Blindtraveler
Established Member
Hope lord quest didnt mind my little joke lol.
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185143-Trip Publishing Expected?
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185143
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
I certainly didn't need to be reminded of her, or indeed the insinuation there was more to it than just two colleagues who were friends with each other. Let's leave it at that.
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Sorry mate, genuinely trying to make a joke of it.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
I know. I think we've mentioned her too often, as guess who I found commenting on something I recently commented on on Facebook! Apparently she's still in Ledbury, and yes I did go and have a look to see what it said on that!
185143
Established Member
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2013
- Messages
- 4,521
Croeso y Cymru! 06/09/17
Day 7
Last rail day today. Just 3 shacks to get. This couldn't go wrong-could it?
Yep. It started badly as I missed my train from Chester to Shrewsbury! That was inconvenient as I missed my train westbound from Shrewsbury too!
As I'd missed the 08:14, I boarded Virgin Trains’ 08:35 London Euston service formed of dud 221115. I took a floor seat in coach D after using the onboard shop for the 20 minute journey to Crewe. I was very surprised to hear the full announcement made in Welsh as well as English, but I suppose that's the advantage of having Welsh traincrew onboard! I bailed at Crewe spotting the HoW dogbox was dud. The Milford Haven hippo was also dud so I went for breakfast. That was, after I'd had a chat with the RPI at the gateline when my ticket rejected and he wanted to know more about the exact validity of it (mainly how far South and West it was valid)-as it looked like a good ticket! After spending a small fortune in a Macon Way's branch of the golden arches, I returned to the shack. As it was now off peak, the barriers were open. Typical Virgin... (mind, at least West Coast still HAVE all the barriers they installed!)
The HoW dogbox left an hour earlier than I thought it did-shame, DBT would have been nice. Ah well! I retreated to the festering area to wait for 10AM. Why? Scotrail's £1,000,000 ticket giveaway!
Unsurprisingly, at 10AM the site crashed. I had to board 175105, on which the WiFi was APALLING. I don't know whether it was the SR site or the crap WiFi, but by Shrewsbury I hadn't managed to get any tickets! I tried again. And again. And again. But no success. I gave up (for a wee while) and just as I did, Shrewsbury’s fire alarms went off...
And soon stopped, thankfully! I headed over to the 11:24 Pwllheli service. Formed of winner 158824 and.... winner 158818! Score! (About bloody time too!) I was now becoming rather used to the Cambrian Mainline, and I took full advantage of a table seat and the #StrongAndStable Wifi to go to the SR Website again. Which now worked! The Oban tickets had all gone (which I can't hide my disappointment over), but a return from Perth-Inverness and a return from Edinburgh-Broughty Ferry were sourced with ease. I simply sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the scenery for the just shy of 2 hours to Tywyn. 158818 parted company with us at Machynlleth so it could have it's own adventure to Aberystwyth.
I had the shortest fester of the week at Tywyn, simply alighted 158824 and crossed over to see dud 158838 pulling in. I hopped aboard and requested Penhelig from the friendly guard I'd been talking to a couple of days prior-who asked if I still had my rover ticket. 3 of us alighted at Penhelig and I had an 80-odd minute fester. I went for a wander down to the seafront, avoiding actually going onto the beach at all costs however after my experiences just up the line! I could have stood there all day admiring the view, but due to the lack of pavement, I decided against it. Instead I returned to the station's shelter-a proper waiting room! Not seen one like that at a fairly rural station since Commondale on the Esk Valley! There was BT Wifi hotspot nearby too-so I spent around an hour watching some of the utter crap that's available on YouTube before 158826 rolled in. About 5 of us boarded, and I bailed again just a couple of minutes later at the extremely low platformed shack of Aberdovey.
North+Mid Wales. TICK! Never would I have expected to have finished the Cambrian lines before the Heart of Wales, given I need just 3 shacks on the HoW-with 14 required on the Cambrian. It's funny how these things all work out sometimes! After a short 15 minutes or so, a very warm dud 158841 arrived. I had joked earlier that 158824+158818 made a lovely change from my usual Damien, so I was relieved not to see it here! The first plug socket I tried didn’t want to play, so I had to move to a different table instead. That one worked fine luckily. Upon arrival at Mach, I did the compulsory ‘bail out and see what's just attached'. I got a nasty surprise here... DAMIEN AGAIN! Not even slightly funny anymore. I rejoined 158841 in the other coach, which had fully working aircon.
I now knew that all the units west of me were dud, and I managed to ID the pair that passed us at Tallerdig-double duds thankfully. I'd seen winner 158834 earlier, and had worked out it's diagram. It was the next Aberystwyth when I returned to Shrewsbury. That was convenient!
Winner 158834 with dud classmate 158822 formed the well loaded 17:29 to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli. Due to an annoying gap in the service, bailing at Welshpool wasn't an option. I therefore took this service as far as Caersws, one of the longest purely ‘red pen' moves I've ever done! (Positioning moves and Mandatory moves excepted)
After 15 minutes, my semi-mandatory move back to Shrewsbury arrived. I knew it couldn't be Damien, so wasn't too bothered which one it was-but one of my last 3 ATW 158s would have been lovely. Alas, my newly found streak of luck didn't stay-and I had dud 158837 back to Shrewsbury. Funnily enough, I’d travelled into Caersws on this exact unit a couple of days prior! This too was fairly busy, and for the first time this week I didn't get a table. The trip back to Shrewsbury was nice and scenic, but also a bit sad. It's such a lovely line, and I'll quite probably never use it again. (Looks at courses at Aberystwyth University....)
We arrived into Shrewsbury a couple of minutes earlier, as seems to be common on this service. I had a few options here to get home, however the 19:24 Chester service had a 158 on it that, unlike the other day, wasn't 158820. It was to be a tight connection at Chester, with just 6 minutes to grab a saveaway and board the Merseyrail service. Ok...
The guard announced that we were being held for a few minutes for an ex-Brum ‘As that's running late and they'll have to wait an hour' What about the hour delay I would then incur?? Anyway, we left about 4 late. There was nothing to see as it was dark... we seemed to be making good progress though, as evidenced when we reached the junction before Chester. 6 EARLY. We stopped for a couple of minutes, but soon proceeded into Chester where we arrived at 20:21. I therefore made the train to Liverpool with ease! 508139 was my hellfire traction for this evening, complete with some Liverpudlians who genuinely asked the guard how he was driving the train when he was at the back. Yes, really. I didn't manage to decide whether to laugh or cry 17 miles and 32 chains later when I was bailing at Lime Street! Due to a fairly short connection, I elected to use THAT lift, unfortunately my fellow passengers in the lift didn't encounter RPIs at the top...
I headed through the barriers onto the mainline platforms and took a comfy seat in 319450s declassified First Class! And was then told 10 more times that if I had boarded at a station with ticket buying facilities, in line with the NRCoT ect...
What a day. And what a week! (Not that I've quite finished yet)
Winner Shacks:3 (North+Mid Wales Cleared)
Winner Units:3
Sorry for the delay with this report-I did post it yesterday while on the bash, but it didn't upload for some reson.
As an aside, I got a 319 from Newton-le-Willows to Lime Street earlier. The announcement warning of the LIV remodelling did indeed play after all ten stops, along with the rest. As such, I have decided in order to keep my sanity, that unless it's either a) an express (so only 2 intermediate stops) or b) a winner (so any of the latest batch to arrive except 381 and I think one other) I refuse to board a 319. The bloke next to me commented at Lime Street 'I'm going back on the bus-I'm sick of hearing her bloody voice' Well said sir-probably see you later!
Day 7
Last rail day today. Just 3 shacks to get. This couldn't go wrong-could it?
Yep. It started badly as I missed my train from Chester to Shrewsbury! That was inconvenient as I missed my train westbound from Shrewsbury too!
As I'd missed the 08:14, I boarded Virgin Trains’ 08:35 London Euston service formed of dud 221115. I took a floor seat in coach D after using the onboard shop for the 20 minute journey to Crewe. I was very surprised to hear the full announcement made in Welsh as well as English, but I suppose that's the advantage of having Welsh traincrew onboard! I bailed at Crewe spotting the HoW dogbox was dud. The Milford Haven hippo was also dud so I went for breakfast. That was, after I'd had a chat with the RPI at the gateline when my ticket rejected and he wanted to know more about the exact validity of it (mainly how far South and West it was valid)-as it looked like a good ticket! After spending a small fortune in a Macon Way's branch of the golden arches, I returned to the shack. As it was now off peak, the barriers were open. Typical Virgin... (mind, at least West Coast still HAVE all the barriers they installed!)
The HoW dogbox left an hour earlier than I thought it did-shame, DBT would have been nice. Ah well! I retreated to the festering area to wait for 10AM. Why? Scotrail's £1,000,000 ticket giveaway!
Unsurprisingly, at 10AM the site crashed. I had to board 175105, on which the WiFi was APALLING. I don't know whether it was the SR site or the crap WiFi, but by Shrewsbury I hadn't managed to get any tickets! I tried again. And again. And again. But no success. I gave up (for a wee while) and just as I did, Shrewsbury’s fire alarms went off...
And soon stopped, thankfully! I headed over to the 11:24 Pwllheli service. Formed of winner 158824 and.... winner 158818! Score! (About bloody time too!) I was now becoming rather used to the Cambrian Mainline, and I took full advantage of a table seat and the #StrongAndStable Wifi to go to the SR Website again. Which now worked! The Oban tickets had all gone (which I can't hide my disappointment over), but a return from Perth-Inverness and a return from Edinburgh-Broughty Ferry were sourced with ease. I simply sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the scenery for the just shy of 2 hours to Tywyn. 158818 parted company with us at Machynlleth so it could have it's own adventure to Aberystwyth.
I had the shortest fester of the week at Tywyn, simply alighted 158824 and crossed over to see dud 158838 pulling in. I hopped aboard and requested Penhelig from the friendly guard I'd been talking to a couple of days prior-who asked if I still had my rover ticket. 3 of us alighted at Penhelig and I had an 80-odd minute fester. I went for a wander down to the seafront, avoiding actually going onto the beach at all costs however after my experiences just up the line! I could have stood there all day admiring the view, but due to the lack of pavement, I decided against it. Instead I returned to the station's shelter-a proper waiting room! Not seen one like that at a fairly rural station since Commondale on the Esk Valley! There was BT Wifi hotspot nearby too-so I spent around an hour watching some of the utter crap that's available on YouTube before 158826 rolled in. About 5 of us boarded, and I bailed again just a couple of minutes later at the extremely low platformed shack of Aberdovey.
North+Mid Wales. TICK! Never would I have expected to have finished the Cambrian lines before the Heart of Wales, given I need just 3 shacks on the HoW-with 14 required on the Cambrian. It's funny how these things all work out sometimes! After a short 15 minutes or so, a very warm dud 158841 arrived. I had joked earlier that 158824+158818 made a lovely change from my usual Damien, so I was relieved not to see it here! The first plug socket I tried didn’t want to play, so I had to move to a different table instead. That one worked fine luckily. Upon arrival at Mach, I did the compulsory ‘bail out and see what's just attached'. I got a nasty surprise here... DAMIEN AGAIN! Not even slightly funny anymore. I rejoined 158841 in the other coach, which had fully working aircon.
I now knew that all the units west of me were dud, and I managed to ID the pair that passed us at Tallerdig-double duds thankfully. I'd seen winner 158834 earlier, and had worked out it's diagram. It was the next Aberystwyth when I returned to Shrewsbury. That was convenient!
Winner 158834 with dud classmate 158822 formed the well loaded 17:29 to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli. Due to an annoying gap in the service, bailing at Welshpool wasn't an option. I therefore took this service as far as Caersws, one of the longest purely ‘red pen' moves I've ever done! (Positioning moves and Mandatory moves excepted)
After 15 minutes, my semi-mandatory move back to Shrewsbury arrived. I knew it couldn't be Damien, so wasn't too bothered which one it was-but one of my last 3 ATW 158s would have been lovely. Alas, my newly found streak of luck didn't stay-and I had dud 158837 back to Shrewsbury. Funnily enough, I’d travelled into Caersws on this exact unit a couple of days prior! This too was fairly busy, and for the first time this week I didn't get a table. The trip back to Shrewsbury was nice and scenic, but also a bit sad. It's such a lovely line, and I'll quite probably never use it again. (Looks at courses at Aberystwyth University....)
We arrived into Shrewsbury a couple of minutes earlier, as seems to be common on this service. I had a few options here to get home, however the 19:24 Chester service had a 158 on it that, unlike the other day, wasn't 158820. It was to be a tight connection at Chester, with just 6 minutes to grab a saveaway and board the Merseyrail service. Ok...
The guard announced that we were being held for a few minutes for an ex-Brum ‘As that's running late and they'll have to wait an hour' What about the hour delay I would then incur?? Anyway, we left about 4 late. There was nothing to see as it was dark... we seemed to be making good progress though, as evidenced when we reached the junction before Chester. 6 EARLY. We stopped for a couple of minutes, but soon proceeded into Chester where we arrived at 20:21. I therefore made the train to Liverpool with ease! 508139 was my hellfire traction for this evening, complete with some Liverpudlians who genuinely asked the guard how he was driving the train when he was at the back. Yes, really. I didn't manage to decide whether to laugh or cry 17 miles and 32 chains later when I was bailing at Lime Street! Due to a fairly short connection, I elected to use THAT lift, unfortunately my fellow passengers in the lift didn't encounter RPIs at the top...
I headed through the barriers onto the mainline platforms and took a comfy seat in 319450s declassified First Class! And was then told 10 more times that if I had boarded at a station with ticket buying facilities, in line with the NRCoT ect...
What a day. And what a week! (Not that I've quite finished yet)
Winner Shacks:3 (North+Mid Wales Cleared)
Winner Units:3
Sorry for the delay with this report-I did post it yesterday while on the bash, but it didn't upload for some reson.
As an aside, I got a 319 from Newton-le-Willows to Lime Street earlier. The announcement warning of the LIV remodelling did indeed play after all ten stops, along with the rest. As such, I have decided in order to keep my sanity, that unless it's either a) an express (so only 2 intermediate stops) or b) a winner (so any of the latest batch to arrive except 381 and I think one other) I refuse to board a 319. The bloke next to me commented at Lime Street 'I'm going back on the bus-I'm sick of hearing her bloody voice' Well said sir-probably see you later!
Kite159
Veteran Member
Congrats on clearing the Cambrian 
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Tick!Indeed Sir, well done. Sorry you suffered Damian agaim plus the verble diarrhoea from the 319s.
Look forward to the last bus day plus the trip out yesturday.
Look forward to the last bus day plus the trip out yesturday.
185143
Established Member
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2013
- Messages
- 4,521
There's a trip from last Saturday to come yet!
185143
Established Member
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2013
- Messages
- 4,521
Croeso y Cymru-the finale! 07/09/17
Day 8
Yawn. That's what I said at 1PM when I woke up. Ah well!
I was going to miss the train from Newton-le-Willows, so I went to Roby today. After making a rude gesture at winner 319370 passing me running ECS to Allerton after failing at Huyton, I boarded 319374 working the 14:05 to Lime Street. As such, I only heard 4 lots of ‘If you have boarded this train... ect' announcements (I absolutely LOVE hearing that 20 times a day-anyone from Northern reading *PLEASE* take note!)
Upon arrival at Lime Street, I headed downstairs for some PEP thrash to Chester. Merseyrail were feeling kind, and sent the loudest 508 out to me-508126. This train didn’t stop at Capenhurst, which I always find far too much fun for some reason! I was reluctant to alight in Chester 45 minutes later, but I did-and, after a PNB, headed to the bus stop.
E400City time (because why would I get on a Pulsar or an E400...) again on the 1. The driver immediately questioned my ticket. I was ready for a debate, but much to my surprise, he openly admitted he'd never heard of it! I showed him the T&Cs on my phone, which he asked to have a look at-then proceeded to ask if I'd been on the rail route to Aberystwyth, as he had and it was lovely. More drivers like that please! I've no problem whatsoever with a driver who openly admits he's not heard of the ticket, rather than refusing to accept a perfectly valid ticket.
I'm glad I’d done the 1 before today, as I don't think I’d have done it again if it had been my first trip. It was AWFUL. The journey seemed very slow-and it was. Nearly an hour instead of 40 minutes. And a chunk of the journey was spent surrounded by some extremely foul mouthed schoolkids as well. I was very happy to bail at Wrexham Bus Station and attempted to plan an onward move. Resisting the temptation to get on the T3, I saw a Townlynx Dart pull in working service 40 to Mold, which only a couple of people showed any interest in-so I went for that. The T&Cs don't specifically mention Townlynx as being valid, however it does say ‘Most buses in North Wales’. So I boarded and asked the driver, expecting to be refused.
He helpfully took the position of ‘I don't know, and you don't know for certain', confirmed that the bus went to where I wanted to go and told me to take a seat. Good first impression of Townlynx, that's for sure! The route was very scenic, and I mentally questioned the buses ability to get up some of the hills, but it managed it, just.
After about 50 minutes, I bailed out of CN04 NLL at Mold bus station. I saw the last SP1 to Ellesmere Port was due in about 10 minutes, so I decided to take that for something a bit different. Stagecoach MCSL Dennis Dart 34820 arrived around 10 minutes late, and the driver decided to be extremely difficult about my ticket. ‘That's not valid’ pulls out the T&Cs that *specifically* mention SP1/2 to Ellesmere Port. ‘we don't accept Arriva tickets though' (I said it was the ATW site) in the end he told me to sit down and he'd ‘let me off this time’. I was literally about to sit down anyway and tell him to ring his control as the information in the public domain by the retailer of the ticket said it was valid!
The journey was very good, despite that. We had a lot of fast running, and actually managed to arrive into Ellesmere Port early! The driver asked (much nicer this time) if he could take a picture of the ticket and find out more about it's validity, which I happily allowed him to do. He said that the SP1/SP2 used to be ran by Arriva, which was his theory as to why it had been valid and was on the website. He may have had a point with that actually, but he said he didn't want to deny me travel as it did say it was valid, but he was almost certain that the ATW site was incorrect. However when I asked if they had just become stagecoach routes, I was told it had happened over a year ago. Still, I do think now that it’s an accidental oversight-and probably says something about the use of Explore North Wales passes on buses!
I was going to go back to Chester by train with my Saveaway but I couldn't be bothered-so I went for some PEP miles instead. I boarded the 19:19 Ellesmere Port-Liverpool service. I could have gone all the way to Lime Street and gone home but... nah!
I bailed out of 507019 at Hooton 3 miles 62 chains later. I don't do the Ellesmere Port line very often, it's not my favourite and isn't a lot of miles for the time it takes! I managed to jump onto a slightly late running Chester service formed of 508126. Byelaw Enforcement officers boarded the train at Hooton too, but unfortunately (or not depending what you think of them) they didn't catch anyone. I had to bail at Chester, as the unit was returning to Birkenhead TMD. 20 (ish) minutes later, it was time for a move that I've really become quite keen on of an evening.
I bailed out of a rather empty 508112 5 miles 12 chains up the line at Capenhurst. During the day, Capenhurst is best done ex-Liverpool. But in the evening, due to the change in frequency, it reverses. So I had a 7 minute fester at Capenhurst before boarding 508122 back towards Chester. I remained onboard for the journey back to Liverpool-picking up the Byelaw Enforcement officers again en route. 45 minutes after leaving Chester, I arrived at Liverpool Lime Street. Its a really good connection off the ex-Chester, but just an unofficial one. 9 minutes from getting off the PEP to departing on the masochistic thing upstairs. The genuine sigh of frustration when you hear ‘Welcome aboard. This train is the Northern service to Manchester Victoria...’ and you know the PA is working...
I bailed out of 319378 at Newton-le-Willows 35 minutes later, after ensuring I had a ticket as I’d boarded that train at a station with ticket buying facilities 10 times... clearly, no one important at Northern has to use the 319s or else the constant drivel would be scrapped overnight! (It's even worse now of course)
This day was a slightly disappointing end to a great week, I can't lie, But I'd have happily kept going with my rover if I could!
Winner Buses:3
Last Saturday's bash was a bit of a red pen fest in Northernland, as pretty much was yesterday's!
Day 8
Yawn. That's what I said at 1PM when I woke up. Ah well!
I was going to miss the train from Newton-le-Willows, so I went to Roby today. After making a rude gesture at winner 319370 passing me running ECS to Allerton after failing at Huyton, I boarded 319374 working the 14:05 to Lime Street. As such, I only heard 4 lots of ‘If you have boarded this train... ect' announcements (I absolutely LOVE hearing that 20 times a day-anyone from Northern reading *PLEASE* take note!)
Upon arrival at Lime Street, I headed downstairs for some PEP thrash to Chester. Merseyrail were feeling kind, and sent the loudest 508 out to me-508126. This train didn’t stop at Capenhurst, which I always find far too much fun for some reason! I was reluctant to alight in Chester 45 minutes later, but I did-and, after a PNB, headed to the bus stop.
E400City time (because why would I get on a Pulsar or an E400...) again on the 1. The driver immediately questioned my ticket. I was ready for a debate, but much to my surprise, he openly admitted he'd never heard of it! I showed him the T&Cs on my phone, which he asked to have a look at-then proceeded to ask if I'd been on the rail route to Aberystwyth, as he had and it was lovely. More drivers like that please! I've no problem whatsoever with a driver who openly admits he's not heard of the ticket, rather than refusing to accept a perfectly valid ticket.
I'm glad I’d done the 1 before today, as I don't think I’d have done it again if it had been my first trip. It was AWFUL. The journey seemed very slow-and it was. Nearly an hour instead of 40 minutes. And a chunk of the journey was spent surrounded by some extremely foul mouthed schoolkids as well. I was very happy to bail at Wrexham Bus Station and attempted to plan an onward move. Resisting the temptation to get on the T3, I saw a Townlynx Dart pull in working service 40 to Mold, which only a couple of people showed any interest in-so I went for that. The T&Cs don't specifically mention Townlynx as being valid, however it does say ‘Most buses in North Wales’. So I boarded and asked the driver, expecting to be refused.
He helpfully took the position of ‘I don't know, and you don't know for certain', confirmed that the bus went to where I wanted to go and told me to take a seat. Good first impression of Townlynx, that's for sure! The route was very scenic, and I mentally questioned the buses ability to get up some of the hills, but it managed it, just.
After about 50 minutes, I bailed out of CN04 NLL at Mold bus station. I saw the last SP1 to Ellesmere Port was due in about 10 minutes, so I decided to take that for something a bit different. Stagecoach MCSL Dennis Dart 34820 arrived around 10 minutes late, and the driver decided to be extremely difficult about my ticket. ‘That's not valid’ pulls out the T&Cs that *specifically* mention SP1/2 to Ellesmere Port. ‘we don't accept Arriva tickets though' (I said it was the ATW site) in the end he told me to sit down and he'd ‘let me off this time’. I was literally about to sit down anyway and tell him to ring his control as the information in the public domain by the retailer of the ticket said it was valid!
The journey was very good, despite that. We had a lot of fast running, and actually managed to arrive into Ellesmere Port early! The driver asked (much nicer this time) if he could take a picture of the ticket and find out more about it's validity, which I happily allowed him to do. He said that the SP1/SP2 used to be ran by Arriva, which was his theory as to why it had been valid and was on the website. He may have had a point with that actually, but he said he didn't want to deny me travel as it did say it was valid, but he was almost certain that the ATW site was incorrect. However when I asked if they had just become stagecoach routes, I was told it had happened over a year ago. Still, I do think now that it’s an accidental oversight-and probably says something about the use of Explore North Wales passes on buses!
