TC60054's Random Trips Out

[TC60054]

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten...!

15/08 - Scottish Adventure, Part 2

Just before I start, I forgot to attach this photo on part 1, so here it is now;
Scotrail 156457 by TC60054, on Flickr

The day started early - I didn't have a very good sleep, so giving up at around half 6, went for a shower and then a couple of hours later it was out to Wetherspoons for some well earned breakfast. Todays plan was to do a Daytripper, the validity of which starts at 9 (I think), so the breakfast seemed a good way to waste some time. Eventually, 9am came around, so we made our way over to Queen Street, purchased the relevant ticket, and then made our way over to the 0923 Falkirk Grahamston local service, formed today of winner 158731. This was taken through to the winner shack of Cumbernauld, also the boundary of the rover but also with a nice ten minute or so connection onto a service through to Partick.

Scotrail 158731 by TC60054, on Flickr

Winner 334016 soon rolled in from the siding ready to work it's next service, which we boarded. As mentioned above, this was taken through to Partick to allow for an easy interchange over to Central, hopefully this time not getting too lost between High and Low levels there I'd forgotten quite how vocal the 334s were, and this was clearly music to my ears as we moved below Glasgow before finally reaching Partick.

ScotRail 320318 by TC60054, on Flickr

320312 was the next move, taken on the short hop to Central, before looking at connection times for the Ayrshire Coast. I'd been waiting to do this for years, and have never gotten around to finishing off this tidy little network of routes - although the temptation to go down the Ayr line again now it's served by four trains an hour was very hard to resist

Fortunately, there was a nice connection onto the Ardrossan service. This was speedily located as my face fell - the next hour and a half, and almost sixty miles had fallen to dud 380114. Sticking with the plan, this was taken through to Ardrossan Harbour, where the thirty minute dwell was used to visit the nearby ASDA, taking the opportunity for some dinner and snacks for the trip over to Gourock, although nothing too major as what was thought to be the best is yet to come was yet to come. (I also can't seem to find the photo of the 380 from Ardrossan. Awks.)

Thirty minutes later and we were off again, this time through to Paisley Gilmour Street, where there was a nice enough connection onto a Gourock stopper. Expecting a 314, I was pleasantly surprised when four car winner 380110 made an appearance. We decided to step back a train at Gourock, admiring the scenery, and noticing a massive raincloud approaching, made a beeline for winner 380111 which was waiting to take us back into Glasgow on a fast service. (again, I seem to have lost a photo of this 380)

Scotrail 314213 by TC60054, on Flickr

Arrival into Glasgow was prompt at 1503 - and with a photo taken of a Carmine and Cream 314 sat opposite, not knowing if the next time I'd be in Glasgow if there'd be no 314s or Carmine and Cream livery at all, it was over to Queen Street to pick up winner 170433 across to the rather embarrassing winner shack of Edinburgh Waverley. We were booked onto the E-G half an hour later, but this left only a nine minute connection at Edinburgh, and I had a little bit of business to attend to in this "winner city". We arrived into Edinburgh a couple of minutes early, and so went up onto the gridlocked Princes Street.

Edinburgh Trams 270 by TC60054, on Flickr
Edinburgh Trams 262 by TC60054, on Flickr

As this was my first trip to Edinburgh, it would've been rude to not go and at least see the trams, even if there wasn't enough time to ride on them (I'm aware that we could've done a short hop to York Place in the time we were there, but the place was that gridlocked...).

Photos done, and back down into Waverley, where after getting a bit lost, we located our set back down the ECML, today being shoved by dud 91110. The major blow from this came after reading the FC menus, being rather hungry - "the onboard ovens weren't working". With such a poor selection of sandwiches on offer (erm, egg or egg), it was up to a bag of crisps and many complimentary drinks to sustain me until Doncaster.

Arrival into Doncaster was a couple of minutes late, as I went to purchase the final ticket - as I'd planned to catch the Northern service back across to Sheffield, I'd not bothered to try and bag a FC advance (for obvious reasons) for the short journey, however the late arrival plus a reluctance to go bus class led to a slightly cheaper TPE only ticket being purchased. Fortunately, my face lit up as the 2042 all shacks arrived, being formed of my lowest mileage 185, 185122. Okay, I was only adding another 18 miles to the 15 that it was already on, and it's still my lowest mileage, but it's no longer quite so embarrassing

My attention was drawn to the shunt move that was ongoing from 1B94 when we arrived into Sheffield, as there was a distinct hint of purple on the 185 performing it, so a quick phone snap of 185122 (which turned out shocking), and a quick dash over to platform 4 was called for, to grab a photo of my personal favourite of the lot, 185133, preparing to work 1R94 Cleethorpes semi fast. After experimenting with a couple of angles, I eventually settled on this rather good handheld photo.

TransPennine Express 185133 by TC60054, on Flickr

As if by magic, my tram home turned up late as usual, formed of pre-excessively colourful tram 116, whilst it was still advertising EMT. I'm not saying anything to incriminate anyone, although we seemed to make a lot of time up this trip, more so than usual

See ya later, childhood.

 

[Kite159]

Sounded like a nice day in Scotland

 

[TC60054]

30/09/17, London MK4

Suppose I'd probably ought to get around to finishing off this report.

The day started at half past 4, for a quick shower ready to leave the house at 0505. The reason why? I had to get a bus, and I don't trust the local buses to turn up at all (probably a good thing considering the first 8 of the day didn't run apparently!), so a twenty minute walk to Intake was taken to board a 120 into town, for the bus veg it was 12172 providing the "honours". For such an early bus it was rather busy, however we arrived into the bus station at around ten to six, just as the second Halfway of the day was passing.

After a short wait, today's first move rolled in a few minutes late and was unlocked ready for its 0629 departure time - a rather heavily graffitied (and then cleaned so missing half of its livery...) 222001, down to St Pancras. This was the first time that I'd done the Midland Mainline during the day, and I must admit that other than the train being rather busy south of Leicester, it was quite a nice run, other than the crawl between Kettering and Wellingborough.

Into London five minutes early at just before half 8, and having pre-purchased a travelcard, I decided to head down for some 700s before meeting a mate at Kings Cross. The first move of which was winner 700103 for the short leap across to Farringdon, where after a shrot observation of some S Stock movements (mainly just to regain a sense of where I was again!), it was time to return to St Pancras on winner 700006.

Mate met, and down to the Tube for a hop across to Victoria, on winning '09 stock duo 11029/11030, although the hop to Victoria was short lived before we managed to work out we were in the wrong place - so 21496/21495 then took us across to Cannon Street...to handily work out we'd just missed the train we were intending to board..!

To kill a bit of time, it was now to triple winners 466004/465041/465192 across to Lewisham, where after a fifteen minute wait, 465246/465047 appeared to take us to winner shacks one two three (see what I did there?), firstly down to Hayes and then back up the line to Elmers End. A quick cross platform connection led us to the third winner shack, erm, Elmers End, with winner 2559 running us through to winner shack four, Addiscombe. The main reason for this change was the fact that this was a Wimbledon service, and now the Elmers End branch was ticked off, it was just the West Croydon loop left to go for track on Tramlink. A short wait left us with 2554 to East Croydon via West Croydon, and finishing today's Tramlink hop.


Croydon Tramlink 2559 by TC60054, on Flickr

Down to the main station at East Croydon, and it was now up the West London line ish, courtesy of 377704, which was taken through to Imperial Wharf, because food.


London Overground 378256 by TC60054, on Flickr

DB Cargo 66128 by TC60054, on Flickr

A short food break later and now onto 378218 through to Clapham Junction. The last information I had was that the two main units I wanted to grab on this day didn't do Saturdays, so it was time to fulfil the tasks of what I wanted to do back in April.

To do this, the short hop over to Waterloo was taken, courtesy of 450559/450118, down to the tube (Waterloo, tick) for the Bakerloo line for the fifteen minute trip across to Paddington, up onto the main station for a very decent connection onto the 1415 Maidenhead, formed of winners 387133/387132 across to Hayes & Harlington. A very short connection here (over a footbridge that stunk very distinctively of urine) and it was time to win a class - with 360204 becoming my first 360, taking us over to West Ealing.


Heathrow Connect 360204 by TC60054, on Flickr

Heathrow Connect 360201 by TC60054, on Flickr

Great Western Railway 165129 by TC60054, on Flickr

I'd noticed a rather interesting connection between the HC and the Greenford branch from this direction, so decided to take it, after all a winner unit on winner track between two winner stations, can't say no to that! 165129 was todays unit, on the slow slog up to Greenford, for a cross platform, to, erm Greenford (I love winning two stations in one in this place!) for some Central line action.


Great Western Railway 165129 by TC60054, on Flickr

91331/92018/92036/91239 became my first '92 stock trains, taken to West Ruislip, where a visit was taken to the local pub for yet more food, and some refreshing beverage.

