Cactus' UK & European rail travels

[cactustwirly]

Poor you visiting Guildford by choice!

I take it you don't like Guildford?

I quite like it.

 

[Kristofferson]

I second what Kite said - having been marooned there enough times thanks to the inherent unreliability of the PDL, I was always worried I may be drowned in a sea of blandness, never to escape.

It's expensive too, considering its distance from London.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cactustwirly]

A Few Days in West Yorkshire....

Part 3: The Return (11/08/16)

My first train was the 11:13 to Leeds from Knottingley, which was formed of 144014

144014 @ Knottingley by litecactus, on Flickr

Then I had a 45 wait for my Kings X train the 12:45 which is booked a HST
During this time I got a rather nice pasty and a coffee.

The train rolled in at 12:15, but to my horror is was set EC64 with the EMT interior (which had been refurbished with new seat covers and carpet)

I really do not like the original seats, because they are too low and they make your back ache. The FGW/GWR HSTs have the better seats, though I also like the seats in the 'Mallard' sets.

Anyway, I found my seat and the train departed on time, and apart from a hold up at Bentley, the journey went smoothly.

EC64 @ KGX by litecactus, on Flickr

At Kings Cross I headed to the H&C line and caught a train to Paddington.

I caught the 1612 from Paddington to Twyford formed of trio of 2 car 165s
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
A few hours spare in London: 16/08/16

I had to go into London in the morning to drop my Grandparents off at Kings X
Afterwards I headed to Paddington to get the 13:15 to Greenford, I made it with 1 minute to spare! It was formed of 165127

Once we arrived at Greenford, I made a split second decision to take a PNB on the 165 that I had just alighted from, and as soon as I alighted again, the train departed! (it was quite lucky, if I was 1 second later then it would of departed with me on board!)

Greenford Station by litecactus, on Flickr

Greenford Station by litecactus, on Flickr

I then caught a central line train as far as Shepherd's Bush, where I changed for a WLL train to Clapham Junction.

Shepherd's Bush Central Line by litecactus, on Flickr

Shepherd's Bush Central Line by litecactus, on Flickr

Clapham Junction by litecactus, on Flickr

Clapham Junction by litecactus, on Flickr

Here is a picture of fishquinn's favourite train!

I wanted to score a 456 (I haven't been on a refurbished one yet!) so the plan was to wait on platform 10 until one turned up. And the first train was a 456! (456007) I caught it to Waterloo

456007 at Waterloo by litecactus, on Flickr

I then made another spontaneous decision to make a return trip on the 'drain' this time from Waterloo, as the interchange from Bank isn't great, as me and fishquinn found out on the London Challenge

Waterloo - W&C line by litecactus, on Flickr

When I arrived back into Waterloo, I headed to Waterloo East and caught a class 375 to Charing X

Waterloo East by litecactus, on Flickr

I walked to Embankment and caught the District line to Blackfriars (S7 stock )

My aim was to get a class 700, but unfortunately after 30 minutes I gave up waiting and got a 319 to Farringdon.

I then got a Met line train to Baker St and the Bakerloo line to Paddington. I went this way to avoid the long walk from the H&C line.
But don't trains to Twyford depart from that side of the station?

Not this one!

I got some supplies from Sainsbury's, for the shorter than usual journey.

I could have got the 16:42 turbo to Twyford, but I opted for the 17:06 to Westbury HST!

It was formed of 43003 'Isambard Kingdom Brunel' and an UID 43 at the front


HST at Twyford by litecactus, on Flickr

HST at Twyford by litecactus, on Flickr

 

[Techniquest]

Nice bit of variety there in London!

 

[fishquinn]

The GWR seats are awful! I love EC64 personally and think that it's the best of the VTEC sets. Scream to the 159!

 

[cactustwirly]

I thought I'd post yesterday's challenge before I forget the details!

03/09/16 Merseyside Challenge

I started the day at 5am (never again!) I got a shower and breakfast.
Then I headed towards the station at 5:50 am. It's only a 5 minute walk to the station, but I wanted to make sure I got the 06:10, since I was on advances.

When I got to the station, it was a complete ghost town (or ghost station)!

Twyford @ 6am by litecactus, on Flickr

Twyford @ 6am by litecactus, on Flickr

The 06:10 arrived at 06:08 and it was formed of 165111 (the one I've had the most)

It arrived into Reading at 06:18, and I had a 25 minute layover here until the 06:45 XC Voyager to Birmingham (final destination Newcastle)

I watched the sun rise further and my 220 arrived on time. I found a nice unreserved seat in Coach C and I had a nice trip to Birmingham.

At Birmingham I got frustrated at the new layout, you can't walk across the main concourse at the A ends, so I had to to exit and enter again to reach platform 4.

