Kite159
Veteran Member
Must be easier to on a Saturday (I did it from the 17:44 Newcastle to Metro-Centre departure with a ~18 minute wait for the same unit back to Newcastle)
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Richard's Trip Reports
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R
RailUK Forums
Ah yes the 18:06 Morpeth. This should be possible on weekdays too.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Congratulations on clearing the shacks on the Metro and indeed in Tyne and Wear!
Cheers! Off on a Tyne Tees Ranger tomorrow, so expect a report in the next couple of days 
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Tyne Tees Day Ranger- 12/06/15
So having completed 12/14 of my exams with only the relatively straightforward Business exams remaining, I decided on Thursday that it would be a nice idea to have a cheap bash on a Tyne Tees Day Ranger. I also noted that my own restriction free travel between Blaydon and Sunderland would come in useful as I’d be able to use the 0830 Newcastle-Middlesbrough.
And so, at a later than intended 0630, I hauled myself out of bed, had a quick breakfast then made the walk down to the bus stop at 0710 before realising that this was going to leave me with a ridiculously long wait at Newcastle to start. Approaching behind me was an Arriva Route 335 to Four Lane Ends Interchange, so I jumped on that instead. This was of Optare Solo vintage, and it was pretty quiet throughout. This had me at Four Lane Ends for 0730. It was then downstairs for my first rail journey of the day on board 4006 and 4086 to Pelaw. Why Pelaw? Again, to eat up some time as we were just passing through Central at 0750. It was a quick swap of platforms where 4032 and 4056 were arriving in on a Monkseaton short service which starts at Pelaw. I’m used to these extras being quite quiet (On Thursday night I did a South Gosforth one that was completely empty at departure, and near empty until Monument) but this one had a crowd waiting for it, although we still left Pelaw without anyone standing. It was up onto the Mainline Platforms for 0815 where £14.20 was handed over at the ticket office and I made my way to Platform 5 for the 0830 to Middlesbrough. For a journey of over an hour, I was hoping for a 156, so you can imagine my horror when 142064 pulled in! A bench seated FGW styled example… This service was thoroughly jammed on arrival but thankfully about 90% of people left the train at Newcastle, having originated at Hexham.
We left Newcastle on time and proceeded over the Tyne and crawled our way around to Heworth for the familiar fast run to Sunderland. We remained surprisingly quiet even on departure from Hartlepool, and arrived into Middlesbrough on time at 0946. I was also quite amused by the fact that I’d only shown the guard my ticket valid as far as Sunderland, and he didn’t ask for anything else beyond there! But now, the issue was that the connections were rather pants from here. I could go to Saltburn and come straight back as the connection at Redcar Central was a +1 and the train was running 4 late, or to Darlington where I would have a chunky +20 onto a Northbound TPE. I decided that neither option was attractive but I joined 142070 to Thornaby. The second look of many into Tees Yard today showed only a lone 60 and 66 along with stacks and stacks of wagons. This was good timing as 185104 was just arriving with the 1003 to Middlesbrough, putting me back there for 1011. This was now better as the next Darlington service connected with everything quite well there, so I crossed under the subway and awaited the 1022 to Bishop Auckland. This was formed of 142095. It was a pretty quiet run with only a couple of dozen folk on board and I couldn’t help but noticed that the boards at Dinsdale were near useless with the Darlo platform being one service ahead and the Saltburn platform about 4 ahead! And with that, we were arriving into Darlington where the next service due was a XC service to Glasgow. This happened to be the token service from Bath and it was worked by 221138, with a seat being easily sourced for the run north to Newcastle. I don’t mind Voyagers when they’re quiet and punctual (this service happened to be both!) and if the XC examples happened to have the Coach B layout in every coach (4 aligning tables with the windows vs 2 horribly misaligned in other coaches) then they wouldn’t be all that bad! It was a pleasant view of Durham Cathedral as we stopped at Durham before arriving into Newcastle.
The next service out was the 1135 XC to Southampton formed of 220020 so I hopped on board and miraculously found a table unreserved until Darlington in Coach C. I couldn’t help but notice the stickers everywhere reminding you that if you didn’t have a reservation that you could be asked to move, and whilst the 10 minute reservation seems convenient, it’s also not really fair if you have to travel last minute, cough up last minute fares and then find yourself playing musical chairs. And that’s when the reservation system works anyway! Anyway, the journey was relatively pain free as I left the train at Darlington and crossed straight over onto 91125 working the 1207 to Edinburgh Waverley. This seemed pretty full as I just jumped on in Coach F to avoid getting left behind and walked down to Coach B. I soon realised why. Coach C was booked out by some financial group from Lincoln or something. It had quite a few signs plastered everywhere reminding people that this was a private coach with a stack of wooden signs by the entrance! I think a sign would have sufficed. Several dozen surpluses is overkill! I’m not sure whether the woman standing by the entrance was guarding the carriage but nonetheless I continued straight through into Coach B where I secured myself an unreserved seat with some extra legroom too! On departure the guard came around and instead of checking tickets he was handing out bottles of water with the carriage being so warm. Nice touch from VTEC there. We arrived back at Newcastle for 1240 where I bought some lunch to consume on my fourth run to Darlington on the southbound Chieftain. This had 43257 leading and 43318 trailing and as I took my seat in the Quiet Coach I noticed that we had a group of older women enforcing the ‘rules’ quite harshly! One of them almost reduced a lass to tears as she answered a call with regards to her ill mother, and was promptly told to get out of the coach. I was only a few seats away and I couldn’t hear her on the phone at all! Then they took it upon themselves to go around asking a group sat at a table to be quiet. Again, only a few seats away from me and they’d not been loud at all. They seem to have mistaken the quiet coach for the silent coach. It wasn’t a prison, it was a train! I was glad to be getting off at Darlington as I’d probably end up sneezing and offending the lot of them. I can understand the need for quiet in a quiet coach, and that’s exactly what it was, quiet! But that clearly wasn’t good enough if we had an army of older women going around telling people to shut up or get out. This is probably my inner rebellious 16 year old showing, as I can understand a loud person on a phone or talking loudly, but quietly talking shouldn't be met with such an attitude.
Back to the action as I hopped off and joined 142024 on the 1332 to Saltburn as far as Middlesbrough where I decided to tackle the Whitby line, once and for all! 156451 was in charge today on the 1404 to Whitby, and we were about half full on departure as we headed out to Nunthorpe where the line became decidedly more picturesque. We had a good few getting off at Great Ayton too, which for a town so close to Middlesbrough it seemed a bit sparse to only have 3-4tpd to there. We then continued to Battersby where the train reversed and we seemed to enter a very different way of life. On arrival at Commondale to my right we had a good few sheep almost on the tracks next to the train, as we picked up a few walkers there. To my surprise, stations like Danby and Lealholm also had departure boards with real time information that actually worked. This seemed to be true for most stations. I couldn’t see one at Battersby however. The approach to Whitby was very pretty indeed as we came up alongside the harbour with a full view of the town before curving into the platform where what looked like a Class 25 was sat with a rake of MK1s for the NYMR service to Pickering. I had 25 minutes here so I went for a short walk and a couple of provisions at the Co-op. It was then back to 156451 for the 1600 to Middlesbrough. This was the school train (oh joy!) so the headphones went in for most of the journey until Commondale where the last kids got off, which has to be quite the school commute as by this point we were only 30-35 minutes from Middlesbrough! I took the chance to get a few shots of the train at Battersby where we reversed before arriving into Middlesbrough at 1729.
I had 34 minutes until the 1803 to Nunthorpe which I intended on doing, so it was a fester or a run to Thornaby and back with a dodgy +2 in the middle. I took the latter option as 142087, working the 1743 to Newcastle, was perfectly on time on departure so I saw this as being a relatively easy connection. However, the service back looked to be running late on RTT. This was, despite, the PIS screens showing it as being on time. 142095 arrived in at 1752 on the 1750 to Saltburn, and didn’t leave until 1754 so the +7 at Middlesbrough was starting to shrink. However, we were back in at 1759 as I headed for the other platform where 142088 was waiting on the aforementioned 1803 to Nunthorpe. This was unusually starting at Middlesbrough having formed ECS from a service from Hexham. I can only assume this being down to the Whitby service leaving at 1740 so having two services chase each other down the line would be a little pointless. A rather amusing announcement was made by the guard before leaving- ‘This is the 1803 to Nunthorpe, if you want the Saltburn service then this is both the wrong train and the wrong platform’ (Saltburn service leaves alongside us). It was a nice quiet run for the 4 miles to Nunthorpe with only a few folk on board as I left at the final destination and grabbed a few photos. This then set me up for the next rather unusual working. It was back onto 142088 as it formed 2N99, the 1826 Nunthorpe-Darlington. This service also missed out Eaglescliffe, Allens West and Dinsdale so it was a fast run beyond Thornaby. Not only that, but through services to Darlo are something like twice a day. We remained pretty quiet throughout as our service was running in addition to the 2tph from Saltburn (we had one 10 minutes behind us) and we arrived into Darlington at 1911.
