Midlands vs. North East. No comparison.
As the title says (kind of), this is my first trip after the end of my North East Rover on the 9th. I had 5 days to chill out and I was ready to hit the rails again on Friday, with Nathan again, who was in his summer holidays. I heard that 1V54 (the so called tram that has shown a 221 the last 2 times we tried to get it) is much more likely to throw out a tram on a Friday so on the 14th of August, I was out of bed for 08:00 and on the forum, ready for my day ahead.
Nathan was picked up at 09:35 on the way to the station ready for the (you probably guessed it) 10:04 to Moor Street. Two WMDRs were purchased and we both made our way to platform 2, waiting for whatever cat appears to show its whiskers. Like the past two times of our midlands trips and much to Nathan's annoyance, it was
68011 taking us to Brum. This was my first run on a loco since a pair of bombs thrashing it down freight branches from Donny to New Street so I wasn't expecting it to be anything in comparison. Good thing to as it wasn't but it was a good run, getting to Moor Street at 10:42 where, like the last 2 times, I left Nathan on the cat and headed over to the bat cave in search of a winner unit.
I wasn't looking long for one as I noticed the 10:57 to Walsall coming in with a winner dezzy on. Straight over to platform 1 and onto my first leccy unit in a while,
350250. Aston was my destination on this service, even though Duddeston was required but since I couldn't see a departure board or anything, I decided not to risk it. I should have though because it would have gave me a plus 2 which, at an island platform station, would be ample time. Especially since the first available train back from Aston was the late running 11:13 to Reddich, which eventually came in at 11:19. Since the 11:19 to Wolverhampton is a booked dez, I decided to wait for that to come, as it was only running three minutes late and might have a potential winner on. During the wait, I got out my phone and very slowly loaded RTT to see where the tram that we were meant to take back from Tamworth was at that time and found out that it was currently 80 minutes late, along with the train that is at New Street for 11:17, which was running about 140 minutes late. This was due to problems in the Newcastle area but a plan formulated before my train to New Street arrived. The plan was the take the 12:19 from New Street but this time to Derby instead of Tamworth and it should have about a plus 15 onto 1V50, the 11:17 from New Street if the tram didn't make up 15 minutes and the 170 was on time. I tried calling Nathan but failed and then thought that I would just tell him when we meet up on the 170. So I stood on the platform waiting for my dez to come in and wasn't too happy when it was
323212 coming round the corner. I didn't want to wait at Aston any longer, so I boarded the 323 and got off 2.75 miles later at New Street, with 212 on 7.75 miles. We arrived on platform 4 (I think) meaning that for my next train, another one from platform 1, I had to navigate my way around the maze that is New Street (because Navigation Street footbridge didn't have an entrance onto platform 1 at the time). At least it isn't as much of a maze that it is now though! The train from platform 1 was the 11:36 to Birmingham International, which had winner
158820 leading dud
158821 on.
I got a seat in the front unit and it set off on time for the quick sprint to International. This is where I found that most trains heading back to town were slightly delayed so I decided to go for the 1st available, which was the 53 minutes past to Edinburgh, which was delayed by just under 10 minutes. It was dud
390005 providing the power for the dash back to Starship central. Unfortunately this particular Pendo had the rubbish new announcer but I suffered the horrible thing, knowing that New Street was near. I saw what platform the Nottingham train was due out of and immediately headed over there to stop in my tracks and laugh at what was waiting there to take me away. None other than the brilliant
170109 ladies and gentlemen! Why does that darn 170 stalk me? I headed up front, knowing that Nathan would be on the train yet to find that the lights weren't even on inside yet. Still, the doors opened so I got the very front table seat, which was thankfully not over the engine, and sat down waiting for Nathan to appear so I could tell him my plan.
He finally appeared about 5 minutes before we left and sat down opposite me. I told him my plan and he thought that it was an excellent one, getting us more tram mileage that we had originally planned. I checked my phone again to see how 1V50 was doing and noticed that it had made up 5 minutes. Still, a plus 10 should be easy enough at Derby!
170109 left the bat cave on time and sped away past Lawley Street, which housed a Betty and two Gurkins, with the Lickey Banker (66055. It seems to be the 66 that follows me everywhere. And to drive that point home, I will also say that I saw it passing through York on a coal train during my North East) being just outside the depot. 60059 was spotted at Kingsbury, which was nice and luckily the guard came through after Nemesis Rail at Burton, which had loads and loads of stuff in, the most notable being 47701 in a horrible, tacky green livery. We left Burton right time and somewhere before Willington I checked my phone again to see where the tram was. It had made up another 5 minutes but in theory, our connection should still easily be made, as now there were no other stops for it to make up more time at.
The 170 continued to just before Derby station before coming to a stand at a red signal. This worried both Nathan and me because we didn't know how the tram was getting on or how long we would be waiting for. Then, after about 3 minutes of waiting, the guard came over the PA and said that we were just waiting for a train to clear the platform and that we would be on the move shortly. And he was right. 43378 (my favorite Cross Country train) and 43285 rolled past while we were stationary and a couple of moments after that, 170109 moved again and took the platform the 1V50 had just come out of. That didn't amuse either of us one bit but at least we still had 1V54 in half an hour, which was nice though. I headed up on the footbridge, leaving Nathan on the platform and got called over to a group of people doing a charity bake sale. The cakes looked very good so I bought one for myself and devoured it on the platform.
Nathan had been on an East Midlands Day Ranger on the Saturday that I was in the North East (the day that I met Dad at Sheffield) and had got a few of his required trams for haulage in both EMT and VTEC (between Peterborough and Grantham). He had 43307 and 43313 between Peterborough and Grantham, both of which were required for him (I'm guessing they got to Kings Cross after forming the 09:29 from Darlington and he got them on the service back out), 43081 and 43060, two of my last four EMT ones and if you recall from the trip report on the Saturday, 081 is Dad's final EMT powercar. He also said that he had seen one of his last 2 EMT 153s (for sight) and shown me the single gap in his unit book for an EMT unit. Then, the same 153 that he had supposedly seen at Peterborough last Saturday arrived on the ex Crewe service. It was then that he confessed that he hadn't actually seen the stupid thing but written it down because it was getting annoying that he wasn't seeing one of his last TWO units. What a fudger!
We both noticed on the PIS that 1V54 was formed of 7 coaches today, meaning that we should be getting a tram back to Brum (if fact we would unless the PIS is wrong). We both guessed which set we thought would be on it, Nathan's being a powercar that I can't remember and 43207, his last Cross Country one. I had an advantage over him though as I noticed that the PIS said that it was in reverse formation, with 1st class at the front. Therefore, 43321 and 43357 had my vote, as it was the pair that I had had from Sheffield 6 days ago in reverse formation. And sure enough, 43207 wasn't part of the set because it was
43321 and
43357 that had appeared to take us back to hell.
It was raining and I didn't really fancy getting icy shards of rain hitting my face at 125mph so I sat down and couldn't help but laugh after Nathan came to sit next to me about 2 minutes after leaving Derby because the rain was hurting when it hit him. I like the Cross Country tram interiors (they are the only thing in Cross Country that I like the interior of) and they are a billion times nicer that every other bit of Cross Country traction that you get at Derby (including you 170109!). The guard was swift at getting through the train, checking both my ticket and Nathan's just after Nat had sat down. It was a brilliant race down to Tamworth, the first stop for us, but not the last!
We had seen a fellow Rugby train-spotter at Tamworth earlier in the day as we left, so Nathan was hoping to say hi from the tram window while I put together a plan for the 2 of us when we got back to the bat cave. Nathan couldn't see him at Tamworth when we were there, so he came back to me to see what plan I had put together. It started with lunch in Birmingham, probably from Tesco Metro and then a 170 up to Rugeley for both the winner track and the shack score. Since the trains from Brum to Rugeley are hourly on weekdays, we had a wait of about 50 minutes for lunch, meaning that we could probably get a dez to Walsall before hand.
The first thing that we had to do after getting off the tram set was head up front and get loads of photos of 43321 and a video of it thrashing away into the tunnels (not as thrashy as the bombs were though!).
