Review of 2023
It was a cold and dark November evening on Thursday 9th November 2023, and I finally turned the TV off to get started on the annual review of 2023. On went the headphones and the Bluetooth on the phone, YouTube was on and I got to work on looking back at a year of much in the way of variety. Come join me, as I dive into the best and worst of the year!
January 2023, the 8th of the month to be exact, saw the year’s travels begin with 802102 taking me from Hereford to London Paddington. This was a positioning move for the year’s first World Frenzy trip, more on that later as there was a revelation on its way. Oh yes, this would not be a write-up of mine without some suspense! The year’s first hotel stay was had at a Premier Inn in Dalston, and it is really well placed for both stations in Dalston. The morning after, it was my first Eurostar trip in a long time, following a power-walk with suitcase in tow from the Premier Inn to St Pancras. I didn’t have to walk, but it sure made it more of an adventure!
This was my first time on a 374, a Siemens Velaro, and while they’re not too bad I still very much prefer the 373s. I recall being bored before crossing the border between Belgium and the Netherlands, thankfully the removal of ‘travel by Eurostar to Amsterdam Central’ was finally removed from my to-do list. On that note, for anyone unfamiliar and this will be handy for Future Tech I’m sure, I had two to-do lists in play. One was a railway to-do list, which featured things I wanted to do as an enthusiast, an example of which would be ‘ride a 196 between Leamington Spa and Nuneaton’. The other list was my exploring to-do list, a list that would feature things like walks I wanted to do as well as cycle rides, amongst many other things. An example from that list would be ‘walk the entire length of the Worcester & Birmingham Canal’.
10th January saw me doing something I really wanted to do in Amsterdam, and that was cycling in a country famous across the world for it. Certainly when it comes to track cycling, and no that is not the only time that will get mentioned in this review, I’m always torn between Team GB and Team NL. Imagine how much I want to cheer on both teams when they face each other! Anyway, this came about thanks to Sara’s Boutique Hotel offering cycle hire and I had planned to ride to Utrecht and back. The long and short of that is no, not a chance, the wind was just too much to go for such a ride on a heavy machine like the one I’d hired. The back was in pieces by the end of the ride, thankfully I’d packed a Deep Heat roll-on which was absolutely crucial in the end! As much as it had hurt by the end of around 44 miles, and as much as I’d have loved to make it a Gran Fondo ride, this was my first non-UK cycling and I absolutely still want to take the Blue Beauty over to the Netherlands for some serious cycling!
With a destroyed body, the following day was all about exploring more of Amsterdam and taking it steady. So 11th January saw me out nice and early, and my hunt for coffee was not successful. The hunt for caffeine turned into a rather lengthy walk, around 6.5 miles if memory serves correctly! With a Spar saving the day, and a cup of black magic sourced, I finally got to the trams at Sloterdijk! I went into much more detail in the trip report itself, but there was a lot of exploring that day and I fell in love with Vondel Park. By some measure, that park is my favourite place in Amsterdam and I would absolutely go back to Amsterdam just to visit the park again. That remains a possibility, if I play my cards right, as that trip would only happen until very specific circumstances, and again for the benefit of Future Tech yes I really was thinking about it that far in advance! For the benefit of everyone else, consider that a Spoiler Alert for a future write-up!
12th January 2023, oh yes I remember that early morning heavy rain only too well, oh yes the trying to shelter from the rancid cold and wet weather was not a memory I didn’t want to leave Amsterdam with. The city itself I’m not terribly bothered about, I’d seen it now and while I’d go back for Vondel Park happily and some serious cycling around the Netherlands, the city of Amsterdam no longer held my interest. Another pair of 374s took me back to London, and I see my moves list had me on quite the red pen fest in London. I also remember being very happy to be back in one of the world’s greatest cities! I see that was the same day my last two 387/1s were finally had, paired together as well, before a Premier Inn near Hayes & Harlington. Thus ended the penultimate World Frenzy trip, but once again we’ll get there with that Spoiler Alert!
13th January, this was primarily a positioning day for the year’s only visit to Scotland. So many times I’d planned to visit and go exploring, but not once did those trips come about. I came close a couple of times, but it just never happened. This day was basically positioning to the mighty Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 for a flight to Inverness, as the new station at Inverness Airport had been due to open. Sadly, it didn’t but it was the first trip that I met up with RailUK Forums legend Kite159 in 2023. The first flight of the year fell to a dud Airbus, so the red pen only came out for a 345 in the Heathrow area! Oh and I forgot to mention that I got my Gran Fondo cleared for the month, by means of an exercise bike in the hotel gym at the Marriott Bonvoy hotel at Inverness Airport. OK so that’s not really the best way to do it, but at the time I was still trying to get such a ride done every month. That kind of stopped happening later in 2023, although I still don’t really remember why. The body was feeling it the morning after, I can assure you, as I pushed it hard to get the challenge done. I’d not recommend trying to squeeze a Gran Fondo ride into 5 hours on an exercise bike, it’s not fun, not even with your favourite music on!
