So here it is, with out any further ado (drum roll ..)
The Annual Scottish Bash - Day 3
Another early get up was scheduled for this morning and I was out of the digs by 07:00. Rex had already been out at a silly hour for some odd working but that’s Rex for you. I left him and Mark to follow on later but I had winners (hopefully) to grab. As my rover was not valid until 09:15, early morning bashing had to be paid for. I knew from the loco lists that I wanted at least one of the incumbent Cats on the Fife commuters so I made my way onto the platforms at Haymarket and had a choice of four trains to get me over the bridge to Inverkeithing. Trains one to three were a mix of dud 158s and equally dud 170s but my final option to get me over to Inverkeithing produced a winner – the red pen was duly extracted from my bag to record the scoring of 158712. That was one of the 158s that we’d seen blocked in at Edinburgh on Day 1. And an added bonus was that I’d also solve the ten-mile conundrum for this unit in one fell swoop.
The wait at Inverkeithing was a short one, only a few minutes. I heard the Cat long before it appeared and when it did appear, I confirmed a winner in the shape of 68007 Valiant [Ed: good to see DRS recycling sensible class 50 names rather than inventing any silly ones of their own]. While your average Fife commuter is probably bored rigid with 68007, I was not complaining and managed to squeeze on for some Cat action. I would have liked to stay on all the way back to Haymarket but by now, I had intelligence as to the second Cat that was out on the Fife commuters and since was also in red-line territory, I had to split the journey. South Gyle was selected as the optimum bailing point and while there was a revenue block on, not one of the staff left their post to challenge either myself or the other basher on the platform.
The timetabled wait of around 15 minutes seemed to be longer but I was pleased to see 68004 Rapid [Ed: Another recycled sensible name - just a pity that it did not say "Warship Class" under the nameplate] appear as that meant the red pen could have yet more exercise. It seemed to take an age for all the commuters to bail out and the revenue block did absolutely nothing to ease congestion on the platform. Once I had scrambled on, I took my seat and sat back to listen to another three miles or so of Cat action. Back at Haymarket, Rex and Mark were up and about; thankfully they’d seen little to interest me on the diesel front so that meant that unless anything appeared in the next few minutes, I was almost certainly bound for Glasgow for the day. Just as Mark was giving me a rundown of what was about, I turned around only to see my last Scottish 170 leaving for Glasgow. I could have sworn rather loudly but consoled myself with the fact that my rover would not have been valid – the curfew would not be lifted for another 10 minutes. Instead I resorted to RTT to trace its next movements in case I could chase it. And yes, the chase was on!
RTT seemed to indicate that my required 170 would spend some time shuttling between Queen Street and Waverley but I was not going to risk a set swap during the course of the day. So, I got the first post-curfew service over to Queen Street with 170428 – Mark joined me as he was headed to Glasgow too in order to carry on with his photographic assault on Clydeside EMUs. And whilst I am not a huge fan of Drones (along with a few other members of this forum), at least 428 was one of those that were under 10 miles. A prompt arrival in Queen Street saw Mark immediately heading off in search of his EMUs while I was pleased to see a certain 170 sitting in the adjacent platform, I was momentarily distracted by a required 156 heading for Oban. But I could get the 156 later so without any further ado, I jumped aboard 170431 for an uneventful ride to Falkirk High – another stroke of the red pen and my last Scottish 170 dealt with. Three more Drones to go and with three different operators too!
I had around 10 minutes to wait at Falkirk High before 170457 showed up and that was another one off the lists. Like 170428 from earlier on, both had been scored previously on Waverley-Haymarket leaps. And this would leave just six Scottish 170s bubbling under 10 miles, all of which have the dreaded Waverley-Haymarket run as their only accrued mileage. 170457 did the job it was paid for and landed me back in Queen Street at the appointed hour. What next? 158870 caught my eye on account of it being under 10 miles although it was a while before it was due to head out to Falkirk Grahamston via Cumbernauld. Nevertheless, I took my seat and worked out where I had to go in order to heave it over the required threshold. Leaving on time, we headed out through the north east of Glasgow and I opted to bail at the required shack of Gartcosh. As the train rolled in to Gartcosh, the heavens opened so I quickly dived into the platform shelter before digging the umbrella out from my rucksack – I wanted some form of protection whilst swapping platforms! However, the rain was so intense that my trusty umbrella could only afford partial protection while I swapped sides and I was well and truly soaked. At least there was another shelter that I could use and it was not long before 156458, a long-term absentee from The Haulage Book, appeared to return me to Queen Street.
Back at Queen Street, my initial thoughts were to head to the low level and see whether there were any tempting electrics and if not, take the short walk to Buchannan Street for another play with the Clockwork Oranges. But I never got that far as I was rather distracted by a trio of 156s, 156446+156450+156474. The two higher numbered ones were low-mileage and with their imminent departure, jumping aboard was the only sensible option in order to have a run out to Dalmuir. It’s never a fast run (either way) between Queen Street High Level and Dalmuir, much more a stagger on account of fitting a random service in between a high frequency suburban service. 3*156 also do not fit into the platforms at Dalmuir so its local door only and for some reason, the guard did not announce this so it was a sramble to find which door he was going to open up at Dalmuir.
