FQ's trips around the globe

[backontrack]

Agreed. We're here to listen.

 

[fishquinn]

I popped by this thread as Id read elsewhere youd had a Pacer Mr Quin. Are you going to tell us about it? Talking therapy can help you know.

Agreed. We're here to listen.

Yep. Sunderland to Newcastle, 023 and 091. I was travelling with two forum members and had broken my phone the day before so I wasn't allowed to leave them as there'd be no way to contact each other and they were going to help me get a new phone. They were both getting the pacers and forced me on. More will be revealed in a few months when the trip report comes out

 

[Blindtraveler]

I think this one needs priority as its quite the on trend thing on here bashing pacers just now!
I can think of 4 of us in the trip reporters communitty alone who would enjoy a nice lengthy description of every last squeel and notch of power.

 

[fishquinn]

Approaching the new '76: Day 6


The sixth day of my FOSS. The first 5 days had been spent in Chippenham but this was to be a day of going in with dad from Leamington and getting the 08:12 XC tram to Bristol. It was Friday the 21st of July and I set my alarm for the usual time: stupid o' clock. It was up at 05:30 and a swift preperation for the day before heading out of the door at about 05:50 for the ride to Leamington.

I got my required tickets from the ticket office before heading onto the platform with dad. We were only waiting for a few minutes before 165027 arrived to take us to Birmingham. It was the school holidays at this point so the train wasn't as busy as it normally is. Becuse of this it was easy to get a bay of 4, with all the extra legroom that provides.

We didn't get wedged out at all on the run to Snow Hell and it was the familiar walk over to The Square Peg Wetherspoon after bailing. We got our normal table with no problems and spent some time looking at the menu that I'm pretty sure we've both memorized. I went for the neutron star of breakfasts: the breakfast wrap. Crammed full of bacon, sausage, egg, hash brown etc. Very tasty!

I headed off towards New Street at just after 07:50. I had a few minutes to wait for my Cross Country tram after getting to the station but could soon hear 43285 and 43321 arriving. I got a decent enough seat on board and was soon leaving Birmingham and heading back towards the South West. Welcome to this Cross Country service to Plymouth.
Through the tunnel by fishquinn1, on Flickr

I wasn't going all the way to Plymouth today and got off at Bristol Parkway thanks to a good connection onto a Paddington bound and just an extra 10 minutes to wait for a Cardiff if the Paddington was boring.
Around the bend by fishquinn1, on Flickr
The Paddington train was running a few minutes late this morning so was arriving at the same time as the Cardiff. This gave me a decision to make - do I view the rear powercar on the Paddington or the Cardiff. As the Padd would be harder to get later in the day if it was decent I identified both powercars on that and decided to go for 43025 and 43139 (which has been following me around on this FOSS along with 162) as 025 was needed for the year. I got to see 43154 leading the Cardiff but suddenly realized that I may have made a mistake when I saw the back powercar - it was only 71 miles from clearance. This made it my closest GWR powercar to clearance and also meant that I'd just have to get it later. A plan was formulated and I got off 025 and 139 at Swindon.

Due to our delay I didn't have long to wait at Swindon before the 10:14 Cardiff arrived with 43183 and 43194.
43194 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Providing we were on time I'd be able to take this pair to Newport to try and get a powercar clearance. Our run was without fault and I was soon getting off this tram in Wales and waiting for my final run on 43186 with a three digit number as the mileage...

186 and 43154 were soon taking me away from Newport. As Swindon wouldn't clear 186 I'd have to take it to Didcot but this was fine with me. Leaving Swindon was the point of no return and 24.25 miles later I was at Didcot with my first GWR powercar cleared.
43186 by fishquinn1, on Flickr

After the mandatory photo I watched it head towards Reading and changed platform for the 12:42 back towards Swindon. Thanks to me wanting to get the 14:30 from Temple Meads I'd now only have time to do Didcot-Temple Meads with a break at Swindon but I still had another day of my FOSS to go (which would be a longer one) so it wasn't too annoying. 43196 and 43003 had soon arrived to take me on the boring run back to Swindon.

I would have two options after getting to Swindon. Number one would be a 15-minute wait for a Cardiff bound tram and the other a half-hour wait for a Temple Meads bound. I decided against the Cardiff after seeing that it was a pair that I had no interest in having already had them on my FOSS.
43003 by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Away from Swindon by fishquinn1, on Flickr
The next pair was better with 43018, a powercar that I particularly like leading. Unfortunately, upon seeing the rear powercar, I knew that it had replaced a powercar that I liked even more but 43126 was still high mileage even if Eavis was no longer on the other end...

I got the single seat in the half 1st, half standard coach and the journey passed quickly. This was actually my first journey between Swindon and Chippenham on my FOSS because of the engineering works and I must say that I didn't notice much difference from the previous time I traveled the route other than a few more masts for electrification. I'm going to avoid the topic of Great Western electrification in my reports because if I type things about it I fear I may explode. What a way not to do electrification Network Rail...

I was soon at Temple Meads where I'd only need to wait 20 minutes for my train back to Birmingham. I could soon see it snaking its way into Temple Meads, under the excellent station roof: this was the return of the set that I'd had to Bristol earlier in the day, 43321 and 43285. I got a seat towards the front of the train on this service.

The mandatory 'be let out just behind a 323 at Kings Norton' was had and we crawled our way down the Cross City, finally getting to New Street a minute after dad had left Moor Street for Leam on his cat. This meant that I'd be on the 16:12 from Snow Hell as usual, with 15 minutes to get there. This was easily accomplished and I got there to see a 3 coach 168. This is usually a 4-coach so I knew that it'd get busy by Moor Street so decided to get a bay of 1 at the very back of 168109. At least I got a 168/1.

The service did get busy as I expected but Leamington wasn't too far away and it was nice to alight and see dad again. That was the penultimate day of my FOSS, stay tuned for the finale...

 

[Cowley]

A good day by the looks of things, although today was maybe a bit of a dark day for you fq?
Anyway I took this the other day. Where would they be going then?

 

[fishquinn]

I had a good laugh at how the introduction had gone and I still have a bit of time before all the trams are gone on the Western. Then it'll have to be lots of trips to Scotland - how upsetting

Which powercars were they? As far as I know the only powercars that have gone north so far are 021 and 132 a few months back with a set although I know that 033, 036, 134 and 148 were meant to have been removed from service today.

 

[Cowley]

Yeah it didn't go too well today did it.
I'm not sure which ones they were but it was only last week. Maybe Thursday?

 

[fishquinn]

Sorry for the long gap between reports - I've been really busy with work. I'm currently away from the main computer that my trip reports are stored in so I don't know where I'm currently at. Because of this I've decided to type up a trip from Saturday while the details are fresh in my mind. Enjoy


A South Yorkshire circular

November the 11th was in the calendar about a month before the trip. This was to be a sociable day with Nat and Cactustwirly and, although we’d got a date sorted a month in advance there was lots of ideas regarding where we’d meet up: Brum, Manchester and Nottingham all being included. Eventually we settled on a loop around the East Midlands using a combination of fares as I’d noticed that VTEC were diverting via Lincoln on that Saturday. A plan was formed that would include two tram sets. Definitely beats a day in Brum!


For this trip it’d need to be an 07:21 departure from Leamington. The last time that I’d tried to get this service from Leamington mum was most displeased because she didn’t know until the night before (I’d already told dad though) and said that she wouldn’t take me because it wasn’t in the calendar. Dad took me that morning so it wasn’t a disaster but this time I was ready and put that I’d be on the 07:21 from Leam in the calendar. No chance for confusion there.


We were all on one boat for a few days due to the second having some work done on it so I was on a mattress on the floor in the saloon. I didn’t sleep brilliantly and easily woke to my alarm. Being careful not to wake anyone else until I had to, I got ready and dad had soon got up to take me to the station. We left at about 06:45 and picked Nat up on the way. About 15 minutes later I was saying bye to dad and let him head back home for some more kip.


We headed to the ticket office to get our tickets. It was a relatively new member of staff on duty but she’d issued me a few tickets in the past (including selling me two tickets totalling 10p) so recognized me and wasn’t surprised when I asked for 3 different day returns. We used our family and friends railcard and split the £44.80 equally between the two of us (which actually means that we were each paying less than the normal child fares). It was then up onto the platform where our cart was observed as running 10 minutes late due to the late running Manchester Piccadilly ahead of it. Typical Cross Country. Still, this delay shouldn’t cause us any problems with making our train at New Street as we had 24 minutes to do train to train if both were on time. During our wait we saw the 06:24 Snow Hell, dad’s usual train to work on a weekday, come through ECS due to running 53 minutes late from Banbury and no less than 3 freight trains come through, all heading South. Another had passed (also going South) when we were getting tickets so there must have been a block somewhere. Anyway, our 2-car unit to Birmingham eventually rolled in 10 minutes late with 168324 having the honour of taking us to Brum.


A couple of moments after leaving Leamington we passed another southbound freight; the Immingham-Theale tanks. That makes a total of 5 southbound freights in about 25 minutes through Leamington. Not too bad at all! That was the last freight that we passed on the way to Birmingham and we made up a couple of minutes en route, arriving 8 minutes late.

On the section of track between Bordesley and Moor Street you can see stuff coming in and out of New Street and, looking over today we could see the morning Cross Country tram to Plymouth snaking its way towards the bat cave. Not a bad thing to see in the morning although it was beaten by what came passed next: the best cat (014) working the first Marylebone hauled set of the day.


