• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Crazy Enthusasts

Status
Not open for further replies.

AJP

Member
Joined
30 Sep 2005
Messages
1,148
Location
Doncaster
Whats the crazyiest thing rail related you have done?

Mine was:

I was on a Norh East Rover, got up at 7am to get the 0833 Kirk Sandall-Doncaster giving me plenty of time at Doncaster to catch the 0917 or something to Newcastle. I changed there and went to Carlisle.

Met the possie:6M60 Seaton Flasks
20's till I die
Sheddy (these were here when I arrived)

Its about midday I jumpe of my 142 and sprinted and got a shot of the DRS 37s on Sandite.

The group got larger and was persuded to stay the night by 6M60

I called my Dad to let him no. Stopped up all night from midday Friday till 9am Friday.

Got on my 156 back to geordie land and umped on a GNer MK4 set to Donny.

Got in my house at about 3pm. Had half an hours kip then I was at work till 10 pm.

I was Knackered!! :lol:
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,429
Location
Yorkshire
I guess the Carlisle overnighter was the craziest thing, for me I did a London meet (ending with very rare Class 57 haulage on FGW Link!), before getting the Highlands sleeper to Carlisle (not a booked calling point!) arriving 02:00 to find you lot photting a 37, and then staying there for the night.
 

86242

Member
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Messages
558
Location
Waiting in some far corner of the country for a 37
Well for me I guess http://www.jandmlphotos.co.uk/RecentPics/Aug2005/27/index.asp (and I do live in Reading!) was a pretty action packed day getting the 06:30 in the morning and not getting back until midnight but for some main line 37 haulage from Shrewsbury to Crewe it sure was worth it. At the time I thought it could be a last time but I managed to do 425 back to Shrewsbury from Crewe after the open day.

Also back in 2004 I had another action packed day it went:
Reading-BNS (Voyager)
BNS-Crewe (plastic of some sort!)
Crewe-Stafford (XC 67)
Stafford-Manchester (WC 87)
Manchester-Warrington (more plastic I think!)
Warrington-Wigan (XC 67)
Wigan-Warrington (AWFUL PLASTIC!)
Warrington-Crewe (AWFUL PLASTIC!)
Crewe-back to Reading (somehow!)

and by the way AWFUL PLASTIC is a pendo!
 

Techniquest

Veteran Member
Joined
19 Jun 2005
Messages
21,674
Location
Nowhere Heath
Crazy...umm, difficult to pinpoint one thing...The London weekend I did in December 2005 was crazily busy and excellent, but I think doing a disused line by means other than haulage...
 

960012

Established Member
Joined
4 Nov 2005
Messages
1,892
Location
Parkstone
ive squeezed inot a mark 2 lugguage rack up the valleys. i think thats the craziest thing.
 

joy54.gen

Member
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
613
Mine was the same as James, as soon as we got that text from Yorkie we were off that train like a shot. It was a great desicion and we got a very rare working to Aberdeen. Great.
 

Techniquest

Veteran Member
Joined
19 Jun 2005
Messages
21,674
Location
Nowhere Heath
Count yourselves lucky...Still, I've done plenty of 37s now, to do on on a sleeper would be nice, but hey, I'll do a 67.
 

Craig

Established Member
Joined
15 Jun 2005
Messages
3,958
Location
Newcastle
Maybe not the craziest, but certainly the longest without a proper nights sleep was my trip to Glasgow (via London) for the last 303 run.

Newcastle - Carlisle (Unit)
Carlisle - Preston via S&C (57)
Preston - Crewe (87)
Crewe - BNS (HST)
BNS - Paddington (Voyager)

Had a few hours in London.

Euston - Glasgow Central (90)
Queen Street - Drumgelloch (320)
Drumgelloch - Bellgrove (320)
Bellgrove - Helensburgh (303 last run)
Helensburgh - Dalmuir (303 ECS)
Dalmuir - Motherwell (334)
Motherwell - Newcastle (91)

I also did the overnight XC services a few times to Paignton and Newquay.

Finally, while the sandites were running in 2004 I was often up at 0530 to catch the 0624 train from Newcastle to get this shot :shock:
 

Jim

Established Member
Joined
11 Jun 2005
Messages
3,398
Location
Wick
I have done lots of 'Stupid' , 'pointless' trips...


