Keith goes wandering

[Kite159]

Keith, not sure if you are a track man, but the normally once a day PSUL movement over the fast spur line between Streatham North Junction - Streatham South Junction is up for grabs on the half hourly Victoria - Gatwick via Sutton services

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Keith, not sure if you are a track man, but the normally once a day PSUL movement over the fast spur line between Streatham North Junction - Streatham South Junction is up for grabs on the half hourly Victoria - Gatwick via Sutton services

Thanks for the heads up - sadly dud. This may be a PSUL move now but once upon a time, the Vic to Sutton fasts were all routed this way every Saturday. I've even done it on a pair of Thameslink 319s (well 90% of it when, due to a points failure at Streatham South Junction, a northbound service service off the Wimbledon loop used the spur to reverse and go back via Wimbledon, Sutton, West Croydon & Norbury and up the link from Streatham Common.

==================================================

DECEMBER CHALLENGE - update

I took a rather roundabout route to work this morning. These things are permissible on account of 95% of the populous preferring not to travel in the morning peak. To summarise, Thameslink 319433+319440 St Helier to Wimbledon, South West Trains 5707+5724 Wimbledon to Clapham Junction and then the fun started. Winning 378256 Clapham Junction to Willesden Jubction, another winner (378205) Willesden Junction to Hampstead Heath. As I knew that I had another winner half an hour behind, 378256 back to Willesden Junction for the 42nd winner of December 2012, 378232 from Willesden Junction to West Hampstead and Jubilee Line to work. Surely there cannot be any more winners for me in 2015?

December Challenge Winners (42) – 2558, 2559, 2560, 2562, 21001, 21002, 21477, 21478, 21487, 21488, 92025, 92069, 92099, 92107, 92259, 92343, 378149, 378205, 378206, 378216, 378217, 378219, 378220, 378223, 378224, 378225, 378226, 378227, 378230, 378231, 378232, 378233, 378255, 378256, 458508, 458512, 458513, 458515, 458522, 458523, 458526, 458529

 

[James Wake]

Do you need 442420, 442413 or 377601 or 377110, the first three were on Victoria to East Croydon shuttles this morning, 377110 was the 0725 from East Grinstead to Victoria

 

[Techniquest]

Very nicely done Lord Keith, congratulations on hitting 42 winners in 29 days, considering two days were days of no services!

Not many 378s left to get now, another class cleared in the early part of 2016 I suspect!

 

[FQ]

42 is most definitely a very good score! That's 11 over what you were aiming for!

 

[47403]

42 winners in a calendar month is a fantastic achievement Keith, especially as you no doubt, have the majority of stuff in the capital.

 

[Kite159]

I bet Keith is glad that the 378s all have their 5th cars added now so he can set an end to his quest to clear them again!

 

[Keith Jarrett]

42 winners in a calendar month is a fantastic achievement Keith, especially as you no doubt, have the majority of stuff in the capital.

Rules of the December Challenge were that everyone had to be scored within the Travelcard Zones. And I can confirm that I kept to the rules. Forgetting anything that has yet to enter traffic (so outstanding S-7s, remaining 458/5s and the final two Croydon trams along with all the 377/2s and 700s) I still need a surprising number of winners that I can grab in the confines of the Travelcard Zones. Mileage requirements are a different matter though - there's reams of those.

I bet Keith is glad that the 378s all have their 5th cars added now so he can set an end to his quest to clear them again!

Yep, sure am pleased that the five-car programme is now complete although I have yet to see 378257 in five-car format. The five-car 378s will probably be one of the first to be targetted when I have a free hour or two in the capital.

Very nicely done Lord Keith, congratulations on hitting 42 winners in 29 days, considering two days were days of no services!

Not many 378s left to get now, another class cleared in the early part of 2016 I suspect!

Seven outright winning 378s left including early five-car conversion 378203 which has been rather elusive. But there's an additional 24 that are required for 10 miles so still some work to do on that front.

==========

And the winners continue.... I thought that I'd take a roundabout route home from work tonight. I got the first Jubilee up to Bond Street from work with the aim of cranking up the Central Line mileage but I got no further than Bond Street as when I alighted from my train, I noticed a mileage requirement heading the other way - one out of eight 1996ts required for 10 miles. It would have been simply rude to refuse 96121 and with the 10 miles barrier passed by Canada Water, I left the Jubilee and went upstairs to the East London. 2nd train up was winning 378234 heading for Clapham Junction - I obviously stayed with it all the way to Clapham Junction before turning for home. That's winner number 43 this month!

