Kite159
Veteran Member
Will be an interesting day out if you want the island line plus the steam railway (plus the couple boats)
Plus a nice trip on a 159
-
Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
The Various Random Mutterings of Kite
- Thread starter Kite159
- Start date
- Status
Will be an interesting day out if you want the island line plus the steam railway (plus the couple boats)
Plus a nice trip on a 159
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
Thanks! I can't seem to find a 14:07 from Taunton to Cardiff on RTT though. There is a 12:48 from Paignton to Cardiff which is 14:10 at Taunton though. I might try to get to Newport for a few FGW units though.
PHILIPE
Veteran Member
Correct. Forgot this one starts from Paignton !!!
47403
Established Member
Shame about the lack of winers but none the less another great read and a fair few more miles added to their logs, is probably scant reward when theres so many 66's out there to choose from.
Kite159
Veteran Member
Couple random pictures:
444021 getting ready to depart Micheldever
159017 leading another 159 storming through Overton:
13th June Greater Manchester Shack Visiting
I had decided instead of going unit hunting, to do a spot of shack attacking, and made up a rough plan to do stations within the Greater Manchester travel area, mainly in the west. Tickets were booked a few months ago when they first went on sale for £18 each way, first service from Grateley to the last service to Grateley, giving me potential of 10 and a bit hours in Manchester.
Nice little drive to the station (due to the rain), to arrive with time to spare to board the 5:27, running a couple minutes late, and formed of 159102, good that its one of the units still remaining under 500 miles as the 72 miles will add to the total (now sitting at around 426 miles IIRC). Into Waterloo on time around 6:48, where I had an hour 10 minutes to get to Euston, so I wasnt in any sort of rush. Got to Euston for around 7:10, so went to sit in the waiting area, to read the paper, to pass the time, RTT was suggesting Platform 2 for the 08:00 departure so at 7:35 I packed up and went out to wonder towards the top of P2.
There was no 390 on platform 2, the only train in that part was the sleeper, 7:40 rolled around with no announcement of platform, RTT changed to suggest P6 where a service from Wolverhampton had just rolled in, platform announced at 7:50, so I went down to jump on dud 390132, where it departed on time. Sat on a table seat in coach E, not that busy compared to previous times, first stop was Stoke-Le-Tent so it would be a nice non-stop run.
However the train seemed to slow right down to loss time south of Milton Keynes, and slowed down again south of Nuneaton which meant it had missed its slot to cross the Up line to get onto the Colwich line, having to wait for a freight & another 390 to pass before it could get onto the line, arriving into Stoke 10 minutes down. Not to worry I through as I had a 20 minute connection at Piccadilly for a Southport train, however 10 minutes later the 390 was still at Stoke, door problems from the train manager, so when it rolled into Stockport at 10:18, I decided to ditch, no way I would have made the connection for the Southport service, so straight away my rough plan was thrown in the air.
A quick think, to do a couple movements to put me onto the next Southport train to do the plan, all-be it an hour later, with the hope of catching up later in the day, so I jumped on the first service from Stockport towards Piccadilly which was a winner, dud 142014 was leading winner 142040 from Chester, which I took to Levenshulme, crossing over to see what the next Stockport bound service would be to have a 3 minute connection at Heaton Chapel, it was a dud 156 and was 2 minutes late so I gave it a miss. Winner 323239 rolled in from Crewe to take me the final leap to Piccadilly, where I had around 7 minutes to get to P7 for the Crewe via the Airport stopper.
Formed of winner 323234 it departed on time to take me to my first new shack of the day in the shape of Starmill's local Mauldeth Road, not a shack you want to do in a hurry as to get to the other platform involves going down some stairs, down a road under a bridge and up another path and more stairs, 3 minutes, and that was with fast walking, anyhow I was rewarded with my 3rd winning 323 of the day, 323231 on the trip back to Piccadilly. Across to the island platform, strangely the revenue block which is normally on the bridge wasnt there, anyhow down to a busy P14, which was awaiting a Glasgow bound 350. My plan had a split, if this 350 was one of the 2 I need to take it to Wigan, and cross over to meet up with the Southport service at Wallgate.
Thankfully it was dud 350405, which departed pretty much full and standing (is it just me who thinks TPE should try and hire in some additional underused 350s from London Midland to run doubles on all their Scotland services?), so I was waiting for the Southport service, the NRDMUG ready to spin, and it gave me a 156, a winning 156466, happy days, no ex-Merseyrail 142 for me for the 23 mile trip to Appley Bridge
Another slightly annoying station lacking a footbridge, but I had time, plenty of time, before dud 150147 rolled in to take me to Gathurst, which was another long walk between platforms, but like before a good connection was made with dud 150277 leading winner 150136 back to Appley Bridge, the limit of the GM rail-rover area. A quick check on RTT gave me a chance to reduce the fester at Hindley by doing a quick trip down the Kirkby line.
Dud 142029 with winner 156443 behind rolled in to take me to Wigan Wallgate, where I had a tight connection across the island platform to jump on dud 150150 for the short leap to Pemberton. Another long walk between platforms before dud 150211 rolled in to take me to another new shack, this time Hindley. First new shack which had a decent crossing to the other platform, and the friends of Hindley station has made this station look rather nice. Didnt have long to wait before winners 142012 & 142005 took me back to Ince.
Nice island platform at Ince, but nothing much else around, festering around the 10-or so minutes before the Victoria bound service arrived, with dud 150145 leading winner 150111 taking me to Daisy Hill, which had a tight connection, however something had happened a bit down the line at Atherton as winner 150218 rolled in 10 minutes down. My original plan was to do Pemberton on this unit, thankfully I did it earlier as 150150 was waiting at Wigan Wallgate, which I took to Hag Fold. Google Maps was in control now for the short walk along a housing estate to Atherton, which took me around 15 minutes to do the ~0.8 mile walk. I arrived with 10 minutes to spare before duds 150136/150277 reappeared to take me to another new shack, this time at Swinton (Greater Manchester.
A nice island platform, but I didnt stay for long as it was time for my 2nd station walk of the day, this time walking towards Moorside, similar distance, however I spotted a Tesco Express which was used for some late lunch, which I enjoyed eating when at the station. The service from Kirkby was running a couple minutes late which gave a completely outside chance of making a minus connection at the next station, Walkden, however as soon as dud 150275 rolled in, 150218s doors had closed and it was on its way, 30 seconds of so earlier I could have saved a 20-odd minute fester, was going to be a long-shot anyhow, time which passed fast before duds 142005/142012 rolled in to take me to my final shack on the Manchester Wigan via Swinton line, Salford Central.
I had a rough plan, and it depended on me fast walking to Victoria from Salford in less than 17 minutes, and apart from Google Maps sending me on a slightly circular trip over a river bridge, I made it with time to spare, the ticket barriers at Manchester Victoria, the Bat-cave of the North liked my ticket, and looks so much better than it did previously. Anyhow the service to Leeds was departing from P1, so I jumped on board winner 155347 for the short trip to Mills Hill.
I was almost back on original plan, making made up the hour lost earlier, however the service towards Manchester Victoria was running late (Mills Hills being another annoying station to get from one platform to another), which meant the connection at Moston wouldnt be made, so I gave it a miss. Next up was winner 150117 which I took for a leap to Castleton, which is an interesting station. The sky was looking like it was going to throw it down it rain, getting quite dark, which passed the time waiting for the delayed service from Victoria (RTT suggests a 3 minute turnaround for the dud 142 I gave a miss at Mills Hill). It was dud 142021 which I was originally going to take to Smithy Bridge, but on research via NRE suggested that Smithy Bridge lacked a bridge (and had a level crossing), I decided not to risk it.
Knowing my luck, the level crossing barriers would have stayed down until after the Manchester bound service had departed, so I decided to bail at Rochdale. A few minutes later dud 155341 rolled in where I had a couple decisions; either stay on until Victoria or do my original plan for a couple shacks down on the Cheshire line or ditch and get Moston cleared. I decided to alight at Moston, crossing over the bridge to await dud 150119 to take me back to Castleton, where 150150 had returned to take me back to Victoria.
To the tram part of the station, where a brief couple minute wait saw me onto winning trams 3020 & 3008 for the short ride to Deansgate-Castlefield. Crossing over the bridge to Deansgate station, not the easiest to get from the tram platform to the down platform, having to go along the up platform, down some stairs/ramp underneath and up another ramp/stairs, just missed a service towards Warrington (the idea of a quick shack attack to Glazebrook came into mind). Anyhow I had some choices, which was made up when I saw a TPE Blackpool North service, formed of hired in 156461 & 156421, which I took to Wigan North Western.
5 minutes at waiting at Wigan North Western, and the next Manchester bound service rolled in, formed of duds 185145 & 185109 which took me to Oxford Road. A quick PNB using the free toilets, saw me back onto the platform as winner 185110 rolled in bound for York, which I took for the 43 chain leap to Piccadilly. Where I decided to call it a day, heading to get some food from Sainsburys before heading to dud 390020 on the final Euston service of the day.
I had to kick a couple drunken Stoke passengers out of my seat, wouldnt have minded on a normal day, but as it was seat C2, it was another story, sitting back to relax on the trip down to Watford Junction, where it arrived a good 10 minute ahead of schedule (fast line running on slow-line running timings), where the dispatcher was shouting at passengers to stand back, not to board the service, where last time it was a simple case of crossing over to P10 to sit on the waiting 377, this time was a fester before a couple minutes before departure dud 377702 rolled in from somewhere north to take me back to Clapham Junction. However we were held outside the junction at Willesden for a few minutes and again outside Clapham as a 378 had got lost and found itself on P17.
The 377 arrived 11 minutes down, so I took a nice easy walk over to P9, a quite busy Southampton bound single 444 was first to roll in, before the final Salisbury train, tonight formed of 159005 (another sub-500 mile 159), and as always busy until Basingstoke [it overtakes the Southampton train between Woking & Basingstoke], where it emptied out. The rain kept on coming (having started when I departed from Piccadilly), as the service rolled into Grateley a good 5 minutes early (benefits of set-down only), and with a nice drive home.
17 new NR shacks, 2 new Metrolink shacks, quite a busy day with just over 664 miles covered.
Mauldeth Road:
The sun had come out
Ince:
444021 getting ready to depart Micheldever
159017 leading another 159 storming through Overton:
13th June Greater Manchester Shack Visiting
I had decided instead of going unit hunting, to do a spot of shack attacking, and made up a rough plan to do stations within the Greater Manchester travel area, mainly in the west. Tickets were booked a few months ago when they first went on sale for £18 each way, first service from Grateley to the last service to Grateley, giving me potential of 10 and a bit hours in Manchester.
Nice little drive to the station (due to the rain), to arrive with time to spare to board the 5:27, running a couple minutes late, and formed of 159102, good that its one of the units still remaining under 500 miles as the 72 miles will add to the total (now sitting at around 426 miles IIRC). Into Waterloo on time around 6:48, where I had an hour 10 minutes to get to Euston, so I wasnt in any sort of rush. Got to Euston for around 7:10, so went to sit in the waiting area, to read the paper, to pass the time, RTT was suggesting Platform 2 for the 08:00 departure so at 7:35 I packed up and went out to wonder towards the top of P2.
There was no 390 on platform 2, the only train in that part was the sleeper, 7:40 rolled around with no announcement of platform, RTT changed to suggest P6 where a service from Wolverhampton had just rolled in, platform announced at 7:50, so I went down to jump on dud 390132, where it departed on time. Sat on a table seat in coach E, not that busy compared to previous times, first stop was Stoke-Le-Tent so it would be a nice non-stop run.
However the train seemed to slow right down to loss time south of Milton Keynes, and slowed down again south of Nuneaton which meant it had missed its slot to cross the Up line to get onto the Colwich line, having to wait for a freight & another 390 to pass before it could get onto the line, arriving into Stoke 10 minutes down. Not to worry I through as I had a 20 minute connection at Piccadilly for a Southport train, however 10 minutes later the 390 was still at Stoke, door problems from the train manager, so when it rolled into Stockport at 10:18, I decided to ditch, no way I would have made the connection for the Southport service, so straight away my rough plan was thrown in the air.
A quick think, to do a couple movements to put me onto the next Southport train to do the plan, all-be it an hour later, with the hope of catching up later in the day, so I jumped on the first service from Stockport towards Piccadilly which was a winner, dud 142014 was leading winner 142040 from Chester, which I took to Levenshulme, crossing over to see what the next Stockport bound service would be to have a 3 minute connection at Heaton Chapel, it was a dud 156 and was 2 minutes late so I gave it a miss. Winner 323239 rolled in from Crewe to take me the final leap to Piccadilly, where I had around 7 minutes to get to P7 for the Crewe via the Airport stopper.
Formed of winner 323234 it departed on time to take me to my first new shack of the day in the shape of Starmill's local Mauldeth Road, not a shack you want to do in a hurry as to get to the other platform involves going down some stairs, down a road under a bridge and up another path and more stairs, 3 minutes, and that was with fast walking, anyhow I was rewarded with my 3rd winning 323 of the day, 323231 on the trip back to Piccadilly. Across to the island platform, strangely the revenue block which is normally on the bridge wasnt there, anyhow down to a busy P14, which was awaiting a Glasgow bound 350. My plan had a split, if this 350 was one of the 2 I need to take it to Wigan, and cross over to meet up with the Southport service at Wallgate.
Thankfully it was dud 350405, which departed pretty much full and standing (is it just me who thinks TPE should try and hire in some additional underused 350s from London Midland to run doubles on all their Scotland services?), so I was waiting for the Southport service, the NRDMUG ready to spin, and it gave me a 156, a winning 156466, happy days, no ex-Merseyrail 142 for me for the 23 mile trip to Appley Bridge
Another slightly annoying station lacking a footbridge, but I had time, plenty of time, before dud 150147 rolled in to take me to Gathurst, which was another long walk between platforms, but like before a good connection was made with dud 150277 leading winner 150136 back to Appley Bridge, the limit of the GM rail-rover area. A quick check on RTT gave me a chance to reduce the fester at Hindley by doing a quick trip down the Kirkby line.
Dud 142029 with winner 156443 behind rolled in to take me to Wigan Wallgate, where I had a tight connection across the island platform to jump on dud 150150 for the short leap to Pemberton. Another long walk between platforms before dud 150211 rolled in to take me to another new shack, this time Hindley. First new shack which had a decent crossing to the other platform, and the friends of Hindley station has made this station look rather nice. Didnt have long to wait before winners 142012 & 142005 took me back to Ince.
Nice island platform at Ince, but nothing much else around, festering around the 10-or so minutes before the Victoria bound service arrived, with dud 150145 leading winner 150111 taking me to Daisy Hill, which had a tight connection, however something had happened a bit down the line at Atherton as winner 150218 rolled in 10 minutes down. My original plan was to do Pemberton on this unit, thankfully I did it earlier as 150150 was waiting at Wigan Wallgate, which I took to Hag Fold. Google Maps was in control now for the short walk along a housing estate to Atherton, which took me around 15 minutes to do the ~0.8 mile walk. I arrived with 10 minutes to spare before duds 150136/150277 reappeared to take me to another new shack, this time at Swinton (Greater Manchester.
A nice island platform, but I didnt stay for long as it was time for my 2nd station walk of the day, this time walking towards Moorside, similar distance, however I spotted a Tesco Express which was used for some late lunch, which I enjoyed eating when at the station. The service from Kirkby was running a couple minutes late which gave a completely outside chance of making a minus connection at the next station, Walkden, however as soon as dud 150275 rolled in, 150218s doors had closed and it was on its way, 30 seconds of so earlier I could have saved a 20-odd minute fester, was going to be a long-shot anyhow, time which passed fast before duds 142005/142012 rolled in to take me to my final shack on the Manchester Wigan via Swinton line, Salford Central.
I had a rough plan, and it depended on me fast walking to Victoria from Salford in less than 17 minutes, and apart from Google Maps sending me on a slightly circular trip over a river bridge, I made it with time to spare, the ticket barriers at Manchester Victoria, the Bat-cave of the North liked my ticket, and looks so much better than it did previously. Anyhow the service to Leeds was departing from P1, so I jumped on board winner 155347 for the short trip to Mills Hill.
I was almost back on original plan, making made up the hour lost earlier, however the service towards Manchester Victoria was running late (Mills Hills being another annoying station to get from one platform to another), which meant the connection at Moston wouldnt be made, so I gave it a miss. Next up was winner 150117 which I took for a leap to Castleton, which is an interesting station. The sky was looking like it was going to throw it down it rain, getting quite dark, which passed the time waiting for the delayed service from Victoria (RTT suggests a 3 minute turnaround for the dud 142 I gave a miss at Mills Hill). It was dud 142021 which I was originally going to take to Smithy Bridge, but on research via NRE suggested that Smithy Bridge lacked a bridge (and had a level crossing), I decided not to risk it.
Knowing my luck, the level crossing barriers would have stayed down until after the Manchester bound service had departed, so I decided to bail at Rochdale. A few minutes later dud 155341 rolled in where I had a couple decisions; either stay on until Victoria or do my original plan for a couple shacks down on the Cheshire line or ditch and get Moston cleared. I decided to alight at Moston, crossing over the bridge to await dud 150119 to take me back to Castleton, where 150150 had returned to take me back to Victoria.
To the tram part of the station, where a brief couple minute wait saw me onto winning trams 3020 & 3008 for the short ride to Deansgate-Castlefield. Crossing over the bridge to Deansgate station, not the easiest to get from the tram platform to the down platform, having to go along the up platform, down some stairs/ramp underneath and up another ramp/stairs, just missed a service towards Warrington (the idea of a quick shack attack to Glazebrook came into mind). Anyhow I had some choices, which was made up when I saw a TPE Blackpool North service, formed of hired in 156461 & 156421, which I took to Wigan North Western.
5 minutes at waiting at Wigan North Western, and the next Manchester bound service rolled in, formed of duds 185145 & 185109 which took me to Oxford Road. A quick PNB using the free toilets, saw me back onto the platform as winner 185110 rolled in bound for York, which I took for the 43 chain leap to Piccadilly. Where I decided to call it a day, heading to get some food from Sainsburys before heading to dud 390020 on the final Euston service of the day.
I had to kick a couple drunken Stoke passengers out of my seat, wouldnt have minded on a normal day, but as it was seat C2, it was another story, sitting back to relax on the trip down to Watford Junction, where it arrived a good 10 minute ahead of schedule (fast line running on slow-line running timings), where the dispatcher was shouting at passengers to stand back, not to board the service, where last time it was a simple case of crossing over to P10 to sit on the waiting 377, this time was a fester before a couple minutes before departure dud 377702 rolled in from somewhere north to take me back to Clapham Junction. However we were held outside the junction at Willesden for a few minutes and again outside Clapham as a 378 had got lost and found itself on P17.
The 377 arrived 11 minutes down, so I took a nice easy walk over to P9, a quite busy Southampton bound single 444 was first to roll in, before the final Salisbury train, tonight formed of 159005 (another sub-500 mile 159), and as always busy until Basingstoke [it overtakes the Southampton train between Woking & Basingstoke], where it emptied out. The rain kept on coming (having started when I departed from Piccadilly), as the service rolled into Grateley a good 5 minutes early (benefits of set-down only), and with a nice drive home.
17 new NR shacks, 2 new Metrolink shacks, quite a busy day with just over 664 miles covered.
Mauldeth Road:
The sun had come out
Ince:
Techniquest
Veteran Member
As always, an excellent read! Shame the plan didn't work out but at least things turned out well in the end. I need a lot of those shacks that you did, not to mention a good few of those Northern DMUs. Not a bad chuckout from the NRDMUG in the end, I should imagine your Northern requirements have come down well!
Sounds like a busy day up north Jealous of the units you had, I require most of them 
Except for 142029/156443, weird seeing those together in Wigan when they're Heaton units, especially the 156.
Jealous of the units you had, I require most of them Except for 142029/156443, weird seeing those together in Wigan when they're Heaton units, especially the 156.
Kite159
Veteran Member
14th June – Thameslink North shack visits
The idea of today was to do some shack visits on the Thameslink network, mainly the stations in the northern part of the network, plus some in the south, so it was off to Romsey for the 8:19 Brighton semi-fast, this morning formed of 158961 (all the FGW 158/9s are duds, unless 158962 is still floating around somewhere). Nice peaceful (for a sprinter) ride to Brighton, with the line between Fareham & Eastleigh closed, the Southern service had a delayed start from Southampton (8:35) so it was behind the 158. I kept an eye out when in Hove to see which 377 would be on the world’s longest journey, but it was a dud /1.
Rolling down into Brighton, arrival on P1, with a short walk across to P7/P8 to see what was floating around, the Ashford 171 was late arriving, but there was a required 313/2 sitting on P8, but when the 171 rolled in, I saw it was required 171723 so I decided to jump on board for a short ride to Lewes, next service heading towards Brighton wouldn’t be for another 15 minutes, so I took time to relax (as best as someone can relax at P4-P5 on Lewes station), dud 313203 rolled in to take me to Falmer, with winner 313216 taking me back to Lewes, where I was stalling the other required 313. The next Ashford service was being terminated at Lewes, and that too was a required 171 which gave me a choice, either do a quick spin out to Berwick and come back on the next 171, or catch the 313 and get back on track?
