Though this 'meet' was organised on another forum and was attended largely by members of that forum, it involved a few peoples from here, so (being bored!) I thought I'd give the rest of you a quick rundown of the day!
My day started nice and early at Scunthorpe station, for 158760 on 1B69, 08:01 to Manchester Airport. Despite the continual TSRs on the line over Thorne Moors, Doncaster was reached on time, and it was over to platform 4, unusually, for 1A15, the 08:36 departure for London Kings Cross - worked by consecutively numbered 43111 and 43112 Doncaster. This particular service is one of a handful (possibly even unique) of up Leeds services to call at either platform 4 or 8 - in this case, to avoid conflict with a down non-stopper.
There's no direct route from the down side platforms to the Up Main, so we ran on the Up West Slow for a couple of miles, then curved sharply right on the Lincoln lines past the RMT, round to the left, crossing the flyover over the main lines, then finally curving right, via the Up Loversall line to rejoin the Up East Slow and then the Up Main. Now where's that highlighter?
A good, and fairly uneventful journey followed (though I soon realised that 'B.P.C.' was also on the train, working the trolley - good to meet you!) to London, where I believe we arrived a moment or two early. A quick phone call confirmed that a group of Railchat members were currently en-route into Liverpool Street, and 'A-stock' 5159 took me there on a Met line service. Having met the giant bunny, Santa, elves and the guy from the Incredibles (aka TM, GNBH, LMS, James66526 and Trainsteerer from Railchat), we headed back downstairs for a Circle line service to Paddington (entertaining some passengers, and seriously scaring some others, as we headed across London!), where 43017 headed the 11:45 departure to Swansea (1B28), with 43088 on the rear. We travelled as far as Reading, again provoking much discussion and many puzzled looks...
Upon arrival at Reading, we met some more peoples (including 'spm_43030', '50149' and Slash from RailUK) and headed over to platform 10, for a currently unspecified reason. Much to James' delight, his 'pet' loco, 66526, rumbled through the station on the Up Goods line some time later - his smile widened greatly when the loco stopped to the east of the station and was signalled back into the bay platform. More details, and some photos, of that particular part of the day can be found here
. Following this, we headed off to our 'venue' in town for a few drinkies and good - great time was had by all!
Of course, all too soon, it was time to leave, and 43182 and 43026 soon arrived on 1A26, the 18:10 to Paddington, to take me away from all the fun
. Back in the Underground station (minus the rabbit and Santa this time ), the first train to arrive was 5721 on a District line service to Edgware Road; I changed there for 5582 on a H&C service. At Kings Cross, 91126 was forming 1D48, the 19:30 service to Leeds. It was, by now, too dark to see much, and I didn't notice anything unusual before our on-time arrival at Doncaster - just in time for me to make the cross-platform change onto 156461 working 2R75, the 21:18 departure for Scunthorpe. I was planning to catch 1B92 20 minutes later - so at least I got home ten minutes earlier than planned .
Was a great day out anyway, and was really good to meet all of those who I've not met before! Looking forward to the next one
.
My day started nice and early at Scunthorpe station, for 158760 on 1B69, 08:01 to Manchester Airport. Despite the continual TSRs on the line over Thorne Moors, Doncaster was reached on time, and it was over to platform 4, unusually, for 1A15, the 08:36 departure for London Kings Cross - worked by consecutively numbered 43111 and 43112 Doncaster. This particular service is one of a handful (possibly even unique) of up Leeds services to call at either platform 4 or 8 - in this case, to avoid conflict with a down non-stopper.
There's no direct route from the down side platforms to the Up Main, so we ran on the Up West Slow for a couple of miles, then curved sharply right on the Lincoln lines past the RMT, round to the left, crossing the flyover over the main lines, then finally curving right, via the Up Loversall line to rejoin the Up East Slow and then the Up Main. Now where's that highlighter?
A good, and fairly uneventful journey followed (though I soon realised that 'B.P.C.' was also on the train, working the trolley - good to meet you!) to London, where I believe we arrived a moment or two early. A quick phone call confirmed that a group of Railchat members were currently en-route into Liverpool Street, and 'A-stock' 5159 took me there on a Met line service. Having met the giant bunny, Santa, elves and the guy from the Incredibles (aka TM, GNBH, LMS, James66526 and Trainsteerer from Railchat), we headed back downstairs for a Circle line service to Paddington (entertaining some passengers, and seriously scaring some others, as we headed across London!), where 43017 headed the 11:45 departure to Swansea (1B28), with 43088 on the rear. We travelled as far as Reading, again provoking much discussion and many puzzled looks...
Upon arrival at Reading, we met some more peoples (including 'spm_43030', '50149' and Slash from RailUK) and headed over to platform 10, for a currently unspecified reason. Much to James' delight, his 'pet' loco, 66526, rumbled through the station on the Up Goods line some time later - his smile widened greatly when the loco stopped to the east of the station and was signalled back into the bay platform. More details, and some photos, of that particular part of the day can be found here
. Following this, we headed off to our 'venue' in town for a few drinkies and good - great time was had by all!
Of course, all too soon, it was time to leave, and 43182 and 43026 soon arrived on 1A26, the 18:10 to Paddington, to take me away from all the fun
. Back in the Underground station (minus the rabbit and Santa this time ), the first train to arrive was 5721 on a District line service to Edgware Road; I changed there for 5582 on a H&C service. At Kings Cross, 91126 was forming 1D48, the 19:30 service to Leeds. It was, by now, too dark to see much, and I didn't notice anything unusual before our on-time arrival at Doncaster - just in time for me to make the cross-platform change onto 156461 working 2R75, the 21:18 departure for Scunthorpe. I was planning to catch 1B92 20 minutes later - so at least I got home ten minutes earlier than planned .Was a great day out anyway, and was really good to meet all of those who I've not met before! Looking forward to the next one
.
