Sounded like a good London Challenge
It was indeed
Blimey that was a lot of reading fq.
Bit of a mixed bag with the staff, although saying that the majority seemed decent it's just that you take notice of the miserable ones more for some reason.
That is quite a coincidence that you've had over 2000 off 67014 and 68014. I'm wondering what your mileage is on 66014 now?
If you thought it took that long to read it, imagine how long it took to type it
. I tend to put the miserable ones in my reports more because the other staff tend to be what you'd expect more than anything else. If a staff member is above what you'd expect then the'd definitely go in.
My mileage on 66014 is, thankfully, the same as the mileage on every other 66 for me - 0.00
This weekend is my first since April, where I haven't been working!
Sounds like a good few trips, with some track I haven't got yet. I'm sorry I couldn't make it because I had some exams to revise for
Ouch - thank god you've now got some time off!
Feeling like a chicken
For those of you who don't remember Monday the 19th of June 2017, I hope you enjoyed your holiday to Antarctica. For those of us stuck in the tropical climate of the UK (the one time you could say that in the past centaury) we finally found out how a chicken feels like when it's being roasted in the oven. Maybe spending the hottest day of the year on non-air-conditioned road trams and units wasn't the best idea...
Since the London challenge on the 3rd of June I'd done two weekday outings, both on 68s to Marylebone and back (010 on the first one, 009 on the second). I decided it was now time to get Manchester's second city crossing done but I knew that I'd need to be on the 12:55 from Mancc to Crewe in order to be on the 15:55 home with dad. That's the reason I decided to make it a Monday. Dad has something on in Leamington on a Monday evening so I'd be able to stay out for a lot longer, giving myself a good 7 hours in Mancc instead of 3. Sounds like a good plan!
The alarm was set for 05:20 and, after a quick forum check it was to the car and then Leamington. The usual walk to the station was had and we were soon watching
165019 arrive on the 06:24 to Snow Hell. It was fairly quiet this morning and the journey to Brum was uneventful, arriving at Snow Hell a couple of minutes late due to being stopped at Hatton for a unit off the Stratford branch to cross over.
We headed straight to Wetherspoon after arrival at Snow Hell and we both spent a while looking at the menu before deciding what to go for. Dad went for scrambled egg on toast, me a breakfast wrap which was very tasty and rammed full of cheese, bacon, sausage, egg and hash brown. Oh, I could really go for one of those right now
. Dad needed to be in work for before 08:00 today so we headed our separate ways just after 07:50.
I'd soon reached New Street and had the option of waiting for the 08:15 or doing a linear hop to Sandwell and Dudley by getting the 08:01 to Smethwick for the Wolverhampton stopper forward to Sandwell. I went for the latter and got on dud
350266, now with wifi. This was one off my penultimate 350 for haulage, 350267, so I'm sure LM was mocking me. I decided to use my I-pod to try the new wifi for the hell of it but it was really hard logging on because all the text seemed to overlap on my screen. I managed to do so in the end though. A quick check to see if there was any gen on the Mancc shovel (there wasn't so I assumed it was still 67022, a winner) was had and we were soon approaching Smethwick Galton Bridge.
The guard had tried doing a full ticket check on departure from New Street before Smethwick and had reached the door that I was planning to get off at as we were arriving. Instead of going to unlock the door though she checked another couple of passenger's tickets and found out that they didn't have any so spent 2 minutes issuing them before opening the doors. I can't believe she thought blocking the line for 2 minutes before opening the doors was a good idea because there was a train 2 minutes behind us from New Street, another 3 minutes behind that and then another 5 minutes behind that. Madness!
I wasn't on the platforms of Smethwick Galton Bridge for long before dud
350238 arrived to take me one stop to Sandwell and Dudley. I'd soon arrived and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that the Edinburgh train that I was to get was running on time. This service is usually at least 3 minutes late, usually more, so I was very surprised when it arrived a minute before it was due to leave. I was happy with VT's choice of pendo for the service too, my favourite pendo
390122.
I found a bay of 2 in coach B and got settled down for the journey north. We left Wolverhampton on time so I had high hopes of being able to make the connection onto the 09:50 shovel from Mancc. This is usually a +4 at Piccadilly from the pendo that 122 would connection onto at Crewe although I've never made the connection for one of two reasons.
1. The service that I was on is running a little late and gets onto the fast lines at Stafford before the Manchester pendo but still delays it by at least 5 minutes (this is the most common reason).
2. The pendo that I was on from New Street is delayed by quite a bit and the Mancc pendo was let through Stafford first (this means that I don't even make the connection at Crewe).