14th January saw me and Kite159 visit the Kyle of Lochalsh line, and I scored one of my last 3 158s on a trip to Achnashellach. Wow that was a beautiful place, plenty of hiking opportunities there but not an option on this trip. I had not done the Kyle line since 2006, so this was a welcome revisit. OK, so it wasn’t the whole line, but it sure stirred up something inside me for some future exploring. None of that happened in 2023, but maybe in 2024! The day also saw us do some exploring in Dingwall, which was really quite enjoyable, before a meal in Inverness and a return to the beautiful hotel. No gym use that night, not even for a quick session!
15th January saw me return to London, a dud Airbus again, and another red pen fest. There were less winners that time, but I cleared the 378/1s at long last as well as the DLR fleet. Well timed too, as the new trains were starting to be delivered. I only ever missed one, which became a ‘depot Christmas tree’ long before I really got into doing haulages. I see that I also pushed my suitcase around a lot on this day, with it being dragged along on a walk from Canonbury to the park that Finsbury is famous for, going around most of that before ending at the station. I also now remember the festering for my last Bakerloo train, without success, but that wouldn’t be the case for too much longer. Arriving back in Hereford on 150236 from Newport was certainly a let-down compared to the luxury of an 802/1 like I’d left on!
A week later, 22nd January 2023, I see I went to Ludlow on a pair of 158s, and I’m guessing that I’d gone for a cycling session. I didn’t note the reason in my moves list, I did note a disgust at getting a pair of 150s back vice the 158s though! 3 days on, 25th January 2023, remains a landmark moment of the year for me as it was the day I had my first ever ride on a 196! 196101 has that honour, and I took it from Shrewsbury to Shifnal. There was to be a good bit of cycling that day, and I ended up in Wolverhampton which I remain convinced was not the plan but it certainly filled that Sustrans map nicely! 196107 took me all the way back to Shrewsbury, and I still am of the opinion that the 196s are nice trains. That was my first impression, and I have not yet had a bad journey on a 196. All these months later, and I am still waiting for regular appearances of the 196/1s on Hereford services! I’m informed they’ve done it infrequently in 2023, but I’ve never been in place to see it.
January 2023 ended with a visit to the West Midlands on 29th January, and it was 172335 to Birmingham Snow Hill on what must have been Sunday, as it was a diversionary route. I seem to recall I’d done some cycling, and without checking Strava this must have been the day I filled the gap on my map between Alexander Stadium (Perry Barr) and Walsall along the A34. The bit up from Birmingham had been done on a West Midlands Cycle Hire machine during the Commonwealth Games in 2022, and let’s not talk about the experience on those machines, other than to say I only ever rode two of them and I swore off them with their dodgy brakes! I then rode to Wolverhampton to meet up with Kite159, on his way from a big adventure, but I’d got lured into the Co-Op by the Insomnia Coffee machine and missed the train he was on! Having pedalled furiously along, and made it in time somehow for that train, the need for coffee had taken over! After the Voyagers to Birmingham, and a much shorter than planned meet, I’m not too clear on what I did after that, except for taking 43304+43357 to Worcestershire Parkway. Engineering work south of there meant the HST was terminating there, so with the cycle reservations having been hastily made earlier in the day I took the HST and connected onto 802012 to Hereford. Now I think about it, that appears to have been my last ever XC HST journey!
Phew, that was a busy month. Was 2023 to be like that every month? Well, no. There were some big surprises ahead, none of which I expected would ever happen, but not every month was action packed like January 2023. Even so, keep reading on to see what else happened! If you’re a regular reader of the trip reports, you’ll probably remember some of the year’s action better than myself, and stay tuned for an announcement at the end of the review!
February 1st was a trip to Manchester with a difference. There was a lot of Metrolink action, with 8 scores by the end of the day, and I see what I got up in the morning. That morning, after arriving into Manchester Piccadilly, I went running. So much so I even did my first ever 10km run! I remember now only too well how hard that was, with a lot of weight on the back, and the backpack ended up busting its zips! I don’t immediately recall if I actually did much Beryl Bee cycling that day in the end, I know I’d taken stuff to do so and I see that was the day I did a run from Wharfside to Deansgate. No easy feat with several kilograms of weight on one’s back, and this was well before I had started getting serious about my running!
