Techniquest
Veteran Member
Hi all,
I've been inspired by 4SRKT's summer bashing log for some weeks, now I've found a couple of notebooks with details of my bashing from recent years, I thought I'd share them with the forum. Whether it'll be as good as a read as 4SRKT's thread, I can't say, but it's worth giving it a go! So then, in no particular order with these trips, we start with a look back at April 2008:
8th April 2008
I had been invited to join a friend on a trip to Holyhead in the spring of 2008, today was the first day of this 4-day extravaganza. After a lift into Hereford [I lived in Kington, Herefordshire back then], I carried out the menial tasks that needed to be done before the bash. Lidl was then visited for some cans of Pepsi, 5 for £1 which was a bargain. Bonus in that it's pretty close to the station too.
Time next for a filler move, as I wasn't booked to leave Hereford for some time yet. 170630 is taken to Colwall on the 1050 Hereford to Birmingham New Street, where I then got 43026 and 43134 on the 0821 London Paddington to Hereford back to Hereford. Why Colwall? It was a required shack for HST for me, and Great Malvern would have been pushing it for the change anyway.
Back at Hereford, 66167 is seen on a southbound train of covered steel wagons [don't ask me what type they are, I have no idea! I do have the numbers written down though]. There's still absolutely loads of time until I was booked to leave Hereford, so as it's lunchtime now, it was off to The Golden Galleon for a portion of chips. Well over 5 hours since I'd had some toast, so I think it was fair enough to eat again by now!
£1.20 and a rather delicious portion of chips was had. Feeling much better now, I observe another EWS 66 on a northbound train of covered steel wagons, although I couldn't observe which number the 66 had on it. I even dropped the case for the binoculars which fell off the side of the platform annoyingly. Finally, it's time to head to Newport, and 158841 does the honours on the 1409 from Hereford.
Plenty of DMUs seen by now, however the best sight at Newport has to have been 66015 shoving out a ton of clag. "Thick, fast and plentiful" I have written down, must have been good! I flag 43124 and 43016 on the 1455 Cardiff to Paddington, not booked on that one. A wander around then for half an hour ensues, with the poor CD player taking a beating when it got dropped on the floor. Must have been the result of seeing something interesting!
I'm on a First Class ticket, so I was annoyed slightly that my HST was in reverse formation. Oh well, never mind. 43189 and 43122 do the honours of taking me to London on the 1429 Swansea to Paddington. I'm soon in my seat and the trolley service was extremely quick, serving me before we'd gotten past Maindee East Junction!
A number of HSTs are observed en-route, loco-wise 66094 in East Usk Yard and a 60 in Didcot (with wagons blocking the view of the number) was it until east of Hayes and Harlington, where 67017 and 67025 were seen on ECS Pullman stock. Then 66037 was copped for the year in Acton Yard, with a newly painted (or was it vinyled, hard to tell from a distance!) 57/6 in Old Oak Common. Looking to my right, I can't stop myself looking to see what's in North Pole depot! [I still look when I go by these days!]
Next up was the Oven Line as I like to call it. To everyone else, it's the Bakerloo line. Why do I call it the Oven Line? Simple, it's always friggin' boiling down there! 4231 is taken on a Paddington to Oxford Circus move, before swapping quickly over to 4026 on the Victoria line. Typically, because I'm going north of Seven Sisters, I get a train which terminated there! Oh well, opportunity for more 1967 stock action, which was produced in the form of 4071 for my onwards trip to Tottenham Hale.
Some hours were spent here after meeting the friend I was joining on the Holyhead bash, taking in a trip to KFC for tea and spotting many, many 317s working through the station. We get 317669 to Enfield Lock, the closest shack to his house, on the 2125 from Tottenham Hale.
9th April 2008
Up bright and early this morning, leaving a touch late due to my fellow enthusiast having misplaced his Oyster and travelpass. Whoops! Thankfully we allocated plenty of time to get moving, so the panic was shortlived.
317502 is sampled on the 0718 from Enfield Lock as far as Tottenham Hale. Not Liverpool Street as it was going to be far, far quicker to bail here and get the stupidly fast Victoria line (at least, in comparison to most LUL lines!) to Euston. 4113 becomes my third 1967 move of the trip, and as I write this now it'll be a shame when it's all gone.
At Euston, I find it rather odd-looking to see the Welsh for Holyhead under the English name on the displays. It's delayed, which is certainly not a good start to the day. As we had First Class tickets, we got to sample the First Class lounge at Euston. Of course, being a bit of a nutter when it comes to coffee, I ensure I get one. Long walk from the Victoria line to the First Class lounge I'll have you know!
Compared to the luxury of FGW's First Class lounges (although I've not tried their modern one at Paddington), I don't really think that much of Virgin's Euston lounge. What was rather frustrating was the problems with the free Wi-Fi, the staff seeming not to know what to do about it. Leaving there in a rather 'meh' mood, the 0900 to Holyhead was soon ready for boarding. The delay was caused by a set failure and/or swap with 390034. We get the pleasure of 390039 up to Crewe for a 57/3 forward, which was going to be one of the highlights of the trip.
Complimentary breakfast on-board, so we didn't bother eating really beforehand. Heh, a rather poor offering I got, as a fair amount of the stuff they provide for breakfast is not to my taste. I've got a photo of my breakfast, but I haven't got it online so I can't show you it. A light snack is all I'd have called it, as I believe it was a rasher of bacon, a sausage, some toast and some baked beans. Anyone who knows me well will know I have a bit of an appetite, so that obviously didn't fill me!
Going through Rugby, we use the new platform. Looks like the WCML's going to need a lot of re-drawing in the new edition of the Midlands Quail when it's out! At Crewe, there isn't enough time to run up from First Class at the back of the 390 to the front to see which 57/3 is banged on for the run to Holyhead, so I settle with finding it out later. The weather's pretty good for our trip, so some lovely views are had over the North Wales Coast.
We're a tad late at Holyhead, so a bit of running at the station is in order to get our day returns to Llandudno and to get the number of the 57. I find it's 57301, which is required. Excellent, the 8th one I've had at this point. Onto the 1320 Holyhead to Cardiff now, motive power being 175105 on this occasion.
Passing Valley, we see 66401 and 66417 on a flask train, 66417 being required for sight. Excellent stuff! At the time, I only had 17 more 66s to see, over 2.5 years later and I still need plenty of the flipping things, thanks to further deliveries. One day I may get them all, I've only been trying to get them all ticked off since October 2003! 7 years and still 20-something of them to go!
Off at Llandudno Junction and I get a coffee of sorts from the cafe on the station. We've come over here to get the Euston to Llandudno travelled on before it's withdrawn in December 2008, and on this occasion it's performed by 221105. Nothing really to comment on with that run, although I'm sure at the time I was overjoyed at getting a 221 to Ludo! How times and tastes change, I'm horrified to think that such a time existed!
You just can't go to the seaside and not visit the chippy for lunch. Sadly though, that was as far into town as we had time to go, as the 221 was leaving again at 1508 for London. We were only getting it to Ludo Junction of course, but the opportunity to get a 221 out of Ludo as well as in was too much to pass up. I'm sickened by such an idea looking back, as we had all day to spend in North Wales! I'll have to go there again one day, especially since I still need the Great Orme Tramway. Plenty of photos taken at Ludo, including several of 221105. I had an excuse at least here, it's not too often you get to phot a 221 and semaphores in the same scene! Is it even doable now I wonder? We head out prompty, devouring our lunch on the short journey back to The Junction.
So, now we've done that, there didn't seem to be much to do in the area. We ended up in the cinema, where fun was had on the arcade machines for a short time before our film of choice began. Drillbit Taylor was our choice, which we may not have chosen were it not for the suggestion of the chap at the Cineworld till. I enjoyed it very much, with comfortable seats making for quite the pleasant environment in which to spend 90 minutes. Now if they had those seats on a fair few of the third-generation classes of DMU/DEMU, things would be much nicer!
Over to Netto before going for, you guessed it, another 221 back to Holyhead. 221109 performed an Euston to Holyhead working, leaving to my surprise from platform 4 and promptly at 1850. After some photos, we headed to the Travelodge to sign in and dump luggage. We're a bit out of town, so we head to McDonalds for tea, before returning to the Travelodge for some TV and going on the Internet. Wahey, the WiFi works here!
