East Midlands, St Philips Marsh diversion, West Midlands bits and pieces, and Heart of Wales 31 August – 3 September
Preamble
While doing my recent warm up in Highland Region, I thought about fitting in a trip to see my mum (we have both had the pair of doses of the vaccine) during the week of the St Philips Marsh depot diversions, and being as I require three of the Wales 153s and two of the East Midlands 153s, I would attempt to see if I could clear those as well. I had also decided to have a go at ticking off some of the stations between Craven Arms and Builth Road, being as I do not have the Royal Welsh Show extra train to help me as when I have had a go at the section between Llanelli and Llandovery in previous years. Having managed to book the overnight sleeper from Falkirk Grahamston to Crewe with relative ease, and the Standard Advance Crewe – Croy, the remaining tickets required I could simply purchase those as I go along as they are flexible, and would save the hassle of return and refund should if I abandon any part of the various trips being as there is still a slightly reduced service on some lines. Furthermore, while Iwould be at Crewe first thing in the morning, this meant that I could score the visit of Wem (as the timings work out better than doing those before the 20:09 ex Euston – Glasgow Central which is the last direct train on Sundays to Fridays) as that is my remaining station unvisited between Crewe and Shrewsbury.
East Midlands Day Ranger 31 August
Having set out the previous night just after 23:15 for the short taxi ride to Cumbernauld station along South Carbrain Road (I also have the option of the 23:56 ex Glasgow Queen Street – Edinburgh via Falkirk High, arriving Falkirk High 00:04 and only giving me 20 minutes to make my way to Grahamston, which is less than the minimum interchange time between the stations on foot, plus I do not want to run given my cardiac health) arriving around 23:25 just before 221102+116 passed through heading in the Carlisle/Glasgow direction. A few moments laterit was onboard dud pair 385034+039 on the 23:34 ex Glasgow Queen Street – Falkirk Grahamston for the run to Grahamston. After a 30 minute or so fester it was on the 8 minutes delayed 00:27 ex Inverness – London Euston sleeper with this portion being hauled by required
66789 +dud 73968 as far as Edinburgh Waverley. I was in coach 15003. The train was using Platforms 11and 7at Edinburgh Waverley with the electric loco that would be haulingboth the Inverness and Fort William coupled portions (the Aberdeen portion has been suspended) to London having been spotted was dud 92010 (I always seem to land this 92 on the Highlander). I did manage to get a couple of naps after the train left Edinburgh 12 minutes behind schedule at 01:53, with arrival into Platform 6 at Crewe being 5 minutes behind schedule at 05:27.
After nipping outside for some fresh air to try to help me wake up slightly and to purchase the Wem, Stone, and Wedgwood tickets, it was back to Platform 8 toboard the 05:58 Carmarthen formed of required
175113 for the run to Wem, having spotted 220005 on the Manchester Piccadilly – Bournemouth and 350255+379 on the London Euston via ex Trent Valley Railway. I returned back to Crewe on the 06:58 ex Cardiff Central – Manchester Piccadillyonboard dud 175103. Having had a quick change of garments in the lavatory and having purchased the East Midlands Day Ranger from the booking office, I made my way over to Platform 3 for a cup of tea before boarding the 08:01 Birmingham via Stoke on Trent. It was onboard required
350253 for the run to Stone (additionally calling Longport due to the 08:08 Crewe – Newark Castle being missing), returning to Stoke on Trent around 30 minutes later on required
350222 that was on the 09:05 ex Birmingham – Crewe.
My next move after nipping to the lavatory was to make my way outside the station to an unusual style of platform for my next “train”. Although it is a metal box that has metal wheels, this “train” has rubber tyres on the wheels as it runs on tarmacadam roads i.e. this is a rail replacement bus and has been for the previous seventeen years running between Hanley and Stoke Station to Stone, calling at Wedgwood and Barlaston as the real trains that run on metal rails have not called at those stations since when the West Coast Mainline got upgraded for the tilting trains. There are plans for real trains to call at Barlaston at some point in the near future, with Wedgwood being formally closed (like Norton Bridge, which I visited back in 2017), hence the visit today.
The 100 bus to Stone Granville Square arrived on time at 09:32, which was operated by D&G Travel. The bus I was on had the registration WT58 BUS. After departing Stoke Station, it was via City Road to join the A500 Queensway ring road, the A34 Stone Road to Trentham Gardens, A5035 Longton Road to Trentham Methodist Church and Golf Club, and turning off onto the Barlaston Old Road, alighting at Wedgwood Drive. It was a walk along Wedgwood Drive underneath the height bar for motor vehicles and across the bridge over the Trent and Mersey Canal to the level crossing. The platforms (which have deteriorated and still retain the station name signs on the lampposts) are clearly visible, but the ramp end for both platforms are fenced off with the gates padlocked. The station information poster frame has details of the replacement bus, which was surprising as I had still expected the pre 2004 timetable to still be there. It does demonstrate that some care and attention has still been given to this station, despite not having had any real trains calling there for a good number of years.
