Blindtraveler
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No bother Know your busy and working shifts! Looking forward to a PM when it comes
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Juliano's World Frenzy/Tech's Trip Reports
- Thread starter Techniquest
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Techniquest
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I haven't forgotten to PM you Blindtraveler, anything in particular you're interested in knowing about the bus journeys I made on my Kent trip?
I'm also more than aware my last trip report has still not been posted yet, I haven't even finished typing it up on the laptop yet. Nor have I got my mileages sorted from the Kent trip, let alone my last trip, so I'm a LONG way behind! However as soon as I can I'll get it all finished and post the trip report, hopefully with photos, for you all to enjoy
Aside from that, I've booked my next trip in the last few minutes, a London Midland Great Escape. Where will I end up? Well the plan is to clear as many stations as possible between Bletchley and Watford Junction, as well as the St Albans Abbey branch and the Bedford to Bletchley line. I know full well I won't get them all, but some progress will be welcome. Hoping too to get some more LM 321s red penned, and that I finally get 150105 out of the way. Of course, getting some required 350s out of the way would be lovely too!
Of course, eventually all will be posted here, and I expect to have plenty of observations to share at some point!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Well I managed to find time in the end today to smash out the trip report, although I've not time to do the photos too. Hopefully they'll be sorted out in a few days. Here we go then:
25/08/2014 Techniquests Tugging It, Day 1
Its FINALLY here, my first trip in what felt like decades! It might only have been 3 weeks since I got back from my Kent Rover trip, but with everything thats been going on lately, with silly amounts of hours being worked, Ive still not had time to finish processing mileages or finish my moves book from Techniquest and Red Pen Strike Back! So, I hear you ask, whats this trip about, given the slightly strange trip title? Well it was almost literally an eleventh hour thing, after being persuaded to do Retro Railtours Retro Shakespearean Tug when it was discovered some most unusual track featured on the return leg. Part fare organised, hotel found in Hudderfield for a most reasonable price and tickets home booked for a decent enough price too. My sister was already being driven to town, so we agreed Id chip in some of the petrol money, thats that sorted then.
I had, earlier in the day, planned to do a trip on 1st September, fortunately Id not yet booked hotels or tickets for that yet. It was now time to de-rancify ahead of preparing my bag for the morning. Not that I managed to do that 100% successfully, but read on to find out what happened there! Im already well excited about the trip, Ive not been on a railtour for around 18 months, not since UK Railtours The Angel of Bedlam. Which come to think of it, wasnt that February 2012? If so its actually been 30 months since my last railtour, which seems unreal! Sleep is naturally hard to come by, finally getting there around 0300, so when the alarm went off at 0800 my eyes were not happy with me at all! A bowl of Coco Pops is devoured before I fill the travel mug with, youve guessed it, coffee for the trip to Hereford. I get my first WMDR in quite some time for £23.80, cant quite remember if it was February or April I last had one of these.
170509 is my first train since 2025, 4th August 2014 when I arrived off 43183+43035 on the 1722 London Paddington to Hereford, the last time Ill do that journey throughout for a long time. Off we go on time at 0940 for Birmingham New Street, and as the engines roar into life I get a big grin on my face. Been a good while since I last did a 170, and this morning the ear canals are being flooded by Dragonforce for a while, eventually being changed to classic dance tunes from 2000/2001 as we cross into Worcestershire. A 159 passes towards Malvern as we get to Henwick, Id forgot FGW had one on hire this summer but by gum doesnt it look out of place up here! I get a little peckish after Droitwich Spa, so out came the homemade scones Id brought with me. I made the lady opposite quite jealous, and I just needed a cup of tea to really be out of place now! After I finished being Lord of the Turbostar, were at Kings Norton and I was surprised how fast the journey had gone. However that was nothing compared to the surprise that lay ahead...
WOW! How deserted Birmingham New Street was, its been a long time since I saw it this devoid of trains! With nothing interesting going on, I head to my usual spot for a supply raid (I was tempted to make a reference to The Last Of Us multiplayer game Supply Raid but refrained), Tesco Metro. New pens sourced, just in case because its a most awkward situation when you need a pen to note something on a bash and your pen doesnt work! Regular readers of these trip reports, or at least those with a good memory, will remember the issue I had with pens on my 2012 14 day ALR! Its then Costa Coffee time, and its still WAY too early to get to my destination, so I head to Snow Hill and see whats going on. I remember to pick up my tickets for tomorrows journey home, then end up on a pair of refurbished 168s, 168219 and 168004, for the trip to Leamington Spa. I see the Silver sets are out today though, so I very quickly chuck everything back together and jump off at Moor Street, much to the chagrin of those getting on!
I find its 67013 on the 1255 to London Marylebone, my 67, so Ill take that! The timetable also says theres a Silver set working to Snow Hill before that though, so I hang about in case. As its Bank Holiday Frothday, theres alterations so its a pair of 168s instead. No matter, I can increase my mileage on 67013 and have a proper Inter-City experience to Leamington Spa anyway, I can get a 67 up The Hill another time. All the Birmingham to London trains were either pairs of 168s or 67s today, just as well with the Watford Junction blockade on, and each train to/from London was pretty busy! A coffee from the stand next to platform 3 is sourced, and a visit to a cash machine for later mandatory. Its soon time to go Right along driver! and get 67013 shoving us out of Moor Street, and the phones on charge while I can take advantage of them, I dont fancy running out of charge later! I get the trip report caught up to date in the notebook just after Dorridge. YouTube is on and I have all manners of genres on this afternoon.
I cant remember at the time of writing how many times Ive had 67013 [8 times previously, 9 times including this trip Ed and yes, Im bringing that back!], my reckoning is 5 or 6 at this time. Wont be many more chances before the 68s take over, whenever thatll be, so taking advantage of bumping up my mileage on 67s now is a fantastic idea! Arrival at Leamington Spa reveals no 1346 to Stratford-upon-Avon today, and I find out its an amended Saturday service. My notebook has the reaction down as Ahh, umm, oops! although that wasnt entirely what went through my head at the time! Re-engineering of the plan then, well that was to wait a few minutes as a coffee from Pumpkin was desired, couldnt help myself going for another traditional move on a bash, a coffee from Pumpkin! [Well skip over the fact the traditional move is a coffee from Pumpkin Hereford, shall we? Ed]
I have the pleasure of scoring for sight my second Colas Rail Class 70, 70805, on a Westbury to Bescot working. 2 down, 8 more to go! 168214+168215 have joined forces today and take me up the road to Warwick for a prospective leap, and its here I find a small group of youths smoking and openly talking about purchasing, shall we say, dodgy substances! Not a pleasant experience for me, let alone less frequent travellers. First time for everything, as they say, and I tweet it both to Chiltern and BTP. Dud 165031 is flagged, and dud 165002 is on the originally planned move. I could flag it and wait for the next train to Stratford-upon-Avon here, but its additional mileage and better to fester at Leamington to be honest! Back there, I see some Virgin Blockbusters pass through on the through lines, and the Stratford-upon-Avon train is dud 168003. Regular readers of my trip reports with good memories [or those who follow me on Twitter and read my tweets for the day! Ed] will recall this was my last 168 to get in the book back on 02/12/2013.
Time now to shove the phone back on charge for a bit and a late lunch of the ham sandwiches I brought with me from home, which sure filled a big need for food! Even better as we arrived at the Warwickshire terminus platform 3, the last bit of track I needed here! Its raining heavily here and a LOT of very wet people were coming back from town, just as well I didnt get here earlier then really. Time next for plenty of photos here, and the announcement was brilliant, suggesting changing at Reddish South for Scotland and principal stations to Tonfanau (I think!), I seriously doubt such an announcement will never be heard here again! Sadly Im right at the back, in a formerly ATW MK2. Thats a weird feeling for sure! Off we go at 1616 behind 60059, my third ever Class 60 for haulage and after a gap of more than 7 years since I had 60038! We head north via Hatton West Curve, no doubt a highlight for some people but its been dud for me since I did the PSUL move with London Midland over it in 2012. Nothing of interest really to Birmingham, during the time I go to the buffet car to pick up a pint of Retro Rail Ale. £2 refundable deposit or keep the glass, yes Ill have that for a souvenir of the trip then. Oh, and the ale was most enjoyable too!
I stop and chat to a fellow enthusiast on the way back to the back of the train, the differences in the railway network since the 1980s is unreal. We are booked to have a non-stop path through New Street, so once we descend the bank and get through the tunnel its all eyes out of the window to see if we manage it. To everyones amazement, we achieve the rare event of passing through one of the countrys busiest stations without stopping! I do have a video clip on my phone of this event, although I still havent uploaded it [or several other clips yet! Ed] as of the time of typing, however I hope to be able to share it later. We carry on via Soho East and Tame Bridge Parkway to Walsall to reach the Chase Valley line, first time Ive ever been up the Chase Valley line on a loco-hauled train. Ive had a 153+156 combo and various 170s up this line before but never a loco. More surprising was turning right at Colwich Junction to head directly to Stone, almost exclusively Class 390 territory this! Stoke-on-Trent, another station thats most unusual to get a non-stop path through, and we sail through without issue, another video clip for that too.
Next stop Crewe, our first set-down point, and the following section to Wilmslow is incredibly dull and boring, but I always forget that. Most especially dull is the section to Sandbach, but eventually we get past it and its then time at Stockport to look forward to the required non-passenger track due to be coming up! Denton Junction and the fingers are crossed but we do indeed turn left, the first bit of required track in the Baker for me today. Reasonably well trodden track for me after Ashton Moss Junction as far as Baguley Fold Junction, where we again turn left towards Philips Park No.2 and around to Ashburys West Junction, the second bit of required track for the Baker. Its getting pretty dark by now, so cant see much out of the window. Were soon on the mainline again, and this section through Ashburys is very well trodden track for me! The rest of the journey to Huddersfield is spent chatting with some fellow cranks, and we arrive at Huddersfields platform 8 at 2058. Its photos and video time before saying farewell to the cranks from the East Midlands and finding my way to base camp for the night, The Cambridge Hotel. Only about 5 minutes walk from the station, very convenient for cranking and I shall be staying here again on a West Yorkshire cranking spree. £39 I got my room for, and while its not massive its still a good size. Ive even got a fridge in here, so I put the last of my drinks in it, ready for tomorrow. TVs a very good size and tons of channels to choose from, and the bathroom is of a good size too. After all the usual night-away stuff, I start preparing everything for tomorrow, ending the night by watching How I Met Your Mother, with sleep coming around 0100.
I very much enjoyed my first railtour in absolutely ages, hopefully I wont be waiting so long for the next one! Thanks must go to everyone involved for making it an excellent day!
26/08/2014 Techniquests Tugging It, Day 2
Something awakening me during the night around 0235 was far from appreciated or helpful, with an alarm set for 0600. Its not long got light outside and the kettles on while I de-rancify. Its one of only two minor niggles with this hotel, the shower could have done with having a bigger space in the bathroom. The other minor niggle being the pillows could have been a bit softer. Other than that, an excellent value stay, especially for a last minute booking on Sunday night! Eventually Im ready to go at 0645 and head to the reception to pay for my stay. Most unusual, in my experience, paying after staying. After the short walk to the station, I flag dud 185106 on the 0702 to Manchester, in favour of seeing what will do the 0715 to Southport. That turns out to be double duds 150140 and 150271 (140 being the one that nearly caused me to be bowled out on a Merseyside bash earlier in the year), so I end up on dud 185149. Im guessing the often-discussed chronic overcrowding on Transpennine Express services starts later, as this train is not even remotely busy. Not much of interest on this journey, after I finished my coffee from the winner Pumpkin [which reminds me, I still havent researched the list of Pumpkin outlets across the UK Ed] on the island platform at Huddersfield. I get some tunes on for a bit as the shakes and rattles of the 185 got on my nerves.
London Midlands 350372 is still on hire to TPX I see, as its stabled on Ardwick depot. Surely not much longer until I get to red pen them on the LM network? I go off in search of food, and I settle with Subway for my usual breakfast meal here. While thats devoured, I score 3 Metrolink trams for sight, with still plenty more to get yet. A Metrolink day or 3 is more than needed, but every time I plan to do so I divert myself onto a mainline bash! Unusually, again in my experience, my train is from platform 11 and is 175111 on the 0830 to Milford Haven this morning. Were eventually off at 0831, and my Retro Railtours glass is already coming in handy this morning, using it to have a drink more socially than out of a bottle for a change. A soft drink I hasten to add, I was off to work! Not a lot of note until Crewe, where we sit and wait. And wait, and wait, and wait some more! Not only do we have our usual wait for a Scotland-bound 390 to get out of the way were also held for a Manchester-bound 390 to clear the way. 9 minutes of delay thanks to those two trains, high time things were changed here!
I do manage to observe my first three Class 68s for sight though, with 68010, 68002 and 68004 noted on the DRS depot [I can never remember if its called Gresty Bridge or Gresty Lane! Ed], which more than made up for it. 68010 is in silver, most likely ahead of work with Chiltern on their Silver trains later this year or in 2015. Its a shaky ride from Nantwich to Wem, making it very difficult to write this trip report! 10 minutes late from Shrewsbury, when Ive got a lot to do in the 88 minutes between booked arrival into Hereford and the start of my shift its not good! Granted, Id have less to do if Id remembered to bring my work stuff with me yesterday, fortunately my sisters bringing it into town with her and Im meeting up with her later to pick it up. The trip reports all written up before Church Stretton, and the dreaded mission of typing it all up is noted. I dont get the typing of this finished until late on 07/09/2014, nearly 2 weeks after the trip! We eventually arrive into Hereford at 1043, 11 minutes late, and its a long tough walk to the north side of town, but eventually I get my stuff and then race over to the south side of town for work. Already exhausted by the time I start work, and its a tough going day all day. Nothing else of note and eventually Im home. Shame there were no winners today, and only the one yesterday, but it was still a great time and I feel a lot happier than I was before the trip. Bring on the next trip, wherever thatll be to!
I'm also more than aware my last trip report has still not been posted yet, I haven't even finished typing it up on the laptop yet. Nor have I got my mileages sorted from the Kent trip, let alone my last trip, so I'm a LONG way behind! However as soon as I can I'll get it all finished and post the trip report, hopefully with photos, for you all to enjoy
Aside from that, I've booked my next trip in the last few minutes, a London Midland Great Escape. Where will I end up? Well the plan is to clear as many stations as possible between Bletchley and Watford Junction, as well as the St Albans Abbey branch and the Bedford to Bletchley line. I know full well I won't get them all, but some progress will be welcome. Hoping too to get some more LM 321s red penned, and that I finally get 150105 out of the way. Of course, getting some required 350s out of the way would be lovely too!