Sleep is not forthcoming, so I go out for a bit to see what 57 came in on the evening Euston to Holyhead. 57308 and 390009 were observed, although it wasn't exactly warm, so I headed back inside fairly quickly!
10th April 2008
Sleep was eventually gotten, time to rise, wake up and smell the coffee at 1000 was soon with us. De-rancification first, having spent the entire previous day in my suit (I had to look smart in First Class!) in warm weather! More TV and browsing the Internet was deemed required this morning, before we ended up leaving around 1144. Quite a nice Travelodge, which I reckoned must have been a pretty recent build.
Now, where in heck does one go in Holyhead for a combined breakfast and lunch, we wonder. After an examination of the town centre (I'm not overly surprised no-one goes to Holyhead bar getting the ferry. Well, except haulage enthusiasts I suppose!), scooping in the local Woolworths, we end up in The George Hotel. We had considered McDonalds, but I was after proper food! Cottage pie, chips and peas went down very well, particularly when it was washed down with a half pint (I'm a cheapskate, I know...) of Guiness. Fairly decent for £4.85, considering I'd have probably spent far more than that in McDonalds, and gotten nowhere near as good a meal! I felt the service was excellent, the proper homemade food very welcome in the age of fast food takeaways on every corner, with the pub having a good atmosphere to it in general. If you're in Holyhead and needing somewhere to go between arriving and departing on the 57, I highly recommend it.
We leave after some games of pool with some of the local chaps at 1349. 390019 is observed at the station, as is 57308 at the front. Naturally, it's time for some photos. We leave promptly, although it's a shame we can't hear the 57 powering up the bank out of Holyhead!
Not much to mention really of the trip over the coast, although the closer we got to England the more miserable it was getting. First Class was getting rather full after Chester, which came as a surprise. Meal provision came and went past us, apparently as we had some sort of snacky things en-route from Holyhead we didn't get to have anything else in terms of food! Yeah, cheers Virgin...
Various DMUs seen on the way to Crewe, after which I got treated to my first sight of WSMR's livery, as a couple of 67s (015 and 021 according to my notes) and some MK2s were on Crewe LNWR depot. 86602, 86609, 47853 and 50031 were also noted on the depot, 47575 on The Railway Age. Tampers and 350s seen on the way to London, although 90016 was a welcome sight at Rugby on a southbound Freightliner.
I sample the lager on board, which was certainly different and made a change for me. Coffee and some soft drinks were also had on the way to London. If they weren't going to give me food, they were going to give me drinks for sure! I do have a reason for that, and that is that I get dehydrated quite easily, especially in warm environments, and quicker than the average chap. Always have been, always will be. I lined up my drinks I had on the go at one point and got a snap, although the entire trip's photos are surprisingly not online. I'll have to dig them out and get them uploaded!
Passing Wembley, we're treated to the sight of 92019, 66204, 67026, 90035, 66591 and a Metronet 66/7. Bonus for me in that 92019 and 66591 were required for sight. Coupled with the 92 I got the previous day, getting two 92s I needed for sight in consecutive days was a welcome sight! It also took me to just 7 of those I needed for sight, and 16 more 66s. Result!
We arrive 8 minutes early at Euston, where 57302 and 390012 were noted, the 390 with its coupler door open for some reason. Can't help but wonder, even now, if there was some sort of emergency drag going on. Time next to head to Totty Hale, with 3076 doing the honours.
Burger King is visited for tea, as I'm absolutely famished by now. We spend some time in Tottenham Hale, then get the last train back to Enfield Lock at 2255 (later trains were diverted via Seven Sisters). 317657 takes us there, which was also required. Not really a surprise, my book's rather empty when it comes to these!
11th April 2008
A good night's sleep was had, better than the one I had in Holyhead. How on Earth I'll ever survive an All Line Rover in 2011 then I've no idea
After a spot of TV and some food, it's time to head to town. 317656 takes us from Enfield Lock to Tottenham Hale. You'll never guess what, it was required 3144 has the dubious honour of taking us on the Victoria line to Oxford Circus.
