Thanks guys!
My North East Rover dates are for the 1st of August (travel up) to the 8th of August (travel back).
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A Saturday spin to Sheffield
The only reason for this outing was because Vintage Trains had caped the tour to Brighton on the 30th of May due to favoring a steam tour (which was then caped anyway!) Because of this we could extend the boat trip (which started on the 18th of May) but I wanted to get out on the rails some time soon and with the tour gone I decided to head out on the 16th, with Nathan so he wouldn't miss out.
Mum dropped us off at Leamington for the 08:23 to Brum and after buying a return to Nottingham, we headed up to platform 2 for super dud
168003 pulling dud
172103, this move making it a super dud. We sat in the 168 (because the interior is a lot nicer than the 172) for the ride to Moor Street where we arrived on time. The walk over to New Street was uneventful and 5 minutes later we were walking through the main entrance and towards platform 10A. Winner
170107 was due to leave about 10 minutes at 09:19 but that time came and passed and we still hadn't left. 5 minutes later it was still sat in the platform and finally it pulled away 11 minutes late at 10:30.
We were still 10 late by Burton but departure from Derby was only 3 late due to the reversal being very quick. Derby RTC housed a winner 66 (66753) but other than that, a couple of Peds, an ED and a pair of tractors there wasn't much. Between there and Nottingham I managed to miss the number of 2 class 60s. By Nottingham we hadn't made up any time since Derby but with arrival at 10:31, there was enough time to get a return to Meadowhall before the EMT 158s that we were to take to Liverpool were due. The 158s EMT had provided for the job were double winners
158788 and
158777, with the front unit (nearest the stairs) quite full and the back one pretty much deserted. It was an easy choice of which unit to sit in.
The journey north was very dull as the route was definitely not the nicest and also didn't have too much of interest at all. No. In fact it had nothing of interest at all. After what felt like a very long journey, I was glad to get off at Sheffield, a winner shack. I taken a look at the departure board and saw that there was a 10:41 service to Scarborough, which would almost definitely be a 158 so I could take it to Meadowhall. Nathan decided to come with me and a couple of minutes later we were leaving Sheffield on obvious winner
158844. This is obviously a winner because I had never had a Northern 158 before. En route to Meadowhall, we passed a cement train with a freightliner 66 up front but other than that all we passed was a dud Northern 142. Once we got to Meadowhall, the first thing we did was check the departure board to see when the next few services were due. We saw that the next service was due off platform 1 so that is where we waited, seeing a very unexpected Cross Country HST race past while waiting.
The train to Sheffield off platform 1 was a winner,
158907 and loads of people got off it here. And by loads, I mean about 3/4 of the people on the train. I was beginning to get hungry now so I popped to Burger King to get something before going back over to the platform for the 12:18 service back to Meadowhall in the form of winner
158860. Once we were at Meadowhall again it was time to head to the trams so we headed over to the tram stop at Meadowhall and boarded my first ever Sheffield Supertram,
103. We bought a day rover on board the tram and took this tram to Granville Road after getting the PSUL curve in. It was a 10 minute wait until another tram came, this one on a Halfway bound service so we boarded winner tram
101 for the ride to the end of the line, to get some winner track.
The journey was very long and tiresome but most of the journey was along the road, which was nice. I don't really want to do that journey for a while! Once the tram arrived at Halfway, I got off to take a few pictures before getting back on the same one to take this time to Gleadless Townsend. The plan was to get off here so we could get the branch to Herdings Park in so we didn't need to head down to get that again for a while. It was a wait of about 15 minutes at the little shack next to the busy road but we weren’t the only people to board the tram there. The journey from Gleadless to Herdings Park on winner
104 took 2 to 3 minutes with a stop between the 2 stations but after getting to Herdings Park and looking at the timetable I got very irritated to see that there was 20 minutes until the tram was going to leave again. Nat and I spent the time chatting to an HNRC driver though so it was nice to chat while waiting for 104 to leave again towards Sheffield. We took the tram all the way to it's terminus at Sheffield station before heading down to the platforms to do a bit of spotting before out train to Nottingham arrived.
There was a Northern 158 to Notts before the EMT one I had planned but because it was rammed we decided to go for the ex Liverpool service. This came in on time as duds for the day
158788 and
158777 but I fell asleep on the journey to Nottingham so it meant that I didn't feel the time. Nathan had stayed awake and said that nothing had passed except a few units so I didn't miss anything. Once we got to Nottingham we headed over to our next train, the 16:32 to St Pancras which was winner
43048 leading dud
43050. The race down to Leicester (window hanging of course!) was fun but the 20-minute wait at Leicester for the Brum bound 170 wasn't. During this time I went to the WHSmith on the platform as I needed a drink before getting on a Cross Country turbo for an hour. After that we just hung around on the platform wanting to limit our exposure to Cross Country.