Of course, eventually all will be posted here, and I expect to have plenty of observations to share at some point!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Well I managed to find time in the end today to smash out the trip report, although I've not time to do the photos too. Hopefully they'll be sorted out in a few days. Here we go then:
25/08/2014 Techniquests Tugging It, Day 1
Its FINALLY here, my first trip in what felt like decades! It might only have been 3 weeks since I got back from my Kent Rover trip, but with everything thats been going on lately, with silly amounts of hours being worked, Ive still not had time to finish processing mileages or finish my moves book from Techniquest and Red Pen Strike Back! So, I hear you ask, whats this trip about, given the slightly strange trip title? Well it was almost literally an eleventh hour thing, after being persuaded to do Retro Railtours Retro Shakespearean Tug when it was discovered some most unusual track featured on the return leg. Part fare organised, hotel found in Hudderfield for a most reasonable price and tickets home booked for a decent enough price too. My sister was already being driven to town, so we agreed Id chip in some of the petrol money, thats that sorted then.
I had, earlier in the day, planned to do a trip on 1st September, fortunately Id not yet booked hotels or tickets for that yet. It was now time to de-rancify ahead of preparing my bag for the morning. Not that I managed to do that 100% successfully, but read on to find out what happened there! Im already well excited about the trip, Ive not been on a railtour for around 18 months, not since UK Railtours The Angel of Bedlam. Which come to think of it, wasnt that February 2012? If so its actually been 30 months since my last railtour, which seems unreal! Sleep is naturally hard to come by, finally getting there around 0300, so when the alarm went off at 0800 my eyes were not happy with me at all! A bowl of Coco Pops is devoured before I fill the travel mug with, youve guessed it, coffee for the trip to Hereford. I get my first WMDR in quite some time for £23.80, cant quite remember if it was February or April I last had one of these.
170509 is my first train since 2025, 4th August 2014 when I arrived off 43183+43035 on the 1722 London Paddington to Hereford, the last time Ill do that journey throughout for a long time. Off we go on time at 0940 for Birmingham New Street, and as the engines roar into life I get a big grin on my face. Been a good while since I last did a 170, and this morning the ear canals are being flooded by Dragonforce for a while, eventually being changed to classic dance tunes from 2000/2001 as we cross into Worcestershire. A 159 passes towards Malvern as we get to Henwick, Id forgot FGW had one on hire this summer but by gum doesnt it look out of place up here! I get a little peckish after Droitwich Spa, so out came the homemade scones Id brought with me. I made the lady opposite quite jealous, and I just needed a cup of tea to really be out of place now! After I finished being Lord of the Turbostar, were at Kings Norton and I was surprised how fast the journey had gone. However that was nothing compared to the surprise that lay ahead...
WOW! How deserted Birmingham New Street was, its been a long time since I saw it this devoid of trains! With nothing interesting going on, I head to my usual spot for a supply raid (I was tempted to make a reference to The Last Of Us multiplayer game Supply Raid but refrained), Tesco Metro. New pens sourced, just in case because its a most awkward situation when you need a pen to note something on a bash and your pen doesnt work! Regular readers of these trip reports, or at least those with a good memory, will remember the issue I had with pens on my 2012 14 day ALR! Its then Costa Coffee time, and its still WAY too early to get to my destination, so I head to Snow Hill and see whats going on. I remember to pick up my tickets for tomorrows journey home, then end up on a pair of refurbished 168s, 168219 and 168004, for the trip to Leamington Spa. I see the Silver sets are out today though, so I very quickly chuck everything back together and jump off at Moor Street, much to the chagrin of those getting on!
I find its 67013 on the 1255 to London Marylebone, my 67, so Ill take that! The timetable also says theres a Silver set working to Snow Hill before that though, so I hang about in case. As its Bank Holiday Frothday, theres alterations so its a pair of 168s instead. No matter, I can increase my mileage on 67013 and have a proper Inter-City experience to Leamington Spa anyway, I can get a 67 up The Hill another time. All the Birmingham to London trains were either pairs of 168s or 67s today, just as well with the Watford Junction blockade on, and each train to/from London was pretty busy! A coffee from the stand next to platform 3 is sourced, and a visit to a cash machine for later mandatory. Its soon time to go Right along driver! and get 67013 shoving us out of Moor Street, and the phones on charge while I can take advantage of them, I dont fancy running out of charge later! I get the trip report caught up to date in the notebook just after Dorridge. YouTube is on and I have all manners of genres on this afternoon.
I cant remember at the time of writing how many times Ive had 67013 [8 times previously, 9 times including this trip Ed and yes, Im bringing that back!], my reckoning is 5 or 6 at this time. Wont be many more chances before the 68s take over, whenever thatll be, so taking advantage of bumping up my mileage on 67s now is a fantastic idea! Arrival at Leamington Spa reveals no 1346 to Stratford-upon-Avon today, and I find out its an amended Saturday service. My notebook has the reaction down as Ahh, umm, oops! although that wasnt entirely what went through my head at the time! Re-engineering of the plan then, well that was to wait a few minutes as a coffee from Pumpkin was desired, couldnt help myself going for another traditional move on a bash, a coffee from Pumpkin! [Well skip over the fact the traditional move is a coffee from Pumpkin Hereford, shall we? Ed]
I have the pleasure of scoring for sight my second Colas Rail Class 70, 70805, on a Westbury to Bescot working. 2 down, 8 more to go! 168214+168215 have joined forces today and take me up the road to Warwick for a prospective leap, and its here I find a small group of youths smoking and openly talking about purchasing, shall we say, dodgy substances! Not a pleasant experience for me, let alone less frequent travellers. First time for everything, as they say, and I tweet it both to Chiltern and BTP. Dud 165031 is flagged, and dud 165002 is on the originally planned move. I could flag it and wait for the next train to Stratford-upon-Avon here, but its additional mileage and better to fester at Leamington to be honest! Back there, I see some Virgin Blockbusters pass through on the through lines, and the Stratford-upon-Avon train is dud 168003. Regular readers of my trip reports with good memories [or those who follow me on Twitter and read my tweets for the day! Ed] will recall this was my last 168 to get in the book back on 02/12/2013.
Time now to shove the phone back on charge for a bit and a late lunch of the ham sandwiches I brought with me from home, which sure filled a big need for food! Even better as we arrived at the Warwickshire terminus platform 3, the last bit of track I needed here! Its raining heavily here and a LOT of very wet people were coming back from town, just as well I didnt get here earlier then really. Time next for plenty of photos here, and the announcement was brilliant, suggesting changing at Reddish South for Scotland and principal stations to Tonfanau (I think!), I seriously doubt such an announcement will never be heard here again! Sadly Im right at the back, in a formerly ATW MK2. Thats a weird feeling for sure! Off we go at 1616 behind 60059, my third ever Class 60 for haulage and after a gap of more than 7 years since I had 60038! We head north via Hatton West Curve, no doubt a highlight for some people but its been dud for me since I did the PSUL move with London Midland over it in 2012. Nothing of interest really to Birmingham, during the time I go to the buffet car to pick up a pint of Retro Rail Ale. £2 refundable deposit or keep the glass, yes Ill have that for a souvenir of the trip then. Oh, and the ale was most enjoyable too!
I stop and chat to a fellow enthusiast on the way back to the back of the train, the differences in the railway network since the 1980s is unreal. We are booked to have a non-stop path through New Street, so once we descend the bank and get through the tunnel its all eyes out of the window to see if we manage it. To everyones amazement, we achieve the rare event of passing through one of the countrys busiest stations without stopping! I do have a video clip on my phone of this event, although I still havent uploaded it [or several other clips yet! Ed] as of the time of typing, however I hope to be able to share it later. We carry on via Soho East and Tame Bridge Parkway to Walsall to reach the Chase Valley line, first time Ive ever been up the Chase Valley line on a loco-hauled train. Ive had a 153+156 combo and various 170s up this line before but never a loco. More surprising was turning right at Colwich Junction to head directly to Stone, almost exclusively Class 390 territory this! Stoke-on-Trent, another station thats most unusual to get a non-stop path through, and we sail through without issue, another video clip for that too.
Next stop Crewe, our first set-down point, and the following section to Wilmslow is incredibly dull and boring, but I always forget that. Most especially dull is the section to Sandbach, but eventually we get past it and its then time at Stockport to look forward to the required non-passenger track due to be coming up! Denton Junction and the fingers are crossed but we do indeed turn left, the first bit of required track in the Baker for me today. Reasonably well trodden track for me after Ashton Moss Junction as far as Baguley Fold Junction, where we again turn left towards Philips Park No.2 and around to Ashburys West Junction, the second bit of required track for the Baker. Its getting pretty dark by now, so cant see much out of the window. Were soon on the mainline again, and this section through Ashburys is very well trodden track for me! The rest of the journey to Huddersfield is spent chatting with some fellow cranks, and we arrive at Huddersfields platform 8 at 2058. Its photos and video time before saying farewell to the cranks from the East Midlands and finding my way to base camp for the night, The Cambridge Hotel. Only about 5 minutes walk from the station, very convenient for cranking and I shall be staying here again on a West Yorkshire cranking spree. £39 I got my room for, and while its not massive its still a good size. Ive even got a fridge in here, so I put the last of my drinks in it, ready for tomorrow. TVs a very good size and tons of channels to choose from, and the bathroom is of a good size too. After all the usual night-away stuff, I start preparing everything for tomorrow, ending the night by watching How I Met Your Mother, with sleep coming around 0100.
I very much enjoyed my first railtour in absolutely ages, hopefully I wont be waiting so long for the next one! Thanks must go to everyone involved for making it an excellent day!
26/08/2014 Techniquests Tugging It, Day 2
Something awakening me during the night around 0235 was far from appreciated or helpful, with an alarm set for 0600. Its not long got light outside and the kettles on while I de-rancify. Its one of only two minor niggles with this hotel, the shower could have done with having a bigger space in the bathroom. The other minor niggle being the pillows could have been a bit softer. Other than that, an excellent value stay, especially for a last minute booking on Sunday night! Eventually Im ready to go at 0645 and head to the reception to pay for my stay. Most unusual, in my experience, paying after staying. After the short walk to the station, I flag dud 185106 on the 0702 to Manchester, in favour of seeing what will do the 0715 to Southport. That turns out to be double duds 150140 and 150271 (140 being the one that nearly caused me to be bowled out on a Merseyside bash earlier in the year), so I end up on dud 185149. Im guessing the often-discussed chronic overcrowding on Transpennine Express services starts later, as this train is not even remotely busy. Not much of interest on this journey, after I finished my coffee from the winner Pumpkin [which reminds me, I still havent researched the list of Pumpkin outlets across the UK Ed] on the island platform at Huddersfield. I get some tunes on for a bit as the shakes and rattles of the 185 got on my nerves.
London Midlands 350372 is still on hire to TPX I see, as its stabled on Ardwick depot. Surely not much longer until I get to red pen them on the LM network? I go off in search of food, and I settle with Subway for my usual breakfast meal here. While thats devoured, I score 3 Metrolink trams for sight, with still plenty more to get yet. A Metrolink day or 3 is more than needed, but every time I plan to do so I divert myself onto a mainline bash! Unusually, again in my experience, my train is from platform 11 and is 175111 on the 0830 to Milford Haven this morning. Were eventually off at 0831, and my Retro Railtours glass is already coming in handy this morning, using it to have a drink more socially than out of a bottle for a change. A soft drink I hasten to add, I was off to work! Not a lot of note until Crewe, where we sit and wait. And wait, and wait, and wait some more! Not only do we have our usual wait for a Scotland-bound 390 to get out of the way were also held for a Manchester-bound 390 to clear the way. 9 minutes of delay thanks to those two trains, high time things were changed here!
I do manage to observe my first three Class 68s for sight though, with 68010, 68002 and 68004 noted on the DRS depot [I can never remember if its called Gresty Bridge or Gresty Lane! Ed], which more than made up for it. 68010 is in silver, most likely ahead of work with Chiltern on their Silver trains later this year or in 2015. Its a shaky ride from Nantwich to Wem, making it very difficult to write this trip report! 10 minutes late from Shrewsbury, when Ive got a lot to do in the 88 minutes between booked arrival into Hereford and the start of my shift its not good! Granted, Id have less to do if Id remembered to bring my work stuff with me yesterday, fortunately my sisters bringing it into town with her and Im meeting up with her later to pick it up. The trip reports all written up before Church Stretton, and the dreaded mission of typing it all up is noted. I dont get the typing of this finished until late on 07/09/2014, nearly 2 weeks after the trip! We eventually arrive into Hereford at 1043, 11 minutes late, and its a long tough walk to the north side of town, but eventually I get my stuff and then race over to the south side of town for work. Already exhausted by the time I start work, and its a tough going day all day. Nothing else of note and eventually Im home. Shame there were no winners today, and only the one yesterday, but it was still a great time and I feel a lot happier than I was before the trip. Bring on the next trip, wherever thatll be to!
Kite159
Veteran Member
Be quick, the 68s come in December-time for the Chiltern locos.
New Street non-stop, I agree quite a good experience (went through non-stop Easter Monday on the Heart of Wales tour).
Why is 67013 'your' 67, because if it is your favourite of the 67s I can tell you that 14 is mine.
You should have posted that you were going to Lem as I could have popped down to say hi!
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Oh right, well it's probably a good thing I'm planning another epic trip around the Midlands in October. Thanks for the gen
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
It's my highest mileage and most frequently had 67, it used to stalk me I swear!
Hadn't originally planned to go to Leamington, otherwise I'd have mentioned it. One day eh?
Blindtraveler
Established Member
another cracking trip there! Really will be a bit sad when the 67s go but hay. Sensible to buy pens, yes I do recall your 2012 All Ligne. Thee tour sounded good too. I agree t,e 185s dont half shake, rattle etc
Techniquest
Veteran Member
I remember some of my 2012 ALR as if it was yesterday. I'd love to do another one, especially if it was the one everyone wants to do, the Golden Ticket as it were, a 14 day First Class ALR!
I've only just finished typing it, took longer than I thought, but below is the trip report from what is now last week's Great Escape bash:
08/09/2014 – Techniquest’s Time To Bash, Day 1
(For reference, the trip title is inspired by Storm's Time To Burn, a classic dance tune from the early 2000s - or was it 1999, I can't remember now!)
2 weeks feels like an eternity sometimes doesn’t it? Feels much, MUCH longer than that since my last adventure! Nevertheless, after checking (and re-checking several times!) my calculations yesterday afternoon, I can indeed afford a bash pending hotel availability and costs. After much looking around, I found one in Erdington for just £26.50 which was £13.50 under the budgeted amount so we’re off to a good start! I book my London Midland Great Escape tickets (one for each day), bringing the fares and hotel costs to just £56.50, not to be sniffed at whatsoever! I nearly forgot to print off the vouchers, fortunately something reminded me late in the evening. With the bag packed and everything set for a busy bash, it was time to start a co-op session on Borderlands 2 with my brother, sleep coming much later around 0200. The 0600 alarm confuses me at first, a few moments later I remember why it’s going off and I’m almost flying down the stairs to get a small bowl of Coco Pops for breakfast. The travel mug is filled with a mandatory coffee before getting the bus to town.
