After a seemingly incessant wait, the day had finally come, my date with destiny had arrived, that time to tackle Anglia.
I was up and at it from 05.15, coffee n toast, ciggy, ablutions, double checked to see if I had everything, quick ciggy again and into my flat mates car by 06.15, arriving at Central amere 10minutes later. Enough time to go into Greggs for a bacon sarnie and a coffee, 2 steak bakes and 2 chicken bakes for later, quick body swerve into Smiths for Railways Illustrated, my magazine of choice, plus there was an article in this one about the late, great and sadly missed Gateshead shed.
I waltzed through the open barriers onto the platforms, to not a great deal, I wasn't expecting miracles, 185145, 142088 and a couple of Voyagers(which I cursed at, under my breath) and thunderbird 67016. I had roughly 45mins to kill and not long after 82205 came in to view and added a bit colour to the place, I wandered up to the North end of the same platform(3 if you remotely care), taking the coaching stock as I wandered to my usual spot at the North end of said platform, noting 91128's nameplate
InterCity 50 wondering If I needed that one or not, guessing probably so, if I'm questioning myself.
A XC HST, with power cars 43357 and 43304, garners me 2 required coaches, which I say to myself, hope this is the start of things to come. About 5mins before my train the 07.29 is due in, I look up and see an HST weaving its way round the corner, past the Castle Keep and into Platform 3, 43206 and winner
43257 pull in before me, and as I'm getting the stock, I'm thinking that'll do nicely, it's supposed to be booked a blunt, as I make my way towards Coach C, I hear a tannoy announcement,
"To passengers on platform 3, please stand away from the train, as this in not in service. Oh bugger!!! A driver comes up, jumps into the rear power car, immediately gets a green and high tails outta there back North, taking my bloody winner zing with him. A couple of minutes later, I'm rewarded with non other than dud blunt 91113. Cheers
I climb on board coach C and see it's rammed, so I thought, bollocks to my reserved seat, I make my way to the quiet coach, find a pair of unreserved, forward facing seats, with a decent window view and plonk myself, turning my phone onto silent and before we know it, the journey begins. just North of Durham, there's a thick blanket of fog, which had descended upon us and was there till after York too, the picture below, shows what a wonderful view I had from my window of Durham Cathedral, so I decided to get Railways Illustrated out the bag and get reading, getting all nostalgic and learning a few things as I read the article on Gateshead shed.
I got so engrossed in Railways Illustrated that it wasn't till we were nearly out of York Station, when I realised I'd never checked to see what was in the parcels bay, I shot a glance over my shoulder and saw a 37 and 2 66's parked, what they were I don't know, I just put my head back into the magazine, till we reached Donny. Here I got up and stood in the vestibule to get a view of the Yard, just outside Donny is 800101, I get my Dictaphone at the ready for the yard, all I see is 66192, then a rake of GB coal wagons with 66744 on the end blocked the whole lot, needless to say I cursed a lot.
I went and sat down, hoping to collar an EMT 153 or 156 at Grantham, if I was lucky, no such luck but soon enough we were approaching Peterborough, I got my stuff ready and went to the vestibule again, this time nothing to block the view, 66727, 66729, 66730, 66759, 66080, 66111 and 67024 were all on show, shame none of them are required but still nice to see.
Bailing at Peterborough, we were 6 down, I went out for a quick ciggy, then high tailed it back to Platform 3, for the 10.08, seeing 800101 arriving before another dud blunt, this time 91104, took me off to Kings Cross.
I dozed off and woke with Greater Northern's EMU's flying left and right of me, much to my frustration and seeing 66167 at Welwyn Garden's hardly helped. just outside the Cross, I'm met by new sights
387128 and
387117 and when I bailed at Kings Cross, I roped in a full set of VTEC HST stock, topped n n tailed by EMT power cars 43082 and 43044 and seeing as the set was in VTEC livery and according to my NREA based at NL, I can only assume, the set was transferred EMT stock. I had an hour and half to get to Liverpool Street, so after I'd made a quick sweep round the platforms and roped in a few more EMU's cops, I wandered over St Piano Players International.
I made my way straight up to the top floor, to see what Eurostars were in, doffing my cap to Mr Betjeman as I walked towards the glass, I knew I'd got a dud one, 4008 I'd seen last time here but I knew
3007 was needed, I took a photo but its pretty crap. Another cop was added to the list when 4008 departed but was almost instantly replaced with
4015
.
I meandered over to the EMT platforms hoping either 2 of my required Meridians were there, no luck on that front, so I wandered over to the South Eastern side of things, in hope I'd see my first Javelin, well that's not strictly true, to ID my first Javelin, there was 2 in but the guy at the desk wasn't letting me through to go get them. With time marching on, I decided to get a spurt on, went down to the tube, jumping on 21539/21540 for the 10minute ride to Liverpool Street.
Liverpool Street station, I'd never been in the place since the Anglia 86's ruled the roost on the GEML, yes folks, that long. Whilst below is
not my photo, I certainly have fond memories of that day, getting one of these to and from Ipswich, so at least I could say, I'd had an 86 on the GEML Must've been the late 1990s or early 2000's, when I done that.
The hashtag as you all know was LSGsLiveWire, at Liverpool Street, it could've well been changed to LSGsCopFest, it was just gone 12 noon and the half hour I had there gained me boatloads for sight, as I reeled in, the EMU's and GA coaching stock. I looked on RTT and saw what platform the 12.30 to Norwich was leaving from and went to see which skoda I'd be getting for haulage, for the first time since the 90's were common place on the WCML, so it's safe to say, it's been a while. winner
90004 was given the dubious honour, of ferrying me to Ipswich. I made my way to Coach C, to find my seat, only to find that it was a relatively empty coach, so I moved myself onto an empty table seat to myself. I must say the GA stock is nice, very airy and the seats are a lot more comfortable than they actually look.
Even on the move, I was still copping stuff, just the journey into Stratford gained me a couple of 315's, a 378 and even a DLR unit too. More scored at Gildea Park too, here I scored 5 more EMU's that where stabled there. At Shenfield, it was awash with Network Rail workers and 3 freightliner sheds, 66518, 66957 and 66564 all on ballast trains, 66718, in that horrendous harlequin livery passed through on a intermodal. Looks like the project there with track and station will be mightily be mightily impressive when its done, as will be the new station at Cambridge North, which according to the banners, will be opening in May 2017. Into Colchester and the scoring spree continued, with 2 dustybins added to the ever growing cops list.
Next stop Ipswich I told myself, then the Greater Anglia Adventure begins, all too soon we enter the tunnel, I'm positioned perfect on the left, for the siding, just as well too, as we burst out the dark abyss and back into daylight, stabled at the very bottom of the Yard is none other than big time gap plugger
66516, plus two others, that weren't required. I bailed off and high tailed over the bridge, through the barrier, shock horror a Rover that opens a barrier and had myself a very welcomed celebratory ciggy.
I returned through the barriers again, the Rover opened the barriers without any fuss and for the next 20 or so minutes, clicked numerous GA units and another dusty bin before winner
90006 came along and pushed me up to Norwich, for my first proper move on the Anglia plus and my first ever journey on the GEML south of Ipswich. To celebrate I went and got a reasonable coffee at the buffet car and returned to my table seat and ate a steak bake and settled back for the journey up to Norwich.
to be continued.....................
