Keith Jarrett
Member
Monday 14th December – Solid Gold Easy Action
Having an hour an hour or so to spare after work, there was only one thing to do; see if I could ratchet up the hits and edge closer to achieving the December Challenge. As with all December trips, the title of this little outing has a musical reference – this time it’s one of the tracks from “For All The Cats: The Best of Marc Bolan & T Rex”. Quite appropriate, considering during the course of my travels I passed under the bridge at Queens Ride where Marc Bolan’s car spun out of control on that fateful night on September 16th 1977.
1996ts 96056+96025 took me to Waterloo for the first day of the new timetable and while I had heard rumours of increased 458/5 activity at Waterloo, I did not know exactly what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to see a pair of 458/5s on the 17:15 Slow Hound Loop service, previously this service was the preserve of 2*450. There were also two other pairs of 458/5s in Waterloo, both of which were dud, but this was the first set out so I took dud 458511+458520 out to Clapham Junction. Good move as the next in-bound service contained a required 458/5, 458522. I boarded 458522+458536 and there’s no prizes on offer for which unit I sat in. I opted to leave Waterloo on the same set (458522 +458536) in order to crank up the mileage on 458522. But as we were leaving, I espied another required 458/5 which RTT claimed would follow us. So at Clapham Junction it was a simple case of jump off one pair of 458/5s, wait on the platform for a few minutes and treat myself to a second winner of the evening.
458526 was my target unit and when 458509+458526 rolled in, I naturally made for the required unit. Regular readers will probably recall that I scored 458509 on one of my SWT shack bashes in November but I did not achieve the magic 10 miles with it. At least I had the opportunity to put that right this time! I took the pair to Twickenham where the island platform is certainly useful for interchange on tight connections. By then, 458509 had gained enough brownie points to permit a successful application to the Ten Mile Club although “new kid on the block” 458526 would have to wait a little longer. Disappointingly, the next train back was a dud pair of 458/5s but you can’t have winners all the time. 458533+458535 took me back to Clapham Junction where I had a few minutes to cross the footbridge onto mileage requirement 378208. I stuck with this as far as Clapham High Street where I made the interchange with the Northern Line – i.e. walk to Clapham North and had 51547+51548 south to Morden and thence to home.
“Not bad for about an hour and a half’s work” I mused to myself on the way home, noting that December had already produced 19 winners. Only 12 more to go until the December Challenge is complete. And the Brucie Bonus was clearing another 458/5 for 10 miles. Keep ‘em coming!
December Challenge Winners (19) – 2558, 2559, 2560, 2562, 21477, 21478, 92069, 92099, 92343, 378206, 378216, 378217, 378220, 378223, 378226, 378227, 378231, 458522, 458526
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I did a thread on logging tube stock a few months back - you can find it here.
The 1992ts formations are now completely random but my understanding is that they only swap around either during maintenance or following failures. As others have said, to do the job properly, you'll need to log all for two car sets. With a couple of exceptions, odd numbered cars are always on the ends while evens are in the middle. Those exceptions are a few units mainly in the 923xx series which appear in the middle of a set; these are 92177, 92311 and 92341.
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With the track out of the way, there's just the small question of the remaining shacks. But, My Lords, I have a cunning plan to reduce that number very quickly.
Having an hour an hour or so to spare after work, there was only one thing to do; see if I could ratchet up the hits and edge closer to achieving the December Challenge. As with all December trips, the title of this little outing has a musical reference – this time it’s one of the tracks from “For All The Cats: The Best of Marc Bolan & T Rex”. Quite appropriate, considering during the course of my travels I passed under the bridge at Queens Ride where Marc Bolan’s car spun out of control on that fateful night on September 16th 1977.
1996ts 96056+96025 took me to Waterloo for the first day of the new timetable and while I had heard rumours of increased 458/5 activity at Waterloo, I did not know exactly what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to see a pair of 458/5s on the 17:15 Slow Hound Loop service, previously this service was the preserve of 2*450. There were also two other pairs of 458/5s in Waterloo, both of which were dud, but this was the first set out so I took dud 458511+458520 out to Clapham Junction. Good move as the next in-bound service contained a required 458/5, 458522. I boarded 458522+458536 and there’s no prizes on offer for which unit I sat in. I opted to leave Waterloo on the same set (458522 +458536) in order to crank up the mileage on 458522. But as we were leaving, I espied another required 458/5 which RTT claimed would follow us. So at Clapham Junction it was a simple case of jump off one pair of 458/5s, wait on the platform for a few minutes and treat myself to a second winner of the evening.
458526 was my target unit and when 458509+458526 rolled in, I naturally made for the required unit. Regular readers will probably recall that I scored 458509 on one of my SWT shack bashes in November but I did not achieve the magic 10 miles with it. At least I had the opportunity to put that right this time! I took the pair to Twickenham where the island platform is certainly useful for interchange on tight connections. By then, 458509 had gained enough brownie points to permit a successful application to the Ten Mile Club although “new kid on the block” 458526 would have to wait a little longer. Disappointingly, the next train back was a dud pair of 458/5s but you can’t have winners all the time. 458533+458535 took me back to Clapham Junction where I had a few minutes to cross the footbridge onto mileage requirement 378208. I stuck with this as far as Clapham High Street where I made the interchange with the Northern Line – i.e. walk to Clapham North and had 51547+51548 south to Morden and thence to home.
“Not bad for about an hour and a half’s work” I mused to myself on the way home, noting that December had already produced 19 winners. Only 12 more to go until the December Challenge is complete. And the Brucie Bonus was clearing another 458/5 for 10 miles. Keep ‘em coming!
December Challenge Winners (19) – 2558, 2559, 2560, 2562, 21477, 21478, 92069, 92099, 92343, 378206, 378216, 378217, 378220, 378223, 378226, 378227, 378231, 458522, 458526
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That sounds like a very productive and varied day! Hopefully you will get those last few winners for December!
With the tube sets, do they stay in the same formation all of the time or not (so, for example 92141 could be with 92048, 92424 and 92239 one day but with a completely different 3 the next?)
I did a thread on logging tube stock a few months back - you can find it here.
The 1992ts formations are now completely random but my understanding is that they only swap around either during maintenance or following failures. As others have said, to do the job properly, you'll need to log all for two car sets. With a couple of exceptions, odd numbered cars are always on the ends while evens are in the middle. Those exceptions are a few units mainly in the 923xx series which appear in the middle of a set; these are 92177, 92311 and 92341.
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A most productive time there Lord Keith! Congratulations on clewring Tramlink trwck too. I can't comment on the place of Addington, I didn't leqve the tram stop and did the route in the dark!
With the track out of the way, there's just the small question of the remaining shacks. But, My Lords, I have a cunning plan to reduce that number very quickly.
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