Oh I ain't doing that coach again! Daytime National Express runs I will do mind, if the price is right. I have some unavoidable rail replacement bus moves coming my way at the end of August and early September!
The final day of the epic bash is detailed below. I will apologise to all of you following the action on Twitter, the last two days I've had appalling signal in a lot of places and had to be frightfully careful of my battery charge levels. Today for instance, after I got off the 380 last night I was on 78% charge. By 1510 I was on 11% and that was with very little use of it! Yes I had my powerbank if needs be but hey ho, bit late now. I've also been exceptionally busy during the last two days, with barely time to pick up my phone on occasions!
I should also add it was great having your company Blindtraveller over the last 5 days, it would have been a much more lonely bash otherwise! It was also a great pleasure to finally meet crehld, hassaanhc and Kristofferson!
And now, the final instalment of the trip report. Photos and videos are due to be dealt with tomorrow, while I recover from this marathon 6 days!
03/08/2015 - Tech's 10th Basherversary, Day 6
Really? The final day already?! I can't believe how fast it's gone! Arrival into London Euston is 4 down at 0651, taking in the route via Bushbury Junction, Bescot Stadium, Aston, Stetchford then via Northampton. I believe this made the sleeper journey worth it for Blindtraveller, as it involved required track! The 92 sounded good it must be said, although that rough departure at Carstairs was not welcome. Sleep came soon after though, with only a short wake-up at Preston which I swear had us in platform 1. At Euston some fresh pain au chocolats are got for breakfast. Incredibly tasty they were! Off to the LU ticket office to buy an Anytime Zones 1-4 Travelcard, and LU refuse to accept to add railcard discount for Blindtraveller's one despite it being doable. Eventually we head down and board double winners
51515+51703 to Camden Town to change for double winners
51511+51512 to Hampstead, which is shack scratch 1 today. Those lifts really are fast but smooth! We change for
VW1288 on route 603 to take us to Swiss Cottage LU station, a nice and easy 7 minute ride. Time next for some Jubilee line racket, those motors! I didn't observe the rear set on this one but winner
96115 had at least on it. The train is absolutely rammed solid, to the point we physically couldn't get out of our seats, so end up going past Canary Wharf to Canada Water, where we double back.
Double winners
96008+96041 are had for the short distance, and I get us lost when heading to the East London Line, d'oh! We get there though eventually and I score winner
378146 to Brockley for shack score 2. Blindtraveller has never had a 378 and he seems quite satisfied with them, which I'm sure he'll cover in his write-up. Winner
378147 is had next to Honor Oak Park, and instead of picking up a Southern service forward [it being rather late you see - Ed] we end up on dud 378153 to Anerley for shack score 4 today. 378146 is back to take us up the road to Penge West, with 378153 also back to get us to Forest Hill [shack score 6 - Ed] and dud 377704 is up next to take us to New Cross Gate, which is useful for PNBs. I now have all the East London Line shacks done, leaving just Imperial Wharf to do on the Overground network now. Luckily for me, winner
378210 is taking us to Highbury and Islington, as Blindtraveller needs the bit north of Wapping. From there I also score
378219 on a leap to Caledonian Road and Barnsbury, where we then head east to Stratford. Sadly no more winner 378s as it's dud 378230. There's a short break here, while we wait to meet
hassaanhc off his Jubilee line move. We first then go to the DLR as Blindtraveller needs the line to Stratford International and indeed to Royal Victoria. Dud 12 and winner
38 take us to the end of the line and we go straight back out to West Ham on the same pair.
We need to change here for the last bit to Royal Victoria, as 12+38 were off to Woolwich Arsenal. Not a bad thing for me as it means I score the crossover out of West Ham and we get dud 149 and winner
111 forward. It's now time to head towards town, as Blindtraveller is booked on the 1346 out of Euston. Winners
71+62 and dud 70 take us for a longer run next to Shadwell, where we change for Bank. Just as well, as I score triple winners
58+73+23 for the final stretch! I also note 87 on Poplar depot by chance, winner for sight!
We next change to the Northern line to get to Euston, which provides winner
51557 and dud 51530 for the 10 minute journey. I finally now, as there's time, go to Costa and have my first coffee in over 25 hours! My lordz didn't it go down well too, 2.40 well spent fair dos. Before too long it's time to send Blindtraveller off on 350376 home, out of platform 17 which is a required platform for me. Hassanhc and I then go to S8 bashing, after a walk to Euston Square of course. Double winners
21081+21082 take us to Northwick Park, shack score number 7 today. Quite a nice fast run it must be said, enjoyed it! Time for a quick PNB before joining double winners
21108+21107 back to Baker Street. We then do
12326 on route 205 to Euston Bus Station, as I can then sample the new buses on it. Quite different to what I've been used to on this route in the past, but I like the hybrid action!
