about 06:00. It wasn't. My digital clock showed about 07:15. Dad filled me in saying that we had waited for ages at Crewe due to a little problem with the stock but it would just take down our wait in London, which I was fine with. I got another non stop run through Rugby but it was a stagger through Milton Keynes. After we had passed MKC I got dressed and walked down the train to the lounge car to grab the numbers of trains as they passed. Still no winner 350s. In the end we arrived at Euston about 40 late behind dud (but I haven’t had it in about 12 years) 90028. We walked over to a little cafe on Eversholt Street called the Double Six where I had a great breakfast. It is highly recommended. The food was served quickly and tasted great and it was really good value too. Will definitely have to go there again! Over breccie we had to decide what to do in the time until the 10:03 New Street bound Pendo and we decided to head over to St Pancras and Kings Cross to try and get a few winners for me at either. The walk over to St Pancras was quick and not long after leaving the cafe I was taking a look at an EMT 43 ready to leave on the Nottingham bound train. 22 hours before then, I was seeing a different tram set in that very platform! I got a few Eurostar winners and a couple more 395s, which was nice. We wandered over the street to The Cross and headed straight over to the intercity platforms but surprisingly the barriers were still shut. I noticed that there was a little board saying where trains were and it actually had the Chieftain from Inverness on it saying that it had left Dalwhinnie. A bit early to have that on an arrival board! I managed to get the number of a winner 317 at the Cross but that was it until we had to go back to Euston.
The walk back was uneventful and when we got back over to the Birmingham New Street of the London Terminals (Fenchurch Street is the Snow Hell) the platform for our train hadn't been announced but using the process of elimination we found out that the 10:03 was the one on platform 4, winner 390005. In fact the platform was announced just after we got a good seat on the right hand side. The train got really full in the end with people standing in the vestibule and being on a 390 didn't help and it was probably the worst 390 ride I have ever had. By Rugby dad and I were both feeling sick. The only upside is that I managed to get a winner 377/7 for sight on the way. The train arrived at Rugby on time although it felt like we had been in the horrible thing for a lot longer than 50 minutes. Mum and my brother were on the platform waiting for us. Mum had parked the car 10 minutes away but after the 390 the walk was needed and we headed home via a brilliant coffee shop. A really fun trip!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132216911@N06/
Highland Chieftain and the Cally sleeper
After 2 months of waiting for this huge trip it finally came. The week before the trip came I was really excited so imagine how I was on the day! We had booked all of the tickets in advance so they were all in my bag when we left the boats at 07:40 on the 18th of March.
Mum dropped us off in the car park with 20 minutes until our train to Brum was due at 08:23. With the landslip at Harbury now clear, I noticed a lot of new trains including an 08:08 to Marylebone and an 08:18 to Stratford. Our train was about 3 minutes late, which meant we had time to see 68011 leave Leam on its way to Marylebone. This is the first Chiltern cat I have seen on a silver set. Just after the cat had gone over the bridge just south of the station, dud 168111. We couldn't get good seats on it meaning that by Warwick Parkway I had missed 2 liners. The rest of the journey was boring as usual and it wasn't long before it was arriving at Moor Street.
Strangely the barriers were open meaning I could keep the tickets so it wasn’t long until we were walking through the main doors at New Street with just over 25 minutes until our train, the 09:30 to Euston. But I glanced over at the departure boards on the way in (while walking and not bumping into people. A lot better than the normals there) and suddenly noticed that our booked train was caped! I immediately told dad and we ran over to the VT customer service and asked if our tickets would be valid on the 09:10. The person that talked to us said that it is usually only valid on trains after but since we were going to Inverness she took our tickets away, stamped them and gave them back to us so they were valid on the 09:10. We had to sprint to get to the platform in time but we made it and after a trip to the buffet, we headed down the train to a declassified first class coach. I didn't even know the pendo I was on until Euston. It turned out to be winner 390046.
It was fun to hammer though Rugby; the first time I have been non-stop on a VT service since they were loco hauled! But at Milton Keynes, things started to get risky (again). The guard announced that due to an overhead wire problem at Watford, we couldn't use the fast lines so everything had to cram onto the slows. Luckily the wire problem, which was caused by a pendo, was between Bletchley and Leighton Buzzard and we were back on the fasts at Ledburn Junction. I didn't get either of my required 350s for sight, 350369 or 350375 but I did bag a 378 at Willesden. In the end the train terminated at Euston about 15 late.