Two full weeks passed before I went out again, and this was a London red pen fest in combination with doing diverted IETs between Worcester and Reading via Cheltenham Spa. This was when Nuneham Viaduct was out of commission following a structural failure earlier in the year, and while the outward trip didn’t happen the return one thankfully did. I see the weather must have been pretty good that day, as I’d done the walk from Putney to Putney Bridge, which I remember being quite nice.
Another week passed before my next trip, and on 22nd February I see it was a West Midlands canal walking trip. The trip featured both Smethwick Galton Bridge to Birmingham City Centre along that canal, followed later by Brindleyplace to Aston along that canal. I also note that I did 68010 from Moor Street to Kidderminster that night, oh yes that was a noisy performance! February ended on 26th February, with a visit to Islip which finally ticked off that station. It had been one on my list of those to do back in my ‘shack scratching’ days but had never managed to get to. This was finally corrected, and I got some cycling done while in the area too. Oh yes, I don’t have pleasant memories of the big roads around Oxford North to get to Oxford Parkway station! 3 165s got scored that day, and I wanted plenty of them at that point. More than 8 months later, I still want 5 of them including the long-term out of action 165025. Unless that one makes a return, I’ll never clear the class, I may have travelled on it in the early 2000s before I kept records, but that will never be known. That will forever be something I regret, not having good records of what I travelled on back then!
March 2023 saw a bigger return to action, starting on 1st March, when I went to visit my sister in Cheshire. That was basically just a positioning move, and the day after I got some serious cycling done. Oh my, in combinations with some well-timed music, the memories are coming back to me! The ‘max power’, ‘full-gas’, ride up the main road from Leighton Hospital (as far as I’d rode to before the darkness became too much the night before) up to Middlewich, a town I still need to see properly, before storming down to Sandbach, the welcome break at a Co-Op, the horrendously busy road to Crewe, it was certainly an adventure and I definitely remember being glad to reach Crewe station, ready to join 175112 back to Hereford. That wasn’t the only time I would be glad to join a TfW train at Crewe, but this was for totally different reasons to the time I’m specifically thinking of right now!
A lengthy break from the railway was to come, however on 12th March I got some exploring done with a round trip to Hay-on-Wye on a Sunday bus move. Some of you may know that town’s name, once upon a time it was on the railway network and a small part of the former railway can still be walked in the area. I vaguely recall it was on the line from Hereford to Brecon, although my railway history is not my biggest area of knowledge. The point of the adventure was to go exploring, and I absolutely got plenty of that done. I finally set to work on doing some of the massive Offa’s Dyke walk, although that would have to wait for a future trip. That one still hasn’t happened, but maybe in 2024 it will.
20th March, ah yes now I think I know why the only entry here was “172002+172001 Worcester Foregate Street-Hereford”, to quote the exact entry in the moves list. This must have been part of some time off from Asda, and I believe this was the day I’d gone for a Gran Fondo ride. If this is the ride I’m thinking of, this was the day I came close to it but ended up missing it by a few miles, but the big memory is getting absolutely soaked in torrential rain on the sector between Upton-upon-Severn and Worcester. That was 100% not a fun ride up the A38, I do remember being very glad to tick off the Toby Carvery in Worcester though. That was an experience, sat in there in my soaked-through cycling gear and trying to warm up significantly with a much needed meal, thankfully the rain had ceased by the time I left!
22nd March, I must have been feeling alive again as I went to Gloucestershire. I remember now, this was a walk along the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. The weather had been amazing for the first half of the day, by the time I got around 8 miles into the walk that was soon changing and my feet were not appreciating the rough stoney surface in many places! I absolutely remember being very happy to join the bus from just east of Slimbridge back into Gloucester! 2 days further on, 24th March, and I finally ticked off the X3 Hereford-Cardiff route with Stagecoach. That route no longer exists, replaced with a 23 Hereford to Newport, which I have not yet done but it’s operated by Optare Solos which I’m not so fussed about. It’s a route I’ll do eventually, but that’s a job for a very different day! Anyway, I got 3 231s I wanted in the book and that was so far the only time I’ve visited Rhymney on a 231. My journey back to Hereford was originally meant to be on a bus to Merthyr, then Abergavenny then Hereford, however I’d found a better route. I went via Brecon after Merthyr Tydfil, ticking off that route and doing the same with the X43 to Abergavenny and back on the X3 to Hereford.
