Days 4-5-6-7-8-9-10-12-13-14: A summary.
It’s time for a summary. Because I fear that I’ll never get around to finishing this, and you already have the lists of numbers, so let’s do a nice little summary of the remaining days minus the numbers, showing what I got up to added with a few thoughts as we go.
Day 4- Hard Times
I was up fairly early, irritating my friend a little, out for 0555 and ready for the 0605 bus to Polegate. Which didn’t turn up. Correction! The 0635 bus, and I made it clear how peeved I was to the driver, while also of course bearing in mind that it wasn’t his fault. Visiting Glynde was surrendered as a result and I actually did fairly well with the red pen, scooping all winning 377s on my trip to the quaint but badly served Berwick (Sussex), swooping over to Bexhill with the commuters and back to the very ramshackle and windswept Collington before drowning myself crossing the platform at Ore. I then took a swift change of direction and took a 171 along to Ashford, falling asleep in First Class between basically Three Oaks and Ashford
Coffee promptly sourced from Frothbucks for a wakeup call, before I knocked out the shacks between Tonbridge and Ashford in the pouring rain, which was reasonably good for the old red pen, then moving onto some 465 action and clearing out Chelsfield, Dunton Green and Knockholt. Swiftly back to the seven oaks, and I was onto the rare crawl to the Watery loo via the reinstated curve, meaning that that was one nice PSUL move out the way.
A sprint then ensued across London and an argument with the gateline at Kings Cross (who saw my rover not working the gates as suspicious) and a few yells at platform dispatchers for blowing whistles for the 14:08 Newark at 14:05:45! (We left at 14:08) but this was an important move as it saw 90029 knocked off. An evening in Cambridgeshire ensued, with a mix of 365, 379 and 387 action seeing all stations Royston to Waterbeach cleared, including a visit to the shiny Cambridge North and a nailbiting +0.5 connection at Meldreth, before I decided to go check into the EasyHotel Paddington. Nice little place, well located for Paddington, and I ended up having a spin out to Reading before noting a stopper formed of eight coaches. EIGHT. All winners, 165131, 166209 and 166213 from what I recall. Swiftly taken to Twyford, back to Reading on a single 166 and another HST powercar snared back to Paddington.
Day 5- Daydreaming
I woke up at 06:48, which was an issue considering I was intending to catch the 06:00 off Liverpool Street. I yelped, crammed everything in my bag, and dived out the door by 06:53, on the tube at Edgware Road by 06:59, and was at Liverpool Street for 07:23. Thankfully I had a very understanding friend for today, as I joined the 07:30 to Norwich instead, which was the same loco for the 09:30 to Liverpool Street! Piles of mileage off 90005 then
This was a nice relaxing day exploring Camden, Little Venice and the like, which saw me snare 315831 during the day (I need just 2 315s now, 1 of which isn’t in damn service anymore!) as well as a 395, the icing on the cake being 90010 back to Norwich on the 21:30. Drunk trespasser on the line at Colchester made things a bit awkward, so it was basically midnight by the time I crashed into bed at Travelodge Norwich Riverside.
Day 6- Pressure
Kept awake by drunks all night, I vented my spleen a little at reception in the morning, though all credit to the bloke behind the desk as he was lovely and gave me a refund! I joined the 0530 to Colchester, annoyingly being the same 90 from last night, and knocked out Hythe (where the crossing gates actually lifted for about 30 seconds and let me pull off a +3!) before finishing my GEML shacks (except Manningtree, that was done later) and enjoying some triple units before I eventually settled on getting some new track in on the Southminster line having visited Alresford for some reason. Conductor was top notch on the first unit running on the line, telling me the best way to get all the shacks in on the line, before wishing me luck on what was a very trashing day! Southminster, Burnham-on-Crouch and Althorne were knocked off in the end.
Nail biting time as my connection heading back at Wickford was put in jeopardy by a late running service at North Fambridge, though the driver was excellent and kept us very well informed (and kept up the pace) ensuring that we made our connections back to London, where I decided I had enough time to go via Stratford International and bag another 395 (395023) before grabbing some supplies and heading for the 1500 to Stirling, back to Newcastle, grabbing the usual Mercedes Citaro back home and showering, refreshing and getting the bag nicely repacked.
