15th July – Another London Smash & Grab
It was another Friday afternoon/evening trip to London, this time with my remaining 3, 376s in my sight, with the idea of grabbing them and heading across to Fenchurch Street for some blind hunting for my final 6x 357s. With the knowledge at which services those 376s were working, I set a completely rough plan, but mainly would be played by ear. A short drive to Andover station, parking in my usual place down a side street, and I was on the platform for the 14:38 service to Waterloo, formed this afternoon of 158886 leading 159107 & 159001, so doing my usual after grabbing the ID of the rear unit I had a fast walk to jump onto the mostly empty 158.
An on time arrival into Waterloo, and to kill some time I headed across to Waterloo East where I spotted a required 466 at the rear of a 10-coach set heading towards Charing Cross, so a quick check of RTT highlighted a couple moves I could take to grab that 10-coach working back out. The first was a pair of dud 375s which I’m glad I turned down as they got stuck outside Charing Cross waiting for a platform due to a failed Folkestone service blocking up one of the 6 platforms. Next up was duds 466015 & 465186 (as I previously noted it was described as “formed of 6 coaches” so had hoped it would be a required 466). A fast walk via the barriers at Charing Cross (roll on August when the platforms at London Bridge reopen for Charing Cross services) to platform 6, although I couldn’t get to the front unit before the whistle hence jumping on the rear unit, however it was winner
466011 leading duds 465003 & 465163 to take me back over the river for the 3 quarters of a mile trip to Waterloo East.
With nothing due to head back towards Charing Cross for a good 10 minutes, I headed down to the Jubilee line, which was like an oven, so not wanting to hang around for too long saw me jumping on the first service, formed of duds 96121 & 96004 for another 62 chain leap to London Bridge, where I exited into the nice cool air heading towards platform 3. One thing I noticed when on 96004 is the announcements said which side the doors opened on (pretty sure that is new, or something I hadn’t noticed before). From what it sounded the main way from the LU station to the low-level platforms were blocked involving a detour (so something to bear in mind for any tight connections), however I was headed to platform 3, and with a couple dud services rolling through towards Cannon Street, winners
376015 &
376002 rolled in to take me to Cannon Street, where due to a slightly late arrival meant they would be forming the next service back out to London Bridge, meant a quick change of units to be in 376002 back out to London Bridge.
Another walk over the remains of the footbridge to platform 3, as another trio of networkers were spotted heading in towards Cannon Street, with another required 466 spotted on the front, so I was happy when dud 376025 rolled in with winner
376032 on the rear, my final 376, which I am grateful for as I don’t have to worry about the hot-boxes ever again! To Cannon Street, and a short walk as I boarded winner
466008 at the rear of duds 465159 & 465001 back out to London Bridge, taking my requirements down to 5 of the 2-car Networkers. Anyhow a couple services later at London Bridge before I boarded duds 376030 & 376006 back to Cannon Street, where I wanted to head down to the underground until I spotted a required 375/9 in the middle of a trio of units on platform 7, and a required 375/9 at the rear of a trio of units on platform 1.
It would be rude to turn down a 375/9, so it was to platform 1 with duds 375914 & 375912 were leading winner
375910, with a few minutes before departure to head back out to London Bridge, for another short wait (at this point I decided the 357s can wait for another day and to have a look at what else tips up, highlighting potential 375s trio departures from Cannon Street, although as most come from sidings via a reversal near Blackfriars to reach Cannon Street via the Metropolitan curve meant I couldn’t eyeball them arriving via London Bridge. Anyhow after a few dud services (not that surprisingly as I only need a handful of 465/9s as well as those 5 466s), I boarded 465049/465902/466038 back to Cannon street, as I needed to use the toilet.
