FQ's trips around the globe

[Dhassell]

 

[FQ]

*Screams*

Sounded like a good couple days, did you manage to get to spot any of the 387s at North Pole?

Yep, I saw 4 of them at North Pole but could only ID 3 (annoyingly the one that we couldn't ID looked like winner for sight 136 but we couldn't be sure).

Eavis haunts us all - even in this thread...

Some great trips there, Lord Fishquinn

Thanks HMS!

Wow, what shop were the pies from? I need to invest in some of those!

And wow, the Nene Valley diesel gala sounded like fun. I've become a 26 fan this year too And you got a Deltic a 45 and a Grid, which I need all haulage on!

They were from Sweeney and Todd pie shop - http://www.sweeneyandtodd.co.uk
It's certainly well worth a visit!

The NVR was certainly a fun day and 26s are most certainly hellfire!



Midlands mayhem

After our trip to London on the 9th of July, Cactustwirly, Nat and I had arranged to meet again on Saturday the 29th of October, but this time in Brum. It had taken a while to arrange but we eventually found a date that we could all do, leaving me to make a plan. It was only a few days before the trip that I found out that Cactus would be getting to Leam an hour before I thought he would! This was good news for me as it meant that we had an extra hour to play with and that we'd be getting the 08:23. Crazy/poor Cactus would be arriving at 08:13 (or some time after that due to the inevitable delay) from Reading. OK then - crazy!

On the Friday, I got to bed at 22:30 for an 07:00 alarm and got to sleep a while later. I had a dire kip and decided to get up at 06:30 instead of waste time trying to get back to sleep. I spent a bit of time on the forum before having to head off for Leam at 07:54, mum taking me this morning. Nat was picked up en route and we were soon battling the streets of Leam (we won) before getting to the station at 08:13.

Cactus' UHT was, as always, running late (but only by 3 minutes today) so we got onto the platform as his service was arriving (note how I didn't say train, but service is stretching it too). We didn't have any problem getting through the barriers as I explained that I'd get the ticket on the train (Leam ticket office can't issue it) and, as I know the barrier guy, there was no problem. We met up with Cactus and only had a few minutes to wait before our first train, double stalker 168005 and 168214. The guard was in the cab of 214 in the middle of the train so we went to him and asked if we could buy our family daytripper plus on the train. He said that he couldn't issue daytrippers on the train but said to get on and buy them at Dorridge, which we said was our destination. A decent bay of 4 was found just behind 168214's cab (as usual) and we relaxed for the journey to Dorridge.

When we got off the 168s, the guard told us that he'd looked for the daytripper but could only find the basic adult one for £6.70. We thanked him and walked over to the ticket office where, after a few minutes, we had a family daytripper plus. I got both mine and Cactus's share because I owed him £5 anyway as he got my dinner at the Merseyside challenge.

The reason we bailed at Dorridge was so Cactus could get his first Chiltern 165 forward to Moor Street, which arrived after 10 minutes of waiting with 165002 providing the traction. We went for one of the bays of 4 in the very rear of the unit for the ride through to Moor Street, seeing 37219 in Tyseley depot as we passed.

From Moor Street, we took the walk across to Bull Street tram stop, getting lunch on route. I got a £3 meal deal from Tesco, Cactus going to Boots, emerging with a sarnie that cost the same amount as my sarnie, crisps and drink! We then continued to Bull Street, getting there just before 34 on a Wolverhampton. We took this one stop to Snow Hell, getting there a minute before 18 departed towards New Street. We noticed that the next tram was a mere minute behind and saw that it was arriving at Bull Street just after we left. Because of this, we bailed at Corporation Street for the following tram, 23, to New Street. I was happy to get this on as it's my favourite.

Once at New Street, I decided that it was brekky time. There's a Tesco Metro just next to the station so I got two croissants there for £1 before making my way outside again. A beggar came up to me and asked me for some change. Had he not stunk of beer and had a can of it in his hand then I'd have given him some! He started to argue so we just wandered off back to the tram stop, getting there in time for 23 back out. We were thinking of heading to The Hawthorns but decided with Jewellery Quarter because Cactus needed a PNB.

When we got there, we changed over to the heavy rail platforms and got on board 172345 on the 3-late 09:55 to Stourbridge. We got in my last required coach in this unit and changed it to superdud en route. It was an incredibly rattily unit but Nat was happy as he scored his last Midland Metro tram for sight, 17, at Soho Benson Road. I'd scored it for sight and haulage a week or two previously. It was very vibratey (is that a word?) and stopped everywhere so we were glad to get off at Stoubridge Junction a while later.

We'd just missed a PPM so had a few minutes to wait. The shed where the other one is stored strangely had its door open so we saw both when 139001 arrived and bounced us to the town and back. This was Cactus's first 139 and he'd apparently prefer a 142 for the 5-minute journey! Crazy or what?

From the junction we were to be on the 10:47 Dorridge that was running a few minutes late. This was superdud pair 172221 and 172213, which we'd seen at Dorridge earlier in the day. A bay of 4 was got at the very front of the 4-car set and we were soon moving, stopping only at Cradley Heath (where it got very busy) and Rowley Regis before alighting at Smethwick Galton Bridge, where we bailed, heading to the New Street bound platform and making 323243 a superdud on the way to the bat cave.

We got to New Street 10 minutes ahead of our plan, which had us starting later than we did and getting the ATW from Galton Bridge to New Street, so we could get the 11:25 to Blake Street for a liniar hop onto the Lichfield City behind to the end and then straight back. Our plan had us on the 11:35 from New Street to Lichfield and back to Blake Street for the following one through to Brum so we'd still be ahead of plan.

323210 was on the 11:25 so we got on board for the long slog up the line to shack score 1, Blake Street, stopping everywhere en route. We had an 8-minute fester here before the following starship, 323213 arrived and carried us non-stop to shack score 2, Lichfield City. A coach change was had here to superdud 213 on the next run, all the way to New Street. It wasn't too bad as we ere non stop from Sutton Coldfield, making it a fairly fun run from there to the bat cave, where we arrived a couple of minutes early.

We had just over an hour before our next planned move so decided to go for an International leap. We didn't think that the 12:50 Euston would be made so aimed for the '54, but found out that we could make the '50 when we got to the footbridge. It was a run over to 390129 and we got on board, standing in a vestibule for the journey up to Birmingham International, arriving on time.

I'd checked RTT to see what the next VT back to New Street would be and found out that it was a pendo. This meant that we had time to do a quick return on the airport shuttle thing before going back to the station concourse to find that our wanted pendo was vice! Alright, change of plan. We wandered over to the starship that was waiting to work the New Street shuttle and spread ourselves over several seats in the very empty 323214 for the ride back to the bat cave. We were a few minutes late leaving International due to the late running UHT being put in front of us but were soon underway.

The starship filled up considerably en route, including someone who was listening to music with headphones that were leaking so much that it sounded like he didn't have them plugged in! Anyway, the journey went smoothly and we were soon arriving at New Street, with 20 minutes until our next train, this time leaving from Moor Street.

As we wandered over to Moor Street, noticing that Cadbury (I know: you can't get more tacky if you tried) were giving out free milk bars with a sprinkling of Cocoa (note how I didn't say chocolate - It needs to have more cocoa to classify as chocolate), so we went to get one each before continuing our walk to Moor Street. Our next move was the 13:55 to Leam, a cat, and I knew that it was either Hairball or Gingertom. I was very much hoping for the latter so was annoyed when I saw that 68013 would be taking us to Leam. This was Cactus's first cat and he was more impressed with the interior than he thought he'd be (Cactus hates the original seats). We got on board in the rear coach, as usual, and were soon thrashing towards Leam.

Hairball performed perfectly and we were soon changing platforms at Leamington for the 14:25 back to Brum. 168001 was in charge today and I scored a winner coach in it on the ride back through to Moor Street, arriving on time.

Our plan now had us on the 15:12 from New Street to Cannock so we decided to go for that, walking from Moor Street to New Street after arrival. We got another Cadbury bar each from just outside the station and started eating it when we noticed that there was another one in the station itself so we pocketed the one that we'd just got and went to get another. It was then through the barriers and down onto platform level for a wait until our Rugeley unit, which was running a couple of minutes late and arrived from the Aston direction with single 170517. We got two bays of 4 at the very front, not over the engine, and relaxed for the journey out via Soho before joining on with the other line at Perry Barr North Junction. A stop at Tame Bridge was had before moving forward again, with pens at the ready for Bescot, identifying quite a bit of what was in there (which wasn't really much). Another stop was had at Walsall before we ran non-stop through to Cannock, shack score 3. We had just over 10 minutes to do the fairly easy platform change here so we spent a couple of minutes playing with the TVM to see what the maximum priced ticket for 1 adult was (an anytime return in 1st class to Wick for £660) and then moving down the platform and looking at the map while waiting for the 16:00 to New Street, which arrived with 170631. Seats were found up front again on this one and it was an alright journey back to Brum, this time going via Aston.

As we arrived at New Street, we came alongside the pair of 158s about to Work to Birmingham International and I immediately recognized the unit leading them. It was my last required ATW 158 and the last I head of it was it being transported by a lorry through somewhere on the Cambrian Coast. I decided to intercept it on its way back in (as it'd left pretty much the moment after I'd identified it) so we wandered over to the 16:50 Euston, giving a deja vu moment as it was the same pendo that we'd had earlier, 390129. We got seats this time, in another of my winner coaches, and we were soon heading towards Birmingham International, getting there right time just like earlier. I was very happy to see that my required 158 was sitting in the platform next to us so we wandered over and got a seat in dud 158840 (as it was emptier), with winner and last ATW 158 158818 powering from behind. Job done!

When we got back to New Street on this one, Nat wanted to see if the Cadbury stands were still there. It was 17:25 so I didn't think that they would be but we checked anyway and, as expected, they weren't. We had half an hour before booked departure of our train back to Leamington (which would be Cactus's through to Banbury) so we went to check if the Ian Allen shop was still open but, alas, it wasn't so we decided to wander across to Moor Street via Poundland for a drink. Poundland do a 'two drinks for a pound offer', or one drink for a pound so, as Cactus and I both only wanted one drink, we put them together to save a quid. Nat got a carton of milkshake, also costing a pound, and we were soon on our way across to Moor Street.

I'd forgotten that the 17:55 was a pair of 170s - today being formed of dud for 100 168322 and brand new for Chiltern 168323, which is the first time that I'd seen it in service. We got seats in the latter (because it had two required coaches for me compared to the front one's 0) and tried to relax on the busy service through to Leamington, me suggesting that a normal who boarded in the set of doors next to us and stood after seeing no free seats in the coach go to the front unit, which would probably have free seats. We had a bay of 4 so it didn't matter to us and we were soon on the way to Leamington.

Once at Leamington, we said bye to Cactus and left him to the 170s (and eventually 165s) as we headed over to platform 2. Eh? Why another train? Nat's dad would be picking us up this eve' and Nat spoke to him on the journey to say that he was running about 25 minutes late, giving us time to get to Warwick Parkway and back. We wouldn't have bothered if it had been carts but, when 68013 is the potential traction, it's hard to say no. We got the closest possible seats to the loco for the short hop and the cat thrash was excellent, especially as it left Warwick Parkway and thrashed off into the night (well, evening. It was only 18:30).

A platform change was had now and it was only a couple more minutes before 168004 arrived. A poor bay of 4 in the middle was sourced for the ride back. Why did we get this one coach? I prefer to get the middle coaches on shorter hops due to them being rattily, awful things so, this qualified as a short hop to get a winner coach in the book on the ride back to Leamington, getting there on time at 18:45. We then walked out to the station front, to see Nat's dad there (he'd only been waiting for a couple of minutes).

The drive home included a petrol stop and I eventually got back at about 19:15, to have a bit of dinner to finish off an excellent day. Thanks to Cactus for coming along!

 

[Kite159]

Sounded like a good day in the West Midlands

 

[Cowley]

That was a lot of reading! I think I'd missed some of your posts (looks at time in horror).
Ok I've obviously missed something, what is the Michael Eavis thing about then?
Oh and what bashing age does your dad belong too?

 

[Dhassell]

*Screams*


Yep, I saw 4 of them at North Pole but could only ID 3 (annoyingly the one that we couldn't ID looked like winner for sight 136 but we couldn't be sure

if it helps, Saturday 387134,133,132 and 137 where visible in North Pole!

 

[55013]

Those pies look very nice.
I might have to pay a visit to that establishment next time I'm in Reading

Looks like a good day at the NVR.
I didn't make it for this gala, but I try to go at least once a year - they always put on a good show.

 

[FQ]

Sounded like a good day in the West Midlands

It most certainly was!

That was a lot of reading! I think I'd missed some of your posts (looks at time in horror).
Ok I've obviously missed something, what is the Michael Eavis thing about then?
Oh and what bashing age does your dad belong too?

I don't blame you, that's for sure. That late and that many reports would be enough to drive any sane person mad! The Michael Eavis thing was because 43026, a powercar that has 'Michael Eavis' nameplates stalks me.

Dad's era was late '70s to present (although not so much now due to the amount of units).

if it helps, Saturday 387134,133,132 and 137 where visible in North Pole!

Cheers! Alas this was about a month ago so so it will have changed around by now. I'll get them soon though!

Those pies look very nice.
I might have to pay a visit to that establishment next time I'm in Reading

Looks like a good day at the NVR.
I didn't make it for this gala, but I try to go at least once a year - they always put on a good show.

They most certainly are!

The NVR has done a great job on both galas this year, especially with the sulzers!





We didn't start the fire

Another Billy Joel song, this time his well known 'We didn't start the fire'. It was November the 5th, bonfire night, that Nat and I headed to Sheffield. It wasn't a randomly picked date for Sheffield - it was because of the Bromsgrove engineering works. What about them? The line through Bromsgrove was completely shut for resignalling. This extended through past Ashchurch so the diversionary route via Kidderminster and Worcester couldn't be used, meaning that, on the weekend of the 5th and 6th of November, buses were replacing all trains between Brum and Cheltenham. This still doesn't explain why we were going to Sheffield, does it. Well, because of this, Cross Country were operating revised HST diagrams, including a set heading north from Birmingham to Edinburgh at 09:03 and back from Edinburgh to Birmingham, leaving the Scottish capital at 15:08. It's normally not possible to get an XC tram north in the morning and south in the evening so we were most certainly taking this opportunity to get to Sheffield in style!

The hauled services were the 09:03 from New Street and the 18:58 back, so it'd be a start on the 07:21 and a finish on either the 20:15 or 20:45 from Moor Street, depending on if a fairly tight connection was made across the Brum stations. Nat's dad very kindly decided to pay for this one instead of taking us on it, seeing it as an opportunity to avoid the trip, and dad (who would have really liked to come) was unfortunately working nights so would need some rest instead. Roversfan2001 was to join us for the trams around Sheffield too though, so it'd be a rather sociable day, with some tram mileage thrown in too!