Then I did something insane, I left the house again and went back to the station
I was hating myself for doing this, but it maximised my time and added to the mileage and adventure, by throwing myself onto the 2016 as far south as Stevenage! I was basically asleep by the time we arrived, so the swap onto a pair of (dud) 387s and their incessant bouncing shook me awake quite well, leaving me so awake that I found a really silly service that I absolutely had to try
The 365 operated 2350 Kings Cross-Finsbury Park. Yes. Just Finsbury Park. I then ended up on the late running 2356 service to Highbury, onwards to the Victoria Line where I thought ‘balls to this, I want winners!’ and I ended up sampling the weirdness of Southern night services. See...all those lovely 377/1s and 377/4s? The ones that stick to the mainline? Shoved on Epsoms and West Croydons. Stupidly, I joined a dud 377415 to Battersea Park only to realise that a pair of winning 377/3s were on the 0037 West Croydon. So, of course, I waited for them. 377302 and 377304. And onwards to Clapham! There was thankfully a return service at 0104, meaning that I was in my EasyHotel by 0120 and not obliged to be up again until 0700.
Day 7- Born For This
I woke up on time for what I actually wanted to do, surprisingly, and headed for Marylebone with breakfast in hand. A few shacks between Aylesbury and Amersham were knocked off, before the clearing of the track to the Vale Parkway, down to Saunderton which saw everything north of Denham Golf Club completed on the Chiltern, where I had a waiver thrust into my hands on boarding 165003 north to the Risborough! Music started playing, and indeed i’d wandered into the filming of a TV advert
It was a fairly impressive setup, piano playing and all, but I was headed north to complete my track coverage to Oxford, before a nice fast blast on a 165 to Reading non-stop. What next? Every single station from Reading to Newbury? Sure! It was a fairly uneventful ticking off until I reached Midgham where I had a +5 and a level crossing. It stayed down. It. Stayed. Down. It did however come up fairly sharp so I practically ducked and dive under it, pelted my way up the ramp and dived through the doors of the 166 to Newbury Racecourse. What’s that? I’m running to Newbury now? Sigh…
Didcot to Reading shacks then followed, where the red pen was getting absolutely no use whatsoever, so I did Earley and Winnersh, scoring a pile of 450s in the process. Now HST time was beckoning as I spent my evening scoring around 10 of the things, including one a little closer to my heart than others. See, visiting Didcot Parkway 7 years ago and seeing these brutes at 125mph is what got me into the railways, and there’s a photo of me with 43098. I’d never had 43098 for haulage, and i’d worked out its moves, so along I went, roped it in and felt that little pang of enthusiasm from my childhood come back. Back and forth I went from Reading to Didcot before heading up to Swindon and having a blast through to Paddington from there, arriving at about 21:30.
Let’s go and clear all the Shepperton Line shacks! Sure! Why not! I bound my way to Vauxhall, and in filling in my time until a Shepperton service, I bizarrely stumbled onto some 450s working their way to Hampton Court, something that does seem to happen but very very rarely. I’ll be honest, the line was fairly grim at night, and it was a bit of a naff walk from Kempton Park to Sunbury at 11pm, but I finished up at Fulwell for 23:10 and headed for the 23:21 bus to my hotel, which conveniently ended up arriving at 23:44! It was a relief to be back at the Premier Inn, Heathrow Terminal 4, for the third and final time this past month, with all the staff welcoming me back to what is a real monster sized hotel (Rooms on 7 floors, all numbered from x01 to x98). Sleep time!
Day 8- When it Rains
The 482 was taking me to Southall this morning, where I was meant to head for Reading and subsequently the West Country, but the 360 to Paddington was late so I managed to join it on the 0722 service, fast line running being the order of the day, which saw massive steps onto the train. I then completely changed my mind, and joined the Newport service through to Newport. We were massively screwed over by a late running freight train, meaning that I had to surrender a visit to Chepstow, and it poured with rain on arrival at Newport, but I persisted and headed for Caldicot, having a drizzly stroll back to Severn Tunnel Junction and into Newport once more. McDonald’s duly sourced, then bizarrely joining an Ebbw Vale service was the order of the day! Yes, i’m now probably the only person to have done Newport to Pye Corner but not Cardiff to Pye Corner
It was a wet but scenic run up and back down the line, before I leapt off at Pye Corner and joined a shiny Scania Omnicity for the blast to Cardiff Central.
