1st September A crawl around South Eastern London
The Linford Street flyover is dud for me from The Doctor Hoo Railtour in November 2014, however I wanted to do it again for no particular reason, plus have a good fast run on a 387 on a Maidenhead Express. So for the first time since the end of March I drove to Andover on a Friday evening in order to catch the 14:38 service to Waterloo, which was formed of an empty 158888(888888888888888888888888888) leading 159105 & 159005 (hey its been a while since Ive done the joke with the subtitled 158) for a fast run to Waterloo, seeing the rather good job Network Rail has done with the platform extensions for platforms 1 to 4.
Good news that the SET services were running (having been temporary diverted to Blackfriars earlier in the day), however the bad news is that the TVMs at Waterloo no longer seem Boundary Zone tickets, bang went my +12 (and in all fairness I nearly made it, if the ticket office queue was a couple people shorter), so I had an 30 minute wait before the next service, which rolled in a few minutes early allowing me to ditch my idea of a quick spin to Vauxhall & back, instead getting a seat on 375704 leading 375602 & 375617, both the dual-voltage units were needed for 10 miles. Departure was pretty much bang on time, scoring platform 21 at Waterloo [need 23 & 24, although they will probably have to wait until the former Waterloo International is finished].
Along the Windsor reversal line, before taking the flyover to join the SEML, probably the fastest bit of the trip as it was quite frankly a crawl, a brief pause at Denmark Hill for a driver change/pilot man to exit, but it took nearly 30 minutes to reach Lewisham, having to wait for several other services to clear the paths first, thankfully after a non-stop run via Lewisham platform 2, the fast lines were joined after Hither Green with the 375s gaining some good speed for the run down to Sevenoaks. Sadly my options coming back were limited to either a slow service back to Waterloo, a slow service back to Victoria, a stopper to Cannon Street or a Thameslink to Blackfriars. I had hoped for the Thameslink service to recover the line via Bat & Ball, but alas it was cancelled (the unit ran ECS from Blackfriars to Sevenoaks, and looking at RTT it departed late and went direct towards Bickley via Orprington].
Never mind, the next Waterloo service was formed of 375912, 375710 & 375702, another 2 members of the 375 10-mile club with 912 & 710, as I took a seat in 710 for the slow crawl back towards Waterloo. 50 minutes later (seriously this crawl makes the Thameslink crawl via Crystal Palace look fast), platform 21 was reached at Waterloo, so I headed downstairs with 51659/51660 getting the tiny 34 chain leap underneath the river to Embankment & 21421/21422 the extra 72 chains to Blackfriars, for it was time for a short 700 hunting session. An unknown 700/1 was up first (I need to remember to keep my eyes peeled for 700/1s again now that the 2nd batch have started to enter service), followed by a trio of northbound winners.
700034 to City Thameslink closely followed by
700006 to Farringdon for a couple minute wait before
700033 took me to St Pancras. During my short fester at City Thameslink I noted a single 377/5 working a Brighton service, and at St Pancras a pair of 377s heading towards Uncle Keith, which was the next southbound service I could catch to give myself a reasonable connection at Paddington (although I dare say it would have been probably just as quick to have jumped on those 377s to Farringdon to double back towards Kings Cross on LU with lots of families floating around St Pancras. Anyhow I didnt have that long to wait at Kings Cross St Pancras for a Hammersmith & City line service to take me to Paddington, 21393/21394 getting the miles for that move.
With 10 minutes to kill before departure of the 387s to Maidenhead, I popped via Sainsburys [missed a trick not changing at Edgware Road!] to get something for dinner before joining the 19:36 Maidenhead service, which runs nonstop to Maidenhead and is booked on the Mains. Dud 387141 was leading winner
387140 on this fast service which after it weaved out of Paddington from platform 9 to join the main-lines the driver opened up the power handle, and yes after Airport Junction there was a small notable increase in speed (as I believe there is a speed restriction on the older Heathrow wires). Certainly was smooth storming past Slough before slowing down to cross over to the reliefs to terminate at Maidenhead, a mere 21 and a bit minutes later.
For my next service I had the option of a Turbo stopper to Reading, or a HST from platform 1, this picture probably gives you a clue which one I picked!
