Thursday 6th April – Mixing Business and Pleasure
Occasionally, I have to go out of London for meetings. These are usually in Cardiff or Edinburgh but I have been known to have to go to York, Leeds and Belfast on occasions. But today, I had a meeting in Birmingham to attend. I knew that it would only last a few hours so combined with half a day’s leave, once business was over, I was pretty much free to do what I wanted.
It fell to 1995ts 51581+51582 to convey me north from Morden where I effected the usual switch to the Victoria line. Rather than fester for a mileage requirement, I decided on a new tactic – one-stopping to crank up the number of vehicles ridden in. But of course, should a mileage requirement appear, then I’d stick with it. 11041+11042, 11027+11028, 11031+11032, 11079+11080 and 11037+11038 got me to Oxford Circus before 11071+11072 appeared and with the odd numbered half set still not over the 10 mile barrier, Warren Street was skipped.
Arriving at Euston with about 10 minutes to spare, I acquired some reading matter for the journey north and expecting a dud Pendolino, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Virgin trains had provided a winner – a warm welcome was extended to 390138 and its first entry in The Haulage Book. I spent most of the journey reading my magazine and all too soon, Coventry was upon us where I alighted. Still needing a few (like most) of the intermediate shacks between Coventry and Birmingham, I had enough time to knock out one so I leapt aboard 350369 to Marston Green for what should have been a 20 minute wait. That turned into a 30 minute wait due to a trespasser on the line between Tile Hill and Canley. 350240 appeared to convey me into New Street and I went on to my meeting.
The meeting lasted a lot less than the planned time; mainly because the talkative member of the group sent their apologies so we were done in almost record time. I was now a free man and I had one target in my sights. The fact that I was not returning to New Street but the more grandiosely named Grand Central might give you a clue! Yes much of the remainder of the day was going to be spent attacking the Midland Metro [Ed; Hmm, Midland Metro? That sounds like a regional version of a well-known freebie newspaper that can be found decorating many of the capitals post rush hour trains.]. I wasn’t into light rail when the original T68 trams were around and in any event, from what I read, I’d have been lucky to get some of them anyway as at least two spent much of their careers acting as Christmas trees. I wanted to clear all the track, and shacks as well, and try to bag as many of the units in service as possible. So, how did I do?
Starting with the lowest numbered tram in traffic, 17, I headed from Grand Central up through the busy streets of Birmingham to Jewellery Quarter and before starting the drop back a bit, leap forward, drop back, leap forward type moves to minimise waiting time. Here’s what I did –
34 Jewellery Quarter - St Chads
22 St Chads - Hansdworth Booth Street
29 Hansdworth Booth Street – Winson Green
32 Winson Green - Kenrick Park
25 Kenrick Park - Hawthorns
34 Hawthorns – Lodge Road
37 Lodge Road - West Bromwich Central
19 West Bromwich Central – Dudley Street
31 Dudley Street – Dartmouth Street
21 Dartmouth Street – Trinity Way
30 Trinity Way - Wednesbury
32 Wednesbury – Black Lane
28 Black Lane - Loxdale
30 Loxdale – Bradley Lane
37 Bradley Lane – The Royal (My attempt to double back failed here, the only time)
31 The Royal - Wolverhampton St Georges
31 Wolverhampton St Georges – Bilston Central
17 Bilston Central – The Crescent
22 The Crescent - Priestfield
17 Priestfield – Wednesbury Parkway
22 Wednesbury Parkway – St Pauls
31 St Pauls - Soho Benson Street
32 Soho Benson Street – Corporation Street
17 Corporation Street – Bull Street
34 Bull Street – Grand Central
Having cleared the track, scratched all the shacks and bagged all the off-peak trams in less time that I thought, I now had to think what to do as it was another hour or two before the rush-hour extras came out to play. I was aided in some respects by some late running and a couple of kind drivers when doubling back (the leap off of 31 onto 17 at Bilston Central comes to mind) as that must have saved me a fair amount of time.
Migrating over to New Street, I fell into a required voyager straightaway so I leapt aboard 220025 for the totter up to Wolverhampton. Almost immediately, I was on the move with 323221 back to the required shack of Coseley for a comfortable +4 onto 350258 back to Wolverhampton. With nothing required heading back to Birmingham, I rejoined 350258 for a visit to my last Stour Valley shack. RTT helpfully told me that I should make the cross over at Dudley Port – it’s usually a -5/-6. If not I’d simply have to fester for half an hour or get the bus over to the Metro at Dudley Street. As 350258 pulled in a shade early, I could see the doors of 323205 opening. A quick dash over the island platform and I was headed back to Wolverhampton having stayed at Dudley Port for all of 10 seconds. There was now an urgency to get back to Birmingham to cover the peak hour extras on the Metro so 221132 was had back to New Street. I quickly exited and noted nothing different on the first couple of Metro workings so mounted a supply raid on Tesco’s while I had a few minutes to spare. I returned to Grand Central to see 20 arriving. It would be only a few minutes before I’d have winning tram no 13 in the book. I opted to head to Jewellery Quarter as I could keep an eye on the National Rail network as well as any other tram requirements. Nothing new passed me during the journey but around five minutes later, 27 appeared so it was a simple move with winning tram no. 14 back to Grand Central. That left one tram to get (if my calculations were correct) so I repeated my move to Jewellery Quarter to catch said working on the inbound. This time it was dud no 29 out from Grand Central and around a 15 minute wait before 26 appeared to take me back to Grand Central.
I skulked around New Street looking for any last minute winners but could not find anything of interest so I hit on the idea of trying to bag another shack. As I still needed several shacks between New Street and Coventry, I boarded 350371 to head out towards Coventry with the objective of finding a required shack. Just before departure time, the conductor came over the PA and advised that departure would be slightly delayed as there was a trespass incident at Tile Hill and the job was stopped. [Ed: Surely not the same trespasser as this morning?] Eventual departure was over 20 late and it was a right royal stagger to Coventry where I bailed, having given up all hope of a shack scratch, for my train home which was not far behind. Or so I thought as there were three more services to come though before my booked train. Around 15 late, 390043 showed up and I clambered aboard for the totter back to Euston.
At Euston it fell to 11045+11046 to take me to Stockwell where one of the reformed 1995ts 51531+51556 was on hand to complete the rail journey to Morden. Thanks to London Underground’s efficiency, I made it home in around 45 minutes which is pretty close to the theoretical minimum from train to front door. I looked back on the day and concluded that on balance it was a good one with 17 strokes of my red pen, three national rail shacks under the belt and Midland Metro shacks completely cleared out. I think the Pendolino hit was the real bonus so that leaves just two 11-cars to get. Hopefully, it will not be long before they fall. And to knock a large hole in the Midland Metro means that I can probably leave that alone for a while now.
POSTSCRIPT
I’ve nothing planned for a about a month and that destination has yet to be decided although I’m sure that London will continue to churn out the winners. But before that, there’s another work-related trip which shouldn’t be of much interest but in this game, never say “never”!