Today we were running on time so wouldn't delay the Mancc pendo so the connection may well make (I know - that's a lot of words to describe missing an Occy Road leap
). I checked RTT to see how that pendo to Manchester was running and wasn't too happy to see that it was about 25 minutes late due to a vehicle striking a bridge between Rugby and MK. Darn it - the connection at Crewe will now be 25 minutes.
I wasn't going to spend 25 minutes at Crewe waiting for a pendo so instead decided to go through to Wigan and down to Mancc that way. A winner Colas 70, 70813, was scored for sight in Basford Hall and I was pleased to see my very first 345 in Crewe LNWR, 345001 (how appropriate that the first one I see is the first one).
Brand new by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
Sorry for the poor quality photo by the way but it certainly isn't easy trying to get a photo through the ultra-thick glass on a 390.
I got wedged out at Crewe and for some random reason between there and Warrington I decided to get a photo of the pendo interior. With the height of the seats on these cramped trains it was a case of holding the camera over the head.
Class 390 interior by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
Arrival at Warrington was on time and, with quite a while until the Mancc dez, I decided to see if there was anything from Wallgate. I was greeted by barriers when I arrived - something I didn't know there was at Wigan, and my rail ranger was, unsurprisingly rejected. The gateline member of staff let me through with no problems and I got to the platform to see a 150 waiting on my first option. Excellent! This wasn't any 150 though. This was a winner 150,
150141. I got a bay of 4 to myself towards the back and we were soon on the move. I checked RTT for Bolton on the way and found out that there was two services from Bolton to Mancc after this one in the space of 10 minutes. There'd then be another not too long after that so I decided to bail and see what would come along.
I knew my first option; one from the Blackburn line was a pacer long before I saw it due to the very tight curve before the station. God, they really do make a deafening screech! Anyway, with option 1 out of the window I turned my hopes to option 2. They were also shattered. Option 3 was also out and, to cut a long story short, I was eventually leaving Bolton 40 minutes later on double dud
156471 and
156424. What a dire idea bailing at Bolton was - whoever came up with that idea deserves to be thrown into a furnace. Oh wait, I would be later on
.
At this point there was an ex Clitheroe service 3 minutes behind so I got off at Salford Crescent to see what it was. I was glad I did too because it was winner
156441 that took me through to Manchester Victoria where it was over to the trams. I flagged the first one because it was a pair of duds going via Market Street. The next was heading via Exchange Square and dud
3099 did a good job at taking me through to Deansgate with winner track between Exchange Square and St Peter's Square.
I wasn't at Deansgate for long at all before I saw one of my last 4 Metrolink trams on an Eccles. Yes please! I got on board winner
3119 and saw another of my winners on a Piccadilly bound between Deansgate and Cornbrook. That's another to track down then! Dud
3101 took me back to Deansgate, where it terminated because it was an ex Airport one. Luckily I wasn't waiting long for the next tram, which was a pair of consecutively numbered duds -
3051 and
3050. It also seems that 3050 was missing a nameplate - that nameplate reading 'oven'.
I was very surprised to have a ticket check on board (a rare thing on the Metrolink) and I got a seat on board with no problems. We moved down towards St Peter's Square and stopped part way there. We were still in the same location about 5 minutes later, at which point the driver made an announcement to say that there was a points failure ahead at St Peter's Square. A few more minutes spent in the boiling tram before we moved forward again and I got off at St Peter's Square to wait for the return of my winner from Piccadilly.
The points failure was apparently caused due to the heat and was causing trams to start queuing in all directions. I got a couple of photos of the queue in one direction but they were extending in three ways.
Chaos on the metro by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
Chaos on the metro by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
Before my winner from Piccadilly arrived I saw another winner coming off the second city crossing. It spent a while trying to get a platform and then spent a while in the platform but I got on board winner
3113 before even seeing the other winner. We were on the move and trams were queuing all the way to Deansgate (we passed at least 6 different services on the way) so I decided that enough was enough (for a few minutes at least) and headed to the heavy rail, hopefully to intercept my other winner later in the day.
Double dud
156466 and
156423 provided a well needed PNB on the run to Manchester Oxford Road, where I wasn't sure what to do. There was Scarborough bound 185 that I could take to Piccadilly at the same time as a Blackpool bound Northern service that I could take to Deansgate. I'd usually go for the 185 but it was a superdud and the Northern was a pair of 150s so I went for that, double dud
150145 and
150207 taking me back to Deansgate where I wandered back over to the trams. The queue had died down a little by now but it was still there so I was on dud for the day
3119 for quite a while on the ride to Piccadilly Gardens. Dud
3095 was then utilized to take me back to St Peter's square where my thoughts started turning towards lunch. I wanted to go to Pizza Hut for the all you can eat lunchtime buffet but I had no idea where one was. From my memory I couldn't see one from the tram in the Market Street direction so I decided to get on one heading via Exchange Square to keep my eyes out. Dud
3093 took me in the direction and I noticed a pizza hut less than a minutes walk from Exchange Square station. Perfect.
