Having read some of the interesting trip reports, I thought I would have a go!
First a bit of personal gen. I spent around 40 years in the Airports Industry, so chasing aircraft around the world (including Siberia and North Korea) was my main hobby. One of my other interests is beer and I have been a CAMRA member for around 40 years also.
When working, some spare weekend days were spent with friends travelling by train to various northern cities such as Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham from our base in Cheadle Hulme to visit some of the multi-beer pubs that existed at the time. Nowadays of course most of these cities need several days to visit all the decent pubs.
I became semi-retired in 2006 and so had more time to do some “pub research” again using public transport, mainly trains. And I succumbed to getting a book and made a note of sightings and haulage, something that I last did in 1968 at the end of steam. So I have a big gap in railway knowledge during all that time.
Before I try and relay the train information from my last big beer research trip, a bit more gen. Despite my advancing years, I’m told that all the beauty sleep I have had over the years hasn’t done me any good so far; however I am persisting with the need to get up late just in case. I don’t scratch track or shacks, but I do like to travel on new lines when the opportunity arises. In terms of haulage, I must travel in each unit, so for example with non-gangwayed stock, I have to leap out at stops to go from one unit to the other.
In other words I’m a bit of an amateur really – but then I guess the rules are the same as with beer and brewery ticking;
Rule 1 – there are NO rules.
Rule 2 – see Rule 1
I must also apologise if I use incorrect technical terminology; I’m just going on what I think the terms mean after reading reports here.
Oh and CHAPS? That’s Cheadle Hulme Ale PersonS. And 2034 was the time of the train from Cheadle Hulme to Stockport when we all used to go out for an evening weekday stroll round Stockport’s Slope of Beer along Wellington Road North.
Anyway, every year North London CAMRA hold the Pigs Ear Beer Festival at the Square Chapel in Hackney at the beginning of December. The beer-orderer there manages to buy some barrels from very obscure brewers but they don’t have anywhere enough stillage to put all the beers on at once so a couple of visits are required – on the Tuesday when it opens and then usually on the Thursday. Wednesday is usually spent researching some pubs in an area I haven’t visited before and riding around on some units.
My chosen transport down to London in the past was to get the xx 55 local off Cheadle Hulme to Wilmslow and wait for the following Pendolino 10 minutes later at Wilmslow to route to Euston via Crewe. However the stopper now comes from Wigan through the chaos of Oxford Rd etc and often ends up behind the Pendolino, so for now I don’t rely on that connection.
So it was off to Stockport on dud 319363 and onto 390043 (whole class are duds for haulage) on the 1043 SPT-EUS via Stoke. Longport went by in a blur and further down the line a couple of 710s were identified at Willesden after a few locos were noted in Wembley Yard.
Descending down the tube at Euston, I boarded Victoria Line winner for haulage 11028 for Highbury and Islington, but then suddenly realised I had an opportunity to visit the new Wetherspoons at St Pancras (the Barrel Vault), so I bailed there. After a long walk from the platforms, I enjoyed a half and then went to see what Eurostars were in (3012, 4011, 4031) before checking that my elusive 395 for sight (005) wasn’t there
Back on the tube (dud 11012) to Highbury and Islington where dud 387234 took me to Hackney Central and a 10 minute walk saw me at the Beer Festival
After a few hours there where I met many familiar faces from all over the country, I set off in the dark for my hotel in Woolwich. Winner for haulage 387202 took me to Homerton where I got off and awaited the next service with dud 387222 which took me to Stratford. I chose to ride the Jubilee line to Canning Town, with all time winners 96017 and 96095 doing the honours. Being a bit late, I wasn’t in the mood to do much bashing, so a Docklands combo of winners for haulage 102, 113 and dud 137 took me to Woolwich where a meal and a couple of pub visits completed the day.
This trip I had decided to spend my pub research day on the South Bank around the Tower Bridge area. Plenty to do here from backstreet community pubs to tourist traps. After a leisurely breakfast and a couple of early pub visits in Woolwich, I boarded winners for haulage 376004 and 376010 for London Bridge. On the way I saw 376027, one of my last two for sight so I was well chuffed. Never did see 022 though, so one still required
My plan was to see and ride on some Southern 171s – I have only been on one and not seen many. But I had time to do a leap to Cannon Street and back and my chosen steeds were 465161 and 465248, both good for haulage.
When the 1207 to Uckfield arrived slightly late, it was formed of 3 units 171724, 171809 and 171729. As I was only going as far as East Croydon, I had to pick one unit to travel in. Well 724 was the only one I had been on before, so I chose all time winner 729. After a couple of signal checks we were slightly late in to East Croydon noting a couple more 171s at Selhurst.
