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ash39's Trip Reports & Photos

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ash39

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Great read there Ash, being from the Midlands and having been more interested in the past 18 months of clearing Northern pacers etc i've only done one southern rover and that was the Freedom of the South West last October, primarily to scratch my last GWR 143s which I managed to do. I stayed fairly much Exeter and westbound, so there's plenty of scope to do more on the eastern end of the rover area as you have done on your last day or so, so it was definitely useful to see where you went etc. Thanks for sharing!

It sounds like you've had a very similar last couple of years to us! The Northern ones took a lot of effort to clear.

To be honest the trip couldn't have gone better, we planned to go to the South Coast on the last day but had it gone wrong and we still needed a pacer somewhere, we wouldn't have made it. It made a nice change and it shows the versatility of the ticket. HST's in the south west one day, third rail EMUs the next!

Great read from start to finish Ash.
My sympathies on been wedged on a voyager, even more so in the vestibule.
However over the course of 4 days, it's been a very profitable trip indeed.
Eastliegh normally has a few GB Sheds, Colas sheds and Plugs kicking round, the odd ED too, the EDs seem to all congregate in Tonbridge Yard these days. Still I'm quite surprised there was nowt of great interest there, you only have to check on RTT or on youtube and there's always a varied collection of traction heading for the place.
As for Milbrook, if you'd had been a one legged crossdresser, you'd have got yourself a canny haul of new shoes there.;)
As I said great read Ash, certainly seemed like you both enjoyed the trip.

We didn't spend long at Eastleigh to be fair, too busy chasing units. There were a number of guys on the platforms with cameras so there must have been a decent amount of stuff due through. I suppose in this day and age seeing two moving freights in less than an hour is considered busy!

Absolutely concur to the max.

Could you do another one so that I have something good to read with my cornflakes in a morning. :)

If you can arrange the time off with my employer, I will happily oblige!

Glad you enjoyed them.

A shame the trip ended in such a negative way, but overall it looks like it was quite productive.

Papa Johns, not really that enthusiastic about trying them to be honest. They certainly haven't made much of an impact here, Dominos and Pizza Hut still dominate the market in Hereford. Maybe everyone who's been didn't like Papa Johns, I never hear anyone talk about going there. Not a good sign!

As for Eastleigh, yeah I'm always reading how great it is too but it's not that amazing. Peterborough is the same, everyone waxes lyrical about it but I've never really enjoyed a visit there.

Never particularly liked Peterborough as it's not very photogenic but it is often busy to be fair.

Need to finish reading your London trip, enjoyed day 1. Welcome back!
 
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Techniquest

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Thanks! Only back on a part time basis at the moment, although I must confess to wanting to get moving again ASAP and get another magic wand waving session going!
 

Andy Pacer

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Thanks! Only back on a part time basis at the moment, although I must confess to wanting to get moving again ASAP and get another magic wand waving session going!
It does get you even having been out of it for a while, I'm starting a 7 day 1st class ALR next month and can't wait!
 

ash39

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I'm a bit out of sync at the moment, as I never added a May report. Not very much happened, but I did get a winner 90 so for the sake of completeness (and my OCD) I'll get one added at some point.

What I hope will provide a more interesting read is my 4 in 8 North East Rover I did last week, with my mate CumbrianSausage of this forum once again along for the ride. Day 1 is attached below, but if you don't like class 91's, you can probably give this one a miss!!
 

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  • NER Day 1.pdf
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Techniquest

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Quite an intense day for mileage there. 153324 on its own on a peak train? Ouch that would have been a bit poor on board, and if it makes you feel any better I also need 153324!

I did Hereford to Paddington via Evesham on 800007 a good few months back, so I can reliably tell you unless the seats have been made better on LNER's sets then a run to London will not be comfortable! That being said non-stop York to London is a lot less time-wise than the Hereford to London journey was, I was on 800007 for about 3.5 hours!
 

ash39

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Quite an intense day for mileage there. 153324 on its own on a peak train? Ouch that would have been a bit poor on board, and if it makes you feel any better I also need 153324!

The driver did say it was booked for 2 carriages. It was a bit of a farce really, especially when the driver himself couldn't get to the cab :lol:

Day 2 now attached!
 

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ash39

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Ouchie with that dogbox on its own, Leeds twinned with Lincoln :lol:

It was a bad one, but to be fair a 2 car pacer would probably have taken everyone. Only 20-30 didn't make it. Would be interested to know what the vooked traction is for that service.

More variety on Day 2 at least there, and as always some lovely photos to go with the report :)

Thanks. Days 3 and 4 (which were the highlight of the trip...) will have to wait a couple of days, I'm currently posting from coach B behind 91101. Another work trip, and another 91 in the 500 club!
 