For the first time in ages, I went for a sleepover at Nathan's on the Friday night, having a place on the floor for the night. It was comfy enough but I got very little sleep (probably due to excitement more than anything else), but I had the odd sound of trucks passing to listen too throughout the night. Why's that odd? I don't live near roads with trucks on them so I very rarely hear them from a house, especially in the middle of the night.

I gave up the chance of sleep at about 05:20 and got my I-pod out to play some ELO before it was time to wake Nat and head downstairs - at 06:15. I did so and I just got moaned at, saying that he didn't need to be up yet. I headed downstairs anyway and Nat eventually made an appearance just after 06:30. He then proceeded to get ready and made himself a bowl of cereal at the time we should have left! Both Nat's dad and I were waiting for him to finish up and we eventually left at a stomach tightening time of 07:00. Our train was booked to leave in 21 minutes and we still hadn't bought tickets!

No problems were encountered on the way to Leam and we thankfully had fairly good traffic, so we were soon pulling into the station car park at just before 07:15. We thanked Nat's dad for taking us and headed off to the ticket office, getting returns to Burton-on-Trent, before going to the platform and into the warm waiting room (you'd like of expect to see ice statues on the platform at this time on a November morning). Our car was delayed by a few minutes, the reasoning simple. The Manchester UHT! It was running late and was now expected out at exactly the same time as ours was due out so we had to wait for the awful thing to clear the platform before our unit could get in. Waiting down at the two car stop board for it, 168329 was soon arriving.
Two car 170 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I was certainly glad about it not being 322, more so as I knew that 329 would be cleared for 100 en route, but its a shame it wasn't slightly lower mileage and cleared further en route than between Warwick and Warwick Parkway! This didn't matter though, as cleared is cleared, and we were soon heading towards Brum on this very lightly loaded service.

Both Nat and I were amazed at how quickly the doors were done, unlocked for the space of seconds at most stops, giving us dwell times well under a minute. Because of this amazing speed, we were arriving early at Solihull, instead of being 4 late, like we were out of Leam! The journey went smoothly and we were soon passing dad at Bordesley Junction/Lucky Bridge. Eh? What do I mean? Dad had had a night shift down in Birmingham and had gone down by cat, also coming back by cat, 68011 carrying him home this morning. Certainly more stylish than our train from Leam to Brum, that's for sure!

Our first port of call when getting to Moor Street, was to walk across to New Street (via Tesco so I could get some lunch for later) and check if the inbound working was indeed a tram as expected. I was very worried that it wouldn't be but when we got to platform level at New Street, on the platform it was due to arrive on, all we could hear was the distinctive tram wheel flanges as it goes around a corner. Thank god! Sure enough, it was 43378 up front arriving (so rear departing) and, as this is one that I need a photo of (I've very recently decided that I want to get a photo of each tram powercar before they go), we wandered up and got a few. I decided to ask the driver if he knew if the set would be forming the 09:03 and he confirmed that it was. Brilliant!
HST to the north by fishquinn1, on Flickr

We left the station in hunt for brekky, getting a text from Roversfan to say that he wouldn't be joining us, unfortunately, because he'd lost his wallet. Blast. Anyway, we headed to the same Tesco that I'd gone to the week before. I noticed that what was once meal deal has now been re-branded too, a ban now most certainly in place. I headed into Tesco and came out with 6 croissants for £1 before walking back down to New Street. We wanted to try and get our Derbyshire Wayfarer ranger, the ticket that'd cover us from Burton to Sheffield, here so we didn't need to faff around with getting it on the train, but they said that they couldn't issue it so we decided to just head for the tram set and get some seats. 43304 was up front but we got a bay of 4 fairly close to 43378 at the back and chilled out, waiting for departure. Every seat said 'available' but the guard announced that he was about to load the reservations while we waited. Luckily, we were safe as all but one of our seats were reserved from Leeds, the remaining one being reserved from Chesterfield (so we could window hang if the person holding the reservation came along).

Some decent thrash as we headed north out of New Street, pens at the ready for the multitude of depots coming out this way. Lawley Street was first, only seeing two gherkins in there, then Washwood Heath, where two gronks and a grid were spotted. A donut and a few Eurostar coaches were seen at Kingsbury, with all of the usual stuff at Nemesis. 31452 was then spotted at Derby before continuing up to Sheffield, seeing a combo of 4 red deaths around Chesterfield.

We'd spoken to the guard before departure from New Street to ask for the ticket and, when he heard which one we wanted when doing the ticket check between New Street and Burton, he said that he'd be back after doing the check to issue it. He came back to us between Derby and Chesterfield and issued us one adult one before moving on. As Nat's now over 16, we needed an adult one, which is exactly the same price as two child ones. Here's the good bit though. One adult Derbyshire Wayfarer includes one child or dog (no, I'm not the dog) so we were just paying the price for two child ones anyway!

Nat and I decided to do some window hanging from Dronfield to Sheffield, even though the person that had reserved the seat from Chesterfield didn't appear. It was a good, cold thrash along the line and we were soon going through the Sheffield tunnels and arriving at the station. We bailed and watched the tram set leave, knowing that we had until it got to Edinburgh and back down to Sheffield to play on the trams so we headed for the tram platforms.

The first tram was apparently in 4 minutes, but we could already see the Malin Bridge service approaching. I'd only had three supertrams before, so was expecting a winner, and got one as it was winner 115 that took us along the winner track to the terminus. Technically it wasn't all winner track as I'd had the bit between this station and the triangle towards Meadowhall (getting the PSUL bit of it) but it was winner track after there all the way to shack score 1, Malin Bridge. I quickly hopped off for a photo of the tram while it changed directions and then powered us back out to shack score 2, Bamforth Road.
Supertram 115 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
We bailed here because we'd have the same fester here as we would at Hillsborough for a Middlewood tram, which arrived at Bamforth Road with winner 122.
Tram 122 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
This was taken though to its terminus, winner track after Hillsborough, and a winner shack at Middlewood. The traffic was hell between Hillsborough Park and Leppings Lane, taking ages to go between the two.

At Middlewood, we obviously had a change of direction but stayed on 122 for the ride out to Hillsborough, shack score 4. The plan was to visit a large Costa with entrance off the tram platform here but plans changed when we saw that there was a winner tram coming off the Malin Bridge branch right behind us so winner 112 was taken to shack score 5, Langsett/Primrose View. We had a shortish fester here before winner 123 was taken through the awful traffic once again to shack score 6, Leppings Lane. We saw another Costa here so went to go to it but it had such a large queue that we flagged it, just going for a PNB instead (I would've got something if it were a private establishment but, as it's Costa, who take my money frequently anyway, we didn't). We did a liniar leap from Leppings Lane, festering for about 10 minutes on the platform due to the awful traffic before winner 107 arrived to take us back through to Middlewood and out to shack score 7, Hillsborough Park.
Hillsborough Park by fishquinn1, on Flickr
We noticed another tram waiting for us to clear the single platform at Middlewood so decided to use this as a liniar leap, even if it was dud 101 that took us out to winner shack, Infirmary Road. It was now simply a case of getting the shacks between the city centre and Malin Bridge/Middlewood! Winner 119 took us from Infirmary Road to Shalesmoor (shack score 9), where winner 124 took us on a liniar hop to University of Sheffield. We had a quick dash across to the other platform here for dud for the day 115 through to Netherthorpe Road, an island platform, before winner 120 came along.
White tram in Sheffield by fishquinn1, on Flickr
White tram in Sheffield by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I had received a couple of texts while getting photos of this tram but I wrote down the tram number and a couple of recent moves that I hadn't yet seen before checking them, but my phone rang before I did. I was very surprised to see that it was Yorkie, who was at Sheffield tram stop with 3 other people! I didn't even tell him that I was in Sheffield so was very surprised but we agreed to meet up on a Meadowhall bound tram so 120 was taken through to shack score 12, Fitzalan Square. There's strangely no PIS here so we decided to make a dash up to Castle Square, one stop up the high street and only a few chains from Fitzalan Square, to find that the next Meadowhall wasn't for a while and that the next tram was a couple of minutes away. Because of this, I headed to the next stop up the line solo (Nat didn't want to), which was shack score 13, Cathedral. Winner 111 was taken back down to Fitzalan Square, Nat joining me at Castle Square. I had time to get back up to Castle Square, making it shack score 14, before the Meadowhall tram, which was an absolutely heaving winner 121. Nat just managed to get on at Fitzalan Square and I called Yorkie, who was at the next shack along the line now, to say how busy it was and, as the next one was only a minute or two away, we decided to bail at shack score 15, Hyde Park (no, I'm not in London).

We met up with Yorkie and the others, and found out that the reason he knew where we were was because Roversfan had said on the forum. We had a good time, getting dud 122 straight through to the dud shack of Meadowhall (seeing many 399s on the way), where the others headed off for a bus and we headed back to the trams, getting dud 121 down to Valley Centertainment (why not entertainment?), for winner 114 up to Meadowhall South/Tinsley and then winner 113 back through to Woodbourn Road. Winner 109 took us through to Carbrook, for dud 123 out to Attercliffe, where dud 124 took us to Arena.
Woodbourn Road by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Next up was dud 104 to Cricket Inn Road, where we had a short fester with a ridiculous PIS that thought the next tram was in 25 minutes. Dud 101 took us to Nunnery Square (shack score 23), clearing the Meadowhall branch. We tried to get a better viewing spot of the 399s but couldn't get the number of one of them. There we 6 there and we managed to ID the other one later, after finding out that only 201 to 206 had been delivered, and that 207 would be coming in the next month or so.

From Nunnery Square, 124 appeared once again to take us through to Castle Square, where a liniar leap was had onto 112 through to another shack score at City Hall. A liniar leap was had here, onto winner 116 through to West Street, clearing the Middlewood and Malin Bridge branches, and clearing the yellow line!

There were staggered platforms here but we got onto the other platform in time for 123 out to Cathedral, where we noticed a winner arriving at the same time as us on the other platform, so we ran over to 106, which was taken out to City Hall. Another score was had back from here, with 108 being the tram. The guard on this tram was an enthusiast himself and was really soche, so we had a chat with him as we headed away from the city centre. He let us know that a football special would be coming out in the evening, meaning that all trams would be out, so we decided to try and cover it. He knew a certain tram from a distance too, due to a difference between it and the others. This was tram 118 - another required one not just for haulage, but sight! It was my last one of the trams, with just one un-delivered 399 left to get! I was really happy as we trundled along towards Halfway, deciding to bail at shack score at Spring Lane, shack score 26, due to a short fester before the next one towards the city. This was a good move as it was winner 110 that took us back through to Park Grange, where dud 112 took us out to the weird name of Manor top Elm tree. Dad was called after we crossed the busy road to get to the other tram platform and dud 120 took us back to another winner shack, Arborthorne Road. It was now a winner tram that we'd seen on the Herdings Park line and had been tracking, 105, through to shack score 30, Park Grange Croft.

I now needed a PNB so we headed back to the station from here, 111 taking us there and we annoyingly passed tram 118 between Granville Road and Sheffield station. This was good news and bad news, the good being that I knew another winner was following it, the bad being that it would have to get to Halfway and back before we could get it. I did a quick run to the toilet and got back onto the platform in time for winner 125[/B, which was taken all the way to Donetsk Way, shack score 31. Dud 106 now took us back to Birley Lane (another shack score), where dud 110 was had through to shack score 33, Birley Moor Road. We knew that the next one back would be 118 and, sure enough, it was winner 118 that took us back towards the city, dropping us off at shack score 34, and my last one of the day, Hollinsend.
Arriving at Birley Moor Road by fishquinn1, on Flickr
A liniar leap had here, with a small fester, and dud 125 was soon taking us back along the line to Castle Square, me now only needing two of the original trams, neither of which we'd seen out yet today (and one of which was Nat's last required one for sight).

It was now dinner time so we went in hunt for a chippy but, when we couldn't find one, headed to an outside newsagent kiosk thing to ask if they knew where a nearby one was. She gave us directions and we found the chippy but it was closed! As a backup move, Greggs was chosen and dinner for me went to two chicken bakes, a bit of tomato soup (which was only 70p more) and a triple choccy muffin. Nat went for four saussie rolls and we headed out, now trying to decide a place to eat them. We decided to eat on the move, and headed down to Fitzalan Square for dud 107 through to City Hall, a shack with staggered platforms. We waited, and waited and waited for a tram and, after about 10 minutes started to get impatient. Finally, after about 15 minutes, a tram arrived but you couldn't really fit any more people on if you tried. The next one was the same but the third one, dud 125, had standing space. It also had a group of youthes talking about killing the passengers on the tram, inflicting pain and yelling. A lovely group of people!

I'd eaten most of my dinner while waiting at City Hall, and had little left when we got off 125 at Castle Square, having seen my penultimate tram for haulage (unfortunately not Nat's winner) arrive at Cathedral from Herdings Park and get ready to form a service back. A very short wait was had before winner 102 arrived, leaving me with tram 117 to locate, and took us through to Sheffield station where a platform change was had, watching some fireworks in the night as we waited for dud 112 to take us through to Castle Square, in the hope of seeing 117. Alas we didn't but we did manage to get dud 103 back to Sheffield station on a Herdings Park. Why did I mention this? Apart from 117, it was the only one of the trams that we hadn't yet had that day so we had all of the ones that we'd seen in service! Score!

Back at Sheffield station, we headed to a departure board to find that our tram back was running about 15 late. I checked RTT and saw that it had been running perfectly fine up to Leeds, where it arrived on time, before leaving 16 late. We headed to the waiting room and Nat ate his lunch as we waited, keeping an eye on our service as it progressed towards Sheffield.

We headed to the platform that it was due out of about 10, 15 minutes before it was now scheduled to leave and got caught off guard by an EMT tram arriving. I ran down to the front powercar to identify it and lots of swearing under my breath was done when I saw that it was my only required EMT powercar, 43045. I was, understandably, pretty ticked off, but still get a photo as it was needed, before wandering down to see the rear powercar - 43075. Nat actually tried to make me less of an annoyed git by saying that it was only two digits off one of his requirements. That's just like it being 100 digits! It doesn't matter - it isn't required for you!
43045 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
43075 by fishquinn1, on Flickr

Annoyance over, I stood next to 075 while waiting for our tram set. It was delayed just outside Meadowhall, first by a Notty 158 and then by a Mancc 185 before it was allowed to enter and we were both relieved to see that there hadn't been a set swap at Edinburgh and it was still a tram, 43378 and 43304 obviously being our powercars for the journey home.

We found a bay of 4 in the front coach and it was a pleasant enough ride back through the night, getting fireworks shows as we left Sheffield, around Chesterfield, Derby, Tamworth and loads and loads of them in Brum. At Chesterfield, a horn alerted us to the passing of a 66, which Nat got annoyed at as it was one off his penultimate one for sight. We continued, me doing a little windowhanging on the approach to Derby, and I saw a donut on a tank train come through while we were arriving. Dad was called and wished luck on his next night shift as we watched three different, amazing fireworks displays as we left. Burton was our next stop and, from there, it was a race through Tamworth towards Birmingham, seeing another donut in Kingsbury.

