Having failed to fall asleep until somewhere in the region of 0130 the night before, I woke up at barely 0500
without the help of my two alarms (which were both set for 0530) and was ready to go. So I stepped out at 0542 into the open with the ambient temperature at -9° - the coldest I had ever known outside of controlled circumstances - and began the long 4¼-hour trek to Manchester. Of course, as regulars will know I don't get bothered by the cold, and the walk to the bus stop was seemingly easier than usual as well. It didn't take long for something to fall out of line though as the 0608 bus to Bristol appeared at 0603! Just as well I had planned to arrive so early or I wouldn't have been travelling north at all yesterday!
At Bristol Temple Meads I made the easy decision to buy myself some food for the three-hour Vomiter trip, but not before some shenanigans in the ticket office as I had to recite the exact code for Stockport and also the exact code for the System One Daysaver TM. (The numbers 2771 and H022 are now permanently imprinted on my brain.)
The Vomiter started up at roughly 0650 and we were on our way at 0700. It was surprisingly quiet out of Bristol, but picked up a bit at Parkway as a series of football fans proving the old adage that everyone in the South-West supports Manchester United joined the train, with two of them sitting at the table opposite and going on to drink and swear and drink some more - and, for one of them, seemingly find a way to enjoy himself without assistance :? Annoyingly the Train Manager didn't come along until after Cheltenham, when I had a ticket that was a bit on the awkward side, but he was more than happy to accept it.
We soon arrived in Birmingham where the slow-starting
district and
Mojo joined me. We spent the next 90 minutes talking about various past meets, how they had been managing together, and more, with district occasionally noting (via text messages) the antics of the football fans opposite. Otherwise the trip was pretty boring, but they were very appreciative of the help we gave them - even before the lovebirds arrived...
Into Piccadilly four minutes late and we split up for a bit. I joined up with
MattE2010 and the other pre-1000 arrivals, and everyone else slowly filtered in. We briefly left the main group to claim a series of timetables following a list I had printed off, noting the non-availability of a couple, and rejoined the others.
Finally, 1028 arrived and we moved over to the departure boards - and waited. 3, 2, 1...
Go! 1030 was upon us, and... I think we all must have set a record for the most relaxed start to a Challenge in RailUK history. After a very casual walk, no less than three teams boarded the 142-operated 1036 service to Rose Hill Marple, with
JoeGJ1984 in the front car and
Crossover,
Lampshade,
sprite and my team in the rear car, and thus began an interesting conversation about all manner of things, until finally Lampshade and co. suddenly abandoned us without warning at Hyde North, presumably bound for Flowery Field. And speaking of Hyde, I couldn't help but feel that its name was appropriate - referring to a well-known novel, it really was a Hyde...
Into Romiley, and - disaster. The 1111 service had been delayed by three minutes. And then four. Then seven. Then eight. Then ten... The 142 finally arrived at 1121, but not before our youngest member (district) messed around with the Help Point - and complained about the cold. Later, he would try role-playing as various members of railway staff, and kept asking for our tickets...
With our +6 at Piccadilly ruined, my idea of heading to Stockport and back was all-but doomed, and sure enough we passed the 323 bound for Alderley Edge near Ardwick Junction. Thus we needed a new plan of attack, and it came in the form of brigning our next journey forward - the stopper to Heald Green. Only, in this case, we went right through to the Airport, and to both my and district's displeasure we faced a 323 in both directions, stopping everywhere; technically however district was disappointed because we didn't get a 185, not because we got a 323 as was true of me (more on that later). Down to the very impressive looking Manchester Airport station, passing over the near-completion Metrolink route to East Didsbury en route, and noting how the football specials were running as stoppers from the Airport, perhaps explaining why the reverse direciton was sometimes operating from the island Platform 13. Nonetheless, this dire journey passed by, and we were back on track - but down two points.
After that, it was on to Hadfield, where things got interesting. Persplex station signs, run-down suburbs and more came by, as did the magnificent Dinting Viaduct, but this first leg was more notable for the discussions on this journey. We talked about all manner of things, including OpenTTD, school, the recent forum problems - and something beginning with "s" and ending in "x" that has only one letter in it (which is not "i"). Matt looked on with a vague interest as we debated about whether an all-girl intimate relationship can be considered a full-on intimate relationship, igniting an argument as old as the practice itself. So imagine how district and Mojo felt when the tables were turned out them and I used my hands to illustrate how an all-girl session works! (That's what you get for spending half the day kissing
)
Finally, we arrived at Hadfield, and
150222 came along. Three 16-year-old Challengers in the same place? No way!
Otherwise, this journey was not nearly as interesting, and certainly not as graphic, with 150222 leaving us at Guide Bridge and us arriving into Piccadilly early, resulting in a +11 connection there. district was still disappointed about his lack of TransPennine Express as we made our wasy out to the island once more, only to find an unknown Desiro bound for Edinburgh stationed and ready! Without so much as a care we boarded the 185 and soon set off...