New Street tram by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
Then, Nathan spotted something very rare on the other platform. The second that he pointed it out to me, we were sprinting over Navigation Street footbridge, which proved something that I didn't know. Nathan could run! But we ran down onto the platform and I swiftly opened my unit book and saw that the Arriva 150 leading an Arriva 158 was dud (along with the 158) so we gave that a miss and stuck to plan, after getting a photo of course! We then ascended the steps of Navigation Street footbridge again and headed out onto the street before walking over to the Tesco.
They were doing £3 meal deals but it is very hard to tell what is and what isn't in the meal deal. I managed to figure it out in the end after a lot of time looking. One thing that I will say though; the selection isn't as much as at Sainsbury's! We walked back to the station and got there just in time for the 14:57 to Walsall. I was hoping that this would be a (preferably winner) dez but it rolled up with dud
350251. At least it is a 350 though! We ate our lunch on the train and, after stopping at Tame Bridge Parkway; we got our books ready to start scribing the stuff at Bescot. The stuff we could ID came up to 7; 3x66s, 1x60 and 3x08. There was a lot more in there but we couldn't get the numbers of them.
Eventually, 350251 arrived at Walsall, where the first thing we saw was 66615 coming through on a coal train. We navigated the way around the maze that is Walsall to the Rugeley bound platform just in time to see another 66/6, this time 66622 on another coal train. It never actually occurred to me how good Walsall station is for freight at certain times. After a couple of minutes of waiting, our train arrived with a 153 on the front meaning that it is likely that I would get a winner doxbox. Unfortunately the 153 was dud
153364, previously had on a Snow Hell-Moor Street leap but after seeing the 170 number, I leaped into the air.
170505, a winner, putting me down to needing three London Midland 170s for haulage (508, 510 and 514). The three-coach train was very full considering the route that it was taking, but we managed to get seats in the 170 for the winner track to Rugeley. The 170 began emptying out at the intermediate stops and after Rugeley Town, we were the only passengers in the coach (and maybe the whole 170). We saw Rugeley power station and after alighting at the winner shack of Rugeley Trent Valley, I headed to the guard, who was in the cab of 170505 at the end facing the 153, and asked him if we could look in the cab. He allowed us to and it was really quite funky in there. We thanked him and then headed out to get a photo of 170505 before it headed off. We then looked over at the PIS and saw that the train that we were planning to catch, the 16:25 to Crewe, was currently 8 late. Joy. Nothing to do at Rugeley Trent Valley for 15 minutes except watch the Pendos race past. Although that was quite fun and I managed to get most of the numbers of the passing ones. We saw the approaching 350 coming around the corner and, as advertised, it was 8 late. It had a black gangway top meaning that it would either be a /2 or a /3, as the /1s have an all over yellow gangway front. We were very surprised to see it as dud
350125!
I got on before Nathan and that meant that I was the one who found out that there were only naf seats first. We got one of them though and spent the time chatting with someone who was interested about the hobby. We missed (or should I say that Nathan missed, I wasn't in a position to get the numbers anyway) a pair of 86s but, with Stafford being busy with Rail Enthusiasts, we thought that we could get the numbers of them from spotters there.
We got off the dez and immediately headed to one of the enthusiasts and asked him the numbers. They were 86607 and 86609 and, although neither Nathan nor I needed any FL 86s for sight, it was nice to know the numbers of them. I checked the status on our train back to Birmingham. Great. It was running late by about 15 minutes. With a 15-minute connection time here anyway, that made half an hour. I guess that there are worse places to spend a half hour than busy Stafford though! 66701 came through first, followed by 66041 and 66764 as a light engine, my first winner for sight of the day. This pulled up to a red signal at the end of platform 6 so I headed over to get a photo of it before meeting up with Nathan again at the end of platform 4, just in time to see 66594 race through on a liner. Then, another winner for sight came, this time 66772, which was hauling a dead freightliner 90 (90045). Like 66764, this pair rolled up to the red signal at platform 6 giving me a chance to get a photo of the unusual combo. The reason that these two were together is because 90045 was on hire to GBRF to work the Cally Sleepers and it failed. I'm guessing that 66772 was an available loco to take 90045 back up to Basford Hall to be fixed.
