31st October A Lancashire Day Rover
A nice little day was planned in Lancashire, only because I managed to get booked onto the 07:30 Glasgow fast from Euston, although it was to Wigan was I was in three minds what to do, either a Lancashire day clearing some shacks, maybe a GM rover as Wigan is on the edge, or maybe even another Merseyrail day (paying for a Wigan St Helens day return), in the end I decided on doing Lancashire, with the aim of clearing a few annoying shacks to tidy up.
After a nice drive to the station, I arrived early and decided to have a play with the TVM, mainly to see if Oxford Parkway had been loaded on, it hadnt, but strangely the not-yet-open Cranbrook was added and was available to buy a day return to (I wonder what would have happened if I had purchased that ticket) anyhow 159015 was the unit in charge for the early morning blast to Waterloo, lost a couple minutes before Basingstoke, but arrived into Waterloo pretty much bang on time. No time to do any diversions this morning so it was down to the Northern Line platforms, and with sets 524 & 523 taking me to Euston, where I exited to grab some breakfast from Sainsburys.
There was a signal issue at the depot so units were late arriving, I was standing around P3 and dud 390005 rolled into the platform at around 7:23, a very fast boarding and we departed at 7:32, 2 minutes late, but soon made up with a nice non-stop run to Warrington Bank Quay. I was in my favourite seat (C1) and had time to relax, after Wigan I shifted to the empty C2 (reserved since Euston, for the gamble that the person who had it reserved was on for longer, but my views on the 390 reservation displays compared to the displays on XC which say that the seat is reserved from station X to station Z, so if you board at station Y you knew if the seat was empty than it would be available until Z).
Into Preston arriving on time, so it was time to think as I jumped onto the Manchester Victoria bound service from Blackpool North, formed this morning of duds 150150 & 150203 taking it to my first new shack of the day at
Chorley, the PIS on the other platform said the next train was running late, but was in fact on time to the revised timetable in place, and formed of duds 150201 & 156423, so I took a seat in the 156 for the run to
Layton, and I had forgotten how boring the line to Blackpool North is.
Layton had a 30 minute fester whichever way you did it, so I did a quite search on google maps which suggested a nearby Tesco Express, so I purchased an early lunch and a newspaper before heading back to the station as 156423 & 150201 returned from Blackpool North to take me back through Preston, I was hoping to bail at Adlington, which had a 3 minute connection, sadly we lost time and after departing Buckshaw Parkway 4 down I decided to ditch the plan shack attack at Adlington, and bail once more at Chorley. Good thing as well, as winner
150273 rolled in with dud 150138 behind (was expecting 203 & 150 to reappear) to take me back to Preston, where I took the long walk to platform 3C to board winning dog-box
153331 which was heading to Ormskirk, as I set about clearing the shack which escaped me back in July after the train from Ormskirk got cancelled (which involved a fast bike ride),
Croston
Nice little single track station in a little town, with a little Co-Op, but I had 40 minutes to kill before the 153 would return, so after a look around sat down in the waiting shelter to read some more of my book. 153331 reappeared (as if by magic, who would have guessed it would be the same unit?!) to take me back to Preston, where I transferred over to a Colne bound train, the idea on my original plan was to take it most of the way to Burnley Central, wait for the same units back, but I decided to change my mind. Dud 142068 rolled in with winning
150222 locked out of use on the rear (due to short platforms, only front 2 east of Preston) to take me to
Church & Oswaldtwistle. 10 minutes or so later, dud 150147 rolled in with winner
142054 on the rear, so I took it to the request shack at
Pleasington, a very basic shack.
Over the bridge to the other platform, to flag down a single pacer, dud 142057 to take me the 1 and ¾s to the island platform at
Mill Hill, as I decided to head for a little walk along the canal to get
Cherry Tree into the book as well. Very basic station, and with 150222 & 142068 making its reappearance, arriving 5 minutes late got me in a bit of a panic, as I only had a +4 at the next station, but thankfully the Blackpool South services is timetabled to sit at Lostock Hall for 4 minutes and to sit at Preston for 10 minutes, so it departed on time and I let out a big sigh of relief as a few minutes later it pulled into a particular station which only sees a limited handful of services a day,
Salwick, which is in the middle of nowhere, but has a nice island platform which is always a bonus as 4 minutes later 142054 & 150147 came bouncing back in.
My original plan was to continue to Rishton, but when I was looking at the timetable I noticed the next Blackpool North York service turns into a stopper between Preston & Blackburn, so gave me an idea as I bailed at
Bamber Bridge, walking to the end of the platform to await the level crossing barriers to go up before they were lowered again, thankfully the Blackpool South service was running late (as they been doing most of the day due to poor railhead conditions) so I made it over with a 5 minute wait before 142057 came bouncing back in to take me 1 stop west to
Lostock Hall, to clear the local shacks between Preston & Blackburn. Over the bridge and to the other platform with a 10 minute wait before winner
158756 rolled in, bound for York, but I alighted at Blackburn, my plan was to head south (although when a required 153 came rolling in attached to a 150 heading north, I was thinking of a run to Clitheroe (I did the line on a 70-hauled tour last year), but decided against it. A bit of a shame as duds 156461 & 150112 came rolling in towards Manchester Victoria where I bailed at
Bromley Cross, was thinking of trying to grab the request stop at Entwistle but I didnt have my usual high-viz jacket to request the Blackburn bound service to stop.