The 313 won out, and as always the rear carriages were busy (passengers from the Ashford service boarding), as 313214 took me into Brighton, only 3 of the buggers left to get to clear the 313s. Deciding to do a spot of linear bashing saw me onto a pair of Thameslink duds, 377515 & 377207 which took me to Hassocks, a little fester later winner 377466 arrived with dud 377465 in tow to take me up to the next shack at Burgess Hill. Another little fester before the next Thameslink service, which was formed of winner 387118 with dud 387110 (but nice to get some half-decent miles on the 387s which majority are core hops), which took me to Gatwick Airport.
I spotted a required 442 on a Gatwick Express branded Southern train, so 442408 took me for the uneventful trip to London Victoria, where I had around 20 minutes to get to the EMT platforms at St Pancras for the 13:40 departure to Sheffield, a very tall order as sometimes it takes 10 minutes to get onto the Victoria line platforms, the gate-line for the Victoria line at Victoria being hopeless, but somehow I made it, with 4 minutes to spare, and was rewarded with the sight of an HST. Leading (after grabbing the number when it pulled into the station) was winner 43073 with 43082 bringing up the rear, which took me zooming to the first station at Luton Airport Parkway.
Brief wait before winner 387127 rolled up to take me up the line a bit more to Leagrave, with a brief fester before dud 38710 rolled in for the next shack leap to Harlington. Bit of an odd station is Harlington, but amazing to listen to the HSTs roaring pass. Bit of an wait before 387123 rolled up to take me to Flitwick. Another 20-minute gap before the next service, so making use of the barrier less station, I spotted a large Tesco a couple minute walk away which was useful in scoring some much needed lunch.
Back at the station, winner 387117 was next up to take me to the end of the line at Bedford. I didn’t have long to wait before winner 222023 along with dud 222018 rolled in to take me to Luton Airport, with 43048 along with dud 43043 taking me back up to Luton. Across the platform to jump on dud 387122 on a short hop to Harpenden, with winners 387128 & 387111 doing the honours with a nice long run back to St Pancras. My mobile data had ran out, so I was running blind, as I headed towards Victoria (and noticing that “There is a planned closure on the Waterloo & City line” was being displayed on the information boards, nice to know that and not the planned closure on say the Circle or District line which might be of more use to Thameslink passengers).
Out at Victoria, where I had a brief eye at what 442 would be on the next departure, and it was the return of 408, and knowing the 442 which was due to follow was also a dud, I gave those a miss, and headed to the main-line platforms. Next departure was a trio of 377s, lead by winner 377432 with duds 377427 & 377413 bringing up the rear and heading to Brighton on a semi-fast (Clapham, Croydon, Gatwick), I texted Techni for any information on connections with a Southampton bound service, annoyingly the trio would arrive into Brighton a couple minutes after the hourly Southampton had departed, so my mind was thinking if there would a Bognor bound service via Horsham, and Techni made me happy and said there was a 5 minute connection at Gatwick, for a Bognor service which got in front of the Southampton service, which also connected with the final FGW Cardiff of the day. Happy days (and thanks a lot Techni, for saving me an hour 20 minutes).
Arrival into Gatwick was on P7, and was a long walk back to the bridge to get to P3/4, with the slightly delayed 377145 leading dud 377469 for the nice run down to Barnham, crossing over the platform with a brief wait before dud 377164 rolled in. I foolishly got off at Cosham (thinking the FGW calls at Cosham, but didn’t), but thankfully the next train was dud 444013 which took me the near 6 mile run to Fareham, where I had a few minutes to wait before dud 158954 rolled in to take me back to Romsey via Southampton Central.
A busy little day, some more 387s cleared, but the main target was those Thameslink stations, which bar Radlett which is easier to grab going north then south ( a job for a Sunday London trip), the stations are covered
----
Liverpool on Saturday, so I have a choice between shack attacking the remaining shacks on the Northern 'City' line, the Merseyrail Northern line or the Wirral lines. Decision decisions
The idea of today was to do some shack visits on the Thameslink network, mainly the stations in the northern part of the network, plus some in the south, so it was off to Romsey for the 8:19 Brighton semi-fast, this morning formed of 158961 (all the FGW 158/9s are duds, unless 158962 is still floating around somewhere). Nice peaceful (for a sprinter) ride to Brighton, with the line between Fareham & Eastleigh closed, the Southern service had a delayed start from Southampton (8:35) so it was behind the 158. I kept an eye out when in Hove to see which 377 would be on the world’s longest journey, but it was a dud /1.
Rolling down into Brighton, arrival on P1, with a short walk across to P7/P8 to see what was floating around, the Ashford 171 was late arriving, but there was a required 313/2 sitting on P8, but when the 171 rolled in, I saw it was required 171723 so I decided to jump on board for a short ride to Lewes, next service heading towards Brighton wouldn’t be for another 15 minutes, so I took time to relax (as best as someone can relax at P4-P5 on Lewes station), dud 313203 rolled in to take me to Falmer, with winner 313216 taking me back to Lewes, where I was stalling the other required 313. The next Ashford service was being terminated at Lewes, and that too was a required 171 which gave me a choice, either do a quick spin out to Berwick and come back on the next 171, or catch the 313 and get back on track?
The 313 won out, and as always the rear carriages were busy (passengers from the Ashford service boarding), as 313214 took me into Brighton, only 3 of the buggers left to get to clear the 313s. Deciding to do a spot of linear bashing saw me onto a pair of Thameslink duds, 377515 & 377207 which took me to Hassocks, a little fester later winner 377466 arrived with dud 377465 in tow to take me up to the next shack at Burgess Hill. Another little fester before the next Thameslink service, which was formed of winner 387118 with dud 387110 (but nice to get some half-decent miles on the 387s which majority are core hops), which took me to Gatwick Airport.
I spotted a required 442 on a Gatwick Express branded Southern train, so 442408 took me for the uneventful trip to London Victoria, where I had around 20 minutes to get to the EMT platforms at St Pancras for the 13:40 departure to Sheffield, a very tall order as sometimes it takes 10 minutes to get onto the Victoria line platforms, the gate-line for the Victoria line at Victoria being hopeless, but somehow I made it, with 4 minutes to spare, and was rewarded with the sight of an HST. Leading (after grabbing the number when it pulled into the station) was winner 43073 with 43082 bringing up the rear, which took me zooming to the first station at Luton Airport Parkway.
Brief wait before winner 387127 rolled up to take me up the line a bit more to Leagrave, with a brief fester before dud 38710 rolled in for the next shack leap to Harlington. Bit of an odd station is Harlington, but amazing to listen to the HSTs roaring pass. Bit of an wait before 387123 rolled up to take me to Flitwick. Another 20-minute gap before the next service, so making use of the barrier less station, I spotted a large Tesco a couple minute walk away which was useful in scoring some much needed lunch.
Back at the station, winner 387117 was next up to take me to the end of the line at Bedford. I didn’t have long to wait before winner 222023 along with dud 222018 rolled in to take me to Luton Airport, with 43048 along with dud 43043 taking me back up to Luton. Across the platform to jump on dud 387122 on a short hop to Harpenden, with winners 387128 & 387111 doing the honours with a nice long run back to St Pancras. My mobile data had ran out, so I was running blind, as I headed towards Victoria (and noticing that “There is a planned closure on the Waterloo & City line” was being displayed on the information boards, nice to know that and not the planned closure on say the Circle or District line which might be of more use to Thameslink passengers).
Out at Victoria, where I had a brief eye at what 442 would be on the next departure, and it was the return of 408, and knowing the 442 which was due to follow was also a dud, I gave those a miss, and headed to the main-line platforms. Next departure was a trio of 377s, lead by winner 377432 with duds 377427 & 377413 bringing up the rear and heading to Brighton on a semi-fast (Clapham, Croydon, Gatwick), I texted Techni for any information on connections with a Southampton bound service, annoyingly the trio would arrive into Brighton a couple minutes after the hourly Southampton had departed, so my mind was thinking if there would a Bognor bound service via Horsham, and Techni made me happy and said there was a 5 minute connection at Gatwick, for a Bognor service which got in front of the Southampton service, which also connected with the final FGW Cardiff of the day. Happy days (and thanks a lot Techni, for saving me an hour 20 minutes).
Arrival into Gatwick was on P7, and was a long walk back to the bridge to get to P3/4, with the slightly delayed 377145 leading dud 377469 for the nice run down to Barnham, crossing over the platform with a brief wait before dud 377164 rolled in. I foolishly got off at Cosham (thinking the FGW calls at Cosham, but didn’t), but thankfully the next train was dud 444013 which took me the near 6 mile run to Fareham, where I had a few minutes to wait before dud 158954 rolled in to take me back to Romsey via Southampton Central.
A busy little day, some more 387s cleared, but the main target was those Thameslink stations, which bar Radlett which is easier to grab going north then south ( a job for a Sunday London trip), the stations are covered
----
Liverpool on Saturday, so I have a choice between shack attacking the remaining shacks on the Northern 'City' line, the Merseyrail Northern line or the Wirral lines. Decision decisions
Last edited:
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Glad to be of help, I was at home and on WiFi, having an ultra lazy evening so was no worries
Certainly not a bad little trip there, are the 387s much good on the longer Thameslink trips? I should imagine you'll have taken advantage of the opportunity to charge your phone, I sure would have!
Certainly not a bad little trip there, are the 387s much good on the longer Thameslink trips? I should imagine you'll have taken advantage of the opportunity to charge your phone, I sure would have!
Kite159
Veteran Member
Indeed I did make use of the plug sockets, for both my phone and iPod
Kite159
Veteran Member
Brighton to Bedford Day Return
Southampton to Ashford Day Return
Romsey to Southampton Day Return
Plus Luton Airport to Luton single for that HST
Southampton to Ashford Day Return
Romsey to Southampton Day Return
Plus Luton Airport to Luton single for that HST
Ah, that isn't too bad then, especially with Gold Card discount and the Super Off Peak for Brighton to Bedford
Keith Jarrett
Member
Kite, well done on your trip to Manchester. Definitely a few good shacks scored on your travels - I've ever made a mental note for the ones that I still haven't been to. Good to see that you got some haulage winners as well.
As for the Thameslink trip the day after, all I can say is that you must be keen doing two long consequetive day trips. There again, I might have done the same thirty years ago! Keep it up while you can.
As for the Thameslink trip the day after, all I can say is that you must be keen doing two long consequetive day trips. There again, I might have done the same thirty years ago! Keep it up while you can.
Kite159
Veteran Member
I think I have managed to locate the Ffestiniog Round Robin on BR Fares.
Not under rovers, but as a destination with the starting station being New Street
http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=BHM&dest=J293&grpo=0418&tkt=FES
Will be a challenge to the nice people at Andover ticket office to sell me this ticket [although will be another early start on the 5:40 XC from Basingstoke]
----
I have somehow managed to get FGW to sell me a GRT to Manchester Pic ticket, departing on the 05:27 from Grateley, and instead of the usual 08:00 via Stoke, but on the 7:35 via Crewe, should give me an extra 20-odd minutes in Manchester and give me a different route
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
19th June A lovely day for a bike ride in Oxfordshire
I had a rough idea planned out a couple months ago on how to do those 4 limited service shacks on the Cotswolds Line, 3 only sees one train a day in each direction and the other (Shipton) sees only a small handful, and with the weather being beautiful and me finishing work at a decent time I decided to go for a bike ride, using the yellow peril, a folding bike purchased many years ago for the old boat, but being useful as being allowed to be carried as luggage on trains.
Anyhow, after a nice ride to the station, and folding down the bike before picking up my tickets (managed to order them online in the short time I was home), and a busy 159014 rolled in, where the luggage racks was full of various suitcases, so the bike had to fit underneath the table (nowhere else to put it, even the bike spaces were full of regular non-folding bikes). Arrival into Basingstoke was on time, and the PIS had the XC on time, so I gave one of the lovely 150/0s a miss, which could have been a mistake.
15:47 rolled around and a freightliner 66 rolled into the station for a driver change, which must have confused the PIS as the 15:47 to Manchester disappeared (replaced with the ~16:14 towards Newcastle, which confused passengers waiting for the Manchester service, a few minutes later the PA said to ignore the platform display, the 15:47 was on its way, arrived around 10 minutes down, and formed of dud 220008 (previously had on a little trip between Southampton Airport & Central). Arrived into Reading around 13 minutes down which meant I had 3 minutes to get from P7 to P9 where the 16:20 towards Worchester was waiting (the unit which forms the 15:50 from Paddington which is pick-up only at Reading).
Needless to say I got on board 180108 and managed to get a space outside the toilet on coach C, standing room only for the trip to Oxford, and that vestibule was very warm, at Oxford I reversed into the toilet to allow passengers to alight/board and I couldnt get out of the toilet after the unit departed (sounded like a couple passengers boarded it instead of the Manchester XC which was behind, opps), so spent the next 10 minutes towards Hanborough standing in the toilet. Thankfully I was in the right coach to get off as Hanborough is SDO, with only the front 3 coaches on the platform, the guard managed to get to the door to release the SDO panel, and I alighted at the first new shack of the day.
Quite a few passengers alighted as well, bike unfolded and away I went, using Nokia Here maps (as no mobile signal whatsoever), suggested it was around 1.6 miles to the next station with around 40 minutes to do it (so in theory you could walk it), the Main road was busy (A4095), thankfully the pavement was a joint bike path, with the little lane towards Combe being quiet, arrived in 20 minutes, with a brief 5 minute pause to put some additional air in the rear wheel. Found the little road towards the entrance to Combe, and went up to the little platform which had a bench and pretty much nothing else (apart from a PIS at the bottom of the hill).
Nice and peaceful wait, only living person around before 180103 arrived from Didcot Parkway, front door only, and I got a nice seat to relax for the trip to Ascott-Under-Wychwood, the 3rd new shack, and 2nd with limited service. On the part of the line which has been redoubled, how much money did the new platform cost considering it gets used once a day?
Once more I had around an hour to get to the next station, which gave a distance of around 2.1 miles, of which a mile is on a single track lane, with the last mile being on the A361, the single track lane is pretty much a mile long hill. My folding bike has a couple faults; the biggest is that it cant handle hills (due to tiny wheels), so it was a sort of half ride-half walk up to the main road, beautiful scenery through, and what goes up must come down, as the main-road was mostly downhill, and I arrived around the station a good 30 minutes early, so I carried on in search of something to eat or a cold drink, finding a little local shop and a garage, before heading to the station.
Shipton (Under-Wychwood) appears to be a particularly evil station if you wanted to get from platform to platform, and poorly signposted down a side road, through a farm area and alongside a lorry to get onto the platform, for the final westbound service of the day (last eastbound service had already departed), brief wait with only a little bus shelter to sit in before winning 43094 rolled up with dud 43070 to take me the 3 miles to Kingham. The eastbound service was running 15 minutes late due to a broken down train in the Worcester area, and it was the return of 180108 which thankfully this time I managed a table seat, no standing in the toilet again!
I had around a 18 minute connection at Reading, so the late running 180 would have meant a fast walk (and with a folding bike in tow wouldnt be that easy), thankfully it regained some of the late running between Didcot & Reading, and arrived a mere 12 minutes down, so 6 minutes from P10-11 to P2, easy, as I took a seat on the legendary super-dud known as 150001, was going well on the approach to Basingstoke, on time, until it got held outside the station for 7 minutes for a freight service, which meant when it rolled in, the 159s on the 21:07 departure to Exeter were rolling out. Bugger, an hour & 7 minute wait before the next Salisbury bound service [for some reason the 21:20 departure from Waterloo takes an additional 7 minutes between Waterloo & Basingstoke with the same stopping pattern).
A quick walk to the little Tesco Metro to pick up a bite to eat, and a brief moment of reflection before I headed back to the station, thankfully a lot of Ascot race goers had boarded a service towards Winchester so the platform was quiet, a required XC 220 rolled in on P1 before 159102/159013 rolled in to take me back to Grateley and a quick ride home.
3 of the 4 limited service shacks on the Cotswolds line done, leaving just Finstock, a nice little day for a bike ride.
Anyhow some pictures of various stuff:
180108 at Hanborough
Combe
Ascott Under- Wychwood
Mile long hill lovely views:
The low platforms at Shipton
HST departing Kingham
-------
20th June Kite on the Wirral
The idea of this little day trip was to do some shack searching around the Merseyrail area, either the Wirral line, Northern line or the remaining shacks on the City line. After thinking long and hard, I pulled Wirral out of my hat, so the Wirral lines it would be. Advances for this trip were booked a few months ago to get the lowest tier prices (£18 each way) and the best seats in the house (C1 to Liverpool, C2 to Euston).
Brief walk to the station to catch the 5:27 which today was formed of 159013 for the nice ride to the station named after a famous battle which happened 200 years ago, arrival was pretty much on time (although I didnt make a note) and I had around 1 hour 20-odd minutes to get to Euston for the 08:07 departure to Liverpool Lime Street, so I decided to do a bit of light shack attacking on the underground, mainly a couple Z1 stations on the Bakerloo/Northern line, so to the Bakerloo platform to jump on a lovely 72 stock to Lambeth North, a brief 5 minute wait later another lovely 72 stock took me to Elephant & Castle, the current end of the line.
Transferring to the Northern line for a brief hop to Borough with a couple minute pause before another Northern line service took me to Angel before a 3rd and final unit arrived to take me to Euston. Certainly killed some time as it was now 07:25, so after a quick visit to WH Smiths to pick up a newspaper to sit and relax in the waiting room, to await the time. RTT said P2, so I drifted over that direction before 07:47 rolled around and the platform was announced and I went down to board winning 390134, taking my seat.
The train started to fill, and I sat back and relaxed for the 2 hour trip to Liverpool, the train manager was quite good with the announcements, even with the PA system needing to be rebooked a couple times, and soon the train was running over the Runcorn Bridge and into Lime Street, pretty much bang on time. Nice enjoyable run to the city on the river. I headed down to the low level to pick up my ticket from the little shop and headed to the low level platform.
First service around the loop was winner 508112 which was on a Chester bound service which omitted Capenhurst, so I jumped off at my first new Mersey station of the day at Green Lane, a station in a cutting between two tunnels, with one platform covered and the other platform exposed to the rain, a station I wouldnt like to be around after hours. I didnt have long to wait before dud 507002 rolled in to take me back up towards central for the 34 chain leap to Birkenhead Central.
Across the platform to await the next Chester service, formed of winner 508136 which I decided to take for a good hop to Capenhurst, a station seemingly in the middle of nowhere, no wonders why it only has 2 trains an hour. Easier to visit from the north as the next Central bound service was only a few minutes away, and it was the return of 508112 to take me to Bromborough, thankfully the rain had stopped, which was always a bonus as the next service towards Chester was winner 508143 for another sub-mile hop to Eastham Rake.
Around 5 minutes later, the next service towards Ellesmere Port rolled up, and it was another winner, 508123 which took me to Overpool, this is where I made a decision, Google Maps said it was around a 18 minute walk back towards Little Sutton, RTT gave the next train from Little Sutton to be in 18 minutes, so it would be tight but doable as Google tends to overstate walking times. 15 minutes later I was on the platform of Little Sutton, semi-famous for having a long-gone loophole ticket, and 508123 arrived back from Ellesmere to take me to Bromborough Rake.
RTT was in action to work out connection times to do 2 shacks forward, 1 shack back sort of movements, so the next leap was on dud 508122 to Port Sunlight, under the subway to jump on dud 508115 back to Spital, all 45 chains of the leap (you can see Bromborough Rake in the south and Port Sunlight in the north standing on the platforms, however they are close by rail, by road is another matter). Next up was winner 507012 which took me to Bebington, with a short wait for dud 508130 to roll in for my final station on the southern branch of the Wirral line at Rock Ferry, the peak-time only bay platforms look interesting.
I had some time to spare, but the rain had started again, so didnt go far before returning to the station to jump on new super-dud 508112 to Hamilton Square. Across to the other platform, and winner 508137 rolled in for the 39 chain leap to Conway Park, with dud 507018 following to take me to the island platform at Birkenhead Park
Winner 508137 had rolled in on the other platform, so I did a nano (59 chain) leap back to Conway Park, not the fastest if you want to go from platform to platform as the lifts are slow. Winner 507020 was next up on a New Brighton service which took me to Wallasey Grove Road. Techiquest had given me a gem that the two stations are walkable, so I went for a walk to Wallasey Village, to await the return of 507020 to take me to Birkenhead North.
My plan changed when winner 507023 rolled in on a New Brighton run, so another trip to Wallasey Grove Road was in order, and back out to Birkenhead North on dud 508103. Next up was towards West Kirkby line, with dud 508125 rolling in for that little bit of class 508 action to Moreton (Merseyside),with a short connection with winner 508111 (The Beatles) taking me back towards Central to Leasowe.
