25/03/17- GM Rail Ranger
Today was just meant to be a short shack sweep around Manchester courtesy of an £8.40 return on TPE’s app. In the end, it was one of my most productive days of the year so far
I was at the station for 0545 and headed for the ticket office in order to purchase a Greater Manchester Rail Ranger, which has gone up to £5.90 from the £5.20 I remember it being in 2016! I had to talk the clerk through issuing it, and looked up the code for its issue (It’s GM1, if anyone has a similar problem), but she was actually quite impressed with my knowledge and asked if I worked on the railway, being surprised when I said I didn’t
It was then over to Platform 7 and a return to an old friend, the 0602 to Liverpool Lime Street which had dud
185102 and our resident Newcastle TPE guard on the forum working this morning, and it was busier than I remember! It was however a swift journey down to Leeds, with arrival being at 0740, and happily my connection was also running on time which meant that I had just enough time to nip to the loo on Platform 12 before joining dud
185106 on the 0753 to Manchester Airport. This was a fairly calm and quiet enough journey, with some slightly sluggish running that was thankfully made up by the padding in the timetable after Stalybridge, meaning that arrival was ever so slightly early at 0842.
I decided to do a quick Oxford Road spin to start with, and was pleased to see winner
175004 on the Llandudno, which was taken for the 43 chain hop before I crossed platforms for the 0900 to Manchester Airport. Happy days as it was winner
319375 taking me back to Piccadilly. Now to head for those shacks, and I had a stroll over for the 0918 to Hadfield. However, something else caught my eye as I headed over the bridge. Winner
221119 was on the 0907 to Bristol, and it was one of my last three XC 221s! No question in that as I jumped aboard as it was being cleared for departure, and took it down to Stockport, noting a required 323 on the Hadfield, excellent for later! On the approach to Stockport, I looked over at a pair of 150s departing and noted 1 of my last 4 required NT 150s departing on an ex Buxton. Imagine my glee when I saw that it was coupled to another required one! I tracked the diagram and made a note for later, before checking the 323 arriving on the Crewe. It was another one of my last 3 NT 323s! I also tracked its diagram before making my way over the platform back to Manchester. The return was however slightly less fruitful in the form of a dud
390114 (bizarrely absent from my spreadsheet, though I can remember Tech congratulating me on getting the forum celebrity Pendolino a while back. Might have to do some further digging!) back to Manchester PIccadilly for 0928 where I decided to get onto some shack bashing. Dud
142012 was due out next on the 0935 to Rose Hill via Hyde, so it was duly taken to a very pleasant shack 1, Woodley.
The sun was starting to get out as I had a few minutes here until a very dud Heaton
142070 screeched in for the hop up to shack 2, Hyde North. The guard took great amusement in seeing ‘Newcastle’ as the issuing station as well, and it was a few minutes until I was hopping off at the rather forlorn looking shack. Amusingly, a bloke came and sat on the Manchester platform to wait for the next train in an hour. Surely, with Flowery Field being practically next to us (well, a 10-15 minute walk) it would have been far easier to go there for a much nicer 323? I was however joining dud, albeit absent from the books for 4 years,
142003. The guard on this also noted the issuing station and had a laugh when I commented on the difficulty in getting it issued there! This was taken just down the line to shack 3, Hyde Central, meaning that the New Mills Lines both via Hyde and Reddish had been cleared for shacks completely, including the badly served Belle Vue/Strines and even worse served Ardwick! I then made the very silly decision to try and run to Newton for Hyde in order to catch a service leaving in 11 minutes, despite Google Maps suggesting that it would take 21! It was also suddenly uphill halfway through, and required a sudden downhill sprint through a car wash place before leaping up the stairs...to see the doors of the train closing. The guard however saw me and gave the thumbs up before releasing them again! What an absolute hero. I had spent about 3 seconds on shack 4, Newton for Hyde, before taking dud
323239 to shack 5, Hattersley.
By my reckoning, I was now ahead of plan and took time to recuperate from my 1 mile run before seeing the approaching 323 and sighing a little at seeing that it was dud
323230, even if the odds were slim that it’d throw up the last required 323 I didn’t know the whereabouts of, 323223
This was taken to the rather juxtaposingly named shack 6, Flowery Field, just having enough time to run over the awkward ramp/steps hybrid bridge and back down before jumping onto winner
323227 as i’d hoped for! This was taken to shack 7 and the last new shack of the day, Godley. This is one hell of a faff changing platforms, with a long walk down steps required before walking under the road and up two lots of steps and several gates! It was however a 15 minute wait until dud
323239 turned up once more, and trundled me back to Manchester Piccadilly. I crossed over the bridge and meant to go for the EMT to Stockport at 1143, but saw winner
323226 working the 1146 to Crewe via the Airport, meaning that i’d miscalculated the diagrams, but it was also more convenient as I could get it out the way now! I jumped on board, and joked to friends on Facebook that I just needed the one now but I was sure it was a figment of my imagination as i’d never even seen it before!
Spookily, my last required NT 323, 323223, trundled in on the platform next to me just after I sent that message
Happy days as one of my friends brought up the OTT signalling diagram and confirmed its onward workings. My current 323 was however taken to Mauldeth Road, where I had just enough time (we were 5L) to join dud
319383 back to Piccadilly where we came in alongside a required 390. May as well jump on board as I had sufficient time to do a Stockport leap before snaring my required 150 pair. Winner
390046 was the one in question, and while on board I messaged Northern to ask about my last required 156s. Apparently one was at Southport heading to ‘Wigan Wallgate’ which was annoyingly vague but I narrowed it down to being the next Airport service. The other one was in bloody Newcastle! I formulated a plan to get that one in if I could be bothered later on in the evening, seeing as I had an earlier than usual arrival home. On arrival at Stockport, a full and standing dud
185143 was taken straight back in order to be able to join my 150s with time to spare. These were double winners
150113/150117 working the 1249 to Buxton, and they were taken down to Stockport before dud
323234 brought me back.
