They are good fun, that's for sure! How many do you need?
I fully agree - a mega thrashy run too!
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Midlands mayhem!
As the title says, today was another day in the Midlands! But today was with company, and not Nathan's! It was February the 15th and fellow forum member and trip reporter
Techniquest was in the Midlands. I was planning to head to Brum anyway so I asked if he wanted to meet up. Since he was planning to get Polesworth in by staying at a hotel in Rugby (or a sad excuse for a hotel if I were to ask Tech
) he wouldn't be free for a while and with me heading to Brum with dad, that gave me a bit of time to do some unit bashing before hand. So, to the main report...
My day started at stupid o' clock in the morning (I'm not even going to say the time because I'll then realize how crazy I am) and I was up and ready to head out by xx:40 (I'm not going to say the time again but I'll let you know that it was 7 hours after I went to bed the previous night). I helped dad prepare his morning coffee and by xx:50 we were de-icing the car, ready for the off. The morning drive to Leam was the same as usual and after parking the car, we had a nice 5-minute walk to start the day...
in the freezing cold. Oh well, at least I had a coat! The station was reached with about 10 minutes until the 06:26 to Snow Hell was due, giving me ample time to get a return to Brum. It was dud
165028 working our service this morning and the gen was passed on to Tech in case it was required. We managed to get our usual bay of two in the front of the train and after an uneventful run spent chatting with dad, the cart was approaching Snow Hell. On the way over to Subway, tram 29 was spotted at Bull Street waiting to work a service to Wolverhampton. I let Tech know this as well and it turns out that both the 165 and the tram (both duds for me) were needed for him! Anyway, we got our usual two mega melts in Subway before heading over to dad's work to eat brekky and check the forums and stuff. I spent a nice time with him before saying bye at about 07:55 so I'd have time to get my daytripper and view the 08:10 to Euston to see if a winner was on it. A nice walk down Corporation street, seeing how well Midland Metro were progressing with the route and stations (not at all!) on my way, I eventually arrived at the bat cave. After getting my daytripper, I headed over to platform 1 to view the 08:10, which was a dud 11 coach. The 08:15 to Preston was also a dud 11 coach, the 08:14 staggerer to Euston a dud dez and the 08:25 to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli was a pair of dud 158s. I'm off to a wonderful start! The 08:27 to Walsall was dud, as was the 08:39 to Wolves, two services that arrive about 15 minutes before they're booked out (on a through service!). A dud 9-coach pendo was waiting to form the 08:30 to Euston so I wandered over to the platform that the 08:30 to Cardiff was booked from, hoping for a winner 170. Yes! Winner
170112! Oh, hang on. It's a pair! Excellent! Winner
170113! Don't you love it when TOCs put out consecutive winners?
These took me to University and with 2.5 miles secured off each; I left the train, thankfully not to study and attend tedious lectures, but to head back to New Street. It was dud
170110 providing the power for the journey back.
Before heading out on the 170s, I'd noticed the service that forms the 08:50 to Euston arriving. This had 390156 on, one that I know that I've had before but can't for the life find it in my books so have no mileage recorded off it. This was very irritating so getting that one would be very good, even if it is just 8.25 miles out to the airport. 110 came to a stand at New Street (on the 'A' end of the platform) at 08:46, giving me 4 minutes to run to the 'B' end, over navigation street footbridge and onto the pendo. I didn't hesitate and was on
390156 by 08:48. Departure was right time and a speedy journey to International was had. There was a pair of 158s in platform 5 waiting to leave on the 09:09 to Holyhead and after going to view them I saw that one of the 158s was a winner! I decided that I'd take them to New Street if the dez on the 09:05 wasn't required and if the dez was required then I'd take that to New Street for the 158s to Smethwick. It turns out that it was the second option because winner
350108 was in charge of the LM to New Street. I was on a roll!
