T'was indeed a good day out, and now it's time to finish this damn trip report. Might treat myself to some Dynasty Warriors afterwards, although I've still stuff like updating my tidy copy of the Baker, dating the track bashed in my Track to Cover list and putting the miles and chains figures in for some hundreds of moves in the moves book. Then of course there's things like uploading photos and captioning them all, then the video eventually...Anyway, before I put myself off doing these any further, let's smash out day 14:
17th June 2012 - All Line Rover, Day 14 - Final day!
After getting a jolly good sleep, it's time to get up at 0730. Usual morning procedures follow and I leave at 0809. The walk to the station takes 20 minutes this time, having managed to identify a couple of bits where I could save time. I also didn't have to keep referring to the map on my phone either. 5 minutes away from the station and the rain really starts coming down, so I got rather wet!
The first train of the day through Widnes eventually arrives, and I had considered a leap to Hough Green for the shack scratch, but as the train was 5 minutes late (142013+066 for the record) the plus would have been a pretty much +/-0, no chance then! 150150 provides the first win of the day on the 0853 to Manchester Oxford Road, which I take to Warrington Central. By the time we get there, the rain's died off and I go to McDonalds for breakfast. The bacon roll breakfast meal for £3.19 went down beautifully, and the coffee was seriously welcome now too.
I end up going the wrong way to the station, but I resort once more to the maps function on my phone and I end up going only slightly further than necessary, arriving still with plenty of time. 70013+70010 top and tail an engineers train, 013 being a winner for sight. Glad for that reason I got up early for that, just as much so for winner 390136 on the 0954 to Preston. Another swift journey and we arrive 6 up at 1016 to my surprise. Plenty of time to get a coffee from Pumpkin, redeeming my collector card. Definitely no train until 1052 to Glasgow, but the time flies by somehow. 390018 is dud on the Glasgow service, but a mandatory move, so I find my seat in coach B as I want to be near the front for a quick bail but not in the Quiet Coach so as to put some tunes on. Hopefully we arrive a little early so I can make the 1318 to East Kilbride, although it only being a +1 seems incredibly unlikely. I get started on the remaining paperwork for the trip as there's plenty of time. Scenery and tilting keep distracting me though, and nothing I could ID on DRS' Kingmoor depot was required, starting to wonder when I'll finish my DRS 66s for sight! With everything else done by Lockerbie, it's just buses and tampers to tick off.
We arrive at 1318, 1 down. That'll be because we were slowed for Abington loop to begrudingly let some steam loco enter it
[there's a dirty joke in that, couldn't think of a better way of putting it... - Ed] on a trial run then, thank you so very much...Greggs is visited instead for a sausage, bean and cheese pasty, typically of Greggs it isn't very warm
[I thought it was meant to be 'Ready when you are', according to the advert - Ed], and the coffee is from Bagel Factory for 99p, with a free refill later if I keep my receipt. You'll be damn sure of that! Leaping time then as my next planned train isn't until 1418, just as well as I get winner 318266 on a leap to Partick for 318253 also winning back. Didn't see my last 320s sadly, one day! Anderston is closed today, maybe every Sunday? Seemed quite strange. Back upstairs, away from the ancient brown and white colours on the low level lines, I go to platform 10 for winners 156509+456 on the 1418 to East Kilbride, with an army of squawking brats behind me. So glad I'm only on this to Pollokshaws West! You're probably wondering why I'm making such a fuss about this line, well it's because the normal route was closed somewhere in the Pollockshields area (without getting my atlas out, that's as accurately as I can be sorry!), so we're diverted to Polmadie then reverse and crossover to Larkfield Junction for our booked route today to Muirhouse South Junction.
Well worth the effort, just need to try and get the other bits one day. A small step closer to clearing the UK freight railway network! A 10 minute wait rewards me with 156510+476, 510 a winner and my 40th 156 for haulage on the 1448 to Glasgow Central. We go via the same route, but instead of crossing to the slow lines next to Polmadie depot, we reverse on the fasts and stay there to reach winning platform 9 at Glasgow Central. Had to put up with some chavvy brats though, great. I claim my refill at Bagel Factory
[and at this point I'm on the last side of A4 of this infernal trip report! Can you tell I'm sick of it now? - Ed] and visit West Cornwall Pasty for a medium traditional pasty for £3.65. Dear for what it is, and I swear they used to take Bite cards, but they didn't on this occasion at least. It was a mighty fine filler mind! The 1536 to London Euston is next and is 390141, a winner! Off we go on one of the last three trains of the fortnight, won't be seeing Scotland again for a fair while either
We come to a halt with the back part of the train over Logan Road level crossing for a couple of minutes, no explanation given.