We were stopped just outside the New Street tunnels for about 5 minutes, seeing loads and loads of firework displays, including one in a grassy patch next to the railway line, with a few that went wrong. Dad had said that he had entertainment all night from them too, with locals setting them up and diving for cover when they went wrong and exploded on the floor . Anyway, we were soon moving towards New Street again, getting there at 20:29, the 20:15 from Moor Street well and truly missed.

We took the very familiar walk across to Moor Street for the 20:45, and easily got the best seats that 168111 has to offer at the back of the unit. Nat called his dad, who was also picking us up, and we chilled out for the journey back to Leamington, including a very large brake application around Hatton taking us to a stop. We were on the move a couple of minutes later though so it was nothing to worry about and we were soon at Leamington after the end of a brilliant day!







And one from only 11 days ago!!!



The meeting of your masters...

*Imagines evil laugh*. No, not your masters, don't worry! Saturday the 12th of November was the date of the quizmaster meet in Nottingham, on which I was going to get a 222 for the first time. The reason I lifted my ban on them was because of a discussion with dad about a backup plan if Sheffield went wrong, which was 222s. They just sent trams to other areas of the network and didn't take them all from the Midland Mainline, and people have said that they are amazing compared to Voyagers, so I decided to give them a go. What did I think? Wait and see (or don't if you've already read my post that I put about them).

I was solo until Notty for this trip (obviously), so no Nathan. My alarm was set for 06:20 but I was up before then due to a bad night sleep so went onto the computer for a bit. I was on the 07:21 again this morning so got ready and had a bit to check the forum before going to the other boat to confirm that one of my folks had got up. Dad was taking me this morning and we set off just after 06:50 for the usual drive to the station, getting there just after 07:00. I said bye to dad as usual and made my way to the ticket office, getting my ticket to Notty before going to platform 2 and waiting in the waiting room. Just like last Saturday, the 07:21 was delayed by a few minutes due to the Mancheter unspeakably horrible thing, which was soon arriving. Quick, look away (no, I don't mean the song by Big Country)! Once that awful thing had left the station, I left the waiting room and went to get ready to board my service. I was horrified when I saw what was approaching on the 07:21 though. I'd set myself up for a 170 but this? I would've preferred a 165 to the awful, tatty 172103! The seat covers were torn inside and, even though it wasn't busy, it most certainly wasn't a pleasant journey. It was rattily and the seats were hard and old, helping to make it an awful start to the trip. I was rattled to Moor Street and was certainly glad to get off and head to New Street, even though my next train was a long journey on an XC 170.
Heading for Plymouth by fishquinn1, on Flickr
When I got to New Street, it was straight over to the platform that 1V44 was due to leave from to get some early morning tram thrash before heading over to the cart, the 08:22 to Stansted Airport. I was annoyed to see 170522 waiting there for a few reasons. Number 1 was that it was a 2 car 170. Number 2 was that it was dud and number 3 that I'd only been from New Street to Leicester (or vice versa) 3 times before this run and two of them had been this one!

I got a right hand side bay of 4 and someone sat opposite me on departure from the bat cave. On the way, I got to see 47749 at Washwood Heath and I also got to see one of the new, paper tickets be issued to someone. Holy moly - they're huge! I most certainly don't want one of those from an onboard guard! I think I know the reason that they're introducing them too - to stop people from paying on board . It'd work!

We were soon joining the Midland Mainline, 43058 being my first EMT tram sighting of the day as it headed towards London. When we arrived at Leicester, I bailed and got a photo of the 170, before seeing that the RHTT was sat just outside of the yard. Because of this, I went out into the rain, over the footbridge and down onto the other platform to get a photo of that, with a few of the many locos at Leicester in the photo too.
Airport bound by fishquinn1, on Flickr
RHTT season by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I then crossed back over and got a seat to wait for my tram to Nottingham - the 09:25. I'd asked for gen on 43045 to see if I could get it today and had got a reply (with thanks to 87019Chris, especially as he got up early to check for me) but it wasn't good news as it wasn't out today. Another day that that annoying powercar escapes me! I wasn't surprised to see that it was a pair of duds, but a pair of duds for the year was kind of extracting the urine because I'd only had 8 of them for the year! Not only that, but the rear powercar was one of the very few EMT ones that I'd cleared for 100! Darn it! The noise from 43064 and 43076 made up for it though, oh my life is that hellfire! 064 passed the hundred-mile barrier en route too.

I was a bit ticked off to have most of Leicester yard obscured by a passing tram but I did manage to identify a few things, including 50008, 47843 (crikey), 43847 (crikey) and 56006. Don't get me wrong (no, I don't mean the song by The Pretenders), I think logs and grids are excellent too, but not as good as brush!

I didn't take a seat for the whole journey, instead going for maximum VP185 thrash from the vestibule window. I knew that I needed both powercars for photos so, as I didn't have too long at Notty before my 222 to Beeston and I still needed my Notty Kangaroo, I moved forward to the very front coach (1st class) and went right behind the loco. This was at Beeston by the way, so I wasn't in 1st for very long and, as I was right behind the loco, the noise was brilliant. As we were arriving at Notty, I noticed a donut approaching on a tank train so I quickly got my camera out and got a couple of photos of it.
60059 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
60059 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I then bailed and headed to 43064, just managing to get a photo before my camera battery died! Oh for goodness sake! Why?
43064 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
This meant that I couldn't get another photo of the donut or even one of 43076 so I was pretty annoyed but still wandered down to the donut and watched it thrash off. I found out later that I was actually stood right next to rg177 at that point!

I decided to head to the NET TVMs to get my ticket, finding out that its changed name and is now the 'Robin Hood day ticket'. With that in hand, I headed down the stairs back to the main station, walked over to my next unit, and took a deep breath before stepping onto 222018.

I had boarded in the very rear coach and easily found a bay of four and my first impression was that they're quite nice units, although the engine is loud and the floor vibrates even when stationary. I got a seat and waited for departure, an old man coming into our coach and announcing that a 10 year old had just been hit by a train at Beeston. Nope, that never happened.

I was only one for one stop but the engine noise was absolutely awful, and vibrations very bad when we accelerated. It also kind of many me feel slightly queasy for some reason. I alighted at shack score 1, Beeston, and got ready to take the walk over to Beeston Centre tram stop, which I'd done a couple of times on Google Maps so knew where I was going, but thought that I hadn't seen the 222 that is meant to be a -2 at Beeston so quickly popped down onto the other platform to see if it was running late or something. It was, by 5 minutes, so I waited for it and scored another 222 in the form of 222023 back to Notty, getting a seat on this busy service.

Once back at Nottingham, I realized that the tram I'd been on from Leicester would be heading back in a few minutes so I decided to take it out to East Midlands Parkway for the other one back in so I rejoined 43076 and 43064 for the ride out to East Mids Parkway, where I had a very tight connection, but made it onto duds 43073 and 43043. I hadn't had a chance to check either tram powercar before boarding so I decided to walk through to 1st class on this set so I could see which powercar was at the back (043), due to the number being written on the powercar, which is viewable from 1st class. The front one had to wait until Nottingham and, when I found out that it was 073, I had to call Nat to say, it being one of his last two required EMT ones. I know - mean . I needed 073 for a photo so sorely hoped that being off for an hour will have got a little charge into it or something so I tried to get a phot... and succeeded! It then died though and stayed dead for the rest of the day, until I got home and charged it.
43073 by fishquinn1, on Flickr

I checked when the next tram towards Toton was and, after finding that it was in about 7 minutes, decided to go for the 222 out to Beeston, so dud (and now favourite 222), 222023 was boarded and taken out to Beeston, standing in the 1st class coach to get that out of the way on a short leap. I was soon back at Beeston, where the 222 back to Nottingham was, once again, late so I decided to get this once again, 222016 falling into the book on the way back to Nottingham.

The others had now also arrived, so I text Yorkie to ask where he was an then headed to the group, composed of Yorkie, Mojo, Ainsworth74 and the 4 QMs (myself included). It was now time to decide where to head first. We headed to the tram platforms and got the first available one, which was approaching as we got there, 230. This was heading to Clifton and we all got on board and soon moved through to Clifton South, 230 passing the 10 mile barrier on the way. Yorkie now wanted to get a bus back to the city centre and, while I'm anti bus at every available opportunity, I went with it, as did Ainsworth and Class172, who are also anti bus. We headed to the bus stop and, as we were walking there, we saw one was arriving. We sprinted for it and all managed to get on as the driver saw us coming. It was a double decker but, alas, the front seats were taken so we sat further back on the top deck for the dull ride back to the city centre.

It was now time to do a Greggs raid after meeting up with BB21, who had met us off the bus. At Greggs, I went for two saussie rolls, as I hadn't had brekky. We then headed back to the tram stop and got on a Hucknall tram, which we were to take all the way. I wasn't too happy to see that it would be an old one taking us all the way, as they're pretty rubbish and we couldn't see out of the front even though sitting there due to the seats being low. Yorkie agreed with me that they aren't good but 208 passed 10 miles on the way, so I was happy enough.

Yorkie wanted to now get a bus from Bulwell to Nottingham but I'd endured my bus for the day, so I really didn't want to. We were going to get the train back down to Bulwell from Hucknall but, as most of us didn't want to get the bus, we decided to split up, Yorkie and OxtedL going for the bus, the rest of us going for the train through to Notty. Technically, as everyone except TransportPhoto and I had plusbus tickets (we both had Robin Hood day tickets), they weren't valid on the train but they were prepared to pay if challenged as there weren't any ticket machines or anything at Hucknall. Class172 left winner 156410 with Yorkie and OxtedL at Bulwell in the end as he didn't want to pay for the ticket through to Notty, but the rest of our group that weren't yet valid did and we were soon getting to Nottingham again.

Mojo had found a pub that he really wanted to go to in Nottingham before the meet, as it had a narrow boat in the pub itself (including water), with entrance to the canal so we decided to go there and have the main meeting. I'm not going to put any of the details about the meeting but we were there for 2 and a half hours and headed off just after 16:15, with every that needed to be done, done.

We'd booked a table for all of us at 'World cuisine buffet' (which is what replaced Red Hot in Nottingham) for 17:00 but, as we were hungry already, we decided to head over and see if we could get in early. It was a short walk back over to Notty station tram stop and we got on the first one heading towards the city centre, with 233 taking us along the line to Royal Centre, where we wandered over to World Cuisine Buffet, to find that it'd be fine to go in early, so we did so and got our table. I decided not to go for a drink and instead headed straight to the all you can eat buffet but, unfortunately, the quality has certainly dropped since it changed ownership. I had loads and loads for dinner (obviously - it's an all you can eat buffet!) and I stopped when the thought of food made my want to... you know.

I decided to try and make the 18:41 to Brum, as it'd put me onto the 20:15 home instead of the 20:45, so I said bye to the others at about 18:25 and headed back to Royal Centre tram stop, luckily getting onto a tram almost immedietly, 235, back to the station. I then ran over to see what the 18:36 to Leicester was, and do it for a liniar leap to Beeston if it was required, but it was a dud 156 so I just wandered over to 170107 on the 18:41 to New Street and got a seat, seeing 60059, the same donut that I'd seen earlier in the day, coming back through Notty. I wasn't feeling great (due to overeating - give me an all you can eat buffet and I always come out like this) but I felt better knowing that I wasn't the only one in the family - mum, dad and my brother had had Mexican and dad had overeaten too. I was soon racing along the line towards Birmingham from Derby, running on time. Is it wrong to simply think 'crash' (no, I don't mean the song by The Primitives ) each time a UHT passes? I think not .

We were soon waiting outside New Street and arriving a couple of minutes late, but I still had time to get over to Snow Hell for the 168 back, leaving at 20:12 from there. I did so and got rewarded by seeing a DVT in the platform. A run down the end of the platform was needed and I got to see 68012 thrash out of Snow Hell towards its siding for the night at Stourbridge.

My cart was seen in the siding just outside the station, and it had soon arrived. I was very happy to see which one it was, 168113, as it was my penultimate 168 for the year (not that I really care), and one of my last 3 of the 168s for 100 miles (excluding the 170s from TPE). It wasn't a busy service and I easily got a seat on board for the ride back through to Leamington, getting there on time after a great day out.

 

[Cowley]

Thanks for the explanation, it all makes sense now. I actually met Michael Eavis once at his farm, he was very pleasant .
Great report(s), love the photo of all the locos at Leicester.
I've not been on the Sheffield tram system yet but I have been on Manchester and Nottinghams. Very interesting.

 

[507021]

More excellent reads there FQ.

 

[adrock1976]

I see that you managed to take a spin on my former local line, the Stourbridge Railway. When I first started rail bashing in 1988, it was Class 115s and 116s that plied the line, and a single coach 121 was on the Stourbridge Junction - Town shuttles. In the early 1990s, they got retired and replaced with Class 150s with a dogbox on the SBJ - SBT shuttle.

Well done for getting 139001, as I had already landed 002, it took me three attempts to finally get it in the bag.

 

[Kite159]

Sounded like a couple good days out, bar the long trips on the sluggish 170s

 

[507021]

Well done for getting 139001, as I had already landed 002, it took me three attempts to finally get it in the bag.

139002 was my first 139 too, I managed to get 139001 the next time I travelled on the branch line a couple of months later. Even though I've got them both, I'll probably go down there again at some point because I enjoy riding on them as they're different to what I usually go on.

 

[Segedunum]

Sounds like a far more interesting day than I had in Nottingham, few hours at a university open day followed by a small trickle of winners...I now have the slight shame of you being ahead of me with reports now

 

[Techniquest]

Wow that was an enormous catch up! Took me a while to get through all those, but it must be nice to be caught up and not 3 months behind eh?

The one thing I must say though is that I find it impossible to rate a 47 over a 56!

As for the bus ride back from Clifton South, I would have stood my ground and got on the tram instead! I don't understand why the bus had to be got!

 

[37038]

Those who rate duffs are those that haven't been correctly educated in the ways of superior traction yet

 

[cactustwirly]

Despite going to Reading regularly for the last 15 or so years, I have never been to Sweeney Todd's, is it by the bottom entrance of the Oracle, by the church?

 

[FQ]

Thanks for the explanation, it all makes sense now. I actually met Michael Eavis once at his farm, he was very pleasant .
Great report(s), love the photo of all the locos at Leicester.
I've not been on the Sheffield tram system yet but I have been on Manchester and Nottinghams. Very interesting.

It's good fun, but I don't think its as fun as Notty or Mancc. Thanks and its good to know that Michael Eavis is a good guy!

More excellent reads there FQ.

Cheers!