I was going to go back to Chester by train with my Saveaway but I couldn't be bothered-so I went for some PEP miles instead. I boarded the 19:19 Ellesmere Port-Liverpool service. I could have gone all the way to Lime Street and gone home but... nah!
I bailed out of 507019 at Hooton 3 miles 62 chains later. I don't do the Ellesmere Port line very often, it's not my favourite and isn't a lot of miles for the time it takes! I managed to jump onto a slightly late running Chester service formed of 508126. Byelaw Enforcement officers boarded the train at Hooton too, but unfortunately (or not depending what you think of them) they didn't catch anyone. I had to bail at Chester, as the unit was returning to Birkenhead TMD. 20 (ish) minutes later, it was time for a move that I've really become quite keen on of an evening.
I bailed out of a rather empty 508112 5 miles 12 chains up the line at Capenhurst. During the day, Capenhurst is best done ex-Liverpool. But in the evening, due to the change in frequency, it reverses. So I had a 7 minute fester at Capenhurst before boarding 508122 back towards Chester. I remained onboard for the journey back to Liverpool-picking up the Byelaw Enforcement officers again en route. 45 minutes after leaving Chester, I arrived at Liverpool Lime Street. Its a really good connection off the ex-Chester, but just an unofficial one. 9 minutes from getting off the PEP to departing on the masochistic thing upstairs. The genuine sigh of frustration when you hear ‘Welcome aboard. This train is the Northern service to Manchester Victoria...’ and you know the PA is working...
I bailed out of 319378 at Newton-le-Willows 35 minutes later, after ensuring I had a ticket as I’d boarded that train at a station with ticket buying facilities 10 times... clearly, no one important at Northern has to use the 319s or else the constant drivel would be scrapped overnight! (It's even worse now of course)
This day was a slightly disappointing end to a great week, I can't lie, But I'd have happily kept going with my rover if I could!
Winner Buses:3
Last Saturday's bash was a bit of a red pen fest in Northernland, as pretty much was yesterday's!
Blindtraveler
Established Member
I have a serious question. Were you aware of the major disruption and alteration to train services due to works in Liverpool? Im sure theres an announcement about it.
Good day all be it for the ticketing things thanks again.
Good day all be it for the ticketing things thanks again.
185143
Established Member
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2013
- Messages
- 4,521
You mean the disruption the 319s don't shut up about? If so then yes. There's information all over the place, posters all over Lime Street and at every station in Merseyside. I've even seen them as far away as Nottingham and Birmingham! EMT have stuck the same posters up inside their 158s too. Merseyrail (and others) are frequently tweeting about it plus I've seen a thread on here about it. There are also dozens of leaflets floating around.
Plus of course I was told 10 times earlier today!
I got a 156 back to St. Helens Central and a bus home to avoid it...My concern is that the announcements on the 319s about it are too vague. (Yes, I genuinely have just said that). I suspect there will be people expecting a Waterloo type setup, and will be surprised to find there are no trains into Lime Street whatsoever. Also, people who use stations St. Helens and Edge Hill (and Hunts Cross) may wrongly conclude they aren't affected as they don't use LIV...
Blindtraveler
Established Member
I was being sarcastic as I know full well you will have heard the 319s waffling about it once or twice.
Interesting you diverted away from it this time.
Interesting you diverted away from it this time.
185143
Established Member
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2013
- Messages
- 4,521
Fixed that for you
Had enough of their announcements now... had a DMU to St. Helens not been an option, I would have happily made myself at home on the E400MMC on offer in Queen Square!
Proves my point that the announcements are unnecessary, giving out postcards when buying tickets would be much better if they feel that more needs to be done to raise awareness. Then the only people who won't know will be fare evaders and I've no problem with them having their journeys delayed! (Of course, it will be on the news nearer the time and is already all over social media and all the stations-but there WILL be people who turn up oblivious to the disruption on the Monday!)
(I'm thinking like Merseyrail had at stations detailing the loop line track renewal works, I have loads of the postcards). In fact I think I might suggest that to Northern right now! Merseyrail also put up billboards at the loop line stations detailing what was being done as we went through the closure, I'd like to see that-but the loop was a much longer closure I will happily admit.
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Would the Inviro have offered you greater cumfort and maybe a USB point?
185143
Established Member
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2013
- Messages
- 4,521
Yes and yes! Wifi too
185143
Established Member
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2013
- Messages
- 4,521
The Great North Red Pen Fest!-09/09/17
Didn't have much specifically planned for today-except bringing the red pen out as much as possible! I purchased a Northern Family and Friends Day Ranger and lept onto the 10:05 to Occy Road at the very last second. I'd hoped for a pacer-but unfortunately I got stuck with 156428 instead... I was on the Occy Road stopper, which meant 6 intermediate stops were necessary. That's about the maximum that is sensible on the Cheshire Lines route-any more (especially at peak time) makes it go from ‘a bit of a slog' to ‘I lost the will to live 20 minutes ago'...
I bailed out on time and cheated for the next leg of my journey. EMT's 158777+158846 gave me a lift from Occy Road to Piccadilly. I spent the journey stood by the door reading a Liverpool Lime Street ‘reroute your commute’ poster (seriously Northern, take the hint!) And bailed out onto Platform 13-along with most of the train-a couple of minutes later.
It was time for one thing, and one thing only. Pacer!! The 10:49 Northern service to Sheffield was rather empty this miserable, wet September morning and 142047 provided the thrash and the classic pacer squeal for the next 75 minutes. A friend joined me at Romiley and we continued our pace through the valley of no Hope. Upon arrival in Sheffield, we were intending to aim towards Leeds, but we had no specific plans-or restrictions as long as it was a Northern service! A quick scan of Sheffield identified winner 142089 on the Scunthorpe (hope the forum lets me post that name?) Stopper. Some of you will be reading this and remembering that I've cleared 142s on Northern. I have, but I don't have the physical tick in my current book, merely in previous versions that I've lost years ago. Of course, I want to be dead certain I've done all the pacers. All of them. (Plus it's an excuse to continue pacer bashing-what's not to like!)
We bailed off this unit at Meadowhall. Mega Mileage Move I accept-but the Bridlington 158 was a winner too! We considered, briefly, going onto the East Yorkshire Coast. 5 seconds later we scrapped that idea... yes it's nice but it was effort.
We therefore bailed at Donny for some dusty thrash t'Leeds. All Northern EMUs are dud (except most of the very latest 319s to arrive) but 321s are Hellfire! We sat under the pan and it started raining! This meant the normals shut the windows, but 321901 didn't perform much better than a 319 in the wet. That provided an err... lively journey! The train was fairly busy throughout-we had people onboard from Donny who'd missed the VTEC, and picked up loads of people at the West Yorkshire stations going for a day out in Leeds' bars and pubs.
Upon arrival into Leeds, another quick scan of the station was done. Nothing required was in initially, so we hung about for a bit. The Carlisle service arrived after about 20 minutes which had required 158861 on the front. We boarded this, after flagging the dud dogbox in tow and took a table seat in the completely empty front coach. We were bailing at Shipley initially, but my mate confessed he'd never done the S&C(!) So we ended up going all the way to Kirkby Stephen. The weather as we passed over Ribblehead viaduct was dire (That's an understatement really) but it was still beautiful. Going to Carlisle and getting a 37 back down the Coast was looked into but it was too late in the day to do that sadly. We could have gone to Appleby, but we could pick up the express at Kirkby Stephen and that gave us the option of getting the Goole train when we returned to Leeds.
There was a trolley onboard dud 158850, which managed to trap me in the bog for a few minutes as the FoSCL volunteer was selling drinks to some dog walkers and giving the dogs some treats. I was very disappointed to find out that there was no ice cream available, it’s all part of the trip sometimes... ah well.
