The Various Random Mutterings of Kite

[FQ]

Sounds like a fun time in AGA land! Shame about the lack of winners but getting North Walsham was a bonus. Congrats on getting Shippea Hill too!

 

[Kite159]

Sounds like a fun time in AGA land! Shame about the lack of winners but getting North Walsham was a bonus. Congrats on getting Shippea Hill too!

Well my AGA DMU requirements are:

3 x 153, 3x 156, 1 x 170, so any winners come across when doing station visiting will be seen as a bonus. Of which one of those 156s was out in Cambridge, so probably the other two were out doing Ipswich - Lowestoft services (by my workings, there are 4 units on a Saturday which works those services)

 

[Techniquest]

A rather good day on the shack scoring front, at least a couple of winners were had too

Shippea Hill may well end up being my last shack to score, something tells me the Far North lines will both be cleared before it

 

[Blindtraveler]

Certainly a productive day there, a long one too! Ta for sharing

 

[Kite159]

Certainly a productive day there, a long one too! Ta for sharing

Hence why I overslept this morning (was going to head down to Devon, but the alarm came and went, the next thing I knew it was 8:40)

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Kite. You are definitely doing well in East Anglia and Shippea Hill has to be one massive tick in your book. You deserved to ignore the alarm clock on Sunday given all the exploits on Saturday and that marathon bike ride.

Love the concept of the Drainage Museum - perhaps a more frequent service at Shippea Hill might aid visitor numbers?

Just a pity that first train was cancelled - there seem's to be a few cancellations out of Salisbury of late which seems pretty unusual.

 

[Kite159]

Kite. You are definitely doing well in East Anglia and Shippea Hill has to be one massive tick in your book. You deserved to ignore the alarm clock on Sunday given all the exploits on Saturday and that marathon bike ride.

Love the concept of the Drainage Museum - perhaps a more frequent service at Shippea Hill might aid visitor numbers?

Just a pity that first train was cancelled - there seem's to be a few cancellations out of Salisbury of late which seems pretty unusual.

Thanks for you comment reference Shippea, I'm glad I've got it into the book as it clears the line for shacks

I think the Salisbury depot is short of drivers, and with the 'premium' paid to drivers for working rest days being reduced some drivers are not working overtime anymore. Although as that service started from Basingstoke I suspect it was more a missing guard
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28th July – The Isle of Man Weekend, Day 0.5

I was off to the Isle of Man for a forum trip, somewhere which has been on my wishlist for a good few years, and I decided to head out by ferry from Liverpool on the Friday and fly back to London on Sunday (mainly to scratch London City Airport), however I needed to be at Liverpool for Thursday night, and when the advance tickets went on sale I picked up an advance ticket for the 18:07 service to Liverpool, which was a lot cheaper than the 19:07 “off-peak” service.

I managed to finish early enough to get given a lift to Andover station for the 15:38 service, which would form the 17:20 service back towards Exeter, so no surprise that it was a trio of units with 159011 leading 159008 & 159014, taking up a seat in the rear coach of 011 for a nice spin towards Waterloo, arriving pretty much bang on time, where I had a short walk over to Waterloo East with 6 SET services working inbound to Charing Cross highlighted in the chance a required 375, 465/9 or 466 pops up. Sadly luck wasn’t with me (or my SET branded bottle of water) and where I spotted a couple winners, they were either on a Folkestone service (Is the 16:5X Charing Cross – Folkestone normally a 465/9+466 working, as the 466 thrash on the non-stop run to Sevenoaks will be epic!) or as ECS (and with Charing Cross being a small station services don’t hang around for long).

After a couple dives between platforms, I decided to call it a day with dud 466025 leading 465161 & 465028 for the 61 chain leap to Charing Cross, exiting and heading to the Northern line platforms. First service was for Edgeware and looked busy, thankfully it wasn’t needed, neither was the next service to High Barnet, however my luck changed as 90 or so seconds later a nice empty pair of winners rolled in, 51581 & 51713 being my latest captures for the short spin to Goodge Street, followed by another pair of winners in the shape of 51507 & 51506 to take me to Euston, with enough time to swing via Sainsburys for a meal deal and the cash point for some cash for the weekend ahead.

The platform was called and I was along the first to board dud 390046, with a table seat in coach E, however it was one of the many seats which is rammed up against the side, giving pretty much no elbow room on the left hand side. I did notice that Virgin have fitted clearer stickers telling passengers which seat is the window and which is the aisle seat. Only one other passenger was around the table for the speedy run northbound, pausing at Stafford having arrived early, a nice run to Crewe and Runcorn, and as I had a quick look around to find that I was pretty much alone in coach E after Runcorn. An on-time arrival into Liverpool Lime Street and I went down to the low level station after picking up a “zone C train daysaver”, although my options were limited as the frequencies on the Wirral line had dropped to half hourly (with the same on the Northern line apart from Southport services).

First up was a dud unit towards Ellesmere Port, which I allowed to depart as the next service was a couple minutes behind, sadly that was also dud 507017 to take me around the corner to Liverpool Central. A quick hop to the Northern line platforms to see what would roll in saw a required 507 pop up on a working towards Ormskirk, the service towards Southport was running late and I didn’t know if this 507 would be allowed out first (owing to an ECS pair on the other platform on a reversal having come up from the Wirral line), however that pair disappeared and a dud 508 rolled in towards Southport and was allowed out, before 507006 being my first Merseyrail unit score of the evening on the tiny leap to Moorfields.

