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Roversfan's adventures
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roversfan2001
Established Member
I did try, my phone charger must have had something wrong with it, in the 90 minutes I was on the 390 to Liverpool, it charged my phone from 0% to 9%; needless to say that I have since got a new charger [emoji38]I'm surprised you didn't make use of the plug sockets on the Voyagers or 390s
221s aren't actually *that* bad in first class221s again? If I didn't know better I'd say you loved the class
Sounds like a good little trip though, except the return journey.
Sent from my HTC Desire 530 using Tapatalk
roversfan2001
Established Member
Well then, it's been a while, sorry about that. 
23rd December 2016
It's finally here! After a tough few weeks in school with my mock exams [now finished my actual exams]; I was relieved that the Christmas break was finally upon me, and with it came my first trip for almost 4 weeks. And take a guess where I was going based on my previous 3 trips...the West Midlands (yes I know :roll
! In my defence, I did try to organise a detour via London to try to mix it up a bit - but a fairly significant number of factors contrived to make sure that wasn't the case! I still had the necessary paperwork (bar tickets) to do this detour, just in case I decided to attempt it [which I didnt, obviously)].
Anyway, I feel like I'm rambling on here. I had my alarms set at varying times from 4.45 to 5.30, leaving me time to catch the 0610 to Manchester Victoria. As it happened, I slept through all of the alarms, but luckily my dad woke me up at just after half 5, leaving me just enough time to wash and dress myself before leaving the house at just before 6. I arrived at the station less than 5 minutes later and waited on Platform 4. I chose to catch the 0610 as opposed to the 0655 for 2 reasons, firstly because it gave me 91 minutes to cross Manchester, leaving me plenty of time, and because the 0655 was one of the Blackburn via Manchester services, so was highly likely to be a Pacer. This second point was moot however, as at 0611 (1 minute late) 142012+142045 rolled into the station. All 4 carriages were very sparsely populated (unsurprising for 6am over the Christmas period!) so I took a seat in the rearmost carriage.
The train filled up considerably at Bolton, but not enough that I had to sit next to anyone, although as quite a few people were treating the 3+2 seating as 2+2 the seat next to me would end up being taken at Salford Crescent. I had been pre-warned that the trains were likely to be rather busy today as people left work and went away for Christmas, but as of 9pm the night before the Advances for my train from Manchester were in the 2nd lowest tier in Standard and the lowest in First, so barring copious amounts of people joining the train on walk-ups, I would have a fairly quiet journey!
The journey to Victoria was over fairly quickly (me usually writing my reports while I'm travelling must help to pass the time!) and we arrived 3 minutes early at 0701. In one of the bay platforms at Vic I noticed a 158 in an unusual livery - it was none other than 158752! It's an interesting livery, it's far better than the previous Northern one but its hardly the best, and was already grubby at the bottom.
I went to the Greggs in the station and bought a Chicken Mayo baguette as I hadn't eaten yet today, then I went down to the Metrolink platforms and bought a 60p single to Piccadilly. Before long, a rammed 3039 took me the short trip across the city, arriving at around 0735. As it was an hour till the Pendo to Euston (that I would alight at Nuneaton) I decided to go into the First Class lounge.
The lounge is quite small, but has all the features necessary, and I helped myself to a croissant, porridge and a hot chocolate as what ended up as the 2nd course of a 3 course breakfast! I spent a good 40 minutes in the lounge, while a news piece on rail closures was on the TV.
I made my way to 390005 in platform 5 at 0820 and took a seat at my favourite Pendo First Class seat, K18. As predicted, the train was very sparsely filled, walking through first class there were 2 or 3 other people, hopefully it wouldn't start filling up at any of the 3 stops before Nuneaton. The drink run was done before Stockport and my order was taken (I elected to go for the Great British Breakfast). Breakfast was served at Stoke along with another drink run. The breakfast was really nice but after eating the baguette at Victoria then porridge/croissants at Piccadilly I was stuffed and couldn't finish it all.
We sped down the Trent Valley and arrived at Nuneaton on time at 0944. A quick look at the departures board showed the 1010 to Birmingham New Street would depart from platform 6 so I went across to the 6/7 separate island platform and sat in the waiting room for 20 minutes before 2 coach 170115 arrived on time to take me the half an hour to Brum. As expected for a 2 coach XC it was fairly full, in stark comparison to the Pendo I was on that I overheard the crew say there was 7 people in first class (or on the whole train, I didn't catch all the conversation). Anyway, I actually managed to get a table seat in coach A and sat down for the journey to the second city. I had never been on a class 170 before and I was surprised at how comfy it was, maybe the 158 has a contender for best DMU? Before long we arrived at New Street and I went into the Bullring for some Christmas shopping. This shopping was done surprisingly quickly and I was left with a spare 6 hours to roam the rails of the West Midlands! I bought my nNetwork Daytripper with the Leamington Spa add-on at Moor Street and boarded the 1155 service to London Marylebone formed of 168003 and took this the short trip to Solihull. I was surprised at the fact there was plug sockets at every table and free Wi-Fi for everyone, thanks Chiltern!
Before long we were at Solihull and it was time to wait 13 minutes for the 1217 LM service to Kidderminster, which I would alight at Snow Hill. 172339 arrived on time and I sat in a bay of 4 for the short journey back to Brum. Arrival into Snow Hill was at 1233, leaving 4 minutes to catch the 1237 back through the tunnel to Moor Street. 172333 was in the platform as I came down the stairs so I jogged and got through the doors easily before they closed. The 2 minute trip through the tunnel was fairly nondescript and I went over the footbridge and headed to platform 3 for the loco that awaited me...
This was the first journey I'd ever done in loco-hauled stock and I was looking forward to it. I boarded 15 minutes before departure meaning I had roughly 45 minutes before I had to alight at Leamington Spa. I sat in the middle of the rear coach (closest to the pushing 68014). The coach looked very smart and modern; the only downside is that the seats were rather hard.
The Wi-Fi and plug sockets also gave me a chance to try to plan my moves for the rest of the afternoon after I returned to Birmingham from Leam. This plan was simply to return on the next train to Moor Street then do BHM-WVH-COV-BHM on Virgin to pass time and allow me to use WiFi again. This plan was however destroyed when I decided it was a good idea to step off the train to change carriages instead of walking through the train... Cue the doors closing as I'm on the platform. This meant that I decided to go for the 1332 to Stratford upon Avon instead, formed of 165028 which I would alight at Stratford Parkway to catch the LM back to Moor Street once more.
Stratford Parkway was reached on time at 1402 and I crossed the line using the footbridge and waited for the 1407 to Stourbridge Junction, formed of 172342. The 172 reached its top speed (don't hold me to that, but it was very fast) on its non-stop Stratford Parkway to Dorridge run. It was a long slog to Moor Street, arriving there at 1448. From here I was unsure what to do; I decided I would carry on shopping and see what other gifts I could find.
The Bullring was far busier now than it was at 11am, that's for sure. I couldn't find any more suitable gifts so went to New Street. As it was 1530 and my planned train was at 1722, I had some time to kill. I decided to buy a £2.20 1st class single to Birmingham International, thereby granting me access to the lounge. I took this as an opportunity to sort out what trains I'd be getting home, as I decided neither the 1709 nor the 1722 to Nuneaton would be a pleasurable experience.
I eventually settled for the 1650 Virgin (formed of 390011) as far as Birmingham International, then a CrossCountry to Coventry before finally getting the Cov-Nun shuttle, scheduled to be arriving in Nuneaton 8 minutes before my Virgin Super Voyager up to Crewe. When I got to BHI I decided to change my plan slightly by getting 350236 to Coventry instead of a Voyager (see Quinn, I dont love them!). The Desiro got to Cov slightly late, but still in time to catch the 1742 to Nuneaton, which would undoubtedly be formed of a 153. The train departed roughly 3 minutes late, which while irritating, wouldnt jeopardise my 8 minute connection at Nuneaton onto the Virgin.
This connection was made fairly concrete when I found out, from a quick RTT check, that the Super Voyager had been caught up in some chaos around Milton Keynes, meaning it didnt arrive at Nuneaton until 1829, 17 minutes behind schedule. As I was back in First Class again (might as well treat myself while Im still on child rate); I was treated to what seemed like an endless supply of food. I received a turkey sandwich, a bag of crisps, a can of Pepsi, some chocolate, some banana cake and some Christmas cake! All of this went down like a treat as I had not had any decent food since the Pendo down to Nuneaton, a full 9 hours ago. The one stop hop to Crewe went fairly smoothly, and we were making up some time after the earlier delay.
Luckily for me, the delays down south didnt just affect the Holyhead train I was on, my connecting Pendo to Lime Street had also been caught up in it, so I didnt miss the connection at Crewe. Before long the Pendo rolled into platform 6 to take me to Liverpool. Although technically I wasn't entitled to any refreshments as my journey on this train was fairly short, the First Class host gave me a cake and a bottle of water, which went down quite nicely. We arrived at Lime Street roughly 20 minutes down; meaning I missed the (unofficial, mind) connection onto the Preston semi-fast service. To avoid a long, long wait in Liverpool I decided to take the stopper to Wigan to cut my time spent loitering on station platforms.
It seemed like a long time before the Class 319 finally arrived at Wigan North Western, with about 25 minute until my final train of the day back home to Leyland. Another Class 319 arrived to take me on the short, fast run up the WCML to Leyland, arriving on time at 9.19pm. After leaving the house just after 6 it was good to be home over 15 hours later after a long and tiring day.
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The last bit of this report was written over 6 months after the first bit so this may not be anywhere near as good as previous ones, but I assure you all any future ones will have far more consistent writing styles and detail.
23rd December 2016
It's finally here! After a tough few weeks in school with my mock exams [now finished my actual exams]; I was relieved that the Christmas break was finally upon me, and with it came my first trip for almost 4 weeks. And take a guess where I was going based on my previous 3 trips...the West Midlands (yes I know :roll
! In my defence, I did try to organise a detour via London to try to mix it up a bit - but a fairly significant number of factors contrived to make sure that wasn't the case! I still had the necessary paperwork (bar tickets) to do this detour, just in case I decided to attempt it [which I didnt, obviously)].Anyway, I feel like I'm rambling on here. I had my alarms set at varying times from 4.45 to 5.30, leaving me time to catch the 0610 to Manchester Victoria. As it happened, I slept through all of the alarms, but luckily my dad woke me up at just after half 5, leaving me just enough time to wash and dress myself before leaving the house at just before 6. I arrived at the station less than 5 minutes later and waited on Platform 4. I chose to catch the 0610 as opposed to the 0655 for 2 reasons, firstly because it gave me 91 minutes to cross Manchester, leaving me plenty of time, and because the 0655 was one of the Blackburn via Manchester services, so was highly likely to be a Pacer. This second point was moot however, as at 0611 (1 minute late) 142012+142045 rolled into the station. All 4 carriages were very sparsely populated (unsurprising for 6am over the Christmas period!) so I took a seat in the rearmost carriage.
