ash39
Established Member
- Joined
- 8 Feb 2012
- Messages
- 1,524
Greater Manchester Wayfarer - 03/05/2017
This trip came about due to me having an unexpected day off work and a free Northern ticket to 'anywhere' which I received after being stuck at Rochdale for about 40 minutes in December last year due to a drunk passenger who collapsed in his own vomit!
I intended to start from Poppleton and arrived in plenty of time, unfortunately the last car park space was being taken as I arrived. I could probably have found on street parking but I had time to beat the train to Hammerton so did that instead.
On the platform with around 5 mins to spare, I was surprised to see dud 158906 arrive. I was expecting a 150 to appear. The 158 was welcome enough, as it was only on 7 miles prior to this move. This was the 0807 service so was fairly busy with commuters until Harrogate. At Harrogate I upgraded from sharing the vestible with about 5 pushbikes to a proper seat in the saloon. This was the set which had one vehicle upgraded by the old Northern franchise as an experiment. Could have been placebo effect but the air purification system did seem to make it feel fresh and cool. Maybe it was just the air conditioning working for once!
At Leeds it looked like dud 150203 would be my train to Manchester, but there were two departures to Victoria from the same platform in the space of 10 minutes. Happily, further up platform 11, required 158797 was waiting and was the earlier of the two depatures.
I drifted in and out of sleep a couple of times on the journey, until finally arriving in Manchester. I had no fixed plan from here, but I was going pacer chasing, so the first winner I saw would be taken to wherever. I left the platforms to purchase my GM Wayfarer, which was promptly issued, and allowed me to get back on the platforms to catch 142053 on a Southport service, as far as Salford Crescent.
I let a couple of duds go by at Salford, before catching 156426 to Manchester Oxford Road. I was hoping to get some shots of the TPE 350's going through the transition from old to new livery, and the first one to show up was required (but old livery) 350410, so I took it to Wigan North Western.
We crawled for most of this journey, losing a few minutes in the process. Unfortunately this prevented a shot of 90036 leading 90019 on a southbound intermodal. I did see 319369 in unbranded Northern livery though, the first one I've seen not in purple.
319369 Wigan North Western 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
A steam engine also passed through northbound (think it was Dutchess of Sutherland but I'm not too clued up on steam...). I now only needed 350401 and 405 in the moves book so the plan was to see what the next airport-bound service was formed of and decide from there. It was new liveried 350403, so I let it go and instead walked to first winner station of the day Wigan Wallgate. I should have had enough time to catch the next Kirkby-Blackburn service, but got somewhat lost. I know it's practically opposite Wigan North Western, but the exterior was clad with scaffolding and white tarpaulin, so I somehow walked right past it. When I finally found it, I'd missed the intended train, and to make matters worse the next one was very dud (in the book 3 times) 142031. There was an ex-Southport train shortly behind so I waited on that and was rewarded with 142021.
I had to start heading back towards Manchester in order to get over to Warrington for the ATW loco-hauled set, but I had a bit of time so I got off at lovely winner station Hindley.
142021 Hindley 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
Has to be one of my favourite small stations I've visited, the gardens were immaculately kept. From here it was dud 142061 leading winner 142044 back to Wigan Wallgate, then onto 142014 which was going to Manchester Airport.
Unfortunately it all went a bit wrong from here. A points failure around Manchester Oxford Road meant our train was being diverted to Victoria and terminating there. The guard reckoned control had told him some trains would get through towards Piccadilly but not ours, so I got off. Salford Crescent was quite busy now and nobody seemed to know what was going on. I was still OK for time but it was getting tighter and I didn't want to risk it, so rather than wait on a Piccadilly bound service, I took winners 156452 & 150205 to Victoria. There was a train in front of ours in the platform we arrived on, and it looked to have an unusual white front. Turned out to be 185146 in 'Superhero Day' advertising livery.
185146 Manchester Victoria 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
I needed 185146, but it on a fast service skipping Stalybridge so a move wasn't possible. Plus I needed to stop getting distracted and get myself to Warrington. To that end, I jumped on the tram to Piccadilly. I don't often use the Metrolink and this reminded me why. I'm fairly sure I could have walked it faster. The trams themselves are quite nice though.