I see that you managed to take a spin on my former local line, the Stourbridge Railway. When I first started rail bashing in 1988, it was Class 115s and 116s that plied the line, and a single coach 121 was on the Stourbridge Junction - Town shuttles. In the early 1990s, they got retired and replaced with Class 150s with a dogbox on the SBJ - SBT shuttle.

Well done for getting 139001, as I had already landed 002, it took me three attempts to finally get it in the bag.

It would have been good fun to have it on a 121 and 115s/116s instead of the 172s, that's for sure! Thanks!

Sounded like a couple good days out, bar the long trips on the sluggish 170s

It most certainly was. Shame the 170s are awful!

139002 was my first 139 too, I managed to get 139001 the next time I travelled on the branch line a couple of months later. Even though I've got them both, I'll probably go down there again at some point because I enjoy riding on them as they're different to what I usually go on.

They are certainly good fun to ride on, and an easy class to clear!

Sounds like a far more interesting day than I had in Nottingham, few hours at a university open day followed by a small trickle of winners...I now have the slight shame of you being ahead of me with reports now

At least you got a few winners. Yay! I'm finally ahead of someone!

Wow that was an enormous catch up! Took me a while to get through all those, but it must be nice to be caught up and not 3 months behind eh?

The one thing I must say though is that I find it impossible to rate a 47 over a 56!

As for the bus ride back from Clifton South, I would have stood my ground and got on the tram instead! I don't understand why the bus had to be got!

It most certainly feels good to be back up to date! Brush are infinitely better than grids (and all locos except an 87, which they're tied with)!

I wanted to stick with the others, but wasn't happy with the bus. Apparently the bus allows other areas to be seen (according to Yorkie) but he took that bus back in February!

Those who rate duffs are those that haven't been correctly educated in the ways of superior traction yet

Superior traction to brush?! No such thing! Certainly not 37s, brush are much, much better!

Despite going to Reading regularly for the last 15 or so years, I have never been to Sweeney Todd's, is it by the bottom entrance of the Oracle, by the church?

You'll certainly have to get there. Yep, its near to a church (with a yellow path), but I don't know where the oracle is!








The first picture of you

This is another music reference, this time 'The first picture of you' by The Lotus Eaters. This was Friday the 18th of November and dad needed to head to Chippenham for work. I'd been given a month off for completing my next two GCSEs so I decided to go along for some fun, and continue getting more photos of powercars that I hadn't yet got photos of, hence the title. You'd be crazy if you thought that I'd be staying at Chippenham all day though - I had two options of what to do and ended up deciding on the morning of the trip. Just a quick warning, this report is pretty photo heavy.

With my alarm set for 05:30, I got to sleep at about 23:30 on the Thursday eve' and woke to the beeping of my alarm. I silenced it and started to drop back off to sleep, but had the forethought to set it 5 minutes later before falling asleep again. When it went off for the second time, I got up and ready for the day out, heading off at 05:55 for the drive down the Fosse Way towards Chippenham.

Dad's done the drive to Chippenham for work quite a few times and it was apparently the quickest one that he managed, with no trucks encountered and every car with a driver that knew the road and could race along at a very good pace (over the speed limit, I'll say that much). We did it the amazing time of an hour and a half, parking at dad's work before taking the short walk over to Chippenham station, where I decided where I was going and got my return to Cardiff Bay. Why the hell not?

As we were walking over to the station, I saw a tram arrive with a powercar that needed a photo leading (128) so I ran over with camera in hand and tried to get a photo of it but my darn camera played up at this point so dad had to take a quick look at it and attempt to fix it. Not the best start photo wise! The rear powercar, 43027 in a livery to commemorate the Queen's 90th birthday, had a photo taken of it but accidently got deleted later in the day. Blast.

After I'd got my ticket to Cardiff, we went to the station buffet, a privately ran place that dad goes to for brekky each time he comes to Chippenham. I could see why he goes here and, although it isn't the cheapest of places, the brekky is amazing. Dad kindly got brekky this morning and, while we waited for our sausage and egg bap to be made, I noticed a tram set arriving heading towards Paddington, so I ran over and got a couple of photos, noticing that the leading powercar was one of Nat's last two GWR powercars. The other annoying thing is that I couldn't get the photo I wanted because it pulled up right to the end of the platform, where it goes down the ramp, so 43034 went from 'need' on my list to 'better phot'. The rear powercar was also needed, and I got the photo that I wanted from that one without any trouble.
Morning tram heading for London by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Morning tram heading for London by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Morning tram heading for London by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I then headed back over to dad and found that our brekky had arrived. We ate it outside (on the platform without track) and I got a photo of 43029 when it arrived.
Bristol bound by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I then headed back to dad to finish brekky, annoyingly failing to get a usable photo of the rear powercar (which was also needed for a photo). I also saw the Westbury-Swindon shuttle (the 153) and was very happy to see that it was 153318 - my last GWR one, meaning that I just needed IEPs and 387s to clear GWR. Had I got it a few months before this, I'd have cleared them!

With brekky finished and 08:25 nearing, dad walked me over to the Swindon bound platform and we got ready for the arrival of it. Dad was going to head to his work after seeing me off and it was 43194 and 43195, neither needed for the year, both needed for 100, taking me to Swindon this morning. Dad headed away after seeing me off, as planned, and about 5 minutes into the journey to Swindon, I got a call from dad saying that 5 betties had just gone through, heading towards me! This would be hellfire! I thanked him for the gen and, as I knew that I'd have about 25 minutes at Swindon, I knew that I'd see them.

Once I got to Swindon, photos were got of both powercars and I saw that the red death we'd seen come through Chippenham was in platform 1. It ended up delaying the Westbury 153 due to it being too long for the platform so going well over the junction for platform 2 . It was first out after the tram.
Swindon by fishquinn1, on Flickr
In the platform by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Swindon by fishquinn1, on Flickr

Pretty much just after the tram had gone, 66116 was gone, very closely followed by an approaching Colas betty combo of 70806, 805, 810, 801 and 804. Another couple of photos got and I got a video as they got the signal out of the station.
Convoy of 5 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Convoy of 5 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Unfortunately it was cut short due to a dreaded message - memory full. I quickly went through and deleted loads of recent photos that had already been uploaded onto the computer and soon had enough room to continue photting trams. There was a set due to leave for Bristol at the same time as one for Paddington so I had a decision to make. I decided to go for the Bristol one because it was coming in first, green 43041 up front. Due to the numbers being at the coach end of the loco instead of the cab end, its hard to get one including the number so two had to be got for it to count.
Green powercar by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Green powercar by fishquinn1, on Flickr
The service to Paddington arrived just after 041 on the Bristol but I didn't get a decent enough photo of the leading powercar for it to count. I managed to get an OK one of the rear one but I'd still like to get another if possible.
43140 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I watched 43041 leave, expecting 005 on the back, but it was blue 125 instead.

Another platform change was had to get photos of 43144 and 43191 before having to change to the Westbound platform once again for my train to Cardiff.
43144 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
43191 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
43155 was soon arriving on the slightly delayed 09:18 to Cardiff, which I was happy enough with as it was required for 100 and was cleared by Cardiff.
43155 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I didn't know what the rear powercar was until I got to Cardiff and headed to the back, to see dud for 100 and the year 43017 there.
43017 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
After the photo of 017 was got, I headed to the Queen Street platform and got ready for a 150. The first service, a Bargoed, was a pair of 143s so was obviously flagged. There was a constant procession of dud 150s in the other direction. While waiting for a winner 150, I noticed the Notty unit arriving, with the 170 that I seem to always get from New Street to Leicester or back, 170522...

With my last required 170/5, 170520. Damn it. I knew that the pair would be heading back to Nottingham in only 10 minutes so I decided to say bye to ATW for now and go for them. Typical - I come to Cardiff and get the same old rubbish that I see all the time!

This was a service departing from platform 0 so I had to go through the barriers to get to it and winner 170520 was arriving after the shunt move, dud 170522 still with it. I got a seat in the rear coach of 520 and relaxed for the journey along the South Wales mainline to Newport, where I had 4 options of what to go back to Cardiff on. The first was a GWR service from Weston-notsosuper-Mare, the next a 175 from Mancc and the last, 10 minutes after arrival on the 170, a tram from Paddington. I think it's pretty obvious which I went for, even though I had to flag both a winner 150 and a winner 175 to get it!

A powercar that needed a photo was leading, although the photo would make my eyes sore by looking at it. 43126 was up front, and 43158 at the back. Neither were of any interest to me, except being trams of course! That and photos, which both powercars needed, so I got 158's first before moving down the train to get 126's.
43158 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Awful livery by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Then it was over to the Queen Street platforms again, for hopefully a winner 150. I had a wait of about 10 minutes before anything of interest came along, this being winner 150257 on a service to (I think) Barry Island. This was taken one stop out to Grangetown, my one and only shack score of the day. Canton housed another colas betty (taking my colas betty count up to 6 - Freightliner had provided me with 70010 to see on the way from Swindon to Cardiff). It also had Colas 37421 and 67013, which is currently on the WAG.

Alighting at Grangetown, an island platform, I headed to the seats and waited for a service back to Cardiff with a 150. The first one was a pair of pacers, but the next a 143 with a 150. Making the first use of my rule that I can travel on pacers if they're with something else, provided you sit in the other thing, 150258, a dud, was boarded and superdudded en route. Due to a delay on this service, I decided to alight at Central to see what was following by a couple of minutes. It was another 150 but, alas, a dud with 150264 taking me up to Cardiff Queen Street. The first one back to Central was a couple of pacers, once again, so I stayed to view the bay shuttle, seeing that it was winner 153353 working it today, so I leapt aboard for the ride to the bay and back, before engaging fester mode to see what I could land that had a 150 in the mix. The first two services were pacers but, very thankfully, the next had what I was looking for, with single dud 150229 taking me back to Cardiff Central.

I'd called dad while heading to Queen Street on 150264, and he told me what time he'd be finishing so I had until 15:00 to get to Chippenham. This meant that I'd need to be on the 13:25 from Cardiff to Swindon, so I had a big decision to make. I knew that the 12:51 to Coryton would have a winner dogbox on, but I didn't know if I should go for it out to Queen Street in case everything back was pacers, causing me to miss the 13:25. I asked dad for what he thought and, he said that, if he was in my position, he wouldn't. That's all well and good, but dad would have just gone to pub and wouldn't have taken any units anyway but, I knew that he meant that he wouldn't if he wanted to get units.

As there wasn't anything else tying me to Cardiff now, me having scored my last ATW unit for sight earlier in the day (yep - 143614 finally landed!), I decided to just get the 12:55 back up to Swindon, as it'd mean I could take a tram to Bath and get back to Chippenham instead of heading straight to Chippenham. I'd thought about the idea of getting the 12:45 170 to Newport for the 13:01 GWR service back but the connection at Newport was only a +3 so I decided not to risk it. The 12:55 was a repeat from earlier (typical - I'd only had 3 sets!), with 43194 and 43195 taking me back to Swindon. It could have been a worse repeat though as, even though 194 was cleared for 100 this morning, 195 was just over 10 miles from that status so it was sorted out on the way to Swindon, where we arrived on time so I had time to get across to the other platform before the 14:00 to Temple Meads. It was soon arriving, with a set that I'd seen heading to Bristol while waiting at Swindon earlier in the day. The front powercar had had its photo taken earlier in the day but I didn't manage to get the rear one, so it was needed for a photo. That's the only interest it had to me, as neither powercars were needed for 100 or the year, GWR green 43041 leading, with 43125 trailing. The set was also in GWR green livery, but for some reason, they hadn't done up the interior on this one so it was the blue one for the surprisingly busy run through to Bath Spa.

I was stood window hanging for the whole journey, leaving the very few seats for normals as I was happy enough to get the tram thrash for the journey through to Bath. I then headed to the end of the platform and got a couple of photos of 43125 before it left, then changing platforms and waiting for the train that'd get me back to Chippenham just before 15:00.
43125 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
HST and 158 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
A 153 weirdly came through non stop while I waited and, soon, a wedged, short-formed set was arriving, dud for the year and 100 43196 leading.
Paddington bound by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I got on board and walked through standing in the buffet with loads of other people for the journey to Chippenham, where I saw that it was equally dud for 100 and the year 43181 on the back. Oh well, extra tram mileage compared to not going to Bath!

I watched the tram set leave and then wandered back over to the car, waiting there for a couple of minutes before dad made an appearance and we got in for the ride back. It took substantially longer on the return journey, including an absolute nutcase who pulled out at a crossing when we were heading towards it at 60mph (it had a clear view too)! It was a moment where emergency brakes were applied and you could see the other people waiting at the crossroads staring in disbelief. We just managed now to go into the back of the stupid idiot, who actually waved his fist and touched the brakes (he'd barely accelerated anyway) because he considered us too close! Yep, and whose fault is that?

Other than that and a few people staggering, we had a pleasant enough journey back, getting home just over 2 hours after leaving Chippenham, after a good day out on the rails!
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I’d like that mars bar fried please day 1 – Northern exile

I’ve been exiled to the harsh, below freezing land, with wind that will tear through you (not to mention the glass), also known as Glasgow . The reason I was heading to Glasgow was because dad had a meeting there on the 24th and 25th of November (a Thursday and Friday), so I decided to go along too (not for the meeting I must add). This would be my first ever visit to Glasgow and I’d been looking forward to it for ages, so it was great when it finally came.

We’d booked ourselves on the Lowland sleeper on the Wednesday and Friday nights and I was really, really looking forward to the trip by Wednesday morning. Day 1 was the 23rd of November and, to save dad leaving his car in Leam for 4 days, he was coming home on the 12:55 cat, with mum giving us a lift to Leam for the 16:22 Marylebone, which we’d booked very cheap advances on. This is the service that dad would normally get from Brum, so it’d be a novelty getting it from Leam. Road works around Leam station meant that we wanted mum to drop us off before the station so she didn’t get caught in it, so we left normally than we usually would for a train at xx:22 at 15:40.

Dad had had Gingertom (jammy so and so) on the 12:55, so we wouldn’t be getting it to London and, as A Shropshire Mog had been on it on the day before, that wouldn’t be it either, leaving us with 10, 11 or 15. I was hoping for 10 (my lowest of them all), dad 15 (his lowest of them), so we had to wait and see. Mum dropped us off outside of the mayhem at the station at 15:55 and we were soon walking down the Leamington streets, getting to the station at about 16:10. We already had our tickets and travelcards for London, so it was a case of heading straight over to platform 3 and getting a seat on one of the large, wooden flowerpots at the end of the platform while waiting for ‘H62, which we were relieved to see had a DVT leading. Dad was very pleased to see Topcat pushing the set towards Marylebone, so we got on board ready for some thrash from 68015. We easily found a bay of 4 in the back coach (as always) and then got a bag of Fruit Pastilles out, which were put away after over half the bag was gone as they’d have been finished by Banbury otherwise. We were soon in near total darkness as we headed out of Banbury, seeing the River Cherwell’s floodplain doing what it does after lots of rain at Kings Sutton. Dad went for a kip around Princes Risborough while I sat back and relaxed, getting to Marylebone after a good journey, strangely without a ticket check at all. It was completely black outside by Bicester and we couldn’t even ID either of the cats in Wembley! When we were at Marylebone we were in need of a snack but, as there isn’t much around Marylebone, we decided to head straight to the tube. We strangely arrived on platform 6, so had a slightly longer walk, but were soon descending to the silver worm.

