The Various Random Mutterings of Kite

At least you're still getting some travels in, as I'm assuming trips on the rails are almost at a halt for the remainder of the year? Nice work on falling onto that requirement though, beautifully timed!

Long distance trips are over for the year unless I manage to escape on to the odd railtour. I still have one trip report to finishing writing up and there are plans to spend a day or two cavorting around the capital in December.

Just had a pleasant ten minutes catching up with the last couple of reports Kite. Enjoyable as always.

A slightly annoying piece of local track fell to my red pen earlier this afternoon. Due to engineering works at Basingstoke, services on the West of England are terminating at Andover returning 45 minutes later departing from platform 1, so I've finally got the crossover to the west of the station

Only other piece of required microgricing in my local area is Laverstock Curve heading towards Andover (I've done it heading towards Romsey), which will probably be a job for the Christmas period when XC services are being sent that way due to an engineering block around St Denys.

Oh yeah yesterday was a railtour to Immingham Docks, no point doing a full report for it (as it probably won't be interesting), so a summary. 66020 & 66115 were the locos in charge, 115 leading out of Bedford [decided to do something which was on my list for a while, in having a decent run on a 700 on AC]. New track was the curve from Brocklesby Junction towards Ulceby, Immingham Humber Road Junction to the Coal Terminal, Ore Terminal, part of the Humber International Terminal, the reopened Killingholme branch, and maybe also another reception siding [but for that I need to check my notes for the tour I did there a couple years ago].

Made a "Bus avoidance move" connection at Bedford to 222012 for a run to St Pancras, heading towards Paddington (scoring the connection into platform 3 at Edgware Road from the east), but sadly the 22:00 HST was delayed by 15 minutes caused by earlier signal issues so my connection at Reading went down the toilet, resulting in a trip on a 220 to Basingstoke for a 75 minute fester (But still better than a bus from Woking!)

Anyhow a couple pictures will pop up on my Flickr account later this afternoon. Next weekend is a trip to Edinburgh, mainly to do a "Days Out" ticket with my fingers crossed that damn tram will be out (I wonder if Mr Dan can put a word in the direction of his contacts to arrange it )

When did you get the 707s then? I got them on the day they were under SWT. Saw a friend of Geoff Marshall’s on the train!

TT-ONR-NRN said:

When did you get the 707s then? I got them on the day they were under SWT. Saw a friend of Geoff Marshall’s on the train!

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11 are in my book so far, just need 005 to complete the ones which have entered service.

First couple entered my book in early September from Staines to Waterloo, the rest have been on bus stop leaps between Waterloo & Putney

Techniquest said:

It took you a while to get a 345 in the book as well to be fair You did get your first 707 before the rest of us though, unless Keith managed it and hasn't mentioned it yet.

A good month for you, and it was also good to catch up with you again, it had been a fair while. Probably going to be a good while until the next time too!

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Ah, I got my first 707 even before that then!

Hey @Blindtraveler would you recommend doing Lothian Bus Route 21 for a different view of the city?

(Or is there any other interesting routes within the city?)

Well that's me Finally all caught up now with your latest antics kite

The 21 is interesting in parts but most of it is a suburban trundle through houses so maybe not the most interesting

Depending on what sort of thing you want to look at there are various routes that might be of enjoyment to you

Excellent reads Kite. Good to see you on 24th. My first 707 was also on the first day under SWT on the Staines-Weybridge last trip, returning to Clapham Junction on a 12 car 450 along with most others. I've had several since then between Twickenham or Richmond and Clapham Junction being one of my route to/from work. I prefer them to 700s, seats a bit more comfortable, but shame you can't walk all the way through the trains.

Blindtraveler said:

Well that's me Finally all caught up now with your latest antics kite

The 21 is interesting in parts but most of it is a suburban trundle through houses so maybe not the most interesting

Depending on what sort of thing you want to look at there are various routes that might be of enjoyment to you

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Saying that, it will probably get dark in Edinburgh around 4pm this time of year so my options will be limited. I might have a look at the network map for ideas.