RTT was showing the northbound ex-Uckfield service was running late due to a southbound running late on the single track, so I waited a while at East Croydon and quite a few units went into the book of sights. Eventually another all time winner 171801 took me back to London Bridge. Time for a beer or three!
The plan on my return to Woolwich was to stop off at Greenwich to visit the new Greenwich Brewery Tap at the Up the Creek Comedy Club opposite the Wetherspoons Gate Clock. However a message came through that it was shut as they were brewing (the brewery is in the middle of the bar!) but may open later. Winner for haulage 465014 took me from London Bridge to Deptford where I stepped back onto winner 465025 to Greenwich where indeed the bar was now open. So having had a burger and a pint, it was back to the station where a 10 car 376 combo, winners 014 and 034 took me to Woolwich where I completed my survey of town centre pubs on what was now a dank and miserable night.
The Thursday was a bit complicated. There was a need to go back to Hackney for the beer festival to see if my required new breweries had come on (they had) and then I had to go back across the river and beyond Woolwich (on the famous number 51 bus that connects several south London micropubs) to visit the Broken Drum micro pub at Blackfen. The proprietor has a commercial nano-brewery in his garage which only brews 9 gallons at a time; these beers appear in the pub on the first Thursday of the month and usually sell out the same evening. Having spoken to the boss, the beer would be available tonight when the pub opened at 4pm.
Before the Hackney festival opened, I had a bit of spare time so it was that several Docklands winner units were in the haulage book before I got to Canning Town and more Jubilee Line winners for haulage were taken via West Ham to Stratford. Here I decided to see if any of the dozen or so 315 I required for haulage were out and about. Two were spotted going to the country whilst I was on the Liverpool St Platform but I had no chance of getting across there. After quite a long fester where I got cramp writing down all the Central Line units coming thick and fast and finally got my 321 for sight requirements down from 3 to 1 (332 being the offending example), a required for haulage 315 appeared (839) and conveyed me to Liverpool St.
With the Beer Festival about to open I got winner 317887 (a few of these still needed for sight and a lot for haulage) to Hackney Downs and walked to the Beer Festival. Again loads of familiar faces were encountered there and good conversation and banter ensued.
I returned to Hackney Central mid-afternoon to return to Woolwich via Stratford to discover a farce had been taking place. A wire fault at Highbury and Islington had stopped the job but things had just started moving again, so with a Stratford train due in 2 minutes no problem. No problem that is until dud 378221 got to Homerton and stopped for about 10 minutes. It would appear that a 378 had sat down in one of the two Stratford platforms, so it was a case of one out and one in with indeterminate delays.
After about 15 minutes, I decided to bail and get a service bus to Stratford, but they were not to be found. Needless to say whilst I was searching for a bus, the ruddy 378 moved off and a westbound 378 had also departed; I could have got that to back to Hackney Central, then walked to Hackney Downs and gone via Liverpool St. To make matters worse O2 was down so I couldn’t see what was going on.
Eventually another dud 378228 pitched up at Homerton and 40 minutes later I arrived at Stratford! There was a need to get a wiggle on now, so no leaps or anything – luckily the next Jubilee was made up of winners 96026 and 96099. The next DLR train was shown to St Georges Dock but staff at Canning Town and the on board DLR chap assured us it was going to Woolwich which it did – no winners though.
A 51 rolled up as I got to Woolwich which I squeezed on with all the school kids. Some queue jumpers somehow came into contact with my elbows! I got off the bus the stop before Blackfen and beat it to the pub as it got stuck in traffic. After an hour or so enjoying the beers and conversation with the locals, I set off back on the last of a convoy of three 51s and got back to Woolwich. I did think of bailing at Welling, but with O2 still down, I figured there were more options to get back to Euston via Woolwich.
Duds 376006 and 014 took me to London Bridge and after what seemed like a several miles hike, Northern line dud 51592 took me to Euston. I had a good sleep on 390134 as it whizzed north through the darkness arriving just in time at Stockport for me to run under the subway and board 323229 back to Cheadle Hulme. Time for a swift half in the Chiverton Tap by the station with some friends and then a 10 minute walk home to collapse in bed for my much earned beauty sleep – still didn’t work though!
If you got this far, thanks for reading. And if you think it worth it, I may post some more adventures in the future.
First a bit of personal gen. I spent around 40 years in the Airports Industry, so chasing aircraft around the world (including Siberia and North Korea) was my main hobby. One of my other interests is beer and I have been a CAMRA member for around 40 years also.