We got off our 170 and immediately left Moor Street for the walk over to New Street. A couple of minutes later we were in the concourse before going down to the platform for the 08:22 Stansted Airport service. This was due out of platform 10A and we got down to the platform just as the Cross Country tram was leaving from platform 11 so got to see 43303 on the back of it. Attention then turned to the Cross Country 170 that would work our service and I groaned when I saw a two car one there. Seriously Cross Country? To make matters worse 1st class was at the very front of the unit so we couldn’t get a seat away from the engines as normal had already taken ones at the other end (which was closest to the stairs). A bay of 4 was wanted, as Cactus was to join us at Leicester so we got one above the engine and just hoped no one would wedge us out.


It turns out that this diagram is a booked 3-car 170 but there was a last minute swap to 170518 due to a fault. The service had actually been cancelled and then reinstated so we were certainly lucky. No reservations were in force on this service (good news for us) and we thankfully weren’t wedged out on departure from the bat cave.



The ride was rather tedious on a not particularly fun bit of track (basically after Water Orton it gets boring and gets gradually worse before you finally reach Nuneaton) but at least we were non-stop between Nuneaton and Leicester so it wasn’t so bad. We weren’t wedged out at all and Cactus was waiting on the platform at Leicester as we arrived. He was first on the 170 via that set of doors and joined us at our bay of 4 ready for one of my least favourite stretches of track in the country: Leicester to Peterborough.


It was good to have someone else to chat too on the journey to Peterborough and we’d soon ended our journey through boring countryside and got to Peterborough, having passed 67029 and 91110 just outside the station heading north on a drag. With an hour to kill in Peterborough we’d looked at the option of a run to Huntingdon and back and found that it’d be a +6 if we wanted to. We didn’t yet have tickets so it was a walk through the open barriers to the travel centre. When we got there we found a big queue for the ticket office windows and loads of TVMs... All collection only. Seriously? There was no time to catch the train at this point along with getting a ticket so it was promptly flagged and, as I hadn’t eaten anything all day we headed to Queensgate shopping centre.


I very much dislike shopping centres and this one is certainly included in that. After wandering aimlessly for a few minutes we changed direction and headed to a Greggs that we’d passed on the way. Nat and Cactus waited outside so Nat could collect some of his Stagecoach bus numbers having turned to the dark side but only with Stagecoach, which is apparently the best thing since sliced bread. With the cost of Stagecoach travel he must be used to expensive bread. Anyway, I got a bacon and sausage bap rom Greggs and we all wandered back to the station, heading the wrong way to start with due to following the signs for the station.


Back at the station there was still quite a while to kill until our tram north to Doncaster. We got to see a tram arrive to change traincrew (but wasn’t an advertised stop at either Peterborough or Donny) with 43302 on the back, carrying a vinyl sticker to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the HST world speed record, which it was involved in. Nat suddenly decided that he needed a birthday card for his mum and decided to go to Waitrose to get it. Nat doesn’t like spending money so I’m highly surprised he would buy one instead of make one and even more surprised that he’d even consider Waitrose for it. Cactus and I followed him to Waitrose and Nat chose a card for £2.50! Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) when he went to buy the card he could only find self service machines and all were card only. It was flagged and we walked back to the station and then over to the platform for our train, seeing a pair of 37s arrive on a test train while waiting.

Peterborough 37s by fishquinn1, on Flickr


I’d forgotten that it was Remembrance Day today until an announcement was made a minute or so before 11:00 asking people to shut up. Despite this one woman went around asking a couple of people if they had a pen and then headed to a member of staff who completely ignored her. Well done that man.


We headed down towards the South end of the platform so both powercars could be identified before boarding. A tram came into view and I’d soon noticed that it wasn’t in VTEC livery but was instead in EMT livery. Both Nat and Cactus weren’t too happy about this but I didn’t mind – after all it’s easier to get a long run on a VTEC set than an EMT one in the future. 43045 and 43052, both powercars that Nat and I had had a few days previously, were working this train and it was a full EMT set on hire and was unfortunately rather busy. There was no way that we’d be able to get a bay of 4 but we wandered through the train and found 3 seats close together in coach B. This comprised of a free bay of 2 and a bay of 4 with two people in it and, while Cactus and I took the bay of 2 Nat decided to stand because he hates sitting next to a stranger. I found out at Newark that he’d got a bay of 2 not far behind us but I don’t know how long he was sat there for.


We turned onto the GN/GE at Werrington Junction and, thanks to the speedometer on Cactus’ phone found out that we were travelling at about 70mph. We passed Spalding, where 500 people had been left stranded thanks to a failed 67 the previous weekend and had soon taken the Sleaford avoider. The rarest way to go past Sleaford and I’ve done it twice, never having gone via the station. It took an hour to do the 54 miles to Lincoln, where I found out that the railway cuts through the university campus thanks to Cactus’ knowledge on it. Not long after going through the station we turned to the left and headed towards Newark, where we arrived 10 minutes early. This gave me 18 minutes before we were booked out so I got off to get a few photos of the tram and 67029, which was waiting to take the next 91 back to Peterborough.

Newark EMT by fishquinn1, on Flickr

Newark Northgate by fishquinn1, on Flickr


I headed back to Cactus and Nat and was only back in my seat for a few minutes before we headed North once again, this time with much more speed than on the way to Newark. We weren’t moving for too long before Retford, where we had a booked stop and then it was a fast run through to Doncaster. I was hoping to see a Colas 47 in Doncaster yard as I’d heard that 47749, Nat’s last required operational brush for sight, was there the day before. There was no sign of it though but quite a few locos (mostly 66s) were there. Once we arrived at Doncaster I was a case of bailing and hearing the VP185s scream out on their way to Leeds.


We had two options for the next part of our journey, which was to Sheffield. Number 1 was an all shacks Northern stopper that I really didn’t want to get. Number 2 was a fast TPE 185 15 minutes later. I agreed to do the stopper if it was a 150 but there was no chance if it was a pacer. I got out of the stopper when I saw (and heard) a 142 squeal in. Cactus decided to go for it though so we said bye and arranged to meet him at Meadowhall. Meanwhile my favourite VTEC powercar (and one of my favourites overall), 43208, rolled in working a Kings Cross service. Unfortunately I couldn’t get it as it was unadvertised stops at both Donny and Peterborough so I watched it leave before heading to the 1st class lounge for a snack and drink.


I was surprised to see that there were biscuits in the lounge today, something which seems to be fairly rare with Doncaster lounge. I had quite a few and got a few for Cactus and Nat to have. Two hot chocolates were also consumed and I got a bottle of water to have later. It was a nice, peaceful place to wait for my next train and I headed out onto the platform about 8 minutes before the diesel dez was due in. I was expecting to find Nat waiting there but he was nowhere to be seen. Instead I saw Cactus waiting patiently for the 185, having flagged the 142 as it started to fill up quite a lot. Fair enough – an all shacks stopper is never fun anyway, let alone on a pacer. Nat appeared at the last moment before dud 185118 arrived and the three of us managed to get a bay of 4 to ourselves.


This was Cactus’ first 185 and it unfortunately sounded a little poorly, leaving about a minute late despite arriving 5 minutes before booked departure time. I think Cactus decided that they were OK but not as good as voyagers, something that I most certainly disagree with: the refurbished ones in particular are really pleasant (this one was unrefurbished). It’s just a shame about the door position but at least TPE are sorting that on the long distance routes with their new stock. Not the best DMU (that would go to either the 175 or 180) but it’s definitely up there.


We decided to get off this 185 at Meadowhall to get an ex Scarborough 158 for the rest of the journey. A 399 was out of service in the tram platform at Meadowhall and the automatic doors gave a really annoying beeping sound every time someone tried to go through them. We were only there for about 10 minutes but it gave a chance to get a photo of the 399 and a new advertising livery on one of the old trams.

The old ones by fishquinn1, on Flickr

The new ones by fishquinn1, on Flickr

Dud 158844 was in charge for the run through to Sheffield, which included a really cheery guard who must love his job (sarcasm). We were waiting in the tunnel just outside Sheffield station for a few minutes and, using RTT, came up with a plan for the 45 minutes we had before our Northern 158 to Nottingham.


We came to a stop at about 14:20, with 9 minutes until the 14:29 St Pancras. It’s no secret that I thoroughly dislike 222s but this plan would score me a winner shack (Dronfield) so was worth it. It was only to Chesterfield anyway. We got on board and stood in the vestibule just for Nat to suddenly get really annoying and unreasonable. He said that there was no point on getting this and that he wasn’t going to, not caring that my ticket isn’t valid without his. He then said that I could get Dronfield any time and that it didn’t need to be now. Yep, I could get it any time but I have time now so why the hell shouldn’t I do it? He eventually said that he’d stay but wouldn’t get a seat despite there being multiple ones free (and next to us, not sitting next to anyone). Cactus and I sat down and a couple of moments later Cactus came up with a very good ticketing suggestion so that Nat didn’t need to come. Nat agreed to this and left winner 222004 while Cactus and I stayed on through to Chesterfield.


222s still make me feel ill but I wasn’t on it for long as Chesterfield has soon come. We got off, Cactus taking a photo of it as it departed (!), and made our way over to the other platform for a short fester until the Nottingham-Leeds 158 arrived with winner 158906. This was a fairly busy service but we managed to get a pair of seats together for the short hop to winner shack Dronfield.

Dronfield by fishquinn1, on Flickr


Dronfield is a nice little station in a nice area right on the edge of the peak district. We walked over the footbridge before the 158 had left and it’s a funky view from the middle of the footbridge if you look towards Chesterfield. With 10 minutes before our train to Nottingham we decided to go for a short walk, ending up in a convenience store. They didn’t have anything that got my interest so we headed back to the station. It looks like a nice area with lots of dry stone walls (it wasn’t raining you see) and may be worth an explore in future, along with the rest of the peak district.


