The Various Random Mutterings of Kite

[Kite159]

Beware thread might contain pictures of random rural stations and of bridges

From now on I’m going to keep all my various travel writings in one thread, so anyhow I’m a few weeks behind with my write-ups

3rd May – Cornwall Part 1

For some strange reason I decided to book advance tickets to and from Plymouth from Salisbury, overall cost was probably a little bit cheaper than doing a 3 way spilt, but it meant I was going via Bristol on the outward leg, so a rather early start to catch the 6:40 from Salisbury to Bristol SWT special, it was on 159002, rather uneventful and empty service until Bath was reached and it was balloon day, lots of hot air balloons in the sky, made me smile and took a couple pictures. Once at Bristol I had around 15 minutes to spare before my next leg down to Exeter, so I went to the Upper-Crust place on Platform 3 and purchased a sausage baguette (I don’t like eating breakfast really early, give my body chance to wake up) and to purchase a newspaper. Unit movements were the usual Bristol, 150s, 158s, HST & a 153.

220016 rolled in, yep a Voyager, to take me down to Exeter, I actually had a seat reservation on this service, however when finally located the seat found it was a CrossCountry special, backwards facing aisle airliner seat with a lovely view of a pillar, so I did what I usually do if my reserved seat is rubbish, go find another seat, ending up in the unreserved car, found a window seat, it wasn’t at a table, but I find the leg-room on the airliner seats on the Voyagers ok, as I looked out of the window covering old ground only covered previously a couple years back on a steam train. Unit movements, a 150 stopper heading northbound, a HST, at ESD a Pacer and a SWT.

At Exeter St Davids, it was time to get off the train (final stop was Paignton), so it was a 10 minute wait, sat reading my paper as 150101 rolled in, yay a 86 mile journey on a high-density 150/1, it was quite busy but I managed to get a seat on the left hand side, near the door with a gap in front (with the single sideways facing seat in front), it was a window view and that is what I cared about as it set off down one of the most beautiful track locations in England, pass the Dawlish breach. Time flew by as Plymouth was reached and I changed my ticket from the advance to a Ride Cornwall. Over Prince Albert bridge, and down into Cornwall itself, some glorious views of the bridges as the railway curves around the Tay and crosses another viaduct. Heading towards Par, the scenery was very stunning, one movement in a tree-lined cutting, the next a viaduct with views to take your breath away. My original plan was to get off at Plymouth and catch the following train to Par, but luckily I stayed on as the following train was delayed and would have missed the Newquay train.

Winter timetable so the trains to Newquay were every couple hours, I had around 35 minutes spare at Par, after taking a picture of 153333, the First Great London Midland train (I’m guessing it was an old London Midland train, however hasn’t been repainted, just the outside logo painted over with a FGW logo and still have London Midland details inside), had a quick look around, weather was lovely, but Par station seems to be located away from Par itself, once the doors were unlocked on the 153 beast, I found myself a lovely table seat and it was on its way along the 20 mile single track route to Newquay.

Once at Newquay, it was a quick turnaround and the train set off back towards Par, let me check, no we are still on the quite long platform at Newquay. Some nice scenery, a nice high long viaduct heading over the track (which I think is one of the many former railways in Cornwall), as the train pulled back into Par. I crossed the bridge and waited 20 or so minutes for a delayed HST to pull in for my next stage, down to the picturesque St Erth. The HST was quite busy, made up of 43020 at the front and 43150 bringing up the rear, managed to find a seat which I gave up after 5 minutes as another passenger was trying to become the next *insert famous guitarist here* and sounded like he was trying to kill various animals. Moved on down to the next carriage, found a slightly rubbish filled seat (can’t passengers tidy up after themselves?) and sat for the 39 mile trip. I enjoy the Mk3s as the seats are comfy and the leg-room is quite good, better than the tables I would say (only reason as you’re not fighting the passenger opposite for the same space).

St Erth was reached as it was a 10 minute gap for the St Ives train which can’t be held up due to a tight turnaround (from the signs on the wall), interesting bridge and to the 3rd platform were 150266 pulled in, passengers alighted (with the usual huddle around the door, how can you let the others passengers get off the train if you don’t leave gaps?), got a seat on the right hand side as it set off along the St Ives branch line, which is very beautiful running alongside the beach. Once at St Ives everybody bar me got off, and more passengers got on for the return leg back to St Erth.

I had around a 20 minute wait at St Erth for the next Penzance train to arrive, when waiting the HST I arrived with come back the other way and hopefully I got a couple nice pictures of it approaching the station. 150233 pulled in for the final leg to the southernmost station in the UK, Penzance, the sun was shining, weather was beautiful, I had 80 minutes before the return leg, so had a look around the town, first stop was a branch of Tesco to pick up a late lunch and something for dinner, and I had a good look around the town area, walking down to the harbour wall (after finding the location of the gap for the wall-walk), and headed back towards the station, I didn’t want to miss the train for 2 reasons, firstly it connected with my advance ticket from Plymouth to Exeter, and secondary it was a HST, the next would have been a Plymouth stopping 150.

At the platform, I was greeted by the sight of 43091 leading 43185, located my seat which was reserved (a nice table seat, however it was reserved to Exeter and was on the RHS, I wanted a LHS seat as I come down sitting on the left, so wanted to sit on the left going back for different scenery, which was beautiful, some old mining equipment spotted, as it slowly made it way up towards Devon, I wouldn’t like to live in one of the houses in between the two bridges, no ticket check whatever, as it slowly ran into Exeter. The light started to go around Newton Abbot, but it was still light enough to see the repairs to the sea wall, sadly a Pacer got in the way going over the breach site.

Once at Exeter, it was a 20 minute wait for the 2nd to last SWT service back to Salisbury, the last being a bus, had a quick look outside the station but as it was 9:15, a lot of the places were closed, so I took a seat and waited as 159105 pulled in after a local service had left the platform. Quiet until Exeter central when one party got on making lots of noise and fooling around until they got off at a later station (Honiton I think), it was nice and quiet until Templecombe when another party got on, this time was some ladies on a hen night, they got off at the next station (Gillingham), looking back though the train and it was a mess. All was going well until after Tisbury, where we were held for 10 minutes waiting for a late running service to Yeovil (I think), arriving into Salisbury at 23:35, nice long day for me, as I had to drive back home, arriving home just before midnight, quickly docking the iPod to give it a bit of charge for the next day. Total mileage covered, around 530.

4th May – Isle of Wight

A nice easy day for me, down to the Island known as Wight to go on the old underground stock, so a quick drive to Winchester station (normally would have been Romsey, but due to the Southampton works, no tickets were available as the ticket websites dislike routing via Chandlers Ford (try and get a Romsey to Portsmouth ticket and it will try and sell you a FOSW ticket). Doesn’t matter as it was free parking (in a proper car-park this time!) and was about the same cost. First time at Winchester for a number of months (probably since October last year when I used Winchester to do a round trip to Romsey for some shopping) and is that a new bridge and new multi-storey car-park

Time rolled on as the Southampton Airport/Portsmouth Harbour train pulled in, with all the usual “front 5 carriages for Southampton Airport, rear 5 for Portsmouth” announcements. Made up of 444013 at the front and 444007 at the rear, I sat in the James Bond 444 as Eastleigh was reached (via stopping at One Foot in the Grave, also known as Shawford, where the train out lengthen the platform 10 to 1). 444013 departed down to Southampton and Mr Bond carried out down towards Portsmouth, I haven’t been to Portsmouth itself for a number of years so it was nice to see not a lot has changed. The Botley works to the embankment are very well done, good work by the Orange Army there.

Once at Portsmouth Harbour the train attached to another 444 unit, as I dashed towards the ferry terminal to find the 10:15 sailing has just departed, so I had an hour to wait, so I headed towards the shopping centre, which annoyed me as some of the shops were open (10 to 4), some weren’t open until 11, why can’t the shopping centre management enforce a standard opening times for Sundays. Mini-rant over, had a look around, went into a branch of Co-Op to pick up a sandwich and some other bits and bobs, as I made my way back towards the harbour, to the queue to get onto the fast-cat to Ryde.

Crossing was beautiful weather, so I sat on the top-deck watching as Portsmouth faded away into the background and the island was reached. The boat docked and the passengers got off as I walked towards the Ryde Pier Head station, until 483007 rolled in, old pre WW2 tube-stock, very nice, and very bouncy seats, done up quite well inside with a map of the Island line where the underground map would normally go. Bounce bounce down to Shanklin, the end of the line. I alighted and had a look around the town in the 20 minutes I had spare before the other 483 bounced in. I wrote down “16” in my phone, but 483016 doesn’t exist, so it might have been 483006, back to Ryde Esplanade this time, as I got off and had a look around Ryde before walking along the pier (nice day for it) towards the ferry terminal.

The same boat carried us back across the water, docked and I made a quick dash to try and make an unofficial connection back towards Eastleigh, and I made it with 30 seconds to spare, jumping onto the FGW 158952 service to Cardiff Central. Going pass Eastleigh is nice to see all the old trains, alighting at Eastleigh to find myself with 15 minutes to spare, not enough time to do anything with so I headed back to the platform to read a railway magazine picked up in Ryde (the one published by Platform 5), as 444034 rolled in, sat down to look out the window as 444035 crashed into the back of us, crashed as in attached, as the 10 car unit went back up to Winchester, back to the new bridge. Alighting at Winchester I headed back to my car, and drove to my gym for a quick swim

Thankfully the Monday I had off, a nice quiet day with a sleep in! I have not had a sleep in for ages.

Total miles covered ~ 73, and another TOC crossed of my list (treating Island Line Trains as a separate TOC even though they are part of SWT)

---

I will try and do my report for my Freedom of Scotland and FOSS adventure this week, hopefully it will be quiet-ish at work.

 

[Techniquest]

I will comment properly later, but this is a good idea and one I'm going to copy If I wasn't low on battery I'd fully read this now, but I will en-route to work in the morning

 

[Kite159]

Forgot to post link to pictures

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27666294@N02/sets/72157644502707352/

 

[Techniquest]

Did you not want to do the steam railway while over there?

Been a good couple of days there, long day for the Cornwall bash but well worth it by the looks of it Not been to Cornwall for years, apart from a trip to Penzance purely to pick up the sleeper to London on the 2012 ALR. Not exactly doing Cornwall properly lol!

Looking forward to reading further updates, if all goes well when booking my next couple of trips on Friday I should have trip reports coming soon too

 

[Kite159]

That will be left for another day, I'm back down Cornwall on Sunday to do the remaining 2 branch lines (and then the following Sunday to do the remaining 2 lines in Devon)

Anyhow, pictures of my Scotland holiday are all up (https://www.flickr.com/photos/27666294@N02/sets/72157644798014491/)

Part 1 of my report

Freedom of Scotland holiday
Day 1 – Home to Inverness
My main holiday of 2014 (need to save 2 weeks for a trip to China in February) booked back in March time, I’ve been looking forward for my week away from the mad house known as coaching Sage out and doing audits, counting down the days until the 9th May, where I turned my works phone off, unplugged my laptop and was free for a week, doing the majority of the packing the night before, before heading out to see Frank Skinner in Basingstoke (who was ok, not the best comedian I have seen live). Anyway Saturday soon rolled around and I made my way up to the local train station to catch the 8:59 train to Waterloo, I know 2/3 hours later than a usual start. I had forgotten how busy these trains can be (I’m guessing the 8:59, arriving into Waterloo at 10:19 is the first train from Exeter which doesn’t leave at 5am). The 159 units on duty today were 159009 at the front and 159013 and at the back, found a seat (backwards facing but as I had my bag with me I wasn’t going to do my usual trick of walking up/down the train looking for an empty seat), it was near the luggage rack so I settled in to read a book (Last Chance to Die by Noah Boyd for my holiday reading) as the train headed towards London

Hit some signalling issues going to Waterloo area, making the train 10 minutes late, which cut down the time I had to get to Kings Cross down to only 90 minutes, *cue channel 5 dramatic music*, which even with my bag was rather easy arriving into KCSP underground complex via the Sainsburys Local outside Waterloo to purchase lunch and other supplies for the trip ahead, up the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus for the same platform interchange to the Victoria line. The Northern line might be quicker but is it as easy? Arrived into KCSP at around 11:10, so to kill some time made use of the lift, with some confused American tourist not noticing the diagram on the wall saying which lift went where, one of the lifts weren’t working so it was a case of walking up the stairs with my case, not the end of the world and as it was a very sunny day I sat outside Kings Cross for 30 minutes reading the paper before heading back inside where at 11:53 the platform for the Inverness train was announced, cue a rush though the ticket barriers as I found the Highland Chieftain, pulled by 43206 and pushed by 43208.

My assigned seat was rubbish, backwards facing aisle airliner seat with a view of the pillar, so I was going to upgrade for First Class. £25 for a 8+ hour journey, seemed reasonable for me, just to get a better seat so I could look outside the window, Coach B was mostly full made it down to coach C and it was empty, a few reservations, found myself a nice table seat, and put my £25 back in the pocket for another day. The journey up the East Coast was very nice, speeding up, leaving London and First Capital Connect land out of the way, passing a Hull Train and Grand Central HST (with other East Coast 125s & 225s), the sea view is very nice, and into Edinburgh for the 15 minute break, it was running on time as it pulled into Inverness at 20:08. The line from Edinburgh to Inverness is very beautiful, going though the highlands to the capital city of the highlands. My camera decided it liked focusing on the black marks on the window instead of the scenery.

I had to get up and walk around every hour or so, firstly to check my bag was still there, and secondary as an 8 hour, 580 mile trip my legs got tired of sitting down. Once at Inverness I was welcomed by the sight of a double steam engine and fired up my phone with the postcode for the guest house I had booked. Found the guest house after a 10 minute walk, over the River Ness, where I had a bit of an issue as the guest house hadn’t received my booking from Booking.com, so after a bit of confusion I checked out the guest house next door, and luckily they had one spare bed, bit more pricey than the original guest house, but included free breakfast (and I’m getting the difference back from Booking.com). After dumping my bags on the bed, I headed out in the search for some food, which I found in a nearby Tesco Metro and had a brief look around the city centre area, looking over the river which was wide at the castle. Come 10pm and it was still light enough to walk back to the hotel, didn’t get dark-dark until after 11pm.