An uneventful ride to Starship central was had, where a platform change had to take place so I was in a good waiting position for the 09:25 to Smethwick. Even though I knew what it'd be, I was still glad to see dud
158832 and winner
158834 arriving. I took a seat in the latter for the short ride to Smethwick, just missing the trio of 158s heading to International. Hardly matters though! The Walsall stopper was up next but that was a dud dez so I waited an extra minute for the ex Liverpool which was another dud dez. I didn't want to wait at Galton Bridge any longer though so I took
350371 back to the bat cave and looked at my options. Number 1 was to fester at New Street to see if any winners appeared and wait for Tech, who was planning to get the 10:20 from Lichfield Trent Valley. Because of this, my second option was a little shack score on the Lichfield branch, needing everything between and including Gravely Hill and Lichfield City except Four Oaks. I waited 15 minutes so I could view both the 10:10 to Euston and the 10:15 to Edinburgh but they were both duds so I decided to go for the shack score and after texting Tech to say what my plan was, I boarded
323201 on the 10:15 to Four Oaks. I decided to take this one to Erdington, where I'd just missed one heading towards Birmingham. Oh well! Doesn't matter! I still changed platforms, which involved going down a long ramp onto the pavement, under the railway on the road bridge and then up onto the Brum bound platform via some steep and not very nice stairs. There was a manned ticket office on that platform so I got myself a cross city line timetable and looked at how many shacks I could get before Tech's service was due to arrive. I could get Gravely Hill on a liniar bash with a 10-minute fester there for Tech's service so I decided to do that. But then I noticed another thing on the timetable and very quickly changed platforms, just as
323210 was arriving and let Tech know that I'd be getting on his train at Chester Road. This gave me extra mileage, a smaller fester, more time with Tech and an easier shack to get from Brum (Gravely Hill). It was easy enough to change platforms there and get down the platform to board at the door that Tech said he was sat next to.
323206 and
323208 arrived 2 down and I boarded in the front door of the rear unit and met up with Tech, who hadn't had a great morning! He'd got Polesworth but had missed the bus to Tamworth so was a lot later than planned. I understand that this is old news and, because of this, I'd like to make it clear that I'm not a writer for 'The Railway Magazine'. We had a bay of four for the journey back to New Street and it was nice to have some company that doesn't moan about being on a starship for the whole journey!
Tech said that the 11:15 from Moor Street to Marylebone was an ex TPE 170 the last time that he saw it so we decided to head over to view that in case it was 168321 or 168324, Tech needing the former, me needing the latter. So after getting off the starships at the bat cave, we exited the station and headed over to Moor Street, getting in position on platform 1. The Marylebone service was announced and soon headlights were illuminating the tunnel and 168214 pulled in. Boring! We didn't take it and instead just went back onto the street and took the short walk to Bull Street tram stop just as a tram was approaching. This was dud for both of us
33. For the purpose of the report I'll mention if any of the trams was required for either of us. If I don't say anything then it was dud for both of us. Anyway, 33 was taken for the hop out to Soho Benson Road. En route, one of Tech's winners was spotted heading to Bull Street so
23 was taken to Jewellery Quarter to intercept it on its way back to Wolves. Winner for Tech
24 was taken out to The Hawthorns and it was then a little wait for another winner for Tech, this time
30, which was taken to Winson Green Outer Circle. The next one back was
25 so we boarded for the ride back to The Hawthorns. For a fill in move before the next one to Wolverhampton,
34 was taken one stop towards Brum to Handsworth Booth Street before
30 appeared for the second time, taking us away from the main line and onto the tram only stretch. This one took us to West Bromwich for
36 back to Kenrick Park. It was then a short wait for yet another dud for us both, number
20. Lodge Road was our destination on this one before what we thought would be 29, the one that I'd seen earlier at Bull Street. But we were wrong because it was
33, the first tram we'd been on! This meant that 29 was probably the one tram that we'd not got the number of so instead of taking this back to Brum, we took it to Trinity Way for
34 to Dartmouth Street and finally what we thought would be 29. Nope! It was
32! This tended to indicate that 29 had headed to depot after it'd done stuff in the morning peak. Oh well! At least Tech got two of his required ones (I didn't get any of my last 3 - 17, 19 and 37)! The next one up was
25 again and, having just missed a 172 at The Hawthorns, this one was taken to Jewellery Quarter where we had a smaller wait for a 172. The reason we hadn't just gone through to Bull Street is because we were both in dire need of a PNB, the trams not being equipped with toilets. There was a Dorridge train due in 8 minutes and after a short wait,
172333 arrived. Tech didn't need any coaches in this one so we just got into the one with the disabled bog for the short ride to Snow Hell.
