I'm going to Scotland for a week in January
Ah, of course. You'll probably clear a few classes while up there!
Which way at the T-junction?
Saturday the 3rd of November was meant to be a day in London with Dom395 but something else came up for him that he couldn't not do, so I decided to think of this. This coincided with me noticing a VERY risky fares anomaly but you know me! Nat and I just had to do it so I let him know and we decided to do it on the 3rd. I got prepared for what may happen in the days before it and it really was a T-junction. It could go one of two ways.
Tickets were booked the night before and we were soon getting to bed, Nat coming over for a sleepover so we could do some model railway work in the evening. We got to bed at about 23:30 and I slept well until about 04:50, at which point I tried but failed to get back to sleep, giving up at 05:25 and heading down to the computer to complete my mileage from Glasgow (it took a long time, that's for sure!). We were getting the 07:21 so we needed to head out at 06:50 for it, so I woke dad and Nat at 06:30, but had to wake Nat again at 06:40. We were soon all up and, after putting a banana in my bag for later, we were heading out through the darkness in the car for Leam station, which was reached about 15 minutes later. Dad was said bye to and our tickets for the day collected before we wandered up to platform 2 for the wait before the Brum cart. It was running a minute or so late (don't you just hate Manchester bound 221s?) but was soon arriving, with
168323 providing the power. I did an RTT check while on board (I know - early), which showed that a late running tour that was due through while we waited (I didn't even know about it before seeing the departure board at Leam) was from Newport to Newcastle. After that we chilled out in the rubbish 170 for the ride.
This is probably the Chiltern 170 that is in the worst state that I've been on. The seat cushion came off when I moved and the lock in the disabled toilet didn't work. Poor show! At least we weren't in it for too long, as we were soon getting off at Moor Street. Surprisingly, the Marylebone cat hadn't passed us at Bordesley as it usually does, so we checked the departure board to see that it was running 10 late. This was annoying as it should form the service we'd get back from London but we wanted to pay the New Street 1st class lounge a visit before our first train, the 08:30 from New Street to Euston (it was now 08:00 so we didn't want to sacrifice 5 minutes of lounge time just to find out what cat we'd get later in the day).
We were soon at New Street after a quick walk over, and headed over to the first class lounge. We checked the big departure board first, seeing that our train was boarding, but noting that both the 08:10 and 08:14 services to Euston had been caped due to a train fault. It seemed a strange co-incidence that two services to Euston had been caped so we expected some sort of delay on our service too, which was now additionally stopping at Milton Keynes (it should have been Birmingham International, Coventry, Watford Junction and Euston). We then headed onward to the first class lounge, which was very annoyingly shut! Why? Just why?
Now pretty annoyed, we decided to go and watch 1V44 leave to get some early morning tram thrash, but decided against this a couple of seconds later due to the 08:30 probably being busy (because both the 08:10 and 08:14 were caped). We headed down to the platform for it and were pleased to see a pendo there. Sure, it was high mileage, dud for 100
390132, but at least it wasn't an unspeakably horrible thing! We headed to the 1st class coaches, and selected an unreserved bay of 4 in coach H before chilling out, with just under 25 minutes until booked departure.
As expected, the train did fill up towards departure time, me ending up with someone sat next to me. The guard did a few announcements before setting off, saying that we'd be very, very busy today due to us carrying 4 trainloads of people (!) and that people should use the entire length of the train to try and find somewhere to sit (or, more likely, stand). He didn't specifically say that 1st class was declassified but it kind of sounded like he was implying it. We were just going to take anything that came - after all, our tickets are bonkers and we're in the posh seats anyway! He also said that the reason for the previous diversions and cancellations was due to a broken down train at Rugby (yep, it was actually a voyager!) but it had now been cleared now.
The guy sat next to us and his two mates in the bay of 2 opposite were friendly enough too, and we relaxed, departing right time at 08:30.
We were soon leaving Coventry, no 1st class service or ticket check having occurred so far. The guard did another announcement, saying, once again; to use the whole of the train and that there was a buffet for standard class passengers. He also told 1st class passengers to go to the kitchen at the very front of the train in coach K to collect their complimentary items. Thank god - I wouldn't have wanted to wade through the crowd to get to coach C! I volunteered to get them for both of us but we decided to wait for the crowd to die down (no point in being queuing for ages in coach J) first and I headed up just before the excellent corners around Weedon. There was still a short queue when I got there but I was only waiting 5 minutes before being served. I got an orange juice and a ham and egg sarnie, Nat getting a coffee and a sarnie, and I was soon returning to our seat. We ate brekky as we headed through towards London, slowing just before Hanslope junction, continuing at a slow pace through to MK. It was rather embarrassing being overtaken by a dez, but we passed it again at Wolverton anyway. I wasn't happy to see that one of my last 3 required ones was leading the 12 coach set (really, yep! On a Saturday!) but we weren't going to track it down, that's for sure. We were soon leaving MK, where Nat got someone sitting next to him, and continued to Euston, currently running 10-late according to the guard. We picked up speed fairly quickly and were soon racing along the WCML. Nat was worried that I'd see two winner 387s in Bletchley that he'd already seen, as he's now down at Rugby station every afternoon due to his collage being there. He was glad to see that I wasn't to score the two 387s that had been on test the week before, as it was nothing but loads of dezes on the yard. The 1st class host announced just after we passed through Cheddington that she would no longer be offering complimentary refreshments due to us approaching Euston - which was slightly comedic. Apparently the definition of 'approaching' has now been extended to 36 miles and a booked half an hour!
The curve at Berkhamstead was just excellent with the tilt and we rather enjoyed that bit. Unfortunately, just after Hemel, the brakes came on and we crawled from there to Watford, losing 5 minutes in the process. A 377 was strangely departing for Croydon from the bay platform and we were soon overtaking it just outside the station after gaining speed again. We got a good view of a 378 as it crossed the very large bridge to head towards Watford High Street out form Bushey and we were soon racing towards the capital. Passing under the Chiltern mainline, a 168 was seen heading towards Marylebone but we managed to get the number, giving a 'what are the odds' moment, as it was the 170 that had taken us from Leamington to Moor Street on its way back (the 08:15 from Moor Street), with a 4 coach 168 that we'd seen at Moor Street! It was very odd to see that and we saw another rather odd thing in Wembley depot - a 375. It was one of the new liveried ones - probably just made it back to London - with 37884 for company. It was good to see A Shropshire Lad too (67012), with 67029 along for company. There was quite a bit there but we only managed to ID a small amount of it.
We were soon getting to Euston, arriving 15 late, meaning we didn't have time for our little detour to get across to Liverpool Street. We were meant to have exactly an hour before booked departure to Norwich but we only had 45 minutes due to the delay now. Our plan was to head across to St Pancras for Thameslink to Blackfriars and back to Farringdon for the silver worm over (we also equipped ourselves with travelcards to do the cross London transfer and as a backup if our tickets weren't accepted) but we'd only have time for a bit of that now, as we headed to the Victoria line (I hoped to score a set getting across to the cross). We arrived on a non-barriered platform, with no manual checks, so had no problems ticket validity wise, and went to the Victoria line. After the long walk to the platform, we saw that winner
11071+11072 had already arrived so it was straight on for the one stop hop to Kings Cross St Pancras, were a long walk had us on the Farringdon bound Thameslink platform. We weren't too happy to see that the next service wasn't for another 7 minutes, even more so after seeing that it was a Sutton service formed of 4 coaches so would probably be a 319. It was indeed one of Thameslink's worst class, winner
319446. We now didn't have too long to get to Liverpool Street, so could only take it to Farringdon, where we had 18 minutes until booked departure of our skoda.
We had a quick walk over the bridge to get onto the Liverpool Street bound tube platform and we were soon there, watching winner
21092+21091 arrive on a Metropolitan line service. We got on board and easily got seats for the ride along the line to Liverpool Street, getting there with 10 minutes left.