I now had a stroke of luck as 91102 was arriving alongside us on the late running 1910 to Edinburgh Waverley. A run down the platform and back through the coaches to Coach B saw us leave late at 1912 for the journey north. This was meant to be my final journey of the day but with the weather being so nice I decided to bail at Durham and go back to Darlington for another spin north to Newcastle. The perks of flexible tickets, eh! And so, it was off at Durham as I wound my way around onto the southbound platform to await the 1950 to Birmingham New Street. 220007 showed up, and as I joined Coach C I noticed that all of the reservation screens were turned off which was quite helpful. However, with it only being one stop I just found an unoccupied seat and sat down as I charged my phone from its 19% in order to see me through until I got home. The sun was beginning to dip now but the journey was pretty pleasant as the engines weren’t all that obtrusive, and we made easy work of the 22 miles back to Darlington, arriving in at 2006. The next service north was the late running 2002 to Edinburgh. To my very pleasant surprise, this was formed of 43378 and 43384, yes, it was a XC HST set! This is one of the services I’m planning on using a lot in July so this should make it more tolerable if it’s HST worked! I joined Coach G at the front as we sped silently north with only half a dozen other folk in the carriage. By far, the best journey of the day as we arrived into Newcastle 8 minutes down at 2040. It was 4045 and 4050 taking me to Haymarket as I legged it for the 2056 bus home, getting back for 2120.
An excellent day with not too much cost involved either! The XC HST was a nice bonus too.
Total mileage- 422mi 08ch
Total cost- £19.78
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Tyne Tees Day Ranger- 12/06/15
So having completed 12/14 of my exams with only the relatively straightforward Business exams remaining, I decided on Thursday that it would be a nice idea to have a cheap bash on a Tyne Tees Day Ranger. I also noted that my own restriction free travel between Blaydon and Sunderland would come in useful as I’d be able to use the 0830 Newcastle-Middlesbrough.
And so, at a later than intended 0630, I hauled myself out of bed, had a quick breakfast then made the walk down to the bus stop at 0710 before realising that this was going to leave me with a ridiculously long wait at Newcastle to start. Approaching behind me was an Arriva Route 335 to Four Lane Ends Interchange, so I jumped on that instead. This was of Optare Solo vintage, and it was pretty quiet throughout. This had me at Four Lane Ends for 0730. It was then downstairs for my first rail journey of the day on board 4006 and 4086 to Pelaw. Why Pelaw? Again, to eat up some time as we were just passing through Central at 0750. It was a quick swap of platforms where 4032 and 4056 were arriving in on a Monkseaton short service which starts at Pelaw. I’m used to these extras being quite quiet (On Thursday night I did a South Gosforth one that was completely empty at departure, and near empty until Monument) but this one had a crowd waiting for it, although we still left Pelaw without anyone standing. It was up onto the Mainline Platforms for 0815 where £14.20 was handed over at the ticket office and I made my way to Platform 5 for the 0830 to Middlesbrough. For a journey of over an hour, I was hoping for a 156, so you can imagine my horror when 142064 pulled in! A bench seated FGW styled example… This service was thoroughly jammed on arrival but thankfully about 90% of people left the train at Newcastle, having originated at Hexham.
We left Newcastle on time and proceeded over the Tyne and crawled our way around to Heworth for the familiar fast run to Sunderland. We remained surprisingly quiet even on departure from Hartlepool, and arrived into Middlesbrough on time at 0946. I was also quite amused by the fact that I’d only shown the guard my ticket valid as far as Sunderland, and he didn’t ask for anything else beyond there! But now, the issue was that the connections were rather pants from here. I could go to Saltburn and come straight back as the connection at Redcar Central was a +1 and the train was running 4 late, or to Darlington where I would have a chunky +20 onto a Northbound TPE. I decided that neither option was attractive but I joined 142070 to Thornaby. The second look of many into Tees Yard today showed only a lone 60 and 66 along with stacks and stacks of wagons. This was good timing as 185104 was just arriving with the 1003 to Middlesbrough, putting me back there for 1011. This was now better as the next Darlington service connected with everything quite well there, so I crossed under the subway and awaited the 1022 to Bishop Auckland. This was formed of 142095. It was a pretty quiet run with only a couple of dozen folk on board and I couldn’t help but noticed that the boards at Dinsdale were near useless with the Darlo platform being one service ahead and the Saltburn platform about 4 ahead! And with that, we were arriving into Darlington where the next service due was a XC service to Glasgow. This happened to be the token service from Bath and it was worked by 221138, with a seat being easily sourced for the run north to Newcastle. I don’t mind Voyagers when they’re quiet and punctual (this service happened to be both!) and if the XC examples happened to have the Coach B layout in every coach (4 aligning tables with the windows vs 2 horribly misaligned in other coaches) then they wouldn’t be all that bad! It was a pleasant view of Durham Cathedral as we stopped at Durham before arriving into Newcastle.
The next service out was the 1135 XC to Southampton formed of 220020 so I hopped on board and miraculously found a table unreserved until Darlington in Coach C. I couldn’t help but notice the stickers everywhere reminding you that if you didn’t have a reservation that you could be asked to move, and whilst the 10 minute reservation seems convenient, it’s also not really fair if you have to travel last minute, cough up last minute fares and then find yourself playing musical chairs. And that’s when the reservation system works anyway! Anyway, the journey was relatively pain free as I left the train at Darlington and crossed straight over onto 91125 working the 1207 to Edinburgh Waverley. This seemed pretty full as I just jumped on in Coach F to avoid getting left behind and walked down to Coach B. I soon realised why. Coach C was booked out by some financial group from Lincoln or something. It had quite a few signs plastered everywhere reminding people that this was a private coach with a stack of wooden signs by the entrance! I think a sign would have sufficed. Several dozen surpluses is overkill! I’m not sure whether the woman standing by the entrance was guarding the carriage but nonetheless I continued straight through into Coach B where I secured myself an unreserved seat with some extra legroom too! On departure the guard came around and instead of checking tickets he was handing out bottles of water with the carriage being so warm. Nice touch from VTEC there. We arrived back at Newcastle for 1240 where I bought some lunch to consume on my fourth run to Darlington on the southbound Chieftain. This had 43257 leading and 43318 trailing and as I took my seat in the Quiet Coach I noticed that we had a group of older women enforcing the ‘rules’ quite harshly! One of them almost reduced a lass to tears as she answered a call with regards to her ill mother, and was promptly told to get out of the coach. I was only a few seats away and I couldn’t hear her on the phone at all! Then they took it upon themselves to go around asking a group sat at a table to be quiet. Again, only a few seats away from me and they’d not been loud at all. They seem to have mistaken the quiet coach for the silent coach. It wasn’t a prison, it was a train! I was glad to be getting off at Darlington as I’d probably end up sneezing and offending the lot of them. I can understand the need for quiet in a quiet coach, and that’s exactly what it was, quiet! But that clearly wasn’t good enough if we had an army of older women going around telling people to shut up or get out. This is probably my inner rebellious 16 year old showing, as I can understand a loud person on a phone or talking loudly, but quietly talking shouldn't be met with such an attitude.
Back to the action as I hopped off and joined 142024 on the 1332 to Saltburn as far as Middlesbrough where I decided to tackle the Whitby line, once and for all! 156451 was in charge today on the 1404 to Whitby, and we were about half full on departure as we headed out to Nunthorpe where the line became decidedly more picturesque. We had a good few getting off at Great Ayton too, which for a town so close to Middlesbrough it seemed a bit sparse to only have 3-4tpd to there. We then continued to Battersby where the train reversed and we seemed to enter a very different way of life. On arrival at Commondale to my right we had a good few sheep almost on the tracks next to the train, as we picked up a few walkers there. To my surprise, stations like Danby and Lealholm also had departure boards with real time information that actually worked. This seemed to be true for most stations. I couldn’t see one at Battersby however. The approach to Whitby was very pretty indeed as we came up alongside the harbour with a full view of the town before curving into the platform where what looked like a Class 25 was sat with a rake of MK1s for the NYMR service to Pickering. I had 25 minutes here so I went for a short walk and a couple of provisions at the Co-op. It was then back to 156451 for the 1600 to Middlesbrough. This was the school train (oh joy!) so the headphones went in for most of the journey until Commondale where the last kids got off, which has to be quite the school commute as by this point we were only 30-35 minutes from Middlesbrough! I took the chance to get a few shots of the train at Battersby where we reversed before arriving into Middlesbrough at 1729.
I had 34 minutes until the 1803 to Nunthorpe which I intended on doing, so it was a fester or a run to Thornaby and back with a dodgy +2 in the middle. I took the latter option as 142087, working the 1743 to Newcastle, was perfectly on time on departure so I saw this as being a relatively easy connection. However, the service back looked to be running late on RTT. This was, despite, the PIS screens showing it as being on time. 142095 arrived in at 1752 on the 1750 to Saltburn, and didn’t leave until 1754 so the +7 at Middlesbrough was starting to shrink. However, we were back in at 1759 as I headed for the other platform where 142088 was waiting on the aforementioned 1803 to Nunthorpe. This was unusually starting at Middlesbrough having formed ECS from a service from Hexham. I can only assume this being down to the Whitby service leaving at 1740 so having two services chase each other down the line would be a little pointless. A rather amusing announcement was made by the guard before leaving- ‘This is the 1803 to Nunthorpe, if you want the Saltburn service then this is both the wrong train and the wrong platform’ (Saltburn service leaves alongside us). It was a nice quiet run for the 4 miles to Nunthorpe with only a few folk on board as I left at the final destination and grabbed a few photos. This then set me up for the next rather unusual working. It was back onto 142088 as it formed 2N99, the 1826 Nunthorpe-Darlington. This service also missed out Eaglescliffe, Allens West and Dinsdale so it was a fast run beyond Thornaby. Not only that, but through services to Darlo are something like twice a day. We remained pretty quiet throughout as our service was running in addition to the 2tph from Saltburn (we had one 10 minutes behind us) and we arrived into Darlington at 1911.