By now a costa move was needed for both of us and I wanted to get some lunch so we exited the station and went to the Costa just outside the station. Tech had visited this one the day before and the service had been terrible but today they got both his coffee and my creamy cooler pretty quickly. From there it was a little downhill walk to Meal Deal where I got a £1.74 Chicken and bacon baguette with fries and an apple juice. We needed to be at Rowley Regis for a certain time so there were two options. Number 1 was to take the 14:01 from New Street to Galton Bridge and number 2 was to take the 14:03 from Snow Hell to Rowley Regis. Anyway, my lunch in hand, we walked across to New Street and got onto the platforms to see something rather unexpected sat in one of them. 150284! I wasn't expecting to see an Arriva 150! It was a dud and was out of service, presumably on a driver training run but still unexpected! Someone came up to us and asked what the 150 was doing and it turns out that this was forum member
Alex 2901. We had a nice little chat with him before heading over to the platform for the 14:01 to Lime Street, this having dud
350243 on. Tech needed a couple of coaches in this one so at least he scored one! I let dad know what we were doing and he said that he was in position for the 14:03 from Snow Hell, the service that we'd connect onto at Galton Bridge. 37884 was sat at Soho, which was a nice score, mainly for Tech because it was a winner for sight for him! Vote tractor!
The dez arrived on time and after a treck over to the Stourbridge bound platform, we were in position for dad's train. It rolled in a few minutes late with
172332 providing power and we boarded in the very rear coach and walked through, keeping an eye out for dad. He was seen in the middle coach and we met up, getting ready for what Rowley Regis had in line for us. Dad had said while I was at his work in the morning that the last bunch of GBRF blue deaths were going to be heading to Donny from Newport that day and managed to find the schedule on RTT. I had let Tech know earlier on and he liked the idea of heading out to see them so, keeping an eye on them on RTT because they'd been running early. They then fell back into the planned path and 172332 dropped us off just in time for them. Tech had scored a coach in 332, leaving just one more to put it into super-dud status, a bit of info that I put into my head. There were quite a few spotters on the station and after a couple of minutes a monster convoy came into view, 66708 leading 66773, 774, 775, 776, 777, 778 and the covered up 779, all scores for sight except 708. I don't need to worry about those ones now then! This was very good news indeed!
We headed over the footbridge and onto the Brum bound platform in time for the cart that was following it,
172336. We all got seats on this one and after a nice chat, dad left at Snow Hell. Tech and I decided to continue through to Moor Street in order to view the 14:55 to Marylebone, a booked 2 coach. It's a 50% chance that 321 or 324 will appear on it so I ran over the footbridge and jumped in the air as it was my winner,
168324, leaving just one of the current '168s', 168325. This was currently out of service having had a collision with a tree so neither of us could get it. Tech was OK with going for it and, as he needed both coaches on it, we sat in the very, very front of the train for the short ride out to Solihull. To get back to Brum now, we had two options. The first was an ex Dorridge 172 with the second being an ex Marylebone 168. We decided that if the 172 had any winner coaches for Tech then we'd go for that but if it didn't then we'd choose the 168. It was by far my highest mileage LM 172 working the 15:17 but Tech needed two coaches on it so we leapt aboard
172340 for the ride towards Birmingham. Tech wanted to get a drink from Tesco or something so I suggested taking the 172 to Snow Hell and then walking to Moor Street, passing a Tesco en route. This would then put us in position to meet up with dad on 1H62, which would be my train back. This was a good idea so that's what we decided to do.
Just as 340 was arriving at Snow Hell, I noticed another one pulling in on platform 3. It was 172332 from earlier. I remembered that Tech needed one coach in this one so I told him and asked if he wanted to head back through the tunnel on it. This sounded like a good plan to him so we wandered over and got on
172332 for the very short ride through the tunnel, Tech turning it into a super dud en route. I'd arranged to meet up with dad outside the centaury lounge so we could get coffee and cake to eat on the train home. Dad snuck up beind me as he came, scaring the living daylight out of me but I recovered quickly enough to choose the cakes that we'd get. I was OK drink wise but was in dire need of cake (as always!). Two cakes were chosen and dad got both him and Tech a coffee before we headed over to the 15:55 to Marylebone, today worked by the best cat,
68014! We went to the 5th coach in the formation (there are 6th coaches but the front is the business zone one) because the rear one was wedged and Tech scored a couple of coaches, getting them both for haulage between Moor Street and Solihull, where he bailed to intercept 165028. It had been a cracking day with him and he's a really soche guy, that's for certain! GT continued to push dad and I towards Leam where we had to leave (If I were valid then I would have left the train at Leam... After going to Marylebone and back on it!) GT to thrash on without us. It had been one heck of a great day with 5 winners and 1 kind of winner (390156) along with some great company. It was great to finally meet Tech too, who managed to get 165028 easily in the end. Shame it went downhill after getting home though...
But that's a story for the next report...
!
How many trains a week? by fishquinn1, on Flickr
