Back to blighty for now...
Daytripper plus a little more... 04/06/16
It was time to be back on the rails for a bash a mere two days after landing back in Newcastle, and this time I was off for an actual bash in the Midlands! However, not being one for slogging both ways via Derby, I opted for a nice run via London on the return, even if it meant catching a Voyager. I’d rather a 70 minute blast on one at full tilt than 194 minutes on one that has excessive dwells at Derby, Sheffield, Doncaster and York. And with that, I was up at 4:45 and ready to catch the 0603 service to Manchester Victoria as far as York. I could swear that I practically live on this train these days! It is however a peaceful journey and today was no exception with dud
185131 providing the journey south. In all honesty, having had my ticket checked before we passed Tyne Yard, I lay down across the seats to sleep, being awoken by ‘we’re now arriving at York!’ and conveniently, we were pretty punctual, being 1 or 2 down as I leapt off and was ready for the next leg of the journey, on dud
220014 which was working the 0727 to Reading. This is a similar service that is insanely padded and wastes a heck of a lot of time only to have a stupidly short dwell at Sheffield.
By this I mean it sits at York from 0721 to 0727, Doncaster 0749 to 0756, then only has from 0818 to 0820 at Sheffield. In all honesty however, I was knocked out to sleep again (I’d had 3hrs 45mins sleep the previous night, having stayed up to ensure that the girlfriend was home safe from a concert as she was catching an all stops Manchester Vic-Leeds that was rammed and full of drunks) and then awoken at Sheffield by the sound of a man giggling at me sleeping. I honestly have no idea why, and I ended up falling asleep again until Water Orton where I staggered up out of my seat again and off the train. I’m pretty sure we were roughly on time, being booked in for 0928. I nipped to the ticket office, paid my £6.50 for a Daytripper, and headed for whatever was leaving first. This probably wasn’t the most sensible option in hindsight as I jumped on the 0939 Birmingham International, being worked by dud
323208. However, I required every shack en route so a quick bail at shack 1, Stechford, was still a productive move. It was then a short wait until winner
350118 carted me back along to New Street for about 1000.
Time for something a little more productive however as I ran down Platform 4 into bay Platform 4C and joined winners
170507/170517 on the 1005 to Shrewsbury, as far as shack 2, Sandwell and Dudley. Conveniently, right behind us was winner
323210 which was duly taken to shack 3, Tipton. I was most amused to see the PERTIS machine still functioning, as I put 10p in the machine, and it printed me a rather antiquated looking Permit to Travel that had the wrong time on it
I then had to get a move on and go under the subway, joining winner
323203 to shack 4, Smethwick Rolfe Street, where I could have gone onwards to Coseley for a fast service back to New Street, but I instead opted to just take winner
323240 to Smethwick Galton Bridge where I noted a late running service towards Stratford was due, perfect for me as I wanted Jewellery Quarter, so by instinct I headed to the busy platform only to realise that I was wandering over to the Stourbridge one just as dud 172339 pulled in. By the time I ran back down it was ready to leave so I was a tad irritated, but this was really a blessing in disguise. Winner
172333 was next up and that was the one to take me to shack 5, Jewellery Quarter.
Annoyingly, I’d just missed a tram but it was a short wait for winner
30 to shack 6, St Paul’s, where I had all of 10 seconds to dive out of the front door of this tram and into the rear door of the next, winner
34 which was taken to shack 7, Soho Benson Road. At this point I decided to go for the city centre shacks considering the recent opening of the new extension, and took winner
26 to shack 8, Grand Central. I must say that the trams are very bright and airy and do the job, but the number of announcements was driving me nuts! The one reminding passengers that they indeed had to press a button to make the door open just had me rolling my eyes
but my eyes were more focused on the running through the city, being deposited outside of New Street station to the sight of a tram awaiting the all clear to cross over onto the departing platform. This was fresh dud
30 but it was duly taken to shack 9, Snow Hill. Weirdly enough, it seemed to be a bit useless for accessing Snow Hill station itself, as shown by the fact that not a single person alighted with me and not a single person boarded as I took winner
36 back to shack 10, Corporation Street. The Grand Central bound platform here did feel a little…sparse. It was basically a raised pavement with a small sign at the end. Not that I can envision many travelled the short distance towards there!
