Thursday 7th July – KJ’s Grand Tour: Day 2
After a reasonable night’s sleep - I never sleep too well away from home – we were rearing to go for a second and very full day’s activity. Rex and Mark swapped roles and I was to be accompanied by Rex for my second day in Glasgow while Mark would concentrate on DMUs in places such as Edinburgh and Stirling. But as Rex and Mark wanted to photograph the morning peak at Haymarket, I decided to amuse myself bashing a few Edinburgh trams. All were winners as I’d never previously travelled on the system so here’s how I managed to kill an hour and a half:
269 Haymarket to
Balgreen
267 Balgreen to Haymarket
274 Haymarket to Balgreen
253 Balgreen to Haymarket
255 Haymarket to Balgreen
266 Balgreen to Haymarket
271 Haymarket to Balgreen
270 Balgreen to Haymarket
With eight winners under my belt and the time barely past 09:00, it was time to make my way to the platforms at Haymarket and locate Rex. Having done that, fate decided that the first Glasgow bound train would have last night’s winner 170455 in the consist but that did not worry me on two counts – first, a trip over to Glasgow would see 170455 top the 10 mile mark and second, there was also a winner in the consist! So
170415+17455 was duly entered in The Haulage Book and we boarded, sitting in winning 170415 of course and relaxed for the journey over to Glasgow. I was in for some new track,
the curve from Maryhill through Kelvindale to Anniesland – all the other track covered by the Queen Street diversions was dud for me.
Alighting at Queen Street Low Level, Rex went on his way hunting down required units but I wanted to see what was around and whether any more winners could be added to the ever burgeoning tally. First up was mileage requirement
318260 which I took to Dalmuir simply to add to the membership of the 10 Mile Club. My wait at Dalmuir was only a few minutes as
320322+320412 appeared with the Mini Dustybin being an outright winner. RA Hyndland where I hoped to take advantage of the island platform but right behind were
334010+334040 which although not required, were mileage requirements. A shortish spin to High Street saw me recruit two more members of the Ten Mile Club. This was rather fortuitous as having switched platforms, the next train back was formed of double winners
334014+334027 which I took to Hyndland. On the way I passed a trio of 156s which included a winner so I had to figure a way of bagging it as 156 winners thus far had been a little thin on the ground. The 156s would immediately be heading back out of Glasgow for the West Highland Line so I had to get to Dalmuir for them and I was on a train to Milngavie which went nowhere near Dalmuir. Luckily at Hyndland the Railway Gods must have been looking down on me in a favourable mood as the next train up calling at Dalmuir was formed of yet another winner,
334001. Praise the Lord!
After a relatively short wait at Dalmuir, the 156s hove into view and immediately they ground to a halt, I leapt aboard
156446+156492+156496. 156446 was the outright winner and 156492 had not featured in The Haulage Book for many years; in fact its last recorded entry was back in 2001 when we had a family holiday based around Banavie and we used the train for some of our excursions. Back on track, I enjoyed the 156 thrash along the banks of the Clyde to Dumbarton Central. With nothing around that matched my requirements, I hopped aboard
334001 back to Dalmuir and in the process gained another recruit to the Ten Mile Club.
A dud
320313 popped out of the reversing siding and I calculated that there was time for a quick shack scratch at
Singer. A gentle stroll to the opposite platform and
320317 soon showed up to get me back to Dalmuir. I had minutes to wait before
320310+320318 rolled in and whilst not winners, a short bash with these would add yet another two recruits to the Ten Mile Club. Bailing at Westerton, I wondered what to do next when
334011+334022 put in an appearance. No contest here – not with two winners on my hands so I headed off along the
Milngavie branch for the first time ever in my railway career (or indeed in any other career) scratching the track and the terminal station. After a few quick phots at
Milngavie, I reboarded
334011+334022 ensuring that a different carriage was selected and returned to Hyndland. A fill in move was now needed as I knew that in half an hour, I’d have yet more winners to deal with so
334012+334033 were taken to Dalmuir for a quick hop and a skip across the footbridge to board
334019+334026 back to Hyndland. This was rather useful as both 334012 and 334026 were extremely deficient on mileage. I did not have long to wait for winners
334017+334020 to show their ugly mugs [Ed: the more observant of you will detect that KJ has been picking up a good number of 334s]. Jumping on board, I noted that by this stage of the game I had now caught up with no less than eleven winning 334s in the two days and there were only two left to find, one of which I knew was out and about.
Going through to Queen Street Low Level, I bid farewell to the 334s and switched platforms only to be greeted by
334002+334032. Yet another winning 334 had presented itself in the form of 334002 so there was one left to get and that was known to be working across from Edinburgh. At Hyndland I left the 334s to go on their way and then mistakenly jumped on
318259+320319 thinking that 320319 was needed but for once I was wrong. As a result I bailed at Anniesland and fell into
320416 which I took to
Exhibition Centre, primarily to facilitate a shack score. I’d seen my last 318 floating around and spent the few minutes at Exhibition Centre working out where it was now. I had just enough time to get to my favourite Hyndland to meet it.