I was starving by now, and had about 20 minutes before my intended next train. I visited Boots for a meal deal, going boring and getting my usual chicken triple, coconut water and popcorn. I had time for a coffee too so grabbed a new cappuccino fredo from Starbucks. First time I've tried one, it was decent. I made my way over to platform 14, and my luck was in as it was pair of EMT winners 158788 & 158854.
Unfortunately there were still issues in the Oxford Road area. We arrived at Oxford Road RT but left a concerning 10 minutes down, which cut my 20 minute walk from Warrington Central to Warrington Bank Quay down to a 10 minute sprint. This was bad, as I had word that dud 67020 had been replaced by required 67012 the previous night so I had to get it. I'd done this walk once previously, but this time I somehow got lost in a shopping centre and ended up doing a circle of it and coming back to where I'd started. It was looking impossible now but after checking the map I found the right route and ran (not easy with bag of food and hefty camera in tow). Around 200 yards from the station entrance I saw the DVT pulling in and thought it was game over. Luckily, there were no RPI's at the station entrance so I got straight through, under the subway, up the stairs to find the dispatcher slamming the door with the whistle to her mouth. I just managed to get on, closed the door behind me and away we went. At this stage I had no idea if it was 67012 pushing. I'm used to running, but I'd been suffering with a cold and with the combination of that and the warm sun I'd got really quite hot, not that I knew it yet but I'd have plenty of time to cool off!
According to twitter, the problems at Deansgate (not Oxford Road as previously thought) had been resolved. However, as with all my trips recently, it wouldn't be complete without a bit of a farce. We stopped just outside Castlefield junction, so I moved to the vestibule as I expexted we'd surely be continuing through to Piccadilly shortly. I was in the coach second away from the loco, for some reason the doors to the coach next to the loco were closed off even though the coach was in use. At least the curve here allowed me to ID that it was in fact 67012 that had shoved us from Warrington. I had plenty of time admire the view of this curve, and the ongoing work on the Ordsall Chord, as we ended up sitting there for a good while. I got chatting to an enthusiast from Ellsmere Port who'd come out for an out and back run on the 67. I joked that he might end up staying on it and coming straight back at Piccadilly.
My comment turned out to be not far off the mark. After sitting on the curve for a full hour, we eventually terminated at Oxford Road so it could form the return working (which by this point was already late). I had to think about getting back to Victoria now to head home, but two winning pacers I'd seen earlier in the day were behind us in the queue and terminated into the bay platform shortly after. They were going straight back out so I joined the stampede and boarded 142060 & 142007 for a tiny hop to winner station Deansgate.
I couldn't go any further on these as there were no useful connections back the other way, and everything was still out of sync so nothing on realtimetrains could be trusted as things were getting cancelled and amended all over the place. I saw another two 350's shortly after arriving at Deansgate, 350406 in old livery and 350402 in new.
350406 Deansgate 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
350402 Deansgate 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
I ideally wanted a mixed pair but I'd only seen 4 car sets working today. Never mind. I could see a 150 in the distance about to form a service via Salford Crescent, so that was the plan to get back to Victoria, but for some reason it wasn't moving even though it had a seemingly clear path ahead. There must have been a couple of hundered people on the platform so I gave up on that idea and resorted to the tram again.
I took 3066 to Victoria. I don't record light rail moves but the number stuck in my head for some reason. At Victoria there were three trains I could get to Leeds. The first one was in 15 minutes time, so I got a muffin and another coffee to keep me going. There was a bit of a crowd waiting for the 1810, but it was winner 158793 so I was having it. I got a flip down seat in the vestible but it soon filled up with people standing. It was quite unpleasant, and Rochdale would see it over 10 miles so I got off there. Rochdale was the scene of the farce that got me the free ticket from Northern for today, and unbelievably a very similar incident occurred at Rochdale when I was over this way last month as well, which left me and my mate stranded at Littleborough for around 45 minutes. So I was aprehensive about getting off!
I had 20 minutes to wait for the following service so I ate the muffin I'd obtained at Victoria. I saw tram 3066 arrive at Rochdale Metrolink from the station platform (see, it did stick in my head). How glad I was not to have had to take that all the way from Manchester.