Oxford Road was fairly quiet as we stepped off the Pennine Class 185. We had apparoximately six minutes to kill here whilst waiting for our official train from Piccadilly (which we recorded as being from Piccadilly, given the exceptional circumstances involving the 185), which soon rolled in as a double-formed 142. We stepped on and made the short journey to Salford Crescent, where yet another 142 would take us to Wigan, via Bolton. We came up with a little Geography game on the journey, trying to pinpoint where various stations were, and we were left stunned as Matt pretty much wiped the floor with everyone. Indeed, on more than one occasion he even said he would leave the question for someone else! Talk about confidence/cockiness! I thought I was good...
Into Wigan four minutes early, we made a stop for some food at a nearby takeaway. That was a good dinner!
Next was a 142 to Appley Bridge, and the distance we had to cover to get from one platform to the other was immense! Matt even suggested that he would have preferred a +2 at Piccadilly (an obvious reference to the multiple +2s we had been facing until literally the day before) than at Appley Bridge, so it was just as well we had a +13. district tried another role play here, again trying a ticket inspection (and calling me rude for trying to sneak past him), as we waited in the badly run-down Appley Bridge station area, until a 142+150 pair rolled along. It was suggested we board the 150 (district was bored of Pacers by now), but this journey was more known for a rare super-smile from me as I saw the scoreline "Everton 1-0 Chelsea" (
). The train seemed fairly quiet, but not overly so, so why a four-car service...?
Instead, on arrival at Wigan Wallgate virtually everyone else on the Challenge got on the train we had just got off! After a couple of gestures towards
yorkie and others, we watched as the combination left, and thus we waited. We soon noted that JoeGJ1984 was also on the platform, seemingly to finish his day the same way we were, and before long a 150 turned up. This would score ten more points for us, culminating at Victoria, and we just watched with less discussion as we got closer to the finale.
Eventually, we arrived into Victoria two minutes early, at the ridiculously early 16:41, but with no alternative for any final points we ended there, somewhat confident but not overly so. Instead, we starting talking to an official at Victoria and mentioned various facts and stories about the formerly massive station (including the legend of the station's undercroft, involving a certain Pacer cab), which district cheekily asked for a tour of!
bb21 and
gnolife soon joined us, with five minutes to spare, and so the wait began for the remaining teams.
But 17:00 came and went.
Finally, everyone was together again, and the comparisons began. After much deliberation, and a rules clarification from
Max, it was eventually agreed that the winners were bb21 and gnolife with 47. Two other teams also scored 47, while we scored 46 (but finished much earlier). Thus we had what was surely the tighest finish in Challenge history...
I soon split from the others and led JoeGJ1984 on a tram tour of the south. First, we went to Piccadilly Gardens, then Eccles, then Cornbrook (via MediaCity), and then Altrincham - where we arrived 12 minutes ahead of plan and thus had the chance to travel down to Hale. Finally was the long 156 journey to Stockport, where we would go our separate ways - and with that, my day was seemingly over.
Only, when my Vomiter reached Wolverhampton, trouble hit again as we were held at North Junction for no obvious reason! I had been planning to change to a Pendo but knew it was ill-advised and bailed out; instead, I was now fearful of the same train! It was due out at 20:45 - and if it was given the clear route ahead of us, my connection onto the last Bristol train of the night was in peril!
Fortunately, we were let out ahead of it, and I sought the Train Manager (on Mojo's advice), asking for some assistance. Said assistance was later proved unnecessary after what was surely the fastest journey I had ever made between the two West Midlands conurbation cities. Further, the Train Manager south of Birmingham didn't seem bothered about my ambigious ticket either...!
I finally returned to my room at 00:02. In the end I was out for precisely 1,100 minutes and accumulated almost 500 miles - and was I tired...
hock:. A 'free' trip (as part of the GMRR) by Metrolink followed to Piccadilly Gardens, then a further one followed to Piccadilly. 45 minutes here was killed by a browse of Ian Allen's and various shops for food and stuff for the challenge. Then as Ivo reports. I left MCV on the 2000 back to BBN, full of the general mix of chavs and normal people who use such a service. On our arrival into Blackburn, it was announced that the power at the station had totally failed, hence it was in darkness. A quick walk around the station followed to take in this rarity: the island and p4 were in absolute darkness, you literally couldn't see more than a couple of yards ahead of you. Downstairs in the subway three blokes were stood there with torches, and shone them in front of where you were walking. Quite a nice end to a great day!
, on time), arriving at Man Piccadilly at 16:42 (on time). This gave us 18 minutes to get back to Victoria, which we did by taking an Eccles metrolink (1025) to Piccadilly Gardens, then walking through Market Street and up Corporation Street back, getting there with 5 mins to spare. We found Ivo, District, Mojo and MattE2010 already there, and talking to a member of the staff near the Platform 3-6 gateline.