Somehow almost an hour later, and after much deliberation in said pub, 91227/92158/92022/91257 were taken to the next stop down the line, Ruislip Gardens, for a quick visit to RAF Northolt, with a couple of choppers being the only thing really of interest to visit, before heading off to South Ruislip to take 91065/92176/92414/91349 through to Shepherds Bush. Another trip to Ruislip will have to be made, for both the National Rail platforms and to revisit the pub and the RAF base, because, well, why not!

From Shepherds Bush, it was over the road to cop the national rail station, and take 378206 for the short hop over to Willesden Junction, over to the Bakerloo line once more, strangely with a 378 stabled in one of the platforms nearby, and down to Baker Street on 3232/3558. This trip meant that I was now extremely close to clearing my first tube line, now needing just the short hop south to Elephant and Castle from Waterloo. From Baker Street, up to the sub-surface platforms, getting lost on the way for a bit of "rare track", with 21497/21498 taking the honours on a central line service, to run bang road to the crossover, and then it was back off to Kings Cross St Pancras for some more well needed 700 haulage.


Thameslink 700012 by TC60054, on Flickr

Eventually there and eventually making the change, it was 700012 down to Blackfriars, a quick look around (London can look rather pretty it must be said), onto 700013 back to St Pan'. I'd got just over an hour until my train back now, and having said our farewells, had a quick wander around, got lost finding the facilities (somehow), although I was rather pleasantly surprised to find they were both free and clean, before taking 222004 for the two hour slog back up the Midland Mainline. It was in this hour and 15 minute wait that I was cursing my decision to be crewing at Crich the next morning - having been a very long day, I wanted nothing more than to sleep (the train was very rowdy) and / or refresh myself in the pub overlooking the Eurostar terminal...but needs must.

Back in Sheffield, and having got some more change for the bus, praying the last 8 would turn up (it did thankfully), it was down to 338 something (i was too tired to pay much attention) for the twenty minute ride home.

 

[Kite159]

Sounded like a good day in London

 

[Techniquest]

A very enjoyable day in London, with some bits most of us wouldn't or couldn't do (the RAF site for instance) which made it interesting.

Early buses can be really busy, my first bus of the day is rarely busy out of my bit of the world but it doesn't take long to fill up with all the college kids getting on at seemingly every corner in the world!

 

[TC60054]

21/10

Being a Yorkshireman through and through, even Storm Brian couldn't keep me away from proceeding on with my plan as normal. For the first time in quite a while I'd actually made an entire plan for this trip out, which would've resulted in around 500 miles with quite a large proportion of that being on required track. Let's see how it went...

The day started off with a tram, as booked, and this morning it was 105 doing the honours, although it was only identified when I alighted, a total of four minutes early. I made my way down to the booking office to purchase today's ticket, and with that completed and my bag stocked up with drinks it was across to platform 4 for the 0818 Leeds semi-fast.
Northern 142091 by TC60054, on Flickr
Northern 158791 by TC60054, on Flickr

This was formed today of 158791, arriving in bang on time for it's reversal after running around the Old Road via Beighton Junction, and with myself sat at a table on the surprisingly quiet train, it was time to go back up the Barnsley line, ready for a right time arrival into Leeds even though we had quite a large amount of slow running. With half an hour to kill, I made my way over to the west facing bays to find my next train, although not spotting a 158 sat there ready made me check the departure board, to find out that my next move, the 0947 Carlisle, was apparently from platform 11. After all the confusion and a bit of a wait for the traincrew to arrive, my highest mileage Northern 158 (typical!), 158872 with it's rock hard seats, was the move for 113 miles and two and a half hours - thank god I'd managed to time myself onto the express!

Northern 158872 by TC60054, on Flickr

With the phone signal being as dire up the S&C as I remembered it being from the last time, and myself trying to shut myself out from the very irritating child sat in front of me, I decided to purchase a bag of crisps plus a drink from the onboard trolley as we went past all the intermediate stations on the route. This would prove to be a mistake, as with a eight minute connection to my next train at Carlisle, I decided to check up on our progress as we arrived at Appleby, thus giving me some phone signal. This progress check provided good news - we'd just arrived into Appleby three minutes early. The bad news? My connecting train along the Tyne Valley had failed at Metrocentre and was cancelled.