When working, some spare weekend days were spent with friends travelling by train to various northern cities such as Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham from our base in Cheadle Hulme to visit some of the multi-beer pubs that existed at the time. Nowadays of course most of these cities need several days to visit all the decent pubs.
I became semi-retired in 2006 and so had more time to do some “pub research” again using public transport, mainly trains. And I succumbed to getting a book and made a note of sightings and haulage, something that I last did in 1968 at the end of steam. So I have a big gap in railway knowledge during all that time.
Before I try and relay the train information from my last big beer research trip, a bit more gen. Despite my advancing years, I’m told that all the beauty sleep I have had over the years hasn’t done me any good so far; however I am persisting with the need to get up late just in case. I don’t scratch track or shacks, but I do like to travel on new lines when the opportunity arises. In terms of haulage, I must travel in each unit, so for example with non-gangwayed stock, I have to leap out at stops to go from one unit to the other.
In other words I’m a bit of an amateur really – but then I guess the rules are the same as with beer and brewery ticking;
Rule 1 – there are NO rules.
Rule 2 – see Rule 1
I must also apologise if I use incorrect technical terminology; I’m just going on what I think the terms mean after reading reports here.
Oh and CHAPS? That’s Cheadle Hulme Ale PersonS. And 2034 was the time of the train from Cheadle Hulme to Stockport when we all used to go out for an evening weekday stroll round Stockport’s Slope of Beer along Wellington Road North.
Anyway, every year North London CAMRA hold the Pigs Ear Beer Festival at the Square Chapel in Hackney at the beginning of December. The beer-orderer there manages to buy some barrels from very obscure brewers but they don’t have anywhere enough stillage to put all the beers on at once so a couple of visits are required – on the Tuesday when it opens and then usually on the Thursday. Wednesday is usually spent researching some pubs in an area I haven’t visited before and riding around on some units.
My chosen transport down to London in the past was to get the xx 55 local off Cheadle Hulme to Wilmslow and wait for the following Pendolino 10 minutes later at Wilmslow to route to Euston via Crewe. However the stopper now comes from Wigan through the chaos of Oxford Rd etc and often ends up behind the Pendolino, so for now I don’t rely on that connection.
So it was off to Stockport on dud 319363 and onto 390043 (whole class are duds for haulage) on the 1043 SPT-EUS via Stoke. Longport went by in a blur and further down the line a couple of 710s were identified at Willesden after a few locos were noted in Wembley Yard.
Descending down the tube at Euston, I boarded Victoria Line winner for haulage 11028 for Highbury and Islington, but then suddenly realised I had an opportunity to visit the new Wetherspoons at St Pancras (the Barrel Vault), so I bailed there. After a long walk from the platforms, I enjoyed a half and then went to see what Eurostars were in (3012, 4011, 4031) before checking that my elusive 395 for sight (005) wasn’t there
Back on the tube (dud 11012) to Highbury and Islington where dud 387234 took me to Hackney Central and a 10 minute walk saw me at the Beer Festival
After a few hours there where I met many familiar faces from all over the country, I set off in the dark for my hotel in Woolwich. Winner for haulage 387202 took me to Homerton where I got off and awaited the next service with dud 387222 which took me to Stratford. I chose to ride the Jubilee line to Canning Town, with all time winners 96017 and 96095 doing the honours. Being a bit late, I wasn’t in the mood to do much bashing, so a Docklands combo of winners for haulage 102, 113 and dud 137 took me to Woolwich where a meal and a couple of pub visits completed the day.
This trip I had decided to spend my pub research day on the South Bank around the Tower Bridge area. Plenty to do here from backstreet community pubs to tourist traps. After a leisurely breakfast and a couple of early pub visits in Woolwich, I boarded winners for haulage 376004 and 376010 for London Bridge. On the way I saw 376027, one of my last two for sight so I was well chuffed. Never did see 022 though, so one still required
My plan was to see and ride on some Southern 171s – I have only been on one and not seen many. But I had time to do a leap to Cannon Street and back and my chosen steeds were 465161 and 465248, both good for haulage.
When the 1207 to Uckfield arrived slightly late, it was formed of 3 units 171724, 171809 and 171729. As I was only going as far as East Croydon, I had to pick one unit to travel in. Well 724 was the only one I had been on before, so I chose all time winner 729. After a couple of signal checks we were slightly late in to East Croydon noting a couple more 171s at Selhurst.
RTT was showing the northbound ex-Uckfield service was running late due to a southbound running late on the single track, so I waited a while at East Croydon and quite a few units went into the book of sights. Eventually another all time winner 171801 took me back to London Bridge. Time for a beer or three!