I now had a stroke of luck as 91102 was arriving alongside us on the late running 1910 to Edinburgh Waverley. A run down the platform and back through the coaches to Coach B saw us leave late at 1912 for the journey north. This was meant to be my final journey of the day but with the weather being so nice I decided to bail at Durham and go back to Darlington for another spin north to Newcastle. The perks of flexible tickets, eh! And so, it was off at Durham as I wound my way around onto the southbound platform to await the 1950 to Birmingham New Street. 220007 showed up, and as I joined Coach C I noticed that all of the reservation screens were turned off which was quite helpful. However, with it only being one stop I just found an unoccupied seat and sat down as I charged my phone from its 19% in order to see me through until I got home. The sun was beginning to dip now but the journey was pretty pleasant as the engines weren’t all that obtrusive, and we made easy work of the 22 miles back to Darlington, arriving in at 2006. The next service north was the late running 2002 to Edinburgh. To my very pleasant surprise, this was formed of 43378 and 43384, yes, it was a XC HST set! This is one of the services I’m planning on using a lot in July so this should make it more tolerable if it’s HST worked! I joined Coach G at the front as we sped silently north with only half a dozen other folk in the carriage. By far, the best journey of the day as we arrived into Newcastle 8 minutes down at 2040. It was 4045 and 4050 taking me to Haymarket as I legged it for the 2056 bus home, getting back for 2120.
An excellent day with not too much cost involved either! The XC HST was a nice bonus too.
Total mileage- 422mi 08ch
Total cost- £19.78
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Not bad at all, a very busy day with a ton of variety! Very reasonable ching which is always a bonus. The books will have filled up nicely too by the look of it!
221138 and 43378 were winners but everything else was dud. Wasn't expecting too much though as i've cleared basically all of Heaton depot, so it was just down to luck what XC and VTEC threw at me
Over the summer though with my East Midlands Rover/West Midlands Day Ranger i'm expecting heaps of winners
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Well 2 winners are better than none! Bet you can't wait for the Midlands adventures!
Still a month away or so yet but it'll be the highlight of the summer most certainly! A nice early start to get me to Brum for 9:30 on the first day for a good 9hrs of bashing then home for 10pm.
The middle 5 days will be focused on the track side of things, clearing things like Bedford-Bletchley and Lincoln-Nottingham. Plenty of units to scratch in the process too!
Final day (Friday 31st) will just be a track scratch run down the MML to London and back by purchasing an additional Bedford-London return, perhaps jumping on a 319/387 to Bedford on the way back. This is due to a 6am flight the next day
All in all, the rovers, a WMDR and the Bedford-London return comes to about £170. But at £170/7 that's a £24.29/day average. Cheap as chips for a weeks worth of new territory to bash
Techniquest
Veteran Member
When you look at it like that that is exceptional value! I'm spending quite a fair bit just on fares for my 6 day adventure at the end of July/early August, but it will be worth every penny! Details are due on my trip report thread tomorrow
47403
Established Member
Still a month away or so yet but it'll be the highlight of the summer most certainly! A nice early start to get me to Brum for 9:30 on the first day for a good 9hrs of bashing then home for 10pm.
The middle 5 days will be focused on the track side of things, clearing things like Bedford-Bletchley and Lincoln-Nottingham. Plenty of units to scratch in the process too!
Final day (Friday 31st) will just be a track scratch run down the MML to London and back by purchasing an additional Bedford-London return, perhaps jumping on a 319/387 to Bedford on the way back. This is due to a 6am flight the next day
All in all, the rovers, a WMDR and the Bedford-London return comes to about £170. But at £170/7 that's a £24.29/day average. Cheap as chips for a weeks worth of new territory to bash
should be a monumental read, the midlands done wonders for my NREA, you gotta do a move on the Cats Richard. 10.55 Moor St-Warwick Pkwy, 11.32 back. You'll not regret it mate.
Seconded! Except for the last part. Why not Leam? Sure it's a tight connection but if the 10:55 is on time then you should make it (I have before). And even if you miss it there would be another cat along in 40 minutes (the 12:04 ex LMS).
47403
Established Member
DEFFO but every day I done it, we were at least a couple down, I havent got the nerve for tight connections these days, you young un's probably do
Plus I was thinking of getting them in quickly and reverting back to his original plan of action
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DEFFO but every day I done it, we were at least a couple down, I havent got the nerve for tight connections these days, you young un's probably do
I set myself up for a -3 at Darlington on Friday (with the connection expected 5 late) so aye I can do tight connections. Might do Leam depending on time, but deffo getting a couple of 68s in the bag
(Already got 68004/68006 from the Fifes)And it'll be a hell of a thing to write up. I'll likely take my notes and a laptop away on holiday and do it in the evenings...
And if i'm right, an East Midlands 7 Day Rover + a Bedford-London Thameslink return is fine on a service that's fast Leicester-St Pancake?
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Well that's another impulsive trip booked for tomorrow.
It's a South Pennines Ranger! Off to scratch a few 185s (I need another 19 apparently) and a few illusive 142s as well as my last bit of required track, Romiley-Rose Hill Marple.
£21 to get to Leeds (Surprisingly cheap for the night before travelling before 9:30 and returning at 21:13)
£14.85 for the SPDR so at £35.85 in total that's pretty good going for a last minute jobby!
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Not bad whatsoever! Have fun, I've yet to do a SPDR. Tons of 185s will be about that's for sure, and you haven't missed owt with Rose Hill Marple
Too right I bloody haven't! Halfway through the 21 minute fester at the end of the line right now and it's a bit... Dull. [emoji14] On 142027/142054 though and 054 is a winner, so not complaining too much [emoji38]
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Alrighty! Aforementioned trip report for the SPDR coming tomorrow. I did another SPDR yesterday to celebrate the end of exams so you've got two on the cards
All i'll say is that my total mileage on the 2 trips was 1013mi 23ch...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Alrighty! Aforementioned trip report for the SPDR coming tomorrow. I did another SPDR yesterday to celebrate the end of exams so you've got two on the cards
All i'll say is that my total mileage on the 2 trips was 1013mi 23ch...
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Congratulations on surviving the exam season! Certainly a good way to celebrate there, my finish in 2001 was with a bottle of champagne!
Looking forward to the trip reports when you've had time to do them!
Looking forward to the trip reports when you've had time to do them!
South Pennines the First- 18/06/15
I’d decided on this trip as study leave had presented itself with a completely free day where, to be honest, I didn’t want to revise for the one remaining exam that I had. It was Business Communication Systems, which is basically ICT with some dull Business related gubbins thrown in. It also happened to be incredibly easy (as I later proved by only revising on the morning of the exam and still finding the exam to be a bit of a gift). As a result, I saw no reason to not take advantage of this free day, and decided on a South Pennines Ranger. Of course, this was the night before I was going to do this and I needed to get to Leeds somehow! Leeds has a reputation with me for advances in that they tend to run out and get rather expensive quite quickly, however this time I went straight to TPE and bagged myself the student discount on top of my Railcard discount. This reduced to advance fare to £10.65 each way. Still a nice saving versus the £37.50 Off Peak Return!
It was a delayed early start in the morning as I set my alarm for 6am, woke up and fell asleep again! (This would then be repeated on the next SPDR…spoilers!- Ed) I eventually rose again at 0635 and quickly made up my bag for the day and took myself a couple of provisions for the journey down as well as *groan* some business revision notes. It was out of the door at 0710 for the 0716 bus into Newcastle for a Metro formed of 4005 and 4055 to take me to Central. Now, on the previous night, I’d made up an Excel spreadsheet of every unit/loco I’d had since January 2014 in order to make it clearer which units were winners today and in the future. It came in quite useful as winner 185151 was waiting on the 0806 to Liverpool Lime Street. The doors were released at 0755 as I chose to disregard my pretty awful allocated seat (backwards, aisle) and headed for an unreserved pair in Coach B with extra legroom. It was a pretty busy run south until Leeds where it emptied out a fair bit. I continued on to Huddersfield where I intended to change for the 1011 to the Airport.
That was the plan, but with signalling problems around Victoria, my train was going to be diverted via Piccadilly so I jumped back on 185151. Just to clarify, the board said ‘Calling at Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street’ and the guard announced before departure that the train was calling at Piccadilly. However, about two minutes after leaving the guard announced ‘oh actually the problem’s been fixed so we’re going via Vic again’. I had no reason to be at Manchester Victoria nor did I want to be there. So I was going to be stuck with traipsing my way over to Piccadilly. This was particularly infuriating. I sent a question to TPE’s Twitter about this who told me to use the free bus, which unless I wanted to change, or go to Oxford Road where my ticket wasn’t valid, was a little useless.
We arrived into Victoria at 1038, having sat outside the station for absolutely ages. I promptly made my way towards the exit when ‘oh hello…’, we had a winning 142+150 combination on the next Leeds service! 142041 and 150274 were sitting dead in Platform 2 so I chose to wander away from the crowd and position myself next to 142041. At this point the PA system treated us to a white noise fest, blasting out pain inducing generic noise with a worker and one of those things that measures decibels standing under one of the speakers. It seemed that the railway was being deliberately irritating this morning! I’d just been given a free headache with the compliments of the British Railway! The doors were then released on the 142 and only myself and another bloke took up the challenge with the rest of the crowd cramming into the 150. It was a nice fast run up to Rochdale where I stepped off to the sight of another winner, 158752, arriving in on a late running fast service back to Manchester. This was another quiet train, and we arrived back at Victoria around 30-35 minutes after I’d left.