Winner 150138 and dud 142013 were next up. I was in the lightly loaded 142. A lot less cosy than the last 142 I was on at Deansgate for sure. Although this one had a hideous vibration when pulling away which felt like being in a knackered washing machine.
I could have hopped back again onto the following service and still made the Hammerton train, but I stayed with these all the way to Leeds. Even though it's actually slower via Brighouse, it feels quicker not doing the reversal at Bradford Interchange.
I remember bemoaning the lack of freight through Leeds as a youngster, so seeing 66748 and 66740 both pass within five minutes of each other was a bit of a novelty. My train from Rochdale then joined up with 158904 for a 6-car lash up back to Neville Hill for the night. 185142 was also in platform 7, which I'd not seen since the days when TPE had the 170's. Taking a few snaps killed the 20 minute wait for the train home nicely.
66748 Leeds 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
66740 Leeds 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
6-car DMU pick & mix by Flash 3939, on Flickr
185142 Leeds 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
Dud 150149 was the last train on the day, very busy out of Leeds but lightened gradually until I got a seat at Horsforth. I used the time to finish this report. I'd started it on the previous train - I don't usually write them on the move but it's so much easier when it's fresh in the memory! Finished it at Cattal, perfect timing.
Day summary
158906 HMM-LDS
158797 LDS-MCV
142053 MCV-SLD
156426 SLD-MCO
350410 MCO-WGN
142021 WGW-HIN
142061 & 142044 HIN-WGW
142014 WGW-SLD
156452 & 150205 SLD-MCV
158788 & 158854 MAN-WAC
67012 WBQ-MCO
142060 & 142007 MCO-DGT
158793 MCV-RCD
150138 & 142013 RCD-LDS
150149 LDS-HMM
3 new stations: (Deansgate, Hindley & Wigan Wallgate)
16 new units/locos: (1x 67, 6x 142, 2x 150, 2x 156, 4x 158, 1x 350
4 dud units: (2x 142, 1x150, 1x158)
This trip came about due to me having an unexpected day off work and a free Northern ticket to 'anywhere' which I received after being stuck at Rochdale for about 40 minutes in December last year due to a drunk passenger who collapsed in his own vomit!
I intended to start from Poppleton and arrived in plenty of time, unfortunately the last car park space was being taken as I arrived. I could probably have found on street parking but I had time to beat the train to Hammerton so did that instead.
On the platform with around 5 mins to spare, I was surprised to see dud 158906 arrive. I was expecting a 150 to appear. The 158 was welcome enough, as it was only on 7 miles prior to this move. This was the 0807 service so was fairly busy with commuters until Harrogate. At Harrogate I upgraded from sharing the vestible with about 5 pushbikes to a proper seat in the saloon. This was the set which had one vehicle upgraded by the old Northern franchise as an experiment. Could have been placebo effect but the air purification system did seem to make it feel fresh and cool. Maybe it was just the air conditioning working for once!
At Leeds it looked like dud 150203 would be my train to Manchester, but there were two departures to Victoria from the same platform in the space of 10 minutes. Happily, further up platform 11, required 158797 was waiting and was the earlier of the two depatures.
I drifted in and out of sleep a couple of times on the journey, until finally arriving in Manchester. I had no fixed plan from here, but I was going pacer chasing, so the first winner I saw would be taken to wherever. I left the platforms to purchase my GM Wayfarer, which was promptly issued, and allowed me to get back on the platforms to catch 142053 on a Southport service, as far as Salford Crescent.
I let a couple of duds go by at Salford, before catching 156426 to Manchester Oxford Road. I was hoping to get some shots of the TPE 350's going through the transition from old to new livery, and the first one to show up was required (but old livery) 350410, so I took it to Wigan North Western.
We crawled for most of this journey, losing a few minutes in the process. Unfortunately this prevented a shot of 90036 leading 90019 on a southbound intermodal. I did see 319369 in unbranded Northern livery though, the first one I've seen not in purple.