Mighty nippy outside this morning, I didn’t expect to need gloves and a hat so hadn’t prepared such. It’s not until me and my sister reach The Walk Cafe that we warm up. A sausage sandwich and a coffee for £2.80 satisfies my stomach for the rest of the morning. It takes what feels like an eternity to get my Great Escape tickets issued, and you can tell the colleges are all back in the swing of things, the crowds off the 0827 to Holyhead (158827 today) and 0842 to Milford Haven (175116 today) are huge! After I get my coffee from Pumpkin, which regular readers of these write-ups will recall is a tradition of mine, it’s onto 170517 and 153364 on the 0849 to Birmingham New Street. I join the 153 for some DBT (Dog Box Thrash, for the uninitiated) while the veg (in this context, norms) mostly flock to the 170. Time to get some bookwork done now, the pile of which is getting ridiculous! The ST Publications combine and Quails are brought back up to date, for now, with just the moves book to get updated. That’s a big job in itself, I’m still only part-way through the Kent Rover moves! Other than that, a smooth journey and we arrive at 1022 into New Street’s p5a. I see the new tram stop here is coming along nicely, and winner 350247 on the 1036 to Liverpool Lime Street is too tempting to pass up! 12 350/2s to go according to my phone, how many more will I get today? Read on to find out...
Pumpkin time at Wolverhampton, the next 350 to New Street being dud 350246 so I hang about for a while to see what else is going on. Unexpectedly, the 1119 to Walsall produces winner 350256 so that has to be done! A couple of photos of Wolverhampton PSB first, including one with 350111 approaching with the 1101 Birmingham New Street to Liverpool Lime Street. If memory serves correctly, Wolverhampton PSB is set to close in the near-ish future so had to be photographed! No time for further distractions today, time to head to the WCML asap! I also declare it to be time for some tunes too, and the connection onto the 1154 to London Euston was easier than I expected thankfully. It does, however, annoy me greatly that I can’t score winner 390137 on the 1150 to Euston though, the disadvantage of TOC-specific tickets! It’s time for lunch shortly after departure with dud 350240, today’s lunch is formed of two ham rolls, 2 Snickers bars and a packet of crisps. Feeling satisified again, until I see the dreaded Northampton fester is a massive 22 minutes! Fortunately an alternative option exists, with a 20 minute fester in the sunshine at Rugby and get a 350 via Weedon (that is, the Northampton avoider) before re-joining 350240 at Milton Keynes Central (MKC). Happy days then!
Several hours passed before I got the trip report updated, so I resume it in my notebook on the way back to Birmingham, starting with the thought of “Wow, what a busy day, no time to write up the trip report until 2002!” having last updated it on the way to MKC, so around 1308. So where was I? Oh yes, I get dud 350105 to MKC and I see winner 350266 will be on the 1347 to Euston from here. “Can’t miss that then” I tell myself (and towards the end of the day I found me talking to myself a lot!), but as the saying goes “The plans of mice and men, do often go astray”. Go astray is right, as I change my mind and get off 350240 at Berkhamsted for a winner station grice, then get dud 321413 (seriously? First LM 321 I get in years and it’s dud?!) to Kings Langley instead. Get the smaller stations out of the way, I convince myself to be the best plan now. To my surprise, this 321 is STILL in ex-Silverlink condition inside, with a now-ancient London Connections map still on board. A ton more observations are made here (and I mean a ton, by the end of the day I was on THREE observations files on my phone!) before winner 321415 takes me on a bus stop bash to Apsley. Dud 350252 is next for the trip to Watford Junction.
The plan was now to get somewhere with stations on the St Albans Abbey Line, but not before I scored 377707 for sight on the 1413 MKC-South Croydon, most marvellous! 321414 will get the red pen treatment next, and I take a seat in the motor coach for the crawl along the branch to Park Street. I do consider getting the lot done while I’m here, however when I see it would be a fairly late arrival back into Birmingham I dismiss that plan pretty quickly. Back onto 321414 after a short break, and the driver comes out of her cab to complain about someone smoking in the front coach. I had thought my nose was being dodgy when I’d got on the train! I now have a +3 at Watford Junction for my next planned train, and amazingly with a run I make it, just as well as winner 350267 is on it! I’m only on to Hemel Hempstead this time, but my plan made earlier didn’t take account the fact one of the trains featured a Southern service so that had to go out of the window. The disadvantage of a TOC-specific ticket raises its head again! So instead of festering here for 18 minutes or so, I’m here for 35 in the end, but I do get rewarded for my patience with seeing 92s doing what they do best, making a beasty bit of noise, so all was good! Double duds 350104 and 350114 take me forward to Leighton Buzzard next.
Even more observations made here (I dread to think how long they’ll take to process!) before I do something I’ve never done before, board a 12-car 350 formation on the 1647 MKC-London Euston! Winners 350245 and 350260, which had been stabled on Bletchley Carriage Sidings (CS) all day, had joined forces with 350267 for this service, I’m only on this for the short hop to Cheddington though and can only imagine how full this train will be later, as it’s as empty as anything right now! Having looked at the LM 321 diagrams on the forum on the way back from Park Street earlier, I knew the 1624 London Euston-MKC was booked for 321s, so I can score Cheddington now and get back up to MKC with just a short wait, bonus!
Better still, it was a pair of winners with 321411 and 321412 working the 1624 off Euston! Now I just need 321416, which was stabled on Bletchley CS all day, to finish the LM allocation of 321/4s. Sadly I wasn’t lucky enough to get that 321 in, I guess it stables there for some sort of Thunderbird duties? A VERY enjoyable run in the motor coach from Cheddington was had to Bletchley, where my day was well and truely to be made, as 150105 was working the 1731 from Bletchley to Bedford along the Marston Vale. I honestly can’t remember how many times I’ve looked for that thing, so while I’m here and it’s working, it HAD to be done! I’m now getting outrageously hungry, far from an ideal situation to be in on a busy bash. I had factored in the need to fill the stomach at lunchtime before I left the house, but only factored in the thought of “I’m sure I can sort tea out easily enough” for the evening meal. Umm, yeah, no, that didn’t work out as is usually the case on a busy bash!
I bail at Aspley Guise with what is now my favourite photo of a 150 taken after getting off, I have now got a 20 minute fester with nothing anywhere nearby. So I update my books a bit while waiting for 153366 to take me back to Bletchley on the second DMU diagram for the Marston Vale today. Fortunately we get there 2 minutes early which only just gives me time to run over to the other side for the 1821 to MKC. Just as well I made it as I score twice here with 350234 and 350232. Those with long (or just good!) memories will recall 350232 was my last 350/2 for sight a couple of years ago. Which 350 will now be the last one, what with the 350/3s almost on stream with LM and the 350/4s with TPX, remains to be seen! After the micro-grice into platform 2, I race over to platform 3 to score winner 350261 heading double duds 350235 and 350265 on a leap to Wolverton. When I first visited here years ago (whenever it was exactly!), I never envisaged returning here. Funny thing that, with station gricing you never know for sure where you’ll return to, or how many times you’ll be back! 350244 is a winner heading dud 350129 to Euston, so it’s back to MKC. Dud 350102 leads winner 350253 with dud 350258 on the back for another trip to Wolverton.
Dud 350117 is taken back to MKC, with a rush over from platform 1 to platform 3 to find dud 350238 lead 350266 on a Northampton service. Hold on, I tell myself, that pair sounds familiar, and after checking the notes on my phone, I saw this pair head to Euston when I was waiting to leave on 150105. 350266 is yet another winner, and have a guess where I ended up. If you guessed anything apart from Wolverton you were wrong! After the next train back to Birmingham New Street, arrival times start getting silly so I reluctantly give up now. I’m down to just 3 350/2s to get now, from 13 that I needed this morning. I saw 350231 heading towards Euston as we got to MKC earlier but it may not be back tonight anyway. 255 was now going ECS to Bletchley CS and 239 I’ve not noted today. Since I’ll have the 350/3s to go for from December too I’ll still be busy for a long time to come yet it seems! Annoyingly I never managed to fit in a trip to Tring after all today, it therefore remains one of the few stations on the southern WCML I need to visit (quite, only Tring, Polesworth and Hartford remain to be visited between Wigan and London)!
Double duds 350127 and 350113 take me back to Birmingham New Street, and it takes until almost Birmingham International to bring this trip report back up to date! I still haven’t eaten either since around 1215 today, but that’s now on the agenda as the highest priority task upon arrival at New Street. Just one move left for the day now, New Street to Gravelly Hill to get me to this trip’s base camp. I’m getting quite low on charge in my phone now too, so it’s off with the tunes. It’s also now the last 8m18c to go, it’s been a most tiring day and now I’ll be very glad to rest up for the evening. 2 hours previous I would have been saying very differently! Arrival at New Street is at 2103, 2 minutes late and I race as fast as I can to McDonalds for my usual meal. It went down a right royal treat, although I still would have preferred Burger King. It still feels weird without Burger King on New Street station, hopefully it returns soon and I can continue the long-missed tradition of a Burger King meal on a bash. Although that said, strictly speaking, the tradition was to get it in the spare time before getting the 1919 back to Hereford and the 2115 bus home, so I might have to get that one fall by the wayside, that’ll never be re-createable...:cry:
New Street is pretty empty tonight and feels like a completely different universe to what it’s like in the daytime. Eventually the 2135 to Lichfield Trent Valley arrives and I join 323206 on it, my first Starship in quite some time! We eventually get the off and arrive at Gravelly Hill at 2148 after a 10 minute journey. The walk to base camp, on this occasion it’s Rollason Wood Hotel, takes around 14 minutes, and after check-in the usual night-away stuff is done before prepping stuff for the morning. A bath is had (“A bath?! Why a bath?!” I hear you ask) as my £26.50 room, while it includes breakfast, has no bathroom of its own, with a shared bathroom just around the corner from my room. Said facilities also do not have a shower so a bath it had to be. Afterwards, I end up watching How I Met Your Mother on E4 before trying to sleep. Try being the key word there, for some reason I found it nigh on impossible to sleep before 0200. Most strange since I’d had very little sleep the night before and been up and about since 0600, however I’ve done worse than that before on a bash on New Year’s Day 2013. Actually, no, I don't want to remember that...
09/09/2014 – Techniquest’s Time To Bash, Day 2
0630 and the alarm’s going off again, much to my annoyance, chagrin, rage and everything else in the universe! It’s time to get dressed and downstairs for breakfast, where I find most of last night’s guests were construction workers. 0714 and I rush back upstairs to get everything finalised for departure, I’m still hoping for some winners somewhere before heading home! Starship 323216 takes me on an uneventful trip from Gravelly Hill to Birmingham New Street, and the 10 minute journey is over before I know it. Both sensible options to score a winner on are duds this morning, so I make my way to a traditional haunt for a Midlands bash, Tesco Metro. Large bottle of Pepsi Max (got to take advantage of 2L bottles before they all disappear forever!) and a can of Monster Khaos sourced, it’s time to soak up some sunshine before returning to the platforms for more observations. I don’t think I’ve ever been here at this time of day before, so doubt I’ll have ever seen the disgorging of passengers in such vast numbers and crowds as I did today!
I save the Monster for later and get a Costa coffee, as I’ve no doubt mentioned many times before I love my Costa coffee! All too soon it’s time to join 170631 on the 0849 to Hereford, the last train of the trip, and it’s time to get started on the bookwork! So what was my view on Rollason Wood Hotel? Well I’m not super impressed, the bed wasn’t very comfortable at all, although the pillows were soft enough for my liking if only just. The shared bathroom was not welcome, there’s no lift and the second flight of stairs to the second floor are very steep. However, the location is not too bad at all, having breakfast included in the price was most welcome and for £26.50 it wasn’t an awful stay, just not terribly comfortable. So I’m in two minds as to whether I’d return yet.
Arrival into Hereford is at 1018, 1 minute late and it’s a long walk across town to work. I have plenty of time to chill out before work but I’m still tired, even after much caffeine was consumed! Eventually work is over and I head home. Very happy after an excellent trip, it was exactly what the doctor ordered and I’m hoping the good feeling lasts a while! Quite, as I finish typing this up in the very early hours of 15/09/2014, so nearly a week after the trip was over, I have found myself relatively happy all week. It helps I spend a lot of time lately on the forum and thinking about past and future trips, plus of course I had that unexpected bonus day out on 11/09/2014 as well. Fingers crossed the happy side of stays out for a while longer, not due away on a trip for at least another week, maybe longer depending on holiday time booked and all that.
Can’t wait for the next one, wherever it’ll be to!
I've only just finished typing it, took longer than I thought, but below is the trip report from what is now last week's Great Escape bash:
08/09/2014 – Techniquest’s Time To Bash, Day 1
(For reference, the trip title is inspired by Storm's Time To Burn, a classic dance tune from the early 2000s - or was it 1999, I can't remember now!)
2 weeks feels like an eternity sometimes doesn’t it? Feels much, MUCH longer than that since my last adventure! Nevertheless, after checking (and re-checking several times!) my calculations yesterday afternoon, I can indeed afford a bash pending hotel availability and costs. After much looking around, I found one in Erdington for just £26.50 which was £13.50 under the budgeted amount so we’re off to a good start! I book my London Midland Great Escape tickets (one for each day), bringing the fares and hotel costs to just £56.50, not to be sniffed at whatsoever! I nearly forgot to print off the vouchers, fortunately something reminded me late in the evening. With the bag packed and everything set for a busy bash, it was time to start a co-op session on Borderlands 2 with my brother, sleep coming much later around 0200. The 0600 alarm confuses me at first, a few moments later I remember why it’s going off and I’m almost flying down the stairs to get a small bowl of Coco Pops for breakfast. The travel mug is filled with a mandatory coffee before getting the bus to town.
Mighty nippy outside this morning, I didn’t expect to need gloves and a hat so hadn’t prepared such. It’s not until me and my sister reach The Walk Cafe that we warm up. A sausage sandwich and a coffee for £2.80 satisfies my stomach for the rest of the morning. It takes what feels like an eternity to get my Great Escape tickets issued, and you can tell the colleges are all back in the swing of things, the crowds off the 0827 to Holyhead (158827 today) and 0842 to Milford Haven (175116 today) are huge! After I get my coffee from Pumpkin, which regular readers of these write-ups will recall is a tradition of mine, it’s onto 170517 and 153364 on the 0849 to Birmingham New Street. I join the 153 for some DBT (Dog Box Thrash, for the uninitiated) while the veg (in this context, norms) mostly flock to the 170. Time to get some bookwork done now, the pile of which is getting ridiculous! The ST Publications combine and Quails are brought back up to date, for now, with just the moves book to get updated. That’s a big job in itself, I’m still only part-way through the Kent Rover moves! Other than that, a smooth journey and we arrive at 1022 into New Street’s p5a. I see the new tram stop here is coming along nicely, and winner 350247 on the 1036 to Liverpool Lime Street is too tempting to pass up! 12 350/2s to go according to my phone, how many more will I get today? Read on to find out...