Northern 158872 by TC60054, on Flickr
Northern 153328 by TC60054, on Flickr
Northern 156480 by TC60054, on Flickr

Nevertheless, we made even more good time north of Appleby on the S&C, eventually pulling into Carlisle a whole seven minutes early. With a check on the status of the Cumbrian Coast, I decided to revert to Plan B for the afternoon, and so with a quick favour asked from my mate who was at work, the plan was finished, and worked exceptionally well. Praise the lord for the double planning from the exact point it was required, eh! Now having 40 minutes before my next train, and with this being another long slog with a short connection at the end of the move, I decided it a wise idea to head out into Carlisle city centre in search of some food, which was found very easily, although I did notice that the residents of Carlisle seem exceptionally ignorant to, well, everything. Returning to the station with dinner successfully devoured, and some snacks in my bag for the rest of the evening, it was over to platform 2...to find out that the inbound working of my next train was running late. The good news to this was that the 156 was a little broken and so there'd be a set swap at Carlisle, the bad news being that the new unit was coming in from Newcastle.

At 1302, ten minutes after departure, winning 156480 arrived into the bay via the flat crossing, unloaded, coupled to dud 153328 and only 18 minutes late, we were off, with the red pen finally getting an outing. This late departure led to more bad news, as I now had to throw Plan B out of the window, and as we started to gradually lose even more time through Workington, it was time to replan, although this sadly left me with no more guaranteed winners. South of Workington, we were onto required track as I finally devised a new plan, which although the connections were dire, worked, and would have no chance of going wrong should we hit any more delays. Indeed, whilst the views down the Cumbrian Coast were enjoyable, the wind was battering the 156 quite heavily whenever we moved away from the constant cliffs, although the good news to this was that we did also manage to pass four or five request stops on the way, eventually arriving into winner shack Barrow in Furness only 19 minutes late...or, in other words, 13 minutes after my connection left!

A quick wander around to find the grand total of nothing was around, and at a cursory glance at the departure board, I saw the dreaded "this train has one carriage" scroll across after the calling pattern...

Northern 156480 by TC60054, on Flickr
Northern 153360 by TC60054, on Flickr

153360 would be my chariot for my next three moves, the first of which being a slightly late running service to Lancaster, to complete the first part of winning track for the day (or, what should've been the second) as far as Silverdale. At Lancaster, I had 40 minutes, so went for a wander around town, fortunately not getting lost and making it back in time for the same unit on the 1820 Morecambe, which I took the full route to winner shack Morecambe, and back to the third and final shack of Bare Lane, before getting soaked to await my next move, 144018 with 153363 tagged on the back (and also locked out), back to Morecambe...and then back for the full slog down the Bentham line to Leeds.

Northern 153360 by TC60054, on Flickr
Northern 153360 by TC60054, on Flickr Morecambe station by TC60054, on Flickr
Northern 153360 by TC60054, on Flickr

This was winning track between Carnforth and Long Preston, and good grief, I do wish it still was! After a thoroughly bumpy ride, and checking the location of a certain other train, I called defeat once again and made my way through to Leeds on the Pacer. With a little time to wait for my next move, the 2137 Sheffield via Barnsley stopper, I went to the last known location of my finale to Plan B, the pest that I've been waiting for for little under four years, and the outcast for the last year and a half (photo attached)...with a mental note that it certainly will not evade me a fifth time, I made my way to platform 16, where my next train would be departing from.

Northern 333009 by TC60054, on Flickr

Or at least, that's what I thought, when double Pacer 142018 plus another one rocked up, and the crowds flocked over - nope! Fortunately, I had the fallback of the Dearne Valley stopper, so I made my way over to platform 12, and preparing myself for what would be my second Pacer ride of the day, and probably the least bearable of the two, to find...158904.

Northern 158904 by TC60054, on Flickr

This revelation made me wish I'd checked the Dearne Valley stopper earlier (although in fairness, one did expect 142091 which rolled in as I made my way over to the 158!), and with a table seat, I relaxed myself for the next hour and twenty minutes - why couldn't all stoppers be this good?!

Making my way up to the tram stop after what felt like an eternity, even on a 158, and waiting just over 20 minutes in an horrendous rainstorm (and getting rather disappointed that the 2310 Herdings was formed of 122), it was aboard 107 for the four mile leap home.

Next Chapter in c. three weeks, where hopefully we'll have some more red pen in the track atlas, plus the cannons firing. Stay tuned to Twitter until then.

Just in case anyone is wondering, Plan A involved finishing the Tyne Valley Carlisle-Prudhoe, and Plan B involved a two hour wait in Leeds for said 333, which was later refined to jump off the Pacer at Shipley and drop back onto the ex-Bradford for it...why are things never as simple as they should be??

 

[Kite159]

Good news on a reasonable day for coverage, making use of the newspaper deal I assume? Shame that 333 escaped you and the Tyne Valley service was cancelled

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Wow, read your reports for the first time and loving them! Really good trips there!

