Kite159
Veteran Member
Sundays are all fine, but with reduced train services. I can see myself going up in the week to do some leaping around, with those London Midland 321s high on my list.
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The Various Random Mutterings of Kite
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Kite159
Veteran Member
Ah yes, the 321s are great fun!
My plan is (using a BZ6 - Hemel Hempstead ticket)
1840 from Euston to Watford Junction (18:59)
19:10 from Watford Junction to Hemel (19:19)
Then get back towards London, I think both are triples so will cut down my numbers down (I've had 2 to-date, both on the abbey line so hopefully will reduce it from 5 to 0)
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Nice, I hope you get them in! I only need 321416 of the LM 321s, hopefully a Great Escape will be announced soon (I believe February half term is week commencing 16th February) and I'll be after it, 350231, 350239 and all the 350/3s and shacks I can get!
Kite159
Veteran Member
Knowing my luck London Midland will do a Great Escape when I'm making my great escape to China in late February, although they normally last for a good few weeks.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Can't be going to be one for half term as surely it would have been announced by now. Either way, I'll be booking one as soon as it becomes available!
When are you off to China?
When are you off to China?
Kite159
Veteran Member
Last 2 weeks in February, out on the 16th, back on the 26th.
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24th January – A trip to the West Midlands
My aim of today was to try and get some new units around the West Midlands area, such a large area covered by the Daytripper ticket for a reasonable price. Thanks for Techni to give me some ideas of potential leaps to score various units.
159008 was the SWT unit on Salisbury to Basingstoke duties, terminating at Basingstoke and it was rather empty, although on a frosty January Saturday morning, it wasn’t that surprising. I had an option of checking the FGW unit on the Reading shuttle before joining the XC service at Reading West, the 159 arrived into P4 which was nice, but sadly tremendous dud 165118 rolled in, so deciding to give it a miss, I headed to buy a newspaper from the station café to await the XC service to Manchester.
A rather empty (for a 220) rolled in, and it was winner 220020, which took me up to Banbury, but not via Reading due to engineering works with the viaduct, so via the Reading West curve underneath the viaduct and onto the relief lines, I had a nice table seat to relax, arrival into Banbury was 10 minutes down due to being held up around the Didcot area. First time at Banbury station for a fair while, sadly I had to change to Chiltern as XC don’t allow usage of the Gold Card north of Banbury. Winners 168216 and 172101 rolled in, my first Chiltern 172 (nice surprise), and a nice little run towards Leamington Spa.
My plan to try and buy the Network Daytripper ticket with ‘Add-on” failed, so it was onto winner 165027 on stopper duties for a short trip to Dorridge, another new station for me. Across the bridge and to buy the required tickets, the daytripper was fine (and printed on Network West Midlands stock), but the add-on ticket was a bit of a puzzle (the add-on allows travel to Leamington, Stratford-Upon-Avon & Lichfield City), he sold me some sort of add-on ticket, no idea what one it was (£2.50 cost), but did the trick. I had a quick option for a bus-stop dash to Widney Manor to make a 3 minute connection with a Stratford upon Avon train, with the aim of getting some new track of Hatton north [previously I had only used the South curve via Chiltern].
Winner 172335 was on a service heading north towards Snow Hill, the doors closed but it had to wait for a delayed XC service, so my 3 minute connection turned into a zero connection, as winner 172340 arrived at pretty much the same time. Thankfully I guessed the location of the bridge correct and made it in the nick of time, being careful with some icy patches on the bridge. The ride to Stratford is rather boring, as it’s in a cutting before opening out to fields passing a couple limited service stations, passed the new Stratford Parkway and down to Stratford where the line used to continue all the way down to the Spa at Cheltenham. Nice new bridge is being built at the station so it is bit of a worksite. 15 minutes later 172340 began its journey back towards Birmingham, where I stayed on until Solihull.
Chiltern winner 168113 arrived for the short journey towards Moor Street where I had a minute or so connection with a London bound service formed of 168002, departing from P1 (so started at Snow Hill), my first 168/0 with the Turbo style front end. I stayed on for the trip back to Solihull with a 15 minute wait before the next service back towards Moor Street, formed of dud 172213, rather busy 2-car model, which I alighted at Moor Street with a couple minute wait before Chiltern winner 168106 took me the short distance through the Snow Hill tunnel into Snow Hill station itself. Time to break for some lunch and I had the option of either Tesco or Sainsburys just outside the station, so Tesco it was for a nice sandwich meal-deal. Yum Yum.
Back at Snow Hill a few minutes later for the 10-minute frequency of the Snow Hill Lines, with dud 172220 emptying out and I alighted at the south end of the tunnel to await the next Solihull bound service (giving a Chiltern a miss due to it being a known dud). Dud 172340 returned to take me to Solihull, with a short break before winner 172222 arrived to take me back to Moor, where a repeat of the previous saw me jumping onto winner 168217 for the distance to Snow Hill. I made a mistake in boarding the Dorridge bound service formed of winner 172332, should have stayed for the next service towards Whitlocks End, to score another 172. I crossed over the footbridge at Moor Street to get onto dud 168108 back to Solihull for another short wait.
New dud 172332 (see my mistake) returned from Dorridge where I stayed on until Moor Street, repeating myself with dud 168216 making a comeback (without the 172 attached this time) for the trip towards Snow Hill, waiting as winner 172215, packed with football fans heading towards the big game, hence Bordesley was actually open, however I decided not to stay on 215 and ditched at Moor Street, watching the police marshalling fans outside on the street. To the bay platforms to get onto an Mk3 hauled set, leading was DVT 82303 with DBS branded 67018 at the back; sadly the carriage next to the 67 was rather busy so I couldn’t get a seat to get some 67 noise. First time on a Chiltern Mk3 set for a good few months (October 13 was the last time on a Chiltern 25p each-way day)
To Solihull (again), with another little break before a busy looking known dud 172 arrived with football fans, I decided to wait at Solihull for the Chiltern following, although that was dud 168215, at least I got a seat as I stayed on until Snow Hill. When at Moor Street I spotted 168005 in the front of another 168, thinking they might be joining up for a double set back to London, I headed back towards Moor on winners 172342/172212, and sadly 168005 had disappeared again leaving just a known dud 168/1 on the platform. Change of attack plan, as I headed towards New Street via the subway.
Decisions, decisions, decisions, where to go, what to do, I decided to jump onto a Shrewsbury bound double winners 170513/170509, to hop towards Sandwell & Dudley, for some reason. Next was a winning 323211 for the short hop to Dudley Port, a quite narrow island platform which is quite dangerous to hang around as the XCs fly though. Winner 323220 took me back to Smethwick Galton Bridge, where I had a couple minute wait for dud 350242 to arrive coming back from Liverpool. Back to New Street, and across to make a ~3 minute connection for a Euston bound service formed of dud 350265, staying on until Birmingham International. I think the next time I do one of these daytrippers I will go 350 hunting.
Birmingham International, where I was pleased to alight from a busy train, with a short wait before an empty winning Cross Country 220024 arrived, another 220 ticked off my list, gives me phone a little extra boost. Into Coventry, the limit of the daytripper zone (Coventry to Leamington line isn’t included), where it was quite busy with Rugby fans, thankfully the majority of them cleared when a 390/1 arrived heading towards Euston. I was on dog-box look-out, to see what London Midland 153 was on the Nuneaton – Coventry service today, requiring 6 out of the 7 units the odds were in my flavour, and when I saw winner 153371 tipping up, I was happy.
Buying the ticket for a return to Nuneaton to board for a nice trip to Nuneaton and back to Coventry, some lovely dog-box action. Next service towards New Street was a Virgin, where I have my required VWC units on my phone, as I had the option of a London Midland 350 which was following to get back to International. Thankfully the back-up 350 wasn’t needed as the Virgin was a winner, 390154. To International to see what pair of 158s was on the ATW service towards the Welsh coast, dud 158839 was leading with winner 158841 behind, happy days. Back to New Street with a 10 or so minute connection with a XC 170 heading towards Cardiff which stops at University, winning unit 170110 arrived which was good and with a new station scored at University.
Didn’t stay around University for long as dud 170112 arrived around the same time, so back to New Street for me, quite a busy train, but not as busy as dud 390127 heading towards Euston, thankfully I only had to stand until international where I alighted, heading over for some ATW 158 spotting, winner 158832 was leading with dud 158829 behind, so another ATW 158 ticked off. To New Street, where I hung around to board dud 220033 heading towards Reading, slightly busy but I managed to find a table seat which was reserved from Manchester to Oxford, nobody there so either a no-show or they picked somewhere else to sit.
You might be wondering why I was boarding a XC service when previously I mentioned that the line between Coventry & Leamington was excluded, well it is excluded, but this service doesn’t use that particular line, it doesn’t go via International/Coventry, but runs non-stop to Leamington Spa via Solihull & Warwick, the train manager checking tickets being a bit confused with my tickets (Daytripper & the Add-On) but valid to the network west midlands diagram. First time going towards Leamington in that direction (previously covered that line in December heading towards Stockport on the Thursday evening), 25 minute wait at Leamington, where we arrived 5 minutes early, so I had the option of either catching a 168 towards Warwick to try and get another Chiltern unit from Stratford-Upon-Avon back to Leamington where it was terminating, or trying to find somewhere to grab some dinner.
Search for dinner was the winner, knowing I didn’t have that much time at Banbury or at Basingstoke, so I headed out eventually finding a little Spar which had some sort of baguette meal-deal, lots of various takeaways around the town centre, but nothing which took my fancy. Back to Leamington to await the Marylebone service, formed of winner 168214 for the single station leap to Banbury where I could use my gold card on XC. Dud 220020 (same unit as in the morning) was the service to take me towards Basingstoke via Reading West curve, where it arrived into Basingstoke a couple minutes early, which thanks to the Staines diversions the SWT 159s were pushed back 5 minutes (so departure was at 22:13 rather than 22:08), which was running around 5 minutes late, so I had time to relax before a quiet 159016/159019 arrived to take me back home.
A busy day around the West Midlands, I will be back around that area later in the year, maybe even on a weekday trip. So many difference options to pick from in that area, new units 28, including my first recorded Chiltern 67 & DVT, 168/0 & 172. Rock and roll
25th January – London trip
No real plan for today’s Sunday trip to London, just an unplanned day out, although with engineering works my options were more limited, but I through to see what happens. After a brief walk to the station to catch the 7:35-wibble service to Basingstoke, formed today of 159001, for an uneventful trip to Basingstoke where it terminated due to Wimbledon. Unlike on a Saturday where the Basingstoke terminators have good connections the early Sunday morning’s connection is with the stopper (or wait 30 minutes for one from Southampton), today it was formed of winner 450032, as I took my usual seat opposite the guard’s office.
Alighting at Brookwood (new station for me) to wait a couple minutes (you could see the headlights in the background waiting for the signals to clear) for the service from Alton which was due to attach with 032 at Woking. Formed of double winners 450555/450570 for the short hop to Woking where after it crashed into 032 the doors were released, and I crossed over to P2 to await the train from Southampton (and Portsmouth), would it be one of the magical trios of required 444s? Nope, 444031/444019 was the units for today’s magical tour via sunny Staines.
I alighted at Clapham to wait a couple minutes for a service from Portsmouth via Guildford (which departed Woking 15 minutes after the double 444s, but due to the speed restrictions of the 444s arrived 2/3 minutes afterwards. Another pair of winning 450/5s, with 450563 leading 450558 for a short hop to Waterloo overtaking the double 444s I had left behind, arriving with a few minutes to spare for the Shepperton bound stopper, the last service departing Waterloo for 18-odd minutes, didn’t have that much choice as it was a pair of duds, 455714/455859 for the trip back to Clapham.
