Tech - It certainly isn't easy to get to sleep on the sleeper!
Cletus - Darn it! It's got really annoying now - a couple of weeks ago I was passing Rectory Road knowing that it was in there but it wasn't viewable.
Alex - You should definitely give it a try - it's really fun!
Kite - There's not a hope that I'd take a 158 to Kyle (and dad would rather destroy it in Inverness station) and dad would refuse to take a 156 from Mallaig to Fort Bill. Also, it'd cost a lot more to do that.
Roebuck - Glad to hear that a marylebone brekky may come in handy for you in a future London trip! I did get a mark I wanted for the exams, yep. Thanks!
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The long way to Reading
For completing my first GCSE, mum gave me a week off. Inverness took the first two days and, on Thursday the 21st of June, I decided to use another. This is how it went.
I was in bed by 23:00 on the 20th and, with an alarm set for 05:25, hoped to get a good night sleep. Due to an annoying mosquito, I didn't get to sleep until about 23:45 though.
I slept surprisingly well and woke up ready for the day ahead. I was going to make lunch to take with me but decided against this after seeing that we had only one slice of white bread and few decent sarnie fillings. Instead I just put a banana in my bag and then got ready to leave. We headed off at 05:45 and, with a road closure on our normal route, we took a diversion. This only delayed us by a couple of minutes and we were soon leaving the car and starting to walk to the station.
We got to the station at 06:12 and I headed to the ticket office and got my ticket before going up onto platform 2 where we continued our discussion on DOO stuff. This topic started after the radio reminded me that Southern were on strike and finished with the arrival of dud
165005. As I've had this one on 'G01 before, the coach we sat in (the leading one, obviously) was dud. We got the usual bay of 2 on board for the ride to Brum. It was an uneventful journey and we were held at a red signal just after Tyseley for a couple of minutes. 20205, a score for sight, was on Tyseley depot and was a good first loco to see. Titan (68009) was close second on 1H15. We continued to Snow Hell as usual and we got there with no problems.
At Snow Hell, a well-needed PNB was had (when I tried to go on the cart, I was waiting for 5 minutes for someone to get out of the toilet but they never did). We then headed over to Subway for mega melts that were taken to dad's work as per usual. They were great today and certainly hit the spot. There was no HST gen today but I thought that it'd be 43366 and 285 on 1V44 because they should've finished at Leeds the day before. Eventually it was 07:55 so I had to say bye to dad and head to the bat cave.
I decided to hang around at Corporation Street to see if a New Street tram would come in the next 5 minutes. I decided to wait until 08:05 and, just as I was about to leave, I saw a tram coming around the corner from Bull Street. I got on board dud
36 for the very short hop to New Street, where I had 4 minutes to get onto the 08:12 to Plymouth. Run!
It was already in the platform when I got to it so neither of the powercars at New Street and had to wait until Temple Meads to ID them. It turns out that it was
43285 and
43366 as expected. I got a bay of 4 in coach C and luckily didn't get wedged out. Just after departure, I tried to put some music on but failed miserably when I realized that I'd left my I-pod at home Darn it! Instead I watched the scenery as my tram thrashed me towards Bristol. We actually picked up some speed on the cross-city line and raced through Bourneville which was a nice surprise. I decided to do a bit of window hanging after Bristol Parkway and the 90-mile romp was over all to soon. I was glad to have scored a winner 150 for sight at Bristol Parkway too.
After my tram got to Temple Meads, I saw several 150s but, after writing them down, I didn't pay them any attention and instead headed over to the leading powercar (285) to wait for some thrash as it left. The two drivers in the cab were very soche and actually invited my into the cab instead of me requesting to be let in! We had a nice chat before they had to set off onwards to Plymouth. As the Cross Country set left, I saw the green GWR set arrive on platform 15 ready to work the 10:30 to Padd which was nice. I then walked back down the platform and heard an announcement that I really didn't want to hear: We are sorry to announce that the 10:00 Great Western Railway service to London Paddington has been cancelled. Green set here I come! I kicked my heels on Temple Meads station for quarter of an hour before the doors of
43187 and
43188's set were unlocked. During this time, I heard another announcement that I wish I hadn't. Let me put it this way. The last few words were 'Manchester Piccadilly. This train is formed of 4 coaches'
.