Pumpkin time at Wolverhampton, the next 350 to New Street being dud 350246 so I hang about for a while to see what else is going on. Unexpectedly, the 1119 to Walsall produces winner 350256 so that has to be done! A couple of photos of Wolverhampton PSB first, including one with 350111 approaching with the 1101 Birmingham New Street to Liverpool Lime Street. If memory serves correctly, Wolverhampton PSB is set to close in the near-ish future so had to be photographed! No time for further distractions today, time to head to the WCML asap! I also declare it to be time for some tunes too, and the connection onto the 1154 to London Euston was easier than I expected thankfully. It does, however, annoy me greatly that I can’t score winner 390137 on the 1150 to Euston though, the disadvantage of TOC-specific tickets! It’s time for lunch shortly after departure with dud 350240, today’s lunch is formed of two ham rolls, 2 Snickers bars and a packet of crisps. Feeling satisified again, until I see the dreaded Northampton fester is a massive 22 minutes! Fortunately an alternative option exists, with a 20 minute fester in the sunshine at Rugby and get a 350 via Weedon (that is, the Northampton avoider) before re-joining 350240 at Milton Keynes Central (MKC). Happy days then!
Several hours passed before I got the trip report updated, so I resume it in my notebook on the way back to Birmingham, starting with the thought of “Wow, what a busy day, no time to write up the trip report until 2002!” having last updated it on the way to MKC, so around 1308. So where was I? Oh yes, I get dud 350105 to MKC and I see winner 350266 will be on the 1347 to Euston from here. “Can’t miss that then” I tell myself (and towards the end of the day I found me talking to myself a lot!), but as the saying goes “The plans of mice and men, do often go astray”. Go astray is right, as I change my mind and get off 350240 at Berkhamsted for a winner station grice, then get dud 321413 (seriously? First LM 321 I get in years and it’s dud?!) to Kings Langley instead. Get the smaller stations out of the way, I convince myself to be the best plan now. To my surprise, this 321 is STILL in ex-Silverlink condition inside, with a now-ancient London Connections map still on board. A ton more observations are made here (and I mean a ton, by the end of the day I was on THREE observations files on my phone!) before winner 321415 takes me on a bus stop bash to Apsley. Dud 350252 is next for the trip to Watford Junction.
The plan was now to get somewhere with stations on the St Albans Abbey Line, but not before I scored 377707 for sight on the 1413 MKC-South Croydon, most marvellous! 321414 will get the red pen treatment next, and I take a seat in the motor coach for the crawl along the branch to Park Street. I do consider getting the lot done while I’m here, however when I see it would be a fairly late arrival back into Birmingham I dismiss that plan pretty quickly. Back onto 321414 after a short break, and the driver comes out of her cab to complain about someone smoking in the front coach. I had thought my nose was being dodgy when I’d got on the train! I now have a +3 at Watford Junction for my next planned train, and amazingly with a run I make it, just as well as winner 350267 is on it! I’m only on to Hemel Hempstead this time, but my plan made earlier didn’t take account the fact one of the trains featured a Southern service so that had to go out of the window. The disadvantage of a TOC-specific ticket raises its head again! So instead of festering here for 18 minutes or so, I’m here for 35 in the end, but I do get rewarded for my patience with seeing 92s doing what they do best, making a beasty bit of noise, so all was good! Double duds 350104 and 350114 take me forward to Leighton Buzzard next.
Even more observations made here (I dread to think how long they’ll take to process!) before I do something I’ve never done before, board a 12-car 350 formation on the 1647 MKC-London Euston! Winners 350245 and 350260, which had been stabled on Bletchley Carriage Sidings (CS) all day, had joined forces with 350267 for this service, I’m only on this for the short hop to Cheddington though and can only imagine how full this train will be later, as it’s as empty as anything right now! Having looked at the LM 321 diagrams on the forum on the way back from Park Street earlier, I knew the 1624 London Euston-MKC was booked for 321s, so I can score Cheddington now and get back up to MKC with just a short wait, bonus!
Better still, it was a pair of winners with 321411 and 321412 working the 1624 off Euston! Now I just need 321416, which was stabled on Bletchley CS all day, to finish the LM allocation of 321/4s. Sadly I wasn’t lucky enough to get that 321 in, I guess it stables there for some sort of Thunderbird duties? A VERY enjoyable run in the motor coach from Cheddington was had to Bletchley, where my day was well and truely to be made, as 150105 was working the 1731 from Bletchley to Bedford along the Marston Vale. I honestly can’t remember how many times I’ve looked for that thing, so while I’m here and it’s working, it HAD to be done! I’m now getting outrageously hungry, far from an ideal situation to be in on a busy bash. I had factored in the need to fill the stomach at lunchtime before I left the house, but only factored in the thought of “I’m sure I can sort tea out easily enough” for the evening meal. Umm, yeah, no, that didn’t work out as is usually the case on a busy bash!
I bail at Aspley Guise with what is now my favourite photo of a 150 taken after getting off, I have now got a 20 minute fester with nothing anywhere nearby. So I update my books a bit while waiting for 153366 to take me back to Bletchley on the second DMU diagram for the Marston Vale today. Fortunately we get there 2 minutes early which only just gives me time to run over to the other side for the 1821 to MKC. Just as well I made it as I score twice here with 350234 and 350232. Those with long (or just good!) memories will recall 350232 was my last 350/2 for sight a couple of years ago. Which 350 will now be the last one, what with the 350/3s almost on stream with LM and the 350/4s with TPX, remains to be seen! After the micro-grice into platform 2, I race over to platform 3 to score winner 350261 heading double duds 350235 and 350265 on a leap to Wolverton. When I first visited here years ago (whenever it was exactly!), I never envisaged returning here. Funny thing that, with station gricing you never know for sure where you’ll return to, or how many times you’ll be back! 350244 is a winner heading dud 350129 to Euston, so it’s back to MKC. Dud 350102 leads winner 350253 with dud 350258 on the back for another trip to Wolverton.
Dud 350117 is taken back to MKC, with a rush over from platform 1 to platform 3 to find dud 350238 lead 350266 on a Northampton service. Hold on, I tell myself, that pair sounds familiar, and after checking the notes on my phone, I saw this pair head to Euston when I was waiting to leave on 150105. 350266 is yet another winner, and have a guess where I ended up. If you guessed anything apart from Wolverton you were wrong! After the next train back to Birmingham New Street, arrival times start getting silly so I reluctantly give up now. I’m down to just 3 350/2s to get now, from 13 that I needed this morning. I saw 350231 heading towards Euston as we got to MKC earlier but it may not be back tonight anyway. 255 was now going ECS to Bletchley CS and 239 I’ve not noted today. Since I’ll have the 350/3s to go for from December too I’ll still be busy for a long time to come yet it seems! Annoyingly I never managed to fit in a trip to Tring after all today, it therefore remains one of the few stations on the southern WCML I need to visit (quite, only Tring, Polesworth and Hartford remain to be visited between Wigan and London)!
Double duds 350127 and 350113 take me back to Birmingham New Street, and it takes until almost Birmingham International to bring this trip report back up to date! I still haven’t eaten either since around 1215 today, but that’s now on the agenda as the highest priority task upon arrival at New Street. Just one move left for the day now, New Street to Gravelly Hill to get me to this trip’s base camp. I’m getting quite low on charge in my phone now too, so it’s off with the tunes. It’s also now the last 8m18c to go, it’s been a most tiring day and now I’ll be very glad to rest up for the evening. 2 hours previous I would have been saying very differently! Arrival at New Street is at 2103, 2 minutes late and I race as fast as I can to McDonalds for my usual meal. It went down a right royal treat, although I still would have preferred Burger King. It still feels weird without Burger King on New Street station, hopefully it returns soon and I can continue the long-missed tradition of a Burger King meal on a bash. Although that said, strictly speaking, the tradition was to get it in the spare time before getting the 1919 back to Hereford and the 2115 bus home, so I might have to get that one fall by the wayside, that’ll never be re-createable...:cry:
New Street is pretty empty tonight and feels like a completely different universe to what it’s like in the daytime. Eventually the 2135 to Lichfield Trent Valley arrives and I join 323206 on it, my first Starship in quite some time! We eventually get the off and arrive at Gravelly Hill at 2148 after a 10 minute journey. The walk to base camp, on this occasion it’s Rollason Wood Hotel, takes around 14 minutes, and after check-in the usual night-away stuff is done before prepping stuff for the morning. A bath is had (“A bath?! Why a bath?!” I hear you ask) as my £26.50 room, while it includes breakfast, has no bathroom of its own, with a shared bathroom just around the corner from my room. Said facilities also do not have a shower so a bath it had to be. Afterwards, I end up watching How I Met Your Mother on E4 before trying to sleep. Try being the key word there, for some reason I found it nigh on impossible to sleep before 0200. Most strange since I’d had very little sleep the night before and been up and about since 0600, however I’ve done worse than that before on a bash on New Year’s Day 2013. Actually, no, I don't want to remember that...
09/09/2014 – Techniquest’s Time To Bash, Day 2
0630 and the alarm’s going off again, much to my annoyance, chagrin, rage and everything else in the universe! It’s time to get dressed and downstairs for breakfast, where I find most of last night’s guests were construction workers. 0714 and I rush back upstairs to get everything finalised for departure, I’m still hoping for some winners somewhere before heading home! Starship 323216 takes me on an uneventful trip from Gravelly Hill to Birmingham New Street, and the 10 minute journey is over before I know it. Both sensible options to score a winner on are duds this morning, so I make my way to a traditional haunt for a Midlands bash, Tesco Metro. Large bottle of Pepsi Max (got to take advantage of 2L bottles before they all disappear forever!) and a can of Monster Khaos sourced, it’s time to soak up some sunshine before returning to the platforms for more observations. I don’t think I’ve ever been here at this time of day before, so doubt I’ll have ever seen the disgorging of passengers in such vast numbers and crowds as I did today!
I save the Monster for later and get a Costa coffee, as I’ve no doubt mentioned many times before I love my Costa coffee! All too soon it’s time to join 170631 on the 0849 to Hereford, the last train of the trip, and it’s time to get started on the bookwork! So what was my view on Rollason Wood Hotel? Well I’m not super impressed, the bed wasn’t very comfortable at all, although the pillows were soft enough for my liking if only just. The shared bathroom was not welcome, there’s no lift and the second flight of stairs to the second floor are very steep. However, the location is not too bad at all, having breakfast included in the price was most welcome and for £26.50 it wasn’t an awful stay, just not terribly comfortable. So I’m in two minds as to whether I’d return yet.
Arrival into Hereford is at 1018, 1 minute late and it’s a long walk across town to work. I have plenty of time to chill out before work but I’m still tired, even after much caffeine was consumed! Eventually work is over and I head home. Very happy after an excellent trip, it was exactly what the doctor ordered and I’m hoping the good feeling lasts a while! Quite, as I finish typing this up in the very early hours of 15/09/2014, so nearly a week after the trip was over, I have found myself relatively happy all week. It helps I spend a lot of time lately on the forum and thinking about past and future trips, plus of course I had that unexpected bonus day out on 11/09/2014 as well. Fingers crossed the happy side of stays out for a while longer, not due away on a trip for at least another week, maybe longer depending on holiday time booked and all that.
Can’t wait for the next one, wherever it’ll be to!
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Blindtraveler
Established Member
Aha! So youve found my West Midlands Cranking/Working/visiting mates and family Bass then! Been using the Rollason Wood for years and am on 1st name terms with many of the staff and the owners. Id give it another chance seriusly and as you correctly point out out most guests are workies meaning usually a good laugh to be had in the bar of an evening. Iv recommended to others but I dont think yourself and so good to know someone else on here has sampled it.
Belting trip too scoring off many a station and getting some of LMs rarer traction too, esp the wonderfully retro 321s and the 2 153s, had to grin when noticed you took one all the way from Hereford, good Man!↲
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another couple observations, you mention a love of 92s - did you know Serco is planning on using them on the Caly when they take over next year? I too am missing BK at Birmingham!↲
Belting trip too scoring off many a station and getting some of LMs rarer traction too, esp the wonderfully retro 321s and the 2 153s, had to grin when noticed you took one all the way from Hereford, good Man!↲
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
another couple observations, you mention a love of 92s - did you know Serco is planning on using them on the Caly when they take over next year? I too am missing BK at Birmingham!↲
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Blindtraveler:1913316 said:
I most likely will try it again, depends when I next visit the area
The 321s are awesome in the motor coaches aren't they! I've got a clip on my phone taken part-way from Cheddington, I doubt it'll demonstrate the noise properly but I'm definitely going for them again next time I get a chance!
Aye the 0849 from Hereford (and its inward working, 0659 New Street to Hereford) is booked 170+153 so I use that service whenever possible to avoid the crowds who avoid the "horrible old train" and enjoy what will, one day, be heritage motive power!
I did read about 92s and 73s to be used when Serco take over the Cally Insomny, it'll be interesting to see what that's like!
Blindtraveler
Established Member
I think the 73s are a bad idea full stop, the 92s will be ok as a rule but if the service is late theres not a lot in there for clawing back time. Maybe Serco hope to run the service down to an extent where they can scrap it.
Kite159
Veteran Member
*makes a note of the Rollason Wood for future reference*
Sounds like a good day on a Great Escape on London Midland stock Techi
Sounds like a good day on a Great Escape on London Midland stock Techi
Techniquest
Veteran Member
I don't know, although when I saw it was suggested it'll be 73s my eyes did open very widely! However all we can do is wait and see how they get on, if they can't cope then I'm sure Serco will look at it and sort it out.
As for the 92s, we'll wait and see but I reckon they'll be absolutely fine. Serco have plans to make it a super luxury service in 2018 when the new sleeper coaches arrive, so running it into the ground now would make no sense.
Of course, all we need to do is make sleeper MU stock and this whole debate over loco suitability would go away!
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*makes a note of the Rollason Wood for future reference*
Sounds like a good day on a Great Escape on London Midland stock Techi
It was indeed a great day, can't wait to do another Great Escape to make more progress with the 350s, my last LM 321 and more of the 16 stations I need on the LM network. Polesworth and Bordesley will be, shall we say, challenging to get done!
Kite159
Veteran Member
Have you included the London Midland managed stations where it doesn't operate any trains from?
Also Claverdon & Bearley on a London Midland service (rather than a Chiltern)?
Also Claverdon & Bearley on a London Midland service (rather than a Chiltern)?
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Stop it you too, Im now getting hyped up about dwning iether a great escape or a WMDR Bash when I cant afford it! Kite, its cheep and cheerful but the Rollason Wood is a good shout!
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Kite159:1915116 said:
Not that many stations like that, certainly none come to mind.
Claverdon and Bearley are visited yes, and yes I have done LM services through that way and that was before it was uncommon to get a 172 down that route!
I don't see the point of visiting stations multiple times with different operators, that seems rather pointless!
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Blindtraveler:1915469 said:
You'll love it when you get down this way
I have the same problem with getting a bash in Scotland again!