Once more I had to decide between 375 trios (after London Bridge, one ran fast to Rochester, the other to High Brooms), so picked dud 375603 leading winner
375628 with dud 375623 at the rear for another short hop to London Bridge, for another brief fester before fresh duds 376002/376015 returned from doing a loop around the south east of London to take me back to Cannon Street, where I wasn’t there for long before coming back to London Bridge on winner
375903 leading duds 375906 & 375922, taking my 375/9 requirements down to 2 of the sub-class (and 14 overall). Once at London Bridge I remembered something from earlier in the week, that a 700 worked service was due to depart to Brighton in 10 minutes, so foolishly fighting the crowds on P1-P2 (should have crossed over to P3 for an easier way down to the concourse), I headed over to London Bridge Low level, to wait and see if that 700 would tip up today.
The platform was announced, and the train was described as running late due to earlier congestion, but in rolled
700107 in all its Dessie City glory, taking a seat in coach 2 or 12 (quite firm) as I looked down the train, at all the open gangways, at the colour screens saying which coaches were busier than others (no prize for guessing that the rear coach was red for standing room only and the front coaches were green!) We eventually got going 10 minutes late and picked up a good bit of speed (although I guess a good test for DC acceleration is from East Croydon or Gatwick where the speed is higher). Around 10 minutes later and with the first 700 into my “ten mile club” I alighted at East Croydon, and crossed over to P1 for a Southern branded train to Victoria.
A busy 377432 & 377141 rolled in and I grabbed a seat in the 3+2 coach of 432 (the seats on the 700 were a lot better than these seats), a quick hop to Clapham Junction put 377141 over 10 miles, where I had two options, either the 19:20 Exeter/Bristol service from Clapham, or head to Waterloo and board the 19:50 Salisbury. My mind was made up when the 19:20 rolled in and it was absolutely heaving, passengers standing all the way down the aisles, with the guard having to do the doors from the front as the vestibule areas were pretty much full, the service left passengers behind at Clapham. I think it must be down to the 19:20 being the first service which the £16 day returns are valid on departing London, not helped with it being both an Exeter & Bristol. Anyhow for me it was a quick hop back to Waterloo on 455725/455723, with enough time to grab some food from Sainsburys before returning to the concourse to take a seat on 159101 forming the 19:50 to Salisbury, which called additionally at Clapham to “rescue” passengers for stations between Basingstoke & Salisbury who couldn’t board the earlier train.
Anyhow, 9 new units into my book, with another class cleared for haulage, plus the 1st of many 700s, it was a successful day, although it was good to finally get some speed and away from those bus stop leaps between Cannon Street & London Bridge, although come August that move won’t be possible for many months.
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16th July – A Central Scotland Mini-Rover
A weekend trip to Edinburgh, with the main focus to do the Queen Street diversions (I know it’s taken me this long to get around to doing them), although my original plan went into the bin after all holiday at work got cancelled due to a “VVIP Visit” (which got cancelled due to the change of PM), and my 2nd plan got put into the “to do next year” with the Scot Rail strike affecting many services from Edinburgh.
Anyhow it was to Grateley station to catch the 05:27 service for the first time in a fair few weeks, formed this morning of 159017 for the nice run to Waterloo, noting that the 05:59 service today had been cancelled due to lack of train crew. Once at Waterloo I had time to kill so decided to head down to the Northern Line to make a change and was rewarded with winners
51560/51710 for the short hop to Charing Cross, followed by
51547/51548 to Tottenham Court Road. A couple duds later and I decided to cut my losses and jumped on 51549/51550 to Warren Street, and dud 11065/11066 to take me to Kings Cross St Pancras. Swinging via the ticket office to pick up my rover for the day (as I hadn’t had the chance to visit Andover ticket office during the week).