Feel free to text me with any questions you might have

10th November – The Day before the Sleeper

This is my last big trip of 2017, as in my last trip to Scotland with staying overnight, and as usual I booked myself onto the Edinburgh Sleeper for the chance of getting a required loco (or even 2 locos). But before the sleeper move I had an evening in London, and as I don’t need a lot anymore I spent the previous day & the morning thinking of where to go, before getting some good news that a certain 221 which has come back to life after many years sat in the wilderness of Central Rivers was gettable on a run which would only cost me around 30 minutes.

And getting 221144 tonight would save a job for future weeks, researching which moves it was on to try and intercept it one evening after work on something like a Basingstoke – Reading move. A quick turnaround at home and it was to the station boarding 159009 & 159022 (which clears 159022 for 1500 miles, leaving 012 as my only sub-1500 mile 159) for the run to Basingstoke, waiting around 15 or so minutes watching a bit of chaos at the western end as the double voyager overtook a freight service but couldn’t get access to platform 3 as a 159 working an ECS service to Winchester was blocking it, eventually 220031 rolled in with 221144 in tow, sadly it was 144 which was carrying the seat reservations so I ended up on the quieter 031 for the run to Reading

221144 at Reading

The late arrival meant I missed my planned HST, so had a short fester before the next Paddington service rolled in, formed of low mileage 43020 (sole entry being a St Erth – Penzance leap!) with Quinn’s 2nd favourite 43, 43026 on the rear (yes it was Mr Eavis). A fast journey to London where an unusual thing happened as looking at RTT this HST was meant to wait for a Heathrow Express at Airport Junction, but it arrived at the junction a good 5 minutes early and so got put ahead (all be it the 332 overtook the HST on the approach to Paddington).

I decided on a little 387 hunt, heading over to platform 14 jumping on a Maidenhead stopper as I made a mistake in not removing 387151 from my list of needs on Keep when I scored it back in September, with 387142 bringing up the rear for the short run to Ealing Broadway, annoyingly both dud. Anyhow I took up a seat as a Maidenhead fast service stormed past with required 155 on the rear, sadly looking at RTT it was heading back to the sidings after arrival at Maidenhead, the next Maidenhead stopper was a pair of duds and I was going to hang around for the next Hayes service but that had got delayed due to a late running freight service from Acton yard, so I decided to jump over to the other platform, which I think was a good decision as winner 387154 rolled in with 387152. I couldn’t ID the other set so decided to call it a night with the 387s, and headed to platform 16 at Paddington.

A busy 21321/21322 working a Hammersmith & City line service appeared next, which took me to Kings Cross St Pancras (in theory I could have probably made it to Liverpool Street in time for the 18:07, but it would have been very tight), instead I headed out into the open, passing some sort of food market in the area outside Kings Cross station, entering via the “exit only” gateline [which was wide open], heading towards the 700 sat on platform 8, which thankfully was required 700125. Noting the seat back tables and the WiFi (which didn’t want to work), I relaxed before departure, feeling it odd of getting a 700 out of Kings Cross, but it was my first winning Finsbury Park leap in many months (April 16 when I cleared the Great Northern 321s). With around 40 minutes to get to Liverpool Street I had a couple options, thankfully I made a connection to the easy option of 313039 heading to Moorgate for some PEP based action, transferring to 21517/21518 for the tiny leap to Liverpool Street.

My target was the 18:50 service, which was diagrammed to be a 345 (which intercepted another 345 somewhere on route), however my eyes were drawn to a 321 on the 18:48 Clacton service, jumping for joy as the 345 turned out to be dud (which was good as once more it overtook the 321s and departed Stratford before the 321s even arrived due to a Southend service a couple minutes earlier). Anyhow the triple was 321344, 321421 & 321304, my final 321/3 for haulage (which leaves the long term use of use 321448 as the sole member of the class to clear, if that ever returns to service).

321304 at London Liverpool Street

I was happy as it was lucky I decided to pop to Liverpool Street at that time, as I managed to get a seat on 315824/315856 for the run to Ilford, crossing over to the opposite platform (via the toilet for a quick PNB) before dud 345008 rolled in from Shenfield (ah well, I think I might leave the 345s for a couple more weeks to allow more to enter service, but knowing me I will be at Liverpool Street next Friday for the 18:50 service to chance my luck). Next up was some DLR action, walking towards the high level bay platforms, to board units 88 & 31 to Poplar, getting a front seat to try and ID the other units on Canary Wharf – Stratford services, next up was 92/61/55 to Shadwell for a short 20 minute fester just on the off-chance 39 would make an appearance. Alas it did not and it was cold standing at Shadwell, so I jumped onto Bank bound 146/105/129 to Bank, transferring to the Waterloo & City line with 65505/65506 taking me onwards to Waterloo, where I popped via Tesco for a Turkey Sandwich.

