Oh, you mean scoring the new chord onto the Up Slow?
05/04/2017 - Tech's Two Fingers To Terrorism, Day 2
0630 and the alarm was sounding after a most welcome heavy sleep. A slow prep for the day with a majorly welcome de-rancify in the excellent shower, then it was a continental breakfast of toast, coffee and cereal. We were in no rush today, and eventually we went looking for route 324 to take us to Stanmore Station. Eventually we discovered this a hail and ride service, which explains the lack of bus stops Google Maps insisted were there! Metroline's DE863 took us there on the fairly short journey, and Travelcards were bought. Onto the Jubilee line and at last a train, with winner 96063 and dud 96022 taking us all the way to Finchley Road. We changed there for the Metropolitan and joined double winners 21090+21089 to Baker Street. Onwards were double duds 21060+21059 which we took to Barbican, joining a few minutes later double winners 21442+21441 to Mile End.
There was a right royal farce here as the Central line had entered meltdown, due to a failed train between Stratford and Leyton. We were going to change plans, but then I discovered a winner was in front of us and was about to leave for Stratford, so we joined winner 91047 with dud 92060 behind it and winner for everything 92108 and winner 91265 on the back. The sun was out in force today so a fester for 315s was a good idea. Dud 315827 and winner 315828 took us to Romford, as BT needed the branch to Upminster. Winner 317708 took us along the slow branch and we were glad to bail off it, joining winner 357004 to Limehouse for a DLR bash.
Dud 88 led winners 04+22 for the leap to Westferry, and dud 75 had winners 55+16 for company took us all the way to Beckton. It was time now for a lunch break, so we visited Brewers Fayre for it. I had fish and chips with peas, followed eventually by a warm chocolate brownie and ice cream, with several refills of my soft drink. A visit to Asda was also had, and after what turned out to be a very long break we were back on the move with double duds 154+142 to Royal Victoria. Those people who followed the Live Trip Report will know already we did the Emirates Air Line cable car, something we both needed. After purchasing tickets, we join cable car 24 to North Greenwich Peninsula and I thoroughly enjoyed my trip on it and would do it again for the views of East London. Once off that, we had the interesting idea of Thames Clippers bashing, something I had never done before.
Again we needed tickets for this, and eventually the family in front of us were sorted but it meant we missed the next Clipper. A lengthy wait was had and we joined winner Hurricane Clipper for a trip to Embankment Pier. Now I had been promised by BT that I would not be disappointed by the thrash off these things. I was certainly VERY impressed by the ride on the inside of this craft, let alone the racket you get treated to on the outside part, PHWOAR! It won't surprise any of you to learn I want to do more of these very soon! We were now due to meet Kite, so we head over to the Bakerloo line, and he was waiting for us downstairs. Onwards to Paddington we went, and taking us there were dud 3448 and winner for everything 3263. I was now in my favourite place in the whole country, Paddington's mainline station and I remain adamant there are no better stations in the UK. Biased as a Western Region man, maybe, but tough. York's got nothing on this amazing place!
Anyway, it was time to join some mainline trains, and it was onto dud 165134 and winner 166203, 3 more 166s to go! After a short wait at Ealing Broadway, we join double winners 387137+387135 to Hayes & Harlington as I needed the bay platform there. A short wait here too was had for double duds 165127+165114 back to Ealing Broadway. Forward one stop after some HST watching, including my scoring another two S7 half-sets for sight, and we joined double winners 387139+387138 to West Ealing.
387138 was also a score for sight which was quite a welcome surprise when I checked! Dud 165130 took us to Greenford, and Kite suggested we do a Central line move to South Ruislip for a Chiltern back into town. Sounded good to me, much to BT's disgust as he's apparently had too much Central line action [I know, I couldn't believe this could be said! - Ed] lately. Even so, he came along and we joined dud 91153 which led winners 92458+92250+91247 for the leap to Northolt where it terminated, and I scored 92250 for sight too, happy day. Something I'll have to get used to one day is many duds on this line, which started with quadruple duds 91149+92430+92402+91327 to South Ruislip. Sadly it was double duds 165019+165014 to Marylebone. Kite noticed his penultimate S8 pair so the chase was on, and we went to the Bakerloo to join double duds 3263+3448 [yes, the same pair from earlier! - Ed] to Baker Street. Kite can't believe his luck, his other final pair of S8 half-sets is in and waiting for us, so we took double duds 21032+21031 to Finchley Road.