Andy Pacer

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It was a bad one, but to be fair a 2 car pacer would probably have taken everyone. Only 20-30 didn't make it. Would be interested to know what the vooked traction is for that service.



Thanks. Days 3 and 4 (which were the highlight of the trip...) will have to wait a couple of days, I'm currently posting from coach B behind 91101. Another work trip, and another 91 in the 500 club!
Hopefully you weren't caught up in today's ECML disruption.
 

ash39

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Kind of, but it ended up working in my favour... I had an advance on the 1658 YRK-KGX. Got to the station early and saw it was very busy, but thought nothing of it and went for a pint. When I checked the progress of my train on RTT, I saw it was cancelled.

Walked back to the station to see the next 4 trains on the departure boards showing Kings Cross!

91101 pulled into platform 9 southbound, slightly unusual in itself for an LNER service. It had some vacant seats so I jumped on, ended up 20 early (for me) at Kings Cross which gave me time for a burrito at Paddington before onwards to Swindon on winner 800313... happy days!
 

55013

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I've noticed (and suffered) quite a few single 153s around Leeds recently.
It's grim up North.
Still, plenty of 91 moves to read about :)
 

ash39

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Day 3 attached. A good day
 

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Andy Pacer

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Day 3 attached. A good day
Another great read, I'm doing an East Mids 3 in 7 rover this weekend and have managed to clear my last two LNER HSTs (43306 and 43316 - I'm heading north on the latter as I type). Just 91128 to go for all of the 'old stuff'. I've also by chance got two Azumas in the book as well (800102 and 800111) but they were just because they were there!
 

Kite159

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I shall give that a read during one of my festers later today :)

-----

Edit, well done on getting 91130 over the thousand miles line and some pacer based fun at the end of the day
 
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ash39

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Better late than never, the conclusion of the North East Rover now attached!
 

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Techniquest

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Definitely a great trip there, and dedication for sure with doing a 10k run afterwards! Not even I would fancy trying that, and I love my cardio!
 

ash39

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Wow nearly 3 months since I posted in here. To be honest, not a great deal happened in the early part of summer so I wasn't motivated to share the blogs.

August however was a very busy month, with 3 full days out, a 4 day highland road trip and no less than three new train types sampled. Being based in Yorkshire I'm sure you can guess which one of them was...

I write these for the benefit of my future self to jog memories and hopefully be a nice bit of nostalgia. I can appreciate that not all of what is in this particular episode will be of interest to everyone, but hopefully some will be.
 

Kite159

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Ignore all that, the file is too large to upload :lol:

I believe the file size limit has decreased from 5MB, I suspect the easiest way is to upload the PDF to a file sharing website and share the link, unless you can work with Google Drive to set something as public
 

ash39

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Yep, just tired to load September's which is much more modest in size but it's still too large to upload!

I think that's the end of this thread unfortunately.
 

Techniquest

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Yep, just tired to load September's which is much more modest in size but it's still too large to upload!

I think that's the end of this thread unfortunately.

Oh no, that sucks! I love your trip reports, so well written and enjoyable.

Really hope it's not the end altogether, I'm sure many others will agree with me that your reports will be missed!
 

ash39

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Good news, October was a quieter month so the file is small enough to upload.

I still need to try and find a way to upload the others at some point.
 

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Kite159

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Ah good, I shall download and have a read :)

------

Regarding the blockbusters, I think it was in Preston where I noticed a fully branded JJB Sports shop, untouched since they came to an end. Likewise you have some of the old Poundworld sites untouched, used to be one in the shopping centre next to Forster Square in Bradford.

A busy month, well done on making a start with the 801s, I will probably make a start with them next year on Wakefield leaps.
 
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Techniquest

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As always, an excellent read and some top photos in there too. Quite a productive time all in, despite things like the farce with that huge delay to Garforth. I could only imagine the dismay of your mate with that XC power car being missed too!

As for those beers, I've not tried them yet. LHG are usually pretty good, not had one of theirs in a good while. Gipsy Hill is a brewery I haven't really got into yet. I've been clearing my beerticking requirements in my local supermarkets quite a bit lately, indeed I've got 3 winners from Waitrose earlier. Still 4 more in there yet I haven't had, but that's for another time. Gutted that I didn't try that seasonal one blood orange one from Beavertown though, knew I should have got it a while back as it appears to have gone now. Oh well!
 

433N

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Good news, October was a quieter month so the file is small enough to upload.

I still need to try and find a way to upload the others at some point.

I don't know how you export to pdf, but my export has an option to decrease the quality of the images. I find that I can decrease to 5-10% quality without degrading the image unacceptably. This makes the pdf much smaller.
 
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