My next move was to intercept 2 out of the 3 707 diagrams, so it was a leap onto 458508 to Clapham Junction, sadly this was running a couple minutes late so didn’t fancy chancing the connection at Putney. The “all-day” Windsor diagram turned out to be a pair of 458s with 707029/707028 following, I made a mistake in not bailing at Vauxhall (as I had a silly idea of heading to Paddington to catch the 21:15 Hayes service to Ealing to chance my luck with the 387s again), but the 707s were held outside Waterloo for a few minutes so that idea went into the fire. 700 hunting it was, as I headed to the Northern Line platform for a couple minutes to watch out for my last 95 stock pair, before catching 51637/51721 for the tiny distance under the water to Embankment with 21379/21380 taking me to Blackfriars.

I wasn’t at Blackfriars for long (10 minutes) before winner 700124 rolled in on a Bedford service which I took to Farringdon, taking up my usual place on the footbridge before getting bored heading to Blackfriars on 700001 and with nothing due for 25 minutes I decided to head outside the station to look at getting another London Bus Route into my book, with either the 45 or 63 to Kings Cross, eventually a route 63 (bus MHV47) rolled up to take me the short distance around a few houses to the bus stop at Kings Cross York Way, an interesting route to see Central London (even though it was half ten the roads were still busy). After swinging around St Pancras (dud 700/1) I headed to the bus stop opposite the station for my first “Borismaster” bus LT844 working a route 73 to take me the lazy move a couple stops to Euston.

The sleeper this evening was departing from platform 15, and I was happy as finally a required loco was on the front, this time being 92010:

92010 at Euston

Walking back along the platform, I took up my seat in the Edinburgh portion, quite heavily reserved judging by the seat reservation labels but after Watford there was a couple empty seats, thankfully a group of excited tourists quieten down after Watford, but for me it was a half decent night’s kip, once I located my coat as it got a bit chilly, waiting up for some fresh air at Carlisle, interrupted by the sound of 37401 pushing the first coast train of the day away (which looked empty).

And on that note, I think it is a good time to say “to be continued”, leaving you with a picture of a classic GWML machine:
43026 at Reading

43026 - what a beast!

Sounds like a highly successful evening with 321304 finally falling. 321448 was spotted (all 4 coaches, although not in order) at Doncaster on Saturday by myself so hopefully it'll be back soon.

92010 is the only 92 I've had for haulage although it's rather high mileage - Euston-Glasgow-Euston.

fishquinn said:

43026 - what a beast!

Sounds like a highly successful evening with 321304 finally falling. 321448 was spotted (all 4 coaches, although not in order) at Doncaster on Saturday by myself so hopefully it'll be back soon.

92010 is the only 92 I've had for haulage although it's rather high mileage - Euston-Glasgow-Euston.

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Bah call that high mileage

I've had 92014:
Euston - Carstairs
Edinburgh - Wembley Depot via ECML
Edinburgh - Euston
Euston - Carstairs
Carstairs - Edinburgh

So roughly 1580 miles from the Sparky Dyson

321304 was a highlight, only leaves 3 more 'old' EMUs left, and 2 of those are long term out of use (332014 & 321448) with 483009 out on the Isle of Wight which will a case of getting lucky when I decide to pop across to the Hampshire island.

As always, a top read Kite. Major congratulations on getting a number of scores in an area where you need virtually nothing!

11st November – Edinburgh Days Out, day 1

So I left you when I was on the sleeper, caught some more winks before 92010 came to a stop at Carstairs pretty much bang on time for the split, a couple southbound services passed before my good friend came into sight, 92014, sparking away as it was quite damp. The 92 attached and after a delayed start pulled the Edinburgh portion of the sleeper towards Edinburgh, I couldn’t sleep due to the noise of the 92 joined with the noise of it sparking away. So I decided to take a look at the Transport for Edinburgh App to see if a certain tram was out and about this morning, getting good news, with making a plan to intercept it on the way back from the Airport.