Another few minute wait for the next service which was running a couple minutes late, so I bailed dud 507018 at Manor Road, and back to Meols on another dud, this time 508125. My final Wirral line shack was in sight, as I jumped onto dud 507007 to Hoylake. Time to spare, time to ponder what to do next, a brief check of RTT told me the ATW Borderlines service was running 20 minutes late, so I could connect up with it for a quick spin, so dud 507018 returned to take me to Bidston.
Running 20 minutes late (and with no real chance to gain the lost time up due to tight turnarounds at both ends), winner 150278 rolled up, a bonus as I only needed 7 ATW 150s, and I jumped on board for the short trip to Heswell, a station I had my eye on but ruled out at first due to the long fester for a return service, but with the delay meant the fester was reduced to 15 minutes. Enough time to pick up a late lunch though from a local shop (which is for local people, they dont want your kind here
). Back to the basic platforms at Heswell to await the return service, during which I looked up times and noticed the next Wrexham service called at a certain station which only sees a tiny number of services call, by request, a day.
Winner (blimey, only 5 ATW 150s left) 150280 rolled in to take me back towards Bidston where I jumped off at another basic rundown station at Upton. Visiting the little Co-Op to take some cash out as I was going to need another ticket for my next leap, and I was back on 150280 when it rolled in, confusing the guard when asking for a Heswell to Hawarden Bridge return, he didnt want my money, but the request was noted as the train stopped at Hawarden Bridge, just north of Hawarden Bridge on the River Dee. A true shack, crossing over the rails to get to the other platform, pretty much nothing in terms of seats, but it had a PIS which told me the return service was 20 minutes late.
I took a look back south and noticed the red lights of 150280 just over the bridge, bringing up Google Maps told me that Shotton station was just over on the south side of the river, a 10 minute walk away, so to pass the time (and to clear another shack), I walked alongside Hawarden Bridge on the footbridge, noticing what appeared to be a lovely old building on the bank of the river, all boarded up, the steel-works on the other side of the railway, and eventually got to Shotton.
Access to the high-level platforms was via the low-level platform, where a TVM was in the little waiting shelter, so being a good traveller I purchased my ticket (a single back to Heswell), and was shocked when it printed in the new style. Anyhow fresh dud 150278 rolled in, and took me back to Bidston, where a few minutes later dud 508125 rolled in to take me back to Hamilton Square where I alighted. Dud 508136 was up next to take me to Lime Street, via the closed Moorfields low-level platform, and I went to the high-level.
RTT up and running told me a quick hop to Edgehill was doable in the time I had spare, and when I went over to see what was on the Manchester Victoria service, and it was winner 319363 for the short hop to Edgehill, with a wait. The service from Oxford Road was running a few minutes late, and was due in at the same time as a service from Victoria, so which would arrive first I wondered. Winner 150272 rolled in from Victoria, so happy days as I jumped on board to take me back to Lime Street, and across to dud 390104 to take my seat for the trip back to Euston.
Nothing unusual, apart from entering the slow tracks north of Wolverton where it remained all the way down towards Euston, meaning an additional 20 minutes to the journey time, arrival was on time at 21:10. Deciding to take it easy as I hoped to Waterloo on the Northern line, grabbing some dinner from McDonalds and I took a seat to wait for the arrival of the 159.
159108 & 159104 were the two units on the 22:20 Solstice Express and it was pretty much full and standing all theway, lost a few passengers as usual at Woking & Basingstoke, but when it departed Grateley there wasnt many empty seats, lots of people heading to the celebrations at Stonehenge. Nice little drive home where I soon headed to bed after docking the iPod.
Anyhow some pretty pictures:
507007 departing Hoylake
Heswell
Upton (in the sunshine)
Hawarden Bridge
River Dee
175007 at Shotton Low-Level
Shotton high level
-------
21st June Devonshire Explorer
A nice easy day down the Mule to Devon, I had a couple options, either an early morning drive to Salisbury to catch the 07:03 departure towards Exeter, or stay in bed and catch the 8:36 departure from Grateley. I decided to stay in bed and rolled out for a gentle walk to the station to jump on 159007 for the distance. At first I thought it would be attached to another unit at Salisbury, but alas no, for the slightly slow (2 hours 10 minutes to do 99 miles!) trip to Exeter Central.
I had a rough plan today, which changed when the St James Park service was running a few minutes late, so I jumped on board dud 153305 for the tiny distance (38 chains) to St James Park, no issues with the short platform for a 153. I went up and over the footbridge to await for the 153 to reverse and come back to form the next Summer Sunday special to Okehampton. However this changed when the next Paignton service rolled in, with winner 153361 leading dud 150263, I took it for another tiny leap to Exeter Central, and back to St James Park on duds 143619/143621.
153305 rolled into the platform as the double pacer (local door only) unloaded at St James Park, and I went across the platform to take a nice seat for the ride towards the 14th least used station in the UK, Sampford Courtenay, normally served by the Dartmouth heritage line, and the only other living sole was a gardener. Nothing much around the station area, so I took a seat and waited for 153305 to roll back in from Oxehampton (a couple people took a picture of the train when it was rolling in but didnt board).
Back to Exeter St Davids, along the branch line which is rather boring with nothing to look at other than trees, which brush the side of the unit. At Exeter St Davids, I alighted and made use of the little WH Smiths for a quick sandwich meal-deal. Next up was the return of 150263/153361 which I jumped on (this time in the 150) for the enjoyable ride to Lympstone Village, stopping briefly at Commando, before continuing.
A brief wonder around the station and I was back, this time taking a ride in the 153 back along the line, jumping off at Lympstone Commando for a brief picture, no public access as the gate is locked and you need permission from the army base to use it, before continuing to Polsloe Bridge. another brief wait this time, and it was the return of the pacers from earlier, 143619 & 143621 for the nice ride to the request stop at Exton
Beautiful area, right on the river bank, could easily spend a couple hours watching the water. 15-or-so minutes later, the pacers were back, this time for a nice long run (34 miles!) along the stunning seawall at Dawlish nearly to the end of the line where I jumped off at Torquay. A brief moment of rest before a Paddington HST was due (which appeared to form a stopper between Taunton & Bristol Temple Meads), leading was winner 43040 with winner power-car 43002 at the rear. 2 winning HST power-cars for the nano 67 chain leap to Torre. Rear 3 coaches only were released, and I alighted, to await the return of a pair of pacers.
143621 & 143619 were back, this time to take me to the rebuilt station at Dawlish where a brief interchange was made with winners 150108 & 153373 taking me back along the wall to Teighmouth. I spotted a required 143 earlier on a Barnstaple working, and was surprised when dud 143611 rolled up in Teighmouth with winner 143603 on the back, only 617 left to get of the FGW pacers, and I knew that would be on the services towards Exmouth after this one.
This gave me a couple options, originally I was going to go to Newcourt and have a fast walk to Topsham to catch the same units back towards Exeter, or I can leave the annoying (level-crossing) station at Topsham for another day and clear my FGW 143s. I decided to ditch this set at Exeter Central, noting the unit heading back towards St Davids (dud 150/1), and headed into the city centre in search of anything to eat. Not a lot around Exeter city centre at 5pm on a Sunday; there was nothing like a Tesco Express around to pick up a meal-deal, so it was to McDonalds (couldnt find anything else open for something quick). Anyhow back to the station, and 5 minutes later winner and final FGW 143 rolled in, 143617 along with 143612 to take me to the new station at Newcourt.
Beautiful views of the countryside at Newcourt, and a little fester before 143603 & 143611 rolled back in, making 143 noises to take me back to Exeter Central. Next up was 159016/159017 to take me to Honiton (had an hour to waste, due to the 2 hourly service at Grateley on Sundays), with 159007 & 159105 rolling in to take me to the slightly annoying 2 hourly service station at Whimple. 159009 & 159006 rolled in from Exeter to take me back home to Grateley, with 159006 being removed at Salisbury.
Nice relaxing easy day out, clearing out shacks in Devon, leaving Topsham on the Exmouth line, Ivybridge on the main-line (plus the 4 small stations west of Plymouth on the main-line), and many more on the Barnstaple & Gunnislake.
Some pictures:
153305 at St James Park
153305 & 143619/143621 at St James Park
153305 getting ready to depart
And its gone!
Remains of a former platform from years ago
Yay 153305 is back!
Lympstone Commando
Polsloe Bridge Evidence of former platform
Exton:
143619 at Torquay
Torre Big train, small platforms
143619 at Dawlish
143617/143612 at Newcourt
Scenery at Newcourt
143611 at Exeter Central
Whimple:
Not under rovers, but as a destination with the starting station being New Street
http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=BHM&dest=J293&grpo=0418&tkt=FES
Will be a challenge to the nice people at Andover ticket office to sell me this ticket
[although will be another early start on the 5:40 XC from Basingstoke]----
I have somehow managed to get FGW to sell me a GRT to Manchester Pic ticket, departing on the 05:27 from Grateley, and instead of the usual 08:00 via Stoke, but on the 7:35 via Crewe, should give me an extra 20-odd minutes in Manchester and give me a different route
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
19th June A lovely day for a bike ride in Oxfordshire
I had a rough idea planned out a couple months ago on how to do those 4 limited service shacks on the Cotswolds Line, 3 only sees one train a day in each direction and the other (Shipton) sees only a small handful, and with the weather being beautiful and me finishing work at a decent time I decided to go for a bike ride, using the yellow peril, a folding bike purchased many years ago for the old boat, but being useful as being allowed to be carried as luggage on trains.
Anyhow, after a nice ride to the station, and folding down the bike before picking up my tickets (managed to order them online in the short time I was home), and a busy 159014 rolled in, where the luggage racks was full of various suitcases, so the bike had to fit underneath the table (nowhere else to put it, even the bike spaces were full of regular non-folding bikes). Arrival into Basingstoke was on time, and the PIS had the XC on time, so I gave one of the lovely 150/0s a miss, which could have been a mistake.
15:47 rolled around and a freightliner 66 rolled into the station for a driver change, which must have confused the PIS as the 15:47 to Manchester disappeared (replaced with the ~16:14 towards Newcastle, which confused passengers waiting for the Manchester service, a few minutes later the PA said to ignore the platform display, the 15:47 was on its way, arrived around 10 minutes down, and formed of dud 220008 (previously had on a little trip between Southampton Airport & Central). Arrived into Reading around 13 minutes down which meant I had 3 minutes to get from P7 to P9 where the 16:20 towards Worchester was waiting (the unit which forms the 15:50 from Paddington which is pick-up only at Reading).
Needless to say I got on board 180108 and managed to get a space outside the toilet on coach C, standing room only for the trip to Oxford, and that vestibule was very warm, at Oxford I reversed into the toilet to allow passengers to alight/board and I couldnt get out of the toilet after the unit departed (sounded like a couple passengers boarded it instead of the Manchester XC which was behind, opps), so spent the next 10 minutes towards Hanborough standing in the toilet. Thankfully I was in the right coach to get off as Hanborough is SDO, with only the front 3 coaches on the platform, the guard managed to get to the door to release the SDO panel, and I alighted at the first new shack of the day.
Quite a few passengers alighted as well, bike unfolded and away I went, using Nokia Here maps (as no mobile signal whatsoever), suggested it was around 1.6 miles to the next station with around 40 minutes to do it (so in theory you could walk it), the Main road was busy (A4095), thankfully the pavement was a joint bike path, with the little lane towards Combe being quiet, arrived in 20 minutes, with a brief 5 minute pause to put some additional air in the rear wheel. Found the little road towards the entrance to Combe, and went up to the little platform which had a bench and pretty much nothing else (apart from a PIS at the bottom of the hill).
Nice and peaceful wait, only living person around before 180103 arrived from Didcot Parkway, front door only, and I got a nice seat to relax for the trip to Ascott-Under-Wychwood, the 3rd new shack, and 2nd with limited service. On the part of the line which has been redoubled, how much money did the new platform cost considering it gets used once a day?
Once more I had around an hour to get to the next station, which gave a distance of around 2.1 miles, of which a mile is on a single track lane, with the last mile being on the A361, the single track lane is pretty much a mile long hill. My folding bike has a couple faults; the biggest is that it cant handle hills (due to tiny wheels), so it was a sort of half ride-half walk up to the main road, beautiful scenery through, and what goes up must come down, as the main-road was mostly downhill, and I arrived around the station a good 30 minutes early, so I carried on in search of something to eat or a cold drink, finding a little local shop and a garage, before heading to the station.
Shipton (Under-Wychwood) appears to be a particularly evil station if you wanted to get from platform to platform, and poorly signposted down a side road, through a farm area and alongside a lorry to get onto the platform, for the final westbound service of the day (last eastbound service had already departed), brief wait with only a little bus shelter to sit in before winning 43094 rolled up with dud 43070 to take me the 3 miles to Kingham. The eastbound service was running 15 minutes late due to a broken down train in the Worcester area, and it was the return of 180108 which thankfully this time I managed a table seat, no standing in the toilet again!
I had around a 18 minute connection at Reading, so the late running 180 would have meant a fast walk (and with a folding bike in tow wouldnt be that easy), thankfully it regained some of the late running between Didcot & Reading, and arrived a mere 12 minutes down, so 6 minutes from P10-11 to P2, easy, as I took a seat on the legendary super-dud known as 150001, was going well on the approach to Basingstoke, on time, until it got held outside the station for 7 minutes for a freight service, which meant when it rolled in, the 159s on the 21:07 departure to Exeter were rolling out. Bugger, an hour & 7 minute wait before the next Salisbury bound service [for some reason the 21:20 departure from Waterloo takes an additional 7 minutes between Waterloo & Basingstoke with the same stopping pattern).
A quick walk to the little Tesco Metro to pick up a bite to eat, and a brief moment of reflection before I headed back to the station, thankfully a lot of Ascot race goers had boarded a service towards Winchester so the platform was quiet, a required XC 220 rolled in on P1 before 159102/159013 rolled in to take me back to Grateley and a quick ride home.
3 of the 4 limited service shacks on the Cotswolds line done, leaving just Finstock, a nice little day for a bike ride.
Anyhow some pictures of various stuff:
180108 at Hanborough
Combe
Ascott Under- Wychwood
Mile long hill lovely views:
The low platforms at Shipton
HST departing Kingham
-------
20th June Kite on the Wirral
The idea of this little day trip was to do some shack searching around the Merseyrail area, either the Wirral line, Northern line or the remaining shacks on the City line. After thinking long and hard, I pulled Wirral out of my hat, so the Wirral lines it would be. Advances for this trip were booked a few months ago to get the lowest tier prices (£18 each way) and the best seats in the house (C1 to Liverpool, C2 to Euston).
Brief walk to the station to catch the 5:27 which today was formed of 159013 for the nice ride to the station named after a famous battle which happened 200 years ago, arrival was pretty much on time (although I didnt make a note) and I had around 1 hour 20-odd minutes to get to Euston for the 08:07 departure to Liverpool Lime Street, so I decided to do a bit of light shack attacking on the underground, mainly a couple Z1 stations on the Bakerloo/Northern line, so to the Bakerloo platform to jump on a lovely 72 stock to Lambeth North, a brief 5 minute wait later another lovely 72 stock took me to Elephant & Castle, the current end of the line.
Transferring to the Northern line for a brief hop to Borough with a couple minute pause before another Northern line service took me to Angel before a 3rd and final unit arrived to take me to Euston. Certainly killed some time as it was now 07:25, so after a quick visit to WH Smiths to pick up a newspaper to sit and relax in the waiting room, to await the time. RTT said P2, so I drifted over that direction before 07:47 rolled around and the platform was announced and I went down to board winning 390134, taking my seat.
The train started to fill, and I sat back and relaxed for the 2 hour trip to Liverpool, the train manager was quite good with the announcements, even with the PA system needing to be rebooked a couple times, and soon the train was running over the Runcorn Bridge and into Lime Street, pretty much bang on time. Nice enjoyable run to the city on the river. I headed down to the low level to pick up my ticket from the little shop and headed to the low level platform.
First service around the loop was winner 508112 which was on a Chester bound service which omitted Capenhurst, so I jumped off at my first new Mersey station of the day at Green Lane, a station in a cutting between two tunnels, with one platform covered and the other platform exposed to the rain, a station I wouldnt like to be around after hours. I didnt have long to wait before dud 507002 rolled in to take me back up towards central for the 34 chain leap to Birkenhead Central.
Across the platform to await the next Chester service, formed of winner 508136 which I decided to take for a good hop to Capenhurst, a station seemingly in the middle of nowhere, no wonders why it only has 2 trains an hour. Easier to visit from the north as the next Central bound service was only a few minutes away, and it was the return of 508112 to take me to Bromborough, thankfully the rain had stopped, which was always a bonus as the next service towards Chester was winner 508143 for another sub-mile hop to Eastham Rake.
Around 5 minutes later, the next service towards Ellesmere Port rolled up, and it was another winner, 508123 which took me to Overpool, this is where I made a decision, Google Maps said it was around a 18 minute walk back towards Little Sutton, RTT gave the next train from Little Sutton to be in 18 minutes, so it would be tight but doable as Google tends to overstate walking times. 15 minutes later I was on the platform of Little Sutton, semi-famous for having a long-gone loophole ticket, and 508123 arrived back from Ellesmere to take me to Bromborough Rake.
RTT was in action to work out connection times to do 2 shacks forward, 1 shack back sort of movements, so the next leap was on dud 508122 to Port Sunlight, under the subway to jump on dud 508115 back to Spital, all 45 chains of the leap (you can see Bromborough Rake in the south and Port Sunlight in the north standing on the platforms, however they are close by rail, by road is another matter). Next up was winner 507012 which took me to Bebington, with a short wait for dud 508130 to roll in for my final station on the southern branch of the Wirral line at Rock Ferry, the peak-time only bay platforms look interesting.
I had some time to spare, but the rain had started again, so didnt go far before returning to the station to jump on new super-dud 508112 to Hamilton Square. Across to the other platform, and winner 508137 rolled in for the 39 chain leap to Conway Park, with dud 507018 following to take me to the island platform at Birkenhead Park
Winner 508137 had rolled in on the other platform, so I did a nano (59 chain) leap back to Conway Park, not the fastest if you want to go from platform to platform as the lifts are slow. Winner 507020 was next up on a New Brighton service which took me to Wallasey Grove Road. Techiquest had given me a gem that the two stations are walkable, so I went for a walk to Wallasey Village, to await the return of 507020 to take me to Birkenhead North.
My plan changed when winner 507023 rolled in on a New Brighton run, so another trip to Wallasey Grove Road was in order, and back out to Birkenhead North on dud 508103. Next up was towards West Kirkby line, with dud 508125 rolling in for that little bit of class 508 action to Moreton (Merseyside),with a short connection with winner 508111 (The Beatles) taking me back towards Central to Leasowe.
Another few minute wait for the next service which was running a couple minutes late, so I bailed dud 507018 at Manor Road, and back to Meols on another dud, this time 508125. My final Wirral line shack was in sight, as I jumped onto dud 507007 to Hoylake. Time to spare, time to ponder what to do next, a brief check of RTT told me the ATW Borderlines service was running 20 minutes late, so I could connect up with it for a quick spin, so dud 507018 returned to take me to Bidston.
Running 20 minutes late (and with no real chance to gain the lost time up due to tight turnarounds at both ends), winner 150278 rolled up, a bonus as I only needed 7 ATW 150s, and I jumped on board for the short trip to Heswell, a station I had my eye on but ruled out at first due to the long fester for a return service, but with the delay meant the fester was reduced to 15 minutes. Enough time to pick up a late lunch though from a local shop (which is for local people, they dont want your kind here
). Back to the basic platforms at Heswell to await the return service, during which I looked up times and noticed the next Wrexham service called at a certain station which only sees a tiny number of services call, by request, a day.Winner (blimey, only 5 ATW 150s left) 150280 rolled in to take me back towards Bidston where I jumped off at another basic rundown station at Upton. Visiting the little Co-Op to take some cash out as I was going to need another ticket for my next leap, and I was back on 150280 when it rolled in, confusing the guard when asking for a Heswell to Hawarden Bridge return, he didnt want my money, but the request was noted as the train stopped at Hawarden Bridge, just north of Hawarden Bridge on the River Dee. A true shack, crossing over the rails to get to the other platform, pretty much nothing in terms of seats, but it had a PIS which told me the return service was 20 minutes late.
I took a look back south and noticed the red lights of 150280 just over the bridge, bringing up Google Maps told me that Shotton station was just over on the south side of the river, a 10 minute walk away, so to pass the time (and to clear another shack), I walked alongside Hawarden Bridge on the footbridge, noticing what appeared to be a lovely old building on the bank of the river, all boarded up, the steel-works on the other side of the railway, and eventually got to Shotton.
Access to the high-level platforms was via the low-level platform, where a TVM was in the little waiting shelter, so being a good traveller I purchased my ticket (a single back to Heswell), and was shocked when it printed in the new style. Anyhow fresh dud 150278 rolled in, and took me back to Bidston, where a few minutes later dud 508125 rolled in to take me back to Hamilton Square where I alighted. Dud 508136 was up next to take me to Lime Street, via the closed Moorfields low-level platform, and I went to the high-level.
