Fair enough. I haven't been on many preserved railways north of the MRC either (the NYMR and KWVR are the only ones that spring to mind at the moment, but there's bound to be others). That's because Pres lines are only really used for day trips for me, and many of the northern ones are just too far to drive for a day trundling along at 25mph.
The local ones
The 12th of April 2017 was a Wednesday, and the day that Nat and I had decided to go for a cat bash due to there being bargain advances from Brum to Marylebone and back for the two of us. I booked these online and had picked them up on a previous trip so, by the time we picked Nat up at 05:50 on the Wednesday morning; we were all ready for the day except tickets to get to Brum.
We'd soon got to Leam and walked to the stations, Nat getting a bus number on the way; he's gone over to the dark side, but for stagecoach buses only. Oh, and certain lorries too. I know: he's crazy. Anyway, enough about boring you all about rubbish road transport. To the railways. We got the tickets to Brum and headed up onto platform 2. The 06:24 to Brum was soon arriving, with 165004 on this morning. I was pleased to see it, because Nat didn't believe me that it looked different on one of the two front ends to the other ones, so I wanted to show him. It was the rear coach of the unit that had a slightly different paint job on the front end so I'd have to remember to show him at Snow Hill. I've attached a photo of it from a future trip, and another of a 'normal' Chiltern 165 to show you the difference (there's a bit of white paint on the front of 165004 that isn't there on the others).
165004:
The odd one out by fishquinn1, on Flickr165013:
165013 by fishquinn1, on FlickrAnyway, enough about 165s. The journey to Brum went smoothly and we were soon getting to Snow Hell. Nat had mentioned seeing a graffitied 168 in Moor Street sidings before arrival, so I was hoping to see that when we came back out.
We immediately left the station and headed over to the square peg Wetherspoon for brekky. As usual, dad and I went for pancakes with Nat going for a hot choc. Brekky was great as usual and we had a good chat before having to head our separate ways, Nat and I to Snow Hell, dad to work. We got to Snow Hell before our next service, so we could get down to the far end to ID the cat before boarding - it was dud for 1000 68011. This set my mind to rest, because I knew that it'd be this or 13, the latter being preferred due to it's required for 1000 status. There'd been swaps the night before, so I wasn't sure what'd happen.
Nat was right about there being a graffitied unit in Moor Street sidings, but not a 168 - a 170 (well, a 168/3, but that's just a 170). It was completely covered and I just managed to get a photo before the battery on my camera died - typical!
Graffiti by fishquinn1, on FlickrThe journey to Banbury went smoothly, seeing no fewer than 4 locos between Leam and Banbury, with a further one coming through Banbury while we were there. I showed Nat the spot that I always stand on to watch a cat leave Banbury towards Marylebone, a particular point under the footbridge, and custard was deafening before it came under the footbridge. Oh my life this class is amazing!
After a wait at the station we could see the 09:00 Marylebone arriving, which would be our traction to Bicester. I was pleased to see 168107 on this one, my favourite 168. Why? Easy. I like 168/1s far more than any other subclass of them, so it'd be one of those. I dislike 3 car units and prefer the 4 car ones because they have more capacity (obviously), and I simply prefer 107 to 106, which is my second favourite. Anyway, Nat and I managed to get seats for the 14-mile journey and we were soon arriving at Bicester. Our service back towards Banbury was running slightly late, so we got in the warm of the waiting room before emerging to get onto the approaching cat. After much screeching and trying to attack us, we finally managed to get on board the common house cat for the run home. No, sorry, wrong cat. There was no screeching from 68013 this morning and we got on board with no problems, selecting a bay of 4 for the ride back towards Birmingham.
I found out later on that the cats were running to exactly the same diagrams as the day before due to problems, but I was completely fine with this as it meant that I got hairball for the long run instead of custard.
The run through to Brum was uneventful, and we'd soon arrived on platform 4. Dad had decided that he wouldn't come down to Leam with us, and then back on the 11:25 cat as he'd been thinking of doing before neither 68013 or 68011 was needed for 1000 for him, so it was certainly a surprise when Nat pointed him out walking down the platform towards the DVT. Ihad no idea what he was doing, so jumped off and ran down the platform to him, finding out that he had decided to join us...
