ash39
Established Member
- Joined
- 8 Feb 2012
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Great stuff.
I've stolen a few ideas for next year
That's always good to hear, I've nicked plenty of ideas off people over the years so it's good to give something back
Forgive me as this is a bit of a lengthy one, it’s been a fair while since my last update!
Monday 3rd December I had a short notice work trip to the capital. 91130 pushed me there on the 0630 service from York, becoming my third highest mileage 91 in the process, now on 561 miles.
91130 London Kings Cross 03/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
I had to be in Fulham for 10am, so rather than take the tube all the way, I looked for a more interesting route. I took a short tube journey to Victoria, then jumped on double winners 377426 & 377422 to Clapham Junction.
I was planning to walk to my meeting from Wandsworth Town as it was a required station, but as I was still ahead of schedule I decided to sneak another one in too. 450563 & 450013 took me past Wandsworth to Putney, where a few minutes later 707029 & 707015 arrived to take me back to Wandsworth Town.
707015 Wandsworth Town 03/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
My first journey on a 707 was short and pretty forgetful, but 6 winners and 2 stations before work was a pretty good result.
I was booked on the 1800 service back north out of Kings Cross, but I was done in Fulham by 4pm, so I returned via Victoria once again. Imperial Wharf was a similar walking distance to Wandsworth Town, so I headed there. It wasn’t a required station, but the winner pairs I’d enjoyed in the morning continued into the evening. 377213 & 377203 were taken to Clapham Junction.
377113 & 377471 then took me into Victoria, followed by the tube back to Kings Cross, which was predictably rather busy at this time of day.
I knew my train was a HST, and as I was still after two LNER power cars, there was a very small chance of continuing the streak of double winners.
I wasn’t that lucky, but 43318 was on the front, which would do very nicely.
43318 London Kings Cross 03/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
43312 was on the rear, which was already very dud and would hit 680 miles on this run. It was non-stop to York and although it was quite busy, the unreserved seat next to me remained satisfyingly empty.
Day summary:
91130 YRK-KGX
377426 & 377422 VIC-CLJ
450563 & 450013 CLJ-PUT
707029 & 707015 PUT-WNT
377213 & 377203 IMW-CLJ
377113 & 377471 CLJ-VIC
43318 & 43312 KGX-YRK
2 new stations: Putney, Wandsworth Town
11 new units/power cars: 1x HST, 6x 377, 2x 450, 2x 707
2 dud locos/power cars: 1x HST, 1x 91
Day mileage: 387 miles
Another work trip then followed on Wednesday 12th December, this time to Swindon. I boarded a busy 1658 service from York to Kings Cross. Much like my journey the week before, it was busy but also non-stop to London, so once I knew the seat next to me wasn’t required I was able to spread out a bit. I started to ponder if anyone had ever accidentally boarded this train and ended up 188 miles away without being able to get off...
We were routed into platform 8, which was a first for me as far as I can remember. I got off to ID the loco, fairly low mileage 91128 was on the rear. 91108, 91110, 91121 & 91129 remain under 100 miles though, and would have been a better result.
91128 London Kings Cross 12/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
Another first for me, I then used the tube with my rail ticket. I wasn’t sure if the ticket barriers would like it, but it worked both ways. I nearly made a novice error by boarding a Metropolitan Line service thinking it was a Circle Line, but realised my error and jumped off at Great Portland Street for a following service.
I was around 20 minutes early at Paddington for my 1948 service. I grabbed a meal deal from Boots (before later discovering I had an evening meal already paid for at the hotel…). As seems to be the case at all London termini, the platform was announced 5 minutes before departure time, causing a mass scrum for the train. Luckily for me, realtimetrains had indicated it would leave from platform 2, so I was in prime position!
800307 was my unit. I didn’t walk beyond coach B where my reserved seat was located, but it appeared to be fully booked. A young chap sat next to me with a laptop and phone, talking about projects & accounts. I was more than ready to find him really irritating, but it turned out he worked in a similar profession to me and was quite interesting to hear what he was up to.
He then moved to a table at Reading, where the train emptied out by about 50%. This was new territory for me, I’d never travelled beyond Hayes & Harlington on the GWML. Not that I could see a great deal, as it was pitch black outside.
Fast forward to the next day, and a bit of an error on my part. Rather than book an anytime single, I tried to save my employer some money by opting for an advance on the 1900 Swindon to London service. It was a fair bit cheaper than the earlier ones, and I figured it would give me time to get a decent meal and not have to rush around.