We exited the rank station as quickly as possible and taken the short walk over to St Pancras to view what was there. The first port of call was the EMT platforms, as I wanted to see an EMT 'tram' idling ready to work its move to Notts. I paid no attention to the horrible units next to it and after 2 minutes we were walking away from the Midland Mainline platforms to the main Eurostar bit to get the numbers of them. The next port of call was the M&S for a snack to have on the sleeper later in the day. This came in the form of a few mini sausage rolls, a pack of crisps, a couple of pork pies (for dad) and sweeties! Then it was over to WH Smith for the latest edition of Modern Railways to read on the train to the north. Dad put the magazine and the food that wouldn't fit in a plastic carrier bag in my bag before I was allowed to go over to the 395s. There were 4 in total. There were 2 of them in platform 13, one out of service. 2 of them were winners for sight, which made it better. My first 2 in a while!
Once I had finished getting numbers at St Pancras we headed across the road to Kings Cross and I was really surprised to see that the barriers were closed on the VTEC side! I didn't bother checking the suburban side as anything that was leaving I could see at the end of the Intercity platforms. So we both pushed our tickets though the barriers and headed over to the pair on the 12:00 to Inverness. The gen we got in the morning was confirmed by sight as double winners 43314 and 43208, 43208 being a winner for dad! Not the dream team (43315 and 43367) but it still had a winner for him so definitely not bad! We headed to the far end of the station to get the thunderbird and confirm that the front one was 314. We stood there for a few mins before walking back down and seeing one of the 91s in the horrible new livery arrive. It truly does look foul! After one last look around the cross for one of my last HST power cars we got on board and walked to our booked seats in coach M.
There was someone sat opposite the ones we had booked and ours were backwards facing left hand side. All dad and I had to do was look at each other to know that we weren’t going to sit there. We saw that coach M was the only of the First Class coaches which was filled with reservations so we found a nice bay of 4 on the left hand side in coach L and sat there ready for the 8 hour trip. I got the magazine out of my bag to have a read of that while dad fired up the laptop to do a few thing on there. He shown me how many wifi options there were and I laughed after seeing what they were called. BN19 was one of them. One for every 91 and every HST there at the time! In the end he had to wait until we had left to go on there as we had no idea which of the networks for our tram! I got to read the first page of the mag before putting it away as the train was pulling out of the cross. My first ever time on The Highland Cheiftain, 12:00 London Kings Cross-Inverness!
I missed most of the passing units as they were on the right hand side but I still managed to get a few 313s en route. We passed 37607 and 609 just before Alexandra Palace and 70807 just after followed by lots of units. At Hornsey I could only get a 317 by the coach number and that was it and at Welwyn it wasn't much better, only being able to id a Dusty Bin. Orders for lunch were taken followed by orange juice and the beef cottage pie that I had ordered was really good and the ginger cake stunning. In fact it said what I was having for tea!
Once we had passed Hitchin and dads old house I decided to go on the laptop to type up my observations of what I had seen so far that day. I took a short break for Peterborough to see what was in the yard. It housed a winner 66, 66703 but none of the new ones unfortunately. Hopefully Donny will bring more luck. I didn't get any numbers between Peterborough and Doncaster except an EMT 158 at Grantham. Roberts Road was full of coal wagons but I did manage to identify 5 66s, a winner 68 (001) and a 70 on the approach to Donny. Only one of the 66s was a winner and that was blue death 755. Right before the station I scratched a winner 144 but that was it on the winner front until Newcastle. York produced a few diesel dezes (185s) but not much else and from there, it was only a load of EWS coal trains that passed until Darlo and then not much from there on to Newcastle. Tyne yard was busier than I have ever seen in but together dad and I only managed to get 2 red deaths in there. Isn't the flyover that blocks your view just brilliant! Juice was plentiful throughout the journey and the catering crew was really soche so that helped to make the journey be even more enjoyable. The journey to Edinburgh was nice with even more juice being served and the views over the coast made it even better. It didn't feel like we had been on the train for nearly 4 and a half hours by the time we reached Scotland's capital city. I managed to get a few winners for sight on the journey through Princes Street Gardens to Haymarket and then onward to Falkirk Grahamston. Food was ordered just after Haymarket and came around Falkirk, the same as lunch but this time I decided to have the crisps too. It was as good as the one I had for lunch. I used the laptop to see when trains were scheduled to pass us between Stirling and Perth so I could be at the vestibule window to get the numbers in case they were winners. None were but it was fun to be able to window hang for the first time in the trip.
At Perth dad and I were keeping an eye out for the 37 that had hit a rolling tree in the area but we couldn't see it so we thought it had been moved. The climb up through the Highlands was fun with great views and being able to see some snow! In the end the catering team just filled up dads coffee mug as they passed, as he hadn't turned coffee down on the whole trip.
I popped to the vestibule window at Aviemore to get a photo of the lit up canopy and the Chieftain but after getting some tram thrash as it left I headed back to my seat for the final 40 or so minutes to Inverness. On the last 2 minutes I saw an EWS Red Death sat in the yard. Wasn't expecting that! It was a shame to get off my now 2 highest mileage HSTs at Inverness but it was a relief to stand up again and bag a winner shack. After getting off and finding out that the Shovel that was to take us to Edinburgh was required, we walked through the open barriers and through to the concourse. For the first time ever I watched a train from Wick arrive and about 20 minutes before the sleeper was scheduled to leave, we boarded and put the bags in our berth and got a few shots of the loco on the front, 67030. Then we both headed back to our berth and put the camera back before heading to the window to get some 67 thrash as we left. Not long after that we were heading back to our berth and then to the lounge car. I got a hot chocolate, which came with a little piece of shortbread, and I had finished it by Aviemore. Dad and I headed back to the berth after finishing our drinks and we opened up the M&S bag that we had got at St Pancras and got out the mini sausage rolls. After finishing our snack, dad headed to bed while I crossed off the numbers of the winners that I had scored that day. I did this in my platform 5 book. After that I was really tiered too so I got to sleep with my alarm set for 01:00.
I woke up when my alarm went off, about 15 minutes before Waverly. I wanted to be up here to see which 67 was on the Fort Bill sleeper as it was definitely going to be a winner since 67007 was down south. We stopped just short of Edinburgh Park station for a few mins before continuing through Haymarket and through to the main station. I got a winner 170 in Haymarket depot and another one stationary at Waverly. I was still really tiered but I made sure I stayed awake long enough to see the shovel on the Fort William train. It was 009. Only 2 of the shovels left to get for sight now, 67004 and 67011. I got back in bed but made sure I stayed awake at least until we had departed and the last thing I saw was the lights of Haymarket station.
My eyes shot open around Polesworth to a load of wagons racing by. Dad was up and at that point I had already had a worst timing of the day point. The train had a pair of DRS cats on it. It turns out that they were both dud but still, it’s annoying! I got dressed and then taken a look at my alarm clock time expecting it to say that it was about 06:00. It wasn't. My digital clock showed about 07:15. Dad filled me in saying that we had waited for ages at Crewe due to a little problem with the stock but it would just take down our wait in London, which I was fine with. I got another non stop run through Rugby but it was a stagger through Milton Keynes. After we had passed MKC I got dressed and walked down the train to the lounge car to grab the numbers of trains as they passed. Still no winner 350s. In the end we arrived at Euston about 40 late behind dud (but I haven’t had it in about 12 years) 90028. We walked over to a little cafe on Eversholt Street called the Double Six where I had a great breakfast. It is highly recommended. The food was served quickly and tasted great and it was really good value too. Will definitely have to go there again! Over breccie we had to decide what to do in the time until the 10:03 New Street bound Pendo and we decided to head over to St Pancras and Kings Cross to try and get a few winners for me at either. The walk over to St Pancras was quick and not long after leaving the cafe I was taking a look at an EMT 43 ready to leave on the Nottingham bound train. 22 hours before then, I was seeing a different tram set in that very platform! I got a few Eurostar winners and a couple more 395s, which was nice. We wandered over the street to The Cross and headed straight over to the intercity platforms but surprisingly the barriers were still shut. I noticed that there was a little board saying where trains were and it actually had the Chieftain from Inverness on it saying that it had left Dalwhinnie. A bit early to have that on an arrival board! I managed to get the number of a winner 317 at the Cross but that was it until we had to go back to Euston.
The walk back was uneventful and when we got back over to the Birmingham New Street of the London Terminals (Fenchurch Street is the Snow Hell) the platform for our train hadn't been announced but using the process of elimination we found out that the 10:03 was the one on platform 4, winner 390005. In fact the platform was announced just after we got a good seat on the right hand side. The train got really full in the end with people standing in the vestibule and being on a 390 didn't help and it was probably the worst 390 ride I have ever had. By Rugby dad and I were both feeling sick. The only upside is that I managed to get a winner 377/7 for sight on the way. The train arrived at Rugby on time although it felt like we had been in the horrible thing for a lot longer than 50 minutes. Mum and my brother were on the platform waiting for us. Mum had parked the car 10 minutes away but after the 390 the walk was needed and we headed home via a brilliant coffee shop. A really fun trip!
Attachments
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Kite159
Veteran Member
Busy day for you 
alexf380
Established Member
Sounds like a great time you've had there, need to try the Chieftain at some point!
Techniquest
Veteran Member
An extremely good trip, good thing they let you on the 0910 from New Street and not insisted you did the 0950!
Sounds like you loved the First Class experience, I'd have been the same as your dad with the coffee lol.
Jealous of you getting 67030! Looks like it was a good journey down on the Cally Insomnie too. Certainly it was a good time for mileage, must have easily hit 1,250 miles!
Not that I know much about boats, but where are you off to on them?
Sounds like you loved the First Class experience, I'd have been the same as your dad with the coffee lol.
Jealous of you getting 67030! Looks like it was a good journey down on the Cally Insomnie too. Certainly it was a good time for mileage, must have easily hit 1,250 miles!
Not that I know much about boats, but where are you off to on them?
Agreed! The 09:50 was a 221 as was the 10:10. And the 10:30 would have got to EUS after the Chieftain had departed!
The journey on the Cally Sleeper was really fun. The last time I was on a sleeper was 12 years ago!
On the boats we are heading out of Long Itch and then up north through Leamington, Warwick and Hatton to Lapworth. We then have a day there before continuing to Birmingham and then up to Polesworth, Atherstone and Nuneaton. Then we continue to Cathiron and stay there for a day (the railway is the WCML between NUN and RUG) before heading home through Rugby and Calcutt.
Kristofferson
Member
- Joined
- 23 Nov 2012
- Messages
- 1,132
Great read, a very busy trip but must have been a brilliant experience!
I'm not a fan of Pendos in standard, either. It's like being on the Tube.
I'm not a fan of Pendos in standard, either. It's like being on the Tube.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
I've not done the Cally Insomnie since October 2014, and when I do it later this year (details to be posted by July!) I'm due to get my first 92 haulage since October 2006!
Sounds like a fun time on the boats
As for 390s in Standard, I don't mind it at all, as long as I have a table seat!
Sounds like a fun time on the boats
As for 390s in Standard, I don't mind it at all, as long as I have a table seat!
Kite159
Veteran Member
I don't mind the 390s in standard.
Seats C1 & C2 are probably the best seats to have, although any table seat is better than an airline seat
Seats C1 & C2 are probably the best seats to have, although any table seat is better than an airline seat
Techniquest
Veteran Member
C1 or C2 for sure as best Standard seats, not far to go for coffee or beer moves on a long run!
Iskra
Established Member
Wow, epic trip and a good read.
You've inspired me to book my own trip on the Chieftan now for August heading North from York.
You've inspired me to book my own trip on the Chieftan now for August heading North from York.
It was a very good day! It seems lots of people need (or did need in my case) 67030!
Glad I could be of inspiration!
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47403
Established Member
Cracking read and a boatload of winners, certainly a fair bit of mileage that. 67009 is one of my last 3 skips, wondered where that was.
Thanks!
