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Iskra's Odysseys

Iskra

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Great pics, doing the Chieftain later this year so looking forward to the food :)

It's a good service but since I booked they've changed it from an evening meal service to all day extra which reduces what you get a little.


You've certainly had quite an adventurous few months! Those Italian trains certainly look rather different to what we have over here, it has to be said. Shame about bustitutions on the line there though, sad state of affairs.

All of you lot doing the Highland Chieftain in First Class, I did it in Standard Class! I can assure you all it's a rather long endurance that way! I'd love to do it First Class if I ever get the chance to do it again, but there and back in Standard would be too much.

Unusual indeed that double-heading with 67s in Inverness! What did you think of the Kyle line?

Anything else in the pipeline?

I couldn't survive 7 hours in standard during the school holidays, that would be hell! Besides it was only £45 and on delay repay.

Kyle was very good, saw some fantastic wildlife and its very scenic in places. If I did it again I'd stay a night to sample the seafood- I stayed in Inverness instead. Slight issue on the way back due to the number of request stops meant the train was 9 late so me and a few others missed our connection back to Edinburgh, but it all got sorted in the end, and meant I got to sample BK at Edinburgh ;) . I haven't done Thurso/Mallaig/Oban lines yet to compare to the Kyle line. Also sat in 1st class on the 158 both there and back so it was pretty comfortable.

This year I've got booked:

Leeds-London on the early morning EMT HST, in order to try the fabled breakfast service. Returning on VTEC.

Mirfield-London-Swansea-Cardiff-Chester-Crewe-Manchester-Dewsbury, which involves a FGW HST before they disappear, premier dining on Gerald and a lot of new coverage.

Tyne-Tees day ranger to cover Bishop Auckland, Whitby, Saltburn lines and for GC HST haulage from Sunderland to York.

Not booked but on a quiet day I'll do Bradford FS-Ilkley and Leeds-York via Harrogate which will complete West Yorkshire's route coverage for me.
 
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Kristofferson

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Hm thanks for the heads up, I will check the food! Enjoy your future days out on the rails :)
 

Techniquest

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You've got a lot coming up then! You should be safe with FGW HSTs I reckon, I think it's another 18 months until they start going and 2018 before they all go.
 

Iskra

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You've got a lot coming up then! You should be safe with FGW HSTs I reckon, I think it's another 18 months until they start going and 2018 before they all go.

To be fair, it will just give me a lot more justification to travel in Scotland when the HST's go up there :)

I have a report to post, but first I'm just going to mention a couple of other 'results' that don't justify their own report.

- I did the EMT breakfast service in 1st to compare their offering to VTEC's. I did the 0525 Leeds-St.Pancras service in standard until Sheffield and then 1st from there.

The EMT HST at Leeds:

121ttlx.jpg


The service was much better than VTEC, with the breakfast silver-served at your seat. I did feel sorry for the lady having to dish out button mushrooms with tongs on a moving HST though! The breakfast, complete with proper egg and a black pudding:

2dc77h5.jpg


The whole service was better than VTEC, they were generous with everything and it was well worth the £60 fare. An EMT HST was new haulage for me having not travelled on one since Midland Mainline days.

Predictably, having gone out of my way to bag EMT HST haulage, the VTEC service back from Kings Cross ended up being formed of the EMT set. Typical!

- I've scored a Northern 322, which is new traction for me. I had a short run between Leeds and Wakefield Westgate due to the XC HST service I was due to catch hitting a horse. I now only need a Northern Rail 319 to have ridden on every type of traction that serves the North.

- I've covered the Wakefield Kirkgate-Westgate curve. A blurry purple haze sunset at Wakey Westgate:

14w398i.jpg


Ok so my most recent bash report:

Wales, the long way. 17/11/15

So this trip was initially in danger due to me spending the night before vomiting, however I felt well enough to proceed, albeit gingerly on the morning of the big day. I was mainly aiming for new coverage on this trip.

0728 Mirfield-London Kings Cross. Grand Central, Class 180. £13.15 STD Advance.

I'm always slightly dubious about catching this service due to a previous time where it didn't materialise at all, causing me to abandon the days bash. The risk is worth it at only £13 though, and this time I'd taken the precaution of adding some padding at the London-end to ensure that even if I had to get the following GC service, I would still make my connection. The service was quite busy on boarding, I got a reasonably priced black americano on boarding and took up my seat at a table, the person in the seat next to me never materialised so I got a more spacious journey than anticipated. The middle-aged couple opposite me seemed unamused that I'd dared to sit at their table and a series of frowns and pernicious grumblings followed. They looked like they didn't get out much, so I just put my headphones in and ignored them. The conductor was a jolly chap. This 180 was noticeably cleaner than the last example I rode. We took a circuitous journey to Doncaster passing through Pontefract Tanshelf and calling at Monkhill where I hadn't been for quite sometime. I'm still not entirely sure how we got to Donny, it was that obscure a route. At Wabtec Doncaster there were a couple of 08's and a FGW 153. In the sidings at Donny station were a London Midland 321 and an ATW liveried 67. Pulling out of Doncaster a field day was had with 3 class 47's, a colas 60, 2 colas 56's and a number of 66's from GBRF, FL and DBS present. The journey from there was pretty uneventful.

I rushed across to Paddington on the Hammersmith and City Line, noting some very heavily armed policeman, this being just after the Paris attacks. At Paddington I had a lot of time to kill due to the aforementioned padding. Nothing at Paddington took my interest or looked like a nice place to kill a couple of hours, so I went to the ticket office and asked for the cheapest 1st class ticket she could sell me, in order to access the 1st class lounge. This turned out to be a ticket to Acton Main Line at £6.30 (she could have sold me an off-peak one, I think which would have been cheaper...). I proceeded to the lounge which was well-stocked with pastries (later changing to nice looking salmon sandwiches), fruit and a good variety of drinks. Still not feeling amazing all I had were some pastries and an orange juice, but I read the Times in order to pass the time. On the way out I grabbed a couple of cans 'for the road.' I think I got my monies worth to be fair, so I think I'll use that tactic again in the future.

