The Various Random Mutterings of Kite

[noddy1878]

I note that on Easter Monday the northern end of the WCML is closed (hence why the sleeper is going via the ECML and into Queen Street), I wonder if TPE will do what they have done in the past and extend some Newcastle 185s to Edinburgh to cater for some of the Manchester traffic (rather than said passengers having a bus ride to Carlisle or a probably busy 156 via Dumfries)

Any other tours lined up for you Noddy?

Unfortunately every tour I’ve liked the look of so far I’m working.

 

[Kite159]

Unfortunately every tour I’ve liked the look of so far I’m working.

That be a shame

 

[Kite159]

As expected advance tickets for Edinburgh - London for the 2nd April are pricey (£70.50 for most VTEC services, with some cheaper options for later in the day), so I will probably fork out the extra 50p to get an Edinburgh - London super-off peak single ticket just because why limit yourself to a single train when the difference is pence.

A rough idea at the moment is the 13:07 XC HST* (I'm basing that assumption on RTT saying its timed for a HST rather than being timed for a voyager, I know timing loads are meaningless) from Edinburgh all the way to Sheffield for a EMT 222 onwards to London [maybe after a short break to see if any 399s are around]. Although I have a funny feeling TPE might extend some of their services from Newcastle to Edinburgh as they have done previously when the WCML has been closed.

 

[PHILIPE]

As expected advance tickets for Edinburgh - London for the 2nd April are pricey (£70.50 for most VTEC services, with some cheaper options for later in the day), so I will probably fork out the extra 50p to get an Edinburgh - London super-off peak single ticket just because why limit yourself to a single train when the difference is pence.

A rough idea at the moment is the 13:07 XC HST* (I'm basing that assumption on RTT saying its timed for a HST rather than being timed for a voyager, I know timing loads are meaningless) from Edinburgh all the way to Sheffield for a EMT 222 onwards to London [maybe after a short break to see if any 399s are around]. Although I have a funny feeling TPE might extend some of their services from Newcastle to Edinburgh as they have done previously when the WCML has been closed.

You know that you can check the HST Diagrams here, but due Engineering Work/Bank Holiday these could beamended.

 

[Kite159]

You know that you can check the HST Diagrams here, but due Engineering Work/Bank Holiday these could beamended.

I know, it's only an idea at the moment [considering that the super off-peak single when purchased via VTEC is £71 vice £70.50 for most of their own services]. I suspect it being a bank holiday Monday will be an amended timetable for the HSTs (the Bristol blockade mean they are only running as far as Bristol Parkway), and things can change to the regular timetable.

----

Change of plan time, I was playing with Ticket Split earlier and it highlighted a decent saving by splitting advances with XC, also means arriving into Reading rather than into London.

 

[Kite159]

Anyhow, in case anybody was wondering, I decided I'm only going to do reports for notable trips, the random microgricing reports or reports of hunting down whatever remains of my requirements are not the easiest to write up.

I will be posting random pictures in a new Flickr album for 2018, link be here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27666294@N02/albums/72157690459514461

Something of note is on Friday I cleared the 168/3s by grabbing 168327 & 168326 in the Birmingham area before a little railtour to Westerleigh, Machen & Sharpness (scoring my first new 66 & 60 of the year), and due to not having the best of nights sleep on the Saturday I decided to pop up to East Finchley for a little microgrice of platform 2 [both platforms 2 & 3 are only used in the mornings & evenings as they only give access to the Highgate depot/sidings], platform 3 will have to wait until a Friday/Saturday night stay in London to grab a terminating service before escaping back down south.

168326 at Birmingham Snow Hill

This coming Saturday, I'm hoping to be able to say once more "Great Britain, Tick" [I wonder if anybody can guess which station I'm on about]

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Good evening Mr Kite,

Great photo of the double Clubmans. I know which unit I’d rather be in though (love the original ones)!

I look forward to seeing your pics on flickr!

 

[noddy1878]

Kenilworth I assume is opening this weekend?

 

[Kite159]

Kenilworth I assume is opening this weekend?

