Kite159
Veteran Member
05:30 to Brum, you could have wasted the hour (or so) before the WMDR kicked in to have a small session on the Midland Metro 
Have a safe trip avoiding Doris
Have a safe trip avoiding Doris
-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Richard's Trip Reports
- Thread starter rg177
- Start date
- Status
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
I get to Hereford 0809 so will likely get a single to Ledbury or Colwall on the 0845 and start earlier.05:30 to Brum, you could have wasted the hour (or so) before the WMDR kicked in to have a small session on the Midland Metro
Have a safe trip avoiding Doris
I did think that but didn't feel like dealing with rush hour Birmingham and wanted to get some new track in.
Cheers though, hopefully Doris will be kind to me. Already been fine so far as I was booked to go via Picc on TPE but I've been allowed to stay put and go direct to Liverpool via Victoria.
Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk
Techniquest
Veteran Member
It's a shame I'm working tomorrow (9-4) when you're coming onto my territory! I'm on the other side of town though!
The 0845 is normally a 170+153 and regularly leaves from platform 1 these days. Pumpkin can be a little slow to serve in Hereford be warned. Morrisons very close by if you need supplies
The 0845 is normally a 170+153 and regularly leaves from platform 1 these days. Pumpkin can be a little slow to serve in Hereford be warned. Morrisons very close by if you need supplies
alexf380
Established Member
Perhaps a good idea, considering what's expected. Hope today was good and you enjoy yourself tomorrow!
Well it's an excellent day for shacks but less so for the red pen so far. Just a couple more services to do but looks like around 15 winners and 25 shacks in the bag for the day which I'm happy with.
Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk
153365 is on the Hereford this morning with dud 170517. Is this the forum celebrity 153 that Kite has been chasing since the dawn of time?
Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk
Jammy so and so - it's also my last required one.
Kite159
Veteran Member
Well I'm just making the best of today and seeing what happens. Everything around Birmingham appears to have collapsed in on itself so might have a stab at a couple of things that don't involve overhead wires...
4 winners for haulage so far, being a 150, a 153, a 175 and a 180, along with 4 shacks so I'm not totally empty handed at present.
I'm on a 170 getting diverted via Camp Hill into New Street.
4 winners for haulage so far, being a 150, a 153, a 175 and a 180, along with 4 shacks so I'm not totally empty handed at present.
I'm on a 170 getting diverted via Camp Hill into New Street.
Last edited:
Kite159
Veteran Member
I wonder how you managed to get a 180 into your book.
Semi-rare LM action via the Camp Hill line
Edit - Worcester area for that 180 (had a blonde moment and forgot the 180s work in Worcester)
Semi-rare LM action via the Camp Hill line
Edit - Worcester area for that 180 (had a blonde moment and forgot the 180s work in Worcester)
Last edited:
I wonder how you managed to get a 180 into your book.
Semi-rare LM action via the Camp Hill line
Edit - Worcester area for that 180 (had a blonde moment and forgot the 180s work in Worcester)
Aye had it on a Malvern service.
Yeah thought it was unusual. Abandoned everything now as there's barely anything resembling a service and I'm happy with anything that has wheels for rails and goes up north!
Scored another 172 at least.
Edit- been stuck at Stafford for the past hour and a half so might be completely abandoning the idea of getting home...
Last edited:
23/2/17- The Storm Doris Bash. Day 2: Oh Jesus
Doing things a bit backwards here
Well this was a day that had already been changed a number of times due to the weather, and i’ll be honest I wasn’t massively looking forward to dealing with the suddenly expected carnage that was initially not meant to affect as far south as Birmingham! Nonetheless, I checked out of my hotel at 0550 and headed for Chester station, picking up a Costa and bacon sandwich before awaiting the swift arrival of winner 175007 on the 0618 to Cardiff via Wrexham. There weren’t many on board on departure, and it was a boring run in the dark down to Shrewsbury, before things lightened up and it was a genuinely pleasant dash through the Marches until Ludlow and Leominster where the admittedly quiet students of a school in Hereford joined us, and that was also where I left the train at 0810, making it shack number 1. I headed out through the gates and bought a single to Ledbury as well as a West Midlands Ranger for the day, before taking cover as the winds started to pick up a fair bit. Eventually, dud 170517 leading winner 153365 trundled in, and I sat in the 153 for a pleasant run out as far as Ledbury where the disruption was already starting as the inbound service to Hereford was 25L.