RTT up and running told me a quick hop to Edgehill was doable in the time I had spare, and when I went over to see what was on the Manchester Victoria service, and it was winner 319363 for the short hop to Edgehill, with a wait. The service from Oxford Road was running a few minutes late, and was due in at the same time as a service from Victoria, so which would arrive first I wondered. Winner 150272 rolled in from Victoria, so happy days as I jumped on board to take me back to Lime Street, and across to dud 390104 to take my seat for the trip back to Euston.
Nothing unusual, apart from entering the slow tracks north of Wolverton where it remained all the way down towards Euston, meaning an additional 20 minutes to the journey time, arrival was on time at 21:10. Deciding to take it easy as I hoped to Waterloo on the Northern line, grabbing some dinner from McDonalds and I took a seat to wait for the arrival of the 159.
159108 & 159104 were the two units on the 22:20 Solstice Express and it was pretty much full and standing all theway, lost a few passengers as usual at Woking & Basingstoke, but when it departed Grateley there wasnt many empty seats, lots of people heading to the celebrations at Stonehenge. Nice little drive home where I soon headed to bed after docking the iPod.
Anyhow some pretty pictures:
507007 departing Hoylake
Heswell
Upton (in the sunshine)
Hawarden Bridge
River Dee
175007 at Shotton Low-Level
Shotton high level
-------
21st June Devonshire Explorer
A nice easy day down the Mule to Devon, I had a couple options, either an early morning drive to Salisbury to catch the 07:03 departure towards Exeter, or stay in bed and catch the 8:36 departure from Grateley. I decided to stay in bed and rolled out for a gentle walk to the station to jump on 159007 for the distance. At first I thought it would be attached to another unit at Salisbury, but alas no, for the slightly slow (2 hours 10 minutes to do 99 miles!) trip to Exeter Central.
I had a rough plan today, which changed when the St James Park service was running a few minutes late, so I jumped on board dud 153305 for the tiny distance (38 chains) to St James Park, no issues with the short platform for a 153. I went up and over the footbridge to await for the 153 to reverse and come back to form the next Summer Sunday special to Okehampton. However this changed when the next Paignton service rolled in, with winner 153361 leading dud 150263, I took it for another tiny leap to Exeter Central, and back to St James Park on duds 143619/143621.
153305 rolled into the platform as the double pacer (local door only) unloaded at St James Park, and I went across the platform to take a nice seat for the ride towards the 14th least used station in the UK, Sampford Courtenay, normally served by the Dartmouth heritage line, and the only other living sole was a gardener. Nothing much around the station area, so I took a seat and waited for 153305 to roll back in from Oxehampton (a couple people took a picture of the train when it was rolling in but didnt board).
Back to Exeter St Davids, along the branch line which is rather boring with nothing to look at other than trees, which brush the side of the unit. At Exeter St Davids, I alighted and made use of the little WH Smiths for a quick sandwich meal-deal. Next up was the return of 150263/153361 which I jumped on (this time in the 150) for the enjoyable ride to Lympstone Village, stopping briefly at Commando, before continuing.
A brief wonder around the station and I was back, this time taking a ride in the 153 back along the line, jumping off at Lympstone Commando for a brief picture, no public access as the gate is locked and you need permission from the army base to use it, before continuing to Polsloe Bridge. another brief wait this time, and it was the return of the pacers from earlier, 143619 & 143621 for the nice ride to the request stop at Exton
Beautiful area, right on the river bank, could easily spend a couple hours watching the water. 15-or-so minutes later, the pacers were back, this time for a nice long run (34 miles!) along the stunning seawall at Dawlish nearly to the end of the line where I jumped off at Torquay. A brief moment of rest before a Paddington HST was due (which appeared to form a stopper between Taunton & Bristol Temple Meads), leading was winner 43040 with winner power-car 43002 at the rear. 2 winning HST power-cars for the nano 67 chain leap to Torre. Rear 3 coaches only were released, and I alighted, to await the return of a pair of pacers.
143621 & 143619 were back, this time to take me to the rebuilt station at Dawlish where a brief interchange was made with winners 150108 & 153373 taking me back along the wall to Teighmouth. I spotted a required 143 earlier on a Barnstaple working, and was surprised when dud 143611 rolled up in Teighmouth with winner 143603 on the back, only 617 left to get of the FGW pacers, and I knew that would be on the services towards Exmouth after this one.
This gave me a couple options, originally I was going to go to Newcourt and have a fast walk to Topsham to catch the same units back towards Exeter, or I can leave the annoying (level-crossing) station at Topsham for another day and clear my FGW 143s. I decided to ditch this set at Exeter Central, noting the unit heading back towards St Davids (dud 150/1), and headed into the city centre in search of anything to eat. Not a lot around Exeter city centre at 5pm on a Sunday; there was nothing like a Tesco Express around to pick up a meal-deal, so it was to McDonalds (couldnt find anything else open for something quick). Anyhow back to the station, and 5 minutes later winner and final FGW 143 rolled in, 143617 along with 143612 to take me to the new station at Newcourt.
Beautiful views of the countryside at Newcourt, and a little fester before 143603 & 143611 rolled back in, making 143 noises to take me back to Exeter Central. Next up was 159016/159017 to take me to Honiton (had an hour to waste, due to the 2 hourly service at Grateley on Sundays), with 159007 & 159105 rolling in to take me to the slightly annoying 2 hourly service station at Whimple. 159009 & 159006 rolled in from Exeter to take me back home to Grateley, with 159006 being removed at Salisbury.
Nice relaxing easy day out, clearing out shacks in Devon, leaving Topsham on the Exmouth line, Ivybridge on the main-line (plus the 4 small stations west of Plymouth on the main-line), and many more on the Barnstaple & Gunnislake.
Some pictures:
153305 at St James Park
153305 & 143619/143621 at St James Park
153305 getting ready to depart
And its gone!
Remains of a former platform from years ago
Yay 153305 is back!
Lympstone Commando
Polsloe Bridge Evidence of former platform
Exton:
143619 at Torquay
Torre Big train, small platforms
143619 at Dawlish
143617/143612 at Newcourt
Scenery at Newcourt
143611 at Exeter Central
Whimple:
Last edited:
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Some most excellent times had there, you're ahead of me on some of those shacks along the North Cotswolds line.
Sadly almost all the photos won't display for me, most disappointing
Well done on clearing your 143s with FGW, and nicely done with your ATW 150s there too, most lucky to get two winners in a row there!
I should imagine you'll have gone back to work for a rest after all that!
Sadly almost all the photos won't display for me, most disappointing
Well done on clearing your 143s with FGW, and nicely done with your ATW 150s there too, most lucky to get two winners in a row there!
I should imagine you'll have gone back to work for a rest after all that!
adrock1976
Established Member
It seems you got quite a lot done regarding the awkward shacks.
I've also noticed you done the London & SWR metals around Exeter. I will be traversing that route next Wednesday on the 09:20 departure from Waterloo (in 1st Class) to do the Devon Day Ranger.
I will be alighting at Pinhoe at 12:33 (GBPTT, Working TT shows arrival 12:32) and going back to Honiton on the 12:34 Waterloo service. I've had a look on NRE and I've noticed that there is a level crossing at Pinhoe, with the entrance and exit from the platforms at the LC side. Am I correct in assuming that Platform 2 is the Exeter/Barnstaple/Plymouth, and Platform 1 being for London? It is so I can be right at the very rear of the train if I've interpreted things correctly.
I've also noticed you done the London & SWR metals around Exeter. I will be traversing that route next Wednesday on the 09:20 departure from Waterloo (in 1st Class) to do the Devon Day Ranger.
I will be alighting at Pinhoe at 12:33 (GBPTT, Working TT shows arrival 12:32) and going back to Honiton on the 12:34 Waterloo service. I've had a look on NRE and I've noticed that there is a level crossing at Pinhoe, with the entrance and exit from the platforms at the LC side. Am I correct in assuming that Platform 2 is the Exeter/Barnstaple/Plymouth, and Platform 1 being for London? It is so I can be right at the very rear of the train if I've interpreted things correctly.
Kite159
Veteran Member
Good luck with Pinhoe, one of those annoying stations with a level crossing.
Not sure, but it might be one of those where the barriers stay down until the London bound service has departed, hence no way across the platforms to jump from an Exeter bound service to a London bound service.
However the Exeter bound service will likely arrive at Pinhoe a minute or two early due to Cranbrook being timed for in the timetable, but not open yet, so you might get lucky with the level crossing being opened in between services.
It's at the London end of the platform, so be in the rear unit.
Not sure, but it might be one of those where the barriers stay down until the London bound service has departed, hence no way across the platforms to jump from an Exeter bound service to a London bound service.
However the Exeter bound service will likely arrive at Pinhoe a minute or two early due to Cranbrook being timed for in the timetable, but not open yet, so you might get lucky with the level crossing being opened in between services.
It's at the London end of the platform, so be in the rear unit.
Last edited:
adrock1976
Established Member
Many thanks for your help.
I have an alternative plan in place in case there are delays on the journey from London. I can easily bail at Feniton and have a 25 minute fester.
Also, when I'll be back in the future for a crankfest, I can walk between Pinhoe and Polsloe Bridge along the main Pinhoe Road.
I have an alternative plan in place in case there are delays on the journey from London. I can easily bail at Feniton and have a 25 minute fester.
Also, when I'll be back in the future for a crankfest, I can walk between Pinhoe and Polsloe Bridge along the main Pinhoe Road.
Kite159
Veteran Member
Farewell East Coast Reward free tickets.
Used the last of my freebies up this evening, although departing Edinburgh at 16:30, arrival home at just after 22:30, which is some good going
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
26th June In search of the LOROL 317s
The London Overground 317s only come out to play during peak times, so my aim was to spend an evening peak at Liverpool Street to clear some more 315s & 317s, with maybe some 321s thrown in for good measure. Staying overnight at the A-Z guest-house in Acton, meant I didnt really have to worry about last trains (as the guest-house is on the night-bus network).
Bit of a crazy rush after-work and I only jumped onto 159018 just as the doors were starting to close, a mad run with a bag which weighed quite a bit, on a hot humid day, not the best of starts for the weekend. Changing at Basingstoke to see what was happening, a 150 was on the Reading-Basingstoke runs, and a couple dud 444s arrived, so which left me with the XC, and it was also a dud (220014), which took me to Reading. A quick check of RTT saw that the next HST from Bristol would be the last for around 18 minutes, so with keeping an eye on the time it was going to be a required movement.
Dud power-cars 43134 & 43185 were on the service, no luck in clearing another power-car this afternoon, as I sat down for a nice relaxing ride to the Peruvian Bear, with a spot of RTT to identify the next Greenford service, which annoyingly gave me a 4 minute connection, thankfully it was down as P12 rather than P13 & P14, which would save a bit of time, so alighting from the HST, passing the ticket barriers (using a travel-card with my outward ticket ready in case of rejection) and around to P12, the barriers worked (surprising) and onto busy dud 165132 for the 4 and a quarter mile trip to Acton Relief Line, sorry Acton Main Line, where I alighted and had a bit of a fester to see what the other unit was on the Greenford runs (just in case it was my last 2-car 165/1), but it was dud, so off I went down the road to check in and get rid of some of the weight in my bag.
10 or so minutes later I was back on the platform, having just missed the bus, the sensible thing would have been to catch the next Paddington bound service and catch either a Circle or Hammersmith & City line to Liverpool Street, but it was evening rush-hour so I decided not to be sensible and headed to Ealing Broadway on 165125, where I jumped onto a Central Line service for the 10 & ¾ mile trip to Liverpool Street, taking just over 30 minutes. At Liverpool Street I headed straight towards the low-numbered platforms on the West Anglia side of the station to await the first London Overground service.
First up was a dud solo 315 which arrived a few minutes late and departed quite busy (thankfully it was a dud), with the next service rolling in a few minutes later and this time it was a winner. Dud 315801 was leading winner 315810 which I took for the short hop to Bethnal Green, making a tight connection under the subway to jump onto a pair of 317s, leading was dud 317887 but the 317 I jumped onto was my first /7, 317709, still in airport express layout (automatic inner-unit gangway doors). Back to Liverpool Street, which I noted the next service was an AGA service. Dud 317886 was leading winner 317509 for the short hop to Hackney Downs, where another quick connection saw me back towards Liverpool Street on winners 317661 & 317667.
A pair of 317/7s were in the station, both were winners, 317732 & 317714 which took me for the mile leap to Bethnal Green, with duds 315813 & 315802 taking me back to Liverpool Street (as I didnt fancy a 15 minute wait as during the evening peak not all London Overground services call at Bethnal Green). This was very useful as the next departure was winner 317710 which I took a nice solo seat in the former 1st class area (I wonder if those plug sockets still work) for a non-stop run to Hackney Downs.
Back into Liverpool Street on dud 315805 & winner 315816, where my focus shifted to seeing which 317 was on the Romford/Upminster runs, first departure towards Stratford had a dud unit on the back, but the following departure was dud 321360 leading winner 321424, I noted that one of my last 3 378s was on P1, so I dashed over to find that 378229 was locked out of use, and RTT was suggesting the next move was ECS to Euston, boo.
Across to the TfL Rail platforms for a Shenfield metro service, which was a required movement, which was in the hands of duds 315825 & 315823 for the nice trip to Romford. Across to platform 1 and the 317 for Upminster was a dud 317/8, never-mind, only 10 minutes to fester before the next 315s, deciding to base myself on P5, ready for a quick walk to P3/P4 island if the next Shenfield bound service was dud. Leading was dud 315830 but with winner 315842 on the back, happy days as I took it for a quick spin to Gidea Park.
Winner 315832 was leading dud 315850 on the next Liverpool Street bound service, which I took for a nice ride to Stratford, on a see what was around movement. My eye caught a 378, so a quick hop over to P2 saw me onto required 378218 for a quick spin to Hackney Wick, and back into Stratford on dud 378222. Time for some RTT action, next Liverpool Street service was a C2C service, which the PIS was saying was cancelled, I was a bit confused when winner 357218 rolled in and so I jumped on for a quick spin to Liverpool Street.
Heading over to the London Overground platforms to see which was rolling around, and it was back to being single 315s, and the 2 in the station were both duds, my eye caught the next Stratford bound service (which strangely was down to depart from the West Anglia side), and was winner 321335. Next up was a pair of winners back to Liverpool Street, with 321446 leading 321441. My eye caught sight of a required 315, so back to Stratford this time with dud 315828 leading winner 315859, and my run continued with another Liverpool Street run on winner 315820 & dud 315854.
Down to 7, 315s left to try and get in the bag (2 for London Overground [808 & 812], 5 for TfL Rail [818; 835; 840; 846 & 850]. I headed back over to the West Anglia side just for a final check, and noticed the next Stansted Express was due out in 5 minutes, and on the back was a required 379. Walking forward and the front was also a required 379, happy days as I jumped onboard 379020 leading 379013 (where the batteries were no longer included) for a quick spin to Tottenham Hale, where I had 3 chances for a winning unit back to Liverpool Street. First up was a dud 317 which was heading back via Stratford, next was a pair of dud 317s from Cambridge, so my 3rd and final option rolled in, and it was a winner, 379002 along with dud 379026 for the 6 mile trip back to Liverpool Street (which seems to take forever).
To the Sub-Surface lines and first up was a Metropolitan line service, so I gave that a miss, with the next up being a Hammersmith & City line service, which I took to Paddington. To the main-station where the sleeper was getting ready to depart (to show how late it was), with one of the last Reading stoppers, with 165123 & 165130 making up a busy 4-car set for the short hop to Acton Main Line. Walking back to the guest-house for some well needed sleep.
27th June A day on the Glasgow suburban lines
I managed to book a cheap (£20) advance for the 07:30 service from Euston to Glasgow Central, the one which goes non-stop to Warrington, which I was quite happy with, even happier when I got my seat and it was C1. The day started with a walk from the A-Z guest house in Acton, however I must have got the times of the services from Acton Main-line wrong as I missed the service I was aiming for, so my walk continued to North Acton underground station on the Central line. Didnt have to wait for long before a 92 stock set rolled in to take me to Oxford Circus before transferring to the Victoria line to take me to Euston. After a quick visit to grab a newspaper & breakfast I went down to the 390 forming the 7:30 departure.
It was dud 390006, although first time sitting in standard class (previously had it in September from Preston to Crewe when on a 1st class ticket), seat C1 was nice and I settled down. A few minutes after departure the train manager mentioned that due to the high volume of reservations coach G was declassified, so I made use of a toilet stop to investigate and spotted coach G mostly empty, so decided to change seats. Well who wouldnt change from a standard class seat to a first class seat on a 390 with the added benefit of free wi-fi? Nice uneventful run up the west coast main-line, the Lake District is so beautiful, and the part between Carlisle & the outskirts of Glasgow is also very nice.
Arrival into Glasgow Central was at 4 hours 25 minutes later; arriving 5 minutes early (timetable padding?), so first stop was to grab some lunch and also a Roundabout ticket, having an idea to try a TVM, and yes you can buy a Roundabout ticket from a TVM at Glasgow Central, issued as a single ticket to Roundabout (causes the ticket checkers to double look when they see the ticket on a train to Glasgow Central). My aim of the day was shack visiting, mainly the shacks used mainly by the 314s. First departure I could see was a Neilston bound service, so I jumped on board without checking the number.
Brief remembering of my time last May when doing the line coverage and remembering that the units pass each other between Patterton & Neilston, so made life a bit easy as I bailed 314202 at my 1st new Scottish shack of the day at Patterton, over the footbridge and a brief wait before dud 314203 rolled in to take me to Cathcart, a bit of an interesting station which seems to be missing some platforms on the lines towards Newton, bit of a tight connection as RTT suggests Cathcart is when the Neilston trains pass each other, it would have been tight if the next Neilston wasnt running a couple minutes late.
A couple minutes later my first winner of the day in the shape of 314214 rolled in to take me to another new shack at Whitecraigs, with another short wait before 314202 rolled back in to take me to Muirend, with a brief wait before 314203 returned to take me back down away from Glasgow to my final shack on the Neilston branch at Williamwood. What I didnt realise at the time is that Williamwood is quite close to Clarkston station on the East Kilbride line, so I could have walked and made a start on the East Kilbride line, but never mind. 10 or so minutes later (in the lovely sunshine) 314214 rolled back in to take me to another tight interchange station at Pollokshields East, but thankfully the majority of the stations on the Cathcart circle lines are island platforms so no annoying footbridges to dive over. Dud 314215 rolled in to take me the 68 chain leap (with another station in between) to my final shack on the eastern side of the circle at Crosshill which has a quite narrow platform. Dud 314205 was next to take me back to Glasgow Central.
Heading to the low-level platforms with an idea to try and clear a couple stations on the Argyle Line, mainly the pair between Argyle Street & Rutherglen which have a more limited service than the rest of the stations on the Core, I had a 10 minute gap before the next stopper would arrive, but when winner 318267 rolled up I couldnt help myself for a tiny 28 chain leap to Argyle Street, and back to Central when winner 320303 rolled in along with dud 320317. Back on plan and happy days as winner 318268 rolled up to take me the short leap to Bridgeton, with a short wait (nice enough station for an inner city centre area) before duds 320313 & 318265 rolled in for the 40 chain leap to Dalmarnock
First impressions of Dalmarnock was that I wasnt to get away as fast as possible, half the platform was in a tunnel, the other half exposed in a steep cutting, an old footbridge over the platforms with a modern bridge with a few steps took me over to the northbound platform. The first service was running late and was a rammed 318, standing room only (but that didnt stop an oldish lady forcing her way onto the unit with a helper with fold-up wheelchair, delaying its departure for a good few minutes, thankfully the next unit was mostly empty (coming via Whiffet), and was dud 320322. A quite visit to the loo and I bailed at Argyle Street in search of something cold to drink, the heat was getting to me and my bottle of water was quite warm.
15 or so minutes later I was back on the Argyle Street platform (noticing the large queue of ticketless passengers buying tickets from the previous rammed unit had disappeared and the next unit was dud 320305 to take me to Exhibition Centre, I had planned to head towards my accommodation to ditch some weight and to check in, but decided to do a quick visit up the Milngavie line when winner 320311 rolled in with dud 320304 bringing up the rear. Nice near 6 mile trip up the part single line branch, taking me to Hillfoot, where I had an option to either walk (Google was suggesting 10 minutes) or wait to see what the next service would bring.
Winners 344003 & 344015 rolled in to take me the 45 chain leap to Bearsden where I spotted a Co-Op which was useful to purchase some a mid-afternoon snack and back to Bearsden to await the return of 320304 & 320311 to take me to Partick. I could have bailed at Hyndland and waited to see if I could get lucky with the next service being a winner, but decided not to. Down the many stairs at Partick, handing over my Roundabout ticket to get stamped with a little S and handed an all-day smartcard ticket for the Subway to head down (noting that the entrance to the inner circle was being refurbished, so something to bear in mind). A trio of driving car units on the Glasgow Subway took me around the outer circle to Cowcaddens, exiting the station and firing up maps to locate the best route to my accommodation.