It was via the ticket barriers (which didnt open with my travelcard, but thankfully it decided not to eat it like the ones at Slough did once), up the side stairs to join some other passengers as the gate guarding platform 1 was unlocked a few minutes before 43127 & 43024 rolled in to take me non-stop to Reading. A short fester before it was onto a slightly delayed 166214 (looked like it got caught up with a late running freight service), thankfully it made it to Basingstoke giving me a semi-reasonable 4 minutes to cross towards platform 2 (after pausing to tell someone where platform 5 was located), with 159108 & 159017 doing something I havent done since late June, took me back towards Andover for a drive home (yes this is the first Friday night at home since the 23rd June!).
In summary, 4 winning units into my book, a bit of track recovered and another fast run on a 387 out of Paddington.
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2nd September A trip to Manchester
A nice lazy Saturday was the order of the day, a break from shack scoring with hopefully some metrolink hunting of the final 11 trams I need. Maybe even a trip to Bury for some East Lancashire Railway action, for once I had no plan for the day. I was a bit creative when booking these tickets as the days of getting a VTWC+ Connections ticket on the early morning services from Grateley appear to have gone, with my usual back-up option being a Voyager from Reading. However when playing with NRE I noticed I could save some money going via Paddington, I know it would add an extra half hour on my journey time but would reduce Voyager Mileage.
Hence it was an alarm call at 05:30, rolling out of bed putting the finishing touches to my bag before heading for the short walk to Grateley station for the 05:59 service to Waterloo, formed this morning of 159015 to take me to Basingstoke, where a short walk over to the bay platform saw another trip on 166214 being had for the run to Reading. Revenue protection on the Reading Basingstoke stoppers has certainly stepped up a gear in the last few months as previously it was quite rare to see the guard leave the rear cab, but now it is quite rare not to have a ticket check.
Anyhow once into Reading, it was a short walk over towards platform 10/11, where the first service was a busy looking HST to London, but the one I was booked on was a Turbo from Bedwyn, and was a nice and empty 166203 for the non-stop(ish) run to Paddington, a decent speedy run until Airport Junction when a 332 got put in front. Arriving into platform 12 (passing the many locos & units at the Old Oak Common open day), a pair of the future GWML units were sat on platform 9. 800010 was leading 800013, so after a quick photo I headed to the underground.
Logic would say I would head straight to Euston Square on either a Circle line or Hammersmith & City line service, but since when was I logical? (lol) It was time for some 1972 stock noise with 3263/3550 taking me to Oxford Circus for a short walk to the northbound platforms for 11077/11078 to take me to Euston. Swinging via the shop for something to eat & a newspaper before I headed towards platform 12 for the usual Virgin manual gateline before I boarded 390153 working the 08:40 Manchester service, which is a nice non-stop run to Crewe. An excellent run it was as well, I was in my favourite seat watching/listening to some musical performances from the Reading festival on the tablet, which passed the time for a right time arrival into Manchester.
This is where my lack of research sort of back-fired, as both the Eccles & Bury lines were closed today (ELR will have to wait for another day), which meant a reduction of trams out and about. Anyhow I purchased my Tram+Train travelcard from the TVM before turning my attention to the trams, my moves in summary format:
3037/3041 to Piccadilly Gardens (where I had a short break to visit the nearby Halifax bank to pay in a delay repay cheque from Virgin)
3045 to Cornbrook
3008/
3024 to Trafford Bar. (Changing platforms and getting a good seat for a 20 minute fester)
3063 to Cornbrook (this tram is awful as it has vinyl wraps on the windows)
3115 to Deansgate-Castlefield
3009/3020 to Cornbrook
3054 to Trafford Bar (more of a filler move as I had seen the first airport tram to return)
3119 & 3093 to Oldham Central (via the 2nd City Crossing, bailing at Oldham as I was in need of a PNB and had spotted a Sainsburys next door)
3073/3102 to Shaw & Crompton (bay platform)
3035 to Rochdale Railway Station.
A quick walk over to the station and up to the island platform for a quick spin on the NRDMUG, for the next Manchester Victoria was a spotting service from Leeds, and in my experience these can be random. I got lucky with low mileage 158845 (which seemed to have been modified for post 2020 disabled access rules, but sadly the seats were still rubbish). I made use of the time back to Manchester city centre by making a rough plan what to do next, deciding it would be based on how fast I could get across to Piccadilly.