92014 at Edinburgh Waverley, probably the highest miled loco in my books!

Swinging via the ticket office to purchase an Edinburgh Plusbus (hey it is cheaper than a day-ticket purchased from the tram machines) and an Edinburgh Days Out pass, before swinging via the Sainsburys for a bacon sandwich, as I had a short walk over to the St Andrew Square tram stop for tram 259 to take me all the way to Edinburgh Gateway, I could have probably made a tight connection at Gogarburn, but decided against it (after all Edinburgh Gateway has a roof), the first York Place bound tram was delayed and dud, with the next service due in a few minutes afterwards, and with a smile on my face when tram 255 rolled in.

I had got the bugger at last, clearing all of the Edinburgh Trams, so with a smile on my face I headed back to the city centre, alighting at St Andrews Square for a celebration picture

Edinburgh Tram 255 by Kite, on Flickr

Right, so with that tram out of the way, I turned my attention to my rough plan to recover a couple lines within the Days Out area, so I had a fast walk to the far end of platform 7 (noting the new platforms slowly coming along) to take a seat on a quiet 158711 for the run to Tweedbank, skipping Stow. Once outside the city limits this line is quite beautiful in places, and after reaching the current end of the line, I changed coaches to head back to Galashiels on a busy service, there wasn’t many seats left on departure and it looked like the 158 was full & standing after departing Galashiels, so my plan changed as I wasn’t going to be standing on the next service.

158711 at Tweedbank - 158711 departs Galashields

158716 was up next to take me back to Tweedbank, but this time staying in the same seat as once more departure back to Edinburgh was quite full, after Stow it was pretty much all full & standing, leaving passengers behind by Gorebridge as there just wasn’t space, the aisles were full. A mix of rugby traffic, with general passengers heading on a day trip to Edinburgh meant my rough idea to bail at Newcraighall for a bus move to Musselburgh went into the bin as the 158 eventually reached Edinburgh Waverley with a revenue block to sell tickets to those unable to purchase before hand.

My next move was to North Berwick, somewhere I hadn’t visited since March 2014, and then it was a case of jumping off the train for a quick photo before jumping back on, so I wanted to explore this little seaside town, so it was onto 380106 for the fast run to North Berwick (forgetting how good the 380s ride at speed), to visit the beach and a nearby Co-Op for lunch before returning to the station

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After watching what must be one of the slowest station approaches, I took a seat on 380111 on the next Edinburgh service, once more coming across a revenue block at Edinburgh Waverley to serve those passengers who were unable to purchase tickets. No issues exiting platform 1, as I headed out of the station to do some personal business to visit a branch of my new bank (TSB) in order to pay in a cheque I received earlier in the week from GWR.



I was lazy, and jumped on a route 4 bus (fleet 391) for the tiny hop to Princes Street, did my business in the bank before returning on another route 4 bus (fleet 394), kept me out of the cold wind. My next plan was a trip to Falkirk High to have a look at the wiring now it had been completed, the next Glasgow Queen Street service had been cancelled due to a late arrival into Edinburgh (looked like it ran ECS back to Glasgow to get back onto diagram), so I was expecting a large flow onto the next service which ran fast to Falkirk (after Haymarket). 170426 & 170401 was the pair of 170s on the 14:00 departure, as I got a seat in the front coach of 426 for the fast run (can’t wait to do this on an EMU), alighting at the limit of availability of my rover at Falkirk High.

I had only previously visited Falkirk High back in January 16, where I just needed to get off a busy solo 170 working a peak-time service, so it was nice to have a look around, noting that the station is indeed quite high up
Dan’s favourite 170401 departs Falkirk High
The hill at Falkirk High

10 minutes later a standard class only 170393 rolled in to take me to Haymarket where I accidentally nearly got onto the wrong train (nearly got onto a Dundee bound 170 rather than a Dunblane 170), with 170460 getting a slight top up mileage run to Edinburgh Park before a speedy run on 334016 & 334028 to Bathgate, mainly to cover that part of the rover before it got dark.

