Petery's 7 day All line Rover Saga.

[PeterY]

At very short notice I decided to do another 7 day rover before the dark nights, set in. It's all well and good making plans but storm Cullam changed quite a lot.

My overall aim is to clear as many lines in the UK, with my senior card as possible. Below is a brief overview.

Day 1 (Wednesday 10th October). Watford, Waterloo, Salisbury, Southamton, Lymington, Southampton, Eastleigh, Salisbury, Westbury, Bristol, Taunton, and back to Paddington on a HST via Melksham (Divert)

Day 2. Hemel Hempstead, a delay due to OLE being down near Bletchley. Liverpool Street, Felixstowe, Harwich, Norwich, Liverpool Street, Kings Cross, Doncaster. I had planned to do Sudbury and Braintree but they are for another day.

Day 3. Doncaster, Grimsby, Barton on Humber, Cleethorpes, Manchester, Chester via Northwich. I met up with my daughter for the evening.

Day 4. My plan was to clear Glasgow but instead I had a Virgin day to accumulate some mileage. Chester, Euston, Manchester, Euston, Tring and ended at Kings Langley.

Day 5. My plan was to overnight in Warrington but started at home. Watford, Kings Cross, York, Leeds via Harrogate, Ilkley, Bradford Forster Square, Leeds. Newcastle.

Day 6. Newcastle, Middesborough via Seaham. Yarm, York, Leeds Manchester Picc, Liverpool via Warrington, Bidston, Wrexham, Shrewsbury.

day 7. My great plan was to do Heart of Wales but the line was closed. So I did Shrewsbury, Crewe, Lancester, Morecambe, Carnforth (visited the Brief Encounter museum) Leeds, Castleford, Knottingly, Wakefield and home via Kings Cross.

Total Mileage 2,872.

Thoughts.
Full marks to the Northern guard who went out of her way to assist a blind person who got on the Barton train at Habrough by mistake, he was on his way to Doncaster. When we arrived back at Habrough she guided him across to the correct platform because they were staggered.

I had all the ingredients for a long delightful pacer ride on jointed track between Carnforth and Settle Junction at 60 mph. Infact it's a very scenic line.

Trans Pennine Excuse make Cross Country look wonderful. Cross Country offer a far superior First Class service plus the Cross Country trains I used ran to time. OK Cross Country now have plenty of padding in their timetables.

Voyages still have "that" smell.

Platforms 13 and 14 at Manchester Piccadilly, does anything arrive or leave on time????? Organised chaos, it seems.

Twice I used Kings Cross to go north, 17.03 LNER to Doncaster, first tea was just before Doncaster. Great Central we were barely out of Copenhagen tunnel. I had 3 teas from them.

I know quite a few people slate ALR's but mine gave me so much flexibility to change things. It would've of been impossible to do on advances. OK £500+ but I had my fair share of freebies and made a lot of use of the First Class Lounges.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Sounds like a fun trip and certainly some good mileage.

For what you are doing, an ALR is great and obviously if you had been planning the South-West which got cut off for a few days, you could have completely changed without any major issues, with advances you would have to have claimed back fares and purchased new short-notice fares.

 

[Andy Pacer]

Sounds good. I’m still to do an ALR, I’d planned to do one this year but ended up spending most of my free time chasing Pacers before they’re withdrawn so decided to leave the ALR until next year (or potentially 2020). I’ll definitely do 1st class when I do one - I feel if I’m going to shell out £500+ (no railcard) for a standard I may as well make it £700+ and have 1st class, you also seem to get your money’s worth compared to 1st class advances.
I guess the only major issue with severe plan changes is if you have accommodation booked etc.

 

[Kite159]

Sounds like you had your moneys worth from the ALR

 

[Iskra]

Thanks for sharing.

The Bentham line is indeed a hidden gem.

Agree about platforms 13 & 14 at Piccadilly. It's now even worse that they've decided to paint red boxes on it and employ miserable draconian fools to yell at anyone who steps out of them prematurely. A truly awful place to catch a train.

 

[_toommm_]

Thanks for sharing.

The Bentham line is indeed a hidden gem.

Agree about platforms 13 & 14 at Piccadilly. It's now even worse that they've decided to paint red boxes on it and employ miserable draconian fools to yell at anyone who steps out of them prematurely. A truly awful place to catch a train.

Glad it's not just me who shares this opinion about the Blue Army at Piccadilly. Miserable sods.

 

[PeterY]

The Bentham is well and truly under rated. The area must be a great place for walking if you don't want too many high hills.

Agree about platforms 13 & 14 at Piccadilly. It's now even worse that they've decided to paint red boxes on it and employ miserable draconian fools to yell at anyone who steps out of them prematurely. A truly awful place to catch a train.

I agree with your comments about Piccadilly. Like most two track lines, in city centres (Thames link and Partick), too many long distance trains trying to use at once and sharing it with freight trains doesn't help.

 

[nicolaboo]

The Bentham is well and truly under rated. The area must be a great place for walking if you don't want too many high hills.


I agree with your comments about Piccadilly. Like most two track lines, in city centres (Thames link and Partick), too many long distance trains trying to use at once and sharing it with freight trains doesn't help.

The freights add interest in Manchester, given there's little other locos around until Xmas, but as Trafford Park is quite busy and there's no longer any choice in direction out, that can't be helped.
PS
Nice trip, I must do something similar. I did a scottish silver trip in the 80s, but an ALR sounds like something worth saving up for.