Now really was time to go over to Piccadilly, and not being able to be bothered to walk, I joined another winner 150277 on the 1129 to Stalybridge. We left five minutes late as the signal wasn’t clearing on the platform, narrowing my connection onto the TPE to Picc to basically 1 or 2 minutes. It was however a pretty pleasant, quiet journey with most folk leaving at Ashton. We arrived into Stalybridge to the sight of another winner (We’re doing pretty well today!) 185148 arriving into the platform furthest from where I was. I wasn’t going to let this one go as I absolutely legged it under the subway and actually managed to make it to the platform before the doors had even been released. This was a busy one, and I ended up sitting in the tip up seats by the toilet in Coach C. On arrival at Piccadilly, I decided on a quick Stockport leap so I headed for whatever was leaving first. Dud 221121 was about to leave on the 1207 to Exeter so that would do me alright! We arrived into Stockport shortly after and I headed under the subway and onto the other platform where a winning 390010 was arriving. I jumped on in Coach A and found a seat for the short journey back to Manchester. It was then over to clear one of the last bits of track on the ranger (My final bit on the ranger to do now is Castleford-Normanton) as I headed over for the 1234 to Rose Hill Marple formed of winner 142054 and dud 142027. A nice quiet journey on the line via Hyde which I hadn’t done in around 2 ½ years! We arrived into Rose Hill at 1302, where there was a massive 20 minute wait before going back! I grabbed a few photos and just opted to sit in 142027 before we headed back to Manchester. Both times I’d sat in the front unit and not had my ticket checked as we only had a guard and a driver so the back unit had to have the guard in it! As a result, there were definitely a few folk getting free rides between stations like Woodley and Hyde Central.
We were back into Manchester Piccadilly for 1400 as I decided to head over the Hope Valley. It was 20 minutes for the TPE so I just decided to board dud 323224 for a slow journey to Stockport, as it called at Heaton Chapel and Levenshulme en route. This narrowed the cold fester at Stockport a little, but it seemed like the journey was going to be a busy one indeed. And it was, as I spent the journey to Sheffield on board a winning 185105 sat in the tip up seats in Coach C again, charging my phone at the rather convenient plug under the seats! We arrived into Sheffield where I had a choice: Wait for the XC via Westgate to Leeds, or just head straight for the Northern via Kirkgate. I opted for the latter option as this service, the 1518 to Leeds, was in the hands of a winning 158793. It was a quiet journey apart from a couple making the odd choice to sit opposite me at a table. The train was basically empty even with free tables available but I didn’t want to seem rude so I stayed put. However, they started to become quite irritating with papers being strewn on the table and tinny, leaky headphones being put on. I decided to just counter this by getting out my own notes and started revising some Business Coms. I also put my headphones on just to drown out their tinny leakfest. Yes, irritation made me revise
I bailed at Wakefield Kirkgate to join the Westgate train which was behind us. This was formed of mega mega Heaton dud 142016, but it was just a 72 chain run around a curve so I wasn’t that bothered. The Leeds stopper from here was running late so I didn’t have to dash for the 1610 to Leeds, formed of another dud 142068. However, this was a much more entertaining run on a bench seated ex FGW example as we absolutely flew through the 10 miles to Leeds! We went from 4 late to 2 early on arrival which just showed how much the driver must have been pushing the poor sod! On arrival at Leeds, I had 3hrs before my train home so I just shrugged to myself and clambered through the rush hour crowds onto a dud 185129 to take me back to Manchester Piccadilly. This service emptied out at Huddersfield so I got myself a table to charge my phone. The guard was a bit of a legend as he made comment to every passenger as he checked their tickets… ‘Stalyvegas? Our next stop Sir.’ I had ‘Ooh you’re organised aren’t you? Must be an old photo on that railcard though!’ as he gave me a cheeky wink, pointing out my 13 year old self on my railcard as it was the only passport photo I had handy at the time of issue. I was deposited on Piccadilly station at 1731 as I walked over to a winning 323237 on the 1738 to Crewe for another Stockport leap. It was busy on board, but we had few standees as we got rid of quite a few folk at Levenshulme.
It was a run under the subway to join dud 185131 on the late running 1753 to Manchester Airport. I did just end up standing on this journey, and we arrived back into Piccadilly a shade after 6. I then decided that a walk was in order as I aimed to join my train home at Manchester Victoria, the 1851 to Newcastle. I took my time and had a sit in the sun in Piccadilly Gardens, before heading into a Co-Op for some dinner for the journey home. It was then under the rather striking new concourse at Victoria and onto Platform 4 for 1840. We waited and waited as the departure time passed before dud 185132 eventually arrived in at 1901. Apparently the signal had failed outside the station so they’d had to pass at danger. No worries, I thought, and I found the entirety of Coach A to be empty and unreserved so I rocked up to a table to charge my phone (again) and sat back and ate my Moroccan chicken salad, along with a Thai Green Curry fajita for afters.
On departure from Huddersfield, 10 minutes late, we absolutely crawled to Dewsbury. We were stuck behind a stopper from Manchester Victoria which was stopping at Mirfield etc, but thankfully it was shifted into the platform at Dewsbury to let us past. That didn’t stop us going even slower though, as we limped into Leeds at 1957. It was a hasty departure at 2000 as we were stuck behind 2T96, an all stations except Church Fenton/Ulleskelf service which had left at 1956. This only delayed us further as we crawled into York at 2030, 24 minutes late. I feared that the 2032 Edinburgh would then be let past us here with us having a Northallerton call, but no such issue materialised as it was of course stuck behind us all the way from Leeds and was also running 15 late so we absolutely motored up the East Coast Mainline back to Newcastle, making up 2 minutes and arriving back at 2133, 22 minutes late.
My bus was at 2145, having missed the 2131, so instead of relying on the Metro I just ran through town for it, making it with around 5 minutes to spare.
A decent last minute trip indeed!
Total Mileage- 499mi 66ch
Total Cost- £40.88
Winners- 10
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And another!
South Pennines the Second- 23/06/15
Let us continue! It’s time for the ‘other’ SPDR which I did on Tuesday as a celebration of the end of my exams. This again was thanks to TPE still having Advance fares available to Leeds at £10.65 each way the night before. It was the same ritual as I nipped out into town quickly and also bought the SPDR from Newcastle’s ticket office. A seemingly unusual request for the clerk but she found it easily and £14.85 was duly handed over.
The next morning, it was another issue of having a 6am alarm, knocking it off and accidentally dropping off again! The moral of the story is, set your alarm for exactly when you need to be awake, not 20 minutes before. I was awoken by my Mam asking when I was intending to be out as it was 6:45. Bugger! My train was in just over an hour! It was a hasty breakfast as I joined a 0720 Arriva bus to the Haymarket for a Metro to the Central, formed of 4049 and 4011 this morning. I again positioned myself for an unreserved seat with some decent legroom, this time in Coach A, as my allocated seat was an aisle seat. The 0806 to Liverpool this morning was formed of a winning 185150 which I actually took to Huddersfield without reboarding. It was damn freezing this morning at Huddersfield, so during my 10 minute wait I paid a visit to the coffee kiosk on the platform for a cuppa. Just £1 for a cup of tea, seemed reasonable enough! This certainly warmed me up no end as I boarded dud 185108 on the 1011 to Manchester Airport.
I wasn’t sure what to do on arrival, so I just jumped on whatever was leaving first. This was the 1046 to Stoke, formed of winner 323229. This was the noisiest 323 I’d even been on! It was a pretty entertaining 5 mile run to Stockport, as the guard also didn’t have a clue where my ranger was even valid to, and he seemed surprised when I said it was only valid to Stockport. He said to me, ‘to be honest mate, I wouldn’t be bothered if you took this all the way to Stoke, I’ve never even heard of the ticket!’ This follows from a previous experience on board a Hadfield service where the guard thought you could go to Derby and Nottingham on a SPDR! Arrival at Stockport was at 1054 where the 1056 to Manchester formed of a winning 390115 was pulling in at the same time. I leaped over to it, and it was bizarrely reverse formed! Coach U also happened to be pretty busy with not many seats remaining, especially as my experience of VT into Manchester has been that U/F have been near empty!
Passing the usual ticket check at Piccadilly, I joined a winning 150272 on the 1114 to New Mills Central. This took the faster, albeit rougher looking route to Romiley via Belle Vue and Brinnington. This had a nice +4 onto the service back to Manchester via the same route, too. I hopped over to the other platform at Romiley to the sight of a manual destination boarded ‘1420x1’ approaching. ‘Ah good!’ I thought. ‘That’ll be 031 or 061, both winners!’ It was 142091. For f$%ks sake, I mumble to myself. A Heaton unit had strayed onto the New Mills circuit. Incredibly irritating but I wasn’t in the mood for hanging around for the route via Hyde so I boarded anyway, and we arrived back into Manchester at 1200. I then decided to go have another crack at the Hope Valley, after spending it pushed in a foldup seat last Thursday! It was off to winner 221132 to Stockport as it was 20 minutes until the Cleethorpes TPE. I jumped into Coach D and it was like a sauna! The screens were scrolling along a message: ‘Air conditioning not working in this coach. No reservations due to national failure. If you do not have a reservation please go to Coach B.’ Didn’t fill me with much faith considering that no other train I’d had that day had had any reservation issues! I put myself in Coach F for the short journey, taking the risk that I’d not encounter anyone wanting my seat on the 7 minute journey!
It was a less cold wait than last week at Stockport with only a few folk waiting for the 1228 to Cleethorpes, formed of a winning 185127. This time I was treated to an unreserved table for the journey to Sheffield, which gave me a decent view over the Hope Valley for once. We were actually running early too, which was a bonus as we arrived into Sheffield for 1305. This time, I did actually intend on jumping on the CrossCountry service via Wakefield Westgate so I sat down on the concourse for a bit. At this point, the South Yorkshire pensioner’s brigade came in with their demands for free rail services with their passes, to the amusement of most of us! The icing on the cake was the lost bloke with his sign about 2 minutes later after the rest of them had positioned themselves on the platforms asking ‘where’d they go?’ I took this as a sign to head back to the platforms myself as the 1321 to Glasgow Central was pulling in, formed of a winning 221140. This was a rather quiet service, and it allowed me to clear the line that links Moorthorpe to Fitzwilliam. We arrived into Leeds a couple of minutes up at 1359, and at the same time, a winning 158797 was arriving on the opposite platform on the 1405 to Blackpool North, which I took to Hebden Bridge.
Hebden Bridge is a very pretty station indeed with its period signage and generally very picturesque setting, as I had a wander around the station before joining a winning pair on the 1505 to Manchester Victoria, 153316 and 158815. I joined the 153 and sat back for the journey to Rochdale. We called only at Todmorden en route, and arrived there at 1523. I noticed that a gent had left the train there too and he had made me a little suspicious. He’d joined the 158 I’d been on at Halifax and claimed he’d got on the wrong train, wanting Todmorden. Fair enough, I suppose. But he, of course, changed at Hebden Bridge and ended up in Rochdale and left the station there. We’d had no ticket check from Hebden Bridge-Rochdale and no check there so I don’t know what the hell he was actually doing. I swapped platforms to head back up to Todmorden and joined double winners 155345 and 153378 for the non-stop run there. This was a much thrashier run than the last 153, and the train produced quite some noise going through the tunnel between Littleborough and Walsden! This was a pretty short and sweet journey as I was deposited on the platform at Todmorden only 10 minutes later. Another station in a rather pretty setting as I swapped platforms to go through to Manchester Victoria, just in time for the peak time kicking off.
The stream of winners continued at 155347 pulled in on another fast service to Manchester, calling only at Rochdale. We even managed to run a little early into Victoria as I went over to the Huddersfield train in order to position myself at Piccadilly for a couple of Stockport runs. This was in the hands of a winning 156491 (One of those 156s where it’s a Heaton styled one but it never actually reaches Newcastle). The peak time was definitely starting to kick off as we left Vic well loaded but not full and turned right towards Ashton. Arrival at Stalybridge was a short time later as I aimed for the 1650 to Liverpool, but a late running 1643 to Southport was tempting me as it had a winning 156455 tacked on the back of dud 142062. However, this would mean I’d need a re-jigging of plans so I stuck with the TPE, formed of double duds 185124 and 185128. I found a seat right at the front of the train as it pulled in all the way down the end of the platform, and we arrived into Picc to the sight of a platform choked with commuters at around 1709. It was a quick fight through the crowds and onto a waiting winner 390155 for the journey to Stockport. To my pleasant surprise, we had a waiting EMT to Liverpool on the opposite platform so I made a hasty dash under the subway to join a winning 158810 and dud 158788 back to Piccadilly.
I had time to do one more run then walk across to Victoria for the train home. A winning 323225 was pulling in on the 1746 to Stoke, so I joined that. It was truly jammed up, but I wasn’t too fussed and let everyone else join first so I just ended up standing by the doors for the short, rather sweaty run back out to Stockport. A winning 390042 was in the other platform on the 1756 to Manchester, so it was other beeline run under the subway for that! Back into Piccadilly for 1805, so I took a very sunny walk across Manchester before picking up some dinner from the Co-op and heading into Victoria station where a dud 185124, thankfully running on time this time, got me back to Newcastle for 2111.
Of course, today had to have a sick twist to it, as I belted down into the Metro in order to connect with the 2123 bus home. I ran down the stairs only to lose my footing and collapse down the rest of them, jarring my right knee in the process. However, the slightly hardy Northern spirit in me showed as I hauled myself up, legs shaking with the shock, to be asked if I was alright and I responded with ‘Whey aye, I think so! I can walk so that’s a plus!’ In reality I was internally screaming with the pain and worrying that my knee was completely dislocated (likely not broken as i'd probably be dragging my right leg). On the plus side, I made my bus And don’t worry, after a rather uncomfortable walk home and a couple of days rest, it’s still sore but I can walk just fine. Lesson learned after years of making the same dash down the stairs. Hold the ****ing handrail!!
Total Mileage- 513mi 27ch
Total Cost- £42.09
Total winners- 18
I’d decided on this trip as study leave had presented itself with a completely free day where, to be honest, I didn’t want to revise for the one remaining exam that I had. It was Business Communication Systems, which is basically ICT with some dull Business related gubbins thrown in. It also happened to be incredibly easy (as I later proved by only revising on the morning of the exam and still finding the exam to be a bit of a gift). As a result, I saw no reason to not take advantage of this free day, and decided on a South Pennines Ranger. Of course, this was the night before I was going to do this and I needed to get to Leeds somehow! Leeds has a reputation with me for advances in that they tend to run out and get rather expensive quite quickly, however this time I went straight to TPE and bagged myself the student discount on top of my Railcard discount. This reduced to advance fare to £10.65 each way. Still a nice saving versus the £37.50 Off Peak Return!
It was a delayed early start in the morning as I set my alarm for 6am, woke up and fell asleep again! (This would then be repeated on the next SPDR…spoilers!- Ed) I eventually rose again at 0635 and quickly made up my bag for the day and took myself a couple of provisions for the journey down as well as *groan* some business revision notes. It was out of the door at 0710 for the 0716 bus into Newcastle for a Metro formed of 4005 and 4055 to take me to Central. Now, on the previous night, I’d made up an Excel spreadsheet of every unit/loco I’d had since January 2014 in order to make it clearer which units were winners today and in the future. It came in quite useful as winner 185151 was waiting on the 0806 to Liverpool Lime Street. The doors were released at 0755 as I chose to disregard my pretty awful allocated seat (backwards, aisle) and headed for an unreserved pair in Coach B with extra legroom. It was a pretty busy run south until Leeds where it emptied out a fair bit. I continued on to Huddersfield where I intended to change for the 1011 to the Airport.
That was the plan, but with signalling problems around Victoria, my train was going to be diverted via Piccadilly so I jumped back on 185151. Just to clarify, the board said ‘Calling at Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street’ and the guard announced before departure that the train was calling at Piccadilly. However, about two minutes after leaving the guard announced ‘oh actually the problem’s been fixed so we’re going via Vic again’. I had no reason to be at Manchester Victoria nor did I want to be there. So I was going to be stuck with traipsing my way over to Piccadilly. This was particularly infuriating. I sent a question to TPE’s Twitter about this who told me to use the free bus, which unless I wanted to change, or go to Oxford Road where my ticket wasn’t valid, was a little useless.
We arrived into Victoria at 1038, having sat outside the station for absolutely ages. I promptly made my way towards the exit when ‘oh hello…’, we had a winning 142+150 combination on the next Leeds service! 142041 and 150274 were sitting dead in Platform 2 so I chose to wander away from the crowd and position myself next to 142041. At this point the PA system treated us to a white noise fest, blasting out pain inducing generic noise with a worker and one of those things that measures decibels standing under one of the speakers. It seemed that the railway was being deliberately irritating this morning! I’d just been given a free headache with the compliments of the British Railway!
The doors were then released on the 142 and only myself and another bloke took up the challenge with the rest of the crowd cramming into the 150. It was a nice fast run up to Rochdale where I stepped off to the sight of another winner, 158752, arriving in on a late running fast service back to Manchester. This was another quiet train, and we arrived back at Victoria around 30-35 minutes after I’d left.Now really was time to go over to Piccadilly, and not being able to be bothered to walk, I joined another winner 150277 on the 1129 to Stalybridge. We left five minutes late as the signal wasn’t clearing on the platform, narrowing my connection onto the TPE to Picc to basically 1 or 2 minutes. It was however a pretty pleasant, quiet journey with most folk leaving at Ashton. We arrived into Stalybridge to the sight of another winner (We’re doing pretty well today!) 185148 arriving into the platform furthest from where I was. I wasn’t going to let this one go as I absolutely legged it under the subway and actually managed to make it to the platform before the doors had even been released. This was a busy one, and I ended up sitting in the tip up seats by the toilet in Coach C. On arrival at Piccadilly, I decided on a quick Stockport leap so I headed for whatever was leaving first. Dud 221121 was about to leave on the 1207 to Exeter so that would do me alright! We arrived into Stockport shortly after and I headed under the subway and onto the other platform where a winning 390010 was arriving. I jumped on in Coach A and found a seat for the short journey back to Manchester. It was then over to clear one of the last bits of track on the ranger (My final bit on the ranger to do now is Castleford-Normanton) as I headed over for the 1234 to Rose Hill Marple formed of winner 142054 and dud 142027. A nice quiet journey on the line via Hyde which I hadn’t done in around 2 ½ years! We arrived into Rose Hill at 1302, where there was a massive 20 minute wait before going back! I grabbed a few photos and just opted to sit in 142027 before we headed back to Manchester. Both times I’d sat in the front unit and not had my ticket checked as we only had a guard and a driver so the back unit had to have the guard in it! As a result, there were definitely a few folk getting free rides between stations like Woodley and Hyde Central.