December Challenge Winners (43) – 2558, 2559, 2560, 2562, 21001, 21002, 21477, 21478, 21487, 21488, 92025, 92069, 92099, 92107, 92259, 92343, 378149, 378205, 378206, 378216, 378217, 378219, 378220, 378223, 378224, 378225, 378226, 378227, 378230, 378231, 378232, 378233, 378234, 378255, 378256, 458508, 458512, 458513, 458515, 458522, 458523, 458526, 458529

 

[Kite159]

Congrats

 

[Kristofferson]

43? I say, that's good going in December!

 

[Techniquest]

You sure did well this month! Certainly you're doing better than me on 378s, an issue I need to fix asap.

Happy New Year to you good sir, and bring on 2016's bashing!

 

[Keith Jarrett]

The journeys have been logged, The Haulage Book checked and I can now reveal the final outcome of the December Challenge. With a late flurry of winners all the way up to the early part of this afternoon, no less than 50, yes fifty, five zero, winners have been logged by yours truly in the month of December.

Yesterday (December 30th), on my roundabout way into work, I happened upon 378229 followed soon afterwards by 378211 which brought the month's tally up to 45. I also caught sight of 378221 but I could not get to it - but at least, thanks to RTT, I was able to work out what it would be doing when I finished work. So with the day's work complete, I hot footed it to West Hampstead for a 10 minute fester before 378221 appeared and thus became winner number 46 this month. Very few of December's winners have breached the 10 mile barrier so will doubtlessly feature in trip reports for 2016 and 378221 was typical of this even though I had it all the way from West Hampstead to Clapham Junction.

So it was with some trepidation that I left home this morning wondering whether the fantastic total could be improved upon. With only four 378s left to acquire, I thought that I'd be really chancing my arm to try to wangle another on the North London Line. A mileage requirement (378222, now cleared for 10 miles) took me to NLL Central where I was merely expecting to leave on another mileage requirement at best in order to get into work at a reasonable hour. Passing several mileage requirements on the way up from Clapham Junction, I was resigned to the month's total sitting on the staggering number of 46. But the Railway Gods had other ideas. A quick inspection of the DC Lines at Willesden Junction threw up mileage requirement 378224 heading north but heading south was 378228. Think of all the expletives in your vocabulary [Ed: and a few more besides!] - that was winner number 47 in the bag and right away Euston for me. What's more, I managed to jam two 2009ts mileage requirements on the way to work from Euston.

Leaving work at a suitably early hour (New Year's Eve is an unofficial half day for the few of us actually in the office), I had only one thing in mind and that was not haulage winners. Instead, I was more focussed on an upcoming social engagement in the deep south of London - a repeat of the engagement of a couple of Saturday's back. But I had over two hours to get to The George. London Underground contributed to the winners when they proved S-7 set 21485+21486 for the journey along to Blackfriars and so winners 48 and 49 went into the book. I was still not thinking whether winner number 50 would ever appear but arriving at Blackfriars mainline, the sight of a 387 tripe set soon brought me firmly back into bashing mode. Would I be able to jam a winning 387 (I only want two white ones)? Half an hour later, that conundrum was answered when 387112+387114+387127 appeared heading north. Thank goodness for West Hampstead stops on the East Croydon to Bedford services today. 387127 proved to be my final winner for the year but the accolade of the final entries in The Haulage Book for 2015 go to 455802+455822 (East Croydon to Balham) followed by 1995ts 51575+51576 onwards to Morden.

December has been a truly fantastic month and when I announced what eventually became the December Challenge on December 7th, I did not think for one moment that a target of 31 winners all to be secured within the Travelcard Zones would eventually deliver 50 winners by the end of the month. I don't think I could have done it without the support and encouragement of all of you guys who regularly patrol this forum but now I am off for a rest and a drink. (In reality, I'll probably end up finishing writing up my review of 2015).

Happy New Year to all fellow bashers and may 2016 prove be productive for you all.