As for 67009;
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Currently using Costa free wifi in Brum. I am going to head out on a couple of trains later and on the trip so far I have been on 67014 from Leamington to Warwick Parkway, 168219 from Warwick Parkway to Leamington, 165019 from Lapworth to Birmingham Moor Street, 67014 from Birmingham Moor Street to Leamington, 168110 from Leamington to Solihull and 172337 (my penultimate LM 172 for haulage) from Solihull to Lapworth.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Good lad
Where are you off to next?
Where are you off to next?
My next train trip should be on the 12th of June to the 15th of June. This trip will include a bit of bashing around Cardiff, a Cheshire Day Ranger and a bit of bashing around Liverpool.
The next boat trip will be on the 19th-21st of June. This will be a very short one only going as far as Radford, near Leamington.
I am hoping the next trip report will be up soon. Since I have been away on the boats, I haven't had a chance to do one yet.
Here is a list of the moves I did over the holiday.
18/05/15
67014 18:22 LMS-WRP
168219 18:45 WRP-LMS
20/05/15
165019 14:50 LPW-BMO
Over to BSW. (172217+172218 there, 172345 back)
67014 15:55 BMO-LMS
168110 17:23 LMS-SOL
172337 17:56 SOL-LPW
22/05/15
168219 14:12 BSW-SOL
68008 14:44 SOL-BMO
323243+323211 15:12 BHM-FWY
323207 15:18 FWY-BHM
170109 15:30 BHM-UNI
170519 15:39 UNI-BHM
170503+153354 15:49 BHM-UNI
323206 16:05 UNI-BHM
323217+323213 16:32 BHM-FWY
323216 16:38 FWY-BHM
170516+170512 16:49 BHM-UNI
170517+170634 16:59 UNI-BHM
The next boat trip will be on the 19th-21st of June. This will be a very short one only going as far as Radford, near Leamington.
I am hoping the next trip report will be up soon. Since I have been away on the boats, I haven't had a chance to do one yet.
Here is a list of the moves I did over the holiday.
18/05/15
67014 18:22 LMS-WRP
168219 18:45 WRP-LMS
20/05/15
165019 14:50 LPW-BMO
Over to BSW. (172217+172218 there, 172345 back)
67014 15:55 BMO-LMS
168110 17:23 LMS-SOL
172337 17:56 SOL-LPW
22/05/15
168219 14:12 BSW-SOL
68008 14:44 SOL-BMO
323243+323211 15:12 BHM-FWY
323207 15:18 FWY-BHM
170109 15:30 BHM-UNI
170519 15:39 UNI-BHM
170503+153354 15:49 BHM-UNI
323206 16:05 UNI-BHM
323217+323213 16:32 BHM-FWY
323216 16:38 FWY-BHM
170516+170512 16:49 BHM-UNI
170517+170634 16:59 UNI-BHM
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Looks like you had a busy time all in, hopefully the books got filled nicely with all that!
I did get quite a few winners but it involved some really tight connections while doing the WMDT. The hardest was probably a plus 2 at New Street. I think it was platform 10 to platform 12 but I went up the wrong stairs at New Street so I had to go out though the main concourse and run miles to platform 12.
Sorry for the lack of reports recently. I have been quite busy. Anyway here is one for now.
A day trip to Bristol via London
This trip was in the calendar for about a year and it is already in next years. In 2014, dad and I headed out on a trip to London and Bristol to celebrate Brunel's birthday on the 9th of April. In 2014 we headed over to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, getting the Bristol Ferry Boat part of the way and walking to the bridge. This year we decided to go to the SS Great Britain so mum and my brother wanted to come too.
On the 9th we all had to get up early so at 06:45 I heard the usual beeping of my alarm going off. Today I couldn't just hit snooze to get an extra 5 minutes sleep so I turned it off and got dressed before heading down to the computer and popping on the forum for about 15 mins before I had to head over to the other boat and get my bag ready to leave for the drive to Didcot. (Nothing annoys me more than people adding parkway to the end of the name. It was just Didcot and it still should be!) The drive up was ok and it took us about an hour and a quarter until we pulled into the huge car park to be greeted by an HST set heading to Paddington.
After getting out of the car and getting a parking ticket, we headed towards the station. While walking I written down the 2 66s that were in the yard just outside the station and after we collected our tickets from the machine I managed to get the only other loco there at the time, 67017. Wasn't expecting that! We had a short wait for our train but because it was an ex Swansea we all thought it would be full and standing so when the train came in with no-one standing in the vestibule of the front coach (it was in reverse formation) and seats free I was amazed. Also the power-cars were dud 43032 at the front and winner 43071 at the back. This is how it usually is with one needed and one not.