... But thought that we were on the service back from Leam and not this one due to 'not thinking'. It's lucky Nat noticed him! He came back down to our bay of 4 win the back coach and it was a soche ride to Leam, where dad bailed for 68011 back to Brum. Nat and I stayed on for the ride through the Chilterns. Unfortunately we had to go through the most dangerous stretch of track in the country to get there. Why is the bit from Bicester to Princes Risborough so dangerous? It's so boring you need to try hard not to cut your wrists with a blunt knife
.West Ruislip provided some hellfire traction for us. 4 bombs, the ones currently being used for the S stock movements (311, 314, 096 and 107) were sat in the yard. The blue two are also my favourite class 20s, having had the brilliant run from Donny to New Street on them back in 2015, so it was good to see them again. After that it was Wembley yard, which was home to a few cats, and then through to tunnels to arrive at Marylebone.
We bailed at Marylebone and exited the platforms, heading to M&S to get some cakes. There was a 2 for £4.50 deal on the tubs of mini cakes, something I've had several times before an loved, so we got a couple of those and split the cost. It was then back over to 68013, getting a bay of 4 in the front coach for the ride back to Birmingham, leaving Marylebone on time at 13:10.
It was a fun, thrashy ride through to Birmingham, with Hairball passing the 1000-mile mark between Banbury and Leamington. We were soon back on my most traveled section of track, Leam to Brum, and we had soon arrived at Moor Street.
I'd arranged to meet up with dad at the office at 15:30, so we had time to do a Snow Hell leap beforehand. Superduds 172211 and 172339 were on the first available through the tunnel, so they were taken through to Snow Hell. We then headed over to platform 3, as the 15:12 to Marylebone was strangely departing from that platform today. The 15:07 service to Whitlocks End, a 172 that departs before it, was currently in platform 2 but was a superdud, where the sad excuse for a 168 wasn't. 168005/3 was a hybrid. 3 coaches were from 168005, and the other from 168003, but the unit carried both unit numbers. Still, due to there being more coaches from 168005, that's what I claimed the mileage from. We got on board the unit that looked like it'd fail any moment. The engines weren't powering from what I heard, the display on the front of the unit knackered, all the lights flickering and, before departure, the doors were being annoying. I was therefore very surprised when I heard that it wasn't us that had broken down, but the 172 in the other platform! Wow!
Back at Moor Street, it was 172219 and 172220 that took us back to Snow Hell, where it was time to meet dad. We had 10 minutes to walk over, which was ample time, and Nat commented that he'd never been to the office before, despite him having come multiple times before. I pointed this out, but he was still adamant that he'd never been. Goldfish memory...
Dad came out a few minutes later than planned, and we wandered over to Moor Street, where I got my water bottle filled up and dad got a coffee. When then headed back over to 68013 and were soon on the move. Dad, who had an appointment for something in Leam, bailed there. This appointment would take about an hour and a half, so there was ample time for Nat and I to go through to Banbury and back on another cat, so that's what we did. 68013 was sounding hellfire leaving Banbury, but not as much as 11 was earlier in the day!
Nat wanted to wait up on the footbridge during the fester, which is also the concourse. I wanted to wait on the platforms though, so we each split up. That was until I went back up onto the footbridge to tell Nat that I'd found a comfy, warm place to wait before departure of our cat. What was it? The 1st class area of 166221! We weren't travelling in it, so, in my opinion from reading the poster, we were perfectly entitled to wait in there with our standard tickets. It was a fairly comfy place to wait, and we stayed in the unit until 68012 was arriving.
We managed to get a bay of 2 on board and I got a text from dad in the Leam area confirming that we could go through to Warwick Parkway on this, so that's what we did. Then, after watching it leave Warwick Parkway, we changed platforms to get on the 17:36 back to Leam, which was running a few minutes late. Unfortunately it was a /0, but 168001 did the job of getting us back to Leam... adequately. From there it was simply out of the station and back to the car, getting there just after dad. Then it was homeward, dropping Nat off en route after a great day with another cat cleared for 1000.
. I wanted to get some shacks on the Herdings/Halfway branch so I got off at Castle Square and got on 125, which was on a Herdings Park service. I knew that I didn't have too long until Roversfan's train to Notty, as he'd managed to escape the Manchester signaling problems with a delay of only a few minutes, so I decided to go and get my required shack on the Herdings Park branch, Herdings.
. I helped someone off the train with their suitcase before wandering back over to platform 1 and making a visit to the 1st class lounge for my 20 minutes until the 13:55 tram. It was a nice little wait and I was exiting as 43161 and 43004 arrived ECS to take me back to England on a fairly lightly loaded service.