I was booked onto the 08:00 Edinburgh service, which RTT had from going from P0, so I took the long walk to the front of the train to make a note of which 91 would be pulling me to Edinburgh (also making a note of any other 91s in the station just in case RTT was wrong), sadly it was dud 91102 “City of York” leading dud DVT 82225. As a left over from my failed weekday trip I was in 1st class, so it was back down to coach M, my assigned seat was in a table of 4 on the left hand side in the direction of travel, so I shifted to a unreserved table of 2 on the right hand side (which gives the best views north of Newcastle). As it was the 08:00 departure it was a breakfast train, although all breakfast was when the trolley reached coach M (just south of Peterborough) was a muffin with some syrup inside, and a raspberry yoghurt with some nuts/seeds you could mix in with it. The choices for the all-day sandwiches were Egg Mayo or Salmon, so when the trolleys came round again after York I turned down the offer of a sandwich, instead picking out some crisps.
A enjoyable run up the ECML, reading my book (as to be honest the ECML is rather boring down south), non-stop to York, then via the Darlington loop, Newcastle & Berwick, arriving into Edinburgh around 7 minutes ahead of schedule (I guess due to the North Berwick services only being hourly and the Scotrail Dunbar services being cancelled freed up some paths allowing a faster journey). It was into platform 8 arriving around the same time as a Virgin from the West arrived from the Bat Cave. With some time to kill before the Plymouth bound XC would depart I had RTT fired up to highlight potential leaps to Haymarket, with a required 170 spotted on a Glenrothes with Thornton service, however another required 170 was spotted working a Perth service which would depart first. A good call as it was a double winner with
170416 leading
170419 to take me the 1 mile 19 chains to Haymarket.
I had a couple options at Haymarket to get me back to Edinburgh in time to make a decent connection, first was a trio of dud 158s from Dunblane, which rolled in at the same time as a pair of 334s from Glasgow, so it was the 3rd service to take me back to Edinburgh Waverley formed of duds 170413 & 170429. The Plymouth bound XC was departing from bay platform 4 (required micro-grice) and with a ticket check before you could board 220020, finding my reserved seat for the nice run out of Waverley back east to
Dunbar, a very pretty station on a loop from the main-line (which I’ve only ever previously called at on a HST from Aberdeen). 8 minutes later and dud 220029 rolled in to take me back towards Edinburgh, where due to some timetable padding we arrived a good 6 (or so) minutes ahead of schedule (I know a long distance XC service arriving early!).
A short walk over to the west side bay platforms, foolishly turning down a chance to put myself ahead of my schedule to see which 170s were on a Glasgow Queen Street, sadly they were both dud, and the decision would come back to bite me later. Anyhow with nothing else required heading to Haymarket I took a seat on dud 334012 for the nice trip via the Bathgate line to
Drumgelloch, over the large footbridge and to the other platform (nothing much of note around the station itself) and onto duds 334010/334017 to take me to
Caldercruix which is a station with pretty much a 30 minute fester as the half hourly services to/from Milngavie pass, and it is an evil footbridge.
Anyhow with 30 minutes to kill, I had a quick look around, the station car-park was empty and there didn’t appear to be anything else much around, apart from housing. Back to the station and the wind had started to pick up with some rain in the air, however nothing came from the rain as I boarded 334005/334035 to take me to
Armadale a station with a nearby Asda, over the evil footbridge to the other platform (has steps but they double back on themselves coming down outside the station), a group of youths were messing around throwing litter around (empty/full crisp packets, bottles of pop), and I was glad when 334005 & 334035 rolled in to take me to
Blackridge the final half hourly served shack on this line.
A nice part of the country which some good scenery (a large lake) but with parts of urban decay with some old buildings rotting away, some unfulfilled plans (i.e. a large area of wasteland connected to a road via a roundabout blocked off with some large rocks). Anyhow it wasn’t long before 334001/334038 rolled in to take me to
Livingston North which is an evil station to get between platforms in any sort of hurry, took me 4 minutes and that was running at the end. Anyhow this is where things went wrong as signalling had failed around the Hyndland area which meant the next Edinburgh bound service was around 25 minutes late (I knew I should have jumped on that pair of 334s earlier to grab Uphall). A quick revised plan was formed with duds 334017 & 334010 taking me to
Bathgate where I would have had a tight +5 to get between platforms (back to a large footbridge, this time with lifts).