I jumped off there and grabbed a few photos, which was enough for me to count it as a score as I had a wander around, chatted with the guard and jumped back on just before we resumed, where I bailed at Great Malvern, shack 3. This was a pleasant enough station and I had 10 minutes or so before winner 180106, my first GW 180, made its shunt moves and proceeded to form the Paddington service. Annoyingly however, none of the sockets were working for the journey to shack 4, Worcester Shrub Hill, where it was a quick swap onto winner 150124 back to Worcester Foregate Street. Everything seemed to be okay again as I picked up dud 170509 which was only 2 minutes late on the New Street service, and I intended to jump off at University and do the shacks down to Redditch. However, as we left Droitwich Spa, I noticed that the Cross City services seemed to have stopped running with a few others running quite late. Drat. After Bromsgrove, we were utterly rammed as we did a very slow stop journey as far as Kings Norton where I noticed that there were a lot of 323s queued up on the other line. An announcement was then made that the line was blocked at Five Ways, and so we’d be diverted via Camp Hill and would no longer call at University.
Oh well, I guess I could just avoid wires for the day then. New track scored via Camp Hill and I arrived into New Street 14L to the sight of further carnage with barely anything running at all. That was my cue to make a hasty dash to Moor Street and dive onto winner 172218 leading dud 172220 to Jewellery Quarter. I made the VERY sensible decision to not venture too far and to attempt some red pen moves, which ended badly with dud 172345 up to The Hawthorns and duds 172214/172221 back to Jewellery Quarter. The service on the Snow Hill Lines was then duly suspended without anybody telling us, with everything showing as ‘delayed’ until I gave up after 35 minutes of waiting and joined dud Tram 36 to Grand Central. I wasn’t even sure if there was ticket acceptance, but common sense dictated that if absolutely everything had been cancelled then I should have been able to use Midland Metro. As it turns out, everything was fine and I was soon looking around at New Street to see what was actually running.
The 1239 to Wolverhampton seemed to exist, so I jumped on dud 350237 to my last New Street-Wolves shack, which was Coseley. We were 11L and the next service was oddly on time, so I hung around here in the waiting room until winner 350266 turned up to Wolverhampton, where there seemed to be some optimism as there was a Liverpool service operating and there were Crewe to Birmingham trains running again. I jumped on a delayed winner 350245 to shack 6, Penkridge, which was my last shack between Crewe and Brum, and was meant to be joining a service straight back south after about 10 minutes. We were delayed by 48 minutes into Penkridge (as we seemed to run into the Four Ashes Loop and straight back out) and I jumped off onto the very windy station only to find that my intended service wasn’t exactly intending on turning up any time soon. Indeed, it limped into Stafford at 1430 and after 55 minutes of noting that the service was belly up again, I ordered a taxi (£15 that I didn’t wanna spend!) to Stafford.
The taxi turned up fairly sharp and the friendly chap took me along through the country roads so as to avoid congestion en route (and promised that this would do nothing to the price), even letting me get cash out on arrival as I only had my card. Arrival was at around 1525 and I noted that there was an apparent Lime Street train due at 1601, so I kicked myself for not waiting around longer. However, a service on Platform 5 caught my interest. Dud 390136 was working the delayed 1020 Euston-Piccadilly and had made an additional call so I made myself at home, put my phone on charge and sat around awaiting announcements. We stayed like this for over two hours, with announcements coming over that there was no way north or south for the time being, which was bizarre as the Liverpool Desiro eventually came past at 1705 and departed straight away (I didn’t care much, it was dud 350101 and i’d have been stranded as Crewe had I joined it) but we were at least given refreshments. Departure miraculously came around at 1727 (I was resigning myself to staying with a friend in Whitchurch for the night) and we ambled our way around to Manchester, a comical 377 minutes behind the original schedule at 1845. However, I was just thankful that the train had stopped at Stafford otherwise i’d have been stuck with a STP XC Voyager service which eventually arrived Manchester 1949 and would have saw me into Newcastle at 2351!
Dud 185146 was working the 1857 to Middlesbrough and I jumped on as I saw no point in awaiting my booked service at 1942, which got me into York at 2016 where I went off to a local Spar for three pasties (knocked down to 33p each!) and awaited the delayed 1945 to Newcastle which was formed of a dud 220013, arriving Newcastle 2148, 66L.
