Cactus' UK & European rail travels

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Sounds like a good day but indeed Guildford are horrendously bad.

I showed my ALR to the staff member and he started asking me what the ticket was, why it said FGW Web Sales as the issuing station, how that can't be right, gesturing to take it off me.

Having been awake since 5am and on the sleeper the previous night, I politely told him to naff off!

Sent from my F3111 using Tapatalk

:cry::cry: Oh dear, everyone seems to hate my local mainline station!

Shame you had a bad experience, but I can assure you Guildford has got plenty of friendly staff, I know one man who frequently lets me through the barriers to see the trains. (He offers, I don't ask)

 

[cactustwirly]

A change of plans... 29/07/17

I was visiting my grandmother in Bridgnorth this weekend, I had originally planned to go to Pwllhelli to clear out the majority of the Cambrian line. However I had a last minute look at the train split website and found some cheap tickets so I headed to Merseyside instead!

I set off at 9am, and drove to Telford station. I left plenty of time just in case there was traffic, and to collect my many tickets.

Winner 158821 appeared on the 1000 Holyhead service approximately 4 minutes late. The train was quite busy. At Shrewsbury hoards of people boarded so it was standing room only! I think they were going to Chester for the races
A few people were left behind at Ruabon and Chirk.
Eventually the train arrived at Wrexham general 10 minutes late, I had to fight my way off the train here.
IMG_20170729_110449 by litecactus, on Flickr

I still had 20 minutes to kill here so I had a little wonder around town before heading back towards the station.

Winner 150258 arrived, and took me to Bidston.
The Borderlands line was more scenic than I expected.
IMG_20170729_112713 by litecactus, on Flickr
IMG_20170729_115056 by litecactus, on Flickr

At Bidston I had around 10 minutes to kill, to I attempted to have a PNB but the facilities were out of order!

IMG_20170729_123456 by litecactus, on Flickr

Anyway winner 507031 arrived on the 1240 West Kirby service.

IMG_20170729_124039 by litecactus, on Flickr

I had originally planned to get lunch from the Boots on the high street, however there wasn't much food (unless paracetamol tablets are your sort of thing ) so I found a bakery instead.
I also located some alternative facilities for a PNB but these were locked.

So I walked back to the station, and winner 508128 took me to Birkenhead Hamilton Square.

IMG_20170729_131150 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170729_134836 by litecactus, on Flickr

After working out how to get to the surface, I finally had a PNB, and fully refreshed I took dud 508112 to Port Sunlight, after a 5 minute wait I then took winner 507005 to Ellesmere port.

IMG_20170729_135556 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170729_141000 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170729_143331 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170729_143337 by litecactus, on Flickr

After a 10 minute turnaround the train proceeded to Hooton, where I caught winner 508125 + dud 507007 to Chester.

IMG_20170729_151252 by litecactus, on Flickr


150208 + fresh dud 158821 arrived, and the 150 was detached.

IMG_20170729_151828 by litecactus, on Flickr

The journey to Shrewsbury was pleasant, the train picked up quite a lot of speed between Gobowen and Shrewsbury.
At Shrewsbury the train attached to another 158, and proceeded back to Telford where I alighted.

It was quite an enjoyable day, and the tickets only costed £15.50. I've now cleared the Wirral line, except Capenhurst.

IMO the 158s are much better than the 175s, because the engine noise is less noticeable and there were less vibrations.

 

[Kite159]

I'm surprised you didn't jump on the 150 to visit Wrexham Central to get that tiny part of the line covered

 

[fishquinn]

A good time had there by the sound of it. You must be kicking yourself about Capenhurst though

 

[cactustwirly]

A good time had there by the sound of it. You must be kicking yourself about Capenhurst though

Yes, the connection from the next Chester train to the Brum International train was quite tight, so I decided not to risk it

 

[cactustwirly]

A West Midlands Adventure 08/08/17

I started the day by getting the 0854 to London Paddington, formed of 165117, this was fast from Maidenhead and crossed over to the mains just before Slough.
Eventually it arriveinto London a few minutes early.
IMG_20170808_092927 by litecactus, on Flickr
I headed over to the H&C line, it appears that my ticket was encoded incorrecty, and wouldn't open any barriers!

Anyway I got to Euston just before 10 and headed to boots to get lunch, then headed over to platform 7 (used RTT to track the inbound arrival on the train to Paddington)
I boarded winners 221111 & 221115

IMG_20170808_100553 by litecactus, on Flickr

The journey along the WCML is quite pleasant. I alighted at Coventry an hour later, I purchased my West Midlands Day Ranger (after much queuing) and caught winner 153375 to Nuneaton, fishquinn joined en route at Coventry Arena.

Winner 170636 was caught from Nuneaton to Birmingham New Street

IMG_20170808_120953 by litecactus, on Flickr

We met up with nat67 and caught winner 170630 to Worcester Foregate Street via Bromsgrove.

IMG_20170808_124136 by litecactus, on Flickr

Our next move, was delayed so we decided to walk (very quickly) to Shrub Hill.
Duds 43004 + 43079 took us to Great Malvern

IMG_20170808_134554 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170808_134632 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170808_140554 by litecactus, on Flickr

fishquinn wanted to score Malvern Link as a shack (under my rules it had already been scored), so we took winner 170516 to Malvern link,

IMG_20170808_141346 by litecactus, on Flickr

and rejoined the HST set back to Worcester Shrub Hill.

IMG_20170808_142838 by litecactus, on Flickr

We parted ways with nat67, and took 172222 to Birmingham Moor Street via Kidderminster.

IMG_20170808_144831 by litecactus, on Flickr

We then boarded winner 68009, I only took it to Solihull, fishquinn took it to Banbury.

IMG_20170808_155054 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170808_160717 by litecactus, on Flickr

I caught 172323 back to Moor Street. I then walked to New Street to take winner 390129 on the 1650 to Euston.

IMG_20170808_163821 by litecactus, on Flickr

It went horribly wrong (again!) from here!
The train was involved in a fatality at Marston Green, therefore it reached Birmingham International 2 hours late and was subsequently cancelled.
I had 2 options, board the next Euston service or retrace my steps to Moor Street, for a Chiltern train back home.
I opted for the former, and winner 390006 took me to Euston.

IMG_20170808_190938 by litecactus, on Flickr

I made my way to Paddington and caught 166218 to Twyford, unfortunately at this time of night, the semi fasts turn to all shacks (including Acton Mainline!) so I arrived home over an hour later.

Next time, I'll stick with XC.

 

[Kite159]

Apart from the delays at the end of the day sounded productive.

 

[roversfan2001]

Sounds like a good day on one of my favourite tickets! Shame about the delays though, can't see you using XC in future guaranteeing you a delay-free ride however

 

[fishquinn]

Thanks for a great day. The end of the day really went badly though!

 

[cactustwirly]

Sounds like a good day on one of my favourite tickets! Shame about the delays though, can't see you using XC in future guaranteeing you a delay-free ride however

Thanks!

I agree using XC won't be delay free, but going via London adds 90-120 minutes onto the journey time, if I used XC I could have got home earlier.

 

[cactustwirly]

I planned this trip to take advantage of the Waterloo blockade to score some SWT 158/9s, and to take my mind off the upcoming results day.
However I've had the flu, whilst I was much better, I still wasn't feeling quite myself so I wanted an easy ish day.

Thames Valley mini trip 15/08/17

I got my tickets to Reading from the TVM outside the station because there was a huge queue in the ticket office, I would have to get my day ranger at Reading.

I joined a dud pair of 165s for the 7 minute journey to Reading.
Once at Reading I purchased lunch from boots and got my Kennet Day ranger, it took a lot of getting because the guy had never sold one before.

I then caught winners 158881 + 159017 to Basingstoke.

IMG_20170815_094433 by litecactus, on Flickr

Thinking I had missed the next Reading service from Salisbury, I caught dud 166215 back to Reading

IMG_20170815_103226 by litecactus, on Flickr

I realised when I got to Reading that, the Salisbury terminator was delayed and I could make the next Salisbury train.
This was risky because if I missed my connection at Basingstoke, I would miss my planned HST to Newbury.
I took it anyway and boarded winner 159104

An earlier operating incident ****ed up pretty much everything through Basingstoke, I was hoping this would work to my advantage, delaying the next Reading service to allow me to catch it.

The risk didn't pay off, I missed the next Reading 159, and the stopper after that.

