Cactus' UK & European rail travels

[TheAdelante]

A varied little day that

The secret with the 171s out of Ashford is to aim for the first class area as it be declassified

Or charm the guard into giving you a free upgrade like TT-ONR-NRN did two weeks ago

 

[fishquinn]

The international platforms at Waterloo certainly look rather funky. Sounds like a good day and I highly suggest a run on the Cumbrian Coast if you like sea views.

 

[cactustwirly]

In the twilight 07/01/2018

I was looking at the EMT HST diagrams and realised I could get some service later in the day (on a Sunday) to make a change from the usual 1156 to Loughborough.
I originally planned to get the 1509 to Derby, including a divert via Donnington.
However I couldn't make it, so I replanned to get the 1945 from Leicester to East Mids Parkway.

It was formed of duds for the 3rd consecutive time, 43089 & 43081, typical!

IMG_20180107_194127 by litecactus, on Flickr

It was an uneventful ride to East Midlands Parkway

IMG_20180107_200224 by litecactus, on Flickr

I had a cold wait here for the 2019 back to Leicester, this time stopping at Leicester.
Quite a few people were waiting for this service, roughly 25-30 people!
Which was formed of dud 43060 & winner 43055! This was the set with the declassified coach D, which I obviously sampled!

IMG_20180107_201933 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20180107_202154 by litecactus, on Flickr

I also bought the worlds most overpriced can of Strongbow from the buffet. Eventually the train arrived back at Leicester, where I was able to photograph the nameplate on 43055.

IMG_20180107_204308 by litecactus, on Flickr

 

[Kite159]

I guess the divert via the Castle would have been due to engineering works south of Derby closing the line via Long Eaton?

 

[cactustwirly]

I guess the divert via the Castle would have been due to engineering works south of Derby closing the line via Long Eaton?

Correct, I'm going to try and get it next Sunday.

 

[Andy Pacer]

I still have a few EMT HST power cars that are required, but despite regular trips between Leicester and Luton Airport Parkway (once or twice a week) plus the occasional move connected with a weekend Rail rover outing I keep picking the duds!

 

[cactustwirly]

Rare track explorations 14/01/2018

Just like last Sunday, trains to Derbywere being diverted via Castle Donnington & Stenson Jct instead of going via Long Eaton.

Duds 43058 & 43076 were my first powercars of the day working the 1519 service to Sheffield.

IMG_20180114_152330 by litecactus, on Flickr

It was an uneventful run to East Midlands Parkway, after which the train ran over the freight only branch to Stenson Junction. This part was quite interesting, being quite low speed, and the occasional bit of jointed track.

At Stenson the train reversed and headed into Derby via the infamous Peartree station.

I stayed on the train until Chesterfield in the hope of getting a HST home via Ilkeston and Toton.
Derby to Chesterfield is now my favourite line to ride a HST! (It's quite fun at high speed)

IMG_20180114_164431 by litecactus, on Flickr

My train back to Leicester was announced as delayed, just as a pair of winner 158s pulled in bound for Nottingham, I let this go since it took a bit longer and I assumed the train back from Nottingham would be a 222.

So I let them go. This is where my plan fell apart, the 1700 London service eventually arrived 20L, formed of winner 222002! I wasn't very happy about the traction, but atleast I'd get the rare track through Toton.

When I got home, I saw that if I went to Nottingham I could have got an actual HST home plus some winner shacks!

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Both great reviews as usual, just read both ones, it was your thread that inspired me to start my own actually, and I do enjoy reading about EMT as I haven’t been with them for ages!

Declassified first class was a bit of luck, but I must admit when it comes to HSTs I prefer the first class seats with VTEC. And GWR. And XC. And the ones that were with GC.

Congratulations on 222002 that would definitely have been my favourite unit to ride! I do like Meridians!

 

[Kite159]

Nice work on getting passenger services over those lines, the only passenger service I've had in the Toton area was a HST from Nottingham which went into the area to reverse to carry on going south via the high level bridge as the main Trent Junction was closed

 

[cactustwirly]

Through the Valley 26/01/2018

After a lazy morning, I took the 1225 to Nottingham formed of duds 43060 & 43055

IMG_20180126_125421 by litecactus, on Flickr

I got a better photo of the nameplate

IMG_20180126_125406 by litecactus, on Flickr

I then took winner 170521 to Derby (I had a valid intinerary for it, although the guard did give me a funny look)

IMG_20180126_125529 by litecactus, on Flickr

At Derby I got myself a Latte from the Costa coffee on the station before getting winners, 153384 & 153374 to Matlock.

The scenery was quite scenic, and there was quite a few sections of jointed track.

IMG_20180126_142903 by litecactus, on Flickr

At Matlock, I got some stuff from Boots and had a walk round the park to kill half an hour.
Matlock is a nice place, but there isn't a huge amount there.

Dud 156497 took me back to Derby, where I caught winner 222010 to East Midlands Parkway.

IMG_20180126_161731 by litecactus, on Flickr

My final train home was duds 43089 & 43066, atleast '089 was paired with something different than '081.

IMG_20180126_164012 by litecactus, on Flickr

 

[cactustwirly]

Not procrastinating at all! August/September 2017

I've got a 2500 word case study to write, but I'm going to write this instead.

As you may have gathered I was on holiday to America (& a tiny bit of Canada) in the summer. I didn't do enough to do a full trip report, instead I'm going to write a series of mini trip reports.

Part 0:

I was flying from Heathrow Terminal 5 to Newark International onboard a newly refurbished British Airways Boeing 777.
As this flight departed from the 'B' gates, I got to use the intergate transit system

The flight was pleasant.
After takeoff, the drinks trolley came round, and I had a Gin & Tonic.

After a few hours lunch came round, I chose the chicken curry, which tasted amazing (as far as plane food goes), and white wine which wasn't too bad.
Although the quantity wasn't as much as Virgin Atlantic, the quality of the food was much better.
The coffee was good as well, it wasn't the crappy instant stuff.

During the flight I entertained myself with episodes of DS9 (the best series of Star Trek!) downloaded onto my phone (the IFE selection wasn't very good).

The plane landed on time, and immigration wasn't too bad, except for being in the slowest moving queue (typical ) and the lousy attitude of the border police.

After that we collected our hire car and hit the road, driving 2 hours north to our overnight stop at Highland, which is on hte opposite bank of the Hudson to Poughkeepsie.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Sounds a cool trip. What part of Canada?

 

[cactustwirly]

Sounds a cool trip. What part of Canada?

Thanks!
Niagara Falls (Ontario not NY) - Canada seemed a lot nicer than America, the border people are friendly too!

 

[fowler9]

Cool, as a bizarre little aside I was nearly Canadian. Ha ha. Some parts of the family did live there for a while, our part of the family never went despite having passage booked. I have been to a lot of interesting places but sadly North America isn't on the list. I intend to rectify that. Boston, Detroit and Seattle are top of the list for the US, would happily go anywhere in Canada. Good read anyway mate.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Thanks!
Niagara Falls (Ontario not NY) - Canada seemed a lot nicer than America, the border people are friendly too!

Yes, Ontario for the win! Much better than British Columbia

 

[cactustwirly]

Part 1:

Today would be the day where I would experience American trains first hand.
We had some time to kill, partly because of the jetlag waking us up at the crack of dawn, and we didn't have to be at our next destination until 4pm.

I decided we should go somewhere on the train.
Since I was with my non enthusiast family, I chose a destination that would be interesting to them, therefore we decided to go to Cold Spring.

We drove across the Hudson, and parked up in the station car park. It was clearly very commuter orientated, being a huge multi storey.
We bought our overpriced tickets ($12 each way per person) and boarded the train south.

IMG_20170824_085454 by litecactus, on Flickr

These train don't have the best layout, think 2+3 150s. But it wasn't so bad, since the carriages were wider than 150s.
The conductor checked our tickets, and then proceeded to stamp a bit of paper and place it on the seat, like a reservation label.

The journey was pleasant and quite scenic, this being the view from the train:

IMG_20170824_110841 by litecactus, on Flickr

After about 25 minutes we arrived in Cold Spring.

IMG_20170824_092726 by litecactus, on Flickr

These trains are LHCS, with the loco on the rear and a control car at the front.

Cold Spring was a very pleasant village, this being the American version of Taplow or Esher.

I was able to spot the CSX freight trains on the other side of the river, the photos were pretty crap though!

After an hour we headed back to the station to catch the train back.