My train to Liverpool was 350111, although a bit tatty it wasn't as bad as a /2

350111 @ Birmingham New Street by litecactus, on Flickr

fishquinn joined my train at Crewe, after 3 hours of travelling by myself the company was nice. We talked about random train stuff, and of course our plan for the challenge. Until we reached Lime St

350111 @ Liverpool Lime Street by litecactus, on Flickr
Our train arrived on time at 10:11

Fishquinn went off to score Conway Park as a shack, and I bought lunch from M&S, a well needed coffee from caffe Nero & my saveaway.

I still had 20 minutes to kill so I used my saveaway to time how long it took to get to the Wirral line platforms. I then went on a round trip on the loop, changing at James Street.

I then met up with FQ (roversfan joined us later) and the other challengers and awaited the start of the challenge.

We started with the 11:39 to South Parkway formed of 319368
At South Parkway we headed for the Northern line (Merseyrail, not the London Underground line) and caught 508127+507025 to Liverpool Central.
We changed over to the Wirral line and caught 508141 to Hamilton Square, and then 508112 to New Brighton

508112 @ New Brighton by litecactus, on Flickr

We caught the same train as far as Birkenhead North (meeting up with roverfan2001) and caught 507017 to Manor Road.
We caught 508104 back to Moorfields.

Then changed for the Northern line back down south(FQ wanted to catch a few winner units)
we caught 508110+131 to Aigburth and 508114+507008 to Blundlesands & Crosby
Then crossed platforms & caught 507009 + 508120 to Sandhills
And then caught 507003 to Kirby and return to Moorfields

507003 @ Kirkby by litecactus, on Flickr

We ran down to Moorfields to catch a UID 508 to Lime St meeting up with Mojo and yorkie in the process.

We had 2 minutes to get our mainline train to Wavertree
fishquinn ran faster than me and roversfan and he caught the connection and we missed it by 30 seconds.

we caught the 16:32 which was 15 minutes later in the form of 319378
and the 16:42 back which was another 319
we arrived back at the finish at 16:51 which was 6 minutes late.

I went to the pub for a quick drink, and to the chippy near central for dinner.
We quickly walked back to Lime st to get the 17:47 Pendolino to Stafford

Stafford by litecactus, on Flickr

We then caught for the 18:42 to Birmingham which turned out to be a 350/2

Me and fishquinn parted ways at New Street, and I headed for the 19:33 Voyager to Reading
220 @ Reading by litecactus, on Flickr

I arrived into Reading at 21:08, the next train to the Twyford was at 21:21 from 15B (unusual as London bound trains normally depart from the 'A' side) formed of 165114

I arrived back home at 21:27, I was hoping for 165101, oh well I'll have plenty of opportunities to catch it

 

[fishquinn]

A good read so far! I'm looking forward to the rest!

 

[Kite159]

Looked a bit wet at Kirkby (Merseyside).

I probably would have been diverted by a required 142 or 319 :P

 

[Techniquest]

A good time had, despite the quietness of Twyford. Even Swansea at 0247 in the morning is more lively!

 

[fishquinn]

Shame you didn't get 101 in the end but thanks for helping to make it a great day! Hopefully I'll have my trip report up sometime in the next 3 months !

 

[cactustwirly]

Sorry for the lack of trips, I've just started my final year of school and I want to focus my time on getting decent A level grades, but I have got another trip lined up later this month.

I promise there will be plenty more in the summer.

 

[cactustwirly]

GWR have a special offer on advances with a 16-25 railcard, I think I have decided on a trip to Exmouth.

 

[Techniquest]

You'll probably be disappointed by Exmouth to be honest, not much worth seeing!

 

[cactustwirly]

You'll probably be disappointed by Exmouth to be honest, not much worth seeing!

I will only be there for 1/2 hour anyway, I chose the Exmouth branch for the chance to get 2 units.
Or the Tarka line to Barnstaple

 

[Kite159]

Sit on the right hand side heading towards exmouth. A nice enough little town iirc.

One of the first places I went to when I started bashing I believe

 

[cactustwirly]

Barnstaple instead of Exmouth

 

[noddy1878]

The line is scenic enough once you have left Topsham. As Kite says, sit on the right hand side and look across the water. You'll probably see something (not that you'll id it) on the mainline.

 

[cactustwirly]

I'm having second thoughts, I think for this trip the Tarka line is better since the connections are better and the Avocet line can easily fit into a Devon day ranger.

Basically I can't decide between the two
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I've decided on Barnstaple instead, and I'll come back in the summer and do a Devon Day ranger to clear Exmouth, Paignton & Gunnislake

 

[cactustwirly]

WM Daytripper 29/10/16

I started the day at Twyford at 06:35, I caught the 06:43 to Reading which was formed of 165101.

