I know how you feel about an ALR bash costing a fortune. I spent about £1,100 all in on my 14 day ALR in 2012. That was with several hotel nights, including an additional one booked during the trip, as well as food, drink etc. For two weeks of heaven, that was money exceptionally well spent in my eyes and I'd spend it again happily if I had it!
Looks like you got the balance pretty good with bashing and treating the other half to trips away, and aye I suspect when FQ gets older he'll appreciate your point of view on this. Must be hard being apart for quite some time between meetups!
Paris eh? Tenerife? Crikey you must have much more money than me! [emoji38]
As always some excellent reading, and I know the feeling of the end of the adventure. It hits you for six doesn't it, when you realise just how much you've done and all the experiences you've had. When my 6 day mega bash is over on Saturday, having not been away for weeks, it'll hit me hard but it goes so quick!
Like I said in my PM, 2 weeks is fairly standard! And as for Tenerife in particular, that's because my parents are just giving me the money that would have gone on me going with them instead. Paris however we are saving for.
And indeed, it does hit you. Especially on an ALR when you're used to masses of freedom!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
NET bash- 15/10/16
Having not stretched my legs down the ECML in a month or so, I decided to snare some cheap tickets to a destination down south. Having been meant to go out on Friday night, I had some extra cash in hand (as said meeting was cancelled) so extended my trip to Nottingham. However, I noted that a Sheffield to Fiskerton ticket was the same price with numerous advantages I won’t list but if anyone wants to know them then do PM me

Anyways, it was a very early start on the 0603 to Liverpool as per usual with my cheap trips, and it was the turn of dud
185122 for the run today. I ended up falling asleep for the run, waking up on the approaches to York, jumping off and swapping onto dud
220011 behind for the run through to Sheffield, which was remarkably busy after Doncaster. I was rather irritated to see two blokes refuse to give a very shy lad his reserved seat though, and was tempted to say something but was far too tired myself to say much.
Dud
222005 was next for a filler run to Chesterfield, before the first successful move of the day was done on winner
43076 leading dud
43089 for the hop to Alfreton. I had to explain to the guard on this train where exactly Fiskerton actually was

In the hope of another winner, I bailed there for the Norwich, which was annoyingly formed of dud
158865. Ah well, into Nottingham at 0925 where the Tram action began. After buying my ticket, winner
224 was first up to shack 1, Queen’s Medical Centre. I had actually meant to bail at NG2 but didn’t realise that the network is a wholly request stop one so we sailed past it

Quick swap here then saw me take one of the older style trams, winner
207, to shack 2, Gregory Street.
Winner
237 was then taken to shack 3, Cator Lane, and as you can tell, I had absolutely no method for bashing. I was just hopping around

Winner
225 was then soon appearing to take me back one stop to shack 4, High Road – Central College, where I noted that we had two trams running in quick succession, very useful indeed.
Winner
217 was taken to shack 5, Bramcote Lane, where indeed, an empty winner
204 was chasing up the rear. It was then taken through to the terminus, shack 6, Toton Lane, where I swapped back onto fresh dud
217. This was taken the one stop to shack 7, Inham Road, where I decided to have a stroll through the drizzle to shack 8, Eskdale Drive. Of course, next up was dud
204 which had since repositioned itself and was now running to the 7 minute headway. It was taken to shack 9, Middle Street. Winner
228 then proceeded to trundle me along to shack 10, Chilwell Road, where there was a 5 minute fester for winner
233 to shack 11, Beeston Centre. It was then time for a quick change of scenery and some variety as I joined a very tuneful ’51 reg Optare Solo for the hop to Beeston Station, where I made a very lucky move onto a late running dud
222010 to Nottingham, where it was time to get on with the Clifton Branch.
Winner
213 was first up to shack 12, Ruddington Lane, where I noted that this line appeared to be somewhat of the poor relation. At least, the clientele appeared to suggest that! Winner
231 then took me back to shack 13, Compton Acres, which looked even shadier than Ruddington Lane

A tram I didn’t record for some reason then took me up to shack 14, Rivergreen, where I dived across onto winner
220 for the run back to shack 15, Southchurch Drive North. The winners then kept coming with winner
236 trundling me along to shack 16, Summerwood Lane, where I dived onto winner
216, quite literally. Indeed, the hustle alarm was so quiet that I ended up jamming the door for a second as it proceeded to suddenly close on me! Same very quick change was made as I arrived at shack 17, Clifton Centre, onto winner
212 for the run to the end of the line, shack 18, Clifton South.
On changing ends, I took it back to shack 19, Holy Trinity, for a linear move while I picked up a pasty from a nearby shop. It wasn’t the best, but was the best I could get with my £1 in change