December Challenge Winners (50) – 2558, 2559, 2560, 2562, 21001, 21002, 21477, 21478, 21485, 21486, 21487, 21488, 92025, 92069, 92099, 92107, 92259, 92343, 378149, 378205, 378206, 387211, 378216, 378217, 378219, 378220, 387221, 378223, 378224, 378225, 378226, 378227, 387228, 387229, 378230, 378231, 378232, 378233, 378234, 378255, 378256, 387127, 458508, 458512, 458513, 458515, 458522, 458523, 458526, 458529

PS In case you've been missing the musical references, my stereo is blasting out Dead Men Tell No Tales from Motorhead's Essential Noize album as a tribute to Mr Motorhead himself, Lemmy, who sadly passed away earlier this week.

 

[Techniquest]

WOW! 50 winners in just December? I was thinking 31 would be unlikely let alone the revised target of 40 and then it jumped up to 50! Many congratulations on a most impressive haul, what a way to see out 2015!

I now look forward to the year end review, which will no doubt be an interesting read.

 

[Kite159]

Congrats on getting 50 winners on a rather full book

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Welcome to Keith’s review of 2015. And a brief look forward to what 2016 might hold.

I seemed to have filed endless trip reports this year and writing up the trips has taken a considerable amount of time; I sincerely hope that you enjoyed the read. But I thought that I might bring together the highlights (and lowlights) along with a few statistics [Ed: Be prepared for an avalanche!] to put things in perspective.

Winners – everyone loves a winner and nobody more than me. Given the state of The Haulage Book, winners are always going to be scarcer for me than for some folk although I do seem to have more than halved the number of multiple units with the dreaded status “rqd” in my records [Ed: “rqd” is short for required all-time]. At the beginning of 2015, my all-time requirements numbered 442 units spread across most classes and in calculating that total, I hazarded a guess that all five-car 378s and 458/5s would be in traffic by the year end. While there’s seven 458/5s still to enter traffic, I think that all the five-car 378s will see service by the year end so my predictions were not far off [Ed: did 378257 actually enter traffic in 2015?]. As I write this, there’s 237 winners on the clock spread over 30 different classes. By far, the most prolific class has been the five-car 378s with no less than 54 winners in the course of 2015 with 27 class 387s being the second most prolific and 21*458/5 in third place. So well over 40% of my winners came from just three classes!

Diesel classes struggle to get in to double figures with only classes 158(10), 142(10) and 156(12) registering more than nine winners. But special mention must be made with regard to the 142s as I managed to clear the class at around 15:50 on 21 August 2015, some 30 years after I scored my first 142! It was a little ironic that the Heaton-allocated 142s are generally considered harder to get and indeed eight of those winners were HT allocated, yet it was a Newton Heath one that was ultimately my last. I of course cannot forget the nine locos from for different classes that gained their first entries in The Haulage Book. It’s also worth noting that the other “pacer” classes, 143 and 144, also yielded their final members for haulage during the course of 2015 – 143612 and 143619 falling at around 14:30 on 18th September while a month and a half earlier, 144020 succumbed at around 16:30 on 3rd August

In addition to clearing all of the “pacer” classes for haulage, several other classes are now devoid of any potential for winners – classes 168, 172, 375, 379, 508 achieving such hallowed status in 2015. They join no less than 19 other classes that already have this hallowed status. Another class deserving a special mention is the 319s with 2015 being the first year for a long time when every member has not appeared in The Haulage Book – obviously due to the class’s diminishing role on Thameslink and the move of around a quarter of the fleet to Northern. In 2015, I managed to record haulage from 1365 different items on the National Network and a further 688 TfL network (Underground, DLR, Tram) units.

If was not for the introduction of the S-7 stock during the course of the year, winners on the various TfL rail systems would have been very hard to come by. However, the 48 half sets of S-7s were a massive contribution to the overall total of 77. The big success story though has to be the downward pressure on the 1992 ts requirements. I started 2015 needing 19 sets and that has fallen to a more respectable, but more difficult, 6 sets. Likewise, all bar one of my DLR units fell by the wayside as did one pair of S-8 half sets (just one pair of those to go). Finally, four Croydon Trams were added to The Haulage Book for the first time with one running set left to go, another on test and one set still to be delivered. It should not be too long before I can say that Croydon Trams are clear. I also had my first ever taste of Manchester’s Metrolink - I’m sure 2016 will see me reporting more winners from that department.