We headed to the normal exit to the heavy rail platforms, but found that they were quite literally digging it up, so there was no direct access to the concourse. This caused loads and loads of crowds heading to the small amount of ticket barriers and small exit from the tube platform, but we eventually squeesed through to get out onto the street, where it was across the road and into the national rail station, glad to be out of the huge crowd. We headed down the escalator to get to the main concourse and found that our service, the 10:56 to Norwich, was on platform 9. I got my first 317/7 for sight on the walk over to the skoda, and it was through open barriers to see dud
90014 waiting to take us to Norwich. I've only had 5 of the 15 (as had Nathan, who was also irritated). We got on board to find that most of the 1st class seats were reserved or taken. There was one bay of 2 (with a table in the middle) that was neither but it looked different to the others and was kind of like an ironing board seat. We reluctantly took them and simply waited for departure, me giving dad a call to let him know how it was going just before departure (heading to the vestibule for it). The rubbish skoda was soon pushing us out of Liverpool Street and into the suburbs.
We relaxed as we headed out on this 'fast' service, stopping at Colchester, Manningtree, Ipswich, Diss and Norwich, and we got up to some fairly good speed before Stratford. We then slowed again and crawled through platform 10, accelerating just after the station. The was little on Ilford depot but we identified several 315s at some sidings on the right hand side as we passed. We then continued on towards Anglia.
A ticket check occurred about 15-20 minutes out of Liverpool Street, and the guard was very confused with our ticket. We showed him the proof but he was still confused and ended up saying that it'd be quicker getting off at Colchester and going back to Liverpool Street to get to our destination. He agreed that with the proof, our routing should be valid but decided not to let us go for it

.
We headed to the buffet to get some complimentary refreshments on the journey - an orange juice, a pack of crisps and some biscuits - and relaxed to eat them as we continued towards Colchester. I looked at RTT en route to see how long we'd have to wait at Colchester, but found out that it was only 10-15 minutes so we wouldn't need to fester for long. It was very annoying to have to get off at Colchester because it was all winner track after there and we'd have an hour and 10 minutes in Norwich, which would house loads of winner units for sight and my last of the original cats for sight, 68005. At least it would mean that we'd get some decent use out of our travelcards though.
We were soon approaching Colchester, at which point Nat wanted to head to the very back vestibule, right behind the skoda. Don't ask me why (Billy Joel) - it's an awful loco and it makes no noise! I headed down with him and we got quite a few numbers in Colchester depot before we arrived at Colchester itself. We got a couple of photos of the skoda before changing platforms for the Liverpool Street skoda, knowing that we'd have no problems with ticket validity on this one as the guard on 90014's service had written on the ticket to tell the guard on the way back that we were valid.
Norwich bound 90 by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
We first headed to ID the dusty bin in the bay platform that leads out towards Colchester town, me getting a phot of it, and I called dad to say how it was going.
Dusty bin by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
We then wandered down the platform to the platform that our skoda back would depart and I got a photo of the two dusty bins in the other bay platform while waiting for our rubbish ex VT skoda to arrive. Why couldn't Anglia have got the 87s instead of the skodas...? I'd be down in Anglia land much more often if they had!
Dusty bin by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
The announcements for our service back said that services from Colchester to London were very busy today and that the 12:03 was reported full and standing. He also announced that there was another service 10 minutes behind that would be less busy if some passengers wanted to wait for that. Not a hope!
Winner
90002 was soon arriving and we noticed a free bay of 2 in the front coach (obviously 1st class) which, as I was first on (there was only us boarding in the front coach), I got into the bay of 2, with Nat joining me.
Heading for Liverpool Street by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
We were glad that it wasn't the ironing board style seats in this one and it was certainly more comfy. We were soon on the move, identifying another unit that we hadn't yet managed to get in Colchester yard, and we were soon heading along the Great Eastern mainline at about 90 mph, with no noise from the front (no change there then).
I headed up to get complimentary stuff for Nat and I en route, getting an orange juice, crisps and a pack of biscuits each, just like on the way there. We then got seats again and discussed what we were going to do in London. I wanted to do the DLR from Stratford to Stratford International as it was a bit of track that I'd failed to get up to now, so it was irritating me. We decided to get off this skoda at Stratford to linear hop to Liverpool Street on a dusty before going back out to Stratford to get the DLR and then, by Nat's request, get another grotty skoda back to Liverpool Street before heading to Thameslink. This was alright with me so we took 90002 through to Stratford, after stopping at Colchester. Although I hate the AGA skodas with a passion, I have to admit that the nameplate on 002 is pretty damn good. We watched it leave (for no other reason other than the dustys to Liverpool Street would leave from the same platform) and then checked when the next AGA service to Liverpool Street was, finding out that it was only a few minutes. I couldn't stop myself from laughing as I saw the front one of the two as it was one that we'd already seen 3 times so far. It was winner
321315, with another winner,
321322 on the back. We got in 315 for the short ride through to Liverpool Street, where we checked a departure board and found out that we had the choice of a double winner 357 or a double winner 321 back out to Stratford, both leaving at 13:13. You just need to read these reports to know which we went for. Vote winners
321352 and
321359!