IMG_20170824_105003 by litecactus, on Flickr

It was a bit annoying because the train was delayed, but there was no PIS screen to tell you how delayed the train was.
Thankfully after 10 minutes the train arrived, with a retro liveried P32 on the front!

IMG_20170824_110425~2 by litecactus, on Flickr

After 25 minutes the train arrived in Poughkeepsie.
IMG_20170824_113255 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170824_113402 by litecactus, on Flickr

We walked round town, and then collected the car.
We drove to an AT&T shop to get a SIM card & then got lunch from a weird Soup cafe.

We then hit the road driving north to our Airbnb near Albany. We would be staying here for 3 nights.

Thus being the house

 

[fowler9]

Brilliant. Loved the photos.

 

[cactustwirly]

Part 2:

I didn't do much railway stuff until the end of the Holiday, but I'll give you a quick run down of what we did in the meantime, well the stuff I think is interesting anyway.

We spent the day in Albany, visiting the USS Slater museum, basically a tour round an old US Navy Frigate (similar to the one at the Chatham dockyard museum)
The rest of the day was spent looking round the city, there wasn't much there (which is surprising since it's the state capital) 'Downtown' aka City Centre consisted of a few Cafes and some government buildings.
The buildings were nice though.

On the way out of Albany, we got lost and ended up driving through the dodgy part of the city. What was surprising was how quickly it got dodgy and how dangerous it looked. I'm glad the doors were locked!
I've never seen anywhere in the UK that looked that dangerous.
We did a lot of driving through New York State (and a bit of Vermont & New Jersey) and got to see the 'real' America. There is a more noticeable difference between rich & poor.
Also, the towns in the 'back of beyond' do feel quite backwards.

Anyway, a few days later we drove to our next Airbnb, a cabin on a farm near Ithaca. It's from here we visited Niagra Falls in Canada.
The Canadian side was noticeably nicer than the American side, and you did get a better view of the falls.

After Ithaca it was time to head to our final destination of the Holiday - New York!
However we decided to overnight in Pennsylvania to break the journey up. Whilst at a motorway services, were talking to a guy from a Church, who recomended that we should visit a Museum which wasn't to far way.
So we visited this museum, which turned out to be an old Railway works which has been turned into a National Park!

Here are some photos:

 

[fowler9]

Excellent mate, lovely photos. I've seen another Ithaca from the coast of Kefalonia.

 

[fishquinn]

I'm definitely looking forward to my trip to that sort of area in September/October now! I'll get to see Niagra Falls, Toronto and a nice drive across Vermont and Maine to get to Nova Scotia.

What made the bad bits of Albany look so bad?

 

[cactustwirly]

I'm definitely looking forward to my trip to that sort of area in September/October now! I'll get to see Niagra Falls, Toronto and a nice drive across Vermont and Maine to get to Nova Scotia.

What made the bad bits of Albany look so bad?

Um it wasn't one thing, but multiple things put together.
Like really run down houses, with smashed & boarded up windows and really overgrown gardens, neglected pavements and roads.
Really old cars, which were barely roadworthy etc, I think you get the picture.
Also the people hanging around the area.

It went from very nice to dangerous very quickly, which was the more worrying part.

I can't find the street on street view, it's easier to explain with a picture.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Nice pictures of Niagara.

My motto for Canada is West is Best, though as a Torontonian that might be slightly biased...

 

[cactustwirly]

I think this was it:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@42.6...4!1sVZbxd0lvnMskiILxr2jnXg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Have a look for yourself.

 

[fishquinn]

I see what you mean, particularly regarding the contrast between nice and not so nice.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Nice pictures of Niagara.

My motto for Canada is West is Best, though as a Torontonian that might be slightly biased...

NO! Sorry. We’ve been looking at Mauritius holidays and the phrase west is best got stuck in my head. East is best. Sorry. Don’t go to West, especially to Vancouver...

 

[cactustwirly]

Very Last minute plans! 12/02/18

Was gonna continue my America reports, however I went out this afternoon with a very last minute change of plans!
I was timetabled to be in uni from 10-5pm today, however I finished earlier than expected. So I got home about 3:30pm, as soon as I got in, I saw that ex GC powercar 43467 was working the 1532 off Nottingham.
I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity, so I sprinted to the Station, and got a return to Market Harborough.

So I boarded winner 43467 & dud 43043 for the 16 mile journey south.

IMG_20180212_160217 by litecactus, on Flickr

I like this part of the MML, quite a lot of fast corners and pleasant countryside.

Is it me, or do the ex GC powercars sound more gruntier than the GWR MTU powercars?

Anyway here is 467 at Market Harborough

IMG_20180212_161850 by litecactus, on Flickr

I ahd a look round town, and popped in Costa to get a latte, to kill about 50 minutes until my train home.
Market Harborough is nice, reminds me a little of Banbury.

I walked back to the station, in time for the 1710 departure back to Leicester. Which was formed of duds 43047 & 43054

IMG_20180212_165918 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20180212_170655 by litecactus, on Flickr

Winners: 1
Miles: 32
Ching £7.05 + £2.65

 

[mark_47769]

Seems like you had a good little trip. 43467 Looks well.

 

[Cowley]

Interesting to see a power car with buffers in EMT colours.
Loved reading about your Canada trip Cactus. Most excellent.

 

[cactustwirly]

Interesting to see a power car with buffers in EMT colours.
Loved reading about your Canada trip Cactus. Most excellent.

Thanks!

The RRB avoidance move: 17/02/2018

I booked some tickets to go home for a weekend break, however there was a very annoying RRB from Leicester to Bedford. So I we via Birmingham instead.

I caught winner 170102 to Birmingham from Leicester.

IMG_20180217_131616 by litecactus, on Flickr

I had a 40 minute connection time at Birmingham, so I'd arranged to meet up with fishquinn.
We went to Subway for lunch and then headed for Moor Street where we caught the 1355 to Marylebone. It was formed of dud 68015 !

IMG_20180217_133244 by litecactus, on Flickr

I said goodbye to Quinn at Leamington Spa, and continued on to High Wycombe, since it was significantly cheaper than a disgusting voyager to Reading!

IMG_20180217_151334 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20180217_151425 by litecactus, on Flickr

At High Wycombe my parents gave me a lift back home.
However some idiot decided to close the Handy Cross roundabout (the big one at the junction with the M40), so we had to take the back roads to Marlow, which were jammed with traffic.
So it took 45 minutes instead of the usual 20 minutes to get home!

Mileage: 120
Winners: 1
Ching: cheaper than a child return on GX, with enough change to buy a coffee

The pictures have now been added

 

[cactustwirly]

Part 3: Into New York

Thought I would continue my America trip reports, we begin on the highway on the approach to New York.

IMG_20170902_123726 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170902_123732 by litecactus, on Flickr

As you can see, the highway ran adjacent to the NEC.

Eventually we arrived into New York, and hit a load of traffic. Eventually finding the hotel, where we checked in and dumped the luggage, before heading 'uptown' to drop off the hire car.
We didn't fancy walking 25 blocks from 50th Street to 23rd Street, so we caught the subway instead, it was lines A, C, E which are coloured blue on the map.

IMG_20170902_143047 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170902_143055 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170902_143658 by litecactus, on Flickr

The Subway isn't as good as the Underground for several reasons, including the comfort of the seats (being plastic with no moquette), spartan stations, and less information.

Day 2 (in New York):

My brother wanted to head over to Brooklyn so I suggested we use the brown "J" line. This line like it's brown coloured counterpart in London feels quite run down.

We started at 23rd street, where we caught a 6 train to Chambers Street/Brooklyn Bridge
23rd street is a local stop, so the 4 & 5 trains run fast through the station.

IMG_20170903_094617 by litecactus, on Flickr

Here is the inside of a 6 train.

IMG_20170903_100123 by litecactus, on Flickr

Chambers street station is quite impressive but looked a bit run down.

IMG_20170903_100515 by litecactus, on Flickr

Adjacent is an R32 train which dates from the 1960s!

IMG_20170903_101359 by litecactus, on Flickr

We had a bit of a long wait since this line only runs every 15 minutes, but eventually a train arrived, but I was slightly dissapointed it wasn't an R32, but one of the generic new trains.

But it was fun since it rn overground, over the Williamsburg Bridge.

IMG_20170903_102546 by litecactus, on Flickr

As you can see, it was a bit wet!

IMG_20170903_102937 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20170903_103921 by litecactus, on Flickr