170460 departs Edinburgh Park by Kite, on Flickr Bathgate depot

The depot was pretty much empty, but it was quite chilly waiting for the next Edinburgh service, which was a solo 334031 where I bailed at Edinburgh Park. Darkness had fallen and needing the grand total of 1 long term out of use Glasgow Subway car in Scotland, I decided to focus onto the buses, so anybody who doesn’t like buses can look away now, but I find travelling by bus a good way to seeing parts of the city you wouldn’t otherwise see, with first up being a random choice of a route 36 bus (bus 140) which went on a tour passing an university, Slateford, Moringside before going round some back roads to reach Leith. I bailed roughly 70 minutes later at “St Anthony Street”, having a short walk around the corner to the stop called “Kirkgate Centre” getting lucky with a route 21 bus (163) to take me to Somerset Place, to allow me to check into my usual hotel, and dropped some weight.

Back to the buses, with a short wait before the next 21 to Gyle Centre, I had a short walk to “Burns Street” for a short run on bus 557 working a route 34 to “Academy Street” which was opposite a large Tesco which I used to purchase something light to munch on, before bus 745 (a nice double decker) working a route 21 service took me to the Gyle Centre via a different route avoiding the city centre, passing places such as “Crewe Toll” (noting what appeared to be an old railway bridge now being used as a footpath) & “Clermiston” before terminating at the Gyle Centre. Option 1 was a short walk to the tram stop for a tram back to the city, or a route 22 bus (fleet 452) working a service to the Ocean Terminal, this time going via the city centre along other routes.

I jumped off the bus at the “Foot of the Walk” to visit a Pizza Hut for a pizza, which was both a good idea (something hot) but also a bad idea (nowhere to eat it). However it was a route 25 bus which took me to “Gladstone Place” (bus 457) as I found a seat on the Leith Links, to eat my pizza before returning to the home as I was going to call it a night, however the WiFi in the room wasn’t working so I decided to head out for a walk, walking to Tesco (finding out that one set of doors are locked up), purchasing a drink before deciding on a route 25 bus to the end of the line (so to speak) at Craigentinny Avenue (the route given on the app is wrong as the bus does a large non-stop loop, terminating at the bus stop in the Restalrig area, overlooking the ECML with the lights of the depot in sight.

A short wait at the bus stop before bus 459 arrived to take me back towards the hotel, the driver not responding to my “stop” button eventually coming to a stop at Duke Street, for a walk back to the hotel, to retire for the evening. Happy that tram 255 had finally fallen, and with a couple good runs of rediscovery.

A good day was had in Edinburgh. Unlucky that it happened to fall on the day when Scotland were playing rugby (good result, though!) The 36 bus goes right past my flat in Canonmills you I may have seen you go past. It is a nice route in places, must be said.

alexf380 said:

A good day was had in Edinburgh. Unlucky that it happened to fall on the day when Scotland were playing rugby (good result, though!) The 36 bus goes right past my flat in Canonmills you I may have seen you go past. It is a nice route in places, must be said.

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Hence why I decided to stay away from the centre. Mr Dan did mention the 36 went past your mansion

You also came close to where Blindtraveller lives I noted when you mentioned Crewe Toll. I've seen the bridge you mentioned there from route 37, never explored the area enough to find out what that line was.

Many congratulations on clearing Edinburgh Trams at long last, I'm still a fair way off on them but they will eventually fall when the new line opens. I can hear Blindtraveller going after me with that comment already

The bridge in question: https://goo.gl/maps/DP9ka2pRjMq

After a quick look on Google, it might have been parts of the old Edinburgh, Leith & Newhaven Railway

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinb...nburgh-_Granton-_Haymarket_&_Leith_RJD_27.jpg

There was another "that looks like an old railway bridge" moment when on the 25 heading towards Restalrig, with the former track bed turned into a footpath

The public finances of this city are in enough trouble without building another totally pointless and costly extension to that white elephant on a tram system
I am however delighted that two 55 Has Fallen at long last

Apologies for not being around to cook you a fresh pizza and provide you with somewhere warm to eat it

Kite, there's just no stopping you trying to get every single shred of grab-able stuff in the book. But well done on that Edinburgh tram, something that most of us can only aspire to. ANd I clocked that a certain Dusty Bin fell as well. You're on another roll .....

