The seats on GWR trams are absolutely awful! I agree that the 319/2s have better seats than them. Shame about the rest though...
As Richard says, I can't stand skodas, especially 1-15. I rarely say this, but I'm looking forward to the locos being replaced by the units - the only reason I do the skodas is because of the MK3s, which will be missed.
I've had a triple 375 on a Waterloo East-Charing Cross leap on a Saturday before, but double winners certainly aren't bad!
I didn't know that they tend to be 465s - I thought it was solidly 375s. It can't be fun coming from Ashford or Canterbury on a 465!
Beginnings
2016 gave an ending, but 2017 gives a beginning! The 4th of January gave me my first 'big' trip in 2017. By big I mean that dad, Nat and I (and my brother, but that's just the lure of a couple of Greggs pasties) had done a return to Brum on the 2nd in order to get a loco as the first thing of the year - this honor fell to 68012. The 4th was the first trip worthy of a report, and was the trip that I was trying to get reservations for on my past two trips. Having managed to get the reservations that I wanted on New Years Eve, I was much happier about using the loophole that I was planning to. It was also aided by the fact that I had a friend doing it with me, another rail enthusiast, who wishes to remain anonymous. He'd be coming from Manchester on the service that I was getting from Nuneaton, using the same loophole as me.
On the morning of the 4th, dad's first day back at work after the Christmas break, I got up at 05:30 and then got ready for the day ahead. We left at 05:50 for the station and were soon getting there. I picked my tickets up from the TVM, having bought them online the night before, and I had to use the TVM outside, as the one inside was out of order. We were soon heading up to platform level, where 66952 became the first sighting of the day, and we waited a few minutes for my first unit of the year. This was soon arriving,
165016 providing the power. There were a lot fewer people waiting for this service than usual so it was easy to get our usual seats, and I found out that this unit has turned around since I last had it, so I scored the other coach for the ride through to Brum. It was an uneventful ride and, after a while, we were arriving at Snow Hell. We headed over to Wetherspoon as usual and it was my turn to buy today. Dad got his usual pancakes and bacon, me going for pancakes and syrup, and we got a round of toast to share, along with my orange juice and dad's coffee. We sat in a different spot to usual because someone else was sat next to our place and it was very quiet this morning. I got a call from my friend just as brekky arrived. He told me that he'd got to Mancc and gone to the ticket office to see if they could write a note to validate our itinerary in case we had a problem, but they said no and just took the itinerary, the only thing to get him to Nuneaton. Surly that's his personal property and they had no right to take it? He told me that his plan was now to buy a ticket to Stoke and then a WMDR to get as far as Nuneaton, where I'd have reservations and a separate itinerary. This sounded like a good plan, so I said bye and started eating, but realized a minute or two later that the WMDR has morning peak restrictions so wouldn't be valid at the time my friend would leave Stoke. I immediately called him back to say, and it was decided that he'd just cross to Leeds and that I'd meet him there instead. It's a shame that he couldn't join me for the first half but at least it means he won't have problems. They'll be with me...
I finished my pancakes and toast and spent some time chatting with dad before I needed to head for the bat cave, and dad work. We headed out together and soon split ways, me heading down Corporation Street. I was soon at New Street where a look at the departure board told me that my first train would be leaving from platform 11b. I was hoping for one of my last two required 170s, but it wasn't to be as dud
170105 was in charge of the 07:52 to Leicester, which I'd be on as far as Nuneaton. It wasn't a busy service and I headed to the front coach (1st class was in the rear coach on this 3 car unit) and got a seat in the very front left hand side bay of 4 (the right hand side one was taken) and put my audiobook on, The Shining by Steven King. We were soon on the move and I got the numbers of stuff in Lawley Street and Washwood Heath before relaxing for the ride through to Nuneaton.
New Street to Nuneaton certainly isn't the most thrilling of runs, and seems to take ages, so I was glad to see the West Coast mainline as we crossed it. It was then a very short run to the platform at Nuneaton, making sure that I was out of earshot of the 170 before it left (if that's possible). Them it was over to a departure board to see how my Euston service was doing. It was running 10-late, but this didn't jeopardize my connection across London at all, which I had over an hour to do in my plan, so I just headed onto the platform and watched a few freights come by while texting with my friend. The highlight of the time at Nuneaton was, undoubtedly, seeing betty 18 race through on the fasts heading north. What a brilliant sound!