Mum and dad got seats but I needed some Tram thrash so I just headed over to the right hand side window and my brother went to the left hand side to check for any engineers trains as the slow lines were closed. There was 2 Freightliner 66s but both were dud so my winner (for sight) count for the day still rested at 0. We took the flyover on the approach to Reading so some winner track had been scored for the day.
At Reading, the train got busy with a couple of people standing in the vestibule although there were a couple of seats free in the front coach. I could only get 57313 (poor 47371) in the hall down south (3 guesses of which depot) so that was a pain. Acton also housed no winners with 66147 and Lickey Banker 66055 being the only things Id-able. Old Oak had a few trams and another dud 57, 57306. Its probably been working on the sleeper. At Paddington I told Torin, my brother to come over to the left hand side vestibule and let the million people get off before us. As I thought, mum and dad were at the back of the queue so after they got off we followed and then headed to the main concourse to try and get some breccie. Sainsbury’s came to the rescue and 5 minutes later we were eating warm bacon rolls on a bench. Good food.
After we had finished breakfast we walked over to the flower place on Padd station and got some daffodils before walking down to the Bakerloo line platforms and since I was hoping that the next train would be a Queen's Park bound, I was disappointed to see that it was going to Harrow and Wealdstone. This meant we were going to take the tube straight to Kensal Green instead of changing at Queens Park for a 378. Not many people boarded the silver worm at Paddington and we almost had a whole coach to ourselves for the 10-minute journey.
After alighting at Kensal Green we left the station and walked down the main road to the entrance of the cemetery and after a walk of about 5 minutes we arrived at Isambard Kingdom Brunel's grave. The Brunel family’s grave is a simple one with a little gravel area in front of it. It has the names of all of the Brunel family. I placed the daffodils down and after getting a few pictures we began to walk back to the station for what I hoped would be a 378 to Queens Park for the Bakerloo line back to Padd. No such luck. The silver worm rolled in just as we got to the bottom of the stations and after a dull 10 minutes we were heading up the escalator towards the platforms and the 12:30 to Bristol. We used the process of elimination to work out which train was ours and then got a bay of 4 in coach B after getting the power car numbers of course. They were dud 43087 leading with winner 43144 pushing at the back.
That was when the first problem occurred. 10 minutes after we were meant to depart, the guard said that due to a train failing just before it arrived at Paddington, we couldn't leave yet. Luckily the problem was fixed quickly and we left only about 15 minutes late from the Great Western London terminus. But from here we kept on loosing time to Reading (due to being stuck behind something slow I think) and arrived there about 20 minutes down. From there en route to Didcot we were still staggering and arrival at Didcot was about 30 minutes late. The reason I think it was because we were stuck behind a stopper is because after Didcot, the tram quickly picked up speed and arrival at Swindon was about as late as arrival at Didcot. It didn't really lose any time between there and Chippenham but we had to wait for a freight train to clear the junction before we could leave the station so departure from there was about 40 late. We made up a couple of minutes between there and Bath and a couple more between Bath and Bristol and in the end, arrival at Temple Meads was about 35 minutes late.
Dad allowed me to run down to the end of the platform to get the 153 numbers but both were dud. In face one of them was 153333, an ex London Midland one. I got back to the barriers to see the rest of my family had just got up the stairs and were waiting for me to get out ready for the boat ride ahead. We were all feeling rather hungry and we noticed a place selling Indian food so Mum, dad and Torin got that. Since I hate spicy food I decided to wait for a while to get something I would like. We headed down to the boat (Bristol Ferry Boats) and got on board for the short ride across to the City Centre stop where we had to change boats. This was my chance to grab lunch as we had a plus 10 onto the next Ferry so we went across to the Sinsburys local and about 5 minutes later I emerged with a Sausage Roll, a pack of crisps, a drink and an ice cream (as it was very warm outside) and we all headed back over to the landing to wait for the onward boat. It was a short wait and very soon we were getting off at the SS Great Britain and headed inside. It is definetly worth a visit if you find yourself in Bristol and a real bargain for £37 for a family of 4. I won't go into the details but my favorite bit was the rooms in the ship.