Other Targets – As well as going after outright winners, I have a target where every DMU/EMU (and loco for that matter), should achieve a recorded mileage of at least 10 miles in The Haulage Book. Chasing stuff for the required 10 miles, and noting the passing of other mileage increments such as 100, 500 miles etc. is an integral part of my bashing. A further 455 multiple units (and 8 locomotives) managed to achieve the 10-mile status although there is still a huge amount of work to do here.

108 various Underground units breached the 10-mile barrier along with 12 DLR units. It was 1996ts that patrols the Jubilee Line which accounted for a good deal of those although S-7 stock and 2009ts also made valuable contributions. And a further 13 sets of 1995ts (Northern Line) breached the 100-mile barrier.

I have also become an avid shack scratcher – shack scratching being the art of logging stations where you have either commenced or finished a rail journey and is not to be confused with track scratching where you log the lines over which you have travelled (and consequently the shacks that you have passed through). I managed to rake in 127 shacks on the National Rail Network and 61 on the various TfL networks (Underground, DLR & Tramlink) and while the number of National Rail shacks still to visit remains extremely high, there’s only 27 Underground, 5 on the DLR and 7 on the Tramlink network remaining to be attacked.

While there were many notable trips, the surprising leader as far as winners was concerned was the Good Friday trip to the West Midlands when an assault on Chiltern operated motive power racked up 13 winners for me across five different classes (67, 68, 165, 168 and 172). Only two other outings managed to give me more than ten winners in one day – the 21st August trip to Manchester (11 winners) and the 23rd October outing to the West Midlands with 12 winners. I suppose the most enjoyable series of outings has to be the four days that I spent in and around Yorkshire at the end of July and into early August. While the winning count over four days totalled 23, the trip got me my last 144, put the clearance of the 142s within grasp and also secured my last HST power car for 10 miles.

Special mention must be made of the December Challenge where I had set myself a target of getting at least 31 winners in the month of December. The Challenge had a twist – all of those winners had to be secured without leaving the Travelcard Zones. The Challenge had its ups and downs and December was only four days old when I lost a day’s bashing to due last minute family commitments appearing on the horizon with minimal advance warning. But an evening bash on the North London Line on the 7th soon put me back on track. The 12th saw some variety added to the expected diet of S-7 half-sets and the inevitable five-car 378 conversions when I went for my first real bashing session on the Croydon Tramlink and nudged three Stadlers into The Haulage Book. The die was also set as the latter part of that day was spent knocking out Central Line shacks with the inevitable felling of three (from twelve) of my 1992ts needs. The stark realisation that the December timetable change had opened up a host of new 458/5 workings to me along with eight of the class having entered traffic, but not The Haulage Book, opened up a new avenue of attack – as all eight fell in three evenings, I’m pretty confident that when the remaining seven conversions are released to traffic in the early part of 2016, those seven will be equally easy to ensnare. The weekend of the 19th/20th December had been earmarked for some half day bashes but a change of plans saw my bashing availability increase dramatically. While I spent the morning of the 19th knocking out a bucketful of Tramlink shacks followed by several hours on a social engagement, I still managed to find four winning 378s including my last 378/1. With the total count of winners sitting on 29, I was determined that number 31 would not be a five-car 378 so I turned my attention to grabbing my remaining Central Line shacks with the hope of falling into a couple of my 1992ts needs. By about 14:30, the Challenge was firmly within grasp as I had identified two 1992ts sets that I needed and within the hour it was all over. Or so I thought. 47403 of this Parish immediately reset my target to 40 [Ed: knowing his penchant for certain locos, surely he should have set the bar at a very unreasonable 47?]. I wasn’t sure whether the Railway Gods along with special agent Lady Luck had taken an extended Christmas break but a few short forays into North West London either on indirect routes to/from work or on lunch breaks has even seen the figure of 40 exceeded as 378255 became number 40 and in the final few days post-Christmas, the tally has been edged further upwards and no less than 50 winners ended up being recorded in The Haulage Book in December. I cannot see me being able to do that ever again without leaving the comfort of the Travelcard Zones. OK, there’s loads of new stuff that’s due in in the next few years but my policy will be to pick them off one by one rather than to wait until all are in traffic and have a big clear-out.

So what do I still need? There’s a considerable amount of units (and a few passenger locos too) that are still needed for 10 miles but on the other hand I have just under 200 outright winning multiple units on the required list (I’m not counting stuff that has yet to enter traffic). The full list comprises –
2 * 150
8 * 153
11 * 156
22 * 158
5 * 165
13 * 170
2 * 171
3 * 175
4 * 180
10 * 185
10 * 220
9 * 221
9 * 222
1 * 317
4 * 318
3 * 320
1 * 333
13 * 334
19 * 350
2 * 360
2 * 365
3 * 378
16 * 380
1 * 387
12 * 390
10 * 395
3 * 507
Almost one third of those are Scotrail! The key thing though is required units are now under the magic 200 number (198 to be precise) which means that I’ll be mighty disappointed if by the time I get to 31 December 2016, I have more than 100 all-time requirements roaming the National Network.

Other requirements are (again I’m ignoring stuff yet to enter traffic) –
1 * Tramlink
4 * S-7 half sets
2 * S-8 half sets
1 * 2009 ts half set
6 * 1992 ts
1 * DLR
And nearly all items operating on provincial light rail networks.

You might be wondering what trips I have in mind for 2016? Post-work evening and Sunday jollies around the capital will continue to be the basis for me mopping up requirements within the Travelcard zones but as and when, I will travel further afield and I am starting to formulate tentative plans for the following outings –
• Four-day trip to Scotland – perhaps my Scotrail requirements will fall substantially? This might end up as two three day bashes, depending on other factors.
• Nottingham - NET will be the principle target
• South Yorkshire – I’ll have to incorporate some time on Supertram
• West Yorkshire – there’s still plenty that I need in and around Leeds/Bradford
• Manchester – I’m thinking of at least two trips here with some time being spent on Metrolink
• Liverpool – the main objective being the required 507s along with general Merseyrail mileage requirements
• West Midlands – will probably be a minimum of two trips with one including some time on the Midland Metro system
• East Anglia – I still need some track here as well as a few DMUs

 

[Kite159]

Which 317 do you need?

 

[Techniquest]

Keith that was an excellent read, I've been inspired for sure to improve my 2016 review.

I'm amazed how little you need, very impressive indeed and it makes my list of requirements look awful! Granted, I am going to start work on that on Monday, but I really need to get myself down to London sharpish!

Surprisingly though, I need less in Scotland than you do! I need to get back there and get those numbers down even more...

 

[47403]

50 winners!!!!!!

Tremendous achievement Keith, I wish I had set the new total for 47 but when you hit 31, I thought it was already a fantastic effort and it was rather a tongue in cheek, comment to set the new target for 40.

Decembers Challenge and summing up of 2015, were briliant reads, thank you for sharing.
Heres to 2016 indeed.

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Keith that was an excellent read, I've been inspired for sure to improve my 2016 review.

I'm amazed how little you need, very impressive indeed and it makes my list of requirements look awful! Granted, I am going to start work on that on Monday, but I really need to get myself down to London sharpish!

Surprisingly though, I need less in Scotland than you do! I need to get back there and get those numbers down even more...

I'm sure Scotrail numbers would be lower if I had not gone all out trying to get the 314s last time I was up there - if I could have spent a half day bashing 380s and another half day on the 334s, my Scotrail totals would almost certainly be much lower.

You'll probably find me doing a lot of London Underground bashing this year as while outright requirements are very low, I need almost 900 LU units for 10 miles - worst lines are Central, Met and Piccadilly.

 

[Techniquest]

Look on the bright side, you could need 981 LU sets outright like I do...!

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Monday 4th January – Let’s Get the Show on the Road

The New Year is almost 80 hours old before I get any rail travel in the book. A disgusting state of affairs by my standards and it was 2005 when I last had such a long wait. Anyway it fell to 319453+319455 on the first commute of the year to break the duck for 2016. But Lady Luck must have been missing me as when I transferred from Thameslink to the District/Circle Lines at Blackfriars, first train up was formed of winning S-7 duo 21483+21484. What a good way to start the year!

Lady Luck must have definitely been feeling sorry for me as I wandered out from work in my lunch break (my regular lunch companions were taking extended Christmas breaks and I did not fancy an hour surfing the net – I’d done enough of that over Christmas) with the aim of seeing if I could jam one of my 1992ts units. That entails getting the Jubilee line up to Bond Street but I never got to leave the Jubilee Line as one of my very few 1996ts units that were still sub 10 miles appeared. I simply had to rake in 96030 up to West Hampstead. Here, the first train back south was another mileage requirement – 96120. With two out of seven scored, I thought that I’d see a few workings at Green Park in case any of the Famous Five were out. Indeed, one of them was right behind 96120 – cue mileage need 96082. A trip out to Canary Wharf simply had to be done to get the third one in the book. At Canary Wharf, I narrowly missed another required set but at least I got its train number so I could look it up in the WTT. Dud 96053 took me back to work and the flexi time was chinged for a slightly extended lunch break.

