Techniquest
Veteran Member
Another cracking read there, and a good choice for Tune of the Day
Looking forward to the rest - might wait until there's a few more up and read them in one go, as this report only kept me occupied for half my commute!
Time to endure the remainder of this crowded trip into the big smoke...
You must have a fair ol' commute then good sir! Days 2 and 3 were typed up this morning, so your next commute should be filled entirely, all being well! Here we go:
03/02/2015 Techniquests Gardening, Day 2
I was expecting to have an excellent sleep after such a long day yesterday, alas this was not the case with seemingly everything in the world determined to wake me up. Around 0710 I give up, after less than 6 hours of sleep. De-rancification begins, and that leaves me feeling much better. Some tunes to go with my coffee are deemed mandatory while preparations for Day 2 are completed. Im off to Subway for breakfast, around a 10 minute walk away on Whitstable Road. The sausage and cheese footlong and a coffee for £3.60 goes down beautifully, and certainly money well spent. Breakfast at the hotel was an extra £6 per night, so straight off the bat Ive saved £2.40 there. Back at the room, the flask is filled before heading to the station, with a 12 hour day no doubt ahead. There were major delays at Faversham this morning due to signalling issues, some trains being 100+ minutes late, with the 0725 to Cannon Street being observed running at least 95 minutes late. Im so glad I wasnt out and about this morning, fair dos. Im waiting for the 0908 to Dover Priory, which is dud 465931 this morning, and Im naturally making my way through the crowd to join a motor coach. Two young women sat in front of me were spending their entire journey moaning about their relationships, so when they got off the train at Canterbury East I was glad to get some peace and quiet. Indeed, the entire coach more or less emptied out, and I was wondering if the train was suddenly being terminated! Sure enough though, were soon on the way and we encounter snow at Sheperds Well, much to my surprise and of course there are photos to be taken of it. Im off at the next stop, Kearsney, for the days first shack scratch. Theres still 19 to go on the Kent Rover area after this one, a big job ahead. Nothing interesting to note whatsoever here, and so Im doubly happy when, not am I heading to civilisation, but Im scoring winner 375823 (dud 375616 on front) to Dover!
Theres not much going on here at all, and when winner 395027 rolls in to take me to winner shack Sandwich Im very pleased indeed. After all, its not that warm in Kent today! The flask is opened again, and the phone receiving some charge to keep me going all day, for this trip as we slowly curve our way out of Dover. The snow returns here, but its melting as soon as it lands. I have a +20 here, although this was built up to a +46, as a bridge strike at Broadstairs has caused all manner of delays and cancellations today. Not that the PIS here is very useful, it doesnt tell you anything about the next trains expected arrival time, although I would discover that PIS across Kent is varied quite considerably, where it exists, and is not reliable! Dud 395026 is taking me to Martin Mill, where the stations been so lightly used today since the snow came down the platforms are rather white. Im now finishing my flask off (to be fair, this was around 1205 by now) during the wait for winner 395007 to take me to Deal. I especially wanted to get Deal in now as theres a Sainsburys right next door to the station and Im rather hungry, it being a little over 4 hours since breakfast by now. A £3 meal deal is sourced of a chicken and stuffing sub roll-thingy, Walkers Cheese and Bacon Pops and a bottle of Oasis. Winner 395010 takes me onwards next to Walmer, as RTT tells me I wont have long to wait for the next train to Ramsgate, good move then I reckon as thatll clear Dover to Gravesend stations via the coast.