When we got back to the station, our Nottingham service changed from ‘on time’ to the dreaded ‘delayed’ on the PIS. This certainly wasn’t good news because it was already 15:10 and we wanted to be on the 16:32 from Nottingham. I really couldn’t be on a later service from Nottingham because I needed to be home by 21:00 on pain of death (for dad had a night shift and I was required to keep an eye on my brother as mum was out). I then saw the reason for the delay scrolling on the bottom of the board: ‘due to emergency services dealing with an incident’. A few choice words left my mouth when I saw that as it’s basically code for ‘person hit by train’. The message didn’t say where so Cactus checked and found out that it was a PHBT between Langley Mill and Nottingham so we still had via Derby thank god. The Nottingham on the departure board changed to Chesterfield and, thankfully, after 5 minutes the board changed to ‘expected 15:25’ and Nat text me to say that they’d left Sheffield.


Dud 158845 arrived and we located Nathan at the back of the unit. It was, as the boards at Dronfield had said, being pined at Chesterfield and the guard wasn’t very helpful on what to do. We arrived on platform 3 at Chesterfield and station staff were immediately on hand to assist passengers. The advice for Nottingham was to get the St Pancras in 10 minutes to Derby and change there so we decided to do this and my second 222 of the day went to winner 222005. This wasn’t as busy as the last and the three of us got a bay of 4 for the sickly run to Derby. There was some good that came out of this diversion to Nottingham though. You know that 47 that I said had been at Doncaster the day before? It had migrated to Derby in the afternoon and was sat in the ROG siding as we arrived. Nat was rather happy at this as, after a long time, he’d finally cleared the operational mainline 47s for sight.


170109 was waiting in the opposite platform at Derby on the 16:08 Nottingham. If this was on time it would give us a +5 onto the 16:32 St Pancras. If it was late then it’d have to be a 170 straight back to New Street, something that neither Nat nor I wanted. We left Derby on time and there was quite a lot in the RTC including 37407 without numbers: DRS’ next waste of money (I do like 37s but DRS have restored loads of demic ones that should just have got the cutters torch and now have way to many). It was a good enough run to Nottingham and we arrived at 16:27 as booked. With that there was just enough time to get onto 43089 and 43081, another set that Nat and I had had the Monday before. 081 was one of my last 6 EMT powercars needed for 100 so was good to get, and it would be cleared by Leicester leaving me with just 043, 046, 049, 058 and 082 to get.


We took a bay of 4 in coach D and it was a pleasant run through the near darkness to Leicester, where it was time for us to get our 170 to Brum and Cactus to head home. Having not had time to identify the rear powercar at Nottingham we headed to the back at Leicester and got it then, confirming that it was still 43081. As we were walking past we noticed that coach A was totally deserted too – it’s a shame that we weren’t in there!

Heading for St Pancras by fishquinn1, on Flickr

Anyway, the tram set was watched leave before we wandered down to the footbridge and said bye to Cactus. Nat and I changed platforms for the 17:18 New Street, a booked 3-car 170. We didn’t like what we saw when we got there... 170518, exactly the same 2-car one that we’d had from New Street to Peterborough in the morning instead of a 3 car one! Typical! Standard class over the bogies was at the wrong end for the Leicester crowds so Nat and I got another bay of 4 with a normal also joining us as it was a rather busy service. It wasn’t a particularly nice run, stopping at every station other than Water Orton but it was over about an hour after we left Leicester and that was that.


I’d noticed on the way back that we didn’t have as long in Birmingham as I’d originally thought. I thought that we’d have an hour until the 19:15 but I’d forgotten about the 18:55 ‘fast’ until checking RTT at Nuneaton. This was good news for us because we didn’t need to kill as long in Birmingham but a couple of things needed to be done in our time. Firstly, Nat and I headed to Tesco just outside New Street to see if there was any sarnies on special offer (there wasn’t) so we headed back to Corporation street with the thought of checking another couple of stores. After that it was into Poundland so Nat could get the birthday card that he needed, and save £1.50 compared to Waitrose while doing so. Then we walked up the hill to Snow Hell and firstly went into the Tesco outside: nothing on special. Then it was into the Sainsbury’s next door. While no sarnies were on offer there was a pack of 10 mini beef pasties for £1.60 so I went for those and we crossed the road to Snow Hell to see if there would be a well timed 172 through the tunnel to Moor Street before our train. Unfortunately there wasn’t so it was on foot to Moor Street, getting there to find 168110 waiting with the engine and lights off on the 18:55 to Marylebone. It was a shame when the driver turned both on about 5 minutes before departure...


The journey to Leam was a fast one, taking 25 minutes with stops at Solihull and Warwick Parkway. Nat’s mum, who was picking us up, was running a few minutes late when we got to Leamington due to having to stop for petrol so we had enough time to see 68015 arrive on the second Marylebone-Snow Hell evening cat (running a few minutes late due to the Manchester voyager being 9 down from Leam). A great way to end the day, and a very fun one it had been. Thanks to Cactus for helping make it a great one.