The train filled up considerably at Bolton, but not enough that I had to sit next to anyone, although as quite a few people were treating the 3+2 seating as 2+2 the seat next to me would end up being taken at Salford Crescent. I had been pre-warned that the trains were likely to be rather busy today as people left work and went away for Christmas, but as of 9pm the night before the Advances for my train from Manchester were in the 2nd lowest tier in Standard and the lowest in First, so barring copious amounts of people joining the train on walk-ups, I would have a fairly quiet journey!
The journey to Victoria was over fairly quickly (me usually writing my reports while I'm travelling must help to pass the time!) and we arrived 3 minutes early at 0701. In one of the bay platforms at Vic I noticed a 158 in an unusual livery - it was none other than 158752! It's an interesting livery, it's far better than the previous Northern one but its hardly the best, and was already grubby at the bottom.
I went to the Greggs in the station and bought a Chicken Mayo baguette as I hadn't eaten yet today, then I went down to the Metrolink platforms and bought a 60p single to Piccadilly. Before long, a rammed 3039 took me the short trip across the city, arriving at around 0735. As it was an hour till the Pendo to Euston (that I would alight at Nuneaton) I decided to go into the First Class lounge.
The lounge is quite small, but has all the features necessary, and I helped myself to a croissant, porridge and a hot chocolate as what ended up as the 2nd course of a 3 course breakfast! I spent a good 40 minutes in the lounge, while a news piece on rail closures was on the TV.
I made my way to 390005 in platform 5 at 0820 and took a seat at my favourite Pendo First Class seat, K18. As predicted, the train was very sparsely filled, walking through first class there were 2 or 3 other people, hopefully it wouldn't start filling up at any of the 3 stops before Nuneaton. The drink run was done before Stockport and my order was taken (I elected to go for the Great British Breakfast). Breakfast was served at Stoke along with another drink run. The breakfast was really nice but after eating the baguette at Victoria then porridge/croissants at Piccadilly I was stuffed and couldn't finish it all.
We sped down the Trent Valley and arrived at Nuneaton on time at 0944. A quick look at the departures board showed the 1010 to Birmingham New Street would depart from platform 6 so I went across to the 6/7 separate island platform and sat in the waiting room for 20 minutes before 2 coach 170115 arrived on time to take me the half an hour to Brum. As expected for a 2 coach XC it was fairly full, in stark comparison to the Pendo I was on that I overheard the crew say there was 7 people in first class (or on the whole train, I didn't catch all the conversation). Anyway, I actually managed to get a table seat in coach A and sat down for the journey to the second city. I had never been on a class 170 before and I was surprised at how comfy it was, maybe the 158 has a contender for best DMU? Before long we arrived at New Street and I went into the Bullring for some Christmas shopping. This shopping was done surprisingly quickly and I was left with a spare 6 hours to roam the rails of the West Midlands! I bought my nNetwork Daytripper with the Leamington Spa add-on at Moor Street and boarded the 1155 service to London Marylebone formed of 168003 and took this the short trip to Solihull. I was surprised at the fact there was plug sockets at every table and free Wi-Fi for everyone, thanks Chiltern!
Before long we were at Solihull and it was time to wait 13 minutes for the 1217 LM service to Kidderminster, which I would alight at Snow Hill. 172339 arrived on time and I sat in a bay of 4 for the short journey back to Brum. Arrival into Snow Hill was at 1233, leaving 4 minutes to catch the 1237 back through the tunnel to Moor Street. 172333 was in the platform as I came down the stairs so I jogged and got through the doors easily before they closed. The 2 minute trip through the tunnel was fairly nondescript and I went over the footbridge and headed to platform 3 for the loco that awaited me...
This was the first journey I'd ever done in loco-hauled stock and I was looking forward to it. I boarded 15 minutes before departure meaning I had roughly 45 minutes before I had to alight at Leamington Spa. I sat in the middle of the rear coach (closest to the pushing 68014). The coach looked very smart and modern; the only downside is that the seats were rather hard.
The Wi-Fi and plug sockets also gave me a chance to try to plan my moves for the rest of the afternoon after I returned to Birmingham from Leam. This plan was simply to return on the next train to Moor Street then do BHM-WVH-COV-BHM on Virgin to pass time and allow me to use WiFi again. This plan was however destroyed when I decided it was a good idea to step off the train to change carriages instead of walking through the train... Cue the doors closing as I'm on the platform. This meant that I decided to go for the 1332 to Stratford upon Avon instead, formed of 165028 which I would alight at Stratford Parkway to catch the LM back to Moor Street once more.
Stratford Parkway was reached on time at 1402 and I crossed the line using the footbridge and waited for the 1407 to Stourbridge Junction, formed of 172342. The 172 reached its top speed (don't hold me to that, but it was very fast) on its non-stop Stratford Parkway to Dorridge run. It was a long slog to Moor Street, arriving there at 1448. From here I was unsure what to do; I decided I would carry on shopping and see what other gifts I could find.
The Bullring was far busier now than it was at 11am, that's for sure. I couldn't find any more suitable gifts so went to New Street. As it was 1530 and my planned train was at 1722, I had some time to kill. I decided to buy a £2.20 1st class single to Birmingham International, thereby granting me access to the lounge. I took this as an opportunity to sort out what trains I'd be getting home, as I decided neither the 1709 nor the 1722 to Nuneaton would be a pleasurable experience.
I eventually settled for the 1650 Virgin (formed of 390011) as far as Birmingham International, then a CrossCountry to Coventry before finally getting the Cov-Nun shuttle, scheduled to be arriving in Nuneaton 8 minutes before my Virgin Super Voyager up to Crewe. When I got to BHI I decided to change my plan slightly by getting 350236 to Coventry instead of a Voyager (see Quinn, I dont love them!
). The Desiro got to Cov slightly late, but still in time to catch the 1742 to Nuneaton, which would undoubtedly be formed of a 153. The train departed roughly 3 minutes late, which while irritating, wouldnt jeopardise my 8 minute connection at Nuneaton onto the Virgin.This connection was made fairly concrete when I found out, from a quick RTT check, that the Super Voyager had been caught up in some chaos around Milton Keynes, meaning it didnt arrive at Nuneaton until 1829, 17 minutes behind schedule. As I was back in First Class again (might as well treat myself while Im still on child rate); I was treated to what seemed like an endless supply of food. I received a turkey sandwich, a bag of crisps, a can of Pepsi, some chocolate, some banana cake and some Christmas cake! All of this went down like a treat as I had not had any decent food since the Pendo down to Nuneaton, a full 9 hours ago. The one stop hop to Crewe went fairly smoothly, and we were making up some time after the earlier delay.
Luckily for me, the delays down south didnt just affect the Holyhead train I was on, my connecting Pendo to Lime Street had also been caught up in it, so I didnt miss the connection at Crewe. Before long the Pendo rolled into platform 6 to take me to Liverpool. Although technically I wasn't entitled to any refreshments as my journey on this train was fairly short, the First Class host gave me a cake and a bottle of water, which went down quite nicely. We arrived at Lime Street roughly 20 minutes down; meaning I missed the (unofficial, mind) connection onto the Preston semi-fast service. To avoid a long, long wait in Liverpool I decided to take the stopper to Wigan to cut my time spent loitering on station platforms.
It seemed like a long time before the Class 319 finally arrived at Wigan North Western, with about 25 minute until my final train of the day back home to Leyland. Another Class 319 arrived to take me on the short, fast run up the WCML to Leyland, arriving on time at 9.19pm. After leaving the house just after 6 it was good to be home over 15 hours later after a long and tiring day.
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The last bit of this report was written over 6 months after the first bit so this may not be anywhere near as good as previous ones, but I assure you all any future ones will have far more consistent writing styles and detail.
A thoroughly enjoyable report. I certainly wouldn't have gone to Greggs if I knew I'd have brekky on the train and a 1st class lounge beforehand (although I have done Wetherspoon before that, but that's a different matter altogether ). VT 1st class on a weekday morning is very good, as is their 1st class lounge offering.
I dislike 170s although they certainly aren't the worst DMU. 158s are better (mainly due to the door positioning) but, excluding all 1st generation DMUs, the 175 is the best of the bunch.
Chiltern silver set seats hard?! They're the best on the network. You also managed to get the best 68 on the network too
Bad luck with the doors at Leam too. What's so hard about walking through?
I see that you say the 221 had been caught in some chaos at MK. Don't you really mean it caused some chaos at MK when loads of commuters saw it and were appalled so started beating it with sticks?
). VT 1st class on a weekday morning is very good, as is their 1st class lounge offering.I dislike 170s although they certainly aren't the worst DMU. 158s are better (mainly due to the door positioning) but, excluding all 1st generation DMUs, the 175 is the best of the bunch.
Chiltern silver set seats hard?! They're the best on the network. You also managed to get the best 68 on the network too
Bad luck with the doors at Leam too. What's so hard about walking through?
I see that you say the 221 had been caught in some chaos at MK. Don't you really mean it caused some chaos at MK when loads of commuters saw it and were appalled so started beating it with sticks?
roversfan2001
Established Member
The train was full and standing so it would have been quicker moving to another carriage via the platform than to battle through the train to look for a seat somewhere. Well that's until the close the doors while I'm still on the platform...
:-x
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Sounds like a nice way to spend a day before Christmas!
roversfan2001
Established Member
Hot Cakes - Saturday 1st July 2017
Well, you know what they say about buses, you wait for ages then two come along at once? Yep, that's also the same with my trip reports apparently!
Until about 6pm on Thursday night I had no intention of going on a trip this weekend, with the football season starting shortly I needed to make sure I had enough money to go to a game almost every weekend. However, I saw VTEC were running their fairly regular Hot Cakes sale, with £5 Advances available from Leeds to London Kings Cross; this was an offer too good to pass up so after checking how I could get over the Pennines I booked Standard Advances on the 1345 Leeds to Kings Cross and the 1633 Kings Cross back up to Leeds. This didn't give me very long at all in the capital (28 minutes to get exact), however I couldn't trust myself to be awake on time to catch an earlier train to give me more time in London.
This meant I had to be on the 1119 from Leyland at the latest, quite a late get up by my standards. This was easily achieved, and after buying my ticket to Leeds (well the destination printed wasn't Leeds, but I'd be stopping short there) I got on 319372 as the doors were already open on platform 1. The journey to Preston was quick and we rolled into platform 2 slightly early. As it was a same platform connection onto the York train I just waited on the island platform. Now, Preston being Preston, a 15 year old male can't go 5 minutes without being asked "you got a fag I could buy off you mate?" by someone wearing an all grey tracksuit... I said I didn't obviously and he walked off unhappy that he can't get his nicotine fix just yet.