BT and I had had enough for the night, so we left Kite achieve something I may never do and chase his last S8, the jammy little so and so. We joined winner 96082 with dud 96081 to Canons Park, and got some milk for the morning coffee as we had a long wait for the next 186 west. TE715 took us the couple of stops and then we had a short walk to base camp. An excellent day, full of variety it must be said!
06/04/2017 - Tech's Two Fingers To Terrorism, Day 3
Another 0630 alarm and a slow prep and de-rancify before breakfast just after 0800. Again, we weren't rushing out and joined route 186 west to Harrow & Wealdstone station, as BT wanted a 319 into town. A Puccinos coffee, a required Puccinos at that [yes I am ticking them off slowly! - Ed] and a fester in the sunshine once I got our Travelcards. Double duds, unsurprisingly, 319457+319441 took us on a rather busy train to Euston, where we made our way to the bus station. Why? I had never travelled on a so-called Borismaster, so BT twisted my arm into doing one. Route 73 drove off after dropping passengers off without picking anyone up, so we changed plans and joined route 253 with LTZ1814 taking us to Camden Town. This would put us, after more walking than expected, onto the Northern line, and after flagging a pair of duds we joined what turned out to be double winners for everything 51682+51681 to Finchley Central.
BT needed the Mill Hill East branch to clear the Northern line for coverage, and we had a fair wait here so I made use of the facilities first. Double winners 51529+51528 took us to Mill Hill East and back to Finchley Central, where earlier's winners were flagged for the journey to Kentish Town, instead we got double winners 51598+51599. A little closer to clearing LU but still a very long way to go! We decided to go onto Thameslink next, as I need a truckload of 700s. A pair of 319s were flagged, just as well as the next Sutton had dud 319010 and winner 319011 for our trip to Farringdon, my last 319/0 was in the book and just 9 more 319s remain to be scored! We fester for a bit before joining winner for everything 700115 to City Thameslink. It was quite a while before another winner came up, and to Blackfriars we took winner 700008.
Here we spent quite some time flagging duds before winner for everything 700036 took us on a world famous Thameslink stagger to East Croydon. BT had some stuff he needed to deal with in Elmers End, something to do with relatives nearby I think, so we joined tram 2543 to Arena before tram 2555 finished the journey to Elmers End. Once I saw BT off to whatever he was up to, I popped into Tesco briefly before setting up camp on the platforms. Dud after dud after dud, but no matter the sunshine did me good, and BT was back in no time. A short wait saw us join dud 465172 and winner 465192 to Ladywell, as a pair of 376s I wanted had gone to Hayes. Soon enough, we were joining dud 465154 and winner 465242 to Waterloo East, where we festered in yet more sun for a pair of 376s I had seen. I did score the new platform 9 at London Bridge which was nice.
Thankfully we remembered to check the platform as it was off D not B where we were. The evening peak wasn't chucking out much I wanted to my surprise, and we just made it in time to join double winners 376033+376019 to Charing Cross. A Burger King visit was made, having to turn down winners to do so, and a sitdown was requested by BT. We ended up deciding to go on what turned out to be one major crawl to Woolwich Arsenal, and taking us were double winners 376030+376028, leaving me 9 more 376s to get. Platform 7 at London Bridge was also scored, so the new layout at London Bridge was finally getting properly worked through. After that ultra slow journey, on which I declared the seats on 700s to be far more comfortable, we changed for the DLR. Kicking off the score fest was winner 37 with dud 76 to King George V. The tunnel thrash out of Woolwich Arsenal was quite worth the effort!
Dud 122 and winner 135 took us to London City Airport, and heading back east we got onto double winners 103+148 for the ride to Woolwich. We had a fester down here [I'm now bored of festering, it must be said - Ed] before joining winner 43 and dud 71 to Pontoon Dock. Winner 06 and dud 40 took us to West Silvertown where we bailed once again.
