4 February 2017 - A Cheshire Ranger
Circumstances, including a change of job, had conspired to make this the first bash of 2017. Indeed, apart from an early morning tram ride on 3051 from Monsall to Oldham King Street, it was my first trip on rails of the new year. My new job, however, involves working four days on, followed by four off, so it would be foolish not to use at least one each week, and also to make use of my First Week.bus ticket on a positioning move.
Slightly later than planned (blame Wheeler Dealers as well as the cold weather), I therefore wended my way down to Rochdale Town Centre, but eschewed dud tram 3080 in favour of the #17 bus down to Shude Hill Manchester. More dud trams in 3107 (to Market Street) and 3050 (from Piccadilly Gardens) took me to Piccadilly station, where a Cheshire Day Ranger was bought.
Target for the day was both shacks and winners, so I headed off on 220006, as far as Stoke. The inevitable 08721 at Longsight was my first loco seen of the year, then, bizarrely, Euroshed 66217, lurking at EM Longport with 08220, became the second. I had high hopes of a.winner here, giving my paucity of 350s, but annoying dud 350103 appeared to take me to Nushack 1 of the day, at
Alsager.
This is a level crossing shack, but I managed to nip across just in time to leap on dud 156406 for the trip back to Nushack 2, at
Longport, where several Port Vale fans joined me in alighting. Across the footbridge for a 20 minute fester, then the red pen was finally broken out for
153379. I'd previously stopped twice already today at
Kidsgrove, but on this third occasion I got off, making it Nushack 3, and thus a very short ride on the dogbox.
Next target was a plus 10 from the South, as opposed to a +50 from the North, so Quinn's pet 323232 was taken to Nushack 4 at
Congleton, with 323228 returning me to Kidsgrove. When the Crewe train was announced as "one coach" I had hopes of another winning dogbox but Northern reject 153313 turned up to, take me on to Crewe, passing 92043 and 92018 at the old Diesel Depot.
25 minutes here gave me time for a comfortable smoke and to source a coffee (99p from WH Smiths, Americano), before joining winner
350231 for the run up to Liverpool South Parkway, noting thunderbird 57304 enroute whilst enjoying a sandwich (home made Ardennes pate) with my coffee, and cursing the lack of tables on 350/2s. Across the footbridge, and I joined winner
350371 (first of the sub-class scored) back over the Mersey again to Nushack 5 at
Hartford.
A pleasant enough 10 minutes in the sunshine here were enlivened by a grubby looking 70004, without William Shakespeare nameplates or golden arrow embellishments, thromping through on a liner. Then a third successive winner in
350241 turned up to return me to the Parkway, with 66125, 08502 and 66182 noted enroute. Over the footbridge in the other direction this time, as it was time for a spot of scouse stabilizer-rail action.
3/3 became 4/4 as winner
508104 turned up to take me to Nushack 6 at
St Michaels, then dud 508128 returned me to Nushack 7,
Cressington. Crossing over here, I joined 507032 (dud), aiming for Brunswick, but seeing my proposed connection in the opposite platform decided to stay on to Liverpool Central. Dud 507028 then took me back to Nushack 8,
Aigburth, where I decided to leave Brunswick for another day and just dropped back one train to dud 508137, which returned me to Liverpool South Parkway.
Now for an awkward shack. Winner
350121 took me through to Nushack 9 at
Winsford, where the normal 1 hour fester reduces to 25 minutes in the early evening. One cold fester later, and 350371 returned from Birmingham to take me back to Parkway for the umpteenth time.
It was now dark as well as cold, so my thoughts turned
Homeward Bound. And included one final shack score, with 156441 taking me to Nushack 10 at
Widnes, where a cold 15 minutes was spent at the writing place of said song, before 158799 + 158866 rescued me and returned me to Manchester Piccadilly. No obvious winners about, so I called it a day and took tram 3012 down to Shude Hill for the bus home.
Ten new shacks and six winners wasn't a bad start to the year, even if it was a late one. And plans have been made, with West Yorkshire possibly being on next week's menu...
YTD: Winner, 6;.Shacks, 10
hock: If only there wasn't a 502 Bad Gateway error on my HST power car entries on RailMiles...Hmm, a lengthy manual search and memo file creation will have to begin soon, possibly something to pass time on the trek through Middle Earth on Monday...