After a while, my 08:46 to Euston was arriving, now running 12-late. Sub-hundred-mile
390013 was on it this morning, and I got on in standard and didn't go to 1st until Rugby to try and not get my ticket checked - the last thing I wanted was a problem. After the guard had checked 1st I got a seat, and I wasn't noticed by the catering crew until Cheddington, who actually apologized for not noticing me when they came round after Nuneaton (I would've been in standard at the time). They said that they'd head to the kitchen to see what they could get me so, now very happy (especially as Nuneaton-Euston is less than 70 minutes, so I wasn't actually entitled to any food), I relaxed for the rest of the journey. That was until the guard walked out of 1st (having spent a while in coach K, and ticket checked me on his way past! I had my reservation and ticket, and he looked at it a while before asking me if I'd come from Nuneaton and where I was going. I replied, saying that I was going to the destination on the ticket and that I had boarded at Nuneaton. He then asked me why me reservation was from Mancc! I told him that I had to board short at Nuneaton because my friend couldn't join the train at Manchester in the end, so he was happy with this, marked the ticket and then continued. A couple of moments later a bacon roll and a glass of orange juice arrived. Brilliant!
The journey from there went smoothly and, after a pause at Watford to set down only, we continued to Euston without stopping. The journey was soon over and I was very happy to see that we'd arrived on a non-barriered platform, with no manual ticket checks. I was soon off the platforms and in the concourse, where I headed over to the 1st class lounge and got myself a Danish, banana and a glass of apple juice, getting a photo of part of the large lounge.
London Euston 1st class lounge by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
I then headed over to a corner and enjoyed my (third) breakfast while watching the crowds below.
I decided to stay here for a while instead of going to the KX lounge too (I wasn't hungry and Kings Cross is a dud lounge so there isn't much point) and relaxed before deciding that it was time to head over to Kings Cross. I went to get the numbers of stuff at St Pancras first and, as usual, entered via the entrance that puts you right next to the Eurostar blocks. This enabled me to get the numbers of them before heading over to the HS1 platforms. Alas, neither of the 395s were required but it killed some time that I'd otherwise have spent festering at Kings Cross. I headed there next and scored a 387 for sight while waiting for the platform of the 11:05 Leeds to come up, It was meant to pop up at 10:45, but didn't until after 10:50. I headed through the barriers and I was glad to confirm that it was the set in platform 6 (it should have been) that would be taking me to the north, EMT hire ins
43061 and
43064. The former was required for 100 and a photo (064 needed neither), and both were obviously required for 2017 as they were my first powercars of the year! I got a photo of 061 to eliminate that from my lists, noticing that one of Nat's last two required VTEC powercars was sat in a platform a couple over from me before I wandered back down to 1st class and selected a seat in a very quiet coach L. My reservation was in coach M, my least favourite 1st class coach, and I think it would've been much busier so I decided to go for a bay of 2 in L.
Hire in by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
We were soon on the move, 43064 clearly audible despite being a couple of coaches from me, and I got my books out ready to scribe numbers as we headed north out of the suburbs. I was certainly pleased that my first tram set had landed in the first 4 days of the year, which is much better than 2016, where they hadn't landed until the 20th of Feb (strangely an EMT set as well). I really like this set, which I believe is called NL65 or, as it should be called, 'random letters, random numbers' (yes, I know that the NL stands for Neville Hill). It has much lower seats than the rest of the VTEC bunch because it was ex EMT, and has a much nicer feel to it. The 1st class hosts were soon coming round, but got to me the second we started passing Hornsey depot! I managed to ID the stuff that I could in there though as he was happy to wait for a moment. I was very glad at this, as I managed to score my last 365 for sight in there!
My gourmet sausage roll had soon arrived and I was stunned at how good the quality was. It was a very tasty sausage roll and filled me up even more than I already was. I got that with a pack of crisps, which went in my bag, and I had an orange juice too. I was surprised at how long it took for a ticket check - It was between Sandy and St Neots. The guard looked at my ticket and reservation for a good while before asking me if I was going to Leeds (as my reservation said). I obviously replied yes, to which he thanked me and moved on. 2 out of 4 - here's hoping the next ones will go well!
Peterborough had soon arrived, and I had my books out ready to scribe the stuff in the GBRF depot, which housed 8 locos. Not all 66s either! The last GBRF loco in there was required for sight 59003, which cleared the GB 59s, a brilliant accomplishment. I needed 100% of them a few days back and seemed to get them all in such a short space of time! All... one of them... Anyway, that was the only score in Peterborough depot, but there was another non-66 in there, the absolutely monstrous (and best of its class) 26007.
I relaxed for the non-stop ride along the dullest part of the ECML - Peterborough to Doncaster (well, if you want to split hairs then after the line to Stamford goes off from the ECML and just before the billions of sidings around Donny). Another drinks run was done and I got myself another orange juice (there were 3 or 4 in total on the journey) and I was soon changing sides to get the numbers of things in Donny down decoy. I had to try really hard not to say 'yes!' any louder than I did after seeing 66770 as the first loco there as it meant that I only needed two 66s to clear the lot. A gherkin was the next thing I saw, before something else that made me say 'yes!', just slightly louder this time. It was 66771, my penultimate 66! Three required 66s that could be anywhere in the country and two of them were at Doncaster when I was passing. Result!
There was a rather large amount of locos seen before the station, me counting 7 of them, with 37601 and 67013 in the station itself. We had a short wait here for passengers to board and alight before moving onward, with good noise from 064 again. The journey between Donny and Wakefield wasn't great, unfortunately. It was a complete stagger, taking much longer than it should. The guard did an announcement just before arrival at Westgate saying that this was due to us following a stopper. Brilliant signaling there then. Put the on time fast service behind the delayed stopper! We were soon at Wakefield though and it was just a short, rather speedy run from there to Leeds, where I arrived 5-10 minutes late after a great 1st class journey. I saw my friend waiting on the platform outside so went out to meet him before going to buy his loophole. He'd tried to get it at Leeds but the ticket clerk refused to believe that he was 15 so wouldn't issue a child ticket. He gave me the money to get it and I managed to get one without a problem, which I then gave to him. It was then back onto the platform with a wait for our Kings Cross service, which would be the same set I'd just arrived on, to be called. Mega mileage on the EMT powercars then!
10-15 minutes before booked departure we got on board, making use of our reserved seats in coach M this time, as my friend thought that the guard would pay less attention to our tickets if we were in the reserved seats. This was a bay of 4 on the right hand side, but our seats were ones right next to each other instead of opposite and, as none of the other seats at the table were reserved, we took seats opposite each other, me facing forward on this journey.
43064 was now leading
43061 and we were soon on the move with some good VP185 noise. Think, we've still got 185.75 miles of that noise to go!
It was a significantly quicker run to Doncaster than on the way out and we were soon onto the dull section. At least I have company this time! Cold drinks and food orders had come through after Wakefield, me going for the lamb stew with mashed potato this time (with an orange juice and muffin), my friend going for a saussie roll. My friend's arrived first with mine coming just as we were arriving at Donny, so I got to eat some very good quality stew and potato while seeing if there were any additions to what was in Donny down decoy - just the one blue death. With company (and, preferably, in 1st class) the journey along this stretch isn't too bad, and we both got worried when we saw the guard approaching. It wasn't the same one I'd had on the way up, and she'd soon got to us, between Newark and Grantham (I think). I had both of our tickets and our reservation, and handed them over. She looked at the reservation quickly and then moved onto the tickets, glancing at them for a couple of seconds at most and marked them with a pen before thanking us and walking back. 3 out of 4!
We'd soon left Peterborough, where I pointed the NVR platform out to my friend, and we were soon back at speed. The journey went smoothly until the Hitchin area, where we slowed and swung over onto the slows to pass a 365 which was sat on the fasts! Isn't there something kind of backward about that? Have I fallen through a time hole? Sorry, I meant 'eloh emit a hguorht nellaf I evaH'. Bonus points for guessing what I'm referring to.
We stayed on the slows until they disappeared for the bottleneck but we still didn't gain much speed, coming to a stop at Brookmans Park. We were soon on the move again though and I confirmed that it was my last 365 in Hornsey depot as we passed, as I wasn't 100% sure in the morning. We were soon going through to Kings Cross tunnels and, after a teriffic ride, we were getting to Kings Cross, with the two powercars now being my highests two EMT ones, with 061 being on 445.25 and 064 on 494. Not to mention that they rose my EMT average mileage by 31 miles!
We were both very glad to see that the barriers were open (they hadn't been in the morning) so we just wandered through before crossing over to Euston. Due to the 10-minute late arrival of our service we had just over half an hour until our service left Euston so we didn't need to hurry and soon got there. Our service hadn't yet been called so we headed to the platform that it tends to leave from (3), hoping that the barriers weren't in operation. They weren't, but there wasn't a pendo there either so we were wondering if it was leaving from a different platform today. RTT was checked, but we found out from RTT the true platform for today at the same time as all the other normals did. Still, we're in 1st class with reserved seats - it doesn't matter! We wandered over to unbarriered platform 4, where manual ticket checks were taking place, and I presented the reservation and tickets. There was no problem and the tickets were scribbled on, meaning that we could easily get onto coach H of
390008. Our reserved seats were at a bay of 4 with another person, and one of our reservations wasn't displaying. Because of this (well, fine. Because of the first one) we just moved to an unreserved bay of 2 and took seats, my friend taking the forward facing one this time (it's only fair). Despite our reservations being to Mancc, we were only going to Crewe on this one as we both had trains home to catch and Crewe was much more convenient.
We were soon on the move, running on time, and a ticket check occurred just after we'd started moving. We handed over the tickets and reservation, but got asked where we were going. We replied with Crewe, saying that we'd been able to arrange a lift from there instead of going straight to our destination. The guard didn't think the tickets were valid, but didn't know where origin or destination was. What made her think they weren't valid then? The price. I think a £10.80 child anytime day single in 1st class may look a little suspicious when the cheapest anytime day single in 1st for a child from Euston to Crewe is £99.75! She looked at where our origin and destination were, and then looked at our itinerary that had been produced by a TOC. She agreed that the itinerary made it valid, and put it down to a ginormous website glitch, getting photos of that and the tickets. We passed the attitude test and, after getting photos of them and saying that she'd report it, she moved on, thanking us. A couple of moments later the 1st class hosts came to us and got us some dinner - a turkey sarnie with a choccy bar and crisps for me, the same for my friend but with banana cake instead of choccy. We were soon racing through the suburbs in the darkness, both of us shattered at this point (we'd got up really early). We just relaxed, with good legroom, and watched as the dark countryside raced past. We were soon storming through Rugby, 45 minutes after leaving London, and it was then onto a bit of line that I love doing non stop - the Trent Valley. We were soon zooming through Nuneaton and Tamworth a few minutes later. I love going non-stop through these places as I've seen so many services go through non stop but am very rarely on one of those services. It's good fun.
We were soon slowing rather sharply for Stafford. We weren't meant to stop there but we'd just got caught behind the Scotland service from the Brum direction - something that happens a lot. After a crawl through Stafford we got the speed on again for the rest of the journey - a mere 15 minutes - through to Crewe.
We could soon see all the lights of Basford Hall and Crewe LNWR so we started to get ready to leave. We didn't get up until we'd pretty much came to a stand and, after a good bit of mileage on 390008, we left the pendo and headed for the 1st class lounge. I only had 10 minutes before the train I wanted to be on but my friend had just under an hour so we headed into the lounge. I got myself a hot choc and a few of the excellent choccy bites, some of which went in the bag, some of which were eaten on the spot. I only had about 5 minutes in the lounge, and said bye to my friend before heading out of the lounge and down onto the platform to wait for the ex Liverpool pendo.
