Attack of the Metrolink- 11/07/16
With my girlfriend going away on holiday, my school term finishing up, and with me now having 2 weeks to fill, I decided that I couldn’t sit around for all of that time. I drafted up 6 days of plans as a result. A North Country Rover flanked by two Metrolink bashes. Total cost, around £80. This first bash was ultra cheap. £16.30 return thanks to TPE and Northern advance fares, and that was the night before, travelling through the morning peak!
And with that, I woke up yesterday morning hating myself slightly for booking myself on the 0603 departure to Liverpool Lime Street, but at £3.55 single to York booked 12 hours prior I wasn’t complaining! I was at the station for 0545 and dud
185118 was sat at Platform 7, and it seemed to be some of my favourite crew working! (The Newcastle guards all seem lovely, David in particular, he’s the one that draws smiles on tickets!) We had two guards stood at the back, discussing the bizarre inclusion of a customer host on the service despite her lack of a trolley
Seems she was doing first class catering only and had a bag of goodies for them. The doors were then released, I plugged my phone in, and off we went, minus David, leaving a similarly smiley guard reeling off the announcements before we powered our way to Durham.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, the good news is that you’ve just joined us at Durham. The bad news is we’re gonna be stuck here indefinitely!’ Oh joy. Complete loss of signalling at York meant we were staying put. Most annoying too, as we’d arrived at 0619 which was the first on time arrival at Durham I’d noted on 1F62 in just about forever! Having been offered the chance to get off and get some snacks, I grabbed a bag at pork scratchings for 50p, calling them a post breakfast snack
After that, it was just a case of sitting back and waiting. All of a sudden, 40 minutes later, the announcement came over in the best fashion. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, that’s a green signal! We’re leaving! All restrictions have been lifted, so if you’re off to Darlington, Northallerton, York, Leeds and beyond, please get on! Go go go!’ We departed 41 late at 0701, powering our way south to Darlington as fast as physically possible. In the meantime, the guard ended up arguing with a bloke who claimed to be 14 or 15 (he changed his mind a lot) travelling on child tickets. Considering how lippy the guy was, the guard really kept his cool, saying that unless he proved his age, next time he’d get stung for the adult fare.
We continued south rather smoothly, although we were informed that we may no longer call at all advertised stations. At Northallerton, the guard ran down the platform yelling that anyone who wanted York and Leeds should get themselves on (good call, the 0708 from Newcastle was caped completely at York being 59 late, and the following London service was running very late too) before we powered south further. I looked on RTT and saw that my intended 0827 to Leeds (yes, I left myself a +75 which was, in hindsight, an excellent choice!) was running 39 late on its inbound and was looking at further delays south of York, so I gave the guard a shout as he went past, and he endorsed my ticket to be valid to simply continue directly to Leeds, reducing any further delay. At Tollerton Junction however, we ground to a halt and we were looped to allow the 0623 Newcastle to Reading to pass us as the line to Doncaster had reopened whereas Leeds was still shut. We were then informed that we were going to be the 0737 from York to Liverpool Lime Street, calling at Cross Gates, Leeds, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Stalybridge, and stations via Picc and Warrington rather than just Cross Gates, Leeds and Huddersfield into Manchester and Liverpool.
We sat here for some time before edging into York 56 late for 0808 (which is irritating as it meant that I couldn’t get a full refund on my ticket) and attaching to dud
185139. We eventually left at 0823, 46 late versus the timings of the 0737 and 68 late versus the timings of 1F62. However, this didn’t last long as we ended up coming to a stand at Colton Junction for a while before edging our way forwards one signal at a time. After Church Fenton, we then hammered it to Cross Gates and onwards to Leeds for 0903, 59 late, or 84 late for passengers on 1F62. For me? 1 late
Turns out staying on was a smart move, as my booked train started 30 late from York, arriving Leeds 59 late! Thanks to the masses of padding in my plan, I continued on schedule onto dud
158795 for the far more uneventful journey to Manchester Victoria. Not a lot of note here, with the comment of note being someone asking if we went to Rochdale, to the reply of ‘yeah, unfortunately’ from the guard
We arrived in bang on time at 1040, exactly as I intended. Considering that the TPE I’d bailed on only limped into Picc at 1010, not a bad move either!
