Richard's Trip Reports

That sounds like a pretty fun day! Shame about the lack of winners though!

I'm doing pretty bad on both 185s and 333, 23 and 8 respectively.

Turns out that I need 5 185s but still not too bad so Tech just needs one more to level with me

185130/34/38/43/45 are the culprits.

333005/6 are the required 333s!

Just been having a play with RTT to see what I can do on an ALR...

A Heart of Wales loop (Newcastle-Manchester-Ludlow-Craven Arms (shack scratch moves)-Llanelli-Cardiff Central-London Paddington-Circle Line-Kings X-Newcastle) is perfectly do-able in a 0525-2149 day, and so something like this would probably be alternated each day with a slightly shorter (0700-2000ish) day so i'd not run myself into the ground too quickly!

Apparently another do-able day to the same timings is Newcastle-York-Exeter St Davids-Basingstoke-Reading-Staines-Windsor-Vauxhall-Vic Line-Kings X-Newcastle. Absolutely trashing but the York-Exeter leg is currently booked HST so hopefully it'll stay that way!

Two days on Anglia required to clear all the branches, especially important considering the lack of a ranger and me requiring every single Class 90 too!

My aims are shacks in places like the Southern, getting in as much new track as possible and doing some loco hauled moves like on the Chiltern 68s and Yarmouth 37s!

Considering I did the week in July which was basically things like Newcastle-Sheffield-Derby-Matlock-Lincoln-Retford-Peterborough-Leeds-Selby-York i'm currently quite optimistic that i'll not be too exhausted

Northern end of Anglia is covered by the Anglian day rover, the area south of Cambridge & Ipswich has no day rover available.

And remember Southern have their daysave tickets, which a weekly one is available (which is valid anytime)

Just to let you know all those 185s and 333006 you need are all duds for me

Some good choices there, and some really long days for your ALR moves. I assume you have to be home every night?

You've certaily been a busy lad Richard, you must be right up there on the mileage league table.
Sounded like some cracking days out there, its hardly likely to happen to me but if I'd seen triple units and not needed any, I'd have been mortified. However if I'd got on a 142, other than having no choice but to, I'd have went to the nearest hospital and got myself committed to the nearest asylum.. I'm keen to persue things to clear but not as keen as some of you lads to get em all for haulage, I doff my cap to you all for doing it though.

185130, 185138 and 333005 are the only winners there for me.

Aye, I'm past the 30k mark for mileage now, quite a lot! And when faced with the prospect of a rammed 150 or an empty 142, I'd pick the 142 to be honest [emoji14]

And yeah Tech, home each night. It only really puts the lines past Swansea to the West, Plymouth to the south and Inverness to the north out of reach though.

And Kite, I was indeed referring to the lines south of Ipswich, most of the North has been covered by me with the exception of Ipswich and Norwich to Lowestoft.

Not too bad then to be fair, no doubt there's plenty to do still anyway!

The Midlands, South West, South East and all of Wales bar Chester-Llandudno/Blaenau Ffestiniog is vastly uncovered so plenty to do!
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Okay, so while I was bored tonight, I calculated my visited stations-

We're currently lying at 553, about 21.7% of the network

Not bad at all, long way to catch up with me

Techniquest said:

Not bad at all, long way to catch up with me

Click to expand...

But you've been at the game for 10 years

Kite159 said:

But you've been at the game for 10 years

Click to expand...

Yes, I think it's time we developed some sort of handicap system to compete with Tech on equal terms!
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Looks like you made excellent use of a Northern Day Ranger there - nice work. Good to see you encountered some true northern hospitality towards the end of the day

Kite159:2358698 said:

Techniquest said:

Not bad at all, long way to catch up with me

Click to expand...

But you've been at the game for 10 years

Click to expand...

Correction, 12 years. Unless you count that 2.5 month break at the end of 2013 into 2014

I'm fairly sure Lord Kite is overtaking me though, although that's not hard when you're out on the rails super frequently
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crehld:2358724 said:

Kite159 said:

But you've been at the game for 10 years

Click to expand...

Yes, I think it's time we developed some sort of handicap system to compete with Tech on equal terms!
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Looks like you made excellent use of a Northern Day Ranger there - nice work. Good to see you encountered some true northern hospitality towards the end of the day

Click to expand...

Good luck competing with me any time soon good sir! Maybe it's time you all cured your Empty Book Syndrome and got on a massive bash?

Mind you've got good reason not to be out all the time with a little 'un at home!

I've been seriously bashing solo since, well, the first report on here so 10 months! Been on the rails for 4 or so years though.
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Majorca- August 2015

We even have photos here because I think very few of you will know what units i'm on about

So, with me having a couple of weeks until any potential bash due to the weather not being so good this weekend coupled with a lack of funds, I’ve decided to write up something a little more exotic. Back in August, I did two days of bashing on Majorca. The primary aim was shack scratching, as to be honest recording the units is difficult (there’s no unit numbers, just individual car numbers and these cars seem to swap around a lot. I recorded the driving car numbers where I could, so they’ll be recorded in the format Class Number-Leading car-Trailing car eg. 71-05-06.

Background

The network on Majorca (excluding the tourist line to Soller) is divided into five different lines. Line T1 is a stopping service from Inca to Palma, calling at all stations to Palma. T2 is a service from Sa Pobla to Palma, which is split into a diesel service from Sa Pobla to Enllac (Empalme) where a cross platform interchange is made onto Palma via Inca via an Electric service., although this service runs fast from Marratxi straight into Palma. Line T3 runs from Manacor to Palma, which again is a diesel service from Manacor to Enllac with a cross platform interchange onto an Electric train to Palma, again, fast from Marratxi. Line M2 (Metro) operates as a stopping service to Palma from Marratxi, which is a cross platform interchange at Marratxi off line T3. In essence, it’s 4tph Palma-Marratxi, 2 fast and 2 slow, 1 terminating, 3 to Inca, of which 1 extends to Sa Pobla, 1 to Manacor. Outside of the summer months there’s an extra 2tph on the line M2, allowing line T1 to drop its stops to Marratxi too.

In a league (an awful league at that) of its own is line M1. This metro line runs from Palma to UIB (Universitat Illes Baleares) and during term time, it’s every 15 minutes. When I visited, it was every 90 with a 2:45pm finish. It serves the outskirts of Palma but the stations are very badly located. One serves a motorway with car dealerships, another serves about 500 yards further, two serve a wide empty street, one serves a pretty little village and one serves the University. Needless to say, it was damn quiet! The ticketing is all single fares and return fares which are just 2x singles for tourists. It’s all zonal though, so I did milk a few double-backs (eg you should change at Jacint Verdaguer between the two metro lines but I wasn’t up for the fester so continued to Palma intermodal and swapped platforms, however with the fare being ‘ZONE A-ZONE A’ nobody can really tell ) It’s 1.60EUR for 1 zone, 2.10ishEUR for 2 zones, 3.20EUR for 3, and 4.10EUR for more. Double all the amounts quoted for a return. Putting that into context, it’s 4.10EUR for the 39 miles through from Manacor-Palma, and 1.60EUR for any journey on the Metro, any distance as all the stations are in zone A.

There’s 4 classes of train on the island. The Series 61 DMU dates from between 1999 and 2005 and operates on the diesel lines (and through to Palma about once a day looking at the timetable), the Series 71 EMU operates on the Metro lines, dating from about 2008(?), the Series 81 (2009ish) operates on the electrified mainline from Enllac, and the Series 91 is somewhat of a joke altogether. Basically, the line from Manacor was meant to be extended to the town of Arta and they built the trains for it before abandoning the project. These trains are normally shoved in Palma Intermodal as there’s little use for them (the doors are far too low for the platforms), however, they see use in the peaks in the winter months about twice a day, operating an express service from Inca to Palma.

Here’s a network map so you can get your heads around it



I’m honestly surprised that my parents allowed me out alone considering that none of us had phone signal or any means of contact with each other, but outside of Palma, Majorca seems like a very safe place to be, and the only real danger was not having enough to drink so I stocked up before heading out of my hotel and walking the 10 minutes into Central Cala Millor.

On with the show, and on Day 1 I was taking advantage of a once weekly bus designed to serve the market in Sineu, however for me it was a good chance to get Sineu in as the fester there was quite long with the diesel section from Manacor-Enllac being a single train shuttling up and down! The bus was a Man Lions Regio, sort of a coach/bus hybrid, and the bus driver initially tried to go past, thinking I couldn’t possibly want Sineu! However, some vigorous pointing at the destination display and yelling Sineu at him made him stop. 6.35 was handed over for the hour or so journey, and I settled in at the front. It was something like a +20 onto the train, so I wasn’t too fussed. However, we stopped at every stop with hapless tourists yelling destinations at the driver that he was going nowhere near! To my surprise too, we picked up a good load. Oh yeah, and the ticket machine broke. We were 30 down by the time we left our last stop at Portocristo, so my connection was basically out of the window, but we re-gained some time as we approached the city of Manacor (birthplace of tennis player Rafael Nadal!), before meeting another service where some of our passengers swapped onto it due to us being very overcrowded! Back to 30 down it was as we absolutely flew down the road to Sineu, and with the road following the railway I just wanted us to get a good couple of minutes ahead, and in the end we were getting in 16 down at about 1035.

Here's a photo of the same bus earlier in the week:

Man Lions Regio- Portocristo by Richard Green, on Flickr

I mean, the train was late anyway Reliability is absolutely shocking on the diesel sections, and eventually winner 61-43-44 limped in 10 late to take me forward to Enllac (I’m not sure whether you can actually leave this station, so think Smallbrook Junction!) where our electric service formed of winner 81-07-14 was impatiently awaiting our arrival (at least the connection was held, although it’s advertised as a through service with no changes, much to the confusion of fellow tourists) and I boarded for a sharpish departure towards Palma. It was a busy, but quite scenic run straight out of Enllac, taking a meandering route through some towns such as Inca, Lloseta etc. before heading past the mountains and into the suburbs of Palma. I bailed at Marratxi for winner 71-05-06 to take me through to shack 1, Jacint Verdaguer. The outside of the train was in a disgusting state for such a new train, graffiti covering quite a few of the windows! However, the interior was in good nick, so I spent the 15 minute journey peering out of a cleaner window, before bailing at the eerily silent Jacint Verdaguer.

Series 61- Enllac by Richard Green, on Flickr

Series 71- Jacint Verdaguer by Richard Green, on Flickr

There seem to be some very random sound effects being played over the PA at the underground stations, making the station seem very eerie as I headed into the midday heat and made my way through the park on the 10 minute walk to central Palma. Signs advertised the station as being 1 minute from Palma, and one must wonder who in their right mind would pay 1.60EUR for a 30 to 45 second journey when you can walk in just a few minutes! In the time you bought a ticket and waited for one of the 2 or 3tph to Palma, you may as well have walked! Anyway, I proceeded into the Intermodal station and bought a Zone A single, making a dash for fresh dud 81-07-14 to shack 2, Son Costa/Son Fortesa. This was again a creepily quiet affair, as I waited out the 10 minutes for another fresh dud 71-05-06 to take me forwards to shack 3, Poligon de Marratxi. This was situated next to a few shops but I opted to just leave the station and put another 1.60 in the machine, awaiting the return of 71-05-06 from Marratxi. Fare evasion seems quite rife here, considering that ticket gates are now at every single station except at Son Cladera/Es Vivaro (they’re also unattended). Beforehand, it seems that all stations were open considering the number of sealed off exits!

Series 71- Poligon de Marratxi by Richard Green, on Flickr

The aforementioned Metro returned and I was carted along to shack 4, Son Cladera/Es Vivaro. This was a new station, being opened in 2014. It was also located in the middle of some wasteland away from the main street. It had the shelters (still with the station name attached!) from the old Sant Joan station (closed station in the middle of nowhere on the Manacor Line) which I found particularly comical. Another comical feature is that nobody has updated the PIS on these trains to reflect the opening of the new station, nor is it on any of the maps on the train, resulting in the PIS having a complete fit and shutting off every single time we called there. Hilarious but also pretty pathetic on the part of SFM. Out I went, walking back down through the area known as Verge De Lluc, and buying another zone A single from shack 5, Verge de Lluc to shack 6, Pont D’Inca Nou. Winner 81-09-10 appeared and I was whisked up the line, awaiting mega dud 71-05-06 for the onward journey to Marratxi. That was all the shacks in Zone A completed (Pont D’Inca and Son Fuster were done already) so I bought a single to Inca and took winner 81-23-24 for the 9 mile run there, calling it time and decided on a food break!

Series 81- Verge de Lluc by Richard Green, on Flickr

A local supermarket provided me with a Chicken Caesar Salad and a few cans of coke for later in the day, before buying a return from ‘Inca/Lloseta’ to shack 7, Consell/Alaro. Winner 81-08-11 appeared for the journey, and I bailed before jumping straight onto dud 81-09-10 to shack 8, Lloseta. 20 minute fester here, so a single to zone A was duly purchased and I plonked myself on a bench to eat my salad before joining 81-09-10 to shack 9, Es Caulls/Festival Park. Final rail ticket of the day as I bought a single to zone D4 (Petra/Manacor) and took dud 81-23-24 through to Enllac. I ended up standing as far as Lloseta, very busy service indeed! Winner 61-21-22 was now working the Manacor, so I took my seat for the 19 mile thrash (these are noisy units!) through the countryside to Manacor. It was a +30 onto the bus here so I sat in the sun before an Iveco coach of some description turned up on the 412 back to Cala Millor, with me taking the front seat again for the quiet run via Cueva del Drach and Portocristo.

Series 81- Lloseta by Richard Green, on Flickr

Day 2

The following day I decided to tie up a few loose ends and get everything on the mainline done, leaving Petra on the Manacor line (in a field, long fester, no thanks) and Muro and Llubi (see Petra) on the Sa Pobla line. It was the Route 412 again through to Manacor, where there was a +17 onto the train, the 1024 to Palma. We had winner 61-31-32 working this morning, it seems that because the fleet is so underused (it used to be all 61s before electrification, seeing 10 year old units lying abandoned is a sad sight) there’s often several units used a day rather than running the PVR of 2 into the ground. A swift crossover was made onto winner 81-18-19 to my first shack, Santa Maria. This was another shack where the trains passed each other so it was a maximum 20 minute wait for dud 81-23-24 to shack 2, Binissalem. Again, I think this has some relation to Rafael Nadal! Out the station, and a zone A single was purchased for the run on dud 81-09-10 through to Son Fuster.

Series 61- Manacor by Richard Green, on Flickr

Series 81- Binissalem by Richard Green, on Flickr

Entrance- Son Fuster Vell by Richard Green, on Flickr

This was what looked like a short walk through to shack 3, Son Fuster Vell, the adjacent station on the Metro Line 1! However, there was a motorway in the way. Thankfully, there was a path and the station was located. I kid you not, it serves bugger all. There was nothing here except a car dealership. I used the lift at street level down to the platform and took winner 71-08-09 to Palma Intermodal before grabbing some food and sitting in the sun upstairs. A short while later it was back onto the same 71-08-09 to shack 4, Cami dels Reis. These shacks were eerily quiet. Nobody uses them at all! I headed up to street level down the Gran Via Asima to shack 5 of the same name and awaited fresh duds 71-08-09 returning from UIB.

Series 71- Cami Dels Reis by Richard Green, on Flickr

To be honest, I was done here! Unless I fancied a bus trip up to Son Castello to finish the single shack left on the M1, there wasn’t much left to do in Palma so I awaited the 1535 bus straight through to Cala Bona/Cala Millor. There were two buses in the stands showing identical destinations so a quick ‘Cala Bona?’ in some poor Catalonian accent to the driver of the first bus confirmed that this was the right service, and I took a seat, leaving the rest of the tourists running around like headless chickens It was quite a peaceful run, full bus but again front seat and I was back at the resort for 1700.

