Here we are then, live from the middle of nowhere!
06/05/2016 - Tech's Over Doing It, Day 1
Finally, May's bashing has begun, and it feels like forever since my last bash which ended on 18th April! A decent bit of bashing in London has been long overdue too [with all that's been happening recently too, a de-stress was also required - Ed], and the night before this trip, packing was done once I got back from work. No super early morning start either [that's tomorrow... - Ed] as I was getting the 0720 bus to be in place for the 0940 to the Bat Cave! Breakfast and filling the travel mug with Tech's Fuel of Champions [coffee! - Ed] became the order of the day first of course. 2 days ago I made this trip into a 5 day spree, which I'll reveal as this trip report goes on. Truely I was over-doing it!
So what's this trip title about? For a change it's not a musical one, it is a loving tribute to Mythbusters, which saw its final season conclude earlier this year. I'm going to miss them like crazy, as is my brother for that matter, we both loved that programme. Not all of you will be familiar with it, so for those people, it was an American programme that ran for 14 years on which they tested myths of all sorts over the years, using scientific measures. It might not sound exciting, but it sure made science more fun and appealing to a whole generation, and it was always interesting to see what myths were true or not. I probably am not making it sound enjoyable, but trust me it is worth a watch. One of the Mythbusters' mantras is "If it's worth doing, it's worth over doing" hence the inspiration for this trip title and hashtag! Expect some complaints of Red Pen Fever as this trip report goes on...
As much as I dislike the mundane journey to Birmingham [I've done it far too often, it's one of my most frequent journeys on RailMiles - Ed], I couldn't find a reasonably priced route with GWR to London so an £11 LM+VT Advance had to do, meaning I got 153365+170506 to the Bat Cave, with the onward move to London to be the 1130 Birmingham New Street to London Euston. DBT was enjoyed to Ledbury, but was then inaudible over a group of lads getting on and boozing it up [already? Jeez... - Ed] all the way to Birmingham! For the first time in years, I ID the 66 on the Tesco container train as it goes down the Lickey, it being 66303. It's been traditional for me to manage to not ID the loco for a long time!
A large mocha from Costa was enjoyed, using some of the many points on my Coffee Club card. A supply raid in Tesco Metro [maintaining a tradition! - Ed] saw me stock up on 4 bottles of flavoured water amongst other things, in a bid to both increase my healthiness and to beat the heat on a hot day. After a PNB, I make my way down to the 1130 to London Euston, joining coach U (65348) for a carriage score and shove the phone on charge. This coach is very busy several minutes before departure, good thing I came down early. Tickets for Tuesday also collected, happy days. A lunch break is had, which will fuel my bashing until some time this evening, now bring on the Pendolino tilt!
The tilt did not disappoint either, those curves on the route via Weedon sure generate a lot of it! Arrival is into Euston's platform 15 at 1255, and I have a fast march to Euston Square. My first London move falls to double winners for everything 21099+21100 for a leap to Kings Cross St Pancras, onwards I score double winners for everything 21503+21504 to Tower Hill. A very good start to clearing my lists! A walk in the sunshine to Tower Gateway gets me on triple duds 68+81+34 to Cyprus, and hassaanhc joins me at Custom House. He kindly agreed to print my easyBus ticket for me, which I was most grateful for. I score two DLR units for haulage on the way there, and during the walk to Gallions Reach we see an interesting trio of 02+01+03, 02 being needed for sight. That leaves just 30 and 52 to see on the DLR, happy days! Before that, we join duds 141+140 with winner 137 to Beckton Park, as Hassaan needed the shack.
After a few minutes' wait, winner 02 sandwiched dud 01 with winner 03 at the back for a trip to Canning Town. Dud 36 and winner 26 took us to Pontoon Dock, where we wait for winner 35 and dud 10 back to Canning Town. It's onto the Jubilee line now, as we needed to get to Clapham Junction to meet up with Kite159. Winner for everything 96114 and winner 96099 took us to Waterloo, and the noise in the tunnels was epic. I must get on with doing more of these! We just make it onto a trio of duds [really?! When I need 15 456s?! - Ed] 455859+456015+456018 for a slow journey to Clapham Junction. 456015 becomes a Super Dud on this trip, and I score 458525 for sight. Still a lot of those to get!