We briefly considering bailing at Settle for a chippy move (one I've done once before) but we flagged it. A wise decision! The rest of the journey seemed to pass rather quickly, and we looked at possible onward moves.
The 18:33 Sheffield stopper was formed of required 142084+dud 150116. But we didn't board it. Anyone who knows West Yorkshire will instantly know why. We instead boarded the 18:40 Sheffield express-sorry, ‘Fast Train' to Wakefield Kirkgate. This service was formed of 158758, the first time I've seen, or been on, a 158 going into South Yorkshire.
We alighted at Wakefield Kirkgate and went through the motions of discussing the station improvements done a few years ago. We concluded that you can't polish a turd and it was still a dump! The Sheffield stopper-sorry ‘slow train' arrived with a 150 leading. I was rather unimpressed by this, however I'd failed to take into account the reversal at CasVegas. My winner 142084 was still there! We bailed at Barnsley after some rather vocal pacer thrash through a fairly long tunnel. We left the station in favour of the chippy right outside. A deep fried mars bar was the order of the day for us both, and I was delighted to see that they also now serve haggis. Therefore a Haggis Supper was the order for today! (Except for some daft reason, us Englishmen don't see the sense in ordering a supper-we have to ask for exactly what we want. Daft I know! How many people order just fish or just a sausage I wonder...?)
In the time that our heart attacks took to prepare, we missed our train to Sheffield. Ah well! It was worth it! This meant that the Hope Valley stopper was now off the cards. After a 25 minute fester (or so) we boarded dud 142038 to Huddersfield, deliberately mispronouncing the name of the line we were travelling...
It went dark just after the hilariously named Penistone, and the journey up to Huddersfield felt rather slow and quite dull. We arrived into Huddersfield on time and a pair of pacers were spotted heading back over to the right side of the Pennines. After 20 minutes, we boarded a rather empty pair of duds 142004+142019. We had Northern's TravelSafe Officers onboard for the drunken mob who would join our train at Marsden. Now, I've seen some sights on the rails, but somebody boarding a pacer wearing a costume of a phallus is a new one on me! I gave into the temptation to shout ‘you alright d***head?’ down the carriage, which was met with a lot of laughter.
We bailed at Manchester Victoria just before the ‘We Are Manchester' concert celebrating the reopening of the arena after that atrocious terror attack back in May (that was a rather sleepless night given the age group targeted! Thankfully no one I know was unfortunate enough to be caught up in the horrific events of May 22nd) and headed over to the Metrolink.
I realised I only had a £20 note at this point-which would have meant I would have had £18.20 in coins after buying our tickets... I asked someone if he could change it for even 2x£10 notes, but once he realised it was only £1.80 for both of our tickets, he very kindly paid for them for us. (Thanks again if you do happen to be reading!)
A surprisingly empty 3023 took us over to Piccadilly, where my lack of coins earnt me a free PNB as the machine there would also have given me my change in coins. My friend boarded a New Mills service and I went back to the metrolink. 3018+3011 working an Alty service took me to Deansgate-Castlefield. I rushed onto Platform 1 to get the 23:09 Occy Road terminator, as that'd form the last Cheshire Lines Stopper. I thought my red pen had been put to bed in South Yorkshire, but no! Winner 142063 leading dud 156461 took me the massive 29 chains down the line to Occy Road. It's been a very long time since I've had a winner on the CLC! Once the crew changed ends, we left again-heading towards Liverpool. The train got quite busy at Deansgate, but not nearly as busy as I'd feared. The service dropped me at Birchwood about 10 minutes down, as is about normal for a CLC stopper. Great end to a great day!
Winner Units:5
Didn't have much specifically planned for today-except bringing the red pen out as much as possible! I purchased a Northern Family and Friends Day Ranger and lept onto the 10:05 to Occy Road at the very last second. I'd hoped for a pacer-but unfortunately I got stuck with 156428 instead... I was on the Occy Road stopper, which meant 6 intermediate stops were necessary. That's about the maximum that is sensible on the Cheshire Lines route-any more (especially at peak time) makes it go from ‘a bit of a slog' to ‘I lost the will to live 20 minutes ago'...
I bailed out on time and cheated for the next leg of my journey. EMT's 158777+158846 gave me a lift from Occy Road to Piccadilly. I spent the journey stood by the door reading a Liverpool Lime Street ‘reroute your commute’ poster (seriously Northern, take the hint!) And bailed out onto Platform 13-along with most of the train-a couple of minutes later.
It was time for one thing, and one thing only. Pacer!! The 10:49 Northern service to Sheffield was rather empty this miserable, wet September morning and 142047 provided the thrash and the classic pacer squeal for the next 75 minutes. A friend joined me at Romiley and we continued our pace through the valley of no Hope. Upon arrival in Sheffield, we were intending to aim towards Leeds, but we had no specific plans-or restrictions as long as it was a Northern service! A quick scan of Sheffield identified winner 142089 on the Scunthorpe (hope the forum lets me post that name?) Stopper. Some of you will be reading this and remembering that I've cleared 142s on Northern. I have, but I don't have the physical tick in my current book, merely in previous versions that I've lost years ago. Of course, I want to be dead certain I've done all the pacers. All of them. (Plus it's an excuse to continue pacer bashing-what's not to like!)
We bailed off this unit at Meadowhall. Mega Mileage Move I accept-but the Bridlington 158 was a winner too! We considered, briefly, going onto the East Yorkshire Coast. 5 seconds later we scrapped that idea... yes it's nice but it was effort.
We therefore bailed at Donny for some dusty thrash t'Leeds. All Northern EMUs are dud (except most of the very latest 319s to arrive) but 321s are Hellfire! We sat under the pan and it started raining! This meant the normals shut the windows, but 321901 didn't perform much better than a 319 in the wet. That provided an err... lively journey! The train was fairly busy throughout-we had people onboard from Donny who'd missed the VTEC, and picked up loads of people at the West Yorkshire stations going for a day out in Leeds' bars and pubs.
Upon arrival into Leeds, another quick scan of the station was done. Nothing required was in initially, so we hung about for a bit. The Carlisle service arrived after about 20 minutes which had required 158861 on the front. We boarded this, after flagging the dud dogbox in tow and took a table seat in the completely empty front coach. We were bailing at Shipley initially, but my mate confessed he'd never done the S&C(!) So we ended up going all the way to Kirkby Stephen. The weather as we passed over Ribblehead viaduct was dire (That's an understatement really) but it was still beautiful. Going to Carlisle and getting a 37 back down the Coast was looked into but it was too late in the day to do that sadly. We could have gone to Appleby, but we could pick up the express at Kirkby Stephen and that gave us the option of getting the Goole train when we returned to Leeds.
There was a trolley onboard dud 158850, which managed to trap me in the bog for a few minutes as the FoSCL volunteer was selling drinks to some dog walkers and giving the dogs some treats. I was very disappointed to find out that there was no ice cream available, it’s all part of the trip sometimes... ah well.
We briefly considering bailing at Settle for a chippy move (one I've done once before) but we flagged it. A wise decision! The rest of the journey seemed to pass rather quickly, and we looked at possible onward moves.
The 18:33 Sheffield stopper was formed of required 142084+dud 150116. But we didn't board it. Anyone who knows West Yorkshire will instantly know why. We instead boarded the 18:40 Sheffield express-sorry, ‘Fast Train' to Wakefield Kirkgate. This service was formed of 158758, the first time I've seen, or been on, a 158 going into South Yorkshire.
We alighted at Wakefield Kirkgate and went through the motions of discussing the station improvements done a few years ago. We concluded that you can't polish a turd and it was still a dump! The Sheffield stopper-sorry ‘slow train' arrived with a 150 leading. I was rather unimpressed by this, however I'd failed to take into account the reversal at CasVegas. My winner 142084 was still there! We bailed at Barnsley after some rather vocal pacer thrash through a fairly long tunnel. We left the station in favour of the chippy right outside. A deep fried mars bar was the order of the day for us both, and I was delighted to see that they also now serve haggis. Therefore a Haggis Supper was the order for today! (Except for some daft reason, us Englishmen don't see the sense in ordering a supper-we have to ask for exactly what we want. Daft I know! How many people order just fish or just a sausage I wonder...?)