Kite159
Veteran Member
I'm up your way next Wednesday (bargain berth on the sleeper Tuesday night), hoping to do the trams & Newcraighall (although I think I arrive too late to do the loco-hauled Fife circle, unless I can get back to Haymarket and catch it from Haymarket to Waverley (which will be rather pointless)
The only ones I can see which are 'managed' by London Midland but not served by them are the ones in the Crosscountry triangle between New Street/Tamworth/Nuneaton [and the same the other side which are managed by East Midland Trains but not served by them]
There are a couple around here between Romsey & Salisbury (Dean & Dunbridge) which are 'managed' by FGW, but no FGW service has stopped there* for a good few years [since SWT introduced the figure of 6]
(*timetable wise)
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Morning all from Costa Coffee, Old Market, Hereford
Just a quick post for now to say that anyone interested in following this week's action can follow me on Twitter (@Techniquest2003), where live updates will be posted over the next 5 days. Hashtag will be #angloscottishbash
Of course, the main trip report will follow on here by Monday, but in the meantime feel free to watch the action unfold on Twitter
Just a quick post for now to say that anyone interested in following this week's action can follow me on Twitter (@Techniquest2003), where live updates will be posted over the next 5 days. Hashtag will be #angloscottishbash
Of course, the main trip report will follow on here by Monday, but in the meantime feel free to watch the action unfold on Twitter
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Safe travels, hope its dried up a bit up here before you arive!
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Blindtraveler:1933847 said:
Fingers crossed! I haven't forgotten to text you, shall be doing that shortly
I've been following your recent travels on twitter (don't actually use it myself but something fun to read) and thought I'd answer a question of yours :P
Colas bought 37116/175/219/421 at the same time. The former as a more long term project. I believe all but 175 were owned by the same bloke. Do believe they've had 175 had WWH for at least 3 month, perhaps a little more.
Thanks
Colas bought 37116/175/219/421 at the same time. The former as a more long term project. I believe all but 175 were owned by the same bloke. Do believe they've had 175 had WWH for at least 3 month, perhaps a little more.
Thanks
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Ah cheers! Hopefully Pathfinder and UKR will be persuaded one day to get them on a tour...
Trip report has been written in my notebook up to the arrival in Day 1 only so far. Which means I've got 4 and a half days of it unwritten! So don't expect it to be up on here for a good few days. The observations are waiting too, and the pile of those is huge!
On the plus side, I've got a fair way through processing my mileages (nearly three-quarters) so I'm making progress with the bookwork! Even got my Quails sorted, which is most unusual!
Photos are expected to be dealt with tomorrow, but we'll see what the week brings. Back to work on Tuesday sadly, really not looking forward to that after an amazing 5 day trip!
Trip report has been written in my notebook up to the arrival in Day 1 only so far. Which means I've got 4 and a half days of it unwritten! So don't expect it to be up on here for a good few days. The observations are waiting too, and the pile of those is huge!
On the plus side, I've got a fair way through processing my mileages (nearly three-quarters) so I'm making progress with the bookwork! Even got my Quails sorted, which is most unusual!
Photos are expected to be dealt with tomorrow, but we'll see what the week brings. Back to work on Tuesday sadly, really not looking forward to that after an amazing 5 day trip!
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
I wondered why that number sounded familiar! Never got up there for the Bo'ness yet, hmm...*Goes into TPP Mode again tonight*
I'm going to start the trip report, but it's going to take days to get it all done! So if you find a gap of a few days between updates - I didn't take my laptop on this trip you see - only short sections at a time, or a report with less detail than usual, then bear with me! Bonkers 9, disc 1, is playing at the moment to get me motivated enough to do this!
7th October 2014 - Techniquest's Anglo Scottish Bash, Day 1
It's FINALLY here, the epic London and Central Scotland bash! I had this week allocated to holiday time ages ago, and since I haven't had a right proper bash for ages, I wasn't going to cancel it after all [I do have a week allocated at the end of October too, and I'm seriously tempted to keep that too! - Ed] and decided to take advantage of a full week off! Lots, and I do means LOTS, of options available and I spent quite a while considering them all. The decision got kinda made by finding a 2-night stay in a hotel in Leith, Edinburgh for just £58, continental breakfast included, which I considered quite the bargain! Once that was booked, the bigger challenge was to find the best options to getting to/from Scotland. The easy way was relatively expensive, even on Advances [£90 for both ways, but meant leaving pretty darn early on the way home - Ed], so I looked up alternatives.
The Trip Planning Process Mode part of the brain really kicked in and went into overdrive [always a good sign that a trip is going to be good when that happens! - Ed], and about 4 hours later the travel was also booked, save for the bits I can buy on the relevant days, after much and I mean MUCH experimenting and looking around! A day in London on Day 1, then 3 days in Scotland, then back to London for a few hours on Day 5 before heading home that afternoon. So the accommodation was booked, the travel was booked, now it was time to get on with planning various bits and bobs and get through some difficult shifts at work. When that was finally done and dusted, I then had 2 days off to get everything packed, check up on diagrams and so on. I managed to do almost all of that on the Sunday, so Monday was spent re-checking everything and just relaxing, while also looking forward to the epic adventure. It should go without saying that sleep was very difficult to come by [but I was so grateful I managed to get some sleep in the end, find out at the end of Day 1 why... - Ed], however some doss was managed before the alarm went off at 0600.
Chocolate Pop Tarts for breakfast, once I manage to salvage the second one from the toaster, and the travel mug gets filled with coffee. The usual bus, which for those new to these trip reports is VX12 FBO, is travelled on to town and I've nearly got 9,400 miles off this one! I get off in town for a trip to Costa for a medium Americano. Since the reduced Bite card discount of 10%, down from the 20% it has been for years, would bring my large Americano in Pumpkin down to £2.24, I'm opting to spend 16p more and get a superior coffee from Costa [do I really need to mention I LOVE Costa coffee? - Ed], which also gives me the advantage of free WiFi and a far more relaxed environment. £2.20 later I have my medium Americano. Why a medium not large? Simple, I had 45 minutes to kill so since it was miserable outside I decided to sit in and enjoy my coffee. There's also the fact a large cup in Costa is absolutely ginormous, and the handles are not even close to big enough for my hands or the size of the cup! So technically I saved 4p today, just as well since I spent a fair bit in 5 days as it turned out, but still less than my maximum budget so I'm happy!
After a most enjoyable coffee, I walk on down to the station. The only disadvantage of visiting Costa vice Morrisons (which I could have gone to, but their coffee is rancid) is the 10 minute walk to the station, but thankfully the weather had improved slightly by now. I was on the 0849 Hereford to Birmingham New Street this morning, the first of many train journeys this week! Why go with London Midland, I hear you ask? FGW wanted £67 or so for a Super Off Peak Return to London, however I managed to source First Class Advances with London Midland from Hereford to London Euston for just £18 each way. The walk-up return for the 0849 was £35 in Standard Class, so this made sense! The £25 walk-up return was not valid until the 1040 departure, so I've technically only spent £1 more than I could have done but got the advantage of First Class both ways. Being able to charge my phone is going to be exceptionally helpful!
It's 153356 and 170517 this morning on 1M58, and I choose the 153 for some DBT all the way to Birmingham New Street. I get started on writing the trip report [after all, the pre-trip bit took a while to write and now to type! - Ed], then attack the big job I've been putting off for ages, getting the moves book up to date, it's over 2 months out of date [still is! - Ed], and by University I'm almost at the end of Techniquest and Red Pen Strike Back's moves. That was on 4th August, so just over 2 months behind!
After an on-time arrival into Birmingham at 1022, I make a few observations and get a large Costa coffee [it's a much more manageable cup when it's takeaway! - Ed] for the trek to London, starting with dud 350251 on the 1054 to London Euston. It was always likely to be dud, with just 3 350/2s needed and the /3s not yet in use in the Midlands. I have my fingers crossed for the 1002 Crewe to London Euston, which I change to at Rugby. One major advantage of travelling to London at this time of day with my connection times is that the booking engines take me off the 1054 BHM-EUS at RUG and onto the 1002 CRE-EUS so I have no long horribly boring fester at NMP! I also get to London 27 minutes quicker than staying on the 1054 from BHM! The phone goes on charge and I settle in for the trip to Rugby with just myself in First Class.
An enjoyable little break in Rugby had, then it's onto super dud 350120 [I'm not kidding, 6 times I've had it and got well over 300 miles off it! - Ed] for the fast trip to London with just one call at MKC. The RHTT rolls in to my left as we depart Rugby, and this one has a very busy First Class, almost lucky to get a seat! For now my eyes are firmly out of the window, once I got some tunes on, to see what's on Bletchley Carriage Sidings and to see if 321416 is out. I don't see it, but I do observe winner-for-sight 377703! Passing Bushey signals the need to start getting ready to alight, bring on the main event of the day, bring on the fun and games!
After a quick break to stretch the legs, I hit the Victoria line and my first winners of the day are here, 11083 and 11084 for the trip to Highbury and Islington. I was going to get a 313 north to Finsbury Park from here, but I see winners 11029 and 11030 on the next Victoria line train so run back over and jump on to Finsbury Park on those instead. I still make it to the mainline platforms a few minutes ahead of the 313, which I thought was winner 313048 when I jumped on, but I blame the crowd of people in my way for the mis-read, and when I checked I re-checked and re-checked again. Sure enough, it was dud 313046! I have my first Bus Stop Bash (hereby referred to as BSB) of the day, taking the 313 one stop up the road to Harringay. Winner 313030 is had back for BSB 2 though, and I make several observations before winner 365525 rolls in for a leap to Kings Cross. We come into platform 8 and I immediately think to myself "I swear it was never this light here before" and once outside I see why. The new public square is open where the old buildings were, and it's very fancy too!
I head to the suburban platforms next, and I see winner 317341 unexpectedly so I'm jumping on that for the leap to Finsbury Park [you'll notice Finsbury Park to Kings Cross isn't counted as a BSB here, reason being it's over 2 miles so seems more than unfair to count it as a BSB! - Ed], once I get a coffee from Caffe Nero. Fair dos, the guy was very friendly and served quickly, but the coffee was less than satisfactory. It's just not that good, I'm sorry but I don't like Caffe Nero. So why go there, I hear you ask? Simply because Kings Cross is one of those evil termini that's too posh for the likes of me with no Burger King and another one that doesn't like Costa enough to have them on their station! How RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE! So I was stuck with an inferior coffee but it had to do the job as Puccinos is no longer at Finsbury Park! What on Earth is the world coming to, it's all changing on the Great Northern and it seems impossible to get a decent coffee anymore! :cry: I am aware there's a Costa outside the station, across the road from the bus station, but that's not very convenient when you're EMU cranking with trains at least every 10 minutes in each direction! Especially now the barriers are in the way, cranking has become harder here
Anyway, I needed to be back at Kings Cross ASAP as I was due to get some 321s in. Fortunately winner 365509 is on hand to get me back to Kings Cross with only a short wait. As we arrive into platform 11, with the 1435 to Peterborough due off platform 10, it was even better! Winners 321418 and 321406 were on it, and I jump on for the trip to Finsbury Park. I don't honestly recall the last time I did Kings Cross to Finsbury Park and back leaps, it must have been when 313s still went to Kings Cross during the week. Some time ago that then! Cross-platform interchange for winner 313040, this time to Hornsey as I fancied seeing what was on the depot. Answer is quite a few 365s (where on Earth do they all go in the evening peak?!) more than anything else! Most fortunately winner 313033 is heading dud 313038 on the trip back to Finsbury Park [note that FPK to Hornsey is not classed as a BSB as it's nearly 1.5 miles, and in my book a BSB is 1m19c or less, funnily enough
- Ed], and winner 365513 is running 10 minutes late today. As there's not really any 317s and 321s due about for a while, I take this to Kings Cross and choose to spend some time on GTR's other line, the Thameslink route through St Pancras.
377517 is scored on a Bedford eventually at St Pancras Low Level, and the 1540 to Brighton is being delayed by a train fault, which got the 1548 to Sutton in front of it. I had originally planned to only do BSBs on this line, but double winners 319s 319013 and 319371 calling at a shack I needed, Loughborough Junction, was too tempting and I end up going for it. The 1617 back to Luton is cancelled though, which then meant I was going to miss some of the 317 and 321 action out of Kings Cross, so I wasn't too happy! However eventually the fester is over [felt like a really long 27 minutes! - Ed] and I soon cheer back up when I discover I have double winners again with 319426 and 319386!
Back at Kings Cross, I discover the 1713 has a pair of 317s on it, today it's double winners 317342 and 317340, so I'm on for the leap to Finsbury Park again. There's a peak time extra to Gordon Hill (I think!) shortly, but I take dud 313053 with winner 313042 instead for the BSB to Harringay. Here the peak time extra overtakes us on the Down Slow 2, which I discovered when I was on the footbridge, so couldn't ID them anyway. Double duds (hey, it had to happen at some point, right?) 313049 and 313051 take me on yet another BSB back to Finsbury Park, and this time I'm in a rush to get back to Kings Cross as the trio of 321s has stuck to diagram, and I phot it formed of 321405, 321419 and 321401 coming off Hornsey depot from the footbridge at Harringay. Double duds 321406 and 321418 are back and take me down the road to Kings Cross, where it's time for some photos of the triple 321s and it's already boarding and getting busy, 12 minutes before departure!. No wonder they put a trio of 321s on this then! Back to Finsbury Park I go, and it's onto winner 313056 with dud 313134 on the back for another BSB to Harringay. Again, a peak time extra overtakes us and I make every effort to get the numbers for the observation to go onto the "Trains you've seen working" thread [I am trying to get people posting on it! - Ed], but it's too dark at this time of day, at this time of year, to do so.
313042 and 313053 are back for the umpteenth BSB of the day back to Finsbury Park, and I discover the next train to Kings Cross is a pair of 313s. Ooh, I likes the sound of that I does! Double winners 313041 and 313036 are on it [I'm guessing these are coming back down off one of those peak time extras, it's the 1840 off FPK at least to KGX - Ed], so I'm ultra happy at that! Believe it or not, I'm still not done with the leaping yet, as 317348 has turned up from somewhere and is on the rear of 317341, so since 317348 is a winner I'm off to, well guess where...Yep, Finsbury Park! Double winners in the form of 365517 and 365538 turn up on the next Kings Cross train which is most pleasing! By now I'm beyond starving, it's been some hours since I last ate anything [there's a lesson for you kids, all this cranking on BSBs can still knock it out of you! - Ed] so I head to McDonalds after arriving at Kings Cross. My usual meal is devoured in what felt like seconds, and I'm soon back out in the cold. It's around 1930 by now, still a maximum of 2 hours of cranking left for today before I have to be at Victoria Coach Station. What do I do now I ponder...
It's decided after what felt like hours but can't have been more than a minute, I'm off to the Victoria line and I score winners 11049 and 11050 to Oxford Circus. With the announcement of brand new trains being ordered for the Bakerloo, Central, Piccadilly and more lines, now was the best time to start properly cranking on the relevant lines! Since I've got a soft spot for the Bakerloo line (it's the only one which has even gained an affectionate nickname from me, the Oven Line), for reasons that delve deep into nostalgia and would mean thousands of hours detailing it all, I decided it would be a grand idea to get cranking properly on the 72 stock before anywhere else. I'm just not a fan of the Piccadilly line I'm afraid, I can't figure out why either. The Central line, while it doesn't hold that special place in my heart like the Bakerloo [and like the Circle line used to - Ed], I'll miss the 92 stock on it when it goes. The 96 stock, I don't mind it but I'm not exactly a fan. Anyway, dud 3367 and winner 3346 are on the leap to a winner shack, Lambeth North. That's the Bakerloo line stations finally all finished, and it was a weird experience going non-stop through Embankment!