A seat was found 5 minutes before departure on super-dud
170522 which we were sat on all the way to Brum. The plan was to catch the 18:43 from Snow Hill back to Leamington, but Nathan didn't think I knew the way from New Street to Snow Hill (I do!) so we had to walk over to Moor Street for super-dud
172344 to Snow Hill before crossing over to the platform for the Marylebone bound train in the form of another super-dud,
168001. The journey back was uneventful and not long after boarding at Snow Hell we were all getting into Jackie's (Nathan's mum) car at Leam.
Not as many Supertram winners as I had hoped for but that is because I had chosen to aim for winner track this time. Maybe next time I will go for the winners!
This one is fairly short (because it was a short trip) but I hope it is enjoyable
An afternoon on a West Mids Daytripper
We had been out on the boats for 5 days when I did this trip (on the 22nd of May). The reason I was doing this is because dad had something on in Solihull for this date and the boat was perfectly located in the center of Brum. After a morning in the Sea-life Center (way overpriced) and Birmingham Library (a brilliant building and well worth a visit), dad and I walked over to Snow Hell for the 14:12 to Marylebone which was super-dud
168219. 168219 may be super-dud but before this 7.25 miles it was only on 32.25 miles (made up from a Leam to Moor Street move and 3 Warwick Parkway to Leam hops) so getting it again was good. I ranted with dad until Solihull where we both got off the unit and after watching a Betty race by on a southbound liner (70015) dad had to head out into town. I stayed behind at the station waiting for my train back to Brum which arrived 8 minutes late at 14:52 (it departed at 14:53) with dud
68008. Typical really. It could have been 68011, 68014 or 67014 and it had to be the dud cat (the shovel would definitely be the best I could have but I had that for haulage 2 days before this trip).
The journey back to Moor Street was uneventful and we were shortly arriving 9 down. I was the first off the train and after getting through the barriers I began my usual run to New Street (soon it will be the New New Street!). Having already bought my Day Tripper at Snow Hell I went straight down onto platform 11 and got the first available 323 out to Five Ways, dud
323243. It wasn't until Five Ways I realized that it was a pair with winner
323211 on the back!
I quickly crossed over platforms and after less than a minute of waiting my train back to New Street (the 15:18) I boarded dud starship number
323207. Once back at Hell, I went over to platform 12 to see what was on the 15:30 to Cardiff and take it to Uni if it was a winner. Score! Winner
170109 was the unit in charge for the run to University where I had to make a mad dash over to platform 1 for the 10:39 to Nottingham. That is the only problem with the hops to the Uni on XC 170s; The connection at University is really tight if the Cardiff bound 170 is late, even by a minute, then the connection is very hard to make. Luckily I managed to make the connection onto another winner 170,
170519! I am doing well with the winners today (excepting cat 8).
Earlier that day I saw that there should be a winner 170 on the 15:49 to Hereford so I decided to try and make that my next move. As my 170 from University arrived at New Street I saw that there was a 153 now on the back of the 170 so that made me want to make it even more as I had only ever had 2 LM 153s for haulage. I was the first person to get off the 170 and i launched myself up the escalator and then down the stairs before running down the platform and leaping on the 153. Here is the bad bit. The units were winner
170503 but the 153,
153354 was a dud and I had already had 20.5 miles on it (a return from Coventry to Nuneaton). At least I got a winner 170 though which is all I was expecting. The train was full but I managed to get one of the fold down seats for the 2.5 mile journey back to The University of Birmingham.
Once there, I crossed over to platform 1 and flagged the first 323 due to it being dud. I then flagged a 170 due to it being dud but decided to go for the next starship whether it was dud or not as I would have a while to wait otherwise. After arrival at New Street, I headed back over to platform 11b ready for another 323 which was double set
323217 and
323213, 213 being a winner. I took this to Five Ways before coming back on dud
323216.
I had time to check if the 16:49 to Hereford had any winners on it and since it did I jumped aboard winner
170516 leading dud
170512. Just before University, I got a call from dad saying that he was on his way over to New Street (coming from Moor Street) so I decided to go for the first available from The Uni. This was double duds
170517 and
170634 and was very lightly loaded making the ride slightly enjoyable. I met up with dad at the usual spot (by the M&S) and we walked back to the boat via Tesco to get some food.