We wanted to try out a 700, so we decided to head for Farringdon, dud 3238 and winner 3549 taking us to Baker Street where se changed to the Metropolitan line for winner 21005+21006 through to Farringdon, getting seats after Kings Cross St Pancras. Our plan was to go to the footbridge and just wait for a 700 so we headed to it, and saw one arriving the moment we got there, so it was straight down onto winner, and first of the class, 700113, which was on the 18:13 Brighton. We didn’t get a seat but there was plenty of standing room on this funky unit. It had a new train smell and the onboard PIS was excellent. Once were on board, we needed to decide on where to go. East Croydon was chosen and, as per usual, it was an utter stagger after Blackfriars, being stopped outside Loughborough Junction for about 5 minutes. It was at Crystal Palace that I thought of something (there’s no need to be shocked ). We were stood right next to the luggage store so, as it’s designed for airport luggage, I used it for a fairly comfy seat for the remainder of the journey to East Croydon.

A departure board was checked after arrival, highlighting a Bedford or a Victoria as our options. The Bedford was just a pair of 377s, with one winner, so it was flagged and we waited for the Victoria at 19:03 instead for a ride to Clapham. This was a good move as we got a bay of 4 to ourselves in treble winner 377455, 377419 and 377456, the rear two being identified at Clapham. By Selhurst we were doing a faster speed than we had been at any point on the 700, and I checked RTT to try and get us on a 444 to Waterloo.

We had a bit of time to do some spotting at Clapham Junction, getting loads and loads of winners written down before having to move to platform 7 for the slightly delayed 19:27 to Waterloo. I was very surprised at the amount of 456s about – almost every other 455 had two of them with it instead of a second 455. It was constant and I was glad to have waited, especially as it was one of the second best EMU class (second to the 321s) taking us to Waterloo, winner 444025 providing the power. We got a bay of 4 on this excellent unit and were soon at Waterloo. There wasn’t really anywhere to get snacks here so we decided to head to London Bridge, obviously walking over to Waterloo East in order to get there. A Hastings service was first in, winners 375830 and 375921 taking us to London Bridge. We gawped at the new concourse, which isn’t even finished yet (it looks brilliant) before looking at a departure board to try and get a Thameslink round to St Pancras but they still weren’t running so we decided to head to Charing Cross and silver worm it, 376029 and 376016, both winners, taking us towards there with their awful, Spartan interior. En route, we wondered how long it’d take to get to Lewisham and do the DLR across to Bank, deciding to do it so we got off the very lightly loaded 376s at Waterloo East to head for Lewisham.

The next service wasn’t due to go via Lewisham, but we were going to use it for a linear hop to London Bridge, but decided against that when it became ‘delayed’, so it was a swift platform change onto winner 465006, which was being led by winner, and my first of the class, 466029. We then wandered over to the DLR, after standing for the journey, getting treble winner for sight 40, 07 and 96 all the way to Bank. We got the front seats on the unit and, after a scare where I’d thought I’d lost my travelcard (it was just put under my ticket to London when I put it back by accident), we were on the way, talking to a soche maintenance guy. The journey passed smoothly and quickly, soon getting to the underground shack of Bank. It was a short walk over to the Northern line (at Bank, really?), where winners 51518 and 51519 took us away. I asked dad if we could get one of my two shack scores on the route, Old Street or Angel. He said OK and we alighted at Old Street for the linear hop with duds 51595 and 51715 (really? I’ve only had a few of the ’95 stock units!) taking us forward to Euston, as we were both very hungry and needed dinner.

Euston was in chaos, a person having been hit by a train just outside earlier on, so we just got some cash out before heading for the double six, a local café that dad used to go to a lot. I went for gammon, egg and chips, dad going for omellete and chips and, as we were now VERY hungry, it went down brilliantly. We headed off at 22:00, wandering back to Euston to see if the chaos had subsided. It hadn’t, with inbound workings severely delayed, but some stuff was getting in. With nothing other than standing around at Euston to do, I requested we head to Kings Cross. I also requested we get the silver worm there, with the hope of another winner. After some moaning from dad, who said that it’d be quicker walking (true), we headed to the Victoria line, getting winner 11044+11043 one stop to Kings Cross St Pancras. I was annoyed to see only units and 3 milkfloats but, just before we headed off, we saw a tram set arriving. I knew the rear powercar when I saw the front one but I just wanted to confirm, finding out that I was right – it was 43308. I spent a minute or so cursing it before getting a photo (it was on my list for one) and heading back to dad.
43308 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
43299 by fishquinn1, on Flickr

We then headed across the road to St Pancras, checking the 395s and Eurostars, before walking back to Euston, getting there to see that the problems still hadn’t been completely sorted out. A couple of drunken idiots were a hair length away from kicking the hell out of each other but they stopped and one of them soon walked away. Other than that, it was just complete silence apart from shoes hitting the ground, with no talking at all. We headed to platform 2 and checked RTT for the sleeper platform. After a few searches, and 10 minutes, we found out that the ECS had just arrived on platform 15. Walkies (don’t tell my dogs that I just said that)!

We got there and hellfire was immediately said, as the beast that is 87002 was sat on the blocks. Once we could get onto the platform, photos were immediately got of the 87 and we stood next to it for a couple of minutes. Shame it wasn’t on the other end though...
Like the old days by fishquinn1, on Flickr

After saying by to Royal Sov’, we wandered up to our coach, M, and headed to our berth after I checked the number of the rubbish skoda up front, seeing that it was winner 90016, which I was surprised at as I was expecting 90045, which had worked the lowland south the night before. Dad was annoyed with this one, it being one of his few dud FL skodas (045 being one of his requirements) but it was just a grotty skoda so didn’t matter much. He’d also failed on getting a winner back from Inverness, so the FL skodas probably just don’t like him .

When our stuff was in our berth, we headed to the buffet so dad could see what beers they had. He found one that he liked the look of (well, two, but one in particular), so we decided to head to the lounge car after departure. An RHTT was seen from our cabin, the third one of the evening but the first loco hauled one (it got annoying constantly seeing MPVs when they could have been something better) and I did my numbers from the evening as we waited for departure. I was up to the 444s by the time our skoda made some noise and we disappeared into the London suburbs, running bang on time. 10 minutes later, midnight stuck. Day 2.

 

[Kite159]

Btw you do know if you exit Waterloo onto street level (head to the jubilee entrance hall) there is a Sainsburys, Tesco & M&S the other side of the road

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Thameslink towards blackfriars at London bridge won't be back for another year or so

Sounded like a productive evening in London

 

[507021]

I enjoyed reading those reports FQ, great photos too. Just out of interest, what camera do you have?

With the 139s, they are great fun I agree. It's a pity there aren't more of them!

 

[FQ]

Btw you do know if you exit Waterloo onto street level (head to the jubilee entrance hall) there is a Sainsburys, Tesco & M&S the other side of the road

----

Thameslink towards blackfriars at London bridge won't be back for another year or so

Sounded like a productive evening in London

We wanted something warm but thanks for the tip - it'll potentially help for lunch in future.

That explains why we couldn't get anything Thameslink then!

I enjoyed reading those reports FQ, great photos too. Just out of interest, what camera do you have?

With the 139s, they are great fun I agree. It's a pity there aren't more of them!

Dad has one camera, me another but they've both featured in reports on here. The more recent ones were all my camera - a blue Fujifilm finepix Z20FD. Thanks! They should have done a couple for Cardiff Bay!



I'd like that mars bar fried please day 2 - The cousins of the dustys

Just after departure, we wandered down to the lounge car and dad went to get his beer and my hot choc as I got one of the sofas. I sat down as 90016 pulled us north. Our drinks soon arrived and we enjoyed the novelty of being on a sofa on a train. Dad's beer was apparently very good (poor, misguided dad - beer is never good), as was my hot choc. We couldn't see anything in Wembley or Willesden and we were soon stopping at Watford, where my first unit of the day was written down (the first time that the first one in a day has been a 378). I completed my numbers for the day in the lounge car, and we headed back to our berth between Leighton Buzzard and Blechley. We looked out of our berth window until Hanslope Junction, confirming that we were going via Weedon, before heading to sleep, me in the top bunk.

I woke to find us stationary in a platform with a pendo viewable. I then saw 185107 come past, so guessed that we were at Preston. I was right, and I got to sleep after leaving. I woke again as we were coming through Oxenholme, and again at Carlisle, staying awake for Kingmoor where three tractors and the much superior 47813 were identified. It was actually winner track for me when the Edinburgh line veered off to the right just before Carstairs, us going through the station itself (and stopping to split the portions) before continuing to Glasgow.

I was woken by dad as we were passing through Nelson station, and I got myself dressed as we headed through the burbs of Glasgow, seeing 86401 waiting to follow us in from Polmadie. We were soon arriving at shack score 1, Glasgow Central, after a fun trip on the sleeper.

By the time we'd got off, 86401 had drawn up to our stock, so we headed up to it and got a couple of photos before doing a quick platform sweep, seeing my first 314 and 380/0s.
The country end of Central by fishquinn1, on Flickr
It was then to find somewhere for brekky. It was very, very cold out and we were freezing as we wandered around aimlessly looking for somewhere, stumbling upon a Wetherspoon 15-20 minutes later. We headed in and got a Scottish Breakfast each, coming up to £10.10 including drinks. We got them without any tomato and, as I don't like black pudding, I gave dad mine in exchange for his potato cake. It certainly wasn't one of the best HDOAPs I've had, but it was mice enough.

Once we'd finished brekky we headed back to Central, going via Cafe Nero so I could get dad a coffee. It was then to the ticket office so I could get my Strathclyde Roundabout, for a bargain £3.30, and doing another platform scan in the 4 minutes before it came valid (I didn't even know when it became valid so had to ask at the ticket office - what good timing)!

I decided to start with the low level stuff after seeing that there were delays on the Paisley line, so I said bye to dad and headed downstairs, just making my first 320 for sight and haulage, 320315. Scotrail haven't changed the seat covers in a while as they look old, green and tatty, but I was only in this unit for a couple of minutes, because another unit had arrived at the island platform of Anderston, shack 2, at the same time as us. This caused me to run over for my first 318 for sight, 318265, with 320302 along for company. They were obviously both winners and were taken back to Central, where winners 320311 and 320321 were in a couple of minutes later to take me to shack score 3, Hyndland. 10 minutes in and I'm already at 5 winners for haulage!

Hyndland to Partick leaps had been suggested to me to get as many winners as possible on this first ever trip to Glasgow and wow the frequency is good! I just had enough time to get a couple of photos of the baby bins that I'd just come off and watch then leave before I could see my next units arriving.
Baby bin by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I was surprised, and a little annoyed, to see that my first '320/4s' had landed so soon in the trip, but leading was one of the two LM dustys that I didn't get before they went north, winner 320414. Dud 320415 was along for company and I was soon at Partick.
Now up north by fishquinn1, on Flickr

At Partick, I noticed that there was another unit a couple of minutes behind us, so decided not to change platforms at the huge station. Instead, I got on winner 320306 for the ride to shack score 5 (Partick was also a shack score), Charing Cross. That was a quick intercity leap!

When I got to Charing Cross a few 465s were spotted I noticed that there was an Edinburgh following 320306, so I got double winner, and first of the class, 334030 and 334036 to Glasgow Queen Street, shack score 6, before a quick platform change was had onto winners 320316 and 320312 out to Partick, where winner 318254 took me back to Hyndland.
Departing Partick by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Back to Partick on winner 320318, at which point I'd been on the rails for an hour and scored 13 winners. It didn't stop yet though as double winner 334037 and 334035 arrived to take me to Charing Cross. Winners 334033 and 334015 then arrived, taking me forward to Queen Street.
The Charing Cross over 400 miles from the other by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I now had 10 minutes before the next one, so I quickly checked out the high level, scoring two of my last 3 Scotrail 170s for sight while doing so! I was very happy when I wandered back down to the low level and got winners 334012 and 334003 out to Partick, where I scored 320320 in all of its repetition repetition repetition out to Hyndland. I then got on a pair of winner 334s heading for Edinburgh but, about 30 seconds after getting on board, the guard came over the PA and announced that, due to a broken down train at Bellgrove (it turns out that the guard was wrong and it was signaling problems), the 334s would terminate at Hyndland and return to depot. I left the train to see another pair of winner 334s, 334006 and 334013, arriving from the Glasgow direction so I got on for the ride along the winner metals to shack score 7, Dalmuir.

When I got to Dalmuir, I noticed a double winner waiting to work the 11:02 to Motherwell (it was currently 10:51) but it'd be going the same route that I'd just come on the 334s (via Yoker), so and RTT check was done, showing that I could get the 10:58 to Hyndland via Singer for a +3 at Hyndland onto the 11:02 Dalmuir-Motherwell there, so I got on duds 320312 and 320316 for the ride (yep, my first repeats). We were soon en route, down the winner track. All was going well until Westerton, where we got caught in a long queue, and eventually got to Hyndland just over 15 late, the Motherwell long gone. I continued to Partick so I had the clockwork orange as a backup if needed, but a winner heading in the Central direction was soon along, 334027 taking me to shack 8, Exhibition Centre because the departure board said that it was 5 minutes until the next. Just over 10 minutes later, dud 320320, repeating itself not only in its number, but also in my moves, was taking me to Central, where I left the chaotic low level line for the 380s, with 23 winners so far.

I headed to the 380s and immediately got on winner 380017, which was on the 12:04 Ayr. Of all the Scotrail units, the 380 was the only one I'd had, having had three 4 car examples on the North Berwick stuff. All the 3 car ones were required (including for sight before the start of the day), and the track up to shack score 9, Paisley Gilmour Street. The ride was good fun, seeing frost covered hills and fields, and I was soon getting off at the brilliant station. It's an amazing station that I immediately liked, but I didn't think I had long here because I sprinted through the subway to the other platform, hoping to make a 380 that had arrived at the same time as us. Alas it missed, but a member of station staff came up to me and looked at a timetable to see when the next train to Glasgow was. He also said that he liked my top (a blue one with the BR logo on) and revealed that he was a rail enthusiast too. We chatted for a few minutes and I heard that the only freight Paisley Gilmour Street really got was a grid on oil, apparently coming out of a loop so the driver was leaning on the power handle. I could almost hear the noise of a grid screaming away on a heavy oil train!