Winner
203 was then duly taken back to Nottingham Station. This was because my next line of attack was the old side of the network, and to get me a headstart, I took winner
158799 to shack 20, Bulwell (Mainline) where I could cross over to shack 21, Bulwell (NET) and take winner
222 to shack 22, Moor Bridge. I encountered the path of some RPIs here, and having ended up taking winner
221 back down the line to shack 23, Bulwell Forest, I reassured them that I was merely interested in the network rather than following them

They seemed rather interested in what I was doing too, and were actually really nice! They joined me for a subsequent third time as I jumped on dud
225 to shack 24, Butlers Hill, and awaited its return to take me to shack 25, Highbury Vale A/Hucknall Branch. I guess that me walking over to Highbury Vale B/Phoenix Park Branch counts as shack number 26 too!
Winner
227 was in charge for the winding short route to shack 27, Phoenix Park. I was pleased to also note that instead of the same tram going straight back, another went straight back out, leaving a 7 minute turnaround for the fresh inbound. As a result, a quick hop was made over to winner
209 for the single intermediate station on the branch, shack 28, Cinderhill. I was also the only passenger here, so it clearly wasn’t the best used. Dud
227 soon however followed back in and it was time for some linear moves I won’t bore you with except in list form
227 Cinderhill-
David Lane
204 David Lane-
Basford
231 Basford-
Radford Road (also a walking move to
Beaconsfield Street)
229 Radford Road-
Hyson Green Market
210 Hyson Green Market-
The Forest
219 The Forest-
Noel Street
212 Noel Street-
Shipstone Street
215 Shipstone Street-
Wilkinson Street
223 Wilkinson Street-
High School
216 High School-
Nottingham Trent University
228 Nottingham Trent University-
Royal Centre
236 Royal Centre-
Old Market Square
214 Old Market Square-
Lace Market
Linear moves done, it was time to mop up the shacks I had left on the Clifton South branch. Dud
212 was first, and taken to shack 43, Meadows Embankment, for a quick swap onto dud
210 back to shack 44, Queens Walk. Judging the timings of these shacks was a dark art in itself that I’d perfected, on doing a linear move to Wilford Village, shack 45, on winner
203, followed by one on winner
235 to shack 46, Wilford Lane. This completed the line and meant that I’d have to be just as cunning with the Toton Line if I were to finish in time for my intended random move out onto the Castle Line (remember my ticket is to Fiskerton!) and with dud
216 taking me back to Nottingham Station, all looked to be looking up. Winner
234 was up next, but on getting close to NG2, there was an obvious missed connection and the boards suggested another at Meadows Way West. No problem, I’d do the uni shacks first. Except, I was clearly going to miss the connection at the second of those, so I bailed at shack 47, University of Nottingham, for a linear move on dud
221 to shack 48, University Boulevard. I thought that I’d easily pull off the connection this time, but instead I missed it by seconds.
There was no way I’d make the last two shacks in time now, so I resigned myself to dud
215 back to Nottingham station. Still, clearing all but two shacks on the whole system at once wasn’t a bad feat! I had a few minutes to grab food before running for winner
156497 working the 1649 to Newark Castle. This was taken to Fiskerton, and I had a +35 for it to come back. I could walk to Rolleston, score it, and come back, simple. Except not so, as the crossing was having works done, and when I reached within breathing distance of Rolleston, I was greeted with a locked gate that was unmanned because the person in charge of manning it was out of view! I resigned myself to going back to Fiskerton instead, and just getting the 1 shack on the line. Rolleston could wait! Dud
156497 turned up again, and I bailed at shack 49, Bleasby, one that I’d had to miss last time due to level crossing issues too! It was however a pleasant 15 minute wait until winner
156404 rolled in behind to take me back to a dark Nottingham.
On sighting a winning 43073 on the back of the St Pancras HST, I frantically checked RTT to see if going via East Midlands Parkway was viable. It was, but it was a +4 and one that I absolutely HAD to make, so I wimped out. Awful idea! I’d have scored my last 222/1 on the Sheffield connection if I’d stuck to this. The compromise however was winner
170397 to Derby, so I wasn’t wholly deprived of a score! My connection was already waiting in the form of dud
220034 which I was booked on from Sheffield. It was a busy service full of drinkers, and we had the BTP called at Sheffield due to a fight in Coach F, which delayed us by 13 minutes. However, on arrival at York, it was clear that the fun was just beginning as I mingled with crying tipsy middle aged women awaiting the 2109 to Newcastle

A TPE staff member noticed I was actually sober and made friendly conversation, remarking that I was in for a fun journey aboard dud
185126 and oh boy was I! Lots of yelling, laughing, screaming, dancing, high fiving and falling over went on in Coach A as I half laughed and half wanted to just fall asleep
It was however, a successful day!