The Mercian Meanderings

[The Mercian]

So having been on here a while and not wanting to clog up the Shack Attack thread with my musings on my trips around the Network thought I'd start my own thread for updating as I know others, like me, like to read about others experiences and trips.

I retired a couple of years back and thought that visiting stations would be my thing and something to get out and about maybe once a month. I've since taken the view that ticking off the whole country is not really what i want to do though I enjoy the planning challenge of getting lots of stations "ticked off" in a day so have set myself the initial challenge of completing all the stations in the 3 regions of North West, West Midlands and East Midlands. That's going reasonably well and I take a county by county (ORR spreadsheet) approach which in some areas is better than others with County Day Rangers being an extremely cost effective way to get things done. I started with my home county Cheshire and have since progressed through Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Gtr Manchester, Merseyside, Herefordshire and Lancashire. My initial thoughts on the state of the network are I can quite see why Burnham wanted to get Gtr Mcr stuff in the Bee Network as the stations are what can be described as utilitarian, unloved and in far too many cases desolate. Merseyrail and to a degree what I've seen in the West Midlands knocks it into a cocked hat. Generally though the state of stations big and small is actually quite positive with local Friends of groups doing a grand job of making places feel welcoming. The number of small coffee shops and cafes (and pubs) who see the station and railway environment as a place to do business is just fantastic though maybe not for my waistline.

However, my love of travelling on trains and getting to different places couldn't just be about ticking off stations on a list so i set myself the task of completing one slightly more ambitious challenge each year. Last year I did the Aberdeen-Penzance in one go in the last week of service and have the badge to say I survived 13+ hours on a Voyager. This year I wanted to do something slightly different so having watched Geoff Marshall do the all platform 0's video a while back i started to investigate if that was possible. There's been an additional station added since Geoff did it so we're up to 10 Platform 0's and with an early start and late finish it is doable in a day. I did that yesterday and will do a follow on post with some detail around that later. I'm already outline planning for next years challenge as well.

Safe travels everyone.

 

[The Mercian]

10 Platform 0's in a Day - Tuesday 7 July 2026

I obviously got the idea for this from Geoff Marshall's video from a few years back with the added bonus (?) of an extra station with a Platform 0 in Bradford Forster Square. The question was is it still possible in a day? Using Geoffs station order template i.e. starting in Cardiff finishing in Edinburgh it seemed to me you could fit Bradford in fairly easily without adding too much time as its kind of on the way from Stockport to Leeds.

So the planning started and following two timetable changes since I began planning we ended up after several changes with a route of:

Cardiff Central-Paddington-Farringdon-Redhill-St Pancras-Rainham-Gravesend-St Pancras-London Kings Cross-Doncaster-Sheffield-Stockport-Piccadilly-Victoria-Bradford Interchange-Bradford Forster Square-Leeds-York-Waverley-Haymarket (Platform 0s in bold)

I think having the two stations most distant from everywhere else at the start and end (stubs) seems the most logical way of doing this, helped by the fact both are at the "ends" of mainline railways. I did look to see if i could start at home, I live near Macclesfield, but no matter how i tried to make it work, it just meant you couldn't do it in a day.

I did have some plan B's for some of the routes but there were some places where if i missed the connection i was in real trouble and the whole thing would have collapsed potentially leaving me stranded.

Obviously turnarounds at each station needed to be long enough to allow a picture to be taken as proof of visiting so this did add some time to each Platform 0 station and meant i did ensure turnarounds were quick and normally no more than 10-15 minutes. I researched each station to check layouts so i knew where each 0 platform was located to ensure if i needed to get a move on I was prepared for a run/sprint.

In terms of ticketing, I decided to use a mixture of Advance and Anytime Singles and apart from the Leeds-Edinburgh section they were all standard class. My thinking on the 1st Class from Leeds to Edinburgh was it was late in the day, I'd be tired and this was an opportunity to relax with inclusive food and drink. This ticket choice was ok for my budget from the perspective of price, the cost was £245.16 for the whole route, and would have been under £200 if I'd done standard from Leeds to Edinburgh. The drawback was if i got in trouble with late running trains it would necessitate potentially buying additional tickets particularly for Advances. So i was in the hands of the rail system to keep on time.