To Canning Town for our final DLR move of the day, joining winner 07 with duds 02+23. Downstairs to the Jubilee line, and after some duds we joined winners 96104+96017 to London Bridge, 96104 being a score for sight too. Onwards to Southwark with double winners 96014+96013 and to Waterloo with dud 96052 and winner 96079. There really isn't an exciting way to talk about these moves I'm afraid! Double winners 96084+96109 took us to Westminster and onwards to Bond Street we went soon after with winner 96056 and dud 96047. Double winners 96046+96057 took us to Baker Street next, where we changed for the Metropolitan. We just missed winning S8 stock so joined the next Watford which was double winners 21073+21074 and we sat down as the long day was catching up with us. There was an Amersham I decided on too late for that I needed, curse you silly brain being too late to decide! Off to Wembley Park we went on a nice and fast ride, overtaking several Jubilee sets.
Winner 96072 and dud 96015 took us to Kingsbury, and winner 96012 had dud 96085 for company for our final train of the day to Canons Park. A shorter wait than last night was next for a 186 a few stops west, TE835 doing the honours. A short walk back to base and we were both suitably ready for a rest and unwind, although we both found it hard to take our minds off the fact we were heading home in a matter of hours. It therefore took hours to get to sleep, well gone midnight for that matter.
07/04/2017 - Tech's Two Fingers To Terrorism, Day 4
0630 and neither of us liked our alarms! Around 0700 BT got up, and with packing ahead of departure done as well as a de-rancify, we headed downstairs for breakfast one last time before saying farewell to Janet and Terry. It was sad to leave but we had a bus to catch and trains to do! Once more we headed west on route 186 with TE712 from Metroline doing the honours on a busy run. We were soon on the platform enjoying some sunshine before joining dud 377706 to Shepherd's Bush, as BT needed the Willesden diveunder. He eventually gave in to my moaning about being on Southern, and we bailed to hunt 378s. The first one was dud, thankfully 15 minutes after that we joined winner 378227 to West Brompton for an S7 hunt.
BT took great pleasure in taunting me about how many S stocks I need and just how many kept coming up dud, but eventually after 37 minutes or so we landed double winners 21367+21368 to Gloucester Road. I did score my last 213xx S7 half-sets during the West Brompton session at least, 14 half-sets to go! Double winners 21401+21402 turn up about 5 minutes later and we joined them for a ride to Edgware Road via Bayswater. We then changed for the Bakerloo, a transfer I've never done before but now I know how easy it is I might do it again. Dud 3237 and winner 3434 took us to Marylebone, by this point I was keen on dealing with important matters after the morning's massive squash consumption, so no more trains for a while!
With that 30p well spent, the massive amount of tickets BT needed and one for me were sourced. WHSmith was visited for a meal deal before I got a beasty AMT coffee. It was then time to board the 1310 to Birmingham Moor Street, with 68012 at the helm. The buffet coach was scored just before Banbury, BT tells me the catering on Chiltern will be ending in May too. With that lukewarm coffee I'm not surprised! Arrival at Moor Street at 1453 signalled the return to my stomping grounds, and we made a slow walk to the Bat Cave [anyone else noticed we hardly call it that now? - Ed]. The 1549 to Hereford was cancelled, and by the time we'd discovered that it was too late to go back to Moor Street for the 1539 to Worcester from there. Not that it was any good to me anyway, as I would have had a long wait for a Hereford train there anyway.
I put BT onto his XC HST [jammy git! - Ed] home and I ended up doing a Get Out Of Hell move on 170633 on the 1619 to Great Malvern. I spent the majority of that trip, and indeed the rest of the time on the way home, typing up the trip report, with Tech's Mobile Disco on of course. 170509+170514 took me away from the peace and onto Hereford, where after a short wait 67010 headed north which was a nice sight. Mr Chips got visited for a large chicken curry and chips, then I got news of the pickup location for a lift home, well via Morrisons that is, before picking up my little sister from work. I left London with 69 winners which was less than desired but still not bad.
. The scenery sounds superb, but it's a shame you didn't like it. Also, it must have been annoying with the two unexpected RRBs in the trip!