25th March saw me continue my quest for exploring, and I see it was clearly originally to be a very different day. This occasion saw me completely change plans and I did a walk from Ross-on-Wye (another former railway town) to Fownhope. That took in a lot of nice scenery and it sure filled in my CityStrides LifeMap quite nicely. The same for my OS map, there remains an annoying gap between Fownhope and Mordiford but I am close to a lengthy continuous line of coverage across Herefordshire. Over 7 months later and I have not completed that bit yet, which I partially blame on having multiple lines of interests! The same day, I’d got back to Hereford too early to call it a day so I went to Monmouth to tick off that Stagecoach route, before also doing the route over to Abergavenny. I remember making mental notes ahead of a cycling adventure, which remains on the list to do!
26th March, I initially forgot what I had got up to, then it twigged. To Yate I had gone, and once upon a time I’d have called you crazy if you’d told me I’d alight an HST there. Mind you, at the same time I’d have called you much worse if you’d told me I’d like the HST’s replacement when the time came. After seeing off 43093+43158 at Yate I got onto the Blue Beauty, and I got a good bit of cycling done. One of the over-riding memories of that ride, apart from being over-joyed to finally reach Bristol Temple Meads on a cycle ride, was getting lost on the way back north to Bristol Parkway. Not to mention the pressure of making it back in time for the relevant part of that day’s 387 diagram, one of the main reasons for venturing out that far was to finally clear Bristol Parkway to Newport on a 387. With a big item off my railway to-do list, that was definitely a good day.
March was getting as nuts as January, as on 27th March I was embarking on what turned out to be the finale of my long-running Juliano’s World Frenzy series. There isn’t time to go into the whole ‘why’ of that, for now let’s just say that around 2 hours into the typing spree this review was already on that this trip was a landmark moment. This was the day I travelled to London on National Express, positioning myself via Paddington and Hammersmith using LU, as this was the day I flew on my first ever Airbus A350 to Las Vegas. Now it’s well known that I don’t do gambling, I don’t consume alcohol (still one of the best things I ever did, going teetotal) and I don’t touch any dodgy substances. So why Las Vegas? This was all about positioning for my first ever visit to the Grand Canyon, as Grand Canyon Airlines are based in Las Vegas. I’d booked a sightseeing flight and helicopter tour, including a pontoon boat ride along the Grand Canyon on the River Colorado, which I had been looking forward to since I’d booked it. The whole trip was costing a fortune, nearly £1,000 in flights and hotel alone!
28th March I set my new distance record in a single activity for walking. OK, so there were plenty of breaks, but I set a new record of 32.5 miles that day. It was quite the tour of Las Vegas, including the far less glamorous approaches to North Vegas, let us not discuss that further. 29th March had been due to be the day of the big tour, but sadly after getting some pre-tour exercise, breakfast etc done I found out the sad news. Due to the forecast high winds, which to be fair did arrive later that day, the entire tour was cancelled. To say I was gutted is an understatement, the entire point of visiting Las Vegas was gone. There were no other good alternatives by road available, and I’d not wanted to do those anyway when choosing my tour in the first place. I did some more exploring and gift shopping, but the weather did indeed get absolutely awful later on. The wind was enough to affect my walking, so I dread to think what it would have been like in a helicopter! I did however get my first ever bit of cycling in the USA done, having discovered some hire cycles near the hotel. I did enjoy the green cycling lanes, but there’s just not enough of them! Las Vegas certainly won’t become a cycling city any time soon!
March ended on 30th March with a small bit of cycling in Las Vegas and a load of walking. I had so much time to fill that, after grabbing one final 7-11 coffee (a major highlight of the trip, decent size coffee cups at reasonable prices, I was in that 7-11 more than anywhere else on the trip), I got a walk going on to Las Vegas Airport. Another winning A350 took me back to the UK, and while it was not at that time set to be the final World Frenzy trip it has become that. In short, I’ve finally got fed up of trying to race around the world and tick off as much as I can in a short time. As I look back at things, I haven’t seen enough of some of the countries I’ve visited to really judge them, and of course some places I want to go back to with a fresh mindset. Places like Copenhagen would be good to re-do, as I didn’t have a cycling mindset back then and I would love to see the city with different eyes. The same for Latvia, I’d been given the opinion it was a boring place and one of the only real memories of that country was getting a little bit too drunk with several different beers ticked off. Returning there to see Riga again, just with different priorities, would be good. In a way, most of the World Frenzy trips could be viewed as wasted money and wasted opportunities. That’s how I feel in November 2023 about them, and while they were all experiences and a part of my history, I wish I could turn back the clock and do them again but with the mindset I have now. So it’s basically been decided that while I regret not doing these countries justice last time, I have the opportunity to re-do them but I will do things very differently this time. How differently? Well, one will just have to wait and see, because not even I know yet! I know how I want to do them, but we will find out if I make the right moves to make any of it happen during 2024!
