The Various Random Mutterings of Kite

[xc170]

Kite - bit belated but congratulations on your achievement!

Never commented on your thread before but I've been following it for quite some time and its encouraged me to get out more and tick a few more stations off the list!

 

[Blindtraveler]

I really must try one of those Basingstoke pizzas, you have written about and eating so many over the years that I am really missing a trick I fear

Sounded like quite a pleasant day although too much merseyrail action for my personal taste with the exception of the run avoiding Capenhurst which I have as yet not manage to do and suspect won't manage in a couple of weeks x either when I am due to travel towards Liverpool from Chester but unfortunately on an evening service

 

[Kite159]

I really must try one of those Basingstoke pizzas, you have written about and eating so many over the years that I am really missing a trick I fear

Sounded like quite a pleasant day although too much merseyrail action for my personal taste with the exception of the run avoiding Capenhurst which I have as yet not manage to do and suspect won't manage in a couple of weeks x either when I am due to travel towards Liverpool from Chester but unfortunately on an evening service

The Basingstoke pizzas are OK, they won't set the world on fire but for £4.99 for a 9.5" one is good value considering there isn't that much food places around Basingstoke station, especially in the late evenings.

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Good news XC170, go out and explore the country

 

[Kite159]

15th October – Farewell to those little Golden Nuggets

A few months ago I made a list of places I wanted to revisit, places I first visited back in 2014, before I started to log unit numbers, mainly a few branch lines within London with a few other places I wanted to revisit to bring back memories. So for the first time in quite a while (at least since February, if not January) I had a nice early morning drive to Andover for the 06:58 departure towards Waterloo, which today was formed of the toothy twins 159103 & 159102. Only thing of note was a little weave outside Wimbledon to go onto the slow line due to a 455 being parked on the fast line, and the usual weave after Clapham over to the Windsor side. Once at Waterloo I headed downstairs to the Jubilee line for some 96 stock based noise with 96094 & 96077 taking me to Baker Street, and because I was lazy, 3561 & 3261 for the tiny leap to Marylebone.

Once at Marylebone I took a note of a 6-car 168/0+168/3 heading to Oxford, where the rear 2-car unit looked busy but the front 4-car unit had plenty of space, normals doing their usual trick of boarding at the first available door in case the train would leave when walking alongside it, but for me I was on the departure towards Aylesbury via High Wycombe, formed of 165002 as I grabbed a seat in the 2+2 seated area, a nice enough trip towards Princes Risborough (noting the new platform for the heritage line coming along well), only downside was sat near some loud youths who were telling tales of “being like amazed at this house which was like on the top of this hill”. After Princes as the unit turned onto the little single branch rural branch line towards Aylesbury I was the only passenger in the leading coach, terminating onto platform 3 with a 172 locked up in front.

It appears Aylesbury is getting work done to its existing footbridge as there is a temporary footbridge at the southern end of the platforms, but with 40 minutes to kill I headed out of the station to the nearby Morrisons to pick up something for lunch before returning to the station to wait for the next Aylesbury Vale Parkway service to roll in, this was formed of 165003 which took me alongside the depot (a couple 168s spotted, plus half of a 165) to the current end of the passenger line. After a couple pictures I swapped ends at the housing estate (for there is nothing else around Vale Parkway), once more taking a seat in the 2+2 section for a good run back to Marylebone via the hills, as expected the train did get quite busy (seriously Chiltern, a 2-car unit on an hourly service? The sidings south of Aylesbury were full of 165s, at least put on a 3-car unit). I believe this is my first time heading south of Aylesbury via Wendover so it was a good journey; a RPI caught a few dodgers out when he boarded at one of the intermediate stations.

165003 at Aylesbury Vale Parkway

Next up on my quest was a visit to C2C land, where after a think decided to use the Bakerloo line (3263/3550, thinking at the time “oh it’s the same one I had earlier”) for the tiny leap to Baker Street, and 21073/21074 to Kings Cross St Pancras where it terminated in the usual platform (no unexpected microgricing of the crossovers here) [my plan had been to carry on to Aldgate and walk the final short distance to Fenchurch Street had a circle line service not been available]. A mistake for me not checking the LU engineering works posters, but hey ho as I headed to the Depths of Hell, boarding 700036 for the short trip to Blackfriars, my journey being completed via 21335/21336 heading to Barking to take me to Tower Hill. A short walk later and I was sitting on a pair of 357s heading to Southend via Upminster & Tilbury, required for renumbering (so some blue pen action) 357319 & 357316 were on the quiet service departing Fenchurch Street, getting some speed going on the main-line alongside LU, turning right at the junction onto the single track section which had seen its fortunes changed (the first time I did this line via Ockendon it was a shuttle service from Upminster platform 1A to Grays bay platform).

I had forgotten how fast the 357s get up to speed with the multiple stops, and how beautiful the area around Chalkwell, as the railway runs alongside the waterfront. The train terminated into Southend Central (think this is the first time scoring platform 1, having scored platform 4 back in May 15), and I had a short wait in the sunshine before 357025 & 357008 rolled in to take me to the end of the line, passing many many many 357s in the sidings at Shoeburyness. Arrival was into platform 1 and I had around 20 minutes to kill before the service were depart so I headed to the beach for a few pictures, noting that the MOD line towards Pig’s Bay looks like it hasn’t seen a train in many years due to being rusty & having various vegetation growing. The seafront was nice for a short reflection, before returning to the station, getting lucky to secure one of the prime seats, a table seat in the 2+2 “First Class” area. Another quick run back towards Pitsea, but instead of carrying straight on the units turned left to go non-stop to Barking via Grays due to engineering works closing the line via Basildon.