I bailed there and headed to Pizza Hut, a very friendly waitress taking my order. It cost me £7 for unlimited pizza (I could really go for that right now
) and water with ice, which was a very good deal in my opinion. The pizza was good and I was very glad that I went for it. I left about half an hour after going in and was only waiting at Exchange Square for one minute before dud
3086 took me to St Peter's Square for dud
3100 forward to Deansgate. Double dud
3070 and
3075 were then used to go to Victoria where I decided to do a heavy rail platform scan to see if any winners were heading anywhere any time soon.
Metrolink by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
They weren't so it was back over to the Metrolink where
3094 put me on simmer for the ride back to St Peter's Square where
3044 took me to Deansgate. Still no sign of that winner...
Heavy rail was used again now with
156428 and
156426, both duds, taking me to Manchester Oxford Road. While on this I saw that a winner 153 was heading to Liverpool with an unidentified 158 on the ex Norwich. Something to aim for later me thinks!
A similar move was done to earlier in the day with the 14:07 Blackpool taking me back to Deansgate, this being dud
150206. It was then back over the elevated walkway to the Metrolink and the heat was really scorching as I waited for duds
3008 and
3018 to take me to Shudehill for a bit of variety from just the second city crossing.
I wasn't at Shudehill for long before dud
3042 took me over to Piccadilly for the first time today. I headed upstairs and did a quick platform scan, seeing two winner 323s waiting to leave on 14:46 services (there's a 46-minute past the hour to Hadfield, Stoke and Crewe). I selected the one heading to Stoke with winner
323228 (the other winner was on the Crewe) and it was a quick run to Stockport where I bailed.
My water bottle was refilled here, as I was getting really thirsty again and I saw a couple of freights pass through before the first available service to Mancc arrived. It was a dud, stopping starship so I let it go and got the one behind, double dud
150224 and
156460. The 156 was locked out of use by the looks of it and the 150 is another unit that could do with the nameplate 'oven'.
There were delays when I got back to Piccadilly (just when you think there can't be more heat related delays you get surprised - the Metrolink had another points failure at Shaw earlier in the day). I headed over to the through platforms and decided to wait for the Stockport bound 153+158 combo there. Alas it wasn't to be as there were now signaling problems at Slade Green Junction so stuff past there was being delayed too. I then got a call from dad saying that a liner had overheated at Lapworth so his train home and many others were stuck behind it and couldn't get through. This day isn't really going well for the railways, is it?
I noticed that the Norwich service that should have the 153 on had now reverted to 'delayed' so I presumed it was at Occy Road. I'd prefer to only go to Occy Road for it than out to Stockport so I got the Liverpool 158s out to Oxford Road, these being double dud
158847 and
158865. Annoyingly the 153 passed us en route and I managed to get the 158 number this time (I hadn't been able to earlier). It was a winner. I seem to be making bad decisions today (40 minutes at Bolton comes to mind yet again).
A winner 319 on the 5-minute-late 16:00 to Manchester Airport,
319448 was enough to make me forget about the 158 though. This still had the Thameslink interior so I got a photo and I'd soon got off at Manchester Piccadilly after 0.5 miles on the 319.
Class 319 interior by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
319448 by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
The 16:07 Scarborough was running a little late so I had ample time to get onto it for the ride back to Oxford Road. A photo of 67022 arriving from Holyhead (poor thing) was got first and I then got on dud
185149. I say dud but I haven't had it since properly starting unit bashing - I just got it through a fluke of luck because I'd asked dad to write down the 185s on a trip we did back in 2011 including a return from Malton to York. That's the last time I'd had this unit!
Back from Holyhead by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
I was soon back at Occy Road where the plan was to get the 16:16 Buxton back to Piccadilly. This turned into a 'not a chance' moment when I saw the service that is normally full and standing with it's booked 2 150s was only running with one today. There was a TPE dez a couple of minutes behind it though so I decided to get that and 350403 was soon arriving.
350403 by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
I got on board and managed to get a seat. About two minutes after sitting down the guard made an announcement to say that nothing was able to arrive or leave Manchester Piccadilly at that point in time so we'd be waiting for a while. That was the point I left the dez and headed over to the customer service help point to see if they knew anything. Credit to the person in there as he tried all he could to find out what was going on but just didn't know. All I could do now was wait and see what happened and I called dad to let him know what was happening as ask if anything had moved yet down on the Chilterns. The liner was still at Lapworth and nothing had been able to get past (so there was nothing in Birmingham to work any London services) so Chiltern were turning trains round at Hatton. He had no idea how long he'd be stuck in Brum for so it was kind of the same situation I was in. Thankfully after about 15 minutes a Southport train arrived so stuff was moving again at Piccadilly.