Not as far as I'm aware.

I'm aiming for the relocated Forres station on the Inverness - Aberdeen line, as it got relocated it counts as part-required

 

[noddy1878]

Not as far as I'm aware.

I'm aiming for the relocated Forres station on the Inverness - Aberdeen line, as it got relocated it counts as part-required

I hadn't realised it had moved slightly! Have a good time!

 

[Kite159]

I hadn't realised it had moved slightly! Have a good time!

The new station is on what used to be the station avoiding lines (before those lines were removed in the 20th Century), the curved platform of the former station has gone to improve line speed and also to provide a longer loop for when that line goes to hourly [with Elgin extras]

 

[Far north 37]

The new station is on what used to be the station avoiding lines (before those lines were removed in the 20th Century), the curved platform of the former station has gone to improve line speed and also to provide a longer loop for when that line goes to hourly [with Elgin extras]

Good luck with your trip hopefully the weather improves a little.
Must go check out the new station at forres next time im home not sure if i have ever alighted there though, be a bit strange not going round the curve.

 

[Kite159]

I found the snow!

 

[noddy1878]

The snow is a pain in the rear in most circumstances but it sure looks great!

 

[Kite159]

Certainly a bit unusual having 159s diverted into Reading this evening (due to the line blocked east of Basingstoke). One less change I guess (and that little 165 heading to Basingstoke looked busy)

 

[Cowley]

I found the snow!

Lovely photo. It feels like a very long time since we had snow.

 

[Kite159]

20th January – All the Stations Once Again

Back in October when I stepped off that 150 at Roman Bridge I could say that I had boarded or alighted at all 2563 stations within Great Britain, that lasted all of 5 days because Forres on the Aberdeen – Inverness had been completely rebuilt on a whole new alignment north of the existing station, so in my eyes it requires a revisiting to tick it off once more (following Bromgrove & Rochester). I had several ideas for this day, eventually falling onto ticking off my last main leg of the Caledonian Sleeper network [Haymarket to Aberdeen].

I won’t bore you with what I got up to on the Friday (little red pen session picking up a couple more 707s and 3 out of my last 6 GWR 387s) before 92010 hauled me north to Edinburgh. As per usual I was in the seats and it was a so-so night (better after Edinburgh when some students for the West Highland portion got off). The run to Aberdeen was in the dark so I couldn’t really do anything other than drifting in and out of sleep arriving pretty much bang on time into Aberdeen, allowing me to ID the loco which had hauled the Aberdeen portion up to find it was winner 73966

76966 at Aberdeen

With roughly an hour to kill, I headed out of the station for a spot of bus spotting and breakfast from a nearby Sainsburys Local, before returning to the station and awaiting the next departure to Inverness, pleased to see “formed of 4 coaches” popping up on the screen as it meant a pair of 158s rather than a 170. My theory was correct as it was 158732 & 158716, my reserved seat being in the Inverness based unit which was good as it allowed me to charge my devices up after an overnight trip on the sleeper. It was my first time departing Aberdeen heading northbound and the 158s put in a good performance on an underrated line for scenery, the ground only getting signs of snow around the Elgin area.

This is where I had another option, either do a double back via Inverness to give me a +30 at Forres or bail and have a 2 hour wait before the next Inverness train, my mind was made up when I was playing with the ticket options and doubling back via Inverness would only cost 10p more, so that is what I did, giving me around 30 minutes to kill in Inverness, allowing me to make a quick visit to a branch of TSB to pay in a cheque, and to visit Co-Op for a newspaper, being very careful as the ground was icy in places.

Anyhow, returning back to the station, as predicted the train going out to Aberdeen wasn’t the same units which worked earlier, but here be a picture of 158725 after it had a snowball fight
A snowy 158725 at Inverness

After the snowy 158 interlude, it was time to head over to the Aberdeen service formed of 170426 leading 158868, and after a couple minutes I swapped from the 158 to the 170 for the sole reason being the 158 was freezing cold [also as it is a future Northern unit the interior is in a rubbish state]. Departure was on time for the 24 and a half mile trip back across Moray to reach the rebuilt Forres station, to re-tick it off on my list with this picture:
158868 departs Forres

Right, the station is on what was the “avoiding” lines had they survived being ripped up in the 20th century (I would like to say in the 60s but I’m not sure), which left the previous station on a single track curved platform with a little loop at the Aberdeen end, the new alignment is double track with the station having 2 platforms, which should come in handy when the new timetable comes in at some point (hourly service from Inverness to Aberdeen with some short-workings). I guess the person in the ticket office must get bored in the large gaps between services. To kill time I put my Sherlock hat on to have a look if there was any evidence of the former station, and to be honest apart from a random bike rack it was hard pressed to see any evidence

Where the old Forres Station was?

Give it a few months for the grass to grow and a visitor would never know about the previous station, the picture above is where I think the station used to be, based on my memory of the building being opposite a passageway to Tesco. Memory lane finished as I headed back over to the new station, and into the waiting room before 170404 rolled in from Aberdeen to take me back once more to Inverness, on route I decided to check how long I had between trains, which is when I spotted the inbound service which would form the 12:53 Edinburgh service was running around 59 minutes late (170450 eventually arrived at 13:00).

After a quick visit to Morrisons and phone call to the hotel in Edinburgh to let them know I would be later than expected, it was back to the station, the PIS changed so that the 12:53 would only be going as far as Perth, and it wasn’t the poorly 170450 taking me south, but 170430 being stepped up a service, eventually we were allowed to board as I headed to the First Class area (it was a hard decision when booking my tickets, either £8 for Standard Class or £10 First Class, worth the extra £2 for the bay of 2 on a nice seat with some freebie snacks from the trolley). I had forgotten how beautiful the Highland Main Line is at the best of times, but everything was covered in snow which gave it a bit extra beauty, especially over the remote passes, a very enjoyable trip to Perth.



At Perth, everybody wanting stations towards Edinburgh was told to make their way quickly to platform 6 to board the 16:00 service, yes you did hear correctly; platform 6 rather than the more usual platform 5, as I got a Brucie Bonus bay platform (still need to figure out how to do the track via platform 3). It was onto 158733 & 158715 with 158733 being my first example of a refurbished Haymarket 158 and it looks to be a half decent job (Richmond seats which haven’t collapsed, plus/USB sockets. A nice run, only annoyance being arrived into Edinburgh was only 57 minutes later than my planned arrival; however no first class was available on the replacement service so I suspect I will get all £10 back.

I met up with Blindtraveller & Alex on 170478 which was heading to Alloa for a good little social, returning on the same train after a short turnaround at Alloa to microgrice the track via platform 9 at Stirling [as another Alloa service was waiting for the 170 to clear out of the way] for a short trip to Larbert to return back to Stirling on 170402 (way too much 170 action today) which is one of the few services booked to arrive in platform 10, we were unsure it would actually go into the bay judging by the state of the platform (covered in snow), however it did. The only bays left at Stirling are the two north facing ones which don’t have any booked passenger services as I believe due to the signalling you can only depart, not arrive?)
170402 at Stirling

Mr BT was happy as 158733 & 158713 (hello you two again) rolled in from Dunblane to take us back to Edinburgh, saying farewell to Alex as me & BT bailed at Haymarket, with tram 258 taken to York Place, with a short walk to “Elm Walk” for a route 16 bus (fleet 361) to Laurie Street, where I said farewell to BT, popped to the Tesco for something to eat before making my slow way (icy pavements) to my usual hotel in Leith for a good night’s sleep.

------

The Sunday wasn’t anything special, scored the recently extended platform 12 on the not-so-electric 09:00 Queen Street service [the first 380 from Edinburgh on a Sunday it appears is 11:00], bumped into an old friend, before heading to Polmont on 380018/380115 which got the honour of being my first electrics over part of the Edinburgh/Queen Street service.

Trip to London was on a juicy HST (43307/43317) [arrived from Leeds so is pretty much a guaranteed HST] on an odd service was ran non-stop from the hot bed of activity known as Retford. Although it got caught up in some delays around the boring section south of Newcastle. Due to buses replacing trains between Basingstoke & Fleet(ish), it was a bus avoidance move with 800016/800006 on a late running Bristol service [sadly it missed the path and ended up crawling behind a stopper once the 2-track section was hit], for the unusual sight of 159s at Reading.

380s passing at Polmont
159010 & 221126 at Reading

 

[Cowley]

Really enjoyed that Mr Kite, especially the snowy Scotland photos. I really like those 73/9s too, they look the business.
Your report got me Googling Forres station and I can see why you didn’t pin your colours to the mast by saying 1960s as it’s quite complicated. Interesting though.

 

[Kite159]

For anybody wondering, this is what the old Forres looked like:


And judging by Streetmaps on Google, this is roughly in the same position as I took that picture:
https://goo.gl/maps/9wzcLNmdQqL2

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Great report with great pictures Mr Kite. Can’t say I’d share the same opinion if a Sprinter turned up instead of an Electrostat but hey ho. You hold an accomplishment I can only dream of achieving!

 

[Cowley]

For anybody wondering, this is what the old Forres looked like:


And judging by Streetmaps on Google, this is roughly in the same position as I took that picture:
https://goo.gl/maps/9wzcLNmdQqL2

There’s some very interesting photos online.
A bit of 156 action...

Take more than a miniature snow plough to shift this lot, and interesting to see the canopy investment before abandonment...


How I remember it.

 

[Kite159]

I was expecting a picture from the 60s when the line towards Aviemore was still in place

 

[Cowley]

I tried to find one from a similar viewpoint but I’ve had a long day and those curved platforms were making my eyes go funny...
How about this though from the RailScot site?


Or this for your inner kettle needs..?

 

[Kite159]

Great report with great pictures Mr Kite. Can’t say I’d share the same opinion if a Sprinter turned up instead of an Electrostat but hey ho. You hold an accomplishment I can only dream of achieving!

Thanks

A nice Inverness based 158 is certainly better at keeping the warm air within the passenger saloon than a 170 due to having vestibule doors

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Congrats on the first of many re-clearances of all the shacks. That Scottish jolly looked interesting if a little chilly and snowy - oh, and too much 170 action as well.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Thanks

A nice Inverness based 158 is certainly better at keeping the warm air within the passenger saloon than a 170 due to having vestibule doors

Sorry - meant Turbostar, not Electrostar.

 

[Kite159]

Congrats on the first of many re-clearances of all the shacks. That Scottish jolly looked interesting if a little chilly and snowy - oh, and too much 170 action as well.

The only time it was actually snowing was when I was coming home on the Sunday around Newcastle. I wrapped up warm, even had my hot-hat on. (basically the replacement hat I ordered after leaving the "Cat Hat" on a voyager back in October time, it does its job too well)

Hopefully the next time I'm in the Highlands will be when the Scottish HSTs are running around rather than the 170s

 

[Keith Jarrett]

I think that we are all looking forward to partaking of the HSTs in Scotland

 

[Kite159]

One thing I was thinking about just now, on Sunday afternoons/evenings there are quite a few VTEC services from Edinburgh to Kings Cross. I'm surprised there isn't at least one of these being limited stop (i.e. Edinburgh - Newcastle - London) with advance fares for the extra-fast service being cheaper than advance fares for the other services to encourage any Edinburgh - London passengers to use the fast service to free up seats on the semi-fasts for those wanting intermediate stations.

Maybe time it to connect with a Newcastle - London semi-fast service.

----

I think the only way I will be able to score those bays at Rock Ferry is either staying overnight in the area (only departure seems to be the 05:44), or if there is engineering works closing the line from Rock Ferry towards Chester (where I assume the bays might come in use)

 

[alexf380]

Just read your wee Scottish adventure, congrats on once again clearing all the stations (all of them!). Cheeky wee cameo in one of those photos as well...