More brats on this train
[seriously, did they have some sort of special offer for them to travel today or something?! - Ed] so it's time to rip out some tunes. After seeing the last of Scotland for the time being (still not organised a trip up there yet), I confirm with myself that none of my last 3 DRS 66s are viewable on Kingmoor. After Carlisle, it's deemed to be coffee time so I go to the shop as I am so sick of water at the moment! £1.95 gets me a coffee and the Virgin recruitment process obviously works well, as the guy here was really happy and friendly, engaging me in conversation about various things and I left quite happy with his customer service skills. I need Monster and Rockstar to get that happy! The coffee's obviously been working out and built up some muscles, as when I put the stirrer sticks in it they stood up on their own! It tasted mighty fine too, better than the FGW coffee does. The sky's blue and the sun's shining down on us after Lancaster, a stark contrast to this morning! As I write this, it's 1803 and I fail to believe how fast the journey's gone!
After Warrington Bank Quay it's non-stop to London Euston, and as much as I'd love to stay on board I can't, so when we arrive at 1820 I get off and have around 15 minutes to wait for 221109 on a Birmingham service. I spend much of this time chatting with a mate of mine on the train, and I forgot we were to be routed via Bescot. First time I've had a Voyager via this route and a bit of extra mileage! We arrive 1 up at 2006 and it's time for tea. Burger King will do, and I get a double cheeseburger King of the Day deal for £3.99. We part ways for him to go back to work and I join dud 172339 on the 2100 to Hereford, the last train of the day to the city
[yes, really, it's a city! - Ed] and the last train of the fortnight :cry: I ended the 7 day ALR in 2011 on this same journey and it was a 150, how times and things change...Time for some tunes to celebrate a bloody good bash as I finish updating the moves book and trip report. When we roll into Worcester Shrub Hill, I'm definitely back on home territory and that causes disappointment and other negative feelings. I arrive around 2225 and get a lift home. Time then for the final day and the fortnight's review:
A flipping brilliant day with 7 winners, lots of mileage and some rare track. Thoroughly enjoyable day and for the most part, things like the rubbish sleep on sleepers being the big exception, the fortnight away was also thoroughly enjoyable. If I could, I'd do another 14 day ALR starting tomorrow! It's been an expensive time, but it's been so much fun those figures aren't important. If I could do this sort of thing for a living, I'd be in heaven. As someone put it to me later on during the journey, the £1,120.50 for 2 weeks of heaven isn't bad at all! When I return to work the grimness of reality will really strike hard. The only thing I'd do differently is not book sleepers, so not worth the extra mileage. The cost of the trip could have been far higher, if I'd not stopped drinking during week 2! Payday is only a few days away thankfully, but merr. Finally then, let's add some stats:
Day 14 mileage: 593m37c
Mileage move of the day: 219m23c on 390141
Bus stop move of the day: 2m12c on 318266 and 318253
Best bit: Getting the freight track in in the Glasgow area
Worst bit: Having to come home :cry:
Bargain of the day: The coffee from Bagel Factory, two coffees for 99p!
Rip-off of the day: The pasty, although nice, wasn't worth the best part of £4!
For 2011's ALR I did things like Move of the Week, but that's been made redundant with the statistics bits I think. There's been a very large number of highlights, to list them all would take ages. I had originally been going to do a list of every class I travelled on and how many I did on each of them, and how many miles I did with each TOC, as well as a couple of other random stats. However that'll take ages and I've lost the interest in that. The final stat I will share is:
Mileage for the fortnight: 8,607 miles and 50 chains.
1,392 miles and 30 chains off my target, but I'm still happy with that.
91128 is seen heading a northbound East Coast service on the Stamford line a bit before Helpston Junction, looked mighty odd as if it was some Kings Cross to Leicester service or something! In several places it's been a bumpy ride as we race north, but belting it through Doncaster was also nice. We arrive in just 1 hour and 45 minutes, not bad for a journey of something like 188 miles and 40 chains! A bottle of Dr Pepper, a multipack of Kit Kat Chunky and a new Bic pen are got from Whistlestop after an ATM move. Colas Rail's 66849 was seen heading north just before the HST rolled in for London, a winner sight! 43309+43310 are in charge of the 2003 to London, with 310 a winner for my leap to Doncaster. Some harsh braking to be held a bit before Doncaster, man it's been ages since I last smelled that smell!