Winner
33 was next to shack 11, Bull Street where that was all shacks from The Hawthorns into the City complete. What next? Well I needed to tie up a few loose ends on the Snow Hill shacks, so it was a short walk to shack 12, Birmingham Snow Hill (I’m counting it as different to the tram shack, they’re miles apart!) and a dive into winner
172344 in the Whitlock’s End direction. I needed Yardley Wood, Shirley and Whitlock’s End but they all looked like an absolute faff. Long waits at each and all. However, I spotted a chance of making a -2 at Shirley as the Stourbridge was running 4 late. However, it was around 2.5 late when we arrived at shack 13, Shirley, which meant that we arrived in about 10 seconds before it and I was at the wrong end of the platform! However, undeterred, I legged it over the bridge and straight into the nearest door of winner
172337 just as the door closure cycle was about to begin. Well, that was one fester avoided. However, on leaving at shack 14, Yardley Wood, I realised that I had a +17 as a result of making this service, so I killed some time by activating my new bank card in the TVM as it needed to make a chip and pin transaction before being able to use contactless.
I bought a child single from Wrexham General to Central for a princely £0.60 as this seemed like the cheapest ticket I could think of! Turns out I could have had Lichfield City-TV for £0.45 but hardly any difference in it. By the time I’d played around with the TVM and bought the rather pointless ticket, shoving it in my wallet and wandering down to the platform again, dud
172339 wasn’t far off and it was taken to shack 15, Whitlock’s End. That was the line all the way from Stourbridge to Whitlock’s End complete with the exception of, I do believe, Langley Green! I can envision getting in the likes of Danzey, Wood End, The Lakes, Earlswood etc etc being one long and arduous task considering I need everything from Wilmcote-Whitlock’s End! (Wilmcote being scratched way back in August 2010 on 150001!) After the ten minute turnaround, we got going again and I was deposited back at Birmingham Snow Hill ready to cross onto winner
168108 for the short hop back to Moor Street. Continuing the insect leaps, winner
172343 was next back to Snow Hill, followed by dud
172337 back to Moor Street. This was just in time for winner
168111 to take me back to Snow Hill and dive into dud
172333 to Moor Street for everyone’s favourite bit about catching a service from Moor Street.
I sauntered over to winner
68008 which was working the 1355 Marylebone and took it to Solihull. By far the most pleasant journey of the day, and my first time in Standard on the Mainline service as beforehand I’d used Business Class to get to London, definitely well worth the tenner on weekends. Annoyingly the service back was dud
172333 again, which seemed to be keen to haunt me, and it was taken back to Moor Street for the stroll to New Street. A short stint on the Cross City was next as I jumped on winner
323214 to shack 16, Chester Road. All these shacks are a damn faff to cross over, though! I was held up by a crowd getting off the train here, but thankfully made it under in time to take winner
323209 to shack 17, Gravelly Hill aka the black hole of internet signal. I have no idea why this area had little or no internet signal, and to be honest I originally put it down to the station being in a cutting, but on going out onto the streets above I encountered the same issue. Most bizarre. The line also fell apart at this point, with my service being 9 late, meaning I’d probably need to forego a shack to keep things running smoothly. In this instance, I scrapped Erdington and joined a very unhealthy sounding winner
323206 to shack 18, Wylde Green. Seriously, it took forever to get off the mark and the motors sounded ready to give up! At this point I decided to leave the Cross City for another day and took winner
323219 back to New Street and went to grab some dinner.