 

[Cowley]

That looked like a good day out. I’d still like a run on one of the EMT HSTs, they look a bit more original than all the other ones.
Might try and get one when I go to Nottingham next time.

 

[Kite159]

A varied day trip

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I would have been so annoyed if that was me (The EMT substituting)!

Wow, what a great trip - so many units involved too! Jealous of the variety!

You’ve got me interested about this breakfast wrap you keep mentioning is so good. What is in it exactly? I’ll have to give it a try sometime!

 

[Dhassell]

Nice to see you back FQ! Sounded like a good day around South Yorkshire! One of the many areas in the North of the UK I want to revisit!

 

[fishquinn]

That looked like a good day out. I’d still like a run on one of the EMT HSTs, they look a bit more original than all the other ones.
Might try and get one when I go to Nottingham next time.

They are certainly more original - with non MTU engines and the old seats (which, despite what people say about them are probably my favourite seat currently on a mainline operator in the UK).

I would have been so annoyed if that was me (The EMT substituting)!

Wow, what a great trip - so many units involved too! Jealous of the variety!

You’ve got me interested about this breakfast wrap you keep mentioning is so good. What is in it exactly? I’ll have to give it a try sometime!

I do like the EMT sets and it was good to get one on a decent mileage run. Even though both powercars were dud for 100 or the year, 43052's mileage as lower than my lowest VTEC and both were needed for 200 so I can't complain. It is annoying in the respect that EMT powercars will be around for longer than the VTEC ones but I'm out on the VTEC ones again tomorrow so it's Cactus and Nat that were more annoyed (and rightfully so).

The breakfast wrap is one of Wetherspoon's breakfasts and it's basically a wrap crammed full of bacon, sausage, egg, hash brown and cheese. Just perfect for some mornings.

Nice to see you back FQ! Sounded like a good day around South Yorkshire! One of the many areas in the North of the UK I want to revisit!

It's definitely worth a revisit, particularly Sheffield as you've got both trams and trains to keep you busy.

 

[185143]

Couldn't disagree more about 175/180s being the best DMU! They're AWFUL! (Especially 180s!)

 

[fishquinn]

They're comfortable. The brakes on 180s are awful but other than that and the engine noise they're rather good. What's your favourite DMU comfort wise (I needed to add the comfort bit to get an answer other than pacer )

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

They are certainly more original - with non MTU engines and the old seats (which, despite what people say about them are probably my favourite seat currently on a mainline operator in the UK).


I do like the EMT sets and it was good to get one on a decent mileage run. Even though both powercars were dud for 100 or the year, 43052's mileage as lower than my lowest VTEC and both were needed for 200 so I can't complain. It is annoying in the respect that EMT powercars will be around for longer than the VTEC ones but I'm out on the VTEC ones again tomorrow so it's Cactus and Nat that were more annoyed (and rightfully so).

The breakfast wrap is one of Wetherspoon's breakfasts and it's basically a wrap crammed full of bacon, sausage, egg, hash brown and cheese. Just perfect for some mornings.


It's definitely worth a revisit, particularly Sheffield as you've got both trams and trains to keep you busy.

Ah, you like the old seats, so you’re going to live them then!

Cool, that wrap sounds really good but I don’t like cheese! Shame because I love the other stuff!

 

[Kite159]

They're comfortable. The brakes on 180s are awful but other than that and the engine noise they're rather good. What's your favourite DMU comfort wise (I needed to add the comfort bit to get an answer other than pacer )

But as they will be replacing the Grand Central HSTs in the new year, so shouldn't they go onto your banned list

 

[fishquinn]

Ah, you like the old seats, so you’re going to live them then!

Cool, that wrap sounds really good but I don’t like cheese! Shame because I love the other stuff!

I'm not sure but they may be able to do the wrap without the cheese? I'm not sure.

But as they will be replacing the Grand Central HSTs in the new year, so shouldn't they go onto your banned list

I won't go out for them (the same applies for most DMUs) but they won't be banned.

 

[185143]

They're comfortable. The brakes on 180s are awful but other than that and the engine noise they're rather good. What's your favourite DMU comfort wise (I needed to add the comfort bit to get an answer other than pacer )

Errmm..... probably an ATW/SR Inverness spec 158. Or a refurbished 185 that isn't too rammed. Or a 2+2 seated 142 (and I'm serious)..

 

[Cowley]

I quite like a 156. *
Just saying...

* wouldn’t want to do Exeter to Thurso in one mind.

 

[fishquinn]

It would need to have vestibule end doors for me (although the 185s are good). I forgot about 158s - a South West Trains one is also up near the top.