Day 2: Kyle of Lochalsh

Sundays the train service in the north is a bit rubbish, so I had a late start, the latest start of my holiday, had my free breakfast (yummy) and headed towards the city centre for some exploring, had a good look around before reaching the station at 10am to find the platform the only service to Kyle was departing from, to find a few kids waiting around with luggage, waiting to get on the train. At around 10:40 the barrier was opened as I boarded 158719, getting on the first car and it was fully reserved, second car wasn’t reserved so found myself a nice table seat with a good view out of the window as it departed towards Kyle of Lochalsh, and what a view it was. Leaving Inverness built up some speed before turning away from the Far North at Dingwall and headed towards Kyle, running alongside a loch, just as the heaven’s opened, I could see but the pictures from the train were rubbish, both phone and camera were focusing on the rain drops on the window.

Arriving at Kyle to find a steam train, which was just detaching to reverse to the rear of the coaches to pull them back towards Inverness, gave me a couple good pictures as I had a quick look around, it was still raining so I didn’t go that far. Went up to the Co-Op for some lunch and came back to find the steam engine was just about getting ready to leave, had a quick look in the shop and sat and watched as the steam engine departed, leaving the station rather quiet, the shops closing up as the tourists were gone, as I sat watching Skye before the train heading back towards Inverness was unlocked for boarding. I noted on the timetable that services to the Far North and Kyle are standard class only, so I sat in the First Class Section of the train, nothing that special, just had lamps on the tables & power sockets.

Departing Kyle we hit more rain, which cleared up, but rained again so it wasn’t as nice heading back as it was heading there due to the window getting covered in rain drops, but still a very stunning view, headed back into Inverness, after 5pm so I had a quick look around, purchasing a Loch Ness Monster toy playing bagpipes, called her Nessy (very original name), after dropping of my bag in the guest house, went to Tesco to purchase an iPod charging cable as I was having issues with my 7 year old iPod classic in refusing to charge, I thought it was something with the charging cable, but appeared to refuse a charge even with the new cable. Ended up for dinner in an Italian restaurant, asking for a table for one and a soft drink (I’ve always noticed when in America or Canada, soft-drinks are normally ‘bottomless’ with free refills, very rare is this the case in the UK), headed back to the guest house room for an early-ish night ready for a long day on Monday.

Day 3 – Far North & to Dundee via Aberdeen

Waking up at 6:15 to be out of the guest house by 6:30 being quiet as a mouse not to wake other guests, leaving the key on the side as requested by the manager, and made my way towards the train station, not wanting to rush as I had my bag with me. Arrived at the station around 6:45, found my way to look at the departure board to find the 7:00 departure to Wick was leaving from platform 5, and it was 158719 again, knowing the location of the First Class area, made my way towards First Class, only so that I could plug my tablet in for a bit of extra juice as the train set about the way up to the north.

Very beautiful that part of the country, as the industrial area leaves away to running along the North Sea for around 20 minutes before heading back inland, the weather looked like it wanted to rain, but thankfully it didn’t. Reversing at Georgemas Junction to head north towards Thurso, before reversing again, going back though Georgemas onwards to Wick, can’t be many journeys which go across the same line twice. Wick is a lovely town, making a joke that I got told I should go to Wickes for some nails, but mishearing it to Wick. Nice harbour, with an hour and 10 minute gap before the 174 mile return leg. Weather was cheering up which was always a bonus as I didn’t fancy wheeling my case around in the rain.

Getting back on board 158719, getting a standard class seat, and slowly headed back towards Inverness via Thurso, passing a steam engine at Boroa, waiting before it picked it’s passengers up from Dunrobin Castle, a station which had a lot of activity, heading back down slowly over some glorious areas and back into Inverness for the 3rd and final time, lovely city it is. Across the platforms for the ‘Peak’ Aberdeen train, tickets being checked on the way in to prevent any off-peak tickets being used, and the train was quite busy, a few runners on board, made up of 170413 as it slowly made its way along the Aberdeen to Inverness line, slightly disappointed as I thought it ran near to the sea, but runs inland, not as beautiful as the Far North, but still beautiful.

My original plan was to have an overnight stay at Aberdeen, however when I was checking the hotel prices, the cheapest was £90, for a Monday night in May (There was a couple other cheaper hotels, but reading the description where they described themselves as being within a 20 minute drive from the city centre kinda counted them out), so it was downwards towards Dundee, making a 10 minute connection by walking along the platform to board 170415 on its way towards Glasgow Queen Street, the first of many trains with that destination for me on the week ahead. Running alongside the sea for a bit, annoyingly I got on the wrong side of the train, but as I plan a return to Aberdeen at some point (maybe overnight on the sleeper if I can get a bargain berth and down on East Coast on a weekday First Class ticket using my reward points). Some nice stations along the route, Barry Links and Golf Street looked rather quiet, must not be used that often, as the train pulled into Dundee around 9pm.

Alighting and making my way towards the Dundee Backpackers hostel for my overnight stay, basic accommodation based in the city centre, must have been student’s night as there was a lot of students around, however when I went to get some food, there wasn’t a lot of choice, a lot of the takeaways I had passed from the station were closed, so it ended up being in the “American Embassy”, some burger of the week with the free McFlurry (benefits of being a part-time OU student I guess). Back to the hostel for the overnight stay and a quick charge of my batteries, got quiet around midnight, but Tuesday must be the bin-day as I got woken to the sound of bins being emptied.

Day 4 – Dundee ‘Triangle’, Alloa & Glasgow to Edinburgh Lines

Tuesday arrived with the sun shining, as I made my way down the staircase at Dundee station my handle fell of my bag, reducing the option of carrying the bag, but as today was going to be the 2nd to last day of carrying my luggage around I wasn’t that bothered, as I planned to get rid of my bag as soon as I arrived into Glasgow. Anyhow once at the station, the train for the longest journey in the UK pulled in, Aberdeen to Penzance, on a luxurious Voyager, 4 pages of station names on the scrolling display, taking the guard a while to read them all out. Today’s Voyager happened to be 221136, so a 221 instead of a 220, so making my way towards one of the cars where I managed to get a nice window seat with a view of a window, setting off out of the city and over the Tay railway bridge, all 3,264 metres of it, can’t think of any longer railway bridges in the country.

After the Tay was passed, heading southwards looking out the window over some more lovely glorious countryside, before stopping at Markinch, for a 10 minute connection before the next train northwards towards Perth arrived, made up of 158871, and after a mile northwards I had cleared 10,000 miles since the 1st January, yippee, pulling into Perth having a 50 minute gap before the next train heading eastwards back towards Dundee pulled in I went down to the city centre to pick up some lunch and have a quick look, coming back towards the station it started to rain, boo, but managed to get to the station before the angels removed the plug from the bath. 170413 pulled in (the same train as I did Inverness to Aberdeen on), to make its way eastwards towards Dundee, again quite busy, I could only get an airline seat. Alighting at Dundee I had 10 minutes before the next train westwards as I doubled back on myself, thankfully this train was quiet as it was starting from Dundee and I got a nice seat on 170405.

Back through Perth and downwards alighting at Stirling after 53 miles, city to city, with a nice gap in the city to wait for the next Alloa bound train to pull in. Nice to see a lot of work happening on a couple of the stations heading south, Gleneagles (I’m guessing mainly for the golf competition this year) Stirling has many platforms, of which some are not used. The city is nice, but again with my bag in tow I couldn’t explore as much as I would normally do. Heading back towards the station a steam engine thundered though heading south, a shame to have missed the picture taking, but after going via the lift to the Alloa platforms, it was a brief 10 minute wait before 158725 pulled in for the short 6 mile trip along the reopened freight line, nice large Asda next to the station which I took 10 minutes to have a look around before returning to 158725 for the journey back along to Stiring and then down south towards Glasgow Queen Street, my first time into Glasgow.

Nice tunnel heading to Queen Street, as the train pulled in and I alighted, and headed towards the low level station, where 334034, my first 334 and first electric train of the trip, was waiting on the platform, didn’t have much time to enjoy the trip as 2 minutes later Charing Cross (Glasgow) was reached, a 60 chain trip underground. The steps at Charing Cross are rather long and numerous, but reaching the daylight, passing through the ticket barriers and firing up Google Maps, managed to locate the Charing Cross guest house with little fuss, 5 minute walk, checking in for my 5 night stay, the key needing to be left with the front desk if you went out, taking my bag upstairs to my room. Wasn’t the best room, but was better than one which was sandwiched in between the shared toilets/bathroom, had a slight bit of traffic noise from the nearby motorway, but thankfully the motorway was in a tunnel (or cutting) as it wasn’t as noisy as being near the Premier Inn located near the station.

Heading back out of the guest house, and back towards Charing Cross, managed to get 30 minutes ahead of my schedule as I waited a couple minutes for Edinburgh bound 344026/334038 to pull in for the hour trip towards Haymarket along the new line. Alighting at Haymarket (less platforms than Edinburgh Waverly itself) and crossing the bridge to the west bound platform, waiting 15 minutes for the service to Glasgow Central via Carstairs pulled in, after a few other trains, very busy station is Haymarket, with the announcer saying sorry for the cancellation of a Newcraighall service and the complete lack of communications. I was worried as it was 5pm, it was going to be busy, but 380102 pulled in and was mostly quiet and pretty empty after Motherwell. Nice bit of track though the countryside, passing a nuclear waste freight train and waiting at Carstairs for a couple Virgins to pass before going up the WCML towards Glasgow Central. It was a nice view until the suburbs of Glasgow were reached, some were nicer than others, but crossing the bridge into Central it allowed me time to breath.

On the way into Glasgow I looked up the platform number for the Edinburgh bound service via Shotts, and it was the opposite side to the platform so was a nice easy cross platform interchange and onto 156512 with it the low seats, and I set off back towards Haymarket along the Shotts line this time, arriving back into Haymarket 45 minutes ahead of schedule, so I had time to get some food before the last Glasgow/Edinburgh service was due. Haymarket was the only station in Scotland to reject my Freedom of Scotland ticket at the ticket barriers, it was annoying, stopping briefly to allow a tram to pass and headed to a nearby Fish and Chip shop for some Fish and Chips, just because I fancied some Fishy and Chips.

Back at Haymarket, after being let into the station by the guards, made my way down to the platforms for the busy 170415 to pull in, heading towards Queen Street I had my dinner and looked out the window for the hour journey, as Queen Street was reached. Once again I went down the low level platforms as 320315 was waiting (first 320) which I caught to Partick. At the interchange station getting off the platform and waiting a couple minutes for the Millngavie bound 318251 pulled in (First 318), nice little bit of track towards Millngavie as the train terminated and I had a brief look around before heading back towards Partick on 318251 again, and as darkness was falling got onto 320309 for the return leg to Charing Cross, where I had a brief walk to the guest house for an interesting first night, where I had the choice of being hot and having the window closed to filter out the road-noise, of being cool and having the road-noise, I ended up with the window open as it was a tad warm. Alarm set for 4:45am for the following day.

Day 5 – Fort William & Mallaig (plus Balloch & Helensburgh Central)

Coming Soon

 

[Techniquest]

Sounds like you've had a most varied and exciting time around Scotland! Randomly noted you had the same pair of power cars to Inverness as I did years ago, just my trip had no '2' in the numbers

Aye I had the same issue with Inverness to Aberdeen, not the best route sadly. Didn't know 170s plyed the route though, it was 158s when I did it.

I remain unconvinced the Aberdeen to Penzance is booked 220, I've only seen 221s on it myself whenever I've seen it on various trips.

I stayed at the Premier Inn in Charing Cross when I went oop North last year, I had no problems with noise whatsoever.

Looking forward to reading the rest of the adventure soon

 

[higthomas]

Looks like a great week, thinking about doing some of these lines at some point, so it's great to see what you think.

 

[PHILIPE]

Sounds like you've had a most varied and exciting time around Scotland! Randomly noted you had the same pair of power cars to Inverness as I did years ago, just my trip had no '2' in the numbers

Aye I had the same issue with Inverness to Aberdeen, not the best route sadly. Didn't know 170s plyed the route though, it was 158s when I did it.

I remain unconvinced the Aberdeen to Penzance is booked 220, I've only seen 221s on it myself whenever I've seen it on various trips.

I stayed at the Premier Inn in Charing Cross when I went oop North last year, I had no problems with noise whatsoever.

Looking forward to reading the rest of the adventure soon

There are several 170s booked Inverness to Aberdeen. I don't know if it's the same now but there used to be a 158 + 170 Combo also

 

[Techniquest]

There are several 170s booked Inverness to Aberdeen. I don't know if it's the same now but there used to be a 158 + 170 Combo also

To be fair I did INV>ABD in December 2008 so things will have changed a bit in about 5 and a half years.

 

[PHILIPE]

I often travelled to Elgin from 2003 to 2006 and 170s could be seen then. There may only be one or two diagrams working right through but they are there.

 

[overtonchris]

Hi Folks, just for the record I feel totally inspired by Kite159's report (and also many past ones by Teqniquest). I'm now at a stage where I can ease up on work a bit and would like to try a couple of 3/4 day Rovers - and perhaps lob a report in here. Does anyone think I could bash all (a fair part?) of rural Scotland on their 4 day jobbie????.....studied the ALL other Rovers on offer - they look fun too....

After almost 40 years of "spotting / photting" it's only in the last 6 months that I've started 'doing track' (love it) - and that's due to discovering this forum - never really thought about it before!

Thanks folks - any tips gratefully accepted!

 

[Kite159]

Maybe the Premier Inn has good sound proofing on the rooms which face the motorway, I was quite happy with my guest house just up the road, my requirements are rather basic and I find guest houses have more character than the Premier Inns/Holiday Inns of the country

Couple more days worth

Day 5 – Fort William & Mallaig

It was a rather early start for me, leaving the guest house around 4:50 for the 20 minute walk to Glasgow Queen Street, Glasgow is rather quiet at that time of the morning, evidence of the previous night’s activities still present. Arriving into Queen Street it was rather dead, for the first train of the day, 156465 towards Westerton, and it seems it normally runs empty as the guard was shocked someone was on board.