The 12:22 to Glasgow was soon along, winner 380011 providing the traction on this fairly busy service. We were soon getting back to Central though, where a photo was got of the 380 before heading out of the barriers and back down the escalators to the low level platforms, to see if they'd sorted themselves out.
380011 by fishquinn1, on Flickr

I was down there in good time for the next train towards Partick, which was running slightly late and expected in 5 minutes. I saw a double dud (320321 and 320311) leave towards Argyle Street, and, as I watched them leave, immediately noticed that there was something wrong. I knew what it was - only a fool wouldn't - and they looked really odd disappearing down the tunnel with headlights on the back instead of taillights! I watched them up to Argyle Street (it's a weird experience to see headlights going away from you), which is easily visible from Central, before going to some station staff and reporting it. They thanked me and I walked back down onto the low level platforms, winners 320310 and 320314 took me out to Partick.

I'd been updating my platform 5 books for haulage as I went so I didn't need to look through my billions of moves to see if something was required and, while doing that, had accidently marked off a 334 that I hadn't had. As I'd seen the 334, I now had 2 options. Cross it out and have a mess in my book, or track it down and make it a priority. My choice was the latter so I tracked it down to find that it would be on the 14:01 from Partick to Edinburgh (13:58 from Hyndland). It was now 12:50, so I had just over an hour.


It was now a game of musical platforms. The rules are simple. Change platform to whichever is going to have the first unit arrive on and, if its dud, change platforms again to see what the next one is and so on. This may be easy at some stations, but Partick isn't exactly the easiest of stations to change platforms at. Luckily, after getting off the 320s and changing platforms, the first one to arrive was a winner, so 318261 took me to Exhibition Centre, where I did a platform change. The next one heading back towards Partick was in 4 minutes, the one after that in 15, so I knew I was getting the first one to come in, winner or not. I was annoyed to see dud 334027 arriving, but I got on anyway for the ride up to Hyndland, where winner 318260 took me back to Partick. Then it was onto winner 318255 back to Hyndland, where double winner 334010 and 334021 took me back to Partick. I had a minute or so to do the platform change onto winners 320317 and 318270 back out to Hyndland, where I couldn't resist the slightly delayed 13:47 back to Partick, as it was the pair that I'd missed earlier on the Dalmuir to Motherwell, winners 318257 and 320313.

When I got back to Partick, I found out that the 14:01 to Edinburgh, hopefully with the 334 that I'd accidently classed as had for haulage when I hadn't, was running about 5 down. I waited on the platform for it, and was relieved to see that I'd worked the diagram out correctly and that it was indeed winners 334018 and 334034, the latter of which was ticked off the haulage list earlier. There was another Edinburgh just behind this one, so I bailed at Charing Cross and waited a couple of minutes for winners 334002 and 334017 through to Queen Street.

I now had another 10-minute fester before the next one back towards Partick, so headed to the high level and saw my last of the Scotrail 170s sat there, along with a winner 156! A successful trip up to the high level complete, I descended back to the low level and only had a minute to wait before winners 334020 and 334011 were leaving Queen Street. I noticed a possible linear move using Charing Cross, so I bailed there and waited a couple of minutes for the next one. This wait paid off as it was double winner 334009 and 334005 giving me winners 43 and 44 for the day!

Back at Partick, I got the first one to Hyndland, as I knew that I could get a couple of winners back from there. Dud 320318 took me there. I got a photo of a dud 318 here before before winners 334023 and 334031, running a couple of minutes late, took me back to Partick.
318255 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I now wanted some lunch, so decided to head back towards the city centre but I played some musical platforms first, to try and get a winner (even if it was out to Hyndland). The first winner to arrive was heading towards the city, and it was double winner 334028 and 334007 on the 15:01 to Waverley. This was the pair that I'd tried to get earlier in the day from Hyndland to Partick but couldn't because they had terminated at Hyndland, so I was glad to get them. Up to 48 winners - will 50 be reached?

I took this straight through to Queen Street and did a quick platform scan before heading outside and immediately spotting a Greggs. I headed over to it and got 1 chicken bake, so I had enough change from my £2 to give some to a homeless guy outside. It was then a short walk back to Queen Street, where I headed back to the Partick bound platform, hoping for winners 49 and 50 next. There was a unit in the platform when I got there but the doors shut the moment I saw that it was a winner baby bin! Darn it! I had a short wait on the platform for the next one to arrive, which was a unit I hadn't yet seen that day (so obviously a winner), 334040. Up to 49!

I took this one out to Partick, where I had a 3-minute wait on the same platform for the next service, the 15:41 to Dumbarton Central. I was very glad to see that this was a required 320, 320304 being winner number 50 for the day. That's all made up of Scotrail units too! It didn't stop yet though, as 318254 was taking me back to Partick, where a quick platform change got me onto winner 318253 back to Hyndland. I now waited for the next winner, which was actually heading away from Partick. I got on winner 334019 anyway for the ride out to shack score 10, Anniesland. I almost left my EMU platform 5 book on the train but, as always, I checked the table before leaving and got it.

It would be a 15-minute fester for anything diesel to Queen Street so I just waited for the next electric unit, along with loads of school kids. I doubt any of those paid attention to the unit number, dud 318260. I took this back to Partick, where another winner wait was had on the island platform. It was an Edinburgh that provided me my next winners for the day, 334016 and 334004. I wanted to fit a Paisley leap in before the plan dad and I had for the evening so, as I wanted to be on the 17:05 Ayr and it was now just after 16:30, I decided to head back to the city on the 16:34 to Larkhall. This was duds 318257 and 320313 so I got on for the ride back to Central.

At Central, I got off and saw that the next service out towards Partick wasn't until 55 minutes past. It was only 45 minutes past at this point and, as Argyle Street platforms are viewable from Central low level, I decided to do it for the winner shack and potential winner unit. I got on the 318 and, for some reason; it just sat there and waited. By 50 minutes past I didn't want to risk it, and, when I left the platform at about 51 minutes past, it was still sat there, with a green signal. I wandered up to the top and did a platform check for the 17:05 to Ayr, finding out that it was winner 380003. This was a busier service than the one earlier, that's for sure, but it didn't really affect me as I was only on one stop. I spoke to dad en route, who said that he'd be at Central just after 17:30. The same would be true of me, so we arranged to meet at the ticket office.

I was soon at Paisley Gilmour Street, where I did a platform change to 1 and had a short wait for the 17:23 to Central. I was glad to see that this was winner 57 (!), 380010, and I got a seat on board fairly easily for the ride back through to Glasgow Central, where I met up with dad. We then wandered over to our hotel, which had its entrance on the station concourse, and checked in. We were staying at the Grand Central hotel, which is very posh and we were checked in a few minutes later. We had room 207, so I had to say something to dad as we headed up the brilliant staircase as this is his lowest mileage tram at 6 miles. As I said, the staircase was brilliant and had a 60ft chandelier hanging down in the middle of the 'square spiral staircase thing'. We headed to our room and dumped the clothes bag, which had the guff that we didn't need, and just took my own one for our plan for the evening. What is it, you may be asking. Well, it goes like this.

18:03 Glasgow Central-Haymarket via Shotts 19:05
19:27 Haymarket-Edinburgh Waverley 19:31 (Cat thrash!)
20:32 Edinburgh Waverley-Haymarket 20:35 (Tram thrash!)
20:46 Haymarket-Edinburgh Waverley 20:50 (Tram thrash!)
21:14 Edinburgh Waverley-Glasgow Central via Carstairs 22:24 (Tram thrash!)

As you can see, we'd be going across to Edinburgh, doing a Haymarket leap on a cat, and two on trams before heading back on 1S51, the Cross Country tram that I get from Bristol at 14:30 when doing my spin to Reading via Bristol. Why go from Central via Shotts instead of from Queen Street? Dad has a ban on DMUs in and out of Queen Street (and Waverley for that matter), so we had to go from Central. I didn't mind, as it'd be a guaranteed winner anyway (I've never had any Scotrail DMUs) so, when we left our massive hotel room, we headed out to... The Krispy Kreme donut shop that we'd seen earlier! Dad wanted a coffee and, with 15 minutes, he sent me to go to the donut shop to see what there was (he was going to get them), while he headed to the Cafe Nero that we went to earlier and we arranged to meet outside Costa. I headed to the donut shop and, instead of choosing what donuts I'd like and letting dad get them, I bought a dozen of them for £10.95 and met dad as planned. He was very appreciative of the donuts and we wandered over to platform 2, which the 18:03 was due out of. Judging by the way the regulars had spread themselves out along the platform, we thought that it'd be a two car and, sure enough, the inbound working arrived at 18:02, with one minute until booked departure time with single winner 156511. By the time everyone was off the unit from its inbound working, it was 18:03, but it didn't really affect us as we had a while at Haymarket. I was second on the unit, and got us a forward facing bay of two, which we were surprised had very good legroom (it's not a priority seat either). The same seat covers that can be found on the 320/3s were in this unit (the green, tacky ones that I was saying about earlier) and I think dad described them perfectly - 'kind of like the ones you'd find at a tacky greasy spoon at a seaside resort like Brighton'.

We got the donuts out after getting our seats and each had 3 of them (we were in Glasgow after all, where the average male life expectancy is only 54 - almost entirely due to diet). I'm glad I paid the dosh for them, as they were good quality donuts. The engines on this 156 sounded very poorly, kind of like they were about to explode (no kidding) and it wasn't a pleasant journey, but it was at least winner track on the Shotts branch (not on the bits either side of it though). This was a semi-fast, stopping only at Bellshill, Shotts, West Calder and Livingston South before getting to Haymarket. After Bellshill, the bay of 4 behind us became free, so we decided to move into that for the rest of the journey. After joining on with the other line, the first thing we saw pass was a UHT. Because of the dark, neither of us could see the wires (or gantries), so we thought that we were still on the Shotts branch but the unspeakably horrible thing had gone missing. We were wrong and eventually saw the wires.

We came to a stop just outside Haymarket, the engines making very weird noises. It sounded like something was hitting the unit from the outside, trying to get in. Thankfully we hadn't failed and were soon moving forward, arriving at Haymarket just under 10 late.

We now had about 15 minutes until our cat through the tunnel so we headed to the footbridge and did some spotting. Just over 5 minutes later, we saw very bright headlights approaching from the Haymarket depot direction that looked very much like a cat's. It would certainly be running early if it was, but we went down to the platform and, sure enough, winner 68017 was giving off some very nice noise. We headed to the front coach, dad taking a seat in the very front bay of 4, me standing in the vestibule. We left Haymarket over 5 early and my ears were soon filled with the noise of a caterpillar engine as we roared through the tunnels and Princes Street gardens. We were soon roaring through the last of the tunnels and arriving at Waverley on one of the far side platforms.

When we got to Waverley, we stood next to 'Hornet' for a minute or so before heading to the main concourse. Waverley is a lot nicer now that traffic isn't allowed through the station, that's for sure! We saw that skoda 45, which I thought would have been on the lowland when we came north, had instead worked the highland and was sitting in the location that the locos that work the highland always do when they get to Edinburgh. We were pleased to see that 67008, a monster that used to frequent the Chilterns, was on thunderbird duty too. Dad gave his folks a call, who were both Scottish (I'm half Scottish on dad's side). Granny really likes Edinburgh and suggested that we went to see some Christmas lights that were always up at this sort of time. We had an hours fester before our next Haymarket leap so, why not? Or did we? I looked at a departure board while dad chatted to his mum, and saw a service going to Stirling up on there. It was a VTEC that was running 25 late and we only had 10 minutes to wait for it. It stopped at Haymarket so we decided to go for it and get, hopefully, a couple of tram winners for the year for dad (he'd only had the two that we'd had on the Chieftain). We wandered over to the platform for it and continued chatting to Granny and Granddad, during which required for the year for both of us (and 100 for me) 43239 arrived! I was very glad at this set as I knew that the back one was also required for the year for both of us (and 100 for me), 43367. I knew that Nat would go crazy if he heard we got this pairing, the front one being one of his last two required VTEC powercars, the rear one his favourite of the VTEC bunch. We got on the very lightly loaded service (apparently it had been heaving further down south) and I was pleased to see that it was EC64 - the pocket set. This was dad's first time experiencing the pocket VTEC set and he quite liked it. It's probably my favourite HST set, so I was very happy, even more so when we passed a colas donut on tanks. A TOPS search showed that my last required mainline operational 60 was working it - and it could be the only loco that could've worked it giving its earlier workings too! Score!

We were soon alighting at Haymarket 1.23 or, as I call it, 1.25 miles later. We knew that we soon needed to be back at Waverley for our second tram set and, as dad won't get a DMU in, I had to flag a double winner 158 for double dud 334028 and 334007. Dad had offered for me to get the 158s and him get the 334 but I wanted to stick together. These were dad's first 334s and, like me, he quite likes them. I'd been telling him that they were pretty good units while we were coming over, so at least he got to experience one. I realized that I wasn't only in a dud pairing on the way though, but I was in the same coach that I'd been in on this partnership earlier in the day. Typical!

Our plan for the Friday afternoon was to visit dad's aunt in Dalry as we hadn't seen her in ages and it'd be good to give her some company too, as dad's uncle has been very ill for ages and was in hospital again so we needed to give her a call. She was on the phone at the time we called (darn it) but we left a message and decided to call later.

Once back at Edinburgh, we had about half an hour until our next tram set so we decided to go chippy hunting and try to find the tram line. Finding the tram wasn't hard at all as there was one going around the corner a tiny bit down the road when we got to road level. We continued walking, seeing a winner tram for sight at the tram stop. We continued down the hill, seeing another winner tram for sight at the next stop, which was the terminus. We walked past it and did a loop, speaking to mum on our way back to Waverley. No chippy seen on route.

We got back to Waverley with just under 10 minutes until our tram was due out. We spent about 5 of that locating and getting to platform 19, where we wandered towards the front. It was delayed a few minutes arriving, eventually coming in 10 late at the time it was due to leave. I was over the moon when I saw the front powercar number. MY LORDS! 43308! HELLFIRE! YOU BEAUTY! I'd finally landed my final VTEC powercar!

I had a huge grin on my face as I jumped about 308's set, 43299 pushing. We got a vestibule and waited for departure. They let a pair of 158s out of platform 20 before we could go anywhere, and our connection time onto the train back from Haymarket started ticking down to zero, reaching it by the time our signal went yellow and I cleared the Virgin Trains East Coast trams.

We were soon going back through the Haymarket tunnels and we could see our tram back in the platform as we emerged them. As we got alongside the platform though, the MTU engines on the other powered up and it disappeared towards Edinburgh. Doh! Especially as the front one was one of my last 8 VTEC ones required for the year! I couldn't ID the rear one. It was a shame to have missed it but at least I got my penultimate passenger tram (now needing 045 and the 3 NMT powercars).