An illegal beggar is spotted, so we go to report him and I touch out. D'oh, that's my fare back to Paddington jacked up now then. A few minutes outside is taken advantage of to see briefly this part of London (I never sightsee in London, it's always all about the transport, so this was a bit of a change for me) before we head back downstairs and where my Oyster card decides to play me up. A quick top up sorts that out, and we're soon off again, this time on 3452 to Paddington.
My booked train to Gloucester, the 1348 Paddington to Cheltenham Spa, is delayed as the ECS off Old Oak Common is late. It's not long though until we can board. 43165 and 43194 were turned out for the service and I find my reserved seat. Quite busy out of London, so I'm glad I had it! Leaving London, I note my last FGW power car for sight, 43160. Result, it leaving just coaching stock and 43064 to finish the lot of HST stuff for sight.
The run to Gloucester is pretty uneventful after that, which is evident by a rather surprising lack of notes. A fair few 66s were noted during the trip, not to mention plenty of Turbos and other DMUs, with the most noteable sighting being 60079 on Acton Yard.
More menial tasks to deal with in Gloucester, before I get 33978 on route 33 Gloucester to Ross-on-Wye at 1620. 19108, an Enviro 400 for those interested, follows on route 38 Ross-on-Wye to Hereford at 1720. Roadworks and slow traffic means we arrive back into Hereford too late to make a connection onto the 1743 bus home. Just as well, a PNB was required! In case you're wondering, I went home via this way as it was far cheaper than getting the train back through to Hereford. The Advance fare to Gloucester was pretty cheap, and the single onwards on the buses £3.20 from Gloucester to Hereford.
The trip ends on Sargeants' YN53 ELC from Maylord Orchards to Kington on route 461 Hereford to Kington, from which we left a few minutes, but it's all good. An absolutely brilliant 4 days out all in all, although the on board service with Virgin left a lot to be desired. Other than that, I loved it. I've also enjoyed this trip down Memory Lane, even though I find it odd to think I used to rate Voyagers!
I hope you've enjoyed this read, feel free to post any comments/questions/etc.
I've been inspired by 4SRKT's summer bashing log for some weeks, now I've found a couple of notebooks with details of my bashing from recent years, I thought I'd share them with the forum. Whether it'll be as good as a read as 4SRKT's thread, I can't say, but it's worth giving it a go! So then, in no particular order with these trips, we start with a look back at April 2008:
8th April 2008
I had been invited to join a friend on a trip to Holyhead in the spring of 2008, today was the first day of this 4-day extravaganza. After a lift into Hereford [I lived in Kington, Herefordshire back then], I carried out the menial tasks that needed to be done before the bash. Lidl was then visited for some cans of Pepsi, 5 for £1 which was a bargain. Bonus in that it's pretty close to the station too.
Time next for a filler move, as I wasn't booked to leave Hereford for some time yet. 170630 is taken to Colwall on the 1050 Hereford to Birmingham New Street, where I then got 43026 and 43134 on the 0821 London Paddington to Hereford back to Hereford. Why Colwall? It was a required shack for HST for me, and Great Malvern would have been pushing it for the change anyway.
Back at Hereford, 66167 is seen on a southbound train of covered steel wagons [don't ask me what type they are, I have no idea! I do have the numbers written down though]. There's still absolutely loads of time until I was booked to leave Hereford, so as it's lunchtime now, it was off to The Golden Galleon for a portion of chips. Well over 5 hours since I'd had some toast, so I think it was fair enough to eat again by now!
£1.20 and a rather delicious portion of chips was had. Feeling much better now, I observe another EWS 66 on a northbound train of covered steel wagons, although I couldn't observe which number the 66 had on it. I even dropped the case for the binoculars which fell off the side of the platform annoyingly. Finally, it's time to head to Newport, and 158841 does the honours on the 1409 from Hereford.
Plenty of DMUs seen by now, however the best sight at Newport has to have been 66015 shoving out a ton of clag. "Thick, fast and plentiful" I have written down, must have been good! I flag 43124 and 43016 on the 1455 Cardiff to Paddington, not booked on that one. A wander around then for half an hour ensues, with the poor CD player taking a beating when it got dropped on the floor. Must have been the result of seeing something interesting!