I had a 25 minute layover at Reading, so I grabbed a latte at Starbucks. And headed back to 12B to catch to 07:15 to Leamington formed of an XC 220.
The journey went smoothly and I alighted at Leamington an hour later, where I met up with Nat and Quinn.

We got a 168/0 to Dorridge where we bought the Daytripper. And caught 165002 to Moor St which was my first chiltern 165.

165002 at Dorridge by litecactus, on Flickr

165002 at Birmingham Moor St by
litecactus, on Flickr

Next we headed for Bull St, and we rode the metro on the new extension so that Nat could get tram no17.
We alighted from the metro at Jewellery Quarter, and caught a very rattly 172 on a stopping service to Stourbridge Junction.

Stourbridge Junction by litecactus, on Flickr

Stourbridge Junction by litecactus, on Flickr

We then caught a ppm to Town station, which was quite fun.

139001 at Stourbridge Junction by litecactus, on Flickr

We headed back to Junction station and caught a semi fast service to Smethwick Galton Bridge where we changed for a 323 to New St, where we caught another 323 to Blake St.

IMG_20161029_115430 by litecactus, on Flickr

We caught the 323 behind it to Lichfield City, and returned to New St on the same unit, this time fast from Sutton Coldfield.

Next we headed to international on a Virgin Pendolino, when we got to international we went on a return journey on the air train to the Airport terminal.
We then discovered our planned Aberystwyth service was cancelled so we got the LM stopper to New St instead.

We headed back to Moor Street to get the 13:55 to Leamington which was a 68 hauled.

IMG_20161029_134313 by litecactus, on Flickr

IMG_20161029_142242 by litecactus, on Flickr

Class 68 at Leamington by litecactus, on Flickr

The 68 made an impressive noise!!

We got a 168 back to Brum, and walked back to New St to get our 170 to Cannock

IMG_20161029_154907 by litecactus, on Flickr

We had around 15 minutes before our return journey back to New St. Eventually the 170 arrived 3 minutes late.

When we got back to New St, we headed back to International so that Quinn could get a winner 158.

We walked back to Moor St to head home, stopping via poundland for some drinks.

The 17:55 from Moor St was formed of 2 168/3s.
The journey was uneventful and we parted ways at Leamington, I stayed on to Banbury.

165118 @ Banbury by litecactus, on Flickr

I got the 19:08 stopper to Oxford formed of 165118, the journey was fun, especially between Heyford and Tackley where the train goes round some tight corners at speed.
I had no problems getting a seat, but there were a few drunks in my carriage
Luckily the it arrived into Oxford 1 early, so I sprinted to my +0 connection to Didcot Parkway.

Here I got the 20:00 HST to Reading.

43027 @ Didcot by litecactus, on Flickr

43027 @ Didcot by litecactus, on Flickr

Busy HST at Didcot by litecactus, on Flickr

As you can see it was very busy

At Reading I went to Starbucks to get another Latte, and rejoined the 165 to get me to Twyford

The journey back from Banbury was long, and I should have caught the Bomo XC to get back 30 minutes earlier

 

[Techniquest]

So you didn't go anywhere from Blake Street?!

Grr at Midland Metro tram 17, very much required...

 

[cactustwirly]

So you didn't go anywhere from Blake Street?!

Grr at Midland Metro tram 17, very much required...

It's a very long report, I just haven't got round to completing the rest

 

[Techniquest]

So I see, nice bit of variety had in the end!

 

[Cowley]

Nice day out. I've never done the Stourbridge branch.
Did you do the Barnstaple line yet? I know you said you were thinking of doing it.

 

[cactustwirly]

Nice day out. I've never done the Stourbridge branch.
Did you do the Barnstaple line yet? I know you said you were thinking of doing it.

That's on the 20th December

 

[Cowley]

That's on the 20th December

It's a nice line. We did it last year. I hadn't been on it for years, in fact the last time was behind a 33 in the 80s that's how long ago. I go on the Exmouth line quite often though.

 

[fishquinn]

Sounds like a great time . It was though!

A good report there and I'm certainly glad that you didn't get the 221 back!

 

[Kite159]

Sounded like a nice day in the West Midlands with various units and locos

 

[cactustwirly]

I'm certainly glad that you didn't get the 221 back!

I'm not! I was tired and just wanted to get home.

 

[fishquinn]

I've had longer days and have still avoided 221s at the end (Mancc in January for example) . At least you got some tram mileage from it.

 

[Techniquest]

I too have had long days and managed to avoid horrendous traction! I refer you to my last solo London bash a couple of months ago...