Arriving into Westerton I had 10 minutes to wait, some more First Scotrail staff were waiting on the platform, waiting for the Deerstalker to show itself (the highland sleeper to Fort William, the 2nd longest railway journey in the UK, being pulled by 67004 pulling silently in, as I headed for the seated section at the rear, one other person onboard in the seated section asleep, as it slowly and quietly headed towards Fort William along an excellent piece of track, so beautiful, lakes, moors, trees. The train was picking up more passengers on its journey west, passing a couple 156s, a freight train and a steamer. Quite a few walkers got on at Rannoch to get off at the highest railway station in the UK, Corrour. The good thing with being on the sleeper is that the carriages had door windows, so I could take a few pictures without the worry of the camera trying to focus on marks on the glass.

Fort William was reached around 10am, just enough time to see the Jacobite getting ready to depart for its journey to Mallaig, as for me I had a nice 2 and a bit hour gap before the next service train pulled in, walking around Fort William and having good looks at the town itself, very beautiful area, full of tourists and mountaineers. Picking up some lunch and a magazine from Morrisons (and making use of their toilet as Fort William station charges to use their toilets), sitting down and watching the crowds build up for the train to arrive. 156465 pulled in first with 156474 behind it, so at least a 4 car train, as it was busy.

Mallaig was reached, and I agree that section of line is probably the most beautiful line I have been along, I recommend it to anybody (I recommend the whole West Highland line), beautiful seaside town, although as it was still off-season and the steam train had departed back towards Fort William, the shops were starting to close up, and it started to rain, getting quite heavy at a time, so I headed back to the station to sit down and watch the world go round. Eventually the doors were opened on the train (156465/156474) and the passengers boarded a lovely warm train, with the sliding door portion closed (if a door is closed when you open it, please close it afterwards, keeps the warmth in), and it was back along the West Highland, the rain clearing up with the windows getting clearer. Reversing at Fort William and the train set off towards Glasgow.

Picking up passengers as it went along, the guard working hard selling a wide range of tickets, the on-board trolley service selling lots of cups of tea/coffee, heading across Rannoch Moor, where there is nothing for a good 20 minutes, peaceful. We had a wait of 15 minutes at Crianlarich for the Oban service to meet up and join; made up of 156456. The 6 car train headed towards Glasgow where my camera gave up the ghost (both batteries had run out, boo), but still made for excellent viewing from the train window as we headed down and eastwards towards Glasgow. I got off at Dumbarton Central, the first stop when the track is shared with the North Clyde line, it was a brief couple minute wait before 320319 pulled in to take me towards Balloch, nice little town near the river, quite a few boats moored, but soon it was back on the 320, back towards Dalreoch, a station I wouldn’t be that comfy hanging around too long, and thankfully 334023 pulled in to take me along the river Clyde to Helensburgh Central. It was just getting dark when the train pulled into Helensburgh so for the return leg I spent reading my magazine.

The return leg was done on 334039 with 334016 behind heading towards the depot at Bathgate, arriving back at Charing Cross for a brief walk back to the guest house. Long day for me.

Day 6 – Oban & Motherwell area

Thursday was here, and it was a late start for me, allowing me to have breakfast in the guest house, but soon it was time to roll, paying £1.60 for the brief trip to Queen Street from Charing Cross (as it was before 9:15), this made up of 320314, and up to the upper station, where 156453/156492 was waiting for the service towards Oban, back along ground covered the day before until Crianlarich where the track spilt heading towards Oban. Stunning track, alongside a loch and Oban was reached.

Nice seaside town with a large ferry port for the islands, somewhere I wouldn’t mind visiting on a future trip to Scotland, as I had a wonder around the town the weather was glorious, but soon it was time to leave the town, so it was back on the 156s, back towards Glasgow, but along a beautiful line, so all good. 

A couple hours later, I got off at Dalmuir, to make a connection with the Motherwell bound train, made up of 320304, it soon took off picking up some school kids, though the Glasgow suburbs where there isn’t a lot to report, other than some interesting buildings, though the tunnel underneath the city, to Central low-level, and carry on towards Motherwell, as the service terminated, staying on 320304 as it started its next service back towards Dalmuir via Hamilton, where I alighted and waited for the Larkhall service to arrive, made up of 318260 & 320320, although which way around there were I can’t remember. Into Larkhall and a brief turnaround and back towards Rutherglen, the station underneath the motorway. 10 minutes later the Lanark service arrived, which was quite busy, made up of 318256, I finally stopped at Newton! Heading back though Hamilton, though Motherwell and via Holytown towards Lanark, very beautiful as soon as Motherwell area was passed, Carluke is set in a nice location.

Lanark itself is an interesting place, but I didn’t have much time to spend as I jumped back onto 318256 to head back to Motherwell, where I did a rather silly thing when waiting for the next Cumbernauld service, I ordered a curry but forgot I lacked any sort of fork, so it was a bit hard to eat with the Naan bread, oops. Anyways, 158867 soon pulled in to take me north towards Cumbernauld, the wires clear to see as I believe this service is now an EMU. Once at Cumbernauld I had a brief wait before 156499 pulled in to take me towards Falkirk Grahamston, arriving around 9:30, I had 30 minutes to spare before the return leg, so I had a look in the nearby Asda, before heading back to the station, Falkirk is an interesting town full of pubs and clubs it looked like. 156499 pulled back in to take me back towards Queen Street, sadly now in the dark. My last train of the day was 334017 which took me along the 60 chain trip back to Charing Cross.

Day 7 – Lines out of Glasgow Central

I was ahead of my plan so I scrapped it for the day, making a list of lines I wanted to try and get crossed off. Having a quick shower and breakfast, I headed towards Charing Cross for another ‘lazy’ ticket to Central, catching 320310 to Partick, and 320322 to Central Low Level, looking at the board of next trains, I made my first mistake of the day by boarding a train to Gourock instead of Wemyss Bay first. Train 380021 was waiting for me for the trip to Gourock, nice views in some points.

Once at Gourock, it was a quick cross the platforms to board 380110 back towards Port Glasgow, which I was surprised at, I thought with the name “Port Glasgow” it would be an industrial area, but it was quite a nice town, waiting 50 minutes for the next Wemyss Bay train, I headed down the town, towards a nearby Tesco, where there was some lovely looking ladies from a dance school, in tight shorts and low-cut tops advertising the new B&Q store opening, very nice. Back at Port Glasgow, there was the sound of an iPhone user using the default earphones, leaking music left, right and centre, as 380001 pulled in to take me towards Wemyss Bay, via IBM. Wemyss Bay is very nice, the station is rather good inside, but time was ticking with the delay at Port Glasgow so it was straight back towards Glasgow Central.

At Central it was a quick look at the departure boards and I jumped onto the Cathcart Circle train, 314207, my first 314 with the automatic opening doors, 30 minutes later I was back at Central, where during the approach I fired up Real Train Times, and looked at departures for a plan, and jumped onto 314212, heading towards Neilston, nice piece of track the final 10 minutes after it leaves the circle, however it was a 20 minute turnaround in a station in a small area with not a lot of activity, so as soon as it pulled back into the station I got back on board, and headed back to Glasgow Central.

The next train on my list which was departing was the Paisley Canal line train, made up of 314208, quite busy with school kids, but I managed to get a seat, it was another interesting line as soon as the main part of the city was left behind, but once more it was a quick turnaround (due to a delay from the previous train leaving the single track section), and it was back to Central. It was around 4pm, so to avoid rush-hour I jumped onto the Newcastle bound service, made up of 156431, it took me to Kilmarnock, this was very busy and I was lucky to get a seat, full of business people (suits, ties, briefcases), and at Kilmarnock it was a 10 minute wait for the next Central bound train to arrive, made up of 156435, and I arrived back into Central, after making use of the toilet, as the 314s lack loos.

Newton was next, the next Newton train leaving via Shawlands (instead of Mount Florida), made up of 314202. Newton is a station I didn’t being around for long as it’s in a lonely place, the fast tracks behind a wall so you couldn’t even see them, but 15 minutes later the next train through the core had arrived, 318265, getting busy as I think there was some sort of musical show at the SECC, as the train was full of teenage girls and bored looking dads. Once at Central Low Level, it was a quick change up to the upper level platforms for the 2nd to last train to Whiffet, before the buses took over for the weekend (due to the works to put the wires up, of which there was a lot of evidence with the prep work). This train was made up of 158736 which after dropping the passengers off went around to wait on the other side of the station (on the unused tracks leading to the North Clyde line?) as a freight train went though. I was expecting it to return but when the time arrived I was surprised 156514 arrived instead to take me back to Central.

With 12 minutes to wait for the next East Kilbride train, my final destination I visited a burger place for a quick bite to eat, as 156502 rolled into the platform, boarding for the short journey to East Kilbride, nowhere near West Kilbride on the Largs line. 5 minute turnaround down East Kilbride, darkness winning the battle against light, I settled down for the return leg reading the book, and it was back to Central for the final time that night. Once at Central I transferred down to the lower level platforms to wait for the next train heading north, as 320317 pulled in to take me the 2 mile journey to Partick. The night was still young so exiting the national rail part of the station, purchasing a single ticket for the subway I jumped onto the subway to do a complete circle of the outer circle track; the subway vehicle was number 14.
Going back to the national rail platform, and catching the service heading to either Bathgate or Springburn or somewhere else, I didn’t care as long as it stopped at Charing Cross where I got off, made up of 334022 & 334037, and it was the end of a busy day, crashing down on my bed to sleep.

 

[Techniquest]

Hi Folks, just for the record I feel totally inspired by Kite159's report (and also many past ones by Techniquest). I'm now at a stage where I can ease up on work a bit and would like to try a couple of 3/4 day Rovers - and perhaps lob a report in here. Does anyone think I could bash all (a fair part?) of rural Scotland on their 4 day jobbie????.....studied the ALL other Rovers on offer - they look fun too....

After almost 40 years of "spotting / photting" it's only in the last 6 months that I've started 'doing track' (love it) - and that's due to discovering this forum - never really thought about it before!

Thanks folks - any tips gratefully accepted!

[Emboldened text above is my doing]

Glad I've been able to inspire you to make trips

To answer your question fully, I would need further information, which if it's fine with you I'm happy to discuss via PM (just to avoid taking Kite159's thread off-topic too much). Have you done any of Scotland already, and what sort of thing do you want to do? The answers to which will doubtlessly change my answer considerably, however in brief right now, you cannot cover all of Scotland in 4 days. I believe an 8 in 15 version of the Scottish Flexipass (I forget the definite name, others can advise better) is also available, however even then you're going to be pushing it for doing everything.

There are a lot of rangers and rovers that can get you some decent trips away for reasonable money, depending where you're located, what you want to cover and in whichever period of time suits you. Quite so, some areas I've preferred to do over multiple trips so as to enjoy the experience more, although that's also down to available funds as much as anything usually too!

Glad to hear you're enjoying being a track basher, I don't know how exactly I got into doing it myself but it is definitely an enjoyable part of the hobby for me. Running out of track to cover in the UK now, with almost just some heritage lines and some light rail lines to do, once you take out PSUL lines and obviously most freight-only lines.

As I say, feel free to PM me on the subject. I'm not online every day so you'll have to bear with me for a few days sometimes! In the meantime, I'll be reading the latest instalment in Kite159's epic trip
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Maybe the Premier Inn has good sound proofing on the rooms which face the motorway, I was quite happy with my guest house just up the road, my requirements are rather basic and I find guest houses have more character than the Premier Inns/Holiday Inns of the country

Fair point regarding guest houses, personally I prefer to know what to expect beforehand, so the national chain hotels work well for me. Plus if you're only using the hotel room as somewhere warm and secure to doss then who cares if it's basic?

Not that I wouldn't stay in a guest house, just not my first choice. Dodgy experiences with non-chain hotels - the lock on the door in the hotel I used in Waterford last year, which was OK for locking/unlocking one time then 5 minutes later it would play up royally, not helpful when trying to leave relatively early and not wake people up! - mean I don't have a huge trust in such places.

being pulled by 67004 pulling silently in, as I headed for the seated section at the rear, one other person onboard in the seated section asleep

Only one other person on the seated sleeper?! Crikey that was a quiet night, never had it that quiet myself. 67004 is one of only 4 67s I need, well jealous!

Mallaig was reached, and I agree that section of line is probably the most beautiful line I have been along, I recommend it to anybody (I recommend the whole West Highland line)

Aye the Mallaig line is a lovely line to travel on, although I do wonder what the experience is like on a 156 compared to the MK1s I travelled on with a steam loco. Can't tell you which one it was, didn't have the relevant notes at the time and no known photos still in existance of the trip

Dalreoch, a station I wouldn’t be that comfy hanging around too long

There's a few stations up that way that I have the same feeling with, so I sympathise!

156453/156492 was waiting for the service towards Oban, back along ground covered the day before until Crianlarich where the track spilt heading towards Oban. Stunning track, alongside a loch and Oban was reached.

It is indeed a lovely line, I did it in February 2006 with 37416 on the diverted Caledonian Sleeper, very cold morning but worth standing at the droplight taking photos getting ultra cold hands and equally cold head!

I didn't find much to do in the town, and the chippy I went to left a lot to be desired. Still remember yorkie's obsession with finding a Pizza Hut

Carluke is set in a nice location.

Aye it's a good place to watch 390s and 185s (well, it'll be 350s now!) flying through at speed, looked a nice area but I didn't explore it myself. Too busy stressing about a super tight connection at Carstairs!

where I did a rather silly thing when waiting for the next Cumbernauld service, I ordered a curry but forgot I lacked any sort of fork, so it was a bit hard to eat with the Naan bread, oops. Anyways, 158867 soon pulled in to take me north towards Cumbernauld, the wires clear to see as I believe this service is now an EMU. Once at Cumbernauld I had a brief wait before 156499 pulled in to take me towards Falkirk Grahamston, arriving around 9:30, I had 30 minutes to spare before the return leg, so I had a look in the nearby Asda, before heading back to the station, Falkirk is an interesting town full of pubs and clubs it looked like. 156499 pulled back in to take me back towards Queen Street, sadly now in the dark. My last train of the day was 334017 which took me along the 60 chain trip back to Charing Cross.

Oops regarding the curry! Cumbernauld to Glasgow is now EMU, Whifflet to Glasgow will be EMU soon too, although I'm not sure about Motherwell to Cumbernauld. I sure don't remember it happening yet but it can only be a matter of time if it isn't electrified yet. Has 867 been done up yet, or is it still largely in ex-Wessex Trains condition?