12th November – Edinburgh Days Out, Day 2

I woke up after a decent night’s sleep (one advantage of the single rooms in my usual hotel in Leith is that they overlook the rear of the house so you get no road noise), checked out fired up Google Maps to look at options to reach the city centre, with it highlighting a route 1 bus, so it was a short walk in the chilly morning air to reach the “Academy Park” bus stop, with bus 289 sat on the opposite sit of the road waiting for departure time. An Airport bus came and went before 289 did a trip round the roundabout to arrive, silence as a mouse due to this bus being one of the newest buses on the Lothian Buses fleet, powered by electricity, and Mr Dan you have got a treat in store as they have a nice motor noise when inside.

Anyhow this was my only bus move of the day, as I got dropped off at Waverley Steps, picking up a bacon sandwich from Sainsburys for breakfast before heading into the underbelly of Waverley station, waiting for the Aberdeen HST to roll in from the depot, arriving onto the awful platform 19 (well not awful if you were in First Class, but for standard class most normals will crowd to board the first available door which normally aligns up with a narrow section of the platform before it opens up) 43312 was leading 43239 for the short run across the Forth Bridge (as no trip to Edinburgh isn’t complete without a trip across the bridge) to Inverkeithing

- View from Forth Rail Bridge

43239 departs Inverkeithing

The next Edinburgh service was being showed as “formed of 5 coaches”, and after a short wait in the chilly air (and on a busy platform) 170454 & 158716 rolled in to take me back to Edinburgh Waverley, no prize at guessing which unit I decided to sit in. Next up on my list of places to visit on the Rover was Stirling, mainly because I saw something odd with RTT with an Edinburgh stopping service starting from platform 10. I noticed the next Dunblane stopper was a Haymarket 158 so to reduce the time I decided on a little linear hop to Linlithgow on a plain blue 170420 & 170394, mainly so I can take this picture to tease Techniquest with (hehe, also it was a low mileage machine so bumped it up to over 10 miles).

170420 at Linlithgow

I didn’t have long to wait at Linlithgow, noting the next time I will be will hopefully be from a class 385, before 158870 rolled in to take me to Stirling where due to my iPod deciding it likes to drain its battery I decided to dash out of the station but couldn’t find the Poundland in time so headed back to the station, sadly my hopes of scoring platform 10 was dashed, but I will take platform 8 as a platform score with 158712 leading 158871, as I took a seat in the Inverness based 158 because they are nicer inside than a member of the “English 8”, although it had a poorly engine as the driver kept on trying to restart it after every stop for it to cut out after a few seconds (but did mean it was a nice quiet coach). No time was lost as I bailed at Edinburgh Park for a quick walk over to a nearby Poundworld to purchase an iPod docking station (on grounds that there was no iPod charging cables available, and for £1 I wasn’t moaning). I headed back to the station to board 334025 & 334015 to take me to Haymarket where I bailed from the 334 as the loo was locked out of use and Haymarket has free toilets for a quick PNB, before jumping on 170460 to Waverley my final move of the rover.

With 90 minutes to kill before my booked train home, I decided to head to a couple shops to see if they had anything of interest, swinging back via Princes Street Gardens which gave a couple good viewing points of the station:

View of Edinburgh Waverley from Princes Street Gardens

View of Edinburgh Waverley from Princes Street Gardens

After taking care of some retail business I headed towards the First Class Lounge at Waverley to relax before heading across to the platform where the Euston service was departing from, due to the engineering works around Grantham, there was a reduced service on the ECML, so heading back via the WCML was cheaper, with a seat in the posh area only £10 or so more expensive when booking, so it was an easy decision as I took up my reserved bay of 2 on low mileage 390118 for the nice run to Crewe (getting served a nice Chicken wrap along the way) Sadly at Carlisle a weekend upgrader sat opposite me and spent the next hour or so on her phone calling rubbish, but the Lake District in the dying light is a beautiful sight. A special mention to the train manager for his funny announcements along the way. Once at Crewe I headed to the lounge to stock up on some soft drinks (as you don’t get free soft drinks at weekends anymore on Virgin WC, only drink option seems to be Coffee/Tea or Water).