Unfortunately, I was out of work a lot earlier than expected, and a colleague dropped me off at the station. It was only 1630. To make matters worse I wasn’t even particularly hungry, I took up residence in Costa for an hour or so before moving up to the platforms, which were freezing. I did get to see some comings and goings from the waiting room though. Frustratingly, some of the earlier services towards London were HST’s, which would have been nice. As mine was a 9-car ex-Cardiff, I was expecting another 800/3.
800306, eventually, took me to London. A lot quieter than my train the previous day, I took up a seat in the rearmost coach with around 4 other passengers. My mate was in London, and I passed him at Hayes & Harlington, as he boarded a pair of 378’s towards Paddington, where we planned to meet.
800306 London Paddington 13/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
We both had the following day off work and had planned a day in Anglia. His car was at Elsetree & Borehamwood, but as it was only 8pm we still could sneak a couple of London moves in before heading to our lodgings for the night.
We took a tube to Swiss Cottage, and walked down the hill to winner shack South Hampstead. A bit of bad luck for my mate here, as a unit he had a couple of hours previously came back to haunt him. 378255 was a winner for me though.
378255 South Hampstead 17/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
We went in to Euston, where we ran out of ideas and decided just to walk to St Pancras for a train directly back to the car. Many delays and cancellations were showing on the boards, and we had time to go south to Farrington on dud 700102 before meeting winner 700053 back the other way. More bad luck for my mate here as a ropey looking bloke sat next to him who looked like death personified, sniffing every few seconds and breathing like a horse.
Elsetree & Borehamwood was a required station. Not a bad little start, but the main event would be tomorrow. We drove to our hotel, a Holiday Inn just outside Ipswich, ready for the next morning.
Day summary:
800306 SWI-PAD
378255 SOH-EUS
700102 STP-ZFD
700053 ZFD-ELS
2 new stations: Elstree & Borehamwood, South Hampstead
3 new units: 1x 378, 1x 700, 1x 800
1 dud unit: 1x 700
Day mileage: 93 miles
Friday 14th December 2018 – Anglia Plus Day Ranger
We started the day by driving to Lowestoft station, where parking for the day was a fairly reasonable £6.10. We were early, as we’d planned to get a McDonald’s breakfast on the way. Ignoring the dozen or so in Ipswich, we expected there to be one as we got closer, but it turned out Stowmarket doesn’t have a McDonald’s…
Good job we were early, as the parking ticket machines were a bit of a farce. The first one wouldn’t accept my bank card, the second was cash only. Eventually, I managed to pay on my card on the third machine, right at the other end of the car park.
The ticket office was also having problems with money, they were unable to issue our rovers and instructed us to buy on board. We were obviously here for some Class 90 haulage, me being down to just two locos required (90005 & 90010). My mate required around half a dozen, but including the ones I also needed. We saw two sets pass whilst we waited, and made a note for later. 90009 & 90013 were no good to either of us, but it would help us know which diagrams to look out for later in the day.
Eventually our 0855 service arrived, practically empty. We waited until we left the train at Diss to ID the loco on the rear – 90006 was also no good for either of us…
We’d noticed the information boards were displaying an interesting caveat on the next London bound service. 'No wifi or buffet on this service’ suggested to me that it would likely be a 321 substituting for a loco hauled set.
The hunch proved to be correct, and whilst we were pleased to bag double winners 321302 & 321316, it meant one less Class 90 was in service. We took the 321 pairing to Ipswich.
321316 Ipswich 14/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
We were both suffering with colds, so we went out to McDonald’s to purchase a McMuffin, seeing as we had failed on the journey to Stowmarket. We sat in and used a timetable we’d picked up at Diss to mark out the diagrams we’d seen so far, so we could avoid repeat locos. It was a neat plan, but we spent so long doing it that we were late back to the station in order to see the next one...
No big loss, as we would see it on the way back from Norwich, and still had plenty of time to get it later in the day if required. Instead of waiting for the next loco-hauled set to arrive from London, we took winner 170201 back to Stowmarket as a bonus move, as we could wait for the loco hauled service there.
Again though, we were out of luck - 90015 was already a high mileage loco for both of us. Good news though, as my mate managed to ID 90005 heading the other way at speed, so we knew that was out and made a plan to get it later in the day.
We had a longer wait at Diss this time, so made use of the station café. 90002 took us back to Ipswich.
We now had another gap to fill, as the next services were either ones we had seen earlier on their way back from London, or ones we had seen going to Norwich. Instead, we took winner 156412 on a Lowestoft service. Originally, we were aiming for Saxmundham, but instead we bailed two stops earlier at Melton.
We did this as there was a nice riverside walk back to Woodbridge, giving us an extra station. Due to some miscalculation on my part, I didn't realise the significance at the time, but Woodbridge was to become by 500th station visited in the UK.
It was around a half hour walk, giving us about 5 minutes to spare before 156417 arrived to take us back.