After checking in, dumping some weight and making sure everything was locked up (after a quick wash of my face) and I was back on the road walking to St George Cross subway station to take a ride to St Enoch. Leaving the subway system and walking to Central, eventually finding how to get in and up the stairs to the high-level platforms to jump on the next Paisley Canal service, formed of dud 314208 to take me to Hawkhead, a quick formation of a plan saw me back onto 314208 to Corkerhill, with winner 314209 rolling in being the other unit on the diagram to take me to Crookston. Google maps was fired up, Mosspark was 0.8 miles away by foot, 314209 would return there in around 18 minutes, so it was a race against the clock as I set out for a nice walk along a little housing estate, via some fields, passing some unusual road layouts to prevent speeding (tight right/left parts), and over the footbridge to arrive with a good 5 minutes spare. Dud 314209 rolled into Mosspark which took me for the short hop to Dumbreck, the passing point on the Paisley Canal branch which is an annoying station to get as it lacks a footbridge between platforms.
But I wasnt changing trains, my plan was to walk the 0.8 miles to nearby Maxwell Park, so passing a very posh looking hotel and across Maxwell Park itself to get to the station, in good time as dud 314204 rolled into to take me to Pollokshields West, which I went for a quick wonder where I stayed out to long and missed the next train along the circle, doh!. A quick check on Google Maps saw a possible connection with a Central bound service at Shawlands, but it would be tight, 1 mile away walking but I made it to Shawlands with a couple minutes to spare and to be rewarded with winner 314210 for the tiny leap back to Maxwell Park. A plan was forming in my head on how to get my last shack on the western side of the circle (Pollokshaws East), noting that Crossmyloof was nearby so potential of getting two with a walk.
Dud 314204 rolled back in from Central on a Newton service, which took me to Burnside, on the way I was looking, 18 minutes to get back to Croftfoot which my mapping software was suggesting would take 22 minutes, knowing I can walk faster than the timings given, but I decided not to risk it, would have been a bit too tight. 314204 rolled back in from Newton to take me back along the line to Kings Park with a nice connection onto dud 314211 to take me to my final shack on the Newton branch at Croftfoot.
RTT was suggesting the service from Newton would arrive into Mount Florida 2 minutes after a clockwise circle service would depart, so I had to think and so set off for a mile and a half walk, along a housing estate, passing Kings Park and to Cathcart, arriving a good few minutes early, and 314210 rolled in to take me to my final Cathcart circle shack at Pollokshaws East, but my waling wasnt at an end, not just yet as I walked to Crossmyloof which is a brilliant name for a station. I was thinking of doing a quick shack attack on either the East Kilbride line or the line towards Barrhead, but decided against it. Winners 156436 & 156442 rolled in to take me to Pollokshaws West, and winner 156462 took me back along the mile to Crossmyloof. Duds 156496 & 156453 [496 had on a Haymarket-Edinburgh leap, where 453 took me to Oban) rolled in to take me back to Pollokshaws West, and finally winner 156508 rolled in to take me to Glasgow Central, the rear car locked out due to a previous passenger being sick.
At Central I had a quick check of RTT, and after grabbing some dinner, headed towards the Paisley platforms where dud 380102 along with winner 380018 took me to my final shack of the night at Johnstone, I just wanted to tick off another lovely 380. Across the footbridge and onto dud 380101 back to Paisley Gilmour Street, where I had RTT running and saw the potential of getting on a stopper back to Central with enough time to get onto a northbound service from the low-level. Good decision as I was rewarded with winners 380005 & 380008 for the short run to Central.
On the low level platforms, I had a choice, when required 320301 rolled up; knowing I could board it but risk a connection with a Queen Street bound service at Partick and having to use the subway to either station used earlier and walk to the accommodation, but I decided enough was enough so stayed where I was (although with the delay to the next Partick bound service I probably could have made it at Argyle Street). Duds 318254 & 318260 rolled in to take me to Partick, and dud 320319 took me to Charing Cross, with a 10 minute walk (up a monster hill) back to my accommodation (staying in the student rooms for the Glasgow School of Art).
Busy day with many new shacks covered, not as many winning 314s as I would have liked (saw 314213 on a Gourock service and 314206 in the depot, but nothing of 201 or 216, but they will have to wait for a Central fester to see when they roll in on another trip.
28th June Haymarket Leaps
Not the most exciting of days I had planned, doing unit hunting between Edinburgh & Haymarket, using up my last East Coast rewards free ticket on a HST back to Kings Cross (departure at 16:30). After checking out and visiting a little breakfast place on the way to Charing Cross, I arrived in plenty of time, watching the rain before dud 318257 rolled in to take me east of Queen Street low-level for only the 3rd time, taking me to my only new shack of the day at Bellgrove. A few minutes later duds 334017 & 334019 rolled in to take me for the slow stopper to Edinburgh Waverley via Bathgate.
2nd time at doing the central electric line between the 2 main Scottish cities, previously was on 026 & 038 on a semi-fast so at least I can say Ive stopped at all the stations along the line now. Deciding to stay on all the way to Waverley owing to a gap in services from Haymarket, where I purchased my weekly season ticket, and set off in search of winners. RTT time, first departure would be a Virgin West Coast service, which was formed of a pair of Voyagers. I only needed 5 of the 221s with Virgin, so was expecting a pair of duds. How happy I was when it wasnt just winner 221105 at the front but also winner 221110 on the back, a double winner!
To Haymarket, with a tight connection jumping onto dud 334023 leading winner 334007 back to Waverley. Winner 170412 took me back out to Haymarket, with a brief wait before XCs 221127 took me back east along the 1 mile 19 chain leap to Waverley. I had noted an VTEC service from Aberdeen was due, and a FTPE was in the station, so checking the FTPE to find it in the hands of a pair of dud 350/4s I headed to a pair of dud 334s (334026 & 334029) for the short leap back to Haymarket, crossing platforms to be rewarded with winning powercars 43309 and 43315 back to Edinburgh.
Winner 170454 along with dud 170409 took me back to Haymarket, where the next train back to Edinburgh would be a XC, and was a first for me as it was my first double XC voyager, winner 220013 was leading dud 22006, back to Waverley and with a fester before duds 334030 & 334034 took me back to Haymarket jumping onto the HST from Inverness, with dud 43257 leading winner 43314. Another required VTEC power-car, happy days. Next departure was in 15 minutes (the gaps with the loss of the Queen Street Edinburgh services being felt with a few cancelations floating around), but was in the hands of winner 158709 & 170476.
Back to Edinburgh on dud 158871 & winner 158734, with the next leap being in the hands of a pair of winning 170s, 170472 & 170461, where I had an issue, a VTEC HST was due in at the same time as a Virgin West Coast service, which to go for, the 390 was required, but I decided to risk staying around for the HST. Good call I felt as it was required 43316 leading dud 43239, but then I had a similar issue with another pair of 43s towards Aberdeen, with no real way to getting back to Edinburgh in time to get the 390. Thankfully the 43s on the HST were both duds (and was running quite late), so over to 390115 for the short hop to Haymarket. The 390 departed Haymarket before the HST, owing to the passenger s trying to get onto the HST, heading back north after a weekend in Edinburgh and not wanting a 170.
Next up was another pair of winning units, 157786 & 170434, with dud 334021 & winner 334014 back out to Haymarket. A service from Manchester was running late, and after the next service was a sizeable gap with a pair of required units spotted on a Dundee service (or what RTT was suggesting the platform would be), so back to Edinburgh on duds 158722 & 170408, only to find the Dundee service was cancelled, so a bit of a fester before the next Haymarket departure in the shape of duds 334038 & 334005, with a brief interchange to jump onto the pair of 185s from Manchester without grabbing the numbers. Sadly my luck had run out and it was duds 185151 & 185143. Never mind, time was getting on and for my final Haymarket leap I had spotted a required 158, in the shape of winner 158869 along with dud 158721 for the hop back out. Into Edinburgh for the final time on dud 221115, with enough time to grab some food, sadly Boots had run out of food (but still used it to buy 2 bottles of drink for £1.60), and so WH Smiths had my custom.
The 16:30 was due to depart from platform 19, so no footbridge to reach P1/P20, and I was rewarded with winner 43319 along with dud 43305 for the long trip down south. It coming from Aberdeen, meant it was quite busy, and my assigned seat was rubbish (backwards facing aisle airline seat) but I spotted a table seat which was handy for the 4 hour 20 minute ride down south to Kings Cross. The ECML is wonderful in Scotland, not so much once you pass all the weird and wonderful limited service shacks (Chathill and the like) and Newcastle.
Arrival into Kings Cross was at 20:53, which gave me 20 minutes to get from Coach E to the underground and to Waterloo to make the tight connection for the 21:15 to Exeter. Down to the Victoria line, with a minute gap before a service (highlighting the closure in August from Seven Sisters to Walthamstow Central), but not updating the maps (still havent got Northern/Bakerloo stopping at Embankment), and to the Bakerloo at Oxford Circus, nice timing and to Waterloo and up, 21:11 is the time I tapped out of the underground, so straight up and onto the platforms to find the 21:15 was in the hands of mid-mileage 159004 & 159015 along with 158888 attached to the back. So for a change I sat in the 158 for some 158 main-line thrash.
Back home and with a quick lift home arriving at 22:35, so just over 6 hours from Edinburgh to Grateley, gives the plane a race (when you take into account wasted time between check-in and departure)
I will be back in Scotland on another flying visit in the early hours of the 19th September to do the Borders Line behind a 66, with my next main visit being pencilled in for early November, to try out the sleeper to Glasgow, although not sure if I will head across to Edinburgh on the Sunday or spend the Sunday in Glasgow and head home via the West Coast
Anyhow some pictures:
314202 departing Patterton
314203 running away from Cathcart
314214 @ Whitecraigs
314202 back at the island platform at Muirend
Dalmarnock... Batcave of Glasgow!
Wasnt expecting a 18% incline:
Only for another hill on the other side of Hill Street (how ironic)
Used the last of my freebies up this evening, although departing Edinburgh at 16:30, arrival home at just after 22:30, which is some good going
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
26th June In search of the LOROL 317s
The London Overground 317s only come out to play during peak times, so my aim was to spend an evening peak at Liverpool Street to clear some more 315s & 317s, with maybe some 321s thrown in for good measure. Staying overnight at the A-Z guest-house in Acton, meant I didnt really have to worry about last trains (as the guest-house is on the night-bus network).
Bit of a crazy rush after-work and I only jumped onto 159018 just as the doors were starting to close, a mad run with a bag which weighed quite a bit, on a hot humid day, not the best of starts for the weekend. Changing at Basingstoke to see what was happening, a 150 was on the Reading-Basingstoke runs, and a couple dud 444s arrived, so which left me with the XC, and it was also a dud (220014), which took me to Reading. A quick check of RTT saw that the next HST from Bristol would be the last for around 18 minutes, so with keeping an eye on the time it was going to be a required movement.
Dud power-cars 43134 & 43185 were on the service, no luck in clearing another power-car this afternoon, as I sat down for a nice relaxing ride to the Peruvian Bear, with a spot of RTT to identify the next Greenford service, which annoyingly gave me a 4 minute connection, thankfully it was down as P12 rather than P13 & P14, which would save a bit of time, so alighting from the HST, passing the ticket barriers (using a travel-card with my outward ticket ready in case of rejection) and around to P12, the barriers worked (surprising) and onto busy dud 165132 for the 4 and a quarter mile trip to Acton Relief Line, sorry Acton Main Line, where I alighted and had a bit of a fester to see what the other unit was on the Greenford runs (just in case it was my last 2-car 165/1), but it was dud, so off I went down the road to check in and get rid of some of the weight in my bag.
10 or so minutes later I was back on the platform, having just missed the bus, the sensible thing would have been to catch the next Paddington bound service and catch either a Circle or Hammersmith & City line to Liverpool Street, but it was evening rush-hour so I decided not to be sensible and headed to Ealing Broadway on 165125, where I jumped onto a Central Line service for the 10 & ¾ mile trip to Liverpool Street, taking just over 30 minutes. At Liverpool Street I headed straight towards the low-numbered platforms on the West Anglia side of the station to await the first London Overground service.
First up was a dud solo 315 which arrived a few minutes late and departed quite busy (thankfully it was a dud), with the next service rolling in a few minutes later and this time it was a winner. Dud 315801 was leading winner 315810 which I took for the short hop to Bethnal Green, making a tight connection under the subway to jump onto a pair of 317s, leading was dud 317887 but the 317 I jumped onto was my first /7, 317709, still in airport express layout (automatic inner-unit gangway doors). Back to Liverpool Street, which I noted the next service was an AGA service. Dud 317886 was leading winner 317509 for the short hop to Hackney Downs, where another quick connection saw me back towards Liverpool Street on winners 317661 & 317667.
A pair of 317/7s were in the station, both were winners, 317732 & 317714 which took me for the mile leap to Bethnal Green, with duds 315813 & 315802 taking me back to Liverpool Street (as I didnt fancy a 15 minute wait as during the evening peak not all London Overground services call at Bethnal Green). This was very useful as the next departure was winner 317710 which I took a nice solo seat in the former 1st class area (I wonder if those plug sockets still work) for a non-stop run to Hackney Downs.
Back into Liverpool Street on dud 315805 & winner 315816, where my focus shifted to seeing which 317 was on the Romford/Upminster runs, first departure towards Stratford had a dud unit on the back, but the following departure was dud 321360 leading winner 321424, I noted that one of my last 3 378s was on P1, so I dashed over to find that 378229 was locked out of use, and RTT was suggesting the next move was ECS to Euston, boo.
Across to the TfL Rail platforms for a Shenfield metro service, which was a required movement, which was in the hands of duds 315825 & 315823 for the nice trip to Romford. Across to platform 1 and the 317 for Upminster was a dud 317/8, never-mind, only 10 minutes to fester before the next 315s, deciding to base myself on P5, ready for a quick walk to P3/P4 island if the next Shenfield bound service was dud. Leading was dud 315830 but with winner 315842 on the back, happy days as I took it for a quick spin to Gidea Park.
Winner 315832 was leading dud 315850 on the next Liverpool Street bound service, which I took for a nice ride to Stratford, on a see what was around movement. My eye caught a 378, so a quick hop over to P2 saw me onto required 378218 for a quick spin to Hackney Wick, and back into Stratford on dud 378222. Time for some RTT action, next Liverpool Street service was a C2C service, which the PIS was saying was cancelled, I was a bit confused when winner 357218 rolled in and so I jumped on for a quick spin to Liverpool Street.
Heading over to the London Overground platforms to see which was rolling around, and it was back to being single 315s, and the 2 in the station were both duds, my eye caught the next Stratford bound service (which strangely was down to depart from the West Anglia side), and was winner 321335. Next up was a pair of winners back to Liverpool Street, with 321446 leading 321441. My eye caught sight of a required 315, so back to Stratford this time with dud 315828 leading winner 315859, and my run continued with another Liverpool Street run on winner 315820 & dud 315854.
Down to 7, 315s left to try and get in the bag (2 for London Overground [808 & 812], 5 for TfL Rail [818; 835; 840; 846 & 850]. I headed back over to the West Anglia side just for a final check, and noticed the next Stansted Express was due out in 5 minutes, and on the back was a required 379. Walking forward and the front was also a required 379, happy days as I jumped onboard 379020 leading 379013 (where the batteries were no longer included) for a quick spin to Tottenham Hale, where I had 3 chances for a winning unit back to Liverpool Street. First up was a dud 317 which was heading back via Stratford, next was a pair of dud 317s from Cambridge, so my 3rd and final option rolled in, and it was a winner, 379002 along with dud 379026 for the 6 mile trip back to Liverpool Street (which seems to take forever).
To the Sub-Surface lines and first up was a Metropolitan line service, so I gave that a miss, with the next up being a Hammersmith & City line service, which I took to Paddington. To the main-station where the sleeper was getting ready to depart (to show how late it was), with one of the last Reading stoppers, with 165123 & 165130 making up a busy 4-car set for the short hop to Acton Main Line. Walking back to the guest-house for some well needed sleep.
27th June A day on the Glasgow suburban lines
I managed to book a cheap (£20) advance for the 07:30 service from Euston to Glasgow Central, the one which goes non-stop to Warrington, which I was quite happy with, even happier when I got my seat and it was C1. The day started with a walk from the A-Z guest house in Acton, however I must have got the times of the services from Acton Main-line wrong as I missed the service I was aiming for, so my walk continued to North Acton underground station on the Central line. Didnt have to wait for long before a 92 stock set rolled in to take me to Oxford Circus before transferring to the Victoria line to take me to Euston. After a quick visit to grab a newspaper & breakfast I went down to the 390 forming the 7:30 departure.
It was dud 390006, although first time sitting in standard class (previously had it in September from Preston to Crewe when on a 1st class ticket), seat C1 was nice and I settled down. A few minutes after departure the train manager mentioned that due to the high volume of reservations coach G was declassified, so I made use of a toilet stop to investigate and spotted coach G mostly empty, so decided to change seats. Well who wouldnt change from a standard class seat to a first class seat on a 390 with the added benefit of free wi-fi? Nice uneventful run up the west coast main-line, the Lake District is so beautiful, and the part between Carlisle & the outskirts of Glasgow is also very nice.
Arrival into Glasgow Central was at 4 hours 25 minutes later; arriving 5 minutes early (timetable padding?), so first stop was to grab some lunch and also a Roundabout ticket, having an idea to try a TVM, and yes you can buy a Roundabout ticket from a TVM at Glasgow Central, issued as a single ticket to Roundabout (causes the ticket checkers to double look when they see the ticket on a train to Glasgow Central). My aim of the day was shack visiting, mainly the shacks used mainly by the 314s. First departure I could see was a Neilston bound service, so I jumped on board without checking the number.
Brief remembering of my time last May when doing the line coverage and remembering that the units pass each other between Patterton & Neilston, so made life a bit easy as I bailed 314202 at my 1st new Scottish shack of the day at Patterton, over the footbridge and a brief wait before dud 314203 rolled in to take me to Cathcart, a bit of an interesting station which seems to be missing some platforms on the lines towards Newton, bit of a tight connection as RTT suggests Cathcart is when the Neilston trains pass each other, it would have been tight if the next Neilston wasnt running a couple minutes late.
A couple minutes later my first winner of the day in the shape of 314214 rolled in to take me to another new shack at Whitecraigs, with another short wait before 314202 rolled back in to take me to Muirend, with a brief wait before 314203 returned to take me back down away from Glasgow to my final shack on the Neilston branch at Williamwood. What I didnt realise at the time is that Williamwood is quite close to Clarkston station on the East Kilbride line, so I could have walked and made a start on the East Kilbride line, but never mind. 10 or so minutes later (in the lovely sunshine) 314214 rolled back in to take me to another tight interchange station at Pollokshields East, but thankfully the majority of the stations on the Cathcart circle lines are island platforms so no annoying footbridges to dive over. Dud 314215 rolled in to take me the 68 chain leap (with another station in between) to my final shack on the eastern side of the circle at Crosshill which has a quite narrow platform. Dud 314205 was next to take me back to Glasgow Central.
Heading to the low-level platforms with an idea to try and clear a couple stations on the Argyle Line, mainly the pair between Argyle Street & Rutherglen which have a more limited service than the rest of the stations on the Core, I had a 10 minute gap before the next stopper would arrive, but when winner 318267 rolled up I couldnt help myself for a tiny 28 chain leap to Argyle Street, and back to Central when winner 320303 rolled in along with dud 320317. Back on plan and happy days as winner 318268 rolled up to take me the short leap to Bridgeton, with a short wait (nice enough station for an inner city centre area) before duds 320313 & 318265 rolled in for the 40 chain leap to Dalmarnock
First impressions of Dalmarnock was that I wasnt to get away as fast as possible, half the platform was in a tunnel, the other half exposed in a steep cutting, an old footbridge over the platforms with a modern bridge with a few steps took me over to the northbound platform. The first service was running late and was a rammed 318, standing room only (but that didnt stop an oldish lady forcing her way onto the unit with a helper with fold-up wheelchair, delaying its departure for a good few minutes, thankfully the next unit was mostly empty (coming via Whiffet), and was dud 320322. A quite visit to the loo and I bailed at Argyle Street in search of something cold to drink, the heat was getting to me and my bottle of water was quite warm.
15 or so minutes later I was back on the Argyle Street platform (noticing the large queue of ticketless passengers buying tickets from the previous rammed unit had disappeared and the next unit was dud 320305 to take me to Exhibition Centre, I had planned to head towards my accommodation to ditch some weight and to check in, but decided to do a quick visit up the Milngavie line when winner 320311 rolled in with dud 320304 bringing up the rear. Nice near 6 mile trip up the part single line branch, taking me to Hillfoot, where I had an option to either walk (Google was suggesting 10 minutes) or wait to see what the next service would bring.
Winners 344003 & 344015 rolled in to take me the 45 chain leap to Bearsden where I spotted a Co-Op which was useful to purchase some a mid-afternoon snack and back to Bearsden to await the return of 320304 & 320311 to take me to Partick. I could have bailed at Hyndland and waited to see if I could get lucky with the next service being a winner, but decided not to. Down the many stairs at Partick, handing over my Roundabout ticket to get stamped with a little S and handed an all-day smartcard ticket for the Subway to head down (noting that the entrance to the inner circle was being refurbished, so something to bear in mind). A trio of driving car units on the Glasgow Subway took me around the outer circle to Cowcaddens, exiting the station and firing up maps to locate the best route to my accommodation.
After checking in, dumping some weight and making sure everything was locked up (after a quick wash of my face) and I was back on the road walking to St George Cross subway station to take a ride to St Enoch. Leaving the subway system and walking to Central, eventually finding how to get in and up the stairs to the high-level platforms to jump on the next Paisley Canal service, formed of dud 314208 to take me to Hawkhead, a quick formation of a plan saw me back onto 314208 to Corkerhill, with winner 314209 rolling in being the other unit on the diagram to take me to Crookston. Google maps was fired up, Mosspark was 0.8 miles away by foot, 314209 would return there in around 18 minutes, so it was a race against the clock as I set out for a nice walk along a little housing estate, via some fields, passing some unusual road layouts to prevent speeding (tight right/left parts), and over the footbridge to arrive with a good 5 minutes spare. Dud 314209 rolled into Mosspark which took me for the short hop to Dumbreck, the passing point on the Paisley Canal branch which is an annoying station to get as it lacks a footbridge between platforms.
But I wasnt changing trains, my plan was to walk the 0.8 miles to nearby Maxwell Park, so passing a very posh looking hotel and across Maxwell Park itself to get to the station, in good time as dud 314204 rolled into to take me to Pollokshields West, which I went for a quick wonder where I stayed out to long and missed the next train along the circle, doh!. A quick check on Google Maps saw a possible connection with a Central bound service at Shawlands, but it would be tight, 1 mile away walking but I made it to Shawlands with a couple minutes to spare and to be rewarded with winner 314210 for the tiny leap back to Maxwell Park. A plan was forming in my head on how to get my last shack on the western side of the circle (Pollokshaws East), noting that Crossmyloof was nearby so potential of getting two with a walk.
Dud 314204 rolled back in from Central on a Newton service, which took me to Burnside, on the way I was looking, 18 minutes to get back to Croftfoot which my mapping software was suggesting would take 22 minutes, knowing I can walk faster than the timings given, but I decided not to risk it, would have been a bit too tight. 314204 rolled back in from Newton to take me back along the line to Kings Park with a nice connection onto dud 314211 to take me to my final shack on the Newton branch at Croftfoot.
RTT was suggesting the service from Newton would arrive into Mount Florida 2 minutes after a clockwise circle service would depart, so I had to think and so set off for a mile and a half walk, along a housing estate, passing Kings Park and to Cathcart, arriving a good few minutes early, and 314210 rolled in to take me to my final Cathcart circle shack at Pollokshaws East, but my waling wasnt at an end, not just yet as I walked to Crossmyloof which is a brilliant name for a station. I was thinking of doing a quick shack attack on either the East Kilbride line or the line towards Barrhead, but decided against it. Winners 156436 & 156442 rolled in to take me to Pollokshaws West, and winner 156462 took me back along the mile to Crossmyloof. Duds 156496 & 156453 [496 had on a Haymarket-Edinburgh leap, where 453 took me to Oban) rolled in to take me back to Pollokshaws West, and finally winner 156508 rolled in to take me to Glasgow Central, the rear car locked out due to a previous passenger being sick.
At Central I had a quick check of RTT, and after grabbing some dinner, headed towards the Paisley platforms where dud 380102 along with winner 380018 took me to my final shack of the night at Johnstone, I just wanted to tick off another lovely 380. Across the footbridge and onto dud 380101 back to Paisley Gilmour Street, where I had RTT running and saw the potential of getting on a stopper back to Central with enough time to get onto a northbound service from the low-level. Good decision as I was rewarded with winners 380005 & 380008 for the short run to Central.
On the low level platforms, I had a choice, when required 320301 rolled up; knowing I could board it but risk a connection with a Queen Street bound service at Partick and having to use the subway to either station used earlier and walk to the accommodation, but I decided enough was enough so stayed where I was (although with the delay to the next Partick bound service I probably could have made it at Argyle Street). Duds 318254 & 318260 rolled in to take me to Partick, and dud 320319 took me to Charing Cross, with a 10 minute walk (up a monster hill) back to my accommodation (staying in the student rooms for the Glasgow School of Art).
Busy day with many new shacks covered, not as many winning 314s as I would have liked (saw 314213 on a Gourock service and 314206 in the depot, but nothing of 201 or 216, but they will have to wait for a Central fester to see when they roll in on another trip.
28th June Haymarket Leaps
Not the most exciting of days I had planned, doing unit hunting between Edinburgh & Haymarket, using up my last East Coast rewards free ticket on a HST back to Kings Cross (departure at 16:30). After checking out and visiting a little breakfast place on the way to Charing Cross, I arrived in plenty of time, watching the rain before dud 318257 rolled in to take me east of Queen Street low-level for only the 3rd time, taking me to my only new shack of the day at Bellgrove. A few minutes later duds 334017 & 334019 rolled in to take me for the slow stopper to Edinburgh Waverley via Bathgate.
2nd time at doing the central electric line between the 2 main Scottish cities, previously was on 026 & 038 on a semi-fast so at least I can say Ive stopped at all the stations along the line now. Deciding to stay on all the way to Waverley owing to a gap in services from Haymarket, where I purchased my weekly season ticket, and set off in search of winners. RTT time, first departure would be a Virgin West Coast service, which was formed of a pair of Voyagers. I only needed 5 of the 221s with Virgin, so was expecting a pair of duds. How happy I was when it wasnt just winner 221105 at the front but also winner 221110 on the back, a double winner!
To Haymarket, with a tight connection jumping onto dud 334023 leading winner 334007 back to Waverley. Winner 170412 took me back out to Haymarket, with a brief wait before XCs 221127 took me back east along the 1 mile 19 chain leap to Waverley. I had noted an VTEC service from Aberdeen was due, and a FTPE was in the station, so checking the FTPE to find it in the hands of a pair of dud 350/4s I headed to a pair of dud 334s (334026 & 334029) for the short leap back to Haymarket, crossing platforms to be rewarded with winning powercars 43309 and 43315 back to Edinburgh.
Winner 170454 along with dud 170409 took me back to Haymarket, where the next train back to Edinburgh would be a XC, and was a first for me as it was my first double XC voyager, winner 220013 was leading dud 22006, back to Waverley and with a fester before duds 334030 & 334034 took me back to Haymarket jumping onto the HST from Inverness, with dud 43257 leading winner 43314. Another required VTEC power-car, happy days. Next departure was in 15 minutes (the gaps with the loss of the Queen Street Edinburgh services being felt with a few cancelations floating around), but was in the hands of winner 158709 & 170476.
Back to Edinburgh on dud 158871 & winner 158734, with the next leap being in the hands of a pair of winning 170s, 170472 & 170461, where I had an issue, a VTEC HST was due in at the same time as a Virgin West Coast service, which to go for, the 390 was required, but I decided to risk staying around for the HST. Good call I felt as it was required 43316 leading dud 43239, but then I had a similar issue with another pair of 43s towards Aberdeen, with no real way to getting back to Edinburgh in time to get the 390. Thankfully the 43s on the HST were both duds (and was running quite late), so over to 390115 for the short hop to Haymarket. The 390 departed Haymarket before the HST, owing to the passenger s trying to get onto the HST, heading back north after a weekend in Edinburgh and not wanting a 170.
Next up was another pair of winning units, 157786 & 170434, with dud 334021 & winner 334014 back out to Haymarket. A service from Manchester was running late, and after the next service was a sizeable gap with a pair of required units spotted on a Dundee service (or what RTT was suggesting the platform would be), so back to Edinburgh on duds 158722 & 170408, only to find the Dundee service was cancelled, so a bit of a fester before the next Haymarket departure in the shape of duds 334038 & 334005, with a brief interchange to jump onto the pair of 185s from Manchester without grabbing the numbers. Sadly my luck had run out and it was duds 185151 & 185143. Never mind, time was getting on and for my final Haymarket leap I had spotted a required 158, in the shape of winner 158869 along with dud 158721 for the hop back out. Into Edinburgh for the final time on dud 221115, with enough time to grab some food, sadly Boots had run out of food (but still used it to buy 2 bottles of drink for £1.60), and so WH Smiths had my custom.
The 16:30 was due to depart from platform 19, so no footbridge to reach P1/P20, and I was rewarded with winner 43319 along with dud 43305 for the long trip down south. It coming from Aberdeen, meant it was quite busy, and my assigned seat was rubbish (backwards facing aisle airline seat) but I spotted a table seat which was handy for the 4 hour 20 minute ride down south to Kings Cross. The ECML is wonderful in Scotland, not so much once you pass all the weird and wonderful limited service shacks (Chathill and the like) and Newcastle.
Arrival into Kings Cross was at 20:53, which gave me 20 minutes to get from Coach E to the underground and to Waterloo to make the tight connection for the 21:15 to Exeter. Down to the Victoria line, with a minute gap before a service (highlighting the closure in August from Seven Sisters to Walthamstow Central), but not updating the maps (still havent got Northern/Bakerloo stopping at Embankment), and to the Bakerloo at Oxford Circus, nice timing and to Waterloo and up, 21:11 is the time I tapped out of the underground, so straight up and onto the platforms to find the 21:15 was in the hands of mid-mileage 159004 & 159015 along with 158888 attached to the back. So for a change I sat in the 158 for some 158 main-line thrash.
Back home and with a quick lift home arriving at 22:35, so just over 6 hours from Edinburgh to Grateley, gives the plane a race (when you take into account wasted time between check-in and departure)
I will be back in Scotland on another flying visit in the early hours of the 19th September to do the Borders Line behind a 66, with my next main visit being pencilled in for early November, to try out the sleeper to Glasgow, although not sure if I will head across to Edinburgh on the Sunday or spend the Sunday in Glasgow and head home via the West Coast
Anyhow some pictures:
314202 departing Patterton
314203 running away from Cathcart
314214 @ Whitecraigs
314202 back at the island platform at Muirend
Dalmarnock... Batcave of Glasgow!
Wasnt expecting a 18% incline:
Only for another hill on the other side of Hill Street (how ironic)
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Another excellent read
Crikey those hills look nasty, I don't envy you attacking those! It must have been quite tiring doing all that walking in Glasgow, then to have to attack that hill too, no thanks!
Very productive time had there, and I loved the comment of referring to Dalmarnock as Glasgow's Bat Cave! Seems I'm not the only one who likes using that, whatever did 47403 start off?
Crikey those hills look nasty, I don't envy you attacking those! It must have been quite tiring doing all that walking in Glasgow, then to have to attack that hill too, no thanks!
Very productive time had there, and I loved the comment of referring to Dalmarnock as Glasgow's Bat Cave!
Seems I'm not the only one who likes using that, whatever did 47403 start off?
47403
Established Member
Another excellent read
Crikey those hills look nasty, I don't envy you attacking those! It must have been quite tiring doing all that walking in Glasgow, then to have to attack that hill too, no thanks!
Very productive time had there, and I loved the comment of referring to Dalmarnock as Glasgow's Bat Cave!
Bloody hell, dont remind me of hills, every sunday Birtley to Ouston was a killer,especially after a 10hr shift. Glad that relationship hit the buffers
Another good read kite.
Yes what have I started
Kites getting quite a collection of the rail etworks "Bat Caves" tooCredit goes for the "Peruvian Bear"
How many renaming of stations can we get.
Last edited:
Techniquest
Veteran Member
I must admit it took me a few moments to realise what he meant, certainly clever that one!
One of my favourites was a couple of years ago, after flooding closed the Worcester to Oxford line. A board or poster (whichever it was, I wish I had a photo to refer to!) had a hand-drawn map on it to show bus replacement routes etc, with Worcester Shrub Hill renamed to Worcester Super Mare! I couldn't resist using it in trip reports for ages!
One of my favourites was a couple of years ago, after flooding closed the Worcester to Oxford line. A board or poster (whichever it was, I wish I had a photo to refer to!) had a hand-drawn map on it to show bus replacement routes etc, with Worcester Shrub Hill renamed to Worcester Super Mare!
I couldn't resist using it in trip reports for ages!
Finally managed to catch up there. All great reads! And great Pictures too! Wow - you really don't stay still for long do you!
Was at Capenhurst on Saturday and I have to agree - there's nothing there! Enjoyed reading about your experience of Hawarden Bridge. I did it exactly the same way last month. I was there on a grey and wet day so the whole area had a desolate feel to it! Having read your Wirral bash I think I might head that way on Saturday myself - lots of shacks to clear for me
Did you just hop on and straight back on at Lympstone Commando? I thought you were allowed to get off and just stay on the platform as it's Network Rail property, although I could imagine the guards brandishing big guns was a bit of a deterrent!
I'm hoping to use the forum challenge in August to address some of my woeful Glasgow coverage.
Was at Capenhurst on Saturday and I have to agree - there's nothing there! Enjoyed reading about your experience of Hawarden Bridge. I did it exactly the same way last month. I was there on a grey and wet day so the whole area had a desolate feel to it! Having read your Wirral bash I think I might head that way on Saturday myself - lots of shacks to clear for me
Did you just hop on and straight back on at Lympstone Commando? I thought you were allowed to get off and just stay on the platform as it's Network Rail property, although I could imagine the guards brandishing big guns was a bit of a deterrent!
I'm hoping to use the forum challenge in August to address some of my woeful Glasgow coverage.
Kite159
Veteran Member
No guards, just a locked gate.
Guards with big guns don't bother me, I pass some every day.
I could probably use commando for its real purpose and get onto the camp as the company I work for has an office on camp, just need an excuse to visit them :-P
Guards with big guns don't bother me, I pass some every day.
I could probably use commando for its real purpose and get onto the camp as the company I work for has an office on camp, just need an excuse to visit them :-P
Keith Jarrett
Member
Sounds like a good time with plenty of winners - I must start investigating the two shacks for the price of one move a bit more (i.e. walking between two required shacks).
You certainly did well of the 07:30 Euston to Glasgow - I've used it on a number of occasions and it has never been more than three early into GLC. Last year I managed to get off that train, buy a Central Scotland rover and walk to Queen Street, all in time to catch the 12:09 Inverness service. This year I almost did as well -after arrival at GLC, bought a Roundabout from the ticket office and had time to board the 12:03 Edinburgh via Shotts.
And Dalmarnock is more than slightly reminiscent of the hole that passes itself off as Birmingham New Street. While I have passed through many times, I still need the shack. Rutherglen is another oddity in that neck of the woods with the huge road bridge over the island platform
You certainly did well of the 07:30 Euston to Glasgow - I've used it on a number of occasions and it has never been more than three early into GLC. Last year I managed to get off that train, buy a Central Scotland rover and walk to Queen Street, all in time to catch the 12:09 Inverness service. This year I almost did as well -after arrival at GLC, bought a Roundabout from the ticket office and had time to board the 12:03 Edinburgh via Shotts.
And Dalmarnock is more than slightly reminiscent of the hole that passes itself off as Birmingham New Street. While I have passed through many times, I still need the shack. Rutherglen is another oddity in that neck of the woods with the huge road bridge over the island platform
Kite159
Veteran Member
I can remember Rutherglen from last May, has the motorway passing right over the top of it.
I tend to look at the map to see if any stations are within walking distance, gets two knocked out for the price of one, especially ones with a wait for another service.
Hopefully my next station walk will be between two stations in South Gloucestershire, as I don't fancy waiting a week for another service :P
I tend to look at the map to see if any stations are within walking distance, gets two knocked out for the price of one, especially ones with a wait for another service.
Hopefully my next station walk will be between two stations in South Gloucestershire, as I don't fancy waiting a week for another service :P
Last edited:
Keith Jarrett
Member
Pilning and Severn Beach perhaps? I'd looked at that one for next time I am back "home" in the Bristol area. There's also a bus between Pilning and Severn Beach but it stops a little way off of Pilning station. Presumably you will be trying to clear up some of the other shacks on the Severn Beach line at the same time . St Andrews Road looks walkable from Avonmouth - it's about a mile. Hopefully all the trains will tie up nicely. If it's a day trip, remember that a Heart of Wessex Day thingy should cover you nicely.
Kite159
Veteran Member
My original plan for day 1 of my super FoSS was to do various shacks in the FGW area, before clearing the annoying Ashchurch for Tewkesbury, and also the shacks between Gloucester to Severn Tunnel Junction.
Instead I've swapped my rough plan for the 11th to tomorrow, so a couple shacks down the Heart of Wessex, a couple towards Western-Super-Mere before connecting up with the Pilning before heading to the Severn Beach line.
It looks like one service sits at Clifton Down for around 15 minutes (arrives 19:15, departs 19:29), so I might attempt to beat the train and ride the mile or so to Redland.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
First a couple pictures from a little linear bash from Southampton to Winchester on Friday to clear a couple shacks
159007 on a peak time service from Winchester to Southampton at Swaythling:
159101 running away from Shawford:
4th July Super FoSS Day 1
Having paid out the sum of £70.50 to FGW online in exchange for a 8 in 15 Freedom of the Severn & Solent rover, I had many plans to try and cover many shacks within my local area. I made up a rough plan which got changed on the Friday evening due to the FGW strike action (decided to swap the first Saturday with the 2nd Saturday which was more FGW heavy). Little folding bicycle at the ready and come 5:25 on Saturday morning I was out the door for a little drive to Salisbury station.
I arrived after an uneventful drive, paying £2 at the TVM for a car-park ticket and went towards the island platform (2/3). 158887 was sitting locked up on P3 which was going to be the FGW hire-in unit of the day, sitting down to wait before dud 150108 (previously had a couple weeks ago on a Dawlish Teignmouth leap) rolled in. Attachment complete and I went onto the 150 (as the 158 was locked out of service), taking a seat in a bay of 5, only passenger on departure from Salisbury to Westbury.
Arrived at Westbury, and the units detached and 150108 started a new service towards Gloucester, and I had a 15 minute or so fester before the first Weymouth bound service rolled in. Watching movements and I spotted one of my last 2 FGW 153s rolling in and getting detached from a Portsmouth bound service, the Weymouth was expected to be formed of 1 carriage so I was a bit hopeful, expecting a platform alternation from P2 to P1 where the 153 was sitting, but nope dud 153372 rolled in.
Taking a table seat for the quiet service for a ride for my first shack of the day at Castle Cary, looking a lot different this week compared to the previous Saturday. The 153 continued down towards Weymouth and I went over the bridge, to take a sit and relax waiting for one of the few HSTs which call at Castle Cary to arrive. Winner 43190 rolled in with 43154 on the rear to take me back to Westbury, a nice pain-free ride in a mostly empty coach, arriving a couple minutes early which is always a bonus.
My next required movement was a Transwilts service to Swindon, so I had the option of a quick unit tick as there was a Cardiff bound service first and then a service from Weymouth, which I could have taken for the short distance to Trowbridge to jump onto the Swindon service. First was a dud 158/9, and the service from Weymouth was also a dud (150/2 I recall), so I stayed on the platform, waiting for 158887 to roll in from the siding, where I made a bee-line towards the first class section for a quick phone charge. I must say the luggage rack in a SWT 158 FC section is laughable, as in so narrow it is rather useless to put bags. Anyhow a few minutes passed and the guard called out that for the next station it was local door only due to a short platform, and I alighted at my 2nd new shack of the day at Melksham
30-odd minutes to kill before a service towards Westbury was due, so I unfolded the bike and went for a quick spin down to the town centre to pick up a newspaper and a nice cold drink (as it was quite warm, even at 8:30 in the morning), good thing with a fold-up bike is that I can fold it up at the entrance to a shop and carry it in. Back to the station where it was quite busy (30 or so passengers), and winner 153380 rolled in, (the 153 I spotted at Westbury earlier) which took me to Trowbridge. The guard had his work cut out selling tickets to the passengers who boarded at Melksham as it sounded most of them were heading to Weymouth. I bailed at Trowbridge for a same platform change for the next Weymouth service.
Leading was 158959 now reduced to only 2 carriages (didnt get the chance to grab the coach numbers to see what it is made up these days) with outright winner 150238 on the back. Taking a seat next to the large accessible toilet, and the door alarms are quite loud, sadly the PIS was a bit rubbish only coming up with delays likely due to poor track conditions in the Thatcham area, but overall was nice, but very busy, standing room only after Westbury. It was getting a bit delayed (due to the extended dwell timings due to the crowding) which meant my 7 minute connection at Bruton was looking a bit on the shaky side. The service arrived at Bruton, I guessed the location of the footbridge correctly and had 2 minutes to get across to the other platform before 153372 returned from Weymouth and it has gained dud 150202 (another low-miles 150, last had on a Filton Bristol Parkway hop), for a nice run to Frome, on the Frome loop.
