• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Anglia line bashing meet

Status
Not open for further replies.

Sprinter

Member
Joined
14 Jun 2005
Messages
321
Location
Walthamstow, London
In atendance: Yorkie, Seth, myself, Jordy, Ascot, Harry Potter

My day started a fraction after 0800 whereby I walked to Walthamstow Central to catch a southbound Victoria Line train. The train was unusually terminating at Victoria, which was alright for me as I only wanted to go as far as King's Cross.

I arrived at King's Cross a little after 0830, thus I had 15 minutes to purchase a CDR to Ely, which with a Railcard was a good £14.40. My intended train was the 0845 to King's Lynn, which was formed of 365507 and left from platform 9.

Had a very good run up pretty much running at line speeds, until just after Shepreth Branch Junction where the train crawled to a halt due to the "Cambridge Effect"- too many trains for too few platforms! After Cambridge the train called at Waterbeach and then Ely, where I alighted to await the others who would be on the 1022 off Ely to Norwich.

Whilst at Ely I noted a few other units, including 170117, which has the centre coach of accident damaged 170101 inserted into it to make it a three coach unit. Whilst I was at the ticket office to buy a Anglia Day Rover, a GBRF shed passed through the staion, unfornately where the ticket windows are located, I couldn't get the number of the loco!

At 1020, 158862 pulled in with the train to Norwich, whereby I boarded and soon found Yorkie, Jordy and the others gathered around a table in what was now the rear coach. This train wa signalled into platform 1 at Norwich, which as we pulled into it, I noted 31190 poking out from behind the wall which separates platform 1 with the little yard area next to the station.

At Norwich we had nearly 30 minutes to kill, so firstly it was down to the London end of the platform 2, to photograph a full refurbished Mk3+Skoda set on the Norwich-Diss shuttles, what a waste of resources! Would of been better to put units on these diagrams,as the loadings weren't exactly that heavy!! Nick W joined us at this time.

The 1145 to Sheringham was due off platform 6, we readily twigged that the unit that was already in the platform was not in service, so we walked down the platform to where in the incoming unit would stop. This turned out to be 156402 in all over white. On board the train we noted a perfect candidate to put on Stoatface, sitting a few rows behind us, thankfully one of the group took a picture of him before he alighted the train at Cromer. Returned on the same unit back to Cromer and Norwich, which by Hoveton & Wroxham was quite heavily loaded!

When we returned to Norwich, Harry Potter was waiting for us (who drove down all the way to Ely in his car) and joined us for the rest of the meet. The next train on the plan was the 1357 to Lowestoft, this was yet another Sprinter, but this time ONE liveried 156409. At Lowestoft, since the Flymo (170206) for the East Suffolk Line was already in the opposite platform with its doors open, decided to board whilst it was still relatively empty in order to get good seats. However departure wasn't until 1500, so Yorkie and Harry Potter both got out thier railway magazines and we talked about various articles contained within, most notably the news about 143615 (the Pacer that caught fire) is to be broken up for spares! Harry Potter seemed well chuffed about this!!

1500 was soon upon us and the Flymo departed, with a good load. The journey seemed to take ages, as the Flymo wasn't able to go at anywhere near its maximum speed, due to the East Suffolk Line having many open level crossings and TSRs! Also worthy of note was that this train had no functioning toliets on board. We alighted at the quiet station of Westerfield, in order to go down to Felixstowe (or Flexistone as our group called it)!

The reason for Felixstowe being called Flexistone by the group was because someone typed Felixstowe as "Flexistone" on thier plan by mistake, which made all of us chuckle. Anyway, 153322 soon appeared to whisk us to Felixstowe, the train seemed to be mostly full of the local teenagers, hence we were not able to sit together on the ride down. The driver of unit was good, as he thrashed it out of every station! Lovely!!

Nick W, left us here at Felixstowe to go home, whilst the rest of us remained on the 153 for the 1656 departure to Ipswich. At Ipswich, I went over to the other platforms to see what was in Ipswich yard (a few 66s, a 57 and 47370) whilst the others photted another Skoda before we all met up again at the bus stops outside the station for the Rail Replacement Bus to Bury St Edmunds via Stowmarket. This was an East Lancs bodied Olympian operated by Chambers of Haverhill, as with most of thier double deckers it had heavy duty metalwork across the front upstairs window to ward off rogue tree branches!

Even though the bus was running along the A14 daul carriageway most of the way between Ipswich and Bury St E (except to serve Stowmarket), it was still touch and go whether we would catch the train to Peterborough at Bury St Edmunds. This train being the last from Bury St E with GNER connections at Peterborough, fortanately the bus got into Bury St E a few minutes before the train was due to go, so no expensive taxis this time!!

The train was the 1831 Bury St Edmunds- Peterborough via Ely, formed of 156417. At Ely, me Seth and Harry Potter left the train whilst Yorkie, Jordy and Ascot remained on the train to Peterborough. Harry Potter left at Ely, has he had his car parked nearby to drive back home. Me and Seth waited for the 1905 WAGN train to London.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

TAS

Member
Joined
16 Jul 2005
Messages
246
Sprinter said:
This was an East Lancs bodied Olympian operated by Chambers of Haverhill, as with most of thier double deckers it had heavy duty metalwork across the front upstairs window to ward off rogue tree branches!
HC Chambers & Son of Bures you mean, just down the road from me.
 

David

Established Member
Joined
9 Jul 2005
Messages
5,103
Location
Scunthorpe
A bad start to the day for me. instead of catching the 0701 from Scunny to Doncaster, then the 0759 HST, I woke up about 0800 :banghead: :roll:

Anyway, I drive down to Ely and get my rover and catch the 1131 train to Norwich. After arriving at Norwich, this is what greeted me.
y4tz8p.jpg


In platform 2, 90011 and a mark2 set wait to leave with the 1237 service to Diss.
y4tz8o.jpg


What a waste. Very few people were on these service to and from Diss, an hourly service using a 153 could of coped with all the passengers....

As I missed meeting everyone at Ely, I had an hour or so to kill at Norwich, so I went for some food and coffee while the rest of the group was coming back from Sheringham and Cromer.

On the Flexistone :p train, the brat pack was out in force, very noisy they was as well. Arriving back at Ipswich, the yard was just about full of container trains, and 90049 was sat with a single ballast wagon just north of the station. The loco sidings behind the station had quite a few Freds waiting for their next trains as well as a very tatty looking 47370, which seems to have been abandoned....
y4tz8v.jpg


The bus from Ipswich to Bury St Edmonds was very slow (even lorries were overtaking us with ease). After a mad charge up the stairs at Bury St Edmonds, we caught the train back to Ely with about 30 seconds to spare.

I left the group at Ely for a steady drive back to Scunny. I arrived back at about 2130 and decided to have a KFC (Sprinter, no comments please). After that I went to the pub, eventually staggering home about 2 o'clock in the morning....
 

Jordy

Established Member
Joined
9 Jun 2005
Messages
8,465
Location
WCML South
It was a good day, I got home eventually at 2204.

Pics coming soon

Jordy
 

Coxster

Established Member
Joined
9 Jun 2005
Messages
9,244
What was the 31 doing and why was a 90 and a rake of Mk2s running a Diss service?
 

David

Established Member
Joined
9 Jul 2005
Messages
5,103
Location
Scunthorpe
Sprinter said:
we talked about various articles contained within, most notably the news about 143615 (the Pacer that caught fire) is to be broken up for spares! Harry Potter seemed well chuffed about this!!

Not well chuffed. Absolutely delighted. Only a couple of hundred to go now :D
 

Sprinter

Member
Joined
14 Jun 2005
Messages
321
Location
Walthamstow, London
Coxster said:
What was the 31 doing and why was a 90 and a rake of Mk2s running a Diss service?

All Norwich-Diss trains on Sunday were run using full Intercity rakes (including a fully refurbished Mk3 set)! I know there are plenty of spare 321s in Colchester sidings which would of been much more suitable for the Norwich-Diss shuttles...

As for the 31, I believe it hauled refurbished coaches to Crown Point and was subsequently parked in its present location next to platform 1.
 

Ascot

Established Member
Joined
26 Nov 2005
Messages
3,382
Location
Birmingham, UK
Yeah the day was a laf, loved the bus that was falling to part though. Yeh Flexistowe was a shock. Oh and also Lowesoft;)
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,429
Location
Yorkshire
It was an excellent meet.

Some people couldn't be bothered because it was "all units". True, but we got a *lot* of lines covered and it was an enjoyable trip.

Even the replacement bus was interesting! ;)

Some other weird things happened. At March, the guy in the wheelchair who was sat opposite some of us coming back from ACoRP event last September, boarded our train and again sat opposite us, apparently Metcam and I are famous for our taxi exploits...

And then at Peterborough I saw the guy who was doing heads-out behind the 90 who was also rushing with us to get the last GNER after ACoRP. I thought I was seeing things at first.

NickW got recognised by a lot of people on the train to Flexistowe too!

And then there was this poster on the final 156 to Peterborough...

harrold.jpg
:D :D
 

Nick W

Established Member
Joined
5 Nov 2005
Messages
1,436
Location
Cambridge
Hi

Yup good trip overall. Shame that there was barely any time at Sherringham due to the shuttle.

The information line incident at Westerfield was funny:
Ascot thought the info button caused an auto announcement like at some stations, but it called someone up. "Is the Flexistone train on time?" "*delay* erm erm *delay* yes It's just left Ipswich, should be there soon."
 

Jonno2055

Member
Joined
9 Aug 2005
Messages
390
Location
Essex
Just thinking now about what engineering works there were on saturday:

Diss - Norwich
Sheringham - Cromer

Anything alse. This is a bad month for ONE.

Anyway sorry I couldn't come, still sounded good but maybe next time, as long as its in my reach witha budget of £20, I know, witham! We have alot of freightliners stopping off.
 

TAS

Member
Joined
16 Jul 2005
Messages
246
Jordy said:
No, not atall, although It only just arrived in time!!!!

Jordy

Must have been Chambers then! It's pity I wasn't able to come as it was quite local.
Thomas
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top