We could now meet 90005 at Ipswich, and it made sense to get it ticked off sooner rather than later. Knowing our luck it could fail or come off diagram for some reason later in the day, so we boarded for a run to Diss (once again).
90005 Diss 14/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
This move would see us coming back on 90013, - we knew this as we had seen it earlier in the day.
There was another gap now until the next diagram we hadn’t covered, so we took winner 156407 out on the Lowestoft line again. Originally aiming for Wickham Market for a safe connection, we ended up staying on until Saxmundham as the return was delayed, giving a safe +5 or so. There was a level crossing to negotiate but thankfully it opened between trains.
Dud 170205 took us back again.
170205 Saxmundham 14/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
By the time we arrived back at Ipswich the last of the daylight was just about gone. I had the chance to get my last Anglian 153, 153314, on a round trip to Felixstowe. As it was dark though, I declined the chance as I wanted to the line in daylight. Instead I decided to join my mate covering another couple of loco-hauled diagrams. We killed the time watching 70005 speeding up global warming in the yard.
70005 & 170204 Ipswich 14/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
The move was productive for my mate, another round trip to Diss got him two winners, 90011 & 90012. Here’s a careworn looking 90011 seen earlier in the day.
90011 Ipswich 14/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
We now had a exit plan for the rest of the day. We wanted to get the peak crowd-buster Norwich service, which was formed of a 12-car 321 last time I caught it. We waited in the waiting room as it was now getting a bit chilly, which was a bad idea as the service arrived around 5 minutes before departure time, so we missed the number of the front set and had to walk the length of the platform to ID it anyway! Ex-First Capital Connect/Great Northern 321410 was leading 321310 and dud 321346 on the rear. Just like the last time I caught this service in 2016, all three units were in different liveries...
We took them to Stowmarket, where we saw Freightliner 66593 pause for a crew change, just as we’d seen 66504 do around 10 hours earlier.
66593 Stowmarket 14/12/2018 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
170201 took us back to Ipswich on our penultimate move of the day.
Our final move was a last roll of the dice for 90010. My mate had worked out a set runs from Crown Point to London Liverpool Street in the morning, then spends the day at Bounds Green depot before returning to form a Norwich service in the evening. He was correct, it was a set we hadn’t seen so far today, but unfortunately it was dud for both of us, 90004.
That was it for Anglia, but I still had to get back home as my mate was staying in Hertfordshire until the next day. I booked an LNER advance from Stevenage. As a bonus, Stevenage was a required station!
My mate dropped me off exactly an hour before my train, which was fine by me as I was hungry. I might have had a head cold but my appetite was still strong. I went to possibly the grubbiest KFC in the UK. After carefully stepping over all the discarded chips, packaging and straws that seemed to be strewn all over the floor, I found a table and ate my variety meal before waddling back to the station.
I was expecting a HST to turn up, but it didn’t sound like a HST approaching. Sure enough, 91102 roared out of the darkness. It was fairly busy, and I had to make do with a backwards seat in the half buffet coach, as my actual reserved seat was in non-existent coach G…
This was a Leeds service, so I had to change at Peterborough. The 20 minutes here went by quicker than I feared they would. It was busy for the time of night which helped, 66515, which we’d seen at Ipswich earlier in the day, stopped for a crew change with a northbound intermodal. GBRf 66753 also passed through with a rake of DB liveried wagons, not to mention various 700’s, 365’s & LNER services passing through too.
43318, required until a week ago, lead my final train of the day. 43290 would later be identified as the rear power car. I forgot this service was routed via Knottingley & Church Fenton, pretty much doubling the time it takes to travel from Doncaster to York.
Back at York, just the small matter of a 40-minute taxi queue stood between me and my bed, but I finally made it through the door at around 0130.
Day summary:
90006 SMK-DIS
321302 & 321316 DIS-IPS
170201 IPS-SMK
90015 SMK-DIS
90002 DIS-IPS
156412 IPS-MES
156417 WDB-IPS
90005 IPS-DIS
90013 DIS-IPS
156407 IPS-SAX
170205 SAX-IPS
90011 IPS-DIS
90012 DIS-IPS
321410, 321310 & 321346 IPS-SMK
170201 SMK-IPS
90004 IPS-SMK
91102 SVG-PBO
43318 & 43290 PBO-YRK
4 new stations: Melton, Saxmundham, Stevenage, Woodbridge
9 new units/locos: 1x 90, 3x 156, 1x 170, 4x 321
13 dud units/locos/power cars: 2x HST, 7x 90, 1x 91, 2x 170, 1x 321
Day mileage: 463 miles
Definitely wouldn't mind another run on that one if I get chance before it meets the gas axe.