In the time that our heart attacks took to prepare, we missed our train to Sheffield. Ah well! It was worth it! This meant that the Hope Valley stopper was now off the cards. After a 25 minute fester (or so) we boarded dud 142038 to Huddersfield, deliberately mispronouncing the name of the line we were travelling...
It went dark just after the hilariously named Penistone, and the journey up to Huddersfield felt rather slow and quite dull. We arrived into Huddersfield on time and a pair of pacers were spotted heading back over to the right side of the Pennines. After 20 minutes, we boarded a rather empty pair of duds 142004+142019. We had Northern's TravelSafe Officers onboard for the drunken mob who would join our train at Marsden. Now, I've seen some sights on the rails, but somebody boarding a pacer wearing a costume of a phallus is a new one on me! I gave into the temptation to shout ‘you alright d***head?’ down the carriage, which was met with a lot of laughter.
We bailed at Manchester Victoria just before the ‘We Are Manchester' concert celebrating the reopening of the arena after that atrocious terror attack back in May (that was a rather sleepless night given the age group targeted! Thankfully no one I know was unfortunate enough to be caught up in the horrific events of May 22nd) and headed over to the Metrolink.
I realised I only had a £20 note at this point-which would have meant I would have had £18.20 in coins after buying our tickets... I asked someone if he could change it for even 2x£10 notes, but once he realised it was only £1.80 for both of our tickets, he very kindly paid for them for us. (Thanks again if you do happen to be reading!)
A surprisingly empty 3023 took us over to Piccadilly, where my lack of coins earnt me a free PNB as the machine there would also have given me my change in coins. My friend boarded a New Mills service and I went back to the metrolink. 3018+3011 working an Alty service took me to Deansgate-Castlefield. I rushed onto Platform 1 to get the 23:09 Occy Road terminator, as that'd form the last Cheshire Lines Stopper. I thought my red pen had been put to bed in South Yorkshire, but no! Winner 142063 leading dud 156461 took me the massive 29 chains down the line to Occy Road. It's been a very long time since I've had a winner on the CLC! Once the crew changed ends, we left again-heading towards Liverpool. The train got quite busy at Deansgate, but not nearly as busy as I'd feared. The service dropped me at Birchwood about 10 minutes down, as is about normal for a CLC stopper. Great end to a great day!
Winner Units:5
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Are now I really do appreciate reports with plenty of pacers, or indeed All the Pacers! Great sounding day by all accounts esp glad to hear Haggis now offered in Barnsley.
Cheers.
Cheers.
185143
Established Member
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2013
- Messages
- 4,521
'All the pacers' is next up!
Kite159
Veteran Member
Sounded like a productive day
185143
Established Member
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2013
- Messages
- 4,521
Bounce Bounce Squeal Nod (Repeat) 16/09/17
As the title suggests, I was expecting a lot of pacers. The day didn’t exactly dissappoint!
My first move of the day was the 09:05 stopper to Occy Road, formed of 142012+156425. I sat in the superior traction-of course(!) And enjoyed a vocal pacer for 35 minutes into Occy Road. Like last week, I cheated and boarded the EMT service to Piccadilly (despite having a Northern Family and Friends ticket). 158799 took me the 43 chains up the line to Piccadilly. A (very) quick supply raid was undertaken in Sainsburys before heading to Platform 1. Sat on platform one was 142048, which had kindly been sent to remind me of Merseyrail-clearly...
The weather was much nicer than last week, and as such the train was rammed. I found myself sat on the floor as far as Hope. There'd been a mass exodus at both Edale and Hope, so I was able to get a nice seat for the rest of the journey to Sheffield. At Sheffield, I checked the couple of units I could have done a Meadowhall leap on, but they were both duds unfortunately.
I joined 142057 on a Lincoln service as far as Worksop, losing my seat around Shireoaks after a PNB. I had a 20 minute fester before the Cleethorpes service, so it was time for (very late) breakfast! That turned out to be the best 5 and a bit quid I've spent in a long time-with some of it having to wait until I was on 142079 bouncing to Barnetby.
This was one of 3 trains per week to travel over the Brigg line. Someone behind me had boarded the wrong Cleethorpes train at Sheffield... I mean, really?? It's displayed on the screens as ‘Via Brigg-FIRST STOP DARNALL' and the guards announce it a few times too...
Two (at least) Friends of Brigg and Lincoln Lines volunteers boarded at Gainsborough Central and were travelling to Cleethorpes. We sat together until Barnetby where I bailed, after a good catch up. Apparently, someone important has visited Gainsborough Central, and decided that the £400,000 footbridge was unnecessary and the foot crossing was perfectly safe-something the FoBLL have been saying since it was proposed. Apparently, Network Rail are assessing how much it would cost them to move Gainsborough Central’s footbridge to Pilning...
ANYWAY... The Brigg line journey is very scenic and its a lively ride in places on a 142. Certainly a line to visit if you haven't already. I just know how much Fishquinn would love this line, especially on one of his pet pacers-now that he's actually travelled on one... (he's really going to thank me for making that well known gen!) Several enthusiasts bailed at Barnetby-one of whom I got talking to, who was also waiting for the Lincoln train. I'd been warned that the Market Rasen trains were always rammed and not to be too surprised if I couldn't get on.
However it was nothing like that at all... we boarded double duds (grr!) 153383+153385 and took a table seat in the middle of the very empty unit. One half of the carriage was empty, and the other half wasn't even close to being busy. It certainly was nothing like I'd been led to believe! I alighted at Market Rasen and went for a PNB in the nearby Tesco. Well, I went in for a PNB at least... I came out with a few supplies and as I was walking back, it started raining-heavily. Great... I managed to shelter under the railway bridge for a bit until it eased off and headed up to the platform. The rain got much worse, but stopped by the time double duds (seriously?!) 153381+153311 arrived to take me back to Barnetby. I was the only passenger boarding the service which was much busier than the previous one, but I still got a table with no trouble at all.
Why did I do the Market Rasen leap? Tis simple. It was a required shack (and also required track), but aside from that, I had an RTV to use from that farce of a day in Nottinghamshire. The RTV was for £11.28 (seriously XC, just round it up the next quid like LM do...) but a Northern Family and Friends ranger is only £7. A Barnetby-Market Rasen is £4.30 with a railcard-perfect! I've been intending to do Market Rasen for a while, finally done it!
Feeling a sense of deja vu, after about 20 minutes I boarded 142079 and took a seat with the FoBLL people, who accused me of photoshopping the pictures I took on the 153s to prove how empty they were! They bailed at Retford, whilst I remained onboard the bouncy beast back to Sheffield. The unit had an extremely annoying wheel flat and it felt more like a kettle than a pacer! I was intending to head towards Leeds from Sheffield, but I had about 90 minutes to work out my plans-whilst trying to resist the temptation not to have a go at the Southerners sat behind me who found the fact that people were taking pictures of this ‘ancient piece of ****’ rather amusing-and spent the rest of the journey moaning about how ‘bad' pacers are! The cheek!
I'd had gen that one of my last 4 158s was working a Leeds-Sheffield express. Therefore after a quick phone charge at Sheffield, I boarded the Penistone train (stop laughing...) formed of an extremely rammed 142057. We left quite a lot of people at Meadowhall, and its been a while since I've had a train that busy. Most of the passengers were Sheffield Wednesday fans-not that you'd have known, so I suspect they lost! At Elsecar, I had a horrible thought. In the bay behind us was 158907 on a Scarborough service. I checked and I NEEDED IT! GRR! Of all services for it to be working too...