My time at Dalmuir was only a short one as 318258+318270 rolled in soon after the 156s chugged out towards the West Highland Line. 318270 was deficient on mileage but the run via Singer would sort that issue out and by the time I alighted at Partick, I had removed yet another EMU from my lists. Again, I had thoughts of heading to the Glasgow Subway but the appearance of 318254 soon banished any of those ideas and I headed to Cambuslang so that I could further whittle my lists down. Fortunately, the following train out of Cambuslang, heading back towards central Glasgow, gave a match with my lists. 318252+320306 were both low on mileage and again I resisted the temptation to go on the Subway but headed for the useful island platform at Hyndland.
Any thoughts of having a long wait at Hyndland were soon banished as 320313 rolled in and I headed off to High Street. Here a dash over the footbridge, saw me scramble onto 320302 for the Bus Stop Bash to Queen Street Low Level. That’s two more units in the book for 10 miles and I almost congratulated myself until I check the indicator board as 320302 was pulling out – nothing for almost 15 minutes. “Aaaargh! What do we do now?” I did not fancy swapping sides so made my way upstairs. And what a stellar move that proved to be. Sitting in the “bay” platform was 156442 – one of four Scottish 156s never to have experienced my red pen! I simply had to have it and before long, 156442 was chugging off to Anniesland and my red pen was exercised yet again. While I had the 156 captive, it would have been rude to leave 156442 sitting well below 10 miles and so I decided to return to Queen Street with it.
Back at Queen Street, there was nothing in the High Level platforms that grabbed my attention so I descended to the Low Level, falling almost immediately into 334001+334011. The short run up to Partick saw 334011 join 334001 and many others in the exclusive Ten Mile Club. 334004+334035 followed up and while 004 was safely over the ten-mile line, 035 still needed more attention – going out via Yoker, I bailed at Dalmuir as I had no wish to go further west even though 035 would clear for 10 miles. That could wait. 320304+320312 soon saw me on the move again and heading out via Singer, I ended up back at Partick with 320304 safely recruited into The Ten Mile Club. 312 needed some more work but I did not want to go too far as I had an appointment back at Dalmuir with a require 156 in about half an hour.
Switching sides, 318263+320310 rolled in and took me to Westerton with 263 joining up with many others in the 800 Chain Club. Low mileage 334012 followed up to take me to Dalmuir. The Dalmuir bail left 334012 precariously short of the ten mile barrier but apart from risking a dodgy -2, there was nothing I could do about it as I had a date with that 156 which had gone to Oban early in the day. Double-checking RTT, I could see that the 156 was on time so this was no time for any silly tricks. Bang on cue 156445 rolled in and I leapt aboard. The red pen was extracted from my rucksack, it being over 3 ½ hours since it last saw the light of day, as I was keen to eradicate yet another Scottish 156 from my all-time requirements leave just one EM 156 and two more Scottish ones to get. The end is in sight for this rather large class! It was the usual stagger to Queen Street where I decided that it was time to gather up supplies.
I bumped into Rex and Mark and both were grinning like tigers and were rather laid-back about what I had seen that might have of interest to them so I figured that they must have come across something (or some things) that had piqued their interest. With the necessary supplies in the bag, I now had an appointment with a winning unit [Ed: You didn’t mention that to us!]. I first need to walk over to Central as there was no suitable leap available via Partick/Hyndland. Yes, I had been in Scotland for several days and this would be the first time that I actually set foot in Central station, albeit momentarily as I headed for the underground where I nicely fell into 318250 which would convey me to another winning shack of Newton. I had plenty of time to swap sides before 318269+320413 trundled in – red pen time again and on this occasion, a faux-320 bites the dust. That’s four out of seven rounded up - two this trip after bagging two on last year's jaunt. The winning unit was taken through to Hyndland and given the hour, I bailed at Hyndland as the train was proceeding via Yoker with no decent connection on anything back to Queen Street.
Dud 320412 provided a fill in move to Anniesland where I fell into 320304+320312. I’d dealt with 320304 earlier on but 320312 needed a suitable nudge to get it over the ten-mile hurdle. The run to Queen Street Low Level would do that. All that was left now was for me to head upstairs to the high level platforms and board 170406. I could have stayed on the Haymarket but decided to leap at Linlthgow to reduce the Drone mileage. 158723+158786 followed up to take me to Haymarket. I took the short walk to the digs where Rex and Mark were relaxing. Discussing how we’d fared that day, it appears that Rex and Mark had done exceptionally well in mopping up Scotrail units for photograph and only needing three units to clear Scotrail. Problem was 170406 was one of them! My saving grace was that it did not feature on the list that they’d given me so I had no way of knowing that their last spotty 170 had been my horse back from Glasgow.
I did a quick tally for the day and concluded that the red pen had seven outings from the bowels of my rucksack, no less than 19 units had breached the ten mile barrier and also two new shacks had been scored. Rex did point out to me that I was on unlucky 13 for my tally of winners on the big railway for the trip and challenged me to make it into the 20s before I left Scotland. While I was in no mood for complaining at my haul so far, I’d still be interested to see what the fourth and final day would bring me.
