TC60054's Random Trips Out

[alexf380]

Best of luck in clearing your Pacers, it shouldn't be too hard to get them all by the end of the year at the rate you're going at. Bearing in mind the fact that I still need 45 142s and 18 144s at Northern alone, you're doing great.

 

[37038]

Not that many to go with Sheffield being easy on a cycle to eventually see all the Northern 142s.

I'm down to one Northern pacer and about half the Welsh ones!

 

[TC60054]

Best of luck in clearing your Pacers, it shouldn't be too hard to get them all by the end of the year at the rate you're going at. Bearing in mind the fact that I still need 45 142s and 18 144s at Northern alone, you're doing great.

Hopefully not! I think if I start hitting blanks this month with the Pacers, a good old mileage grice out of the 144s is required
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Not that many to go with Sheffield being easy on a cycle to eventually see all the Northern 142s.

I'm down to one Northern pacer and about half the Welsh ones!

Theoretically it shouldn't be too hard, other than the fact Heaton have messed around with their diagramming of what comes down here recently, but oh well...

 

[Kite159]

At least you can ask the nice people in the TOCS request thread if a particular pacer is due to be around Sheffield that day so you can grab them when they are local. Rather than saying working a Manchester Victoria - Wigan stopper, or out in Blackpool South

 

[TC60054]

At least you can ask the nice people in the TOCS request thread if a particular pacer is due to be around Sheffield that day so you can grab them when they are local. Rather than saying working a Manchester Victoria - Wigan stopper, or out in Blackpool South

That's true - I'm hoping to do another GM Rail Ranger on Bank Holiday Monday, to clear up my Newton Heath stuff if they don't diagram in my favour on the Hope Valleys - 142095 is proving harder than it should, as that one usually seems to be hanging around South Yorkshire, the real sticking point I feel will be 142018, which apparently doesn't seem to leave the North East very often :cry:
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04/08/16 - Pacer Chaser, Part 5

The craziness continues Today's actually been pretty successful...

So now starting to get bored of riding around on Pacers (and I think there's something brewing inside of me...this can't be good), it was duly onto the 1253 tram today, which was on time for a change, and also the elusive 117 which seems to be doing a pretty damn good job of avoiding me this year! I took this the usual four miles over to the station, where a quick run to the other side of the station left me with dud Heaton unit 142067 on the Leeds via Dearne all shacks to Meadowhall.

From Meadowhall, I decided to do a local attack, and took the 1330 Scunthorpe as far as Conisbrough, which fortunately showed up as winning Newton Heath unit 142039 - excellent! I didn't realise that the connection between Scunthorpes at Conisbrough would be a 16 minute one (I was expecting the usual 9 minutes), but in the sun Conisbrough is actually quite an idyllic shack I was in need of a drink, and the unit which would work back to Manchester today, so I took dud 142071 through to Swinton to pay a visit to the Co-op, and take the 1435 ex-Leeds via Dearne through to Meadowhall to pick up today's Manchester.

Drink purchased and the Leeds via Dearne cancelled due to a fatality, it was instead onto dud 144007. Not wanting to risk the 2 minute connection at Meadowhall, which usually disappears off the Adwicks, I took this to the next shack - the s-hole which is Rotherham Central

A quick break later and down onto the platform...where I realised that I could've comfortably made Meadowhall, or even Sheffield, as the Adwick was expected 15 minutes late. Oh well - it was dud Heaton unit (hmm..wonder what Newton Heath want with a Heaton one) 142022 to Mexborough. My cosy 9 minute connection was expected to be a minus, so Mexborough was chosen for the facility of a connection. I knew that this unit would be a winner (indeed, it passed me just outside Swinton on 142071), and so winner 142063 took me forwards to Meadowhall.

We had somehow managed to arrive into Meadowhall on time, so I had another of my crazy ideas - and so I crossed the bridge and made the short wait for the 1559 Adwick. Once again, my crazy idea had paid off - winner 142095 was taking me forwards to Rotherham Central, where I would get the ex-York parly, as I didn't fancy 142039 twice in a day

A short wait at Rotherham later left me on dud 144001. By this time I was now officially fed up of Pacers, so upon arrival into Sheffield, went to the trams. The tram was 9 minutes late, and 119, so I decided to have attempt 8 at Beighton crossover. of course, listening for the announcement that the tram would be turning short didn't go too well, as we passed Beighton and continued through to Halfway. Never fear, I'd noticed that the 1717 and 1727 departures were running together - I'd have another shot there. The 1707 departure was 106, and took me the mile to Beighton, where I spent the next 10 minutes gazing at the required crossover.

My heart sunk as the tram arrived into Beighton displaying Halfway...and then rose as the driver changed the destination to say Not in Service...and then Malin Bridge. Attempt 9 was the one! Rushing over to the opposite platform, tram 109 took me across the now finally dud Beighton crossover, and the remaining 3 miles back home. What an excellent end to the day!

Stats:
Mileage: 61mi 02ch
Winners: 3
New track: Beighton Drakehouse crossover
The dreaded Pacer Requirement count:
HT 142 - 1
NH 142 - 5
NL 144 - 0

 

[Kite159]

Congrats on another couple 142s into your book, plus a crossover on the tram network

 

[TC60054]

Seems Newton Heath are being kind to me...Heaton 142022 has been swapped with required Newton Heath 142034 today, I'm enjoying this something to look for tomorrow

 

[FQ]

Your pacer requirements are certainly dropping dramatically! Congrats on finally getting that crossover too!

 

[Techniquest]

Congratulations on getting that crossover at last! I'm trying to follow your tweets as they come, but I'm continually forgetting your hashtag!

Rather good progress with the 142s, fair game. Keep up the good work!

 

[TC60054]

Congratulations on getting that crossover at last! I'm trying to follow your tweets as they come, but I'm continually forgetting your hashtag!

Rather good progress with the 142s, fair game. Keep up the good work!

Ta Tech, the hashtag should be #PacerChase2016...when I don't forget to include it in my tweets

 

[Kristofferson]

I respect your attempts at getting the Pacers, and honestly believe you'll "catch them all"!

Still crazy, mind.


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[FQ]

Sounds like a good time! Shame that they're not doing the Crofton diverts next week - I'll be on 'S51 from New Street to York.

 

[Techniquest]

It's embarassing for me to need to look up exactly where Crofton is, time to dig out the atlas!

Two busy days there, a shame you didn't get a winner Pacer in though!

 

[TC60054]

I respect your attempts at getting the Pacers, and honestly believe you'll "catch them all"!

Still crazy, mind.


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Like I say, I'm crazy and proud, although I'm not really sure what posessed me to do this. Still need all the GWR and Valleys 142s and 143s though, it makes me wonder if I'll actually ever get any of those.

Sounds like a good time! Shame that they're not doing the Crofton diverts next week - I'll be on 'S51 from New Street to York.

Its a rather slow journey when you diverge off tbh, I was only really doing it for the sake of it, sadly I'd already had the line!

It's embarassing for me to need to look up exactly where Crofton is, time to dig out the atlas!

Two busy days there, a shame you didn't get a winner Pacer in though!

Annoyingly 142034 had spent Friday evening working the SY locals, and then gone to Leeds hopefully they'll send me some decent ones over these next few weeks, I'm not liking the prospect of only being able to win 220s

If you haven't already checked...its near Wakefield
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Okay, before Sunday's trip report, I should mention that any Pacer related activities are simply down to boredom...there is no likeness there, I just need something to do to stop me from going crazy over summer well, any crazier than I must already be.

08/08/16

An early start for a Sunday, for this would be a day in Nottingham, of all places. Tram 125 was the morning's steed to the station, and picking up tickets it was onto 158787 down to Nottingham. I must admit I really do like these Cummins 158s, we picked up speed no bother, and with the aircon working full blast it was a rather pleasant journey there.

In Nottingham, there was one obvious thing to do - to the trams! After spending another four hundred and fifty of my Great British pennies it was onto Incentro 207 for the first move of the day, to Wilkinson Street. I only needed the one Nottingham tram, and it was Citadis 218, so this would be an aim for the depot, or later on in the day.

Here was a depot tour, organised very kindly by a friend, and I must admit it was rather interesting to see the ins and outs of a tram depot for the first time - the control centre being one of my main interests. Fortunately, 218 was shown as been stabled on 12 road, and 228 infront needed sanding, so of course we'd have the run of the road which meant I'd be clearing my trams! We rode 228 around to the sand shed and returned to have a play around with 218 for about 20 minutes or so.

I'll not go into detail about the tour, and with that over and all 37 Nottingham trams now dud, it was onto Citadis 230 to Old Market Square for a bite in Witherspoons. From here, it was time to put the £4.50 to use, and it was onto Yourbus 3105 to Beeston on the Y36, before sampling the competitors offering around the Chilwell loop on the 36 back to Beeston - NCT 625. It does make me wonder why I like buses to be honest

An Incentro turned up when we'd arrived back at Beeston, so of course it was onto 205 for a run to Toton Lane and back, arriving back half an hour later, for where it was time to source the railway station.

After finding it and waiting for the delayed train, dud 222001 would take us back to Nottingham, from where it was time to go to Victoria bus station for a rather unusual method of travelling to Hucknall. Tram 227 took us around to Royal Centre, where a short walk to Victoria led to Trent Barton 826 on the threes to Moor Bridge tram stop, from where it was onto 226 to Hucknall and back to Wilkinson Street, where a trip to Maccies was in order for an ice cream.

After Maccies, it was back to the trams, and of course an Incentro turned up, so it was rude not to finish the day by taking 214 through to Phoenix Park and back through to Nottingham station, where a delayed 158849 would deposit me back at Sheffield, fortunately after making up most of its time but sadly still too late for me to make my connecting tram. Because of this, a twenty minute wait left me with a rather rowdy bunch of football supporters on 119 - however a good day.

 

[FQ]

That depot tour sounds amazing! You're very lucky that your last one was in there! What's your mileage on it?

 

[TC60054]

That depot tour sounds amazing! You're very lucky that your last one was in there! What's your mileage on it?

On tram 218? 14 chains

 

[FQ]

 

[Techniquest]

I too have not yet done a tram depot tour, it certainly sounds really interesting.

Well on getting your last tram in, and 14 chains? I've had that same amount on various 319 scores in the past, so nothing to be embarassed about!

 

[Kristofferson]

What a fun way to clear the trams, brilliant day out!


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[TC60054]

Wow, this thread got far down the list

Before I start, there's a load of days I've missed where I've just done the odd travel, I can't be bothered to type it all up but the Pacer Chase hasn't gone very well by remaining locally, and tram 118s now back into the shed, with power. Shall have to go down and have a "look" at it later

27/08/16 - The Derbyshire Return

After swearing blind for months that I'd never do a Derbyshire Wayfarer again as they're ridiculously poor value for money imo, a look through my requirements book meant that I needed a serious unit sweep - a Derbyshire Wayfarer it was

I started 20 minutes later than usual, this time on the 0855 tram (never again, don't fancy seeing people from college on a Saturday morning as well as every bleeding day of the week ), which was formed of 107 - I was about to type mega dud in here but what's the point, they're all mega dud

To the station, ticket purchased, and a check of the CrossCountry showed it was a dud unit - so it was onto also dud 222006 on the 0929 to Derby. Slightly late, caused by CrossCountry being late as usual, we'd only just pulled off before a woman started fretting that she was on the wrong train - a quick ticket check and advice later, I settled back down and listened to a guy complaining about everything that was possible - great :roll:

At Derby, it was time to start chasing some winners - which went easier than I thought, as winner 156470 rolled in on the 1013 to Newark Castle, which I took through to Long Eaton. At Long Eaton, after getting excited over the free wifi that was there, it was time to go and win my final bit of passenger track that was easily doable on a Wayfarer - even better as winner 156497 shows up on a slightly delayed Matlock service! Of course, through to Matlock here to win the line, and by Cromford I abandoned the idea of taking the unit through to Derby, and decided to have an hours dwell in Matlock to get some lunch - which is exactly what happened, although true to form, it was still chucking it down with rain :roll:

Dud 153385 was next, and whilst I don't see myself as much of a shack basher, it was too hard to resist the temptation of letting Spondon go - so of course this unit was taken back down the Matlock branch to Spondon, where winner 153319 brought me back to Derby after accidentally putting 50p rather than 20p into the fake PERTIS all for the sakes of getting a Permit to Travel ticket - all four Derwent Valley diagrams in, and three of them winners, not bad going I thought.

Time to tackle CrossCountry 170s next - winner 170397 was the next move (although I forgot to include this into my book ), which was taken through to Burton on Trent, where I just missed the tight connection back to Derby. Oh well, it was an opportunity to photograph Arriva's last day in Burton, even though I'd just missed a required unit (170102 for anyone interested)

Back to the station 20 minutes later, and the dwell paid off - winner 170108 was taken back through to Derby, where dud 170639 was the next move - through to the second rare shack of the day of Willington. A quick cross platform here left me with required 170521 back to Derby.

Tutbury and Hatton next, and the traction for this was absolutely amazing sounding dud 156410. By the time I'd gotten to Tutbury, it was raining AGAIN, so sadly I decided to give another rare shack a miss for the day - the train I was catching was one of the few to stop at Peartree - blasted rain! Dud 156498 took me to Derby, amid my confusion at why there were so many 2 car units on the North Staffs

Back to Long Eaton, and this time it was winner 170114 doing the honours, where a quick connection in the rain led to winner 222013 through to Sheffield. Not wanting to go home so early, it was over to platform 8 to take winner 222015 back to Derby, to complete the run of winners for the day. 43207/43366were providing the power back home - although I wasn't entirely impressed with the cleanliness of the MK3s sandwiched between the two!

Tram 108 rolled up as I got to the tram stop (just a bit late!) so it was home a bit earlier than planned, and an early night for Nottingham the following day...

Winners - 9
New track - Ambergate Jn > Matlock

 

[FQ]

Sounds like a good day there! I really like the XC MK3s - what wasn't clean about them?

 

[55013]

Looks like a good day out.
Nice to see plenty of 156s getting in on the action

 

[TC60054]

Sounds like a good day there! I really like the XC MK3s - what wasn't clean about them?

I like them too, but there was food all over the place, wrappers, cups, fast food trays, tissues, sweets, half the tables were sticky and the seats were covered in crumbs and other non-inviting items :roll:

 

[FQ]

Ah, so problems with normals not putting rubbish in the bin then.

 

[Kite159]

A good day in Derbyshire, well done for getting a couple awkward shacks into your book, although the rain ruined your chance at the Tree of Pear.

 

[Techniquest]

Don't feel bad about Peartree, I need it too

Nice little day out, although a shame you aren't having much luck on the Pacers!

 

[TC60054]

Miss out the Nottingham report, but for those interested, won 0 units, 0 trams, won two crossovers and a couple of coaches randomly doing tram replacements, some track from the Robin Hood divert and ended up going home on a rowdy 158 via the old road, which was fun.

31/08/16

Nothing much to report from this day but with attending a group meet with another forum for the Banbury North signalbox, and then a bit of linear tram bashing later on, it seemed a good idea to shove it into a short but sweet report.

Starting the day off with tram 117 to the station, constantly checking I hadn't forgotten my train tickets, a quick drink shop later and it was onto dud 220023 to Birmingham New Street. This was the first surprise of the day - the XC had arrived by the time I'd got to the platform at 0915 - and the second surprise was that it wasn't full! After an amusing announcement from the guard about ticket restrictions, it was time to set off. By this time I'd noticed that there was a wheelflat...great, this would be a fun journey even by listening through my music!

At Birmingham, it was off the train, up the escalator and time for the compulsory getting lost in New Street station, which I'd only managed to redeem myself from by seeing a tram go past which let me know which way I needed to be going through the Moor Street link, taking a wrong turn somewhere else and ending up in Digbeth rather than at Moor Street station, I'd finally ended up on the Chiltern to Banbury - formed today of winner 68010. It's quite weird to think that I photographed this 68 on delivery over two years ago now!

Meet, food and shopping over in Banbury, it was onto the delayed 1540 train to Birmingham - it's a good thing it was delayed as well, otherwise I'd have been on the 1610 and not been able to get much Metro bashing in! Winner 168219 was the unit back to Birmingham, and upon arrival at Snow Hill, it was time to do what I do best, on a completely required system!

I'm still not sure how I'd not managed to do the Metro before now, but I must say it is a quirky little system, and I quite enjoy travelling on it - whether that's just because it's mainly reserved track with 70k speed limits, I can't say! I found that it takes quite a few factors from other systems - the seats are like them on an M5000 mated with about five thousand bricks, the quality of the stock is like a Nottingham Citadis (that's probably because both are Spanish and sway quite badly at 70k, not to mention some of the noises too!), and I quite liked how card payments could be taken on the tram (Supertram - take note!)

Anyway, back to the bashing. Tram 23 was to be my first Midland Metro tram, taking me from Snow Hill over to Winson Green, to pick up tram 21 behind as far as West Bromwich Central, where 32 took me forwards to Wednesbury. So far I'd not managed to take a seat on a single tram yet, but I suppose that should've been expected considering I was leaving Birmingham in the evening peak! Tram 37 was next, taken through to The Crescent, after I'd forgotten I was originally going to get off in Bilston after we'd left! 26 then took me through to Wolverhampton, where I decided that rather than linear bashing trams on the way back to Birmingham, I'd simply spend 20 minutes or so photographing buses in Wolves. Sadly, I didn't get any photos of what I wanted, so reluctantly it was to tram 19 for the full slog through to Grand Central, arriving bang on time 40 minutes later...after an emergency brake application upon arrival due to a DSD fault.

Time to head home now, with £5 well spent on the trams, and it was 43303 providing the power and 43384 providing the shove as I settled down in the small standard class section in coach B, a day well done.

I'd just missed a tram in Sheffield, so decided to get a bus home - that was a bad decision. Our beloved and utterly useless PTE had decided not to advertise that my route was on diversion and wasn't serving the stop I was waiting at, but the bus that I ended up catching running normal route was on diversion apparently :roll: oh well...this is what you get for using buses

 

[Techniquest]

Aside from the bus issues, a really good day! I see you got one of my required Midland Metro trams, number 37. Maybe I should actually make an effort to get up there for trams, although waiting until 17 starts working in service may be wise...

 

[FQ]

I was on the service behind you from Banbury (although I boarded at Leam). It was 168215 if you were interested. Sounds like a good day there apart from the bus stuff.

 

[55013]

Anther good day.
I must admit to having a soft spot for Sheffield's public transport system, I remember when the buses had a fare cap - 4 pence for adults and 2 pence for under 16s.
Very useful when visiting Tinsley in order to rope in the class 13s.