06/02/2020 - (Almost) All The Duds...
It's a railway trip report from Techniquest in
2020! My good grief it's been a while, although I've seemingly lost the ability to come up with good trip report titles, it was really difficult to think of one!
So what's new in Tech's world since last I posted a railway trip report? I had to check when that was, October
2019 with a visit to Merseyside, by gulps it's been a while. Well at least some of you will by now have read my LA and Kraków trip reports over on Wordpress, but for those who haven't yet not only do I recommend getting the reading done because I'm very pleased with the production, it also discusses the various updates since autumn
2019 (it was an integral part of that trip, so it needed discussing at length) so it's worth a look. Since I returned from Kraków, some of you on this forum will have seen that I've been well into getting my GWR IETs done lately. That's partly from being bored on my afternoons/days off lately, I've not got the same motivation this year as I did in
2019 to be active. I'm sure that will soon change again of course, and I'm still working on reducing my sugar intake.
It's harder to do than I thought, especially with Easter fast approaching. Reducing the coffee intake, or more accurately managing it better, I'm more or less there now. I am of course still human, so prone to having excess occasionally, but generally speaking I've got that sorted. I've also launched into a scheme to start reducing my salt intake, and slowly I'm working on going from drinking squash to drinking plain water. That's not going too badly, so far so good, and I'm using my improved patience (compared to
2019 at least) to play the long game with cutting down on the sugar. It's hard work, and with trying to also increase fruit and veg consumption, as well as cut down on meat, there's a lot going on! Oh, and for those wondering if I've caved and stopped being teetotal, I can proudly say that no, I haven't and I'm loving being teetotal. I don't know why I didn't do this years ago, the money I could have saved! Which is where this trip comes in, I had the money to go to Bristol on a day off even on Anytime Day Returns, and the amount of IETs I could score was promising based on past observations. There was also the possibility to score some GWR Turbos too, and I had made the decision to go as early as possible to maximise my day out.
So with all that discussed, the other big news is that I've also got a mini trip to Iceland coming up in late March! Of course, in due time that will get fully discussed in the relevant World Frenzy report. Oh, and final big update! This could be my last impulsive trip for a while, as next week I begin a long series of expensive dental appointments as I've finally manned-up and got the first appointment booked. It's going to cost a fortune to get it done, but it will be worth it in the long term. So yeah, quite a bit more going on than I had initially planned to mention!
Right, the trip itself then! After a bit of an interrupted sleep, it was up and out of bed at
0410 to have breakfast. I even stuck to not having a coffee before leaving the house, only making one to take with me. With a long day ahead that would never have happened in the past!
0451 and it was off to the station which I reached quicker than expected. The
0523 to London Paddington was observed, and I had planned to go via Worcester originally, but I discounted that on the basis of going that way quite often anyway, and the likelihood of a winner 9-car on the morning services was very unlikely, given I need only
2 802/1s. The Anytime fare from Worcester to Bristol was also a bit much for my liking, and there would be Voyagers involved, and I wouldn't get to do any of the South Wales services going that way. Going via Abergavenny I would, so that decision was soon made.
Imagine then my dismay at finding required
802108 on the
0523 to Paddington! I considered several times doing a last-minute ticket on that to get it covered, but I figured it would come back out of Paddington later. Turns out that set was due to go off to depot arriving from Hereford, but never mind, I'd get it again some time. It might turn up on a Sunday afternoon hunt some time, who knows? It was my last GWR 9-car for sight too, so that was a bonus. Over to platform 1 then for the
0526 Hereford-Cardiff Central, which I was chanting "158, 158, 158!" over the bridge for, as I had the unexpected pleasure of
158828+150208 on this run. I've not had the pleasure of a decent-length run on a 158 in a good while, so happy days! The sector to Abergavenny was mostly spent writing up this trip report, still without a proper name for it, before I got Linwood Barclay's new book, Elevator Pitch, going on. I'd read another of his books (A Parting Shot) recently during my IET hunting spree on my local patch, which was a really enjoyable 486 page read. I've been advised by my Mum who the book belongs to that this one takes a fair bit of getting into, but the 453 pages should help keep me occupied on the festering today at least!