10 minutes later, the Weymouth Wizard arrived (Summer Saturday HST special), formed of winner 43010 with dud 43165 on the back, it was standard class only with the first class coaches being declassified, so thinking it would be a good time to sample out the lush refurbished first class area on a FGW HST, and the leather seats are lovely and soft (seemed to be formed of a 1st class coach, a new composite coach and a buffet/1st class coach, with a bit of regular standard class seating randomly in the middle). Anyhow I alighted at Yeovil Pen Mill for my first shack on the mainly single track section between Dorchester West & Castle Cary. Compared to the previous service which was full and standing this service was empty.
Originally I had a 30 minute break at Yeovil Pen Mill, unfolded the bike and I went in search of the town centre, and the signs simply vanished into thin air, so I went back to the station for a break, the platform was getting quite busy and the next train was running 15 minutes late, so a bit longer at Yeovil than I would have liked, but hey-ho. Originally I was going to ditch at Thornford and ride down the mile and half to Yetminster, but decided not to. Anyhow dud 150108 had returned from Gloucester and again it had gained a friend, in the shape of dud 150101 (I believe my remaining FGW 150/1s are Exeter based so the chance of winning 150/1s today was low), which I took to the request stop at Chetnole
30 seconds later I had finished exploring what Chetnole had to offer, which was pretty much a little waiting shelter, off a little lane with nothing really around, a shack in the middle of Dorset fields. However it being a request stop meant I couldnt go anywhere as the next service would be due in around 20 minutes, and it was the return of 150238 & 158959 to take me back towards Bath. The Local door only on 150238 wasnt working so it was in via the staff access door, and taking a seat, looking at my connection for Bristol, which would be tight for a Taunton bound service.
Very tight, 2 minutes to get from one platform to another at Temple Meads, and onto a busy winning 150261 which pulled out of the station on time, only to be held at a red signal at Bedminster station (where it wasnt calling) to allow a late running XC HST to rush pass, the guard handed out bottles of water as it was quite warm, before setting off down the line, where my connection at Yatton would again be tight. Hoping over the bridge and I made it with time to spare as duds 150249 & 150216 rolled in to take me back towards Bristol where I alighted at Nailsea & Backwell. I was getting a bit hungry so went in search of food, and found nothing. The station itself is on a high embankment so had steep stairs to the platforms, with a large car-park (Im assuming some sort of Park & Ride system operates). The next Western Super Mere service was due, so the potential of a quick hop back down to Yatton to connect with a certain service, however both units were duds, so I decided to stay where I was to relax.
The 14:07 from Taunton to Cardiff Central was formed of dud 150106 with winning (and final FGW 153) 153370 on the back (cue a big smile on my face as I boarded). It sits at Bristol Temple Meads P3 for 10 minutes which gave me a chance to quickly bail and dash to the little WH Smiths for a bit of lunch before rejoining the service, this time sitting in the 150 for a little ride towards Wales to call at the 8th least used station in the UK (going by the estimates of station usage on the ORR website), at Pilning. Needless to say I was the only passenger alighting from the train today, having a brief conversation with the guard that it was a good day for a bike ride. Only other person on the platform was someone taking pictures, bike unfolded, maps of Google up and running with directions to Severn Beach via bike, I knew that the Severn Beach service was running around 10 down (late arrival into Temple Meads) so had a chance of getting ahead of schedule, if I could get to Severn Beach station in under 20 minutes.
Nice little ride along a country road, joining up with a main dual-carriageway before the GPS suggesting a narrow bridleway and when I spotted the station signs, seeing the sight of a 158 on the platform gave me a extra bit of energy as I jumped onto dud 158763 and let out a big breath as it started on its journey, roughly 10 minutes down. Focus now shifting to the Severn Beach branch, with the next shack being Sea Mills, quite a basic shack with a foot crossing. Dud 150234 rolled in (having sat at Clifton Downs for 10 minutes due to the single track) to take me to Avonmouth, where it terminated. Changing over to the other carriage and taking the service to Clifton Downs.
Noticing that to try and get the branch back on time, the next service to Avonmouth was cancelled, and noticing a little shopping centre allowed me to buy a light afternoon snack from Boots before riding down the road to Redland to sit and eat my sandwich when waiting for 150234 to roll back in once more (was expecting the 158), this time heading towards Severn Beach where I jumped off at the request stop of St Andrews Road, located next to a large industrial area, its not the best looking station in the world, but it must have been a shift-change at one of the units as around 10 others boarded the service when 150234 arrived back in (once again), taking me to Shirehampton. Another basic shack, down a little path from a dual carriageway, you wouldnt know it was there if passing by road.
Anyhow, I didnt have long to wait before 158763 arrived back, which I took all the way to the end of the line at Severn Beach, before changing seats and back out towards Clifton Down. I noticed when planning that this service seems to randomly sit at Clifton Down for 15 minutes which gave me a challenge, unfolding the bike and away I spun across Clifton, passing Redland and reaching Montpelier a good 5 minutes before 158763 arrived. A quick check of RTT saw the chance to get the two stations on the main-line cleared, so it was to Lawrence Hill, crossing over the platform to board a Parkway bound service formed of duds 150247 & 153329 to Stapleton Road, and it was time for another bike ride.
Riding to Bristol Temple Meads (side streets before joining the former trackbed of the Midland Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line on the Bath-Bristol railway path, running alongside a rusty track towards a waste depot (which used to be the line to Bristol St Philips station in the 1950s), I arrived into Temple Meads with time to spare before the next Bath bound service, formed of a busy-ish 158951. Under the subway at Bath Spa and watching the platform for the London bound platform getting quite busy waiting for one of the last HSTs back to London (around 20:30?). Anyhow duds 150238 & 158953 had arrived to take me to another new shack of the evening, this time at Oldfield Park in the suburbs of Bath. Long ramps to get between platforms (I decided to unfold the bike and push it up rather than carry it as it was getting heavy now and my arm was tired).
Next up was dud 150247 which I had a moment of thinking, as I had a 15 minute connection at Bradford on Avon for the SWT service (had the idea of going back to Keynsham), I could bail at Avoncliff and ride the couple miles along the canal towpath & river path), so I decided it would be another shack cleared, so I alighted at the local door only Avoncliff, up the stairs and doing something I havent done in years, rode around the towpath towards Bradford-on-Avon, coming off the tow-path at the former swing bridge and along the river path, reaching Bradford-On-Avon. Technically not a new shack for me, but the last time I used it was probably 10+ years ago, so it was nice to get back in touch with my youth.
A quick random check of RTT saw a potential to clear a slightly annoying shack, giving a 25 minute connection, however the service from Cardiff was running 20 minutes down at this point, so I gave the 159 a miss and waited. Mixed messages of formed of 6 coaches, full and standing, front 3 will detach at Westbury, which all were lies, yes it was formed of 6 coaches, but the rear 3 were locked out of use as they would detach at Westbury and the front coach was mostly empty. 158957 was leading with 150106 & 153370 on the back, departed Westbury 20 down, and arrived at Dilton Marsh Another local-door only shack as my bike was unfolded for the wheel down the slope, under the railway bridge and up the slope for the Westbury bound platform, which was quite busy with some slightly drunk ladies. A late running Cardiff passed through the station before a service from Southampton towards Bristol, and it was 153372.
To give you an idea how small the platforms at Dilton Marsh are, even a 153 is local-door only, back to Westbury where I alighted to have a little wait on P1, watching the cleaners come in to give 153380, 150106 & 153370 a quick clean, before 158887 arrived to roll down P1 waiting for the final southbound service of the evening, which was formed of 159014, attaching to the 158 for the peaceful run into Salisbury via the nothingness of Salisbury plain. Bike into the car for a nice drive home, the end of a busy day in FGW land, only 7 new winning haulages, but with 22 new shacks cleared. Day 1 of 8 was a success.
153372 at Castle Cary
FGW hire-in 158887 at Melksham, big train small platform
43010 approaching Frome
Chetnole:
153329 & 150247 departing Nailsea & Backwell
Oh dear, I have missed my train, only a week to go until the next stopper:
Wales is that way:
Sea Mills:
St Andrews Road
Dilton Marsh at 22:35...
-------
5th July Super FoSS Day 2
The idea of day 2 was to make a good effort at clearing out the many shacks in SWT main-line land, plus the local shacks between Swanwick & St Denys, so it was a nice early morning drive to Romsey, via the Co-Op in Stockbridge to pick up some Halls for a slight cough, annoyingly a van was parked in my normal space at the side of the road next to Romsey station, so I parked elsewhere and walked back to the station, where I said to myself when seeing the roof of the 8:19 to Fareham [would normally be Brighton but the line between Fareham & Cosham was closed] that looks like a 150. And I was right when I got the station and it was a 150.
And I was right, it was winning 150926, my first 150/9 hybrid unit, formed with one half of a 150/2 in the middle of 150126, quite unexpected (and I wouldnt want to be on it for its next service from Fareham all the way to Cardiff as its mostly high-den 3+2 seating), anyhow it arrived into Southampton Central bang on time, giving me a few minutes to make a movement outside the station to pick up a nice cold drink & something to eat for breakfast, from the little Co-Op. Back to the station, the service from Basingstoke for Poole & Fareham had arrived, I was expecting for it to be a pair of 450s (not knowing the length of the platforms between Fareham & Southampton), but it was a pair of 444s, and I noticed the coach number of the rear unit which was going to Fareham.
It ended in 17, my last 444, 444017, which managed to hide from me for the last 6 months, happy days, yippee, class cleared and all that. Sadly t7he Wi-Fi wasnt working (was connecting, but when you came to hitting accept T&Cs and hitting log-in, kept coming back with connection issues, happened on most of the 444s so probably issues with the ISP), anyhow, 444017 took me to my first new shack of the day in the shape of Bursledon, next to a harbour/marina, but not a lot else (which I could see). 444008 was the next unit to roll in to take me back towards Southampton to Bitterne. A few minutes later 444039 rolled up to take me to Hamble, which is actually a shack, local door only for the 444s due to a short platform.
The next service back towards Southampton wasnt due for 25 minutes, Google was suggesting a 22 minute walk back to Netley (not that far in terms of rail miles, but not a direct road), which I managed to do in just under 20 minutes, involving a pause to cross the road when the pavement suddenly decided to come to an end. Pausing briefly before jumping back onto 444017 to take me back towards Southampton towards Woolston, where I had my 2nd planned walks, this was a bit easier as the road ran pretty much alongside the track via housing so not that busy, walking back to my final shack in this part of the network in the shape of Sholing.
When I was walking I was thinking would it be possible to beat the train back to Southampton Central by jumping off with a bike at Woolston and ride over the bridge to the city when the train makes its slow way up the side of the river to cross at St Denys? Anyhow 444007 was the unit on duty to take me to Fareham. Why Fareham you might ask, well it was for a micro grind, 444007 rolled in onto P3, emptied out before reversing out of the station and coming back into P1 where it would sit for 30-odd minutes for the next hourly service, in the meanwhile 158958 rolled in from Southampton, where it was stabled on P5, into the rarely used platform 2, the bay platform at Fareham. Anyhow it was a few minutes before the doors were released into the warm unit (AC wasnt working in coach C, so the guard opened up the windows) for the short run back to Southampton Central.
It was lunch time, and I had a 8 minute gap before the next Weymouth service was due in, so I hopped across the platforms for a quick Co-Op raid (that shop is so useful) before coming back to P4 to jump onto 444018 which was leading 444034 for a short leap to Brockenhurst. Over the new footbridge to the P1/P2 island to await the stopper back to Southampton, formed today of 444038, I made sure I was located in the front coach as the next shack was another local-door only due to tiny platforms, a shack which sees a lot more trains stopping on Sundays, than during the week (hourly on Sundays, 2-hourly during the week), the station in the middle of nowhere at Beaulieu Road. What a lovely day for walk/bike ride in the New Forest I thought as I crossed the road bridge to get to the other platform. 444005 rolled in, boarding via the 2nd door and I took a seat for the short run back to Brockenhurst.
I had a decision, either stay on to do Sway, or leap off at Brockenhurst and do the shack on the Lymington branch. I decided to leap off at Brockenhurst, crossing over to jump onto 450544 which was being stressed out today with going up and down the little branch line. I alighted at the only intermediate station on the line at Lymington Town, before having a quick look around the station before 450544 rolled back in from the pier to take me back to Brockenhurst. Brief moment of rest once over the footbridge before 444031 rolled in to take me to Ashurst New Forest. It was a bit of a tight connection here (2 minutes), but quite doable with the footbridge, over to the other platform to jump onto 444015 back to Brockenhurst. I had planned to catch the XC service to Bournemouth but that was running 15 minutes down and had been overtaken on route by the Weymouth train at Basingstoke, so no Voyager action for me today.
444025 & 444040 rolled in, which took me to Bournemouth where 444040 was detached (as you cant take 10 cars down to Weymouth) and continued down the line, beautiful line. In a moment where I had an internet connection I did some research and found a FGW service heading to Weymouth would arrive into Dorchester West 15 minutes after this service would get into Dorchester South, with a 3 minute connection at Upwey. So my plan had changed and I stayed on board to the county town of Dorset at Dorchester South, only using one platform today (Im guessing during the week where there is 2 trains to Weymouth an hour they pass at Dorchester due to the single track section). A quick walk across a few roads following the signposts took me to Dorchester West, the point where the mostly single track Heart of Wessex line begins (passing points at Maiden Newton & Yeovil Pen Mill), to await the FGW from Westbury.
Duds 150249 & 150216 were the units today, which I took for a nice short run to Upwey, crossing over the bridge to the Up platform, ready for the SWT Waterloo service to arrive. Formed of 444001, which took me to Moreton. Moreton is one of those annoying stations with a level crossing between platforms, so thankfully I had a good connection before 444004 rolled back in to take me all the way to the end of the line at Weymouth, for the first time since February 13 (or whenever SWT had a £10 Rainbow day promotional fare from Salisbury), before I recorded my logs. Over the platform to re-board 444025, getting a nice table seat in the leading coach to use the power sockets for a quick charge of my tablet device, where I stayed on for a good run back to Parkstone.
Over the footbridge at the station located in the Poole suburbs, to catch 444006 for another long trip back west to Wool. Over the platform for a short wait before 444004 arrived back from Weymouth to take me to Hamworthy. 30 minute fester time here to wait for another service, which was used for a quick walk (nothing really of interest around, apart from housing), so back to the station to await the next Weymouth, and it was another 444, 444028 this time, taking me to my 2nd last shack to the west of Bournemouth (the last being Horton Heath which is closed on Sundays) at Wareham.
A brief wonder around the area, to find nothing, so back to the platform to await the arrival of the service from Weymouth, this time it was 444019 which was running a couple minutes late, but gained the time back when at Bournemouth where it ran into the back of 444034 for the journey back to New Milton. Over the footbridge for a brief wait before 444015 arrived to take me back west to Hinton Admiral. Over the footbridge and a quick wonder around the station later, 444005 rolled in to take me back to Southampton Central, where I had a choice. 1st was the final FGW Cardiff of the evening, 2nd was the SWT service to Salisbury or 3rd was the SWT to Romsey via Eastleigh. After checking the FGW, and finding it was a dud (on the lookout for 158962), I did a quick Co-Op raid for something to eat for dinner (as Romsey is lacking in takeaways, and there is nothing much on the way home).
I noticed 158882 was on the Romsey service via Eastleigh, so I decided to add some extra miles onto this particular 158 (only previously had on a leap to Westbury from Salisbury & a Southampton Airport to Romsey leap), and took it for the nice run via Chandlers Ford to Romsey. Walking back to the car, and with a nice drive home, the end of a busy day, the end of a busy weekend, only 2 unexpected winners in the bag, but with 18 new shacks cleared, a job for another day on my rover to clear the remaining 4 shacks out west (Horton Heath, Pokesdown for Boscombe, Christchurch & Sway).
The 444s are nice enough units, but for ones designed for intercity duties serving an airport and holiday destinations at Bournemouth & Weymouth, they do lack storage space for suitcases.
150926 at Southampton Central:
444017, we meet at last, at Bursledon
444008 at Bitterne:
Who wants to ride 150926 from Fareham to Cardiff?
158958 at Fareham
Beaulieu Road
450544 approaching Lymington
444031 departing Ashurst New Forest
Moreton (Dorset) Nicer area than the other Moreton in Merseyside
Wool
------------
6th July Super FoSS Day 3
A nice and easy post-work shack attack today, down into 159 country, mainly the West of England line west of Salisbury where I had a massive gap between stations, so after a quick walk to the station to buy my day return to Salisbury, I sat back to relax waiting for the 17:07 to Gillingham. Formed of 159001 & 159010 with 159010 detaching at Salisbury, the guard was very friendly and was the first to mention about my cheap season ticket between the Lichfield stations. I think next year I will do the Ryde season ticket, might cost a bit extra but the free SWT tickets would come in handy.
Anyhow I stayed on board to the end of the line where it terminated at Gillingham, using the passing loop at platform 2. Over the footbridge and with a short wait before 159004 arrived with 159107 in tow. Making sure I was in 159004 as due to a short platform, only the doors in the front unit would be released as Tisbury. Alighting at the station and with a short wait before Exeter bound 159101 & 159014 arrived to take me to Sherborne where I had a tight connection if I wanted to get Templecombe out of the way.
Leaping over the footbridge, I jumped onto 159020 via the door the guard was at, having closed the other doors, a few seconds later and I would have missed it. Back east to Templecombe, the old platform being in good keeping with the new extension from the car-park side (to stop passengers having to go over an old footbridge which is fenced off now). Bit of a brief wait before 159106 arrived to take me to Yeovil Junction where it terminated (and soon after departed out east, a driver training ECS to Pen Mill for the new services when they come in?)
Yeovil has 2 stations, neither which are no-where near the town centre, at least Pen Mill has housing around it, Junction (or Yeovil parkway as I should call it) has nothing around it, apart from the Yeovil railway society. The footbridge from the car-park to the island platform looks like it was sliced in half when the other island platform stopped being used by passenger trains. Around 28 minutes later, zombies attacked Yeovil, but I was on my away to Crewkerne on 159008, which was another nice station, but far away from the town centre (a road-sign said 1.5 miles).
Festering time at Crewkerne, wondering what to do this coming Saturday, before 159019 & 158890 rolled in, yes a 158 had found itself down in Exeter, which seemed strange, but nice to get a bit of 158 thrash until Tisbury loop where we waited 5 minutes for another Exeter bound service, where I changed units into the 159, as the 158 was being detached at Salisbury. Arrival into Grateley was on time and at 21:37, time to have a walk home and have some food.
No new winning units, sadly no more 159s cleared for 500 miles, but 6 new shacks on a local line.
Disused footbridge at Templecombe leading to the disused platform
Its like someone has taken an axe to it (at Yeovil Junction)
Instead I've swapped my rough plan for the 11th to tomorrow, so a couple shacks down the Heart of Wessex, a couple towards Western-Super-Mere before connecting up with the Pilning before heading to the Severn Beach line.
It looks like one service sits at Clifton Down for around 15 minutes (arrives 19:15, departs 19:29), so I might attempt to beat the train and ride the mile or so to Redland.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
First a couple pictures from a little linear bash from Southampton to Winchester on Friday to clear a couple shacks
159007 on a peak time service from Winchester to Southampton at Swaythling:
159101 running away from Shawford:
4th July Super FoSS Day 1
Having paid out the sum of £70.50 to FGW online in exchange for a 8 in 15 Freedom of the Severn & Solent rover, I had many plans to try and cover many shacks within my local area. I made up a rough plan which got changed on the Friday evening due to the FGW strike action (decided to swap the first Saturday with the 2nd Saturday which was more FGW heavy). Little folding bicycle at the ready and come 5:25 on Saturday morning I was out the door for a little drive to Salisbury station.
I arrived after an uneventful drive, paying £2 at the TVM for a car-park ticket and went towards the island platform (2/3). 158887 was sitting locked up on P3 which was going to be the FGW hire-in unit of the day, sitting down to wait before dud 150108 (previously had a couple weeks ago on a Dawlish Teignmouth leap) rolled in. Attachment complete and I went onto the 150 (as the 158 was locked out of service), taking a seat in a bay of 5, only passenger on departure from Salisbury to Westbury.
Arrived at Westbury, and the units detached and 150108 started a new service towards Gloucester, and I had a 15 minute or so fester before the first Weymouth bound service rolled in. Watching movements and I spotted one of my last 2 FGW 153s rolling in and getting detached from a Portsmouth bound service, the Weymouth was expected to be formed of 1 carriage so I was a bit hopeful, expecting a platform alternation from P2 to P1 where the 153 was sitting, but nope dud 153372 rolled in.
Taking a table seat for the quiet service for a ride for my first shack of the day at Castle Cary, looking a lot different this week compared to the previous Saturday. The 153 continued down towards Weymouth and I went over the bridge, to take a sit and relax waiting for one of the few HSTs which call at Castle Cary to arrive. Winner 43190 rolled in with 43154 on the rear to take me back to Westbury, a nice pain-free ride in a mostly empty coach, arriving a couple minutes early which is always a bonus.