An awful day but I couldn’t have done anything to help myself, if anything I dodged multiple bullets! And it was new track from Shrewsbury to Hereford and onwards to Malvern Link, so I still achieved something along with a smattering of shacks and winners (including the celebrity 153365 )
The actually successful day will be along shortly!
Total Mileage: 380mi 78ch
Total winners: 7+6 shacks
Doing things a bit backwards here
Well this was a day that had already been changed a number of times due to the weather, and i’ll be honest I wasn’t massively looking forward to dealing with the suddenly expected carnage that was initially not meant to affect as far south as Birmingham! Nonetheless, I checked out of my hotel at 0550 and headed for Chester station, picking up a Costa and bacon sandwich before awaiting the swift arrival of winner 175007 on the 0618 to Cardiff via Wrexham. There weren’t many on board on departure, and it was a boring run in the dark down to Shrewsbury, before things lightened up and it was a genuinely pleasant dash through the Marches until Ludlow and Leominster where the admittedly quiet students of a school in Hereford joined us, and that was also where I left the train at 0810, making it shack number 1. I headed out through the gates and bought a single to Ledbury as well as a West Midlands Ranger for the day, before taking cover as the winds started to pick up a fair bit. Eventually, dud 170517 leading winner 153365 trundled in, and I sat in the 153 for a pleasant run out as far as Ledbury where the disruption was already starting as the inbound service to Hereford was 25L.
I jumped off there and grabbed a few photos, which was enough for me to count it as a score as I had a wander around, chatted with the guard and jumped back on just before we resumed, where I bailed at Great Malvern, shack 3. This was a pleasant enough station and I had 10 minutes or so before winner 180106, my first GW 180, made its shunt moves and proceeded to form the Paddington service. Annoyingly however, none of the sockets were working for the journey to shack 4, Worcester Shrub Hill, where it was a quick swap onto winner 150124 back to Worcester Foregate Street. Everything seemed to be okay again as I picked up dud 170509 which was only 2 minutes late on the New Street service, and I intended to jump off at University and do the shacks down to Redditch. However, as we left Droitwich Spa, I noticed that the Cross City services seemed to have stopped running with a few others running quite late. Drat. After Bromsgrove, we were utterly rammed as we did a very slow stop journey as far as Kings Norton where I noticed that there were a lot of 323s queued up on the other line. An announcement was then made that the line was blocked at Five Ways, and so we’d be diverted via Camp Hill and would no longer call at University.
Oh well, I guess I could just avoid wires for the day then. New track scored via Camp Hill and I arrived into New Street 14L to the sight of further carnage with barely anything running at all. That was my cue to make a hasty dash to Moor Street and dive onto winner 172218 leading dud 172220 to Jewellery Quarter. I made the VERY sensible decision to not venture too far and to attempt some red pen moves, which ended badly with dud 172345 up to The Hawthorns and duds 172214/172221 back to Jewellery Quarter. The service on the Snow Hill Lines was then duly suspended without anybody telling us, with everything showing as ‘delayed’ until I gave up after 35 minutes of waiting and joined dud Tram 36 to Grand Central. I wasn’t even sure if there was ticket acceptance, but common sense dictated that if absolutely everything had been cancelled then I should have been able to use Midland Metro. As it turns out, everything was fine and I was soon looking around at New Street to see what was actually running.
The 1239 to Wolverhampton seemed to exist, so I jumped on dud 350237 to my last New Street-Wolves shack, which was Coseley. We were 11L and the next service was oddly on time, so I hung around here in the waiting room until winner 350266 turned up to Wolverhampton, where there seemed to be some optimism as there was a Liverpool service operating and there were Crewe to Birmingham trains running again. I jumped on a delayed winner 350245 to shack 6, Penkridge, which was my last shack between Crewe and Brum, and was meant to be joining a service straight back south after about 10 minutes. We were delayed by 48 minutes into Penkridge (as we seemed to run into the Four Ashes Loop and straight back out) and I jumped off onto the very windy station only to find that my intended service wasn’t exactly intending on turning up any time soon. Indeed, it limped into Stafford at 1430 and after 55 minutes of noting that the service was belly up again, I ordered a taxi (£15 that I didn’t wanna spend!) to Stafford.