I don't even have to wait too long for a winner to come along for my trip to Waterloo, with winner 3551 and dud 3355 on the BSB. I did the Waterloo and City line with heart-of-wessex many years ago, but I never recorded the moves properly at the time so this is my first official recording of a journey on it. What I believe is 9 years later after first doing it...So it's obviously double winners with 65505 and 65506 for the trip to Bank. It's only a 5 minute journey, but it's a fairly long walk to the Northern line (and most of the options to be fair), and on the way to Euston I realise Angel is still a required shack so I jump off double winners 51609 and 51717, with a 5 minute wait for the next train north but that is also a pair of winners with 51603 and 51604 for the trip onwards to Euston. When I get upstairs to the concourse, I discover it's all gone belly up on the WCML, with my planned train, the 2105 to Bletchley, cancelled. Many others were cancelled or severely delayed too. Why the 2105 to Bletchley? It was in the diagram for a 350/3, since it was cancelled I needed a new plan, as it was around 2029 and still had a good while to go yet.
Back to the Victoria line it was, with dud 11057 and winner 11058 (I had an issue with recording Tube trains previously, changed all that now) for the trip to Victoria in just 6 minutes. Victoria's pretty empty at this time I see, much more so than I expected, and I eventually find a winner 377, 377151, on the 2110 to Horsham. I was going to go to East Croydon, but it seemed unwise given the time of night and the current frequency of trains, so I bailed at Clapham Junction. Just as well, as I get my first winner 377/3 in quite a while, it leading dud 377164, which I'm on back to Victoria. We eventually get there, not had an 11 minute leap from Clapham Junction to Victoria before! I was going to give up now, but it's 2130 and I still have some time to do more yet! The guy on the barrier was trying to persuade me to surrender my Travelcard, he was politely told no way. I also noticed the tannoy announcing an apology for the short formation on wherever 377164 and 377323 were going next. What, 7 coaches at gone 2130 is "short"?! I've seen solo 153s on the Marches on a Sunday not too long after the shops have kicked everyone out before (not for a long time, I must add, this was 2004 or 2005 I believe), now THAT is a short formation!
So what's next? Much to my surprise, the 2136 to Brighton is formed of dud 442401 and winner 442402, I'll take that! I check several times to make sure I'm not on a random Gatwick Express, but no it is a normal Southern service. This is another threatened class, faced with withdrawal and no doubt scrap once the new GatEx trains arrive. Another leap to Clapham Junction, and I get winner 377601 (also needed for sight!) with dud 377625 back to Victoria. I'm rather happy with the micro-gricing I've managed tonight, with all Southern platforms now done and just a couple left with track into them to do now. Just need to do the same on the SET side now! i purposefully avoid the Southern guy on the barrier this time and make a beeline for Victoria Coach Station. Fortunately I don't get lost looking for it, and I make a phone call to home to let them know all is fine and good, etc. I watch some coaches come and go, and eventually my coach for tonight rolls in, boarding commencing a few minutes after a lady with an arm in a sling is boarded. MegabusGold's SF13 FML [I remember seeing the end of that registration plate and thinking the worst! - Ed], numbered 50307, is a winner since I've never even seen a MegabusGold vehicle, let alone been on one!
So what is MegabusGold, I hear you ask? I wondered the same, and went to their website during the long TPP Mode stage of the trip. The video you see on your first visit to the website is very persuasive that it's an excellent service, that it's a luxury service that'll leave you beaming and very much ready for the day ahead. It promises free WiFi, power sockets, complimentary refreshments and your own bed for the night, including breakfast in the morning. Very nice, I think, and definitely choose that option when I'm looking about at all the options for getting to/from Scotland. Not bad at all for £25.50 including booking fee, or at least so I think.
Well, for a luxury service you wouldn't naturally think so when getting upstairs. Upon boarding your complimentary refreshments are a 330ml bottle of Strathmore still water and a chocolate and orange muffin. That's it. No hot drinks, no variety of any sort, if you didn't like either of them I guess you would go without! There's only beds downstairs, no seating to relax in before going to bed, and I was directed to the beds upstairs and turn right. Annoyingly there were no single bunks left on the lower level up here, so I had to have a top bunk. Just getting into the thing was a mystery for several minutes, and during this time of figuring it out I was horrified to see an older gentleman stripping down to his boxers for his trip onboard. Not something I wanted to see! After about 15 minutes I've got it worked out, but not where to put my carrier bag of stuff I brought on with me.
You HAVE to get into your bed with your feet facing forward, expect telling off otherwise like I got. He found somewhere to put my bag and coat, and above where I was lying I had maybe 8 inches of room between me and the fixtures. Not really a great amount! The pillow, well the easiest way to describe it would be not much bigger than my A5 notebook! Very thin too, and the mattress was about as thick as my notebook too, which is a 300 page one! Granted, the sheet and blanket were of decent enough quality, which was something! The WiFi wasn't even recognised on my phone, well except for once or twice and even then it refused to connect. The power socket did work though thankfully, which if it hadn't I'd have demanded to be let off the vehicle before we left Greater London so I could continue cranking on an all-nighter! Yes I was that fed up of the experience, and we'd not long gone past Marble Arch at this time. Those of you familiar with London will know that Victoria Coach Station to Marble Arch is not that far, yet in that time I was fed up enough to want to give up!
So after a while I was in the bunk the right way around, I sort of had the blanket covering me (it's very difficult to put it out properly in such a small bit of room!) and I could tell whenever the guy in the bunk underneath me moved or sat up too far as he'd bang into the soft material of my bunk. I never did look to see what it was made of, but it was pretty thin and must have been very little room for him to move around too. The family in their ground level beds next to me looked cosy enough mind! Mind you, they had no-one sleeping above them, no difficult-to-access bunk, plenty of room to move and storage space too. They had it fine, and they woke up looking much more refreshed than I did! Oh yeah, there's that annoying circle of blue light around the speakers in your control panel above the top bunk, two of these circles, that with them being so close to your head makes it awkward to sleep.
What else could go wrong, I hear you wonder (and I can tell you've closed your bookings pages for MegabusGold!). Well while the phone is on charge, which was super necessary by now, there's no secure place to put it. Which I found to my horror at one point during the night, when I managed to tug the whole thing out of the socket in my control panel, and it fell down the side of the bed onto the guy below's bed! Thankfully he woke up to use the facilities during the night, so I got him to get it for me. I also lost the pens out of my pocket, but didn't want to irritate the guy too much. Phone back on charge, I ended up sliding it into my pocket and hoping I didn't do the same thing again.
Also, you'd think the UK motorways were fairly smooth wouldn't you? Clearly not, as I spent most of the night being bounced around in my bunk, which as you can imagine makes sleep rather difficult! I had no idea where I was at the time, but I really, REALLY, couldn't wait to get to Glasgow and get off the coach, which I've nicknamed the Pacer of the Motorways! The engine noise, for a modern coach made for sleeper journeys, was noisy enough for me to hear it quite a lot during the night too. I'd have not complained during the day, but in the small hours when I'm trying to sleep I will complain!
Finally then, after we arrived into Glasgow at 0642, 18 minutes early (we left 2 minutes late at 2302), breakfast has been offered. Finally I think, a coffee is most needed! Umm, no, we're invited to take one of each (with a tone that suggested harsh action if we'd dare take more than 1!) of either a Juicee orange juice or apple juice carton (they're only 250ml each as well) and a Polish-branded long-life croissant. I chose the one with chocolate, and when I ate it much later on I must admit it was nice, but that is NOT what I call a breakfast. It was absolutely freezing outside too, surely offering hot drinks would have been an obvious thing to do? I've since read the leaflet I picked up at Victoria Coach Station, and the free refreshments appears to be much better on the MegabusGold DAY services. Sorry but tough, I won't be wasting my time trying those! I arrived into Glasgow feeling more than tired, having had less than 2 hours sleep through exhaustion more than anything else, and I was glad to finally find McDonalds near Glasgow Central, where I could warm up and get a breakfast meal. That much I'll describe in day 2. However, I'll say what I've said to my family here, that I would only ever try MegabusGold under the following circumstances ONLY:
a) If I had missed my last train
b) A hotel was too expensive
c) No more trains for 8 or 9 hours
d) It's the middle of winter
e) I have absolutely NO other choices whatsoever
Day 1 has taken me over 2.5 hours to type up, and it's 0340 as I type this bit, so I'm knackered and in need of going to bed. I'll continue this when I next get the chance! Gotta admit I did OK for detail considering everything from arrival into Euston is from memory!
I'm going to start the trip report, but it's going to take days to get it all done! So if you find a gap of a few days between updates - I didn't take my laptop on this trip you see - only short sections at a time, or a report with less detail than usual, then bear with me! Bonkers 9, disc 1, is playing at the moment to get me motivated enough to do this!
7th October 2014 - Techniquest's Anglo Scottish Bash, Day 1
It's FINALLY here, the epic London and Central Scotland bash! I had this week allocated to holiday time ages ago, and since I haven't had a right proper bash for ages, I wasn't going to cancel it after all [I do have a week allocated at the end of October too, and I'm seriously tempted to keep that too! - Ed] and decided to take advantage of a full week off! Lots, and I do means LOTS, of options available and I spent quite a while considering them all. The decision got kinda made by finding a 2-night stay in a hotel in Leith, Edinburgh for just £58, continental breakfast included, which I considered quite the bargain! Once that was booked, the bigger challenge was to find the best options to getting to/from Scotland. The easy way was relatively expensive, even on Advances [£90 for both ways, but meant leaving pretty darn early on the way home - Ed], so I looked up alternatives.
The Trip Planning Process Mode part of the brain really kicked in and went into overdrive [always a good sign that a trip is going to be good when that happens! - Ed], and about 4 hours later the travel was also booked, save for the bits I can buy on the relevant days, after much and I mean MUCH experimenting and looking around! A day in London on Day 1, then 3 days in Scotland, then back to London for a few hours on Day 5 before heading home that afternoon. So the accommodation was booked, the travel was booked, now it was time to get on with planning various bits and bobs and get through some difficult shifts at work. When that was finally done and dusted, I then had 2 days off to get everything packed, check up on diagrams and so on. I managed to do almost all of that on the Sunday, so Monday was spent re-checking everything and just relaxing, while also looking forward to the epic adventure. It should go without saying that sleep was very difficult to come by [but I was so grateful I managed to get some sleep in the end, find out at the end of Day 1 why... - Ed], however some doss was managed before the alarm went off at 0600.
Chocolate Pop Tarts for breakfast, once I manage to salvage the second one from the toaster, and the travel mug gets filled with coffee. The usual bus, which for those new to these trip reports is VX12 FBO, is travelled on to town and I've nearly got 9,400 miles off this one! I get off in town for a trip to Costa for a medium Americano. Since the reduced Bite card discount of 10%, down from the 20% it has been for years, would bring my large Americano in Pumpkin down to £2.24, I'm opting to spend 16p more and get a superior coffee from Costa [do I really need to mention I LOVE Costa coffee? - Ed], which also gives me the advantage of free WiFi and a far more relaxed environment. £2.20 later I have my medium Americano. Why a medium not large? Simple, I had 45 minutes to kill so since it was miserable outside I decided to sit in and enjoy my coffee. There's also the fact a large cup in Costa is absolutely ginormous, and the handles are not even close to big enough for my hands or the size of the cup! So technically I saved 4p today, just as well since I spent a fair bit in 5 days as it turned out, but still less than my maximum budget so I'm happy!
After a most enjoyable coffee, I walk on down to the station. The only disadvantage of visiting Costa vice Morrisons (which I could have gone to, but their coffee is rancid) is the 10 minute walk to the station, but thankfully the weather had improved slightly by now. I was on the 0849 Hereford to Birmingham New Street this morning, the first of many train journeys this week! Why go with London Midland, I hear you ask? FGW wanted £67 or so for a Super Off Peak Return to London, however I managed to source First Class Advances with London Midland from Hereford to London Euston for just £18 each way. The walk-up return for the 0849 was £35 in Standard Class, so this made sense! The £25 walk-up return was not valid until the 1040 departure, so I've technically only spent £1 more than I could have done but got the advantage of First Class both ways. Being able to charge my phone is going to be exceptionally helpful!
It's 153356 and 170517 this morning on 1M58, and I choose the 153 for some DBT all the way to Birmingham New Street. I get started on writing the trip report [after all, the pre-trip bit took a while to write and now to type! - Ed], then attack the big job I've been putting off for ages, getting the moves book up to date, it's over 2 months out of date [still is! - Ed], and by University I'm almost at the end of Techniquest and Red Pen Strike Back's moves. That was on 4th August, so just over 2 months behind!
After an on-time arrival into Birmingham at 1022, I make a few observations and get a large Costa coffee [it's a much more manageable cup when it's takeaway! - Ed] for the trek to London, starting with dud 350251 on the 1054 to London Euston. It was always likely to be dud, with just 3 350/2s needed and the /3s not yet in use in the Midlands. I have my fingers crossed for the 1002 Crewe to London Euston, which I change to at Rugby. One major advantage of travelling to London at this time of day with my connection times is that the booking engines take me off the 1054 BHM-EUS at RUG and onto the 1002 CRE-EUS so I have no long horribly boring fester at NMP! I also get to London 27 minutes quicker than staying on the 1054 from BHM! The phone goes on charge and I settle in for the trip to Rugby with just myself in First Class.
An enjoyable little break in Rugby had, then it's onto super dud 350120 [I'm not kidding, 6 times I've had it and got well over 300 miles off it! - Ed] for the fast trip to London with just one call at MKC. The RHTT rolls in to my left as we depart Rugby, and this one has a very busy First Class, almost lucky to get a seat! For now my eyes are firmly out of the window, once I got some tunes on, to see what's on Bletchley Carriage Sidings and to see if 321416 is out. I don't see it, but I do observe winner-for-sight 377703! Passing Bushey signals the need to start getting ready to alight, bring on the main event of the day, bring on the fun and games!
After a quick break to stretch the legs, I hit the Victoria line and my first winners of the day are here, 11083 and 11084 for the trip to Highbury and Islington. I was going to get a 313 north to Finsbury Park from here, but I see winners 11029 and 11030 on the next Victoria line train so run back over and jump on to Finsbury Park on those instead. I still make it to the mainline platforms a few minutes ahead of the 313, which I thought was winner 313048 when I jumped on, but I blame the crowd of people in my way for the mis-read, and when I checked I re-checked and re-checked again. Sure enough, it was dud 313046! I have my first Bus Stop Bash (hereby referred to as BSB) of the day, taking the 313 one stop up the road to Harringay. Winner 313030 is had back for BSB 2 though, and I make several observations before winner 365525 rolls in for a leap to Kings Cross. We come into platform 8 and I immediately think to myself "I swear it was never this light here before" and once outside I see why. The new public square is open where the old buildings were, and it's very fancy too!