I had made my way back to Barlaston Old Road directly opposite the bus stop across from the Stone side of the road to return to Stoke on the exact same bus which arrived on time at 10:13. At the end of City Road just before the junction to Station Road by the railway line, I had spotted 66125 hauling Inerys tanks southbound. I was aware that by visiting Wem, Stone, and Wedgwood this morning, that I would hit a bogey in that the 10:33 ex Crewe – Newark Castle is one of the missing trains due to staffing and training issues in the East Midlands. I did think about having a run to Congleton, but the southbound arrives at Stoke after the East Midlands has departed (same at Kidsgrove), with the 12:33 Newark Castle being missing too. In other words, I would never get across to the East Midlands Region if I spent extra time in Staffordshire and Cheshire.
Having eventually decided to take a short run north to Kidsgrove, I made my way to Platform 3 via a stop off at the lavatory having seen 67027+023 running light engine southbound to hop onboard dud 323229. At Kidsgrove, works are progressing on the construction of a new accessible footbridge. Being as the 11:14 ex Crewe – Birmingham was a dud 350, I let that go and hung around for the 11:21 ex Crewe – Newark Castle to board 156408 straight to Derby, so as to see if anything around there is required. For easier readability, I have listed the subsequent moves below similar to London Underground linear hops with requirements highlighted in bold:
170515 12:34Derby - Whatstandwell and 13:25 Whatstandwell– Belper
170420 13:46 (6minutes delayed) Belper– Matlock Bath and 14:17 (4 minutes delayed) Matlock Bath– Derby
222002 15:09 Derby– Leicester
222015 15:37 Leicester– Loughborough
222008 15:52 Loughborough– Leicester
170397 16:12 Leicester– Stamford (Lincs)
170101 17:07 Stamford (Lincs) – Leicester (I knew this was on the Birmingham – Leicester/Stansted today having checked online, hence the run to Stamford and back)
222019 17:51 Leicester – Nottingham
After alighting at Nottingham, I had a quick look around to see if anything was required and to my surprise I had spotted a pair of 153s at the eastern end of Platform 3 on the 18:34 Cleethorpes with the roller blind on the rear 153 displaying Cleethorpes. Although it was 357 (dud) I had a look at the front 153 and it was 384, which was required. More so, it had the headlamps on, with the tail light on 357. It is noted that this train couples to the inbound working from Leicester via the Ivanhoe Project Phase I stations, with this having been dud 156919. There were problems with the coupling process – from what I observed the door interlock seemed to have been playing up slightly but was eventually sorted. Departure was 16 minutes behind schedule with me being in the leading 153, with as mentioned required
153384+ duds 153357+156919 taking me on a run eastbound. I decided to bail at Swinderby as: 1) There are a lot of stations that begin with the letter “S”, and 2) it is the middle one between both Newark stations and Lincoln Central.
Having made my way to the oppositeplatform via the manually operated gate level crossing,I returned to Nottingham on the 19:48 ex Grimsby Town – Leicester onboard required
158864 (I had seen this at Leicester earlier on that worked the 15:39 Grimsby, hence I knew that I could get this one at some point today). After arriving at Nottingham and having seen a dud Sprinter on the Worksop, and tiredness was starting to catch up with me, I decided to bring today’s action to a close and went along Station Street to check in at the Jury’s Inn (I got a promotional rate) to wind down for the evening.
Overall, I am happy with today’s efforts in that I have finally managed to get round to scoring the visit of Wem, completing all stations between Crewe and Shrewsbury. I also managed to fit in Wedgwood before it is most likely to be formally closed when Barlaston has real trains calling again in the near future, and Stone while I was in the area. In addition, I have also visited a station in Lincolnshire that only has Crosscountry Trains calling there, having cleared all of the XC fleet of 170s in their originally built formations (I require the centre coaches in 170620 and 623 that were inserted in from the West Midlands 170632 and 635, now 532 and 535 which I also require – hope I’m making sense here). I only require 153308 (may get scrapped as there is no future home for it), 156410 (possibly may end up with Northern), and 4 x 158s (158780, 783, 788, and 862) to clear the East Midlands Sprinter fleet.
Stay tuned for the reports of Wednesday,Thursday, and Friday.