158844 came in before long and was fairly well filled, however due to the amount of people leaving at Preston I managed to get a front-facing table seat for the slow journey across the Pennines to the inferior Northern county. I whacked on my Spotify playlist and relaxed on the comfortable seat of the 158. As I had covered this line as far as Halifax as recently as the 13th May it was quite a dull journey, with intermittent 3G signal to boot. We finally got to Leeds a few minutes late leaving me 20 minutes to pick up my tickets and try to obtain a catering voucher to use on the Virgin service as I hadn't eaten since I woke up. The tickets were obtained easily, however they printed really, really badly! Nothing important on the ticket had been obscured luckily so it didn't really matter. I tweeted VTEC to ask about the availability of the catering voucher and they said the Travel Centre should sort me out, and being a major station that VTEC serve frequently, I was expecting at least one member of Virgin staff there, at least one. But no. It was a Northern Travel Centre, who had no idea what I was on about, unsurprisingly. I'd have to try in my half hour at Kings Cross then.
The 1345 was booked to be a 91+Mk4+DVT set, which I had never travelled on so it would be nice to try out. However when the platform was announced (8) it was a HST. Now a part of me was happy it was a HST (43317 leading 43238 to be precise) as they're being ditched byVirgin Stagecoach the DfT so it'd be nice to get more mileage on them, another part of me was unhappy that I still wouldn't get to be on a Mk4 set. I haven't travelled on this branch of the ECML since January so it was nice to see the scenery in the height of summer with the sun shining.
Arrival at Doncaster was 3 minutes early for some reason, meaning we sat in the platform for 7 whole minutes! I would have liked to take a picture during this time however the platform we were in had a wall on one side and an island platform with buildings on the other so there wasn't much to see. Anyway, departure was prompt and I was still alone on the table of 4 in coach F; the other seats were unreserved so were likely to remain empty throughout, allowing me to stretch my legs.
It didn't feel like long before we arrived at Newark North Gate (or is it Northgate? I've seen both used), a fairly nondescript station. The run down the ECML was obviously fast, but I was surprised at just how smooth the ride was, considering how old HSTs are. Peterborough was reached at roughly 1515 and a few more passengers boarded, but I still had the table to myself. After Peterborough we had a fast, non-stop run to Kings Cross and a ticket check occurred while passing through Stevenage. The Train Manager looked at my ticket for quite some time before stamping it and moving on - maybe the ticket is more confusing than I thought! We slowed down quite early and crawled into Kings Cross (allowing me to snap a picture of the Emirates Stadium to send to my Tottenham supporting friend), and therefore arrived a few seconds late.
I took this 25 or so minute break to try and buy the VTEC catering voucher - which was done no questions asked in the ticket office; if only Leeds could have done the same :roll: The platform for the 1633 to Leeds had been announced while I was in the ticket office so all I needed to do was check the wall of information screens and find out that the train was on platform 2. I saw that the reservations for coach B were in coach F, which was slightly concerning as I was meant to be in coach F! I found my seat and saw that the two seats opposite me were from coach B and for Kings Cross to Leeds, great. Luckily the owners of the reservations didn't decide to move to coach F as that meant I had the table to myself - again.
91121 was the loco leading us, with 82215 being the DVT. The non-stop run back to Peterborough was as fast as the way down until Huntingdon, where we slowed to a crawl for a good 3 or 4 minutes. The Train Manager informed us that this was due to engineers inspecting a possible track defect. This caused the arrival into Peterborough to be 2 minutes late, a delay which was never fully recovered, for various reasons. The run to Leeds, stopping at Grantham and Doncaster is quite dull and not much more can be said after covering the route earlier on in the report.
Arrival into Leeds was 2 minutes behind schedule at 1849, leaving me just under 20 minutes til the Northern 'semi-fast' to Preston. I put the 'semi-fast' in inverted commas as I'm not sure how anyone could describe a 62 mile journey that's timetabled to take approximately 100 minutes as fast by any definition. Anyway, after a trip to the toilet I was waiting on platform 11C for the 3 coach 158756 to take me back to Lancashire. Departure was punctual and before long the weather took a turn for the worse - it had gone from clear skies to a sea of dark grey clouds in barely 2 hours! As I couldn't see the platform information boards from where I was sat I checked RTT and was bitterly disappointed to see that we were 5 minutes late departing Halifax, putting my 2 minute connection at Preston in severe jeopardy.
The noise from the engines suggested the driver was trying his hardest to recover some time in the blistering rain, however we kept the 4-6 minute delay throughout the run along the East Lancashire Line; and I was preparing for a fester of over 45 minutes at Preston on a Saturday night - fun! :roll: However it was 2035 and according to RTT the 2021 from Blackpool North (my connection at Preston) still hadn't left yet - meaning my connection was back on!
I started to get worried again as we were stationary for a rather long amount of time on the Down Slow just before the bridge over the Ribble, however we were back moving again and finally got to Preston at 2055 - 8 minutes late. I looked at the departure board and found out that precisely 0 services on page 1 were running on time, with 1 being cancelled! This included the 2049 to Manchester Victoria, which now displayed 2104 as the expected departure. A rare 6 car formation of 142028+150117+150210 (with 210 locked out of use) arrived on platform 2, finally departing at 2108 with arrival at Leyland at 2115. It was no longer raining meaning I didn't get wet on the short walk home, getting back not long after 20 past 9.
Now for the stats:
Mileage: 504mi63ch (bringing me up to 3817mi0ch for 2017 so far)
Cost: £18.15 (+£4 meal voucher)
£/mile: £0.04 (to the nearest penny)
I don't think that £/mile rate is my personal best in terms of value however it probably comes pretty close - especially when you consider that it was a short notice trip!
Well, you know what they say about buses, you wait for ages then two come along at once? Yep, that's also the same with my trip reports apparently!
Until about 6pm on Thursday night I had no intention of going on a trip this weekend, with the football season starting shortly I needed to make sure I had enough money to go to a game almost every weekend. However, I saw VTEC were running their fairly regular Hot Cakes sale, with £5 Advances available from Leeds to London Kings Cross; this was an offer too good to pass up so after checking how I could get over the Pennines I booked Standard Advances on the 1345 Leeds to Kings Cross and the 1633 Kings Cross back up to Leeds. This didn't give me very long at all in the capital (28 minutes to get exact), however I couldn't trust myself to be awake on time to catch an earlier train to give me more time in London.
This meant I had to be on the 1119 from Leyland at the latest, quite a late get up by my standards. This was easily achieved, and after buying my ticket to Leeds (well the destination printed wasn't Leeds, but I'd be stopping short there
) I got on 319372 as the doors were already open on platform 1. The journey to Preston was quick and we rolled into platform 2 slightly early. As it was a same platform connection onto the York train I just waited on the island platform. Now, Preston being Preston, a 15 year old male can't go 5 minutes without being asked "you got a fag I could buy off you mate?" by someone wearing an all grey tracksuit... I said I didn't obviously and he walked off unhappy that he can't get his nicotine fix just yet. 158844 came in before long and was fairly well filled, however due to the amount of people leaving at Preston I managed to get a front-facing table seat for the slow journey across the Pennines to the inferior Northern county. I whacked on my Spotify playlist and relaxed on the comfortable seat of the 158. As I had covered this line as far as Halifax as recently as the 13th May it was quite a dull journey, with intermittent 3G signal to boot. We finally got to Leeds a few minutes late leaving me 20 minutes to pick up my tickets and try to obtain a catering voucher to use on the Virgin service as I hadn't eaten since I woke up. The tickets were obtained easily, however they printed really, really badly! Nothing important on the ticket had been obscured luckily so it didn't really matter. I tweeted VTEC to ask about the availability of the catering voucher and they said the Travel Centre should sort me out, and being a major station that VTEC serve frequently, I was expecting at least one member of Virgin staff there, at least one. But no. It was a Northern Travel Centre, who had no idea what I was on about, unsurprisingly. I'd have to try in my half hour at Kings Cross then.
The 1345 was booked to be a 91+Mk4+DVT set, which I had never travelled on so it would be nice to try out. However when the platform was announced (8) it was a HST. Now a part of me was happy it was a HST (43317 leading 43238 to be precise) as they're being ditched by
Arrival at Doncaster was 3 minutes early for some reason, meaning we sat in the platform for 7 whole minutes! I would have liked to take a picture during this time however the platform we were in had a wall on one side and an island platform with buildings on the other so there wasn't much to see. Anyway, departure was prompt and I was still alone on the table of 4 in coach F; the other seats were unreserved so were likely to remain empty throughout, allowing me to stretch my legs.
It didn't feel like long before we arrived at Newark North Gate (or is it Northgate? I've seen both used), a fairly nondescript station. The run down the ECML was obviously fast, but I was surprised at just how smooth the ride was, considering how old HSTs are. Peterborough was reached at roughly 1515 and a few more passengers boarded, but I still had the table to myself. After Peterborough we had a fast, non-stop run to Kings Cross and a ticket check occurred while passing through Stevenage. The Train Manager looked at my ticket for quite some time before stamping it and moving on - maybe the ticket is more confusing than I thought! We slowed down quite early and crawled into Kings Cross (allowing me to snap a picture of the Emirates Stadium to send to my Tottenham supporting friend
), and therefore arrived a few seconds late. I took this 25 or so minute break to try and buy the VTEC catering voucher - which was done no questions asked in the ticket office; if only Leeds could have done the same :roll: The platform for the 1633 to Leeds had been announced while I was in the ticket office so all I needed to do was check the wall of information screens and find out that the train was on platform 2. I saw that the reservations for coach B were in coach F, which was slightly concerning as I was meant to be in coach F! I found my seat and saw that the two seats opposite me were from coach B and for Kings Cross to Leeds, great. Luckily the owners of the reservations didn't decide to move to coach F as that meant I had the table to myself - again.
91121 was the loco leading us, with 82215 being the DVT. The non-stop run back to Peterborough was as fast as the way down until Huntingdon, where we slowed to a crawl for a good 3 or 4 minutes. The Train Manager informed us that this was due to engineers inspecting a possible track defect. This caused the arrival into Peterborough to be 2 minutes late, a delay which was never fully recovered, for various reasons. The run to Leeds, stopping at Grantham and Doncaster is quite dull and not much more can be said after covering the route earlier on in the report.
Arrival into Leeds was 2 minutes behind schedule at 1849, leaving me just under 20 minutes til the Northern 'semi-fast' to Preston. I put the 'semi-fast' in inverted commas as I'm not sure how anyone could describe a 62 mile journey that's timetabled to take approximately 100 minutes as fast by any definition. Anyway, after a trip to the toilet I was waiting on platform 11C for the 3 coach 158756 to take me back to Lancashire. Departure was punctual and before long the weather took a turn for the worse - it had gone from clear skies to a sea of dark grey clouds in barely 2 hours! As I couldn't see the platform information boards from where I was sat I checked RTT and was bitterly disappointed to see that we were 5 minutes late departing Halifax, putting my 2 minute connection at Preston in severe jeopardy.
The noise from the engines suggested the driver was trying his hardest to recover some time in the blistering rain, however we kept the 4-6 minute delay throughout the run along the East Lancashire Line; and I was preparing for a fester of over 45 minutes at Preston on a Saturday night - fun! :roll: However it was 2035 and according to RTT the 2021 from Blackpool North (my connection at Preston) still hadn't left yet - meaning my connection was back on!
I started to get worried again as we were stationary for a rather long amount of time on the Down Slow just before the bridge over the Ribble, however we were back moving again and finally got to Preston at 2055 - 8 minutes late. I looked at the departure board and found out that precisely 0 services on page 1 were running on time, with 1 being cancelled! This included the 2049 to Manchester Victoria, which now displayed 2104 as the expected departure. A rare 6 car formation of 142028+150117+150210 (with 210 locked out of use) arrived on platform 2, finally departing at 2108 with arrival at Leyland at 2115. It was no longer raining meaning I didn't get wet on the short walk home, getting back not long after 20 past 9.
Now for the stats:
Mileage: 504mi63ch (bringing me up to 3817mi0ch for 2017 so far)
Cost: £18.15 (+£4 meal voucher)
£/mile: £0.04 (to the nearest penny)
I don't think that £/mile rate is my personal best in terms of value however it probably comes pretty close - especially when you consider that it was a short notice trip!
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cactustwirly
Established Member
Sounds like a good day out!
I agree the ECML is boring, although Didcot to Swindon can be quite tedious as well!
The HSTs are superior to the 91s (as long as you get one with proper seats, not the horrible original seats found in EC64 and EMT HSTs)
I'm going to be controversial and say that the GW HSTs are better than the VTEC ones!
If you think the Caldervale line is slow, try a Cotswold line HST to Hereford, it takes almost 3 hours to cover 100 miles!
I agree the ECML is boring, although Didcot to Swindon can be quite tedious as well!
The HSTs are superior to the 91s (as long as you get one with proper seats, not the horrible original seats found in EC64 and EMT HSTs)
I'm going to be controversial and say that the GW HSTs are better than the VTEC ones!
If you think the Caldervale line is slow, try a Cotswold line HST to Hereford, it takes almost 3 hours to cover 100 miles!
Techniquest
Veteran Member
For a short notice trip that sounded like fun.
I'm confused with the catering voucher. Could you explain what that's about and if it's worth getting one next time I randomly end up on VTEC?
I'm confused with the catering voucher. Could you explain what that's about and if it's worth getting one next time I randomly end up on VTEC?
roversfan2001
Established Member
I definitely agree regarding the seats, I've been on the low-backed VTEC set and an EMT set and even in First they're uncomfortable.
I'd much rather have a slow journey on a HST (in First) than a noisy, crowded Saturday evening 158 out of Leeds
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roversfan2001
Established Member
It's a voucher printed on a standard rail ticket that costs £4 but is worth £5 at the Foodbar or on the trolley; though it can be a pain getting it issued (but it can be bought with tickets on the VTEC website). It's valid for 3 months from date of issue.
Sent from my HTC Desire 530 using Tapatalk
Kite159
Veteran Member
Sounded like a good trip, although why waste time getting the catering voucher when you could have saved money in the local shops at Leeds/Kings Cross
Agreed that the ECML is boring as heck in the southern part.
Agreed that the ECML is boring as heck in the southern part.
roversfan2001
Established Member
After seeing Techniquest's mini bash report I've reconsidered and decided I'll report on my smaller excursions, usually involving football of some sort.
8th July - Football finally returns!
It's felt a lot longer than 5 weeks since the last football match I had been to, but it's finally back, even if it's only a pre-season friendly.
(to certain people who may not care about football (ie Quinn) these reports may not be for you as football does make up a significant portion of this report, you've been warned )
My alarm was set for 8am, giving me ample time to be up and ready for the day. Now, 8am may seem quite early for a 3pm kick off time at a stadium not 60 miles away, so I'll explain. As it was an RMT strike day on the Northern network, they were running a very restricted timetable. This included a distinct lack of trains from my local station, Leyland. Not only this, but the service on the Furness line (yes, I was going to Barrow, lucky me) wasn't hourly as normal, heck it wasn't even 2 hourly - it was every 3 hours. At inconvenient times. Brilliant.
Anyway, I'll try not to fill this report with negativity. I had arranged to meet my friend (who is an avid football fan like me, but with little interest in the railway) at a convenient point so we could walk the mile-and-a-bit to my next nearest station, Lostock Hall, in time to catch the 0913 to Preston. As it turned out, we walked 10 minutes and thought "$*&£ it, let's get the bus to Preston" ("ooh different forms of public transport!" I hear you all cry). We were at the bus stop for barely 30 seconds when the Stagecoach MCSL 111 service stopped. The single fare to Preston was £2.10, a fair bit more than the train would have been.
At roughly 9am the bus stopped outside Preston Railway Station and we alighted and headed down to the station to purchase my friend's tickets (I bought mine the day before). As we did this we checked the departure board; and we didn't like what we saw. the 0945 (originally 0941) to Glasgow was delayed, turning our +2 (should have been a +6 if Virgin didn't change the timetable with hours notice) into a +170-something. There was nothing we could do about it so we headed to the nearby shopping centre for a supply raid from the Poundland. A Mountain Dew and Pepsi Max were bought at 2 for £1 and we milled around the town centre for a bit, wondering what to do.
We decided to just get the on time 0954 to Edinburgh (a Class 390) to Lancaster and see what happens there, meeting a fellow Blackburn fan on the platform. I sat with him in an airline style seat with no view, while my friend stood next to us as he didn't fancy sitting down next to a stranger (). Arrival into Lancaster was prompt and as we walked down the platform we overheard an announcement regarding Barrow, a bus was being laid on to transport us to Barrow as the train had long departed and we were told to wait at the bus stop outside the station. We waited for a good 20 minutes before a member of Virgin staff said they would put us in taxis. If I wasn't starving and in need of a Wetherspoon's cooked breakfast I'd have politely turned it down and wandered around for 2 and a half hours, but alas I had to get in as my friend didn't agree with me.
The taxi to Barrow was awful and certainly not something I'd like to repeat, a combination of a cramped back seat, hot summer's day and dust on the roads meant for a poor experience. It was about 1145 when we arrived into the car park of Barrow-in-Furness station, where I noticed an RMT demonstration. It was a 5 minute walk to The Furness Railway pub where I enjoyed a standard fry-up that was eaten rather quickly, with my friend's coming after I'd finished mine!
It was a 20 minute stroll to Holker Street, home of Barrow AFC, where we arrived in time to have a look around the ground and meet and have pictures with some players before going through the turnstiles about an hour before kick off. I tied my new flag to a fence in the corner of the terrace, giving it it's first taste of action. Now, at this point anyone not interested in football should skip the next paragraph...
The football itself was rather dire, however a first pre-season friendly against a team in the 5th division was always about the performance and fitness. We won 2-1, with a goal in the 41st minute being cancelled out by a brilliant lob in the 75th from a Barrow player before a 91st minute volley sealed it for the mighty Rovers.
The walk back to the station was via the Asda where 2 bottles of Pepsi Max (one Cherry) were bought for £2; not quite Poundland pricing but still fairly reasonable. A pair of Class 156's were in the platform and me and my friend boarded with 2 fellow fans we knew, we all sat round a table in the rear coach of the front unit and exchanged some banter to make the hour long journey go quicker as we were all quite tired and sunburnt (the terrace had no roof
). The line as far as Morecambe Sth Jn was new track to me and is a rather dull line, I don't think I'll be covering it again We were held at a signal outside Lancaster station and arrived 6 minutes late.
As the other 3 members of our group of4 (5 now, someone else joined us at the table next to us just before Carnforth) weren't on split tickets like me (PRE-LAN VT only then LAN-BIF), they were catching the TPE service that was 15 minutes ahead of the VT. I was surprised to see a pair of Class 185's turn up, meaning I'd bend the rules slightly and board, suspecting a ticket check wouldn't occur. As always, the TPE was packed and we stood in the aisle outside the toilet for the journey to Preston.
After what felt like an age we arrived and after a look round we found my mum waiting for us, ready to give us a lift home due to the previously mentioned lack of trains to Leyland. An enjoyable day was had apart from the taxi, with a good result to boot.
-------------------
Now I've spent a solid 45 minutes writing this so maybe it's not as mini as first thought - this is a different kind of report to my usual so any feedback is gratefully received - should I continue with some non-bashing reports or stick to only reporting on my train-only days out (which, due to an upcoming significant (and most importantly in this context, fare-rise inducing) birthday for myself, will become infrequent as I focus on my football ground bashing.)
8th July - Football finally returns!
It's felt a lot longer than 5 weeks since the last football match I had been to, but it's finally back, even if it's only a pre-season friendly.
(to certain people who may not care about football (ie Quinn
) these reports may not be for you as football does make up a significant portion of this report, you've been warned )My alarm was set for 8am, giving me ample time to be up and ready for the day. Now, 8am may seem quite early for a 3pm kick off time at a stadium not 60 miles away, so I'll explain. As it was an RMT strike day on the Northern network, they were running a very restricted timetable. This included a distinct lack of trains from my local station, Leyland. Not only this, but the service on the Furness line (yes, I was going to Barrow, lucky me) wasn't hourly as normal, heck it wasn't even 2 hourly - it was every 3 hours. At inconvenient times. Brilliant.
Anyway, I'll try not to fill this report with negativity. I had arranged to meet my friend (who is an avid football fan like me, but with little interest in the railway) at a convenient point so we could walk the mile-and-a-bit to my next nearest station, Lostock Hall, in time to catch the 0913 to Preston. As it turned out, we walked 10 minutes and thought "$*&£ it, let's get the bus to Preston" ("ooh different forms of public transport!" I hear you all cry). We were at the bus stop for barely 30 seconds when the Stagecoach MCSL 111 service stopped. The single fare to Preston was £2.10, a fair bit more than the train would have been.
At roughly 9am the bus stopped outside Preston Railway Station and we alighted and headed down to the station to purchase my friend's tickets (I bought mine the day before). As we did this we checked the departure board; and we didn't like what we saw. the 0945 (originally 0941) to Glasgow was delayed, turning our +2 (should have been a +6 if Virgin didn't change the timetable with hours notice) into a +170-something. There was nothing we could do about it so we headed to the nearby shopping centre for a supply raid from the Poundland. A Mountain Dew and Pepsi Max were bought at 2 for £1 and we milled around the town centre for a bit, wondering what to do.
We decided to just get the on time 0954 to Edinburgh (a Class 390) to Lancaster and see what happens there, meeting a fellow Blackburn fan on the platform. I sat with him in an airline style seat with no view, while my friend stood next to us as he didn't fancy sitting down next to a stranger (
). Arrival into Lancaster was prompt and as we walked down the platform we overheard an announcement regarding Barrow, a bus was being laid on to transport us to Barrow as the train had long departed and we were told to wait at the bus stop outside the station. We waited for a good 20 minutes before a member of Virgin staff said they would put us in taxis. If I wasn't starving and in need of a Wetherspoon's cooked breakfast I'd have politely turned it down and wandered around for 2 and a half hours, but alas I had to get in as my friend didn't agree with me.The taxi to Barrow was awful and certainly not something I'd like to repeat, a combination of a cramped back seat, hot summer's day and dust on the roads meant for a poor experience. It was about 1145 when we arrived into the car park of Barrow-in-Furness station, where I noticed an RMT demonstration. It was a 5 minute walk to The Furness Railway pub where I enjoyed a standard fry-up that was eaten rather quickly, with my friend's coming after I'd finished mine!
It was a 20 minute stroll to Holker Street, home of Barrow AFC, where we arrived in time to have a look around the ground and meet and have pictures with some players before going through the turnstiles about an hour before kick off. I tied my new flag to a fence in the corner of the terrace, giving it it's first taste of action. Now, at this point anyone not interested in football should skip the next paragraph...
The football itself was rather dire, however a first pre-season friendly against a team in the 5th division was always about the performance and fitness. We won 2-1, with a goal in the 41st minute being cancelled out by a brilliant lob in the 75th from a Barrow player before a 91st minute volley sealed it for the mighty Rovers.
The walk back to the station was via the Asda where 2 bottles of Pepsi Max (one Cherry) were bought for £2; not quite Poundland pricing but still fairly reasonable. A pair of Class 156's were in the platform and me and my friend boarded with 2 fellow fans we knew, we all sat round a table in the rear coach of the front unit and exchanged some banter to make the hour long journey go quicker as we were all quite tired and sunburnt (the terrace had no roof
). The line as far as Morecambe Sth Jn was new track to me and is a rather dull line, I don't think I'll be covering it again We were held at a signal outside Lancaster station and arrived 6 minutes late.As the other 3 members of our group of
After what felt like an age we arrived and after a look round we found my mum waiting for us, ready to give us a lift home due to the previously mentioned lack of trains to Leyland. An enjoyable day was had apart from the taxi, with a good result to boot.
-------------------
Now I've spent a solid 45 minutes writing this so maybe it's not as mini as first thought - this is a different kind of report to my usual so any feedback is gratefully received - should I continue with some non-bashing reports or stick to only reporting on my train-only days out (which, due to an upcoming significant (and most importantly in this context, fare-rise inducing) birthday for myself, will become infrequent as I focus on my football ground bashing.)
I didn't take you advice and read the report and rather enjoyed it. Shame about having to get taxis but at least you got a train back. Were you even looking out the window on the 156s back to Lancaster? You do go over some excellent track (scenery wise)?
In conclusion, do continue with these kind of reports
In conclusion, do continue with these kind of reports
Kite159
Veteran Member
Apart from the dodgy taxi, and the sunburn, sounded like a good day trip.
roversfan2001
Established Member
I'll admit my looking out of the window was rather limited, though I do remember going across what seemed like a bridge with no ballast beneath the track; the sunlight did make the beaches look quite good at that point, I'll concede. Most other times I looked out of the window it was the typical shrubbery either side.I didn't take you advice and read the report and rather enjoyed it. Shame about having to get taxis but at least you got a train back. Were you even looking out the window on the 156s back to Lancaster? You do go over some excellent track (scenery wise)?
In conclusion, do continue with these kind of reports
Techniquest
Veteran Member
I enthusiastically read your trip, a nice mix of trains and frothball. I concur with fishquinn, please do post more of this sort of trip report.
Mega ouch to some of the farcical travel, but sounds like you had some good banter which is what it should be like. Unlike the rioting so famous with frothball supporters.
Mega ouch to some of the farcical travel, but sounds like you had some good banter which is what it should be like. Unlike the rioting so famous with frothball supporters.
roversfan2001
Established Member
Ahh, league football, nothing can beat it (not even Virgin 1st class!). After a long few months the new season was upon us. Blackburn were down at Southend and the extortionate fares down there meant I couldn't be there. Instead, I would be going to Doncaster, with it being a new ground for me and some new track for me too towards the end of the route.
Waking up at 9, I had more than enough time to get ready before walking down to the station via my friend's house to purchase tickets for us both. Off-Peak Day Returns from Leyland to Chorley and GM Wayfarers were bought (we didn't have enough time to buy the remaining ticket). The 0956 to Stalybridge formed of a pair of Class 156s rolled in to take us down the Euxton-Bolton line; where we could alight at either Chorley, Bolton or Salford Crescent to join the fast service to the Airport via Piccadilly that was behind us. As Salford Crescent is a station I hadn't visited previously we elected to alight there, where we should have had a <10 minute wait.
However less than a minute after we got off there was an announcement to say that the Airport service was delayed by approximately half an hour due to animals on the line! This delay would mean we would miss our connection at Piccadilly so we explored our options. The Hazel Grove service would give us a +1 at MAN if it was on time, so could possibly be done if we were smart about how we moved around Piccadilly, however this was running 4 minutes late so was also out of the question. We let a service to Victoria go while we were discussing what to do before deciding that going to Victoria and catching the tram across the city was the best option. The Class 150 that formed the Clitheroe to Manchester Victoria service was caught for the sub-2 mile leap into Manchester.
While we were crossing between heavy- and light-rail we watched a Piccadilly tram depart, so we looked to see when the next one was and decided to have any chance of catching our connection at Piccadilly we would have to get there on foot. As the current time was 1106 and our train was at 1120 we knew we had a job on our hands, especially as neither of us knew how to get there! We just followed the tram line until we saw signs for "Piccadilly Station" and got to the station with a couple of minutes to spare.
After checking the platform (4), we boarded the pair of Class 185s that were going to Newcastle, via Sheffield and Doncaster due to the engineering works over the North TP route. Our reservations came in handy as a couple of people were sat in them so we politely asked them to move and they did. Unfortunately these airline seats had a beautiful view of a pillar but they were better than having to stand.
At this point it dawned on us that in our rush to get to Piccadilly we didn't have time to purchase our tickets from the Wayfarer boundary to Doncaster! We didn't know where we stood in regards to whether the TM would let us buy it on board or if we would have the book thrown at us but luckily it came to nothing as we weren't ticket-checked before Sheffield, where hunger struck and we decided to alight to buy some food. My favourite place for food at Sheffield is the Superdrug, as despite being on a station they don't inflate their prices (like WHSmith) and still offer a brilliant meal deal for £3. The total cost of the items (a breakfast triple sandwich, a strawberry and granola yogurt pot and a cherry flavoured Relentless energy drink (I know they're not very good for you but I was extremely sleep-deprived and needed it to stop me falling asleep!) without the meal deal were £6.03 so I'd say I got a fairly good deal out of it, as I'm sure you'll all agree.
We then thought, to calm our nerves a bit, we'd buy our tickets to Doncaster. Unfortunately for us, or the industry, the TVMs didn't offer Grindleford in their list of alternate origins so we thought the best option was a Sheffield to Doncaster off-peak day return, routed Any Permitted. The next train to Donny was the Northern service to Bridlington, which I'd read on here should be a 158 so we waited for that. Surely enough, a Class 158 turned up to take us the few miles to Doncaster. We got into Donny at roughly 1pm, leaving us with ample time to make the almost 2 mile walk to the Keepmoat Stadium. The sun was shining down which made for a pleasant walk, our tickets were purchased after a bit of a faff with declined cards and memberships to get a discount that wasn't given and suchlike.
As it was an hour before kickoff we decided to just go into the ground and look around. As it is only 10 years old we knew it would just be a soulless bowl stadium like many others, and we weren't far wrong. Any footy fans reading this may agree with me and my friend's opinion that it looks like a mix of Rotherham's and Blackpool's stadiums.
The game itself was quite end-to-end and was a joy to watch, even if it was a goalless draw, with the ball hitting the woodwork a few times. We made our way back to the station with enough time for me to take some cash out to repay my friend who had to bail me out when my card declined for some strange reason at the stadium, and for me to charge my phone a bit as it had run out of charge as I was constantly checking the score of the Blackburn game (we lost 2-1 to Southend).
The 1742 to Manchester Airport was formed of a pair of Class 185s as expected and we took up our reserved seats once again, the exact same seats as the journey from MAN to SHF. We probably should have excessed our SHF-DON returns back to Grindleford before boarding but it didn't matter as the TM didn't seem to clock the small gap (or did but didn't care). Me and my friend made the time pass by playing some football related games, that I won due to my insane knowledge of stadium names and who plays there!
Between Stockport and Piccadilly another ticket check occurred and my heart sank when the RPI checking tickets was the same guy that pestered me and fishquinn back in June. To avoid any conflict we just showed him the Wayfarers and he clearly remembered me as he didn't question my age and the validity of the ticket this time, but he did ask us where we got on, when we may have lied and said Stockport to make him go away, which worked as he then moved on to some tourists that didn't appear to have a railcard. :roll:
As we had some time in Piccadilly we looked around for somewhere to grab some scran as we hadn't eaten since the meal deal we bought at Sheffield. We decided to go to the WHSmiths where I bought a tuna mayo sandwich and some cloudy lemonade. I found a plug socket outside platforms 10/11/12 and cheekily plugged my phone in as it had once again died. As it was 1940 and our train onwards was at 1946 we made our way up the travelator to the platform 13.14 island. A pair of Class 156s turned up and we got a table seat so we could eat and drink our recently purchased items. As the Airport-Blackpools don't stop at Leyland (cheers Northern, not) we had to get off at Chorley and wait for the Victoria-Blackpool service. Chorley is quite a grim place and not the best place to wait so we just stayed on the station, and once again found a not for public use plug socket and charged my once again dead phone (becoming quite the occurrence now). 7 minutes behind schedule, at 2110, the service to Blackpool rolled in, I think it was a 156+150 combo but I'm not sure, I didn't note it down) to take us the very short hop to Leyland where we arrived 10 minutes later.
All in all it was a good day with some minor delays that we worked our way around (just!) and a good game of football was watched too.
Mileage: 177mi14ch
Rail ticket price: £11.30
Pence per mile: 15.67p
Match ticket price: £8.00
Current mileage for the year: 4352mi11ch
Waking up at 9, I had more than enough time to get ready before walking down to the station via my friend's house to purchase tickets for us both. Off-Peak Day Returns from Leyland to Chorley and GM Wayfarers were bought (we didn't have enough time to buy the remaining ticket). The 0956 to Stalybridge formed of a pair of Class 156s rolled in to take us down the Euxton-Bolton line; where we could alight at either Chorley, Bolton or Salford Crescent to join the fast service to the Airport via Piccadilly that was behind us. As Salford Crescent is a station I hadn't visited previously we elected to alight there, where we should have had a <10 minute wait.
However less than a minute after we got off there was an announcement to say that the Airport service was delayed by approximately half an hour due to animals on the line! This delay would mean we would miss our connection at Piccadilly so we explored our options. The Hazel Grove service would give us a +1 at MAN if it was on time, so could possibly be done if we were smart about how we moved around Piccadilly, however this was running 4 minutes late so was also out of the question. We let a service to Victoria go while we were discussing what to do before deciding that going to Victoria and catching the tram across the city was the best option. The Class 150 that formed the Clitheroe to Manchester Victoria service was caught for the sub-2 mile leap into Manchester.
While we were crossing between heavy- and light-rail we watched a Piccadilly tram depart, so we looked to see when the next one was and decided to have any chance of catching our connection at Piccadilly we would have to get there on foot. As the current time was 1106 and our train was at 1120 we knew we had a job on our hands, especially as neither of us knew how to get there! We just followed the tram line until we saw signs for "Piccadilly Station" and got to the station with a couple of minutes to spare.
After checking the platform (4), we boarded the pair of Class 185s that were going to Newcastle, via Sheffield and Doncaster due to the engineering works over the North TP route. Our reservations came in handy as a couple of people were sat in them so we politely asked them to move and they did. Unfortunately these airline seats had a beautiful view of a pillar but they were better than having to stand.
At this point it dawned on us that in our rush to get to Piccadilly we didn't have time to purchase our tickets from the Wayfarer boundary to Doncaster! We didn't know where we stood in regards to whether the TM would let us buy it on board or if we would have the book thrown at us but luckily it came to nothing as we weren't ticket-checked before Sheffield, where hunger struck and we decided to alight to buy some food. My favourite place for food at Sheffield is the Superdrug, as despite being on a station they don't inflate their prices (like WHSmith
) and still offer a brilliant meal deal for £3. The total cost of the items (a breakfast triple sandwich, a strawberry and granola yogurt pot and a cherry flavoured Relentless energy drink (I know they're not very good for you but I was extremely sleep-deprived and needed it to stop me falling asleep!) without the meal deal were £6.03 so I'd say I got a fairly good deal out of it, as I'm sure you'll all agree. We then thought, to calm our nerves a bit, we'd buy our tickets to Doncaster. Unfortunately for us, or the industry, the TVMs didn't offer Grindleford in their list of alternate origins so we thought the best option was a Sheffield to Doncaster off-peak day return, routed Any Permitted. The next train to Donny was the Northern service to Bridlington, which I'd read on here should be a 158 so we waited for that. Surely enough, a Class 158 turned up to take us the few miles to Doncaster. We got into Donny at roughly 1pm, leaving us with ample time to make the almost 2 mile walk to the Keepmoat Stadium. The sun was shining down which made for a pleasant walk, our tickets were purchased after a bit of a faff with declined cards and memberships to get a discount that wasn't given and suchlike.
As it was an hour before kickoff we decided to just go into the ground and look around. As it is only 10 years old we knew it would just be a soulless bowl stadium like many others, and we weren't far wrong. Any footy fans reading this may agree with me and my friend's opinion that it looks like a mix of Rotherham's and Blackpool's stadiums.
The game itself was quite end-to-end and was a joy to watch, even if it was a goalless draw, with the ball hitting the woodwork a few times. We made our way back to the station with enough time for me to take some cash out to repay my friend who had to bail me out when my card declined for some strange reason at the stadium, and for me to charge my phone a bit as it had run out of charge as I was constantly checking the score of the Blackburn game (we lost 2-1 to Southend
).The 1742 to Manchester Airport was formed of a pair of Class 185s as expected and we took up our reserved seats once again, the exact same seats as the journey from MAN to SHF. We probably should have excessed our SHF-DON returns back to Grindleford before boarding but it didn't matter as the TM didn't seem to clock the small gap (or did but didn't care). Me and my friend made the time pass by playing some football related games, that I won due to my insane knowledge of stadium names and who plays there!
Between Stockport and Piccadilly another ticket check occurred and my heart sank when the RPI checking tickets was the same guy that pestered me and fishquinn back in June. To avoid any conflict we just showed him the Wayfarers and he clearly remembered me as he didn't question my age and the validity of the ticket this time, but he did ask us where we got on, when we may have lied and said Stockport to make him go away, which worked as he then moved on to some tourists that didn't appear to have a railcard. :roll:
As we had some time in Piccadilly we looked around for somewhere to grab some scran as we hadn't eaten since the meal deal we bought at Sheffield. We decided to go to the WHSmiths where I bought a tuna mayo sandwich and some cloudy lemonade. I found a plug socket outside platforms 10/11/12 and cheekily plugged my phone in as it had once again died. As it was 1940 and our train onwards was at 1946 we made our way up the travelator to the platform 13.14 island. A pair of Class 156s turned up and we got a table seat so we could eat and drink our recently purchased items. As the Airport-Blackpools don't stop at Leyland (cheers Northern, not) we had to get off at Chorley and wait for the Victoria-Blackpool service. Chorley is quite a grim place and not the best place to wait so we just stayed on the station, and once again found a not for public use plug socket and charged my once again dead phone (becoming quite the occurrence now
). 7 minutes behind schedule, at 2110, the service to Blackpool rolled in, I think it was a 156+150 combo but I'm not sure, I didn't note it down) to take us the very short hop to Leyland where we arrived 10 minutes later.All in all it was a good day with some minor delays that we worked our way around (just!) and a good game of football was watched too.
Mileage: 177mi14ch
Rail ticket price: £11.30
Pence per mile: 15.67p
Match ticket price: £8.00
Current mileage for the year: 4352mi11ch
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Do I daresay your phone is a bit old now? Reason I ask is the battery could be worn out and not holding its charge so well now, hence a partial reason for it running out all the time. Of course, heavy useage of it, especially with mobile data on, really doesn't help!
I would also see if you've got a power saving mode on your phone. My Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo does, in fact it has a basic power saving mode but also the battery saviour, Ultra Power Saving Mode. OK so you can't do a lot with your phone when it's in that mode, but you'll be unsurprised to hear that option a lot. It saved my bacon on my Brussels trip earlier this year, and has a few times since then too.
Other than that, it sounds like a fun day out. I can't agree on Virgin First Class being inferior to a frothball game though!
I would also see if you've got a power saving mode on your phone. My Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo does, in fact it has a basic power saving mode but also the battery saviour, Ultra Power Saving Mode. OK so you can't do a lot with your phone when it's in that mode, but you'll be unsurprised to hear that option a lot. It saved my bacon on my Brussels trip earlier this year, and has a few times since then too.
Other than that, it sounds like a fun day out. I can't agree on Virgin First Class being inferior to a frothball game though!
roversfan2001
Established Member
The current phone I'm using is a budget phone (Samsung Galaxy J1 2016) I was bought to last me 8 months at the start of 2016, after my proper phone (HTC Desire 530) decided to stop charging last weekend. The battery is actually quite good but I left it on vibrate mode and received a lot of Facebook messages which killed it off pretty much
I did put it in Ultra Power Saving Mode for a bit on the way home but at 5% it didn't do much to save it anyway, but I agree it is a useful feature.
roversfan2001
Established Member
Well it's been a little while since I've done one of these, I really don't get out much!
Changes of plan - Saturday 2nd December 2017
Now, if you'd have asked me yesterday where I was going today, I'd have replied with Nottingham, to watch Notts County take on underdogs Oxford City in the FA Cup. As this was televised, and therefore a 12.30pm kick off, I'd need to be on the 0756 train from Leyland to make the match. Indeed, I had booked a few loophole tickets with my itinerary (3 tickets, getting progressively less extreme).
Anyone on this forum who was at the Merseyside challenge last September will know that I don't have a good record for getting up early (), and lo and behold, I woke up just after half 8, meaning Nottingham for 12.30 was unattainable. I had enough time to look for an alternative football game to watch in that general area at a ground I hadn't visited before. Luckily for me, Sheffield Wednesday were at home to Hull City at 3pm, meaning I could make it with ease.
I had enough time to sort myself out before walking to the station to pick up my tickets (all 16 coupons!) and catching the 0929 to Hazel Grove, formed of a 156 leading a 142. Obviously I did as any normal person would))and sat in the 156 for the hour long journey to Manchester Piccadilly. Arrival was a few minutes late (my wait for an on time train goes on...the entire month of November was delayed trains...) and given that my train to Sheffield (the 1043 to Nottingham) was departing from the same platform, I stood and waited in the cold for the pair of 158s to arrive. Departure was late (surprise surprise) and the <5 minute delay was held throughout the journey across the Pennines and arrival into Sheffield was a tad before 1145.
With over 3 hours til kick off, I had a decision to make. Remember when I said I had booked my train tickets last night? Yep, that included a ticket south of Sheffield, costing me £7.60. I'm too tight to let that go to waste, and given that my phone needed some charging to make sure it lasted the day - I made the decision to head half an hour the wrong way to then come back on myself. The 5 coach 222 was arriving into the platform as I made this decision, and I duly boarded, and sat at a table and took advantage of the plug sockets to boost my phone during the half an hour trek to Derby. The track after where the Nottingham line branches off is new track for me, which was a nice thing to get in, and arrival into Derby was slightly behind schedule.
At Derby, I saw a few footy fans heading to a different game taking place nearby, some fans being fans of recent champions of England Leicester City, some fans of 'that club down t'cobbled end o' M65'. I resisted the urge to say something and risk an argument and sat in the waiting room for the next EMT service north, flagging the CrossCounty as I'd quite like personal space on my way back north. The 4 coach 222 arrived at 1305 and departed soon after. I sat in the composite standard/first coach, again at a table with plug socket, and settled down for the final leg of my trip before a few hours' break to complete the purpose of my Saturday out.
I arrived back into the Steel City at about 1340 and bought a Sheffield PlusBus to use on the tram to Hillsborough. I waited for a matter of seconds before a Blue Line tram appeared, and as expected, I had to stand, though I did get a seat for the latter part of the journey. I alighted the tram at Hillsborough tram stop, expecting the stadium with the same name to be located nearby. I was left disappointed, a 15 minute uphill walk, alongside the tram tracks, was undertaken before the ground came into view.
My match ticket, for the steep sum of £15 (NB: I do not approve in the slightest of SWFC's ticket pricing, but the ground had to be visited at some point, better to do it now while I'm a junior) was bought and I found the correct entrance and made my way into the stadium with roughly 10 minutes to go before kick-off.
The first half of the game was a turgid affair, some good football was played at times, but barring a Hull goal halfway through the half, neither side really threatened. The substitutions made at the start of the second half really changed the game, Sheffield Wednesday playing some really slick football, and getting a deserved equaliser with 25 minutes to go. The final 10 minutes saw another goal for each side, Hull scoring in the 95th minute, meaning that the full time whistle went with the scores at 2-2. A very good game to watch for a neutral like myself.
The journey back to Sheffield station was a complete mess, which ultimately ended up with me and 2 others (that I didn't know, they just happened to be going to the station) in a taxi to the station as we got lost after the tram took a turn we didn't expect it to.
I got to the station with enough time before my train back into Lancashire to grab a £3 meal deal (very good for a train station!) for the journey home. The 1811 TransPennine Express service to Manchester Airport (a single 185) arrived 2 minutes late. I got a table seat by a window (and therefore a plug socket) for the dark journey back. I could tell that weather conditions were poor as my phone received no signal for the vast majority of the journey, far more than on the way out in the morning. Wasn't ideal when I was trying to hold conversations both through text messages and social media apps, that's for sure.
Arrival into Piccadilly was late enough to put my connection onto the 1923 from Victoria in serious danger, this danger turning into a nigh-on impossibility once I discovered that the next tram across the city was in 10 minutes, this being at 1910. Due to the ticket I held, I would have an almighty struggle getting back to Leyland easily now.
I decided to get as close to home as I could on the ticket I held and got the delayed 1916 TPE as far as Wigan North Western, with the Northern 319 stopper to Preston not far behind. I decided to try and play my cards right and approached the guard asking if I could buy a ticket on the train as I was delayed by 15 minutes on the TPE. He said I could and I waited with my bank card and railcard, only for the guard to let me off as I was only going to Leyland, result! Arrival was on time (wahey finally!) and I took the short walk home to cap off a good day, even with the multiple alterations to my plans.
Changes of plan - Saturday 2nd December 2017
Now, if you'd have asked me yesterday where I was going today, I'd have replied with Nottingham, to watch Notts County take on underdogs Oxford City in the FA Cup. As this was televised, and therefore a 12.30pm kick off, I'd need to be on the 0756 train from Leyland to make the match. Indeed, I had booked a few loophole tickets with my itinerary (3 tickets, getting progressively less extreme).
Anyone on this forum who was at the Merseyside challenge last September will know that I don't have a good record for getting up early (
), and lo and behold, I woke up just after half 8, meaning Nottingham for 12.30 was unattainable. I had enough time to look for an alternative football game to watch in that general area at a ground I hadn't visited before. Luckily for me, Sheffield Wednesday were at home to Hull City at 3pm, meaning I could make it with ease.I had enough time to sort myself out before walking to the station to pick up my tickets (all 16 coupons!) and catching the 0929 to Hazel Grove, formed of a 156 leading a 142. Obviously I did as any normal person would
))and sat in the 156 for the hour long journey to Manchester Piccadilly. Arrival was a few minutes late (my wait for an on time train goes on...the entire month of November was delayed trains...) and given that my train to Sheffield (the 1043 to Nottingham) was departing from the same platform, I stood and waited in the cold for the pair of 158s to arrive. Departure was late (surprise surprise) and the <5 minute delay was held throughout the journey across the Pennines and arrival into Sheffield was a tad before 1145. With over 3 hours til kick off, I had a decision to make. Remember when I said I had booked my train tickets last night? Yep, that included a ticket south of Sheffield, costing me £7.60. I'm too tight to let that go to waste, and given that my phone needed some charging to make sure it lasted the day - I made the decision to head half an hour the wrong way to then come back on myself. The 5 coach 222 was arriving into the platform as I made this decision, and I duly boarded, and sat at a table and took advantage of the plug sockets to boost my phone during the half an hour trek to Derby. The track after where the Nottingham line branches off is new track for me, which was a nice thing to get in, and arrival into Derby was slightly behind schedule.
At Derby, I saw a few footy fans heading to a different game taking place nearby, some fans being fans of recent champions of England Leicester City, some fans of 'that club down t'cobbled end o' M65'. I resisted the urge to say something and risk an argument and sat in the waiting room for the next EMT service north, flagging the CrossCounty as I'd quite like personal space on my way back north
. The 4 coach 222 arrived at 1305 and departed soon after. I sat in the composite standard/first coach, again at a table with plug socket, and settled down for the final leg of my trip before a few hours' break to complete the purpose of my Saturday out.I arrived back into the Steel City at about 1340 and bought a Sheffield PlusBus to use on the tram to Hillsborough. I waited for a matter of seconds before a Blue Line tram appeared, and as expected, I had to stand, though I did get a seat for the latter part of the journey. I alighted the tram at Hillsborough tram stop, expecting the stadium with the same name to be located nearby. I was left disappointed, a 15 minute uphill walk, alongside the tram tracks, was undertaken before the ground came into view.
My match ticket, for the steep sum of £15 (NB: I do not approve in the slightest of SWFC's ticket pricing, but the ground had to be visited at some point, better to do it now while I'm a junior) was bought and I found the correct entrance and made my way into the stadium with roughly 10 minutes to go before kick-off.
The first half of the game was a turgid affair, some good football was played at times, but barring a Hull goal halfway through the half, neither side really threatened. The substitutions made at the start of the second half really changed the game, Sheffield Wednesday playing some really slick football, and getting a deserved equaliser with 25 minutes to go. The final 10 minutes saw another goal for each side, Hull scoring in the 95th minute, meaning that the full time whistle went with the scores at 2-2. A very good game to watch for a neutral like myself.
The journey back to Sheffield station was a complete mess, which ultimately ended up with me and 2 others (that I didn't know, they just happened to be going to the station) in a taxi to the station as we got lost after the tram took a turn we didn't expect it to.
I got to the station with enough time before my train back into Lancashire to grab a £3 meal deal (very good for a train station!) for the journey home. The 1811 TransPennine Express service to Manchester Airport (a single 185) arrived 2 minutes late. I got a table seat by a window (and therefore a plug socket) for the dark journey back. I could tell that weather conditions were poor as my phone received no signal for the vast majority of the journey, far more than on the way out in the morning. Wasn't ideal when I was trying to hold conversations both through text messages and social media apps, that's for sure.
Arrival into Piccadilly was late enough to put my connection onto the 1923 from Victoria in serious danger, this danger turning into a nigh-on impossibility once I discovered that the next tram across the city was in 10 minutes, this being at 1910. Due to the ticket I held, I would have an almighty struggle getting back to Leyland easily now.
I decided to get as close to home as I could on the ticket I held and got the delayed 1916 TPE as far as Wigan North Western, with the Northern 319 stopper to Preston not far behind. I decided to try and play my cards right and approached the guard asking if I could buy a ticket on the train as I was delayed by 15 minutes on the TPE. He said I could and I waited with my bank card and railcard, only for the guard to let me off as I was only going to Leyland, result! Arrival was on time (wahey finally!) and I took the short walk home to cap off a good day, even with the multiple alterations to my plans.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Quite the mixed day there! Sounds like fun in general it must be said, even if I'm not a football supporter!
cactustwirly
Established Member
Sounds like a good day, the line down to Derby is quite fun.
You should have come down to Leicester, to watch the mighty foxes play...
You should have come down to Leicester, to watch the mighty foxes play...
roversfan2001
Established Member
That was an option, however £25 for a junior ticket saw that knocked firmly on the head. I haven't been to Leicester before so the time will come at one point.
Kite159
Veteran Member
Sounded like a good day trip
roversfan2001
Established Member
Wondering if I should do some sort of Ranger tomorrow with a budget of about £20, any suggestions guys? Got a 16-25 railcard which helps reduce the fare a bit.
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
I don’t know if this is too far but the West Midlands one stretches all over Crewe, Stoke on Trent, Wolverhampton, Birmingham. Leamington Spa,’Stourbridge, etc.
You can get Virgin Trains/CrossCountry/London NorthWestern/East Midlands Trains/West Midlands Trains/Arriva Trains Wales and Northern in with that!
You can get Virgin Trains/CrossCountry/London NorthWestern/East Midlands Trains/West Midlands Trains/Arriva Trains Wales and Northern in with that!
roversfan2001
Established Member
Ending 2017 how it started... - Thursday 28th December 2017
It's been a really long time since I last travelled by train purely for the experience, rather than to travel from A to B; some would say too long in fact, myself included, so I had managed to have this day free of anything during the typically busy time between Christmas and New Year and decided to go for an all-day trip, to make up for lost time. It'd be another loophole, quite similar to one I used at the start of January, just at the opposite end of the country.
Now, those of you who know the kind of person I am won't be surprised to hear that the origin and destination printed on the ticket I used have no obvious link to the actual journey undertaken, in fact this is very much the most ridiculous "loophole" I've ever used, by quite some distance.
The first long distance train of the day was the 0753 Virgin service from Preston, north all the way to Edinburgh, with various ways to reach Preston from my origin station, Leyland. A check of RTT determined that, as long as I was up in time (not always a given, as you may have realised after my last trip I wrote a report for...), the 0611 departure from Leyland to Buckshaw Parkway would be an appropriate first train of the day, to allow me to raid the Tesco Extra (which is 5 minutes’ walk from the station) for supplies for the day. I would have 45 minutes between the arrival of the train from Leyland to the departure of the Chorley train, giving me more than enough time to buy breakfast and a drink to keep me going.
I was at the station for 0600, expecting the ticket office to be open (it's meant to open at 0540 unless that's changed recently), however it wasn't so I wandered back over to platform 4 to await the 0611, which was a pair of 156s (156482+156423). The units departed on time and I stood in the very front vestibule for the short trip onto the Bolton line.
Arrival at Buckshaw was unsurprisingly on-time and I went to the ticket office to buy a ticket to cover this portion of my journey. Let’s just say there were complications and I eventually discovered I was in the wrong, but no harm done, the ticket I bought cost more than I wanted to pay, but it was my own fault for trying to be smart.
Now this is where the trip started to go pear shaped, and it wasn't even 7am! My train to Chorley, the 0701, was cancelled, meaning I couldn't get there in time for my connection back to Preston. Fortunately, this did mean I could get my ticket refunded, and a ticket to Buckshaw purchased instead, as I'd just head back up without the detour. I'd therefore plan to be on the 0711 service to Preston, giving me enough time to visit the Tesco for some breakfast. It was cheap and cheerful, a 60p bottle of SmartWater and a 40p pack of 2 sausage rolls. I thought the Tesco was open 24 hours, however it only opened at 7am, meaning I had quite a bit of time waiting around.
Yet again it was a pair of 156s, this time 156489+156429 were my ride, and again I stood in the front vestibule. This slight alteration had increased my wait at Preston by a not insignificant amount, which was irritating, but it could have been far worse when that dreaded "Cancelled" notice appeared. Arrival was prompt and I made my way over to the waiting room to make use of the power sockets as my phone battery is hopelessly bad at maintaining power.
The wait was over relatively quickly, and I boarded 390006, complete with its new livery. This is the first time I've seen the new livery in the flesh, and I must say I'm impressed, far better than the old one at least. Departure was 4 minutes late, not enough to concern me with my connection time at Edinburgh (which was 13 minutes).
Re-liveried 390006 arriving at Preston.