A dud 50X was spotted heading back towards Central, but with the next Hunts Cross service hot on its heals I waited, to be rewarded with winner 507001, back to Liverpool Central, and down to the Wirral line platform with a couple minute wait before winner 508104 rolled in to take me to James Street, where I was going to call it an evening and meet up with the other forum members coming up from Chester, however as that service was winner 508110 it was hard to turn down, so back to Lime Street, followed by dud 507011 to Central. Back upstairs (hint alight from the rear door and head towards the small lift, saves a long walk), and the next Kirkby service was required, but this time the Southport was also required 507010 so to Moorfields for a short fester before 507031 rolled in to take me out of the darkness of the tunnels into the darkness of night at Sandhills.

I was going to call it a night, and head to the Premier Inn outside James Street, so it was onto dud 507013 back into the tunnels to Liverpool Central and a trip downstairs for the next Chester service and in rolled winner 508138 which just happened to be my final 508 on Merseyrail, so I was happy for the 37 chain leap to James Street, exiting the station, checking into the hotel and heading to the bar area to discuss plans for the weekend. I was quite happy as in the short 90 or so minute session I had managed to get 7 Merseyrail units into the book, leaving 8 x 507s to clear the TOC, and to clear the PEP-based family.

 

[FQ]

A very successful evening on Merseyrail there!

 

[D841 Roebuck]

Some.nice bonus Merseyrail.stuff there.

Cheers for the lift gen at Central; will be most useful when traveling to and from Bootle, apart from bashing

 

[Techniquest]

One heck of a good day there, well done on clearing the 508s!

 

[Kite159]

Some.nice bonus Merseyrail.stuff there.

Cheers for the lift gen at Central; will be most useful when traveling to and from Bootle, apart from bashing

Northern line at Central to Wirral line, on a 3-car set be at the northern end, and the narrow escalator is behind you

Indeed, Thursday night was a lot better than I was thinking it would be, knocking 50% of my Merseyrail requirements was a good bonus.

----------

Anyway, some pictures from the trip to the Isle of Man are here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27666294@N02/albums/72157671063575241


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29th July – Isle of Man Weekend Day 1

After a half decent sleep in the Premier Inn (road noise seemed to be non-stop), I met up with the others in the group as we checked out and headed to have a large breakfast at ‘Moose’ (a pair of pancakes with sausage and bacon mixed inside). Afterwards it was a short walk in the rain to the docks and the berth of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company’s Catamaran, Manannan, which would strangely be a winning cat for me.

Check in was swift (surprised at not being asked to show any sort of ID), security was swifter and it was into the departure lounge to lounge around (I’m surprised there isn’t a duty free shop to make advantage of the non-EU status of the isle of Man) before being called to board the boat, taking a comfy seat on the passenger deck for the 3 and a bit hour sail across the Irish sea towards Douglas.

On alighting from the boat, it was to the visitor centre, handing over £34 for a 3-day “Go Explore” smart card (£32 for the ticket, £2 for the smart card), which would cover pretty much all buses and trains on the island (with a couple excluded buses like the “Manx Express” and the night bus). It was out into the open for some fresh sea air to await the next horse tram to arrive (which as the name would suggest was a horse pulling a tram along the sea-front).

Keith (the horse, rather than the explorer of London) pulled in with trailer 45, wooden bench seats which flip back to allow nearly everybody to sit going forward, tickets were scanned before departure and we departed behind the sheer power of a horse, the first stop was to check into the Rutland hotel, dropping off the bags and stuff. The horse tram is like a bus in having many little request stops along the sea-front, with the tracks in the middle of the road. We alighted near the Castle Casino stop and had a short walk to the hotel, climbing up some steep steps.

10 or so minutes later, check in was complete, and we met up outside the hotel for a short walk to the end of the Horse tram line, to Derby Castle, which is also the terminus for the Manx Electric Railway, which as the name suggests is an electric railway (meaning that the Isle of Man has more miles of electric railway than Wales!), with a little power tram pulling a trailer. The next departure was tram 22 pulling trailer 40, which like the Horse Tram trailers is uni-directional bench seating.

The motor noise was very nice from the tram as it pulled up away from Douglas up the hill on the double track line, with many bus stop style “request” stops along the route, some were bus stops with no names, others were proper stations (in terms of having a little waiting shelter, a seat and name boards). We alighted after a beautiful run alongside the eastern coast at Laxey, the interchange ‘station’ with the Snaefell Mountain Railway, with like the name suggests is a tram which goes nearly to the top of Snaefell Mountain.

It was inside tram number 2, wooden bench seating with full sized windows, for the enjoyable run up the double track line, pausing at mountain road before continuing to climb reaching Snaefell submit, where due to this part being single line meant a 25-odd minute wait for the same unit to depart. Sadly the clouds had arrived so the views from the top was of grey, so after walking to the actual submit, I headed into the little café to pick up a sandwich & can of drink (as it was getting a tad cold outside).

Back onto tram 2, for the run back down the mountain, with some beautiful views, arriving into Laxey, where the group decided to catch a bus to Ramsey, so it was to the bus stop for a short wait for a delayed Mercedes-Benz Citaro bus working a route 3 service for Ramsey, fleet number 207. It was quite busy, but we managed to get seats for the short trip, alighting at the train station, deciding what to do for evening meal.

After a gentle walk around the town we decided to head back to the station for the next tram working on the Electric railway, allowing us to watch the tram being uncoupled from the trailer, being driven forward to the siding before reversing using a crossover to the other track, allowing the trailer to be physically pushed towards the siding, with the collection pole reversed with the tram reversing back into the siding to be reattached to the trailer. This time it was tram 21 leading trailer 46, with us taking a seat in the tram itself for some glorious motor noise, on some comfy seats for the long trip back towards Derby Castle, which was mostly non-stop.