The plan on my return to Woolwich was to stop off at Greenwich to visit the new Greenwich Brewery Tap at the Up the Creek Comedy Club opposite the Wetherspoons Gate Clock. However a message came through that it was shut as they were brewing (the brewery is in the middle of the bar!) but may open later. Winner for haulage 465014 took me from London Bridge to Deptford where I stepped back onto winner 465025 to Greenwich where indeed the bar was now open. So having had a burger and a pint, it was back to the station where a 10 car 376 combo, winners 014 and 034 took me to Woolwich where I completed my survey of town centre pubs on what was now a dank and miserable night.
The Thursday was a bit complicated. There was a need to go back to Hackney for the beer festival to see if my required new breweries had come on (they had) and then I had to go back across the river and beyond Woolwich (on the famous number 51 bus that connects several south London micropubs) to visit the Broken Drum micro pub at Blackfen. The proprietor has a commercial nano-brewery in his garage which only brews 9 gallons at a time; these beers appear in the pub on the first Thursday of the month and usually sell out the same evening. Having spoken to the boss, the beer would be available tonight when the pub opened at 4pm.
Before the Hackney festival opened, I had a bit of spare time so it was that several Docklands winner units were in the haulage book before I got to Canning Town and more Jubilee Line winners for haulage were taken via West Ham to Stratford. Here I decided to see if any of the dozen or so 315 I required for haulage were out and about. Two were spotted going to the country whilst I was on the Liverpool St Platform but I had no chance of getting across there. After quite a long fester where I got cramp writing down all the Central Line units coming thick and fast and finally got my 321 for sight requirements down from 3 to 1 (332 being the offending example), a required for haulage 315 appeared (839) and conveyed me to Liverpool St.
With the Beer Festival about to open I got winner 317887 (a few of these still needed for sight and a lot for haulage) to Hackney Downs and walked to the Beer Festival. Again loads of familiar faces were encountered there and good conversation and banter ensued.
I returned to Hackney Central mid-afternoon to return to Woolwich via Stratford to discover a farce had been taking place. A wire fault at Highbury and Islington had stopped the job but things had just started moving again, so with a Stratford train due in 2 minutes no problem. No problem that is until dud 378221 got to Homerton and stopped for about 10 minutes. It would appear that a 378 had sat down in one of the two Stratford platforms, so it was a case of one out and one in with indeterminate delays.
After about 15 minutes, I decided to bail and get a service bus to Stratford, but they were not to be found. Needless to say whilst I was searching for a bus, the ruddy 378 moved off and a westbound 378 had also departed; I could have got that to back to Hackney Central, then walked to Hackney Downs and gone via Liverpool St. To make matters worse O2 was down so I couldn’t see what was going on.
Eventually another dud 378228 pitched up at Homerton and 40 minutes later I arrived at Stratford! There was a need to get a wiggle on now, so no leaps or anything – luckily the next Jubilee was made up of winners 96026 and 96099. The next DLR train was shown to St Georges Dock but staff at Canning Town and the on board DLR chap assured us it was going to Woolwich which it did – no winners though.
A 51 rolled up as I got to Woolwich which I squeezed on with all the school kids. Some queue jumpers somehow came into contact with my elbows! I got off the bus the stop before Blackfen and beat it to the pub as it got stuck in traffic. After an hour or so enjoying the beers and conversation with the locals, I set off back on the last of a convoy of three 51s and got back to Woolwich. I did think of bailing at Welling, but with O2 still down, I figured there were more options to get back to Euston via Woolwich.
Duds 376006 and 014 took me to London Bridge and after what seemed like a several miles hike, Northern line dud 51592 took me to Euston. I had a good sleep on 390134 as it whizzed north through the darkness arriving just in time at Stockport for me to run under the subway and board 323229 back to Cheadle Hulme. Time for a swift half in the Chiverton Tap by the station with some friends and then a 10 minute walk home to collapse in bed for my much earned beauty sleep – still didn’t work though!
If you got this far, thanks for reading. And if you think it worth it, I may post some more adventures in the future.
). Wembley had the usual assortment of 66s and 67005 at least and 710s by the line at Willesden were 262 and 267
Amongst lots of LU units in and around S Ruislip yard were the two pairs of 20s, 20901 and 20905 plus 20118 and 132 along with their barrier-wagons.
However, I have had many of the GWR HSTs for haulage during my trips to Paignton over the last decade and none are required for sight.
I still need quite a few 171s for sight but the one operating down to Hastings was one I had seen before.
I did however manage to identify some coming the other way – it’s not easy when passing at speed but two more (013/015) went into the book of sights.
.