After an interrogation with regards to my destination, I ended up scooping up 2 150s on a Queen Street leap before a 142 pair took me along to Bridgend via Rhoose, where an HST had me back along to Newport, and the same 150 from earlier took me to Gloucester, completing the line via Chepstow for track. Quick swap to an HST and it was down to Stonehouse for a supply raid, before heading straight back, and with there being nothing else to do for a couple of hours, it was to Lydney and back before I joined the same HST from earlier to Kemble, clearing the Golden Valley for track and shacks before joining a winning pair of 150s to Swindon and an HST to Bristol where I spotted a chance to grab Keynsham, so I went ahead and snared that (plus 150238) before I checked into the Hilton (£44!) and enjoyed all of the amenities before the trashing start the next morning.
Day 9- When It (Still) Rains
I was up at some ungodly hour for the 0520 Voyager to Cahhdiff, promptly grabbing a sausage baguette on arrival, being noting the single 153 taking me to Swansea via Ninian Park, where I then fell asleep again for most of the way, jumping off for a coffee before joining a 150 for the fast run to Fishguard, skipping Carmarthen and going direct to Whitland. Having witnessed exactly 3 people get off for the ferry, it was back to Clarbeston Road, joining the Milford Haven, and promptly ticking that off before requesting Johnston on the way back. I popped into the local shop for some supplies before handing over my £3.90 for the 30 or so minute blast on a Dart to Pembroke Dock, a bit of a naff place really. Joining the 150 to Penally was somewhat of a relief, where I had a few minutes to look around before taking another to Lamphey, complete with lovely guard who asked me what I was up to before I set off on the walk to Pembroke itself, which truly is a very nice town with plenty to look at. I successfully filled my hour here!
It was time to head for somewhere more populated as I took the 150 to Pembrey & Burry Port, awaiting a late running 175 back to the evil Kidwelly. Some charming kids did an emergency door release as it arrived at the station, resulting in a very peeved announcement being made by the guard after we set off having dumped them at Pembrey, but it also meant that I didn’t have long to wait until the next service filed in behind to take me to the positively beautiful but also baltic Ferryside, where I retreated for shelter as the wind and rain battered my face stepping off the 158. Next service was taken to Port Talbot, where I stumbled into dud HSTs to Neath then to Bridgend, ticking me off greatly as they were both ones i’d had very recently! I then decided to walk to Wildmill before noting a double winning pair of 150s back at Bridgend, so I stumped up the half hour wait at Llantwit Major only to score a third! Tight connection then saw me go all the way to Maesteg and come back, clearing that line, before going full idiot and catching the service via the Swansea District Line to Llanelli, seeing another semi-awkward bit of track done. Final move was a 158 to Swansea, complete with a guard who was again very interested in what I was up to.
Swansea was grim, as were the drunks puking up in the streets to greet me as I arrived. Bed was the Premier Inn, and I happily collapsed.
Day 10- When it (STILL!) Rains
Up for the 0559 to Paddington in the morning, I got myself along to Cardiff before a run to Bargoed which was an utterly grim looking place, more sad than anything, before I noticed a theme as I took advantage of the end of peak workings to tick off all the stations up to Rhymney. Everywhere was sad. Everywhere looked neglected. The rain had a certain pathetic fallacy about it as I noticed just how bad the Valleys were for deprivation. There was seemingly no soul anymore. This was bolstered by just how naff Rhymney was. At least Merthyr Tydfil had some signs of life as I had a nail biting connection off the number 1 bus from Rhymney onto stalker 150281 to Troed-y-Rhiw then back up to Pentre-Bach. Order of the day now was clearing Aberdare and Treherbert along with an assortment of shacks (though none between Abercynon and Aberdare were done) with the odd unit being scooped up on the way, before I ended up bounding my way back to Central Cardiff in order to intercept a required 143 on the City Line (and knock off two shacks on that line) before scooping up the 153 on the Bay Line then working out a line of attack for my last two required ATW 142s (seeing as 072 decided it wanted to set itself on fire) which was successful, with 002 falling first.
