Welcome to the forum, and to the potential return to the cranking scene. There's not enough of us around, so I'm glad to hear of a new member to the modern scene!
Everyone is slightly different in what they record. You will inevitably tweak your recordings and rules as time goes on, I don't know a single crank who hasn't changed what they do over the years. You wouldn't believe it now, but back in 2004 and 2005 we all used to meet up just for some motive power bashing, travelling across the country just to travel behind a 31/4! Nowadays it's all about regional challenges, fares workshops and pub meets, which I'll be honest is less interesting to me. I'd rather get everyone together on a train and have a good social, much like we used to. It's hard to believe it's been pretty much exactly 11 YEARS TO THE DAY since we did the Bristol to Brighton 31s bash, involving that slammer on a stopper to Portsmouth Harbour, then another on a Waterloo run which I only did to Fratton before a 158 all the way to Cardiff for an HST back to Swansea. Good memories, it must be said, we need to revive some of those from other bashers.
For example, anyone got some nostalgia from the forum meet on that Paddington to Hereford via Evesham HST bash we did in 2005? Or the Pembroke Dock HST meet we did that year? I remember bits and bobs about both trips, but I would love to get some memories from the other members. I just wish I'd recorded all these moves at the time, my all-time mileage would be astronomical!
Anyway, back on Planet Earth, I'm going very off-topic. Here's a rough look at what I do these days, starting with an extract from yesterday's memo file:
43130+43003, in 46012w, HFD-WOS (0528,arr 0620,3d)
172213+172216 WOS-SGB (0635,arr 0731,4d)
323241 SGB-BHM (0736,1d,arr 0745)
There were of course other moves, and in the moves book the station names will be written down in full rather than just shorthand. You'll notice that these days, as long as both are powering, I'll record both power cars on HSTs. Same applies to DMUs, as will be noted on the second entry above. The 'w' after 46012 refers to a score, in my notebook and moves book this would translate to an underline. Departure time is noted, then any delay to that (as noted on the third entry above), then the arrival time and finally the delay to arrival time if known). You'll notice no coaches are noted on the 172s or 323, as with the 172s they are what I call Super Duds, in this case this means I've already travelled in all coaches of the particular DMU. You can imagine it will take a long time to do that with an 11-car 390 or 12-car 700! My rule with coaching stock is that it matters not if it's 1 second or 10 hours in that coach, as long as I've stood/sat in it for a minimum of 1 second and got confirmation of the number it counts. Only one coach per move, so you can imagine this is easier to do on a long series of short moves, and you can no doubt imagine how annoying it is when you have several needs in one set! I had an HST with 3 required coaches back in the summer, discovering as it left that my last TGS (Trailer Guards Standard) for haulage on GWR was in the set. 44066 will annoy me until the end of time I swear, or at least until I am fortunate enough to get it in...
Next, I will attempt to answer your question on stations. I appreciate this is a long post, and if you're still reading this without falling asleep then fair game. I should imagine it's not at all obvious I'm just a bit passionate about my hobby!
There seem to be several different methods for recording visited stations, but my rule is set in stone and just thinking about changing it or bending the rule even once causes me grief:
I count a station by arriving by whatever method of choice I have. Be that car, bus, foot, train or anything else. I must have a foot on at least part of the station to count it, Clifton Down I don't remember doing better than a foot onto the steps from the street to the platform, having arrived by bus when the platforms were closed. It is being dealt with next time I visit Bristol, I believe Cheam and Worcester Park were done in a similar fashion years ago by night buses, of course these will be dealt with too. They have caused grief for too long! I will point blank refuse to simply step off a train onto the platform then back onto the same train, unless it's at a terminal at the end of its journey and about to form another one back out. I tried that at Worle once, the guilt and grief that caused from, in my eyes, cheating was too much to not go back and fix that which I did some years back. Quite, until posting this I did not realise that I have 3 shacks that need to be re-done!
My rule is flexible only when it comes to two of the most difficult shacks (enthusiast name for stations) to get in the country. These are Redcar British Steel and Lympstone Commando. The latter has signs all over the place saying you must have business with the camp to use the station, which is good enough for me, especially in an age of heightened security and terrorism. For these two, my rule was allowed to bend to being on a train that calls at the shack. I don't feel the need to even try and put my feet on the platform, that was good enough for me.
If ever another shack gets such a restricted service, and I doubt that very much, then my rule will bend again but otherwise it won't.
I hope this answers questions, but if not then feel free to ask away!
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). It was actually before this forum existed, as it was arranged on other forums.
