Juliano's World Frenzy/Tech's Trip Reports

[LowLevel]

I enjoy reading about it but I'm far too lazy to keep anything like that up - I already log my units at work along with a few other bits of info about the shift in case I get a 'please explain' at a later date !!

 

[Techniquest]

I enjoy reading about it but I'm far too lazy to keep anything like that up - I already log my units at work along with a few other bits of info about the shift in case I get a 'please explain' at a later date !!

Fair enough, I'm hooked on doing things my way and can't see it ever changing again. I love what I do, it has to be said!

Good call on logging extra details on your shift, never know when it'll come in handy!

 

[D841 Roebuck]

Fair enough, I'm hooked on doing things my way and can't see it ever changing again. I love what I do, it has to be said!

Good call on logging extra details on your shift, never know when it'll come in handy!

Doing things your own way is the only way to do things.

Personally, if I travelled on, for example, a four coach train made up of 142050 and 142051, I would only count 142050 (the one with the half decent seats which I travelled in) rather than both the pair. That's neither right nor wrong - just my way of recording things.

Likewise in karaoke-bashing, different artists don't count but different songs do...

***

Glad to see St Pauls has returned to the West Midlands.

***

Thinking of Shack-attacking on the Northern ECML - I suspect Acklington/Widdrington/Pegswood are even more of a pain than Chathill, due to the longer festers.

 

[37038]

07/02/2015 - Techniquest's On The Toon, Day 3

I fail to find Costa, so I end up in Subway for two reasons.

In about 20 minutes I score 8 trams for sight, not bad. There's even pairs of trams running, is this a common occurance?

I'd scored 68005 and 68008 on the DRS depot [I never remember the name of it! - Ed] at Crewe, much to my delight.

In order of quote-age:

There's an enormous Costa on P2 at Newcastle close to P1 (the north facing bay) Also a Sainsburys (or is it Tesco), Burger King, AMT and the Centurion pub (excellent pub). Greggs and Subway outside the station over the road.

Pairs of trams pretty common, especially on longer or peak services.

Gresty Bridge!

Thanks

 

[Blindtraveler]

Way! Just digested all 6 days at once. Amazing stuff and sounds like a great trip! Personally no interest in doing all those stations but need lots of track in Kent and quite a bit up in the Northeast too! Nice work on the Metro too! Thanks for writing all that!

 

[Techniquest]

Fair enough, I'm hooked on doing things my way and can't see it ever changing again. I love what I do, it has to be said!

Good call on logging extra details on your shift, never know when it'll come in handy!

Doing things your own way is the only way to do things.

Personally, if I travelled on, for example, a four coach train made up of 142050 and 142051, I would only count 142050 (the one with the half decent seats which I travelled in) rather than both the pair. That's neither right nor wrong - just my way of recording things.

Likewise in karaoke-bashing, different artists don't count but different songs do...

Absolutely! I never used to count pairs or triples but have done after common sense had been knocked into my head!

Can't comment on the karaoke thing, I've very little experience or knowledge there!

Glad to see St Pauls has returned to the West Midlands.

I'm glad you noticed it!

Thinking of Shack-attacking on the Northern ECML - I suspect Acklington/Widdrington/Pegswood are even more of a pain than Chathill, due to the longer festers.

Ah yeah very true, Pegswood involves an hour's fester I believe. More annoying is that you can't do them all in one day!
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There's an enormous Costa on P2 at Newcastle close to P1 (the north facing bay) Also a Sainsburys (or is it Tesco), Burger King, AMT and the Centurion pub (excellent pub). Greggs and Subway outside the station over the road.

Pairs of trams pretty common, especially on longer or peak services.

Gresty Bridge!

Thanks

I must have missed it somehow then, never mind on this occasion as I gained from visiting Subway across the road. Aye it's Sainsburys in the station, very useful having a supermarket there!

Good to know pairs of trams are fairly common, will make it easier to get them in the book when I finally get up there for a massive Metrolink bash!

Good stuff, I might actually remember it being Gresty Bridge one day lol
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Way! Just digested all 6 days at once. Amazing stuff and sounds like a great trip! Personally no interest in doing all those stations but need lots of track in Kent and quite a bit up in the Northeast too! Nice work on the Metro too! Thanks for writing all that!