I was pleasantly surprised when
318251+320321 trundled in – a mileage requirement and a winner respectively. Things could hardly be better, having to take a winner to secure another winner. Then the penny dropped, it could only get even better! Bailing off the 318/320 combo at Hyndland and feeling pleased with myself at having not only a winner in the shape of 320321 but also another ten-miler (318251), I settled down to wait for the next stage of my move. After about 10-12 minutes,
318265 showed up and with the enthusiasm of a five-year old with his first bag of sweets, I leapt aboard the winning 318. After all, this was a class clearance! Sitting in the motor coach to saviour the 318 thrash, I wanted to go a long way but there was other business to deal with. The required me to bail at High Street for a reasonable +5 onto
334006+334008. The latter was a mileage requirement and needed a small nudge to join the Ten Mile Club but 334006 was far more importance as it was my second class clearance of the day. What was more important in some ways was the fact that the two class clearances came from consecutive moves!
I badly wanted to get over to Central but thus far a string of winners had prevented this. With the “Low Level” electrics all but cleared – only the repeating 320320 plus the remaining Mini Bins, none of which were known to be in traffic, still required – Central seemed to be a good idea.
318261+320315 provided a suitable means of transport from Partick but I arrived at Central to find the place in chaos as it seemed that every young Glaswegian was headed for Hampden Park to see one of their idols meaning that there was absolute bedlam on trains heading for various parts of the Cathcart Circle. A quick scan of Central revealed that there were no winning 156s or 380s so I was forced to join the seething masses for a trip to Mount Florida aboard
314201+314207 –why you might ask? 314201 was only one of three 314s needed for 10 miles of course. Bailing at Mount Florida along with everyone else, I ignored the request to leave the station in an orderly manner as I knew that right behind, I had another interesting EMU. It too came in wedged but with the vast majority bailing to see their idol, I was able to board
314214 comfortably for a run around the Cathcart Circle and clear my second 314 for 10 miles. I knew my last one, 314212, was around but could not trace its current whereabouts.
I’d not seen Rex in many an hour so was relieved to see him wielding £3,000 worth of equipment at various units that were presenting themselves in front of his lens. But he’d had a slow day or so it seemed until he totted up the photographic winners when his mood lightened somewhat. But that time of day was rapidly approaching for us to grab supplies and then make for Edinburgh. But thanks to observations from Rex, I had a fix on one of my few required Scotrail 170s. Down side was that I’d have almost a two-hour wait before it would be in position to take me back to Edinburgh so we plumped for
334024+334029, both of which were mileage requirements for yet another spin over the A-B line. Rex & I bailed at Haymarket and he took the supplies back to our digs but I simply had to get that 170.
After seeing a couple of duds, I scored another winning tram,
259, up to
St Andrews Square before making for Waverley. 170413 was taken back to Haymarket where I had a short wait before
170393+170456 arrived from Glasgow Queen Street. At that point in time, I had not seen any of the former Hull Trains 170s so was more than pleased to fall into 170393 (thank you Rex), albeit for the short spin into Waverley. Ignoring the fact that the Queen Street services are set-down only at Haymarket, I leapt on board for the short run through the tunnels and Princes Street Gardens to Waverley. The original idea was to come straight back out to Haymarket with 170393+170456 but seeing a required 158 running in parallel to us led me to interrogate RTT to see if I could be greedy. And yes, a dose of avarice was available! As a result, I switched my allegiances to
158725+170394 at Waverley. While the 170 was no good, the 158 was a different proposition, not simply the icing on the cake for the day but the cherry on top of that as well.
I could only do a bus stop bash to Haymarket but at least I had 158725 under the belt as a winner. Staggering back to the digs, I soon met up with Rex and Mark. Comparing notes, we found that in sheer quantity, I had definitely had the best day with sixteen winners (plus all those trams) to brag about. Add in over a dozen new recruits to the Ten Mile Club and I was as pleased as the proverbial Cheshire Cat. That target of 40 winning Scotrail units was now looking very achievable but would the Railway Gods be as generous on day 3?
============================================
Fantastic day out there Keith, and a glorious amount of winners were had. Looking forward to the next few days.
Apologies for taking so long to crank this out but alas there's other things going on away from bashing that are distracting me heavily at present. Day three is almost written up and should appear in the next day or two.
Ah so that's where you've been lately. A visit to the Central Belt sure helped your Red Pen Fever, although it's made me a tad jealous as you got my last 318 with 318254! 320416 is a winner for everything too, and I'm sure there's more that you had there which I need.
Very nicely done there, and another most excellent read as always. Looking forward to the continuation when it's ready, without a doubt you'll have done well.
Not at all jealous...
I might need a new red pen at this rate with a massive 324 winners so far in 2016
And what are your views on the latest EMUs?
Both runs have been from Gatwick to East Croydon in the evening on lightly loaded trains so I will reserve judgement until I have experience absolutely wedged runs in the morning peak. Let's see how they cope then.
hock:
