Not full reports this time, but I've been out twice in the past week using some complimentary returns Northern sent me as a gesture of goodwill after they forgot about a Delay Repay claim so I thought I'd write a bit of a report on both days. Hope you guys like it
Saturday 3rd February - Leyland to Nottingham
Due to the continued bustitution of services on the Bolton line, and my reluctance to spend 2 hours on a bus to Manchester, I caught a Class 319 to Wigan North Western and made the short walk over to Wallgate to catch a Class 150 over to Manchester Piccadilly. As we arrived on the same platform as the EMT service to Nottingham would arrive and leave from 5 minutes behind us, I stayed on the platform to ask if I could board, as my alternative was a Pacer across to Sheffield before waiting an hour for the Leeds-Nottingham service. Thankfully the guard allowed me to travel, meaning I got to Nottingham over 90 minutes ahead of schedule at 12.25. Reluctant to pay for the bus, I set out walking to Meadow Lane, the home ground of Notts County. The walk took about 15 minutes, far less than I was expecting. The game itself was quite exiting, Notts County's opponents Crewe Alexandra going 1-0 up before conceding 4 against the high-flying home side.
For the journey back I decided to go via Leeds as the connections via Sheffield and Manchester were equally as bad as they would have been on the way out, plus the added bonus of the comfort of a Class 158 all the way to Preston. The first 158 was direct to Leeds, via Barnsley and Wakefield Kirkgate, and took just a tad over 2 hours, which is quite a long time for an express service between two places roughly 80 miles apart. During my 40 minute wait for the Preston train I grabbed a meal deal from the Boots in the station, quite reasonably priced at £3.39. I got a table seat on the 158 to Preston but a family of 3 sat around me until Hebden Bridge so I held off until then to start eating. Arrival was on time and unfortunately it was a choice of either an hour wait for a train, or a replacement bus. I'm quite hesitant of getting the replacement buses to Leyland after a fail-to-stop incident one cold Tuesday night in November, and when I got on the wrong bus and ended up in Blackpool last month
. Luckily though this bus was the right bus, and it actually stopped at Leyland this time, so I was home shortly after at 22.30.
Wednesday 7th February - Leyland to Buxton
As I don't attend college on Wednesdays, I had arranged to use my remaining pass to meet a fellow forum member in Manchester, before heading down to Buxton and back, as both of us hadn't been down the branch and had heard it was quite scenic. I took advantage of the lack of routeing restrictions on these tickets to swing via Blackburn to pick up some football tickets for a game later this month, and also via Hebden Bridge, just because I could. There were some early morning delays, which I presume were weather-related, meaning I was 45 minutes behind my plan. I caught a Class 156 to Preston followed by a 158 to Blackburn before heading to the stadium to buy the tickets and walking back up the hill to Blackburn station to catch the 158 an hour later to Hebden Bridge. Luckily the connection here from a Preston-York to a Leeds-Vic is quite good, though unfortunately it was a 150, not a 158 as I had hoped. I arrived into Manchester Vic not long after 12pm (only 2 hours 40 minutes after leaving Leyland
) and decided to head to Stalybridge and back, via Salford Central on the return. I then met up with fishquinn before heading to Deansgate for a tram to Piccadilly (I don't know why we didn't go straight from Victoria
). We originally wanted to do a return to Rose Hill Marple but we missed the train, and couldn't get the following one without missing the train we had to be on to Buxton. This meant we had about 100 minutes to kill before the Buxton service, so we caught a 319 stopper to the Airport before getting a different 319 back to Piccadilly, this one non-stop as it was a Liverpool service. We still had 45 minutes, which isn't great as it's not really long enough to go anywhere, but is too long to be waiting around.
We hatched a plan to kill some time in the first class lounge, that plan being a child single to Stockport
I also found out how this member gains access to lounges while on standard class tickets, which I won't reveal to the public
We spent half an hour in the lounge, making sure we got our monies worth, which wasn't too hard on a £2.65 ticket.
We left the lounge in plenty of time to catch the 15.49 Buxton service, which given as I'd be on this unit til 19.00 (it works back up to Preston, stopping at Leyland), I was hoping it'd be a 156. Unfortunately it wasn't, it was a 150, meaning the next 3 hours weren't anywhere near as enjoyable as they could have been if I wasn't on a life-expired train. The Buxton line is tediously slow, but was quite scenic with all the snow still on the ground. One particular moment was when we saw a train travelling the same direction as us across the valley; we were confused as to what line it was, it turns out it was the same line but we do a 180 degree turn
It was dark on the return journey, which was surprisingly busy for a contra-peak working, so we couldn't admire the views again, which was a shame. We said farewell at Deansgate, and I put my headphones in and sat back for the hour long trip back home after a fun day.