Two good days out on the island!

Total Mileage: 156mi 53ch
Total Winners: 10+14 shacks

A fascinating read. I had never realized Majorca had rails - I had mistakenly believed it was a small island (mind you so is the Isle of Wight I guess!).

I hope you managed to find plenty of time spare to get off the rail and explore the island itself! The weather looked wonderful.
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Techniquest said:

Good luck competing with me any time soon good sir! Maybe it's time you all cured your Empty Book Syndrome and got on a massive bash?

Click to expand...

Two days in London next week ought to do the job

I was there for two weeks, did another short bash beforehand and normally had a run on the bus out to somewhere each day, but plenty of time was spent enjoying the weather

Quite an interesting little system! An enjoyable read that's for sure too.

Crehld: Jealous, just jealous...

Cumbrian 37s- 24/10/15

Continuing the trend of older trips, here’s one more from not so long ago! As you may or may not have noticed, there’s one trip I haven’t reported on from October, and that was my very soggy run down the Cumbrian Coast! I really don’t like bashing in Cumbria, it’s beautiful but the connections seem to be abysmal and at this time of year it requires a dark slog over the Tyne Valley. However, I’d made up a workable plan for a shack scratch on the Coast, and of course that meant some loco haulage in the mix! As there was some interesting haulage and scenery here, I opted for the photos again. Who knows, they might become a regular feature from now

The ticket for today was a Hadrian’s Wall Country Line Ranger, great value at £13.80! It used to be valid to Ravenglass, since curtailed to Whitehaven but I was hoping that the guards wouldn’t notice that as two of my runs involved going beyond Whitehaven but not beyond Ravenglass I did however have money, should they have wished me to pay the £1.70 return to Nethertown. This also had to be one of the most moronic times to go to Cumbria, as it was forecast heavy rain for much of the day! However, undeterred, I went and bought the ranger the night before

Off I went, ending up at the station for 0615, to await the 0630 to Glasgow Central which had dud 156514 working this morning. A very quiet service indeed, with maybe a dozen people in my carriage, which sadly included two numbskulls drinking alcohol making bizarre noises. Thankfully, dumb and dumber staggered off at Wylam, and everyone else seemed to be gone by Hexham, leaving me alone in the carriage! Considering how busy Tyne Valley services get, this was most surprising! I put my head down on the table to get some undisturbed kip, waking after Bardon Mill feeling slightly better . We continued into Carlisle on time for 0805, where I got about 50 yards out of the station before the heavens opened and I went to hide in the waiting room instead. This first train I was catching, the 0842, was booked 37, so I was naturally quite excited! Imagine my horror when mega dud 142091 bounced in, to the groans of all the enthusiasts on the platform. I decided to grin and bear it, nabbing a seat with decent legroom and enjoying the fact that the heaters were blasting. I continued on schedule through to shack 1, Corkickle.

I was already wet, cold and fed up as I huddled into the shelter and awaited the other 37 working to hopefully materialise, engaging in conversation with a couple of enthusiasts as the rumble of a loco appeared in the distance, one commenting that ‘this is a rare one’. In rolled winner 37401 and I was now grinning from ear to ear as I stood in the vestibule for a noise fest through the tunnel back through to Whitehaven Sadly, this was a short trip for now as I bailed at shack 2, Parton. I was the only one off here, diving down onto the platform and slamming the door behind me before listening to the 37 thrash out of there and all around the curving line down the coast. It was a +20 or something here, so I went for a stroll onto the beach, getting some lovely views before returning to the platform.