Back onto the platforms at 1605 and I noted winner
350122 trailing dud
350374 on the 1614 Euston via Northampton, so I joined and expected to be away sharp. In the end, a 9Mxx Pendolino from Glasgow held us up until 1621, meaning that my connection onto the service behind was going to be tight! I left at Birmingham International and coming in straight behind was dud
221106 with winner
221112 tacked on the back. I took a seat in Coach A as that seemed to be the quietest option, and sat back for a stagger to Coventry (that Euston via Northampton was all stations to Coventry!) where we ended up around 10 late. However, we then absolutely hammered it all the way to Watford Junction with the tilt in full force as we were only 4 late on arrival. Further time was then made up as we arrived into Euston 1 late at 1757 and I decided to give this Contactless malarkey a go. It was more expensive that I’d pay on Oyster (which I don’t have anyway) but I needed to save my legs so I tapped in, paid my £2.40 and decided that I had enough time to be productive. A Northern Line was taken to shack 19, Angel, where I had 2 minutes until another took me to shack 20, Old Street. Not bad for 10 minutes work! I took another to Kings Cross where I tapped out again and went for half an hours rest up in Granary Square by the canal.
This time passed a little too quickly as I hopped up to my feet again and went in search of food for the journey home. Boots lacked much and in the end I found myself in Waitrose. A sausage roll and bottle of fizzy water for £1.50 however wasn’t bad going! I then decided to go wait on the bridge at Kings Cross as my train could only be one of two, the one on P4 or the one on P6. Initially I was kicking myself as the one arriving on 4 was coming from Sunderland so I assumed it’d be going back. It was also dud 180114, the only GC 180 I’ve had every time I’ve caught them. Yes, it’s always been the same one
However it turned out we were on 6, so it was winner
180112 instead for the non-stop run to York. This was a heavily reserved service so I was rather fearful of being jammed in for the journey but our carriage only ended up being about 2/3 full, so I did indeed end up with room to move for what was actually a very pleasant journey! I’d definitely travel Grand Central again down to London (and indeed I actually am on August 15, sadly it’s the 0821 off York which is once more booked an Adelante). However the peace was shattered on arriving at York 2 late at 2100. On came the drunken masses, and I had to jump off pronto to avoid getting trampled back onto the train!
I was catching the usual 2110 to Newcastle (in this instance because it was the only cheap service left to be honest) and yep, you guessed it, utterly nuts. Dud
185151 was in charge and within a second of seeing the gaggle of intoxicated revellers, I went straight into First Class, deciding to upgrade. It seems however that they all had the same idea, with a few deciding that they’d also like to sit in First. None of them joined me at least, so I had a table of four to myself all the way back. In the end, I didn’t even pay the upgrade as the guard couldn’t shift the revellers out of the carriage so he said it was a bit pointless me paying for the pleasure of their company! Just as well, as a group of middle aged blokes dressed themselves in the antimacassars off the seats and proceeded to act as bouncers for the compartment, heckling women and cat-calling them as they boarded. True gents. Thankfully we stayed punctual as I was off quick at Newcastle for 2220, heading for the comfort of my Dad’s car home, seeing me in the house for around 2235.
A productive, varied day, I’d say!
I shall have Germany up in due course (Day 3 is just about ready to write) and after that the next report shall be from June 25. Next two Saturdays i'm with my girlfriend again, though as ever, I shall be using the rails and on the 18th should be looking to bag a couple 507s/508s
Total Mileage: 689mi 06ch
Total Winners: 24+20 shacks
Total Cost: £60.05
DB BR420, 420423- Cologne Messe/Deutz. by Richard Green, on Flickr
EVAG 5223, Berliner Str. by Richard Green, on Flickr
BR114, 114038, Dillenburg. by Richard Green, on Flickr
Next up from the Interchange was the 1852 to Leeds and of course my Rover was valid again for the journey on double duds 153332/155347 through to their destination where I nipped to Sainbury’s for dinner. One layered salad and a coke later I was standing around on Platform 14A for what has become a favourite, the 1952 to York. It was dud 158815 today, and I love it because it has a half healthy load on leaving Leeds, then by the time we reach Micklefield it’s utterly dead! There was only 4 of us on the whole train on arrival at York, where I had one more journey to make and that was on dud 91126 working the delayed 2036 to Edinburgh. I found a nice unreserved table in Coach F, and it was a nice peaceful run back to Newcastle for 2141, around 4 late, where I was off for a lift home!