Umm, yeah, not a great move after all, RTT was obviously fed the wrong data as there was no train north now, it had been cancelled. Didnt come up on the PIS here mind, that would have been useful! Its time to devour that food now, and theres nowhere near enough filling in these things compared to the amount of bread in the roll. The crisps are OK but Im glad I hadnt bought a multipack of them to try them out, something else I wont be buying again then! Its absolutely freezing, but a gloriously sunny day, here and I get my hat out of the bag to try and keep me going. The trip report and NREA are brought back up to date, and eventually after an hours waiting here winner 395023 rolls in to take me to Ashford International. Upon boarding, a silent bellow of Oh mein Lordz, the warmth! was had, the feeling of heat was immediately obvious and seriously welcome! On the bright side, Ive scored 5 shacks so far today and got myself 3 winning 395s, not too bad. Its time next to attack the Maidstone East lines stations, of which I need 7. Thatll take some doing, thats for sure. Hollingbourne is my first target, and annoyingly its dud 375829 on the 1438 to London Victoria, on I get anyway and its time for some tunes. I did the unthinkable during the cold wait here, I bought a coffee from Pumpkin! £2.16 for a mildly warm coffee, but I didnt have the patience to queue up and complain, how it wasnt that hot I dont know!
I score 466005 at Charing for sight, leaving just 375901 and 466019 to see to clear the Southeastern fleet for sight! I start planning moves while festering at Hollingbourne, and 465179 is scored for the trip to Lenham. The school brats here sure are numerous and very annoying, and eventually 465907 and 466005 are in to work west towards London, running rather late. The PIS here is unbelievably unreliable, showing trains that had left ages ago and wouldnt update to show expected arrival times for anything at all. We all start getting on the train, then the guard decides to announce this trains being cancelled here, due to a train fault. I overheard a little bit of the conversation she was having with someone else, which suggested it wasnt a train fault when she said Oh I hope hes OK now. Of course, this could have been unrelated to the trains situation, but the train was perfectly fine to go back out empty via the crossover to Ashford, and the same pair are noted later too out of service. Who knows I suppose! So its staying in the cold for even longer, and thankfully a couple of girls had moved one of the school boys away from the end of the platform. It did look like a concerning situation, certainly I kept an eye on all of them in case something had gone belly up. Thankfully not, but the way these kids play about was enough to make anyone but themselves worried theyd end up on the tracks at just the wrong time.
Winner 375614 is in eventually to save the day and all of us from freezing any more than we already had done, and Im off to Kemsing next. Maidstone East sees an enormous army of school kids getting on, and good golly gosh they make an absolute hell of a noise all the way to Borough Green and Wrotham! I swear we were never THAT bad when I was at school! I discover I have a +39 here for the next train east, and Ive got a headache from this cold wind, but nothing to cure it. I knew I should have stocked up on painkillers in Sainsburys earlier! Much looking on RTT reveals a plan of moves that would clear all but one station on this line, Charing. If it all works, of course, will be a miracle, and eventually dud 465238 and winner 466031 arrive to take me forward to Harrietsham. A short wait got me dud 465922 for yet another trip through Maidstone, this time alighting at East Malling. A +9 by the timetable here, which turned into a +16 but winner 377510 on a Bus Stop Bash to Barming was more than welcome, leaving me now with 107 377s to get. The Maidstone East terminating service behind eventually turns up, and much to my extreme disgust its double duds 465925 and 466041! Never mind, Im getting the bay platform in the book at long last, a move Ive wanted to do for a long time. I finally have time and shops nearby, so Im off to Morrisons Local to get some ibuprofen and a reduced bacon and cheese turnover. I feel like a traitor coming into here somehow, and am glad to spend just 51p and get out of here. As soon as Im out of the door I take a dose of ibuprofen and sample the food, its not bad to be fair.
Obviously this wouldnt be all I was having for tea, bearing in mind I had my lunch around 6.5 hours ago at this point and the Wotsits earlier on the way to Harrietsham were not enough. Subway is my saviour, as McDonalds wasnt going to fill me up enough and I felt too ill to go to Wetherspoon. My usual sub, of course in footlong form, is got and as soon as I start eating it Im feeling alive again. I considered walking to West station, however once I turned on the GPS on my phone the map revealed I was actually a long way from it, so decided not to do that after all and go to East station. However, on the way there I realised I still had a ton of time before the next Strood-bound train from Barracks, and that would certainly get me back to base camp much quicker than going via Dover. Since I already know the route from East station to Barracks station, it was nice and easy, done in about 10 minutes. I film MPV DR98920 passing through here, which was a required sight, as I finish devouring my tea, and as theres time to kill still I do a BSB to West station on dud 375303. Super Dud 375307 is on the Strood train, and I position myself on the train ready for the best place to make a quick exit at Strood, knowing a +1 connection was possible if I was lucky. Its time on this trip to update the trip report and NREA, as well as finish the bacon and cheese turnover, and I just make it onto dud 395029 to Chatham. Why Chatham, when I wanted to go to Faversham? Red Pen Fever had struck when I saw an opportunity to do some other moves, and its a change of plan again as I see the 2047 to Victoria is formed of 10 coaches. That simply has to be worth a go!