I'm on a First Class ticket, so I was annoyed slightly that my HST was in reverse formation. Oh well, never mind. 43189 and 43122 do the honours of taking me to London on the 1429 Swansea to Paddington. I'm soon in my seat and the trolley service was extremely quick, serving me before we'd gotten past Maindee East Junction!
A number of HSTs are observed en-route, loco-wise 66094 in East Usk Yard and a 60 in Didcot (with wagons blocking the view of the number) was it until east of Hayes and Harlington, where 67017 and 67025 were seen on ECS Pullman stock. Then 66037 was copped for the year in Acton Yard, with a newly painted (or was it vinyled, hard to tell from a distance!
) 57/6 in Old Oak Common. Looking to my right, I can't stop myself looking to see what's in North Pole depot! [I still look when I go by these days!]Next up was the Oven Line as I like to call it. To everyone else, it's the Bakerloo line. Why do I call it the Oven Line? Simple, it's always friggin' boiling down there! 4231 is taken on a Paddington to Oxford Circus move, before swapping quickly over to 4026 on the Victoria line. Typically, because I'm going north of Seven Sisters, I get a train which terminated there! Oh well, opportunity for more 1967 stock action, which was produced in the form of 4071 for my onwards trip to Tottenham Hale.
Some hours were spent here after meeting the friend I was joining on the Holyhead bash, taking in a trip to KFC for tea and spotting many, many 317s working through the station. We get 317669 to Enfield Lock, the closest shack to his house, on the 2125 from Tottenham Hale.
9th April 2008
Up bright and early this morning, leaving a touch late due to my fellow enthusiast having misplaced his Oyster and travelpass. Whoops! Thankfully we allocated plenty of time to get moving, so the panic was shortlived.
317502 is sampled on the 0718 from Enfield Lock as far as Tottenham Hale. Not Liverpool Street as it was going to be far, far quicker to bail here and get the stupidly fast Victoria line (at least, in comparison to most LUL lines!) to Euston. 4113 becomes my third 1967 move of the trip, and as I write this now it'll be a shame when it's all gone.
At Euston, I find it rather odd-looking to see the Welsh for Holyhead under the English name on the displays. It's delayed, which is certainly not a good start to the day. As we had First Class tickets, we got to sample the First Class lounge at Euston. Of course, being a bit of a nutter when it comes to coffee, I ensure I get one. Long walk from the Victoria line to the First Class lounge I'll have you know!
Compared to the luxury of FGW's First Class lounges (although I've not tried their modern one at Paddington), I don't really think that much of Virgin's Euston lounge. What was rather frustrating was the problems with the free Wi-Fi, the staff seeming not to know what to do about it. Leaving there in a rather 'meh' mood, the 0900 to Holyhead was soon ready for boarding. The delay was caused by a set failure and/or swap with 390034. We get the pleasure of 390039 up to Crewe for a 57/3 forward, which was going to be one of the highlights of the trip.
Complimentary breakfast on-board, so we didn't bother eating really beforehand. Heh, a rather poor offering I got, as a fair amount of the stuff they provide for breakfast is not to my taste. I've got a photo of my breakfast, but I haven't got it online so I can't show you it. A light snack is all I'd have called it, as I believe it was a rasher of bacon, a sausage, some toast and some baked beans. Anyone who knows me well will know I have a bit of an appetite, so that obviously didn't fill me!
Going through Rugby, we use the new platform. Looks like the WCML's going to need a lot of re-drawing in the new edition of the Midlands Quail when it's out! At Crewe, there isn't enough time to run up from First Class at the back of the 390 to the front to see which 57/3 is banged on for the run to Holyhead, so I settle with finding it out later. The weather's pretty good for our trip, so some lovely views are had over the North Wales Coast.
We're a tad late at Holyhead, so a bit of running at the station is in order to get our day returns to Llandudno and to get the number of the 57. I find it's 57301, which is required. Excellent, the 8th one I've had at this point. Onto the 1320 Holyhead to Cardiff now, motive power being 175105 on this occasion.