Leaving work at my usual time, I had around 25 minutes to get to North Greenwich to meet my target from the earlier sighting. A dud 96032 took me out to North Greenwich where I set up camp and as 96107 was rolling in (my target) I espied yet another mileage requirement going the other way. But 96107 won the day so I went through to Bermondsey with it. Four out of seven with another one waiting in the wings! A quick trip back to Canary Wharf on 96124 saw me joining the masses of Canary Wharf workers! It always amazes me how they so polite queue to get on the trains at Canary Wharf. I had a few minutes to wait so I joined one queue as I wanted to be at the head of it when target number five of the day put in appearance. I ended up being in pole position when 96034 rolled in – first one on! A leap to London Bridge solved the mileage conundrum. I did not want to waste any more time looking for my last two 1996ts units (96076 and 96091 being the hapless units still sub 10 miles); instead I thought that I’d take a look at the East London Line and 96102 was a suitable conveyance to get me to Canada Water.

At Canada Water I went upstairs for some 378 action secretly hoping that one of my last few required five-car 378s was on the ELL. Lady Luck’s overtime claim must have been rejected as initially all I could find was dud 378/1s. Then 378149 rolled in. I did not have to consult the book - I knew that was a mileage need. It was on a Crystal Palace service so off I trundled to Forest Hill where I alighted following 378149’s successful application to join the 10 mile club. I hung around for a short while to see if any more mileage requirement would show but alas, no. A conveniently place 377706+377708 heading for Victoria provided a way out of Yuppy South Central (as Forest Hill is rapidly becoming). A bail at Balham was the order of the day where 1995ts 51636 took me south on the Northern Line to Morden and home.

I pondered to myself – for a first day back at work, winning S-7 stock along with five out of seven 1996ts mileage requirements and a bonus 378 can’t be a bad way to see in 2016’s bashing.

Friday 8th January – Shall we go racing?

I was in no hurry to get home from work so the idea of scratching a small block of SWT shacks entered my mind – I’d long had a plan formulated to deal with this particular block of three required shacks but just never got around to executing said plan. Until tonight.

1996ts 96043+96126 took me to Waterloo where instead of the normal move (check out the Windsor Line platforms) I headed for the mainline suburban platforms. First train to get my attention was 5734+456001+456019 heading for Guildford via Epsom. I really should have joined the train behind but in comparison to their four-car cousins, 456s are low mileage beast with 15 still under 100 miles. In contrast, there’s only one red 455 that’s under 100 miles and that is the heavily rebuilt 5913. All other SWT 455s have at least 250 miles on the clock.

I therefore could not resist edging the two 456s nearer the 100 mile mark with a leap out to Raynes Park. I had all of three minutes to switch from the Epsom line platforms to the mainline platforms to await the arrival of 5859+5909 which were bound for Shepperton. With it being dark, there was not much of a view so I read one of the magazines in my bag. I bailed one stop sort of the final destination at Upper Halliford and shack score number one of the evening. I’d seen the station many times from the road so knew that in my ten minute wait, I’d probably only have traffic noise from the adjacent M3 to keep me company.

It was too loud to concentrate on reading so I was mighty pleased when 5859+5909 reappeared after their quick sortie down to Shepperton. I stayed with this pair as far as Hampton where I alighted and dashed over the footbridge. Although Hampton was a significant shack score, I could not dally as I had a +3 onto another train and somehow my incoming train had lost one minute between Upper Halliford and Hampton so reducing the connection to a +2. Why significant you may ask dear reader? Well, Hampton was the last SWT shack within the Travelcard zones on my wants lists. The remaining 58 required SWT shacks are all out in the sticks.