Pubs and clubs doesn't surprise me in Falkirk, one of the bigger places between Glasgow and Edinburgh. You've had a good few 156s up north of the border by the looks of it, hope you've enjoyed the racket from them

I made my first mistake of the day by boarding a train to Gourock instead of Wemyss Bay first. Train 380021 was waiting for me for the trip to Gourock, nice views in some points.

Did the same on my ALR when I went up there, but then at the time it made sense having not the opportunity to use RTT etc at that point in my cranking career. Looking back I'd have doubtlessly planned Wemyss Bay first, but hey!

Do I take it the refurbishment works are now complete? Gourock was half building site when I went!

I thought with the name “Port Glasgow” it would be an industrial area, but it was quite a nice town, waiting 50 minutes for the next Wemyss Bay train, I headed down the town, towards a nearby Tesco, where there was some lovely looking ladies from a dance school, in tight shorts and low-cut tops advertising the new B&Q store opening, very nice. Back at Port Glasgow, there was the sound of an iPhone user using the default earphones, leaking music left, right and centre, as 380001 pulled in to take me towards Wemyss Bay, via IBM. Wemyss Bay is very nice, the station is rather good inside, but time was ticking with the delay at Port Glasgow so it was straight back towards Glasgow Central.

Aye when you look at it in the Baker you do assume it's all docks at Port Glasgow, although I must admit I didn't bother looking around myself. That said I think I still had a lot of 380s to spot at the time (mid-2012 so would make sense), so festering on the platforms would have taken over. Sounds like you enjoyed the sights though

Wemyss Bay looked nice, however I too had a tight schedule on my trip so no time to properly explore. Some nice views along the coast though which made up for it

At Central it was a quick look at the departure boards and I jumped onto the Cathcart Circle train, 314207, my first 314 with the automatic opening doors, 30 minutes later I was back at Central, where during the approach I fired up Real Train Times, and looked at departures for a plan, and jumped onto 314212, heading towards Neilston, nice piece of track the final 10 minutes after it leaves the circle, however it was a 20 minute turnaround in a station in a small area with not a lot of activity, so as soon as it pulled back into the station I got back on board, and headed back to Glasgow Central.

Neilston doesn't look interesting at all from my memory of the super early morning visit in December 2008 so I'm glad I'm not the only one uninspired by the area. No memory of the scenery as it was pitch black during my line score and scooping the stations whilst I was there. Best thing to do is just get off the train, cross over and wait to go back!

Newton is a station I didn’t being around for long as it’s in a lonely place, the fast tracks behind a wall so you couldn’t even see them, but 15 minutes later the next train through the core had arrived, 318265, getting busy as I think there was some sort of musical show at the SECC, as the train was full of teenage girls and bored looking dads

Got to feel sorry for the dads there! I found you can just about see the fast lines but not able to identify numbers etc. Although with the 390s that wouldn't be easy to do with the speed they go by at and the size of the numbers!

Once at Central Low Level, it was a quick change up to the upper level platforms for the 2nd to last train to Whiffet, before the buses took over for the weekend (due to the works to put the wires up, of which there was a lot of evidence with the prep work). This train was made up of 158736 which after dropping the passengers off went around to wait on the other side of the station (on the unused tracks leading to the North Clyde line?) as a freight train went though. I was expecting it to return but when the time arrived I was surprised 156514 arrived instead to take me back to Central.

Only a couple of months to wait for EMUs to Whifflet then Been way too long since I covered that line! Can't remember what happened back then (we are talking about 2004 now, so a fair bit of time has elapsed!) but your assumption about the trains reversing would seem reasonable. I'd have been well chuffed to get a 156 back mind and ripping open the hopper window!

5 minute turnaround down East Kilbride, darkness winning the battle against light, I settled down for the return leg reading the book, and it was back to Central for the final time that night. Once at Central I transferred down to the lower level platforms to wait for the next train heading north, as 320317 pulled in to take me the 2 mile journey to Partick. The night was still young so exiting the national rail part of the station, purchasing a single ticket for the subway I jumped onto the subway to do a complete circle of the outer circle track; the subway vehicle was number 14.
Going back to the national rail platform, and catching the service heading to either Bathgate or Springburn or somewhere else, I didn’t care as long as it stopped at Charing Cross where I got off, made up of 334022 & 334037, and it was the end of a busy day, crashing down on my bed to sleep.

Just a single 156 for you? I had a trio of them, and boy wasn't it a tight fit into East Kilbride! Couldn't get any decent photos sadly as a result, and the only time I've had a trio of 156s in over 10 years now.

Your Subway car would have been 114 (unless I've missed something up there), and those sets are formed of 3 differently numbered cars so you could have underlined 3 numbers and not one in your book What did you think of the Clockwork Orange?

Sounds like it was an exhausting, but fun few days there! Sorry I've quoted so many bits of the trip report, far easier to be able to comment on each bit and not miss bits out!

I can only imagine your coverage map is going to look amazing now following this trip!

 

[Kite159]

I would imagine with that early Oban train (leaving Glasgow at 5:10, instead of the zombie 5:30 service) it could be possible to do both Oban & Mallaig in one day, although it will depend on the timings when the return Oban train reaches Crianlarich before the first Mallaig train goes pass.

Although will be one seriously long day.
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I've had a day out in Greater Anglia land today, although I couldn't shake off 156422, Sheringham, Great Yarmouth 'loop' & Lowestoft. First electric loco 82/90 set as well (although I missed the short-formed set pulled by 47s (I think)).

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Motherwell to Cumbernauld is EMU now I believe, the wires are all up, should release a couple 156/158 sets for elsewhere. Only a single 156 for East Kilbride, it was 9pm when it left Glasgow. The clockwork orange was a bit like the London underground in sorts, it was dark so if it did break cover I didn't notice it.

Coverage map wise, Scotland is pretty much all Blue, apart from the Newcraighall line (which I'm going to wait until next year when the Borders Line extension opens), although there is probably a lot of freight-only lines which will be rather hard to cover (although I wouldn't be surprised in a few years time the freight line bypassing Waverley is re-opened to form some sort of circular service).

4 way spilt down to Plymouth tomorrow (then a Ride Cornwall), Falmouth & Looe are on my hit-list (with a 50 minute break in Liskeard)

 

[Techniquest]

I've had a day out in Greater Anglia land today, although I couldn't shake off 156422, Sheringham, Great Yarmouth 'loop' & Lowestoft. First electric loco 82/90 set as well (although I missed the short-formed set pulled by 47s (I think)).

Sounds like a good day, can't wait to do that side of Anglia properly again!

Aye should still be Duffs, unless the 37s have finally taken their place. I really would love it if they were on Monday, would definitely be want a piece of that action!

Only a single 156 for East Kilbride, it was 9pm when it left Glasgow. The clockwork orange was a bit like the London underground in sorts, it was dark so if it did break cover I didn't notice it.

Ahh, well when I did it I was leaving Central around 1712. It was rammed solid for almost the whole journey on a trio of 156s, I wouldn't want to know what it would be like with anything less!

Coverage map wise, Scotland is pretty much all Blue, apart from the Newcraighall line (which I'm going to wait until next year when the Borders Line extension opens), although there is probably a lot of freight-only lines which will be rather hard to cover (although I wouldn't be surprised in a few years time the freight line bypassing Waverley is re-opened to form some sort of circular service).

Ah yes, Newcraighall. I did that in November 2004 and had the pleasure of 150284 I do believe on the branch Yep most non-passenger lines are a ginormous PITA to get in up there, and the Edinburgh Sub does have booked workings so very gettable as it stands. Even had an XC HST over that in December 2008!

4 way spilt down to Plymouth tomorrow (then a Ride Cornwall), Falmouth & Looe are on my hit-list (with a 50 minute break in Liskeard)

Wish I could get out and about as much as you have recently! Hope it's a good trip, the Looe branch is lovely and scenic

 

[Kite159]

I wish I could say what a nice station Truro is, but I spent pretty much my time dashing to the connection due to delays (train from Paddington was delayed making the Falmouth train wait, and the Falmouth train couldn't get the time back with a tight turnaround at Falmouth itself so it was a dash for the return service.

Cornwall is very beautiful, but a pain to get to (only as the journey seems to take ages along the SWT route)

I wonder what will happen if FGW wanted to put a 143 onto the Looe service (and is there any particular reason why it doesn't go the extra ~100 metres into Coombe Station itself?)

Back down that way next Sunday, with Gunnislake & Okehampton on my hit-list.

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Last 2 days done

Day 8 – Stranraer, Carlisle & Dundee

Having completed the Glasgow sub-urban lines, apart from Largs which was on my plan for the Sunday morning, I made a quick plan up to go up-to Dundee again, only to cover the bit of track missed between Markinch and Kirkcaldy, and also as there was engineering works being carried out on the line between Perth & Larbert, trains heading towards Glasgow from Dundee/Aberdeen were being diverted down via the Forth Bridge and Linlithgow, a part of the track which normally only sees a handful of trains a day, and I wanted to be out of Glasgow itself as there was a football match being played.

Sadly when I got the Charing Cross I realised that I took my coat out of my rucksack the night before to refill it with the daily drinks, but forgot to replace it, hanging it on the back of the room door, not the best of moves, but as I was a bit tight on time (and not knowing how long it would take to walk between the two Glasgow terminal stations I didn’t turn back)

First train was a quick hop along to Queen Street Low Level, being made on 334021 & 334017, then a quick 5 minute walk to Central station, sort of planning for the Sunday when I would be doing the walk again with my bag, to make a note of any hazards. Once at Central I looked up to see the Ayr train was going to depart from one of the far end platforms, made up of 380015 & 380017, I plugged my tablet in to give it a quick boost of energy as the 380s have plug sockets available in the bay seats (with half-tables), puts the 350s to shame.

Once at Ayr, I had around 15 minutes to wait to depart, barrier controlled station and it was raining so I didn’t want to go out that far, 156502 was waiting in the platform having arrived, the guard unlocked the doors and I found a good seat ready for the trip down to Stranraer, away from the wires and down, quite beautiful run down, hitting single tracks with several stops for signal boxes, quite a distance between stations as well (probably 30 minutes between Stranraer and the next station north). Hitting the former ferry terminal which looked sad, moss growing from the tarmac, some signs still up, looked rather depressing, thankfully the view on the other side was worth it, although it soon disappeared once the train went into the station itself and a wood wall blocked any loch-views.

10 minutes turnaround in Stranraer itself, so I didn’t have that much time to explore the town, I didn’t even get far off the platform as it was quite busy, managing to get another good table seat (my legs don’t fit in the airline seats that well on 156s), as 156502 headed back up north. Once at Ayr pretty much all the passengers got off for the fast train to Glasgow, as it carried up north before turning off the Ayrshire Coast Line just before Barassie, the former platforms on the South Western Main-line side of the station still in place. 10 or so minutes later Kilmarnock was reached where I had a nice 45 minute break. Heading down the town (in the rain), to look for a shop which sold a newspaper & some lunch.

Back at Kilmarnock station, I had my lunch (a Greggs baguette) and waited as the Glasgow Central to Newcastle train pulled in, there can’t be many other services operated by 2 TOCs (only other I can think of is the Sevenoaks to Bedford service run by FCC & South-eastern). Made up of 156437 as it headed back towards England, along a very beautiful line, train getting busier and busier as it drew closer to Carlisle, with a hen party getting onboard making lots of noise and drinking champagne. If I do Scotland again, I will try and do the Carlisle to Kilmarnock line again, as it is rather beautiful and a shame it wasn’t the best of days (although the rain had stopped, the windows were still wet).

Once at Carlisle I had a nice 10 minute wait, delayed by about 13 minutes, having a look around the station area I didn’t want to go far as the crowds were building to get onboard a railtour train, which I can remember what class of diesel loco it was. At Carlisle I spotted a 155 & 144, 2 trains I have not yet been on, plus a couple other trains (including a 390 heading south and 390 heading north to Glasgow). Virgin service 390156 pulled in to take me up towards Haymarket, it left Carlisle 15 minutes late, but managed to get this back on the 91 mile journey, waiting at Carstairs junction for a CrossCountry, and back into Haymarket for a cross platform interchange. I was worried as there was quite a few passengers on P3, but thankfully when 170402 pulled in, they stayed behind (waiting for the next Fife Circle train maybe). Haymarket was the only station which rejected my ticket at the barriers which was annoying.

Up the fife coast, over the Forth rail bridge, along the North-Sea, it was lovely, over the Tay bridge again and I was back in Dundee with 20 minutes to spare before the Glasgow service was due back in, so I walked to Discovery point to try and get some good pictures of the Tay Bridges, and off the ship, before heading back towards the station, down the stairs and onto the platform to wait as 170404 pulled in to take me back towards Glasgow via Inverkeithing, so over the Tay bridge, down the coast, over the Forth Rail bridge and turning away from the main-line before the airport to go towards Linlithgow, having a 5 minute wait at the signals to go onto the main line, and back into Queen Street where there was a lot of football fans and police. The trains heading north were rammed, at one point I saw a 4x158 set, quite a busy route.

Once at Queen Street I had 20 minutes to waste before the next Anniesland bound service was due to depart, so ended up at the Sainsburys located outside the station to pick up a light bite to eat from the small amount of food they had left, although the salad section was untouched, so I had a nice pasta salad. Back at the station itself I was expecting a 156 for the brief service towards Anniesland, but it was 170413. At Anniesland I had a 10 minute wait so instead of standing around on the platform near some ‘ouths, I had a wonder outside the station (although down to the main road, under the bridge and up to the other platform to wait for the train heading towards Central had departed, and 320319 pulled in to take me to Springburn. 10 minutes around Springburn, a place I can’t really remember other than having a large pub or club outside the station and a half-burnt out post office, I got back onto 320319 and headed back to Charing Cross. My first Glasgow finish where I was back at the hotel before 10:30! Getting back in at 9:30, to give me enough time for a shower, a shave and to make sure I had packed everything as it was a semi-early start.