 

[TC60054]

Good news on a reasonable day for coverage, making use of the newspaper deal I assume? Shame that 333 escaped you and the Tyne Valley service was cancelled

Family & Friends ticket actually for this trip. Only had about another week or so to use it otherwise.

 

[Kite159]

Family & Friends ticket actually for this trip. Only had about another week or so to use it otherwise.

Made better use of that voucher than I did

 

[Iskra]

Very good trip TC, although all those Northern trains in one day must have taken its toll comfort-wise. Might I suggest a daylight trip Carnforth-Long Preston, as it's a very scenic line. I like the jointed track sounds on that section as it's quite rare nowadays. Your trip also proves worth of having a 'plan B.'

 

[Cowley]

I need that line from Carnforth to Hellifield. Must do that some day.
Enjoyed the read and the photos.

 

[Techniquest]

Certainly not a day that went to plan whatsoever! I'd have happily had 158872 than those god-awful Trenord 526s I suffered on Friday mind! Talk about uncomfortable! Not to mention slow, 2 hours and 33 minutes to cover 93 miles (Tirano to Milano Centrale) and I have to put it in writing right now that even 700s and 707s are more comfortable!

I'd best not mention that 333009 is dud...

 

[TC60054]

Very good trip TC, although all those Northern trains in one day must have taken its toll comfort-wise. Might I suggest a daylight trip Carnforth-Long Preston, as it's a very scenic line. I like the jointed track sounds on that section as it's quite rare nowadays. Your trip also proves worth of having a 'plan B.'

Wasn't too bad - the 158 up the S&C took its toll but that was walked off in Carlisle, the only other place I had comfort problems was the 153 down from Barrow, but wasn't as bad as it could've been thanks to the long waits either side. Will most certainly do another trip on the Bentham line in daylight hours - though I think I may wait for unit which actually has bogies before doing it again!!

 

[TC60054]

11/11/17;

So, after a week on the trams and a week off (no, I wasn't busy, but needed to catch up on some jobs that needed doing!!) it was finally back out, and it was time to finish what I'd started and failed within an hour of each other three weeks previous. As I only had one aim for this day, there was no early start which led to a walk up to the trams to board tram 122 for the run into town on the 0855 Malin Bridge, as is the norm for this kind of trip. At the station, it was a trip to the TVM to quickly purchase a Wakefield return, and then onto a very busy platform 1. The Cleethorpes was stuck on the Hope Valley, so the platform was filled with two trains full of long distance travellers, although I easily got a seat aboard a busy dud 221124 when it eventually arrived to take me to Wakefield.

This trip was very busy although not to the extent where we were full and standing, thankfully, and after a brief pause outside Wakefield, it was over to the booking office to purchase the West Yorkshire Day Rover. As there were a grand total of one VTEC service into Leeds pretty much until about 3pm, the delay didn't put me in a great mood, as I had to board the stopper now five minutes behind my CrossCountry. The connection was made, not entirely comfortably, onto dud 322481 for the ten mile run through to Leeds, for the fun to begin.

Upon arrival at Leeds, with the 1010 Bradford being sighted and flagged, it was to Subway to get some breakfast, which had been delayed from Wakefield, before making my way down to platform 9 to view the next Skipton service. My plan was to view half an hour's worth of Airedale / Wharfedale trains at Leeds, before jumping on the 1040 if no results had been weilded, and waiting at Shipley for what could easily have been all day. Indeed, both the Skipton and the Ilkley trains were dud, so it was aboard 333003 for the run through to Shipley, including a call at Apperley Bridge.

I'd made a mental note of all the 333s and was slowly ticking each one off, checking everything coming from every direction in the random offchance that there was a spare unit sat at Bradford for no apparent reason randomly stepping everything up, until, eventually winner 333009 appeared round the back of the triangle extremely slowly working a Bradford bound service to clear the class. Tick!! As much as I'd have liked to take this any further, it was a leap to Bradford on the winner, before taking a quick walk across the town centre to reach Bradford Interchange, where I picked up dud 158759 through to Halifax, strangely on a Selby to Huddersfield stopper!! A short wait at Halifax later left me with double duds 158902+150113 through to the first winning shack of the day, Mytholmroyd. This was a little of a shock, as the auto announcer at Halifax seemed rather insistent on it being a two car, but I can't complain.

At Mytholmroyd, a "short" platform change and it was time to head back to Leeds. This time, the auto announcer was trying to insist that this train was formed of three coaches, so I wasn't best impressed when duds 142063+142056 screeched to a halt. Time to rethink...

With a new plan in mind, I bailed the Pacers at Halifax to pick up dud 144016 through to Huddersfield, where after a little confusion with platforms later, picked up dud 150224 through to shack 2, Deighton, where after a ten minute wait, dud 150139 returned me to Huddersfield for a quick PNB. PNB done with, it was now over to 185136 to blast me through to Leeds, where after purchasing some dinner, I made my way onto 158795 through to Wakefield Kirkgate.

At Wakefield, my plan somehow went out of the window, as I picked up 144020 through to shack 3, Pontefract Monkhill, before realising just after departure that I was supposed to be on the Grand Central behind. Doh!

Every cloud and all that, led me to do a spot of evening photography as I picked up a rather warm 144023, complete with centre carriage not on fire for once, to return me through to Wakefield. I was tempted to grab the other few shacks on the route on my way, but decided to meet up with a mate in Leeds instead, and keep a little warmer. At Wakefield, I took a very busy 158843 back up to Leeds. After meeting a mate on the Headrow and making our way back to the station, we took dud 322483 through to shack 4, Sandall & Agbrigg for what should've been a ten minute connection, although as a person was taken ill at South Elmsall, this ended up being a lot later. As I'd already had 322481 today, which had picked us up from the very cold station, we bailed at Wakefield in the hope of a winner Voyager through to Leeds, though sadly no luck as dud 220012 had the honours.

Eventually, it was time to head off home, where I took 158795 again through to Sheffield via Barnsley. 399201 was, this morning, on a yellow diagram which should've easily connected with my ex-Leeds train, although I'd recieved gen from Sheffield city centre that this was instead 108, so decided to head all the way through to Sheffield instead, where after a late arrival I made my way up to the tram stop. My plan changed again, as a cyclops light came off of the delta towards the stop, so knowing full well what this meant, decided to take dud 399207 through to Gleadless Townend and walk home from there. All in all, a good day, with another class cleared and another four stations in the book.

Stagecoach Supertram 399207, Gleadless Townend 11/11/17 by TC60054, on Flickr

 

[Kite159]

Good news on clearing the 333s, plus some more West Yorkshire stations into your book

 

[TC60054]

Finally updated my tram mileages last night for the first time since about March or so, for those that aren't aware this is a spreadsheet that I have to keep track of my mileages on the 25 Siemens-Duewag trams. Class 399s see here (and yes, I know, some of these are a little OTT..!)

For the year, top of the list we have 109 on an incredible 134.5 miles, followed behind with 116 and 124 each on 129.5 and 128.5 miles respectively, whilst at the bottom of the league we have tram 102 on 53.75 miles, followed by 108 with 49.25 and 101, somehow on 14 miles. The comparable figures with last year would be 114 at number one with 194 miles, 120 behind with 156 miles with 116 in third place at 153 miles, whilst positions 23 through to 25 were taken by 107 at 51.5 miles, 108 at 49.75 miles and 2015's top miler 105 at 44 miles. Just remember that for 2016's table, long term absentee 118 ended up at position 13 with just under 100 miles - and it was only in service for three months of the year!!

Just in case they don't sound sad enough to you, the top of the all time league is tram 114 at 362 miles, followed by 120 at 330.5 miles and 124 at 237.25 miles. The bottom of the league is relatively condensed, with number 23 being taken up by 107 at 170 miles, followed by 101 at 169 miles and 108 is at the bottom with 168.75 miles.

The reason for this post? There is none, just thought I'd share this with you the full table is available on my Twitter feed.

 

[Kite159]

The king of Sheffield trams

 

[TC60054]

The king of Sheffield trams

I do hope that title goes well against my name

 

[Techniquest]

Some incredible figures there on the trams, and congratulations on clearing the 333s!

 

[55013]

Just catching up with your moves.
I must get a London trip in before the year's out, it's been far too long.
The stuff local to me was very interesting reading as well.
Three car 158s on the Selby - Huddersfield services are not actually that unusual.

 

[37038]

Please do keep me up to date on the whereabouts of 201 and 204, haven't had those 2 yet although I understand the former hasn't worked much and the latter hasn't worked at all

 

[TC60054]

Please do keep me up to date on the whereabouts of 201 and 204, haven't had those 2 yet although I understand the former hasn't worked much and the latter hasn't worked at all

201 seems to be in service now pretty frequently, I'm led to believe they're using a pool of four now (201/202/206/207), with 204 recieving some mods before entering service, 205 needing several new windows, though I'm not sure about 203 even though it doesn't seem to have been used since someone decided "one per route".