We were back into Manchester Piccadilly for 1400 as I decided to head over the Hope Valley. It was 20 minutes for the TPE so I just decided to board dud 323224 for a slow journey to Stockport, as it called at Heaton Chapel and Levenshulme en route. This narrowed the cold fester at Stockport a little, but it seemed like the journey was going to be a busy one indeed. And it was, as I spent the journey to Sheffield on board a winning 185105 sat in the tip up seats in Coach C again, charging my phone at the rather convenient plug under the seats! We arrived into Sheffield where I had a choice: Wait for the XC via Westgate to Leeds, or just head straight for the Northern via Kirkgate. I opted for the latter option as this service, the 1518 to Leeds, was in the hands of a winning 158793. It was a quiet journey apart from a couple making the odd choice to sit opposite me at a table. The train was basically empty even with free tables available but I didn’t want to seem rude so I stayed put. However, they started to become quite irritating with papers being strewn on the table and tinny, leaky headphones being put on. I decided to just counter this by getting out my own notes and started revising some Business Coms. I also put my headphones on just to drown out their tinny leakfest. Yes, irritation made me revise
I bailed at Wakefield Kirkgate to join the Westgate train which was behind us. This was formed of mega mega Heaton dud 142016, but it was just a 72 chain run around a curve so I wasn’t that bothered. The Leeds stopper from here was running late so I didn’t have to dash for the 1610 to Leeds, formed of another dud 142068. However, this was a much more entertaining run on a bench seated ex FGW example as we absolutely flew through the 10 miles to Leeds! We went from 4 late to 2 early on arrival which just showed how much the driver must have been pushing the poor sod! On arrival at Leeds, I had 3hrs before my train home so I just shrugged to myself and clambered through the rush hour crowds onto a dud 185129 to take me back to Manchester Piccadilly. This service emptied out at Huddersfield so I got myself a table to charge my phone. The guard was a bit of a legend as he made comment to every passenger as he checked their tickets… ‘Stalyvegas? Our next stop Sir.’ I had ‘Ooh you’re organised aren’t you? Must be an old photo on that railcard though!’ as he gave me a cheeky wink, pointing out my 13 year old self on my railcard as it was the only passport photo I had handy at the time of issue. I was deposited on Piccadilly station at 1731 as I walked over to a winning 323237 on the 1738 to Crewe for another Stockport leap. It was busy on board, but we had few standees as we got rid of quite a few folk at Levenshulme.
It was a run under the subway to join dud 185131 on the late running 1753 to Manchester Airport. I did just end up standing on this journey, and we arrived back into Piccadilly a shade after 6. I then decided that a walk was in order as I aimed to join my train home at Manchester Victoria, the 1851 to Newcastle. I took my time and had a sit in the sun in Piccadilly Gardens, before heading into a Co-Op for some dinner for the journey home. It was then under the rather striking new concourse at Victoria and onto Platform 4 for 1840. We waited and waited as the departure time passed before dud 185132 eventually arrived in at 1901. Apparently the signal had failed outside the station so they’d had to pass at danger. No worries, I thought, and I found the entirety of Coach A to be empty and unreserved so I rocked up to a table to charge my phone (again) and sat back and ate my Moroccan chicken salad, along with a Thai Green Curry fajita for afters.
On departure from Huddersfield, 10 minutes late, we absolutely crawled to Dewsbury. We were stuck behind a stopper from Manchester Victoria which was stopping at Mirfield etc, but thankfully it was shifted into the platform at Dewsbury to let us past. That didn’t stop us going even slower though, as we limped into Leeds at 1957. It was a hasty departure at 2000 as we were stuck behind 2T96, an all stations except Church Fenton/Ulleskelf service which had left at 1956. This only delayed us further as we crawled into York at 2030, 24 minutes late. I feared that the 2032 Edinburgh would then be let past us here with us having a Northallerton call, but no such issue materialised as it was of course stuck behind us all the way from Leeds and was also running 15 late so we absolutely motored up the East Coast Mainline back to Newcastle, making up 2 minutes and arriving back at 2133, 22 minutes late.
My bus was at 2145, having missed the 2131, so instead of relying on the Metro I just ran through town for it, making it with around 5 minutes to spare.
A decent last minute trip indeed!
Total Mileage- 499mi 66ch
Total Cost- £40.88
Winners- 10
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And another!
South Pennines the Second- 23/06/15
Let us continue! It’s time for the ‘other’ SPDR which I did on Tuesday as a celebration of the end of my exams. This again was thanks to TPE still having Advance fares available to Leeds at £10.65 each way the night before. It was the same ritual as I nipped out into town quickly and also bought the SPDR from Newcastle’s ticket office. A seemingly unusual request for the clerk but she found it easily and £14.85 was duly handed over.
The next morning, it was another issue of having a 6am alarm, knocking it off and accidentally dropping off again! The moral of the story is, set your alarm for exactly when you need to be awake, not 20 minutes before. I was awoken by my Mam asking when I was intending to be out as it was 6:45. Bugger! My train was in just over an hour! It was a hasty breakfast as I joined a 0720 Arriva bus to the Haymarket for a Metro to the Central, formed of 4049 and 4011 this morning. I again positioned myself for an unreserved seat with some decent legroom, this time in Coach A, as my allocated seat was an aisle seat. The 0806 to Liverpool this morning was formed of a winning 185150 which I actually took to Huddersfield without reboarding
. It was damn freezing this morning at Huddersfield, so during my 10 minute wait I paid a visit to the coffee kiosk on the platform for a cuppa. Just £1 for a cup of tea, seemed reasonable enough! This certainly warmed me up no end as I boarded dud 185108 on the 1011 to Manchester Airport.I wasn’t sure what to do on arrival, so I just jumped on whatever was leaving first. This was the 1046 to Stoke, formed of winner 323229. This was the noisiest 323 I’d even been on! It was a pretty entertaining 5 mile run to Stockport, as the guard also didn’t have a clue where my ranger was even valid to, and he seemed surprised when I said it was only valid to Stockport. He said to me, ‘to be honest mate, I wouldn’t be bothered if you took this all the way to Stoke, I’ve never even heard of the ticket!’ This follows from a previous experience on board a Hadfield service where the guard thought you could go to Derby and Nottingham on a SPDR! Arrival at Stockport was at 1054 where the 1056 to Manchester formed of a winning 390115 was pulling in at the same time. I leaped over to it, and it was bizarrely reverse formed! Coach U also happened to be pretty busy with not many seats remaining, especially as my experience of VT into Manchester has been that U/F have been near empty!
Passing the usual ticket check at Piccadilly, I joined a winning 150272 on the 1114 to New Mills Central. This took the faster, albeit rougher looking route to Romiley via Belle Vue and Brinnington. This had a nice +4 onto the service back to Manchester via the same route, too. I hopped over to the other platform at Romiley to the sight of a manual destination boarded ‘1420x1’ approaching. ‘Ah good!’ I thought. ‘That’ll be 031 or 061, both winners!’ It was 142091. For f$%ks sake, I mumble to myself. A Heaton unit had strayed onto the New Mills circuit. Incredibly irritating but I wasn’t in the mood for hanging around for the route via Hyde so I boarded anyway, and we arrived back into Manchester at 1200. I then decided to go have another crack at the Hope Valley, after spending it pushed in a foldup seat last Thursday! It was off to winner 221132 to Stockport as it was 20 minutes until the Cleethorpes TPE. I jumped into Coach D and it was like a sauna! The screens were scrolling along a message: ‘Air conditioning not working in this coach. No reservations due to national failure. If you do not have a reservation please go to Coach B.’ Didn’t fill me with much faith considering that no other train I’d had that day had had any reservation issues! I put myself in Coach F for the short journey, taking the risk that I’d not encounter anyone wanting my seat on the 7 minute journey!
It was a less cold wait than last week at Stockport with only a few folk waiting for the 1228 to Cleethorpes, formed of a winning 185127. This time I was treated to an unreserved table for the journey to Sheffield, which gave me a decent view over the Hope Valley for once
. We were actually running early too, which was a bonus as we arrived into Sheffield for 1305. This time, I did actually intend on jumping on the CrossCountry service via Wakefield Westgate so I sat down on the concourse for a bit. At this point, the South Yorkshire pensioner’s brigade came in with their demands for free rail services with their passes, to the amusement of most of us! The icing on the cake was the lost bloke with his sign about 2 minutes later after the rest of them had positioned themselves on the platforms asking ‘where’d they go?’ I took this as a sign to head back to the platforms myself as the 1321 to Glasgow Central was pulling in, formed of a winning 221140. This was a rather quiet service, and it allowed me to clear the line that links Moorthorpe to Fitzwilliam. We arrived into Leeds a couple of minutes up at 1359, and at the same time, a winning 158797 was arriving on the opposite platform on the 1405 to Blackpool North, which I took to Hebden Bridge.Hebden Bridge is a very pretty station indeed with its period signage and generally very picturesque setting, as I had a wander around the station before joining a winning pair on the 1505 to Manchester Victoria, 153316 and 158815. I joined the 153 and sat back for the journey to Rochdale. We called only at Todmorden en route, and arrived there at 1523. I noticed that a gent had left the train there too and he had made me a little suspicious. He’d joined the 158 I’d been on at Halifax and claimed he’d got on the wrong train, wanting Todmorden. Fair enough, I suppose. But he, of course, changed at Hebden Bridge and ended up in Rochdale and left the station there. We’d had no ticket check from Hebden Bridge-Rochdale and no check there so I don’t know what the hell he was actually doing. I swapped platforms to head back up to Todmorden and joined double winners 155345 and 153378 for the non-stop run there. This was a much thrashier run than the last 153, and the train produced quite some noise going through the tunnel between Littleborough and Walsden! This was a pretty short and sweet journey as I was deposited on the platform at Todmorden only 10 minutes later. Another station in a rather pretty setting as I swapped platforms to go through to Manchester Victoria, just in time for the peak time kicking off.
The stream of winners continued at 155347 pulled in on another fast service to Manchester, calling only at Rochdale. We even managed to run a little early into Victoria as I went over to the Huddersfield train in order to position myself at Piccadilly for a couple of Stockport runs. This was in the hands of a winning 156491 (One of those 156s where it’s a Heaton styled one but it never actually reaches Newcastle). The peak time was definitely starting to kick off as we left Vic well loaded but not full and turned right towards Ashton. Arrival at Stalybridge was a short time later as I aimed for the 1650 to Liverpool, but a late running 1643 to Southport was tempting me as it had a winning 156455 tacked on the back of dud 142062. However, this would mean I’d need a re-jigging of plans so I stuck with the TPE, formed of double duds 185124 and 185128. I found a seat right at the front of the train as it pulled in all the way down the end of the platform, and we arrived into Picc to the sight of a platform choked with commuters at around 1709. It was a quick fight through the crowds and onto a waiting winner 390155 for the journey to Stockport. To my pleasant surprise, we had a waiting EMT to Liverpool on the opposite platform so I made a hasty dash under the subway to join a winning 158810 and dud 158788 back to Piccadilly.
I had time to do one more run then walk across to Victoria for the train home. A winning 323225 was pulling in on the 1746 to Stoke, so I joined that. It was truly jammed up, but I wasn’t too fussed and let everyone else join first so I just ended up standing by the doors for the short, rather sweaty run back out to Stockport. A winning 390042 was in the other platform on the 1756 to Manchester, so it was other beeline run under the subway for that! Back into Piccadilly for 1805, so I took a very sunny walk across Manchester before picking up some dinner from the Co-op and heading into Victoria station where a dud 185124, thankfully running on time this time, got me back to Newcastle for 2111.
Of course, today had to have a sick twist to it, as I belted down into the Metro in order to connect with the 2123 bus home. I ran down the stairs only to lose my footing and collapse down the rest of them, jarring my right knee in the process. However, the slightly hardy Northern spirit in me showed as I hauled myself up, legs shaking with the shock, to be asked if I was alright and I responded with ‘Whey aye, I think so! I can walk so that’s a plus!’ In reality I was internally screaming with the pain and worrying that my knee was completely dislocated (likely not broken as i'd probably be dragging my right leg). On the plus side, I made my bus
And don’t worry, after a rather uncomfortable walk home and a couple of days rest, it’s still sore but I can walk just fine. Lesson learned after years of making the same dash down the stairs. Hold the ****ing handrail!!Total Mileage- 513mi 27ch
Total Cost- £42.09
Total winners- 18
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Two very good days out there, a truckload of winners had! I trust you enjoyed your trip along the Hope Valley, although admittedly a 185 is nowhere near as fun as an HST along it!
Very good value trips, especially for a last minute thing!
Very good value trips, especially for a last minute thing!
Aye, it's a lovely journey. More scenery on Monday for my trek to Inverness. First Class to Edinburgh too
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Nice! My trip to the Midlands on Monday will be more than tame compared to that!
Slight change, another £20 last minute leap to Leeds tomorrow then a WYDR owing to the nice weather. Might get the bus from Hebden Bridge-Keighley or something too
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Strictly speaking it's another 21.30 (assuming 10.65 each way again) quid 
Hope you're having fun, rather nice weather so far here too. I'm off to work though so not so helpful for me
Hope you're having fun, rather nice weather so far here too. I'm off to work though so not so helpful for me
It's been a pretty chilled day so far. Plenty of duds around with me being on 150275 to Batley at the moment but planning to jump off here, go back to Morley, Manchester Vic stopper to Mirfield, GC to Brighouse and then a Northern to Leeds via Bradford. A nice sweep of 4 new shacks at once
Edit: spoke too soon. The GC was suddenly revealed as canned so I didn't bother with Mirfield. Final WYDR move today now, 158843 on the 1852 Bradford Int-Leeds.
Edit: spoke too soon. The GC was suddenly revealed as canned so I didn't bother with Mirfield. Final WYDR move today now, 158843 on the 1852 Bradford Int-Leeds.
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Not all gone to plan then, looking forward to the full trip report!
Looks like you had a couple of enjoyable days - leg incident excluded, of course.
Your mention of running under the subway at Stalybridge brought back memories of my doing the same thing many years ago.
Talk about dated - I arrived in the bay platform on the DMU shuttle from Stockport, looking across I spotted 45066 waiting to head East on a Pennine.
I flung open the door, leapt off, sprinted through the subway and dived straight on board for some hellfire NB Peak thrash to Huddersfield.
Happy days, thanks for bringing up the memory
Your mention of running under the subway at Stalybridge brought back memories of my doing the same thing many years ago.
Talk about dated - I arrived in the bay platform on the DMU shuttle from Stockport, looking across I spotted 45066 waiting to head East on a Pennine.
I flung open the door, leapt off, sprinted through the subway and dived straight on board for some hellfire NB Peak thrash to Huddersfield.
Happy days, thanks for bringing up the memory
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Looks like you had a couple of enjoyable days - leg incident excluded, of course.
Your mention of running under the subway at Stalybridge brought back memories of my doing the same thing many years ago.
Talk about dated - I arrived in the bay platform on the DMU shuttle from Stockport, looking across I spotted 45066 waiting to head East on a Pennine.
I flung open the door, leapt off, sprinted through the subway and dived straight on board for some hellfire NB Peak thrash to Huddersfield.
Happy days, thanks for bringing up the memory
Nae bother, it's a frequent dash I make as the Vic-Staly train is often delayed a little.
Well my 0706 to Leeds was cancelled so plenty of surprises to come
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West Yorkshire Day Rover- 27/06/15
It’s time for another impromptu trip out to Yorkshire courtesy of TransPennine Express
. This was another £21.30 jobby, but this time I was to do a West Yorkshire DayRover. I’d previously considered these on the two previous trips, but the prospect of standing around for three hours doing absolutely nothing because apparently imposing evening peak restrictions on a day ticket is an intelligent idea, wasn’t really an attractive one. However, today was a Saturday so no issues there!It was up at 0545, later than usual for my booked 0706 train as my Dad was off to work. I was dropped off at around 0635 as I made the usual slightly unattractive walk to the Central past the litter and vomit from the previous Friday night joys in Newcastle (probably overflow from the Bigg Market :P). But then as I walked through the empty Portico and glanced up at the boards above the ticket machines in my usual fashion, something caught my eye: ‘0706 LIVERPOOL LIME ST- CANCELLED’. Bugger. I certainly wasn’t hanging around for the 0806 so I headed to the ticket office who pointed me onto the 0722 to London for connections at York. A dubiously issued Day Rover was also bought here (upside down with the headings missing on season ticket stock!). I was pretty irritated as I would have preferred to have joined the 0655 to London and connected with my intended train at York. However, I didn’t bother proposing this and went off to McDonalds for a Bacon wrap and a cuppa before returning at 0705 to the sight of a winning 43307 on the back of the 0722 to London Kings Cross! Bonus then. I didn’t get the leading number, so if anyone could find the front Power Car number of 1Y16, the 0722 Newcastle-London Kings X then that’d be great! The journey south was quiet and far more pleasant than a 185. We hardly had any passengers in Coach B and the guard didn’t bat an eyelid at me having a ticket for the TPE. Just an ‘okay mate, that’s fine’. We were held outside of York for a while before arriving in at 0829, 2 minutes behind. This connected with the 0840 to Liverpool. However, for Liverpool passengers this would be a somewhat more frustrating compromise as instead of Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester this train called at Leeds, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Staly, Pic and Oxford Road, Birchwood, Warrington and Liv SP before staggering into Liverpool! Everyone piled into the front carriage of a dud 185129 for some reason leaving me to enjoy some peace at the back. Again, the guard had zero issue with me using this service. I was keeping an eye on the clock as I was running 26 minutes later than intended on departure from York, but this stuck and I arrived into Leeds at 0905 so no compensation due.
In an attempt to claw back time, I legged it for the 0908 to Blackpool North (my intended connection from the 0840 TPE) which was formed of a dud 158754. For some reason, I found the seats to be less sunk and more comfortable than usual as I sourced a backwards facing pair which became forward facing at Bradford Interchange. The guard was a top bloke, very friendly and he even solved an issue with a woman who’d left her keys in her flat back in Leeds. She held a Leeds-Blackpool return so she was let off at New Pudsey to go back without any further charge! I was glad to see that discretion was shown even when she offered to pay. I bailed at Hebden Bridge where I had an idea of doing something different, which was a bus across the hills to Keighley. This was the Route 500, operated by Transdev and this was why I’d paid the extra 90p for a full Day Rover rather than a rail only one. The driver was rather puzzled by my odd looking ticket, but a short explanation and an uneasy ‘uh ok’ from her was all it took for me to then source a seat for the 50 minute journey to Keighley.