Day 9 – Largs and home via Manchester

My final day of my Scotland holiday, and it was sunny, as I headed out of the guest house after having a quick breakfast down to catch the first east bound electric service to Cumbernauld, and it was delayed due to a train fault at Partick so I failed to catch it, Instead Edinburgh bound 334038 pulled in to take me the 60 chains to Queen Street. Out of Queen Street and down towards Central, arriving into Central with a good 15 minutes to spare before the Ardrossan Harbour service was due to leave, made up of 380111. With the new summer timetable in place with Ardrossan Town getting a Sunday service, we stopped at Ardrossan Town before heading into the Harbour.

What a lovely place Ardrossan is, nice large Asda, and a lovely beach, as I had a nice walk back along the tracks to the road and along the beach, having to wait at the level crossing for the train to run empty back to Glasgow Central, as I located Ardrossan South Beach station with about a couple minutes to spare before it started to throw down with rain, lucky I got to the station in time as I would have gotten a bit wet. 30 minutes wait at the station (spent finishing my book) before 380009 pulled in to take me upto Largs, still raining I couldn’t enjoy the views due to the water on the windows, but it was a quick turnaround at Largs (where one of my old friends from school moved to 10 or so years ago). Didn’t see much of the town owing to the weather, having my bag with me and the train only having a 10 (or so) minute turnaround before heading back to Glasgow, and as it was a Sunday it was only 1 train an hour.

Heading back towards Glasgow I needed to use the toilet, but sadly the toilets on 380009 were out of action so I got off at Paisley Gilmour Street to make use of the facilities before jumping onto the next Glasgow bound service, 380102, getting me into Glasgow only a couple minutes later than the original train (as it ran fast from PGS instead of stopping at the couple stations between PGS and GC). At Central I had just under an hour to wait before the first leg of my return journey began, so ending back up at the Sainsburys outside Queen Street and having a look around the city centre part (which was a lot busier at 11:30 than it was at 8:00), and I headed back to Central station to await my first First TransPennine Express service (another TOC crossed of my 2014 TOC list, leaving only Merseyrail, plus the open access operators)

I was expecting a brand new and colourful 350 to pull in, first day of the new timetable, so I was surprised when 185115 pulled in, but thankful as it was my first trip on a 185, which are quite nice inside, a bit crowded with rubbish luggage space. My assigned seat was a window seat heading backwards, I soon moved towards the rear of the train to an airline seat heading forward, but it was a priority seat so had nice leg room and enough space to put my bag out of the aisle for the trolley. Nice trip down the west coast main line, through the lake district and turning away from the main line after Wigan to head towards Manchester which went surprise as the train went over via Oxford Road to stop at Piccadilly, a minor highlight of the trip after Wigan was going over a viaduct overlooking some houses, some rather lovely looking ladies were sunbathing in bikinis. However I had an hour to waste in Manchester, on a glorious sunny day, but I hadn’t done my research and it was the day of the Great North Run so the area around the station was rather busy.

Sadly the bookshop I got recommended was closed, and as it was Sunday afternoon I decided to head back to the station, see what the little Sainsburys had left and sit around, the train was going to be busy as the previous Bristol bound CrossCountry service had been cancelled, but when it pulled in I managed to get a seat on 220032, and I was surprised as it was a decent seat, a window table seat heading forward. The noise from the underfloor engines don’t bother me as much as others, coming from sprinter land, as it soon head off towards Bristol Temple via Birmingham and the camp hill line (which caused me a headache trying to get the distance from railmiles), and the Voyager soon arrived into Bristol Temple Meads, the countryside changing, passengers coming and going, iPhones charging etc.

At Bristol Temple I had 15 minutes before my last train of the week was due to depart, so either visiting the toilets I headed to board the First Great Western 158958 service to Portsmouth from Cardiff to take me back towards Salisbury, it was dark so I spent the time playing cards on my tablet, rather uneventful trip down the Wessex line, where I met up with the person picking me up from Salisbury station (as the last Basingstoke bound train left 10 minutes before, so a very good 9 days with quite a lot of new lines covered in a beautiful country.

 

[Techniquest]

Sounds like the last two days went well, and a lot of MUs I still need you had I see. What was the name of the guest house you stayed at, as I might find it useful when I get back to Glasgow?

Glad you enjoyed your first TPX trip, I also enjoyed my trip from Glasgow to Manchester on a 185 in 2011 I think jt was. Could have been 2012, not sure now!

Aren't Voyagers and 159s about as noisy as each other?

Glad too you enjoyed the Stranraer ljne, it is worth the effort if only for Girvan bank! Barrhill is the last station before Stranraer, in case you're still wondering I didn't think much of the run to Carlisle personally, seemed to drag so much!

Think you need a couple of rest days and/or easy trips for a while after that manic Scottish holiday!

 

[Kite159]

Charing Cross Guest House it was called.

Currently getting rather warm on the 15:09 service from Hartford East to Liverpool Street. Stuck outside Broxbourne due to broken down train in front, at least St Margaret station was interesting to look at, but now it's some industrial area.

There goes my plan of visiting cockfosters.

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Devon and Cornwall Done . Bit disappointed with the okehampton branch, mostly trees/cuttings.

Going straight from a 159 to a 220 today, and the 159 is noiser, but has better seats (although the 220 has better legroom)

90 minute delay for an Penzance XC service (currently at St Davids), looks like something happened at Derby.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
As I had a quiet afternoon, I managed to put together a rough report for my Late May Bank Holiday adventure (makes the time go faster at work, rather than laughing at the iOS v Android wars on CNET)

May Bank Holiday, Freedom of Severn & Solent, plus Cardiff Valley Lines part 2.

For the May Bank Holiday weekend, looking at the engineering plans for the west of England to see nothing, I booked a 3-in-7 FOSS rover, plus a Cardiff Valley Lines Explorer for the Saturday as I wanted to carry on where the valley lines challenge left off. It was an early start for me, to drive towards Salisbury station to catch the 6:00 service towards Westbury. Up and out of the house by 5:25. At Salisbury there was an unusual combo waiting for me for the Salisbury to Westbury service, FGW painted 158766 was leading with the SWT hired 158, 158889 behind and the SWT hired 159, 159010 behind that (although the 159 was locked out of service).

Once at Westbury, 158766 broke away from the SWT hired units and I continued on my journey towards Bristol where I alighted and 158766 carried on towards Gloucester. With a brief 15 minute break at Bristol, I waited around as 158959 arrived to form the Bristol to Cardiff service. Arriving into Cardiff to warnings that the station was going to get busy with the rugby traffic, which was wonderful as I sat around for 30 minutes for the Maesteg service, formed today of 150240, took me along the main line towards Bridgend and up the Maesteg line to Maesteg itself, crossing over some old lines from when the railways in South Wales were a lot more extensive than they are today, you could see where the old platforms used to be on some of the stations to Maesteg.

At Maesteg I had a brief turnaround and headed back down the Maesteg line towards Bridgend, where I alighted to cross over to the bay platform on the southern side to find the northern pride waiting, 142081, which took me along the Vale of Glamorgan line towards Barry, getting busy after the airport station with students with bags, I’m guessing the students were university students and were heading home. Bouncing along with the sound of a pacer as Barry was reached as it was raining. With the current works at Barry to give it a 3rd platform, the current platform away from Cardiff has no cover from the rain other than underneath the footbridge, which is where I was waiting for 6 minutes or so.

150264 pulled in to take me the short hop across to Barry Island, however as the heaven’s absolutely opened I managed to get off the train but straight back on it as the platform was a puddle so back onto 150264 to take me to Cardiff Queen Street, and whatever happened to platform 1? Quite a busy station in terms of movements, a train every couple minutes, and a little Spar shop just outside where I picked up a sandwich meal-deal (failing to spot the Sainsburys local just up the road), this is where I changed my mind about the next stop, and boarded 143609/142077 heading towards Rhymney, and what a beautiful piece of railway it is, plus the rain had stopped so the windows were slowly clearing up.

Once at Rhymney I had a brief 10 minute walk around the station area, I’m guessing like most of the Valley lines the line continues more inland for freight, but there wasn’t that much around the station itself, just a bus stop, so back onto the double Pacers as it started to rain again, and back towards Queen Street. We were running a couple minutes late getting into Queen Street which would have meant missing the Coryton train, however as Queen Street was running around 3 minutes behind schedule, as another heavy downpour rained down over South Wales, along came 143607, pulling in to take me the short hop to Coryton, a line which probably could do with a second guard to sell/check tickets as the stations are tightly packed. Due to the slight delay into Coryton it was straight in, straight out, and with the windows misted over I didn’t manage to catch the city background, which was a bit of a shame.

Back at Queen Street it was a little dash to get to platform 2 for the Bay shuttle, operated today by 153353 and it was a quick 10 minutes down and up a rather short branch line, but some nice views, and the rain had finally stopped so all was good. Arriving into Queen Street I hopped onto the first train heading towards Cardiff Central, 150284 I believe it was. Once at Central I hit into rugby fans and got directed out of the station back entrance into the queue to get through the main entrance and the barriers, I wouldn’t have minded but I had an Ebbw Vale Parkway train to catch and I was an hour ahead of schedule. Jumping onto the quite busy 150252/150282 train heading back along to Newport and up the Ebbw Vale line, which was really stunning with some of the hills. Once at Ebbw Vale Parkway itself it was a brief 5 minute stop before the train headed back towards Cardiff Central onward bound for Swansea.

Quick dash around Central to get to the P1/P2 island, the barriers for the crowd control just going up in the subway and with 45 minutes to wait for the next Paddington bound service (as I wanted to do the line between Bristol Parkway and Swindon, probably the longest distance between stations), so I got onto 175114, my first 175, for a short hop towards Newport, and I agree they are very nice trains inside, nice comfy seats. Once at Newport I went off looking for something to eat and finding the way to get to the Tesco Express, with quite a lot of police walking around, as I managed to find the store and purchased a sandwich, and headed back to Newport station, across to the island platforms to sit and wait as I suffered my first delay of the evening (although it had nothing to do with Cardiff, the delay was around the Swansea area).

Finally 43135 pulled in with 43093 behind it as it set across towards Swindon at high speed, although not making the time lost up as it pulled into Swindon just as the Westbury train was departing, which looked like the old London Midland unit, so the hour I gained was wiped out by having an hour to wait for the next direct train heading towards Westbury as I wanted to do the “TransWilts” line. Didn’t make it far out of the station other to look for a bin, which they had none around (eventually using the bin behind the staff area), the toilets on the island platform were stinking, but I took a sit in the little garden area, and watched the world go round, the HSTs heading from Cardiff were rammed, so in a way I was lucky to get out of Wales before the chaos started. Eventually 158889 pulled in, so a dud from the morning, however as it was a SWT set on FGW duties, I sat in the ‘First’ Class area, although the train was dead as darkness started to fall, losing light around Trowbridge. Arriving back into Westbury I had my second big delay of the day.

The Portsmouth service was running around 25 minutes late, so I had a nice 35 minute wait around the station area, originally the service was only 10 minutes late so I didn’t have time to walk away from the station itself, nor see any movements as it was dark, so sat in the little waiting area. Full 158954 pulled into the station and I was lucky enough to get a seat freshly vacated to take me back down to Salisbury for one of the last trains of the day to leave Salisbury station, as quite a few passengers got off from Salisbury station and I went back to the car for the slow drive home via the Tesco Extra to fill my car up with fuel

Sunday – A day mainly of delays

I had the feeling that this day was going to be full of delays when the first train from Romsey was delayed by 5 minutes, 158890 pulled into Romsey station at 8:40, and stopped a couple miles down the track at the junction with the SWML due to overrunning engineering works in the Southampton central area, reducing the number of platforms from 4 to 2, I was a bit worried that if I missed the 9:00 Weymouth train that would screw up my plans as the Weymouth to Westbury was one train every 3 hours. Thankfully that was delayed as well (although I had a bit of a scare when the platform announcement said “the train now approaching Platform 1 is the Weymouth train” and a Voyager decided to show itself.

After the Voyager disappeared out of sight 444009/444008 pulled in, so it was a quick walk up the platform to get into the front 5 cars as 008 detached at Bournemouth. It is a nice piece of track going through the new forest and onwards through Dorset, last time doing it was last August so good to see not a lot has changed (other than some new bridge works at some of the stations). Pulling into Dorcester the train was around 30 minutes behind schedule picking up a 10 minute delay at Wool due to signalling problems and a “Can the guard please contact the driver” message appearing on the onboard display, so ditching the train early at Upwey in order for a quick dash across the platform to wait as the SWT service was due into Weymouth at the same time the FGW service was due to leave (on Realtimetrains).

A couple minutes later 150239/150234 pulled into Upwey station to take me up the Heart of Wessex line which is beautiful, getting delayed at one of the crossover stations as the southbound service (which looked like a London Midland 150 attached to the rear of a FGW 150 with the LM 153 at the rear), via Frome and into Westbury which is a busy station with the HST services at weekends. I had a brief wait as 43149/43133 pulled in on time, but was delayed leaving the station due to a delayed service from Cardiff with passengers making the connection, so it was down the Reading/Taunton line (all covered now apart from the Westbury bypass line, which is going to be a pain to try and cover, so probably something for an all-line-rover or a winter service from Reading to Exeter. Anyway after the HST dropped me off at Taunton, I had a nice 60 minutes to spare before my northward leg towards Weston Super Mare was due to depart, so I wondered down the town, and frankly it was a bit quiet with a few shops closed on Sundays. Almost made Tamworth look busy, managed to find the Morrisons for some lunch which was very nice.

Back at Taunton, I purchased a Ride Cornwall ticket for the following Sunday, and the ticket seller didn’t blink (probably sells a few Ride Cornwall from Taunton), as I went up to the platform to see 150106 waiting. I dislike the 150/1s for their high density 3+2 seating meaning there is only a few good seats where my legs can fit and you can look out of the window. It was a busy trip up to WSM where I alighted, crossing the platforms (following a tourist couple not following the ‘Way out’ signs trying to get out of the station) to board 150249, a nice 150/2 with tables, very nice and empty owing to it running a few minutes after the 150/1. This service took me all the way to Severn Beach.

Slightly disappointed at not catching the Clifton bridge, and heading through Avonmouth docks and industrial area, the part where the buildings drop away as the track runs close to the Severn itself with excellent views of the second Severn crossing took me by surprised and was rather nice on a sunny day. This was the only train of the day which ran on time. At Severn Beach I had a 10 minute wait for the return leg, the evidence of a former platform evidenced by the station facilities sign showing 2 platforms. Back onto 150249 for the trip back to Bristol Temple M (as XC calls it), arriving a bit early, which is where it went a bit Pete Tong.

