47403
Established Member
Day 3 continued
Obviously not too long after getting 158709 in the bag, I was stood watching various units come and go, 334029 and 170459 kindly handed themselves in to the cop list, leaving me quite handily looking for 334005 and 006 to clear the 334's for sight and down to 9 on the JockRail 170's, of which I know some have been converted to Southern ones but with me using last years NREA(I'd just marked my current one all up and within a few months a new one hit the shelves and quite simply I really couldn't be arsed to re-mark in a new one) so which which ones, I required and which ones were converted I'm not sure but will check fleet lists in due course.
So after a bit more spotting I decided to go outside and try my luck with the trams again, again no luck, maybe over the course of the last two days I'd seen what was out for the weekend. So I decided to have a look round the Haymarket area. I was going to go down Gorgie and go to Robertson's for a few beers but hunger was beginning to strike, plus I wanted to get my daughter a teddy bear, last time we visited Edinburgh together, I bought her a teddy with full blue tartan garb and jacket, the boy bear, she told me and I knew she wanted the girl in red tartan outfit, so after a bit mooch round, I went back onto Haymarket's platform to wait for a winner, which wouldn't have been hard but I was after an all round winner(needed for sight as well as haulage)which was going to be a bit more tricky, although not as hard as you would think it was.
45mins rolled by and alone with my thoughts and many a winner going by but no cop to go with it, my thoughts drifted into the days here as a mere 15yr old, seeing the 47's on push pulls, I remember my mates and I bailing off 47703 and waiting for a Scottish ETH 47462 up to Dundee and bemoaning seeing and missing 47006 heading back south. 47467 ably took us back to Edinburgh. I was thinking of us scribbling like crazy into notebooks as we passed Haymarket depot, either bashing to places like Dundee, the Fife Circle behind a 27, we had a couple of McRats over the Forth Bridge in previous visits. However the main focus was usually the 47/7s between Edinburgh, Falkirk or Queen St, again scribbling like mad into our notebooks as we passed Eastfield. Now here I am, stood waiting with a miniscule of hope, that just maybe 156457 might appear, if not, an Inverness based 158 or even a required Haymarket 158 would do. The sight of a 156 attached to the back of a 170, offered hope, it looked good at one point too, however it was dud 156447, insert much swearing but I let it go. Eventually 158731 rolled in and on I jumped, back through the tunnels, thinking of 20096 and 20107's performance through here the day before, whilst listening to the less pleasing whine of all round winner158731 back into the bays at Waverley.
A quick scan of the bays revealed cop 158786, so I left the platform in search of food and a teddy bear, a quick walk into the Waverley mall, straight into the shop, bought the teddy my daughter wanted, then over to Maccy D's for a Big mac, chips and a coffee, all wolfed down, a quick wander over the road and into the pub near enough at the top of the ramp onto Waverley station for a quick but well earned pint of Stella, which went down an absolute treat too.
I wandered down the ramp and up to the top of Platform 19, when 91111 came in, I'm not a huge fan of the blunts but 91110 and 91111 are personal faves, mainly for what their liveries represent. I would love to see the Harry Patch HST up close too. Still I couldn't resist a pic of one of this blunt.
I wandered down platform 19 and went for toilet break. I had my 30p ready but good news, neither barrier was working so the gate was open and I managed to get in, err Scot free.:roll:. I came out the loo to be met by 67008 on what seemed like some sort of Rail Tour on platform 20, the rake of coaches, was unfortunately blocked by an HST, so it was up the escalators across the bridge and progressed down onto the platform getting the rake, blissfully unaware of what was on the other end, if indeed anything was at the other end, it wasn't until I got 3/4s of the way down, I actually realised this was on the other end
I'm not a big fan of kettles but I can see why folk get a bit carried away with them, all of a sudden, I realised there was a throng of older cranks with various sized cameras, after about 15mins, 46100 Royal Scot, was lost in a big steam cloud, before a loud blast on the whistle and off she chuffed, to were I don't know but them guys with camera's seemed a much happier bunch, for the experience.
I trooped away and caught a glimpse of a 170, I thought I needed, on closer inspection, there was 2 coupled together and what's more, I was right it was a cop and 170452 and its friend 170470 was a cop too. Meaning that I'm now down to 7 Scot Rail versions of the 170's now. Suitably chuffed, to celebrate, I bought a large coffee, walked up the ramp, ate my last Mars Bar and had a ciggy.
There was some delays now, due to an overhead wire problem in the Retford area, the Kings Cross-Aberdeen was 130mins down, a few others were at least 40 down, which left me slightly worried for my train home at 21.00. It was around 19.30 ish, with stuff seemingly repeating itself, I walked off the platform up the ramp and sat on the wall, watching out for trams and watching the world go by. I'm suddenly shocked out of my day dream, by a big burly guy with a camera, I soon realise, this guys asking me if I'd take a photo of him and his wife, so I did just that and we got talking, turns out they're American, we're from Baltimore, I'm then told, he'd just retired and he and his wife, were taking a well earned break, round the UK and Europe. I'm asked if I live in Edinbro, I told them, no, I was from Newcastle. Oh we're going there, they'd hired a car and were planning on going there for a few days, mainly to visit Alnwick Castle and Gardens, as well as Durham, before moving on to York. I told them, they must visit Beamish if they had time in their schedule, before telling them all about it, his wife, seemed very impressed, I think it ticked her boxes, that sounds fantastic, you must write that down for us, was a bit of a giveaway. I wrote out Beamish Museum on a piece of paper, they thanked me and said they'd check it out on the internet later. We said our goodbyes and they marched off down Princess Street, I thought, well that doesn't happen too often these days, complete strangers talking in the street. It was nice to speak to them and they certainly seemed a really nice couple, I hoped and wondered if they did get to go to Beamish.
I wandered back down to the platforms, cursing because I'd scored no more trams and found one of the station staff and asked if the 21.00 was delayed and was told no, its on time. I then took a walk down to see if 380105 had actually moved and been replaced by a 1, I actually needed, in short the answer was an emphatic NO. 67021 had joined 86401 in the South end bay, which was something different to look at, at least.
Over on Platform 2, dud 91122 had pulled in, when will I ever get winners to or from the Scottish Capital? About 15 minutes later, we were allowed on board, I was in coach M, there was about 4 of us at most. Once we got moving, roughly 10mins after I got on. I was offered 4 chicken n bacon wraps, 2 packs of crisps, a bag of pop corn and 2 cans of coke, I wanted a beer but they don't do the beers on a weekend, so I plumped for a coffee instead, as I done my writing up, my bounty was devoured, shortly before Alnmouth, the number crunching, not long after. A bang on time arrival into toon, where I made my way to a lift home, decidedly knackered but happy as Larry(whoever he is?)
Scores on the doors
Total Cops- 44
Winners for Haulage- 5
Many thanks for the kind words folks, Sorry Day 3 was in two parts but I got there in the end.
Got to admit I was happy I got an IS 158 on a Haymarket leap too Kite.