I got a bay of 4 on the green set but unfortunately got wedged out before departure. A freight passed through while I was waiting for departure - something that doesn't happen too often at Temple Meads. I looked at my platform 5 DMU book to see if I'd scored any more winner 150s other than the one I'd seen at Parkway and noticed that the one I'd seen at Parkway (150130) had been m penultimate GWR 150 and that I'd seen my last one (150121) at Temple Meads! One 150 to clear the lot now!
I set off from Temple Meads over a half hour later than planned. Because of this, I'd have to take the green set to Didcot in order to get back on plan. This was OK with me because both powercars would tip the hundred-mile barrier by Diddy. The bay of 4 that I was in had 3 people in it on departure from Chippenham (including me) so I was glad to get up on the approach to Didcot and leave the tram with all GWR green trams over 100 miles (including 005 and 041). I changed platforms at Didcot and saw some approaching headlights from the East. They were from a gherkin on an intermodal and, since one of my two last FL 66s was working out of Southampton, I really wanted to ID it. Unfortunately, once 187 and 188 got out of the way,
43164 and
43036 got in it so I struggled to get the slightly faded number, although I was 90% sure that the last 3 digits were 557 (my required one). A gen request later in the day confirmed my suspicions.
A bay of 4 was found on 164 and 036's set for my 24-mile leap out to Swindon. There was nothing interesting to note on the dull route back out to Swindon. I was glad to get 43036 before it was needed for 100 and hadn't been had since 2007. 164 on the other hand wasn't. As we were arriving at Swindon, I saw that the 11:59 Paddington was already in the platform. The moment I saw the number on the leading powercar, I knew that I wanted to be on it. It was
43018, a low mileage, decent powercar that I hadn't had for the year. I had to sprint and take the stairs two and three at a time but I made it. A right hand side-facing bay of two was located on this service and, by the time I'd sat down, we were on the move. It was an excellent romp to Reading, stopping at Didcot en route. I obviously hadn't had time to get the number of the rear powercar at Swindon so that was something that had to be done when I got to Reading. A betty was spotted en route but other than that there was nothing special and we were soon going up the flyover at Reading (can you imagine and HST with wings flying over something?) and arriving at the station.
I headed to the back of the train and was very glad to se that it was
43147 with 018. This was another sub-hundred-mile one and is also a monster powercar. Like 018, it didn't pass 100 miles on the run from Swindon but should now be sat on a pretty good 83 miles. After watching the pair I'd just come off thrash away into the distance (knowing that if I took it to Paddington both would be cleared for 100), I headed over to the barriers and got let through so I could get some lunch I decided against Sweeney and Todd today and instead located a Sainsbury's quite close to the station. I spent a while looking for a chicken triple sarnie but I couldn't find one at all. Because of this, I looked at what other sarnies were there and found a chicken triple! The reason I couldn't find one in the first place was because they weren't with the chicken type sarnies and were a couple of shelves lower! Lunacy! I got my sarnie, a tiny carrot cake and a Ribena and took them with me to the station.
I got back with just over 5 minutes until my train to Temple Meads. I watched a Malvern bound tram arrive and leave as I ate my lunch and, right behind that, the Brizzle tram was arriving. I groaned after seeing
43087 up front because it's one that I've had several times and is high mileage. The rear one on the other hand was one that I was pleasantly surprised to see as it was only on 41 miles and one that I kind of have a connection with. This was
43159, my last GWR one to get when I needed them. I got on board and found a bay of two, where I finished off my lunch as the tram raced through the little Thames Valley shacks (and Didcot). It was an uneventful journey and, unlike the last time I was on 43159's train, we weren't held just before Wooton Basset Junction for 20 minutes. I was certainly glad at this!
Once we got to Temple Meads, I noticed that the tram which would be on the 14:30 to Padd had 43012 at the London End. I noticed that it was now back in FGW blue instead of the foul Bristol European green city livery and that it's had its nameplate put back on. What an improvement! I got a few phots of it and got a close up of the nameplate before turning my attention to 43159 for a few phots of my old last GWR powercar.
43159 and 43012. by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
I then walked along the platform to see what was with 012, slamming doors on 159's set as I went. It was certainly surprising and amusing to see what it was with 43192, another powercar that carried the horrid European Bristol 2015 livery. You may notice that I said carried because, just like 012, it was now back in blue. This left me with just 43126 and 148 to check to see if they were all out of the awful livery. Unlike the other two, neither of these were on Temple Meads station at the time. I didn't bother to check a departure board before wandering over to platform 3 as I knew that 'S51 would leave from that platform. After going for a PNB, I checked the platform PIS to confirm that it was leaving from 3. It was so I wandered towards the end of the platform. I was only stood there for a minute before I saw a brilliant liveried powercar (GWR, please take note before designing another livery for a city) coming round the bend that is platform 3 at Bristol Temple Meads. It was obviously
43366, the rear powercar from earlier.