After watching that pair leave, it was time to get over to platform 5 for the 17:10 dez back to Birmingham. It arrived at about 17:30 and I groaned the moment after seeing the number. It was my second stalker of the day, this time
350242 (instead of 170109) but, not wanting to miss our train out of Brum, we climbed aboard anyway, finding that it was very full and that we would have to stand in the vestibule. This coupled with rowdy passengers who were yelling at each other and trying to get the whole coach to start yelling with them (and wouldn't stop) made the journey to Wolverhampton, where I put my foot down and left the train, was very unpleasant. Nathan wasn't too happy about this because the dez stopped at Galton Bridge and Nathan was too... Tiered? Lazy? Yep, I'll go with lazy. But he was too lazy to walk across from New Street to Moor Street so I had agreed to get a 172 from Galton Bridge to Moor Street so we didn't have to walk.
I told him that we would still go back via Smethwick but by taking the late running (by about 5 minutes) 17:45 Pendo to Sandwell and then wait for the dez stopper from there. He agreed to this and I wasn't very happy to see another of my stalkers (I have three Pendo stalkers - 103, 020 and 124),
390124 would be powering us to Sandwell. Luckily, seats C1 and C2 were available for use, so Nathan took C1, me C2 and he agreed with me at them being the best seats in the house. Hang on. That's the wrong saying. Best seats in the pendo. That's better!
We started chatting and because of this, I failed to get the number of the unit that should be taking us from Sandwell. But the thing is, we lost track of time and only looked out of the window to see our train stationary in the platform of Sandwell and Dudley. Run!!! Thankfully (for Nathan), we made it off the train just in time to watch the 390 power away ready for it's mega long journey to the Bat cave and beyond!
I never enjoy waiting at Sandwell and Dudley because there is nothing appealing about the station. Today was no exception, even with company but after what felt like a wait of an hour, our dez to Smethwick was in view. I had seen another winner dez on the Wolves to Walsall circuit that day so I was hoping beyond hope that it would be that. No such luck. It would be dud for the day (and a unit that I went out of my way to get earlier in the day)
350250 that would appear for the very short hop to Galton Bridge. We headed up to the diesel platform rather rapidly, not wanting to miss any services. It turns out that there was no reason to hurry because the next train wasn't due for another 10 minutes anyway!
We spent the time at the bit of glass between platform 2 and platform 4 so we could see everything passing on both levels (admittedly not a lot). Finally 18:16 came round so we headed up to the platform to see
172334 arriving on the 18:17 to Stratford. This service is due to arrive at winter hell (Snow Hell) at 18:26, giving us a good 14 minutes to get onto the 18:40. This would definitely not be needed to change platforms (we could do that in less than a minute) but at least we could get to the very back of the train in the best seats. The good thing about getting on at Snow Car Park with these seats is that all of the normals just cram into the first available coach to the stairs, so with a 4 coach 168, the rear coach is mostly empty. And you obviously have the fact that these seats aren't over the engine so you don't get your brains rattled out from underneath. So we headed to the back (if you haven't yet gathered that) and got the right hand side bay of 4 for the journey back home on 'The Parkour Flyer'. The unit in charge of this named service today was
168003, my highest mileage 168/0 (over 100 miles). I gave Dad a call while stationary to say that we were on the cart back to Leam now. He agreed to pick us up at Leamington, but after a little while spotting at the station as you have quite a few locos through in a half hour gap after we arrive. Eventually 003 began to move and we were on our way home.
We passed 4O76 at Small Heath (one of the freight trains that we would see through Leam after arriving) but other than that it was a basic journey with not much decent stuff on route. But it eventually arrived at Leamington for 19:15 when we headed up the platform to the usual spot on the southern end of platform 3. Dad appeared just after 4M99 had come through with Betty 15 on it (this was after 4O76, 4O29, 1K62 (a cat) and 6M28). We didn't fancy waiting another 15 minutes for 2 more cats so after 70015 came through, we all headed out and over to the car, which was parked in the 20 minute free parking spot in the station car park. We all climbed in, Dad and I in the front and chatted during the journey home.
Now to the overview. Although it was a good day, getting me 3 winners for haulage and 2 for sight, it doesn't compare to a day doing a North East Rover. And before anyone asks, no. I didn't have a creamy cooler!
Also discovered the Town Wall on Pink Lane nearby for the first time and thought that was canny - Lots of decent Wylam beers on, including my favourite of theirs, "Red Kite".
good read Mr Fish!
