TC60054
Member
01/04 - April Fools?
No April Fools here, although a productive day out...even if I didn't manage to complete the second of my objectives
We start today, at Meadowhall, with duds 142019/142020 taking us forwards into Sheffield, where dud 220026 then took us back the other way, up to York via Doncaster, even reaching Doncaster a whole seven minutes early along the way.
Of course, with me being involved in this, the day cannot go smoothly, that seems to now be the rule, as after alighting in York, I'd noticed that our chosen 0808 service to Newcastle had been cancelled. True to form, I took this opportunity of an extra 20 minutes to go and source a drink in York city centre, before returning to the station to take winner 91114 north...on a TPE only ticket
Making good time on the way up, we were soon at Newcastle and making our way down to the Metro, where the £7 Day Rover was purchased, and we made our way down onto the platform to get on the first train to appear. These were double winners 4030/4043, and were taken the single leap through to Monument, with the aim of heading to St James, however we'd just missed a service. To make up for this, 4075/4015 were taken through to the winning shack of Manors, where 4026/4046 were taken through to St James, and back to Monument. I was starting to get slightly annoyed here, as two of the 14 Metrocars that I'd already had had already shown their face :roll:
Back to the low level (I think), and 4042/4059 were next, taken through to Gateshead Stadium, where dud and winner 4090/4021 returned us to Central station, where we'd meet another mate who was joining us for the day.
After this, it was a hop to Gateshead on 4075/4015 again, where winners 4014/4076 took us the short distance over to Pelaw, for 4003/4045 through to South Shields.
This winning streak was far more like it, and eventually we made it to South Shields, where the decision was made to take the ferry across the Tyne to North Shields, where we eventually picked up 4073/4008 around the coast to Haymarket. We'd planned to get the 1323 to Metrocentre, this being a Scottish 156, so a couple of time-wasting hops were taken, with 4067/4005 being taken through to Monument.
Here, the plan completely changed, as the next train arrived, and it took a moment to click what had just happened - unrefurbished 4040/4083 had made an appearance, taking us past Central Station through to Gateshead. This move was taken only because we wanted to ride in both of the pair, a decision which eventually left us a couple of 156s down, as 4047/4064 had decided to kill themselves at Felling.
A couple of completely wedged trains later, the plan changes again, as winners 4056/4006 were taken through to Felling, for 4013/4065 across to South Hylton, and then to Sunderland, amidst the rain.
There was a good connection onto a train here, so 142016 was taken through to Heworth, a decision made as the Pacer was rather more rowdy than we'd have liked! A hop over onto the Metro station, and we were feeling the effects of flooding on the South Shields branch at this point, and so the final Metro pair of the day would be 4069/4018 through to Airport and back to Monument. We'd have stepped back at Airport, however with the train behind being dud for the day, this decision wasn't taken, instead opting for some food for my comrades at this point.
Food over and done with, a walk to Newcastle station was now taken, where winner 156435 was taken through to Metrocentre. I'd hoped that the next service back to Newcastle, and this didn't disappoint...and neither did the Hexham in the opposite direction, however this wasn't an option sadly.
The Newcastle train didn't disappoint in being a winner 156, but annoyingly it happened to be 156471 - all this way for an Allerton 156
We'd returned to Newcastle, and was found once again by our very own rg177, who we left about 40 minutes later as we took 185141 down through the engineering posession on the east coast mainline, eventually arriving into York 12 minutes late.
The plan from here was to get the VTEC to Doncaster, and then the TPE across to Meadowhall, however double winners 43277/43309 (I did have to do a double take at this point!) were running just a couple of minutes too late - and incidentally so was the next Meadowhall service :roll:
Eventually, 158853 showed up, reaching Meadowhall 11 minutes behind schedule...however this also being 34 minutes later than planned
No April Fools here, although a productive day out...even if I didn't manage to complete the second of my objectives
We start today, at Meadowhall, with duds 142019/142020 taking us forwards into Sheffield, where dud 220026 then took us back the other way, up to York via Doncaster, even reaching Doncaster a whole seven minutes early along the way.
Of course, with me being involved in this, the day cannot go smoothly, that seems to now be the rule, as after alighting in York, I'd noticed that our chosen 0808 service to Newcastle had been cancelled. True to form, I took this opportunity of an extra 20 minutes to go and source a drink in York city centre, before returning to the station to take winner 91114 north...on a TPE only ticket
Making good time on the way up, we were soon at Newcastle and making our way down to the Metro, where the £7 Day Rover was purchased, and we made our way down onto the platform to get on the first train to appear. These were double winners 4030/4043, and were taken the single leap through to Monument, with the aim of heading to St James, however we'd just missed a service. To make up for this, 4075/4015 were taken through to the winning shack of Manors, where 4026/4046 were taken through to St James, and back to Monument. I was starting to get slightly annoyed here, as two of the 14 Metrocars that I'd already had had already shown their face :roll:
Back to the low level (I think), and 4042/4059 were next, taken through to Gateshead Stadium, where dud and winner 4090/4021 returned us to Central station, where we'd meet another mate who was joining us for the day.
After this, it was a hop to Gateshead on 4075/4015 again, where winners 4014/4076 took us the short distance over to Pelaw, for 4003/4045 through to South Shields.
This winning streak was far more like it, and eventually we made it to South Shields, where the decision was made to take the ferry across the Tyne to North Shields, where we eventually picked up 4073/4008 around the coast to Haymarket. We'd planned to get the 1323 to Metrocentre, this being a Scottish 156, so a couple of time-wasting hops were taken, with 4067/4005 being taken through to Monument.
Here, the plan completely changed, as the next train arrived, and it took a moment to click what had just happened - unrefurbished 4040/4083 had made an appearance, taking us past Central Station through to Gateshead. This move was taken only because we wanted to ride in both of the pair, a decision which eventually left us a couple of 156s down, as 4047/4064 had decided to kill themselves at Felling.
A couple of completely wedged trains later, the plan changes again, as winners 4056/4006 were taken through to Felling, for 4013/4065 across to South Hylton, and then to Sunderland, amidst the rain.
There was a good connection onto a train here, so 142016 was taken through to Heworth, a decision made as the Pacer was rather more rowdy than we'd have liked! A hop over onto the Metro station, and we were feeling the effects of flooding on the South Shields branch at this point, and so the final Metro pair of the day would be 4069/4018 through to Airport and back to Monument. We'd have stepped back at Airport, however with the train behind being dud for the day, this decision wasn't taken, instead opting for some food for my comrades at this point.
Food over and done with, a walk to Newcastle station was now taken, where winner 156435 was taken through to Metrocentre. I'd hoped that the next service back to Newcastle, and this didn't disappoint...and neither did the Hexham in the opposite direction, however this wasn't an option sadly.
The Newcastle train didn't disappoint in being a winner 156, but annoyingly it happened to be 156471 - all this way for an Allerton 156
We'd returned to Newcastle, and was found once again by our very own rg177, who we left about 40 minutes later as we took 185141 down through the engineering posession on the east coast mainline, eventually arriving into York 12 minutes late. The plan from here was to get the VTEC to Doncaster, and then the TPE across to Meadowhall, however double winners 43277/43309 (I did have to do a double take at this point!) were running just a couple of minutes too late - and incidentally so was the next Meadowhall service :roll:
Eventually, 158853 showed up, reaching Meadowhall 11 minutes behind schedule...however this also being 34 minutes later than planned