Kite eventually arrives, and our leap to East Croydon is aboard a rammed solid winner 377137 and dud 377122. Check in at base camp, easyHotel Croydon, is done and after a bag empty and PNB, we're soon back on the move. Hassaan points out some 171s are on the way up, so we go down for them and just as well, as it's double winners 171721+171802 to London Bridge! Onwards to Cannon Street, and it's another pair of winners with 376012+376005, oh the fever is coming on...A trio of 375/9s is observed on the 1724 to Folkestone Central, and the 1719 to Sevenoaks was cancelled. Me and Hassaan join winners 375924+375908 with dud 375914 on the back, while Kite went after his last 465/0. Our train however is rammed solid, as a stop at Orpington has been added, so passengers from the Sevenoaks train rammed this out. I dread to think what the 10 coaches behind us were like, but we were in coach 2 and that was full. From Bridge it was crazy, as those on Twitter will have seen from the photo I shared. Kite somehow managed to get on as he needed 375914, and we were off to Orpington. I had no intention of coming to zone 6 today, but hey ho!
We wait for the hundreds of people to get out of the way before heading for a fast train back to Charing Cross. As it was a pair of dud 465/9s, we decline it and instead join dud 375605 and winner 375915 on what was supposed to be a fast run, however we might as well have been on a Thameslink Stagger, it taking 29 minutes to finally get to Charing Cross. We need now to get to Farringdon to meet Kristofferson, who has been waiting for us! Duds 7517+7042 take us to Blackfriars, where we then get winner 377504 and dud 377502 [dud for Brighton to Bedford from memory! - Ed] to City Thameslink, where we await the 319s, which produce double duds 319444+319421 for the leap to Farringdon. Ahh, AC powered 319s, no question about it, far superior to DC power!
We finally get to Spoons about 40 minutes after our original plan, and an excellent meal is had along with a good little catch-up with Kristofferson. I still can't believe how long it's been since we were here last time, all the way back on the August Bank Holiday Frothday weekend in 2015! After a while he needs to get home for a relaxing weekend, while the rest of us head down to the station and join double duds 377208+377515 [seriously, my luck is terrible on Thameslink! - Ed] to Blackfriars. We part ways with Hassaan now, who heads east while Kite and I head to Victoria on double winners 7046+7502 [that probably won't happen again for me, a pair of winning D stocks! - Ed] as we were on a mission of faith. It was great to see you both again Kristofferson and Hassaanhc, I hope you both have a good weekend, and many thanks again for printing that ticket for me Hassaan!
Sadly we were not able to make the intended train to Balham, but we do join winner 377106 and dud 377149 to Clapham Junction instead. As per Kite's search on RTT, his last Southern 455 indeed produced! Winner 455807 and dud 455842 [other way around for Kite - Ed] take us to Battersea Park, Kite being rightly happy to have cleared his 455s! I still need 56 of the things...Eventually double winners 377703+377615 take us back to Clapham Junction, they're coming down!
Instead of a 442, we jump on winner 377117 with duds 377320 and 377302 on the back to Victoria. A quadruple 377/3 set is noted arriving, with a winner on it, so after finding nothing better, we go and investigate. Turns out winner 377326 sandwiched duds 377316 and 377303 between winner 377306, another two steps towards conquering the UK then! We eventually leave 5 minutes late, as the BTP were attending an incident in the last coach. Back at East Croydon, the fresh air is wonderful but I'm afraid Red Pen Fever hit us both like a ton of bricks. Winner 2548 took us to Lebanon Road, winner 2556 took us back to East Croydon, where winner for everything 2562 returns us the one stop east, winner 2543 returning me several minutes later. I then rejoin Kite on winner 2550 to George Street, from where I'm in luck...
Winner for everything 2563 takes us to Wellesey Road. This is particularly noteworthy as this was my last Croydon tram to see, happy friggin' days! One last chance of a winner now, and I score winner 2539 back to East Croydon. It's 2243 now, time to head back to base camp! Thankfully the air-con was working, and it did a grand job too. Somehow, despite being tired, it took a while to get to sleep. An 0530 alarm was so not being looked forward to...
An excellent day, with 14 new sights (not including a BA plane!) and 35 scores for haulage! 2,265 scores still out there on the mainlines...Day 2 will no doubt be posted in the morning.
43059+43050 leave on time at 1620, and we leave the area far quicker than we did coming in! Now, where's that bottle opener...Three bottles later, I'm now on 291 brews logged on Untappd, and I score 73962 and 73963 for sight on a test train at Loughborough! The journey goes quite quick, also scoring goods line around the back of Leicester, until Luton Airport Parkway where we crawl along the slows for ages, before transferring to the Up Fast just before Hendon, and we wait for ages for a path into St Pancras.
I've only got 3 coaches marked in the book on it so probably not much mileage for me off it