Flashing my ticket at the gateline staff (no sign of the guard on the 158), before heading to the Metrolink platforms as a Piccadilly bound 3014 was just rolling in. Thankfully there was no hold-up at the junction at Piccadilly Gardens and the tram terminated into Piccadilly, giving me a couple minutes to have a fast walk upstairs, leaping onto low mileage 142012 working a Rose Hill Marple service, going via Reddish North. A 15 minute layover at the remains of the former route to Macclesfield
142012 at Rose Hill Marple
Returning to reboard 142012 with a ticket check before the unit rejoined the main-line (this area is quite pretty), and heading back towards Manchester via Hyde as I alighted at Guide Bridge is quite frankly for a station where it is a reasonable assumption that passengers can interchange between services has an awful platform to platform change. I was changing onto 323235 for a run towards Glossop, reversing to head towards Hadfield. Changing ends of the 323 back out to Glossop and a return to Piccadilly, the unit getting busier as time went on, and with nothing better to do I headed across to a Crewe via the Airport local stopping service formed of 323232 for the run to East Didsbury.
A short walk across to the metrolink platform with 3106 taking me to St Werburgh's Road (for it was terminating early and heading to the depot as the East Didsbury Shaw services were running down), as I made a connection onto 3091 to take me the long slow way to the airport where I was lucky to make it onto 185109 (otherwise it would have been roughly half an hour to wait for the next fast TPE or 15 minutes for a stopper from Crewe). A fast-ish run to Piccadilly, crawling the final distance due to waiting for a 390 to clear the line, but a quick phone charge (and fair play to the guard for she managed to do a full ticket check in the time from the Airport to Piccadilly).
Tram 3002 took me to Market Street where I popped to the little Morrisons close to the stop for some bits for dinner before walking back to Piccadilly Gardens with 3002 returning me to Piccadilly where I sat down on the seats by platform 1 to have my baguette. Noting that the 390 which would form the 20:35 Euston service was running around 15 minutes late, I headed via an unbarriered platform 1 to reach the platform it would depart from, spotting the arrival of 185101 (which does look nice inside) which split up with another 185 heading to Sheffield). The 390 taking me to Watford Junction tonight was 390156 which was late to download the seat reservations causing a mild argument when a London traveller asked some Stoke drunks to move from his reserved table seat). After Stoke the train emptied out for a fast run onto the WCML, until the unit was introduced to the slows north of Milton Keynes Central and caught up with a traffic jam of services north of Watford (as a LM stopper was running late).
Making a change the Southern service to Selhurst was actually running tonight, and seeing as this forms part of my booked route back home, I changed for some 377/7 action from 377704 which reminds me how nippy the 377/7s are on the AC (until the weave after Wembley to join the West London Line, not noticing the changeover to DC and running towards platform 17 at Clapham Junction for a 15 minute wait before a reasonable loaded 159009 rolled in to take me back home to Grateley, all-be-it at reduced speed due to the SWML being 2-track after Woking (so the 23:40 Salisbury was caught behind the 23:35 Winchester which calls at Farnborough & Fleet).
I made it home in one piece (and without a ticket check), arriving home around 01:20, and deciding to have a nice lazy day on the Sunday (as I had an idea of a trip to Ryde via the Hovercraft to see if 483009 was out and about). 5 new trams into my book, 6 to go, so not a bad score considering Eccles & Bury lines were closed.
I shall leave you with this picture of an unknown 185 roaring past Guide Bridge on route towards Piccadilly:
Next up is another meticulous planned trip to the West Highlands Line, sleeper to Glasgow on the Thursday, with probably some Glasgow Subway hunting early Friday morning, hopefully some hunting of my final 5 Scottish units (cue 158707 being on a Wick service!), a run to Carstairs via Holytown. Saturday sees Oban being covered [after changing my plans to avoid an early start], no idea on Sunday before heading across to a little hostel outside Fort William for a couple nights. Hopefully the weather will hold out, as although I have no walks planned it would be nice not to restricted to a waiting shelter for long festers.