Not as worth going for as I expected, as its double duds 465913 and 465931 on the front with winner 466024 on the back (which I didnt know of until I got to Rochester), and because it was running 2 minutes late somehow I cant make the Dover train onwards after all. The next option was to Gillingham (Kent), which was dud 465194 and winner 465172, and I score the crossover into platform 1 as well, bonus! Dud 395026 takes me back to base camp in Faversham, and once there its time for a call home. This trip report gets finished off for Day 2, then I update my Baker rail atlas. Its soon time for some Big Bang Theory, so I get the NREA updated and end the day with the TV again. Its been a good day really, save for the long festers at Sandwich and Walmer in particular although the other long ones werent welcome either! 11 required stations done, with 11 winners and a decent bit of mileage no doubt too!
04/02/2015 Techniquests Gardening, Day 3
Oh dear, oh deary dear! [Chuckle Brothers reference! Ed] I wake up in the middle of the night sneezing like mad, with coughing and sore throat added in for good measure of course. Yes I have indeed got a cold, no surprise after that horrible weather Ive been enduring for the last couple of days! Ive been trying to avoid being ill, and I seriously regret leaving my Day and Night Nurse at home. Up and about still at 0730, a need to de-rancify is certainly high on the priority list and a really hot shower did help a little bit. Preparations for Day 3 are begun in earnest, and of course some tunes are required to help wake me up this morning. Its off to Tesco eventually, around a 10 minute walk away, and at this point especially Im glad I was tight fisted with my money in January, otherwise Id have been skint and not able to do anything for 2 days! I knew weeks ago Id end up spending a fair bit of money, so cutting back my weekly spending budget into almost half certainly did the trick. A 20-tablet packet of Day Nurse is sourced for £5.25 as theres no dual packs of Day and Night Nurse in stock. I want Lucozade, so I know full well Im ill now as I cant drink it any other time!
Back at base camp, the flask is filled up and its off to the station to await the 0908 to Dover, in case its a winner. Today its not, its a dud 465/1 so I hold back and make a few more observations before getting the 0923 to Dover, which was in the hands of dud 375616 and winner 375714 for the trip to Day 3s first winning shack, Bekesbourne. A good start to the day then, and the footbridge here really needed treatment, its terribly icy and Im glad I wasnt in a big rush to change platforms! Its dud 375621 back to Canterbury East, and I head into town with the idea being to head straight to Canterbury West station. However, Im feeling a little better now so I can face eating food, so I stop off in McDonalds for a bacon roll breakfast. £3.49 lighter and I feel human again, off next to West station. Just as well I stopped off for food as the fester here would have been even longer anyway. Im waiting for a train that calls at Minster, which isnt until 1052 and its also 7 minutes late. Oh well, never mind, time to update the books and have some coffee. It might be sunny again today, but its still horribly cold, so the waiting room was more than welcome! I take a photo of 375810 waiting for access to the Up platform and the signal box above it, and when my train rolls in Im less than amused that its double duds 375702 and 375605, boo!
