Sprinter
Member
On Saturday 8th August me and Galavanize went to bash the Cardiff Valleys, this is how it went:
My day started at about 0645 when I walked up to Walthamstow Central to catch the Victoria Line. Since I only had a Zone 3 Travelcard I had to get off at Seven Sisters to top up my pre-pay for the rest of the journey. When I got back to the platform a train from the depot was already half in the platform, so I raced it down the platform in order to board in the front coach (as that is the closest coach to the escalators at Victoria).
At Victoria I popped into WHSmiths to grab the latest issues of varoius railway magazines, when I got to the till I discovered that I could get The Times for only 10p with any magazine, so I grabbed a copy of The Times (rarely do I read a newspaper these days)!
Walked down the GatEx platforms, up the escalators and around the taxi rank in order to reach the Megabus stop, my bus to Cardiff was Neoplan Skyliner 50144 which was already there loading up (as was most of the Leyton crew). Before we departed our driver warned that we may be late in Cardiff as the M4 was closed at Junction 18. However when we reached Junction 18 whatever closed the motorway was cleared up and traffic was running freely so our arrival in Cardiff Castle was about 10-15 minutes early.
Walked down to Cardiff Central whereby we bought the Valley's Explorer ticket (luckily the queues for the ticket office were quite short) and grabbed a copy of ATW timetable E before going to platform 6/7 to see what the next train out was. This turned out to be the late running 1107 to Coryton, which was formed of 150283 and about to depart so we ran to board it, it left 9 minutes down at 1116.
At Coryton since the train was late, there was a swift changeover at Coryton before we sprinted back south again, roughly on time. I was surprised by the number of people who were heading into Cardiff but boarded the northbound service and stayed on the train at Coryton rather than wait for the train to pick them up going southbound! Me and Galvanize alighted at Queen Strete and debated where to go next.
This was answered when we heard the announcement for the 1256 to Penarth, so we went up to platform 3 to see what stock it was, this time it was 150262, much to Galavanize's dismay as he wanted a Pacer (he has never been on a Pacer before)!! At Cardiff Central we awaited for for allocated 1308 departure time as 37419 pulled in with the 1259 to Ryhmney.
At Penarth we had a 10 minute turnaround time before heading back as the 1330 to Merthyr Tydfil, even though I needed to to do the Merthyr line, we bailed out at Caerdydd Canalog and waited for the much more important 37 to Ryhmney. This to my dismay was large logo blue 37425 and the Arriva liveried coaches (both of which I have bashed twice before, GRR!!)
Rest in part 2....
My day started at about 0645 when I walked up to Walthamstow Central to catch the Victoria Line. Since I only had a Zone 3 Travelcard I had to get off at Seven Sisters to top up my pre-pay for the rest of the journey. When I got back to the platform a train from the depot was already half in the platform, so I raced it down the platform in order to board in the front coach (as that is the closest coach to the escalators at Victoria).
At Victoria I popped into WHSmiths to grab the latest issues of varoius railway magazines, when I got to the till I discovered that I could get The Times for only 10p with any magazine, so I grabbed a copy of The Times (rarely do I read a newspaper these days)!
Walked down the GatEx platforms, up the escalators and around the taxi rank in order to reach the Megabus stop, my bus to Cardiff was Neoplan Skyliner 50144 which was already there loading up (as was most of the Leyton crew). Before we departed our driver warned that we may be late in Cardiff as the M4 was closed at Junction 18. However when we reached Junction 18 whatever closed the motorway was cleared up and traffic was running freely so our arrival in Cardiff Castle was about 10-15 minutes early.
Walked down to Cardiff Central whereby we bought the Valley's Explorer ticket (luckily the queues for the ticket office were quite short) and grabbed a copy of ATW timetable E before going to platform 6/7 to see what the next train out was. This turned out to be the late running 1107 to Coryton, which was formed of 150283 and about to depart so we ran to board it, it left 9 minutes down at 1116.
At Coryton since the train was late, there was a swift changeover at Coryton before we sprinted back south again, roughly on time. I was surprised by the number of people who were heading into Cardiff but boarded the northbound service and stayed on the train at Coryton rather than wait for the train to pick them up going southbound! Me and Galvanize alighted at Queen Strete and debated where to go next.
This was answered when we heard the announcement for the 1256 to Penarth, so we went up to platform 3 to see what stock it was, this time it was 150262, much to Galavanize's dismay as he wanted a Pacer (he has never been on a Pacer before)!! At Cardiff Central we awaited for for allocated 1308 departure time as 37419 pulled in with the 1259 to Ryhmney.
At Penarth we had a 10 minute turnaround time before heading back as the 1330 to Merthyr Tydfil, even though I needed to to do the Merthyr line, we bailed out at Caerdydd Canalog and waited for the much more important 37 to Ryhmney. This to my dismay was large logo blue 37425 and the Arriva liveried coaches (both of which I have bashed twice before, GRR!!)
Rest in part 2....