A drinks run was done before Lancaster, when I got a can of orange juice and a not very milky tea. The tea was made bearable with the addition of two sugar sachets and was drunk just in time for the next drinks run, which was about 10 minutes after departure from Oxenholme, when I got another tea that was a bit milkier.
The food run was not so long after that and I opted for the bacon roll, which I noticed was considerably smaller than when I had one this time last year. Then, about 10 minutes before arrival at the border city of Carlisle, came the first moment of truth: the ticket check. The train manager was at first bemused and asked if I had another ticket, so I showed her a picture of the booking confirmation on my phone, which was enough for her to accept it. I was now feeling much more relaxed and enjoyed the remainder of the journey to the Scottish capital.
Snow had fallen heavily overnight in Scotland, meaning the scenery was even better than I've heard it normally is. A good first impression of Scotland!
The sun rising over a snowy Carstairs Junction.
Arrival into Edinburgh Waverley was late, giving me just 4 minutes to cross the station to get to the VTEC HST for the journey south to Darlington. I managed it easily and found my seat, which was unfortunately a window seat with the other 3 seats around the table taken up by a family heading to London.
The lunch order was taken not long after departure and I opted for the macaroni cheese, along with the usual fayre of cake, crisps and a can of Coke. After this came the ticket check, which went perfectly, no questions asked. The macaroni cheese was delivered to my seat minutes later, and although it was on the small side, it was delicious! I genuinely can't recommend it highly enough if you get chance to try it out.
Macaroni Cheese onboard the VTEC HST.
We were still roughly 5 minutes behind schedule, but I wasn't at all worried as my connection at Darlington was a +38, in fact I would have liked to have been delayed a bit more to reduce my waiting time!
At about 1130 my sleepless night was beginning to take its toll and I was seriously considering bailing the XC Voyager at Sheffield and using another loophole to get across the Hope Valley, after all, CrossCountry first class leaves a lot to be desired, and Voyagers? Need I say more... The only thing I'd miss out on is new track between Derby and Birmingham but that's not the end of the world.
My mind was made up as soon as I got off the HST at Darlington, the first thing I saw was that the 1305 service was cancelled. Uh oh. I asked one of the members of staff what to do and we had a bit of a laugh about how stupid of a loophole this was, and we discovered that fortunately there was another XC 8 minutes behind the one that was cancelled so I could board that. However, as it goes via Leeds, it takes longer than what the 1305 would have done (it goes via the ECML to Doncaster) and therefore ruins the booked connection at New Street, meaning I was pretty much forced to go via the Hope Valley now to make sure I was back on time. 221127 was the Voyager to take me south to Sheffield, where I would leave my loophole ticket (and buy another one...).
Arrival was punctual, and I crossed to the other side of the station to purchase my ticket; it's good value for the journey but it's quite amusing when less than an hour of standard class travel costs me more than seven hours of first class travel did. Before long, recently refurbished 185144 arrived to be my final train of the day, and I sat at a table window seat that had been reserved but not used for the journey across the Pennines back into God's own county. After the stunning scenery I witnessed up in Scotland I guess an extremely dirty window was almost deserved here and I couldn't really see anything out of it.
Yet another on time arrival was had into Piccadilly to conclude the train element of the trip, with other modes of transport used to get me to my destination.
It was unfortunate that I didn't use the loophole to its full extent but cancellations and a general hatred of CrossCountry and Voyagers meant I valued my time more than a couple of packs of biscuits and a potential prosecution report. The loophole ticket I used was a 1st Class Anytime Day Single from Chorley to Horwich Parkway (costing £5.80, adult fare), which was permitted by a booking engine to go Chorley-Preston-Edinburgh-Darlington-Birmingham New Street-Manchester Piccadilly-Horwich Parkway.
It's been a really long time since I last travelled by train purely for the experience, rather than to travel from A to B; some would say too long in fact, myself included, so I had managed to have this day free of anything during the typically busy time between Christmas and New Year and decided to go for an all-day trip, to make up for lost time. It'd be another loophole, quite similar to one I used at the start of January, just at the opposite end of the country.
Now, those of you who know the kind of person I am won't be surprised to hear that the origin and destination printed on the ticket I used have no obvious link to the actual journey undertaken, in fact this is very much the most ridiculous "loophole" I've ever used, by quite some distance.
The first long distance train of the day was the 0753 Virgin service from Preston, north all the way to Edinburgh, with various ways to reach Preston from my origin station, Leyland. A check of RTT determined that, as long as I was up in time (not always a given, as you may have realised after my last trip I wrote a report for...), the 0611 departure from Leyland to Buckshaw Parkway would be an appropriate first train of the day, to allow me to raid the Tesco Extra (which is 5 minutes’ walk from the station) for supplies for the day. I would have 45 minutes between the arrival of the train from Leyland to the departure of the Chorley train, giving me more than enough time to buy breakfast and a drink to keep me going.
I was at the station for 0600, expecting the ticket office to be open (it's meant to open at 0540 unless that's changed recently), however it wasn't so I wandered back over to platform 4 to await the 0611, which was a pair of 156s (156482+156423). The units departed on time and I stood in the very front vestibule for the short trip onto the Bolton line.
Arrival at Buckshaw was unsurprisingly on-time and I went to the ticket office to buy a ticket to cover this portion of my journey. Let’s just say there were complications and I eventually discovered I was in the wrong, but no harm done, the ticket I bought cost more than I wanted to pay, but it was my own fault for trying to be smart.
Now this is where the trip started to go pear shaped, and it wasn't even 7am! My train to Chorley, the 0701, was cancelled, meaning I couldn't get there in time for my connection back to Preston. Fortunately, this did mean I could get my ticket refunded, and a ticket to Buckshaw purchased instead, as I'd just head back up without the detour. I'd therefore plan to be on the 0711 service to Preston, giving me enough time to visit the Tesco for some breakfast. It was cheap and cheerful, a 60p bottle of SmartWater and a 40p pack of 2 sausage rolls. I thought the Tesco was open 24 hours, however it only opened at 7am, meaning I had quite a bit of time waiting around.
Yet again it was a pair of 156s, this time 156489+156429 were my ride, and again I stood in the front vestibule. This slight alteration had increased my wait at Preston by a not insignificant amount, which was irritating, but it could have been far worse when that dreaded "Cancelled" notice appeared. Arrival was prompt and I made my way over to the waiting room to make use of the power sockets as my phone battery is hopelessly bad at maintaining power.
The wait was over relatively quickly, and I boarded 390006, complete with its new livery. This is the first time I've seen the new livery in the flesh, and I must say I'm impressed, far better than the old one at least. Departure was 4 minutes late, not enough to concern me with my connection time at Edinburgh (which was 13 minutes).
Re-liveried 390006 arriving at Preston.
A drinks run was done before Lancaster, when I got a can of orange juice and a not very milky tea. The tea was made bearable with the addition of two sugar sachets and was drunk just in time for the next drinks run, which was about 10 minutes after departure from Oxenholme, when I got another tea that was a bit milkier.
The food run was not so long after that and I opted for the bacon roll, which I noticed was considerably smaller than when I had one this time last year. Then, about 10 minutes before arrival at the border city of Carlisle, came the first moment of truth: the ticket check. The train manager was at first bemused and asked if I had another ticket, so I showed her a picture of the booking confirmation on my phone, which was enough for her to accept it. I was now feeling much more relaxed and enjoyed the remainder of the journey to the Scottish capital.
Snow had fallen heavily overnight in Scotland, meaning the scenery was even better than I've heard it normally is. A good first impression of Scotland!
The sun rising over a snowy Carstairs Junction.
Arrival into Edinburgh Waverley was late, giving me just 4 minutes to cross the station to get to the VTEC HST for the journey south to Darlington. I managed it easily and found my seat, which was unfortunately a window seat with the other 3 seats around the table taken up by a family heading to London.
The lunch order was taken not long after departure and I opted for the macaroni cheese, along with the usual fayre of cake, crisps and a can of Coke. After this came the ticket check, which went perfectly, no questions asked. The macaroni cheese was delivered to my seat minutes later, and although it was on the small side, it was delicious! I genuinely can't recommend it highly enough if you get chance to try it out.
Macaroni Cheese onboard the VTEC HST.
We were still roughly 5 minutes behind schedule, but I wasn't at all worried as my connection at Darlington was a +38, in fact I would have liked to have been delayed a bit more to reduce my waiting time!
At about 1130 my sleepless night was beginning to take its toll and I was seriously considering bailing the XC Voyager at Sheffield and using another loophole to get across the Hope Valley, after all, CrossCountry first class leaves a lot to be desired, and Voyagers? Need I say more... The only thing I'd miss out on is new track between Derby and Birmingham but that's not the end of the world.
My mind was made up as soon as I got off the HST at Darlington, the first thing I saw was that the 1305 service was cancelled. Uh oh. I asked one of the members of staff what to do and we had a bit of a laugh about how stupid of a loophole this was, and we discovered that fortunately there was another XC 8 minutes behind the one that was cancelled so I could board that. However, as it goes via Leeds, it takes longer than what the 1305 would have done (it goes via the ECML to Doncaster) and therefore ruins the booked connection at New Street, meaning I was pretty much forced to go via the Hope Valley now to make sure I was back on time. 221127 was the Voyager to take me south to Sheffield, where I would leave my loophole ticket (and buy another one...).
Arrival was punctual, and I crossed to the other side of the station to purchase my ticket; it's good value for the journey but it's quite amusing when less than an hour of standard class travel costs me more than seven hours of first class travel did. Before long, recently refurbished 185144 arrived to be my final train of the day, and I sat at a table window seat that had been reserved but not used for the journey across the Pennines back into God's own county. After the stunning scenery I witnessed up in Scotland I guess an extremely dirty window was almost deserved here and I couldn't really see anything out of it.
Yet another on time arrival was had into Piccadilly to conclude the train element of the trip, with other modes of transport used to get me to my destination.
It was unfortunate that I didn't use the loophole to its full extent but cancellations and a general hatred of CrossCountry and Voyagers meant I valued my time more than a couple of packs of biscuits and a potential prosecution report. The loophole ticket I used was a 1st Class Anytime Day Single from Chorley to Horwich Parkway (costing £5.80, adult fare), which was permitted by a booking engine to go Chorley-Preston-Edinburgh-Darlington-Birmingham New Street-Manchester Piccadilly-Horwich Parkway.
cactustwirly
Established Member
Sounds like a great day! I suspected that it was indeed an intinrary loophole.
There was a similar loophole available for £3 between 2 stations in Birmingham, which allowed travel via Edinburgh in 1st class.
Could you please pm me that loophole you used across the Hope valley line? It could be very useful when I return to Uni.
There was a similar loophole available for £3 between 2 stations in Birmingham, which allowed travel via Edinburgh in 1st class.
Could you please pm me that loophole you used across the Hope valley line? It could be very useful when I return to Uni.
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