Revised plan time and 20 minutes or so later 334002/334016 took me to
Airdrie, followed shortly by 334039/334031 for the tiny leap to
Coatdyke followed 10 minutes later in the freezing wind by duds 318260 & 320319 to
Coatbridge Sunnyside, where I decided to call it a day and crossed over via the roadbridge to board 334023/334030 which was at the time running 25 minutes late to
Uphall. Another evil station if you want to get between platforms in a hurry, you need a good 6 or 7 minutes to get to the other side via a road bridge. I should have stayed on the same platform for a short wait, but I knew from earlier the next Glasgow bound service had one of my last 2 334s on and that afterwards it would go to Yoker sidings. Anyhow winner
334006 attached with 334018 took me to Livingston North where I had a +6 connection on RTT, so crossing over to the other side to be greeted with the news that the next train had been cancelled at Bathgate.
Great, as I took a seat, the next service was down as being 15 minutes later, that to got cancelled (or made to run fast after Bathgate), so 30 minutes later duds 334007/334009 rolled in to take me back to Haymarket, which was like a ghost town in terms of departures (due to the strike). A dud 170 rolled in to Edinburgh which I turned down to head to the trams, and after a short while dud 275 rolled in on route to the Airport, but winner
269 was York Place bound, so a quick hop to West End Princes Street saw that tram into my book. Tram
259 rolled in on the island platform to take me back to Haymarket as I heard the last Glasgow – Edinburgh service accelerate away a few minutes early, but next York Place bound tram was winner
262, so it was another short hop to West End with another required tram
267 heading the other way.
At Haymarket, I highlighted a 390 arrival was due, so it was a quick hop back to the station and down the stairs, jumping on an unknown 390 just as the door hustle alarm went, a quick check saw it being required
390136 for the short hop to Edinburgh Waverley. A smile on my face as I exited the station, noting that the departure screens had 4 departures showing, a late running XC to Dundee and 3 services to Helensburgh Central, it was like a ghost town. Anyhow a short walk to St Andrews Square to carry on with my tram hunting, saw winner tram
266 taken around the corner to Princes Street with a 10 minute fester (with the background noise of the Stereophonics playing live at Edinburgh Castle) before winner
272 to West End Princes Street, in the meanwhile I had spotted another couple required trams before spotting 275 coming back from the Airport.
A 10 minute fester at West End before winner
256 took me to Haymarket, with fresh dud 259 back to West End followed by winner
271 back to Haymarket. I was quite happy as 8 out of the 9 trams out this evening were required, which put a big dent into my requirements, leaving a mere 8 trams to get from the large Edinburgh Tram fleet which is underused (due to ordering the trams for the whole route towards Leith before it got cut back to York Place). It was to my hotel (OK, university student accommodation which was being hired out during the summer holidays), with a bus on a route 12, fleet 45 (a Volvo Hybrid) to a stop over a railway bridge (single track line towards a waste loading point). After checking in and dumping my bag it was back to the road for a short run on double decker fleet number 880 (running a route 16) back towards the city centre, to grab some food from McDonalds opposite St Andrews Square (mainly to keep an eye on the trams just in case I missed one).
My final move of the evening was another double deceker, this time working a route 25, fleet number 405 back to the bus stop, to relax for the evening on a comfy bed for a good nights sleep. Overall a good day with several shacks scored (the remaining ones after Coatbridge will be easy enough to do on a Roundabout in November time), 4 more units in the bag, plus 8 trams (not forgetting 4 more 1995 stock units).
Some pictures:
220020 at Dunbar (to break up my ECML shack requirements between Edinburgh & Newcastle)
Rejoining the main-line:
334012 departing Drumgelloch
334019 departing Armadale:
), 444 to Clapham, 377 to Brighton (because there's no shortage of them from Clapham so, even if one is caped then there'll be another along shortly. Alternatively, drive to Winchester, 444 to Waterloo, tube to St Pancras/Farringdon/Blackfriars and then Thameslink to Brighton.
