If the 09:01 is on time arriving at Wolves then you should make an LM 170 ex Shrewsbury which departs before the 221.
Good to know, will get me a few extra minutes in the bat cave!
Carry on beyond Stourbridge to Worcester and get some GWR stuff, definitely. Depending on the time of your visit you might even get a GWR HST on the 1022 Paddington to Hereford (around 1240 from Worcester from memory) or on the 1514 Hereford to Paddington. The 1210 (or so) Hereford to Paddington is booked 166, but you will be in place for some 150s, possibly a 153 and some 158s too. Not to mention 180s!
Worcester Shrub Hill is still a stronghold of semaphore signals, for how many more years remains to be seen!
Excellent, some nice variety there! I think maybe I shall pop down straight from New Street, do a couple of hours there and then work my way back up to Moor Street via Stourbridge. It will all hinge on whether I can find out what time my last few 221s, 323s, 350s are up due through New Street (if at al!)
Although for GWR, Reading would be better for the HSTs, 180s, Turbos, plus the odd SWT 450.
With Bristol Temple Meads being the best for Wessex stuff
I do plan on a nice Bristol trip later this year, or possibly early next. I was almost due to go there for work last week, but sadly that was knocked on the head
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
A Worcester Washout
Firstly, let me briefly mention two new sightings from yesterday.
67003 just outside Piccadilly, taking a break before returning to Holyhead on the pauper's WAG, followed by the latest LM 323 to arrive at Longsight for retractioning,
323205.
Armed with my West Midlands Day Ranger I was up at 0700, plenty of time to reach the 0750 from Hazel Grove on a normal day. Sadly the traffic was horrendous, and I arrived just in time to see it pull away. Early plans lying in tatters, it was instead aboard
150277 at 0801 for the short run to Stockport. Having missed the 0804 to Crewe I popped into Starbucks for some porridge and honey, before then jumping aboard
323239 for a bit of spaceship thrash to Crewe. Highlight here was seeing ex-footballer Paul Dickov waiting for a service to Manchester. Clearly he's hit upon hard times! Annoyingly we arrived just in time to see the 0901 Virgin service, the one I had hoped to get as part of my initial itinerary, pull away. A 15 minute wander around Crewe was therefore in order, which did throw up
153312, but very little else. Eventually
350244 zipped in, and off we went to Brum. Again nothing of note really, either on board or out of the window, and it wasn't until Soho depot where the winners started, albeit with a shunter,
08805.
After my inaugural trip to New Street back in May I arrived today with a far greater plan as to how to tackle the number taking. After a quick scout of the units in the immediate vicinity when I alighted from my 350 I then settled at the 'A' end of P6/7, which conveniently placed me quite handily for the XC stuff and the LM 170s/323s. Indeed
170509 &
170510 were first in the book, swiftly followed by
170523. The next hour or so flew by, with a good number of winners keeping me content. A bit disappointed that the HST 43s were duds, but it was still wonderful to see them powering away.
With that it was 1145, and I decided to head down to Worcester as discussed previously.
170508 did the honours initially, taking me on a pleasant if unremarkable trundle down to Droitwich. I did look on intriguingly at the works underway at Bromsgrove, which look fairly major! What's the special occasion? Droitwich offered a ten minute fester, which I utilised to eat the remains of last night's pasta, and finished just in time to see
172339 arrive to carry me 8 minutes down the line to Worcester Shrub Hill with
155375 in tow.
As I creeked up the stairs (gym yesterday was kicking in!) I noticed a rather ominous gathering of dark clouds on the horizon and crossed the old fingers they stayed away long enough to pick up a few numbers. This was particularly vital given I'd dressed in just my shorts and a t-shirt in anticipation of a glorious day's weather. The ex-Paddington HST arrived not long after I did, which threw up
43042, and once I'd wandered to the country end of the platforms to check out the quirky old semaphore signalling it was then time for
166208, complete with new GWR livery. There was a 12-minute gap until the next service, so I wandered through the frankly rubbish cafe to the entrance, only to be greeted with, erm, nothing. A few taxis, but very little else. Not wanting to walk very far on this leg of the day's jaunt I returned to the platforms, and
150120 soon spluttered in to get my first GWR 150 in the log. At this point the aforementioned black clouds arrived with a vengeance and a rainstorm of biblical proportions was dumped upon the station. Fancying this not a jot I decided to cut my losses and get back on board
172339, which was ready to make its way back to Stratford.
With the rain following me back towards Birmingham it was a rather drab journey. Kidderminster snuck up on me so I missed a couple of locos on the Severn Valley depot, but did get
50049. Stourbridge Junction arrived, as did a rather forlorn-looking
139002, which rather cruelly had been left mere yards from its nice dry shed. I alighted here and waited 5 minutes for
139001 to turn up, before then getting on
172334. Skies brightned as we ambled through the Birmingham suburbs, picking up
172220 and
172218 at Rowley Regis and Cradley Heath respectively. As I went through Snow Hill for the first time ever I now fully understand why fishquinn refers to it as 'Snow Hell.' By Christ is it dreary.
Thankfully brighter skies greeted me as Moor Street arrived, and I took the opportunity to load up on hot chocolate, caramel shortcake and rocky road, before settling towards the London end of platform 2 to hoover up yet more 172s, along with the Chiltern stuff. The undoubted highlight here was
68014, which gave possibly the best roar I've heard from a loco since I began my quest. Utterly wonderful sound.
After a good 90 minutes or so I decided to see if XC or LM could help me track down some units. A couple of tweets later, and armed with some useful info, it was back through the Bullring to New Street, and back to this morning's spot. A few more 170s went in the book, along with a bonus ATW 150, with
150250 dragging it's rather battered body along behind a dud 158. Eventually the XC info rolled in with one of the last two 221s,
221124, showing its face after months of searching. Just the one to go now (well two if you count the Bombardier unit at Barton).
With that it was time for home. The 1715 Virgin service, which should have been a Euston-Glasgow, was instead a New Street-Glasgow due to a train fault. Still very heavily loaded, even with two people at my table getting off at the last minute when they realised it wasn't the southbound service, we headed back into the appalling weather. Basford Hall was flooded, but I did get my last working 86,
86608, on its way in from the south. Luckily the sun reappeared as the 86 did likewise, and armed with my LM info I turned my attention to the LNWR works, which provided the final three sightings of the day.
09204 became the first 09 in the logs, and was kept company by
68010. Lurking behind them, however, was the subject of my LM info, and my final 323,
323204. No idea what it was doing there (Neither did the LM twitter team when I asked), but hey ho, class cleared
A quick changed here onto
390008, and it was back to Stockport. Yet more biblical flooding greeted me, with the subway flooded, the roads flooded, and even my 150 back to Hazel Grove flooded!
To summarise, 56 new sightings, which included the last of the 323s, who become the fifth class cleared (joining the 185s, 390s, 175s and 139s). Rather frustratingly I didn't get any of the six remaining 350s, but I now need just 21 LM units to complete the set. XC are in an even better state, with just 10 required (mainly 170s). Didn't get much in terms of Chiltern, so there's still 50 of them to find, probably during a London trip. Did love that 68, a right beast.
Next trip is unlikely to be for a while now. I'm on holiday soon, then the house will hopefully be completed, so days off and weekends will be spent on that. If I can grab an afternoon here or there I will maybe head over to Liverpool, see if I can knock off a few more Merseyrail units. When I do get a dedicated trip I'd love to do Bristol or Cardiff.
Driving, as there's no chance of getting the train back afterwards.
Corrected it now...