I head to the suburban platforms next, and I see winner 317341 unexpectedly so I'm jumping on that for the leap to Finsbury Park [you'll notice Finsbury Park to Kings Cross isn't counted as a BSB here, reason being it's over 2 miles so seems more than unfair to count it as a BSB! - Ed], once I get a coffee from Caffe Nero. Fair dos, the guy was very friendly and served quickly, but the coffee was less than satisfactory. It's just not that good, I'm sorry but I don't like Caffe Nero. So why go there, I hear you ask? Simply because Kings Cross is one of those evil termini that's too posh for the likes of me with no Burger King and another one that doesn't like Costa enough to have them on their station! How RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE! So I was stuck with an inferior coffee but it had to do the job as Puccinos is no longer at Finsbury Park! What on Earth is the world coming to, it's all changing on the Great Northern and it seems impossible to get a decent coffee anymore! :cry: I am aware there's a Costa outside the station, across the road from the bus station, but that's not very convenient when you're EMU cranking with trains at least every 10 minutes in each direction! Especially now the barriers are in the way, cranking has become harder here
Anyway, I needed to be back at Kings Cross ASAP as I was due to get some 321s in. Fortunately winner 365509 is on hand to get me back to Kings Cross with only a short wait. As we arrive into platform 11, with the 1435 to Peterborough due off platform 10, it was even better! Winners 321418 and 321406 were on it, and I jump on for the trip to Finsbury Park. I don't honestly recall the last time I did Kings Cross to Finsbury Park and back leaps, it must have been when 313s still went to Kings Cross during the week. Some time ago that then! Cross-platform interchange for winner 313040, this time to Hornsey as I fancied seeing what was on the depot. Answer is quite a few 365s (where on Earth do they all go in the evening peak?!) more than anything else! Most fortunately winner 313033 is heading dud 313038 on the trip back to Finsbury Park [note that FPK to Hornsey is not classed as a BSB as it's nearly 1.5 miles, and in my book a BSB is 1m19c or less, funnily enough
- Ed], and winner 365513 is running 10 minutes late today. As there's not really any 317s and 321s due about for a while, I take this to Kings Cross and choose to spend some time on GTR's other line, the Thameslink route through St Pancras.377517 is scored on a Bedford eventually at St Pancras Low Level, and the 1540 to Brighton is being delayed by a train fault, which got the 1548 to Sutton in front of it. I had originally planned to only do BSBs on this line, but double winners 319s 319013 and 319371 calling at a shack I needed, Loughborough Junction, was too tempting and I end up going for it. The 1617 back to Luton is cancelled though, which then meant I was going to miss some of the 317 and 321 action out of Kings Cross, so I wasn't too happy! However eventually the fester is over [felt like a really long 27 minutes! - Ed] and I soon cheer back up when I discover I have double winners again with 319426 and 319386!
Back at Kings Cross, I discover the 1713 has a pair of 317s on it, today it's double winners 317342 and 317340, so I'm on for the leap to Finsbury Park again. There's a peak time extra to Gordon Hill (I think!) shortly, but I take dud 313053 with winner 313042 instead for the BSB to Harringay. Here the peak time extra overtakes us on the Down Slow 2, which I discovered when I was on the footbridge, so couldn't ID them anyway. Double duds (hey, it had to happen at some point, right?) 313049 and 313051 take me on yet another BSB back to Finsbury Park, and this time I'm in a rush to get back to Kings Cross as the trio of 321s has stuck to diagram, and I phot it formed of 321405, 321419 and 321401 coming off Hornsey depot from the footbridge at Harringay. Double duds 321406 and 321418 are back and take me down the road to Kings Cross, where it's time for some photos of the triple 321s and it's already boarding and getting busy, 12 minutes before departure!. No wonder they put a trio of 321s on this then! Back to Finsbury Park I go, and it's onto winner 313056 with dud 313134 on the back for another BSB to Harringay. Again, a peak time extra overtakes us and I make every effort to get the numbers for the observation to go onto the "Trains you've seen working" thread [I am trying to get people posting on it! - Ed], but it's too dark at this time of day, at this time of year, to do so.
313042 and 313053 are back for the umpteenth BSB of the day back to Finsbury Park, and I discover the next train to Kings Cross is a pair of 313s. Ooh, I likes the sound of that I does! Double winners 313041 and 313036 are on it [I'm guessing these are coming back down off one of those peak time extras, it's the 1840 off FPK at least to KGX - Ed], so I'm ultra happy at that! Believe it or not, I'm still not done with the leaping yet, as 317348 has turned up from somewhere and is on the rear of 317341, so since 317348 is a winner I'm off to, well guess where...Yep, Finsbury Park! Double winners in the form of 365517 and 365538 turn up on the next Kings Cross train which is most pleasing! By now I'm beyond starving, it's been some hours since I last ate anything [there's a lesson for you kids, all this cranking on BSBs can still knock it out of you! - Ed] so I head to McDonalds after arriving at Kings Cross. My usual meal is devoured in what felt like seconds, and I'm soon back out in the cold. It's around 1930 by now, still a maximum of 2 hours of cranking left for today before I have to be at Victoria Coach Station. What do I do now I ponder...
It's decided after what felt like hours but can't have been more than a minute, I'm off to the Victoria line and I score winners 11049 and 11050 to Oxford Circus. With the announcement of brand new trains being ordered for the Bakerloo, Central, Piccadilly and more lines, now was the best time to start properly cranking on the relevant lines! Since I've got a soft spot for the Bakerloo line (it's the only one which has even gained an affectionate nickname from me, the Oven Line), for reasons that delve deep into nostalgia and would mean thousands of hours detailing it all, I decided it would be a grand idea to get cranking properly on the 72 stock before anywhere else. I'm just not a fan of the Piccadilly line I'm afraid, I can't figure out why either. The Central line, while it doesn't hold that special place in my heart like the Bakerloo [and like the Circle line used to - Ed], I'll miss the 92 stock on it when it goes. The 96 stock, I don't mind it but I'm not exactly a fan. Anyway, dud 3367 and winner 3346 are on the leap to a winner shack, Lambeth North. That's the Bakerloo line stations finally all finished, and it was a weird experience going non-stop through Embankment!
I don't even have to wait too long for a winner to come along for my trip to Waterloo, with winner 3551 and dud 3355 on the BSB. I did the Waterloo and City line with heart-of-wessex many years ago, but I never recorded the moves properly at the time so this is my first official recording of a journey on it. What I believe is 9 years later after first doing it...So it's obviously double winners with 65505 and 65506 for the trip to Bank. It's only a 5 minute journey, but it's a fairly long walk to the Northern line (and most of the options to be fair), and on the way to Euston I realise Angel is still a required shack so I jump off double winners 51609 and 51717, with a 5 minute wait for the next train north but that is also a pair of winners with 51603 and 51604 for the trip onwards to Euston. When I get upstairs to the concourse, I discover it's all gone belly up on the WCML, with my planned train, the 2105 to Bletchley, cancelled. Many others were cancelled or severely delayed too. Why the 2105 to Bletchley? It was in the diagram for a 350/3, since it was cancelled I needed a new plan, as it was around 2029 and still had a good while to go yet.
Back to the Victoria line it was, with dud 11057 and winner 11058 (I had an issue with recording Tube trains previously, changed all that now) for the trip to Victoria in just 6 minutes. Victoria's pretty empty at this time I see, much more so than I expected, and I eventually find a winner 377, 377151, on the 2110 to Horsham. I was going to go to East Croydon, but it seemed unwise given the time of night and the current frequency of trains, so I bailed at Clapham Junction. Just as well, as I get my first winner 377/3 in quite a while, it leading dud 377164, which I'm on back to Victoria. We eventually get there, not had an 11 minute leap from Clapham Junction to Victoria before! I was going to give up now, but it's 2130 and I still have some time to do more yet! The guy on the barrier was trying to persuade me to surrender my Travelcard, he was politely told no way. I also noticed the tannoy announcing an apology for the short formation on wherever 377164 and 377323 were going next. What, 7 coaches at gone 2130 is "short"?! I've seen solo 153s on the Marches on a Sunday not too long after the shops have kicked everyone out before (not for a long time, I must add, this was 2004 or 2005 I believe), now THAT is a short formation!
So what's next? Much to my surprise, the 2136 to Brighton is formed of dud 442401 and winner 442402, I'll take that! I check several times to make sure I'm not on a random Gatwick Express, but no it is a normal Southern service. This is another threatened class, faced with withdrawal and no doubt scrap once the new GatEx trains arrive. Another leap to Clapham Junction, and I get winner 377601 (also needed for sight!) with dud 377625 back to Victoria. I'm rather happy with the micro-gricing I've managed tonight, with all Southern platforms now done and just a couple left with track into them to do now. Just need to do the same on the SET side now! i purposefully avoid the Southern guy on the barrier this time and make a beeline for Victoria Coach Station. Fortunately I don't get lost looking for it, and I make a phone call to home to let them know all is fine and good, etc. I watch some coaches come and go, and eventually my coach for tonight rolls in, boarding commencing a few minutes after a lady with an arm in a sling is boarded. MegabusGold's SF13 FML [I remember seeing the end of that registration plate and thinking the worst! - Ed], numbered 50307, is a winner since I've never even seen a MegabusGold vehicle, let alone been on one!
So what is MegabusGold, I hear you ask? I wondered the same, and went to their website during the long TPP Mode stage of the trip. The video you see on your first visit to the website is very persuasive that it's an excellent service, that it's a luxury service that'll leave you beaming and very much ready for the day ahead. It promises free WiFi, power sockets, complimentary refreshments and your own bed for the night, including breakfast in the morning. Very nice, I think, and definitely choose that option when I'm looking about at all the options for getting to/from Scotland. Not bad at all for £25.50 including booking fee, or at least so I think.
Well, for a luxury service you wouldn't naturally think so when getting upstairs. Upon boarding your complimentary refreshments are a 330ml bottle of Strathmore still water and a chocolate and orange muffin. That's it. No hot drinks, no variety of any sort, if you didn't like either of them I guess you would go without! There's only beds downstairs, no seating to relax in before going to bed, and I was directed to the beds upstairs and turn right. Annoyingly there were no single bunks left on the lower level up here, so I had to have a top bunk. Just getting into the thing was a mystery for several minutes, and during this time of figuring it out I was horrified to see an older gentleman stripping down to his boxers for his trip onboard. Not something I wanted to see! After about 15 minutes I've got it worked out, but not where to put my carrier bag of stuff I brought on with me.
You HAVE to get into your bed with your feet facing forward, expect telling off otherwise like I got. He found somewhere to put my bag and coat, and above where I was lying I had maybe 8 inches of room between me and the fixtures. Not really a great amount! The pillow, well the easiest way to describe it would be not much bigger than my A5 notebook! Very thin too, and the mattress was about as thick as my notebook too, which is a 300 page one! Granted, the sheet and blanket were of decent enough quality, which was something! The WiFi wasn't even recognised on my phone, well except for once or twice and even then it refused to connect. The power socket did work though thankfully, which if it hadn't I'd have demanded to be let off the vehicle before we left Greater London so I could continue cranking on an all-nighter! Yes I was that fed up of the experience, and we'd not long gone past Marble Arch at this time. Those of you familiar with London will know that Victoria Coach Station to Marble Arch is not that far, yet in that time I was fed up enough to want to give up!
So after a while I was in the bunk the right way around, I sort of had the blanket covering me (it's very difficult to put it out properly in such a small bit of room!) and I could tell whenever the guy in the bunk underneath me moved or sat up too far as he'd bang into the soft material of my bunk. I never did look to see what it was made of, but it was pretty thin and must have been very little room for him to move around too. The family in their ground level beds next to me looked cosy enough mind! Mind you, they had no-one sleeping above them, no difficult-to-access bunk, plenty of room to move and storage space too. They had it fine, and they woke up looking much more refreshed than I did! Oh yeah, there's that annoying circle of blue light around the speakers in your control panel above the top bunk, two of these circles, that with them being so close to your head makes it awkward to sleep.
What else could go wrong, I hear you wonder (and I can tell you've closed your bookings pages for MegabusGold!
). Well while the phone is on charge, which was super necessary by now, there's no secure place to put it. Which I found to my horror at one point during the night, when I managed to tug the whole thing out of the socket in my control panel, and it fell down the side of the bed onto the guy below's bed! Thankfully he woke up to use the facilities during the night, so I got him to get it for me. I also lost the pens out of my pocket, but didn't want to irritate the guy too much. Phone back on charge, I ended up sliding it into my pocket and hoping I didn't do the same thing again.Also, you'd think the UK motorways were fairly smooth wouldn't you? Clearly not, as I spent most of the night being bounced around in my bunk, which as you can imagine makes sleep rather difficult! I had no idea where I was at the time, but I really, REALLY, couldn't wait to get to Glasgow and get off the coach, which I've nicknamed the Pacer of the Motorways! The engine noise, for a modern coach made for sleeper journeys, was noisy enough for me to hear it quite a lot during the night too. I'd have not complained during the day, but in the small hours when I'm trying to sleep I will complain!
Finally then, after we arrived into Glasgow at 0642, 18 minutes early (we left 2 minutes late at 2302), breakfast has been offered. Finally I think, a coffee is most needed! Umm, no, we're invited to take one of each (with a tone that suggested harsh action if we'd dare take more than 1!) of either a Juicee orange juice or apple juice carton (they're only 250ml each as well) and a Polish-branded long-life croissant. I chose the one with chocolate, and when I ate it much later on I must admit it was nice, but that is NOT what I call a breakfast. It was absolutely freezing outside too, surely offering hot drinks would have been an obvious thing to do? I've since read the leaflet I picked up at Victoria Coach Station, and the free refreshments appears to be much better on the MegabusGold DAY services. Sorry but tough, I won't be wasting my time trying those! I arrived into Glasgow feeling more than tired, having had less than 2 hours sleep through exhaustion more than anything else, and I was glad to finally find McDonalds near Glasgow Central, where I could warm up and get a breakfast meal. That much I'll describe in day 2. However, I'll say what I've said to my family here, that I would only ever try MegabusGold under the following circumstances ONLY:
a) If I had missed my last train
b) A hotel was too expensive
c) No more trains for 8 or 9 hours
d) It's the middle of winter
e) I have absolutely NO other choices whatsoever
Day 1 has taken me over 2.5 hours to type up, and it's 0340 as I type this bit, so I'm knackered and in need of going to bed. I'll continue this when I next get the chance! Gotta admit I did OK for detail considering everything from arrival into Euston is from memory!
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Blindtraveler
Established Member
Well I like Pacers, however also value a decent nights kip so doubt I'll be trying that anytime soon. Great report so far, good on you getting it started, your doing a smashing job! A shame KGX is too posh for its own good now and sounds like all the winners on your Travel Card bash were good fun. I'll not miss the 72 stock but the 92 definately! Looking forward to day 2!
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Aye t'was great fun indeed
I anticipate cracking on with the rest of the report later this week, as I also want to get on with processing the observations this week and finish going through my journeys on RailMiles today.
I anticipate cracking on with the rest of the report later this week, as I also want to get on with processing the observations this week and finish going through my journeys on RailMiles today.