The taxi turned up fairly sharp and the friendly chap took me along through the country roads so as to avoid congestion en route (and promised that this would do nothing to the price), even letting me get cash out on arrival as I only had my card. Arrival was at around 1525 and I noted that there was an apparent Lime Street train due at 1601, so I kicked myself for not waiting around longer. However, a service on Platform 5 caught my interest. Dud 390136 was working the delayed 1020 Euston-Piccadilly and had made an additional call so I made myself at home, put my phone on charge and sat around awaiting announcements. We stayed like this for over two hours, with announcements coming over that there was no way north or south for the time being, which was bizarre as the Liverpool Desiro eventually came past at 1705 and departed straight away (I didn’t care much, it was dud 350101 and i’d have been stranded as Crewe had I joined it) but we were at least given refreshments. Departure miraculously came around at 1727 (I was resigning myself to staying with a friend in Whitchurch for the night) and we ambled our way around to Manchester, a comical 377 minutes behind the original schedule at 1845. However, I was just thankful that the train had stopped at Stafford otherwise i’d have been stuck with a STP XC Voyager service which eventually arrived Manchester 1949 and would have saw me into Newcastle at 2351!
Dud 185146 was working the 1857 to Middlesbrough and I jumped on as I saw no point in awaiting my booked service at 1942, which got me into York at 2016 where I went off to a local Spar for three pasties (knocked down to 33p each!) and awaited the delayed 1945 to Newcastle which was formed of a dud 220013, arriving Newcastle 2148, 66L.
An awful day but I couldn’t have done anything to help myself, if anything I dodged multiple bullets! And it was new track from Shrewsbury to Hereford and onwards to Malvern Link, so I still achieved something along with a smattering of shacks and winners (including the celebrity 153365
)The actually successful day will be along shortly!
Total Mileage: 380mi 78ch
Total winners: 7+6 shacks
Kite159
Veteran Member
Stormy
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Congratulations on surviving a major series of disruptions but still managing a fair few scores out of it! A huge shame that nothing went to plan, but you got home safe which is more important
Indeed, especially with fretting parents at home! I'm considering it karma for scoring 153365Congratulations on surviving a major series of disruptions but still managing a fair few scores out of it! A huge shame that nothing went to plan, but you got home safe which is more important
Kite159
Veteran Member
Indeed, especially with fretting parents at home! I'm considering it karma for scoring 153365
*hides voodoo doll*
*feels jabbing pain in leg* put it away, Kite!*hides voodoo doll*
So as of last night i've just planned my next major trip and it's one i'm fairly excited about!
I'm doing a Severn and Solent 8 in 15 in April (but i'm only using 5 of those days) travelling down into the area via Cheltenham Spa. It was intended only to be a 3 in 7 but it was more economical to have my travel into the area covered too (Bristol area on the Sunday and Christchurch to Cheltenham on the Thursday)
Having scoured hotel websites (basing myself on a VERY tight budget) i've ended up with the following:
Sunday: Some split ticket journey down to Bristol arriving around 4pm, then scoring some shacks around the Bristol area (likely Severn Beach line too) and staying in Travelodge near Temple Meads (£32)
Monday: First proper day of bashing, probably gradually working my way over towards Southampton and ticking off shacks and units as I go, staying at Travelodge Southampton Central (£41)
Tuesday: Full day bashing on SW/GW in the Southampton/Portsmouth etc. area until around 1940, then catching Southern services to Eastbourne to stay with a friend overnight (£16.65 Off Peak Return Fratton to Eastbourne, not bad!)
Wednesday: Trundle back over into the area for about Midday then shack scratching between Southampton and Weymouth most likely before staying in Travelodge Christchurch (£37)
Thursday: Bashing around 0900 to 1400 before making my way back up north again via Cheltenham, Birmingham, etc.
I'm doing a Severn and Solent 8 in 15 in April (but i'm only using 5 of those days) travelling down into the area via Cheltenham Spa. It was intended only to be a 3 in 7 but it was more economical to have my travel into the area covered too (Bristol area on the Sunday and Christchurch to Cheltenham on the Thursday)
Having scoured hotel websites (basing myself on a VERY tight budget) i've ended up with the following:
Sunday: Some split ticket journey down to Bristol arriving around 4pm, then scoring some shacks around the Bristol area (likely Severn Beach line too) and staying in Travelodge near Temple Meads (£32)
Monday: First proper day of bashing, probably gradually working my way over towards Southampton and ticking off shacks and units as I go, staying at Travelodge Southampton Central (£41)
Tuesday: Full day bashing on SW/GW in the Southampton/Portsmouth etc. area until around 1940, then catching Southern services to Eastbourne to stay with a friend overnight (£16.65 Off Peak Return Fratton to Eastbourne, not bad!)