1245 London (U1) Paddington-Swansea. GWR, STD Advance- £17.15. GWR HST.

A pleasant ride was had in the quiet coach, I shared a table with a pleasant lady all the way to Swansea. The seating layout in the carriage was a bit cramped, with only a couple of tables available. The journey was nice and tranquil. I noticed a lot of freight passing by as we headed for Swindon. At Swindon, I saw my first class 59. Once we got to Bristol Parkway, I was on new track to Swansea. Around Newport I say a DBS class 60 towing a 66 and train. In unknown territory I saw an unusual shunter-type at what I thought was a steel works and numerous DB 66's. When the conductor came round I bought a single from Swansea to Cardiff. I had to monitor the timing closely on RTT after Cardiff as there was only one train back that would get me to Cardiff in time for my following service. My contingency plan was to bail at Neath. I researched the layout at Swansea to ensure my connection was viable. I held my nerve as the HST had made good time on the journey, and stayed on all the way to Swansea. My connection was comfortable in the end, but had it gone wrong it would have been a major headache.

1555 Swansea-Cardiff (continuing to Manchester Piccadilly). ATW class 175. STD Off peak single £5.80.

The service was a couple of minutes late and quite busy. A young man from the middle east sat by me. He asked how many stations to Manchester, I guessed around 20. Not happy with that answer he wanted me to tell him exactly how many. A quick count on RTT told me it was 25. He then wanted me to make his phone work, but it was in a foreign language and his English wasn't the best so I couldn't really help him. I then put my headphones in hoping he'd stop bothering me, but that didn't stop him. He disappeared at the first stop where someone took his seat and I never saw him again.

At Cardiff I had around 25 minutes to wait and it was cold and windy so I chanced using my ATW 1st class ticket in the GWR 1st lounge. The guy had no problem with it, and made me a brew. I took some shortbread biscuits which was a good move in the end.

*This is where things start to go down hill in a rather epic fashion.*

1716 Cardiff Central-Chester (continuing to Holyhead). 1st Advance £40.25. ATW Premier Service, Class 67 LHCS. 67029 doing the honours.

Gerald had failed the night before, so I was relieved to see it pull in to the plaform. STD was full and standing, overflowing into the business class section, where four of us were sat. 67029 was at the rear and sounding good. I got a table of four to myself and sat down to look at the menu. Lamb Kebabs, followed by Venison and Cheesecake, sounded great. And then it all went wrong... we ground to a halt outside Newport. The guard announced a technical fault, and that we'd hopefully be moving shortly. We arrived at Newport 8 down. The guard then announced the train was terminating at Newport.

2ef1atj.jpg


4 carriages of people were then told to get onto the following train. Which was always going to be interesting. Apparently it was an AWS fault. Gerald then ran back to Canton ECS.

1804 Newport-Manchester Piccadilly. On the previous ticket. ATW 175

A very full platform awaited what was advertised as a two-car train. Luckily it turned out to be a 3-car 175, but it was still a struggle to get on and then a squeeze. I did feel a bit short-changed having gone from a 1st class table of 4 to myself to standing in the aisle on a 175. Still, it was better than not getting home at all, which was looking dubious.

2itoug5.jpg


The train did empty out as we progressed, I got a seat eventually and consumed the pilfered coke and shortbread instead of my nice 3 course meal. Then we hit something on the track, which I could feel underneath the wheels below me. The driver hit the brake hard. And then we sat there for an hour while the driver did some under-train gardening to allow us to move. It was a tree we'd hit and I think it took out the engine in the 1st carriage where I was. There were a number of passengers from the cancelled gerald, and we were all laughing and joking about the situation, it was quite nice camaraderie. We limped into Shrewsbury, where it was announced that train would be terminating. It was very annoying that on both occasions thus far they'd only told us that the trains were terminating short when we had reached our terminating stations, and they were safely locked in their cabs. If people knew sooner, they could make plans sooner. At Shrewsbury, 60 late (or 90 for those off Gerald), we were advised to go to the Customer Information Point to sort out onwards travel.

2zz2uxl.jpg


Shrewsbury station was absolute chaos. The information point was swamped. All trains were cancelled, apart from one to Chester. The staff had no idea what to do, and were making things worse by still playing the auto-announcer. All they could say was that some buses might be going to Wolverhampton at some point. Pretty useless really. And as Wolverhampton is no nearer Chester/Manchester/Leeds than Shrewsbury, it was pointless using those coaches. Thus, I chose the Chester train, the driver coaxing me on by telling me Chester has nicer hotels than Shrewsbury :D

XXXX Shrewsbury-Chester. I have no idea what service this was supposed to be, but it was a service which was all that mattered! It was a 2 car ATW 158.

The staff on this train tried to be as helpful as possible and gave out the little information they had and the guard tried to advise everyone how to get to their final destination. The good camaraderie continued amongst the passengers. All was going well, the driver was thrashing the 158, clearly wanting to get home. Until, BANG! ...We'd hit another tree, just before Wrexham and subsequently ground to a halt. Luckily, this driver sorted out the train a lot quicker and we only lost about 10mins. I gained some new coverage on this line.

Chester was again a scene of chaos, with no staff around and most trains to cancelled. Luckily there was one train running to Manchester, where I directed my fellow Manchester-bound travellers. My ticket was Chester-Crewe-Manchester-Dewsbury on XC/TPE (£7.45 advance), but that itinerary had gone out of the window now. I was spared a Voyager though, although it was a freezing Northern Rail 142 to the rescue...

2248 Chester-Manchester Piccadilly. Northern Rail 2x142 stopper

The guard was fantastic on this train. He made amusing announcements such as 'welcome to this Northern Rail Pendolino service to Manchester' etc. He was also great at sorting out onward travel for everyone. I'd obviously already missed my 2242 Manchester Piccadilly-Dewsbury train and this slow service to Manchester was only booked to arrive at 0018. It was a slow and cold service, but it got us there. We did hit yet another tree at one point close to Manchester, yet we struggled on. Presumably it was only a small tree. I got some interesting new coverage on this route, going through Hale and Navigation road before hitting familiar tracks at Stockport. At Piccadilly the guard arranged for me and another passenger for Dewsbury to have a taxi home. The metre was at £68 when I got out at home at 0140, but ATW had agreed to pick up the tab. This saved me the taxi fare from Dewsbury station to home :D Luckily, the lack of food in all that time didn't matter so much with my diminished appetite from being under the weather.