37401- Corkickle by Richard Green, on Flickr

37401- Parton by Richard Green, on Flickr

Beach- Parton by Richard Green, on Flickr

I joined dud 156469 to shack 3, Nethertown. A quick request to the guard for the stop was made as I boarded, and I sat down for the pleasant run south down the coast before basically diving onto the low platform and watching the 156 head into the distance. For the next 20 minutes, it was just me and the sheep on the cliff edge. I grabbed some photos, had a walk around and took a seat in the shelter before dud 156451 appeared to take me back to civilisation, that being shack 4, Aspatria.

156469- Nethertown by Richard Green, on Flickr

Railway line- Nethertown by Richard Green, on Flickr

Another fester here produced fresh dud 37401 to take me back to Parton where all the bashers in the land seemed to disgorge and run for the opposite platform before one of them yelled over to one of their friends ‘Dave, where was it even last reported?’ Whatever was running in place of the earlier 142, it was clearly late. Eventually, winner 37422 rumbled in and against all bashing protocol, I went to the back coach. Why? It was empty and the front coach was full and standing with bashers. I’d be getting a short thrash out of 422 later, so I just decided to sit and back and enjoy the gossip between the two guards who were complaining about the locos and how they’ve had a single 153 stand in on a peak working when the 37 failed. In all honesty though, the late running meant that the driver was working the loco hard, so even sat at the back I could hear the engines loud and clear! Off I went to shack 5, Workington, bailing to get some shots of the 37 and to hear the monster get thrashed out of there! Positively deafening but a pleasure to listen to

37401- Parton by Richard Green, on Flickr

37422- Workington by Richard Green, on Flickr

I bailed here for dud 156451 to take me back down to shack 6, Harrington. Another pretty village with a bit of a fester, so I opted to go walk down to the beach (lots of beaches ) before returning to find a delay on the service I’d meant to take to Wigton. However, my connection was shot so I ended up taking dud 156481 to shack 7, Maryport instead. A +45 or so here, so I took a walk to the pier and picked up a few provisions before joining dud 37422 down to shack 8, Flimby. Another nice walk between trains on the beach here ended badly as I underestimated the depth of the water on the streams going through the sand and just missed the jump over the stream, resulting in some very soggy feet! It wasn’t very comfortable, so I had to flag the idea of Dalston and continue straight through to Carlisle on dud 156479, just making the connection onto dud 156475 for the run to Newcastle. I fell asleep by Brampton, waking only at Dunston! I was well and truly dazed though, as I picked up my things and awaited my lift home. Only a hot shower could get me awake again

156451- Harrington by Richard Green, on Flickr

37422- Flimby by Richard Green, on Flickr

A successful, albeit cold and wet day with two winning 37s! Not bad, eh?

Total Mileage: 266mi 56ch
Total Winners: 2+7 shacks
Total Cost: £15.50

Apart from the wet weather, that sounds like a fun day with plenty of tractor thrash!

Ouch to the feet getting drenched, but a good time otherwise! Been way too long since I last had 37422 from Rhymney to Cardiff!

I really need to return there soon and get some more 37s in the bag while I can, Dalston and Wigton need scratched too then that'll be everything Carlisle-Nethertown

Well, I enjoyed the Cumbrian coast report but the Majorcan one brought back some special memories - it was where Mrs 13 and myself had our honeymoon.
We didn't do the rail network, except the Soller tourist train.
Unfortunately, half way through our trip my wife's handbag got pinched and it had a full memory card in it with all our photos on, so we had to do the train a second time to try and recreate those lost shots.
Still, we've got some great memories of the Island, thanks for bringing them back to me.

Glad you enjoyed the reads and I'm glad I could bring back some memories. I've done the Soller line once too, very nice run.

Must be sort of record for lowest platform at Nethertown!

Sounded like a very good day, weather issues aside

Wow, just caught up on all these over the last few evenings! What a roller coaster you've had eh, and some very varied experiences!

Cracking stuff young man, thoroughly enjoyed every read and photo

By the way... I've had a few "Mrs right now"s in my time, and take it from me, it's all good fun as long as you don't do anything stupid because "Mrs right" will come along eventually

Cheers, looking at doing the 37s again this Saturday purely because I can avoid using 142s and get an HST to Carlisle thanks to there being diversions on

Looks like a great trip was had, I'm intending to do the Cumbrian Coast 37s in February.

I'm holding it off for now as the weather is going to be positively icy tomorrow! Instead it's a short Derbyshire Wayfarer, 0559 off Newcastle, back on the 1710 off Donny.

Shacks at Dore, Dronfield, Belper, Ambergate, Whatstandwell, Cromford, Spondon and Burton on my radar, all being well!

rg177 said:

I'm holding it off for now as the weather is going to be positively icy tomorrow! Instead it's a short Derbyshire Wayfarer, 0559 off Newcastle, back on the 1710 off Donny.

Shacks at Dore, Dronfield, Belper, Ambergate, Whatstandwell, Cromford, Spondon and Burton on my radar, all being well!

Click to expand...

good luck lad, remember to wear two short sleeved shirts to keep warm it's positively numb out there.

Derbyshire Wayfarer- 21/11/15

It was time for another impromptu trip this weekend, with Derbyshire being on my radar! I had a pile of requirements in terms of shacks, as well as tons of units to get, so I decided to embark on a Derbyshire Wayfarer. Two 1st advances were obtained from Newcastle to Doncaster at £14 and £20 respectively, as well as a return Doncaster-Sheffield at £4.15. From there, it was all on the Wayfarer. And with that, I set off for the 0559 to Doncaster, which had double duds 43309/43315 working. I took my seat in Coach L, and was promptly served tea and biscuits as far as York where a croissant and yoghurt was offered. I quickly wolfed down both before bailing at Donny and awaiting the 0735 to Manchester Airport. A busy dud 185133 was working, and we ended up crawling from Swinton to Meadowhall, with us running late then suddenly making up all 7 minutes between Meadowhall and Sheffield, bizarre. My intention had then been to do Dore as the TPE called there, and an EMT was calling heading back, but the EMT was running 2 late, with there being a +3 later at Chesterfield for Dronfield, I opted against this and instead joined dud 158816 on the 0808 to Nottingham, bailing at the aforementioned first winning shack of Dronfield where there was an EMT service due.

158816- Dronfield by Richard Green, on Flickr

Right on cue, double winners 158770/158865 rolled in and took me back to Sheffield. Sadly I missed a -1 by seconds onto another double winning pair back to Chesterfield, so instead it was straight onto dud 222102 through to Derby. Nice fast run here, pretty pleasant ambience too compared to the Voyagers. From here, it was onto shack 2, Burton on Trent. A completely rammed, late running with no explanation dud 220001 turned up on the 0930 to Plymouth. When I went to board an old woman helpfully pressed the door close button behind her, closing the door in my face! Many scowls were sent her way as I ended up standing in the vestibule to Burton where I swapped platforms for a far more pleasant winning 170101 back to Derby. The XC 170s are an untapped treasure trove of winners for me really, I think I’ve had about 5 of them! Now, my focus turned to the Derwent Valley Line. However, a filler move was required to avoid a massive fester. Winner 156406 turned up on the 1013 to Nottingham, which was duly taken to Long Eaton where I picked up a snack and drink for later in the day before heading back to the platforms for the 1037 to Matlock.

222102- Derby by Richard Green, on Flickr

170101- Derby by Richard Green, on Flickr

All of a sudden it was delayed with no explanation. Turns out there was ‘congestion on the line’ outside Attenborough, but there was nothing in front of the train and surely waiting for a train to cross towards East Midlands Pkwy wouldn’t take 9 minutes? Anyway, winner 156408 appeared and thankfully the delay gradually reduced to 3 minutes by shack 3, Ambergate. This was a good thing because of my +8 onto the bus to Whatstandwell! After a walk off the platform which was quite literally a solid sheet of black ice, and a very very cold wait next to a field, Wright Eclipse 748 arrived on the 1118 Trans-peak to Buxton. A quick flash of the Wayfarer and I took my seat for the non-stop 5 minute run. I nearly had a panic when I went to get off though as the bus had its own stop up the road from the normal services. The driver re-assured me that it wasn’t much further and indeed, it wasn’t too far up the road for me to then walk back down a very snowy path to shack 4, Whatstandwell. I still had 20 minutes, so I ended up taking a walk down the canal before returning to fresh dud 156408 for another very pleasant rural run back over to shack 5, Belper.

