The Various Random Mutterings of Kite

[Techniquest]

If a 159 can't hit 90mph between Westbury and Castle Cary there's something wrong! There's plenty of fast running available over quite the mileage (just short of 20 miles if memory serves) between the two!

 

[Kite159]

I forgot how long and slow the Thameslink diversion is between East Croydon & Blackfriars. 10 miles and it takes 34-odd minutes.

Probably quicker going via underground to Victoria and getting a fast service to East Croydon if you can time it right.

 

[Techniquest]

Aye I've done it before, good golly gosh it's slow! Done it on peak time trains before so still pathed to avoid conflicts etc but I so wouldn't want to do that too often! ECR-VIC is so much quicker!

 

[Kite159]

At least it gave me a chance to have a quick battery boost for my iPod (double 377) by sitting in the former 1st class section

 

[Kite159]

The Scottish weekender

For my birthday weekend I decided to treat myself, and use up some of my East Coast reward points for a pair of First Class tickets, to revisit a city in Scotland I didn’t really see much off, that was Aberdeen (previously in May I arrived on a service from Inverness and departed 10 minutes later to Dundee). I was lucky in securing one of the rare reward tickets for a 17:00 Friday departure from the Cross.

Super dud 159017 took me along the West of England to Basingstoke, where I had a choice of services to get to Reading, based on what the FGW unit was, when I saw dud 150002 pull in I decided to try for a Voyager, running slightly delayed due to being stuck behind a delayed 444 from Weymouth (even the stopper which is overtaken at Eastleigh was ahead of the Weymouth service), and was lucky as winner 221120 arrived. Into Reading where it was a bit chaotic, a HST windscreen had smashed around Didcot, causing delays, a 165 arrived from Oxford, it was standing on arrival and left passengers behind at Reading so I decided to wait for the first HST in around 45 minutes, sadly formed of duds 43143/43033. Arrival into Paddington with my buffer time pretty much destroyed (I had planned to get to Kings Cross for around 4pm to sample the delights of the lounge, it was now 4:20)

Down to the Hammersmith & City line platform to wait an eastbound service, and the lottery threw up a Circle line unit. Was going ok until it reached Baker Street where it waited for 10 minutes at a red signal. Into Kings Cross at 4:45 so I headed straight to the train waiting for departure, finding a spare table seat (not a solo table though) as the seat I was booked in wasn’t the best (M1). The service was formed of winner 91117 with DVT 82220 at the rear, sadly the evening meal advertised wasn’t being offered, and it was the all-day menu. Orders taken pretty much straight away and delivered before 17:20, nice relaxing trip to Edinburgh, some parts of the country are rather beautiful at night with the lights.

At Edinburgh, I paused for a moment before heading out to the concourse area to purchase the tickets to Haymarket. I had a couple options, and jumped on the first available service, made up of winners 170395/170409, my first Scotrail 170/3 for the short mile and a quarter trip to Haymarket, across the bridge and down onto dud 334038 leading winner 334030, and finally back out again on dud 334037 with winner 334036 behind. To Haymarket, where I wrapped up warm for the cold wind and walked to the Travelodge for a night’s sleep, good location and a good hotel, one to keep in the diary for future usage.

On the Saturday morning, nice fresh start as I walked back to Haymarket, purchasing the tickets required, and looking for potential winners, and seeing the East Coast service from Glasgow had the potential for a winning 91/82 I jumped onto it, being led with winner DVT 82203, but sadly had dud 91124 on the rear. At Edinburgh after a brief moment to pick up breakfast and a newspaper I jumped onto winner 170418 for the short hop back to Haymarket where foolishly jumped back onto double dud 334038/334030 before getting double winner 170423/170408 back to Haymarket.

15 minutes to spare, so taking a seat and waiting for the Aberdeen train, formed today of 170431. Finding a spare table seat on the right hand side (and removing my seat reservation slip from the seat I was meant to have), for the long trip up the coast, first stop after Haymarket was Leuchars, with it being semi-fast after that, I had forgotten what a beautiful line it is, running up the fife coast, over the Tay bridge and up the Aberdeenshire coast, seeing the North Sea being rough. Into Aberdeen where I had a look around the city for a couple hours, bit chilly with the wind, but a nice day. Heading back to the station with a couple hours to spare (probably should have booked onto a later service from Haymarket), so I decided to get a return ticket to the first station south of Aberdeen which sees a reasonable service, Stonehaven.

170417 took me down the coast with 35 minutes to spare in Stonehaven itself, station appeared to be on the edge of town with a suggested walking time of 20 minutes to the town centre, so I decided to take a seat watching the station staff grit the platforms, and it was rather cold with the wind. Seems strange that the station gets 2 Scotrail trains an hour southbound, but only 1 train an hour northbound as the train from Glasgow runs fast. 170432 (another winning 170) was 10 minutes late arriving and was a bit busy, but managed to find a seat for the 16 mile trip back to the city, where I had the “travelling story” experience (an art-exhibition on the station where you wore large headphones and watched a Victorian style show), made use of the loo at the shopping centre, and waited as the East Coast HST arrived into P3.

The last Northern Lights of the day was formed of 43310/43302, both winners, taking up a single table seat for the long trip down to London, made longer by being a stopping service after Doncaster (with another stopping service from Leeds 10 minutes behind, surely would make sense having the 225 set being the stopper with the longer dwell times of the 125 set, maybe having an nominal call at Stevenage, couldn’t make up the time lost at Edinburgh and entered Kings Cross 15 minutes down). With the staff change at Edinburgh meant up having two lots of the sandwiches/crisps, overall a nice relaxing trip, noticing a complete difference in terms of ticket checks, between Aberdeen and Edinburgh the guard went up and down the 1st class area after every station, after Edinburgh they were nowhere to be found, I wonder how much revenue East Coast lost by free weekend first upgrades.

Into the Cross and down to the Victoria line, not a mad rush as the previous week, but soon I was at Victoria, having looked at RTT on the way into Kings Cross to identity potential services which stopped at Battersea Park, first was a Caterham bound 455826 (a winner), followed by a London Bridge bound winning 455815 to take me to Clapham where I had a couple options for the route back, with the last Salisbury train not due to depart until 23:40, so I headed towards P6 to get onto the Basingstoke service via East Putney, formed of winner 450566 leading dud 450098, quite busy until Surbiton where I ditched to wait a couple minutes for an Alton bound service, formed of double winners 450028 & 450023 to take me to Woking where my splitting came to an end and caught 159016 back to Grateley, the end of a good day and a bit in Scotland.

7th December – A tale of 2 curves

The original plan with the ticket purchased earlier in the month was to have another day out bashing various units in London, however that changed when I saw the engineering works posters with the Salisbury to Yeovil Junction closed and services being diverted via Westbury, and the Yeovil curve, a bit of track which is quite rare, so quick change of plan, and tickets later saw me having an early morning drive to Salisbury to catch the 6:48 service to Exeter.

Formed of triple 159002/159008 & 159020 with 159002 locked out of use, I think I was the only passenger on board as it set off, going quite fast towards Westbury (which took me completely by surprise as it felt faster than the regular services), Westbury was in darkness, the next service to depart Westbury wasn’t for another couple hours so it was quiet. Reversing so 020 was leading, it set off down to the Reading-Taunton line and having a good top speed run before coming away from the mainline to the Heart of Wessex and down towards Yeovil Pen Mill, before changing tracks to go onto the track (which is longer than expected) to leave the Heart of Wessex to get onto the West of England line just before Yeovil Junction, where another couple passengers joined and it carried on as per a regular service.

I alighted at Honiton where 159002 was detached as it would form the first return service of the day, I had a quick look around Honiton but couldn’t see anything which took me eyes (add to that it was raining lightly), after walking up the path to get a picture, I headed back to 002 to take a seat and waited for the service to begin. Back towards Yeovil Junction where passengers alighted for a replacement bus for intermediate stations, and the service went down the curve to Pen Mill where it waited for 15 minutes for the next Exeter bound service to pass and clear the single track.

