Moving onto my February catch up now and there was very little in terms of trips out, just the one actually which was for an appointment in Birmingham. The rest of my time on the platform in February was at the local.
Everything noted down in the first couple of days of the month were duds, including 60009 Union of South Africa and 47815 but my trip to Birmingham on the 5th of the month did yield my first February winner in the form of
66137. My trip to the UK's second city didn't yield any rewards (I had to get back so couldn't spend time on the platforms unfortunately) except for
350233 and
350238 which went into the book of haulage. It was over a week before I got back onto the platform again but on the 13th February I ventured back to the local for a couple of hours and I was pleasantly surprised to find required DB shed
66109 working the Southampton to Halewood empties. I hung around until the Garston cars to see a few more dud sheds but was rewarded on the Garston to Dagenham empties as
66730 was at the helm.
2 days later I was back at the local for no particular reason but it was made worthwhile by
66526 working containers from Trafford Park to Southampton. A loco convoy consisting of 90018, 90028 and 92036 made for a good sight but didn't trouble the book of sights
90018/90028/92036 pass Stafford by
The_Train
92036 passing Stafford by
The_Train
My final reward for a 2 hour stint was to chalk off
90016 as it formed a pairing with dud 90047 on the afternoon Daventry to Coatbridge working. According to trainlogger this leaves me requiring the Anglia and ScotRail 90s along with 90024 (although this seems to have been stuck at Crewe Electric for all of 2019 thus far. All of the others I've not ticked off are all in storage at Crewe.
On the 18th of the month a movement from Southall caught my eye on RTT so I ventured to the local once again. 4 dud 90s and 5 dud 66s later and the Southall move made it up to Staffordshire and it turned out to be the very dud 60009 Union of South Africa and a support coach as it headed towards Castleton Hopwood
Steam at Stafford by
The_Train
A nice sight, but a nicer sight came half hour later as
66161 became the latest shed to fall as it worked the empty clay wagons from Cliffe Vale back to Bescot. This success tempted me to hang around a little bit and I was duly rewarded when FLR
66590 was also chalked off as it headed towards the South East. My luck was in and it continued soon after courtesy of the empty car wagons heading up to Halewood which were headed by
66198. I hung around just long enough to see 68017 and 68016 work the flask train towards Crewe but that was enough for today. The 20th day of February also brought a little luck as I stepped outside of my apartment block to be greeted by
66020 heading along the northern approach to the station as it worked southbound towards Southampton.
A Virgin Trains light engine working caught my eye on the penultimate day of February so I was back off to the local. However, this turned out to be dud 57309 working a light engine run around between Birmingham and Crewe (I assume it was either driver training or a test run after repairs). I hung around for a little bit but was only shown duds until the Southampton to Halewood working threw up a 3rd winner in February as
66095 did the honours. That was the only success for this little outing but I was back again the following day as more STPs were showing on RTT. The first one was a working from Old Dalby to Crewe which eventually ran very early meaning I just about caught it as I wandered to the station and was able to sight duds 37884 and 37601 hauling a new LO 710 unit,
710103 in this case, to Crewe. That's the first of this class to head into the book. 47853 (bearing number 47614) also made for a nice sight as it also headed for Crewe but alas was dud, as was everything else I saw for the next hour
47853 (47614) runs light through Stafford by
The_Train
So that's it for a pretty barren February but here is the summary nonetheless
February Summary
For Sight
Winners:
11
Classes completed:
None
Sub classes completed:
None
For Haulage
Winners:
2
Total Mileage:
56 miles 30 chains
Classes completed:
N/A
Sub classes completed:
N/A