 

[cactustwirly]

Mines an EMT or ATW 158/8 (the ones with a Perkins engine, and nice grammer seats)
Then it's an Cummins engined EMT 158 in second place.
Then the SWT 15xs, then Northern 158s (nice trains but **** interior)

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

It would need to have vestibule end doors for me (although the 185s are good). I forgot about 158s - a South West Trains one is also up near the top.

To me, if it doesn't have vestibule end doors I consider it a commuter train.

Then again, having said I do love 168/0s. I really love the sound they make taking off, and the interior is pretty good for standard.

I also like the First Great Western 158 internally and externally. (SWR 158/9s are boring to me as I always used to take them to London on a daily basis for commuting to my work and you get bored of them) I haven't been on a GWR style one but the interior is too green (from the seats) and blue (from the pis) and clashing, plus the seats look hard.

 

[fishquinn]

Approaching the new '76: Day 7

After a break over the weekend I was back out, this Monday being the final day of my FOSS. It had been an incredibly fun time so far and with a decent length day I was looking forward to getting even more off the list. As usual for dad's train to work (for those of you who can't remember it's the stupid o' clock Bicester-Snow Hell) it was up at 05:30 for a short get ready as it was out of the door at 05:50.

A traipse through the nearly lit streets (it was July after all) was had, ignoring the Stagecoach buses that Nat would so love to get the numbers of (bus veg... ) and under the railway line before grabbing my ticket to get me into the FOSS area and heading onto platform 2. Tired eyes could be seen all around although, thinking about it maybe that was just because I had tired eyes so all I could see was the word 'sleep' written on every surface. Anyway, 165sleepsleepsleep, sorry, 165024 was soon arriving and we got the usual seats on board. Then it was a case of sit back and relax while trying to forget that the Chiltern 165 seats have zero comfort. The first time passing a freight train occurred on this journey with a pair of Colas 70s on an engineering train passing us at Hatton. Oxford had a closure around this time (or somewhere around Oxford) so they were going from Bescot for the possession. One of them was a winner for me though so there was a large upside there.

Once at Snow Hell it was over to the Square Peg for brekky. We got the usual table and I ordered brekky. After 20 minutes it hadn't come so I went up and asked where it had got to but was told that there was a problem and that they were just sorting it. Sounds very much like the railway! The problem was eventually sorted and our breakfasts arrived about half an hour after we ordered them. There was still plenty of time to eat them before I had to head to the bat cave and to a certain Plymouth bound tram. Oh how I love this service...

43207 and 43384 were to take me south and it was good to get 207 as it's my favourite XC powercar. The service was fairly busy this morning and, as usual took ages to unload passengers. I was the first on at my door so a very quick scan of the electronic reservation systems showed me a decent, free bay of 2. I clambered in and we were soon on the move, next stop Cheltenham.

I got off at Bristol Parkway as usual and noticed that the Paddington service was running a few minutes late (again, as usual). It was still to arrive first but when it did the powercars weren't of great interest so I decided to get the Cardiff behind. It was pretty weird to see exactly the same set on it as had been the day before but this wasn't too bad as it only improved my mileage on the back powercar. 43154 was leading and cleared-for-1000 (the day before) 43186 was on the back. It wasn't very busy and I decided to take it to Newport as the extra mileage wasn't exactly needed.
Bristol Parkway by fishquinn1, on Flickr

I entered Wales but was exiting it again not long after thanks to 43037 and 43127 on the on the 10:08 Paddington from Newport.
Away from Newport by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Not wanting to fall into the 'South Wales tram trap' (shuttling back and forth between Newport and Bristol Parkway) I took this through to Swindon where I had enough time to get a photo of the back powercar and watch it leave before the next tram from Paddington, which was a few minutes late. This service was one of Great Western's named trains: The Torbay Express (going to Paignton) and was today formed of 43150 and 43134, the paintwork on the latter looking a little worse for wear.
Swindon by fishquinn1, on Flickr
The leading powercar was needed for the year so I hopped aboard. It was full and standing and with neither powercar being needed for any mileage I got off at Chippenham for the next one back to Swindon: double dull (for me) 43125 and 43158.

Back at Swindon I saw one of my required powercars for 100 heading towards London. That'd be one to track later if I had the chance for sure. My attention then turned to a 20-minute-late Bristol bound service with a powercar that I needed for the year leading. That'll do nicely. 43042 and 43032 were utilized to get to Bath where, just after leaving I saw an ECS tram come through heading towards London (thankfully with nothing required for 100 on).
Soon to be gone by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Then, after watching that set leave I decided to make my way to a nearby Sainsbury's local for a sarnie: tuna mayo. It wasn't life changing but it did the job of filling a hole in the stomach.