I need not have dashed as the next service was a few minutes late with 5707+5711 providing the traction. I clambered aboard for a Bus Stop Bash to Kempton Park for my third (and final) shack score of the evening. That’s the Shepperton branch shacks now clear – the nearest SWT managed shack that I still need is Byfleet & New Haw followed by the not-too-easy-to-get Longcross. I had around 20 minutes to wait for 5707+5711 to return. Nothing to do here (obviously no racing on today) so I benched myself and carried on reading. An uneventful journey saw me get back to Wimbledon with a theoretical +1 onto a Thameslink. Thankfully, as Thameslink clocks are permanently slow, that +1 turned into a +7 and they provided 319446+319447 for the trip back to St Helier.

My objective achieved, i.e. three SWT shacks knocked out, I used the final leg of the journey home to plan my next SWT shack attack. Watch this space!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Which 317 do you need?

317501 - I'll bag it one day!

 

[Kite159]

Sounds like a good couple mini trips around London, congrats on getting those 3 shacks on the Shepperton branch.

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Look on the bright side, you could need 981 LU sets outright like I do...!

Look on the bright side indeed. Cranking up ten miles on each unit will take some doing, especially on low speed lines like the Piccadilly. At least you can whack the numbers up by doing a grand series of Bus Stop Bashes in the central area

 

[Techniquest]

Indeed, Bus Stop Bashes were the order of the day on my last trip, and no doubt plenty of time to come this weekend!

Two very productive evenings had there, well done on clearing the SWT shacks within the Travelcard zones. I need way too many to count. Quite, I still need 89 ATW served shacks...

 

[FQ]

Two very good evenings there!

 

[Kite159]

Indeed, Bus Stop Bashes were the order of the day on my last trip, and no doubt plenty of time to come this weekend!

Two very productive evenings had there, well done on clearing the SWT shacks within the Travelcard zones. I need way too many to count. Quite, I still need 89 ATW served shacks...

The clear all shacks within ATW like Scotrail will be a massive task with the number of shacks on lines which only have a handful of services a day (Heart of Wales, Conwy Valley line, Cambrian line)

 

[Techniquest]

Indeed, 25 of my ATW requirements are on the Cambrian!

 

[Kristofferson]

Your organised approach to bashing paid off for sure - a very successful year and an equally successful start to this one!

I enjoyed reading the requirements falling line after line

 

[Segedunum]

Glad to see you've kicked off 2016 well, Keith. Excellent reads.

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Tuesday 12th January – A quick one with Tricky Dicky

I had an hour or so spare after work – not enough time for a decent bash, neither did I want to waste it looking for 458/5s nor trundling around on wedged 378s. Then came the lightbulb moment – nobble a few more Underground shacks. There’s a group of three that were conveniently situated relatively close together that could be sorted in the time allotted.

I made my way to Green Park and made for the Piccadilly Line platforms. First train up was 194+203 and being slightly ahead of the main evening peak, I got a seat straightaway for the run through to Arsenal and the first shack score. The tiling for this station still carries the station’s original name of Gillespie Road. I did not have long to wait for the next train south with 199+248 and passing through a required shack for the second time I went through to Covent Garden for my second shack score.

Changing direction again, 123+864 (with me travelling in the double cab unit) took me northwards to Caledonian Road. In contrast to my regular commuting journeys, there seemed to be a greater interchange of folk whenever we met another underground line. 864 managed to clear 10 miles, joining the 54 half sets of 1973ts that had already got to such heady heights in the mileage stakes while Caledonian Road was my final required shack at the eastern/northern end of the Piccadilly Line. At Cally Road (nowhere near the similarly named NLL shack) I had to let the first train south go as it was double dud 179+192 but two minutes behind was 150+882. Fortunately, the double cab unit was rather low on mileage so that suited me as I was destined for Earls Court. Once the train hit the central area it was wedged but isn’t the Piccadilly Line slow?

At Earls Court I went upstairs and had a short wait for S-7 twin 21397+21398 to take me to Wimbledon. Approaching Wimbledon, I checked my watch and noticed that I would arrive roughly as a Thameslink towards home would leave. No I was not going to wait almost half an hour when there was a bus due in two minutes so I legged it out to the bus stop to be greeted by one of Sutton Depot’s Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TLs – much better than the normal Opatre Olympus that is provided. The bus journey went quick enough but I still had time to reflect. 24 Underground shacks left to get – surely I can sort them out in 2016 even though Tufnell Park is currently closed for refurbishment? Then it will be going like the clappers to get as many Underground units as possible for 10 miles – more trips to the Piccadilly to get the 120+ half sets that I still need for 10 miles.