Anyhow, crossing over the barrow crossing at Bromley Cross to the other platform to await the next service, which turned out to be duds 150203 & 150150 for the near 11 mile trip to Blackburn, arrival was a few minutes early so I jumped onto an unknown 158 heading towards Leeds, sadly it was new super-dud 158753 which I found out when I bailed at Accrington for a 10 minute, sorry 11 minute, no 10 minute, sorry 11 minute (as the PIS couldnt decide if the next Blackpool North train was on time or running 1 minute late), super-dud 158755 rolled in 2 minutes late for the nice 158 thrash back to Preston, so nice to speed through those local shacks without stopping. To Preston, where the next service south was going to be my booked Euston bound service, so no linear bashing for me tonight.
Winning
390123 rolled in, so I took my reserved seat slightly early (as it was empty and reserved from Wigan North Western), although the person sat opposite decided he would quite fancy hogging the entire table with his oversized bag, until he suddenly noticed that after Warrington that yes someone was sat opposite him. Nice enough run down the WCML via the Trent Valley, until Milton Le Keynes where the usual Saturday night crawl started, as we were caught behind a late running stopper (which was held up due to late running Virgin services which go in front of it), was fine until the Leighton Buzzard area where the crawl began. Arrival into Euston was around 5 minutes down as we regained speed after Watford. Across to Euston Square where S8 stock 29 & 30 took me to
Finchley Road, and 61 & 62 took me back to Baker Street, and Jubilee set 125 & 88 taking me back to Waterloo, all were required LU units.
There was time to grab a quick McDonalds before heading to the concourse to sit on 159011 forming the 23:40 to Salisbury, thankfully no bus tonight, however I think the fast tracks were out of action as it was a crawl behind a stopper, really quite painful to accelerate only to slow back down again, and after Basingstoke the rail head conditions were not the best and it took the driver a couple attempts to pull away on the hill at Grateley. Back home where I headed straight to bed after doing a brief de-bag of stuff, a busy and successful day, and probably my last 05:24 out, 00:58 return day for a fair while (my AP box is getting emptier by the week)
I wonder what would have happened if I purchased this ticket:
The basic station known as Salwick:
1st November A Cat to the Island
To the Isle of Wight, to try and clear the shacks and also getting my first required 483 into the book for the year, and it was a bit of a later start than normal to catch the first service to Portsmouth Harbour from Romsey, formed this morning of 158950 for the near 34 mile run to the end of the line at Portsmouth Harbour. I had 30 minutes or so to play with before the next sailing to Ryde Pier Head (as it is only hourly on Sundays), and my god the area outside Portsmouth Harbour station has all changed.
Gone was the old The Hard interchange building, instead was a building site as they are rebuilding the interchange between boat/train/bus/coach to be fit for the 21st century, so via the Co-Op to grab lunch before heading back to the harbour, passing into the Wightlink terminal for the catamaran service, and it was dud cat Wight Ryder II for the 20 or so minute crossing to Ryde Pier Head, sadly with the fog meant that the upstairs sun deck was closed off so it was the main passenger cabin.
Onto the island that time forgot and to the railway station at the end of the pier, as dud 483007 came rolling in, the former 1938 tube stock looking very red and tired looking, with the guard leaping between the two carriages to check & sell tickets, sadly I had misread the steam timetable as I through it was running today (but it turned out it wasnt running) so we went sailing through Smallbrook Junction and stopping at my first new shack of the day at the former two platforms of
Brading. Not really a lot to do, everything appeared to be closed for the duration, so 20 minutes later winner
483004 rolled up to bounce (the ride on the class 483s is complete and utter rubbish, bounces more than a 142) to
Lake.
A fast walk was in order and the walk between Lake & Sandown might look easy, but it isnt as it crosses some open grassland, and with the ground being wet meant I couldnt do my usual walking speed, but with 2 minutes to spare I made it to
Sandown, and back onto fresh dud 483004 back up the line to
Ryde St Johns Road, where the depot is located. I spotted 483006 & 483009 sitting out in the Ryde sunshine, with the remains of 483002 rotting away on a siding with no sight of 008, must have been in the shed. Anyhow, I decided to walk back to the pier as a gang of local ouths had gathered at the station drinking cans of that cheap cider.
