Good lord I've got some catching up to do
, I thought I'd written my TR from last Weds.... appears not! Cardiff trip report to come on Friday (I hope!).
30-8-23 - The big HST bash!
An early start for this trip, with an 05.30 alarm and having worked the previous day, my body wasn't feeling very awake! However I pushed through that and prepared to get the 0710 to Newport. Meeting my friends at the station, (albeit they were cutting it fine
), we made the train formed of 175009. I'm very glad we did pick up that unit as it was its' penultimate day in service!
The journey to Newport was without event, but I was surprised at how busy the train got, nearly every seat filled! Arrival into Newport was on time at 0801.
Now here's where the fun part starts...............
On Tuesday evening there was a fatality at Starcross, which created much disruption and therefore set everything up for the day, in the wrong places! The celebrity XC HST set, with 43007 and 43008 had got stuck in Plymouth, rather than being in Leeds, and therefore the service we were planning to get from Bristol was a voyager
.
We then had to change our plans, as we were trying to get as much HST haulage as possible during the day. My friends left me at Newport to sort a couple bits out, whilst they went down to Cardiff and back on a GWR Castle HST.
At 0914, they returned and we took this HST, 43156 and 188 all the way from Newport to Totnes. Funnily enough, I hadn't actually been on a HST on the mainline before, (first time on a HST ever was in May at the SVR Diesel Gala
), so it was a great way to try them out in their dying years of service in the SW. There was this lovely man onboard who was chatting to us and telling us his stories of HSTs in the past, which was really nice. I won't bore you with all his stories as it went on quite a bit!
At Totnes, arrival around 1215, we decided to alight and pick up the celebrity PCs back to Exeter St David's as they were allocated out on 1S51.... except about 2 minutes after we got off the train it was swapped for a voyager
. No driver to bring it off Laira! What a farce!! If we'd have known, we'd have stayed on the HST to Plymouth and into Cornwall!
As it was, we waited until 1321 to pick up another GWR Castle to Newton Abbot. Alighting at Newton Abbot, we waited until 1409 to get the other XC HST (FINALLY), down to Plymouth. We had decided at this point that there was no point going into Cornwall, as it would take too long and the plan had already crumbled!
Arriving at Plymouth 1448, we had 40 mins until it left again, where we would take it to Bristol Parkway.. so I decided to run and get some food, as it would be our longest change time now until we got back to Hereford, when it would really have been too late to eat food for me!
Departed Plymouth on time at 1527, and headed for Bristol.... approaching Bristol the Train Manager announced it would be terminating at Bristol TM rather than going through to Leeds due to track defects further up the line!! We waited for it to depart back south, before we headed for Platform 5 to catch a train to Newport. This was a 4 car 158, and with it being 6pm, you can imagine what it was like
. You guessed it... packed!!
Arrival at Newport was a couple of minutes late, however we had about half an hour to spare to get the 1909 Manchester as far as Hereford, formed of 67017 and HD01.
It was a good journey back home, and altogether a fairly good trip. Despite the plan alterations and the various frustrations, we still had a lot of fun. It will be sad to see the HSTs go, as they've served us well.
Thanks to
@William TC and his friend for inviting me on the trip!
Here is a couple of photos of HSTs from the trip!
Thanks for reading, and I will hope to see you for the Cardiff trip report on Friday
What's the walk to Bargoed like? Not one I've done yet, but one I'm definitely looking at in combination with some epic 231 hunting and walking expeditions!