After about 2 and a half hours we came out and went to a cafe for a drink before wandering back to Temple Meads down the Floating Harbour. We decided to try and get the 18:00 back to Didcot but since there was another train in half an hour it didn't really matter if we missed it. We walked though the barriers with about 3 minutes to spare so we had to run over to the platform. Dad headed to the back power car while I went to get the front one. After I got the leading tram (dud 43005) I sprinted back down the platform as the rest of my family had got seats in the back power car. I jumped on the train in the 2nd to last coach and saw dad standing in the vestibule and he put up 1 finger to start off with, then 8 fingers and then 2. I immediately knew what he meant. It was winner 43182, dad's penultimate FGW tram for haulage! It seems like each year on April the 9th someone wants dad to get a winner HST (Last year he got 43207 on a Temple Meads to Bristol Parkway hop, then 43147 on a Swindon to Reading move and finally 43087 on the last leg from Reading to Didcot. All of them were unexpected.) We passed a 'donut' (class 60) on a tank train at Bath and once again the train to/from Bristol had a problem as mid way between Chippenham and Wooten Basset the train came to a stand for no apparent reason (the signal was green). We were running on-time up to that point and when the tram began moving again, we were about 15 late. We didn't lose any more time on the journey back to Didcot and in the end it arrived 12 late. After getting a picture of 43182 we headed back to the car, ready for an hours drive home.
A day trip to Bristol via London
This trip was in the calendar for about a year and it is already in next years. In 2014, dad and I headed out on a trip to London and Bristol to celebrate Brunel's birthday on the 9th of April. In 2014 we headed over to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, getting the Bristol Ferry Boat part of the way and walking to the bridge. This year we decided to go to the SS Great Britain so mum and my brother wanted to come too.
On the 9th we all had to get up early so at 06:45 I heard the usual beeping of my alarm going off. Today I couldn't just hit snooze to get an extra 5 minutes sleep so I turned it off and got dressed before heading down to the computer and popping on the forum for about 15 mins before I had to head over to the other boat and get my bag ready to leave for the drive to Didcot. (Nothing annoys me more than people adding parkway to the end of the name. It was just Didcot and it still should be!) The drive up was ok and it took us about an hour and a quarter until we pulled into the huge car park to be greeted by an HST set heading to Paddington.
After getting out of the car and getting a parking ticket, we headed towards the station. While walking I written down the 2 66s that were in the yard just outside the station and after we collected our tickets from the machine I managed to get the only other loco there at the time, 67017. Wasn't expecting that! We had a short wait for our train but because it was an ex Swansea we all thought it would be full and standing so when the train came in with no-one standing in the vestibule of the front coach (it was in reverse formation) and seats free I was amazed. Also the power-cars were dud 43032 at the front and winner 43071 at the back. This is how it usually is with one needed and one not.
Mum and dad got seats but I needed some Tram thrash so I just headed over to the right hand side window and my brother went to the left hand side to check for any engineers trains as the slow lines were closed. There was 2 Freightliner 66s but both were dud so my winner (for sight) count for the day still rested at 0. We took the flyover on the approach to Reading so some winner track had been scored for the day.
At Reading, the train got busy with a couple of people standing in the vestibule although there were a couple of seats free in the front coach. I could only get 57313 (poor 47371) in the hall down south (3 guesses of which depot) so that was a pain. Acton also housed no winners with 66147 and Lickey Banker 66055 being the only things Id-able. Old Oak had a few trams and another dud 57, 57306. Its probably been working on the sleeper. At Paddington I told Torin, my brother to come over to the left hand side vestibule and let the million people get off before us. As I thought, mum and dad were at the back of the queue so after they got off we followed and then headed to the main concourse to try and get some breccie. Sainsbury’s came to the rescue and 5 minutes later we were eating warm bacon rolls on a bench. Good food.
After we had finished breakfast we walked over to the flower place on Padd station and got some daffodils before walking down to the Bakerloo line platforms and since I was hoping that the next train would be a Queen's Park bound, I was disappointed to see that it was going to Harrow and Wealdstone. This meant we were going to take the tube straight to Kensal Green instead of changing at Queens Park for a 378. Not many people boarded the silver worm at Paddington and we almost had a whole coach to ourselves for the 10-minute journey.