The unit continued up towards Castle Cary, clearing the points and the driver must have opened her up and started accelerating to 90 mph, certainly felt like it, and who says a Voyager is noisy at top speed? Arrival into Westbury for the reversal, a bit more busier now than it was a couple hours ago, met the next Exeter train and it set off down towards Salisbury, running fast pass Warminster and into Salisbury where it had a controlled accident with 159101, as both set off towards Waterloo making additional calls at Whitchurch & Overton, so arrived into Basingstoke a few minutes down, but left on time (no 6 minute wait at Basingstoke today), however I ditched at Basingstoke to await the next London service in the search of winning EMUs.

First up was a pair of 444s, 444028 & 444034 and both were duds, my 444 luck is terrible. Ditching at Woking for the next service proved to be a lot more successful with double winners 450002 & 450557 to take me to Clapham Junction, where another couple minute wait later saw another double 444 pull into P7, first set only opening the doors, so quickly down to grab the number and board (before moving forward to the front), formed of winner (yippee) 444040 with dud 444019, at least 1 more 444 can be ticked off in my book.

After going via Sainsburys and up the stairs to Waterloo East (just how many stairs are there from street level to the East?), to head over to catch the Charing Cross – Cannon Street shuttle service, to get my 2nd required curve of the day, my spirits sank a bit when I saw my least favourite EMUs pull in, 376027/376020, both duds, both hot, both lacking comfort, I dislike 376s, they should put Pans on and send them up North instead of the 319s, at least the Mid-North can’t complain at getting sent old trains. Right over the curve to Cannon Street, nice to see that part of London from another angle, and into a busy Cannon Street, gates wide open. My plan was to get some Southeastern units doing the 56 chains to/from Bridge, and was quite successful.

First up were 465905 leading 465185 to London Bridge, with one car of 465185 being locked out of use, across the bridge to P3 to get my only single unit, dud 465912 into Cannon Street. Out again on winners 465040/465184 and back in on 375603/375811 where the guards were talking how successful that run had been with tickets sold on the train (one had taken over £1000). Bit of a break before heading back out on 465916/465042, and across the bridge to get onto dud 465155 leading 465169.

Leaving Cannon Street for the final time on the other units doing the Charing Cross service having elected to skip the 376s, good thing as it was winners 465029/465008 for the trip to Waterloo East. Heading over the bridge to the main station to jump onto a Reading bound service hoping for some 458 love, sadly it was dud 450106 leading winner 450107 which I stayed on until Vauxhall, alighting and waiting a couple minutes before winners 455718/455919 pulled in to take me to Clapham Junction. Across the platform to jump onto Southern winner 377125 with dud 377150 behind to take me to Victoria, where another cross platform managed to get me a table seat on a double 377/6 on a Brighton service, dud 377613 leading with winner 377612 behind. Gave me a chance to charge my phone up for the nice busy run down to East Croydon, quite a busy train with standing passengers after Clapham Junction, but not in First Class as they were kicked out from standing in that area of the train which is the same as the rest of the train.

Into East Croydon with a 10 minute break before the next Thameslink service where I foolishly decided to do, however double winners 377209/377507 pulled in, so sitting in my usual place in the “What was meant to be 1st class” end with my iPod getting a quick charge for a slow run towards Blackfriars, 30 minutes to do 10 miles, yawn. At Blackfriars I got onto dud 319013 to Elephant where a quick (as fast as you can change platforms at Elephant & Castle) platform change scored me winner 319452 back up to Blackfriars. Quickly checking RTT and saw a 3 minute connection at Farringdon, and jumped onto the next northbound service formed of winner 319429 leading dud 319218 where I left 3rd rail land for the first time since hitting it at Basingstoke.

Across the platform and onto double winner 319370/319427 for the 46 chain journey back to Blackfriars with another fast turnover (thankfully the barriers were open which allowed me to use the shorter trip on the north side) to score 319442 back north, and 319426 carrying on heading north to St Pancras, it was touch and go if I was going to attempt a 4 minute connection with a Finsbury park service, but I made it with a minute to spare (although it messed up my right leg). Winner 313047 was my reward for the 2 mile trip to Finsbury Park, however I hit Finsbury at a time where there wasn’t a lot of southbound stoppers (due to the mainline being closed forcing al traffic via Hertford, so down to the underground where I picked a Piccadilly line service back to Kings Cross, and back to St Pancras to get double winner 319447/319424 to Blackfriars. I was going to head back up north, but there was cancellations & delays with the next northbound expected to be in 29 minutes time, so I went down to the District line back to Victoria to make use of my BZ6-Gatwick tickets purchased earlier in the day from the guard around Andover.

First time catching a Gatwick Express branded service from Victoria, and I was keen to avoid catching either of the 3 duds previously rode on, however it is quite hard to get the unit numbers from the Gatwick Express branded platforms, so I just had to go through the barrier, travelcard worked a treat and I was rewarded with winners 442418/442410, (5 down, 19 to go), quite a busy service with many tourists getting ripped off by paying over the odds for old stock for a service which is barely faster than a regular Southern service. On the route down to Gatwick, I had a quick look, sadly Gat Express was half-hourly so I didn’t fancy a 45-odd minute wait for the next service which wasn’t 418/410, so changed over to P1 to get onto a 12-car service bound for Victoria.

Winner 377115 was leading with dud 377444 in between and winner 377112 at the end, a 377/4 sandwich. Taking a table seat in 112 I looked at the options at Clapham with the hope of scoring the triple 450 for Basingstoke/Alton which arrives into Woking at the same time as the 159 for Salisbury (and beyond), sadly my luck wasn’t to be as the 377 got later and later and arrived into Clapham around 8 minutes down. No triple 450, so I decided to get onto a busy 159009/159014 back to Salisbury, and with a nice drive-home (via picking up a takeaway as I was a bit hungry).

34 winners out of 51 units, and 2 curves covered (No idea when the next time that Yeovil curve will come available again on a SWT service, normally the FGW HSTs run fast between Westbury & Exeter when they do it)

 

[noddy1878]

The Scottish trip sounded great. I'm going again in the new year doing exactly what you have done, using East Coast reward points to get there. You also scored quite a lot in London considering you must have got there quite late (I assume a lot later than your original plan?)

 

[Kite159]

Around 4 hours later than the original 'plan' (7:00 from Andover, probably change at Woking for the triple 450 and see what was happening at Clapham)

I enjoy my Sunday random trips, no real plan, just RTT and ideas. I will probably be up in London on the 28th doing a 1st class travelcard before it is hiked in price, so will restrict myself mainly to the TOCs which have a 1st class section.

I've got enough points for 4 standard class tickets on EC, where to go *ponders*

----

Won 5th prize in the raffle on the Shrewsbury Christmas UK railtour

 

[Techniquest]

Fantastic time had by the looks of it, some annoying bits of track to cover done and plenty of winners had! If it were me, I'd spend a while at CLJ and do some spotting of GX 442s next time, get an idea of what's going where and when then plan around those observations. Particularly when you've had a good few of them.

Personally I'm not rushing to get the 442s, not worried if I don't clear that class. If I do then bonus but there's far more interesting stuff to go after, personally I'd rather go 313 bashing than spend a fortune on 442s!

 

[Kite159]

I think for my remaining 442s I might have a Friday evening peak-time bash in the new year to try and get them when they are on regular duties.

 

[Keith Jarrett]

I think for my remaining 442s I might have a Friday evening peak-time bash in the new year to try and get them when they are on regular duties.

Best way that I found was to cover the Eastbourne turn out of London Bridge and then get the rest once they go onto the Brighton semi fasts. If they all run to time, then Clapham Junction to East Croydon is the ideal stretch. Forget the London Bridge to Brighton as that turns up on Victoria workings later on. I will be over there some time in the new year as I'm still after a couple of plastic pigs for the coveted 10 miles.

 

[Kite159]

Thanks Keith, an idea for the new year

I only have 3 lists of covered units on my phone, 442s plus 165s/166s to double check against to try and avoid duds (only works if plan is flexible)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
11th & 12th December – Manchester Wayfarer

For my final big overnight trip of the year I decided to book tickets on a Thursday night to stay overnight at Stockport ready for a certain service which only runs once a week, also to give me a chance to cover the Metrolink network. Mad fool that I am decided to book tickets via Cross Country instead of going via Virgin, reason was timings and that I wanted to try and get that part of track used by Cross Country services from Reading which go via Warwick.