Wednesday: Trundle back over into the area for about Midday then shack scratching between Southampton and Weymouth most likely before staying in Travelodge Christchurch (£37)
Thursday: Bashing around 0900 to 1400 before making my way back up north again via Cheltenham, Birmingham, etc.
Kite159
Veteran Member
Sounds like a good plan
Indeed, £46.95 for 8 days is amazing value as well! It'll be my first time on one, though i've been down to the likes of Brockenhurst on my ALR last summer.
Kite159
Veteran Member
Remember the line west of Salisbury is a lot easier to do in the evening peak with an half hourly service westwards towards Yeovil Junction
Remember the line west of Salisbury is a lot easier to do in the evening peak with an half hourly service westwards towards Yeovil Junction
I was actually looking at that exact bit of line on RTT
Aye that's my plan, then find an appropriate connection into Pen Mill and down to Weymouth, few shacks that way then head to my hotel in Christchurch.It's also an annoying gap in my track coverage from Yeovil Junction to Salisbury, having covered Salisbury to Waterloo and Westbury to Exeter St Davids via Pen Mill and Junction (on the sleeper)
Last edited:
22/2/17- Storm Doris bash, Day 1
February 22nd marked the first day of my bash down to Cheshire and Shropshire, and for this id snagged an £8.95 1st advance from Newcastle to Manchester, with the original intention of travelling down to Crewe etc. However, I ended up purchasing my Cheshire Ranger in the morning and decided that itd be more convenient to travel direct to Liverpool via Manchester Victoria rather than my booked change at Leeds for Piccadilly. On boarding dud 185149 which was working the 0708 to Liverpool Lime Street, I took my seat in an unreserved pair and noted that standard class was already getting close to full on departure from Newcastle. Smart move then! After Durham I was served a tea and fresh pastry which was very nice, and shortly after that the guard came around and I asked if I could be cheeky and go off route, showing her my combination of tickets. She thankfully agreed without any persuasion needed so I stayed put as we sailed our way through to Manchester Victoria via another top up of tea and a bag of crisps before I found myself still being sat in first after Manchester having been offered some crackers and dip from the trolley bloke. It wasnt until we were past Newton-le-Willows that I realised my Cheshire Ranger obviously wasnt valid in First so I had a panic about what would happen if RPIs came in and utterly wrecked me, but the guard didnt ask me and spent the journey chatting to the trolley bloke, so I decided I may as well stay put with us arriving into Lime Street at 1008, bang on time.
Of course with Merseyrail being out of action I had to make the walk to James Street, with it taking around 10 minutes to amble my way down just as a service from Platform 2 was conveniently leaving. Id have done a red pen move from the other platform instead, but seeing as Platform 2 was a rare track and platform move, I stayed put and awaited dud 507020 trailing winner 508124 for the journey down the Chester line to shack 1, Bromborough Rake, where the service went down the pan straight away due to a failed train. Oh well. I decided to kill some time and walk back to shack 2, Bromborough, where I joined a bunch of angry passengers whod been without a train for 30 minutes and were even more annoyed when I told them to stand clear of the 507 approaching because it belted straight through. Eventually however, a service did turn up and it was formed of winners 508131/508137 for the hop to shack 3, Spital. Due to the delays, I then only had 5 minutes until winners 507015/507033 carted themselves in behind for the run to shack 4, Bebington, where I decided to get a bit lost [emoji38] I ended up taking forever to change platforms and only just made dud 507018 for the one stop jump to shack 5, Port Sunlight. A tight connection was then made here onto duds 507020/508124 up to Rock Ferry in order to kill time.
We were now starting to see repeats as duds 508131/508137 were taken all the way to shack 6, Bache, where I just had enough time to hop over the bridge and take dud 507018 back up to shack 7, Eastham Rake. This was meant to be a +1 but in the end, I had enough time to join dud 507020 (now on its own) so shack 8, Hooton, where I took a short break to grab a drink from the M to Go thing, and on buying the bottle of water from the cashier I was told oh you dont want a ticket then?!, because of course if I wanted to avoid paying my fare id use water bottles instead [emoji38] I knew that the next service would bring me luck, and indeed it did with winner 507028 taking me along to shack 9, Capenhurst. Ill be honest and say that there wasnt a lot here, and I spent the 15 minute fester in the shelter before joining dud 507020 all the way back to shack 10, Birkenhead Central, in order to kill some time, and youll soon find out why! Duds 507015/507033 then produced for the millionth time before I jumped off at Hooton and joined the self contained Ellesmere Port shuttle, happily formed today of winner 507003.