Kite159
Veteran Member
I'm glad I am not the only one who goes back and forward between Kings Cross & Finsbury Park. Useful way to waste some time when waiting on a booked train to become available to be boarded, with the advantage of having the Victoria line running alongside in case you hit a dead spot with no sound-bound trains for 10 or so minutes.
Interesting I had 317348 (with 317345) yesterday when doing a short hop, first Great Northern (or FCC) 317s
Interesting I had 317348 (with 317345) yesterday when doing a short hop, first Great Northern (or FCC) 317s
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Part of the fun for me, as I've explained elsewhere on here before it's one of the only ways I get to talk about trips I've made so I'm usually happy to do a trip report. No point trying to talk about it with the norms at work, they wouldn't understand whatsoever!
Part 2 is coming soon gang, once I've replied to Kite159 and read posts on threads I've commented on I'll be cracking on
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Admittedly it's been way too long since I last did KGX-FPK leaps, but I did remember how much I used to enjoy doing them
More interesting than VIC-CLJ, definitely more interesting than WAT-CLJ!
EDIT: DAY 2 BELOW!
After spending much time last night sorting out my observations from last week, my eyes were hurting badly from so much staring at the screen, so never did start day 2's write up. However I am doing so on my commute to work today. It won't be fully done in that time, but it'll be started. So let's crack on!
8th October 2014 - Techniquest's Anglo Scottish Bash, Day 2
So I had a little over 2 hours to kill, and it was freezing, and I was in dire need of food and coffee. McDonalds is found near Glasgow Central, and £3.89 later I had a bacon roll breakfast and coffee. Some of the most awful, depressing and downright miserable music in the world was playing for ages, then something bouncy finally came on. As I had not had the opportunity on the coach to get my books updated, once breakfast was over I spent a good while doing that, and my books were already looking far better, what they looked like at the end of the trip was incredible! With taking advantage of the chance of changing into fresh clothes, thus feeling a lot more human, I had spent around an error here all in! Worth the £3.89 then for sure!
Time to go and buy my ticket for the 3 day extravaganza in Scotland, full of anticipation for it. £36.30 for a Central Scotland 3 in 7 rover, and the ticket office lady had no problem finding it to my pleasant surprise. She even took the time to explain the dates boxes, not something other ticket offices have ever done for me. Not that I needed to know, since I've done plenty of such rovers in the past, but it shows she knows her job well. There was still around 40 minutes to kill, so I made several observations, including a 380 supposedly (according to the destination screen on i) working on the Cathcart Circle! I also get 350402 for sight, winner winner chicken dinner!
The 0905 to Edinburgh is in the hands of winner 156502 this morning, the first of many, many winners in Scotland! Armed with an incredibly hot large Americano from Costa (nice to know that hasn't moved!), we leave right time for my first 156 action in quite a while. My choice of destination, after much looking at the Shotts line timetable? Livingston South. It's a good run, and we're only minorly late after the trek through the Glasweigan suburbs.
Next up was a surprise for me, as I thought the Shotts line was exclusively 156 territory. Winner 158715 is up for the leap to West Calder, an Inverness 158 down this far seemed unreal to me. It turned out to be the first of several I got in the book on this trip, as this trip report will reveal as we go on. I wanted to get Addiewell out of the way, but the dead connection into the train going back put me off. Turned out I could have easily done it, as the 0918 from Glasgow was heavily delayed, which I discovered later to be due to a fire in Motherwell Signalling Centre causing many problems. I didn't discover this until I saw off 158715 though, so a long fester ensued.
Winner 158728 is up next (woop, Haymarket 158s are getting scored off now!) for the trip to Haymarket, getting off the Shotts line seemed very sensible with cancellations cropping up now. We leave West Calder 28 minutes late, then get held at Kirknewton Junction for some time to allow a 380 to pass. So by the time we reach Haymarket the delay is approximately 34 minutes. I only just make it onto winner 158701 (how many 158s do Inverness actually use on an average day? Can't be a lot!) on a late running service around the Fife Coast, on which I choose to go to Dalgety Bay. I had foolishly not noticed the Highland Chieftain was due down, and as we leave I see 43274 was on the back, d'oh! This turned out to be a fantastic choice of move though...
Dud (my first dud of the trip up here!) 158726 takes me back to Inverkeithing, where I try my luck on other trains. I see there's an Aberdeen to London Kings Cross HST due shortly, and with needing 8 East Coast HST power cars it was more than sensible to see what was on this run. This is why it was a fantastic choice to come down from Dalgety Bay, as double winners 43251 and 43272 (272 was my last HST power car for sight, at least until any future renumberings!
) were on this today! So have a guess as to what I did...Of course I got on it! Off to Haymarket I go, and I decide to start looking for some gen. Twitter to the rescue, as it often is! After an enjoyable leap to Haymarket, I bail to try my luck on other stuff. My first 334s in ages on a BSB next to Edinburgh, as I see winner 390104 is due to work the 1251 to London Euston. Dud 334015 with winner 334014 are taken, and I'm beyond starving now so I visit Burger King for my usual meal. £7.09 is accidentally charged to my card instead of £6.38 (Bite Card discount most helpful here, even if only 10%!) but she gives me the difference back in change, poor girl felt so embarassed!
I genuinely can't remember my last Virgin Trains trip right now, but it is now on 390104 for the BSB to Haymarket. Just 9 more 390s to go, unless they renumber them again one day (hopefully not)! My next move isn't a BSB, it's on winner 170426 (my first of many on this trip!) to Falkirk High for another shack attack. Fortunately it's not long until 170455 wins on a leap back to Polmont for another shack attack. To Camelon next, and I get one of the formerly-Hull Trains 170s, 170395, scored off. Still need 170396 yet though! Will I get it in? Keep reading - I know it's a long post! - the trip report to find out! 158719 is a winner next to take me back down the road to Falkirk Grahamston. I figure I'd best check the journey times on my proposed moves to make sure I can still make the Down Highland Chieftain. Turned out I'd have been pushing it so take winner 158736 only as far as Camelon. Dud 170393 (last had in December 2008 on a Perth to Inverness journey!) takes me back to Haymarket, satisfied with the shack attack spree so far. It's also time to bang some tunes on for a while now, that'll help keep me going. Keen observers will note that I've not touched any coffee since my Costa in Glasgow, and it's now over 5 hours since I finished that!
Of course, I had some time still to do a couple of BSBs so from Haymarket I score off 170471, one of the former SPT 170s. It's that time of day in Edinburgh where Glasgow services get double 170s, and on the 1545 EDB-GLQ I score 170415 heading dud 170412 (had so long ago I can't remember when!) for another BSB to HYM. Winner 170427 takes me back to EDB ready to do the Down HC. I only made the effort to come down here for it since I received gen on HSTs that was worth my changing plans for!
Since I'm now nearly at the end of my commute to work, I'm going to take a break from typing this on my phone. The rest of Day 2 will follow soon, possibly later tonight, pending time on the evening commute. Until then, it's back to reality today, at this time (1033) last Tuesday I was in Birmingham awaiting 350251 to Rugby! Wish me luck everyone, I'm going to need it...
EDIT:
Alrighty, work is done for the day, and now on the commute home, so let's crack on some more! I should have peace and quiet on my commute again tomorrow so I hope to get this more or less finished by Thursday! Note lack of the Editor humour in Day 2, as it is a pain to do it in the required format on my phone! Again, I point out this trip report from arrival into London on day 1 is all from memory, sparked by the moves and other notes in my notebook.
Day 2 continued:
Thanks to the gen sourced on Twitter, I had got into place for the Down HC as it had double winners 43295 and 43299 on it! 4 more EC HST power cars to go, following a BSB to Haymarket! I would have gone further if it weren't for the need to see which 67 was working the loco-hauled turn on the Fife Circle. Winner 158734 and 170473 have produced on a leap to Edinburgh Park, couldn't turn down those to a winner shack! Another pair of winners, this time 334028 and 334019, take me back to Haymarket and it's onto the 1704 onwards to Edinburgh. Or what at least I think was the 1704! I thought this pair were going to North Berwick, so I was a bit surprised when we arrived into a bay platform! Winner 170404 led 170477 (dud) on this one. I see 67004 going out, required too, I'll have to go get it later. If it hadn't been for 170404 turning up at Haymarket I'd have got the 67 from there. Never mind, my gen sees me needing to stay down this way tonight anyway...
Winner 158733 is on a Motherwell via Shotts service, so I jump on it. We leave 5 minutes late (the 1715 to Glasgow left 13 late) due to congestion in Mound Tunnels (that's those just to the west of Edinburgh's station throat), although I confess I didn't find out what caused the delays. Another Inverness escapee, 158706, is scored along with Haymarket's 158735 back to Edinburgh (I promise I didn't spend the 3 days primarily doing HYM-EDB and vice versa BSBs!), and it's now getting hard to find winners so I trek over to platform 7 (anyone who's cranked much in Edinburgh will know it's a long walk from the Glasgow end to p7!) to have a spin 'n' win on 334s. No win, double duds 334031 and 334037 on the 1753. Faced with the long walk back, I decide to go for it anyway for yet another BSB to Haymarket.
For those who haven't been to Haymarket since they refurbished the station, I'd like to take the opportunity to praise Network Rail, as it's much more crank-friendly than it used to be. The footbridge linking the platforms has big glass windows through which you can easily ID stuff coming and going, which made my efforts to score stuff far easier than it has in the past. The station doesn't feel like a backwater place anymore either, much more a station suited to the busy place it is. It is as a result of these windows I see winner 170472 approaching so I run down to score it back to Edinburgh. So what am I waiting for, what was the gen keeping me this end of the line?
Well the 1400 Kings Cross to Aberdeen was due to be 43308 and 43309, 43308 being required, so I pop over to platform 2 to await its arrival with crossed fingers. Sure enough it is indeed 43308 and 43309, so I jump on board and have my umpteenth BSB of the day to Haymarket to score it. I did look to going further, but it was not looking promising to go to Kirkcaldy. I couldn't find a suitable move to South Gyle or Dalmeny for 67004 either, so I fester in the dark for it, eating the meal deal I'd got earlier from WHSmith, good value at £3.29. It's also now pretty cold, and as much as I hate myself for using SSP outlets again I resort to the Pumpkin on platform 4 for a cup of tea. £1.75 well spent too, it was rather nice and warmed me up somewhat. Several observations are made before 67004 arrives, and it's due off at 1926 so with it arriving at 1921 I try for a photo. Then they were dispatching it! The dispatcher wasn't happy as I went to the door to get on, telling me Edinburgh trains go as soon as they can from here. I smell a lie there, but sure enough we leave 4 minutes EARLY! Thank Goodness I was there in plenty of time for it then! Now that 67004 is in the book, just 67007 (Kite159, I'm jealous you got that one!), 67023 and 67030 remain non-red penned. Not bad going, and yes I'm aware 67023 is on the Banbury set normally, I will be going for it soon!
We arrive at 1926, the time it was due to leave Haymarket, into Edinburgh's p19 and it's the traditional photo stop. I wait for ages to see it head to depot but give up after 10 minutes and go off in search of other winners. Nothing going, not even the 1530 Kings Cross to Glasgow as that was dud 91115! So I wait for the last bit of my gen to hopefully ring true, the 1600 Kings Cross to Aberdeen which was due to have 43320 and 43306 on it. Sure enough they were on it and I score 43320 on the BSB to Haymarket. The 1818 Aberdeen to Leeds is due shortly after I get there so I might as well see what's on it. Double duds 43296 and 43313 take me back to Edinburgh, then it's off to base camp, Merith House Hotel in Leith.
Just after 2100 they ring me up wondering where I am, and because I'm arriving after 2100 there's a £5 charge. Which was allegedly on the website, which I discovered after returning home in my Booking.com email in small print. "A small charge" it says too, and £5 is almost 12% of my booking (£58 for the two nights), not entirely small! After a rushed walk, stopping briefly at a Tesco Express on Leith Walk for some supplies, I get there after a 34 minute fast paced walk. My email also says credit card payment attracts a charge when paying for your stay, no mention of debit cards. However these too attract the unreasonable (in my eyes!) 5% fee this hotel charges. So my stay cost me £65.90, the card fee (when adding the £5 late arrival - sorry but 2100 is not late! - charge) cost £2.90, which does seem grossly unfair! Just as well that extra money was in the bank!
I booked this place in a hurry when looking at hotels as my single room was the last at the price of £58 for two nights, so didn't look at reviews foolishly. Mine has now gone on TripAdvisor and it isn't glowing as you'll see! I knew it was budget so not to expect much, but upon sitting on the bed it was most uncomfortable. The room is a good size, and the bathroom's not badly sized either but still a little small. There's also no lift, which annoyed me as I was exhausted so two fairly steeply-graded flights of stairs wasn't welcome!
For reasons beyond my understanding, the window had been left open all day too so I was freezing! On the plus side my supply of tea/coffee was adequate. WiFi was appaulingly unreliable and I had to fight it to make it work at all. I gave up and used my mobile data instead! After the usual phone call to home, where they were most disappointed with the news on my room, I eventually collapase into a deep sleep, much needed after an awful night the night before on MegabusGold! Hopefully the continental breakfast will be fine I figured.
There's an important lesson for uscall, check hotel reviews (and several of them - perhaps we should have a Hotel Revew thread on here too?) before booking!
That's Day 2, and it's taken so long to finish my commute home is at an end so I'll start Day 3 tomorrow.
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Blindtraveler
Established Member
Must check your TA review. Smashing day 2 that, lots of winners (and an amazing lack of coffee) just a shame Edinburghs hotel sector let you down! Pritty bad form. The 156s and 158s have been sharing shots and Wifflet Line duties for a good while now, not sure what will happen to these turns when Wifflet goes EMU later in the year. if it goes back to exclusive 156 opperation it would be good to see some of the semi fasts extending to work services on the GSW iether to Stranrar or Carlisle with reversal at GLC as this would be a popular move!↲
Not sure how many 158s Inverness require for there own work but I am like you amazed at how many get this far south and wonder how they do it given that theres only as far as I know only 2 daily booked 158s on the HML and none via Aberdeen.↲
Not sure how many 158s Inverness require for there own work but I am like you amazed at how many get this far south and wonder how they do it given that theres only as far as I know only 2 daily booked 158s on the HML and none via Aberdeen.↲
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Yes the lack of coffee was a shocker to me too! I have no clue on how the Inverness 158s get down there either, perhaps they run as Priority ECS or tagged onto the back of a 170 here and there?
Extending the semi-fasts off the Shotts line along either to Stranraer or down the Sou' Western is an interesting idea, I wonder if it would work in reality? There's not that high a Peak Vehicle Requirement (I know that's officially a term from the bus world but hey!) on the Glasgow to Whifflet line is there? I'd suggest 4 DMUs at the most, possibly 5 to strength busier trains.
Extending the semi-fasts off the Shotts line along either to Stranraer or down the Sou' Western is an interesting idea, I wonder if it would work in reality? There's not that high a Peak Vehicle Requirement (I know that's officially a term from the bus world but hey!) on the Glasgow to Whifflet line is there? I'd suggest 4 DMUs at the most, possibly 5 to strength busier trains.
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