28/04/2017 - Follow Me, To The Edge
No hashtag again this time, I rather enjoyed the freedom of not doing live updates last time so I'm continuing the break from them for this trip. The title refers to a favourite tune from my teenage years, Lange's Follow Me, a proper classic dance tune which I first heard in Kevin and Perry Go Large, one of the most iconic movies of my generation. Yes, like some of you I want to watch it again! Of course, one day I might remember to reference another iconic movie of my generation, Ali G's In Da House. I watched that for the first time in years not too long ago, still really funny!
The mix of Lange's Follow Me I found the other day:
https://youtu.be/XECMfudmou0
The Nightcore version of Follow Me, which is mixed from the club mix of Follow Me:
https://youtu.be/Lik-LcYUVuA
This trip came about from finding some cheap Advances to Liverpool from Hereford, routed via Birmingham. How cheap you ask? £11.50 each way! OK so I would only have about 2.5 hours in Merseyside, but it would do. Sadly I discovered afterwards that Northern are on strike on the day of this bash, so my options for hunting required 319s [the reason for going to Merseyside! - Ed] would be rather limited. Even so, I was going to Liverpool. The odds were highly in favour of scoring the Spoons on Lime Street station, and required beers, if nothing else! Off I went on the first bus of the day [the second one in theory would get me there on time, but it would be ultra tight - Ed], and much to my surprise one of my favourite buses was in use this morning. The traditional Pumpkin coffee was sourced while I waited for my train to arrive, on this occasion I was given 170504+153371. It was the first time in quite some time that I was on the 0845 to the Bat Cave, I had forgotten it goes via Worcester Shrub Hill and so takes longer than most trains. It's not a lot, granted, and it means an extra 28 chains of mileage, but the reversal is such an endurance. Shorter than on the evening services admittedly, but still!
My stomach was raging and my eyes very tired all the way to the Bat Cave, clearly waking up at 0525 or so hit me early on. As you can imagine, I was rather looking forward to a coffee break, preferably including food, upon arrival in Birmingham! The Sunbites from a Morrisons meal deal got devoured after we slammed to a halt halfway between Barnt Green and Longbridge, the logic being the +17 was now going to be tighter than I would like. I arrived at 1021, only 2 down thanks to slack/pathing time in the timetable. I managed therefore to get a large coffee from Upper Crust [it used to be £2.43 with Bite card discount, now it's £2.52! - Ed] as Pret were busy. 350244 was in charge of taking me north, just as well as it was one of 4 350/2s only cleared for 2 miles 48 chains previously. No time to get hot food sadly.
We get pathed onto the Down Fast after Stafford, so no new track for me today. It was a pelting run until Basford Hall though, where I either saw 66553 or 66953 at 1127. Annoyingly I couldn't be sure enough on the ID, but after that ride from Stafford the following lyrics sounded quite appropriate:
[Tune]make me fly, the passion for our wings...[/tune]
323208 was noted on the Arriva Traincare depot, in for works I'm assuming. Eventually our path into Crewe was given, having had to wait for a slightly late 175 to get out of the way. 09204 was a surprising score for sight on the Arriva depot. The meal deal got concluded by Runcorn, where the sun had finally come out. It was gone again before Edge Hill, where I noted winner for sight 66751!
[Tune]and make the leap of faith, and don't look down...[/tune]
I don't find 507021 upon arrival as we had planned, so I went and got an Area C Saveaway for £3.90 as I don't need the All Areas one today. I rushed over to join the 1221 to Manchester Oxford Road [services were hugely altered today due to the Northern/RMT strike, which I have to confess to supporting - Ed] which is just as well, as it was winner
319374, happy days!
I took 319374 to Wavertree Technology Park, as I was not satisfied with just an Edge Hill leap, not when this 319 was pretty vocal! The next train to Wigan was waited for, just as well as against my belief it was winner
319369, which led to a rush down the stairs and into the motor coach. Onwards to Roby where I had a +2, and into platform 3 I went. When is platform 4 going to open, it's been forever since it was installed! I suspect a similar situation applies at Huyton. The tight plus was made with relevant ease [helps I race about the place as default! - Ed] onto dud 319375 back to Edge Hill, scoring the motor coach as I went. Oh what aural treats the 319s are, I'll never understand people who don't like them [fishquinn, you immediately came to mind! - Ed], I really won't!
[Tune]and dance with me, into the starfire, like tonight is all there is...[/tune]
After nearly 20 minutes, it was discovered dud 319376 was to take me to Lime Street. There was nothing better to go bashing any time soon, so I re-boarded 319376 for an Edge Hill leap. Broad Green didn't appeal [with the motorway nearby, why would it? - Ed] you see, and this 319 was my first of the class to get Super Dud'd! Another 20 minute fester got me the ID of the only other working I could realistically do and it fell to dud 319368 for one last bit of 319 motor coach thrash into the depths of Slime Street, as it's not affectionally nicknamed. It's worth noting now that just platform 6 remains to be micro-griced here, one day it will be done. I noted whilst at Edge Hill banners talking about Slime Street re-modelling and re-signalling. I have to confess to not knowing about that before!
The Spoons here had been required for ages, so I went and scored two winner halves of what turned out to be revolting, tasteless beers. Those who follow me on Untappd will have seen my disgust! My service in M&S was even worse, I've never known a retail worker with such a disinterest in her job. I was more tempted to take the survey offered if I'm honest, as a retail man myself I was shocked she's in a job!
Anyway, it was time to go and have a look at the RMT picket which was nearly over by now. The good news is that I was to get 350376 back to the Bat Cave, and I found a table with surprising ease for a power socket. 507021 managed to find me by this point, having had a rather farceful day. Still, it was nice to have had the brief bit of company! After Liverpool South Parkway, when he had to alight, I got some tunes on and got the trip report updated. Which took a surprising amount of time, until just before departure from Stafford! It wasn't quite as productive as I'd have liked, but two winners are better than none. 3 330ml cans of beers were consumed on the 350 [it's payday! - Ed] and I felt worse for wear, considering I'd barely eaten all day. Nevertheless, a BK move was cancelled and I got a Pret coffee before boarding 170514+170512 on the 1649 to Hereford.
"Tech, your last bus is at 1815!" I hear you all screaming. Yes but I have a lift home at 2000 on this occasion, hence going home later than normal. I felt a lot better for my coffee, food having been postponed until I arrive in Hereford. I had a few options I liked the sound of, but I wouldn't decide on that until at least Worcester. Oh, and it seemed highly appropriate, as I trekked through Ledbury Tunnel, to mention this:
[Tune]Follow me, to the edge[/tune]
I had been more than ready for proper food for some hours now, so you can imagine how much my stomach was raging since Worcester! I needed to create new memories at both Beefy Boys and at The Glass Tandoori. Both do good food, and I really couldn't decide between one and the other. A flip of a coin wasn't needed in the end, as I chose to phone up Pizza Hut and ordered a large meat feast pizza. That filled a crater in the stomach, and was well worth £5.99! The final bit of the day was a long walk to meet my sister before a lift home.
. This has reminded me that I took a video of us accelerating towards Canary Wharf etc on one that's still on my old phone. I showed it to a friend of mine and he couldn't believe it, there was a speedboat/launch type thing trying to keep pace with us and he kept bouncing off our wash.