20 minutes later I headed back to the platform to board 390047 to take me via the Trent Valley back to Euston, sadly unlike the Edinburgh service the Train Manager on this service seemed to be invisible (no ticket check with the automatic announcements). When did the toilets on 390 feature Will Ferrell? A decent enough run on the WCML, it was in darkness so nothing much to do other than to finish my movie and relax, arrival was on time so I had roughly 70 minutes to reach Waterloo so for 30 minutes I took up a place on the Northern Line platform to see if my final 95 stock pair would appear, alas they didn’t as I took 51590/51589 to Waterloo, to take a seat on the 21:15 departure listening as Inspector Sands was being called to the Lost Property Office (for he has misplaced his hat) before 159001 & 159102 took me to Basingstoke.

Why Basingstoke you might be asking, well sadly I couldn’t do a rail replacement bus avoidance move this evening as the direct line from Basingstoke to Salisbury was closed for engineering works with the 159s going on a detour via Southampton. I was hoping to get onto an Express bus to Andover but that broke down so the few passengers there were boarded the “stopper” bus, I couldn’t catch the number plate but it was a service bus ran by a company called “White(s)” based in Little London [which is a tiny hamlet off the road from Andover to Newbury]. Noting a new roundabout along the way as one passenger got off at Overton, one passenger got off at Whitchurch, 5 alighted from the bus near Andover town centre with a further trio getting off at Andover, leaving me as the only passenger until someone else boarded (after being made to purchase a ticket from the TVM). I decided to be a bit cheeky and asked the driver to stop near my house and was happy when he dropped me by the top of the drive. Well it saved a walk back down the road from the station bus stop.

A nice enough long weekend in Scotland and I will leave you with this picture of two Virgin trains:
91127 & 390118 at Edinburgh Waverley

Anyhow the reason why this report took a while to do, is because I’ve been busy with my log files using the sheet which Ash kindly sent me over

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VR-1l6ulDDzs2d2Bqm79UnlE_IFqm508/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MHtxQfGCzqOtWQebThFyEnMXDf8feQ_K/view?usp=sharing

A rather enjoyable day out there!

I have still not managed one of the new electric buses yet so glad you have

Thanks for sharing a very interesting little report there kite

Enjoyable reads as always Kite. Glad you got the sheet to work, some huge numbers on your 159's!

When I first opened the sheet, because of the way you've ordered the data and the 3 decimal places on the mileages, I thought you'd had 72,613 miles on 159006

ash39 said:

Enjoyable reads as always Kite. Glad you got the sheet to work, some huge numbers on your 159's!

When I first opened the sheet, because of the way you've ordered the data and the 3 decimal places on the mileages, I thought you'd had 72,613 miles on 159006

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I rearranged the front sheet so it matches my existing log sheet to make it easier when copying & pasting the data.

Also allowed me to double check my LU logs which sadly highlighted 92048 as being marked as being had but I can't find any entries for it, but everything else checks out which I'm happy with. At least it gives me another 92 stock to look out for when on a Leyton fester

A brief look back in November

I might as well get this out of the way now, than waiting until November is over as it is unlikely I will get back on the rails this week. Anyhow the first weekend of the month was an overnight stay in Croydon, this time sampling the Travelodge. The Friday was spent picking up a couple more 345s & 707s as well as having a social with Andy who was down from sunny Manchester. The Friday was mainly to be in a position for an early morning trip to Bedford, scoring a 700/1 in the process for a tour of various bits within Immingham docks.

Coming back my plan for a bus avoidance move failed when a HST departed Paddington 16 minutes late, meant a 70 minute wait on a cold Basingstoke station for the 159 to roll in from the sidings, but it was a good day. Due to engineering works the only thing I did on the Sunday after recovering was a trip to Andover to randomly score a crossover coming back out after doing some shopping.

My big trip of this month was a return to Edinburgh on the 11th November, and as usual I went up on the sleeper, so the Friday was spent in London, picking up 221144 from Basingstoke to Reading as a “couldn’t have timed that better” move, a couple more units fell, sampling my first 700 out of Kings Cross and getting lucky with my final 321/3 popping up at Liverpool Street when I swung by to try and ID the 345s out. A required 92010 took me onwards to Carstairs handing over to my dear friend, 92014 to make a nice noise on route to Edinburgh.