It was indeed an excellent trip! Aside from preserved and freight only lines, I've cleared the track in the North East now

Glad you enjoyed the read, and going through all 6 days in a row must have been a bit of an endurance!

 

[Clip]

Just finished them and again great reports - sounds like you had another blast.

However, I didn't see any moves to Bishop - have you already done that branch?

Also your titles are slightly misleading given you went south of the river you cant call all them places the 'toon' especially knocking about smogsville and mackemland

 

[Segedunum]

There's also a Costa inside the Platform 3 waiting room, along with a Pumpkin slightly further along the platform. As a result, the waiting room is always quite warm and permanently has a whiff of coffee :P

 

[Techniquest]

Just finished them and again great reports - sounds like you had another blast.

However, I didn't see any moves to Bishop - have you already done that branch?

Also your titles are slightly misleading given you went south of the river you cant call all them places the 'toon' especially knocking about smogsville and mackemland

Done the Bishop Auckland branch at least twice. Yeah the titles were from my hashtag choices for the trip, the best things I could think of!

 

[crispy1978]

Brilliant write-up. Really enjoyed following them on here and Twitter!

 

[noddy1878]

Enjoyed that read up. I now have the urge to so Kent Rover and a Tyne & Tees Ranger at some point, some how!

 

[crehld]

Well it looks like you've had a great trip. I haven't had time to read all of your reports thoroughly yet (there's a few to get through), but looking forward to reading them on the bus journeys to work over the next week.

 

[Techniquest]

Glad you all enjoyed the read, or at least will do (will be more interesting on your commute at least eh crehld)!

I really do recommend doing a Kent Rover, they're very good value. I have a hunch I'll be doing another one in 2016!

 

[FQ]

I would like to do a Kent Rover too, but Southeastern don't like lone children on there trains.

 

[postye]

Sounds like you had a great trip there Techniquest, with loads of winners in both locations.

I really must do a Kent Rover as im only 20 minutes bus ride away from Swanley, maybe the summer as the next few weeks will be taken up doing Great Escape/Northern £10/SWT offers to take advantage of and hopefully a big boost to the mileage stats.

Must also spend some time up in Northumberland with my mum and bash the Metro - I've not been on one of them since about 1993!

 

[Techniquest]

I really must do a Kent Rover as im only 20 minutes bus ride away from Swanley, maybe the summer as the next few weeks will be taken up doing Great Escape/Northern £10/SWT offers to take advantage of and hopefully a big boost to the mileage stats.

It's also valid from Sevenoaks, if that's any help! What SWT offers are those?

Must also spend some time up in Northumberland with my mum and bash the Metro - I've not been on one of them since about 1993!

There's still a LOT of the network to be modernised, but it's getting there slowly

 

[Kite159]

SWT are having their £15 return anywhere on the network offer back on at some point in the next few weeks, however more restrictive than last time (nothing west of Salisbury or west of Bournemouth)

 

[crehld]

Well I've read through the Kent trip. Looks like a good trip overall despite the weather and feeling ill. And yes, that Kent rover is incredible value! Can't wait to read how it went up north!

 

[Techniquest]

Next trip is almost booked, the hotel has been booked earlier today at least. Final stage of TPP will be underway before tea at least, booking the travel Only got to get the voucher for my Great Escape bash now at least, well two of them to get me home as well (as it means I'll save 70p or so on the way home)!

A week tomorrow it'll be held on, can't wait! After that one, and yes there will be a trip report before you all ask, I'll be off again then in March. Most likely that one won't be until 9th March, and probably only a basic trip like a West Midlands Daytripper, following that 2 and a bit weeks after is the epic 3 day trip in London!

 

[heart-of-wessex]

Ohh what's the plan for London?

 

[Techniquest]

Not got a plan yet but certainly want to do some shack scratching on LO, DLR and SWT. Also want to score a lot of 357s, not to mention get to work on my required 313s, 315s, 321s, 377s, 378s and 455s as a minimum!

 

[noddy1878]

Not got a plan yet but certainly want to do some shack scratching on LO, DLR and SWT. Also want to score a lot of 357s, not to mention get to work on my required 313s, 315s, 321s, 377s, 378s and 455s as a minimum!