Due to problems at Newport, all trains from Cardiff were being held up, the delays kept on going as suddenly the station announcement announced that a replacement train to go to Bristol (running fast to Bath Spa and to Westbury) was sitting on platform 8 (I think), made up of 150234 & 150239 (the same 2 units previously used for Upwey to Westbury), and it set off, glorious sunshine arriving into Bath, before running fast to Westbury causing confusion for passengers at Bradford as it stopped but didn’t open the doors (passengers trying to get on), before arriving into Westbury being terminated. So another 30 minute wait at Westbury, I won’t mind but there is nothing much around the station area.

It was getting quite busy at Westbury with a couple cyclists (probably hopeful of being able to get onboard), as the platform changed with a couple minutes to go, I spotted the departure screen showing P1 before it got announced so beat the rush. 159010 pulled in, the SWT unit on hire to FGW. On spotting it arriving I headed straight towards the rear doors, for the “first class” area to get a nice seat when all the other passengers crowded and were standing in the “standard” class area. They were even passing empty seats as they didn’t realise it was standard class only. This took me down towards Romsey for my last leg of the journey, arriving into Romsey an hour or so later than I should have been.

Monday – Malvern & Lymington

For some reason when doing my plan I set myself a 7am start, which was madness, but it was one of the only ways I could do the trips today without a long wait somewhere, so it was a nice brief drive to Romsey to park in the library car-park (free at bank holidays, why SWT charge standard weekday rates for bank holiday parking is beyond me), and for a brief walk to the station with a 10 minute wait for 158959 to pull in on its way to Cardiff.

Arriving into Bristol a couple minutes early (yippee) I got off and headed towards WH Smiths, to find it closed, so headed towards the Upper Crust to purchase a sausage baguette for breakfast. A highlight of the journey to Bristol Temple was at Bath one of the trains for Salisbury went via Salisbury (SWT I would imagine, probably terminated to wait to attach to a train from Exeter to carry on towards Waterloo). A brief couple minutes passed as 220015 pulled in, my first Voyager of the weekend (the only part I don’t like are the hard seats), as it went up towards Cheltenham Spa, as I got off. Nice piece of line, a shame the freight only line towards Avonmouth is freight only, as it could be used as a circular route with a reverse at Severn Beach. At Cheltenham I saw the SWT 158 disappear on its way towards Swindon.

Very interesting station is Cheltenham, as the FOSS ticket didn’t open any barriers I showed it to a camera attached to the other entrance guard as he let me through so I could visit the Co-Op to purchase lunch and a paper. Doing the same on the way back the train towards Malvern was delayed by 5 minutes, as it pulled in on time (I noticed the same when coming back, the next Malvern train arrived on time but was announced as being 5 minutes late), made up of 158951, I found a seat and it went off towards Malvern, via Worcester, the city which sees the majority of the FGW diesel fleet (bar the Pacers), and into Great Malvern.

15 minutes around the rather beautiful Great Malvern station 158951 pulled in again to take me back towards Cheltenham Spa, where it was a brief 10 minute wait and after an ATW 158 pulled away, 158950 pulled in to take me along the Golden Valley line, via Gloucester with the massive platform into Swindon. I can see why it is called the golden valley line and would be a lovely line to do during autumn when the leaves on the trees are changing colours, but due to the trees it’s not a very sightseeing line. Knowing a reverse was going to happen at Gloucester I sat backwards from Cheltenham, so I had the majority of the trip going forward. The Kemble redoubling work coming along a treat.

Once at Swindon, I saw the delayed 43149/43133 pull in, finally a delay which worked for me, as I dashed to the platform, jumping on, saving a bit of wait, and got a nice seat as it zoomed towards Bath Spa, pass Chippenham with its unused side platform and into Bath Spa itself, where I had 10 minutes to wait (getting the number of the rear 43 which someone kindly gave me the number of the front 43). Over to the other platform at Bath to wait as 158957 pulled in, my final 158/9 of the weekend, sitting in a reserved seat (reserved from Newport to Bristol TM according to the bit of paper, so was free afterwards) and read my book as it rushed towards Southampton Central, as I had my last remaining part of SWT-land in sight (apart from that late night/early morning movement along an old line around Wimbledon), the Lymington branch.

444039 pulled in, with the Poole stopper stopped on P3B, as it zoomed towards Brockenhurst, as I jumped over to the Lymington branch platform where 450094 was doing the duties of going back up and down the 5 mile, 29 chain branch line, but my first 450 for a while, the blue monsters best served around Guildford, as the 3+2 seating annoys them. Quick hop down the line, most passengers getting off at the town station, leaving a mere handful to cross the bridge and onto the pier next to the ferry terminal, where a brief turnaround had me heading back up towards Brockenhurst, which is getting a new bridge or something as it has a very high temporary bridge which gives no cover in the rain which it was doing at the time.

444007 pulled in and it was standing room only towards Southampton Central where I got off, and more people pilled on, the £14 day-trip tickets doing well I would assume, leaving Southampton looking more like a rush-hour train into London than a 3pm train on a bank holiday. I had a brief wait before 158881 pulled in to take me back to Romsey, the long way round, via Eastleigh, as I wanted to see the new track being laid heading towards Eastleigh (and being the first time along that track for a few months), the rain stopped as some youths got caught by sitting in First Class without tickets (and failing to make an escape via the locked front doors). But soon it was into Romsey, the end of my adventures for another day, an hour earlier than the plan which was very nice. Total distance covered over the course of the 3 day weekend is a very good ~ 1080 miles covered, for the price of a 3-day FOSS ranger and Valley Lines rover

 

[Techniquest]

Flipping heck that was a monster bit of mileage! I'd forgotten how much value one can get from a FoSS! Need to do another one to try and get my last SWT 158, 158960 (if it still exists!), and hunt down some winner 444s, well and some FGW 150s and any 450s I can get. Hmm, I could have a plan coming...

 

[Kite159]

Flipping heck that was a monster bit of mileage! I'd forgotten how much value one can get from a FoSS! Need to do another one to try and get my last SWT 158, 158960 (if it still exists!), and hunt down some winner 444s, well and some FGW 150s and any 450s I can get. Hmm, I could have a plan coming...

*pictures Techniquest going backwards and forwards between Southampton Central and Southampton Airport [Parkway] (Why call it an parkway, it's right next to the airport, a parkway station would suggest something like Luton Airport where you need to take a bus to get to the airport itself) to catch the 450s & 444s
--

31st May – A First Class trip to Norwich & Anglia Plus, part 1.

When I was booking my tickets for this adventure, I noticed that First Class advances were a mere £2 more expensive than standard class, so decided to treat myself and upgrade, to see what it was like on a weekend SWT/ Greater Anglia services. So it was a brief drive to Grateley station in the morning, and for a change I decided to park in the older southern side car-park, and arriving in good time for the 5:59 service towards London. Unusually I wasn’t the only person getting on board at that time in the morning as 159107 pulled in, but I was the only person in First Class until Woking (excluding the member of the mobile catering staff taking a brief break), arriving into Waterloo, it was a nice short trip from the front door to the barrier.

I popped out of the station, breaking my journey (naughty me, breaking my journey on an advance ticket) and headed to Sainsburys, where they didn’t have the newspapers out yet, so it was back to the underground to get onto a Jubi line service suffering from delays from a failed train at Westminster, thankfully it has mostly been cleared as I went around to Stratford, picking up a newspaper from a little shop in the complex and headed to find I had a nice 55 minute wait ahead of me for my train (the 8:36 to Norwich), if I wasn’t on an advance ticket I could have jumped onto the 7:36 train which was delayed (or even the 8:06) (I can’t remember the exact minute they were leaving, so might be wrong).

The weather was sunny as I spent the next 40 minutes sat on the station reading the paper, watching the various trains terminate and start (engineering works terminating all trains at Strafford), the Mk3 carriages with DVT 82132 on the front and 90005 on the back arrived, my first 90/82 combo, as I took my assigned seat, drew the curtains a bit, and noticed a couple things. The seats weren’t as high as on the other Mk3 carriages, and there was no plug socket. The free biscuit, cup of fruit juice and packet of Golden Wonder crisps were nice, as it set off towards Norwich, onto mostly new land for me (everything from Romford). It was very quiet, and the landscape was nice, bit flat and boring in places, Colchester with its long platform came and went and I can’t really remember much of the other stations it passed, as expected the first class area was rather quiet. The bacon factory curve at Ipswich was very nice.

At Norwich I had the long walk from the rear of the train towards the front and the ticket barriers, going through the barriers I tried one of the ticket machines to purchase an Anglia Plus ranger but it had run of out tickets but I managed to one from a second machine after a brief wait for a queue and it was onto the platform to wait for the Sheringham train to arrive, although it was already in the station, but on a stabling track in between platforms 4 & 5 (I think), as I watched it go out of the station to come back, arriving into the station 3 minutes late, departing late, I thought, is it going to be one of those days. The train was 156422.

It was a nice bit of track along towards Sheringham, passing a tiny steam engine and reversing at Cromer and heading towards Sheringham, due to the delay caused by the late departure, it was straight in, straight back out again without the 10 minute or so wait, so back towards Norwich, still on 156422, arriving with around 35 minutes to spare until the Great Yarmouth service departed. Annoyingly I spotted the short-form mk3 set having just returned from Yarmouth, so thought I might be in luck, but it pulled away as an empty stock movement.

Norwich station has a little Co-Op shop, so I purchased my lunch (usual meal-deal) and headed outside the station, only to head back inside as it was raining (for all of 5 minutes), and sat waiting the movements (EMT 158s, 90/82s, 153s & 156s) before the platform got announced for the Yarmouth non-stopper via Berney Arms, and it was 156422. Taking the same seat as I had previously it set off towards the east, where it is quite flat and lifeless in places, other places with the broads were quite beautiful, some of the stations looked well looked after, apart from Berney Arms which is in the middle of nowhere and is a mere platform. Into Yarmouth where I spotted some old platforms (or stabling platforms) running for a good distance outside the station on some old tracks, something left over from the olden days where Yarmouth was a hub of activity and had more platforms than the 4 it currently has. I ended up heading towards Asda in the time I had, to have a look to see if they had anything of interest.

Great Yarmouth station concourse is quite large, but it was onto the Norwich train via Ache, to complete the triangle, and as before lovely in places, lovely stations, quite peaceful, and still on 156422. Arriving back in Norwich I had 5 minutes to transfer to the Lowestoft train, which making use of a good signal found it was on platform 6, and when the Yarmouth train pulled into platform 6, I looked at the signs to see it was next off to Lowestoft, so back to my seat (reversing so I was facing forward) and the train set off towards Lowestoft, still on 156422, heading to the most eastern station in the UK (I believe), and to be honest with 35 minutes in the area I found it to be rather depressing, charity shops, poundshops etc, quite a large dock though with some old boats in.

156419 pulled in, yay I finally got away from 422, to take me down to Ipswich, which I must say is a rather boring run, nothing much of interest apart from some beautiful looking stations and some 170s coming the other way. I think someone was trying to avoid to pay for a ticket as soon as the inspector was spotted they did a runner towards the toilet area at the front of the train hoping to get off before the inspector got to them, it failed, justice. Into Ipswich which looking on the map is a good 10 minutes walk from the town centre pass a football ground, so only having 15 minutes, looked around for the first class lounge, sadly closed, but looked like a regular waiting room, just with coffee tables and older looking chairs. Overhearing a confused couple wanting to head back to London, so where is Stratford? Heading to the end of the platform to wait as 153306 pulled in, for the Felixstowe service.

I do like the 153s, even when someone tried to get a wide pushchair through a gap the guard said “it won’t fit due to a pole” and getting it stuck, even when they are quite dirty inside and when posh-sounding ladies pick up old tickets to try and fool the guard into accepting them (which failed as the guard spotted here getting on at Ipswich rather than Westerfield where the ticket was from). Down a line which to be honest I can’t remember that much about apart from a viaduct and some old station buildings, and into Felixstowe for a quick turnaround and back towards Ipswich, quite busy coming back, but soon enough it pulled into Ipswich station where I had a 15 minute wait for the train back to Stratford which was delayed by a couple minutes “due to an idiot trying to board the train when it was pulling out of Diss station”.

Due to the delay I caught the front engine of 90006 and walked towards the rear to get the DVT of 82114 and hopping onto the train itself on one of the rear carriages and walking up towards the first class section at the front, to find an empty first class carriage, apart from one person, who decided to pick the only seat which had a reserved card in, as I was planning to sit on the right hand side it didn’t bother me as I got comfy and sped off down south looking out of the window on the great eastern main line. I’m planning to do the various branches at some-point, covered by the Network railcard so a third off, but not covered by any rover (bar the All-line-rover). Into Stratford station complex where I had 80 minutes to get to Waterloo, so instead of going the more usual way via the Jubi line, I walked across to the HL DLR platform, just missed one of the trains, but another pulled in, taking a front seat (but being asked to move by the operator which opened the hatch). Due to engineering works, it was being diverted to Bank.

Pudding Mill Lane station is quite nice, still shiny from the rebuild, and the DLR unit headed towards Bank, along new ground for me, across the docklands, a much better way to travel than the underground. Do any C2C trains use that short connection line from Fenchurch Street to Stratford (goes past the Thames Court)? The DLR ran into Bank where was a short walk towards the Waterloo and City Line platform, to board a former 482 train towards Waterloo, the short 1 mile 38 chain hop. Into Waterloo station I headed towards one of the eating places to pick up a late dinner (Burger King), locating 159007 found myself a nice seat in the first class area to relax and watch as the rugby crowd slowly drifted through the train when it was nearly time to leave (I’ve done it, jumped on in the last minute at the first class door closest to the concourse to walk down the train to get a seat). Having first class was useful as it looked like the standard class area was standing room only.

Arriving back in Grateley, I was slightly tired, but on time, but happy and ready for the following day trip to Cornwall, with the brief drive back home, very good day it was, even though some of the scenery got a bit boring after a while, but still 540 miles covered with the vast majority over new ground.