Conveniently, it was now time to go try for 156461 on the ex Southport, so I jumped on dud
150110 out to Oxford Road and had 5 minutes to wait for it. Imagine my great irritation when double duds
142043/142060 came bouncing in! The 156 must have actually been going to Manchester Victoria then, but the information from Northern was so vague that I could never have guessed that
Oh well, at least they tried and I double checked the diagram of my other required 156 (which turned out to be on a different one to what they originally suggested) just to avoid a similar misjudgement on my part. I made up for this by jumping on winner
158866 trailing dud
158856 back to Oxford Road, where the EMT to Norwich was so late that the first service was 15 minutes away! That was also the ATW to East Didsbury which should connect with my last needed NT 323, so I decided to join dud
175105 to the aforementioned East Didsbury (a very useful new station call on these Airport extensions!) and headed to Tesco for some lunch as I had a 20 minute wait. I was very hungry too so I ended up devouring the wrap i’d bought on the walk back, before there was a tense few minutes as the 323 appeared in the distance! Beaming smile on my face as winner
323223 rolled in for the journey back into Manchester, clearing my Northern 323s and leaving me with just 8 to clear the class completely, all being numbered between 323203 and 323221.
Back in Manchester, I took a city zone Metrolink related break at around 1445 and had the following results with a respectable 6 winners for haulage in 45 minutes (Winners in bold)
3050 Piccadilly-Piccadilly Gardens
3017 Piccadilly Gardens-St Peters Square
3091 St Peters Square-Deansgate Castlefield
3087 Deansgate Castlefield-St Peters Square
3008 St Peters Square-Deansgate Castlefield
3081 Deansgate Castlefield-St Peters Square
3025 St Peters Square-Deansgate Castlefield
3103 Deansgate Castlefield-St Peters Square
3005 St Peters Square-Piccadilly
I quickly sprinted back up to the mainline station intending to catch the 1535 Euston down to Stockport, but on seeing that it was the dud 390 i’d spent hours on during Storm Doris, I flagged it and noted a winner on the 1555. To pass the time, I headed for the 1539 EMT to Oxford Road. Excellent choice as it had refurbished winner
158780 and exiled SWT winner
158889 in charge! This was however a bit daft if I’d wanted the 1555 to Stockport from Piccadilly, as it was a -1 connection at Oxford Road. The railway gods however continued to be on my side as duds
158856/158866 were 2 minutes late, allowing me to jump on winner
390044 to Stockport. At this point, I joined fellow forum member and trip reporting person
TC60054 and we awaited the late running ATW back to Piccadilly, which was annoyingly dud for both of us
175007, busy too! It was sadly now time for me to head home, which fitted in well with Tom’s plan which was trundling around on his pet 185s! Dinner was sourced at Sainsbury’s before we joined dud
185131 on the 1641 to Hull as far as Huddersfield, before swapping onto dud
185107 through to Newcastle, leaving Tom to bail at Leeds for his run back to Manchester Victoria on a different 185
It was quite quiet as far as York where we had the usual drinkers joining us. One such gent decided to grab a woman rather inappropriately as she walked past him, prompting a slanging match down the length of the carriage. Rather silly choice as the woman’s partner, who was about 6ft tall and built like a bodybuilder complete with manly beard (
) was stood beside her. He however remained totally calm and let her get on with it. They got off at Darlington, and as he walked down the platform, her partner gave the creepy bloke a few choice words, prompting Mr Weird to scream the train down and kick the doors as hard as he could, rendering them unable to close! The guard came down and gave him a mouthful before forcing them shut and allowing us to continue 12 minutes late. We continued as normal as far as the High Level Bridge, where it conspired that the signaller had put an ECS in front of us that wasn’t set to move for an hour, on Platform 7. The only platform that we could access. The rather irritated guard informed us of this and Northern appeared to quickly source a driver to trundle the 142 around the bridges in a circle to let us in. We eventually arrived 21L at 1944!
I however wasn’t bothered as I decided to bite the bullet and go to Wylam in order to get this 156 in, if it was on the diagram (Hexham-Nunthorpe-Carlisle-Newcastle-Carlisle) that I thought it to be! I nipped out for a sandwich and bought my £2.85 return, before joining a very cosy dud
142087 on the 2016 to Hexham. It was a sedate 20 minute trundle where I was then free to freeze for 15 minutes by the signalbox before a 156 appeared and I saw a frustrated looking guard get off, and SIX security guards making a fuss as I boarded! Turns out that a bunch of intoxicated blokes had given her a load of abuse and she wanted them off. This took some persuasion, but we eventually left 5L with them sat looking a bit lost on the platform in the dark. However, another fight broke out which prompted me to squeeze my way past it all and into the front carriage, questioning my sanity in even catching the 1941 ex Carlisle (which is full of drinkers normally from Hexham onwards and forms the infamous 2118 to Carlisle where there’s been a fair few brawls in the past). Arrival was 2L at Newcastle at 2112, and there were police and the full works patrolling the platform as I jumped off…
156471, which was indeed the refurbished winner i’d hoped for after at least a year of chasing it! An absolutely rancid move to do it on, but at least it had strayed up north! The 2132 bus home was subsequently sourced, and I was at home for 2200.
Very productive day!
Total Mileage- 419mi 54ch
Total Winners: 20+7 shacks
Total Cost: £23.75