I bought my £5 Travelcard before joining double winners
3037/3047 up the road to Shudehill where I nipped to the loo and waited for the free bus, Metroshuttle 2, to Deansgate. Why exactly? The network is currently split in two with there being no service between Market Street and Deansgate-Castlefield. The Eccles Line is also shut, which will leave an irritating gap in my shack coverage, although I have had the line except the MediaCityUK avoider. 25 minutes later we were ambling into Deansgate-Castlefield, and I jumped on winner
3022 to shack 1, Stretford. On this line, there’s really no ‘right’ way to bash, as no matter whether you do a linear move up and down the line, or jump around, the 6 minute frequency will keep you moving. Double winners
3003/3049 were taken to shack 2, Old Trafford, where it was a short amble over the level crossing onto winner
3056 as far as shack 3, Brooklands, where I absolutely legged it for winners
3034/3044 to shack 4, Sale. It then wasn’t long until I had winners
3013/3052 to shack 5, Navigation Road. We now had a little bit of repetition as dud
3056 had me back to shack 6, Timperley, followed by
3013/3052 again to shack 7, Dane Road.
That was the Altrincham line completed, and it was winner
3055 being duly taken to shack 8, Trafford Bar, where I decided on the next line of attack, the East Didsbury Line. Winner
3111 stepped up to the mark to take me to shack 9, Chorlton, for a very handy linear move onto winners
3071/3095 to shack 10, St Werburgh’s Road. I seemed to be having excellent luck with my winners here as I took another two good ones,
3083/3097, to shack 11, Firswood. It was time to get the less frequently served shacks as I joined a completely empty winner
3082 which was trailing winner
3078 to shack 12, Burton Road. Duds
3071/3095 were then taken back to shack 13, Withington, where we had winners
3066/3086 to shack 14, West Didsbury. I was a bit split here on what to do, walk to Didsbury Village or take a 12 minute hit and go back to Burton Road to stay dry? With the rain getting heavier, I took the latter option which involved duds
3078/3082 back to Burton Road, where I grabbed lunch in the form of a mince pie from Tesco (not bad for 55p!) Duds
3083/3097 were then next up to shack 15, Didsbury Village, where I considered the line totally cleared as I’d had East Didsbury and the rest of the line for track.
Time to get walking as I took a stroll through a park and found myself on shack 16, East Didsbury (mainline) after a 15 minute or so walk that wasn’t so pleasant thanks to the rain! There was an Arriva Trains Wales service due back to Piccadilly but I decided instead to walk back out of the station and take the walk to Burnage. Why? It was only a 10 minute or so extra wait, plus I’d be less likely to have to faff around with the excess fares window if I joined a Northern service. I also wasn’t sure whether to go the other way either, and get all the shacks on the Manchester Airport line done. If that was the case, I’d have a 20 minute wait anyway, so I may as well get Burnage in. It was an easy 10 minute walk through the drizzle as I stepped up onto shack 17, Burnage, which just leaves Gatley until I clear the Airport line! Dud
319376 slipped its way in late at 1403, with me handing over the bargain fare of £1.65 single to Piccadilly (considering that the Airport was more expensive!) It was a loud, wheelslip filled 10 minute journey to Picc where I turned my line of attack briefly to the Ashton line, taking winner
3040 trailing dud
3045 to shack 18, Holt Town. We appeared to have a resident birdspotter looking at something, before duds from earlier
3037/3047 rolled in for shack 19, New Islington. Winners
3011/3017 were the last winning pair on the line for the day, being taken to shack 20, Etihad Campus where I then switched direction.