We were soon back at Stratford, where we headed to the Stratford Not-International bound DLR platforms. On the way down the stairs I forgot to remove my hand from the handrail before stepping off the bottom one, and my doing so the corner of my thumb got its skin removed by the metal edge. Unfortunately I didn't have anything to clean the blood up with, but kept it under control by...
Well...
Being a vampire...
I know but it did work! We had a 5-minute wait before the next one to International so I did a quick run over to the Canary Wharf bound platforms while we waited, to identify another couple of DLR units. Then it was back down to Nathan, where we now had a 1-minute wait before winners
56 and
10 arrived. Nat wanted to sit up front, but I knew that the chances of us getting a seat up there was slim so, instead of heading for the front, I headed for the back and got decent seats as we watched the track we'd just gone over disappear. This also meant that we were up front for the return journey, on the same set and we were soon back at Stratford.
We had about 10 minutes until the skoda was due to Liverpool Street, so we headed up to the platform and number collected until it arrived. I sustained a second injury while waiting, my knee smashing into a metal box thing that was sticking out of a lamppost. Why does Stratford hate me?
On the way to Liverpool Street on the dusty bins, I'd identified a skoda heading towards Norwich as one of our dud ones. As Nat had seen 90004 heading to Toton earlier in the week, we knew that it could only be two duds. The chance of this was low, as we had 9 winners that it could be. Because of this, we weren't too happy to see dud
90008 arriving. Why does Stratford hate me?
We got on board 1st class (as our tickets were still valid in it) and I headed to the buffet to see if we could get complimentary stuff while Nat did some window hanging. The buffet guy had apparently shut up but was still there so I asked if we could get the complimentary stuff. He said no and asked why we didn't come up sooner but, when I explained that we'd just boarded, he said that he'd get us some. We went for the usual from the buffet and I thanked him profusely for getting it for us before wandering back down the train and getting a seat in an empty bay of 4 for the rest of the journey, drinking my orange juice and eating my biccies and crisps. At Bethnal Green, we overtook a couple of LO 315s, and I was delighted to see that the leading one was my last required LO one, and penultimate one overall! An excellent end to Anglia for the day!
Once at Liverpool Street, a quick platform sweep was done and we then headed to the tube, using the same crammed entrance that we'd used earlier in the day. We then got down onto the Farringdon bound platform just before winner
21353+21354 arrived on a circle line service. We got on board and got seats for the ride, soon getting to Farringdon where we headed to the footbridge to see what was working, and go for stuff fairly easily. We were only on there for a couple of minutes before I saw a Bedford service arriving and knew that I wanted to be on it, as it was winner for everything
700108. This was Nat's first 700 and apparently he doesn't like the smell (new train smell) or seats (ironing boards, so who can blame him). He quite liked them though, and we were soon alighting at St Pancras, where a platform change was done, getting onto the other platform in time to see headlights coming out of the tunnel. Another 700 - excellent! Winner
700106 took us through the tunnels to Blackfriars, where we saw another one in the platform next to us. I knew that we had 9 minutes until this was due to arrive at City Thameslink due to seeing the display there, so we headed over, taking ages to change platforms at this annoying station, with the stupid barriers rejecting our ticket as we tried to go through to get onto the other 700. Luckily the barrier staff were quick at letting us through and we were soon on winner
700112. We took this for the very short hop to Farringdon, where a platform change was had onto a Brighton service. We wanted to get to Clapham Junction for a bit so we decided to take this through to East Croydon, and were glad to see that it was a 700. This was actually my first of the 8 car 700s, winner
700002 being the unit. We got seats on this unit, the door next to our chosen ones being out of order so we had to enter through a different one. We then relaxed as we headed out to Blackfriars before making the usual stagger via Elephant and Castle. It wasn't a fun stagger but was soon over and we strangely saw a 313 in Selhurst - something we certainly weren't expecting! Alas we couldn't ID it, which is annoying as we need all of the Southern ones.