Craziest has got to be my heart of Wales line trip, as I spent 5 hours sat on a skateboard
 

eezypeazy

Member
Joined
4 Jul 2005
Messages
626
Location
UK
Depends on your definition of "crazy..."

Last train service Alston - Haltwhistle, mid-1970s

First Metro service Longbenton - Four Lane Ends, 1980

A May Bank Holiday two years ago: Metrocentre - Hexham (142); bus Hexham - Bellingham; cycle Bellingham-Otterburn-Rothbury-Whittingham-Christon Bank (pub) Chathill; train Chathill-MetroCentre (156).

Once or twice a year, I do Home - Central Station (cycle); 0605 Necastle - Chathill (usually 142); cycle Chathill - Home (64 miles). And once or twice a year, I try to do 0715 ish Newcastle - Northallerton (158); cycle Northallerton - Stokesley-Battersby-Eskdale - as far as I can (pub); then a lunchtime train from Glaisdale to Middlesbrough (stock varies); Middlesbrough-MetroCentre (142).

Strangely, I never bump in to forum members...!!!

eezypeazy
 

Techniquest

Veteran Member
Joined
19 Jun 2005
Messages
21,674
Location
Nowhere Heath
Craig said:
Maybe not the craziest, but certainly the longest without a proper nights sleep was my trip to Glasgow (via London) for the last 303 run.

Newcastle - Carlisle (Unit)
Carlisle - Preston via S&C (57)
Preston - Crewe (87)
Crewe - BNS (HST)
BNS - Paddington (Voyager)

Had a few hours in London.

Euston - Glasgow Central (90)
Queen Street - Drumgelloch (320)
Drumgelloch - Bellgrove (320)
Bellgrove - Helensburgh (303 last run)
Helensburgh - Dalmuir (303 ECS)
Dalmuir - Motherwell (334)
Motherwell - Newcastle (91)

I also did the overnight XC services a few times to Paignton and Newquay.

Finally, while the sandites were running in 2004 I was often up at 0530 to catch the 0624 train from Newcastle to get this shot :shock:

You lucky bugger...All that loco haulage...

Overnight XC services, didn't they finish over a decade ago?

Onto the subject of crazy things, if you count implusive decisions, I have to say mine has to be randomly deciding to get the 0200 off Taunton once to Paddington instead of a HST at 10xx, following a phone call to FGW confirming I didn't need a reservation or special ticket to just sit in the seated part. Cue a celebration, rush-packing stuff for the next day, including my Pizza Hut cap (for easy ID for another member meeting me at Clapham Junction), getting the last bus (which I nearly missed actually!) to Taunton from Minehead, a sleepless night (you'd think I'd be tired after a day's work too, but hey), overnight spotting resulting in no freight sightings, followed by 57602 to Paddington.

Another implusive thing I guess could be rushing to get the 0545 (or was it 0555?) 28 off Minehead Butlins to Taunton, with a quick run into the ticket office to buy a Y-P SVR to Crewe and a run to platform 5 for the then 0704 to Paddington, via the Weston-super-Mare loop (H-O!), BTM and Paddington. Was surprisingly packed from WSM and BTM! Getting this had turned out to be a good idea, as an incident further south caused heavy delays to the Voyagers we planned to get that day! The best bit came later when randomly deciding to buy a Crewe to Holyhead Y-P SSR though, purely to bash 47810 and H-O the route to Holyhead. What a trip...
 

Craig

Established Member
Joined
15 Jun 2005
Messages
3,958
Location
Newcastle
FGWFan said:
Overnight XC services, didn't they finish over a decade ago?
They from from the North West until a couple of years ago.

Here's a photo from one of my trips down that way. 47812 departing Torquay at 0645 with the 2330 Manchester - Paignton on 20th July 2002:
47812_1V26_Torquay_200702.jpg
 

Jonno2055

Member
Joined
9 Aug 2005
Messages
390
Location
Essex
The craziest thing I've done was having a cup of tea at witham station... you can see how exciting my life is!
 