It doesnt take a genius to work out that I took it along to shack 11, Overpool, before awaiting the return of the same 507 to shack 12, Little Sutton, where I went across to the shop and bought myself a sausage roll for some much needed hunger management! The shuttle then turned up for the final time in order to take me to Ellesmere Port where I nipped over to Home Bargains for a cheap wrap and a big bottle of water to keep me going before awaiting the arrival of dud 156429. From this point on I was now joined by a fellow forum member who had arrived in from Helsby, and youll never guess which stations we visited [emoji38] We had a slightly eccentric guard on this journey who told us of how he likes to take his staff pass out to go on adventures, including one from something like Wigan to Cardiff because he was bored, only to get there and burst out laughing at the Welsh announcements [emoji38] We jumped off at shack 13, Ince & Elton, which ill be honest was a little bleak. It did however seem to have potential for serving something as a few houses seemed to be scattered around. Soon enough however, the same 156 was arriving to take us along to shack 14, Stanlow & Thornton. Jesus it stinks here! The overwhelming smell of the refinery started to get to my throat as we decided not to venture too far considering that the station was on private property! Eventually, the 156 returned one more time and it was taken to shack 15, Runcorn East.
I was now rather keen to get the red pen going again seeing as id ended up on two units doing five different stations, and indeed I was rewarded with winner 175112 for the journey down to Chester, where a hasty move was made in order to check into my Premier Inn and also to get some food from Burger King in the form of a £1.99 Bacon Double Cheeseburger and fries [emoji14] It was then a return to Chester for the 1735 to London Euston, which had winner 221142 at the helm, also pleasing my companion who now only needs 221109 to complete the VT Voyager fleet! It was a dull hop to Crewe where we bailed and joined winner 350263 on the Trent Valley service (ouch, a /2 on this!) which was taken to shack 16, Alsager. Thanks to the daft uneven timetable, it was only a few minutes until dud 153311 took us to shack 17, Longport, which had a whole lot of nothing around. Although amusingly, it had a proper PA system rather than the text to speech person at Alsager! Dud 156473 was subsequently taken back to shack 18, Kidsgrove, where there was a 20 minute wait for the 1908 Starship north. Winner 323228 happily produced for the run up to shack 19, Congleton, where a swift change was made back south onto dud 323237 to Stockport.
The next service north was dud 221129 which was taken all the way to Stockport where we decided to aim for the two irritating shacks on the Crewe line. Dud 323228 made a return and took us to shack 20, Goostrey, which didnt have an awful lot around, though these festers pass an awful lot quicker when youve got someone to talk to! Soon enough, dud 323238 appeared for the run to shack 21, Chelford, where there was a 25 minute wait at a rather quiet station until dud 323224 appeared for the run to Crewe, arriving at 2159. It was then that I looked through my phone and realised that TPE were set to be suspended tomorrow between York and Newcastle and had a minor panic [emoji38] The reality started to set in that I was in for an eventful day tomorrow (as indeed, I was!) but I kept going anyway and joined winner 175115 to shack 22, Whitchurch (Shrops) where my companion headed for home and I waited out the 15 minutes before an annoying dud 158823 was taken to shack 23, Nantwich. Annoying because id only had 4 ATW 158s at this point! It was however a little late, reducing my wait in the silent darkness of Nantwich until winner 158822 turned up on the final service of the night to Shrewsbury, the 2322. Indeed, the board then proceeded to flick over onto the 5am to Milford Haven! I requested Wrenbury on boarding, and thats where I left the train, shack 24.