319369 Wigan North Western 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
A steam engine also passed through northbound (think it was Dutchess of Sutherland but I'm not too clued up on steam...). I now only needed 350401 and 405 in the moves book so the plan was to see what the next airport-bound service was formed of and decide from there. It was new liveried 350403, so I let it go and instead walked to first winner station of the day Wigan Wallgate. I should have had enough time to catch the next Kirkby-Blackburn service, but got somewhat lost. I know it's practically opposite Wigan North Western, but the exterior was clad with scaffolding and white tarpaulin, so I somehow walked right past it. When I finally found it, I'd missed the intended train, and to make matters worse the next one was very dud (in the book 3 times) 142031. There was an ex-Southport train shortly behind so I waited on that and was rewarded with 142021.
I had to start heading back towards Manchester in order to get over to Warrington for the ATW loco-hauled set, but I had a bit of time so I got off at lovely winner station Hindley.
142021 Hindley 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
Has to be one of my favourite small stations I've visited, the gardens were immaculately kept. From here it was dud 142061 leading winner 142044 back to Wigan Wallgate, then onto 142014 which was going to Manchester Airport.
Unfortunately it all went a bit wrong from here. A points failure around Manchester Oxford Road meant our train was being diverted to Victoria and terminating there. The guard reckoned control had told him some trains would get through towards Piccadilly but not ours, so I got off. Salford Crescent was quite busy now and nobody seemed to know what was going on. I was still OK for time but it was getting tighter and I didn't want to risk it, so rather than wait on a Piccadilly bound service, I took winners 156452 & 150205 to Victoria. There was a train in front of ours in the platform we arrived on, and it looked to have an unusual white front. Turned out to be 185146 in 'Superhero Day' advertising livery.
185146 Manchester Victoria 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
I needed 185146, but it on a fast service skipping Stalybridge so a move wasn't possible. Plus I needed to stop getting distracted and get myself to Warrington. To that end, I jumped on the tram to Piccadilly. I don't often use the Metrolink and this reminded me why. I'm fairly sure I could have walked it faster. The trams themselves are quite nice though.
I was starving by now, and had about 20 minutes before my intended next train. I visited Boots for a meal deal, going boring and getting my usual chicken triple, coconut water and popcorn. I had time for a coffee too so grabbed a new cappuccino fredo from Starbucks. First time I've tried one, it was decent. I made my way over to platform 14, and my luck was in as it was pair of EMT winners 158788 & 158854.
Unfortunately there were still issues in the Oxford Road area. We arrived at Oxford Road RT but left a concerning 10 minutes down, which cut my 20 minute walk from Warrington Central to Warrington Bank Quay down to a 10 minute sprint. This was bad, as I had word that dud 67020 had been replaced by required 67012 the previous night so I had to get it. I'd done this walk once previously, but this time I somehow got lost in a shopping centre and ended up doing a circle of it and coming back to where I'd started. It was looking impossible now but after checking the map I found the right route and ran (not easy with bag of food and hefty camera in tow). Around 200 yards from the station entrance I saw the DVT pulling in and thought it was game over. Luckily, there were no RPI's at the station entrance so I got straight through, under the subway, up the stairs to find the dispatcher slamming the door with the whistle to her mouth. I just managed to get on, closed the door behind me and away we went. At this stage I had no idea if it was 67012 pushing. I'm used to running, but I'd been suffering with a cold and with the combination of that and the warm sun I'd got really quite hot, not that I knew it yet but I'd have plenty of time to cool off!
According to twitter, the problems at Deansgate (not Oxford Road as previously thought) had been resolved. However, as with all my trips recently, it wouldn't be complete without a bit of a farce. We stopped just outside Castlefield junction, so I moved to the vestibule as I expexted we'd surely be continuing through to Piccadilly shortly. I was in the coach second away from the loco, for some reason the doors to the coach next to the loco were closed off even though the coach was in use. At least the curve here allowed me to ID that it was in fact 67012 that had shoved us from Warrington. I had plenty of time admire the view of this curve, and the ongoing work on the Ordsall Chord, as we ended up sitting there for a good while. I got chatting to an enthusiast from Ellsmere Port who'd come out for an out and back run on the 67. I joked that he might end up staying on it and coming straight back at Piccadilly.