And an excellent start was being had, as the
0615 Cardiff Central-London Paddington was winner
800001 and dud
800003, which left me with just 10 more
800/0s to go! That first coffee had not done much for me yet, and after a cold 9 minutes at Bristol Parkway I was more than ready for a coffee again. Dud
166218 took me to Bristol Temple Meads, as the alternative was get a coffee and wait for another train out of Parkway. Yeah, no thanks, it had been warmer in Hereford and there would be better options in Bristol for coffee. I took one of the former First Class seats on the 166, and the warmth was seriously welcome it must be said. I also got to use the new-ish platform 1 at Bristol Parkway, which was a nice surprise.
£
11.50 later I had my Zone AC Freedom Travelpass for the day, which would give me freedom to travel between Yate, Patchway, Severn Beach and Freshford to Bristol Temple Meads. I'm sure it's also valid to Bedminster and Parson Street too. It also includes bus travel, and the bonus is there's no peak restriction on this ticket, so an absolute bargain really. I noted too a lot of demolition work has gone on at Bristol Temple Meads, the stuff alongside platform 15 for example is gone and the area now looks a bit, well, naked.
166210 in all its dudness was noted on the heavily delayed
0701 to Severn Beach, caused by a points failure somewhere around Stapleton Road, and I noted a Turbo roll in from Cardiff.
Happy days! It was winner
166207, one of my last two 166s to get, I just need
166206 to clear the class now and unsurprisingly I was already hoping it would produce. The Air Horns of Victory were packed, just in case, after all...Naturally I took a seat in the former First Class seating area, and warmed up significantly for the run to Bath Spa. Oh the amount of times I did Bristol to Bath journeys on HSTs over the years, oh the memories and nostalgia! As might be guessed, coffee had been delayed as my options at Bristol Temple Meads weren't as good as I had remembered, and a run to get the 166 had been Priority Alpha.
The late-running Cardiff would have been made, just, if it had been required. Neither Turbo was needed, so I went to Pumpkin and if I'd realised I could have saved 25p for using my own cup I'd have done so. Still, noted for future reference, and thankfully the weather was slowly warming up. Mind you, a large coffee always helps! It had been so long since I last did the run to Bath I had forgotten the names of the small stations between Bristol and Bath, which was a bit embarassing! Eventually I settled on dud
800310 to take me back to Bristol, as I wanted to see what was partnered with
166203 on the
0728 Cardiff-Portsmouth. I had a hunch I'd be rewarded for my patience, but you'll have to read on and see if I was...
The problem with hunting trains on relatively tight connections in the peak periods is the crowds of sloooooooow moving passengers. Oh my good flipping grief, there was me thinking pedestrian crossings that take ages to change were a fast walker's biggest irritance...Thankfully delays between Filton Abbey Wood and Bristol were helpful here, as otherwise I'd have not made it to platform 3 in time. Cancellations galore on the Severn Beach line, but joyful times were thankfully ahead. Not only had I now finished my second coffee of the day which had me feeling human again, but that
0728 from Cardiff, which I'd seen the inward working of at Newport, was a match for my list.
Yes, winner
165131 was on it and I made my way to it as fast as possible. Not easy with the crowds, but I was soon on and took advantage of the USB sockets to top up the charge again. I might as well after all, especially as this was an all-shacks run to Bath. Of course, the Turbo noise was much appreciated, and I was now on the look-out for my final 2-car GWR
165. 165113 I had already been informed was still based at Reading, and of course I was also looking for
166206, plus as many IETs as possible.
Back at Bath Spa, and after rejecting a few duds I decided to look for Caffe Nero, as I had two full collector cards to redeem. However, when I saw Pret I dashed there for my bargain filter coffee. It was soon back to the station, and a bit more reading got done, but oh my good grief this book's taken some serious time grabbing my attention. I was only on page 28 and the idea of reading it was met with an internal 'ugh' now. Eventually I got back on the move with winner
800025 and dud
800028, 9 more
800/0s to go...
Much looking around for winners at Bristol got the stomach in a rage by around
1015, nearly 6 hours after breakfast to be fair, so a sandwich I'd prepared at home helped sort that out. Eventually I found a winner, in the form of
800032 on the
1053 to London Paddington via Bristol Parkway. Those Turbos I wanted seemed to be hiding from me! A supply raid was carried out at the Tesco Express not far from Bristol Parkway, and dud
166217 was flagged in favour of
220027 (yeah I know, sacrilege!) back to Bristol Temple Meads. More duds awaited me, and the hope was that all this waiting around would eventually net me a few more scores as I was not doing super well on that front yet!
