DH Trip Reports

[shredder1]

Yes good report DH, I still need the Dartmoor Railway

 

[Dhassell]

Finally caught up with the last two reports DH!
Great stuff, especially the trip on The Dartmoor Railway. It’s a long line isn’t it.

Very long indeed! Hence why I decided against another two runs along to Coleford!!

Yes good report DH, I still need the Dartmoor Railway

Thanks, It is a very nice line!

 

[Dhassell]

Sorry about the long gap between Trip Reports, not had the time or effort lately to write them. Back into the swing of things hopefully now, but I can’t promise they will be as frequent!

4/4 Aberdare & Merthyr Tydfil Valley Lines

After a 2-month gap since I last did a valley line, thought it was time to do another one, or maybe two. It wasn’t an early start, as it was a weekday, so I was on the 08:35 XC service to Bristol Temple Meads formed of dud 220022. When I arrived into Temple Meads, the next Cardiff train was cancelled. So I decided to catch the 09:10 train to Bristol Parkway, which should get me there in time for the 09:40 to Cardiff. But of course that didn’t work… The train arrived into Bristol Temple Meads 10 late, two police officers jumped on and arrested a man, and searched his bag onboard the train, which took around 10 minutes… we then sat on the platform for a further 5 minutes before departing and then arriving into Bristol Parkway at 09:50, 25 minutes late after waiting the earlier Cardiff train leave. I now had until 10:09 and popped outside to see what rail replacement where on standby in case the Bristol works went wrong. I returned to the station and boarded 43004 + 43150 all the way to Cardiff Central.

Arriva Trains Wales 150283 , Merthyr Tydfil 4.4.18 by DSH Trains, on Flickr

I headed straight over to the Valley Line platforms and jumped onboard dud 150230 to Cardiff Queen Street. I had a 15 minute wait until 150229 rolled in to take me to Abercynon. I took advantage of the 15 minute wait here to get something to eat from the local chip shop, before returning to the platforms to see winner 150252 roll in, this unit would take me all the way to Merthyr Tydfil. I spent roughly an hour here photographing buses, before I returned to the station and boarded winner 150283 back to Abercynon, where I had another 15-minute wait before winner 150256 rolled in to take me to Aberdare. I spent around 30 minutes here, before joining dud 150278 and winner 143606 which took me to Fernhill. I had half an hour until the next train, so decided to walk down the line to Mountain Ash. It was a mile walk and took around 20 minutes. From here I picked up 143601 all the way back down to Cardiff Central.

Arriva Trains Wales 150256 , Aberdare 4.4.18 by DSH Trains, on Flickr

Arriva Trains Wales 143606 , Fernhill 4.4.18 by DSH Trains, on Flickr

Arriva Trains Wales 150208 , Abercynon 4.4.18 by DSH Trains, on Flickr

I spent an hour here, before catching double duds 43022 + 43171 back to Bristol Parkway, before joining dud 220011 back to Bristol Temple Meads and finally dud 800012 and winner 800034 back to Weston!

Winning Units: 5
Shacks Cleared: 5

5/4 London via Basingstoke & Slough

Today wasn’t planned to be a very busy day, but I ended up awake at 6am and decided to go out. Not as early as usual, I was down the station for the 07:25 train towards Bath Spa, formed of double dud HST Power cars 43098 + 43026. From here I had 10 minutes, so rushed down into the city to get a McDonalds breakfast before returning onto the platform with 2 minutes to spare and boarding dud 158960 down to Salisbury. From here it was a leisurely 15 minutes connection onto SWR 159007 and 159012, these would take me to Basingstoke. Once at Basingstoke I spent around 30 minutes on the platform photographing passing trains before dud 221122 rolled in to take me non-stop through to Reading, where once again I had roughly half an hour photographing trains. Next up was dud 800034, which I took to Slough. I had roughly 35 minutes here outside the station photographing the buses, before returning to the platform and watching a new class 345 Crossrail train pass empty before joining double winners 387164 + 387152 as far as Ealing Broadway.

South Western Railway 159012 , Basingstoke 5.4.18 by DSH Trains, on Flickr

Elizabeth Line Crossrail 345027 , Slough 5.4.18 by DSH Trains, on Flickr

Once at Ealing Broadway, I had around an hour here photographing passing freight trains, before boarding another pair of double winners, 387143 + 387154, which I took into Paddington. It was down onto the Bakerloo Line, where I took winner 3557 and dud 3256 to Oxford Circus, before joining the Central Line and winners 92199 + 92331 and duds 92152 + 92103 to Liverpool Street. I headed above ground at Liverpool Street to see what was in, I decided to join winner 345010 to Stratford, before returning on double winners 315859 + 315824. Next up was the other side of the station, where I took a UID Class 315 out to Bethnal Green, where I spent the next 2 hours photographing the older units before they retire in the next few years. I returned into Liverpool Street on dud 315802 and another UID 315. Once back at Liverpool Street, I decided to take the 205 bus around to Kings Cross. From there deciding to jump back onto the tube at Euston Square, I boarded winners 21049 + 21050 to Bakers Street, before joining 21548 + 21547 back around to Paddington. Heading back from Paddington was more direct and simple, returning on a HST set I completely forgot to get powercar numbers of!

London Overground 315814 , Bethnal Green 5.4.18 by DSH Trains, on Flickr

Stagecoach London Enviro 400 SN64 OGK 12337 , Euston Road London 5.4.18 by DSH Trains, on Flickr

Winning Units: 5
Shacks Cleared: 14

 

[Kite159]

A nice couple of days

 

[Cowley]

Bit late to the party here, but that looked like a good couple of days.
Still can’t get used to trains in this country (345) having no yellow on the front.