350403 by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
I was sorely hoping that my train to Warrington, the shovel at 16:50 wouldn't be too late because it'd jeopardize my connection at Warrington if it was. Betty number 3 came through on a liner while I was waiting, making it the second time I'd seen it that day (I chased it on a tram from Cornbrook to Deansgate earlier on).
70003 by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
Luckily the shovel was only running about 10 minutes late and winner
67022 was soon thrashing out of Manchester Oxford Road, me window hanging in the front vestibule. It was busy as far as Newton-le-Willows as usual and was a nice thrashy run to Warrington where I got a few photos of the shovel.
67022 by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
67022 by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
We'd only arrived about 5-late which, coupled with a 5-minute delay on my pendo south meant I was waiting for the same amount of time as I would have been if they were both on time. Kite's favourite pendo,
390128 was taking me south and I got a bay of 2 on the fairly quiet service. We were soon on the move but that wasn't the case for long as we had a rather large brake application just after Weaver Junction and slowed to a crawl for a bit before coming to a stop. We were there for over 5 minutes before moving forward again, still slowly. We eventually picked the pace up again and got to Crewe about 20-late. The guard, who was doing a good job at keeping us up to date, said that it was due to signaling problems caused by the hot weather.
We crawled out past Basford Hall but had picked speed up again not long after that on what was a quick run to Stafford where we slowed down again and came to a stop in the centre roads. Seeing a New Street bound dez in one platform and a Bournemouth bound 221 in another made me know that something was up. We were there a couple of minutes before the guard came over the PA to say that there was problems on the line ahead so we'd be stuck at Stafford for an indeterminate amount of time. The New Street 350 got caped short and then sent ECS to Crewe and another 221 decided to join the queue of stuff trying to get onto the line through Penkridge. I spoke to dad who said that the liner was now cleared and the first southbound Chiltern from Brum was to be at about 19:15. I let him know how stuff was going for me and he said that he'd get the 20:15 back to Leam. It was currently about 18:50 so I should make that provided we weren't sent via the Trent Valley instead. We were waiting at Stafford for ages and, after about half an hour the two voyagers were sent. Dad informed me that they'd gone via the Trent Valley so I was expecting us to do the same when we started moving a couple of minutes after the second Voyager. We didn't. We swung over onto the line via Penkridge and had soon gained a bit of speed. Not long after Penkridge the brakes came on again though but we weren't stationary for too much longer. Arrival at Wolverhampton was eventually about 55 minutes late.
There were no further delays on the journey and, thanks to loads of waiting time at Wolverhampton we got to New Street just over 40-late. I headed straight up to where we'd arranged to meet dad and, even though the 20:15 goes from Snow Hell we decided to head to Moor Street to confirm that they wouldn't turn it back short. They didn't and we were soon getting on
168323,
168111 and
168218 for the ride through the tunnel to Snow Hell. We weren't sure if all 3 units would go back to London so, while dad prepared our dinner (rolls with patè) I headed to the guard to ask what was heading back to London, getting the ID of 168218 at the same time. He didn't answer my question but said we'd need to get off the train because passengers aren't allowed to be on a train as it uncouples from another. I hope this guy never goes to Haywards Heath or Machynlleth - he might have a heart attack. I said OK and ran back down to dad (we were in the middle unit) to tell him but the moment I got on the doors locked. When that happened the guard walked down to tell us off, saying that we should've listened to the announcement that didn't happen. Another passenger had remained on board too and also said that there was no announcement. He then made us sit down when they uncoupled 168323 and I honestly had no idea when they'd removed it - you could feel nothing.
168218 and
168111 were the units heading back to London and we were soon on the move for the journey back to Leam. Dinner was very tasty and it was a fast enough ride home after a very eventful day. As the carts disappear at Leam though they revealed something sat in the centre roads. Well, three somethings really. It was three Colas bettys! The back one was 70804, a dud, but we were both pleased to see that the next in line was winner for sight, 70817. We were even more glad when we saw the leading one was another winner for sight, 70814! Score. We waited the couple of minutes for them to leave and I got a couple of photos before we headed home.
Convoy of 3 by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
Convoy of 3 by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
Convoy of 3 by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
Dad got home about 4 and a half hours late although, because dad wasn't meant to finish his evening thing in Leamington (which he obviously didn't go to) until 21:30 I managed to get home about 45 minutes earlier than I thought I would! Still, even with all the chaos and heat it was a good day getting the second city crossing.
. Comment of the day.