 

[TC60054]

More pointless stats, I blame Kite for the inspiration having seen it on his logs, all my Supertram journeys excepting those on Citylinks totals 2228, with the tram that I've not had the longest being 111, last had on 11th August - which means I've thankfully not had it whilst it was an eyesore

 

[TC60054]

Sorry for the quietness, simply not had a trip to report on for a while and I'm not sure if there'll be another one this year, so in the meantime, please enjoy this photo of a tram.

Stagecoach Supertram 116, Norfolk Park 16/12/17 by TC60054, on Flickr

 

[TC60054]

Well we've ended last year with no trips. Just a quick overview of the entire thing, because why not, and yes, I know it's a tad late!

First tram of 2017 was tram 119 on 4th January, with the first train coming a bit later on the 7th, with 142032 having the honours of this.
1432 miles were covered in January, with quite a bit of track being won on the first trip of the year, this being an East Mids Day Ranger.
January also saw the end of my "Pacer Chase" with 142034 finally falling to the red pen on the 28th, with a Whiston to Liverpool Lime Street leap with 156421 giving it a little shove.

February was a little less exciting, with possibly the most exciting news being a delay in excess of an hour and 37 minutes after we got kicked off of 185102 at Rotherham Central, with the Tinsley line having sat down completely.
I also managed to finally cut down on the niggly bits of track on a Lancs Day Ranger area to just needing the Clitheroe and Kirkby branches, including finally ticking off Blackpool South.
Denton Flyer, tick.
Plus, of course, plenty of 185 action on South Pennines Days.

March was of little interest, although it did see yet another significant reduction in track requirements in the north, and resulted in being stranded at Sandbach for about half an hour following a Pendo sitting down at Macclesfield.
Some significant inroads in my Merseyrail requirements were also made.
Also managed to sit outside Chinley and then crawl down the Hope Valley on 185143 following a Miserybus 142 sitting down at Chinley.

April was where things finally started to get interesting, the month starting in Newcastle with a huge clearout of Tyne & Wear Metro, although I need to revisit this at some point as there's still a lot required that way.
First trip to London of the year, including an hour or so at Heathrow.
Yet more Merseyrail clearance.
First of two trips to try and cut down on my West Midlands requirements, which went very successfully on the 172 and 323 front, although did almost result in being stranded in Birmingham overnight following the cancellation of the second 68 diagram.

May was very quiet with the single train trip being on the 68 / 88 railtour. A very fun day which saw a little track clearance but most notably the entire WCML now being covered by the red pen, just a couple of branches left now.

June was now here, and at the time I was starting to get fed up with planning my Saturdays around trams, a trip to Metrolink which saw plenty of stops fall, including six more trams getting the red pen treatment. Annoyingly this was the only major Met bash of the year, which sees my requirements hovering at about 32 trams.
Second and last WMDR, this time track a bit further out seeing the red pen, although I still need to reach Hereford, and cover the link between the two Worcester stations, something which will no doubt be annoying me now for quite some time.

July now, and a WYDR started the month to tick off a couple more stations, plus my first GC 180 falling to the red pen on a Low Moor to Bradford bus stop move.
Later on that month saw my second disastrous Cheshire day of the year, this time the cause being the 350 that I was on being involved in a SPAD, although fortunately some stations did still get ticked off.

August was very quiet thanks to a combination of running out of money and Crich taking up most of my time, however a two day trip to Glasgow was certainly what was required, with lots of track and units falling to the red pen.

September saw a Cheshire day that wasn't too disastrous, plus a trip on the Wirral heritage tramway. We finally saw the 399s enter into service, with three of these having the red pen treatment within the space of a week. Later in the month came my first South Pennines for a long while, including my first refurb 185, which I'm still very impressed by. Ended the month with another trip to London, which saw another healthy intake of track and units falling to the red pen.

It gets really quiet from here, however, a two week gap saw me only visit Crich and not even take a trip out on Supertram, however once again we slowly started to give the 399s the red pen treatment, whilst towards the end of the month saw a failed trip up to Cumbria where a sizeable chunk of track fell to the red pen, though nowhere near as much as was intended.

November and December saw not a lot happening, however I still managed to get the 333s cleared in November, so that's something at least I suppose.
Last train and tram of the year fall to 158902 and 121 respectively on 30th December.

12582 miles were covered by rail (down from about 15000 in 2016), of which 2540 miles came from Supertram.
Approximate figures saw approximately 265 units and 160 stations see the red pen treatment.