All in all a very long day, but I travelled a good variety of traction, got a lot of new coverage, some of which was unexpected. I had planned to do a Tyne and Tees day ranger the day afterwards, but I aborted that one at a cost of around £20 of advance tickets due to the late day. I will have to go back to try the ATW Premier Service business class again for the food, as well as get daylight coverage of the Marches line. Should have plenty of delay repay after this trip :D

Traction Travelled: 180, HST, 175x2, 67, 158, 142x2.
Operators travelled: GC, GWR, ATW, NT
 

rg177

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One hell of a day! Three trees in a row is quite bad luck and it's annoying that you were cheated out of your meal on Gerald, but hey, it sounds like it was one hell of an experience and the delay repay will be flowing :lol:
 

Iskra

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One hell of a day! Three trees in a row is quite bad luck and it's annoying that you were cheated out of your meal on Gerald, but hey, it sounds like it was one hell of an experience and the delay repay will be flowing :lol:

It was actually a great experience, and I did enjoy it in a perverse way! ...So much so that I've booked another attempt at Gerald in Feb. At least I got some 67 haulage in and it wasn't DMU throughout.
 

Techniquest

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Crikey that was a very bad bit of luck there! Thank Goodness you got home OK, but what a shame your plans were ruined quite hugely.

Sounds like an excellent deal had on that run to St Pancras, and the Paddington thing sounds like a good move, I must remember that for my next long-distance trip out of there.

Yes you must do the Marches again but in daylight next time, trust me it's far nicer than in darkness! It should be lighter in February at least aye. Hopefully it will be a far more pleasant experience on that occasion!
 

fishquinn

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Wow! What a day! Were you given some mega delay repay and compensation for the 1st on the WAG?
 

DarloRich

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Give me a shout when you travel. I will go the next day ;) You must be some kind of Jonah! 3 trees in one day!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
PS the 1903 referred to overleaf is a Plymouth - Leeds service. I am a semi regular on a Friday evening now. It has (touch wood) always been an HST when i travel.
 

Iskra

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Crikey that was a very bad bit of luck there! Thank Goodness you got home OK, but what a shame your plans were ruined quite hugely.

Sounds like an excellent deal had on that run to St Pancras, and the Paddington thing sounds like a good move, I must remember that for my next long-distance trip out of there.

Yes you must do the Marches again but in daylight next time, trust me it's far nicer than in darkness! It should be lighter in February at least aye. Hopefully it will be a far more pleasant experience on that occasion!

Well that was the main thing really, it could have ended a lot worse. I should imagine a lot of less experienced passengers got stranded in Shrewsbury or opted for the bus to Wolverhampton, so I was quite lucky really. A lot of thanks must go to the Northern guard for being so proactive in sorting all the passengers on his service out with onward travel.

I think you can easily recoup your money in the Paddington 1st class lounge with an Acton Main Line single ticket, it's also quite a nice place to pass the time anyway and very convenient for the platforms.

I will do the Marches in daylight properly in the summer. I saw there is a world heritage site at a place called (Ponty...?), so I will check that out at the same time. There wasn't much that was unpleasant about this trip to be honest, it got the adrenalin going in places and I had the day off afterwards anyway so it couldn't cause me any major inconvenience.

Wow! What a day! Were you given some mega delay repay and compensation for the 1st on the WAG?

I've sent my claim in for the £40 due to 67029 failing, which will come in handy for a future trip. ATW are still dealing with it, but I should imagine they have a lot of claims to process at the moment after Storm Barney. I didn't bother claiming the £7 for Chester-Dewsbury and I'm not sure that I'd get that anyway as the weather is out of the control of the railway. I'm not anticipating getting anything more than the £40 back, and to be honest I'm not that bothered- I still travelled the journey and got the enjoyment out of it so I'm hardly in a position to complain too much ;)


Give me a shout when you travel. I will go the next day ;) You must be some kind of Jonah! 3 trees in one day!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
PS the 1903 referred to overleaf is a Plymouth - Leeds service. I am a semi regular on a Friday evening now. It has (touch wood) always been an HST when i travel.

I know! In future, I should probably check the weather forecast before travelling! ...It's never happened before, I promise ;)

I think I'm just unlucky with XC's HST's. To be honest unless I have to, I try to avoid XC, it's expensive, the trains are rammed and stop way too often for the length of journeys they make in my opinion. I do want to try the new catering offer at some point though.
 
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Techniquest

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I think you're thinking of The Big Pit, the nearest station to which will be Pontypool & New Inn. I can't immediately recall how good the links are on buses etc from there mind, certainly worth checking out those bits first. Never been to The Big Pit but heard good things about it.

Certainly claiming that ATW fare back has to be done, but fair games on not claiming the £7 to Dewsbury as well. Good thing you had a day off work the following day, that could have been grim!
 

DarloRich

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I think I'm just unlucky with XC's HST's. To be honest unless I have to, I try to avoid XC, it's expensive, the trains are rammed and stop way too often for the length of journeys they make in my opinion. I do want to try the new catering offer at some point though.

I completely agree - although that 1903 from Birmingham isn't too bad (even on a Friday) after Burton/Derby and compared to other trains on that section isn't overly full at all.
 

Kristofferson

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That's one heck of a tale! Less luck than "The Martian" on that trip :D

Cracking read though.
 

Iskra

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I've had a mini-trip away this weekend visiting friends, which also involved train travel, so I thought I may as well do a report.