At East Croydon, we forgot the door next to us was out of order so might have been overcarried if I hadn't remembered after seeing all the other ones open except this one! Luckily we got off, and headed onto the footbridge to check when the next Victoria was. It was only in a few minutes, at 15:23, so we headed to the platform and waited for it. Alas it wasn't a treble unit, but double winner
377115 and
377431 would do for the run to Clapham. It was a busy service and I only just managed to get a seat, but it wasn't exactly a long run to Clapham. Nat couldn't be bothered to wander through the train to find a seat and instead just stood in the vestibule we boarded in. That's his own laziness though!
We were soon alighting at Clapham Junction, where we agreed that I'd go looking for haulage scores and Nat would do some spotting. The bottom of my bag felt wet for some reason (it wasn't a rainy day or anything, and the rest of my bag was fine) but I decided that it just must have been something on the 377 and I headed over to the same platform as Nat - 10 - and saw a pair of 455s arriving. I confused the guard as I went to get the numbers and checked them against my required ones for haulage. He asked what I was doing, so I just said getting the numbers, before boarding double winner
5865 and
5855 for the ride to the first stop, Vauxhall. I stayed on the same platform as there was another service due in one minute, and was annoyed to see that it was a dud! I've only had 10 of the 91 SWT ones (excluding the pair I'd just got)! I wasn't taking it and, as the next service from platform 7 was in 5 minutes, I changed to platform 2 and only had to wait 2 more minutes before winners
5870 and
5907 arrived to take me through to Waterloo.
At Waterloo, I did a very quick departure board check, before heading to the main 455 platforms. I saw that the ones leaving soon were all either ones that I'd already had or single units. I then saw an Alton bound 450 pair waiting to depart, so ran over, sure that I'd seen Clapham on the departure board for it. I boarded at the guard's door as there was a matter of moments before it was going to leave. Then I heard it. 'Welcome to this South West Trains service to Alton. Calling at Surbiton...'. I ran off again, saying the guard that I thought it stopped at Clapham, before deciding to get out of Waterloo quickly. I headed to a Dorking service that was running 5 late and got on board, winner
5733 taking me out to Vauxhall, for double winner
5920 and
5723 back. I was planning on getting another service from Vauxhall to Clapham to meet Nat and get a 444 through to Waterloo with him, but a double winner was too hard to resist.
Back at Waterloo, I saw a couple of 450s waiting to work a Hounslow service. I double checked that they stopped at Clapham, seeing that they also stopped at Vauxhall and Queenstown Road. It was double winner
450560 and
450099 that took me back out of Waterloo. We left a couple of minutes late at 16:17 instead of 16:15, and I called Nat to say to get on something that stopped at Vauxhall and meet me there. I took the 450s to Vauxhall as planned and got a call from Nat when I got there to say that he was on 5904. I headed to platform 7, as I assumed that's where he'd arrive on (he was on platform 10 at Clapham spotting so I doubt he'd have gone over to the Windsor platforms to get one). I soon saw 5904 arriving, a score for sight, and looked for Nat on the platform but, when I couldn't see him, called him to ask where he was. The idiot had stayed on because he'd forgotten to get off! I simply told him to meet me under the station clock at Waterloo and that I'd get the next one in. If it was a winner of course

.
Winner
5708 was the first one in so I took it to Waterloo and met Nat with no problem. It was now probably the sort of time we'd need to head to Marylebone, it being about 16:30 with our cat departing at 17:10. I was hungry though so we wandered outside to Sainsbury's local (thanks for the tip Kite!) and got a couple of large scotch eggs and 10 mini beef pasties. Well, it might have been 10. There was a little star next to the 10, which said 'average amount' when you looked at it. Have I seen that before buying, I would have counted the amount in each one until I found one with over 10

.