This put me at Taffs Well, a required shack, then it was back into the centre for some Queen Street leaps to knock off a few 150s before 142073 was snared and I had a +3 at Central for the 1931 to Paddington, dropping back at Reading for a required pair of power cars before arrival at Paddington and a run to Marylebone for 165s to Wembley Stadium and check in at the Best Western Wembley. What a shambles! Checked in by some miserable bloke who demanded a damage deposit. Thankfully the room was much better.
Day 12- For an Optimist, I’m Pretty Pessimistic (sp)
I awoke in EasyHotel Earls Court slightly groggy after my Brussels adventure, an hour late, meaning that I was ending up on the 0707 Ashford, and ended up nearly having an argument with the woman on the gate who wasn’t paying attention, and when I did catch her attention I received a load of lip! Still, it was all the way along to Charing, back over to Bearsted, then I headed for Ashford and aimed to clear off Kent today. With that, it was along to Canterbury West on a behemoth of treble 375s before a swift change into the peace and quiet of Chartham. Back to Canterbury, a nice walk through a park, into Canterbury East and then onto one of those rare 375/3 things up to Teynham, before eventually ending up at Sittingbourne to try and tackle the Sheerness line once and for all! ‘Oh this won’t be so bad’ I say as a winning 466 approaches. ‘Oh yes it will’ I say as I realise i’ve had enough and settle on getting Kemsley in and bagging the other 466 before running away again.
I ended up heading down to Margate once again, just like how I started the week, this time ticking off Westgate on Sea followed by the delightful Dumpton Park, with a walk ensuing to Ramsgate, allowing me to head to Canterbury West and clear off the track there. I was then left with basically no connection at all on the way back, which had me kicking the walls a tad, as I ended up firing myself out of the doors and into the closing doors of the peak time 375 via Sandwich, which then left 5 late anyway. Hot headed for nothing
The shacks between Dover and Ramsgate were subsequently ticked off before my attention turned to the line via Adisham from Faversham to Dover, and I spent the next couple of hours using the half hourly frequency to tick off every station except Kearsney.
One final frontier as I headed for Ashford afterwards, and headed for Edenbridge where I did the lonely walk to Edenbridge Town before mopping up Hever in a filler move and making my way back to Clapham Junction, West Brompton and making the walk back to my hotel.
Day 13- Part II
Anglia was the order of the day today, with me starting on the 06:10ish Braintree, swapping onto the Southend where I fell asleep (though without any negative consequence) to the end of the line, being woken up by the driver
A lack of sleep was taking its toll, clearly. A linear hopping session then took place, scooping up at least 8 new 321s before making my way back towards London and finishing off the West Anglia, even spotting Michael Underwood on my visit to Harlow Mill. That saw all stations from Newport Essex to Liverpool Street finished, as I also popped into Angel Road and noted just how grim the place was. Not as in, the area was bad, but it was industrious and throttled by motorways. I then headed back for the GEML and finished off the Southminster line proper, making use of a One Stop supermarket at South Woodham Ferrers and admiring the rather quirky village of Battlesbridge.
Where next? Well I had myself a random move to Harold Wood just to pick off 315861, before taking advantage of a few early peak extra services in the mix (such as a 3x321 service that only runs from Ingatestone to Colchester, schools service it seemed) before joining a Harwich Town service to Wrabness, subsequently Mistley, Harwich Town and Dovercourt where the sun was starting to set. I left International for a few hours, heading back to Manningtree and joining the 317 diagram down to Colchester, my oh my can those things make noise! It was then a 90 back up to Ipswich before I took a completely empty 170203 around the North Curve and into Harwich International, where the danger music started to play as the Manningtree was 4L on a 3 minute connection.
GA refused to hold the London service despite it having nothing behind it (and we’re talking a 60 second hold) but thankfully the connection was only just made. What now? Well I dived onto the 90 and worked out that I could nab myself 315839 fairly easily but it was getting incredibly late by now, and by the time I slogged myself down to Romford to intercept it (dropping back onto a 321 at Chelmsford for Shenfield) and got myself on another 321 into Liverpool Street, it was getting on for Midnight (indeed I caught what seemed to be the 0004 Met Line to Wembley Park) so arrival at my Novotel for 0030 was much welcome and I went to check in. Oh, they hadn’t taken my money yet, unlike every other hotel and going against what they said they’d do? (I checked- they genuinely hadn’t) Okay, alarm bells ringing here but I went to pay anyway, though this was my final night away so my account wasn’t very healthy. I was £1 short. One. Pound.