I was back at the station in time to flag a set heading towards Bristol in favour of the Paddington bound one. 43145 and 43198 took me back to Swindon where a reasonably tight connection was pulled of; a +3 that was easily doable today, even giving me time to get a photo of 145 before 43130 and 43016 blocked by view of it. I hopped aboard and worked out a plan for the next couple of moves. I was pleased with it as I'd be able to get the required for 100 miles powercar that I'd seen earlier and all worked out well as this set dumped me at Newport. There was a slight delay arriving so I was only stood on the platform for a minute or two before 43126 rolled in with whopper 43018 on the back (don't ask me why I like this one - I just do). I was only going one stop so it was back through the tunnel for a short wait at Bristol Parkway, getting to see 43384 and 207 return on the 14:40 Glasgow.
Not for me today!
Away from Bristol Parkway by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Heading to Glasgow by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Meeting point by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Instead I was to be on the 14:42 Cardiff and, as expected, 43137 was leading sub-100-mile 43160. It wouldn't be cleared by Newport so Cardiff was the only option today and I happily took it all the way to Wales' capital city.

It's a fairly tight plus at Cardiff onto the Paddington bound service but I made it and noticed that 43036, one of my required for 100 powercars was leading! I ran down the platform to get the back one before boarding and found out that it was 43031. I hopped aboard, glad to have another one on my hitlist and found out that 036 would be cleared by Bristol Parkway. As luck would have it, that's where I was going next!

I got off at Bristol Parkway with 43036 safely over 100 miles and changed platforms for the 16:08 Swansea. I could soon see a green powercar approaching and 43187 was leading 43155 on this service. A seat was got on board and I relaxed for the run straight through to Cardiff.

This was to be the penultimate GWR move on my FOSS, the last going to whichever powercars were to take me back to Bristol Parkway. I had 10-15 minutes at Cardiff so popped into the 1st class lounge for a quick snack before going out onto the platform and seeing 43191 and 43175 roll in. A seat was got on board this lightly loaded service and the run was uneventful except seeing one of my favourite 66s at Alexandra Dock.

Once back at Bristol Parkway I didn't have long until my tram home, the 17:40. It was running on time this evening and the final tram of my FOSS was soon arriving: 43321 and 43285. I got a seat in the front coach and got my music going (with headphones, unlike a lot of youths I see traveling around), the run to Brum passing rather quickly.

As this was a Monday dad had someone on in the evening in Leamington that was meant to finish at 21:30. This meant that I'd need to be on the 20:15 from Moor Street home, giving me an hour and a quarter to do something in Brum. I decided to go for a short run on a cat with my time (along with getting some dinner). I worked out a plan and headed to Moor Street via New Street 1st class lounge for a snack ready for the 19:20 Marylebone. I was surprised to see a 165 arriving when I got there and I got excited thinking that it'd probably be a 3 coach one (so the chance of a winner). Alas it was only a two coach one but 165003 gave a change to the usual 170 on this service. I had to sit opposite someone in a bay in 4 but I was only on this unit to Dorridge where I headed straight down the road to Sainsbury's and decided to go for an egg and cress sarnie. This was my first egg and cress one of Sainsbury's and it was actually rather tasty and one I'd get again in future.

I took my sarnie back to the station and didn't have to wait long for the 19:45 Kidderminster, which was running a couple of minutes late. I already knew which 68 it'd be as it was the return of dad's service home from work and required for 1000 68009 was soon arriving. A rather large step up onto the train was done and the cat was soon thrashing away towards Birmingham, me getting off at Snow Hill where the 20:15 was waiting on the platform next to us. The last move of the trip fell to 168329, 168325 and 168219 on the 2015 this evening and it was a very lightly loaded service to take me back to Leam where half an hour was spent on the platform before I met dad and headed home after a highly memorable trip.

 

[Kite159]

*makes a note that the 20:15 Birmingham - London features some 168/3s*

I would imagine one of those units is from that 168/3 which departs Banbury around 18:03 [and gets overtaken at Hatton by the 68]

 

[fishquinn]

The 168/3 that forms from the 18:03 ex Banbury is the one that forms the 19:17 Snow Hill-Marylebone (but was a 165 instead on that day).

 

[TheAdelante]

Wow, that a sounds really good trip I've not been on a CrossCountry HST since 2015! I'm quite often on the Virgin ones though because I really like HSTs and my brother is up for any train if it is a Virgin one so the VTEC ones are great! They have the same seats don't they? I find them much nicer than other High Speed Train seats, especially standard on GWR.

 

[Kite159]

The 168/3 that forms from the 18:03 ex Banbury is the one that forms the 19:17 Snow Hill-Marylebone (but was a 165 instead on that day).

I'm just looking at ideas on getting 326 & 327 into my book for renumbering. Would have had 327 last Friday but it got delayed at Banbury waiting for a guard to join due to points issues at Birmingham earlier in the day (and 68009 arrived first)

 

[185143]

Where's the bay of 2 in standard on an XC HST?

 

[roversfan2001]

Where's the bay of 2 in standard on an XC HST?

I think fishquinn calls airline seats a bay of 2, rather than 2 seats facing each other.