I bailed at Barnsley, as did most of the football fans. Most of us headed over the bridge towards the bus station, but I headed onto the Sheffield platform. 158792 soon pulled in working an express to Sheffield. Winner! I sat in the wheelchair space of this fairly busy train and the guard soon appeared. I pulled up the pull out table to put my tablet down so I could find my ticket-and the table came straight out of it's slot in my hand! I turned to the guard and said ‘err... it's not meant to do that is it...’ he laughed and said he'd report the fault. I bailed at Meadowhall where I had no real plans. I'd scribbled down all the units I needed and which services I could get on without being stranded and waited for a bit watching trains departing. I noticed someone else hovering around the bridges in a similar fashion to myself-he was doing the same thing.
After about 25 minutes, a Nottingham service pulled in. Winner 158910! I boarded this rammed train which had a BTP escort for the 3 mile 30 chain journey to Sheffield. I checked a few units and saw the Scunthorpe service in 15 minutes was a winner. I got some more charge before boarding 144004 for the trip back to Meadowhall. There was some congestion, so it took around 15 minutes-the guard was however very apologetic for the delay. The second service to arrive was winner 144019. Units were becoming quite difficult to ID now due to the time of the evening.
The guard kindly confirmed it was 019 before I boarded, and we spent the journey to Sheffield discussing which units I needed-with me being told ‘I worked that earlier', ‘Yeah, that one's got a fault on it', ‘That’s been around Leeds for weeks' in response to units I needed. As much as I really appreciated the gen, it was no use to me at 20:00 on a Saturday night...
After spending half an hour in the waiting room, I headed up to Platform 2C to get my pacer back across the Valley of No Hope. 142048 again! Much emptier than earlier however, and I got a pair of seats no trouble at all. I had an hour of fill in moves to plan before I could go home, which took up a bit of time. The scenic journey was rather dull due to the time of night and not being able to see a thing...
The 20:35 calls at all shacks to Manchester-so I took advantage of this and bailed at Ashburys for some starship thrash! I bailed at Ashburys and thought it looked a bit dark... there was no lighting on the station at all. The Social Media team had bailed out early-as seems to be becoming increasingly common these days, so I contacted Carrilion's Customer Experience Centre. I got through fairly quickly, and the issue was quickly noted and passed on.
I was glad to see 323235 arrive just over 5 minutes later-Ashburys isn't exactly the most glamourous area of Greater Manchester, especially at night. I've not had a 323 for a while-so I was more than glad to be onboard one again! Even if it was only a bus stop more to Piccadlly.
There was a pacer in platform 11 with Chester on it-so I headed for it. However a driver boarded the 150 behind and started setting that up. I expressed my disappointment that they weren't using the pacer-for which the driver thought I was slightly crazy spending the day bashing pacers... (I'll make NO comment on the matter!) I boarded 150226 regardless and went to Stockport. 150s are starting to grow on me (no idea why), so it was quite a pleasant change from the norm.
After a very vocal 10 minutes (or so) I bailed and crossed over to platform 4. The 22:34 service was formed of 323225. Yay more starship thrash! I went for a PNB and sat on a tip down seat near the bog. The guard appeared to check tickets, which was a bit of a shock! He attempted to sell a few duos to a group of people going for a night out, but half of one printed before his machine ran out of bog roll. Ah well, the effort was made at least!
I had about 15 minutes before boarding a train to Occy Road, 185146 on a Liverpool service. I did consider staying on, but as I didn't know the guard-and hadn't asked permission before boarding to go to Birchwood, decided against it.
I headed over to await the arrival of the delayed ex Liverpool stopper, which left with a 10 minute delay. I spent the journey on 156425+156424 (WHERE'S MY PACER!??) Working on typing up the previous week's trip report-and practically missed my stop as a result! Thankfully I didn't, and I made it home just before 00:30 at the end of a long, but great day.
It probably says something about the amount of pacers I'd had if I say I still had pacer thrash ringing in my ears and almost felt like I was bouncing when I was lying in bed at the end of that day doesn't it...
Winner shacks:1
Winner Units:4
As the title suggests, I was expecting a lot of pacers. The day didn’t exactly dissappoint!
My first move of the day was the 09:05 stopper to Occy Road, formed of 142012+156425. I sat in the superior traction-of course(!) And enjoyed a vocal pacer for 35 minutes into Occy Road. Like last week, I cheated and boarded the EMT service to Piccadilly (despite having a Northern Family and Friends ticket). 158799 took me the 43 chains up the line to Piccadilly. A (very) quick supply raid was undertaken in Sainsburys before heading to Platform 1. Sat on platform one was 142048, which had kindly been sent to remind me of Merseyrail-clearly...
The weather was much nicer than last week, and as such the train was rammed. I found myself sat on the floor as far as Hope. There'd been a mass exodus at both Edale and Hope, so I was able to get a nice seat for the rest of the journey to Sheffield. At Sheffield, I checked the couple of units I could have done a Meadowhall leap on, but they were both duds unfortunately.
I joined 142057 on a Lincoln service as far as Worksop, losing my seat around Shireoaks after a PNB. I had a 20 minute fester before the Cleethorpes service, so it was time for (very late) breakfast! That turned out to be the best 5 and a bit quid I've spent in a long time-with some of it having to wait until I was on 142079 bouncing to Barnetby.
This was one of 3 trains per week to travel over the Brigg line. Someone behind me had boarded the wrong Cleethorpes train at Sheffield... I mean, really?? It's displayed on the screens as ‘Via Brigg-FIRST STOP DARNALL' and the guards announce it a few times too...
Two (at least) Friends of Brigg and Lincoln Lines volunteers boarded at Gainsborough Central and were travelling to Cleethorpes. We sat together until Barnetby where I bailed, after a good catch up. Apparently, someone important has visited Gainsborough Central, and decided that the £400,000 footbridge was unnecessary and the foot crossing was perfectly safe-something the FoBLL have been saying since it was proposed. Apparently, Network Rail are assessing how much it would cost them to move Gainsborough Central’s footbridge to Pilning...
ANYWAY... The Brigg line journey is very scenic and its a lively ride in places on a 142. Certainly a line to visit if you haven't already. I just know how much Fishquinn would love this line, especially on one of his pet pacers-now that he's actually travelled on one... (he's really going to thank me for making that well known gen!) Several enthusiasts bailed at Barnetby-one of whom I got talking to, who was also waiting for the Lincoln train. I'd been warned that the Market Rasen trains were always rammed and not to be too surprised if I couldn't get on.
However it was nothing like that at all... we boarded double duds (grr!) 153383+153385 and took a table seat in the middle of the very empty unit. One half of the carriage was empty, and the other half wasn't even close to being busy. It certainly was nothing like I'd been led to believe! I alighted at Market Rasen and went for a PNB in the nearby Tesco. Well, I went in for a PNB at least... I came out with a few supplies and as I was walking back, it started raining-heavily. Great... I managed to shelter under the railway bridge for a bit until it eased off and headed up to the platform. The rain got much worse, but stopped by the time double duds (seriously?!) 153381+153311 arrived to take me back to Barnetby. I was the only passenger boarding the service which was much busier than the previous one, but I still got a table with no trouble at all.
Why did I do the Market Rasen leap? Tis simple. It was a required shack (and also required track), but aside from that, I had an RTV to use from that farce of a day in Nottinghamshire. The RTV was for £11.28 (seriously XC, just round it up the next quid like LM do...) but a Northern Family and Friends ranger is only £7. A Barnetby-Market Rasen is £4.30 with a railcard-perfect! I've been intending to do Market Rasen for a while, finally done it!
Feeling a sense of deja vu, after about 20 minutes I boarded 142079 and took a seat with the FoBLL people, who accused me of photoshopping the pictures I took on the 153s to prove how empty they were! They bailed at Retford, whilst I remained onboard the bouncy beast back to Sheffield. The unit had an extremely annoying wheel flat and it felt more like a kettle than a pacer! I was intending to head towards Leeds from Sheffield, but I had about 90 minutes to work out my plans-whilst trying to resist the temptation not to have a go at the Southerners sat behind me who found the fact that people were taking pictures of this ‘ancient piece of ****’ rather amusing-and spent the rest of the journey moaning about how ‘bad' pacers are! The cheek!