Back into Waterloo on the next set with dud 450005 leading with winner 450127 behind, and back out to Vauxhall on dud 450119 leading winner 450021. Next stop Clapham with the next double 455s, leading was winner 455874 with dud 455872 behind. A couple duds later and some winning 450s tipped up in the shape of 450564 & 450008, to take me back towards Waterloo in time for the break, so heading over to Waterloo East which was open (Charing Cross was open and Cannon Street was closed today), which gave me an option of doing London Bridge non-stop to see the work, with a Lewisham leap.
Winners 465243/465164 took me towards Lewisham (wow at London Bridge rebuilding), and back into Waterloo East after a last minute platform change on winner 465049 leading dud 465237, 3 more 465s crossed off. Via Tesco Express before I reached Waterloo to have a look at what was departing in the next 10 minutes, pair of dud 444s, trio of dud 450s, but what caught my eye was a winning 458/0, dud 458029 was leading winner 458028, my 2nd to last outstanding 458/0 with the remaining 458s having gone to Doncaster to be introduced to part of a 460 (last one is 458022). This double 458 took me to Vauxhall where I had a couple options, but all were duds so I headed to the underground.
The Victoria line took me towards Kings Cross St Pancras, where I headed towards Kings Cross first of all, first 3 units checked were duds, but when I was going to pack it in to head to St Pancras (before I found out that Thameslink was flooded at Farringdon) winner 313025 rolled in, departing in 10 minutes so I decided to take a seat and relax. Alighting at Finsbury I crossed over to P2 (anybody noticed how strange that the P1-P2 Island hasn’t got ticket barriers when the other platforms have?) for a dud-filled 30 minutes, 6 sets stopped, all 6 were duds, quite annoying, so I called it a day and went down to the underground.
The Victoria line took me to Highbury & Islington where the North London Line was closed, but the East London Line was open for business, some sideways action on 378s I felt was needed, some linear bashing down to Canada Water. First up was 378225 to Dalston Junction, crossing to a bay platform to get onto 378144 down to Haggerston, with 378151 taking me the next bus stop to Hoxton, 3 minutes later 378142 took me to Shoreditch High Street, one of the few Overground stations in Zone 1. 378150 was next to Whitechapel, where the underground trains go over the overground, with 378153 towards Shadwell. Back to the dual-voltage units as 378202 took me to Wapping, north of the river, the sound of water was quite strong. Next bus stop leap to Rotherhithe was in the hands of 378203; with 378143 taking care of the tiny distance to Canada Water (you can actually see the platforms of Rotherhithe from Canada Water). My first dud 378 of the day with 378204 down to Surrey Quays, before I headed north, ignoring one unit as I had it already before winner 378140 arrived to Canada Water, where I went down to the underground.
Not the Victoria line this time, but the Jubilee line, to its terminus at Stratford where I had my eye on doing a quick hop on some AGA units, mainly the 315s on a cut-down service. First up was dud 315802 leading winner 315844, where after looking at RTT saw a potential changeover at Maryland, but it was looking fine when 802/844 departed 3 minutes late, but thankfully I made it across the bridge and down onto the platform just as dud 315806 arrived with winner 315834 behind. Checking RTT saw a 3 minute connection with a fast to Romford service, although only a single dusty bin today, in the shape of winner 321445. 5 minute break at Romford before winner 321440 took me back to Stratford, where another tight connection saw me onto winner 315826 & dud 315831 towards Forest Gate. Slight delay of the inbound service which I was thinking was going to be 844/802 making its way back, but was winners 315804/315847, back to Stratford, where I called my AGA trip a day and went down to the underground.
West Ham and C2C land was in my sights, making out a rough plan to cover some units on the limited service they operate on Sundays, and all 357s were winners (which made a change from the last time I did C2C on a Sunday where all 3 units were duds). 357208 took me into Fenchurch Street for the first time of the year, with 357206 taking me back out to West Ham. Crossing over the island platform with 357044 arriving, with an annoyed cyclist as he had to move his bike as it was blocking the door (and even more annoyed at Limehouse where he had to move from laying with feet high on the table to shift it again). Into Fenchurch Street and across to P4 where a double awaited me, 357046 leading 357221 back to West Ham where I decided to call it a day on C2C land and went down to the underground.
Quick hop to Canada Water, for no reason other than to try and get another couple 378s, north on winner 378152 before heading south on dud 378207, using Rotherhithe as a base as the bridge is easy enough to cross platforms. Back to the Jubilee line, and to Waterloo where I was going to have a quick look on route to the Bakerloo line, to get to Paddington. I saw dud 444006 leading 444004, one of the required trio, so I jumped on it without really thinking, and it looked tight at Clapham, 1 minute connection with an inbound service before a 13 minute break, I made the connection onto duds 159021/159020, which were quite busy (and the best example of an idiotic passenger standing by the door-way when lots of passengers were trying to alight, justice was served as the train arrived into Waterloo with opposite set of doors opening. 28-odd minutes to get to Paddington and onto the Plymouth train departing at 18:57, so guess what... I went down to the underground.
1 minute the Bakerloo line train was due in, giving me 8-odd minutes spare with the average journey time, “train approaching” came on, but no train appeared, the times disappeared and 4 minutes later a set arrived. Apart from a longer than expected stop at Regent’s Park it was a nice and easy trip, although that delay cut down my time down to mere 4 minutes, so I legged it, making the main-line station just as the doors were starting to be closed and jumped on the first available door and walked through, leading was dud 43185 with winner 43170 behind, keeping my run of having one dud and one winning powercar on FGW HSTs, finding a seat to relax as it sped towards Reading, going slowly until Slough in the relief track before speeding up to reach Reading 5 minutes down, thankfully it went into P7 and I had the advantage of knowing that the Basingstoke train would probably be held up in Reading for the HST to clear, another dash to P2 noticing it was my least favourite 165, 165118, making its 10th appearance on my unit log, which is quite good going as its less than a year old. Nice slow trip to Basingstoke arriving 3 minutes down, involving another leg it to get to P2, where packed 159020/159021 arrived, it stayed packed, standing room only until Andover where the odd space appeared. I managed to get one of the door seats for the last few minutes. Next time I will try and time to get onto the 159s which start at Basingstoke rather than the 2 hourly London service, idea that they will be a bit quieter....
And so I headed to the underground
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24th January – A trip to the West Midlands
My aim of today was to try and get some new units around the West Midlands area, such a large area covered by the Daytripper ticket for a reasonable price. Thanks for Techni to give me some ideas of potential leaps to score various units.
159008 was the SWT unit on Salisbury to Basingstoke duties, terminating at Basingstoke and it was rather empty, although on a frosty January Saturday morning, it wasn’t that surprising. I had an option of checking the FGW unit on the Reading shuttle before joining the XC service at Reading West, the 159 arrived into P4 which was nice, but sadly tremendous dud 165118 rolled in, so deciding to give it a miss, I headed to buy a newspaper from the station café to await the XC service to Manchester.
A rather empty (for a 220) rolled in, and it was winner 220020, which took me up to Banbury, but not via Reading due to engineering works with the viaduct, so via the Reading West curve underneath the viaduct and onto the relief lines, I had a nice table seat to relax, arrival into Banbury was 10 minutes down due to being held up around the Didcot area. First time at Banbury station for a fair while, sadly I had to change to Chiltern as XC don’t allow usage of the Gold Card north of Banbury. Winners 168216 and 172101 rolled in, my first Chiltern 172 (nice surprise), and a nice little run towards Leamington Spa.
My plan to try and buy the Network Daytripper ticket with ‘Add-on” failed, so it was onto winner 165027 on stopper duties for a short trip to Dorridge, another new station for me. Across the bridge and to buy the required tickets, the daytripper was fine (and printed on Network West Midlands stock), but the add-on ticket was a bit of a puzzle (the add-on allows travel to Leamington, Stratford-Upon-Avon & Lichfield City), he sold me some sort of add-on ticket, no idea what one it was (£2.50 cost), but did the trick. I had a quick option for a bus-stop dash to Widney Manor to make a 3 minute connection with a Stratford upon Avon train, with the aim of getting some new track of Hatton north [previously I had only used the South curve via Chiltern].
Winner 172335 was on a service heading north towards Snow Hill, the doors closed but it had to wait for a delayed XC service, so my 3 minute connection turned into a zero connection, as winner 172340 arrived at pretty much the same time. Thankfully I guessed the location of the bridge correct and made it in the nick of time, being careful with some icy patches on the bridge. The ride to Stratford is rather boring, as it’s in a cutting before opening out to fields passing a couple limited service stations, passed the new Stratford Parkway and down to Stratford where the line used to continue all the way down to the Spa at Cheltenham. Nice new bridge is being built at the station so it is bit of a worksite. 15 minutes later 172340 began its journey back towards Birmingham, where I stayed on until Solihull.
Chiltern winner 168113 arrived for the short journey towards Moor Street where I had a minute or so connection with a London bound service formed of 168002, departing from P1 (so started at Snow Hill), my first 168/0 with the Turbo style front end. I stayed on for the trip back to Solihull with a 15 minute wait before the next service back towards Moor Street, formed of dud 172213, rather busy 2-car model, which I alighted at Moor Street with a couple minute wait before Chiltern winner 168106 took me the short distance through the Snow Hill tunnel into Snow Hill station itself. Time to break for some lunch and I had the option of either Tesco or Sainsburys just outside the station, so Tesco it was for a nice sandwich meal-deal. Yum Yum.
Back at Snow Hill a few minutes later for the 10-minute frequency of the Snow Hill Lines, with dud 172220 emptying out and I alighted at the south end of the tunnel to await the next Solihull bound service (giving a Chiltern a miss due to it being a known dud). Dud 172340 returned to take me to Solihull, with a short break before winner 172222 arrived to take me back to Moor, where a repeat of the previous saw me jumping onto winner 168217 for the distance to Snow Hill. I made a mistake in boarding the Dorridge bound service formed of winner 172332, should have stayed for the next service towards Whitlocks End, to score another 172. I crossed over the footbridge at Moor Street to get onto dud 168108 back to Solihull for another short wait.
New dud 172332 (see my mistake) returned from Dorridge where I stayed on until Moor Street, repeating myself with dud 168216 making a comeback (without the 172 attached this time) for the trip towards Snow Hill, waiting as winner 172215, packed with football fans heading towards the big game, hence Bordesley was actually open, however I decided not to stay on 215 and ditched at Moor Street, watching the police marshalling fans outside on the street. To the bay platforms to get onto an Mk3 hauled set, leading was DVT 82303 with DBS branded 67018 at the back; sadly the carriage next to the 67 was rather busy so I couldn’t get a seat to get some 67 noise. First time on a Chiltern Mk3 set for a good few months (October 13 was the last time on a Chiltern 25p each-way day)
To Solihull (again), with another little break before a busy looking known dud 172 arrived with football fans, I decided to wait at Solihull for the Chiltern following, although that was dud 168215, at least I got a seat as I stayed on until Snow Hill. When at Moor Street I spotted 168005 in the front of another 168, thinking they might be joining up for a double set back to London, I headed back towards Moor on winners 172342/172212, and sadly 168005 had disappeared again leaving just a known dud 168/1 on the platform. Change of attack plan, as I headed towards New Street via the subway.
Decisions, decisions, decisions, where to go, what to do, I decided to jump onto a Shrewsbury bound double winners 170513/170509, to hop towards Sandwell & Dudley, for some reason. Next was a winning 323211 for the short hop to Dudley Port, a quite narrow island platform which is quite dangerous to hang around as the XCs fly though. Winner 323220 took me back to Smethwick Galton Bridge, where I had a couple minute wait for dud 350242 to arrive coming back from Liverpool. Back to New Street, and across to make a ~3 minute connection for a Euston bound service formed of dud 350265, staying on until Birmingham International. I think the next time I do one of these daytrippers I will go 350 hunting.
Birmingham International, where I was pleased to alight from a busy train, with a short wait before an empty winning Cross Country 220024 arrived, another 220 ticked off my list, gives me phone a little extra boost. Into Coventry, the limit of the daytripper zone (Coventry to Leamington line isn’t included), where it was quite busy with Rugby fans, thankfully the majority of them cleared when a 390/1 arrived heading towards Euston. I was on dog-box look-out, to see what London Midland 153 was on the Nuneaton – Coventry service today, requiring 6 out of the 7 units the odds were in my flavour, and when I saw winner 153371 tipping up, I was happy.
Buying the ticket for a return to Nuneaton to board for a nice trip to Nuneaton and back to Coventry, some lovely dog-box action. Next service towards New Street was a Virgin, where I have my required VWC units on my phone, as I had the option of a London Midland 350 which was following to get back to International. Thankfully the back-up 350 wasn’t needed as the Virgin was a winner, 390154. To International to see what pair of 158s was on the ATW service towards the Welsh coast, dud 158839 was leading with winner 158841 behind, happy days. Back to New Street with a 10 or so minute connection with a XC 170 heading towards Cardiff which stops at University, winning unit 170110 arrived which was good and with a new station scored at University.
Didn’t stay around University for long as dud 170112 arrived around the same time, so back to New Street for me, quite a busy train, but not as busy as dud 390127 heading towards Euston, thankfully I only had to stand until international where I alighted, heading over for some ATW 158 spotting, winner 158832 was leading with dud 158829 behind, so another ATW 158 ticked off. To New Street, where I hung around to board dud 220033 heading towards Reading, slightly busy but I managed to find a table seat which was reserved from Manchester to Oxford, nobody there so either a no-show or they picked somewhere else to sit.
You might be wondering why I was boarding a XC service when previously I mentioned that the line between Coventry & Leamington was excluded, well it is excluded, but this service doesn’t use that particular line, it doesn’t go via International/Coventry, but runs non-stop to Leamington Spa via Solihull & Warwick, the train manager checking tickets being a bit confused with my tickets (Daytripper & the Add-On) but valid to the network west midlands diagram. First time going towards Leamington in that direction (previously covered that line in December heading towards Stockport on the Thursday evening), 25 minute wait at Leamington, where we arrived 5 minutes early, so I had the option of either catching a 168 towards Warwick to try and get another Chiltern unit from Stratford-Upon-Avon back to Leamington where it was terminating, or trying to find somewhere to grab some dinner.
Search for dinner was the winner, knowing I didn’t have that much time at Banbury or at Basingstoke, so I headed out eventually finding a little Spar which had some sort of baguette meal-deal, lots of various takeaways around the town centre, but nothing which took my fancy. Back to Leamington to await the Marylebone service, formed of winner 168214 for the single station leap to Banbury where I could use my gold card on XC. Dud 220020 (same unit as in the morning) was the service to take me towards Basingstoke via Reading West curve, where it arrived into Basingstoke a couple minutes early, which thanks to the Staines diversions the SWT 159s were pushed back 5 minutes (so departure was at 22:13 rather than 22:08), which was running around 5 minutes late, so I had time to relax before a quiet 159016/159019 arrived to take me back home.
A busy day around the West Midlands, I will be back around that area later in the year, maybe even on a weekday trip. So many difference options to pick from in that area, new units 28, including my first recorded Chiltern 67 & DVT, 168/0 & 172. Rock and roll
25th January – London trip
No real plan for today’s Sunday trip to London, just an unplanned day out, although with engineering works my options were more limited, but I through to see what happens. After a brief walk to the station to catch the 7:35-wibble service to Basingstoke, formed today of 159001, for an uneventful trip to Basingstoke where it terminated due to Wimbledon. Unlike on a Saturday where the Basingstoke terminators have good connections the early Sunday morning’s connection is with the stopper (or wait 30 minutes for one from Southampton), today it was formed of winner 450032, as I took my usual seat opposite the guard’s office.
Alighting at Brookwood (new station for me) to wait a couple minutes (you could see the headlights in the background waiting for the signals to clear) for the service from Alton which was due to attach with 032 at Woking. Formed of double winners 450555/450570 for the short hop to Woking where after it crashed into 032 the doors were released, and I crossed over to P2 to await the train from Southampton (and Portsmouth), would it be one of the magical trios of required 444s? Nope, 444031/444019 was the units for today’s magical tour via sunny Staines.
I alighted at Clapham to wait a couple minutes for a service from Portsmouth via Guildford (which departed Woking 15 minutes after the double 444s, but due to the speed restrictions of the 444s arrived 2/3 minutes afterwards. Another pair of winning 450/5s, with 450563 leading 450558 for a short hop to Waterloo overtaking the double 444s I had left behind, arriving with a few minutes to spare for the Shepperton bound stopper, the last service departing Waterloo for 18-odd minutes, didn’t have that much choice as it was a pair of duds, 455714/455859 for the trip back to Clapham.
Back into Waterloo on the next set with dud 450005 leading with winner 450127 behind, and back out to Vauxhall on dud 450119 leading winner 450021. Next stop Clapham with the next double 455s, leading was winner 455874 with dud 455872 behind. A couple duds later and some winning 450s tipped up in the shape of 450564 & 450008, to take me back towards Waterloo in time for the break, so heading over to Waterloo East which was open (Charing Cross was open and Cannon Street was closed today), which gave me an option of doing London Bridge non-stop to see the work, with a Lewisham leap.
Winners 465243/465164 took me towards Lewisham (wow at London Bridge rebuilding), and back into Waterloo East after a last minute platform change on winner 465049 leading dud 465237, 3 more 465s crossed off. Via Tesco Express before I reached Waterloo to have a look at what was departing in the next 10 minutes, pair of dud 444s, trio of dud 450s, but what caught my eye was a winning 458/0, dud 458029 was leading winner 458028, my 2nd to last outstanding 458/0 with the remaining 458s having gone to Doncaster to be introduced to part of a 460 (last one is 458022). This double 458 took me to Vauxhall where I had a couple options, but all were duds so I headed to the underground.
The Victoria line took me towards Kings Cross St Pancras, where I headed towards Kings Cross first of all, first 3 units checked were duds, but when I was going to pack it in to head to St Pancras (before I found out that Thameslink was flooded at Farringdon) winner 313025 rolled in, departing in 10 minutes so I decided to take a seat and relax. Alighting at Finsbury I crossed over to P2 (anybody noticed how strange that the P1-P2 Island hasn’t got ticket barriers when the other platforms have?) for a dud-filled 30 minutes, 6 sets stopped, all 6 were duds, quite annoying, so I called it a day and went down to the underground.
The Victoria line took me to Highbury & Islington where the North London Line was closed, but the East London Line was open for business, some sideways action on 378s I felt was needed, some linear bashing down to Canada Water. First up was 378225 to Dalston Junction, crossing to a bay platform to get onto 378144 down to Haggerston, with 378151 taking me the next bus stop to Hoxton, 3 minutes later 378142 took me to Shoreditch High Street, one of the few Overground stations in Zone 1. 378150 was next to Whitechapel, where the underground trains go over the overground, with 378153 towards Shadwell. Back to the dual-voltage units as 378202 took me to Wapping, north of the river, the sound of water was quite strong. Next bus stop leap to Rotherhithe was in the hands of 378203; with 378143 taking care of the tiny distance to Canada Water (you can actually see the platforms of Rotherhithe from Canada Water). My first dud 378 of the day with 378204 down to Surrey Quays, before I headed north, ignoring one unit as I had it already before winner 378140 arrived to Canada Water, where I went down to the underground.
Not the Victoria line this time, but the Jubilee line, to its terminus at Stratford where I had my eye on doing a quick hop on some AGA units, mainly the 315s on a cut-down service. First up was dud 315802 leading winner 315844, where after looking at RTT saw a potential changeover at Maryland, but it was looking fine when 802/844 departed 3 minutes late, but thankfully I made it across the bridge and down onto the platform just as dud 315806 arrived with winner 315834 behind. Checking RTT saw a 3 minute connection with a fast to Romford service, although only a single dusty bin today, in the shape of winner 321445. 5 minute break at Romford before winner 321440 took me back to Stratford, where another tight connection saw me onto winner 315826 & dud 315831 towards Forest Gate. Slight delay of the inbound service which I was thinking was going to be 844/802 making its way back, but was winners 315804/315847, back to Stratford, where I called my AGA trip a day and went down to the underground.
West Ham and C2C land was in my sights, making out a rough plan to cover some units on the limited service they operate on Sundays, and all 357s were winners (which made a change from the last time I did C2C on a Sunday where all 3 units were duds). 357208 took me into Fenchurch Street for the first time of the year, with 357206 taking me back out to West Ham. Crossing over the island platform with 357044 arriving, with an annoyed cyclist as he had to move his bike as it was blocking the door (and even more annoyed at Limehouse where he had to move from laying with feet high on the table to shift it again). Into Fenchurch Street and across to P4 where a double awaited me, 357046 leading 357221 back to West Ham where I decided to call it a day on C2C land and went down to the underground.
Quick hop to Canada Water, for no reason other than to try and get another couple 378s, north on winner 378152 before heading south on dud 378207, using Rotherhithe as a base as the bridge is easy enough to cross platforms. Back to the Jubilee line, and to Waterloo where I was going to have a quick look on route to the Bakerloo line, to get to Paddington. I saw dud 444006 leading 444004, one of the required trio, so I jumped on it without really thinking, and it looked tight at Clapham, 1 minute connection with an inbound service before a 13 minute break, I made the connection onto duds 159021/159020, which were quite busy (and the best example of an idiotic passenger standing by the door-way when lots of passengers were trying to alight, justice was served as the train arrived into Waterloo with opposite set of doors opening. 28-odd minutes to get to Paddington and onto the Plymouth train departing at 18:57, so guess what... I went down to the underground.
1 minute the Bakerloo line train was due in, giving me 8-odd minutes spare with the average journey time, “train approaching” came on, but no train appeared, the times disappeared and 4 minutes later a set arrived. Apart from a longer than expected stop at Regent’s Park it was a nice and easy trip, although that delay cut down my time down to mere 4 minutes, so I legged it, making the main-line station just as the doors were starting to be closed and jumped on the first available door and walked through, leading was dud 43185 with winner 43170 behind, keeping my run of having one dud and one winning powercar on FGW HSTs, finding a seat to relax as it sped towards Reading, going slowly until Slough in the relief track before speeding up to reach Reading 5 minutes down, thankfully it went into P7 and I had the advantage of knowing that the Basingstoke train would probably be held up in Reading for the HST to clear, another dash to P2 noticing it was my least favourite 165, 165118, making its 10th appearance on my unit log, which is quite good going as its less than a year old. Nice slow trip to Basingstoke arriving 3 minutes down, involving another leg it to get to P2, where packed 159020/159021 arrived, it stayed packed, standing room only until Andover where the odd space appeared. I managed to get one of the door seats for the last few minutes. Next time I will try and time to get onto the 159s which start at Basingstoke rather than the 2 hourly London service, idea that they will be a bit quieter....
And so I headed to the underground
crispy1978
Member
Nice write-ups. Gotta get myself down to London at some point to try and grab stations!!
Techniquest
Veteran Member
And so I headed to the underground
That qualifies for my comment of the week so far!
Some very enjoyable trips there, insanely jealous! Mind you, I get to enjoy the Midlands on a weekday (well, a Monday at least) and I'll have the advantage of 3 days in London on 2 weekdays so I'm expecting to have a much better haul than you did!
As for 350 hunting next time you're in the Midlands, nah you're MUCH better off doing them on the WCML South (Northampton to Euston) on a the forthcoming Great Escape. It's surprising how many you can get in just between Northampton and Wolverton alone in the evening peak. In an hour alone, I had 11 different 350s. I probably could have pushed for more, as I did flag a few while I hunted down winners. Check the link to my RailMiles page below (and click on "Show hidden TOPS" to see all the 350s involved):
http://techniquest.railmiles.org/date-08Sep14/
Bear in mind that's a Monday, so if you were doing one on a weekend you'd have greatly different results to me. I sure will be spending some time down there again on the next Great Escape, it's got to be done!
Kite159
Veteran Member
Great Escape will be useful for London Midland south of the WCML, either going back/forward between Watford Junction, or stations where most of the services stop.
I can see my annual leave for 2015/16 being taken up by the odd day off here and there to do weekday trips.
I can see my annual leave for 2015/16 being taken up by the odd day off here and there to do weekday trips.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
You're lucky then, we're not allowed single days off. A few things will get you an exception to that but it's really annoying. Had to fight my case to book an additional day off to go with my previously booked time off in November 2014!
Don't get me started on weekends off either...
Kite159
Veteran Member
Announcement overload at Southampton central this afternoon.
Apart from the usual 'don't leave your bags' style, you had announcements about the buses to Bournemouth and about the landslip for crosscountry services only heading to Banbury.
I will try and get my Southern adventure written up tomorrow.
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Couple observations from Romsey station yesterday, it seems the SWT "figure of 6" Romsey Rocket is being described on the PIS as the final stop, so Salisbury for a service starting from Romsey and more funny the service from Salisbury is advertised as going to Romsey. I'm sure the PIS used to say "Chandlers Ford via Southampton Central" and "Redbridge via Eastleigh" to say confusion.
Also the TVM decides that a Gold Card doesn't exist, thankfully when I arrived in the morning the ticket office was open so I could buy the ticket, and I had some good timing with regarding Car parking. Arrived into the car-park around 8:50, probably half-full, went down town to take back a magazine to the library and come back around 9:05 and it was full, passengers heading on the Cardiff bound service.
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31st January – A Southern Roar
For a change of pace I decided to pick up a DaySave ticket from Southern, even with the price rise it is good value for £17.90, considering the distance it can cover, with the only aim in mind to get up towards the hub of activity of Milton Keynes for some high-speed 377/7 action on AC. Not an early start as per my usual Saturday, but as it was cold the night before walking home after some 321 hunting; I set the alarm 10 minutes earlier so I could deice the car.
Nice quiet drive to Romsey, to arrive and park up in the small car-park, before entering the station to catch the 6:50-odd FGW WestPort service formed of dud 158951 (making its 8th appearance on my sheet), down towards Southampton Central arriving onto P2, which was a bonus to catch the 7:13-odd London Victoria service... which wasn’t there as it was cancelled, boo. Ah well, as I exited the station to go to the little Subway, after crossing over the footbridge from the south side to the north side, to pick up a Sausage baguette to pass the time before dud 377457 rolled in to depart towards Brighton.
I stayed on until Havant, with the idea of catching the Portsmouth to Littlehampton stopper for some 313/2 action, the Portsmouth to London Victoria service had been cancelled and was due to start from Chichester, some big delays being reported as it had snowed overnight, the platforms all pretty in white. Winner 313207 rolled in, the Southern 313/2s seem nicer units than the Great Northern versions, even with out of date route maps (when did Southern stop running into Charing Cross?) for a nice stopper trip to Barnham with some good speed between Chichester & Barnham, not as good sound as on AC through. Next service was the Chichester to Victoria service formed of winner 377467 which rammed into another pair of 377s at Horsham, both duds which I caught the day before when they were pretending to be 442s. 377201 leading with 377146 in the middle where I stayed on until Three Bridges which looked pretty and slippery in the snow, a pair of winning 319s departed on route to Farringdon, which was partly annoying.
The stopper from Horsham formed of winner 377158 arrived to take me the short hop towards Gatwick Airport where the guard announced there was 2 faster services to Victoria departing from platform 4 as this is the stopper, I alighted and headed towards Platform 4 with a double winner of 377133 leading 377132, going the direct route towards East Croydon (not via Redhill), where I alighted to see the Milton Keynes service departing, thankfully the Milton Keynes service is an all-station stopper south of Clapham and so can be overtaken by a donkey, or even better a trio of 377s. Winner 377413 was leading a pair of duds in the shape of 377419 & 377136, arriving into Clapham Junction around 10 minutes before the Milton Keynes service was due, which gave me time to get out of the station via the subway to visit Sainsburys to pick up an early lunch.
Back onto Platform 16 as winner 377707 rolled in for a brief wait as I managed to get a table seat in the front, phone on charge for the journey underneath the many tracks to join up with the West London Line (imagine a rare lines railtour covering the many tracks around Clapham which are not used for passenger services, would be good), the train getting busier until Shepherd’s Bush where it carried on changing over to AC just south of North Pole, “Welcome to Class 377”, and carried on leaving the West London Line to join the West Coast Main Line, running alongside the Down Fast before diving underneath the tracks with a brief wait for a delayed London Midland 350 to clear before crossing the Up Slow into the Down Slow to arrive into Wembley, Harrow, Watford and leaving London behind to pick up some speed.
Spend 30 minutes on the south end of the WCML and you will notice how busy it is, Virgin WC 390s & 221s rushing passed every couple minutes. A few stops later I alighted at Bletchley to try and score some London Midland BR-era DMUs on a short hop to the quiet in the middle of nowhere station at Aspley Guise, dud 150109 was waiting at Bletchley so I took a seat as it departed bang on time on a nice trip along a nice line. Some EMU spotting at the sidings north of the station, where was London Midland hiding the 350/3s today I wonder. The line I want to try and do in full again at some point. I got off at Aspley Guise, made my way across the tracks towards the other platform where another passenger was waiting, “A London Midland service which has 1 Carriage” came up on the PIS, so dog-box action with winner 153366 rolling in, quite busy, but I found a seat and it rolled back into Bletchley.
25-or so minutes to kill before the next Southern service was due northbound, so headed out of the station, to find not really a lot around, looks like the station is at the edge of town, so back to the platform, one of the station staffed asked me if I was ok as I was sat after a couple 350s departed, and told him I was on a Southern-Only ticket which was nice of them to check up. Winner 377705 arrived to take me the short distance to Milton Keynes Central, which oddly arrived into platform 2, rather than the bay platform (is the new bay platform big enough for a 5-car 377/7?), 15 minutes to kill before the service departed so I exited the station, passed a gate-guard who hadn’t seen a Southern Daysave issued from Southampton Central before and it “can’t be valid here” when it didn’t open the gate. Eventually he saw sense and let me through, where I purchased a newspaper from the little shop before coming back onto the platform to sit underneath the Pan well on a busy service, full of Chelsea supporters “if we get on here we will get a seat”.
Nice run down the WCML, still rather boring at the south end, underneath the tracks and joining up with the West London Line to run down, the train getting rather busy where it emptied out a bit at Clapham Junction, but I stayed on to get a new shack in the form of Wandsworth Common. How odd that it’s a station close to London without ticket barriers, 5 minute later winner 377604 arrived to take me the short hop down to Balham with 455803 taking over to take me to another new shack in the form of Norwood Junction, where I was hoping to catch a 171/8 which was terminating at Norwood instead of London Bridge, and it was a dud first up with 171802, but thankfully the return trip was in the hands of winner 171806. Only 803 & 805 left to get of the 4-car 171/8s, I sense a London Bridge to East Croydon trip to try and clear them on a weekday. The original plan was to get back towards Clapham but I decided to change my mind and head back to East Croydon, the aim was for some additional 313/2s around the Brighton area which only work Mondays to Saturdays. London based 455s can wait for a London trip.
Winner 455821 was in charge to take me towards East Croydon, starting from Norwood Junction due to being cut short, so was nice and quiet. Managed to make a tight connection with a Brighton express formed of winners 377469 & 377140 for a nice fast run down the Brighton Main line, stopping only at Brighton, so no Gatwick Airport issues today, I worked out I would have a minute connection at Brighton for a West Worthing stopper from P1, things were looking good, looking early until we stopped outside Brighton for a couple minutes for a platform to become available where I dashed and the guard allowed me and another passenger onto winner 313213 via the rear guard-door as he had just closed the doors. To Hove a couple minutes later to cross over to P2 with winner 313208 rolling in from West Worthing, another quick cross platform to get onto dud 313209 on the Hove shuttle, staying on at Hove and back into Brighton.
Next up was an Ashford bound rammed dud 171725, standing room only, even in the little declassified First Class area, I stayed on until Lewes where I alighted, Sundays you can stay on until Berwick to cross over for the inbound 171, but on Saturdays they run fast to Eastbourne. Having a quick look at RTT found nothing else to do for 20-odd minutes, no quick in-out services I could do with the Seaford 313s, so exiting the station to find a rather busy dodgy road, no traffic signals to get to the other side with some small shops? Killing time is hard to do, but eventually back on the station winner 171721 rolled in, not as busy but as usual I found myself in the 2+1 seating area to give the iPod a quick charge, sat opposite an off-duty guard, the only other passenger in that area.
Brighton arrived again with another tight connection with a Lewes bound terminator formed of winner 313220; where I stayed on to score another new shack in the form of Falmer, next to the football stadium, with the massive footbridge for crowd management. A couple minutes later winner 377114 rolled in from Ore where I stayed on for another new shack with Moulsecoomb, a quiet station with not a lot around. Next service towards Seaford was in the hands of winner 313219 with a shorter wait at Lewes for dud 171724 to take me back towards Brighton for the final time. Exiting the station (blimey Brighton must be the only station where the daysave opens the barriers, both ways!), to grab a quick sandwich from WH Smiths before heading back towards P1 where dud 377437 had arrived to take me back towards Southampton.
Seemed to be an all-station stopper for the first 30 minutes, “This is the southern service to Southampton Central, calling at blah blah blah” and just as it finished listing all the stations (sometimes not even getting to Fareham) it was “This is the southern service to Southampton Central, we are now approaching some unstaffed halt on the outskirts of some Sussex village”. Give me the peace of a FGW 158 anytime. On route a trio of RPIs boarded to do an inspection, my old Southern ticket check of the day, where they caught a trio of chavs youths sitting in the rubbish first class section without tickets, deary me I though as they were escorted off the train at the next station, the note-books open taking details. Back to my book afterwards for the run towards Southampton Central, arriving a couple minutes late (but what is a 2 minute delay to Southern?)
Across to Platform 4 where the FGW Romport was waiting, terminating at Romsey tonight due to engineering works between Romsey and Salisbury, formed of dud 158950 making its 4th appearance on my excel sheet.
Next time I do a Southern Daysave, will probably be a weekday where I will focus on my remaining 313/2s (10 to get) and 171/7s (5 to get) around the coastways, before focusing on the massive pile of 377s & 455s to score
Apart from the usual 'don't leave your bags' style, you had announcements about the buses to Bournemouth and about the landslip for crosscountry services only heading to Banbury.
I will try and get my Southern adventure written up tomorrow.
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Couple observations from Romsey station yesterday, it seems the SWT "figure of 6" Romsey Rocket is being described on the PIS as the final stop, so Salisbury for a service starting from Romsey and more funny the service from Salisbury is advertised as going to Romsey. I'm sure the PIS used to say "Chandlers Ford via Southampton Central" and "Redbridge via Eastleigh" to say confusion.
Also the TVM decides that a Gold Card doesn't exist, thankfully when I arrived in the morning the ticket office was open so I could buy the ticket, and I had some good timing with regarding Car parking. Arrived into the car-park around 8:50, probably half-full, went down town to take back a magazine to the library and come back around 9:05 and it was full, passengers heading on the Cardiff bound service.
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31st January – A Southern Roar
For a change of pace I decided to pick up a DaySave ticket from Southern, even with the price rise it is good value for £17.90, considering the distance it can cover, with the only aim in mind to get up towards the hub of activity of Milton Keynes for some high-speed 377/7 action on AC. Not an early start as per my usual Saturday, but as it was cold the night before walking home after some 321 hunting; I set the alarm 10 minutes earlier so I could deice the car.
Nice quiet drive to Romsey, to arrive and park up in the small car-park, before entering the station to catch the 6:50-odd FGW WestPort service formed of dud 158951 (making its 8th appearance on my sheet), down towards Southampton Central arriving onto P2, which was a bonus to catch the 7:13-odd London Victoria service... which wasn’t there as it was cancelled, boo. Ah well, as I exited the station to go to the little Subway, after crossing over the footbridge from the south side to the north side, to pick up a Sausage baguette to pass the time before dud 377457 rolled in to depart towards Brighton.
I stayed on until Havant, with the idea of catching the Portsmouth to Littlehampton stopper for some 313/2 action, the Portsmouth to London Victoria service had been cancelled and was due to start from Chichester, some big delays being reported as it had snowed overnight, the platforms all pretty in white. Winner 313207 rolled in, the Southern 313/2s seem nicer units than the Great Northern versions, even with out of date route maps (when did Southern stop running into Charing Cross?) for a nice stopper trip to Barnham with some good speed between Chichester & Barnham, not as good sound as on AC through. Next service was the Chichester to Victoria service formed of winner 377467 which rammed into another pair of 377s at Horsham, both duds which I caught the day before when they were pretending to be 442s. 377201 leading with 377146 in the middle where I stayed on until Three Bridges which looked pretty and slippery in the snow, a pair of winning 319s departed on route to Farringdon, which was partly annoying.
The stopper from Horsham formed of winner 377158 arrived to take me the short hop towards Gatwick Airport where the guard announced there was 2 faster services to Victoria departing from platform 4 as this is the stopper, I alighted and headed towards Platform 4 with a double winner of 377133 leading 377132, going the direct route towards East Croydon (not via Redhill), where I alighted to see the Milton Keynes service departing, thankfully the Milton Keynes service is an all-station stopper south of Clapham and so can be overtaken by a donkey, or even better a trio of 377s. Winner 377413 was leading a pair of duds in the shape of 377419 & 377136, arriving into Clapham Junction around 10 minutes before the Milton Keynes service was due, which gave me time to get out of the station via the subway to visit Sainsburys to pick up an early lunch.
Back onto Platform 16 as winner 377707 rolled in for a brief wait as I managed to get a table seat in the front, phone on charge for the journey underneath the many tracks to join up with the West London Line (imagine a rare lines railtour covering the many tracks around Clapham which are not used for passenger services, would be good), the train getting busier until Shepherd’s Bush where it carried on changing over to AC just south of North Pole, “Welcome to Class 377”, and carried on leaving the West London Line to join the West Coast Main Line, running alongside the Down Fast before diving underneath the tracks with a brief wait for a delayed London Midland 350 to clear before crossing the Up Slow into the Down Slow to arrive into Wembley, Harrow, Watford and leaving London behind to pick up some speed.
Spend 30 minutes on the south end of the WCML and you will notice how busy it is, Virgin WC 390s & 221s rushing passed every couple minutes. A few stops later I alighted at Bletchley to try and score some London Midland BR-era DMUs on a short hop to the quiet in the middle of nowhere station at Aspley Guise, dud 150109 was waiting at Bletchley so I took a seat as it departed bang on time on a nice trip along a nice line. Some EMU spotting at the sidings north of the station, where was London Midland hiding the 350/3s today I wonder. The line I want to try and do in full again at some point. I got off at Aspley Guise, made my way across the tracks towards the other platform where another passenger was waiting, “A London Midland service which has 1 Carriage” came up on the PIS, so dog-box action with winner 153366 rolling in, quite busy, but I found a seat and it rolled back into Bletchley.
25-or so minutes to kill before the next Southern service was due northbound, so headed out of the station, to find not really a lot around, looks like the station is at the edge of town, so back to the platform, one of the station staffed asked me if I was ok as I was sat after a couple 350s departed, and told him I was on a Southern-Only ticket which was nice of them to check up. Winner 377705 arrived to take me the short distance to Milton Keynes Central, which oddly arrived into platform 2, rather than the bay platform (is the new bay platform big enough for a 5-car 377/7?), 15 minutes to kill before the service departed so I exited the station, passed a gate-guard who hadn’t seen a Southern Daysave issued from Southampton Central before and it “can’t be valid here” when it didn’t open the gate. Eventually he saw sense and let me through, where I purchased a newspaper from the little shop before coming back onto the platform to sit underneath the Pan well on a busy service, full of Chelsea supporters “if we get on here we will get a seat”.
Nice run down the WCML, still rather boring at the south end, underneath the tracks and joining up with the West London Line to run down, the train getting rather busy where it emptied out a bit at Clapham Junction, but I stayed on to get a new shack in the form of Wandsworth Common. How odd that it’s a station close to London without ticket barriers, 5 minute later winner 377604 arrived to take me the short hop down to Balham with 455803 taking over to take me to another new shack in the form of Norwood Junction, where I was hoping to catch a 171/8 which was terminating at Norwood instead of London Bridge, and it was a dud first up with 171802, but thankfully the return trip was in the hands of winner 171806. Only 803 & 805 left to get of the 4-car 171/8s, I sense a London Bridge to East Croydon trip to try and clear them on a weekday. The original plan was to get back towards Clapham but I decided to change my mind and head back to East Croydon, the aim was for some additional 313/2s around the Brighton area which only work Mondays to Saturdays. London based 455s can wait for a London trip.
Winner 455821 was in charge to take me towards East Croydon, starting from Norwood Junction due to being cut short, so was nice and quiet. Managed to make a tight connection with a Brighton express formed of winners 377469 & 377140 for a nice fast run down the Brighton Main line, stopping only at Brighton, so no Gatwick Airport issues today, I worked out I would have a minute connection at Brighton for a West Worthing stopper from P1, things were looking good, looking early until we stopped outside Brighton for a couple minutes for a platform to become available where I dashed and the guard allowed me and another passenger onto winner 313213 via the rear guard-door as he had just closed the doors. To Hove a couple minutes later to cross over to P2 with winner 313208 rolling in from West Worthing, another quick cross platform to get onto dud 313209 on the Hove shuttle, staying on at Hove and back into Brighton.
Next up was an Ashford bound rammed dud 171725, standing room only, even in the little declassified First Class area, I stayed on until Lewes where I alighted, Sundays you can stay on until Berwick to cross over for the inbound 171, but on Saturdays they run fast to Eastbourne. Having a quick look at RTT found nothing else to do for 20-odd minutes, no quick in-out services I could do with the Seaford 313s, so exiting the station to find a rather busy dodgy road, no traffic signals to get to the other side with some small shops? Killing time is hard to do, but eventually back on the station winner 171721 rolled in, not as busy but as usual I found myself in the 2+1 seating area to give the iPod a quick charge, sat opposite an off-duty guard, the only other passenger in that area.
Brighton arrived again with another tight connection with a Lewes bound terminator formed of winner 313220; where I stayed on to score another new shack in the form of Falmer, next to the football stadium, with the massive footbridge for crowd management. A couple minutes later winner 377114 rolled in from Ore where I stayed on for another new shack with Moulsecoomb, a quiet station with not a lot around. Next service towards Seaford was in the hands of winner 313219 with a shorter wait at Lewes for dud 171724 to take me back towards Brighton for the final time. Exiting the station (blimey Brighton must be the only station where the daysave opens the barriers, both ways!), to grab a quick sandwich from WH Smiths before heading back towards P1 where dud 377437 had arrived to take me back towards Southampton.
Seemed to be an all-station stopper for the first 30 minutes, “This is the southern service to Southampton Central, calling at blah blah blah” and just as it finished listing all the stations (sometimes not even getting to Fareham) it was “This is the southern service to Southampton Central, we are now approaching some unstaffed halt on the outskirts of some Sussex village”. Give me the peace of a FGW 158 anytime. On route a trio of RPIs boarded to do an inspection, my old Southern ticket check of the day, where they caught a trio of chavs youths sitting in the rubbish first class section without tickets, deary me I though as they were escorted off the train at the next station, the note-books open taking details. Back to my book afterwards for the run towards Southampton Central, arriving a couple minutes late (but what is a 2 minute delay to Southern?)
Across to Platform 4 where the FGW Romport was waiting, terminating at Romsey tonight due to engineering works between Romsey and Salisbury, formed of dud 158950 making its 4th appearance on my excel sheet.
Next time I do a Southern Daysave, will probably be a weekday where I will focus on my remaining 313/2s (10 to get) and 171/7s (5 to get) around the coastways, before focusing on the massive pile of 377s & 455s to score
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
You really want to try the evening peak for 377s, it really is absolutely mad how many 12-car trains you can score and that's just between Gatwick and Preston Park, let alone anywhere else!
You really did have a good day by the looks of it, without having my NREA to hand I can't tell how many of your winners I would have needed too but without a doubt it would have been a good few.
I wondered that about the bay platform at MKC too, as I also used platform 2 on my only trip from there with Southern on last year's DaySave. It annoyed me as I had wanted to micro-grice platform 2a, the only bit of track I need (save for some crossovers) at MKC.
Good to hear your prefer AC powered 313s, like I do. Nothing wrong with the 313s on DC but it's just so much more hellfire on AC! I swear if 442s were AC powered I'd actually like the things!
You've reminded me that I want to do a DaySave with Southern again this year, time to start planning!
You really did have a good day by the looks of it, without having my NREA to hand I can't tell how many of your winners I would have needed too but without a doubt it would have been a good few.
I wondered that about the bay platform at MKC too, as I also used platform 2 on my only trip from there with Southern on last year's DaySave. It annoyed me as I had wanted to micro-grice platform 2a, the only bit of track I need (save for some crossovers) at MKC.
Good to hear your prefer AC powered 313s, like I do. Nothing wrong with the 313s on DC but it's just so much more hellfire on AC! I swear if 442s were AC powered I'd actually like the things!
You've reminded me that I want to do a DaySave with Southern again this year, time to start planning!
Kite159
Veteran Member
I did platform 2a on my last trip to MKC on Southern around June 13 which was a 377/2.
My idea is to do an evening around London, to get some peak triple 377s and some of those peak 442s.
--
I'm half thinking either to do a London trip this coming Sunday, focusing around Liverpool Street or go HST hunting on a Thames Branches Day Ranger, although I think London will win as it seems it's taking 40-odd minutes between Reading/Paddington, so a bit slower than regular.
My idea is to do an evening around London, to get some peak triple 377s and some of those peak 442s.
--
I'm half thinking either to do a London trip this coming Sunday, focusing around Liverpool Street or go HST hunting on a Thames Branches Day Ranger, although I think London will win as it seems it's taking 40-odd minutes between Reading/Paddington, so a bit slower than regular.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Ahhh, they'll be running on relief lines for much of the journey then. Mind you, I've had similar length journeys on HSTs at weekends and the only bit not on the main lines was between Ealing Broadway and Paddington, with waits of some minutes normally at the east end of Ealing Broadway to get to/from the relief lines. So it will vary.
Again, weekdays are awesome for HST hunting on a Thames Branches Day Ranger, although it's worth remembering you can do a good few HSTs on an Oxfordshire Day Ranger too. It's eastern edge is Reading, so you can either do to Oxford or Didcot on them, even as far as Moreton-in-Marsh. Might be worth considering as an alternative to the Thames Branches Day Ranger, and offers a little variety to your spreadsheet! Of course, Voyagers and Turbos can also be got on the Oxfordshire Day Ranger, so I would recommend it. It goes as far as Banbury as well, so it's a very good value ranger. There's also an evening version of the ranger, it might be worth looking into for you.
Kite159
Veteran Member
1st February – Liverpool Street
Another unplanned Sunday out in London, thinking what to do, what to do, throwing a die, writing down ideas on scrapes of paper and drawing from an oversized hat, pondering. I didn’t really know where I was going to end up, as I boarded 159013 (making its 10th appearance in my sheet, pushing it over the 400 mile mark, although in comparison to the other 29 159s I have no clue) on the Salisbury to Basingstoke service. Last week I was lucky with 3 winning 450s on route to Woking, sadly not this week with dud 450094 on the Basingstoke to Waterloo stopper, where I alighted at Brookwood to board the service from Alton which met up with 094 at Woking, duds 450029 & 450085 were on this unit.
Across the bridge at Woking for a wait, in the cold, as a pair of dud 444s arrived and departed, with a 15 minute wait (but with only a minute or two penalty at Clapham as 450s can go faster around the diversion than 444s), and I scored my first winner of the day in the shape of 450031 leading dud 450560. Today’s diversion went via Isleworth instead of Richmond, to make a change, arriving into Clapham around a dead time, next couple Waterloo bound units were both duds so I hopped over to see which Southern 377/7 was on the Clapham Junction to Shepherd’s Bush (cut back due to engineering works until mid-day) and it was winner 377708. Researching found a potential cross-over at West Brompton, so away from narrow P17, underneath the many tracks and out.
West Brompton is sadly not a new shack for me, but it was good to see the S-stock on the district line, waiting as winner 378257 arrived to take me back to Clapham Junction for a brief wait for a couple more duds before a trio of winning 450s, 450552/450086/450011, excellent I through as I hopped the 2 and a half miles to Vauxhall, with a wait, annoyingly I boarded duds 458021/458023 back to Clapham as I saw my remaining 458/0 (which hasn’t been to Doncaster) heading towards Waterloo. To the Southern platforms now, with winner 455843 taking me to Balham, crossing over to the rarely (?) used fast-line platforms with winner 455822 to Clapham Junction, followed by winner 455827 to Battersea Park.
5 minute wait at Battersea Park saw a winner in the shape of 377618 back to Clapham Junction, with a trio of busy 377s heading to Victoria from Brighton (the previous Brighton service had been cancelled), with winner 377436 leading duds 377431 & 377144, deciding to leave the underground for a few minutes (rammed at the best of times), I headed across to the suburban Southern platforms, a dud 455 was first out, with a winner 455 up next (820 I think), sadly it was cancelled as the driver failed to show, so a quick hop back to the main-line platforms (Victoria station doesn’t like the travel card when doing that) for the next winning service, with winner 377135 leading dud 377405. Back to Clapham with good timing as dud 377614 with winner 377602 arrived around the same time, so back to Victoria. Silly barriers decided not to like my ticket, so I was let out by a grumpy gateline staff, makes the gateline staff at Blackpool North seem cheerful in comparison.
Fighting passed the crowds heading to the Victoria line, and to the District line for the short hop to Blackfriars to see what Thameslink services were running on a reduced service due to the line around St Pancras being closed, 2 trains an hour northbound in the core to Farringdon, with everything else stopping at Blackfriars. 4 services departing in the next 10 minutes, ticket once more failed to open the barriers at Blackfriars (those barriers hate me) when I did some 319 spotting, dud, dud, dud, winner-dud, so I went with dud 319454 leading winner 319215, travelling the Swiss way for the 46 chain trip to Farringdon. To the SSL platforms, with a metropolitan line service to Liverpool Street, I made use of the internet to bring up departures from Liverpool Street towards Stratford. Seemingly to be 8 trains an hour with a fast followed by a stopper, the first stopper being a Maryland stopper with a 2 minute connection for an inboard service.
Winners 321352/321322 were waiting for me on the 4 mile trip out to Stratford followed by a pair of dud 315s, 315802/315844 for the tiny distance to Maryland, learning from the previous Maryland trip saw me exiting at the right door for the stairs, across to the other platform with a 30 second wait before another pair of dud 315s arrived with 315827/315853, back to Stratford and across to the down platform being used with a pair of winning 321s, 321422/321433 for the 8 mile trip to Romford, can’t beat some 321 action. Next service was being delayed, where Greater Anglia being clever and delaying the stopper to allow winners 321363/321347 to pass, no point in delaying it even more than needed. To Stratford (again), with the stopper behind being winners 315850/315819, finally some winning 315s.
Quick dash across the platform to board duds 315821/315835 out to Forest Gate with another short connection before duds 315821/315835 rolled in (following this dud-fest I have now fed my required GA EMUs into my phone) back to Stratford with duds 315819/315850 back to Maryland and 315844/315802 making its return from Gilea Park, back to Stratford. Winners in the shape of 321336/321329 took me back to Liverpool Street, where I noticed the 379s were back running after engineering works closing the line north of Broxbourne. First things first was to get lunch from the little Tesco Metro over the road, 10 minutes before the next airport service, so had time.
Dud 379003 leading winner 379006 was late arriving, and so a Cambridge bound 379 which was due to follow the express departed first (which was overtaken at Hackney Downs), at Tottenham Hale I alighted (couldn’t stay on for longer as next stop was Harlow Town). Across the platform to get onto the up platform with another Airport train with winners 379019/379004 taking me back the 6 miles to Liverpool Street.
Next up was a service to Hackney Downs in the hands of winner 315854, with dud 317659 taking me to Seven Sisters, ah 659 we meet again, hopefully this time I won’t be spending 3 hours stuck on you due to a broken down train in front. Thankfully the trip to Seven Sisters passed without issue arriving earlier than expected to catch dud 317507 back to Hackney Downs, with dud 315847 doing the honours to a new shack at Bethnal Green. Great station for some photographic activity with the Stratford lines passing by, across and back to Hackney Downs on dud (not having that much luck) 315845. Final service back to Liverpool Street was with winner (happy days) 317671. To the underground with a metropolitan line service to Farringdon, where I had just missed a double 387 southbound, so a Hammersmith & City service was next to Edgeware Road, I had time to kill before the FGW to Reading, so alighted crossing over to a Circle line service to London Paddington (Praed Street) for another new station call.
Heading up with 2 options to get back to Reading in time to make the connection back to Basingstoke, where I had an idea to get on a service which started from Basingstoke as it might be quieter than the 2 hourly service from London. A HST was the back-up, but first was a pair of Turbos which gave an ‘official’ connection with the Basingstoke service, the HST behind was an unofficial connection, but the Basingstoke service would normally wait as the HST heads down towards Westbury, dud 165135 was behind winner 165113. So some Turbo thrash down the GWML, calling only at Slough & Maidenhead. A trio of RPIs boarded at Paddington, and checked tickets, being friendly giving me the times of connections from Reading to Basingstoke. To Reading, with longer than the previous week to look at the new tracks in XC platform 3, shiny, dud 165127 arrived (what was 165118 on holiday?) for the short ride down to Basingstoke. My plan didn’t work as the service was still rammed, maybe getting onto a service which goes to Exeter & Bristol wasn’t clever, but I got a seat, opposite the toilet where the sliding door had jammed open. 159008/159021 were the units taking me home, 008 making its 13th appearance at 725 miles and 021 making its 12th appearance at 485 miles.
Another unplanned Sunday out in London, thinking what to do, what to do, throwing a die, writing down ideas on scrapes of paper and drawing from an oversized hat, pondering. I didn’t really know where I was going to end up, as I boarded 159013 (making its 10th appearance in my sheet, pushing it over the 400 mile mark, although in comparison to the other 29 159s I have no clue) on the Salisbury to Basingstoke service. Last week I was lucky with 3 winning 450s on route to Woking, sadly not this week with dud 450094 on the Basingstoke to Waterloo stopper, where I alighted at Brookwood to board the service from Alton which met up with 094 at Woking, duds 450029 & 450085 were on this unit.
Across the bridge at Woking for a wait, in the cold, as a pair of dud 444s arrived and departed, with a 15 minute wait (but with only a minute or two penalty at Clapham as 450s can go faster around the diversion than 444s), and I scored my first winner of the day in the shape of 450031 leading dud 450560. Today’s diversion went via Isleworth instead of Richmond, to make a change, arriving into Clapham around a dead time, next couple Waterloo bound units were both duds so I hopped over to see which Southern 377/7 was on the Clapham Junction to Shepherd’s Bush (cut back due to engineering works until mid-day) and it was winner 377708. Researching found a potential cross-over at West Brompton, so away from narrow P17, underneath the many tracks and out.
West Brompton is sadly not a new shack for me, but it was good to see the S-stock on the district line, waiting as winner 378257 arrived to take me back to Clapham Junction for a brief wait for a couple more duds before a trio of winning 450s, 450552/450086/450011, excellent I through as I hopped the 2 and a half miles to Vauxhall, with a wait, annoyingly I boarded duds 458021/458023 back to Clapham as I saw my remaining 458/0 (which hasn’t been to Doncaster) heading towards Waterloo. To the Southern platforms now, with winner 455843 taking me to Balham, crossing over to the rarely (?) used fast-line platforms with winner 455822 to Clapham Junction, followed by winner 455827 to Battersea Park.
5 minute wait at Battersea Park saw a winner in the shape of 377618 back to Clapham Junction, with a trio of busy 377s heading to Victoria from Brighton (the previous Brighton service had been cancelled), with winner 377436 leading duds 377431 & 377144, deciding to leave the underground for a few minutes (rammed at the best of times), I headed across to the suburban Southern platforms, a dud 455 was first out, with a winner 455 up next (820 I think), sadly it was cancelled as the driver failed to show, so a quick hop back to the main-line platforms (Victoria station doesn’t like the travel card when doing that) for the next winning service, with winner 377135 leading dud 377405. Back to Clapham with good timing as dud 377614 with winner 377602 arrived around the same time, so back to Victoria. Silly barriers decided not to like my ticket, so I was let out by a grumpy gateline staff, makes the gateline staff at Blackpool North seem cheerful in comparison.
Fighting passed the crowds heading to the Victoria line, and to the District line for the short hop to Blackfriars to see what Thameslink services were running on a reduced service due to the line around St Pancras being closed, 2 trains an hour northbound in the core to Farringdon, with everything else stopping at Blackfriars. 4 services departing in the next 10 minutes, ticket once more failed to open the barriers at Blackfriars (those barriers hate me) when I did some 319 spotting, dud, dud, dud, winner-dud, so I went with dud 319454 leading winner 319215, travelling the Swiss way for the 46 chain trip to Farringdon. To the SSL platforms, with a metropolitan line service to Liverpool Street, I made use of the internet to bring up departures from Liverpool Street towards Stratford. Seemingly to be 8 trains an hour with a fast followed by a stopper, the first stopper being a Maryland stopper with a 2 minute connection for an inboard service.
Winners 321352/321322 were waiting for me on the 4 mile trip out to Stratford followed by a pair of dud 315s, 315802/315844 for the tiny distance to Maryland, learning from the previous Maryland trip saw me exiting at the right door for the stairs, across to the other platform with a 30 second wait before another pair of dud 315s arrived with 315827/315853, back to Stratford and across to the down platform being used with a pair of winning 321s, 321422/321433 for the 8 mile trip to Romford, can’t beat some 321 action. Next service was being delayed, where Greater Anglia being clever and delaying the stopper to allow winners 321363/321347 to pass, no point in delaying it even more than needed. To Stratford (again), with the stopper behind being winners 315850/315819, finally some winning 315s.
Quick dash across the platform to board duds 315821/315835 out to Forest Gate with another short connection before duds 315821/315835 rolled in (following this dud-fest I have now fed my required GA EMUs into my phone) back to Stratford with duds 315819/315850 back to Maryland and 315844/315802 making its return from Gilea Park, back to Stratford. Winners in the shape of 321336/321329 took me back to Liverpool Street, where I noticed the 379s were back running after engineering works closing the line north of Broxbourne. First things first was to get lunch from the little Tesco Metro over the road, 10 minutes before the next airport service, so had time.
Dud 379003 leading winner 379006 was late arriving, and so a Cambridge bound 379 which was due to follow the express departed first (which was overtaken at Hackney Downs), at Tottenham Hale I alighted (couldn’t stay on for longer as next stop was Harlow Town). Across the platform to get onto the up platform with another Airport train with winners 379019/379004 taking me back the 6 miles to Liverpool Street.
Next up was a service to Hackney Downs in the hands of winner 315854, with dud 317659 taking me to Seven Sisters, ah 659 we meet again, hopefully this time I won’t be spending 3 hours stuck on you due to a broken down train in front. Thankfully the trip to Seven Sisters passed without issue arriving earlier than expected to catch dud 317507 back to Hackney Downs, with dud 315847 doing the honours to a new shack at Bethnal Green. Great station for some photographic activity with the Stratford lines passing by, across and back to Hackney Downs on dud (not having that much luck) 315845. Final service back to Liverpool Street was with winner (happy days) 317671. To the underground with a metropolitan line service to Farringdon, where I had just missed a double 387 southbound, so a Hammersmith & City service was next to Edgeware Road, I had time to kill before the FGW to Reading, so alighted crossing over to a Circle line service to London Paddington (Praed Street) for another new station call.
Heading up with 2 options to get back to Reading in time to make the connection back to Basingstoke, where I had an idea to get on a service which started from Basingstoke as it might be quieter than the 2 hourly service from London. A HST was the back-up, but first was a pair of Turbos which gave an ‘official’ connection with the Basingstoke service, the HST behind was an unofficial connection, but the Basingstoke service would normally wait as the HST heads down towards Westbury, dud 165135 was behind winner 165113. So some Turbo thrash down the GWML, calling only at Slough & Maidenhead. A trio of RPIs boarded at Paddington, and checked tickets, being friendly giving me the times of connections from Reading to Basingstoke. To Reading, with longer than the previous week to look at the new tracks in XC platform 3, shiny, dud 165127 arrived (what was 165118 on holiday?) for the short ride down to Basingstoke. My plan didn’t work as the service was still rammed, maybe getting onto a service which goes to Exeter & Bristol wasn’t clever, but I got a seat, opposite the toilet where the sliding door had jammed open. 159008/159021 were the units taking me home, 008 making its 13th appearance at 725 miles and 021 making its 12th appearance at 485 miles.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Doing well for mileage on your 159s! A disappointing time on GA sadly, hopefully next time it won't be so bad. I'm lucky in that I have a pocket-sized book so I don't have to refer to notes on my phone normally.
Looks like an enjoyable day out though still
Looks like an enjoyable day out though still
Kite159
Veteran Member
I'm all pacered out after today's trip to Cardiff area.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Looking forward to the trip report, that's for sure!
Kite159
Veteran Member
Will have to wait until the end of the month when I come back from potentially going zoom on one of these:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/CRH2C_&_CRH3C_200808.jpg
It's a shame it's internal flights on my holiday rather than going by high speed rail, might take a bit longer in journey time, but counting the time to/from airport and wasted time in the airport checking in/security etc probably work out the same.
And farewell Staines, see you again at some point when the Wimbledon lines are closed.
*wonders if Rail UK will be assessable from China*
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/CRH2C_&_CRH3C_200808.jpg
It's a shame it's internal flights on my holiday rather than going by high speed rail, might take a bit longer in journey time, but counting the time to/from airport and wasted time in the airport checking in/security etc probably work out the same.
And farewell Staines, see you again at some point when the Wimbledon lines are closed.
*wonders if Rail UK will be assessable from China*
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Link won't work for me sadly. You could always add some aviation as a side interest on your Chinese trip I suppose, but would definitely be more of an experience travelling by rail on it.
Hope that's an amazing trip, definitely well looking forward to reading about that!
Hope that's an amazing trip, definitely well looking forward to reading about that!
Kite159
Veteran Member
Silly wikipedia links. Although probably the most I will come to the rails on my holiday will be any light rail/underground in the cities.
Kite159
Veteran Member
And a Happy New Year for Thursday
(Yes I did book the holiday to include the Chinese New Year celebrations, well we only live once)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Greetings from Beijing (currently enjoying the fireworks and firecrackers)
Some random thoughts on the line 12 of the Shanghai subway (which be the largest in the world).
Fares appear to be cheap, from 3 Yuan (about 45p) for a single journey, seemed to be distance/zone related. Smart tickets where you tap in and insert the card on the way out. The two stations I used has security on the way in (check bags).
Platform edge doors and modern trains with longitude plastic bench seats with fixed arm holds for standers (hopefully my picture will come out good). Doors close but it seems to take a good 10 seconds after doors close for the train to start moving. Trains have little 'location' boards on board saying where it was in relation to the stations.
A nice little system, where sadly I only had the time to do a couple trips. Operation tomorrow or Friday is to locate the Beijing subway for a quick ride
Back to watching the many fireworks celebrating the Spring festival of new year of the lunar calendar
(Yes I did book the holiday to include the Chinese New Year celebrations, well we only live once)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Greetings from Beijing (currently enjoying the fireworks and firecrackers)
Some random thoughts on the line 12 of the Shanghai subway (which be the largest in the world).
Fares appear to be cheap, from 3 Yuan (about 45p) for a single journey, seemed to be distance/zone related. Smart tickets where you tap in and insert the card on the way out. The two stations I used has security on the way in (check bags).
Platform edge doors and modern trains with longitude plastic bench seats with fixed arm holds for standers (hopefully my picture will come out good). Doors close but it seems to take a good 10 seconds after doors close for the train to start moving. Trains have little 'location' boards on board saying where it was in relation to the stations.
A nice little system, where sadly I only had the time to do a couple trips. Operation tomorrow or Friday is to locate the Beijing subway for a quick ride
Back to watching the many fireworks celebrating the Spring festival of new year of the lunar calendar
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Sounds an interesting Metro system, fair dos. How does it compare with the UK?
Kite159
Veteran Member
Can't really make a fair comparison due to the spring holiday making usage a lot lower than it is normally.
Same with the Beijing metro, one of the original lines (line 1), same setup as in shanghai metro with fares (up to 6km for 3 Yuan, 4 Yuan (about 54p) buys you a ticket for 12km. So cheap as chips. Security scanning on the way in, bit more in depth with metal detectors. I can see massive queues at peak times trying to get into the station
I saw two types of units being used on line 1, pictures will follow. No platform edge doors (would imagine they will be on the newer lines). Announcements in both Chinese and English. Just did a quick couple station hop, took longer than expected to walk to the subway station. Peak time frequency is said to be something like 60+ trains per hour.
Wish I could spend more time, but forbidden city was calling
Same with the Beijing metro, one of the original lines (line 1), same setup as in shanghai metro with fares (up to 6km for 3 Yuan, 4 Yuan (about 54p) buys you a ticket for 12km. So cheap as chips. Security scanning on the way in, bit more in depth with metal detectors. I can see massive queues at peak times trying to get into the station
I saw two types of units being used on line 1, pictures will follow. No platform edge doors (would imagine they will be on the newer lines). Announcements in both Chinese and English. Just did a quick couple station hop, took longer than expected to walk to the subway station. Peak time frequency is said to be something like 60+ trains per hour.
Wish I could spend more time, but forbidden city was calling
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Forbidden City, sounds odd.
60+ trains an hour in the peak must be absolutely mad to deal with!
60+ trains an hour in the peak must be absolutely mad to deal with!
Kite159
Veteran Member
I would imagine on the newer lines they use Spanish Solution to offload from one side and load from the other.
Forbidden City, basically where the Chinese emperors of old lived http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City
Hopefully my pictures will come out and my scans of unused single tickets will work fine.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Some random thoughts on the Xi'an metro (before I forget by the time I get back to UK)
Newly opened with 2 lines (2012 for line 2, 2014 for line 1) at the moment (4 more are being built and the station maps have the connections on but taped over), similar to the previous 2 it's bag x-,ray searches on the way in before even buying the ticket. Bit cheaper at 2 Yuan (28p!) for a single ticket for up to 6 stations (price based on number of stations rather than distance). Platform edge doors and a good 10 second delay between doors closing and train getting on its way.
Might be overhead wires as I couldn't spot any 3rd rail. Still quite busy for a Sunday in the spring holidays.
Forbidden City, basically where the Chinese emperors of old lived http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City
Hopefully my pictures will come out and my scans of unused single tickets will work fine.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Some random thoughts on the Xi'an metro (before I forget by the time I get back to UK)
Newly opened with 2 lines (2012 for line 2, 2014 for line 1) at the moment (4 more are being built and the station maps have the connections on but taped over), similar to the previous 2 it's bag x-,ray searches on the way in before even buying the ticket. Bit cheaper at 2 Yuan (28p!) for a single ticket for up to 6 stations (price based on number of stations rather than distance). Platform edge doors and a good 10 second delay between doors closing and train getting on its way.
Might be overhead wires as I couldn't spot any 3rd rail. Still quite busy for a Sunday in the spring holidays.
Kite159
Veteran Member
14th February A valentines day in Wales
How romantic, in tribute of the semi-famous Badger song (www.badgerbadgerbadger.com) this report is written with the following love song in mind for the Valley lines
Pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer
Sprinter, sprinter, a-
Pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer
Sprinter, sprinter, a-
Pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer
Sprinter, sprinter, a-
Pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer
Coradia, a Coradia!
Coradia! A Coradia, oooh its a Coradia!
It's a pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer
(Yes I be completely mad, but now onto the report)
The main idea when booking this little trip to Cardiff was to try and clear out some of my required Arriva Trains Wales units, mainly the lovely pacers which work around the Valley lines network (plus the 150/2s), and going up on a Saturday gives me an excuse to do a Saturday only PSUL movement (the daytime Fishguard boat-train which uses the curve around the back of Swansea depot), so apart from the fixed times of the advance times for the Carport (Cardiff-Portsmouth FGW service) making use of the first direct service from Salisbury and last direct service to Salisbury to give me a good 10 and a bit hours to play.
Arrival into Salisbury, getting there a bit earlier than required for the 7:30 service, where I saw one of the 150/9s on a Bristol to Portsmouth service, before dud 158952 rolled in (all FGW 158s are duds to me) for the 2 and a bit hour ride towards Cardiff reversing at Temple Meads, and unusually for FGW it kept to its timings and arrived into Cardiff a couple minutes early, blimey. I had an hour or so to kill before the Fishguard service, so headed towards P6 (new platform being built on the other side of P7?) to see what was heading up towards Queen Street (and to see which unit was on the Bay service), and first up was winner 150253, and first time into the new platform 5 at Queen Street for me. Checking the times for the next Central bound service (and checking the Bay, unusually in the hands of a non-required 142) with 142069 leading and dud 143602 behind, departing from P2.
To central where I repeated the Queen Street runs with winners 142010/142073 out, 150227 back, 150213 out, 150235 back, 150250 out, 150242 back (lots of 150s today which is good as unlike the pacers they can be found all over the ATW network) and the final run was with dud 142077 leading 142076 out with a pair of 143s back (dud 143622 with winner 143604 behind).
Leaving P6/P7 behind as I headed towards the P3/P4 island (where did platform 5 disappear?), with some HST action for the short run to Bridgend, dud 43185 leading with required power car 43155 behind. 10 minute waiting at Bridgend saw winner 158822 arriving on the Fishguard service, the guard announcing that the next stop is Llanelli, this service does not call at Port Talbot, Neath or Swansea. Train was rather empty, so I found my table seat for the nice non-stop run pass the industrial area around Port Talbot, flying through Neath before running around the back of Swansea depot and out where I alighted at Llanelli.
Having spent an hour at Llanelli around Christmas time I decided to do another stop up the line, where the scenery is quite lovely, and the ticket price was the same. Dud 142081 rolled in for the single hop to Pembrey and Burry Port, where I had 15 minutes spare before the next Swansea bound service, enough time to visit the little Co-Op to pick up a lunch meal-deal. Winner 175001 rolled in where I stayed on until Llanelli where I had 2 chances of a winner back to Swansea before a Paddington bound HST departed, a unit from the Heart of Wales which turned into a Swan-line stopper towards Newport or a stopper from Carmarthen. The Heart of Wales service omitted Gowerton, so two station calls in a row where it has to reverse, and was in the hands of winner 150245 (the other service was another required 150, but that will have to wait for another day).
25-or-so minute wait at Swansea, deciding not to stay on the stopper back to Cardiff as it was busy, so after going out of the station to have a look around the station area at Swansea (bit of a dump), and back to the station where dud power car 43165 was leading winner 43092 (keeping up my couple months where my FGW HSTS have mostly been one dud-one-winner, or both duds). Taking a nice table seat in the unreserved coach for the hour ride back to Cardiff, due to the rubbish connection times at Bridgend I stayed onboard.
Back onto Queen Street runs, a couple duds later found me a pair of 142s, dud 142075 was leading and winner 142083 behind, with good luck heading back to Central as the first unit which pulled in was winner 150258, back out onto winner 142085, but as I wanted to get back to Central to see which units were on the Ebbw Valley service found me on dud 150242. The Ebbw Valley service was in the hands of a pair of duds, but I noticed a required 150 pull in on a service towards Bridgend, so jumped onto winner 150255 towards Penceod (a new station call for me). A station where the platforms are a massive distance apart from each other, you could probably fit a HST in the gap and still have room for a Pacer.
10 minute wait before dud 150252 took me back towards Central. I had a couple options, which was decided with dud 143607 leading winner 142072 heading towards Grangetown (another new station, nice island platform but exposed to the wind), with duds 143602/142069 taking me back. On arrival I noticed required 143610 sitting on platform 0 attached to an unknown 158, so I headed over (as I know the other service had a required dog-box attached), to find 158822 at the front, back from Fishguard.
The 158 looked busy, the 143 was empty, and so I jumped onto the Pacer for some main-line highish speed Pacer action, for my 4th (and final) new station call at Rogerstone. Seems to be located in a nice enough area, housing estate and a car-park, but I didnt get the chance to wait around for long as required 153362 arrived with dud 150254 behind, so for the first time of the day I got some dog-box action. Back to Central with a couple hours to go, so back towards the valley lines with another shot of the unit generator and winner 150267 towards Grangetown, back into Central (didnt want to hang around Grangetown for long) on dud 142076, the next few units were duds, so I headed over towards P3/P4 as I had spotted a required 175, in the shape of 175108 heading towards the West of Wales, so I jumped on for the short trip to Bridgend.
15 minutes later a service towards Manchester arrived in the shape of dud 158836, so back to Central, and back to the Valley line platforms, and with some more duds before winner 150251 arrived to take me to Grangetown, with winner 142074 back to Queen Street (I did jump off at Central at first, before noting the next service towards Queen Street was in 20 minutes). Must be a time where the Valley line services start to run down, start to terminate at Central more, and 3rd unit later I scored a winner with 150262 back to Central. Dud 150231 took me back towards Queen Street, where I hit some more non-required units before finally giving up and jumped onto dud 143604 back to Central.
Grabbing a quick bite to eat, I headed towards P2 to await the doors of 158955 to be unlocked for the trip back towards Salisbury, nice and quiet it was.
Quite a productive day with my required ATW units reducing to 4x 142s, 5x 143s, 8x150s, 4x 153s, 6x 158s & 13x 175s. I need another day in the valleys, probably around the first May Bank Holiday weekend, engineering works pending, to try and reduce those units even more.
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Currently in the process of writing up my Farewell to the annoying
diversion report
How romantic, in tribute of the semi-famous Badger song (www.badgerbadgerbadger.com) this report is written with the following love song in mind for the Valley lines
Pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer
Sprinter, sprinter, a-
Pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer
Sprinter, sprinter, a-
Pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer
Sprinter, sprinter, a-
Pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer
Coradia, a Coradia!
Coradia! A Coradia, oooh its a Coradia!
It's a pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer, pacer
(Yes I be completely mad, but now onto the report)
The main idea when booking this little trip to Cardiff was to try and clear out some of my required Arriva Trains Wales units, mainly the lovely pacers which work around the Valley lines network (plus the 150/2s), and going up on a Saturday gives me an excuse to do a Saturday only PSUL movement (the daytime Fishguard boat-train which uses the curve around the back of Swansea depot), so apart from the fixed times of the advance times for the Carport (Cardiff-Portsmouth FGW service) making use of the first direct service from Salisbury and last direct service to Salisbury to give me a good 10 and a bit hours to play.
Arrival into Salisbury, getting there a bit earlier than required for the 7:30 service, where I saw one of the 150/9s on a Bristol to Portsmouth service, before dud 158952 rolled in (all FGW 158s are duds to me) for the 2 and a bit hour ride towards Cardiff reversing at Temple Meads, and unusually for FGW it kept to its timings and arrived into Cardiff a couple minutes early, blimey. I had an hour or so to kill before the Fishguard service, so headed towards P6 (new platform being built on the other side of P7?) to see what was heading up towards Queen Street (and to see which unit was on the Bay service), and first up was winner 150253, and first time into the new platform 5 at Queen Street for me. Checking the times for the next Central bound service (and checking the Bay, unusually in the hands of a non-required 142) with 142069 leading and dud 143602 behind, departing from P2.
To central where I repeated the Queen Street runs with winners 142010/142073 out, 150227 back, 150213 out, 150235 back, 150250 out, 150242 back (lots of 150s today which is good as unlike the pacers they can be found all over the ATW network) and the final run was with dud 142077 leading 142076 out with a pair of 143s back (dud 143622 with winner 143604 behind).
Leaving P6/P7 behind as I headed towards the P3/P4 island (where did platform 5 disappear?), with some HST action for the short run to Bridgend, dud 43185 leading with required power car 43155 behind. 10 minute waiting at Bridgend saw winner 158822 arriving on the Fishguard service, the guard announcing that the next stop is Llanelli, this service does not call at Port Talbot, Neath or Swansea. Train was rather empty, so I found my table seat for the nice non-stop run pass the industrial area around Port Talbot, flying through Neath before running around the back of Swansea depot and out where I alighted at Llanelli.
Having spent an hour at Llanelli around Christmas time I decided to do another stop up the line, where the scenery is quite lovely, and the ticket price was the same. Dud 142081 rolled in for the single hop to Pembrey and Burry Port, where I had 15 minutes spare before the next Swansea bound service, enough time to visit the little Co-Op to pick up a lunch meal-deal. Winner 175001 rolled in where I stayed on until Llanelli where I had 2 chances of a winner back to Swansea before a Paddington bound HST departed, a unit from the Heart of Wales which turned into a Swan-line stopper towards Newport or a stopper from Carmarthen. The Heart of Wales service omitted Gowerton, so two station calls in a row where it has to reverse, and was in the hands of winner 150245 (the other service was another required 150, but that will have to wait for another day).
25-or-so minute wait at Swansea, deciding not to stay on the stopper back to Cardiff as it was busy, so after going out of the station to have a look around the station area at Swansea (bit of a dump), and back to the station where dud power car 43165 was leading winner 43092 (keeping up my couple months where my FGW HSTS have mostly been one dud-one-winner, or both duds). Taking a nice table seat in the unreserved coach for the hour ride back to Cardiff, due to the rubbish connection times at Bridgend I stayed onboard.
Back onto Queen Street runs, a couple duds later found me a pair of 142s, dud 142075 was leading and winner 142083 behind, with good luck heading back to Central as the first unit which pulled in was winner 150258, back out onto winner 142085, but as I wanted to get back to Central to see which units were on the Ebbw Valley service found me on dud 150242. The Ebbw Valley service was in the hands of a pair of duds, but I noticed a required 150 pull in on a service towards Bridgend, so jumped onto winner 150255 towards Penceod (a new station call for me). A station where the platforms are a massive distance apart from each other, you could probably fit a HST in the gap and still have room for a Pacer.
10 minute wait before dud 150252 took me back towards Central. I had a couple options, which was decided with dud 143607 leading winner 142072 heading towards Grangetown (another new station, nice island platform but exposed to the wind), with duds 143602/142069 taking me back. On arrival I noticed required 143610 sitting on platform 0 attached to an unknown 158, so I headed over (as I know the other service had a required dog-box attached), to find 158822 at the front, back from Fishguard.
The 158 looked busy, the 143 was empty, and so I jumped onto the Pacer for some main-line highish speed Pacer action, for my 4th (and final) new station call at Rogerstone. Seems to be located in a nice enough area, housing estate and a car-park, but I didnt get the chance to wait around for long as required 153362 arrived with dud 150254 behind, so for the first time of the day I got some dog-box action. Back to Central with a couple hours to go, so back towards the valley lines with another shot of the unit generator and winner 150267 towards Grangetown, back into Central (didnt want to hang around Grangetown for long) on dud 142076, the next few units were duds, so I headed over towards P3/P4 as I had spotted a required 175, in the shape of 175108 heading towards the West of Wales, so I jumped on for the short trip to Bridgend.
15 minutes later a service towards Manchester arrived in the shape of dud 158836, so back to Central, and back to the Valley line platforms, and with some more duds before winner 150251 arrived to take me to Grangetown, with winner 142074 back to Queen Street (I did jump off at Central at first, before noting the next service towards Queen Street was in 20 minutes). Must be a time where the Valley line services start to run down, start to terminate at Central more, and 3rd unit later I scored a winner with 150262 back to Central. Dud 150231 took me back towards Queen Street, where I hit some more non-required units before finally giving up and jumped onto dud 143604 back to Central.
Grabbing a quick bite to eat, I headed towards P2 to await the doors of 158955 to be unlocked for the trip back towards Salisbury, nice and quiet it was.
Quite a productive day with my required ATW units reducing to 4x 142s, 5x 143s, 8x150s, 4x 153s, 6x 158s & 13x 175s. I need another day in the valleys, probably around the first May Bank Holiday weekend, engineering works pending, to try and reduce those units even more.
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Currently in the process of writing up my Farewell to the annoying
Techniquest
Veteran Member
As is always the case, an enjoyable read
Either that's exaggeration or they've made it even worse at Pencoed since my visit there 10 or more years ago!
Very productive trip for required DMUs, the ARDMUG was very good to you. Hopefully you won't have issues getting your last ATW 150 like I did
Looking forward to the rest of the trip reports (will there be one from China?) as and when they come
Either that's exaggeration or they've made it even worse at Pencoed since my visit there 10 or more years ago!
Very productive trip for required DMUs, the ARDMUG was very good to you. Hopefully you won't have issues getting your last ATW 150 like I did
Looking forward to the rest of the trip reports (will there be one from China?) as and when they come
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