My plan was to break the ride up by getting this to Stafford for a dez forward. I was glad that I decided to do this when I saw that required for 10 miles
390154 was working the 18:24 to Euston. I got on board, slumming it in standard this time, and found a couple of decent seats to chill out in on the ride one stop to Stafford. I'd noticed that the Liverpool-New Street dez that is meant to give a -1 at Stafford was running a couple of minutes late at Crewe so I was hoping that I'd be able to make the connection at Stafford, but a sprint over the footbridge after arriving got me onto the platform just as the dez's doors locked. Darn it. Still, Stafford isn't a bad place for freight when you have half an hour.
I gave dad a call to let him know how it was going before watching a gherkin come through. The wait at Stafford didn't feel as long as it really was and, after about half an hour, I was watching dud
350128 arrive. I got on board in a required coach and easily found a decent seat for the ride, taking a look at RTT to see whether bailing at Smethwick or New Street would work better. RTT gave a good option for Smethwick so I went for that, getting off the dez about half an hour after boarding at 19:40. It was then up the stairs to the high level where I waited with some youths for the next 172 towards Brum. This was my first of the class for the year, with
172339 and
172213 having this honor. Both were superdud so I just got on board and found a bay of 4 for my ride. I was to be on the 20:15 from Snow Hell to Leam, but I had time for a certain move that I liked the look of before hand, so this pairing was taken through to Moor Street, where I went over the footbridge and had about a minute to wait before I could hear the incredibly loud noise of one of my favourite classes approaching. Yep, the 68 is one of my favourite classes, and is better than a tractor too! Not to mention that Custard,
68011, is a hellfire one of them, probably my second favourite. I stood in the vestibule for maximum noise from the hellfire beast as it went through the tunnel, the driver obviously on his last run before hometime as he was eager to make up the two minutes that he'd lost on the short run. Oh, what a brilliant sound! I was soon alighting, after only 0.75 miles (shame), and looking over at what would take me home. I got to hear Custard hammer out of Snow Hell though, which is a sound to remember, before having to go across to my cart. I was very surprised to see an 8 coach formation in the platform, 6 of which would be heading back to London, so I selected a bay of 4 in the very rear coach of
168109, which was the rear unit and was being led by
168110. There was no one else in this coach upon departure from Snow Hell, but two people got on at Moor Street. Luckily they both got off at Solihull, so i was just me in the coach from there to Leam.
I tried hard not to fall asleep (I think the loud, droning engines were helping with that) and read a leaflet thing that had been put on all the tables basically saying that Britain has the most overcrowded trains in Europe and the most expensive in the world and told passengers about the fares rise (which I personally think is utterly ridiculous). It was a political party that made the leaflets, although I can't for the life of me remember which one, but I do agree with it. Anyway, we were soon coming to a stop just before Leamington and credit to the driver who was immediately on the PA saying that we'd just stopped due to a late running freight train crossing over the junction ahead of us. He also said that he could see it crossing so we'd only be a couple of minutes. I gave mum a call to let her know, as she was picking me up, and we soon moved forward again and arrived at Leam after a terrific day.
Now a bit about the 'loophole'. It obviously got reported by the guard on the VT, but, unless they remove a useful part of their website, there's nothing the TOC can do about it. Obviously removing it would cost a lot of money, so I highly doubt the TOC's website in question will, and I'm happy to say that, over a week on and it hasn't been removed. For those of you interested, the journey planner issued me an itinerary for Greenfield (near Stalybridge) to Burley Park (near Leeds) and back via Euston. It went like this.
1st class single from Greenfield to Burley Park for £10.80 (child):
06:36 Greenfield-Stalybridge
06:59 Stalybridge-Manchester Piccadilly
07:35 Manchester Piccadilly-London Euston
11:05 London Kings Cross-Leeds
1st class single from Burley Park to Greenfield for £10.80 (child):
13:14 Burley Park-Leeds
13:45 Leeds-London Kings Cross
16:40 London Euston-Manchester Piccadilly
19:03 Manchester Piccadilly-Salford Crescent
19:40 Salford Crescent-Greenfield
Finally, thanks to my friend for a cracking day, even though you couldn't join me for half of it (annoying ticket office staff - stealing and not knowing what tickets are valid). An excellent day for sure.