156408- Ambergate by Richard Green, on Flickr


Of course, it was going to be fresh dud 156406 working! Hey ho, I jumped on board and took a journey back up the line to a very icy shack 6, Cromford. This had a +19 for the 156 to come back, so again I had a walk, and grabbed some lovely shots of the snow topped hills before negotiating the slippery platform and taking 406 back to Belper in order to get the last shack on the line. You see, Cromford and Matlock Bath are actually quite close together and easily walkable, but Cromford station is shoved out of the way, requiring a lengthy detour so I just decided to take my time and get Matlock Bath the lazy way by train as unless I fancied a +26 at Spondon (which would’ve produced 156408. Again) there wasn’t much else to do down there in the time I had (Except a return to Tutbury and Hatton) so to Belper I went, and thankfully double winners produced in the form of 153311/153384. I took a seat in 311 up to shack 7, Matlock Bath. We were running 11 late, so my fester there was minimal as the 153s continued up to Matlock and came back straight away, carting me all the way back to Derby for 1413. Now, I was heading back earlier than usual (1710 off Donny) so my last possible connection was the 1525 off Derby, making potential moves limited. I opted for the 1421 to London St Pancras for a Long Eaton leap again, as it had winner 222103 working. Now, something strange happened here as there was a platform alteration from 4A to 6A (basically the opposite side of the island platform, nothing drastic) and as the train was busy I just stood myself at the back door for the short journey.

Cromford by Richard Green, on Flickr

156406- Cromford by Richard Green, on Flickr

People seemed unbelievably confused at this alteration and I had people asking if ‘I’ was the London train (Did I look like the guard to them) and I had one woman jam the door by getting on as it closed. I just ended up pulling the door shut myself as I only had a +8 at Long Eaton which again prompted further questions from passengers like ‘why did you change the platform’, questions shortly answered by the fact that the actual guard came over the PA, leading to the complainers sauntering off into the carriage Off I went at Long Eaton, and joined dud 156406 back to Derby. Next move was winner 222019 on the slightly delayed 1502 to Sheffield, which I just took through to Sheffield as the only possible move from here was a linear move onto the late running 222 behind. We were then in early enough for me to get the 1541 to Doncaster, but I flagged this as it was dud 158853. And, in all honestly, I wasn’t expecting much on the Adwick train either. All I’d noted on those workings earlier this morning were dud 142s, so you can imagine my pleasant surprise at winner 150270 rolling in!

150270- Doncaster by Richard Green, on Flickr

It was a sluggish stopping run to Doncaster where I retired to the First Class Lounge for a coffee and a good sit down until I joined the 1710 to Newcastle, which had dud 91104 at the helm. The service was, um, a bit of everything? I boarded to a smile from the female crew member, before a bloke tried to tell me that I needed Standard Class which I didn’t take particularly kindly to and said ‘No, First Class mate’ and plonked myself at the first table in Coach K. Out came the trolley being worked by the same bloke and I was offered the full menu, so I opted for the BLT Sandwiches, crisps and cake. Very nice they were too! The drinks trolley was worked by the more pleasant member of staff, so I went for tea and coke here, there seemed to be plenty of it at least! They then both returned to the crew area and proceeded to have an expletive ridden moan about ‘passengers taking the p*ss when they ask for food’ before asserting to each other that nobody after York was going to get any food. Sadly for them, about 20 people joined us at York so the trollies were begrudgingly brought out again. Drinks were offered to me again at least but I couldn’t help but feel like a burden for being in First! We were on time into Newcastle for 1837, where I headed home and proceeded to type this report

A good day, all the shacks to Matlock cleared at once, and a decent enough service in First Class I guess?

Total Winners- 10+7 shacks
Total Cost- £52.98