I got lucky as a positioning move to Edinburgh Gateway on the tram, allowed me to finally get my last Edinburgh Tram into my book, before heading down to Tweedbank with a cosy train coming back, revisiting North Berwick to look at the beach, a trip to Falkirk High & Bathgate for no reason other than something to do, before having an evening on the buses of Edinburgh. The Sunday was a nice trip across the river via an VTEC HST before a 158 to/from Stirling, before having a relaxing trip to Euston in First Class on a couple 390s (changing at Crewe), sadly I couldn’t escape the rail replacement bus this evening (unless I had wanted to drive to Basingstoke on Friday).

The 17th November was a return of a London “Spin & Win” trip, picking up a required 345 & 700 but not a lot else, I had hoped to sample an IET (800) but that was replaced by a HST so its swings & roundabouts. The Saturday was part 1 of my “West Midlands Revisited” trip, where I revisited several lines within the West Midlands Day Ranger area, Hereford was up first, changing at Worcester from a 170 to a nice HST to Hereford, before returning to Shrub Hill for a 172 to Moor Street, before a slow trip to Rugeley and a quiet 323 from Lichfield (I was hoping for something nice on the non-stop run from Sutton Coldfield, but alas apart from initial acceleration the 323 was quiet).

Another 707 was picked up after a forum meal during the week, with 707005 entering my book, but like the 345s I might wait until the new year to resume my hunting, allows for more to arrive & enter service., but who knows what I will end up doing, as I don’t always know myself these days.

Anyhow, the 24th November was a positioning move to Birmingham, sampling a good run behind 68009 to Kidderminster, before a 172 back to Moor Street and not really the greatest night’s sleep in a city centre hostel (booked mainly for location & price). The main event was the Saturday for part 2 of my “West Midlands Revisited”, with an early morning trip to Wolverhampton before a non-stop run to Walsall to finally score Soho North to East curve. After returning to New Street it was a 350 to Stafford to get a 390 to Nuneaton for no reason other than wanting to be on a 390 which called at Nuneaton, also it allowed me the chance to head back to New Street via the slow XC route on a full & standing 170.

Another trip to Stafford, staying on to Crewe this time, before changing over to a 350 via Stoke to take me to Tamworth, mainly to get that rebuilt chord at Norton Bridge into my book (also to say farewell to London Midland, as I suspect 350109 will be my last LM service). Anyhow I got lucky with a late running 170 back to New Street, allowing me to connect with a 221 to Shrewsbury (saves a job in January time, leaving Preston – Blackpool North as being the sole part of the VTWC network I need coverage by a VT service), before getting my first ticket check of the day on a pair of ATW 158s back to New Street, fighting the crowds to reach 68008 to push me back south, with 220034 doing the honours back to Basingstoke.

I was originally going to head out to London today (26th), however I can’t find the motivation for LU hunting at the moment (I blame the weather), problem with needing hardly anything on LU means a good chance of a long fester waiting to spot anything required.

Anyhow a 350260 based interlude:
350260 at Birmingham New Street

The all important Numbers

3342 miles covered (47925 miles to year, roughly equal to my 2016 figure at the end of November)
3 new locos (66020; 66115; 92010) gaining a tick in my little book
14 new units (1x 221, 1x 321 1x 387, 3x 345, 4x 700 & 4×707)
1x Edinburgh Tram
0 new shacks into my book

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Looking ahead to December, sees no big end of year trip (no 5-days in Glasgow this year), with the only things currently booked is a 47 hauled railtour this coming Saturday on the Great Western, a short trip to Manchester on the 9th (aiming for some tram hunting). The Jolly Grid tour & Grand Central HST Farewell on a busy weekend, probably a couple trips to London (thinking of having a Thames Branches rover on the 21st December to get some 800s into my book before the end of the year), with my final tour of the year being the Pieman tour to Melton Mowbray test-track.

I shall leave you with a speeding 390
Unknown 390 speeds past Norton Bridge

Quite a busy month for you Kite I've now finished for 2017 as far as I'm concerned, nothing left to do and, to be honest, almost no time whatsoever to do much anyway. Not that it bothers me, Alicante is not far away!