An 8 minute journey later, we make our way to Pret a Manger or whatever it's called to meet
Kristofferson for a brief time during his interchange. Top bloke and it was a pleasure to finally meet, and I hope I spelt your username correctly! I pop back into Costa for another large coffee and another 2.40 well spent. I part ways with hassanhc now, it was a pleasure to meet you too and hope you had a good trip back home, thanks for coming out to join us! I make my way down to platform 8 for 350372 home. I had booked First Class for a power socket, in case it was a /1 or /2, if I had had the foresight to know it would be a /3 I'd have spent a tenner less on this trip! Straight on to a table and put the phone on charge, as it was down to 11%! I update my books with the Tube sightings and haulages, I did do well with 34 new sightings and 12 new haulages on the Tube! Off we go right time, and by sheer chance I find my last Southern 377, 377708, for sight as we flew through Berkhamsted! Just 377509 to see out of all the 377s now. I also note this move makes 350372 only one step away from a Super Dud! The trip report is miles behind so I get on with updating it, which took until Birmingham International! 323215 is either going to or coming from Wolverton Works, flew past it in the siding earlier, and a 319/2 was noted on Northampton depot, but as I wasn't expecting it I didn't observe the number. I put the powerbank back on charge on the way home.
After at least 10.5 hours since Friday evening's arrival at the Travelodge, it is FINALLY full. It really shouldn't take that long to charge a 2600mAh powerbank! Much to my surprise, I've only just blown my normal 50 quid spending budget for this current 7 day period [last Friday to this Thursday - Ed] and so far only by 2.25 quid! I was not expecting that before this trip began. Granted, there have been long periods of not eating, today being a good example having eaten my pain au chocolats by 0820 and nothing but a sausage sample outside Euston around 1320 since! The plan of course is to change that by Hereford, I had however expected to spend up to 100 quid on this week's spending budget on general expenditures, so to be on 52.25 quid spent [with a 7-odd dig into last week's 9-ish underspend - Ed] in the 4 days of this budget is fine going! Obviously I've got more to pay out for when I go back to work, but I'll be no more than 20 quid over normal even then. The king of budgeting! Anyway, perhaps more insight than required but it provides an idea of what can be achieved if needs be! Also of note is that I've been adding to my Costa Coffee Club points, not using them, which I hadn't expected! We're held outside New Street for a while, due to overhead line issues. Whether I make the 1749 home or not remains to be seen, but at least my phone's got to 78% charge and you've all learnt a 6 day trip like mine is doable on a budget!
It takes 5 minutes to get outside and race into Sandhu News for a can of Rubicon Mango, as there was no way I'd have time for a Costa move! Thankfully the ECS from Tyseley for the 1749 to Hereford, my final train of the epic 6 day bash, is delayed as the late 1738 to Derby is in its way. I can't believe it's almost all over! I was going to put some tunes on, but circumstances changed...If we hadn't been 16 down I'd have had time for an early tea in Birmingham, however I resort to doing so at Hereford instead. Might as well as I have a +100 there! I have the moves book and Quails to do on this move, but as LM have kindly put 150105 on the back of 170508 on the 1749 to Hereford [a few of you will already have known this due to me texting like mad! - Ed] I cancel playing tunes and doing bookwork! We leave 10 minutes late, not too bad considering the ECS didn't arrive until 1756! Some figures for you then [which I don't mind working out while listening to the thrash - Ed]:
Winners: 56
Shack scores: 36
New sights: 48
Rail fares: 161.40
Bus fares: 8.20
Hotel ching: 105.56
Coach fares: 21.00
General expenditure: 100.11
Total cost of trip:
396.27
A bargain for 6 days of heaven!
[Obviously all figures in GBP but the pound sign doesn't translate right off my phone! - Ed]
In the end I tick off the shack scores in the Baker during the journey, then decide what to do for tea, bearing in mind it'll form both lunch and tea. Arrival is smack on time at 1923 and I go to Hereford Charcoal Grill for a large doner meat and chips with a can of Coke for 6.50. Their card reader wouldn't work despite 4 attempts, so I visit the, thankfully, free to use ATM at the petrol station. My lordz, what an enormous meal it was too, I struggled towards the end to eat it! Next up was a trip to Morrisons, which was very busy indeed for this time of night, and pick up a bottle of Strathmore Still Strawberry and Apple water to try. 1.5 litre bottle was only 64p too!
The trip officially ends when I board Y876 PWT [Optare Solo - Ed] on the 2045 bus home. The end of such an amazing trip! Yes there were bad moments, such as the extreme fail with planning on Day 5, but as Blindtraveller said himself, it was a good thing I noticed before we actually went and did it! Sadly he still needs Barrhill to Stranraer, but he's working on a plan to do that another day. Of course the rancid journey on the coach was another big downer, but that was an experience and life lesson! Overall the trip was a massive success and I am adament I will be back up north to do another rover bash like that again asap!
I celebrate with some tunes now, the first since the small hours of Sunday morning. I hope you all enjoy the read, I will reply to comments from earlier in the week tomorrow, when I add photos and videos. In the meantime, bring on the next bash!
)
No milk for my coffee as I didn't find a shop for it. 0810 we hit Halton Curve, finally getting it done! We scrap quite a few branches on our way around the curve, which is longer than I thought, rejoining the mainline at 0815. I just realised it's actually quite a nice day! Not a fan of black coffee but needs must! Feeling slightly more refreshed now but still need more caffeine. 350264 takes me to Liverpool South Parkway, and my first winner of the day is 150223 for the trip to Warrington Central. A bit of a marching walk is done in 12 minutes, which surprised me a bit. By the time dud 390009 rolls in my stomach is almost tying itself in knots, so the bacon roll was beyond welcome and very much worth £3! Time for a bit more coffee en-route to Preston, where I'm due to meet Blindtraveller for a northbound journey. Of course, as I was already down to 54% charge in my phone the charger was in at a lucky available table straight away!