I'd had gen that one of my last 4 158s was working a Leeds-Sheffield express. Therefore after a quick phone charge at Sheffield, I boarded the Penistone train (stop laughing...) formed of an extremely rammed 142057. We left quite a lot of people at Meadowhall, and its been a while since I've had a train that busy. Most of the passengers were Sheffield Wednesday fans-not that you'd have known, so I suspect they lost! At Elsecar, I had a horrible thought. In the bay behind us was 158907 on a Scarborough service. I checked and I NEEDED IT! GRR! Of all services for it to be working too...
I bailed at Barnsley, as did most of the football fans. Most of us headed over the bridge towards the bus station, but I headed onto the Sheffield platform. 158792 soon pulled in working an express to Sheffield. Winner! I sat in the wheelchair space of this fairly busy train and the guard soon appeared. I pulled up the pull out table to put my tablet down so I could find my ticket-and the table came straight out of it's slot in my hand! I turned to the guard and said ‘err... it's not meant to do that is it...’ he laughed and said he'd report the fault. I bailed at Meadowhall where I had no real plans. I'd scribbled down all the units I needed and which services I could get on without being stranded and waited for a bit watching trains departing. I noticed someone else hovering around the bridges in a similar fashion to myself-he was doing the same thing.
After about 25 minutes, a Nottingham service pulled in. Winner 158910! I boarded this rammed train which had a BTP escort for the 3 mile 30 chain journey to Sheffield. I checked a few units and saw the Scunthorpe service in 15 minutes was a winner. I got some more charge before boarding 144004 for the trip back to Meadowhall. There was some congestion, so it took around 15 minutes-the guard was however very apologetic for the delay. The second service to arrive was winner 144019. Units were becoming quite difficult to ID now due to the time of the evening.
The guard kindly confirmed it was 019 before I boarded, and we spent the journey to Sheffield discussing which units I needed-with me being told ‘I worked that earlier', ‘Yeah, that one's got a fault on it', ‘That’s been around Leeds for weeks' in response to units I needed. As much as I really appreciated the gen, it was no use to me at 20:00 on a Saturday night...
After spending half an hour in the waiting room, I headed up to Platform 2C to get my pacer back across the Valley of No Hope. 142048 again! Much emptier than earlier however, and I got a pair of seats no trouble at all. I had an hour of fill in moves to plan before I could go home, which took up a bit of time. The scenic journey was rather dull due to the time of night and not being able to see a thing...
The 20:35 calls at all shacks to Manchester-so I took advantage of this and bailed at Ashburys for some starship thrash! I bailed at Ashburys and thought it looked a bit dark... there was no lighting on the station at all. The Social Media team had bailed out early-as seems to be becoming increasingly common these days, so I contacted Carrilion's Customer Experience Centre. I got through fairly quickly, and the issue was quickly noted and passed on.
I was glad to see 323235 arrive just over 5 minutes later-Ashburys isn't exactly the most glamourous area of Greater Manchester, especially at night. I've not had a 323 for a while-so I was more than glad to be onboard one again! Even if it was only a bus stop more to Piccadlly.
There was a pacer in platform 11 with Chester on it-so I headed for it. However a driver boarded the 150 behind and started setting that up. I expressed my disappointment that they weren't using the pacer-for which the driver thought I was slightly crazy spending the day bashing pacers... (I'll make NO comment on the matter!) I boarded 150226 regardless and went to Stockport. 150s are starting to grow on me (no idea why), so it was quite a pleasant change from the norm.
After a very vocal 10 minutes (or so) I bailed and crossed over to platform 4. The 22:34 service was formed of 323225. Yay more starship thrash! I went for a PNB and sat on a tip down seat near the bog. The guard appeared to check tickets, which was a bit of a shock! He attempted to sell a few duos to a group of people going for a night out, but half of one printed before his machine ran out of bog roll. Ah well, the effort was made at least!
I had about 15 minutes before boarding a train to Occy Road, 185146 on a Liverpool service. I did consider staying on, but as I didn't know the guard-and hadn't asked permission before boarding to go to Birchwood, decided against it.
I headed over to await the arrival of the delayed ex Liverpool stopper, which left with a 10 minute delay. I spent the journey on 156425+156424 (WHERE'S MY PACER!??) Working on typing up the previous week's trip report-and practically missed my stop as a result! Thankfully I didn't, and I made it home just before 00:30 at the end of a long, but great day.
It probably says something about the amount of pacers I'd had if I say I still had pacer thrash ringing in my ears and almost felt like I was bouncing when I was lying in bed at the end of that day doesn't it...
Winner shacks:1
Winner Units:4
woodhouse122
Member
- Joined
- 9 Aug 2011
- Messages
- 206
sounds like a great day pacer bashing (agreed about the brigg line bring senic , i try and have a ride on it at least once a month-£16.10 for a return to cleethorpes is good value 
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I never did thank you for that did I... :roll:. I've made it public knowledge now too. Definitely wait and do the Brigg line on a railtour or something - anything but a pacer!
They're not wrong
Slightly crazy? I have to disagree with that driver - incredibly crazy sounds about right
I have that all the time after a good day out on the trains (not with pacers before anyone asks.)
Kite159
Veteran Member
Lots of Pacer action, Dan will be happy
Blindtraveler
Established Member
All the pacers, all of them, a truly envyable day out there Sir, lots of track I need too!
Techniquest
Veteran Member
I am SO glad I was sat down for the reading of the news that Fishquinn has had a Pacer! 
hock: Never thought I'd see the day that happened! 
As always, some very interesting reading there. I know someone who occasionally just buys a jumbo sausage on its own from the chippy for the journey home. I've known people order a portion of fish on its own too, so it is certainly not an unheard of concept. Unusual, yes, but it happens more often than you would think.
The last and only time I've done a run through Market Rasen it was certainly very busy, but not to the point I couldn't board 153355. Someone's telling you lies!
hock: Never thought I'd see the day that happened! As always, some very interesting reading there. I know someone who occasionally just buys a jumbo sausage on its own from the chippy for the journey home. I've known people order a portion of fish on its own too, so it is certainly not an unheard of concept. Unusual, yes, but it happens more often than you would think.
The last and only time I've done a run through Market Rasen it was certainly very busy, but not to the point I couldn't board 153355. Someone's telling you lies!
185143
Established Member
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2013
- Messages
- 4,521
I am SO glad I was sat down for the reading of the news that Fishquinn has had a Pacer!
As always, some very interesting reading there. I know someone who occasionally just buys a jumbo sausage on its own from the chippy for the journey home. I've known people order a portion of fish on its own too, so it is certainly not an unheard of concept. Unusual, yes, but it happens more often than you would think.
The last and only time I've done a run through Market Rasen it was certainly very busy, but not to the point I couldn't board 153355. Someone's telling you lies!
I'm seriously considering contacting Northern and seeing if 142091 can be named 'fishquinn'...
Did you pass through Market Rasen on a Saturday afternoon? It wasn't the first time I'd heard that the trains were always full either
roversfan2001
Established Member
I'm seriously considering contacting Northern and seeing if 142091 can be named 'fishquinn'...
That should be reserved for a 220/221 surely?
Techniquest
Veteran Member
That should be reserved for a 220/221 surely?
Didn't someone temporarily name a 222 after fishquinn?
185143: I'm not sure what day I did the line via Market Rasen on right now, as it was part of an ALR. That being said, it must have been a Saturday as I'd just done a solo 153 from Sheffield via Brigg.
Neither did I!I am SO glad I was sat down for the reading of the news that Fishquinn has had a Pacer!
I was actually sat in 142023 - 091 was locked OOU.I'm seriously considering contacting Northern and seeing if 142091 can be named 'fishquinn'...
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