The bus was a comfortable Wright Streetlite, and it seemed a bit less plastic like than our own examples back home with no tacky leather seating or wood effect flooring. It was just comfortable! The journey was a sharp ascent out of Hebden Bridge as we climbed and climbed out of the town and onto the country roads with some pretty breath-taking views. It was also incredibly surprising that there were bus stops plonked on windswept moorland In the middle of nowhere too! We then descended into Oxenhope and proceeded to twist around a few sharp bends before becoming very busy as we stopped at Haworth. Soon enough, we were arriving into Keighley Bus Station, a shade after 1100 and it was now time to source the railway station! This was a relatively short walk to the outskirts of town across a couple of roads where I arrived to the sight of a departing Leeds service. Guess I was joining the Bradford one then! I headed to a very sunny end of the platform to await a winning 333007 on the 1114 to Bradford Forster Square which I took to Shipley. The air conditioning was blasting which was also very welcoming as it was really starting to get quite warm. It was a short pleasant journey down to Shipley where most of us left the train for the 10 minute fester for a Leeds service.
There was quite a crowd here for the Leeds train, but again all it took was a walk down the platform for a quieter carriage. This was another winner, 333015 which made easy work of the 10 miles to Leeds where the upcoming stations of Apperley Bridge and Kirkstall Forge looked to be making at least some progress. We arrived in a stonking 6 minutes early at Leeds so I had a chance to dash over to dud 150275 working the 1156 to Huddersfield. I had a rather impolite gentleman (not a young one either!) sat behind me who not only flicked pasty crumbs directly onto me instead of brushing them off, but he then asked me for the arrival time into Huddersfield which I duly gave only to be blanked (I do believe that thanks is the appropriate word!). I wasn’t actually sure where to bail, I could do a +4 at Deighton onto the Wakefield train, or I could have a bit more fun and scratch a few shacks in the area and have a potential for a good few winners in the process. The latter option was taken and I bailed at new shack Batley for a +7 which became a +9 back to another new shack Morley. A winning 144008 turned up and it was heaving! Some folk left the train but I just ended up leaning on the front set of doors for the 3 mile journey where we were greeted by another crowd on the platform at Morley. The train left completely heaving down the aisles, not a pleasant trip! Thankfully, I was off at Morley anyway and over the bridge to await the 1234 to Manchester Victoria. This was a winning 158753 and it was near enough empty for the (intended) journey to Mirfield. However, on departure from Dewsbury I decided to do a last check on RTT of the Grand Central service I was going to change onto at Mirfield. It was cancelled, despite showing as running 10 minutes ago so I canned the idea of Mirfield and continued to Brighouse instead where we arrived 5 minutes early for some reason. It was a short wait here for a winning 153363 to take me on the 1311 to Leeds as far as Bradford Interchange. This arrived at Brighouse at 1302 due to not having to wait for the Grand Central to move first so we spent a while sat at the platform first. It seemed a little weird only being a single carriage train, as my experiences of 153s have generally been of them tacked onto 155s or 158s! At Halifax it became quite busy before I bailed for the free bus over to Forster Square at Bradford.
The bus put me at Forster Square for 1350 where my only reach choice was the 1400 to Leeds as the Ilkley train had just left. It was however a continuation of the winning streak as 333010 pulled in to work the service which remained fairly lightly loaded throughout. I perused a copy of the local Telegraph and Argus which reminded me of our own local paper, where some of the stories are truly, err…monotonous. We were into Leeds early again at 1421 where I saw the chance to position myself for the other bus move of the day as the 1426 to Skipton, formed of another winner 333009 was waiting on the opposite platform. This was totally wedged in the back carriage, but as usual empty up front so I headed up front for the journey to a new shack, Steeton and Silsden. I could then catch a bus here to Ilkley but I wasn’t really sure where to catch it from so I just walked out to the main road where I saw the bus stop…and the approaching bus. Bugger! I wasn’t sure of legging it across as it was a fast, albeit not too busy single carriageway. I took the risk when a gap emerged and flagged down the bus which was of Wright Solar vintage. This was the Route 765 from Keighley to Ilkley and it was still quite a scenic run! It was mainly fast running on country roads, but we took a few deviations and picked up a few walkers en route and also passed through the village of Addingham which looked very picture postcard like. Definitely worth a walk through in the future me thinks! We got stuck in some traffic outside of Ilkley before arriving there at 1537.
The train was the 1538 Leeds formed of a winning (of course
) 333012 which I made somehow very easily, but the imminent departure didn’t bother an irritating old woman who insisted on walking down the platform only to board the second carriage as I was walking down the train to the front to find some space. She swooped in directly in front of me and insisted on surveying every set of seats as she walked down each carriage before deciding on a bay of six for the ONE STOP to Ben Rhydding where we were arriving into! It was another pleasant relatively scenic run however, and I can safely say that the Airedale and Wharfedale lines are certainly the most pleasant to bash out of the lines in West Yorkshire. We were into Leeds at 1610 where I had two choices for my next move as I required Castleford-Normanton. The safe option: Wait for the 1633 to Sheffield. Take it to Wakefield Kirkgate and get the bus to Westgate due to a 20 minute gap in trains. Or, the riskier more fun option: A pretty much guaranteed winning 321/322 to Westgate, a random unit to Kirkgate but then a +3 at Kirkgate for the 1650 to Leeds via Castleford.I took the latter option as it put me back at Leeds rather than leaving me to find options for what to do from Wakefield. I walked to Platform 13B to the sight of a winning 322481 working the 1621 to Doncaster where I sat in the very first bay of seats with them actually aligning with the windows! It was a nice fast run to Outwood where we seemingly crawled to Wakefield Westgate, arriving in 5 minutes late. A freshly (from Tuesday) dud 155347 pulled in for the short run on the 1644 to Huddersfield as far as Kirkgate where I had a sharpish walk under the subway for the Leeds train which ended up being delayed until 1653 anyway. It was back to the winners as it was a winning 158860 for the slower journey to Leeds over some winning track. We picked up a fair few drinkers at Normanton so the silence was broken and the headphones went on for the rest of the way, where we arrived into Leeds at 1725, back on time. I then intended to head to Bramley for both a shack scratch and a try on one of the Wright Streetcars that run between Leeds and Bradford. It was a winning 158844 working the 1735 to Huddersfield via Brighouse for the 4 miles to a rather depressing Bramley where I turned the wrong way out of the station, only to have to retrace my steps up the bank to the main part of the ‘town’ to a temporary bus stop where a funny looking Streetcar was soon approaching. For those not aware, the Wright Streetcar is like a compromise between a tram and a bus where the driver is segregated off at the front and a ‘customer host’ (disinterested woman reading Hello! Magazine) does the ticket checking. It was a pretty slow, uninteresting run through suburbs like Thornbury and Stanningley before arriving into Bradford Interchange. It was however a unique experience using such a bus, and I’d recommend it if not just for a short run for the novelty value (It was possible to leave the bus about 3 minutes walk from New Pudsey station).
I then looked at my options in terms of trains and I jumped onto a winning 150110 for the journey to New Pudsey. I was intending to go through to Leeds but getting in at 1845 would flatten any further options as it’d maybe be possible to meet my train home at Huddersfield but that’d be a risky move requiring a train running fast nearly straight away. I instead opted to jump off at the aforementioned New Pudsey for a +2 onto a dud 158851 back to Bradford Interchange. Now was a more appropriate time to do my final journey on the Rover, joined a winning (lots of these today it seems!) 158843 on the 1852 to Leeds. It was a much quieter journey than on the 150, and we arrived back into Leeds at 1911. Time for dinner as I headed to Boots and picked up whatever reduced food I could find (A sandwich, a wrap, pasta salad and water for £3.45, that’ll do!) before heading to Platform 12D for the 1943 back to Newcastle. This was a dud 185128 but I sourced an empty table easily. However, we didn’t move until 1955 as the points had jammed which pathed a service from Hull straight into us! It was stuck straddling across the points so we had to wait for them to clear before departing. In traditional fashion, we were joined by screaming yelling drunks at York as far as Durham where they all left to have some more drinks! We arrived into Newcastle at 2121, 8 minutes late where I awaited a lift home. There were sadly delays on the roads due to a bloke being struck down by a car (the roads around the bars in Newcastle are busy and very dangerous, especially for someone less than sober, and drinkers often do just wander into traffic). Here’s hoping he was alright but he looked to be knocked out in the road when I passed.
A decent day however on both the unit and shack front!
Total Mileage: 389mi 72ch (of which 178 was on the Rover)
Total Cost: £35.03
Total Winners: 14, and 5 shacks.
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
You did do well indeed there! Can't help on your power car query I'm afraid.
I like the sound of that bus journey from Hebden Bridge to Keighley, certainly one worth looking into doing!
Lots of new entries in your book there, which I would imagine is starting to look good. All that overcrowding and all those drunks make me feel so glad I don't do weekend trips very often!
I like the sound of that bus journey from Hebden Bridge to Keighley, certainly one worth looking into doing!
Lots of new entries in your book there, which I would imagine is starting to look good. All that overcrowding and all those drunks make me feel so glad I don't do weekend trips very often!
Aye, 42 winners in the past week and a bit is making the ol' spreadsheet look a bit better filled!
Inverness and a first class brekkie in the morning should go down well tomorrow
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Have a great time on that one, I too am out tomorrow chasing Chiltern 68s. First proper bash in a while now!
42 winners in just over a week is very good going, I take it you aren't old school and carry a spotter's book then?
42 winners in just over a week is very good going, I take it you aren't old school and carry a spotter's book then?
Nah, I did see a kid at Keighley with one though so the young ones still use them sometimes
Chiltern 68s are on my radar next month. Nout will beat doing heads out behind 68006 over the Forth though
Chiltern 68s are on my radar next month. Nout will beat doing heads out behind 68006 over the Forth though
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