395024 is filmed passing through Minster during my fester here, and my extreme disgust comes out to play again when I find Ive got Super Dud 375307 again. Seriously, the amount of times Ive had this already this week is getting silly! Off I go to score the shack at Sturry, the third winner shack of the day now. The traffic in Sturry is crazy, it took a long time to cross the road to gain access to the Ramsgate platform, in the end I had to brave it and run over when a gap appeared. Its dud 375710 on the front with winner 375627 on the rear for the trip to Ramsgate, and Ive now got Ashford to Ramsgate stations all done at last! At this point I decide Im going to leave Sheperds Well until I make a trip to the East Kent Railway, which will then leave 5 more shacks to get in the book. I end up on dud 395013 to Broadstairs for a prospective leap to see whats coming back down, but its dud 375829 so I continue to Margate with winner 395008, micro-gricing platform 4 as a result. 395008 is on the 1253 to St Pancras via Canterbury West and Ashford International next, and is the first available move out of here, so I go for the crossover as well and jump back on for the trip to Ashford. Once business is taken care of, my phones in need of some charge by now, not knowing if Id get another opportunity to charge it later I figured Id best take advantage now. Its coffee time on the way to Ashford, and Ive never done the route from Ramsgate to Ashford on a 395 so thats that objective done now. Quite, there isnt that much track down here which 395s operate on that I havent had a 395 over now, I think thats down to pretty much Strood to Maidstone West and Sandwich to Minster East Junction now.
Next mission now is to get Westenhanger and Sandling in the book to clear the stations from Ashford to Faversham via Dover and the East Kent Coast. Winner 375803 is had to Sandling, and after a short wait its onto double winners 375830 and 375624 for the BSB to Westenhanger. Not bad, 3 winning 375s in just under 25 minutes, very happy with that! Ive wanted to Eurostar spot here for a long time, annoyingly on my way to Sandling two Eurostars went by with no chance of IDing them. Quite, it seemed every time I was in Ashford a Eurostar would fly by, again with no chance of IDing them! Ive got something silly like a +44 here, so plenty of time to spot them but I only see one in that time, 373210+373209, on an eastbound working. I was going to film it passing by, but Id turned my phone off for the first time in 3 days as it was misbehaving. Unfortunately Id not turned it back on before the Eurostar showed up, oops! I finish off my flask of coffee here, and Im fairly happy Ive scored 5 shacks today now. The remaining ones, bar Tunbridge Wells, take some careful planning to do hence some long festers. I take a photo of winner for sight MPV DR98930, and I cannot believe it, but its Super Dud 375307 AGAIN for my trip east! Im bailing at Folkestone Central for a prospective look at what 395 is about 10 minutes behind then for sure. Its not a pleasant wait either, as its very cold! I will still have a +41 before my chosen train anyway at Dover, so Ill still be off to the pub for a pint before continuing onwards.
Dud 395008 is up next, and since I doubt Ill get any further opportunity to charge my phone before getting back to base camp tonight, I plug the charger in. 10 minutes is 10 minutes! I hadnt noticed it in the timetable somehow, but the plan to go to the pub is out of the window for now, as the 1551 to London Victoria isnt fast to Canterbury East as I thought, instead it calls at all stations to Rochester with exception to Snowdown and Bekesbourne. I check, double check and even triple check my options here, and yes I have a plan for now. Winner 375810 is scored then for the trip to Sheperds Well, as there was no point leaving it not done and fester in Dover for no reason! I still have the same amount of time here anyway, and after getting a photo of the signalbox I finally devour the sandwich I bought for lunch this morning! It went down beautifully, having not eaten for around 6 hours now, then its time to update the trip report and NREA. Dud 375702 is up next for the short trip to Snowdown, my final station between Faversham and Dover, indeed the last one to get in East Kent too! 375702 has now joined several 375s in the ranks of Super Dud status, and I see an S reg Olympian on a Stagecoach bus route here to Dover. Phwoar, what a noise! Dud 375710 takes me back to Dover, mission accomplished over here at least. Ive got, according to the timetable, a +46 as we arrive 3 minutes early for the next 395 to Ashford. Id been going through RTT and planning my moves carefully, but I hadnt considered looking beforehand to see what was off Dover in case there was an earlier train. Sure enough, the pub option is banished again as I see the 1727 to Charing Cross, that will sure help me get everything done in a timely fashion!