25 or so minutes of leisurely walking later I reached the start of the pier and 5 minutes after that I reached the end of the 200 year old 600+ metre long pier to the area where to board the cat back to the main-land, and after an uneventful journey I alighted and walking up the ramp to hear the sound of the GWR 158 pulling away (although I had planned not to catch that one). I jumped on the next departure, dud 377113 for the 66 chain leap to Portsmouth & Southsea, where I headed into the city centre for some ideas for Christmas gifts, sadly the HMV in the city centre had closed (only one left was at Gunwharf Quays at the harbour), so that idea was killed, so back to the station to see if any of my required 450s were show up on the stopper (the line north of Petersfield was closed so Portsmouth Harbour Peterfield shuttles were running, formed of single 444s, with another 444 on a Waterloo via Winchester service), but it was a dud 450/5, the next southern departure to Fratton was dud 377465 with dud 377408 spotted heading back into Portsmouth.
158961 rolled in, and I grabbed a seat on this busy after Southampton service, for the nice roll back to Romsey, and a nice drive home (via the petrol station for some fuel). A pleasant enough day on the island, where Im due to head back in the new year on the next UK railtours Ticket to Ryde tour, to try and grab Smallbrook Junction, my last 2 483s (008 & 009), plus the track coverage of the steam line (and seemingly random siding mentioned on the website).
Brading:
483004 at Lake:
The Pier Head:
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4th November A trip to Surrey
I had 3 SWT shacks remaining (as Im counting Smallbrook Junction as an Island Line branded shack), Farnham, Ash & Wanborough, all doable on a weekday evening which involved a bit of a tight connection at Woking (normally the trains to Alton give a +8 (or so) from a service from Grateley, but as the service which forms the 17:51 from Woking runs fast to Woking from Waterloo, the +8 is reduced to a +2, but with the advantage of being a cross platform interchange (from P2 to P4).
Or so I had hoped.
The 16:59 from Grateley was on time, and formed of 159010 & 159008 for the 48 mile and 22 chain journey to Woking, pretty much keeping to time until the outskirts of Woking where all of a sudden we crossed over from the fast up to the slow up, so instead of rolling into P2, we rolled into P1. I was swearing a bit under my breath as we rolled in 2 down, as I attempted to dash over the footbridge against the flow of passengers to jump onto the Alton service which thankfully was a couple minutes late itself, formed of low mileage duds 450018 & 450007, I managed to get a seat on this busy service, where it sat on P4 for 5 minutes before departing. No reason was given for the delay, as it rolled into Ash Vale & Aldershot dropping off passengers and reaching
Farnham.
Normally Farnham is the crossing point of services, but due to this one running earlier than normal, it uses the rare (I think) P2 loop at Bentley, however with it departing 7 minutes late, meant the next Waterloo service was held at Bentley for the pair of 450s to clear the single track of this little rural outer-suburban branch line (wink wink). A surprise in the shape of 444005 rolled in 5 minutes late (which seems to follow me around), and to Aldershot where my connection to the next Guildford train was held only by the signaller putting the Waterloo train in front, thank goodness as I dashed like a bat out of a tunnel to the island platform to jump onto an unknown pair of 456s, eventually setting off and coming to a stop at the Aldershot South junction to allow a late running GWR to clear the junction on route to Reading.
Anyhow this meant we rolled into
Wanborough 8 or so minutes late, as I alighted from the pair of units before grabbing the numbers, duds 456007 & 456008. Nothing much around Wanborough to shout about, but before long 456008 & 456007 had returned, running 4 or so minutes late, to take me to
Ash, my final SWT shack. I was happy, it was finally done, but I wasnt finished for the day, oh no, not just yet as I boarded super-dud 166213 for the 2 mile trip to
North Camp and used the walking interchange to walk back to Ash Vale (taking me just over 7 minutes including waiting for the barriers at North Camp to raise). Winner
456022 rolled in with dud 456024 on the rear to take me back to Aldershot, where I noted the pair of 456s next up to Ascot were dud, so I gave them a miss in exchange for the next London bound service. Formed of duds 450040, 450123 & 450547 back to Brookwood, the next service from Basingstoke was a pair of duds, so over to the other platform.
Low mileage dud 450117 (harsh as I need 116 & 118) and high mileage dud 450555 took me one stop west to Farnborough (Main) which is getting work done to it, where I waited for the Portsmouth via Winchester service, although I was expecting a single 444, but was surprised when it was a single 450, mid-mileage dud 450015 for the 14 and a half mile trip back to Basingstoke, which was a busy service. 159001 & 159006 were the units to take me back to Grateley, forming the 20:20 departure from Waterloo, which meant 159001 was cleared for 1000 miles (member number 8, with 159008 so nearly becoming member 9 being on 999 miles and 69 chains).
Ive got some pictures, but I havent uploaded them yet
, we were travelling on a group ticket so it was to a side gate, held open by a bowing attendant, and it was upstairs to the part of the station I didn’t visit yesterday:
