Techniquest
Veteran Member
3 months late starting this one, I know, but let's get it started now we've cleared the first third of the year! Obviously I'm going to come back to this one at the end of every month (well, this month I'm on a bash so I'll be back as soon as possible in June to review May) to keep this going!
January 2015
Not a great start to the year, with just one day's bashing throughout the whole month. Saving money was a key reason, those of you with good memories will recall I was going to save money every month for an Australian trip in spring 2016. Obviously that's not happening now, I'm enjoying the UK rail scene far too much to head to the other side of the world!
First use of the new Midland Metro trams was had though on 5th January, and a farewell to 67s on Chiltern was also had. Oh crikey aye, remember when the 68s were going into squadron service any time soon and the 67s were going elsewhere? Still plenty of 67 action available I see!
4 winners wasn't the best start to the year but a reasonable 168m65c had, with 150 and 153 action had on the way to Birmingham and more 150 action had home which was welcome! First trains of the year fell to 153366 and 150105, not a bad start. What will I end with I can't help but wonder, probably not a 150 or 153!
February 2015
Oh yes, February was far better! The first major bash of the year, a Kent Rover. An absolute megaton of required shacks were scored in those 3 days, despite coming down with a nasty cold in the middle of the trip. To be fair it was outrageously cold in Kent at the time! Even so I didn't let it knock me down and I kept going with the primary mission of clearing all stations in the Kent Rover area. Which I did indeed on the third day of the trip, and I finally managed to get my last 375 for sight! I still can't put into words how happy I was about that, no more bending my neck around all sorts of angles to try and find it anywhere!
Of course the epic evening peak at Sevenoaks was well appreciated too and for that alone I'm going back down there in 2016 to have another go at clearing my 375s! Of course the chance to go after my last 8 395s will be welcome too!
A farewell to East Coast was also made with a trip to Newcastle, using my only ever Rewards ticket. I so wish I'd used that more than I did, not that I can remember why I didn't at the time. Of course, my return to East Coast Rewards was also prompted by Red Spotted Hanky and their insistance on charging booking fees! A massive session was had on the Tyne and Wear Metro, at differing lengths of time on each of the 3 days I was up there, my NREA looks a LOT better than it did! My first Tyne and Tees Day Ranger was also sampled and I loved it, scoring plenty of required shacks and winners along the way. I still recommend doing one to anyone, I'm certainly going back up there in 2016 if not before to get cracking on the rest of the shacks and of course the many 142s and 156s I still need up there!
I still can't believe how warm it was in the North East mind, not that I was complaining!
A couple of weeks later was 2015's first Great Escape. With some massive help from Twitter Towers at LM, I managed to get my last 350/2 and I also got started on the 350/3s. I also finally finished my LM 321s at last, although this was one was by chance! I got what was probably my last chance too, the day after, for some Starship action on the Wolverhampton to Birmingham route, as it's all gone to 350s now by the looks of it.
2,126m05c for February so you can imagine I was ridiculously happy with that! I've lost where I noted the number of winners and required shacks, but trust me that they were both very decent numbers! My moves book is elsewhere at this time, but the figures will of course be included in the Year End Review figures!
March 2015
Oh yes, of course I finally did my Metrolink day! As per usual, I've covered all this in the trip reports (for newcomers, please refer to "Techniquest's Sticky Digits Chasing (Trip Reports)" on this forum if you're interested) and on Twitter, but I finally got the Metrolink network covered entirely on this trip, with an absolutely massive amount of required sightings and winners had, not to mention the amount of required shacks scored. It's safe to say I made my money's worth out of the day tickets I bought!
A few weeks later, I was back out. Good Golly Gosh I made up for the time I hadn't spent on the rails this year, and indeed I might just have managed to make up for the slow start in 2014 as well now! I of course refer to the 3 day session in London, which although it didn't include getting many required shacks done, I did score a truckload of winners! I finished my 321s for sight at long, long last by chance in the evening peak at Stratford on day 1, which was beyond welcome! Very slowly I'm running out of trains I need to see! Day 1 was also most excellent as I finally got to meet one of the legends of this forum, noddy1878, which had been waiting to happen for quite some time getting by now! He's also got me into Spoons Scratching, and before that I'd got Untappd on my phone and I've become a bit of a beer ticker now too!
Day 2 of that trip had me finally meeting another legend of this forum, Kite159. That had been overdue for months too, and it was another excellent day in the sunshine and heat scoring away. This time it was the turn of the GN evening peak and that was more than successful, fair games! Day 3 saw me spend absolutely ages on the DLR, following a bit of a spin on the NLL doing some shack scratching. I more than made up for the lack of shack attacks on the previous 2 days that's for sure, and I came away from the DLR hours later having visited every shack that I needed, which was quite a few. I also came away with a megaton of required sightings and an unofficial-turned-official-unit-of-measurement of winners too, a very productive time indeed! This one had a winner 390 coming to London, so imagine my surprise when I left Euston with a winner 390 too!
992m31c in March, so close to clearing the magical thou for the month! Again, no figures for the total winners etc in March to hand, but I recall it was well over 100 in London alone!
April 2015
A couple of weeks had been taken off now to recover from that epic trip, and to catch up on bookwork. Not that I did much of the bookwork mind, I only achieved that fairly recently! I'd been surprised when I saw at London Euston, at the end of my London bash, that another LM Great Escape was on again soon. Naturally this had to be done, as I had only had 2 of the 10 350/3s at this point and needed to get cracking with them! Diagrams printed the night before, I went out armed with as much gen as I could get hold of at 0630! That situation soon enough changed for the better thankfully, and on the way up I decide to go for a slightly risky connection at Lichfield and go for some Starship action. It's been a while now, nearly 2 months, and this move had the opportunity for some proper distance on a Starship. How could I refuse a good run on my favourite class of EMU? Later throughout the day it dawns on me that unfortunately I won't get my last 350/3, 350369, which is also my last member of the LM fleet to get for haulage. Shame but still I have something to aim for now another time! Still, I'll be glad to not see the Rugby to Milton Keynes Central sector of the WCML for a while!
I had the funds to go out the week after and, having not been for months, end up going to Liverpool. Sadly the hunt for my last 3 507s and last 508 was unsuccessful but I came home with just 1 MerseyRail-served station to get, so not all bad!
The week after I was off to Birmingham for another hunt, this time I was after as many of the 7 390s I still needed for haulage. I decided to go old-school and not seek any gen at all. Well, apart from 350369 as that would determine which ticket I bought. As it was on Camden Carriage Sidings all day I stayed with the original plan. It's all been well documented in the trip report, but I only managed to score one 390 in the end. Too many 221s invading the previously 390-dominated area, so I went to try my luck on Chiltern. No luck there either, not a good day then!
That day I'd seen required 67023 on the WAG-Ex, and couldn't get it that day so vowed to get it the next day. An oversleep put paid to that, so made sure to go for it the following day. £19.70 and an early start before work, but well worth it to get my 28th 67 in. Just 67007 and 67030 to get one day now!
1,015m50c in April, which I was very happy with indeed!
Which took us to the end of April, and as I type this I have a trip to Sheffield a week tomorrow to go for the PSUL curve, which is my last track to get on the Sheffield Supertram network, and of course as many of the 20 trams I need up there too. May's also got a Southern DaySave bash and a trip to West Yorkshire in there, so it should be a good one. I estimate around 650 miles on Mandatory Moves alone in May, so there's a chance I'll hit the 1,000 miles in a month again!
I'll be back in just under a month to review May!
January 2015
Not a great start to the year, with just one day's bashing throughout the whole month. Saving money was a key reason, those of you with good memories will recall I was going to save money every month for an Australian trip in spring 2016. Obviously that's not happening now, I'm enjoying the UK rail scene far too much to head to the other side of the world!
First use of the new Midland Metro trams was had though on 5th January, and a farewell to 67s on Chiltern was also had. Oh crikey aye, remember when the 68s were going into squadron service any time soon and the 67s were going elsewhere? Still plenty of 67 action available I see!
4 winners wasn't the best start to the year but a reasonable 168m65c had, with 150 and 153 action had on the way to Birmingham and more 150 action had home which was welcome! First trains of the year fell to 153366 and 150105, not a bad start. What will I end with I can't help but wonder, probably not a 150 or 153!
February 2015
Oh yes, February was far better! The first major bash of the year, a Kent Rover. An absolute megaton of required shacks were scored in those 3 days, despite coming down with a nasty cold in the middle of the trip. To be fair it was outrageously cold in Kent at the time! Even so I didn't let it knock me down and I kept going with the primary mission of clearing all stations in the Kent Rover area. Which I did indeed on the third day of the trip, and I finally managed to get my last 375 for sight! I still can't put into words how happy I was about that, no more bending my neck around all sorts of angles to try and find it anywhere!
Of course the epic evening peak at Sevenoaks was well appreciated too and for that alone I'm going back down there in 2016 to have another go at clearing my 375s! Of course the chance to go after my last 8 395s will be welcome too!A farewell to East Coast was also made with a trip to Newcastle, using my only ever Rewards ticket. I so wish I'd used that more than I did, not that I can remember why I didn't at the time. Of course, my return to East Coast Rewards was also prompted by Red Spotted Hanky and their insistance on charging booking fees! A massive session was had on the Tyne and Wear Metro, at differing lengths of time on each of the 3 days I was up there, my NREA looks a LOT better than it did! My first Tyne and Tees Day Ranger was also sampled and I loved it, scoring plenty of required shacks and winners along the way. I still recommend doing one to anyone, I'm certainly going back up there in 2016 if not before to get cracking on the rest of the shacks and of course the many 142s and 156s I still need up there!
I still can't believe how warm it was in the North East mind, not that I was complaining!
A couple of weeks later was 2015's first Great Escape. With some massive help from Twitter Towers at LM, I managed to get my last 350/2 and I also got started on the 350/3s. I also finally finished my LM 321s at last, although this was one was by chance! I got what was probably my last chance too, the day after, for some Starship action on the Wolverhampton to Birmingham route, as it's all gone to 350s now by the looks of it.
2,126m05c for February so you can imagine I was ridiculously happy with that! I've lost where I noted the number of winners and required shacks, but trust me that they were both very decent numbers! My moves book is elsewhere at this time, but the figures will of course be included in the Year End Review figures!
March 2015
Oh yes, of course I finally did my Metrolink day! As per usual, I've covered all this in the trip reports (for newcomers, please refer to "Techniquest's Sticky Digits Chasing (Trip Reports)" on this forum if you're interested) and on Twitter, but I finally got the Metrolink network covered entirely on this trip, with an absolutely massive amount of required sightings and winners had, not to mention the amount of required shacks scored. It's safe to say I made my money's worth out of the day tickets I bought!
A few weeks later, I was back out. Good Golly Gosh I made up for the time I hadn't spent on the rails this year, and indeed I might just have managed to make up for the slow start in 2014 as well now! I of course refer to the 3 day session in London, which although it didn't include getting many required shacks done, I did score a truckload of winners! I finished my 321s for sight at long, long last by chance in the evening peak at Stratford on day 1, which was beyond welcome! Very slowly I'm running out of trains I need to see!
Day 1 was also most excellent as I finally got to meet one of the legends of this forum, noddy1878, which had been waiting to happen for quite some time getting by now! He's also got me into Spoons Scratching, and before that I'd got Untappd on my phone and I've become a bit of a beer ticker now too!Day 2 of that trip had me finally meeting another legend of this forum, Kite159. That had been overdue for months too, and it was another excellent day in the sunshine and heat scoring away. This time it was the turn of the GN evening peak and that was more than successful, fair games! Day 3 saw me spend absolutely ages on the DLR, following a bit of a spin on the NLL doing some shack scratching. I more than made up for the lack of shack attacks on the previous 2 days that's for sure, and I came away from the DLR hours later having visited every shack that I needed, which was quite a few. I also came away with a megaton of required sightings and an unofficial-turned-official-unit-of-measurement of winners too, a very productive time indeed! This one had a winner 390 coming to London, so imagine my surprise when I left Euston with a winner 390 too!
992m31c in March, so close to clearing the magical thou for the month! Again, no figures for the total winners etc in March to hand, but I recall it was well over 100 in London alone!
April 2015
A couple of weeks had been taken off now to recover from that epic trip, and to catch up on bookwork. Not that I did much of the bookwork mind, I only achieved that fairly recently! I'd been surprised when I saw at London Euston, at the end of my London bash, that another LM Great Escape was on again soon. Naturally this had to be done, as I had only had 2 of the 10 350/3s at this point and needed to get cracking with them! Diagrams printed the night before, I went out armed with as much gen as I could get hold of at 0630! That situation soon enough changed for the better thankfully, and on the way up I decide to go for a slightly risky connection at Lichfield and go for some Starship action. It's been a while now, nearly 2 months, and this move had the opportunity for some proper distance on a Starship. How could I refuse a good run on my favourite class of EMU? Later throughout the day it dawns on me that unfortunately I won't get my last 350/3, 350369, which is also my last member of the LM fleet to get for haulage. Shame but still I have something to aim for now another time! Still, I'll be glad to not see the Rugby to Milton Keynes Central sector of the WCML for a while!
I had the funds to go out the week after and, having not been for months, end up going to Liverpool. Sadly the hunt for my last 3 507s and last 508 was unsuccessful but I came home with just 1 MerseyRail-served station to get, so not all bad!
The week after I was off to Birmingham for another hunt, this time I was after as many of the 7 390s I still needed for haulage. I decided to go old-school and not seek any gen at all. Well, apart from 350369 as that would determine which ticket I bought. As it was on Camden Carriage Sidings all day I stayed with the original plan. It's all been well documented in the trip report, but I only managed to score one 390 in the end. Too many 221s invading the previously 390-dominated area, so I went to try my luck on Chiltern. No luck there either, not a good day then!
That day I'd seen required 67023 on the WAG-Ex, and couldn't get it that day so vowed to get it the next day. An oversleep put paid to that, so made sure to go for it the following day. £19.70 and an early start before work, but well worth it to get my 28th 67 in. Just 67007 and 67030 to get one day now!
1,015m50c in April, which I was very happy with indeed!
Which took us to the end of April, and as I type this I have a trip to Sheffield a week tomorrow to go for the PSUL curve, which is my last track to get on the Sheffield Supertram network, and of course as many of the 20 trams I need up there too. May's also got a Southern DaySave bash and a trip to West Yorkshire in there, so it should be a good one. I estimate around 650 miles on Mandatory Moves alone in May, so there's a chance I'll hit the 1,000 miles in a month again!
I'll be back in just under a month to review May!
It was off to West Yorkshire for a bit of a clearout up there, originally intending to use a special Northern day ranger for just £12.50 on the Sunday and a West Yorkshire Day Rover the day after. I'd forgotten I couldn't do that on the Sunday, as it was barred to the special offer that week. So I swapped the planned tickets around. I had come down with a cold around 0200 the night before, but I wasn't giving up my trip for that! I meet up with 185143 of this forum during the interlude in Manchester Piccadilly on the northbound trip, which was an unexpected bonus even if I didn't see him straight away! The day was certainly most productive with 10 winners across a variety of classes, only 2 winner shacks but today ended up being more about filling the NREA than getting the shacks all done!