We were soon heading down to the Bakerloo line, where a 2 minute wait on a very, very busy platform was had before one arrived. We got on board (we'd walked down to the end of the platform where there was much fewer people) but, after a couple of minutes sitting there doing nothing, the driver announced that there was a track circuit failure at Warwick Avenue and that trains were being severely delayed and held. Great. We decided to leave as we had no idea how long we'd be waiting here or if we'd be stuck in a tunnel for ages, so we took the very, very long trek over to the Jubilee line and got there as a set was leaving. I had felt the bottom of my bag again and found out that it was now even wetter and sticky too. I had no idea why, so I headed over to a bench and opened my bag, putting my hand in to see if it was something in my bag. Well, you know how I'd put a banana in my bag earlier in the day? It had kind of... well... liquefied. Yep, not exactly pleasant to put your hand in a bag to get loads of banana much covering it. I wasn't exactly thrilled at this, knowing that it would also have covered everything in my bag, but decided to clean it up when at Marylebone or, if we made the 17:10 by some miracle, then the train. Luckily it was only a minute until the next, winners
96080 and
96003 taking us through to Baker Street. We'd resigned ourselves to missing the 17:10 now, as it was 17:01 when we arrived at Baker Street. We didn't want to have to run to Marylebone from here and doubted that the Bakerloo would play ball to get us there in time. It was a basic cross platform change here and, about 2 minutes later, winner
3562 and dud
3261 were arriving. We got on board and the driver announced that there was the track circuit failure and that we were just waiting to get clearance to Marylebone. This took 4-5 minutes and we were soon moving to Marylebone. It was then up onto the concourse, and we got there to see that the DVT on the 17:10 had just started moving. Oh for goodness sake, why?
We now had an hour to wait before the 18:10 and I really wanted to get my bag cleaned out, so we wandered over to the toilets to find that you needed to pay 30p to use them! Not a hope! Instead, we headed to a place completely out of the way on the concourse and got some napkins from Upper Cost to clean it out. As expected, the majority of stuff in my bag was covered, but I managed to get the worst off things and the worst off my bag. I have a couple of carrier bags in there, one of which was coated in the stuff, so I made a mental note to put that in the wash when I got home and, over the period of 25 minutes, had a relatively clean bag. I was glad to get rid of it, but ticked off that it had happened. Other than trains, this day hadn't gone too well for me! Everything had gone well for Nat, who had seen an RHTT come through Clapham while he was spotting with two winner EDs (winners for me too) and had got two and a half pages of numbers full in the time period he was there, compared to my half a page. He hadn't hurt himself at all (damn you Stratford - that bruise isn't exactly nice and the cut is a pain too) and had got many more winners than me.
We ate some of the beef pasties while waiting for the ECS for our service, and headed to the information point which I knew from past experience had a live signaling display for Marylebone. We got to see an ECS approaching from Wembley on it - 5H50 - which we were very much hoping was the ECS for our service (1G53) as, if it wasn't, the 18:10 would be formed of something already in the station (a cart). We were very relieved when we saw that 5H50 had been routed into platform 3 (an empty one which has enough platform space for a cat+6 coaches+DVT), with the next working from 3 being 1G53 accoring to that. We left the information booth and headed over to the platforms, wandering down to see DVT headlights approaching. I had no idea which cat was with 82304 so it could be one of our first choices. My first choice was Gingertom for obvious reasons (best cat and all that), Nat's 11 as it was low mileage for him and he hadn't had it for over a year. I ran ahead to get the cat number before Nat, and he knew which one it was with my reaction. Hi again
68014!
I put my hand on the loco for a moment after it had stopped and a member of Chiltern staff told me off, saying that it was dangerous and wasn't allowed. Guess what he did moments after? Complete hypocrite!
We got on board, after Nat put his hand on GT for about 10 seconds just to spite the staff member (who wasn't looking at the time), and got the usual partition bay of 4. The service filled up lots and was full and standing upon departure from Marylebone, with someone sat next to both Nat and I. We ate our scotch eggs while listening to GT make some of the best noises I've ever heard a 68 make, and we were soon racing along towards Leamington.
No ticket check occurred on this service and, after one hell of a great journey with GT, we were alighting at Leam. We obviously watched her thrash off towards Birmingham before heading to the car park, where we were waiting for a couple of minutes as Nat's mum was running slightly late. She was soon here and we got in for the ride home, after a mixed day. It's a shame we didn't make it to Norwich but at least we got loads of scores in London instead. Other than the 1st class lounge being shut and all of the guff that I had happen to me, it was a brilliant day, and I'm glad we went.