I traveled down to Cardiff from Wilmslow the night before on the excellent TfW service with 1st class restaurant, I'd thoroughly recommend the Lamb stayed in a Premier Inn and then it was up with the lark to catch the 05:07 to Paddington, pictures taken on Platform 0 at 04:45 and we were off. Obviously the engineering works between Parkway and Swindon meant we were on the Bath and Chippenham diversion route but we arrived pretty much bang on time and it was down the steps to the Liz line and a short hop over to Farringdon. First time on the Liz line, fantastic. Easy change at Farringdon though i was on the wrong end of the train so a yomp up to Thameslink and first train out to Redhill where we arrived about 9am. pictures taken and it was retrace the steps back to Farringdon and on to St Pancras on the 09:18. Quick transfer at St Pancras onto the domestic Kent HS line platforms. At this point in became apparent we were leaving behind schedule, 10:20 became 10:26 and we continued to lose time as we headed to Rainham. We lost so much time, 12 minutes in total I missed the admittedly tight connection I'd planned to get back to Gravesend. Fortunately Plan B kicked in and there was a Thameslink train inbetween the two SE Highspeed trains which got me back to Gravesend in time for pictures and a stop for supplies. 12:15 Train back to St P was on time and a quick hop over to Kings Cross allowed time for Platform 0 photos and a stroll across to Platform 7 for the LNER 13:03 up to Doncaster.

I've heard they call Platform 0 at Donny Doncaster North and I can see why, we were a few minutes late so i legged it across to Platform 0 and it is a bit of a trek but after negotiating what seemed like infinite flights of stairs made it back to catch a X Country at 14:59 down to Sheffield. Nice relaxed change at Sheffield allowed another resupply of dwindling rations and the we were off on the 15:43 EMR across to Stockport. We were of course late as there were various goods trains clogging things up near Hope but we trundled into Stockport about 5 minuites late. A quick sprint through the tunnel to hop up to Platform 0 and lo and behold Avanti have got it roped off and closed, no pictures possible so a quick sprint back through the tunnel and on the first train up to Piccadilly. I think this was the Buxton train, 4 x 150s the only train of the day that didn't have air conditioning but we stormed up to Piccadilly and I managed to make a connection on to the one train an hour that goes round the Chord to Victoria. At this point I could have walked through the Northern Quarter or got the tram but thought I'd take the available train as I'd not done that before. Victoria is at always mobbed during rush hour and the Chester-Leeds 17:21 regional service i was getting was yes you've guessed it a two coach effort. Thanks Northern for the game of sardines me and about 300 other people then got involved in. Anyway off we went and fortunately managed to get a seat at Rochdale by standing in the aisle and not by the doors. Arrive at Bradford 16 minutes late but fortunately I'd allowed a lot of time here as I'd never dome the hop over to Forster Square before so even though i walked smartly across and arrived in plenty of time before my 19:00 service to Leeds. A quiet trip into Leeds and then to the most populated Platform 0 of the whole day, it was packed, managed to get my photos then a shuffle over to Platform 15 for the 19:45 TPE up to York. I hadn't thought about York as a problem for connections but even though I'd allowed 13 minutes for the connection we arrived into York 4 minutes late and I was at the very top end of Platform 4 and needed to be at the very bottom end of Platform 9. Quick shuffle sprint ensued and made it with a few minutes to spare for the 20:20 LNER up to Edinburgh. By this stage i was absolutely knackered so a welcoming first class seat with food and drinks. The LNER Golden Ale is very nice and there was plenty of it!! After dozing quite a bit on this final section we got into Waverley early so I managed to get the 22:45 Scotrail for the short hop to Haymarket where I arrived at 22:49, final pictures taken and a short walk to my hotel for a well earned sleep.

A great day out, all 17 hours and 42 minutes of it. I was lucky with delays that were salvageable and no major disruptions or line closures. It could have gone wrong, it didn't and maybe just maybe our train system despite all its faults is actually fairly good.

It'll be back to station bashing in August but planning for next years main trip/challenge around the network has already begun.

 

[Andy Pacer]

That sounds really good, and im pleased to see you got off the trains and visited each platform 0 station "properly".

Glad it all went to plan!

 

[The Mercian]

Thank you. I’m one of life’s optimists so took the attitude that if I planned it properly and it still went wrong so be it, life’s too short too worry about what might go wrong just bask in the satisfaction when it goes right like it did on Tuesday.

A friend did suggest that as I hadn’t stepped onto Platform 0 at Stockport it’s a fail and I’ve have to do it again. I politely told him that’s it’s my challenge my rules!