I must admit that waiting until 2349 here for the final Chester service was slightly unnerving in case the train didnt bother to stop as there was quite literally nothing around! However, I had nothing to fear as winner 175116 stopped as requested to take me back to Crewe for 0006. Why Crewe when I was going to Chester? Well about 3 minutes after my service departed, an empty winner 158830 rolled in working the 0015 to...also Chester [emoji38] Only one other passenger was aboard, and he looked to be Holyhead bound, which was where the train would normally terminate. I could tell this considering that he looked sick of life hauling around a rucksack on arriving at Chester, and waited outside the replacement bus. I however was making my way straight back to the hotel for around 0045, turning the lights off and getting into bed [emoji38]
Total Winners- 15+24 shacks
Total Mileage: 444mi 40ch
Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk
February 22nd marked the first day of my bash down to Cheshire and Shropshire, and for this id snagged an £8.95 1st advance from Newcastle to Manchester, with the original intention of travelling down to Crewe etc. However, I ended up purchasing my Cheshire Ranger in the morning and decided that itd be more convenient to travel direct to Liverpool via Manchester Victoria rather than my booked change at Leeds for Piccadilly. On boarding dud 185149 which was working the 0708 to Liverpool Lime Street, I took my seat in an unreserved pair and noted that standard class was already getting close to full on departure from Newcastle. Smart move then! After Durham I was served a tea and fresh pastry which was very nice, and shortly after that the guard came around and I asked if I could be cheeky and go off route, showing her my combination of tickets. She thankfully agreed without any persuasion needed so I stayed put as we sailed our way through to Manchester Victoria via another top up of tea and a bag of crisps before I found myself still being sat in first after Manchester having been offered some crackers and dip from the trolley bloke. It wasnt until we were past Newton-le-Willows that I realised my Cheshire Ranger obviously wasnt valid in First so I had a panic about what would happen if RPIs came in and utterly wrecked me, but the guard didnt ask me and spent the journey chatting to the trolley bloke, so I decided I may as well stay put with us arriving into Lime Street at 1008, bang on time.
Of course with Merseyrail being out of action I had to make the walk to James Street, with it taking around 10 minutes to amble my way down just as a service from Platform 2 was conveniently leaving. Id have done a red pen move from the other platform instead, but seeing as Platform 2 was a rare track and platform move, I stayed put and awaited dud 507020 trailing winner 508124 for the journey down the Chester line to shack 1, Bromborough Rake, where the service went down the pan straight away due to a failed train. Oh well. I decided to kill some time and walk back to shack 2, Bromborough, where I joined a bunch of angry passengers whod been without a train for 30 minutes and were even more annoyed when I told them to stand clear of the 507 approaching because it belted straight through. Eventually however, a service did turn up and it was formed of winners 508131/508137 for the hop to shack 3, Spital. Due to the delays, I then only had 5 minutes until winners 507015/507033 carted themselves in behind for the run to shack 4, Bebington, where I decided to get a bit lost [emoji38] I ended up taking forever to change platforms and only just made dud 507018 for the one stop jump to shack 5, Port Sunlight. A tight connection was then made here onto duds 507020/508124 up to Rock Ferry in order to kill time.
We were now starting to see repeats as duds 508131/508137 were taken all the way to shack 6, Bache, where I just had enough time to hop over the bridge and take dud 507018 back up to shack 7, Eastham Rake. This was meant to be a +1 but in the end, I had enough time to join dud 507020 (now on its own) so shack 8, Hooton, where I took a short break to grab a drink from the M to Go thing, and on buying the bottle of water from the cashier I was told oh you dont want a ticket then?!, because of course if I wanted to avoid paying my fare id use water bottles instead [emoji38] I knew that the next service would bring me luck, and indeed it did with winner 507028 taking me along to shack 9, Capenhurst. Ill be honest and say that there wasnt a lot here, and I spent the 15 minute fester in the shelter before joining dud 507020 all the way back to shack 10, Birkenhead Central, in order to kill some time, and youll soon find out why! Duds 507015/507033 then produced for the millionth time before I jumped off at Hooton and joined the self contained Ellesmere Port shuttle, happily formed today of winner 507003.
It doesnt take a genius to work out that I took it along to shack 11, Overpool, before awaiting the return of the same 507 to shack 12, Little Sutton, where I went across to the shop and bought myself a sausage roll for some much needed hunger management! The shuttle then turned up for the final time in order to take me to Ellesmere Port where I nipped over to Home Bargains for a cheap wrap and a big bottle of water to keep me going before awaiting the arrival of dud 156429. From this point on I was now joined by a fellow forum member who had arrived in from Helsby, and youll never guess which stations we visited [emoji38] We had a slightly eccentric guard on this journey who told us of how he likes to take his staff pass out to go on adventures, including one from something like Wigan to Cardiff because he was bored, only to get there and burst out laughing at the Welsh announcements [emoji38] We jumped off at shack 13, Ince & Elton, which ill be honest was a little bleak. It did however seem to have potential for serving something as a few houses seemed to be scattered around. Soon enough however, the same 156 was arriving to take us along to shack 14, Stanlow & Thornton. Jesus it stinks here! The overwhelming smell of the refinery started to get to my throat as we decided not to venture too far considering that the station was on private property! Eventually, the 156 returned one more time and it was taken to shack 15, Runcorn East.