Still more duds, and after a while a visit to Starbucks got made. The
1330 was in the hands of dud
800305, but I needed to position myself to Bath Spa so on I went. The
1400 was a 10-car working, which was frustrating. Duds galore at Bath too, and after just over an hour on platform 1 reading away I was up to page 130 and winner
802021 rolled in to take me back to Bristol. It's fair to say my luck with IETs was much worse than I had expected, but it is what it is. I was now halfway through the
802/0s, the red pen was not being pestered as much as I had hoped. Maybe later on in the day it would be?
£1.90 later once back at Bristol Temple Meads got me another coffee. Yes I was on my 5th one today, but this was now to be the last one. I was also convinced that
166206 is not presently in the Bristol area, although whether it would turn up on a peak-time strengthening or not remained to be seen. I certainly had my fingers crossed. Sure enough, I found a depot kick-out, the
1604 Bristol Temple Meads-Bristol Parkway, alas that was dud
166214 so not of interest. Hey-ho, the coffee and indeed the sugar in it was doing its thing and giving me a second wind, which was supplemented by some music (when my mobile data signal behaved well enough that is). There was only a few more hours until I would be heading home, I needed to maximise my chances of scoring!
Dud after dud after dud kept rolling in, and I eventually returned to Bath Spa on
800305 again to see what arrived from London in the evening peak. There'd been some reading too, and when I hit a 25 minute gap in potential scores a trip to Greggs was made. Those two sausage, bean and cheese slices felt like heaven, I was famished! Dud after dud after dud was next, and during another gap in potential scores I went to Caffe Nero for a decaff coffee. The waiting room was now much emptier, thus the doors not continuously opening which made it much warmer. By
1943, my desire to keep going was almost non-existant and I wanted to get home. I was making my last option to score the
2025, if that was dud then I'd call it quits and start heading home. If a score was had before that, then I would still head home anyway.
Poor connections off the
2038 to Cardiff at Newport got me onto dud
800301 on the
2025 to Bristol Temple Meads instead. With a couple of tight connections, I could potentially be back in Hereford at
2228, which was far better than
2305 and a long wait in Newport. The waiting room was locked around
2015, and with the
2055 showing as a 9er (9-coach IET) and a 30 minute wait in the cold, taking the chance with it was simply not worth it on this occasion. It's a shame I didn't have as much luck as I'd have liked on this trip, but I did make some progress so it's not all bad.
Luck of the draw and all that! 4 IETs, a 165 and a 166 was not as good as I had hoped, but it's less stuff to go looking for next time, and hey, it's not bad for a gen-less trip. I had wanted to do things old-school, armed with just the eyes and timetables. Well, I did use RTT a bit too. A fairly tight +3 was made onto the
2043 to Bristol Parkway, with
158745 taking me there. That was where I had a +3 or so onto a Swansea train, miss it and there would be a lengthy wait involved. Thankfully I was up to the challenge...None needed in the end, as it appeared we arrived a little early.
43014+43013 on a westbound NMT was an unexpected sight, that purple light inspecting the wiring looked well funky. Doing this series of moves turned out to be genius, as the
2104 to Swansea was a pair of winner
800/0s, winner
800013 and winner
800014! Very, VERY, pleased with that result! Now I was heading home satisfied with the day's results. Hopefully soon enough on a Sunday I'll get my
802/1s in, as they seem to be booked to do the first two London-Hereford services on Sundays. A good excuse to get some post-work exercise in, and if the first one is dud pop back home and return out for the second one. If that one's dud, then try again another time!
It was a bit of a tight connection from platform 2 to platform 4 at Newport, even for a fast walker like myself, but I made it with time to spare onto
175101. It was a rather empty train, much to my surprise, and I monged out with various songs. I was rather hungry by now, in fairness that food from Greggs had been nearly 3 hours beforehand by the time I left Newport. So once I got home the top priority was eating. Oh, and you know that plan to increase my plain water intake? I stuck to that in the afternoon and evening, so it can be done! Granted I was having sugar in my coffee, but yeah it's how it is on a long travel day sometimes. As they say, all progress is good progress no matter how small!
All morning the day after this trip I've been feeling like I'm jet-lagged which is an odd feeling to have after a relatively easy day. I now need
6 800/0s,
11 802/0s and
2 802/1s to complete the GWR IETs, bring on the completing of them. That will be a long way off yet, given the
802/0s don't make regular appearances in Hereford!
Only other objective for the day is to check-in for my flight later 
. Not that there is any shortage of GE's (on freight) in Southern California though...slightly surprised to see a modern EMD unit on a BNSF train out there recently, they must be letting them roam the system more than they used to.