Was that March 23rd onwards? I maybe (only maybe depends on a few things) up in London around that time. I'm probably gonna use London as a base but can't say why yet.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

Same as me, I am wanting to do a red pen day somepoint in March, maybe a joint meet up?

 

[Techniquest]

26th, 27th and 28th March I shall be in London, aye a meet up is all fine and good by me, it's been a long time since that PLEG meet in Shildon after all!

I've just re-booked my hotel, now staying in Birmingham almost right next to New Street, so will be more convenient. Only reason being is that I used Trivago earlier to find a hotel, which then sent me to Expedia for booking it. Bargain of £25 was had, and I carried on through the booking process for it. I looked not long ago to find no confirmation email still, so rang them up and, sure enough, my itinerary number has no booking paid for at their end either. I really wasn't happy about that, and of course I'll be getting in touch with that hotel directly tomorrow. Not paying for two hotels after all! Of course, I'll be in touch with the bank on Tuesday morning before I go to work, just to keep an eye on things.

So I would avoid using Expedia altogether, especially on a mobile! I went to Hotels.com and found a much more suitably located hotel instead for the same money, which hadn't come up on Trivago. Shows how good their website really is then...:roll::roll::roll:

That could have been a big issue on the day itself, turning up and finding my booking hadn't been processed!

 

[Kite159]

I had that in Inverness at the start of my holiday, some-reason the guest house didn't receive the booking from Booking.com. Thankfully there was a guest house next door which had a vacancy (most of the guest houses & hotels I passed walking to that guest house were no-vacancy), and booking.com refunded the difference in price.

Fancy meeting up on the 27th March, I've got one day's leave left to try and take in March?

 

[noddy1878]

If I can do it, it will be on the 26th I'll be around then. I'll be heading home the same day but I'm off 23 - 26 March.

 

[Techniquest]

I'm on the 1050 BHM-EUS on the 26th of March, anyone wanting to meet up during the trip, please feel free to drop me a PM

Still trying to decide whether I should do next week's Great Escape in First or Standard Class. First appeals for keeping the phone charge going well during the day, shall have to decide in the next 6 days!

Hashtag for that trip has been decided, #operationdesiro has been chosen. It should be fairly obvious from that what I intend to be doing next Monday, but if it's not then it's hunting down the 12 350s I need with LM!

 

[heart-of-wessex]

I'm on the 1050 BHM-EUS on the 26th of March, anyone wanting to meet up during the trip, please feel free to drop me a PM

Still trying to decide whether I should do next week's Great Escape in First or Standard Class. First appeals for keeping the phone charge going well during the day, shall have to decide in the next 6 days!

Hashtag for that trip has been decided, #operationdesiro has been chosen. It should be fairly obvious from that what I intend to be doing next Monday, but if it's not then it's hunting down the 12 350s I need with LM!

I haven't done the First Class one before, but I would tell you what I tell myself, treat yourself while it's there! It's an extra Tenner, like all rovers, you'll do a couple of trips that would accumulate to £25, then the rest is 'free'.

Weigh up the values of course, if your doing a lot of 350's then that's a bonus, It's half term isn't it? In which case you might have more chance of a seat/table if required than in standard.

If doing a mix with some 323's or the Bedford/Bletchley units, not worth it at all, nor would it be worth much if only doing shuttle leaps between short distances in the Birmingham area only or something. Other than that, go for it I'd say!

 

[Techniquest]

Very good pointers there, I'll be mostly on the Trent Valley and WCML South for 350 hunting so might be worth it. Decision to come along by the weekend, when I decide which voucher to print out!

 

[47403]

I got caught up in last fridays metro fiasco too, meant I missed the 09.22 to Carlisle, so i just walked over onto Heworth's station for 09.42 to Hexham, as far as Newcastle, as i stood alone there for 15mins, I clicked 66737 for sight too, before someone among the Nexus staff, had a brainwave and started directing people over to the train train station. After that it got ridiculous, seeing well over 200 people trying to cram onto 142064 was madness, to the point the guard said, no more. It was certainly cosey on that train. I think i got lucky though, the earlier train was a 142, I got mega dud 156490 but at least it was a 156.
Same hassle today between South Hylton and Park Lane, service cancelled all day with bus replacements, the last couple of months on the metro, have been horrendous for commuters especially.