117305

Member
Joined
14 Oct 2005
Messages
224
Location
earth
crazyest thing i used to do was to go down to the west country and sit on a train all day going back and forth on one of the branches -well it was my beast"117305" :D and was lucky enought once to have her on the newquay line in the pouring rain :D
 

steve158

Member
Joined
29 Jun 2005
Messages
166
Location
Lincolnshire
getting up at 4am to do the newcastle-chathill service. and coming straight back.

buying a ticket from wrexham general to wrexham central just because of the ridiculously cheap price. the booking clerk must have thought i was mad.
 

Aureol

Established Member
Joined
29 Sep 2005
Messages
2,915
Location
With a spanner in hand in D212's engine room
The craziest thing I've ever done is getting up at 03:00 in the morning, going straight down to Swanwick Junction on the MR-B, stand doing nowt in 6233's support coach for an hour, going to Scarborough and back with 6233 and sit in the West Shed mess room eating a beef dinner at 00:00 the next morning and not going to sleep again until 01:00, in the support coach! AND I didn't get any rest throughout the day. :shock:

I was knackered by the time I finally got to sleep!
 

Techniquest

Veteran Member
Joined
19 Jun 2005
Messages
21,674
Location
Nowhere Heath
steve158 said:
getting up at 4am to do the newcastle-chathill service. and coming straight back.

buying a ticket from wrexham general to wrexham central just because of the ridiculously cheap price. the booking clerk must have thought i was mad.

How much was that ticket then, just out of curiousity?
 

S Lowes

Member
Joined
11 Jul 2005
Messages
361
Location
Birtley
Mine has to be the Carisle Overnight as well :) arrived on the 17:45 to Whitehaven and left on the 10:11 on Friday Morning
 

steve158

Member
Joined
29 Jun 2005
Messages
166
Location
Lincolnshire
FGWFan said:
steve158 said:
getting up at 4am to do the newcastle-chathill service. and coming straight back.

buying a ticket from wrexham general to wrexham central just because of the ridiculously cheap price. the booking clerk must have thought i was mad.

How much was that ticket then, just out of curiousity?

10p priv single(40p normally)
 
Joined
5 Jul 2005
Messages
563
Location
House
My longest oddest and most tiring was when I needed to get to Dalmally with my mum.

set off at 7AM caught a load of locals from leeds, eventually arriving in Newcastle, catching a GNER to Glasgow central, missing our link to Dalmally by exactly 36 seconds (!!) so had a fight with a GNER scots sales assitant , took us 15 minutes to decipher what he was saying.

he ordered us a taxi and paid for it. it took us to damally station. we walked the rest of the way.

arrived there at 1.00AM
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,429
Location
Yorkshire
DescendingSadly said:
My longest oddest and most tiring was when I needed to get to Dalmally with my mum.

set off at 7AM caught a load of locals from leeds, eventually arriving in Newcastle, catching a GNER to Glasgow central, missing our link to Dalmally by exactly 36 seconds (!!) so had a fight with a GNER scots sales assitant , took us 15 minutes to decipher what he was saying.

he ordered us a taxi and paid for it. it took us to damally station. we walked the rest of the way.

arrived there at 1.00AM
A few things I am confused with:

1. Oban trains go from Queen St, not Central
2. How do you know it was 36 seconds? (there may be an obvious answer I'm overlooking but I can't think of one at the moment)
3. Was the 0710 Leeds-Aberdeen cancelled or something?
 
Joined
5 Jul 2005
Messages
563
Location
House
1) It was Queen Street then, I was 9
2) There was a TV showing the departed time and a clock next to it
3) Hell knows I was 9.
 

ChrisM

Member
Joined
14 Aug 2005
Messages
716
Once convinced a mate to drive me from Bournemouth to photo the Epsom Downs branch but got there at 4 am,too dark and no trains. :x
 

Ascot

Established Member
Joined
26 Nov 2005
Messages
3,382
Location
Birmingham, UK
Craziest thing i have ever done is probably: Roll down a window not far enough (point where it swings back up) and ended up bashing me chin on it. Guard then p**$ing himself.
 

Sprog

Established Member
Joined
6 Sep 2005
Messages
1,315
Location
SPM
Practically all my trips have been either insanely long :!: or close calls - tight connections :shock: (it no chance of getting home if i missed them) etc!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top