Yesterday I managed to make my Manchester/Peaks trip. Report to follow...
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So for my Manchester trip, this was the original plan:
Worksop 0914 - Sheffield 0947
Sheffield 1014 - Man P 1133
Man P 1146 - Hadfield 1226
Hadfield 1229 - Guide Br 1258
Guide Br 1316 - Rose Hill 1335
Rose Hill 1353 - Man P 1425
Man P 1449 - Buxton 1547
Buxton 1629 - Salford Crescent 1737
Salford Crescent 1742 - Huddersfield 1840
Huddersfield 1918 - Sheffield 2035
Sheffield 2041 - Nottingham 2128
I then decided late on to attempt to cover the Bolton - Hindley line and cover Huddersfield - Sheffield at a later date:
Buxton 1629 - Bolton 1751
Bolton 1817 - Hindley 1831
Hindley 1839 - Man V 1913
Transfer to Man P, then
Man P 1943 - Notts 2128
A metrolink transfer would have been nice but I was concerned that I would be able to make the connection at Victoria to leave enough time. I felt it might have been better to walk it (I walk quite fast).
In the end however, I slept quite badly on Thursday night and while I was awake at 7am I didn't feel well enough to make it out of the house. I went back to sleep for a bit and when I woke at ~10.30 I felt a lot better and felt that I would try and give it a bash - and use my original plan as much as possible and not waste any money.
The new plan then looked like this:
Worksop 1315 - Sheffield 1347
Sheffield 1414 - Man P 1533
Man P 1546 - Hadfield 1627
Hadfield 1630 - Guide Br 1650
Guide Br 1658 - Rose Hill 1717
Rose Hill 1723 - Man P 1753
Man P 1943 - Nottingham 2128
After getting to Worksop and a small lunch at the
Railway Cafe (highly recommended) the Sheffield train was a 144, albeit with newish high-back seats. This was in contrast to the Hope Valley train which was a Pacer with actual bus seating! Not only this but the heavens opened as we hit the Peaks and the weather stayed miserable all afternoon. I'd covered the stretch as far as New Mills Central about ten years ago but after which I was on new ground.
The Manchester - Hadfield train was a 323, a long time since I'd been on one but better than a Pacer. Fortunately we covered all three sides of the Dinting triangle. I bailed at Guide Bridge in order to catch the next Rose Hill train, to cover the line through Hyde and the Rose Hill branch itself. This was a 150 and quite busy on the outbound stretch. Again on arrival at Rose Hill I simply rode it straight back to Piccadilly. Especially with the weather as it was I must say this part of the world looked pretty unremarkable (a few quite tall viaducts though) but I'm glad that I've covered them since I can't think of any cause to in the future!
At Piccadilly I had an hour and three quarters to kill before my EMT home. I didn't have time to cover Buxton (another day I'm sure) and I didn't fancy Hindley and back and risk my connection at Piccadilly. I remembered however that I still needed Piccadilly - Airport, and a quick search for Northern only put me on the
18.02 express out, a nice 319. After a loo trip and a gaze at the flight boards I simply caught the same 319 back to Piccadilly on the 18.40. That does of course leave the Airport 'avoiding' line still to cover.
I got back to Piccadilly and I had considered a move to Oxford Road as seat choices can sometimes be better there than at Oxford Road. I wasn't sure about the connections and in the end decided against it, a good move in the end as I think I'd have missed my train. In the end it wasn't too busy.
My EMT 158 was quite annoyingly slow back through the Hope Valley, it transpired that
this train was the cause. I'd considered catching a Northern back to Sheffield using my pass as a way of saving a few ££ and in the end, probably glad I didn't!!
All in all a productive day, as I say of getting lines covered I wouldn't otherwise have had reason to. Even with not feeling 100% in the morning and a late start I was still able to get quite a bit done fortunately and didn't waste any money spent on tickets! This was the first of a number of coverage 'bashes' planned for the next few weeks.