First leg of the day was an evening service to Basingstoke, formed of double duds 159019 & 159008, which was running late, arrived into Basingstoke 8 minutes down so the chance of seeing what FGW unit was on the Basingstoke-Reading service was gone (chance of an easy winner if the 150s weren’t running and replaced by 3 car 165/166), so I was waiting around the station on an evening of delays, the train from Weymouth was 20-odd minutes late due to electrical supply issues, even the “Waterloo Stopper” which the Weymouth service overtakes at Eastleigh arrived first (shouldn’t the time it reach Basingstoke the word Stopper replaced, in case someone confuses it for the Basingstoke Stopper?). The delays meant that winner 220011 was 15 minutes late in arriving for the hop to Reading.

At Reading I had a wait for the next XC service, which was heading to York, to arrive, again arriving late, departed Reading 20 minutes down, but I was lucky in having the table seat reserved and it was winner 220003, managed to claw back 5 minutes towards Leamington but got caught behind a stopper on route towards Birmingham losing another 10 minutes, which meant I had missed my booked connection, ah-well. Going up the stairs to see what platform the next service was due to depart meant heading back down the same stairs as it was the opposite platform and my first on-time service of the day arrived in the same of dud 220006 for the final leg of the journey to Stockport. Managed to get myself another table seat in order to finish watching the final Batman movie, arrived into Stockport 40 minutes later than booked so delay repay email was sent off the same evening from the hotel.

Premier Inn Stockport, around 10 minute walk from the station, can’t really fault it, as I had a sleep ready for Friday. After a nice sleep and walk back towards the station, picking up my Wayfarer from the ticket office, I headed up towards P3-P4 (does anything use that bay platform?), showing my Denton ticket to the Northern guard and to the main platform, sitting back and reading the paper, counting down the time for the 9:22 service to Stalybridge, yep the Denton flyer (the single to Denton pushing it over 9:30 where the Wayfarer was valid from, I wonder how many of the other 100-or so tickets sold for Denton were for the same reason?).

The Northern mystery DMU unit generator (NMDMUG) was in place today, what would arrive, and I was surprised when winner 150103 arrived with dud 150138 behind, and I had 150103 all for myself. Reddish South & Denton are rather basic stations, but well-kept, nice bench at Denton. Another passenger alighted at Denton which was nice. The service arrived into Stalybridge pretty much on time (having lost a couple minutes waiting for a delayed FTPE service north of Stockport). Across the platform to wait for the Manchester Victoria service, heading towards Wigan, and what would the NMDMUG throw up for this service?

Winner 150205 it was, standing room only though as it was full of shoppers, but a nice little run into Manchester Victoria over new track, the train emptied out at Victoria and I had 5 minutes to make it over to the bay platforms for a Leeds fast service, and it was winner 150148. Deciding the best way to start was at Rochdale so 10 miles later I was alighting from the 150 and out of Rochdale station, and down the road to wait the arrival of my first metrolink tram, I couldn’t have timed it better as 3038 arrived to take me down towards the end of the line at Rochdale Town Centre.

First impressions of the metrolink trams, is that the seats are hard, but with good legroom. Down towards Rochdale and with a 10 minute layover before 3038 set off again towards Manchester city centre and beyond. Nice 45-odd minute journey, passengers alighting at all the stations, and I had a good seat (the front single seat), quite a little enjoyable trip, into Shudehill and a change over to the other platform and a waiting game for the Bury tram, another Rochdale service came and went before 3053/3058 arrived, my first double tram and another good journey to Bury, and back out again towards the city centre where I alighted at Market Street to pick up a bite to eat before heading on 3044/3014 the short distance to St Peters Square. Sadly it appeared that services from Market Street towards Piccadilly were not running so that is a part of track which remains uncovered.

Across the platform and onto 3016 for the hop to Manchester Piccadilly, and waiting on the platform for the Ashton bound service, 3092, for another nice trip to Ashton. I was checking RTT to see if I could make use of the train from Ashton to get back to the city centre, and found that I had 10 minutes, which was a rush as I headed in the wrong direction, but eventually found the station and the service was delayed. The NMDMUG had given me another winner in the shape of the loveable 142036 for the short trip towards Stalybridge, gave me a chance to use the toilet. At Stalybridge it was down the ramp and towards P3 Island to wait the Liverpool bound FTPE to arrive, no mystery unit generator as it was going to be a 185, and winner 185114 it was. Running a few minutes late, but the 10 minute journey allowed me to have a quick charge of my phone at a free table seat as I checked out departures and noticing a Chester stopper was due out 10 minutes after the FTPE was due to arrive put a smile, Altrincham was up next.

But before the Northern service departed a Virgin was due to depart, so jumping onto winner 390141 for the short hop to Stockport, and for a little wait before winner 150110 arrived to take me down towards Altrincham, another NMDMUG success. Over the bridge and out of the station at Altrincham before re-entering for the tram service formed of dud 3016, it doesn’t hang around that long in the station, although the single track doesn’t help with a good service frequency. Deciding to foolishly change at Trafford Bar instead of Cornbrook, out of the station across the bridge and down the other ramp to wait for the next East Didsbury tram. I didn’t have long to wait before 3026/3056 arrived, and taking a nice seat for the run towards East Didsbury, I was going to do an Ashton and walk to the train station to catch a service to the Airport and back out on the tram, but the timings didn’t add up, so back onto 3056/3026 and back towards the city centre where I changed at St Peters Square and boarded 3088 towards Piccadilly.

Some peak-time action on the Hadfield bound train next up, as I wanted to try and cover Dinting P1, which is only used during the peaks as the services don’t reverse at Glossop from Hadfield. Winner 323232 (any other unit which does that?) was the hyper-turbo of the day for a nice trip, managing to get a nice seat and it emptied out before starting to refill on the return journey. Having a play with RTT to look for Airport bound services picked up a late running FTPE service from Scotland would be the next Airport service, so a quick transfer to P13 and a quick jump onto winners 350409/350404 for the short hop to the Airport.

Tram 3068 took me back up the airport line towards Cornbrook, and 3076 took me towards MediaCity UK, but dark so couldn’t see much of the lines. 3076 took me back out of MediaCity UK and back to Harbour City as it was the time of day where Eccles bound trams were avoiding MediaCity (so another uncovered curve), the final tram of the day was 3092 which was a simple in-out job and back to Piccadilly, the vast majority of the metrolink network covered which was mission complete. Onto RTT to see what the next service was to Wigan noticed another FTPE Scotland service so a bit of a dash (walking of course) to get to P14 within 4 minutes of stepping of the tram, sadly my reward was a dud, 350406. Boo.

Quite a busy service, standing room only after Oxford Road and out it went towards Wigan North Western, Wigan where my hotel was for the night to put me in a good place for the following day’s Lancaster rover. A couple passengers wanted Bolton and were upset when they were sold Manchester-Wigan tickets and told to get off at Wigan, and wait the return service back to Manchester. Google Maps was rubbish with the hotel, but thankfully the street it was on wasn’t that long and I spotted the hotel a good couple minutes before reaching. 8:30 I arrived, so quick dump of the bag and I had a meal in the hotel restaurant, and after a quick shower headed to bed, the end of a successful day. Great value is that Wayfarer

 

[Techniquest]

How much is the Wayfarer? What do I need to ask for when buying one?

Sounds like a great trip all in, several winners and I like the Northern Mystery DMU Generator! Great last trip of 2014, I really need to make myself get on with a Metrolink bash!

I assume you've a tale of the return to Hampshire coming up?

 

[Kite159]

£11, make sure you get a Greater Manchester Wayfarer rather than a Derbyshire Wayfarer.

Saturday's adventures with the NMDMUG in Lancashire coming up, it's a mystery as you could end up with a 142, 150, 153, 156 or maybe even a 158 or a 144 on any particular route. Although it was a day where I was tied to a particular plan due to an once-a-day service.

Area covered:
http://www.tfgm.com/journey_planning/Documents/PDFMaps/Wayfarer-Rail-diagram.pdf with no evening peak restriction.