I was now rather keen to get the red pen going again seeing as id ended up on two units doing five different stations, and indeed I was rewarded with winner 175112 for the journey down to Chester, where a hasty move was made in order to check into my Premier Inn and also to get some food from Burger King in the form of a £1.99 Bacon Double Cheeseburger and fries [emoji14] It was then a return to Chester for the 1735 to London Euston, which had winner 221142 at the helm, also pleasing my companion who now only needs 221109 to complete the VT Voyager fleet! It was a dull hop to Crewe where we bailed and joined winner 350263 on the Trent Valley service (ouch, a /2 on this!) which was taken to shack 16, Alsager. Thanks to the daft uneven timetable, it was only a few minutes until dud 153311 took us to shack 17, Longport, which had a whole lot of nothing around. Although amusingly, it had a proper PA system rather than the text to speech person at Alsager! Dud 156473 was subsequently taken back to shack 18, Kidsgrove, where there was a 20 minute wait for the 1908 Starship north. Winner 323228 happily produced for the run up to shack 19, Congleton, where a swift change was made back south onto dud 323237 to Stockport.
The next service north was dud 221129 which was taken all the way to Stockport where we decided to aim for the two irritating shacks on the Crewe line. Dud 323228 made a return and took us to shack 20, Goostrey, which didnt have an awful lot around, though these festers pass an awful lot quicker when youve got someone to talk to! Soon enough, dud 323238 appeared for the run to shack 21, Chelford, where there was a 25 minute wait at a rather quiet station until dud 323224 appeared for the run to Crewe, arriving at 2159. It was then that I looked through my phone and realised that TPE were set to be suspended tomorrow between York and Newcastle and had a minor panic [emoji38] The reality started to set in that I was in for an eventful day tomorrow (as indeed, I was!) but I kept going anyway and joined winner 175115 to shack 22, Whitchurch (Shrops) where my companion headed for home and I waited out the 15 minutes before an annoying dud 158823 was taken to shack 23, Nantwich. Annoying because id only had 4 ATW 158s at this point! It was however a little late, reducing my wait in the silent darkness of Nantwich until winner 158822 turned up on the final service of the night to Shrewsbury, the 2322. Indeed, the board then proceeded to flick over onto the 5am to Milford Haven! I requested Wrenbury on boarding, and thats where I left the train, shack 24.
I must admit that waiting until 2349 here for the final Chester service was slightly unnerving in case the train didnt bother to stop as there was quite literally nothing around! However, I had nothing to fear as winner 175116 stopped as requested to take me back to Crewe for 0006. Why Crewe when I was going to Chester? Well about 3 minutes after my service departed, an empty winner 158830 rolled in working the 0015 to...also Chester [emoji38] Only one other passenger was aboard, and he looked to be Holyhead bound, which was where the train would normally terminate. I could tell this considering that he looked sick of life hauling around a rucksack on arriving at Chester, and waited outside the replacement bus. I however was making my way straight back to the hotel for around 0045, turning the lights off and getting into bed [emoji38]
Total Winners- 15+24 shacks
Total Mileage: 444mi 40ch
Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk
Kite159
Veteran Member
Sounded like a very productive day in Chester, getting some hourly shacks plus some more awkward ones out of the way
Techniquest
Veteran Member
I still don't know how on Earth you found the motivation to do those rural ATW shacks at such a bizarre time of day!
Sounded like a very productive day in Chester, getting some hourly shacks plus some more awkward ones out of the way
Indeed, was glad to get the two Parliamentary shacks out of the way too!
Looks like a very good day - it's always nice to read about some PEP action
I need to make a return soon, maybe once industrial relations smooth out. Still need piles of 507s and 508s!
The connections seemed to be quite decent compared to other times of day in that they all aligned properly. I think had I done it a bit earlier I could have had Wem vice Wrenbury but the latter is a bit harder to get!
I also like to make the most of the few late finishes I can do.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Fair enough on the late finishes, I don't get many of them whatsoever myself. Usually by the time I get one I'm so tired from being up early (I wake up around 0545 5 days a week) that I don't take advantage of a late one!
Kite159
Veteran Member
From the person who was out in rural GA land late evening a few months ago scoring rural shacks on the Lowestoft line
- Status