After alighting at Kensal Green we left the station and walked down the main road to the entrance of the cemetery and after a walk of about 5 minutes we arrived at Isambard Kingdom Brunel's grave. The Brunel family’s grave is a simple one with a little gravel area in front of it. It has the names of all of the Brunel family. I placed the daffodils down and after getting a few pictures we began to walk back to the station for what I hoped would be a 378 to Queens Park for the Bakerloo line back to Padd. No such luck. The silver worm rolled in just as we got to the bottom of the stations and after a dull 10 minutes we were heading up the escalator towards the platforms and the 12:30 to Bristol. We used the process of elimination to work out which train was ours and then got a bay of 4 in coach B after getting the power car numbers of course. They were dud 43087 leading with winner 43144 pushing at the back.
That was when the first problem occurred. 10 minutes after we were meant to depart, the guard said that due to a train failing just before it arrived at Paddington, we couldn't leave yet. Luckily the problem was fixed quickly and we left only about 15 minutes late from the Great Western London terminus. But from here we kept on loosing time to Reading (due to being stuck behind something slow I think) and arrived there about 20 minutes down. From there en route to Didcot we were still staggering and arrival at Didcot was about 30 minutes late. The reason I think it was because we were stuck behind a stopper is because after Didcot, the tram quickly picked up speed and arrival at Swindon was about as late as arrival at Didcot. It didn't really lose any time between there and Chippenham but we had to wait for a freight train to clear the junction before we could leave the station so departure from there was about 40 late. We made up a couple of minutes between there and Bath and a couple more between Bath and Bristol and in the end, arrival at Temple Meads was about 35 minutes late.
Dad allowed me to run down to the end of the platform to get the 153 numbers but both were dud. In face one of them was 153333, an ex London Midland one. I got back to the barriers to see the rest of my family had just got up the stairs and were waiting for me to get out ready for the boat ride ahead. We were all feeling rather hungry and we noticed a place selling Indian food so Mum, dad and Torin got that. Since I hate spicy food I decided to wait for a while to get something I would like. We headed down to the boat (Bristol Ferry Boats) and got on board for the short ride across to the City Centre stop where we had to change boats. This was my chance to grab lunch as we had a plus 10 onto the next Ferry so we went across to the Sinsburys local and about 5 minutes later I emerged with a Sausage Roll, a pack of crisps, a drink and an ice cream (as it was very warm outside) and we all headed back over to the landing to wait for the onward boat. It was a short wait and very soon we were getting off at the SS Great Britain and headed inside. It is definetly worth a visit if you find yourself in Bristol and a real bargain for £37 for a family of 4. I won't go into the details but my favorite bit was the rooms in the ship.
After about 2 and a half hours we came out and went to a cafe for a drink before wandering back to Temple Meads down the Floating Harbour. We decided to try and get the 18:00 back to Didcot but since there was another train in half an hour it didn't really matter if we missed it. We walked though the barriers with about 3 minutes to spare so we had to run over to the platform. Dad headed to the back power car while I went to get the front one. After I got the leading tram (dud 43005) I sprinted back down the platform as the rest of my family had got seats in the back power car. I jumped on the train in the 2nd to last coach and saw dad standing in the vestibule and he put up 1 finger to start off with, then 8 fingers and then 2. I immediately knew what he meant. It was winner 43182, dad's penultimate FGW tram for haulage! It seems like each year on April the 9th someone wants dad to get a winner HST (Last year he got 43207 on a Temple Meads to Bristol Parkway hop, then 43147 on a Swindon to Reading move and finally 43087 on the last leg from Reading to Didcot. All of them were unexpected.) We passed a 'donut' (class 60) on a tank train at Bath and once again the train to/from Bristol had a problem as mid way between Chippenham and Wooten Basset the train came to a stand for no apparent reason (the signal was green). We were running on-time up to that point and when the tram began moving again, we were about 15 late. We didn't lose any more time on the journey back to Didcot and in the end it arrived 12 late. After getting a picture of 43182 we headed back to the car, ready for an hours drive home.
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