So what does 2018 bring?
Erm, well, not much if the past week or so is anything to go by. Tram 101 was my first of the year, yesterday, although it's looking like it'll be a couple of weeks before you hear from me again. Of course, Crich reopens on 17th March (shameless plug), however there isn't anything else in the pipeline thus far.

 

[37038]

BLS tour to Crich on 15th April if that's your thing (tramwise)

 

[TC60054]

BLS tour to Crich on 15th April if that's your thing (tramwise)

I think I'm down that weekend as it is anyway. Can't seem to be able to access the traffic roster to check though.

EDIT - I am, as a spare at the moment.

 

[TC60054]

Nothing much to update on however 399204 became my first train of the year, also on it's first day in service so a good start with a nice outing of the red pen. I leave you with a rare photo of 399206 in service where it hasn't actually failed for once

Stagecoach Supertram 399206, Valley Centertainment 16/01/18 by TC60054, on Flickr

 

[TC60054]

Ooh, look, at last a trip report. Am I ill? Probably.

The day started off with a spirited walk up to the trams, and not long after tram 106 pulled in to take me towards the station, and I took yet another spirited walk (or as spirited as I could make it, considering I'd injured my leg the previous day) to the ticket office, where I purchased the day's full complement of tickets, and made my way to platform 8 just as dud 220006 pulled in. Considering we all know how well this journey went, and what happened next, I won't go into details, however at Derby I made the change onto dud 170397 as far as Tamworth.

At Tamworth I had 40 minutes for my next train, hence the original plan to go via Birmingham to arrive at pretty much the same time, so I took a walk down to the town centre, where being unable to find anywhere that sold SD cards (for my two spares were only 2GB large giving me a photo range of approx. 100 for the entire day), and after getting distracted by a shop rammed to the rafters of sweets and other non-good-for-you foods, I made my way back to the station to board winner 350370 up the WCML to Stafford. This had actually gone rather in my benefit - my mate had 350105 from Birmingham to meet me in Stafford, which was a dud.

From Stafford, our next move was down to Bescot, random, I know, so we started by taking winner 221137 (now this I must say I wasn't expecting!!) as far as Birmingham New Street, and with a successful platform change without getting lost or my leg getting any worse, it was onto winner 170509, which took us to winner shack Bescot Stadium, at where it started snowing pretty damn heavily. In the end we took shelter in the form of dud 323240 through to Walsall and back to Birmingham New Street. On the 323 we'd formatted a plan, which involved a relatively slow walk across to Birmingham Moor Street, where through the now excessively heavy snow a photo of 172339 was captured as we boarded dud 172337. This would take us through to winner shack Stratford upon Avon, on the winning route via Shirley, etc. A mental note was made that all four of the request stops were successfully skipped, which I was most pleased about, as we disembarked and made our way around to Morrisons for some ridiculously overpriced food for the journey back into Birmingham.

For this, it was dud 172333 in charge, this time on the winning route via Dorridge, leaving just the third side of the triangle ish at Hatton to complete, which will require a Chiltern 165 move at some point. We had a fairly spirited run, arriving into Dorridge a whole seven minutes early, before continuing into Moor Street, where we once again made the walk across Birmingham into New Street, to board winner 170638. Winning one XC unit in a day was unheard of, but I was over the moon with two! This was simply taken to Nuneaton, where after a capture of 350373 in the new livery, I went on a mission to Asda to get some pain relief for my leg plus a few snacks, before returning to the station and boarding double duds 153365/153356 to Coventry, where we discovered that the WCML had fallen over, again. Winner 350127 was taken to Birmingham New Street, later Birmingham International as the decision was made to terminate it short due to late running, from where a connection was made onto winner 323210 into New Street. I went for a rest in my mate's hotel room for about an hour or so, with the next XC being a four car and very heavily reserved (and my leg not wanting to stand for the hour and a half journey north), in the process having a cuppa where the teabag had appeared to have split, before making my way to the station and boarding duds 43378/43384 north to Sheffield. I'm not sure what happened on this journey, though the guard made several announcements asking people to close doors behind them at unstaffed stations, until I realised that I had five minutes left of my journey so turned Netflix off to find that we hadn't even arrived at Chesterfield yet.

Doh!! Nevertheless, we arrived into Sheffield just over ten minutes late. I believe that 43384 was running on reduced power, indeed 43378 had it's cooler group on full whack!! One move left, which fell to tram 124 home, after photographing 399201 working a Herdings service.

Scores on the door;
Red Pens - 6
Shacks - 2
Mileage - 321mi.