Passing Valley, we see 66401 and 66417 on a flask train, 66417 being required for sight. Excellent stuff! At the time, I only had 17 more 66s to see, over 2.5 years later and I still need plenty of the flipping things, thanks to further deliveries. One day I may get them all, I've only been trying to get them all ticked off since October 2003! 7 years and still 20-something of them to go!
Off at Llandudno Junction and I get a coffee of sorts from the cafe on the station. We've come over here to get the Euston to Llandudno travelled on before it's withdrawn in December 2008, and on this occasion it's performed by 221105. Nothing really to comment on with that run, although I'm sure at the time I was overjoyed at getting a 221 to Ludo! How times and tastes change, I'm horrified to think that such a time existed!
You just can't go to the seaside and not visit the chippy for lunch. Sadly though, that was as far into town as we had time to go, as the 221 was leaving again at 1508 for London. We were only getting it to Ludo Junction of course, but the opportunity to get a 221 out of Ludo as well as in was too much to pass up. I'm sickened by such an idea looking back, as we had all day to spend in North Wales! I'll have to go there again one day, especially since I still need the Great Orme Tramway. Plenty of photos taken at Ludo, including several of 221105. I had an excuse at least here, it's not too often you get to phot a 221 and semaphores in the same scene! Is it even doable now I wonder? We head out prompty, devouring our lunch on the short journey back to The Junction.
So, now we've done that, there didn't seem to be much to do in the area. We ended up in the cinema, where fun was had on the arcade machines for a short time before our film of choice began. Drillbit Taylor was our choice, which we may not have chosen were it not for the suggestion of the chap at the Cineworld till. I enjoyed it very much, with comfortable seats making for quite the pleasant environment in which to spend 90 minutes. Now if they had those seats on a fair few of the third-generation classes of DMU/DEMU, things would be much nicer!
Over to Netto before going for, you guessed it, another 221 back to Holyhead. 221109 performed an Euston to Holyhead working, leaving to my surprise from platform 4 and promptly at 1850. After some photos, we headed to the Travelodge to sign in and dump luggage. We're a bit out of town, so we head to McDonalds for tea, before returning to the Travelodge for some TV and going on the Internet. Wahey, the WiFi works here!
Sleep is not forthcoming, so I go out for a bit to see what 57 came in on the evening Euston to Holyhead. 57308 and 390009 were observed, although it wasn't exactly warm, so I headed back inside fairly quickly!
10th April 2008
Sleep was eventually gotten, time to rise, wake up and smell the coffee at 1000 was soon with us. De-rancification first, having spent the entire previous day in my suit (I had to look smart in First Class!) in warm weather! More TV and browsing the Internet was deemed required this morning, before we ended up leaving around 1144. Quite a nice Travelodge, which I reckoned must have been a pretty recent build.
Now, where in heck does one go in Holyhead for a combined breakfast and lunch, we wonder. After an examination of the town centre (I'm not overly surprised no-one goes to Holyhead bar getting the ferry. Well, except haulage enthusiasts I suppose!
), scooping in the local Woolworths, we end up in The George Hotel. We had considered McDonalds, but I was after proper food! Cottage pie, chips and peas went down very well, particularly when it was washed down with a half pint (I'm a cheapskate, I know...) of Guiness. Fairly decent for £4.85, considering I'd have probably spent far more than that in McDonalds, and gotten nowhere near as good a meal! I felt the service was excellent, the proper homemade food very welcome in the age of fast food takeaways on every corner, with the pub having a good atmosphere to it in general. If you're in Holyhead and needing somewhere to go between arriving and departing on the 57, I highly recommend it.We leave after some games of pool with some of the local chaps at 1349. 390019 is observed at the station, as is 57308 at the front. Naturally, it's time for some photos. We leave promptly, although it's a shame we can't hear the 57 powering up the bank out of Holyhead!
Not much to mention really of the trip over the coast, although the closer we got to England the more miserable it was getting. First Class was getting rather full after Chester, which came as a surprise. Meal provision came and went past us, apparently as we had some sort of snacky things en-route from Holyhead we didn't get to have anything else in terms of food! Yeah, cheers Virgin...
Various DMUs seen on the way to Crewe, after which I got treated to my first sight of WSMR's livery, as a couple of 67s (015 and 021 according to my notes) and some MK2s were on Crewe LNWR depot. 86602, 86609, 47853 and 50031 were also noted on the depot, 47575 on The Railway Age. Tampers and 350s seen on the way to London, although 90016 was a welcome sight at Rugby on a southbound Freightliner.
I sample the lager on board, which was certainly different and made a change for me. Coffee and some soft drinks were also had on the way to London. If they weren't going to give me food, they were going to give me drinks for sure! I do have a reason for that, and that is that I get dehydrated quite easily, especially in warm environments, and quicker than the average chap. Always have been, always will be. I lined up my drinks I had on the go at one point and got a snap, although the entire trip's photos are surprisingly not online. I'll have to dig them out and get them uploaded!
Passing Wembley, we're treated to the sight of 92019, 66204, 67026, 90035, 66591 and a Metronet 66/7. Bonus for me in that 92019 and 66591 were required for sight. Coupled with the 92 I got the previous day, getting two 92s I needed for sight in consecutive days was a welcome sight! It also took me to just 7 of those I needed for sight, and 16 more 66s. Result!
We arrive 8 minutes early at Euston, where 57302 and 390012 were noted, the 390 with its coupler door open for some reason. Can't help but wonder, even now, if there was some sort of emergency drag going on. Time next to head to Totty Hale, with 3076 doing the honours.
Burger King is visited for tea, as I'm absolutely famished by now. We spend some time in Tottenham Hale, then get the last train back to Enfield Lock at 2255 (later trains were diverted via Seven Sisters). 317657 takes us there, which was also required. Not really a surprise, my book's rather empty when it comes to these!
11th April 2008
A good night's sleep was had, better than the one I had in Holyhead. How on Earth I'll ever survive an All Line Rover in 2011 then I've no idea
After a spot of TV and some food, it's time to head to town. 317656 takes us from Enfield Lock to Tottenham Hale. You'll never guess what, it was required 3144 has the dubious honour of taking us on the Victoria line to Oxford Circus.An illegal beggar is spotted, so we go to report him and I touch out. D'oh, that's my fare back to Paddington jacked up now then. A few minutes outside is taken advantage of to see briefly this part of London (I never sightsee in London, it's always all about the transport, so this was a bit of a change for me) before we head back downstairs and where my Oyster card decides to play me up. A quick top up sorts that out, and we're soon off again, this time on 3452 to Paddington.
My booked train to Gloucester, the 1348 Paddington to Cheltenham Spa, is delayed as the ECS off Old Oak Common is late. It's not long though until we can board. 43165 and 43194 were turned out for the service and I find my reserved seat. Quite busy out of London, so I'm glad I had it! Leaving London, I note my last FGW power car for sight, 43160. Result, it leaving just coaching stock and 43064 to finish the lot of HST stuff for sight.
The run to Gloucester is pretty uneventful after that, which is evident by a rather surprising lack of notes. A fair few 66s were noted during the trip, not to mention plenty of Turbos and other DMUs, with the most noteable sighting being 60079 on Acton Yard.
More menial tasks to deal with in Gloucester, before I get 33978 on route 33 Gloucester to Ross-on-Wye at 1620. 19108, an Enviro 400 for those interested, follows on route 38 Ross-on-Wye to Hereford at 1720. Roadworks and slow traffic means we arrive back into Hereford too late to make a connection onto the 1743 bus home. Just as well, a PNB was required! In case you're wondering, I went home via this way as it was far cheaper than getting the train back through to Hereford. The Advance fare to Gloucester was pretty cheap, and the single onwards on the buses £3.20 from Gloucester to Hereford.
The trip ends on Sargeants' YN53 ELC from Maylord Orchards to Kington on route 461 Hereford to Kington, from which we left a few minutes, but it's all good. An absolutely brilliant 4 days out all in all, although the on board service with Virgin left a lot to be desired. Other than that, I loved it. I've also enjoyed this trip down Memory Lane, even though I find it odd to think I used to rate Voyagers!
I hope you've enjoyed this read, feel free to post any comments/questions/etc.
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