Once back at Douglas, we decided to walk towards the hotel, thinking what to do, eventually finding an Indian restaurant which had space for 10 people, for an enjoyable meal, walking back towards the hotel via the beach for a drink in the bar before retiring for the evening.

30/7/16 – Day the 2nd

A good night (all be it a tad warm in the room), and it was downstairs for breakfast, arriving before a couple coach groups arrived. A help yourself style with hot food on a hot counter, with cold cereals and fruit on the other side. Anyhow the idea of the day was the steam railway and a bus route which looked like it took in the western coast line.

After breakfast, we met up and headed out of the hotel and across the road to the “Little Switzerland” tram/bus stop for the first horse of the day. In trotted Torrin pulling open trailer 42, which was quite busy, but we all boarded for the short trot to the Sea Terminal. Walking via the pier to reach Douglas station, a mini steam engine was going up and down the other platform (a water boiler on wheels!), and with a cruise ship arriving meant two of the 4 coaches were fully reserved.

So the Isle of Man Steam railway attached two more coaches with “No 10, G.H. Wood” being the engine for the roughly 15 mile spin along the mostly single track line with passing places towards Port Erin, a few good bits of scenery, but nothing as good as from the Electric Railway (more in-land, and in cuttings). An hour or so later we arrived at Port Erin, with a short wait around the station (nice little museum) before boarding in an open compartment (two bays of 6 with no wall between then) for the ride back towards Douglas.

Originally we were going to bail at Ballasalla, but the other service was running late so we bailed at Castletown instead (yes there is a castle within the town), and walked to the bus stop. It was another Citaro, this time fleet number 217 working an 8A service to Peel, which after going via the airport cut across the centre of the island, passing such places as Ballamodha & Foxdale, pausing so that the driver could use some public toilets around Hope, before arriving into Peel, with an hour or so for lunch and explore time, locating the sea front for some lunch.

Back at the town hall bus stop, it was a short wait before bus 209 rolled in on a route 5 bound for Ramsey, which like the map suggested ran for a while alongside the west coast giving excellent views of the Irish Sea, before joining the road used by the annual “TT” race (going by the signs and accident damage) to cut across back to the eastern side of the island arriving into Ramsey bus station (which looked to be a fire station).

A short walk to Ramsey Plaza station, and dud tram 22 with trailer 40 was waiting to take us back towards Laxey, the idea of heading back up to Snaefell if the weather looked decent. Sadly after some good views of countryside, on a mostly non-stop run (I think we only paused once at a farm-crossing) to Laxey, the weather had changed and so we decided not to head up to the mountain as like the day before the view would have been of cloud. Instead we headed down to Valley Gardens, one end of the Great Laxey Mine Raiway, which is a small railway which used to work into the mines, but now is a tourist railway, handing over £2 for a return trip through the tunnel. The little passenger coach could hold 8 passengers, plus a ‘guard’ who explained some stuff with the railway. A mini steam train called “Bee” was pushing (and then pulling) us through the tunnel underneath the MER & road to “Mines Yard”. We remained on board (nothing much around Mines Yard other than a car-park giving easier access to the Laxey Wheel, so it was back to Valley Gardens for another group to have a little go on the very strange line (as it was quite busy with that cruise).

Into the pub for a short drink, waiting 25 minutes for the next Douglas bound service, as it started to lightly rain. “Required” tram 19 was pulling trailer 44, so climbing on board the trailer for some coastal breeze as it ran alongside Laxey bay, before dropping down into Douglas, another mostly non-stop run, pausing at the Groudle Glen Railway to pick up a couple other passengers. At Derby Castle, it was a short hop across to board trailer 45 being pulled this evening by Charles, we departed full leaving a couple would-be passengers behind at a couple stops, reaching the Sea Terminal, and ready for a fast walk to Douglas station to try and catch the 17:30 train.

We shouldn’t have worried as that train had been cancelled due to a delay with a preceding service, and the steam railway were going to add extra coaches to the 19:00 dining train, however that gave us 80 odd minutes to kill, so it was to a nearby pub which did pizzas for a nice pizza for dinner, before heading back to the station for a slight farce. The coaches which were going to form the additional coaches had arrived slightly late; they were put into one platform. Engine number 12 (Hutchinson) had pulled out the dining train to take it over to the cross-over, with engine number 8 Fenella attached itself to the rear (replacing number 10) of the additional coaches, the dining train was crashed into the additional coaches (there went the wine!) and we set off being top and tailed by two engines with 12 or so carriages, it was quite rough (damn, that soup has gone everywhere!) before coming to a stop a mile or so out of Douglas, the front engine wasn’t performing that well so it needed some TLC.

30 minutes later (of some good jokes in the double compartment) we were finally back on the move, getting some good speed on the downhill section before pausing at some stations, where any passengers wanting those stations having to walk alongside the train due to a short platform, we eventually rolled into Ramsey around 45 minutes late, but with buses every 20 minutes back to Douglas we weren’t worried, having just missed a route 2 service. A brief walk after visiting the toilet before returning as bus number 220 rolled in on a 1H to “Halewood Avenue” via Douglas and On(i)chan, getting some good seats for the mostly empty service, heading back inland via Level, Ballabeg, the fairy bridge (hello faires), Brown Cow Hill & the home of rest for old horses. We were calmly turned off the bus in the town centre as it was “running low on fuel”, and a short wait and a handy spare bus 224 rolled in behind to take us back towards the hotel.

A very enjoyable day it was, with most the lines on the island now covered (apart from a private railway we spotted from the steam train, and the Groudle Glen Railway), the idea for the final day was to catch a parliamentary bus! However I found out how to override the safety on the windows so that they could be opened wider, giving more air flow in the room for a cooler night.

31st July – Day 3

Similar to the 2nd day with breakfast, checking out of the hotel and down to the horse tram, however this time it was a double decker trailer with two horses, but sadly it was full so it didn’t stop, so it was option 2 which was a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 double decker operating a route 12 service (fleet number 179) for the short trip towards the Sea Terminal where we alighted at a station after Lord Street.


A short walk took us to the Banks Circus stop, which is right outside the depot for the route 4R bus, which only operates 2 services on Summer Sundays from Douglas to Port Erin via Niarbyl & Round Table. I guess normally this is a quiet service as in rolled a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter City 45, a mini-bus (fleet 144), and we departed Banks Circus full (I managed to get a seat on one of the flip-down seats in the wheelchair area), picking up more passengers at Lord Street and it was mostly cosy for the run following the regular route taken by a route 4 towards Foxdale via Eairy, where a couple passengers alighted. Another couple alighted around Lower Foxdale before the bus took some rare road towards Patrick avoiding Peel (Bus UK!).

A few more got off at Glen Maye and at the very pretty Niarbyl, leaving just our group of 10 and a couple other passengers for the route over the hills alongside Niarbyl bay and dropping down into Port Erin, a very beautiful run (and well worth doing). At Port Erin we had a 55 minute wait for the next route 2 service (which takes a different route back to Douglas via the Bay ny Carrickey, but a couple of the group wanted to take the train back, and a couple others went for a walk, leaving me and Trent to reboard the mini-bus for a route 28 down to the Sound of Calf. Basically an area which overlooks the “Calf of Man” which is very beautiful, with a short stay before heading back to Port Erin dropping a couple passengers off at Cregneash.

A short wait at the bus stop at Port Erin before bus 175 rolled in, another double decker on a route 2, to take us back towards Port St Mary, and via the Shore Hotel re-joining the route we took last night on the route 1, via Castletown, the airport etc., although it was nice seeing the route in daylight this time. We decided to stay on until Derby Castle for one last trip on the horse tram before the others had to check in for Manannan back to Liverpool. Sadly it was a dud horse (and I bet not many would say that) as Torrin was walked from the stables as we picked trailer 43 for the slow and gentle ride back towards the Sea Terminal. I said farewell as they went to check in and I went off in search of seeing what shops Douglas had to offer.

Which wasn’t really a lot, there was a “Poundland” style shop called “Dealz” which had everything for £1.20, a few other shops but nothing much of interest, I randomly found a Co-Op to grab a meal-deal (to save me walking to Tesco next to the steam station), and made use of the toilets in the Sea Terminal, before Rocky the horse took me back to Derby Castle, with super-dud trailer 45, just to kill some time before boarding bus 178 on a route 12, back out towards the airport, arriving a tad earlier than I had expected (before check-in had open), so I went for a short walk down a side road to Ronaldsway Halt on the steam railway, a tiny request stop, where I had hoped to use but the timings of the steam railway weren’t the best for my flight.

After a couple photos it was to the airport, check in was swift at the British Airways desk, noting a large queue for Easy jet baggage drop, a quick visit to the shop on the “land” side of the airport and I think I’ve found the most expensive WH Smith meal-deal at a mere £5.99 for a sandwich, drink & packet of crisps (strangely the same price as in the café next door). Security took a good 15 minutes to clear (due to a large passenger flow), before coming into the departures lounge (cheapest drink was £2.50 for a small bottle of water, thankfully I had my South Eastern bottle which I got filled up for free). Taking up a seat to watch the planes land and take-off, before the Saab 2000 landed from London City, a small (compared to the Easyjet airbus bound for Liverpool) twin-prop plane operated by Eastern Airways on behalf of British Airways Cityflyer.

We were called to the gate and eventually we boarded, and inside was nice leather seats in 2+1 seating, I was near the middle in an aisle seat, with lots of legroom. One member of crew who after take-off served a round of drinks & light snacks on a pretty much uneventful flight above the clouds with the noise of the props spinning, before heading over London before landing into the heart of the docklands at London City Airport. After visiting the toilet, I cleared the airport (technically a domestic flight), and went upstairs to the DLR station, tapping in before boarding duds 108 & 128 to take me to Canning Town (low-level) (as it was heading towards Stratford International, so probably a micro-grice around that area).

To the jubilee line for some 96 stock thrash in the shape of required 96122 leading dud 96087, sitting in the rearmost carriage of 087 for the trip back towards Waterloo, arriving at around 20:05, allowing me to visit Tesco for a meal deal before boarding the 20:15 back towards Andover, formed tonight of 159001, 159021 & 159013, with getting a lift from Andover back home to avoid an hour wait at London for the 21:15 which calls at Grateley (as the 20:15 calls at Overton & Whitchurch, omitting Grateley).

A very good weekend, on an island with a well-integrated public transport system for tickets wise, the old school of a horse tram using smartcards and some beautiful weather and good company.

 

[Iskra]

Wow, what a unique mix of public transport you sampled. The Isle of Man is somewhere I've always wanted to go but have never quite managed. Thank you for the trip report, it was nice a read and has now got me exploring options for getting to the Isle of Man...

 

[Techniquest]

Your breakfast in Liverpool sounds hellfire, it must be said! Another set of excellent reads there, I see they've managed to upgrade their ticketing a bit since my visit, which was a scratch-off-the-dates style one, similar to the SPT Daytripper.

I've not done the Laxey Mine Railway, or the Groudle Glent Railway, two bits to do one day. Shame you had cloudy weather too at Summit, I'm told the view is good when it's a clear day. I really did expect the bit from Halfway to Summit to be double again by now, isn't it doubled all the way up?

Ronaldsway is one tiny airport, that's for sure. At least it's better connected to the world than Waterford is, especially so with public transport links. Knock Ireland West is even worse mind, jeez that taxi was chingy and that was with pre-booking!

The plane sounds like rather good fun, if I ever do go back to the Isle of Man I'll be trying that flight. I need London City Airport, hmm now that has me in epic TPP Mode on my commute home...Good to hear even on your short flight refreshments were served, I feel more confident in service provision for my first BA flight in November now.

The bus routes sound rather enjoyable too, and I found them rather comfortable as you did. Certain parts of the UK mainland could learn a thing or two from the Isle of Man!

Quite the farce on the steam railway, shame Delay Repay wasn't available As always, I look forward to your next trip report, and of course to catching up with you again on Friday!

 

[Kite159]

Apart from the part at the submit (and a small section at the Laxey end), the mountain railway was all double track.

Going by bus allows you to view more of the island than you would do by train

 

[FQ]

That horse tram certainly sounds unusual! Sounds like a great time was had there!

 

[Blindtraveler]

Well thats wetted an already healthy apitite for the trip over there. Thanks for sharing, pitty horse tram services end this year

 

[55013]

The Isle of Man is a place I've never visited, you certainly make it sound appealing.
It's now added to my never diminishing list of future moves to do.

Congratulations on clearing the 508s as well.

 

[Kite159]

I wonder if anybody can guess what is wrong in this picture of a 90 at Stowmarket:

 

[FQ]

At a complete guess, is the skoda at the Norwich end of the train instead of the DVT?

 

[Techniquest]

No pan up

And I know what happens next...

 

[FQ]

Ah, shoot! How could I have missed that?!

 

[Kite159]

No pan up

And I know what happens next...

Indeed this happened next...





Yes my day yesterday didn't get off to a good start

 

[FQ]

The first word of the nameplate on the skoda seems accurate though

 

[Kristofferson]

First of all, apologies I'm a rare visitor to this topic! You're just so prolific I can't find the time to catch up

However I have read your AGA and IOM adventures very interesting reads, real shame about the lack of 37s out in Norwich...

The IOM trip sounds fascinating - not a fan of buses or horses, but the train stuff was great I'm sure. The reference to a dud horse was brilliant!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Agree, the IOM is a great place to go. Went a couple of years ago with Mrs KJ and even though our travels were mainly tourist oriented, I still got some new stuff in the book. Mrs KJ particularly liked the Manx Electric Railway and the village of Laxey; she reckoned that the ice cream there was among some of the best she's ever had. On the horse trams, we always seemed to get Charles and Steve.

 

[Kite159]

5th August – London (again)

It was to London to meet up with Techni & Blind Traveller who were down London for a few days, deciding to stay overnight with a revised plan for Anglia taking into account an earlier train to grab another station (also because I didn’t fancy an early morning drive to Basingstoke). I drove to Basingstoke, just as a backup due to wanting to do the Manningtree North Curve PSUL move to Harwich International giving a normally tight connection with the Manningtree bound EMU, with the back-up of missing that EMU was to go back to Ipswich and catch the next London train which wouldn’t get back into Stratford until nearly midnight, the back-up being the 01:05 (or so) service towards Basingstoke [which is a rather slow journey].

A bit of heavy traffic on the A303, before coming away before it merged into the M3 to go to Basingstoke the ‘old’ way (takes a bit longer, but a nicer drive), with worries of not being able to park up disappearing as I parked in the “premium” car-park [which I’m sure used to be solely for Premium season ticket holders, being closer to the station entrance, but as it charges the same for a ‘weekend’ parking ticket (£6) it saves a walk. After swinging via Sainsburys to pick up a couple supplies I headed to the station where my usual Friday service (the 14:38 from Andover) was running 35 minutes late due to signalling problems and hence was going to be running non-stop to Waterloo.

158887, 159103 & 159106 were the trio of units heading to Waterloo, and as normal I took a seat in the quiet leading 158 for the nice run speeding through Woking like a bullet, slowing for the temporary speed restriction around Weybridge before going non-stop via the platform 7 loop (which is the first time I’ve done that as normally non-stop trains carry on the main-line via the semi-disused platform 8). Anyhow with the speedy run meant the service rolled into Waterloo pretty much 30 minutes down, so a fast turnaround (looked like it departed 3 minutes later, although capped at Salisbury due to delays further west).

Anyhow my first job was to head to the guest house where I booked to stay the night, this time out in Leyton way, so it was down to the Waterloo & City line where duds 65509/65510 took me forward to Bank, doing my usual walk to reach the central line platforms, where the “tube wind” started to blow as the next Central line service rolled in, winners 91295, 92072 leading duds 92198 & 91153, where I decided to bail at Liverpool Street to see if any required 321s were floating around. First service I spotted was dud (a Witham service), but the trio of 321s for Norwich were on the platform opposite and the middle unit was required, so taking a seat on winner 321366 which was sandwiched between duds 321447 & 321361, as I took a seat near to the door but the loading wasn’t as bad as expected (although I wouldn’t be surprised if 361 was rammed with lazy people).

Over to the central line platform for a couple minute wait before the next central line service which had dud 91165 leading required de-icer units 92434 & 92440 with dud 91343 bringing up the rear for the 1 and a quarter spin to Leyton, where I exited the station via the side entrance and headed to the ‘guest house’, checking in and dropping off some stuff from my bag. It was a short walk back to the Central Line where I decided to try and meet up with Techni & BT at Stratford (on the assumption they would be interchanging there from LO). A completely required central line serviced formed of 91317, 92126, 92428 & 91243 took me back to Stratford (which is quite rare with the frequency the sets are swapped around).

Something had gone wrong on the line around Shenfield (a signal/points failure) so services were being delayed and cancelled, however the next Liverpool Street bound was duds 321442 & 321309 leading winner 321343 so it was to Liverpool Street, with a short wait for a delayed Clacton service, formed of 321323, 321438 & 321348, with 438 being another required 321. Back to Stratford and over to the Central Line platform for 91337, 92010, 92138 & 91125 to Leyton, with the two non-driving units being required. Out of the station to meet up with Techni who had gone off to Asda to search for a charger, spending the time watching crowds exiting the stations (and an idiot in a Range Rover ignoring the red traffic light and nearly hit into people crossing the road). It was back down stairs, meeting up with BT who had been enjoying the sunshine, before the next Woodford via Hainault service rolled in as BT needed the loop.

Winners 91073, 92418 (with duds 92020 & 91253) rolled in, with the large step to board the service which got emptier as it carried on east, coming out of the tunnels and into the daylight pausing at Hainault before carrying on over the reduced frequency section, rolling into Woodford for a short wait before 91273, 92246, 92228 & 91145 rolled in (I dislike the Central line stock for numbering!) to Mile End (Techni getting caught off guard with the tunnel section after Leyton), crossing the platform for winner 21419/21420 to Cannon Street, as Techni & BT were thinking about heading via Bromley North to cover the line and to avoid Southern.

The first departure was a pair of 465/9s for Tunbridge Wells, with dud 465916 leading winner 465904, hoping on board for the short trip to London Bridge, another required 465/9 was spotted heading back towards Cannon Street, so I said farewell to Techni & BT as they headed towards Grove Park, and I crossed over to P3 with 465042/465247 getting the extra 56 chains (042 needed it more than 247 which is already sitting at over 20 miles). A quick hop at Cannon Street onto winner 465918 leading dud 465927 to take my 465 requirements down to a single figure, nothing much of interest heading back to Cannon Street, so it was onto duds 465924 & 465927, and then down to the underground, as the first service was already in the platform, I jumped on without the chance to check if it was a required S7 or not.

Luck was with me as it was winner 21341/21342 which I bailed at Monument for a couple minute wait before duds 21463/21464 took me to Tower Hill. A short walk out of the station and to Fenchurch Street with a minute or so to go before the next departure meant a quick walk up the stairs to grab the ID of the 357s, both were dud so I checked the ID of the other 3 services in the station, noting that one of my last 6 357s was on a service departing 30 minutes later, so I decided to jump onto 357013 & 357041 for the short spin to Limehouse as there was 2 more potential services towards Fenchurch Street which would connect with that 357. Sadly both were dud, and the 2nd was running a few minutes late so I didn’t fancy the tight connection at Fenchurch Street so changed platforms.

As expected winner 357046 rolled in with 357315 which was required as a 357/3 (as I had it previously when it was known as 357215) to take me the bus stop leap to West Ham, where I decided to wait for two more Fenchurch Street bound services, the first was a single dud 357, but I was happy when 357320 rolled in attached with 357317 to take me to Limehouse, taking my 357s requirements down to 4, where they remained as dud 357037 took me back out to West Ham, and a long walk to the Jubilee line (beware the stairs at the Stratford end of the station are out of action), I allowed a dud pair of units to depart before jumping onto duds 96075 & 96022 as there was a 6 minute wait for the next service afterwards. To Stratford and I was getting hungry so I walked over to P9 and jumped onto dud 321432 to Liverpool Street.

Although my plan to grab food was temporary put on hold as I spotted a pair of winners on a service departing in the next 5 or so minutes, so onto 321431 leading 321437 to Stratford, with 321424 taking me back to Liverpool Street, where I purchased the rover for the Saturday from the ticket office and a meal from McDonalds. I decided to jump onto 321318 & 321329 to Stratford for the sake of wanting to avoid walking down to the underground. Although a good thing I did as we rolled in alongside winner 321327 attached to 321346 so it was back to Liverpool Street, and this time I headed to the underground with the first set being 91001, 92022, 92422 & 91309 to take me to Leyton, swinging via the Asda for a supply raid before having a poor night in the “guest house”.

Anyhow, a productive evening seeing some more required units ticked in the book & a good meet up with Techni & BT

 

[Techniquest]

That was quite the haul you had there! Central line numberings take a bit of getting used to, especially if you've not done that line for a while. I still need 236 sets on the Central so I'm hoping to make major inroads into that next time I'm down. The sets we had from Woodford to Mile End, I only got one winner out of the 4!

Good to meet up you again too!

 

[FQ]

Sounds like a good time minus the idiot range rover driver! You're most certainly doing well with the 465s and 357s too.

 

[Kite159]

6th August – Heading to the East

The idea of today was a good shack clearing session in Greater Anglia land, with the focus on the East Suffolk line, plus some other odds and sods on the main-line. After a poor night I walked to Leyton tube station, picking up a newspaper before tapping in to head to the platform, with the lights of a 92 stock service fast approaching, I got my requirement list out and as the first unit matched I was happy. I was even more happy after forcing myself off at Stratford (seriously can’t people allow others off the train first before they crowd around the doors?), and it was a quad winner of 91299, 92002, 92424, 91251 (only another 157 left to get in my book!), tapping out at a handy oyster reader, before heading over to platform 10, for I have two options before a required service to Colchester.

First up was a dud 90 pushing a Norwich service, which I turned down, similar to a dud 321 heading to Southend, before winner 321444 rolled in for some 321 thrash (I’m sure Quinn would approve) on a semi-fast run to Colchester (the unit was on route to Harwich International, where I believe it sits there for most of the day before coming back in the evening), rolling into Colchester pretty much bang on time. A short wait and dud DVT 82127 arrived being pushed by dud 90005 [ironically the only time I’ve headed north of Ipswich towards Norwich was in front of this 90]. Stopping at Manningtree and Ipswich where it was meant to run non-stop to Diss, however we slowed down at Stowmarket and came to an unscheduled stop.

To cut a long story short, the driver went to the loco at the rear to try and restart it by doing the very high tech of “turning it off, waiting 10 or so minutes before turning it back on” but to no luck, it had overheated and died. Everybody off the train (annoyingly a few minutes after a service to Ipswich had departed) and I used the Wi-Fi to work out a rough plan, as I was going to get off this set at Diss for a +20 (or so) to head down to Ipswich, boarding a Cambridge service to get Needham Market into the book. 20 or so minutes later 66533 rolled in, setting off the some detonators (placed earlier by the guard), hooked up with the 90 and pulled away into the siding to the south of the station, clearing the line to allow the backlog of trains to come up from the Ipswich direction (from what it sounded the 07:30 service from London had been sat at the station for 30-odd minutes, with services backed up)

Anyhow, I hopped onto 170270 for the short run to Ipswich getting back on track, with a 360 service being held for any passengers to make a connection as the next couple Norwich – London services had been cancelled (I wonder why that was ), noting that 153306 was sat in a siding outside the station (and 170272 was on a Peterborough working), but I crossed over to platform 1 where winner 153309 was sat on the next Lowestoft service. We departed quite cosy, but not as cosy as 170270 being the first Cambridge service for a couple hours! Anyhow it was a short run to Wickham Market, a nice single platform station not really anywhere near Wickham Market itself, a good building with plans to raise money to rebuild the canopy it seems. It was a short wait sitting in the sunshine before winner 156407 rolled in to take me to Woodbridge.

A busy station next to a river, in an upmarket looking town, the next train was formed of 3 coaches and I had spotted a 170 earlier so I had a rough 1 in 7 chance of it being required (201 & 208 were spotted in Ipswich looking all 170-like from the cancelled Cambridge services), and in rolled winner 170202, clearing the sub-class, woohoo! Anyhow a quick check on RTT highlighted the next Ipswich service was running a couple minutes behind schedule which gave me an idea to break my plan and bail from the 170 at Saxmundham which is a crossing point of the services (normally a +3) but is a level crossing shack. A quick walk over the level crossing to the other platform and I waited as the 170 departed, before another 156 was spotted, would I have a perfect day and the 4th unit being required 412 or 418?

Close, but it was dud 156402, to take me to Melton, which has a butler shop in the old station building. With nothing better to do I took a seat and waited for the return of 156407 to take me to the request stop at Brampton, which is in the middle of nowhere, but has a nice modern looking platform, and a big sign saying “This is a request stop”. A short wait in the sunshine and 170202 returned to take me to Darsham, crossing over to the other platform by using the level crossing with time to spare before 156402 returned to take me to Beccles, which is the passing point on this end of the line hence I was expecting to have an hour fester. After what felt like the slowest approach to a station we arrived, and there was no 156 on the other platform...

...I legged it (along with another gentleman) over the double back footbridge to reach the other platform, to see the PIS saying the next train was running 7 minutes late (looking at RTT it departed Lowestoft late). It was onto fresh super-dud 156407 back down the line to Halesworth, which is a milestone station for me as it is my 2000th National Rail station, but I was a bit hungry so after using the barrow crossing, I noticed a sign for a shop up a path by the side of the police station and visited a little garage shop for a pack of sausage rolls and a couple cans of cold Barr Cherryade. It was back to the station and 153309 was back to take me to Oulton Broad South, where I had 13 minutes to ‘leg’ it to the North station 0.6 miles away. Although I wasn’t alone in legging it as another station basher joined me, keeping the railway to the right and crossing over the river, and we both made it to Oulton Broad North with a few minutes to spare.

We got chatting (he has cleared the stations, and is now doing the stations by different types of unit, and was happy when 170271 rolled up as it was a required unit for him. I said farewell and bailed at Haddiscoe which is a barrow crossing shack in the middle of nowhere, but with some excellent views over the Norfolk broads. 10 (or so) minutes later a double dogbox arrived, with winner 153322 leading dud 153314 to take me back one stop to Somerleyton to clear the line, and like Haddiscoe, gave excellent views and was very peaceful festering, as I did some planning. West Runton could wait for another day (as it’s hourly on Sundays) and I had a hunch my last GA 153 was out on Felixstowe services (on grounds that they only have 5, I saw a 153 heading in that direction earlier and the other 4 were accounted for, with I assume a 156 on the Marks Tey – Sudbury line). However checking RTT saw a potential for a linear hop so I alighted from 153314/153322 at Brundall for an unknown unit from Yarmouth.

Sadly it was dud 156417, but another 5 miles & 64 chains wouldn’t do a miss on this bus stop leap machine, back to Norwich, with enough time to grab a meal deal from the Co-Op before taking a seat on the London service, being hauled by dud 90012 but with ‘required’ DVT 82112 bringing up the rear for the short trip to Diss. Not a lot around Diss other than industrial units, the town being further away, but as it had Wi-Fi I was happy as 30 minutes later winner 90001 arrived to take me to Ipswich with dud DVT 82136 bringing up the rear. A short hop over to platform 4C, where 170270 was waiting on the next Cambridge service, which was a busy train but thankfully I was only on board for one stop to Needham Market. One of the stations on the network which are under wires, but only served by DMUs (on grounds that the platform length can only hold a 3-car 170), it had a beautiful station building with several takeaways outside the station, but steps for a subway to the Ipswich bound platform as I watched as a 90 stormed through on route to Norwich before dud 170208 took me to Ipswich.

As I had an hour to kill, I decided to go for a little walk, with 40 minutes to cover the 1.8 miles to Derby Road on the Felixstowe line, which isn’t something I would recommend as it involves walking alongside a river, before a busy harbour area before walking up a longish hill via a rough housing estate, indeed Derby Road station itself looks rough, somewhere you wouldn’t like to be in the darkness. Anyhow I only had a few minutes to fester before winner (and final GA 153) 153335 rolled in to take me back to Ipswich the long way round. I noticed Ipswich getting a new ticket hall area, and that the 153 was busy on departing Ipswich. A short walk over to platform 3 to await the arrival of the service from Cambridge, which as expected was 170201 to take me south over a rare curve, the Manningtree North curve, and any worry about missing the Manningtree train vanished as that 360 was 10 down on departure of Manningtree. The 170 (which looked like I was the only passenger as the guard looked shocked when he came through collecting rubbish that he had a passenger on board) arrived into Harwich International, before departing back to Lowestoft.

As for me it was a short wait before 360111 rolled in to take me to Manningtree where sadly the service from Norwich was departing as we arrived, which meant instead of a smooth and fast ride back towards Stratford it was onto 360109 on what felt like to be a stopper, however it was mostly empty in the leading coach giving some good Dezzie noise on the run to Stratford. Tapping in with my oyster card before heading over to the Jubilee platforms, where winners 96066/96067 took me to Waterloo, where I decided to head straight for the 23:40 Salisbury service rather than grabbing some food and catching the 00:05 Winchester service, which unusually wasn’t formed of a single 159, tonight it was 158886 leading 159015 for the nice run back to Basingstoke (watching as a group of drunks who wanted to get off at Woking, were so in depth with their random drunken loud talk they didn’t realised we stopped and then panicked rushing to the front door (locked out of use) although by the time they got up the hustle alarm had sounded so they were overcarried to Basingstoke. Taxi!

A nice drive home followed, but I was happy to collapse into my bed. The day didn’t start of great, but I managed to get more shacks in the book than I had planned, allowing me to sort out a plan to get those last two shacks on the Felixstowe line at the start of an Essex Sunday. West Runton can wait to be done on a regular Sunday, with a nice walk along the Cromer beach. I was happy with my required unit scores today, leaving just 2 x 156s to get from the GA DMUs. Anyhow some pictures:

The broken 90005 alongside 170272 from Peterborough:


GA managed to borrow Freightliner 66533 from Ipswich:


Which seems to have crashed into 90005:

Pulling the set back south:


Into the loop, as 90007 passes:


Dog Box Thrash, 153309 departs Wick(ham Market)


156407 at Woodbridge, a beast:


170202 departing Saxmundham


Is there a pork pie shop around here? Ore have I got the wrong Melton?


156407 departing Brampton:


My original picture of 170202 at Darsham wasn’t the best:


156402 at Beccles, waiting for the delayed 156407 to show up:


Here it be at Halesworth, shack 2000, moveable platforms behind the unit:


The canopy at Oulton Broad North, could do with painting:


170271 departing Haddiscoe:


With an disused platform on the left before the barrow crossing, bridge in the background:


I started the day at Leyton, and now a double dogbox drops me off at Somerleyton:


Nothing around the station, beware the tracks at are a different level and there is a notable step on the barrow crossing:


A nice station building through:


90001 arriving into Diss:


And 18 miles away 170270 departs Needham Market:


Look at that beautiful station building!


Derby Road, the green bridge appeared to be disused, no freight trains in sight.


A tardis:


170201 at Harwich International P3:


Not a place I would have expected to see one of these bad boys:


10 GA shacks remain (West Runton, Trimley, Westerfield, Dovercourt, Mistley, Wrabness, Kelvedon, Alresford, Chappel & Wakes Colne & Bures)

 

[D841 Roebuck]

Your East Suffolk report in particular resonates with me, as my great-great-grandfather sadly drowned in a fishing accident off Southwold in 1869. That line is on the to-do list, but it certainly won't be a a spin and scratch trip, with several local parish churches to visit. (Yes, I'm a genealogy crank as well as railways, quizzing, karaoke and blondes ).

I was slightly disappointed that you didn't take a folding boat (assuming they exist outside Swallows and Amazons for the Oulton Broad transfer. I take consolation, though, in having visited Westerfield...

Gratters on the 153s, and the 2000 up shacks. If there's a sweepstake on #2500, I'll have a guess at Helmsdale...