Dud
3020 was taken to Victoria, where it was time for the longest line of the day, the Rochdale line. I didn’t know how far I’d get with it, but we started with winner
3016 which was taken to shack 20, Central Park. Quite a fancy looking station here, but I didn’t have long until winner
3104 took me the short distance back to shack 21, Monsall. Dud
3075 was the next tram due for the amusingly named shack 22, Failsworth, where I just had to nip over the level crossing in order to join winner
3072 to the unusual single platform at shack 23, Newton Heath and Moston. It was also rather annoying as I could see one of my last required 142s, 142030, waiting to leave Newton Heath for the evening peak! Not to worry though, winner
3007 was next to shack 24, South Chadderton, from where the line seems to suddenly rise upwards! Indeed, it was quite funny looking seeing dud
3093 come zooming around the corner where I then took it to shack 25, Hollinwood. Another dud was next though as
3098 carted me along to shack 26, Freehold
Weird sight of a rather gutted factory and a few fire engines around, which on doing further research turned out to be the derelict Hartford Mill, which hasn’t produced anything since 1969! Enough of the history lesson though, as I took winner
3096 to shack 27, Oldham King Street. I could see the next station from here, so I undertook a challenge, and err, won! I ran down the street and up onto the platform of shack 28, Oldham Central, back into now dud
3096 which took me onwards to shack 29, Derker. Following that crafty move, I took winner
3112 back to shack 30, Oldham Mumps, as the rain decided it was going to pour again. Dud
3104 then rocked up, taking me to shack 31, Shaw and Crompton. On checking the time, I still had a while, so I decided to have a go at finishing the whole line as I also needed the track from Rochdale Town Centre to the station. Winner
3114 appeared to take me to shack 32, Milnrow, where the boards were insisting that there was only a 24 minute frequency! I just ignored this and hoped it was an error, and dud
3098 then took me back along to shack 33, Newhey.
I ended up nipping into a corner shop for a sugar boost before taking winner
3029 to shack 34, Newbold. Dud
3114 was then next up to shack 35, Kingsway Business Park which was a funny old name considering all I could see was fields
Winner
3080 was then taken to shack 36, end of the line, Rochdale Town Centre, where we had a few minutes until the long journey back through the way I’d came! I hopped off at shack 37, Westwood, having missed it out in favour of the running move between the Oldham Stations. Dud
3016 was then next to Victoria, where I made the insect leap on a new bit of track on winner
3099 to shack 38, Exchange Square. Finishing at 1825, that was very good timing, as I walked back to Victoria and picked up a McDonald’s before taking a seat on dud
158758 back to Leeds via Bradford. It was a pleasant enough journey, being relatively fast (calling only at Rochdale, Todmorden, Hebden Bridge and Halifax before all shacks to Leeds) and punctual, dropping me off at Leeds for 2011.
I took a walk into Leeds, now seemingly having this city as my second home as I picked up a bag of Yorkshire Mixtures from a nearby Tesco and stepping onto platform 12D a while later, noting dud
142062 leading dud 150268 on the 2052 to York. I opted for the 150, but was then kicked off again and told that only the 142 was going to York! It was a bone shaking clatter of a run through to York where we arrived late at 2134, with me keeping a close eye on a late running TPE (what’s new
) which should have been long gone at this point, being the 2109 to Newcastle that calls everywhere. It left in front of the 2147 to Newcastle, which concerned me as my own service, the 2153 to Sunderland, formed of duds
43309/43320 was likely to suffer! Nothing seemed amiss as I found myself with the exclusive use of Coach F until Thirsk, where the TPE had been held to let the XC past but not us! This was an utterly moronic decision by the signaller, as we ground to a halt as of course the TPE had a Northallerton call!
Maybe the 185 would get put at the top of Platform 4 and we’d fit around it seeing as we were now right behind it and it also called at Chester Le Street? Nope! So we continued to lose time as we chased this TPE that was running later and later. Then some idiot routed the Northern service from Carlisle in front of that at Newcastle, leaving us stuck in a queue of trains. Eventually, we crawled into Newcastle at 2305, 12 late. All because they couldn’t hold a 185 for another 90 seconds! Never mind, as I walked out the station, being home for 2330 and heading straight to bed!
Very successful day on the Metrolink.
Total Winners: 33+38 shacks
Total cost: £23.28
How delightful! ‘Pardon me?’ I say, wondering why he decided to delay himself another 30 seconds just to hand me some abuse! Prompt complaint email sent off to ATW as I really don’t expect any member of railway staff nor anyone in any professional line of work to swear at a passenger for no good reason! Peeved, I jump onto an un-IDed 319 back to Picc to the sight of winning 319367 going the other way, followed by the sight of an elusive winning 150222 leaving Piccadilly as we arrived. When I saw I’d got myself on dud 319365 I wondered why I even bothered running! Not to worry, I tracked the diagram 222 was on and it paid off later, as you’ll find out later.
hock:
