Wick/ Thurso to Penzance, by Sprinter

[IanXC]

So long as you get a good result playing Northern Unit Bingo I think this sounds like it'll work well!

I saw an even worse idea once. Run a voyager all the way from Scotland to Penzance. Oh wait.........

*Waves*

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I have some spare time so I have devised a plan you could do to complete the journey only using sprinters:

Thurso-Inverness 158
Inverness-Edinburgh 158
Edinburgh-Glasgow Central 158
Glasgow central-Carlisle 156
Carlisle-Preston 156
Preston-Liverpool Lime Street 156
Liverpool Lime street-Earlestown 150
Earlestown-Chester 158
Chester-Newport 158
Newport-Taunton 158
Taunton-Penzance 150 (There is a direct train from Bristol Parkway that does this, I have used it from Truro to Penzance)

 

[junglejames]

I have some spare time so I have devised a plan you could do to complete the journey only using sprinters:

Thurso-Inverness 158
Inverness-Edinburgh 158
Edinburgh-Glasgow Central 158
Glasgow central-Carlisle 156
Carlisle-Preston 156
Preston-Liverpool Lime Street 156
Liverpool Lime street-Earlestown 150
Earlestown-Chester 158
Chester-Newport 158
Newport-Taunton 158
Taunton-Penzance 150 (There is a direct train from Bristol Parkway that does this, I have used it from Truro to Penzance)

Problem is the lottery that is Chester to Newport. Supposedly booked for all 175s. So its a case of pray a 158 turns up. So I will probably head via the HoW. Gives me my 153 fix as well
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So long as you get a good result playing Northern Unit Bingo I think this sounds like it'll work well!

Finding a 155 could well prove to be fun. Its why im trying not to give myself too much to do in 1 day.

*Waves*

Off so soon? My that voyager never stopped off for long

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Problem is the lottery that is Chester to Newport. Supposedly booked for all 175s. So its a case of pray a 158 turns up. So I will probably head via the HoW. Gives me my 153 fix as well

Yes I do suppose that is quite true. Many a time though I have seen 158's on south wales diagrams.

Of course, from Chester you could do the following (and assuming there is a daily 150 to Worcester Foregate street)

Chester-Birmingham New Street 158
Birmingham New street-Worcester foregate street 150
Worcester Foregate street-Bristol Temple Meads 150/153/158
Bristol Temple Meads-Penzance 150

I will try and find a source for the 150 from Birmingham...

Edit:

Here's a suggestion to go on the sticky thread. I myself have had to post it at least three times already.

London Midland Class 150

06.28 Worcester Shrub Hill - Birmingham New Street;
07.19 Birmingham New Street - Great Malvern;
08.38 Great Malvern - Birmingham New Street;
09.49 Birmingham New Street - Hereford;
11.40 Hereford - Birmingham New Street;
13.49 Birmingham New Street - Hereford;
15.40 Hereford - Birmingham New Street;
17.59 Birmingham New Street - Great Malvern.

Found it, the ones in red are the ones you can take

 

[Eagle]

I will try and find a source for the 150 from Birmingham...

Would be better off walking to Moor Street and waiting for a 172+153 Worcester service. Those are quite a bit more common.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Are there any definite diagrams booked for a 172 and a 153? I have seen 170 and 153 on that line before. Just slightly off topic, if there was a such service, would the ganway connection between the two units be open and could you walk through the two units? Considering they are from different families.

Would be better off walking to Moor Street and waiting for a 172+153 Worcester service. Those are quite a bit more common.

Could do that but if you see my edited post, it could be easier to do the 150 from Birmingham. Good suggestion though

 

[sprinterguy]

Are there any definite diagrams booked for a 172 and a 153? I have seen 170 and 153 on that line before. Just slightly off topic, if there was a such service, would the ganway connection between the two units be open and could you walk through the two units? Considering they are from different families.

No, the gangway connection between the 153 and 172 is not compatible, due to different floor heights I believe, so it is not possible to walk between one class and the other.

I thought that there was only one all day diagram for a 153+172?

 

[tbtc]

No, the gangway connection between the 153 and 172 is not compatible, due to different floor heights I believe, so it is not possible to walk between one class and the other

I did not know that - what are the 172 gangways compatible with then (apart form more 172s of course)?

 

[tbtc]

class 170 and 171?

They don't have gangways though

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Of course-Silly me. Sorry.

I thought that there was only one all day diagram for a 153+172?

What diagram is it? I have seen 170's bunged up to a 153 before on that line but never 172's bunged up to a 153

 

[MidnightFlyer]

There's certainly one booked 172+153 diagram, I'm sure we once used it on a West Midlands forum meet!

 

[junglejames]

Yes I do suppose that is quite true. Many a time though I have seen 158's on south wales diagrams.

Of course, from Chester you could do the following (and assuming there is a daily 150 to Worcester Foregate street)

Chester-Birmingham New Street 158
Birmingham New street-Worcester foregate street 150
Worcester Foregate street-Bristol Temple Meads 150/153/158
Bristol Temple Meads-Penzance 150

I will try and find a source for the 150 from Birmingham...

Edit:

Found it, the ones in red are the ones you can take

Liking the look of those LM 150 diagrams, so long as they stay the same. Could spend the night in Brum, and it means no more getting up at the crack of dawn for the first HoW service from Shrewsbury. Plus im still an hour ahead come Bristol.Nice.
Still got a way of completing the Sprinter set as well.
Leeds to Man Vic, then via Salford and onto Pic. Man Pic via Nottingham and Crewe to Shrewsbury. Then Shrewsbury to Brum. Its actually quicker to do it that way, than it is to head to Liverpool and back, then onto Chester, which i intended to originally to get in an EMT 158.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Liking the look of those LM 150 diagrams, so long as they stay the same. Could spend the night in Brum, and it means no more getting up at the crack of dawn for the first HoW service from Shrewsbury. Plus im still an hour ahead come Bristol.Nice.
Still got a way of completing the Sprinter set as well.
Leeds to Man Vic, then via Salford and onto Pic. Man Pic via Nottingham and Crewe to Shrewsbury. Then Shrewsbury to Brum. Its actually quicker to do it that way, than it is to head to Liverpool and back, then onto Chester, which i intended to originally to get in an EMT 158.

Would it be quicker to just walk to Piccadilly and wait for a sprinter to Chester via Stockport? Then onward onto New street rather than go all the way to Nottingham and Derby?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

It's only 170s between New St and Nottingham though. You could do Chester-Crewe-Derby-Nottingham however, but you'd certainly be snookered in New St if you needed to go east.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

It's only 170s between New St and Nottingham though. You could do Chester-Crewe-Derby-Nottingham however, but you'd certainly be snookered in New St if you needed to go east.

Leeds to Man Vic, then via Salford and onto Pic. Man Pic via Nottingham and Crewe to Shrewsbury. Then Shrewsbury to Brum. Its actually quicker to do it that way, than it is to head to Liverpool and back, then onto Chester, which i intended to originally to get in an EMT 158.

The OP said he is going to Crewe via Nottingham (Which would involve a change at Derby) then onward to Shrewsbury from there.

 

[junglejames]

Would it be quicker to just walk to Piccadilly and wait for a sprinter to Chester via Stockport? Then onward onto New street rather than go all the way to Nottingham and Derby?

But im now also aiming for at least one 158/ 159 from every TOC that uses them. As well as taking in every type of Sprinter out there. So I need an EMT 158 to complete the set. That was the whole point of going to Liverpool and back before heading on to Chester. But the connection at Chester was so bad, that its quicker to go Man Pic to Notts to Derby to Crewe to Shrewsbury.
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It's only 170s between New St and Nottingham though. You could do Chester-Crewe-Derby-Nottingham however, but you'd certainly be snookered in New St if you needed to go east.

Pic to Notts to Derby to Crewe to Shrewsbury to Brummie.

Completes the 158 set, and provides me with a guarenteed 153 as well, which i wouldnt have if I missed the HoW and went via Brum to Worcester instead.

 

[PHILIPE]

I have some spare time so I have devised a plan you could do to complete the journey only using sprinters:

Thurso-Inverness 158
Inverness-Edinburgh 158
Edinburgh-Glasgow Central 158
Glasgow central-Carlisle 156
Carlisle-Preston 156
Preston-Liverpool Lime Street 156
Liverpool Lime street-Earlestown 150
Earlestown-Chester 158
Chester-Newport 158
Newport-Taunton 158
Taunton-Penzance 150 (There is a direct train from Bristol Parkway that does this, I have used it from Truro to Penzance)

For 158 Chester to Newport you would need to use 05 15 Chester to Maesteg. Apart from weekends the only one on this route.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I know yes, I figured that, same with the Earlestown one, it's better if the OP did what he is planning then do the 150 diagrams to Worcester that I had provided.

There is a slight problem, if you wanted to go via Worcester and Bristol, the trains from Worcester are 99.9% sprinter, but the only guaranteed sprinter from Bristol Parkway is the 6:24 which is a through train to Penzance and will be a 150 or a 153, if you want to go from Temple Meads, it's the 5:24 or the 6:42, which are both direct sprinters through to Penzance.

Chances are you're staying in Bristol for the night!

 

[Eagle]

Pic to Notts to Derby to Crewe to Shrewsbury to Brummie.

Completes the 158 set, and provides me with a guaranteed 153 as well, which i wouldnt have if I missed the HoW and went via Brum to Worcester instead.

Not necessarily, it's not unknown for a 156 or 158 to work Derby to Crewe. It is usually a 153 though.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Not necessarily, it's not unknown for a 156 or 158 to work Derby to Crewe. It is usually a 153 though.

Isn't there a 153 doing the Crewe-Shrewsbury stopper trains though that usually leave from platform 7?

 

[Eagle]

Isn't there a 153 doing the Crewe-Shrewsbury stopper trains though that usually leave from platform 7?

Ah yes, forgot about that.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Well then again it could be a 150, in my time I've seen anything from a 153,150 or a 158 doing that route, but mostly it has been a single 153. While you're not guaranteed a 153 on any of them routes, there still is a good chance one will turn up, and as I say the best bet would be the Derby-Crewe line and the Crewe-Shrewsbury all shacks. They appear often on the Nottingham-Derby route as well and you never know, a 153 has been known to venture the Liverpool-Norwich route, so you might even be lucky on that (Though I highly doubt it)

Just on a side note, I have seen a 150 on a Pembroke dock service leave from Platform 7 at Crewe, bet that was fun!

 

[DiscoStu]

Why would anybody want to do this?

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Why not? Because they want to obviously, why do you want to know why?

 

[Lewisham2221]

Not necessarily, it's not unknown for a 156 or 158 to work Derby to Crewe. It is usually a 153 though.

Is this probably the only situation where you could declare yourself unlucky if it wasn't a 153 on this line?

 

[sd0733]

On Derby-Crewe the 1742 and 2042 (M-F) Derby-Crewe and 0607 (M-S) and 1907 (M-F) Crewe-Derby are booked 158 so is only ever 153 operated due to failures.
Also I believe that as of the December timetable the 0740/1042/1342/1642/1942 from derby and the 0907/1207/1507/1807 from Crewe on Fridays only is a booked all day 158 diagram on the route.

 

[junglejames]

Why would anybody want to do this?

Because different people do different things to amuse themselves, and for a challenge. Its something different, and something which stands out from the norm. As ive mentioned before, some people go skydiving, whilst others travel around North America and Europe going to every Mark Knopfler concert in a single tour. All 70 plus dates. Im sure if we looked deep enough, we could find something odd/ different that you have done for similar reasons.

Yes its rather insane, but everybody does rather insane things from time to time.

Look at it another way. Plenty of people get ALRs and spend a week or 2 travelling around the country, on trains all day every day. This is only 3 or 4 days.
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There is a slight problem, if you wanted to go via Worcester and Bristol, the trains from Worcester are 99.9% sprinter, but the only guaranteed sprinter from Bristol Parkway is the 6:24 which is a through train to Penzance and will be a 150 or a 153, if you want to go from Temple Meads, it's the 5:24 or the 6:42, which are both direct sprinters through to Penzance.

Chances are you're staying in Bristol for the night!

Not at all. I can do Birmingham to Penzance in a day.
Birmingham to Worcester to Bristol Temple Meads to Salisbury to Exeter to Plymouth to Penzance.

 

[richw]

Why would anybody want to do this?

To combine an interest in a specific class of trains, with visiting more towns and cities than taking the boring most direct connecting services would be my guess.
I'd be interested in doing this also, but sadly finances, and family committments wont allow at present.

 

[junglejames]

To combine an interest in a specific class of trains, with visiting more towns and cities than taking the boring most direct connecting services would be my guess.
I'd be interested in doing this also, but sadly finances, and family committments wont allow at present.

The problem is, some people see something which initially seems mad, and without thinking, start turning their noses up at the idea. Without realising they have probably done something just as mad themselves at some stage.

 

[D1009]

The problem is, some people see something which initially seems mad, and without thinking, start turning their noses up at the idea. Without realising they have probably done something just as mad themselves at some stage.

Couldn't agree more.