We decided to now go and hunt down a chippy in our half an hour before the service across to Glasgow. Haymarket would be more likely to have one nearby than Waverley anyway. We had no problems getting through the Haymarket barriers and we scored yet another Edinburgh tram for sight as we wandered along a road in search of a chippy, finding one just under 5 minutes later. We got in, dad going for haggis and chips (yuck), me going for a steak pie and chips. Right then guys. You know how chip shop pies are done in England with pre-warmed ones in a warmer which are taken out when wanted? That's not how they do it in Edinburgh (and, I assume, Glasgow). What do they do? A pie is taken straight out of the freezer and then just put in the...

...

Deep fryer! Yep, I know! No wonder the life expectancy is so low! We were both astonished at this, and dad's haggis got the same treatment. We had to time watch though, as time ticked and we each got more and more nervous as departure got closer. As we got to about 15 minutes before departure, I asked how long, explaining that we had to catch a train from Haymarket in 15 minutes, and was told that we were just waiting on the chips and that they'd be done in a few minutes. Thankfully they were and we headed off with just under 10 minutes until our train.

We got back to Haymarket with just over 5 minutes until it, having seen another winner tram as we went back. Dad had got a call back from his aunt while we were in the chippy and we'd arranged to head over for 16:00, so at least that was sorted. We headed over to the platform it was booked out from and had a short wait for it to arrive. I'd seen some gen on dad's work phone while we were heading over to Haymarket from Glasgow that said what was on 'S51, but that didn't stop me being very happy when I saw the leading powercar. 43301 was my last required XC powercar for both the year and 100, on an embarrassingly low 91.75 miles. This would be cleared by Glasgow, 55.75 miles later, but would still be my lowest by just under 80 miles. The rear powercar had more for dad than me. 43304 was his last required XC powercar for the centaury, last had on an unknown date in 1988! They were both also required for the year for him, as he'd not yet had an XC powercar this year. We got on board in the front coach and got a bay of 2, taking our dinner out on board. The deep fried pie certainly wasn't anywhere near as good as the normal pies but it was OK. The chips weren't great either but we were hungry so ate it all. In what felt like a matter of seconds we were going through the Edinburgh suburbs and, a very quick 20 minutes later, we were slowing for Carstairs. The side of the triangle we were about to take is the only side that I need so, when we came through Carstairs station I'd completed every side of the triangle on loco hauled stuff. As we passed the prison, I came up with the most ridiculous idea for why it was put there. Maybe it was put there so, if any criminals escaped and went to the station to catch a train away, the guards would find them during their many-hour fester there .

We'd soon arrived a few minutes early at Motherwell and were on our way. Then it was just a quick run up to Glasgow, crossing the Clyde before arriving at Central one early at 22:23. We alighted and shut doors on our way to the back (now front for the ECS) of the tram to confirm that it was 304. It was and we stood there for a couple of moments before heading back down the train, the driver thanking us for shutting the doors as we passed him. We then did a very quick platform scan, seeing that 86401 had brought the sleeper ECS in, before heading back to our hotel room and getting to bed at the end of day 2.

Overall, a highly, highly successful day! The winner count for the day was 60 (that's for haulage), taking the heavy rail winner count for the trip up to 72 - 80 if you count tube and DLR! And most importantly? 308!

 

[alexf380]

A grand day out in the west, young Quinn! Having fun in my back yard as well in the evening, jealous of the cat you got on the Fife turn, 017 is still required over here.

Chippies are hard to find in Edinburgh centre itself, so you made a wise call going for one at Haymarket. If you went to the one I'm thinking of then your dad will have had a beast of a haggis supper!

Looking forward to day 3

 

[507021]

Dad has one camera, me another but they've both featured in reports on here. The more recent ones were all my camera - a blue Fujifilm finepix Z20FD. Thanks! They should have done a couple for Cardiff Bay!

I like Fujifilm cameras, although I've currently got a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ18. I haven't used it for a while because it needs the lens motor replacing, I have got a replacement lens motor ready to go in it but it's a case of finding someone to fit it for me!

That'd be a great idea, based on my experiences of the Cardiff Bay Branch Line a couple of Parry People Movers would be an excellent solution when it comes to replacing the 153s.

Your latest reports are excellent, nice to see you get a few winners too. I've had deep fried haggis before a couple of times and I do like it, although it's definitely not something I'd have every time I'm up in Scotland. I really like deep fried Mars bars too, but as much as I like them I don't particularly fancy having a go at making them in my own deep fryer!

 

[Techniquest]

Wow that was an impressively busy time up there! Jealous of 318254 as it's my last 318 to get for haulage!

EDIT: Well done on your last VTEC power car too!

 

[Kite159]

A very productive day in Glasgow

Plus a good score with that 43

 

[D841 Roebuck]

An entertaining read, as ever.

Congrats on the Class 254 DMLV

Might have to try the chippy at Haymarket some time, not had deep fried pie for yonks.

One thing, though - I suspect your sleeper went through Newton, rather than Nelson...

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Been in that chippy at Haymarket a couple of times and not a huge fan - inflated prices for a pile of grease. If I want grease, I'll nip up the road and get some lard. Best chippy that I ever came across in Scotland was at Larbert but admittedly, it's been 30 odd years since I ever went there.

FQ - sounds like a good bash and and your books are definitely fuller. Like Mr Roebuck, I was a bit thrown by the reference to Nelson.

I thought it was only you with weird policies of what you can/cannot take but it seems to be hereditary - what's the issue with not doing units in/out of Waverley?

 

[Kite159]

Been in that chippy at Haymarket a couple of times and not a huge fan - inflated prices for a pile of grease. If I want grease, I'll nip up the road and get some lard. Best chippy that I ever came across in Scotland was at Larbert but admittedly, it's been 30 odd years since I ever went there.

FQ - sounds like a good bash and and your books are definitely fuller. Like Mr Roebuck, I was a bit thrown by the reference to Nelson.

I thought it was only you with weird policies of what you can/cannot take but it seems to be hereditary - what's the issue with not doing units in/out of Waverley?

I'm guessing it is due to units replacing the loco hauled services

 

[Cowley]

That looked like a very busy trip. Brings back memories but very different traction these days of course. Enjoyable read though Mr Quinn

 

[55013]

Well, the HSTs certainly aren't my cup of tea, but those Glasgow moves look like great fun.

 

[FQ]

A grand day out in the west, young Quinn! Having fun in my back yard as well in the evening, jealous of the cat you got on the Fife turn, 017 is still required over here.

Chippies are hard to find in Edinburgh centre itself, so you made a wise call going for one at Haymarket. If you went to the one I'm thinking of then your dad will have had a beast of a haggis supper!

Looking forward to day 3

Thanks! 68017 may still be on the Fife cats - this was only a few days ago, not 3 months! .

He did have a decent one, that's for sure! Haymarket is really the place for them, that's for sure!

I like Fujifilm cameras, although I've currently got a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ18. I haven't used it for a while because it needs the lens motor replacing, I have got a replacement lens motor ready to go in it but it's a case of finding someone to fit it for me!

That'd be a great idea, based on my experiences of the Cardiff Bay Branch Line a couple of Parry People Movers would be an excellent solution when it comes to replacing the 153s.

Your latest reports are excellent, nice to see you get a few winners too. I've had deep fried haggis before a couple of times and I do like it, although it's definitely not something I'd have every time I'm up in Scotland. I really like deep fried Mars bars too, but as much as I like them I don't particularly fancy having a go at making them in my own deep fryer!

It's a good piece of equipment, that's for sure.

Thanks again! I didn't have the guts to try a deep fried mars bar to be honest and one will probably reduce my life expectancy significantly

Wow that was an impressively busy time up there! Jealous of 318254 as it's my last 318 to get for haulage!

EDIT: Well done on your last VTEC power car too!

Cheers! When are you next planning to head to Glasgow - that 318 can't wait! Also, do you need any of the 320s?

A very productive day in Glasgow

Plus a good score with that 43

Cheers!

An entertaining read, as ever.

Congrats on the Class 254 DMLV

Might have to try the chippy at Haymarket some time, not had deep fried pie for yonks.

One thing, though - I suspect your sleeper went through Newton, rather than Nelson...

I'm not keen on deep fried pie to be honest, but each to their own! I'm glad you enjoyed it and, yep, it went through Newton. I'm a complete idiot! Report edited .

Been in that chippy at Haymarket a couple of times and not a huge fan - inflated prices for a pile of grease. If I want grease, I'll nip up the road and get some lard. Best chippy that I ever came across in Scotland was at Larbert but admittedly, it's been 30 odd years since I ever went there.

FQ - sounds like a good bash and and your books are definitely fuller. Like Mr Roebuck, I was a bit thrown by the reference to Nelson.

I thought it was only you with weird policies of what you can/cannot take but it seems to be hereditary - what's the issue with not doing units in/out of Waverley?

I wasn't so keen on it either.

Thanks! I don't have any rules regarding Waverley or Queen Street in particular but Kite's right - its because they replaced the loco hauled stuff and 'neither is tainted with that underfloor s***e' according to dad.

That looked like a very busy trip. Brings back memories but very different traction these days of course. Enjoyable read though Mr Quinn

Thanks and it most certainly was a busy trip. Those were the days though with no shortage of hellfire traction out of Queen Street...

Well, the HSTs certainly aren't my cup of tea, but those Glasgow moves look like great fun.

The trams are the best bits . The Glasgow moves were certainly great!




I'd like that mars bar fried please day 3 - Mopping up

Day 3 was mopping up the Scotrail units from the previous day! Dad needed to be in the office for 09:00 for the start of his meeting and, as my Strathclyde roundabout didn't become valid until then anyway, this worked out well. Before heading to bed on the previous day, we'd set the alarm for 07:02 (47702 was absolutely hellfire) and I was the only one of the two of us to be woken by it. This showed me that dad was shattered so I just hit snooze and went back to sleep, getting woken up again at 07:12 (another hellfire shove). I got up now and turned dad's alarm up, waking dad at 07:30. He was grateful for the little extra kip and got up. I popped downstairs and onto the concourse to get numbers while dad came round. I didn't ask to go past any barriers but, while I was getting the 380 numbers from the barriers, the soche barrier guy invited me through. I gladly accepted and, after a few seconds, had identified all of the 380s there. I saw which grotty skoda had dragged the lowland up overnight and was pleased that it was 90044, not 046 as we were expecting (we'd had 046 back from Edinburgh when doing Inverness). It was then away from the cold Glasgow morning and back into the hotel and to our room. When I got back into the room, dad was on the phone to mum so I said morning. Dad was saying how large our room was and about the excellent staircase and chandelier so I got a few photos to show mum before putting my camera back in the bag. I let dad know which skoda it was and he checked if it was required. His luck is really awful with them, isn't it! That's three this year (which is bad luck in itself) and all have been dud! Now, before we headed out, I was ordered to do one of the largest time consuming, annoying things you can ever do. I probably spent more time arguing about having my shower than I spent in there! Anyway, teeth were also done and dad had his shower before we were checking out of the hotel and heading back out into the cold of the morning.

It was about 08:40 by the time we'd checked out and got onto the concourse and, as neither of us wanted brekky, we just went to get a coffee and hot choc. I got my roundabout before we headed to the Cafe Nero (once again) and got our drinks, dad getting these this morning. We then headed to Boots so dad could get some anti-histamines before walking over to the low level concourse where we said bye to each other. I first headed to the ticket office to ask if there was a nearby bin and was directed to just outside the station for one. Once I'd disposed of my Nero cup, it was done onto the low level platforms for my Scotrail spree.

When I got onto the platform, a late running dud was leaving for Whifflet. There was then pretty much two arrivals at the same time, one heading in the Argyle Street direction, the other in the Partick direction. The one heading for Partick was dud but I was very glad to see that the one in the other direction, the 09:07 to Cumbernauld was required 318266 so I leapt aboard for the very short hop along the winner metals to shack score 1, Argyle Street. We were arriving at the island platform at the same time as one heading towards Partick, so I ran over to it, getting the unit number before boarding. I was very glad to see that it was winner 320305 on this. I decided to use Hyndland for a linear hop, to hopefully get a winner behind, but it was dud 320317 that took me forward from Partick to Hyndland on this frosty morning. This was the first available but I wanted to take it anyway because Hyndland is much easier to be able to get things going in both directions due to the island platform. At Hyndland, winner 320303 and dud 320414 were there at pretty much the same time as us so I got on for the ride back to Partick, where a swift platform change was had. I was only waiting on the platform for a couple of minutes before another 3 car 320 was arriving. I was very glad to see that it was another winner 320, 320319.

We were arriving at Hyndland at the same time as another baby bin, and I quickly popped around the platform buildings to ID it. When I saw it was another winner, I sped down the platform at speed and got on 320308 for the ride back to Partick. Another fast platform change and I had a large smile on my face as yet another winner, 318262, arrived to take me back to Hyndland. I had a chat with another enthusiast here, who was also on the lookout for his requirements, so I asked if he'd seen any of my remaining 4 320/3s while waiting. He hadn't so it was just a case of wait. Winner 318250 was soon arriving for the ride up to Anniesland, where I had a quick platform change (using the footbridge at this shack) for dud 320315 back to Hyndland. Another short fester before winner 318259 and dud 320415 arrived on another one heading in the Anniesland direction. I got on for the short hop through to Anniesland, where another platform change was had onto dud 320309 and winner 318260 back to Hyndland.

I had another mini fester here before another winner arrived. I exchanged a look with the rail enthusiast that I'd asked for gen earlier, because we both knew that it was one of my requirements, 320301. Back at Partick, I was soon heading back towards Hyndland on winner 318261 and dud 318257. I now had a short fester here before I saw a winner heading towards Dalmuir, so said bye to the rail enthusiast and his friend before getting on board dud 334019 and winner 334029. I easily got a bay of 4 on board and, 10 minutes later, arrived at Dalmuir. My plan was to get the 10:58 out to Singer for a +4 onto another unit back to Dalmuir. That would then put me onto a 156 back to Queen Street, including some winner track, so I did a platform change for the 10:58, confirming that the Edinburgh at '53 didn't have any winners (in which case I would have gone for that). It didn't so I got on board double duds, and the same unit pairing that had been on this service the day before, 320312 and 320316. A minute or two later I was on the platforms of shack score 2, Singer.

I did the footbridge platform change here (front of the train from Dalmuir) and wasn't pleased to see that my unit back was running 4 late, putting me back at Dalmuir a minute after the 156 was due out. To add salt to the wound, it was dud 334027 on this, making it a superdud en route. I'd actually flagged this one many times in the past two days in the hope of not getting it again. Oh well - I'm not festering!

Back at Dalmuir, the 156 was leaving as I made it onto the platform that it'd been occupying minutes before. I headed across to the platform that the next Edinburgh, at 11:21, was due out of and simply waited for its arrival, duds 334010 and 334021 taking me back to Hyndland. I'd noticed that the 11:32 Whifflet had a requirement in the mix so I wanted to get that but didn't want it on an all shacks stopper out of Dalmuir, when the 334s do it fast.

Back at Hyndland, while waiting for the winner I'd seen at Dalmuir, I noticed what I thought was a required 334 (with a dud one), but it turns out that I just forgot to mark 334009 off my list so both that and 334002, which was leading it, were dud. Still, better than the other way round and it's not like I missed much by going through to Partick on this pair! It helped break up the fester too, as I only had a few minutes here before winner 318252 and dud 320321 arrived on the Whifflet service to take me along he line to Glasgow Central, where I decided to do some Paisley leaps to get more 380s in the book.

I headed to the high level and got on the same service that I'd been on yesterday for my first Paisley leap - the 12:04 to Ayr. The connection at Central wasn't too long but was long enough for me to make winner 380009 through to Paisley. The fields were, just like the day before, frost covered and I was at Paisley Gilmour Street 10 minutes later. I'd missed a tight connection the day before onto a service back but t was made today. Passengers were leaving the train when I got onto platform 1 (the one it was leaving from), so I had time to see that it was winner 380022 before hopping on board. This is a service that annoyingly stops everywhere en route Central and I looked at bailing one stop on to see what the plus was but, alas, it was a +0 and the service back was arriving as we were. Not worth the risk considering that it's a half-hour fester if missed!

When I got back to Central, I decided to go in hunt of somewhere for lunch. I knew that there was a Tesco just outside the station from my various wanders outside over the two days so I headed to that and got a £3 meal deal before heading back to Central's grand concourse. Then it was over to the 380 platforms again and onboard the 'fast' Gourock, booked out at 12:55. I got one of the two bay of 4s in front of the last passenger door (so excluding the driver's) - the right hand side one to be precise - and got a seat for the ride out along the line. I ate my lunch and did an RTT check, deciding to head beyond Paisley on this one after seeing that there was a +5 at the stop after. It was winner track for me after Gilmour Street and, after Paisley St James, it got very foggy outside and it was hard to see through it before we got out of the clear again and were arriving at shack score 3, Bishopton. I got off and got a photo of the unit, watching it leave before crossing over the footbridge to get onto the other platform.
Bishopton by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Into the frost by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Then it was a short fester on the platform for the 13:16 Glasgow service. I knew I'd be getting a winner when I saw what was approaching through the fog on my service and I was glad that I could tell Tech that I'd had one as he said to try one out while up here so it was onto my first of the class, 314201. These are awful units! Unlike the other units in the region, these don't have buttons to open the doors and they all automatically open at each shack. The seating is utterly rubbish - the seats uncomfortable and laid our really weirdly and don't even go higher than the upper half of my back. I really detest these awful things and was very glad to leave at Paisley Gilmour Street.

I had to change platforms here in order to get onto the one for the next service back towards Glasgow, which was going to Edinburgh (with a reversal at Central and then via Carstairs). I knew that this would be a 4 car (all the 380s going to Edinburgh are) and, as I'd had 3 of them already, I was sorely hoping for a winner. There are 16 of the 4 car ones so the chance of me getting a dud was low, shown by the arrival of winner 380111. It was a fairly busy service but I got a seat for the ride back to Central. I called dad en route, as we were planning to get the 14:30 out of Central and it was now 13:20, to say how stuff was going, where I was and what my plan was before meeting, before chilling out for the journey back through to Central. My plan was to get a winner shack and hopefully a couple of winner units by heading on a Lanark service out to Cambuslang. This would get me back to Central at about 14:15, with enough time to get across to the 14:30. Anyway, I headed over to the platform that the 13:50 to Lanark was due out of and got a photo of winner 380002 before boarding the surprisingly busy service. I got a bay of 2 to myself for the short journey, seeing 86401, 08451, 92010 and 57302 in Polmadie as I passed. The journey to shack score 4, Cambuslang, was over quickly and I was soon getting a photo of the 380 and watching it leave.
Waiting for departure by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Then, as the 380 cleared the platform, a 156 raced through on its way to Central.
Heading for Central by fishquinn1, on Flickr
I took the fairly annoying platform change here (the footbridge is accessed by two fairly long ramps) but I had a little time to wait before my ex Lanark back, which was winner 4 car 380, 380116. I got a decent bay of 4 to myself on this run and I was soon crossing the Clyde and getting back to Glasgow Central.

I met up with dad after arrival and we headed over to the ticket office to get our required tickets before heading to Cafe Nero so dad could get a coffee. It was then to the 14:30 Ayr, which I was irritated to see was dud for the day 380009. We got in the front coach but it was a very busy service but, once we boarded, a couple of guys in the bay of 4 up front immediately moved their bags from the seats and called over to us, saying that they were free. Soche!

You may be wondering what we're doing. As I said in the report the day before, the Friday afternoon would be spent visiting dad's aunt, who lives in Dalry. We wanted to be there for 16:00 but, as dad was due to finish at 14:00, I was told to come up with a little plan to do before heading there. This service was to be taken to Irvine, its second stop (first stop Kilwinning), for another service back to Kilwinning and then to Ardrossan South Beach before another to Dalry. This would get me lots of winner track and 3 winner shacks (4 if you include Dalry), with, hopefully, a few winner 380s. It would also mean that we'd visit the place dad, granddad and granny were born - Irvine, Kilwinning and Ardrossan respectively.

We got the remaining 6 donuts from the day before out and each had 3 again. A ticket check was had just after we joined the winner track (for me) after Paisley and the guard asked us if we'd had all 12 donuts between Central and there (in a jokey way). We didn't. Honest ...

We were soon in a mist-covered marshland, where you could see little out of the window again. It was rather funky and we were soon rattling past Dalry and approaching Kilwinning. We stayed on for another couple of minutes, getting to shack score 5 in that time, Irvine. We only had a fester of a few minutes here - ample time to get under the subway and wait on the platform. Dad was listening to his audiobook (not too loudly though so he could still chat), but could only hear it out of one ear. He didn't know if it was the headphones or I-pod, so I gave him mine and they worked so it must just be his I-pod. He did have an argument with my headphones for not untangling though, but it was more funny than anything else! The service that we were on back to Kilwinning was a North Berwick, so would be formed of 4 coaches. I was obviously hoping that it wouldn't be one I'd already had but this didn't come through as it was my highest mileage 380 (having had it from Edinburgh to North Berwick and back), 380106. We didn't have much mileage on it this time though, getting off at shack score 6, Kilwinning, a few minutes later. We had an easy platform change here and wandered up the Largs/Ardrossan Beach platform and then just had a short wait before we could see our next 380 approaching. I jut hit my head when I saw that it was yet another dud, 380017. We obviously got on it anyway, and got seats for the short ride along the scenic branch (views of the Firth of Clyde on the left hand side heading towards Ardrossan or Largs) to Ardrossan South Beach, shack 7. It threw us that this is a single platform shack, as there's another line where there'd be one with a second platform, and all other shacks had been double, but we noticed before going to the ticket office to ask where the second platform was. We had 10 minutes now but, when seeing how close the beach was to the station, we had to head there. It was great with the sunlight and everything and it was annoying that we didn't have longer before needing to get to Dalry but I was able to run to the water, which was quite a way due to the tide being out before we had to get back to the station. We first heard, then saw a coal train while we were at the beach but it was long gone by the time we got back to the station, with two minutes until our train to Dalry. I was very ticked off when I saw what unit we were getting back to Dalry. It was ANOTHER dud, 380003! I've only had 13 out of the 38 and have just landed 4 duds in a row on mandatory moves! Annoyance over, we were soon arriving at Dalry, shack score 8, where we left the rail network and walked over to Dad's aunt's.

It was a pleasant enough walk, breaking very thick ice on the way (in puddles) and we were soon getting to our destination. We had a brilliant time while there, including an excellent dinner, and eventually headed back out of the house at 19:30.

We took the walk back to the house; this time making use of the roads due to them being lit and it now total darkness. We were at Dalry with just under 5 minutes until our wanted train, the 19:48 to Glasgow. Our other option was to get the 19:52 to Kilwinning and go back on a semi-fast but we decided against that and I'm glad we did as it was a dud, with winner 380013 being in charge of the Glasgow stopper. It wasn't too busy but we were surprised at the amount of are dodgers you have up in this area - almost everyone of a millennial age (myself not included). It was a pleasant ride through the night and I looked at RTT on dad's work phone to see how much was behind us at Paisley. We bailed there for a linear leap, in the hope of another winner. The first was an ex Gourock, which we decided to view, but knew that there was a 6 car coming back from Ayr a few minutes after so kind of hoped for a dud. A dud was given to us so we changed platforms and got rewarded with winner 380018...

... And twice dud for the day 380009! We took seats in the former and were soon getting back to Central. Annoyingly we forgot to check if the gangway was in place (I'd have liked to see if it was because 380s have slanted fronts which move together when coupling to another one).

When we got back, I immediately noticed that there was a winner on the 20:45 Largs so I suggested we got for that. Dad didn't really want to but told me to go for it so I got on board winner 380001 while dad did god knows what. I was soon on the move again and, when arriving at Gilmour Street, I noticed that there was a winner arriving on the other platform at the same time. A flat out sprint was had under the subway and I just made it onto winner 380110 back through to Central. Dad called me just after departure and that's when I found out what he'd been doing while I headed to Paisley and back. Waiting for me at the barriers! Why didn't he just come with me?

We now wanted to find somewhere for coffee. I'd first suggested the Costa on the station but this was shut. We then wandered into the centre, noticing that St Enoch subway stop is a stones throw from Central station (I didn't try it, don't worry!). We stumbled upon a huge Costa right next to the subway stop, but were amazed to find that shut too. It's only 21:15! The small one in Nottingham is open until well past 22:00, and that's not even in the middle of a large shopping area! You can certainly tell that we're in Glasgow - there were certainly lots of pubs open! We had seen lots of Christmas lights in the main shopping area that dad's aunt had said we must see and, with that done, we started wandering back to Central, wondering what to do. Then we thought of something and, even though we'd spent a minute or so trying to figure out what the stop of the subway station we'd just walked away from was called, he simply asked 'where's the nearest subway station to here'? I hit my head and said that we'd just walked past it, to which he replied 'oh, of course'. He then suggested that we do a round trip on it and, as my Strathclyde Roundabout was already valid on it, dad just needed a ticket, which wouldn't be too much, surely?

We went down the escalator and over to a TVM for dad's ticket. A single on the line was £1.60, so we got that and found out that it was actually a smartcard thing that you tap on the barriers in order to get through. I had my ticket ready but, when I got the barriers, realized that they had no ticket slot. I obviously didn't have the smartcard function on my roundabout so I stood looking confused for a moment before going over to the open ticket office (you should probably learn something Costa - I wanted my BCCC!) and asking what I should do. Without a moments hesitation, the ticket clerk looked at my ticket and then issued an 'all day' subway smart card! Excellent!

We decided to head for the 'outer' lines (going away from Queen Street) first and got onto the platform just as one was leaving. 8 minute fester :roll:. I got my first three subway cars for sight heading in the other direction just before our service arrived, winners for everything, and my first of the clockwork orange, 132, 129 and 127. We sat in the front one and were soon on the move along the winner track. It was annoying to pass many winners in the tunnels, and I was glad when we eventually saw one in a station so I could ID it, but it turned out to be the same freaking one that we'd seen while waiting for this one at St Enoch! Another one was seen in a station while we went around though, so at least I'm coming out of it with 9 cars for sight and 3 for haulage. We had a point where we thought that dad had lost his I-pod, because he couldn't find it in his pockets or anything. He eventually found it in his inside coat pocket - which is weird as he never tends to put it in there. We thought it'd gone missing while he'd been putting it back after I got back from Paisley. Thankfully not!

Back at St Enoch, we were worried that dad's 'single' ticket on the clockwork orange from St Enoch wouldn't work the barriers to get back out. We had only done a single journey, but it didn't matter as we were let out with no problems and headed back to Central station. When there, unlike Euston on the Wednesday eve with loads of people in total silence, Central was filled with chatter and singing (it is Glasgow!), but all lighthearted. Shows the difference 400 miles can do to how people feel! We had checked Cafe Nero on the way over but that was also shut so we'd headed onto the concourse. It was 22:00 when we got onto the concourse so, with an hour and 40 minutes until our sleeper, we looked at the option of another Paisley leap. As we wandered over to the 380 platforms, we noticed that the sleeper ECS was already in and we were surprised to see a dyson sat on the blocks. We were obviously hoping that this was because skoda 44 had developed some fault and couldn't be used so 86401 was at the front of the train instead but we obviously doubted it.

The 22:06 Gourock was due out in a few minutes, so I ran over and found out that it was a winner. Dad told me to go for it, so I left him at the barriers once again and headed over to winner 380014. As we departed, I looked over to see what was leading the sleeper and saw...

... A grey skoda. Doh!

I was worried that I might be waiting at Gilmour Street for quite a while before something back, but an RTT check showed that there was still no shortage of stuff so, once the surprisingly busy 380014 got to Gilmour Street, I crossed to the platform for the next central, expecting it to be formed of 3 coaches. I was very surprised and happy when I saw that it was in fact formed of 7! The boards up here hadn't been wrong once about the amount of coaches so I was hopeful for a couple of winners...

... And was delighted when double winner 380102 and 380021 arrived! I gave dad a call to say that I was en route again, and strangely didn't arrive on one of the 380 platforms. Score the 3 winners on a Paisley leap though - I now only need 18 380s out of 38, so have scored 17 on this trip!

Dad already had an answer to the question that I had when I arrived. 'Where's 1S51'? It was now after 22:30 and 1S51 was booked in 10 minutes previously. Dad answered saying that he'd checked and that it was running about half an hour later... Probably due to UHTs causing it delays further south .

We decided to go and get a snack now, as both of us were feeling peckish. We headed to the Tesco I'd got my lunch at and got a quiche, two scotch pies and a drink each. We had crisps that dad's aunt had kindly given us, so we didn't need them. Dad also found out a weird rule about Scotland while in there. He headed over to check out what beer they had to get one for the trip back, but was told while he was looking that you're not allowed to buy alcohol from a shop in Scotland between 22:00 and 10:00! You can get utterly hammered in a pub but you're not allowed to get one to take on the sleeper! Dad got a milkshake instead (undoubtedly the better option) and noticed a Costa Express machine, so he got a large latte there. They'd shut the tills, so a member of staff helped us through the process using a self service machine (as he needs to validate it). He asked what size it was (large), before simply hitting the 'regular' button and saying that we could have it for that price. In a hurry to shut the store I think!

When we got back up to the concourse of Central, we could hear the racket of an MTU echoing around. 43321 and 43366 had just arrived on 'S51, but we didn't hang around and instead got checked onto the sleeper. 37605 and 37606 were on the blocks next to our sleeper, meaning that there were 6 locos on Central station at the time (two tractors, two trams, a skoda and a dyson). Winner 90044 was up front to take us back to London and we got into our berth and started on our snack, heading to bed not too long after departure from Glasgow. When will I return? It's taken me 14 years to get there so I don't have high hopes of getting back any time soon!