My last ever All-Line-Rover, Summer 2018

[43094]

Having not done an All-Line-Rover (ALR) for 12 years prior to 2018, and having a week of leave to take, it struck me that several things I liked to do would finish for good in the near future, and several things I’d not yet done would become less likely to happen, as the reason for being in the area would cease to be.

At the time of writing (April 2020), a number of the things I did are either no longer possible, or very much on their last legs.

Scotland mostly missed out, as there wasn't much I needed there, and it can (and has been) covered more now the Scotrail HST's are here. Wales missed out as there wasn't much I needed there.

So, I bought an ALR in July 2018 (can’t figure out how to change thread title to Summer, rather than Autumn), and (not being one for keeping records) decided to keep a note for posterity - below is a summary for anyone interested:

Day 1 - Wednesday 18 July 2018
91115 0631 York (YRK) - Peterborough (PBO)
170639 0818 PBO - Cambridge (CBG)
170201 0947 CBG - Ipswich (IPS) - part trck-scratch
156418 1117 IPS - Lowestoft (LWT) - part track-scratch
153309 1257 LWT - Norwich (NRW)
37419 + 37405 1455 NRW - LWT - I like 37's!
37405 + 37419 1548 LWT - NRW
90008 1700 NRW - London Liverpool Street (LST)
Tube LST - Farringdon (ZFD)
700148 1924 ZFD - Brighton (BTN)

 

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Day 2 - Thursday 19 July 2018
313206 0811 BTN - Seaford (SEF) - Track scratch after Lewes
313206 0853 SEF - Lewes (LWS)
313219 0923 LWS - BTN
313209 0951 BTN - Worthing (WRH) - Track scratch
313208 1025 WRH - Havant (HAV)
313220 1114 HAV - Littlehampton (LIT) - Track scratch
313220 1210 LIT - Bognor Regis (BOG) - Track scratch
313220 1236 BOG - Barnham (BAA)
377127 1247 BAA - Horsham (HRH)
700146 1325 HRH - Finsbury Park (FPK)
313056+313031 1503 FPK - Moorgate (MOG)
313031+313056 1524 MOG - FPK
700026 1544 FPK - London Kings Cross (KGX)
43238+43290 1600 KGX - YRK - I'd aimed for this as it was set EC64, which had proper IC70 seats.

 

[43094]

Day 3 - Friday 20 July 2018
91110 0559 YRK - KGX
700051 0851 KGX - FPK
700145 0908 FPK - London St Pancras (STP) - some kicking of heels going on before I went to Paddington!
Tube STP - London Paddington (PAD)
43097+43010 1035 PAD - Taunton (TAU) via Melksham for track scratch.
43384+43301 1317 TAU - Totnes (TOT)
6412 (steam) round trip on the South Devon Railway - Track scratch
43022+43136 1547 TOT - Truro (TRU)
150216 1831 TRU - Falmouth Docks (FAL) - Track scratch
150216 1902 FAL - TRU
43124+43156 2000 TRU - Penzance (PNZ)

 

[43094]

Day 4 - Saturday 21 July 2018
43025+43180 0957 PNZ - St Erth (SER)
57602 1026 SER - Liskeard (LSK)
43098+43139 1150 LSK - Bodmin Parkway (BOD)
4247 (steam) round trip to Bodmin General + Boscarne on the Bodmin and Wenford Railway - track scratch
43139+43098 1518 BOD - Newton Abbott (NTA)
43321+43207 1656 NTA - Dawlish (DAW)
57602 1808 DAW - NTA - after repeated emergency brake applications, this was then failed at NTA, and was terminated.
43131+43024 1835 NTA - Exeter St Davids (EXD)
Walk EXD - Exeter Central (EXC), meet up with a friend for a chat.
150001 2052 EXC - Newton St Cyres (NTC)
143618+143621 2119 NTC - EXD

 

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Day 5 - Sunday 22 July 2018
150243 0908 EXD - Okehampton (OKE) - Track scratch
D4167 2x round trips in the brake van, OKE - Meldon Quarry - track scratch
150243 1212 OKE - EXD
43070+43193 1247 EXD - TAU
43304+43378 1350 TAU - Doncaster (DON)
43045+43048 1920 DON - PBO - the hired-in EMT HST set which had a booked diagram for VTEC/LNER on a Sunday evening.
91101 1951 PBO - DON - I was aiming for the HST behind, but the 91 was late, so I elected to split the journey back North.
43312+43302 2112 DON - YRK

 

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Day 6 - Monday 23 July 2018
185112 1122 YRK - Leeds (LDS) - lie-in and a later start.
144021 1220 LDS - Carnforth (CNF)
156484 1412 CNF - Barrow-in-Furness (BIF)
37425 1531 BIF - Carlisle (CAR) - I particularly like 37425, so the day had been primarily based around a run behind that.
350404+350402 - 2015 CAR - Edinburgh (EDB)
92043 2340 EDB - Carstairs (CRS)

 

[43094]

Day 7 - Tuesday 24 July 2018
92010 0019 CRS - London Euston (EUS)
Walk EUS - Euston Square
Tube Euston Square - LST
321303+321356 0650 LST - Wickford (WIC) - Track scratch
321330 0736 WIC - Southminster (SMN) - Track scratch
321330 0816 SMN - Shenfield (SNF)
321430+321427+321304 0919 SNF - Southend Victoria (SOV) - Track scratch
321304+321427 1010 SOV - SNF
315846+315823 1045 SNF - Romford (RMF)
315802 1111 RMF - Upminster (UPM) - Track scratch
315802 1124 UPM - RMF
315843+315836 1136 RMF - Gidea Park (GDP)
315821+315844 1146 GDP - Goodmayes (GMY)
315851+315833 1200 GMY - GDP
315837+315845 GDP - LST
Tube LST - STP
43083+43064 1334 STP - Leicester (LEI)
43050+43060 1513 LEI - STP
Walk STP - KGX
43075+43061 1718 KGX - Selby (SBY) - Set NL65, complete with proper seats - No self-respecting ALR would have been complete without a trip on that set.
158816 1956 SBY - YRK

 

[alexf380]

A very good trip there, certainly a lot of variety! Countless things you couldn't do these days as well. Did you do everything you wanted to?

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Fantastic- I must post some of mine from the 1970s and 1980s. I did a 14 day one in 1984

 

[fishquinn]

Not bad at all. What mileage did you manage to get on NL65 over the years?

 

[yorkie]

(can’t figure out how to change thread title to Summer, rather than Autumn)

Thread Tools at the top right of the thread, but I've done it for you

Not bad at all. What mileage did you manage to get on NL65 over the years?

Probably tens of thousands

 

[43094]

Thanks for the comments!

Quite a few miles to be fair.... I might tot it up at some point.

I did everything I wanted to in that week - there have been some other times since where I got other bits done (67 to Holyhead, HST bashes in Scotland etc).

If I’d been a bit younger again, I might have done longer days as I used to - but I decided I’d enjoy it more if I didn’t feel tired!