43285 was now pushing instead of pulling. Only one of the drivers from earlier was now in the cab for some reason but he gave me a wave as 366 passed me. I headed to the leading powercar to say hi again and saw that the second driver from earlier was at the end of the platform waiting to join the other driver from earlier in the cab. I said hi to them both before boarding the coach right behind the front powercar (the one I always go for because it's the least busy one) and, despite boarding last, I still got a very good window view pair of seats on the right to myself. We didn't depart at exactly the same time as the 14:30 Padd like last time(we left first) but I had the thrash from 366 to keep me entertained as we headed out of the nice past of Bristol and through the grotty, violent suburbs of Stapleton Road, Lawrence Hill and Filton Abbey Wood before arriving at Parkway. 43151 was my last 'different' loco sighting of the day as we left Parkway. By different, I mean a loco that I hadn't already seen that day (20205 was still at Tyseley).
I didn't fall asleep this time, unlike the last time I had a solo trip on this service, which made it a fairly dull run but it was nice enough. I did a bit of window hanging for Lickey and decided to stay there until the bat cave. The speed we were doing between Barnt Green and Northfield was brilliant but unfortunately, like most good things, it came to an end rather rapidly. Just before Kings Norton the brakes came on rather harshly and we were doing less than my walking pace through Kings Norton station. As I'm pretty sure I say every time, I hate this part of the journey. Birmingham has got to be one of the only cities to have its local metro services blocking a busy mainline. If it wasn't, or even if the Reddich we were stuck behind was a semi fast (maybe Longbridge, Uni, New Street) then I'd be able to make 'H62. After the usual stagger (running on yellows and reds all the way) to the bat cave, I received a text from dad saying that he and 68013 had left Moor Street right time. 10 seconds later, my tram came to a stand at New Street. After bailing, I headed to 366 to wait for departure but the fact that the driver who was to take 'S51 was nowhere to be seen confused me and the two drivers from Temple Meads. An announcement a couple of minutes later explained why. The 16:12 had to be diverted via Leicester due to 'emergency services dealing with an incident at Tamworth'. This probably meant that the onward driver for 'S51 was suck between Derby and Brum. Now knowing that I couldn't watch it leave, I began the walk up to Corporation Street for Snow Hell and my 16:12 cart to Leam. I only had 9 minutes to get to it when I left New Street so some of the hill had to be ran. I entered the concourse at 16:08, 5 minutes after leaving New Street, and headed over to platform 2 to see which 168 would be taking me home. I wasn't too happy to see the headlight cluster of a 168/0 waiting there and was even less happy to see that it'd be high mileage (over 100)
168003 taking me the 23.25 miles to Leam. I was slightly happier when I saw that I needed all of the coaches on this one so I headed to the very back of the unit and got one of the two bays of 4 that wasn't over the engine. As it was a warm day, dad had text me saying 'no AC on this if that's any condolence'. By 'this', he obviously meant Hairball's set. It would be a good condolence most of the time but not at this particular time. Why? My freaking cart didn't have AC either! I spent some time cooling myself down (by using my trainspotting books as a fan) as I ran from the bat cave before relaxing for the dull joruney home. We left Snow Hell two down.
A normal wedged me out on departure from Moor Street and they were a true pain in the backside all the way to Leam having a non-stop phone conversation until we both left the cart. Inconsiderate so and so...
Dad was waiting on the platform so I headed over to him and informed him of how the day had gone as we took the short 10-minute walk to the car and piled into it for the drive home. Overall, I think it was a very fun day and a bit more tram mileage is always a good thing!
Eight and nine by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Eight and nine by fishquinn1, on Flickr
The view from Kings Cross 1st class lounge by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Northern tram by fishquinn1, on Flickr
The curly cable by fishquinn1, on Flickr
EDs in the highlands by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Past and present by fishquinn1, on Flickr
87002 at Euston by fishquinn1, on Flickr
! Bombs 205 and 189 were in Tyseley, which Nat was happy about as he needed 205, and 68011 was on 1H15. Because 47773 was viewable in Tyseley, the loco count was 4 before Moor Street!