I offered to call my parents first thing in the morning, and offered my camera as collateral, all sorts like that, just to get myself in bed. The absolutely vile woman behind the desk just stared me down until I left and told me to leave, saying she didn’t care if I slept rough because ‘rules are rules and you’re not staying’. So, 1am, i’m stood shaking like a leaf in Wembley, and I have the sense to call up EasyHotel Earls Court and get myself a room for £42. It was a slog to get myself all the way over there, arriving around 0150, but I cannot rate the place highly enough. The bloke behind the desk couldn’t believe i’d been booted out for the sake of a pound! Accor group won’t respond to my emails either, so it’s one where I might simply have to accept that being left to fend for myself at 1am was appropriate service.
Day 14- Last Hope
I didn’t start until the 0906 off Paddington, needing time to recover and even then I was in a foul mood all morning, nearly flipping at the bus driver because my Oyster was just under in credit, so she opened the doors and said ‘get off then!’. Cue me slapping my contactless card on the reader (which was accepted) and saying ‘I don’t think so, love’. I was however reasonably productive in the morning, heading for Reading then a Turbo all the way to Burnham and back (GWML finally finished from Paddington to Cardiff exc. Pilning) before I decided i’d had enough of dashing around, and ended up down a few leaps from Swindon to Chippenham and back before heading to Avoncliff.
What a beautiful place. Sure, I’d hit dud, dud, dud, dud, dud, dud… in getting there (and didn’t have another winner until my Pewsey to Westbury move) but it was gorgeous and gave me time to breathe, relax and reflect after a horrible night then threatened to sour the memory of the whole trip. I then had a trundle down to Frome just to get it outta the way, followed by Pewsey, and that was it really. I headed back to Westbury, a place i’d visited a fair few times this summer, and dived on an HST back to Reading, dropping back a set there (pointless, as it was a dud set) and making a point of getting some shots out of the window on the approaches to Paddington, as I have no idea whether i’ll ever get to do that again (depending on the speed of the IEP introduction) and took a moment to take it all in, with a line of HSTs standing proudly on Platforms 1 to 5.
The journey back behind 91109 was somewhat uneventful, and I felt a pang of sadness as the door slid open at Newcastle, me stepping onto the platform and grabbing a shot of my final haulage of the week, before disappearing into the rainy Saturday night crowds.
Final Thoughts.
I mean, it’s not *just* this All Line Rover that has comprised this summer, i’ve been up and down the country basically every single weekend in July and August. I’ve done some crazy stuff, i’ve sat up front in the cab on an Edinburgh Tram from Airport to Murrayfield for example, chatting about current developments with a driver, i’ve done the Norfolk loco hauled services (eventually), done London commutes repeatedly, racked up thousands of miles, sampled a wide variety of hotels (M by Montcalm Shoreditch was the absolute highlight- look it up, it’s 5 star and it’s pristine), and filled the books nicely. I’ve met a ton of new people, maybe drank a little much at times (on my way back from Cornwall I had a fair few drinks so while everyone was complaining about the diversion via Leeds, I was smiling my way along), but most importantly, i’ve loved it. It's been pricey and it's had its moments (sent off a block of delay claims yesterday, including one where both Newcastle to London and return on the same trip were disrupted by 81 and 69 minutes respectively) but it's something i've woken up for every day and wanted to do.
God, I’ve no doubt i’m going to have summers like this again, as YouTube conventions and parties happen every year, and with Europe: that was a mere taster. But it’s been absolutely insane and the All Line Rover was the icing on the cake. Sure, I was at my wits end in the past day or so, but it’s all life experience, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.The wandering through Exeter at midnight, the early morning slogs, the blasting up from one end of the country to the other and back again, the 928 hotel stays, the 317 noise, the random strangers i’ve struck up conversations with, the...bliss.
It’s been a pleasure, and I hope to see these reports continue (after a bit of a hiatus for the initial trials and tribulations of university)