-----------------------------------------

Sunday the 1st June – Cornwall Part 2

Cornwall part 1 was a month ago, so deciding to take another trip down to cover the remaining 2 branch lines solely within Cornwall, doing some research and got a 4-way spilt to take me down to Plymouth, then a Ride Cornwall ticket for Cornwall.

The day started quite well, a short walk to the station to catch the 8:34 service to Exeter St Davids, the London bound platform was quite busy, the £14 day-return promo offer again I would assume. 159017 pulled into the station for the 2 hour, 88 mile trip down the West of England line, having the usual stop outside Tisbury to allow the London bound train to pass, and at other key passing points on the mainly single track route, with the old stations platforms still in place, I do like the route down, although the 159s are noisy when accelerating away from the station, couldn’t help wondering how much time could be saved with having newer trains on it with wider doors and better acceleration. The train got busier (as expected) as it went down through Dorset, pass Yeovil ‘not-really-a’ Junction with the railway museum getting ready for a busy day.

Into Exeter Central, where I stayed on for the brief trip down the hill to Exeter St Davids, where I got lucky, my plan had a 20 minute wait at ESD for the Penzance bound service, but in platform 4 was a XC Voyager bound for Plymouth, so jumped onto 221141, as there is nothing much around ESD, unless you like Pacers. Getting a nice seat on the left hand side in the unreserved coach, down along the bank of the river, along the sea-wall at Dawlish and up towards Newton Abbot, for the first stop, such a beautiful line. Heading west more, towards Plymouth and the Cornwall border to pull into Plymouth giving me 30 minutes spare to try and grab some lunch, which I knew of a local Sainsburys around a 7 minute walk from the station (lovely inside the station, but must be one of the ugliest stations outside, underneath a large tower-board, sandwiched next to a multi-storey car-park.

Back at Plymouth station, lunch in bag, headed to the platform number 4 (whatever happened to platforms 1 & 2, are they just not used anymore?), to wait as 43122 pulled in, with 43135 behind it for my 1st HST of the day, finding a nice seat as it pulled away over the beautiful Prince Albert Bridge and into Cornwall, where the train sped up (a bit) to arrive into its first stop, Liskeard. Hopping off at Liskeard as I joined 153369 which was on the Looe Valley Line duties for the day, and what an amazing line, heading north and around a 180 degree corner to come back south, underneath the main line, swinging around towards Coombe Junction Halt, but stopping to reverse without going into the station itself, and down south towards Looe, where the train stopped.

5 minutes later after a brief photo call of the lovely 153 car, it was back up the hill, towards Liskeard itself. Back nearly into Coombe Junction Halt (is there any particular reason they don’t go into the station itself?) and around the corners to come into Liskeard at right angles to the main line platforms, with enough time to catch the next westbound train, however as the next westbound train was for Newquay it was a bit pointless for me to catch, so after taking a couple photos of the 43 approaching the station and leaving I pondered to myself what to do, as there was nothing much around Liskeard, so I did something rather silly and jumped onto a Plymouth bound train (without realising that I would have a 3 minute connection at Plymouth itself to get back).

221123 pulled in to take me back to Plymouth, over the bridge and back into the station, arriving a couple minutes late so I thought it was all lost (especially when I misjudged the correct door to get off to make a quick interchange), but thankfully the train heading to Penzance was 10 minutes late (and would only get later), made up of 43063 on the front, with an unknown 43 on the rear, getting on near the front, it zoomed (as fast as a HST in Cornwall can go) heading over some glorious viaducts, pass some glorious views, and into Truro, where the Falmouth train was being held so passengers could make the connection, made up of 150101, my least favourite type of train. The trip down to Falmouth was busy, and a very interesting line with some good features, but as it was late leaving Truro, it was a very quick turnaround, with the train getting busy with more passengers for the return leg.

Arriving back into Truro it was a mad dash to make it to the train, as if I missed it I would have been stuck for at least an hour, front engine was 43137, rear was 43034 as it took me up through Cornwall, through Plymouth, up the Dawlish coast into Exeter, lowight was probably some idiot playing their ‘music’ on standard apple earphones, which leak more than a boat made of Swiss Cheese, beautiful line. Into Exeter for a 30 minute wait for the 19:25 service back to Grateley, the last Waterloo bound train of the day, I saw it arriving on P3, but where they normally would go off and sit in the siding for a while before returning to P1, it stayed put to depart from P3 (going up the hill into Exeter Central into P2 before crossing over to the left hand side track). Made up of 159007 & 159002, the train got busier as it went on its way, no delays as it arrived into Salisbury when 159002 was removed, forcing all the passengers who wanted onward travel to Grateley, Andover, (running fast between) Basingstoke, Woking, Clapham or Waterloo into the front 3 cars, as it made the short trip to Grateley where I alighted to end another good day out in the south west of the country.

----

Don't worry, this weekend is going to be rather 'quiet' compared to other weekends, mostly spent hanging around west wales

 

[Techniquest]

I liked your comment on my shuttling to/from Southampton Airport Parkway! Not that I'm doing that after all, but I'll detail all that next week...

Sounds like you had a good time in Anglia, as I'm on my phone no time for a proper reply but I'll do so later So you're all done with Devon and Cornwall? That sounded like a good trip too, need to go back down there for a massive station stratch session!

 

[Kite159]

All done now, did Okehampton (rather disappointing as it's mostly trees/cuttings) on a Pacer, plus Gunnislake last Sunday.

Plus a XC HST over Dawlish wall.

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'Quiet' weekend in West Wales this weekend, most of the time will be spent hanging around Carmarthen.

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Which has now been ruined due to Newport problems and a taxi driver getting lost to Severn tunnel junction.

Fishguard will have to wait for another day.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I had a bit of a quiet afternoon today at work, so decided to do some more writing to pass the time.

Weekend of 6/7/8th June

Onwards with my adventures, on the Friday I had a show in London, so heading up early from Basingstoke on dud 159007 (same as the last 159 I travelled on, on the 1st from Exeter), arriving into London a good couple hours before the show, so I did the Northern Line. My plan of catching a direct train from Waterloo to Morden failed (15 minute wait according to the platform display), so down to Morden, changing at Kennington, onto a Morden train, all new ground, interesting that some of the platforms around Clapham looked rather narrow . Out into the daylight at Morden for a quick change, noting that the tube in the centre platform had both sides open, up the tunnel all the way to High Barnet via the Bank branch

Interesting scenery once the Northern Line breaks cover around Highgate (I think), sun was shining with the passengers thinning out as it pulled into High Barnet where a quick cross platform to jump onto the next southbound service to take me to Finchley Central where a quick platform change for a 5 minute wait for the Mill Hill East service, over the Dollis Brook viaduct for a quick turnaround back out for a service to terminate at East Finchley, alighting at Finchley Central, a couple minutes later another service took me down to Camden Town, for a quick hop across to the other northbound platform to go up to Chalk Farm. After the event it was back down the Northern Line to Waterloo to wait 25 minutes on 159013 to take me back to Grateley, first time in doing the ‘last’ train to Grateley (rather than getting off at Basingstoke). All to save having to drive the car home from Basingstoke only to drive back the following morning. Sadly time ran away so the section from Edgeware to Belsize Park remains uncovered, but that can wait for another day.

7th June

Starting a bit later than normal on a Saturday to catch 159104 on the 6:59 service to Waterloo, to arrive into Waterloo for 8:17, a couple minutes early, quick hop towards the W&C entrance to head across to Bank, for a short trip up the Central line to Liverpool Street (although it’s probably quicker to head out of Bank at the entrance for the W&C and walk to Liverpool Street). At Liverpool Street, due to engineering works at Fenchurch Street area, C2C services were starting & terminating there, so a nice bit of new track for me from the GEML to the GOBLIN to take me into Barking. The first 357 of the day was 357222 to take me along to Pitsea via Grays. I should have stayed on for the next station as it was a same platform interchange. 357030 pulled in for the service to Shoeburyness, where it attached to 357042 which was waiting in the platform. Highlight of the trip was seeing the Thames and the QE2 Bridge, plus the Eurostar & HS1 on the High-Speed tracks at Dagenham Dock, but was rather unimpressive.

10 minutes later it pulled away and headed back to Liverpool Street, where I alighted at Upminster to go hunting for something to eat in the 20 minutes I had spare before the Grays shuttle departed, this failed, and it was back to the station and onto the shuttle, made up of 357012 for the brief trip down to Grays, trying to find the subway was hard, but I found it (not the nicest of subways with steep steps either side), as my final 357 of the day pulled in, 357022 to take me back to Liverpool Street. Looking at the route map on board, I noticed a limited service between Fenchurch Street & Stratford, is there any timetabled services which use that track?

Once at Liverpool Street it was a short connection time to reach to a platform the other side, to jump onto 317507 to take me to Chingford, one of the 317s with a ‘First Class’ section which was declassified, with interesting windows, not windows as such but metal flaps which opened at the top of the windows to allow air to come in, with quite low seats. Nice little trip to Chingford, with a short 10 minute break, allowing me purchase a meal-deal from a local corner shop, before back on 317507 to Walthamstow Central, where it was a quick ‘dash’ down to the Victoria line platforms for a Victoria line train, towards Seven Sisters, where another transfer up-to the network rail platforms to await the next south-bound service, made up of 315802 down to Hackney Downs.

At Hackney Downs I had 20 minutes to wait (although I was now 30 minutes ahead of schedule), so I went for a walk to find a branch of Tesco Express just outside the station, one to remember, but there was nothing else to do so I headed back up to the platform to await, watching the various movements as an old friend pulled in, 317507 from the Chingford trip, for the brief trip to Hertford East, sitting once more in ‘First Class’ (2+2 seating beats the 2+3 seating), arriving into Hertford East, nice scenery in that area, although nothing which shouts for a revisit. Once at Hertford East, I had 10 minutes to spare before the return leg, so headed out of the station for a brief look around, before heading back to catch 317507 again for a trip back to Tottenham Hale.

Started off alright, before arriving at St Margarets where we were took of the delay caused by a broken down train in front of the service in front of us, probably a wait of an hour or so at St Margarets, not as bad as the doors were open so it was cool and allowed passengers to alight to get off the train. This is where Greater Anglia should have terminated the service and ran it back to Hertford East so passengers could catch a train from the north station, or have buses. An hour or so later, we set off, hoping that it was going to be back to normal, picking up at the next station before coming to a stop just after the station (about a minute out), overlooking a Sainsburys depot, where the train waited for 90 minutes, in the heat of the day, after 60 minutes some of the passengers were trying to riot, trying to force the doors open (trying to pull the emergency door release, but actually pulling the stop cable). I managed to get in a seat which was in the shade, but near to a flap to get cool air, but it wasn’t that nice.

Anyways, the train set off (after a false start where the driver had to reset the emergency stop-cables, releasing a lot of dust, probably the first time those hatches above the doors have been open for a while), and ran non-stop to Tottenham Hale, it was a game of “where is the train going to stop” as it ran through various stations it would normally stop at (causing one passenger to moan), arriving at Tottenham Hale with the sounds of “The service to Liverpool Street is running 99 minutes late” over the PA system, and with “No Greater Angila services from this station at the present time” from the PA system on the Victoria Line platforms, as I hopped onto a Victoria line service to Finsbury Park.

A quick transfer to the upper-level platforms to await the weekend special, as the track into Kings Cross was closed (or on reduced capacity) , First Capital Connect were running trains to Moorgate (normally closed at weekends). 313031 & 313027 pulled in to take me down to Moorgate, down the tunnels of the Northern City Line. First time going southbound. Once at Moorgate, I transferred to the Circle/H&C/Metro line platform to await a Circle line train, and I got lucky as it was the first one to pull in, this took me around the circle to Tower Hill, where I probably should have stayed on as I had a seat, and changed further down the line to a district line train, but I didn’t, so I was standing from Tower Hill to Earl’s Court. Once at Earl’s Court I was hoping to catch the Olympia shuttle, but had just missed it, so leaving the tube station, headed to Earl’s Court for the musical event of the evening (arriving an hour and a bit after doors opened, but never-mind, as the support sounded rubbish).

After the show, it was a fast walk with and against the crowd towards West Brompton, where I headed for the Overground platforms to await as 378210 pulled in, managing to get a seat (yippee), I had a quick look at NRE to see when the next train to Town Centre (or Basingstoke) was due and had a 15 minute wait, a couple trains came and went (Alton & Portsmouth via Guildford), as 444021 pulled in, full of One Direction fans, with no seats I sat down next to the door until Woking when a seat became available for the short distance to Basingstoke. Where I went to the Pizza GoGo (as I was rather hungry, not eaten anything for 7/8 hours, and they do nice pizzas (and for £5, can’t complain as there isn’t anything much open around mid-night), sitting eating it on a bench outside Basingstoke station, getting asked by some “roaming preachers” if I was alright, seems you can’t sit outside a station late at night eating food from a nearby eatery these days. But the day was over, the Lea-Valleys part of Greater Anglia has been covered, so has C2C part of the map.

All I can remember about the drive-home is that it was rather busy, even on the back-road between Andover and Basingstoke (as the A303/M3 is boring).

---

Sunday 8th June

I shouldn’t have booked tickets, I was rather tired after 2 late nights, but didn’t want to waste the money from the 3 way spilt from Grateley to Axminster, the eastern limit of the Devon Day Rover, plus the cost of the rover ticket, so I went off to the station to catch the 8:35 (or so) train to Exeter, quite a difference on the other platform from the prior week where it was busy, to being rather quiet. Anyhow the first trip started with 159106 pulling 159010, taking a nice table seat to look out of the window. With a service from the west cancelled, meaning instead of having a wait outside Tisbury, we waited on the platform, for a nicer view (or some old buildings).

2 hours passed as the service rolled into Exeter St Davids, where a quick cross platform transfer to await the delayed Cross Country service to Plymouth, I know I could have waited 15 minutes to get onto a FGW HST service, but that takes longer to Plymouth than the Voyager, and it gave me longer in Plymouth. 220005 pulled in for the 52 mile trip down the coast and in-land to Plymouth, such an amazing view out of the window over Dawlish, the sun was shining so the walkers were out on the parts of the path which are open to the public. Once in Plymouth I had a good hour and 20 minutes (or so) to wait before the Gunnislake train, so headed down to the city centre for a good look around some of the shops.