 

[Techniquest]

£11, make sure you get a Greater Manchester Wayfarer rather than a Derbyshire Wayfarer.

Thanks for the quick reply!

I like the look of that, and definitely need make sure I remember not to end up with the wrong ticket. Cardiff Central did it to me once in 2005, thankfully someone I knew looked at it and we went back to get it fixed!

Saturday's adventures with the NMDMUG in Lancashire coming up, it's a mystery as you could end up with a 142, 150, 153, 156 or maybe even a 158 or a 144 on any particular route. Although it was a day where I was tied to a particular plan due to an once-a-day service.

Oh yes, it is one thing that's great about Northern, you get a nice bit of variety! Looking forward to reading about the Saturday adventure when it's up

Area covered:
http://www.tfgm.com/journey_planning/Documents/PDFMaps/Wayfarer-Rail-diagram.pdf with no evening peak restriction.

[/quote]

Nice, that's got quite a bit of extra coverage available compared to the Greater Manchester Rail Ranger! With no evening peak restriction, I could see me using it quite extensively when I have some time off in February!

 

[Kite159]

Rail Ranger is more restrictive to the trains (and has the evening peak restriction), where the Wayfarer is valid on all the metrolink (which could be useful if you want the Airport branch)

 

[Techniquest]

I need most of the Metrolink system, except for Altrincham and Bury! I might well start 2015 off with a trip up to Manchester for just that lot, although usually when I head to Mancenion I end up on the mainline stuff instead

 

[Kite159]

13th December – Lancaster Day Rover Part 2

At the end of the 12th I was in the Wigan Premier Inn, the morning was rather cold, where I kinda made a mistake in planning, instead of trying to make the once a day early morning service from Wigan North Western to Liverpool via Newton-Le-Willows, the 0644 service, which I completely forgot about, my first movement of the day was going to Bolton to get onto a service which went into North Western from the lines which normally runs into Wallgate. Silly me, at least it will give me something to do next year on another Lancaster Day Rover.

The walk from the hotel to the stations is via nightclub avenue (i.e. there is a few nightclubs along that road), and to be honest the walk was a bit scary with several drunken idiots whom appeared to have been up all night floating around, especially around the entrance to Wallgate before the station was opened up and I took the safety of the first Manchester (well Hazel Grove) bound service. What would the NMDMUG (Northern Mystery DMU Generator) throw up today?

A couple winning units, leading was 142060 with 150147 behind, looked like a 156 on the first Southport/Kirkby bound service. Taking a seat in the Pacer, I sat back and waited the 10 minutes before departure time, noticing that most of the passengers were picking the pacer over the 150. Bang on time it set off onwards to Manchester Victoria via Bolton, rather dark and cold (but my feet were roasting), picking up a passenger at Westhoughton. Into Bolton and my god what an awful station if you wanted to get across the tracks in a hurry to P4, how far back is that bridge? I had 10 or so minutes to wait for the Wigan North Western bound service to arrive, formed of dud 150224 (last spotted at Rose Hill Marple) which rolled into North Western in the bay platforms, not really that much of rare track, just a crossover.

Down under the subway and out to the island platform to wait as dud 150148 rolled in (last spotted the day before heading towards Leeds), to take me down towards Liverpool Lime Street via St Helens Central (interestingly I’ve just looked at RTT for tomorrow morning (27th) and there appears to be a couple early morning services to St Helens Central departing from Wallgate (calling at Bryn & Garswood), they must be using some rare crossovers to get to the Liverpool line, but I was happy as the train slowly picked up passengers enroute towards Liverpool it was another section of track covered, swinging onto the Liverpool to Manchester via Eccles line and the new platforms at a couple of the stations were present, so was the masts for the 319s to make their debut.

Into Lime Street, quick exit and downstairs to the low-level station to wait for the next service, a double 507/8 ran through without stopping, before winner 507019 arrived for the short 42 chain trip to Central. Up towards Central high-level for the Northern line allowed me to break my journey before the next Ormskirk service was due, so first up was double winners 507024/507016 for the hop to Moorfields before 507002/507008 (another set of double winners) to Sandhills before winner 508115 took me along my final part of the Merseyrail network to Ormskirk. The additional platforms at Aintree connected to the mainline network looks like they haven’t been used for years.

Into Ormskirk for a quick walk up to the other platform to see what mystery Northern unit I would get on the Preston service, and it was winner 142087, a Pacer, but with the high-back seats (rather than the 3+2 bench seating). Nice little part of the world as it rolled towards Preston, over the Southport line, the old connection embankments still plain in sight. My original plan was to head east towards Colne, but thanks to a last minute bus a few weeks ago meant I missed the chance of doing the trip to Heysham, meant my plans had changed, and with a couple hours to kill before needing to be in Lancaster, I was looking at RTT on the way up towards Preston, and spotted a FTPE service to Blackpool North was going to be the next service from Preston which I could get back quickly.

Preston was a bit odd, Northern had a revenue block on the bridge, however if you went via the subway you could leave the station without passing the block (or jump onto another service). Double winners 185107/185120 were waiting for the short (well 14 mile) hop to Poulton-Le-Fylde, where I had a 5 minute wait before the returning service, formed of dud 150150 (last spotted in Bradford), to take me back towards Kirkham & Wesham, where another short wait produced dud 150103 (although a bit more busier today than it was yesterday departing Stockport towards Guide Bridge) to take me back to Preston. Bit of a think saw me jumping on winner 390122 for the trip back to Wigan NW, and back to Preston on winner 390047, looking at the time at RTT to see if the FTPE Scotland service was running on time, I had 10 minutes at Lancaster before the Heysham service departed, RTT was saying P2 and a couple minute delay, so I decided to risk it all.

Winner 350405 was the result, arrived into Preston a couple minutes late, but arrived into Lancaster pretty much on time, sadly a last minute platform change meant instead of P2 the Heysham service was due to depart from P5, so back down the platform and up and over the bridge to get onto dud 144012 (although hopefully this time won’t produce the same result as it broke down last time departing Sheffield), probably half-full, but my 2nd favourite seats (after the bay seats – the ‘disabled’ seats as they have more legroom) were available so staying on board after it emptied out for the reversal at Morecombe (after the guard made sure I wanted Heysham as I was the only passenger left, my own private 144 (again) it set off before stopping at the driver set the points allowing access to the Heysham line, and to be honest that line isn’t the best, cuttings, trees, housing, a couple good views before the fences start appearing for the run into the station, a sad afterthought, at least the likes of Brigg and Denton are made to look nice, fenced in on both sides, the only way out it seemed was towards the ferry port itself. So after a brief walk around I got back on board to read the newspaper and relax waiting for the return service.

Back towards Morecombe and another stop to reset the points back to the main line towards Bare Lane and into Morecombe where more passengers boarded for the short hop back to Lancaster, where the service emptied out. 15 minutes at Lancaster before the next southbound service, it was a Virgin, and not a 390, but a double Super-voyager formed of winners 221115/221104 for the short hop down to Preston, with my iPod having a quick charge and rolling into Preston, working out I had time for another trip on the Blackpool line, but only to Kirkham & Western this time scored me winner 150145 and with a short transfer time at K&W saw dud 156455 arrive (last spotted in Middlesbrough!) to take me back to Preston, with a short wait for the Colne train, and it was dud 150103 (for the 3rd time in 2 days), the guard changed over and he knew what he was doing as he caught someone on the 156 after K&W who boarded at Poulton and didn’t buy a ticket from the machine, so an Anytime return was sold.

I’ve previously covered the line towards Colne, both on a railtour (to Blackburn) then a few weeks ago from Burnley, but first time being on an all-station stopper, nice little line it be, pulling away from the main-line towards Hebden and onto the Colne branch, some of the platforms were quite icy, especially Burnley Barracks, the cold had returned along with the darkness as it arrived into Colne with a short turnaround of 15 minutes (I did have a brief look after going down the stairs to see if I could spot anything of interest) and back onto 150103 to take me back towards Blackburn.

Bit of a mad scene at Blackburn as the platform changed for the Manchester bound service, and was only formed of 2 cars tonight (which covered the majority of the Northern DMU fleet, so it was back to the NMDMUG), winner 153301 rolled in with dud 153315 (last spotted at Scarborough) (see what I mean with the mystery DMUs, could have been a 142 or even a 150), running a couple minutes late which it tried to recover at Bolton but was put to waste as it waited for a delayed FTPE service (which I should have bailed out at Bolton and crossed over for the chance of getting some winning 185s), but arrival at Bolton meant that I had covered the Lancaster Rover area, yippee.

I bailed from the 153 combo at Salford Crescent, a busy station which thankfully has an island platform as packed winner 185151 arrived with dud 185109 behind, this is when I had some spare time before needing to be back at Preston for my return service (which was booked from Wigan), so ditching at Horwich Parkway, I crossed over to the other platform to look what was around (and the answer is not a lot! Apart from a car-park), the next service back towards Manchester was winner 185103 leading dud 185145, back to Bolton. Knowing the station layout I had positioned myself in the rearmost car for a quick change-over to wait for busy dud 150210 (interestingly, 150210 came before 185145 the last time I had it back in August) to take me back to Horwich Parkway, the rain had started so it was a short wait in the shelter, waiting for a certain service which I had spotted earlier in the day at Preston, mainly the Christmas Loco-hauled specials, 47853 was leading with 47818 at back, I stayed on until Buckshaw Parkway where it terminated (seemed to be timed to annoy anybody wanting 47 millage as if you got off at Buckshaw as you couldn’t get anything to connect up with the next Manchester service). Was a little wait around another parkway station before duds 185107/185143 arrived to take me back to Preston where winner 185147 arrived from Motherwell (seemed something happened between Glasgow & Motherwell which meant the Virgins & FTPE were terminating at Motherwell), surprised it was a 185 (as during the wait at Wigan a double empty 350 sped through without stopping).

The final Virgin London service was running late, 15 minutes late, and was displayed as a 9-car, so I was surprised when it was an 11 car and was 390112, also known currently as the Traindeer. When boarding in coach C I noticed the single seats opposite the manager office were reserved but empty so I took a seat. Sadly no non-stop run from Warrington tonight as it stopped at Crewe & Milton Keynes. By Milton Keynes it had made up most of the 18 minute delay (2 minutes late), and was on course at Watford Junction to arrive 5 minute early, sadly a London Midland service prevented the Virgin in arriving early (arrived pretty much on time). With no real hurry to get to Waterloo (had just over an hour before the final Salisbury service), I slowly drifted towards the underground and towards Waterloo via McDonalds.

Playing my usual game of spot the diesel secured me dud 159101 for the return leg, however it was being blocked in by an Alton double 450 (so taking a seat I sat back to watch the mad final minute rush from the barriers to the Alton service, some passengers trying to get onto the 159 (which was locked) before noticing it was the further train which had closed and pulled away (still with passengers wanting to board). I had forgotten how busy Waterloo is, but finally the doors of 159101 were released and I managed to get a table seat on a half-busy service (having a Woking/Basingstoke train a couple minutes before helps with crowding), and it set off towards Wiltshire, arriving a few minutes early (but as the stops are set-down only that time of night it doesn’t matter what time it arrives), and with a quick walk home (still rather cold, but no rain) with a quick sort of my bag ready for the Sunday trip to London.

Happy with the coverage today, with several winning units, North-west is pretty much covered

 

[Techniquest]

A pretty good day by the looks of it with plenty of winners and a good bit of coverage!

Any big plans for 2015?

 

[Kite159]

Only ones currently booked up is a trip on Grand Central's Bradford service next weekend with a few hours around Bradford (not sure what I'm going to be doing yet) [seems to me that the Bradford services are timed more to head to London and back in the afternoon/evening compared to the Sunderlands which are equal timings]

Also a day-trip to Manchester to do some route coverage in the South Pennies rover area, plus a day-trip to Cardiff booked.

Nothing else has been booked, apart from a rough couple ideas to go up towards the West Midlands and a couple railtours.

----

I had a private 444 coming back from Woking tonight, even the guard mentioned that services were 'dead' most of the day, running around in a double 444 and the most was 100-or-so passengers.

Why the 444? 1 - It was a half winner, 2 - Free wifi

 

[Techniquest]

Nice, I had a train like that some months ago, although admittedly I can't remember which one or where right now, feels a bit weird though!

 

[Kite159]

Early morning its to be expected, but on a ~8pm departure to Portsmouth Harbour [long way round].

Last Sunday London adventure today for a while (at least a month).

 

[Techniquest]

Fair point! Looking forward to reading about the London adventure, it'll be something to get me through until my next trip in a week's time!

 

[Kite159]

14th December, London

I set off without much in the way of a plan, other than to catch the 7:00 service and change at Woking for the semi-fast 450s from Alton/Basingstoke, so after catching a bit of sleep from the night before (must stop doing 6:30 starts on days where I didn’t get in the house until 1:10), I set off for a nice drive to Andover for the fast service, formed of viva-la-dud 159104, 10th time of riding this year. As per normal the train was busy from Andover to get a bit more busier at Basingstoke (as it is the first fast service on a Sunday I believe). Arrival into Woking was a bit early and without much fanfare.

Alighting, and after having a quick look outside the station to see if anything was open for breakfast, I arrived back in the station to wait for the 7:57-odd departure to Waterloo, due to engineering works on the Alton line, it wasn’t joining up with another unit, so only a double 450 formed of winner 450120 with dud 450088 on the rear (last seen back in April) for the short hop to Clapham Junction, stopping at Surbiton & Fort Knox, sorry Wimbledon before reaching Clapham Junction. A short walk up the stairs to the bridge allowed me to purchase breakfast to wait the 5 or so minutes before the service from Southampton arrives on platform 7. Formed today of winner 444037 leading dud 444038 (444038 last spotted back in July on the day Woking collapsed)

Into Waterloo, and a quick walk to the Windsor platforms to catch a Windsor bound service, formed today of dud 450561 (last spotted back in April attached to 088) with winner 450093 behind for a quick Vauxhall dash. I prefer doing Vauxhall dashes on the Wimbledon side as it’s a cross platform interchange rather than different platforms, quick walk down the subway to P7 to scored dud 455918 leading winner 455852 back to Waterloo, where a quick transfer over the bridge to Waterloo East scored me winner 465020 with dud 465037 behind into Charing Cross.

Long walk later to the Bakerloo platforms and a ride up the Bakerloo line towards Marylebone, where I was planning to do a South Ruislip in/out on the hourly service which goes to Aylesbury via High Wycombe (although at the time I didn’t put 2 and 2 together to note that the central line was currently suspended), winner 165023 for the short 11 mile ride to South Ruislip, down under the subway for the 5 minute connection for the return service formed of 165022, another Chiltern winner. Back to Marylebone I decided to go the short distance on the Bakerloo to Paddington where I was in luck, double winners on an Oxford bound stopper. 165112 was leading with 165130 behind (I have the FGW Turbos listed on my phone to check if it’s required, useful when a Turbo tips up on the Basingstoke-Reading service). To Ealing Broadway where it was a bit busy (with the central line being suspended and district line having delays), and with a 10 minute wait for the return service, what would it be?

Another double winning unit, yippee, 166216 was leading with 165120 behind for the short hop back to Paddington, back to the Bakerloo line for the trip to Queen’s Park with a short exchange to the southbound Overground platform with winner 378227 for the run to Euston, checking RTT noticed some perfect timing as a London Midland service which stops at Harrow & Wealdstone was due out 3 minutes after the 378 arrived, so positioning myself at the front of the 378 was a waste of time as the London Midland service was front train with an unknown 350 in the platform opposite, doh! 350110 was a winner for the trip up the West Coast to Harrow & Wealdstone where I had a couple minutes connection for a southbound service, which unusually was departing from the Up Fast platform (so the fence was open). Formed of a rather busy winner 350253 to take me back to Euston, standing room only.

Thinking what to do next saw me heading to the Victoria line for the short hop to Kings Cross St Pancras to get some Great Northern action in with some Finsbury dashes, first up with winner 313033 with the return in the hands of winning 313062 with a 10 minute break before dud 317345 took me back to Finsbury with winner 365508 back to the Cross, dash across the platform to get dud 313027 for another trip out with 313028 to bring me back, with the attention of the gateline staff who saw me heading towards 313039 (thinking I was a fare dodger running away with the closed gates [anybody else noticed that you can avoid those gates if you arrive on P9 by crossing over to P8 and walking down the platform to exit that side of the station?]), made it on time for another winner and back in for a final time on 313032. Next couple departures to Finsbury were due to be the 365 and then 032 so I ditched and went across the road to St Pancras.

Down to the Thameslink platform to see what was happening and jumped onto dud 319371 on a Blackfriars terminator, staying on to Farringdon where busy winner 377513 was a few minutes behind, deciding to stay on until Elephant & Castle due to a lack of northbound services, and crossing over with the steep stairs (horrible station) to be rewarded with winners 377208 & 377510 for the trip back to Blackfriars, closely followed by winner 319446 to take me to Farringdon with dud 319371 (must have been hiding around Blackfriars) to St Pancras, with winner 319430 with dud 319427 to take me south to Farringdon, I would have continued but it seemed that Thameslink did its usual thing and go into meltdown with cancelled services (next northbound wasn’t for another 25 minutes).

To the Sub-surface lines to see what would tip up first, and it was a Hammersmith & City service to take me the short hop to Liverpool Street, with a brief look before jumping onto winners 379025/379027 on the airport service to take me up to Tottenham Hale. I do like the 379s; they are rather nice with the plug sockets. Next up was a Victoria line service to Blackhorse Road (must have hit at a time where a couple services terminated at Seven Sisters) as it was an 8 minute wait before I reached Blackhorse road where I had a date with some 172/0s, with a hope of scoring my remaining 5 (out of the 8). 10 minute wait at Blackhorse Road where a Barking-side bound freight train was waiting at a red signal before winner 172006 arrived, after doing some research located that Harringay Green Lanes would be a good crossover point, with revenue protection staff checking tickets & oysters (well making sure people tapped out) and not the easiest of stations to get across (down a ramp under the bridge and up some stairs) but I managed it and scored 172007 as an reward for the short hop to South Tottenham, on one of the two short sections where the Goblin is under the wires, another station exit and swap with a 5 minute wait and 172001 arrived (excellent, 6 down 2 to go) for another single station hop back to Harringay with the reward of 172004 for the return, only 002 to get.

Dud 172003 arrived to take me back to Harringay Green Lanes, where I hung around 15 minutes for the 6th 172 on Goblin duties today, would I get lucky, would it be 002, or would it be 005 or 008? I saw it rolling in and yes I was lucky, 172002 was the beast, happy days Thinking on the go with a tight connection at Gospel Oak, but thankfully the west bound service was running a couple minutes late, formed of winner 378232 to take me to West Hampstead where I had a tight connection to far and made it to the Thamelink station, through the open barriers and onto the stairs where the doors of a 319 were closing and pulling away, so change of plan took me to the Jubilee line station for a Jubilee service to Baker Street, changing platforms over to the Bakerloo to take me to Charing Cross. Another long walk later saw me on the concourse at Charing Cross with a 10 minute wait for the next service to depart.

Although the wait was worth it as I had double winners 465039/465242 for the short 61 chain trip to Waterloo East, where I had a bit of a dash to jump onto winners 450099/450567 to take me to Clapham (bit naughty getting off at a pick-up only station), grabbed a sandwich from the cafe on P9 and waited for the Basingstoke/Alton train to arrive, formed of winners 450100/450080 with dud 450015 behind. Sitting in the rear car of 450080 for a fast changeover at Woking, the Salisbury bound service overtakes the 450s but then waits in the platform for 5 minutes and the front portion for Basingstoke departs first, and the Salisbury overtakes it a minute or so later. Anyhow duds 159104 & 159002 were the units to take me back to Andover, sitting in 159002 as it’s quieter due to detaching at Salisbury (and 104 carrying on down to Exeter).

End of a busy day, 58 unique units travelled on (excluding the 159s), of which 47 were winners, and the London Overground 172/0s cleared (will be interesting to see where they end up once Goblin has been wired up in a few years time, lacking toilets so not that useful for long distance duties). Seems my busy weekend caught up with me as I suffered from a nasty cold on the Monday and was bedded down on the Tuesday

----

 

[Starmill]

I didn't know Turbos worked Basingstoke - Reading! Intriguing. I have also learned that 150s turn up on Reading - Redhill / Gatwick - much, much less good, from the FGW programme on Channel 5!

 

[Kristofferson]

Some good reads there, Kite

 

[Techniquest]

Another excellent trip there! Your books must be getting rather full now in the London area!

Shame to hear the colds have reached you though, I've been lucky so far that it hasn't quite got to me yet, despite people's best intentions to get rid of theirs!

I really need to do a London trip like your one and fill my books up, been forever since I had a day like it and could do with enjoying such a day again even if only for memories' sake!

 

[Kite159]

I didn't know Turbos worked Basingstoke - Reading! Intriguing. I have also learned that 150s turn up on Reading - Redhill / Gatwick - much, much less good, from the FGW programme on Channel 5!

They work it mainly at weekends (normally a 2 car 165), it's an odd line where during the week it's served mainly by 3-car standard class only 150s (bar a couple services) (or 165/166 if the 150s have a hissy), but at weekends 2-car with 1st class.

45 minutes to kill in Llanelli, what to do...

----------

My book is getting additional ticks in, however long long long way before clearing anything major.

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Bad news from Cardiff, with the new platforms at Queen Street coming on, it's a lot harder to do Central - Queen Street - Central runs, whereas before it was two island platforms, now depending where your heading you could go into either 4 or 5 (heading out of central), and come back into 2 or 3 (heading towards central), with P1 being used for the Bay runs.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
19th December – On the hunt for the Bubble

One notable absence from my unit book is the 121s used by Chiltern on the Aylesbury/Princes Risborough services, mainly in the morning peaks but with one service in the evening peak, so I put together a rough plan to hunt it down, with a note that it will only happen if I managed to get finished early on the 19th, the last day of work before it closes down for 2 weeks. I actually finished an hour and a bit earlier than expected which allowed me to get the 12:59 from Grateley with a Grateley to Little Kimble ticket (as NRE gave routing both via Wendover & Wycombe).

The first unit of the day was 159106, one of my more used 159s, but I was only staying on until Basingstoke to break into a bit of linear bashing, where the next service was dud (this was before I put the required 444s into my phone to try and reduce dud 444s) 444008 on a fast service which only stopped at Clapham, zooming passed Woking. At Clapham I decided to head across to the Windsor lines, and got lucky as winner 458536 arrived, and doing a quick check with RTT seemed to suggest that changing at Queenstown Road (new station for me) another unit would be a few minutes behind, “5 coaches” was displayed on the PIS so I knew it was going to be another 458/5 (or a 159/158 combo, but that would have been ultra unusual), sadly it was dud 458533.

Ditching at Vauxhall with another couple minute wait produced a double 455, sadly both duds, 455707/455737 to take me the mile into Waterloo, not the best linear bashing with only 1 winner. Down to the Bakerloo and jumping on a Bakerloo line service to take me up to Marylebone, and heading up what feels to be the world’s longest escalator and to the main concourse, an hour extra so I could waste time doing some additional turbo bashing, but first I wanted out of London and out of Zone 9 so the first station call would be Great Missenden, on winner 165033. With 30 minutes before the next service I took myself out of the station to look around the area where I found a couple charity shops (useful to look for any cheap books which can be read on the move in the dark) and a co-op, picking up a sandwich meal-deal for later I headed back to the station.

First thing I must say about Chiltern stations, the little waiting shelters protect from the wind and rain, but the plastic ‘seats’ are so uncomfortable, anyways I wasn’t waiting for long before winner 165029 tipped up, another 3-car 165 Chiltern turbo ticked off my list, this took me one station up the line to Wendover, and as per with Great Missenden I had a quick look around the area before returning to read a book (or was it an e-magazine on the tablet, I can’t remember) before a double 165 arrived, the one I was meant to catch, leading was dud 165019 but winner 165008 was behind, this was running a few minutes late, but I was checking RTT to see the process of the service behind, to see if that was on time owing to a tight connection at Aylesbury, thankfully it appeared to be on time so I ditched 019/008 at Stoke Mandeville, another new station for me, and next to a busy main road. Thankfully it wasn’t a long wait before winner 165015 arrived to take me up to Aylesbury (one of the peak-time specials which first stop is Great Missenden). Looking across the other platform to see what was going to be on the 17:30 service to Princes Risborough, where a smile came on my face when I saw a 121 waiting in the platform, 121020 was the 121 on that run today.

Nice seats with central door locking with the slam doors, large guard-luggage area and quite noisy. I had something rare with a Chiltern ticket check, as I swapped over tickets along the journey to the return leg (which probably confused the guard a bit), but a nice little 7 mile ride to Princes Risborough where a Marylebone bound service was due a few minutes later, so after taking a picture of the 121 in the station, I headed to the Up platform and winner 168108 arrived, my first 168 for a good few months, but I was only staying on board for the short run down to High Wycombe to cross over to the bay platform to board the stopper, hoping to get a picture of the 68 on the Banbury commuter train.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8675/15547381633_cd8c261ef9_o.jpg

A first thought with High Wycombe is that it is quite a walk from platform 3 to platform 1 and they had singers which got annoying after a while. Sadly the 68 wasn’t running and was replaced by a 168 so a chance of a photo was lost as I boarded winner 165034 on a stopper to Marylebone, at least for the first couple stations before bailing out at Beaconsfield and getting on the fast service behind formed of winner 168107 for the run down to Marylebone, must overtake the stopper on route somewhere.

Into Marylebone and down to the Bakerloo and back to Waterloo where I had a couple options, first was to catch the Reading service to try and get some 458/0 action, the peak-time subway was open so I thought I would cut some time going via the subway, however I didn’t realise that the Reading service was due to depart from P20, one of the former Eurostar platforms which can only be accessed from P19, which isn’t accessible via the subway, doh! Formed of dud 458013 with winner 458012 behind, it took me the short distance to Clapham Junction, where I had 10 minutes to transfer to P9 to wait for the Southampton bound 444, which like the service in the morning skips Woking (trying to get from Woking to Basingstoke in the evenings is a nightmare, you have the 159s which run fast between the two or the Basingstoke stoppers, either the services which run down to Winchester (and beyond) stop at either Woking or Basingstoke (or in the case of a couple Weymouth trains neither, first stop Winchester). Winner 444042 did the honours to take me to Basingstoke where I had a 10 minute wait before dud 159103 took me back to Grateley.

Mission to get a 121 was a success, with 7 additional winning Chiltern units thrown in for good measures.

20th December – A Railtour to Shrewsbury

A nice simple relaxing day for me on a railtour to Shrewsbury for Christmas, starting from Basingstoke, but I purchased Woking return tickets (see a bit later), dud 159011 did the honours for the 5:59 service to Waterloo, where I alighted at Basingstoke, having a bit of time to get a newspaper before I returned to the platform as the train was due in around 6:35, and winning loco 67028 arrived pulling 8 carriages, 5 for First Class, 2 services & 1 standard class carriage, right at the end. Arrived into P2, so after getting a picture of the set next to a double 444 I headed on board to find my seat, which unusually for Uk Railtours was a window seat!
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7561/16167135605_154d4b37a3_o.jpg

The set left Basingstoke on time with maybe 2/3 others in the standard class coach, picking up at Farnborough (Main) (can’t forget about the ‘Main’ part, makes it feel important and saves someone mixing it up with the North station) & Woking picking up a few additional passengers in the standard class coach (no idea about the First Class, you can tell when it’s quiet when standard class customers have an at-seat service for refreshments), leaving the main line after Byfleet to go up towards Staines to pick up a few additional passengers (probably doubled the number in SC) and set off to hit the first non-passenger track (NPT) of the day with the curve from Old Kew Junction to South Acton Junction and onto the North London Line.

Passing an unknown 378 at Acton Central, the next NPT was a big one, coming of the North London at Acton Wells and onto the Dudding Hill line, with announcements made not to hang outside the windows owing to the trees. Nice interesting line around a part of London I haven’t travelled, going over the WCML and Chiltern Line before taking the north curve and running alongside the Midland Main Line for a mile (or two) before it went over after Hendon and joined at Silkstream Junction and accelerated up the MML before stopping at St Albans where Standard Class got busy, and set off again for its final pick-up at Bedford. With the tour not sold out, I moved to a free table at the rear of the carriage as the train moved into the fast lines of the MML and got up to speed, and heading quite fast (probably hit 90 if not more), the 67 showing it’s stuff.

Some new non-stop stations into my book with Wellingborough, Kettering & Market Harborough before the next NPL was reached with the curve between South Wigston Junction to Glen Parva Junction. Pretty much on time which helped things along and it set off heading west, passing Nuneaton and crossing the WCML again and carrying on heading west before pulling off that line for the next NPL, and another big line with Sutton Park line, leaving at Water Orton West Junction and set off along as rather boring line heading to the north of Birmingham and coming out north of Walsall, crossing the Cross-city line at Sutton Coldfield and onto the Chase line, waiting for a while outside Walsall station (running a tad early at the time), as the driver changed.

Setting off again for another line, not strictly non-passenger as it is used by one service one way a week, and I had previously covered the majority of the Wolverhampton to Walsall line on another railtour in June when doing the S&C, however that was from Bescot and used the north line after Portobello to Bushbury Junction to avoid Wolverhampton (which is the best thing to do as it’s a dump, makes Newport wonderful), anyways new track from Pleck Junction to Darlaston Junction and then from Portobello to Crane Street junction, with another brief wait. This must be one of the least used electrified tracks by electric trains. Into Wolverhampton and leaving the main-line to get onto the Shrewsbury line for an uneventful trip to Shrewsbury, pretty much bang on time (with another wait outside Shrewsbury before entering the station on P4.

Shrewsbury is a nice town, although with 4 hours to waste I decided to cut short walking around the town looking in various shops (but only buying lunch from Boots) I was back at the station to catch the London Midland stopper one stop down the line to Wellington, formed of winners 170510/170514, taking a nice seat (once the doors were unlocked, as they are sensible and keep it locked up until the ATW service has departed) for the run down to Wellington where I had 25 minutes or so to waste before the Virgin service was due, and so had a look around the town, nice little town with an indoor market.

Back at the station I waited as the Virgin service (customers with tickets marked London Midland only must not use this service warnings etc), formed of dud 221115 to take me down to Telford, which isn’t the nicest of stations to cross over to the other platform, nor the nicest of places to wait around, thankfully the London Midland return service arrived formed of winners 170517/170512 to take me back to Wellington where 5 minutes later (Telford & Wellington have it bad, they get 2 trains an hour in each direction and both are within 10 minutes of each other!) the ATW service arrived, formed of winners 158840/158819 with the rear 158 detaching at Shrewsbury. Needless to say it was rather busy, when will ATW keep it attached when on a Holyhead run?

Back at Shrewsbury where grabbing a bite to eat from the station cafe, to await the arrival of the 67, back from Crewe, this time I was at the front, to get the 67 sound, the river was flowing quite well I noticed, but as darkness had fallen the return leg was less spent looking out of the window as I sat back down, keeping an eye out when it reached the rare tracks. Was early arriving towards Nuneaton where it stopped for 10 minutes at Nuneaton station (cue confused passengers trying to board thinking it was the Leicester train) and set off, arrived into Bedford 10 minutes down after waiting to join the MML but by the time it left the MML it was running 10 minutes ahead of schedule, reaching South Acton where it was held up before entering SWT land, and ran on time for the remainder.

I ditched at Woking as the tour was due into Basingstoke at 23:13, 3 minutes after the Salisbury train had departed (with an hour and 20 minute wait), and knowing that time of night, a Voyager normally sits on P1 for 5 minutes so it would be unlikely the tour train would be allowed to enter Basingstoke early, this was a good decision as 159108/159004 overtook the tour train when it was waiting outside Basingstoke and departed at the usual time alongside the 221. Back to Grateley, the end of a quiet day, some rare track covered and as a bonus I won 5th prize in the raffle! (£20 Marks & Spencer voucher).

20th December – Thameslink time

I decided this Sunday I wasn’t going to do a London bash, instead getting up a bit later than normal for a drive to Romsey to do a Brighton – Bedford run, to try and get a couple extra 442s in and also some East Midland Train units. Dud FGW 158951 was on the Brighton run today, getting a nice seat near the front, at the table, I could have done some linear splitting along the way but being stuck on a Southern stopper didn’t appeal to me, as I wanted to do some reading of my textbook.

However I did ditch the train at Hove and jump across the platform to get on one of the most pointless services, the Brighton-Hove shuttles (wouldn’t be bad, but it departs Hove a minute after the FGW departs, and a Southampton bound service departs Brighton a couple minutes after it leaves to Hove, a waste of a 377), the morning shuttle was in the hands of winner 377113, heading towards the front of the train to allow a quick exit to make a 5 minute connection for the Thameslink was rubbish as it pulled into Brighton on P1, behind the 158!

However I made the Thameslink, formed of duds 377520/377208, with me taking the table seat in the former first class portion of 520 (gives my phone a quick charge) for a nice run to Gatwick Airport, where I alighted and headed towards P5 where 442404 was waiting for me, the Gatwick Express branded services were running every 15 minutes today, but with single units, boo. 31 minutes later it pulled into Victoria, and after the ticket barrier decided it didn’t like my Brighton – Bedford ticket by any permitted route (with a print-out from NRE showing going into Victoria was a valid route), the staff let me out and into the chaos at Victoria underground, 10 minutes later I was down on the Victoria line platform, sadly it’s a poor design which loads from the rear, but eventually I made it to Kings Cross St Pancras, and heading via the WH Smiths at Kings Cross for some lunch, made it up to the EMT platforms with 15 minutes to spare before a Nottingham bound service was due to depart.

Formed of winners 222021/222020, and I found an unreserved seat in the carriage which is half standard and half First class (where the wi-fi is free as it thinks you are in the FC portion), and it sped off, original plan was to get off at Luton Airport and catch a Thameslink to Luton, but after passing 377520/377208 on the approach to Luton Airport, I decided to stay on. After visiting the toilet and wasting a bit of time, winning 43061 arrived with dud 43052 behind on a Sheffield service, finding a seat for the short run to Bedford, where I crossed platforms to board winning 319453 for a southbound service, which departed 10 minutes or so later.

Back to Luton (and after checking to make sure the next EMT would stop at Luton and not Luton Airport), I exited the station and walked a few minutes passed several boarded up shops, passed some shops with more security than fort knox, and decided to head back to the station where it was safe. Winning 43060 was leading dud 43044 for the return leg down to St Pancras, the train being in reverse formation, which gave me a good chance to making a quick transfer and maybe getting an earlier Gat Express than planned.

This worked, after the barrier staff tried to point out my ticket was to Brighton and the Gatwick Express branded trains were only to Gatwick, I explained that I knew that and I was going to catch another service from Gatwick to Brighton. Thankfully I managed to board 442424 (another winner) for the run down to Gatwick, where a quick platform swap got me onto a delayed Three Bridges Thameslink, with dud 377209 leading and winner 377518 behind, at Three Bridges another quick platform swap got me onto Southern winners 377421/3677424 for a quick hop to Haywards Heath, where a Thameslink service was a few minutes behind formed of winners 377207/377212, sadly the ex-first class section doesn’t have power sockets on the 377/2s.

Down into Brighton where I joined the crowd waiting for the Ashford train, managing to board and sneak into the FC section (nice single seat) of winner 171724, as it was so busy the guard even mentioned that the FC section was for standard class customers as the 171s only have First Class when they run in London, a couple passengers joined to get a nice seat, but the rest decided they wanted to stand. I stayed on until Berwick, and changed platforms (once the barriers had risen) to head towards the car-park, but headed to the other platform to be rewarded with winner 171726 to take me back to Brighton. Not as busy as the Ashford bound service, but still busy (and again the FC section was empty). Into Brighton an hourly earlier than planned, and arriving 20 minutes before a FGW service was due to depart, so grabbing a quick bite to eat, I hung around P2 as an all-station Portsmouth bound service arrived a few minutes late and was meant to depart within 4 minutes, and it was 377113 so deciding to hold back and wait for the Hove service which was due to depart after the Portsmouth service but before the Bristol service (and due to depart Hove after the service from Southampton departs to Brighton).

Sadly it was a dud, 377136, never mind as I was only on board for its short mile and 35 chain journey, where I changed platforms to wait for dud 158961 to take me back to Cosham, nice and empty on leaving Brighton and running fast (well as fast as you can do along that part of track). A couple minute wait at Cosham for the SWT stopper formed of winner 450074 where I stayed on for a couple stations to Fareham where I alighted with a 15 minute wait before winning Southern 377161 arrived to take me to Southampton. I had a couple options of getting back to Romsey; the service which goes via Eastleigh was on P2, or the service which goes via Redbridge 10 minutes later. The 158 going via Eastleigh was a dud, so I waited for the Redbridge service, would I get lucky and get one of my 2 remaining SWT 158s? Nope 158883 arrived for a short trip back to Romsey, highlight being some passengers failing to alight at Redbridge, after failing to work out that to leave the train they needed to press the button which opens the door.

Back into Romsey an hourly earlier than planned which is nice, and a nice drive home (ruined in parts by a SUV driving at 40 mph all the way back, even in the 50/60 parts, but finding the accelerator in the couple places where you can safety overtake).

 

[Techniquest]

Some most productive trips there! I really must try and remember that about the 171s on Ashford to Brighton runs, ready for my next Southern DaySave adventure.

Jealous about the 121, I need that one!

 

[Keith Jarrett]

14th December, London

Alighting, and after having a quick look outside the station to see if anything was open for breakfast, I arrived back in the station to wait for the 7:57-odd departure to Waterloo, due to engineering works on the Alton line, it wasn’t joining up with another unit, so only a double 450 formed of winner 450120 with dud 450088 on the rear (last seen back in April) for the short hop to Clapham Junction, stopping at Surbiton & Fort Knox, sorry Wimbledon before reaching Clapham Junction.
----

I certainly know what you mean with Fort Knox Wimbledon. For those unaware, there's now a fence between the slow and fast platforms and if passengers wish to access the fast platforms, then that is achieved via strategically placed gates along the length of the platform controlled by the dispatch staff. During normal Monday to Saturday travelling hours everything booked to stop is on the slow lines so no problem. But when there's out of course running, the odd train gets put on the fast - e.g. Monday 29th and the platform staff seem unable to cope. Likewise, on a Sunday, some staff do not seem aware that there are the hourly (1/2 hourly from mid afternoon) Basingstoke/Alton stoppers that call on the fast lines. As a regular user of these trains, I am dismayed by the lack of awareness of these services exhibited by some Wimbledon platform staff - one only reluctantly opened the gates after the train had come to a halt....

Anyway, rant over.

Looks as if you've had a few productive trips out in December. Your recent foray into London Overground territory looked to be a good one. While I have had all of the GOBLIN 172s, they are still all needed for the equally important 10 miles with several having just over 1 mile on the clock - that must have been the classic Bus Stop Bash just to get the line in the book. Also, two of the LO shacks that I need are on the GOBLIN - Harringay Green Lanes and South Tottenham (the other five are all on the outer reaches of the DC Lines to Watford Junction). Also grateful for the tip that it's a little hike between the platforms at Harringay Green Lanes - I'll make sure that I've got my running boots on when I go and sort out the 172s! It'll probably be done on one of my Sunday afternoon jaunts so you'll be able to find out whether the running boots were indeed necessary.

 

[Kite159]

The timetable gives you 2/3 minutes at Harringay from a Gospel bound train before the Barking bound train arrives. I think (but don't quote me) the best door to exit is the 2nd set in the front car.

All those 172s done, just need to make a decent start for the 378s, probably spend a couple hours on the NLL before a couple hours on the ELL core, just to get them in the book.