My next required movement was a Transwilts service to Swindon, so I had the option of a quick unit tick as there was a Cardiff bound service first and then a service from Weymouth, which I could have taken for the short distance to Trowbridge to jump onto the Swindon service. First was a dud 158/9, and the service from Weymouth was also a dud (150/2 I recall), so I stayed on the platform, waiting for 158887 to roll in from the siding, where I made a bee-line towards the first class section for a quick phone charge. I must say the luggage rack in a SWT 158 FC section is laughable, as in so narrow it is rather useless to put bags. Anyhow a few minutes passed and the guard called out that for the next station it was local door only due to a short platform, and I alighted at my 2nd new shack of the day at Melksham
30-odd minutes to kill before a service towards Westbury was due, so I unfolded the bike and went for a quick spin down to the town centre to pick up a newspaper and a nice cold drink (as it was quite warm, even at 8:30 in the morning), good thing with a fold-up bike is that I can fold it up at the entrance to a shop and carry it in. Back to the station where it was quite busy (30 or so passengers), and winner 153380 rolled in, (the 153 I spotted at Westbury earlier) which took me to Trowbridge. The guard had his work cut out selling tickets to the passengers who boarded at Melksham as it sounded most of them were heading to Weymouth. I bailed at Trowbridge for a same platform change for the next Weymouth service.
Leading was 158959 now reduced to only 2 carriages (didnt get the chance to grab the coach numbers to see what it is made up these days) with outright winner 150238 on the back. Taking a seat next to the large accessible toilet, and the door alarms are quite loud, sadly the PIS was a bit rubbish only coming up with delays likely due to poor track conditions in the Thatcham area, but overall was nice, but very busy, standing room only after Westbury. It was getting a bit delayed (due to the extended dwell timings due to the crowding) which meant my 7 minute connection at Bruton was looking a bit on the shaky side. The service arrived at Bruton, I guessed the location of the footbridge correctly and had 2 minutes to get across to the other platform before 153372 returned from Weymouth and it has gained dud 150202 (another low-miles 150, last had on a Filton Bristol Parkway hop), for a nice run to Frome, on the Frome loop.
10 minutes later, the Weymouth Wizard arrived (Summer Saturday HST special), formed of winner 43010 with dud 43165 on the back, it was standard class only with the first class coaches being declassified, so thinking it would be a good time to sample out the lush refurbished first class area on a FGW HST, and the leather seats are lovely and soft (seemed to be formed of a 1st class coach, a new composite coach and a buffet/1st class coach, with a bit of regular standard class seating randomly in the middle). Anyhow I alighted at Yeovil Pen Mill for my first shack on the mainly single track section between Dorchester West & Castle Cary. Compared to the previous service which was full and standing this service was empty.
Originally I had a 30 minute break at Yeovil Pen Mill, unfolded the bike and I went in search of the town centre, and the signs simply vanished into thin air, so I went back to the station for a break, the platform was getting quite busy and the next train was running 15 minutes late, so a bit longer at Yeovil than I would have liked, but hey-ho. Originally I was going to ditch at Thornford and ride down the mile and half to Yetminster, but decided not to. Anyhow dud 150108 had returned from Gloucester and again it had gained a friend, in the shape of dud 150101 (I believe my remaining FGW 150/1s are Exeter based so the chance of winning 150/1s today was low), which I took to the request stop at Chetnole
30 seconds later I had finished exploring what Chetnole had to offer, which was pretty much a little waiting shelter, off a little lane with nothing really around, a shack in the middle of Dorset fields. However it being a request stop meant I couldnt go anywhere as the next service would be due in around 20 minutes, and it was the return of 150238 & 158959 to take me back towards Bath. The Local door only on 150238 wasnt working so it was in via the staff access door, and taking a seat, looking at my connection for Bristol, which would be tight for a Taunton bound service.
Very tight, 2 minutes to get from one platform to another at Temple Meads, and onto a busy winning 150261 which pulled out of the station on time, only to be held at a red signal at Bedminster station (where it wasnt calling) to allow a late running XC HST to rush pass, the guard handed out bottles of water as it was quite warm, before setting off down the line, where my connection at Yatton would again be tight. Hoping over the bridge and I made it with time to spare as duds 150249 & 150216 rolled in to take me back towards Bristol where I alighted at Nailsea & Backwell. I was getting a bit hungry so went in search of food, and found nothing. The station itself is on a high embankment so had steep stairs to the platforms, with a large car-park (Im assuming some sort of Park & Ride system operates). The next Western Super Mere service was due, so the potential of a quick hop back down to Yatton to connect with a certain service, however both units were duds, so I decided to stay where I was to relax.
The 14:07 from Taunton to Cardiff Central was formed of dud 150106 with winning (and final FGW 153) 153370 on the back (cue a big smile on my face as I boarded). It sits at Bristol Temple Meads P3 for 10 minutes which gave me a chance to quickly bail and dash to the little WH Smiths for a bit of lunch before rejoining the service, this time sitting in the 150 for a little ride towards Wales to call at the 8th least used station in the UK (going by the estimates of station usage on the ORR website), at Pilning. Needless to say I was the only passenger alighting from the train today, having a brief conversation with the guard that it was a good day for a bike ride. Only other person on the platform was someone taking pictures, bike unfolded, maps of Google up and running with directions to Severn Beach via bike, I knew that the Severn Beach service was running around 10 down (late arrival into Temple Meads) so had a chance of getting ahead of schedule, if I could get to Severn Beach station in under 20 minutes.
Nice little ride along a country road, joining up with a main dual-carriageway before the GPS suggesting a narrow bridleway and when I spotted the station signs, seeing the sight of a 158 on the platform gave me a extra bit of energy as I jumped onto dud 158763 and let out a big breath as it started on its journey, roughly 10 minutes down. Focus now shifting to the Severn Beach branch, with the next shack being Sea Mills, quite a basic shack with a foot crossing. Dud 150234 rolled in (having sat at Clifton Downs for 10 minutes due to the single track) to take me to Avonmouth, where it terminated. Changing over to the other carriage and taking the service to Clifton Downs.
Noticing that to try and get the branch back on time, the next service to Avonmouth was cancelled, and noticing a little shopping centre allowed me to buy a light afternoon snack from Boots before riding down the road to Redland to sit and eat my sandwich when waiting for 150234 to roll back in once more (was expecting the 158), this time heading towards Severn Beach where I jumped off at the request stop of St Andrews Road, located next to a large industrial area, its not the best looking station in the world, but it must have been a shift-change at one of the units as around 10 others boarded the service when 150234 arrived back in (once again), taking me to Shirehampton. Another basic shack, down a little path from a dual carriageway, you wouldnt know it was there if passing by road.
Anyhow, I didnt have long to wait before 158763 arrived back, which I took all the way to the end of the line at Severn Beach, before changing seats and back out towards Clifton Down. I noticed when planning that this service seems to randomly sit at Clifton Down for 15 minutes which gave me a challenge, unfolding the bike and away I spun across Clifton, passing Redland and reaching Montpelier a good 5 minutes before 158763 arrived. A quick check of RTT saw the chance to get the two stations on the main-line cleared, so it was to Lawrence Hill, crossing over the platform to board a Parkway bound service formed of duds 150247 & 153329 to Stapleton Road, and it was time for another bike ride.
Riding to Bristol Temple Meads (side streets before joining the former trackbed of the Midland Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line on the Bath-Bristol railway path, running alongside a rusty track towards a waste depot (which used to be the line to Bristol St Philips station in the 1950s), I arrived into Temple Meads with time to spare before the next Bath bound service, formed of a busy-ish 158951. Under the subway at Bath Spa and watching the platform for the London bound platform getting quite busy waiting for one of the last HSTs back to London (around 20:30?). Anyhow duds 150238 & 158953 had arrived to take me to another new shack of the evening, this time at Oldfield Park in the suburbs of Bath. Long ramps to get between platforms (I decided to unfold the bike and push it up rather than carry it as it was getting heavy now and my arm was tired).
Next up was dud 150247 which I had a moment of thinking, as I had a 15 minute connection at Bradford on Avon for the SWT service (had the idea of going back to Keynsham), I could bail at Avoncliff and ride the couple miles along the canal towpath & river path), so I decided it would be another shack cleared, so I alighted at the local door only Avoncliff, up the stairs and doing something I havent done in years, rode around the towpath towards Bradford-on-Avon, coming off the tow-path at the former swing bridge and along the river path, reaching Bradford-On-Avon. Technically not a new shack for me, but the last time I used it was probably 10+ years ago, so it was nice to get back in touch with my youth.
A quick random check of RTT saw a potential to clear a slightly annoying shack, giving a 25 minute connection, however the service from Cardiff was running 20 minutes down at this point, so I gave the 159 a miss and waited. Mixed messages of formed of 6 coaches, full and standing, front 3 will detach at Westbury, which all were lies, yes it was formed of 6 coaches, but the rear 3 were locked out of use as they would detach at Westbury and the front coach was mostly empty. 158957 was leading with 150106 & 153370 on the back, departed Westbury 20 down, and arrived at Dilton Marsh Another local-door only shack as my bike was unfolded for the wheel down the slope, under the railway bridge and up the slope for the Westbury bound platform, which was quite busy with some slightly drunk ladies. A late running Cardiff passed through the station before a service from Southampton towards Bristol, and it was 153372.
To give you an idea how small the platforms at Dilton Marsh are, even a 153 is local-door only, back to Westbury where I alighted to have a little wait on P1, watching the cleaners come in to give 153380, 150106 & 153370 a quick clean, before 158887 arrived to roll down P1 waiting for the final southbound service of the evening, which was formed of 159014, attaching to the 158 for the peaceful run into Salisbury via the nothingness of Salisbury plain. Bike into the car for a nice drive home, the end of a busy day in FGW land, only 7 new winning haulages, but with 22 new shacks cleared. Day 1 of 8 was a success.
153372 at Castle Cary
FGW hire-in 158887 at Melksham, big train small platform
43010 approaching Frome
Chetnole:
153329 & 150247 departing Nailsea & Backwell
Oh dear, I have missed my train, only a week to go until the next stopper:
Wales is that way:
Sea Mills:
St Andrews Road
Dilton Marsh at 22:35...
-------
5th July Super FoSS Day 2
The idea of day 2 was to make a good effort at clearing out the many shacks in SWT main-line land, plus the local shacks between Swanwick & St Denys, so it was a nice early morning drive to Romsey, via the Co-Op in Stockbridge to pick up some Halls for a slight cough, annoyingly a van was parked in my normal space at the side of the road next to Romsey station, so I parked elsewhere and walked back to the station, where I said to myself when seeing the roof of the 8:19 to Fareham [would normally be Brighton but the line between Fareham & Cosham was closed] that looks like a 150. And I was right when I got the station and it was a 150.
And I was right, it was winning 150926, my first 150/9 hybrid unit, formed with one half of a 150/2 in the middle of 150126, quite unexpected (and I wouldnt want to be on it for its next service from Fareham all the way to Cardiff as its mostly high-den 3+2 seating), anyhow it arrived into Southampton Central bang on time, giving me a few minutes to make a movement outside the station to pick up a nice cold drink & something to eat for breakfast, from the little Co-Op. Back to the station, the service from Basingstoke for Poole & Fareham had arrived, I was expecting for it to be a pair of 450s (not knowing the length of the platforms between Fareham & Southampton), but it was a pair of 444s, and I noticed the coach number of the rear unit which was going to Fareham.
It ended in 17, my last 444, 444017, which managed to hide from me for the last 6 months, happy days, yippee, class cleared and all that. Sadly t7he Wi-Fi wasnt working (was connecting, but when you came to hitting accept T&Cs and hitting log-in, kept coming back with connection issues, happened on most of the 444s so probably issues with the ISP), anyhow, 444017 took me to my first new shack of the day in the shape of Bursledon, next to a harbour/marina, but not a lot else (which I could see). 444008 was the next unit to roll in to take me back towards Southampton to Bitterne. A few minutes later 444039 rolled up to take me to Hamble, which is actually a shack, local door only for the 444s due to a short platform.
The next service back towards Southampton wasnt due for 25 minutes, Google was suggesting a 22 minute walk back to Netley (not that far in terms of rail miles, but not a direct road), which I managed to do in just under 20 minutes, involving a pause to cross the road when the pavement suddenly decided to come to an end. Pausing briefly before jumping back onto 444017 to take me back towards Southampton towards Woolston, where I had my 2nd planned walks, this was a bit easier as the road ran pretty much alongside the track via housing so not that busy, walking back to my final shack in this part of the network in the shape of Sholing.
When I was walking I was thinking would it be possible to beat the train back to Southampton Central by jumping off with a bike at Woolston and ride over the bridge to the city when the train makes its slow way up the side of the river to cross at St Denys? Anyhow 444007 was the unit on duty to take me to Fareham. Why Fareham you might ask, well it was for a micro grind, 444007 rolled in onto P3, emptied out before reversing out of the station and coming back into P1 where it would sit for 30-odd minutes for the next hourly service, in the meanwhile 158958 rolled in from Southampton, where it was stabled on P5, into the rarely used platform 2, the bay platform at Fareham. Anyhow it was a few minutes before the doors were released into the warm unit (AC wasnt working in coach C, so the guard opened up the windows) for the short run back to Southampton Central.
It was lunch time, and I had a 8 minute gap before the next Weymouth service was due in, so I hopped across the platforms for a quick Co-Op raid (that shop is so useful) before coming back to P4 to jump onto 444018 which was leading 444034 for a short leap to Brockenhurst. Over the new footbridge to the P1/P2 island to await the stopper back to Southampton, formed today of 444038, I made sure I was located in the front coach as the next shack was another local-door only due to tiny platforms, a shack which sees a lot more trains stopping on Sundays, than during the week (hourly on Sundays, 2-hourly during the week), the station in the middle of nowhere at Beaulieu Road. What a lovely day for walk/bike ride in the New Forest I thought as I crossed the road bridge to get to the other platform. 444005 rolled in, boarding via the 2nd door and I took a seat for the short run back to Brockenhurst.
I had a decision, either stay on to do Sway, or leap off at Brockenhurst and do the shack on the Lymington branch. I decided to leap off at Brockenhurst, crossing over to jump onto 450544 which was being stressed out today with going up and down the little branch line. I alighted at the only intermediate station on the line at Lymington Town, before having a quick look around the station before 450544 rolled back in from the pier to take me back to Brockenhurst. Brief moment of rest once over the footbridge before 444031 rolled in to take me to Ashurst New Forest. It was a bit of a tight connection here (2 minutes), but quite doable with the footbridge, over to the other platform to jump onto 444015 back to Brockenhurst. I had planned to catch the XC service to Bournemouth but that was running 15 minutes down and had been overtaken on route by the Weymouth train at Basingstoke, so no Voyager action for me today.
444025 & 444040 rolled in, which took me to Bournemouth where 444040 was detached (as you cant take 10 cars down to Weymouth) and continued down the line, beautiful line. In a moment where I had an internet connection I did some research and found a FGW service heading to Weymouth would arrive into Dorchester West 15 minutes after this service would get into Dorchester South, with a 3 minute connection at Upwey. So my plan had changed and I stayed on board to the county town of Dorset at Dorchester South, only using one platform today (Im guessing during the week where there is 2 trains to Weymouth an hour they pass at Dorchester due to the single track section). A quick walk across a few roads following the signposts took me to Dorchester West, the point where the mostly single track Heart of Wessex line begins (passing points at Maiden Newton & Yeovil Pen Mill), to await the FGW from Westbury.
Duds 150249 & 150216 were the units today, which I took for a nice short run to Upwey, crossing over the bridge to the Up platform, ready for the SWT Waterloo service to arrive. Formed of 444001, which took me to Moreton. Moreton is one of those annoying stations with a level crossing between platforms, so thankfully I had a good connection before 444004 rolled back in to take me all the way to the end of the line at Weymouth, for the first time since February 13 (or whenever SWT had a £10 Rainbow day promotional fare from Salisbury), before I recorded my logs. Over the platform to re-board 444025, getting a nice table seat in the leading coach to use the power sockets for a quick charge of my tablet device, where I stayed on for a good run back to Parkstone.
Over the footbridge at the station located in the Poole suburbs, to catch 444006 for another long trip back west to Wool. Over the platform for a short wait before 444004 arrived back from Weymouth to take me to Hamworthy. 30 minute fester time here to wait for another service, which was used for a quick walk (nothing really of interest around, apart from housing), so back to the station to await the next Weymouth, and it was another 444, 444028 this time, taking me to my 2nd last shack to the west of Bournemouth (the last being Horton Heath which is closed on Sundays) at Wareham.
A brief wonder around the area, to find nothing, so back to the platform to await the arrival of the service from Weymouth, this time it was 444019 which was running a couple minutes late, but gained the time back when at Bournemouth where it ran into the back of 444034 for the journey back to New Milton. Over the footbridge for a brief wait before 444015 arrived to take me back west to Hinton Admiral. Over the footbridge and a quick wonder around the station later, 444005 rolled in to take me back to Southampton Central, where I had a choice. 1st was the final FGW Cardiff of the evening, 2nd was the SWT service to Salisbury or 3rd was the SWT to Romsey via Eastleigh. After checking the FGW, and finding it was a dud (on the lookout for 158962), I did a quick Co-Op raid for something to eat for dinner (as Romsey is lacking in takeaways, and there is nothing much on the way home).
I noticed 158882 was on the Romsey service via Eastleigh, so I decided to add some extra miles onto this particular 158 (only previously had on a leap to Westbury from Salisbury & a Southampton Airport to Romsey leap), and took it for the nice run via Chandlers Ford to Romsey. Walking back to the car, and with a nice drive home, the end of a busy day, the end of a busy weekend, only 2 unexpected winners in the bag, but with 18 new shacks cleared, a job for another day on my rover to clear the remaining 4 shacks out west (Horton Heath, Pokesdown for Boscombe, Christchurch & Sway).
The 444s are nice enough units, but for ones designed for intercity duties serving an airport and holiday destinations at Bournemouth & Weymouth, they do lack storage space for suitcases.
150926 at Southampton Central:
444017, we meet at last, at Bursledon
444008 at Bitterne:
Who wants to ride 150926 from Fareham to Cardiff?
158958 at Fareham
Beaulieu Road
450544 approaching Lymington
444031 departing Ashurst New Forest
Moreton (Dorset) Nicer area than the other Moreton in Merseyside
Wool
------------
6th July Super FoSS Day 3
A nice and easy post-work shack attack today, down into 159 country, mainly the West of England line west of Salisbury where I had a massive gap between stations, so after a quick walk to the station to buy my day return to Salisbury, I sat back to relax waiting for the 17:07 to Gillingham. Formed of 159001 & 159010 with 159010 detaching at Salisbury, the guard was very friendly and was the first to mention about my cheap season ticket between the Lichfield stations. I think next year I will do the Ryde season ticket, might cost a bit extra but the free SWT tickets would come in handy.
Anyhow I stayed on board to the end of the line where it terminated at Gillingham, using the passing loop at platform 2. Over the footbridge and with a short wait before 159004 arrived with 159107 in tow. Making sure I was in 159004 as due to a short platform, only the doors in the front unit would be released as Tisbury. Alighting at the station and with a short wait before Exeter bound 159101 & 159014 arrived to take me to Sherborne where I had a tight connection if I wanted to get Templecombe out of the way.
Leaping over the footbridge, I jumped onto 159020 via the door the guard was at, having closed the other doors, a few seconds later and I would have missed it. Back east to Templecombe, the old platform being in good keeping with the new extension from the car-park side (to stop passengers having to go over an old footbridge which is fenced off now). Bit of a brief wait before 159106 arrived to take me to Yeovil Junction where it terminated (and soon after departed out east, a driver training ECS to Pen Mill for the new services when they come in?)
Yeovil has 2 stations, neither which are no-where near the town centre, at least Pen Mill has housing around it, Junction (or Yeovil parkway as I should call it) has nothing around it, apart from the Yeovil railway society. The footbridge from the car-park to the island platform looks like it was sliced in half when the other island platform stopped being used by passenger trains. Around 28 minutes later, zombies attacked Yeovil, but I was on my away to Crewkerne on 159008, which was another nice station, but far away from the town centre (a road-sign said 1.5 miles).
Festering time at Crewkerne, wondering what to do this coming Saturday, before 159019 & 158890 rolled in, yes a 158 had found itself down in Exeter, which seemed strange, but nice to get a bit of 158 thrash until Tisbury loop where we waited 5 minutes for another Exeter bound service, where I changed units into the 159, as the 158 was being detached at Salisbury. Arrival into Grateley was on time and at 21:37, time to have a walk home and have some food.
No new winning units, sadly no more 159s cleared for 500 miles, but 6 new shacks on a local line.
Disused footbridge at Templecombe leading to the disused platform
Its like someone has taken an axe to it (at Yeovil Junction)
- Status