Back at the station, after a brief shower, I went towards the platform where the Gunnislake train was, sadly it was 150102, a 150/1 with only a small number of decent seats where you have leg-room & can see out of the window. But what a beautiful line, on a lovely sunny day, the train working hard to get up the hills, stopping at the unprotected level crossings to blow the horn, nice quick turnaround seating wise when it reversed at Bere Alston, over the beautiful Calstock Viaduct & Tavy Bridge. Once at Gunislake it was a brief turnaround before heading back towards Plymouth, where at around Bere Ferries the heaven’s opened and it threw it down. Nice smiley face on the old steam loco at the station.

At Plymouth I had the choice, either getting on a busy-looking service to London, getting on a FGW service starting from Plymouth or a Cross Country service to Leeds, as I had a bit of free time, I picked 43301 with 43207 at the rear, heading to Leeds, a XC HST service, making a change from going up on a FGW HST service. In the time between arriving and departing I had around 25 minutes which was enough time to go down to the Sainsburys and back to pick up a late lunch. Had a bit of delay heading into Exeter due to signalling problems, but still had time to get across to Platform 1 to get a train to Central. It was a race between the Exmouth bound train and the St James bound train, with them swapping places on the platform display board. The St James bound train pulled in with a lot of passengers getting off, and myself getting on, the only passenger between St Davids and Central, up the hill on 143621.

At Central I made the trip to outside the station, before heading back inside to await the final Okehampton train of the week, when waiting the Exmouth bound train pulled in with a 150 unit at the front and a First Great London Midland 153 unit at the back. 143621 pulled in and managing to get a good seat, sat back and awaited the sound of a pacer heading along the old route, which was quite disappointing to be honest, trees, trees, cuttings and more trees. At Okehampton, an old train was on the other platform, sorry couldn’t pick it out from a line-up. Changing seats via a walk on the platform, headed back towards Exeter St Davids, as the gates at Sampford Courtenay were closed by the guard and driver.

Once back at St. Davids, I had 25 or so minutes to waste before the return trip to Grateley, so sat down and read a book watching the station movements, and the arrival of a couple heavily delayed Cross Country services (88 minutes and 28 minutes spring to mind). 159016 & 159108 pulled in, interesting when I was walking back up the platform after getting the number of 159108, I noticed the stickers on the cars themselves said “158”, where on 016 they were “159”, a left-over from when they were 158/0s). Nice little trip back towards Salisbury, somehow managing to lose 159108 at Salisbury (which seemed odd to me to send a 3 car unit for the final Salisbury service from London, which is quite busy), and into Grateley at the end of another South Western adventure, with an early night for me.

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14th & 15th June – A trip to the West of Wales

Back on the advances for this ‘quiet’ weekend trip to Wales, started off well with a nice drive to Salisbury, all the traffic lights were green, and waiting for the 7:30 service to Cardiff, made up of 158955, as it made its way to Bristol, without any issues, arriving at Bath early allowing for a 5 minute timetable wait, pulling into Bristol Temple is when the problems started, as suddenly the guard announced that the service was terminating at Bristol due to major signalling problems at Newport, and that any passengers for Wales will need to go to the customer help-point on platform 3.

Headed to the customer help-point as they were giving out taxi vouchers for groups of 4, to go to Severn Tunnel Junction, I found a group of 3 who were after a solo traveller so jumped in, waiting a couple minutes for a taxi who was willing to go to Severn Tunnel Junction (which I recall was a Fiat), we headed off, I was in the back seat, looking out of the window as I hadn’t been around Bristol by car for a good few years, and nothing much had changed, apart from variable speed limit cameras on the M4 on the approach to the M5 junction. First issue is that the taxi-driver was following a little book (which lists the routes for out of city locations, and the price, such as £378 to Skegness) which suggested taking the M48, which was closed west-bound, so he went over the new bridge, did a U-turn at the first junction to head back towards the M48, heading to Chepstew, and went the wrong way.

Finally the person in the front seat decided it might be worth digging out their phone to help with directions as they were getting worried they might miss their train, and managed to get the directions to head back south in the correct direction, and finally reached Severn Tunnel Junction as the railway had been reopened, with a lot of other passengers, with a 40 minute wait for the next Cardiff bound service, 3 other services went through the station, how hard would it have been to stop one of the Cardiff trains to allow the passengers (probably around 100 or so) to board for onward travel? 150239 pulled in and it was busy, I lasted until Newport where I bailed, it was just too hot and crowded on that unit, thankfully the Cross Country service to Cardiff was a few minutes behind so jumped onto 170639 for a quieter trip into Cardiff.

With 30 minutes to wait around until the next Carmarthen train, I asked nicely and the guard let me out of the station (so I could locate somewhere for lunch and also to have a quick look around the area with the station), back at the station after locating a Tesco, I headed back to the platform to await the Milford Haven bound service, made up of 175105, which I was happy with as I’ve finally got a 175 (apart from a brief trip from Cardiff to Newport on my FOSS trip), and they are quite nice, apart from the couple who tried to steal my seat when I went to drop some rubbish in the bin & decided to eat a rather smelly lunch with their mouths open.

It’s a nice little run towards Milford, via Swansea & Carmarthen, running alongside the river/beach/whatever between Swansea & Llanelli, reversing twice and away along the single tracks towards Milford. A very nice line, recommended for anybody.

Once at Milford, it was a brief (15 minutes) wait, with my bag being rather heavy (packed too much drink) and the sun shining bright, I stayed close to the station before hopping back onto 175105 for the ~40 mile trip back to Carmarthen, again a lovely trip. At Carmarthen I had around 45/50 minutes to wait before the next leg of my journey to Pembroke Dock, having ditched Fishguard for another day (probably a Saturday in October). So I had a quick walk towards the retail park area, just to pass the time (as I would explore the town itself on the next day), didn’t purchase anything though. Back at the station, doing the long walk around, seeing a Pacer on platform 2 (would have been my luck to score a Pacer to Pembroke); happily it departed as empty stock, as 150254 rolled in.

Brief highlight was a couple deciding to board the Pembroke Dock service and trying to get to Bridgend, luckily for them at Whitland there was another service heading east on the platform. Anyhow, back to the 150, it was a nice little trip down to Pembroke Dock, stopping every now and again to blow the horn to move slowly over unguarded crossings, again worth visiting, I was 2 hours ahead of my original plan, so spent the time looking around the town, after finding my guest-house for the night, which was very nice. Anyhow I had a look around some of the shops (large Tesco & Asda), although some of the smaller shops had already packed up for the weekend. Spent a good 15 minutes sat on a grass bank overlooking the river in the sun listening to someone playing some covers of classic songs, a very good end to the day.

For dinner, I headed for the Station Inn, a pub on the station itself, where I had some lovely food, having been told there might be a wait due to a party, I was surprised when the food was bought early, plus cheap cans of pop (80p), can’t beat it, and certainly beats a sandwich.

Sunday

A quiet Sunday for me, having a bit of breakfast in the guest-house I set about walking back to the station to sit for 30 minutes for the first train of the day, made up of 150236, only a couple passengers boarded at Pembroke Dock as it made its way slowly back towards Carmarthen, where I had a 2 hour wait for my booked train back to Newport (back on the advances), so had a look around the very nice town, some good shops, and a nice large Tesco. Walking back along the river (which I’m guessing is a newish pedestrian bridge next to the station) I sat down to read a book, to pass the time away with 150236 sitting in the platform, right at the end.

I was wondering what type of train it would be, as the final destination would be Manchester, would it be a 175, would it be a 158, but it was a 150! 150256 rolled into the station and attached (and detached before reattaching) to 150236, I went towards 236 for the better chance of getting a table seat, and as soon as I boarded, all the windows were opened to get some fresh air though.

The double 150 unit headed slowly back towards Newport, via Swansea, again very beautiful that piece of track, stopping at the stations between Cardiff & Bridgend, passing quite a few (5) HSTs on the journey, a lot more than I was expecting. Coming out of Cardiff we passed the SWT 159 hire unit, so I had my hopes up of maybe a ‘first’ class trip back to Salisbury, but those were dashed when 158952 pulled into the station, it must have been hiding around Cardiff, for the nice trip back to Salisbury, which to be honest I can’t remember much about as I was reading my book.

Overall a very relaxing weekend, apart from the issues on the Saturday, bit annoyed that I had to ditch Fishguard, but hopefully I will get something back for the 2 hour delay heading into Carmarthen. Around 480 miles covered, which is always good as my total stands at 15635 for the year, with a rail-tour on the 21st to Carlisle and back (via the S&C) which will probably add another 700+ miles, pretty good going for leisure travel.

I’m finally up to date with my reports, I need to find something else to do in the quiet afternoons at work now!

 

[Kite159]

Did some North Wales yesterday, and it is very beautiful (in parts, didn't rate the Crewe to Chester line very highly [apart from the locos at Crewe].

But the Conwy Valley Line, nearly pushes the West Highland line off the top of my most beautiful line list, Blaenau Ffestiniog is well worth the visit.

Report hopefully at some-point, I've started a new role now at work, so I no longer have the free 'dead' time in the afternoons which I used to type up the report.

(Give me a train load of Chester Horseracing goers over Wimbledon goers any-day)

 

[Techniquest]

Conwy Valley is definitely worth a go, hopefully it's better now than when I had a pre-refurb 153 on it in 2005!

Not done too badly by the looks of it, even after all the hassle on the West Wales trip. Conquering the UK quite well from what I've read this year, fair dos

 

[Kite159]

150240 was the train on Conwy Valley duties yesterday

West Wales trip annoyed me, but it gives me another chance to visit a beautiful place in October time. Although Newport still haunts me, as the train from Chester to Holyhead was held up due to a delayed incoming train from Cardiff due to "points issues around Newport"

Is the Britannia Bridge (mainland to Anglesey) unique in the UK for being double decked with rail underneath & road on-top?

 

[Kite159]

Well there goes my plan to do the east Yorkshire round robin, currently sat somewhere west of the ECML, opposite 'bishop's move', was meant to be in York half an hour ago.

Me thinks when arrived in Leeds I will head straight back to Hull. Scarborough can wait for another day. And out goes the replacement plan to go York to Leeds via Harrogate and back along the main line.

I smell a delay claim going in. Just seen a shed from/to Drax, so hopefully we will be moving soon. Getting rather warm.

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And now the hull train service is delayed due to a door fault. Add with the ticket machine running out of tickets this morning (so only half printed a return ticket for a couple weeks time), today is not my day.

 

[Kite159]

Kent is well worth the day trip, the 395s are rather fast at going from 0 to whatever the speed they hit coming out of ebbsfleet northbound from the Gravesend line.

Friday I managed to do 3 of my 4 aims for a weekday trip to London. Managed to get a FGW 180, the chiltern parli (only person on it!) And a non GE 442 service. Only aim missed was a 150/0 on the Basingstoke/reading service (turbos both ways).

Only delay was the SE/FCC service to E&C from Bromley.

Today has been a bit of a nightmare, first FGW cancelled the romsey to Brighton service, so onto a slow southern service (how hard would it be to put some passing places to allow for the existence of a regular fast service, instead of the current stopping at every little halt). A couple minutes late into Brighton so I missed the Hastings train by a matter of a few seconds (would have made it if only for an idiot deciding to block the door playing with his iClone when the doors opened).

At least a 2 hour delay, so I will be sending the delay forms to FGW for some money

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And now I'm stuck outside Ashford due to a SPAD.

 

[Techniquest]

Not having much luck are you lately by the sounds of it!

 

[Kite159]

Yesterday the only biggest delay was with the Sunderland - Kings Cross service which got diverted via Darlington due to signal problems on the line south of Eaglescliffe, and diverted around Church Fenton way due to ECML works (I think I saw a 66 pulling an IC 225 set around the diversion route.

35 minutes late into Kings Cross, but thankfully I still had 30 minutes to get back to Waterloo.

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Today started off fine, had a nice drive to Salisbury, unusually green lights on the roundabouts, got the ticket and set off only to terminate at Basingstoke due to Woking, and having just missed getting onto the Reading bus, hung around waiting for info as the crowds built on platform 5 (I hope FGW were running a 3-car Turbo today) and thought it wasn't worth trying to continue into London, so hopped onto the southampton bound service to catch a figure of 6 service back to Salisbury (the boards said the Exeter service had been cancelled, but I would guess as soon as the Portsmouth/Poole service got out the way, the 159s would have pulled in to start from basingstoke.

Annoyingly one of the few reasons why I decided to go to London today was to get the Rickmansworth curve which was operating due to engineering works

Last Sunday was a bit of a nightmare, 2 and a bit hours late getting into Ashford which destroyed my plan of some 395 action between Ashford & Ramsgate (making use of the Kent Rover).


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I just hope this will be the last of my bad luck as next Saturday is my Greater Anglia bash, which has some tight connection times, although I would assume GA will hold a branch line train for a mainline train to avoid paying out delay repay. Lightweight clothing might be in order for those non-AC trains, windows open is good when moving, but not when stopped

 

[Techniquest]

Annoyingly one of the few reasons why I decided to go to London today was to get the Rickmansworth curve which was operating due to engineering works

You're better off driving up there and doing the PSUL moves instead, a lot of effort but it's more rewarding doing it on the limited service than on an all-day weekend diversion.

I just hope this will be the last of my bad luck as next Saturday is my Greater Anglia bash, which has some tight connection times, although I would assume GA will hold a branch line train for a mainline train to avoid paying out delay repay. Lightweight clothing might be in order for those non-AC trains, windows open is good when moving, but not when stopped

Ha ha ha ha ha, good luck! Unless it's extreme disruption then you've very little chance. When I was up that way on my 2012 ALR, heading from Needham Market towards Chelmsford (or wherever I had planned to go) with a mandatory change at Ipswich, there was a TCF or points failure causing issues just east of Ipswich. The 170 I was on was held, and the connecting London train was routed around us on the track immediately left of it (whatever its name is, Up and Down something). At the time it was a 2 hourly service up the East Suffolk line, and it was also allowed to go before we could get into the station. A lot of irate passengers as a result, and I missed an opportunity to have a 90 on the next leg but at least I enjoyed a pair of 321s instead 20 minutes later than I should have left Ipswich.

Definitely be prepared to sweat a fair bit on the non-AC units, if it stays this warm as it currently is!