April began in some style, with 67014 had to Manchester in First Class on a Mark 4 set on 1st April. I see this was also the day that I appear to have set the Community Record on Strava for a walking segment near Salford Crescent on Strava! It was also quite the red pen fest, with a lot of 195s, 197s and 331s scored, including my first ever 197s! Oh I see this was not only the day I did the power-walk from Salford Crescent to Deansgate but also the one later on from Salford Crescent to Manchester Piccadilly, and the same day I had to stop myself drooling outside the Pinarello cycle shop. I believe that’s now moved to Wilmslow, a good excuse to visit the town again some day I think! Having made it for 67020 all the way back to Hereford, having sacrificed time in one of my favourite cities to do the 67 in the first place, I got off in Crewe to do a last minute visit to Merseyside for my first ever ride on a 777. 777008 took the dubious honours of doing so on a Kirkby to Liverpool Central journey, and I stand by my initial verdict of epic discomfort on that journey! That night I stayed over at my sister’s house, before heading back to Hereford on 3rd April on 158825 from Crewe. The journey from Winsford to Crewe turned out to my last ever journey on Arriva North West, the operation now gone and replaced by D&G Buses.
5th April saw me back out, this time making a long overdue visit to the East Midlands. In short, this day not only got me my penultimate original Sheffield Supertram by chance but it was the day I cleared the 222s for haulage! It took nearly 19 years, but that task was finally achieved! 16th April was the next day I was on the railway, and this I see was the day I’d cycled from Hereford to Hopton Heath. That was certainly a big coverage session in the more northerly areas of Herefordshire, a lot of effort made to clear some of those gaps too. The original goal had been to ride to Bucknell, but Hopton Heath was chosen for reasons lost to the mists of time. I absolutely remember 150267 being a pleasant sight for the short journey to Craven Arms, and it was soon onwards to Hereford with 150256+158824. I remember the time in Craven Arms primarily for somehow dropping my Cycling+ skullcap in the local Tuffins!
17th April was nothing exciting transport wise, with just an ex-Durham Park & Ride bus taking me back from a massive power-walking/OS map/CityStrides coverage session in Herefordshire. 19th April saw me finally tick off something that had been on my list to do for many years, but before that I’d gone out exploring on a West Midlands Day Ranger. That was the day I finally did Bromsgrove to Lichfield Trent Valley in one sitting on a 323, an item that had long sat on my railway to-do list. I finally got my introduction to the city of Lichfield that day too, and I absolutely must go back for a fuller explore. However I had made a change of plans and I went to Macclesfield. From there, it was a bus to Buxton and that was a mind-blowing scenic trip. I hadn’t expected such a scenic journey, but it is absolutely one I’d recommend to anyone. I had made some notes ahead of cycling up that route, although I made sure to note I’d need to be very fit to take that on with those epic gradients! I still haven’t done it yet, but I hope to one day! The item that had been on my list to do for years was Buxton to Derby by bus, and I enjoyed that journey too. Very scenic, and if I’d not done the route from Macclesfield first I’d have loved it even more. The previous journey was just better in my opinion though! Buxton to Matlock’s definitely a journey I’d recommend on the bus though, but the bit onwards to Derby is better done by rail in my opinion. I see this was also the first day I did a 196/0, it all seems so long ago, even though this was only 6 and a half months ago.
21st April, a round trip was made to Gloucester on the buses. I haven’t a clue why I did that without looking on Strava. It might have been for a shopping/TGI Fridays adventure, but I honestly can’t remember. I’d like to hope there was some walking expeditions involved too, but my moves list doesn’t include this sort of detail. 22nd April, ah yes this was definitely a walking expedition after doing a bus from Hereford to Much Birch. There exists still a gap between Much Birch and Harewood End on the A49 for walking coverage, but there’s no safe walking route on that part. 23rd April, I was back on a more serious adventure and I took 175004 to Wilmslow for 319384 to Manchester Airport. Oh yes, this day featured a power-walk from Manchester Airport to Wythenshawe’s Asda and back, that was a Tech’s Thriller Filler walk before the bus to Buxton to tick the 199 off. Copious notes were made ahead of a walking or cycling adventure once the bus made it to Stockport, before there it basically runs along the motorway. Once in Buxton, Kite159 had alerted me to the presence of last-minute Advance tickets with Northern, and after a hail shower I’d got a coffee and booked one of those from Dove Holes. A good power-walk was had and I sure made a big impact on my CityStrides LifeMap! A pair of 150/1s took me to Manchester for my first ever 153s between Manchester and Crewe, with 153361+153906 on the mileage mission all the way to Hereford.
“Oh wow was it that long ago?” I exclaimed when I saw what I did on 26th April. I remember not getting anywhere near enough sleep leading into this trip, with 153367+153968 providing the early morning racket on the 0547 from Hereford to Manchester Piccadilly. I was far too tired really for much that day, but I don’t sleep well on any form of transport, so no catching up on sleep for me! I was soon off at Shrewsbury and onto 158821 to Machynlleth, changing onto 158820 for the mileage move to Pwllheli. I’d been wanting to revisit this line for a very long time, probably for my entire enthusiast career to be honest, as while I’d been assured I’d done the line as a child I had no memory of it. I was with the Blue Beauty on this trip, and the weather was forecast to be absolutely gorgeous. It was as predicted, which made a nice change, and with the line now revisited I got a coffee going on. It was then time for some serious cycling, and I first rode to Criccieth where some chips were thoroughly enjoyed at the surprisingly nice town, then it was onwards to Penrhyndeudraeth (yes I had to check that one!) where I called time for a bit on that ride. The heat and the hills before there had got to me, a break was needed and I took the opportunity to take 158835 to the former station for Butlins at Penychain. The cycling continued, and I am so glad I didn’t cycle north out of Pwllheli as I had been going to, that gradient was much steeper on the way into the town than expected! It was then time for some walking, and after managing to somehow knock over my much needed coffee, I joined 158820 to Machynlleth (it was meant to be a through train but wasn’t for some reason) and 158828 onwards to Shrewsbury. It was absolutely brilliant to take in all the scenery on a beautiful day, as well as tick off some stations and taking in some cycling. 150245 ended the day with a very tired body back to Hereford.
April ended on 29th April with 196004+196006 from Hereford to Worcester Foregate Street, and I was going to tick off an item on my cycling to-do list, which was to fill in the coverage gap on the A38 between Worcester and Bromsgrove. Let’s just say that was more insane than I’d originally expected, and in places more challenging than anticipated, but it was good to finally get it done before picking up the same 196s back to Hereford then off to work later that day.
Well over 3 hours into typing this, probably more like 3.5 hours, it was time to call an end to the look-back on 8th November. It was to be continued soon…So soon that it was 1830 on 9th November! Another cold and dark evening, this time on a day off but I wanted to get on with this review! The music was back on and I started looking back at May. Come join me as I enjoy the look-back at the action-packed year!
It took until 17th May before I got onto transport again, as I’m sure you can all imagine there’s been plenty of action away from the railway and the buses. I could spend even longer reviewing just that with a thorough look through my Strava logs! This time it was onto 175113 to Shrewsbury, where I changed for some 150 and 158 action up to Wrexham General on a North Wales Rover. Oh yes now I remember, I’d missed the 67 on the morning service to Holyhead, and this was a combined cycling/train day out in good weather. This was also my first journey on a 230, travelling from Wrexham Central to Hawarden. I was pleasantly surprised, the 230 was a good experience, the cycle space needed to be better but otherwise it was pretty decent. I took to the Blue Beauty from the winning station at Hawarden, and after getting lost I made it in time for a late-running 175107 from winning station Flint to Llanfair PG. A winning station, and one I’d wanted to do for years for the super-long station name! It was back to cycling from here, and initially I’d planned to do some very different routes to what I ended up doing. After missing the junction I’d wanted, I ended up following the A5 all the way to Holyhead! Oh I don’t have pleasant memories of that one big climb! There were a few gradients I didn’t enjoy, but that one in particular about 5 miles I think west of Llanfairpwll was nasty.
With a brief stop in the town of Valley, which I will be back to one day for the station and other exploring, for a coffee break and allowing the back to recover, I eventually made it to Holyhead but I kept going. A brown tourist sign intrigued me, and I found myself next to the imposing Holyhead Mountain and the country park around it. The area has been on my list of trips to do with some urgency ever since, I’ve still not managed it though. That seems to be the case with a lot of Wales, there’s a lot I want to do but I’ve not yet got that far. One of the primary objectives of the trip was next, 67017 on a Mark 4 set to take me all the way to Hereford. Covering the North Wales Coast line on a 67 had been on my railway to-do list for quite some time, and this was finally achieved!
3 days later, 20th May, a round trip to Colwall scored me two 196/0s, probably after work, maybe before it. 21st May saw me on a bigger adventure which ended completely differently to how I’d planned it. Some 158 and 150 action took me all the way to Crewe, with a last minute decision finally made to join a 323 to Stockport and I was on a cycling mission again. The plan had been to ride all the way to Buxton along the A6, and after a supply raid in a Sainsburys I eventually got out of the urban areas of Stockport and Hazel Grove. Something was not right though, as I was having problems getting the Blue Beauty moving. This problem was not helpful on the big climb, and by Disley I was more than ready for a break. It’s worth noting I’m not super-fit, but not so unfit that this route should have caused me this many issues. Somewhere the road became dual carriageway and I was regretting my life choices, I really don’t like dual carriageways. Eventually a lay-by was found and I was struggling badly to keep going, something was clearly not right. Just outside Chapel-en-le-Frith, I decided enough was enough, the rear wheel was giving me much grief and I had initially put it down to some sticking brake blocks or some such. After a brief stop to plan a move out of oblivion, I finally made it to the railway station and that final climb would normally present me with some challenge, but not that much. What a beautiful spot to wait for 150120 though, the weather was fantastic and the scenery helped make up for the huge hole the male pride had once taken. After a coffee stop in Stockport, and another new Advance, it was onto 323226 to Crewe for a pair of 150s back to Hereford. It was eventually found to be that somehow, the rear wheel had become loose as had the rear brake blocks’ holder.
23rd May, a round trip to Malvern Link to score 196003 and a power walk, and back to a combined cycling and railway adventure the day after on 24th May. A pair of 153s took me to Chester, and oh yes now I remember, this ride took in the A road west from Chester towards Flint, I was going to connect up to the coverage there earlier in the month. Now I remember that cross-wind on the bridge, now I remember how much it tried to and nearly succeeded in blowing the Blue Beauty out from under me, that was not fun. I never did quite make it to Flint, I branched off for Connah’s Quay as soon as I was away from the bridge! 230010 was had from Shotton to Bidston to cover the line on the new order, taking me back almost straight away to Neston. For far too long I’d been wanting to do the former railway line over to Hooton, and with good weather I took the opportunity to clear the coverage gap. To say the surface didn’t really suit a road cycle is an understatement, this was not an enjoyable experience. A short way before Hooton, I followed the National Cycle Network signs which took me back to the roads, and I was very pleased with that. I ended up finishing the ride in Ellesmere Port, unsurprisingly there was a lot of new cycling coverage that day. As I look back at the trip, I remember the area around the station, not to mention the railway station itself, being very much in need of tidying up, but importantly I wonder what happened to the version of me who did all that cycling. That version of me seems to be in hiding, the sense of adventure seems to be missing at the moment!
507021 took me over to Hooton and 508104 to Chester that day, and it appears that was my last ever members of the old order on those lines. The takeover of the 777s is nearly complete on the Chester and Ellesmere Port lines I’m informed, so I’m glad I did them after all. A good bit of exploring on foot in Chester followed, which was long overdue, and I still remember how impressed I was with the city. 150240 took me back to Hereford, and I still recall being envious of those getting on a 197 into North Wales. Thankfully the 197s have now largely taken over, so things are finally going in the right direction.
27th May and I was back out for some more 196 scoring before work, the day after was my first visit to Swansea with 67025. The Sunday services with 67s had been having issues for a long time, but I finally found myself in position to do one of them at long last! That cleared the primary routes that TfW use 67s on for coverage, and I was on a cycling adventure. I had considered just going back to Hereford immediately on 67025, but after a while I was glad I didn’t chicken out and I had a great time exploring on the Blue Beauty. Well, apart from the stretch of the A484 I did and the dreaded but known big climb up the A483 through Fforestfach. That cleared some cycling challenges I’d been wanting to do for a long time, although I must confess the rest of the A483 from where I left it into the city remains something I’d like to tackle at some point! 150259 was quite the contrast on the way to Hereford, but it passed by quite quickly in the end much to my surprise.
May’s adventures ended on 31st May, and oh yes now I remember the life-changing events leading into this trip. I won’t detail them here, but for the benefit of Future Tech the event in question was the final nail in the coffin, the event that finally led to a change of jobs! It was all buses on this trip, ticking off a local route I’d wanted to do for years, and this day involved a big walking expedition along some of the Wye Valley Walk and National Cycle Network Route 423. The journey back was dramatic too, involving a power-walk along rural lanes to get from one bus route to another, following the breakdown of a bus on the way back from Monmouth. At least it added coverage to my OS map!
June 2023’s adventures began on 1st June with a trip into Gloucestershire, this trip also took me into the countryside with a combined cycling/walking adventure. I still haven’t been to Dursley for a proper explore, despite promising myself I’d do so “soon” after this introduction to the town. The cycling was partly to get me to/from the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal, to finish my coverage of that. So far, the first and only canal I’ve walked the entire length of, hopefully more will follow in its footsteps before too long!