My comment turned out to be not far off the mark. After sitting on the curve for a full hour, we eventually terminated at Oxford Road so it could form the return working (which by this point was already late). I had to think about getting back to Victoria now to head home, but two winning pacers I'd seen earlier in the day were behind us in the queue and terminated into the bay platform shortly after. They were going straight back out so I joined the stampede and boarded 142060 & 142007 for a tiny hop to winner station Deansgate.
I couldn't go any further on these as there were no useful connections back the other way, and everything was still out of sync so nothing on realtimetrains could be trusted as things were getting cancelled and amended all over the place. I saw another two 350's shortly after arriving at Deansgate, 350406 in old livery and 350402 in new.
350406 Deansgate 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
350402 Deansgate 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
I ideally wanted a mixed pair but I'd only seen 4 car sets working today. Never mind. I could see a 150 in the distance about to form a service via Salford Crescent, so that was the plan to get back to Victoria, but for some reason it wasn't moving even though it had a seemingly clear path ahead. There must have been a couple of hundered people on the platform so I gave up on that idea and resorted to the tram again.
I took 3066 to Victoria. I don't record light rail moves but the number stuck in my head for some reason. At Victoria there were three trains I could get to Leeds. The first one was in 15 minutes time, so I got a muffin and another coffee to keep me going. There was a bit of a crowd waiting for the 1810, but it was winner 158793 so I was having it. I got a flip down seat in the vestible but it soon filled up with people standing. It was quite unpleasant, and Rochdale would see it over 10 miles so I got off there. Rochdale was the scene of the farce that got me the free ticket from Northern for today, and unbelievably a very similar incident occurred at Rochdale when I was over this way last month as well, which left me and my mate stranded at Littleborough for around 45 minutes. So I was aprehensive about getting off!
I had 20 minutes to wait for the following service so I ate the muffin I'd obtained at Victoria. I saw tram 3066 arrive at Rochdale Metrolink from the station platform (see, it did stick in my head). How glad I was not to have had to take that all the way from Manchester.
Winner 150138 and dud 142013 were next up. I was in the lightly loaded 142. A lot less cosy than the last 142 I was on at Deansgate for sure. Although this one had a hideous vibration when pulling away which felt like being in a knackered washing machine.
I could have hopped back again onto the following service and still made the Hammerton train, but I stayed with these all the way to Leeds. Even though it's actually slower via Brighouse, it feels quicker not doing the reversal at Bradford Interchange.
I remember bemoaning the lack of freight through Leeds as a youngster, so seeing 66748 and 66740 both pass within five minutes of each other was a bit of a novelty. My train from Rochdale then joined up with 158904 for a 6-car lash up back to Neville Hill for the night. 185142 was also in platform 7, which I'd not seen since the days when TPE had the 170's. Taking a few snaps killed the 20 minute wait for the train home nicely.
66748 Leeds 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
66740 Leeds 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
6-car DMU pick & mix by Flash 3939, on Flickr
185142 Leeds 03/05/2017 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
Dud 150149 was the last train on the day, very busy out of Leeds but lightened gradually until I got a seat at Horsforth. I used the time to finish this report. I'd started it on the previous train - I don't usually write them on the move but it's so much easier when it's fresh in the memory! Finished it at Cattal, perfect timing.
Day summary
158906 HMM-LDS
158797 LDS-MCV
142053 MCV-SLD
156426 SLD-MCO
350410 MCO-WGN
142021 WGW-HIN
142061 & 142044 HIN-WGW
142014 WGW-SLD
156452 & 150205 SLD-MCV
158788 & 158854 MAN-WAC
67012 WBQ-MCO
142060 & 142007 MCO-DGT
158793 MCV-RCD
150138 & 142013 RCD-LDS
150149 LDS-HMM
3 new stations: (Deansgate, Hindley & Wigan Wallgate)
16 new units/locos: (1x 67, 6x 142, 2x 150, 2x 156, 4x 158, 1x 350
4 dud units: (2x 142, 1x150, 1x158)
but I intend to try and get them, the annoying thing is it'll probably take 2 visits as I doubt they'll all be out in service on a given day.
)
