A wet and wonderful Northern outing - Thursday 7th November 2019
After lots of mulling about how to make use of my remaining Northern vouchers, I took the advice of
@palmersears and decided to get a few more yellow electrics in the book with a visit to the fantastic city of Liverpool. As ever this would be a run via Crewe but I decided against too early of a start and went for the cheaper VTWC only ticket between Stafford and Crewe allowing me to join dud for all 390112 for a late running jaunt up to Crewe. My first sighting of note was outside of the Arriva Traincare Depot as required
09204 was sat in the rain
09204 by
The_Train
I was also able to nab a couple more of the pretendolino stock that is sat at the front of the depot and finally unobstructed. I also saw the now ever present 710107 (do London Overground not want it?) sat in its usual position and as we crept closer towards the station I spied dud 92043 sat in the Holding Sidings. On arrival into P5 at Crewe I ventured straight up stairs to sort my ranger ticket out and with that task completed without drama, I went off for my usual wander to check out the thunderbird loco which was 57308. It was after checking this that I suddenly noticed all sorts - first a rake of sleeper stock sat in the old mail sidings so I had a walk down the little walkway that leads to replacement buses but from there was only able to ID the first 2 coaches so it was back to P12 and it was while making this journey back that I heard something that piqued my interest. At first I just put it down to being the 57 ticking over but the noise sounded much better and as I got back onto the platform I sighted a pair of choppers sat in the goods line. I just about made it down the platform to grab a shot of them as they powered away towards Basford Hall and after a quick check on the TOPS thread I found out that they were 20132, which I'd not only seen before but enjoyed some haulage behind at the ELR and required
20118 both in that fantastic Railfreight livery with the red Solebar
Choppers at Crewe by
The_Train
After these pair had departed, I turned my attention back to the sleeper stock and thankfully was able to ID all 6 coaches from the platform and all barring one were required
Ex Caledonian Sleeper stock at Crewe by
The_Train
I'd noticed a couple of units had arrived during this excitement so I was heading across the footbridge to check them out.....but wait, what's that noise - something else is growling down in the goods line....
56113 RHTT by
The_Train
That's right folks, more locomotive action at Crewe. Had I been transported back to being a 10 year old boy in the 90s? This time it was 56113 leading a RHTT working from Shrewsbury to Shrewsbury with 56083 at the rear. Neither required as both were seen in the same place last RHTT season but no enthusiast can complain at seeing 5 locos in the space of about 10 minutes at the Mecca of old
56087 at Crewe by
The_Train
Amongst all of this classic locomotive action, I've nearly forgot to mention that earlier in the day I'd also spotted
331105 awaiting departure towards Liverpool South Parkway on what I assume to be a test run of some sort
Northern newbie 331105 at Crewe by
The_Train
I did finally get over the footbridge to check out the Welsh unit but it was dud 153303 but the next Welsh unit was required as
175106 passed through. Time was ticking towards my next departure so I ventured towards P1 where my unit was waiting and as I headed down the steps I noticed the paintwork and interior and thought I was being treated to a 195 ride until I saw the pantograph - was I being treated to a first ever ride on a 331? No, it was a very nicely refurbished
323234 which would not only be a first haulage wise but also a first sighting of it. This brought about a mini klaxon as I'd finally cleared the Northern 323 units and brought me a first mini success within the Northern fleet and also took me to just 1 WMT 323 to complete the class.
It was a lengthy journey to Lime Street on this service but it was nicely broken at Manchester Airport as I got to see
195114 for the first time and then as we went past Longsight I was given a nice bonus as
68021 was sat on the depot. That leaves me 6 of the cats to find. The remaining journey into Liverpool threw up nothing of note with only dud 66751 sat on Edge Hill but arrival into Lime Street did offer up
331005 which was the latest of the new Northern units to go into the book. I didn't hang around at Lime Street as there didn't seem to be too much around so it was straight downstairs to the low level platform for the short hop to Liverpool Central which was done on requirement for everything
507009. I took a seat for a couple of hours fester underground where I sighted the following:
507: 507001, 507006,
507009,
507010, 507013, 507014, 507015, 507023, 507025,
507026,
507029, 507032
508: 508111, 508117,
508123, 508124, 508128,
508131,
508136, 508139
Repeats started to occur so I decided to head upstairs to head onto the Northern line for a jaunt to Sandhills which I did on required for haulage
508139. What being underground had done is stop me from seeing the weather outside and it was only as we came out of the tunnels that I realised it was pretty sodden. I spent all of my time at Sandhills hiding from the wind and rain which just got worse and worse throughout my time there. I did manage to spy the following:
507: 507002,
507004,
507005,
507007, 507008, 507011,
507012,
507017,
507024, 507030, 507031
508: 508110, 508112,
508114, 508120, 508130,
508134, 508139, 508140,
508116
508134 by
The_Train
Merseyrail 507030 by
The_Train
As the weather got worse and my hands got colder and colder, the repeats started to happen earlier than I'd hoped. All of this combined made my mind up to head back to Lime Street half hour earlier than planned so I jumped on
508112 to Moorfields and then went down to the Wirral Line to allow
507013 to take me back to Lime Street. I had considered making use of the extra time I now had to spend at Lime Street but it's a bit of a pain to get around all of the platforms with the first 5 being behind barriers and the rest not so. I did see a a few dud units but decided to find the first service back to Piccadilly which was to be on
195002 and 195007. This was clearly going to be a busy service as the queues next to the doors showed and I'd noticed a pacer arriving into another platform so I wandered across to check out its next working and it was going to Oxford Road and definitely looked more lightly loaded. There was no debate as to whether I'd prefer a 195 or a 142 so I jumped on
142004 which was attached to
156424, both required for haulage. It was clear early on that the heating system had just the cold setting operational and with the windows offering no protection against the rain it became a wet and cold trip back to Manchester but one that I loved every minute of. As the windows were that steamed up it was impossible to see out of, I spent much of the journey admiring the noises the pacer offered along with reading my book. We were late arriving into Oxford Road as it seemed that parts of the Northern network were under water but I only had a few minutes to wait before dud for all 323225 arrived to take me to Piccadilly. I had about an hour at Piccadilly so I set out on the quest to hopefully get a few more pacers into the book but my first sweep of the train shed platforms only yielded duds. However, I was saved soon after as
142018 came into P1 with dud 142047
142018 at Manchester Piccadilly by
The_Train
Dud 142049 was the next pacer in but this did allow me to grab a first photo of it before TfW
158829 went into the book when it arrived from Carmarthen
TfW 158829 by
The_Train
Unfortunately that would be my final winner for this outing so it was left to
319367 to haul me for the first time as I headed back to Crewe. Things were a little bit chaotic at Crewe because of the flooding around the country but thankfully my final haulage was only 6 minutes behind time and dud for all and very well loaded 390016 arrived to take me back home after another good outing. Summary is below:
For Sight
Winners:
27
Coaching Stock Winners:
7
Tram Winners:
0
Classes completed:
N/A
Sub classes completed:
N/A
TOCs completed:
N/A
For Haulage
Winners:
8
Total Mileage:
185 miles 02 chains
Classes completed:
N/A
Sub classes completed:
N/A