4th June was another bus adventure, this time taking me to Cinderford where I had my first power-walk session in the Forest of Dean in glorious weather. Oh yes that was a good day, there’s more bus-related fun to be had down that way but it never seems to get remembered until it’s too late! 9th November would have been a good day to do that, but oh well never mind, too late now! That climb on the way up the alternative route into Cinderford at the end, oh my that was tough going and I dread to think what it would be like on a cycle!
10 days passed and I was back on the railway, with my first 197 out of Hereford on the class’ third day in passenger service south of Chester. 197010 did the honours of taking me to Cardiff, and I don’t remember specifically what else I did for sure in Cardiff now but I got two more 231s scored on leaps up and down ‘The Ramp’, an affectionate name for the gradient between Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street. Oh, maybe this was the warm sunny day when a points failure was causing much in the way of delays, and I chose to do some big cycling adventures, in fact I think it was and I vaguely remember I ended up riding to Barry Island first. Then I took the wrong turn somewhere to the north of Barry and ended up on a much more busy road than I wanted to be on! That took me along the A48 for the first time, and I remember just how warm the water in my bottle had got, the sweat was real and the air conditioning in the Tesco Extra at Culverhouse Cross (I’d visited for Decathlon primarily) was absolutely amazing! 67010 was quite the contrast to everything else to take me back to Hereford, but what a day of cycling it had been!
June also featured a family holiday in Dorset and Devon, and on 17th June I see I listed a MoreBus journey from Poole to Bournemouth. Oh yes, that was following the epic power-walk session along the Bournemouth seafront and over to Poole, oh yes that was good for coverage! The day after featured some train action with getting my last 444 for haulage, the honour falling to 444020. I also finally ticked off bus route 50 to Swanage, having done the chain ferry by foot the day before, and route 40 from Swanage to Poole also got done. A shame really that the weather had turned a bit sour that day, but what can you do?
20th June we had relocated to Devon, and after a massive power-walk session from Haven Devon Cliffs to Pinhoe via Exmouth seafront and the Exe Trail I had finally ticked off my last required station between Exeter and Basingstoke. That one had been waiting for way too long to be done! I also did the ferry from Starcross to Exmouth that day, £5 cash only one way, but it was nice to finally get it done and out of the way. In a similar fashion, it was great to finally deal with the ticking off of the station at Lympstone Village. That cost me more than £3 from Exmouth, but it was worth it to finally clear that frustrating gap! I see from my notes that, later that night, I got bored of hanging around in the caravan and went out for a walk along the South West Coast Path to Budleigh Salterton. I remember that being quite good fun to do, and I just made it in time for a bus back to Littleham Cross and another power-walk back to the caravan. Again, I wonder what on Earth happened to the adventurer that I was back then?
21st June, this time I was out with my little sister and we went to Paignton and Dawlish as she likes to do when we’re in Devon. A pair of 150s took us from Exmouth to Paignton, and after seeing the Blue Pullman HST later that day it was a quick leap to Newton Abbot on an 800 which was good for me, as I wanted to clear that branch on the class during 2022’s ALR. The walk along the sea wall never happened in the end, but we did briefly pop into Dawlish Warren once that bus finally turned up, and 166217 took us back to Exmouth later on. That also pleased me, as I had wanted to do the Exmouth branch on a ‘Turbo’. 23rd June was a sightseeing tour boat with Stuart Line Cruises along the Jurassic Coast with Mum, that was quite the enjoyable experience. It was also the day of travelling back to Hereford, and because Mum doesn’t do motorways it was a long and slow journey. I made copious notes on the roads ahead of any planned cycling adventures, and binned a lot of the ideas as the roads weren’t going to be any fun to ride along!
June’s adventures ended on 28th June, with 196012 on its first day in service and I took it all the way from Hereford to Birmingham New Street. A number of the newer Midland Metro trams were in service, and I’d found out not too long before this trip about Kite159’s walk along a shared-use path next to the tram route between The Hawthorns and Black Lake. A power-walk along that was mandatory! I still want to go back and cycle it one day, although when that will be remains to be seen. I got 3 of the trams scored that day, and instead of a proper meal in Birmingham as had been the plan, I re-routed myself at short notice to travel via Kidderminster. A Person Hit By Train incident had happened on the Birmingham to Droitwich route, so avoiding the chaos there was mandatory.
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I haven't yet had the chance to read back extensively enough to see if you can make central Slough sound interesting - that would definitely elevate you to the ranks of trip-reporting royalty, if you aren't up there already.