I waited for the delayed 1149 Manchester voyager which was formed of winner 220018

IMG_20170815_115721 by litecactus, on Flickr

Because of the earlier disruption, this was crammed with London Waterloo passengers who were going via Reading, as a result I couldn't get a seat.

Every cloud has a silver lining, I no longer had a 45 minute fester at Newbury, and I saw this..

IMG_20170815_122229 by litecactus, on Flickr

I then took 165109 on the 1247 Bedwyn train (I couldn't resist a run on the Berks & Hants line! ).

IMG_20170815_124755 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170815_133757 by litecactus, on Flickr

The train was late arriving into Bedwyn because of a fault with the train :roll:

Luckily I didn't have to wait too long for it to return from the siding.

I took 165109 back to Newbury, where I caught winners 43158 + 43131 to Reading.

IMG_20170815_140807 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170815_143348 by litecactus, on Flickr

I went into town to get some bits for my holiday next week, and caught 165134 + 166218(again!) home

 

[cactustwirly]

Does anyone know of any cheap (£10-15) and interesting journeys that can be done from Leicester?

thanks

 

[Kite159]

You could probably do a Leciester - Grantham ticket (£14.30 day return) to get some EMT HST action to Nottingham, then some sprinter noise to Grantham.

 

[cactustwirly]

You could probably do a Leciester - Grantham ticket (£14.30 day return) to get some EMT HST action to Nottingham, then some sprinter noise to Grantham.

Thanks, I've also got Mansfield and Matlock on the list as well.

I'm moving on to pastures new at the end of September, I'm hoping to lower my East Midlands requirements while I'm there.

 

[A Challenge]

This part of the line is quite scenic, since it goes through the Surrey Hills AONB. There were a number of foot crosssings for which the train had to sound its horn.

Did you see the new footbridge at Gomshall?

:cry::cry: Oh dear, everyone seems to hate my local mainline station!

Shame you had a bad experience, but I can assure you Guildford has got plenty of friendly staff, I know one man who frequently lets me through the barriers to see the trains. (He offers, I don't ask)

Guildford has horrible traffic, though a good range of shops.

They must let you through at Guildford (onto the footbridge at the west side on Guildford Park Road and onto the Platform to go up to the footbridge freom the main entrance) as it is a public right of way, which I have used walking in from the Farnham Road Car Park (at car entrance level) and walking up past the siding and across the bridge to the centre. Is it specifically 'to watch the trains'?

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Im missing these!

 

[cactustwirly]

I'm moving to Leicester on Friday, so I wanted to clear out some more HSTs before I move. So I took a leaf out of fishquinn's book...

I'm not mad, I promise! 19/09/17

The day started at Reading with a Thames Branches Day Ranger in hand.
I took winner 43139 & dud 43162 to London Paddington

IMG_20170919_113432 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170919_120941 by litecactus, on Flickr

I sprinted over to platform 1 for duds 43027 & 43135 to take me back to Reading

IMG_20170919_121315 by litecactus, on Flickr


Duds 43041 and 43146 took me back to Paddington

IMG_20170919_124203 by litecactus, on Flickr

I then took winner 43147 and dud 43086 to Slough

IMG_20170919_131816 by litecactus, on Flickr

165111 took me to Hayes where I caught 360203 to West Ealing (scoring Hanwell)

IMG_20170919_141455 by litecactus, on Flickr

Winners 387154 + 387155 took me back to Paddington (scoring the Acton diveunder)

IMG_20170919_142348 by litecactus, on Flickr

165104 took me back to Reading, where I took winners 43182 + 43193 back to Paddington.

IMG_20170919_154301 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170919_161319 by litecactus, on Flickr

After a quick resupply at Sainsbury's, I took winners 387137 & 387139 non stop to Maidenhead (on the relief lines!)

IMG_20170919_163422 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170919_171813 by litecactus, on Flickr

166208 took me back to Twyford.

 

[Kite159]

Sounded like a good day on the Great Western.

Good to hear that 154 & 155 are floating around as I wasn't quite sure where GWR were upto with the 387s in service

 

[cactustwirly]

A Change of scene: 30/09/17

I've recently moved to Uni in Leicester, however I've been quite busy for the past week, including today where I had to do some shopping.
Anyway an opportunity presented itself this afternoon, I left my flat at around 4pm and walked in the rain to Leicester station (about a 5-10 minute walk)

I got my tickets and caught the slightly delayed 16:25 to Nottingham formed of winners 43049 & 43064.

IMG_20170930_163102 by litecactus, on Flickr

The journey to Nottingham was pleasant and the train made up some time, luckily I managed to make my +10 connection at Nottingham, which was formed of winner 222015 which took me back to Leicester.

IMG_20170930_165954 by litecactus, on Flickr

 

[Kite159]

You went to Nottingham and didn't sample a tram? Shocking

 

[cactustwirly]

You went to Nottingham and didn't sample a tram? Shocking

I didn't really have time to, I only wanted to be gone for an hour or so so that my flatmates wouldn't get suspicious.

 

[cactustwirly]

A Visit to the West Side 15/09/17

This was a small spur of the moment trip, basically I had some free time and thought **** it I'll go to Birmingham!
The EMT service on a Sunday is ****, with infrequent services and awful connections at Nottingham

Winner 170638 was on the 1250 ex Cambridge service to Birmingham. It was a speedy run to Nuneaton, then a slow ish run to Birmingham.
100mph on a 170 is surprisingly fun. However I'd rather travel on a 22x because you don't have that annoying droning engine noise!

IMG_20171015_133944 by litecactus, on Flickr

I then took '638 back to Leicester on a stopping service, scoring Hinckley, Narborough & South Wigston as shacks.

IMG_20171015_144902 by litecactus, on Flickr

 

[Kite159]

Crazy fool going all the way to Birmingham on a 170 only to return on the same unit!

 

[cactustwirly]

Another Short one! 18/10/17

I had the day off. So after typing up my notes, sorting out 163 photos and other bits of work; I decided to head to Nottingham.
The aim of today was to score the Ivanhoe line shacks, and hopefully get another HST set in the book.

Winner 158770 took me to Nottingham, the journey was quite fun after Barrow where the train got up to speed.

IMG_20171018_132025 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20171018_135931 by litecactus, on Flickr

After arriving at Nottingham, I headed over to platform 6 to catch winners 43054 + 43058 which took me back to Leicester.

IMG_20171018_141750 by litecactus, on Flickr

 

[fishquinn]

Darn - I was thinking of doing an EMT bash today but decided to go for Manchester instead. If I'd known that you were out in the area I would've gone for the trams (not to mention that your mileage on 058 is now just under 20 miles higher than mine - as it's my tied lowest mileage powercar at 8.25).

 

[cactustwirly]

Darn - I was thinking of doing an EMT bash today but decided to go for Manchester instead. If I'd known that you were out in the area I would've gone for the trams (not to mention that your mileage on 058 is now just under 20 miles higher than mine - as it's my tied lowest mileage powercar at 8.25).

Next time I'll message you. Tbh I only thought about doing it like late last night.

East Mids - Leicester is much more fun than East Mids - Nottingham!

 

[roversfan2001]

Darn - I was thinking of doing an EMT bash today but decided to go for Manchester instead.

On a similar note if I'd have known you were in Manchester I'd have come to say hi

 

[fishquinn]

Next time I'll message you. Tbh I only thought about doing it like late last night.

East Mids - Leicester is much more fun than East Mids - Nottingham!

I would have been doing endless East Mids - Leicester runs if I'd gone for it yesterday - 8 return trips in total as I've discovered a decent fare for it.

On a similar note if I'd have known you were in Manchester I'd have come to say hi

Damn! I asked 185143 but he reminded me that he was at college so I just assumed that you would be too! Still, I had a rather successful day there with two class clearances (although I'm not sure one of them counts as a class) except the fact that the thing that had made me choose Manchester, a winner shovel on the Mancc diagram, didn't produce

 

[Kite159]

I would have been doing endless East Mids - Leicester runs if I'd gone for it yesterday - 8 return trips in total as I've discovered a decent fare for it.


Damn! I asked 185143 but he reminded me that he was at college so I just assumed that you would be too! Still, I had a rather successful day there with two class clearances (although I'm not sure one of them counts as a class) except the fact that the thing that had made me choose Manchester, a winner shovel on the Mancc diagram, didn't produce

Harsh, still after 67016 or has the loco been swapped?


I guess we will be hearing about it at some point in the next few months

 

[fishquinn]

Yep, it was still 016. It was working in the morning but had some sort of problem at Holyhead so the evening run was caped.

Some point in the next few months sounds about right