Even better, its winner 375804 for the trip to Ashford, thatll do nicely. RTT confirms the 1802 to Victoria does indeed call at Charing, and that I have a very reasonable +7 there to come back to Ashford. Im down to my last 2 stations in the Kent Rover area to get, so its getting a bit tense as to whether itll all work out or not! We arrive on platform 2 and thankfully the 1802 is from platform 1, no massive rush through the station after all, phew! Winner 465926 is had for the 8 minute journey to Charing, in the motor coach of course. Its absolutely f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-freezing out here so Im glad its only a short wait for winner 465917 to get me back to Ashford. Mission accomplished on this line now, and my plan is going well so far. I micro-grice the track from the Maidstone East to platform 1 at Ashford, having done it the other way last year (and again tonight!) which was welcome. 375828 is waiting for another 375 to roll in from the east, which was dud 375829 in the end, to form the 1835 to Charing Cross. The join complete, for a few moments the danger music was playing as the guard didnt re-open the doors for a while to let me and the other passenger on. Thankfully the doors do open up again and were off to Tonbridge. 375828 scored, Im doing well with the 375/8s today! I seem to recall I have a fairly tight connection next for Tunbridge Wells, so its a bit of a tense moment but I end up making it with ease.
Much to my extreme delight [I bet you thought I was going to say disgust then! Ed] I FINALLY finish my 375s for sight, as 375901 is seen leading a pair of 375s towards London! Thats really made my day now, and to top it off even more I end up getting triple winners 466020, 465903 and 465923 for my trip to Tunbridge Wells, result! ALL stations in the Kent Rover area now done, theres a need to celebrate tonight! Making my evening, and my last few hours on my rover, even better was scoring double winners 375802 and 375602 for the trip back to Tonbridge, absolutely brilliant! Ive got ages until the train to Strood, so I go off in search of food. The Quarry chippy is found, and a small portion of chips is all I have the change for, and fair games I had a good portion for £1.50, well recommended as a place to return to when Im next down here. I pop into Lidl next for some supplies, including some Carlsberg Export to celebrate an amazing trip so far, full of great results. £5.12 later I was leaving for the station, noting that I only had 18 minutes left before my train now. That time flew by, thats for sure!
The Dover train produces a pair of duds, 375817 and 375804, so I flag doing the leap to Paddock Wood on it after all, making my way back to platform 1 for the 2034 to Strood. This turned out to be a good call, as it was winner 375301. So my last 3 moves had a total of 6 winners on them, not bad whatsoever! Off we go on time and its time to again update the trip report and NREA, which took until East Farleigh to do surprisingly! A count reveals Im now down to 40 required 375s, meaning Ive scored 19 375s this week, not a bad result whatsoever. 2 of the tinnies are enjoyed on the trip to Strood, where I only just make it onto winner 395009 for the trip back to base camp. A count tells me Im now down to just 8 required 395s, meaning Ive scored 6 of them this week, not bad at all! Back at base camp, a call home is made, and for some reason I cant get the TV to work, so no Big Bang Theory tonight. I go on the forum for a bit instead, and just after 2300 Im falling asleep, so I abandon the thread I was reading for now, chuck everything onto the floor and hit the hay.
I hope that lot keeps you all busy on your commutes for at least one way
Days 4-6 will be here eventually, I've been busy getting up to date on TV and YouTube today since earlier. I sure needed a break after smashing the keyboard apart (not literally!) typing up two days of trip reports! I'm currently engaged now with updating my RailMiles, fair games I did do a fair bit all in on Day 1, over 300 miles! 
Time to carry on now with some more journeys, it does however look like there's a chance I'll be up to date by this time next Monday! In the meantime, enjoy the above!
I had an amazing time at least, which I should imagine this trip report is showing. One month and 16 days until my next time off, just 5 days off this time. Of course, that plan has been planned for a while already, and I'll go onto that detail nearer the time. In the meantime, let's fire away with Day 5!