12-13/12/15 Oxford

Ticket: STD Adv Mirfield (West Yorks)-Oxford. £25.40

So for some reason going from Mirfield was vastly cheaper than Leeds. But, due to the inclement weather, I was somewhat rebellious and got a lift to Wakefield Westgate rather than freezing at Mirfield to then freeze on a 142 as often graces this service <D ...Sods law then said it was a 150, the one time I try avoiding a pacer :D

1323 Wakefield Westgate (Glasgow Central)- Birmingham New Street (Penzance). XC 220.

So RTT was telling me that this service was timed for a HST. I was automatically suspicious about its HST-ness when the destination was Penzance, as I'm under the impression XC HST's don't go beyond Plymouth. As I was half-expecting, this turned up at a very wet, cold and windy Wakefield:

5d5nb5.jpg


Oh well. This was a clean example and not overly busy. I had a seat reserved (F 36A), which involved a fantastic view of a plastic wall. I was around a table of 4 with 2 lasses. The lass blocking me in later fell asleep with headphones in, causing me to do an uncouth manoeuvre over the table to avoid being over-carried! The journey down to Brum was fairly uneventful, mainly just being very wet. At Derby I saw a BR Green class 37 on a NR test train in the station sidings. At Tamworth it occurred to me that I mustn't have sat on this side of the train before, as I saw a DRS class 20, some 08's and 31's(?) decaying in a siding that I hadn't seen before.

I was due to meet a friend on my next train from Birmingham to Oxford, but on arriving at Birmingham New Street it was announced that there were delays on the Oxford line. We met on the concourse to find our connection cancelled, caused by a fatality on the line North of Oxford. We were advised we could travel via Bristol, which was a very long detour (and none of it required track for me ;) ) or wait at Birmingham. We opted to 'go for a pint and wait for it all to blow over.' In to the new New Street station we went. What an improvement. Although, Birmingham does seem to have an obsession with shopping centres, it must be said. We walked through the very popular German market in search of a pub, passing what seemed to be the worlds biggest Wetherspoons (it took a lot of circumnavigating), it was too busy so we walked on, eventually finding a reasonable pub near the business area of the city centre. A pint of Peroni was enjoyed while watching the footy scores come in. Some bloke then decided to start a fight with another, before being shooed out of the pub by his partner. We then discovered on NRE that the line had re-opened and we wondered back to New Street.

XX:XX Birmingham New Street-Oxford. XC Voyager. I'm being deliberately vague about which service this was as I don't want to get anyone into trouble.

The platform was packed, so it was always going to be a squeeze, with several trains worth of people crowding on to the Voyager. We had been wrong-footed by a last minute platform change and it was a struggle to even get on, we gave up and decided to just upgrade to 1st class in order to get on the train and have a chance of a seat. The TM told us it was going to be £10 to upgrade at the door, we said it was fine and took up our seats. £10 would have been a bargain if you ask me under the circumstances! We took up our seats, the TM came down the carriage, 'having a word' with a few passengers who were travelling on Virgin-only tickets. I was expecting to be excessed the full fare as I don't think weekend 1st actually applies to advances, but was quite prepared to pay it to be honest. Then he came to us, checked our tickets and just carried on doing the rest of the carriage without charging us :D ...we kept thinking he'd come back to us but he never did. Due to the crowding, our train then began to drop time too as it was taking an age to unload/load at the stations, only clearing out a bit at Leamington Spa. Banbury to Oxford was required track for me, not that I could tell in the darkness. We arrived into Oxford over the magic 60 mins late and a good evening of drinking was had with old uni friends :D

The return.

Ticket- Oxford-Leeds 1st Adv c. £50 (barriers stole my ticket)

I returned via Paddington due to planned Bustitution North of Oxford and a good value ticket.

I'd ended up wanting to leave Oxford early to meet another friend in London before heading back to Leeds so I bought a std single at £16.30.

11:16 Oxford-Reading (Bournemouth). XC Voyager.

Due to the bustitution North of Oxford, this service came out of the sidings empty so I had no problem getting a seat, although the seats were a bit grubby with litter left lying around etc. I got a table of 4 to myself for the journey down to Reading. This was new coverage between Oxford and Didcot. At Didcot a GWR pannier tank was in steam and maroon 67 waited to follow us hauling a DBS 66. At Reading I had a tight connection (4mins) on to the Plymouth train, which was pulling in just after us. 4 mins is very doable, if you know the station. I'd never been to Reading before, so it was an interesting one! I saw a HST heading eastbound and simply ran for it! I did it with a couple of minutes to spare to be honest as it was a very busy train so took a while to load.

1144 Reading-Paddington. GWR HST.

The train was packed, but I found a seat for the very slow run into Paddington due to engineering/electrification works. There were loads of NR engineers along the line. At Old Oak Common, there were many 66's, a 59, a GWR 57 and a couple of Colas 70's.

At Paddington, I headed for the underground to meet another ex-uni friend at the fantastic Betjemen Arms on St. Pancras before heading back North.

1503 London Kings Cross-Leeds. VTEC class 91. 1st class

I was in M for this one. My seat was backward facing, so I swapped to a forward facing seat at a table with a lady and 2 kids, they were fairly well-behaved so no inconvenience. The service was good, the hosts were really good and the Pulled Pork sandwiches were nice. This was the first time I'd done weekend first, but it was a decent experience. The journey was a tediously slow one, we left Kings Cross late, passing ATW liveried 67003, then we were due to call at Stevenage, Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster, Wakey and Leeds. This was by far the slowest ECML service I'd ever been on, and frankly it was a bit tedious. I'm already quite bored of the Southern ECML, without the added journey time! There was at least some decent loco's sat around at Doncaster silver 67012, a maroon 67, a Colas 66 and some SWT units being worked on in the sheds at Wabtec. The guard on this train was fantastic, advising me that my railcard is nearly due for renewal. Also, due to us arriving in to Leeds 10 late he was great at announcing tight connections and platforms for those travelling onwards. He also asked for people to let those catching the final Carlisle train of the day to alight first so as not to miss their last train, which was very good of him.

So train travel was more a secondary objective after socialising on this trip, but I still got some new coverage in and some HST/91 haulage in as well as a little bit of time spent at the refurbished New Street, a free 1st class upgrade and some delay repay.
 
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Techniquest

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I can sympathise with slow journeys down ECML South, it is an enormously boring drag! I had a slow one from Kings Cross to Newcastle in February, with calls at Peterborough (or was it actually first?), Grantham, Newark Northgate, Retford, Doncaster, York, Northallerton, Darlington and Durham. Mind you the slow journeys up and down ECML South on that charter earlier this year was super, super dull!
 

Kristofferson

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Literally the dullest railway in the world, the ECML South. Straight with very little to see.

I don't think anyone on this forum who's been to the new New Street is a fan of the shopping centre, but the station itself is great. My tip is to use the B end for everything... The A end is a mess of ticket barriers and overpriced burger outlets, whereas B actually looks like a train station.
 

fishquinn

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A very fun read. I quite like the New New (New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New) Street. I find the southern part of the ECML ok, especially when you've got some decent traction thrashing away up front!
 

sprinterguy

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At Tamworth it occurred to me that I mustn't have sat on this side of the train before, as I saw a DRS class 20, some 08's and 31's(?) decaying in a siding that I hadn't seen before.
I don't think that will have been Tamworth, that sounds more like the Nemesis Rail depot to the north of the station at Burton-on-Trent. They certainly have a couple of ex-DRS class 20s (20903/904) and a lot of 08/09s in residence, although sight of most of the locomotives is blocked by a couple of rows of redundant mail vans.
We opted to 'go for a pint and wait for it all to blow over.' In to the new New Street station we went. What an improvement. Although, Birmingham does seem to have an obsession with shopping centres, it must be said. We walked through the very popular German market in search of a pub, passing what seemed to be the worlds biggest Wetherspoons (it took a lot of circumnavigating), it was too busy so we walked on, eventually finding a reasonable pub near the business area of the city centre.
Based on the rough route you have described, it sounds like the Wetherspoons that you navigated would have been the Briar Rose, which is in fact the smaller of the main two Wetherspoons within the city centre itself (there are further examples of the chain to be found nearby on Broad Street and in Digbeth): It certainly gets very busy on evenings and weekends during December due to it's proximity to the German market, although the larger venue, the Square Peg is busy pretty much all the time.

Glad to see someone who shares my appreciation of the Betjeman Arms (although not a minority view by any means!), and I would also agree that the journey over the ECML south of Doncaster has little to recommend it.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I don't think anyone on this forum who's been to the new New Street is a fan of the shopping centre, but the station itself is great. My tip is to use the B end for everything... The A end is a mess of ticket barriers and overpriced burger outlets, whereas B actually looks like a train station.
I don't have a problem with the shopping centre, as it is largely out of the way upstairs and hence has little impact on my travelling habits. I would agree that it is easier to stick with the B end of the station though, mainly because of the peculiar divided arrangement of the ticket barriers at the A end.
 
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Iskra

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Southern part of the ECML has nothing on the drag that is Salisbury towards Exeter ;)

Oh dear, I'm hoping to cover that line this year, so doesn't bode well!

I don't think that will have been Tamworth, that sounds more like the Nemesis Rail depot to the north of the station at Burton-on-Trent. They certainly have a couple of ex-DRS class 20s (20903/904) and a lot of 08/09s in residence, although sight of most of the locomotives is blocked by a couple of rows of redundant mail vans.

Based on the rough route you have described, it sounds like the Wetherspoons that you navigated would have been the Briar Rose, which is in fact the smaller of the main two Wetherspoons within the city centre itself (there are further examples of the chain to be found nearby on Broad Street and in Digbeth): It certainly gets very busy on evenings and weekends during December due to it's proximity to the German market, although the larger venue, the Square Peg is busy pretty much all the time.

Glad to see someone who shares my appreciation of the Betjeman Arms (although not a minority view by any means!), and I would also agree that the journey over the ECML south of Doncaster has little to recommend it.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I don't have a problem with the shopping centre, as it is largely out of the way upstairs and hence has little impact on my travelling habits. I would agree that it is easier to stick with the B end of the station though, mainly because of the peculiar divided arrangement of the ticket barriers at the A end.

Thank you for clearing those bits up!

Now, a review.

I've had nothing in the pipeline until a forced vomiter move at the very end of Jan, so I gave into temptation during a week off for a bit of new coverage with some decent traction in amongst.

07/01/16 To The South. Slowly.

A 0530 set-off from home was required for this one in order to get a cheeky free parking spot near the station (however that was actually a sleep in, as I normally arise at 0345 for work!). The reason for this early departure was a slightly unusual working from the station where I work. Obviously, I couldn't walk past my Costa at Wakey Westgate without castigation from the trip reporting community, so I obliged. A black americano doing the job nicely. While waiting on the platform thunderbird 67021 trundled-by unexpectedly on the through line heading for Leeds.

0647 Wakefield Westgate-London St. Pancras. EMT HST. 1st Advance.

This service from Wakefield is- I believe -unique in that it heads to St. Pancras via Nottingham from Leeds. It also has the benefit of being a guaranteed nice-sounding HST move and avoids the south ECML banality. Only a few diehards boarded at Wakefield as there is a much faster service to London only 5 minutes later. Thus, I was one of two in coach G where I had a bay of four to myself for the rest of the journey. This was the most comfortable journey for ages as I deliberately sat in the middle of the carriage to avoid bouncing from the bogies. The staff were on the ball with the refreshments throughout the journey. One of the reserved seats across the aisle was caked in dust, so I pointed that out to save the crew hassle later in the journey. The set had just come from Neville Hill, so presumably the dust was knocked down there overnight. You'd think it would be cleaned before it left the depot though? The journey down to Sheffield was unremarkable as it was dark. It started to get light as we trundled down the line through Alfreton (new coverage until Nottingham for me now). I was surprised just how small the platform was at Langley Mills- only 3 carriages could fit in. The trundle continued towards Nottingham where I saw my first EMT 156 on the station approaches (I don't know how I've never managed to see one before!). I then saw my 2nd and 3rd EMT 156's in quick succession- typical! I was underwhelmed by Nottingham station, but I suppose you can't judge too much when you don't even get off the train. I swapped to the opposite seat at Nottingham so that I could keep facing forward as the train reverses here. On the way back out I got some good views of some interesting architecture at Nottingham University's engineering campus. At East Midlands Parkway I made my way to the droplight to listen to the powercar as we departed. At Leicester the ranks of 56's have been reinforced by an ex-Anglia 86, a 58 and a couple of 37's with an interesting mixture of historic liveries present. South of Leicester it was all pretty standard MML running from here. We arrived into St. Pancras a few minutes early, which turned out to be mildly beneficial.

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A view of the trainshed as we arrive at St. Pancras.


Another reason for using EMT to London was that my next train also departs from St. Pancras. Due to the early arrival into London I was able to get an earlier service.

1010 St. Pancras Intl-Brighton. FCC/Thameslink 377- a new operator for me. off-peak STD single.

The late-running of this service meant that I was able to catch it. It left 7mins late. From St. Pancras it was new coverage for me until Norwood junction. It was a bit crowded when I got on but the train emptied within a few stops. I tried and failed to get a decent photo at London Blackfriars:

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The journey from Blackfriars to East Croydon was an absolute crawl, where we dropped more time. At least there was plenty of interesting architecture to be seen, both good and bad:

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London skyline including the cheesegrater and the Shard.


At Norwood junction I was back on previously covered tracks for the crawl into East Croydon where we arrived 14 minutes late. From here, all track to Brighton is new coverage for me. We picked up a bit of pace from East Croydon until after Gatwick Airport where we hit engineering works. Surprisingly, just before Gatwick I saw a deer in a field- not something I thought I'd see on this trip! At Haywards Heath the driver laconically announced that we'd be heading non-stop to Brighton due to us being late. Within literally 10s of the announcement the doors were closed, so it was a good job nobody wanted any of the intermediate stations! For me, it was good news as the route was becoming a little boring anyway, a lot of it being in cuttings. We made up a bit of time but not much due to engineering works, arriving into Brighton 10 minutes late.

At Brighton I headed out down the main street for lunch, finding a nice 'street food' place which basically did make your own pasta (when in Brighton, eh...), I washed it down with a Moretti. It was decent value and the food was good. Impressions of Brighton were positive, I think I need to return in warmer weather though when I do the coastal branch lines. Having a flexible ticket allowed me to formulate a cunning plan for the trip back to London, allowing me to get haulage on the holy grail of RailUK EMU's before they cease to exist.

I returned to the station and double checked that my ticket was valid for my newly chosen itinerary. A quick trip to M&S for dessert produced a small mountain of profiteroles reduced to only £3. Win.

1248 Brighton-Gatwick Airport (London Victoria). GatEx 442 :D:D:D New operator, new traction. Off-peak STD single.

Well, a 442 had to be done really before they got scrapped! My impressions were that these were solidly built and quite comfortable units, so I can see why they get brought up all the time on these forums. I'm not sure they're that great for airport customers though as they do only have tiny doors. I had a table of 4 for myself and my profiteroles. A group on the seats behind were playing mobile phone footage much to the annoyance of the rest of the carriage which was otherwise tranquil, after about 5mins I took the bullet and politely but firmly told them to turn it off, which they did with no arguments to my surprise. I alighted at Gatwick as the next stop for that service was Victoria and I was wanting St. Pancras again.

Gatwick was very busy this time. It was quite comical watching the masses trying to board the 442. Everytime it was ready to depart more passengers arrived and took the p*ss trying to get on with entire families and suitcases. The dispatch staff were getting a bit fed up with it all and eventually sent it on its way. Again, I was able to catch a late running Thameslink service almost straight away.

1310 (actually 1322) Gatwick Airport-Bedford. FCC Thameslink 387. New traction.


This unit had a nicer internal layout than the previous FCC service earlier in the day. I got a table seat of 4 again (doing well on this trip!). We dropped more time due to following a 66 on an engineering train (I'd overtaken it on the 442) before recovering some time en route to St. Pancras.

At St. Pancras I was left with time to kill due to the 442 move getting me back to London sooner than originally planned. So it was to the Betjemen arms for a nice pint and some not so nice Haggis Pakora's- I was far too adventurous with that choice! Time successfully killed, I headed over to the Cross and grabbed a Starbucks (instantly regretted that one, as it barely even tasted of coffee) before taking up a seat on the balcony. This is where I saw my second random piece of wildlife for the day in the form of Network Rail's Bird Control Unit:


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(some cracking birds at London Kings Cross) :roll:

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'No, I'm not working at Euston for you'

An even bigger shock was then had when the ticket barriers were actually in use for once!

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A quick shot down the train shed while waiting for the doors to open on my train back up North.

1603 London Kings Cross- Wakefield Kirkgate (Bradford Interchange). GC 180. 1st Advance.


For a bit of variety I went with GC this time. 1st has been nicely refurbished with some new seats that are a definite improvement since my last visit. Again, refreshments were plentiful. The coach was busier than my previous trips with GC, so perhaps they're getting nearer to breaking even? The journey was a little rough but fast, the best part being the sky as the sun set.

I was hoping to catch the Kirkgate-Westgate stopper but that had departed by the time a platform was found for us. The underpass at Kirkgate is still a bit ropey and I can't see it staying pleasant for long. I then got the Wakefield free city bus over to Westgate which took about 10 minutes.

Milestones:

New coverage between Chesterfield-Nottingham and Nottingham-East Midlands Parkway.
New coverage between St Pancras Thameslink-Norwood junction and East Croydon-Brighton.
New Traction, classes 387 and 442.

So overall a decent little filler trip with some new coverage, traction and much needed ride on a 442.
 
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Techniquest

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A great little trip there!

Nottingham's main entrance is grander than it used to be, but the platforms are no less grim than they were a few years ago in my mind.

I loved the Costa thing in Wakefield, believe it or not it's required for me. Next West Yorkshire bash I'll be in there! I turned down a coffee move several times earlier, as ATW and Shrewsbury love Frothbucks. No thank you!
 

Iskra

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Thank you all for the comments :)

An update on the '3 trees'/Gerald/Wales trip report up-thread. £50.30 in RTV's have just arrived, including £10 for goodwill. So a happy ending there.

A great little trip there!

Nottingham's main entrance is grander than it used to be, but the platforms are no less grim than they were a few years ago in my mind.

I loved the Costa thing in Wakefield, believe it or not it's required for me. Next West Yorkshire bash I'll be in there! I turned down a coffee move several times earlier, as ATW and Shrewsbury love Frothbucks. No thank you!

Yeah, I don't think I've seen a West Yorks' trip from you in quite a while? I can't turn down coffee in the mornings and if there's no Costa it's 'any port in a storm' as far as I'm concerned, even if that means a frothbucks.
 

Techniquest

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Fair enough on the coffee front, if push comes to shove I'll use Nero, but I also like Puccinos (their withdrawal from Finsbury Park still annoys me!) a lot.

Good news on the RTVs, and aye I've not touched West Yorkshire in ages. I really need to go back, hopefully in February!
 

Iskra

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A quick update before a trip report:

Recently I've done:

- Alnmouth-Wakey Westgate (Alnmouth being a new shack)
- 0359 Huddersfield-Manchester Airport (unusual diversion route via Rochdale and Salford Crescent)
- A lot of Dutch trains around Amsterdam, including most of their sprinter fleet as well as some intercity services.
- Amsterdam Centraal-Alkmaar on an interesting double-decker Dutch intercity train:

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Leeds-Dewsbury via Scotland and London 16/17-02-16

An early start gave me an opportunity to use the new entrance at Leeds station for the first time before catching my favourite service out of Leeds:

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The new entrance at Leeds

I'm still not entirely sure what the new entrance is supposed to be, but inside it has a Brave New World feel to it due to the number of and prominence of the escalators. On the platforms, Leeds was HST-central this morning with an EMT service and then a plethora of VTEC HST's being spawned from the darkest depths of Neville Hill.

0710 Leeds-Aberdeen. VTEC HST. 1st Class, £42.25

This is my favourite Northbound service from Leeds as it is the only one that is 100% certain to be a HST. It also has the added benefit of being a VTEC service that goes somewhere other than London and comes with a respectable 1st class offering. However, on this coldest of mornings the train chef had fallen ill, thus only a curtailed offering was available. The staff handled the situation well and the service team leader jumped into the kitchen in order cook the food himself, which was a fantastic effort. The reduced offering was a Bacon Roll, Mushrooms on Toast or Porridge. I took the opportunity to have something a little different and went for the mushroom option. The staff were great, offering toast and hot drinks twice before York. One other minor setback was the plugs not working at all in coach M.

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DRS 66 stabled at York on a cold but beautiful morning

As we rolled out of York I caught sight of a BR green 37, a Blue 08 and Maroon class 47 Prince William at the NRM as well as some sort of old intermodal container flat. Food arrived shortly afterwards:

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VTEC Mushrooms on Toast

Some greenery would have aided the presentation, but it was very tasty so a great job under the circumstances. As we dashed Northwards we passed a number of GBRF 66's on coal trains. At Gateshead there was a FL 66 and a class 325 postal unit. Newcastle station held 67008 on Thunderbird duties with a GBRF 66 present on platform 7 and another one stabled just past Manors. The crew then came around again asking if anybody wanted anything else to eat, which was good of them- I declined this time. As we approached Dunbar 2 Colas 60's were present at an industrial facility. A good day for loco's so far! At Craigentinny 47843 was present in a deep blue livery as well as 2 XC HST rakes which is a little disappointing- I really wish they'd get more use out of them! EWS liveried 67021 was stabled at Waverley. The previously busy train emptied out at Edinburgh, where we also had a crew change, so we were no longer chefless for the journey up to Aberdeen.

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A view across the Forth estuary.

The 1st class service had now moved onto the 'All-day menu,' I like this menu as it always means you can get a hot meal, which was needed today. VTEC have improved the menu now too, as there are now two hot options rather than just the one on East Coast. The one downside of HST travel is that people leave the droplights open, which is problematic in Scotland in February! Steak and ale pie was ordered from the very friendly crew member, even though it was only 11am I opted to try the new Hop On Board ale too.

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VTEC steak and ale pie and the new Hop On Board ale.

The pie was a decent size, warming and really tasty, I'd have liked a bit more mash and it was a bit tepid for my liking. It was a definite improvement on the East Coast food though. I really enjoyed the beer. I could have drunk quite a lot of that, and the friendly crew member did try tempting me into having more, but I stuck with just the 1. Lemon and Elderflower cake followed, which was up to the usual high standard. The coastal views continued to impress on the way up to Aberdeen where we arrived bang on time. In the station 67011 was attached to that mornings sleeper working. I ID'd the front power car of my service as 43206.

Aberdeen was freezing with a horrendous wind. The town centre is pleasant enough but very grey and appears to be primarily one large shopping centre. I ventured out in search of a pub, I found a few but none of them looked too welcoming or like the type of place I'd want too long in on my own. I eventually found a place called Bridge Street Social Club which was quite nice and had a good atmosphere in it. I also thought it was good value, which I put down to the studenty clientèle. On the way back to the station I picked up a quick Costa- a hazelnut hot chocolate- just outside the station entrance.

1527 Aberdeen-Inverness. Scotrail 2x158. £5.20.

I was initially a bit sceptical about the 2x158's, thinking it a bit wasteful on such a rural route, but the train did get reasonably busy until Keith so fair play there Scotrail. The 158's provided were 'the wrong type of 158,' having no 1st class sections, the guard therefore declared all reservations void. I did manage to get a decent table seat though for the journey of over 2 hours. The seat padding was somehow broken, so not the most comfortable of journeys, but oh well, at least it wasn't a pacer! I was a bit surprised at how few stations there are on this route. The countryside was very typical of Northern Scotland but very enjoyable, this is a very nice part of the world.

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This route was all new coverage for me, so I was glad when the light just about held out until Inverness, which means I don't need to to revisit it for coverage purposes.

On arrival, I spent quite a bit of time walking around wet and windy Inverness in search of food, coming across a number of Indians. I'd eaten in one of them before and it was good, but I wasn't feeling Indian tonight. I eventually settled on a small restaurant down by the river. I was the only customer, the staff weren't accommodating at all, not letting me charge my phone and they were just a bit 'cold' in general. I'd have walked out at this point normally, but I couldn't be bothered continuing to traipse around Inverness anymore. The food was good, I ordered Hake in a tomato and chorizo sauce, the beer from the Cairngorms was fantastic. Not enjoying the hospitality I paid and left pretty quickly. Predictably, my route then took me right past a choice of restaurants, which looked quite nice. Oh well, I know for next time.

I then sought out the Caledonian Sleeper lounge, which interestingly is not actually in the station, but over the road from the station. It had a welcoming host and was pretty comfortable. I used the plugs in there to resurrect my phone as there are no plugs in the berths on the sleeper:

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The sleeper lounge at Inverness.

I then walked over about 30mins before departure to get into my berth and get a spot in the lounge car. I'd got very lucky in terms of traction on this trip- upfront were both the usual 67007 and mega-bonus 73967. Class 73 is new traction for me, so I was over the moon, even better that it was double-headed too :lol::lol::D

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73967 and 67007 on the Highland Sleeper stood at Inverness

While I was milling around the Highland Chieftain pulled in, a little late so I got a quick photo.

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The Highland Chieftain arrives at Inverness.

2044 Inverness-London Kings Cross (Diverted). Caledonian Sleeper Class 67 and 73. 1st Class Berth, £102.30.

Meanwhile, in the lounge car I'd ordered a bottle of Avalanche ale and the cheeseboard from another friendly host. Again, the beer was a winner. We then eased out of the station, unsurprisingly we picked up speed very quickly with 2 loco's pulling only 6 coaches. The lounge car population peaked at 9, I did see a few other folk around the train and there were people in the seated sections, so I think that was pretty good considering the time of year and how out of season it was.

As we climbed out of Inverness there was now a meaningful snow covering which added to the experience. The cheeseboard duly arrived- is there a better way to travel- fine beer, good cheese, sat on a proper chair, being propelled through the snowy highlands by a pair of loco's? Perfection if you ask me. The cheeses were brie, blue and a mild cheddar, all of good quality and it was pretty reasonable value at £6.50.

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The lounge car

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Cally Sleeper Cheeseboard.

At about half 10 I succumbed to the need for sleep, but first I headed to the foremost droplight for a bit of thrash on leaving one of the highland mainline stations. It was brilliant but unfortunately the 67 drowned out the 73, being nearer to the carriages.

To bed it was then. It was basically the same as the Night Riviera, but with more comfortable bedding and lacking a phone charging socket. I got a pretty good nights sleep- much better than when I did the Riviera. I was awaken by the unavoidable bump in the middle of the night at Edinburgh where the other portions join and the loco's are swapped. In general though a great night sleep was had. It does help that the route is a lot straighter and there are proportionally fewer stops compared to on the night Riviera.

I was quite excited to see what traction was on the front in the morning at Kings Cross. Could I bag a 73 and a 92 in one fell swoop? First, breakfast. Salmon and scramble eggs it was, as recommended by just about everyone who has ever had the full English on the sleeper. I then got ready and took up a seat in the lounge car once more, to see us flying through Huntingdon. The commuters on the Southern ECML looked intrigued by the sleeper train.

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The sunrise from the sleeper

We arrived into Kings Cross about 30mins early, I saw the EWS 67 thunderbird and the CS 86 on the way in. I was a little disappointed to find a FL 90 on the front, but it's still a loco so a good result.

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FL class 90 at Kings Cross.

I then headed over to Euston for a much needed shower. The 1st class lounge there is pretty nice and well stocked, the showers are nicer than Paddington's too.

0940 London Euston-Manchester. Virgin Trains class 390. 1st class, £35.

As I've previously stated on here I'm quite bored of the Southern ECML, so I thought I'd try a different route home. The train was pretty busy, but it made a nice change. I really enjoyed the breakfast of Eggs Benedict. We had a good run up the WCML before crawling after Stoke.

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VTWC Eggs Benedict.

I then walked across rainy Manchester to Victoria. For a dirt-cheap Northern Advance £2 fare home to Dewsbury. I've started to use this route more as it's usually a 158 and if not a 150 with the odd 153 thrown in for good measure. It's also a lot quieter than the TPE route. You will have noticed that everything seems to have gone pretty well on this trip so far, so obviously a spanner was going to be thrown into the works somewhere ...You guessed it. Not 1, but 2 of Northern Rail's finest 142's to take me back to Dewsbury (including one with bus-seats, for good measure). Just to rub it in, there was a perfectly good 3-car 158 sat in one of the bays all the time I was waiting at Vic...

1326 Manchester Victoria-Dewsbury (Leeds). Northern 2x 142. £2.

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The offending Pacers :roll:

Ah well, at least they have big windows, and with 4 carriages it was pretty quiet. I got a good seat, so it wasn't too bad. Obviously, I chose to sit in the 142 which had proper seats in it.

It was a fairly routine trip back over the hill, apart from spotting the most colourful train in the country near Rochdale:

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- - - - - -

So a pretty successful trip, giving me new coverage Aberdeen-Inverness, a new operator in Caledonian sleeper, new traction in the form of a 73 and some rare double headed LHCS action.
 

Kite159

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Sounded like a busy couple days :)

A shame about the pacer action at the end of the day, but you can't really complain when you paid £2 for an advance ticket.
 

Techniquest

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An excellent couple of days there, that steak and ale pie and beer on VTEC looks lush!

Jealous like mad of the 73, certainly the move of the year so far. Wasn't expecting the 67 to be powering, one of just two that I need as well!
 

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