- Beach at Shoeburyness
https://flic.kr/p/Z7cZKq
Personally I was hoping for a decent fast run, but until Grays these units were caught behind a service from Southend Central, so the speed was limited to the section after Grays, giving good views of HS1 and of the various industries in this part of the world. At Barking the train took the flyover to take me to Stratford as it was bound for Liverpool Street, once at Stratford I headed over to a busy 517503 working the next Hertford East service (busy due to it now being around 16:15 so the shoppers were starting to head home), sadly the only units I could spot on the Eurostar depot were a pair of 373s, but it does look like work is slowly coming along for the 3rd track. Maybe one day Tottenham Hale will actually be a decent station to welcome those passengers from Stansted Airport to Britain (i.e. having disabled access). I crossed over to the opposite platform with 317671 taking me to Liverpool Street for a fight to reach the Central Line platforms.

I don’t normally get annoyed, but there was some tourists who ignored instructions from platform staff to move down the platform, instead hanging around the peak-time entrance to the Central line platforms (the regular entrance at the western end of the platforms was closed), and as the Central Line was having issues the next service was due in 5 minutes after the current one the member of staff was trying to get passengers to board “oh no I won’t board, instead I will stand in the middle of the platform as the train looked a bit busy” [if they think this service was busy, I dread to think what the next one would be like in 5 minutes time!]. I was lucky enough to be able to grab the ID of all 4 parts at Bank, with 91083/92254/92428/91251 getting the tiny leap to Bank, running into the “wheelie” case brigade, the ones which must stop at the top/bottom of the steps in order to lower/raise the handle instead of carrying the bag up/down the stairs with the handle in the raised position. Anyhow mini-rant over as I jumped onto 51506/51507 for one stop south to London Bridge, for a long walk to reach the South Eastern platforms.

375308 & 375816 where working the next service towards Tonbridge, which I jumped on to, cover the new layout via the dive-under to reach Orpington, a short wait before 375913 & 375616 rolled in to take me back to zone 1, staying on board after London Bridge this time to reach Waterloo East. Swinging via Tesco to pick up something to eat before boarding the 18:14 Exeter/Bristol service, remembering how busy this service gets. It was the return of the toothy pair (I think 159103 returned wanting her entry into the 2000 mile club to be validated, becoming member 15). The toothy twins were joined by 159016, as I found a table seat in the middle of the service for the run back to Andover, assisting some passengers who wanted the Bristol portion that they were in the wrong portion. Arrival back at Andover was on time and I had a short walk back to the car for a nice drive home, being able to reflect on a day of rediscovery.
https://flic.kr/p/Z7cZKq
357025 at Shoeburyness
https://flic.kr/p/Z7cZKq
(I wonder if anybody can work out the meaning behind the title)

 

[Blindtraveler]

You're 159 s were bringing back memories of Somers all line Rover

Afraid I can't get the meaning of the title mainly due to my head being even full of cotton wool and crap this week than it's normally is but I have enjoyed your report on a very interesting day of rediscovery and have added the new layout at London Bridge to my revisit list which is far far too long

 

[Techniquest]

I need that new diveunder too, I might get it when it features in the new Baker atlas.

I cannot figure out the trip title myself, but I did enjoy the read. Tons of variety in there too

 

[37078xotTE]

Loving the trip reports as always and let me also add my congratulations to the mix.

A truly fantastic result.

The title is a reference to the demise and last day of the old style pound coin.

 

[Kite159]

Loving the trip reports as always and let me also add my congratulations to the mix.

A truly fantastic result.

The title is a reference to the demise and last day of the old style pound coin.

Indeed it is No reason for the reasoning behind the title other than the stress at work trying to get the till staff to hand in the old style pound coins and not hand them back out as change.

 

[Techniquest]

I still got asked to take some old ones on Monday, I don't think that woman was happy I refused it! For weeks I avoided giving them out as change to anyone, and I still can't believe there's so very many millions of them out there somewhere. My last ones were got rid of a while ago thankfully!

 

[Blindtraveler]

The whole pound coins thing has been handled so badly it is unreal. Came home by taxi last night as it wasn't far and driver tried to give me old ones in change and got very abusive when I wouldn't take them. There's now a private hire cab driver thrashing around without a £7 fare as I refused to pay him if he could only give me old coins has changed

 

[Kite159]

An unplanned day trip to London this evening (Friday) scored me 4 more 707s by making a rough plan to do all 3 diagrams, all be one pair only being in the book for Queenstown Road to Clapham Junction. But the main event was the capture of 321303, and I quite like what the refurbishment looks like (better seats, plug sockets, AC which seemed to work). Sadly no luck with a 345 (I'm waiting for more services to go over to 345 rather than 315s) or with a short half hour 700 hunting session. I suspect next session will start from blackfriars as most units which head south return whereas a few services heading north don't return.

Hopefully 321304 will fall into place and 321448 might return to service to clear another class, but only 4x "Old" EMUs remain, and one of those might never turn a wheel in passenger service again (332014).

I suspect a trip to the isle of Wight will be had at some point in the next few weeks on a Sunday due to various engineering works taking place, just to see if that 483 is out.

Trying to sleep with a storm outside is never fun

 

[postye]

Congratulations Kite on achieving all stations visited, that is a huge task - and one I am (jealousy) miles away from.
What will your next target be?

 

[Kite159]

Congratulations Kite on achieving all stations visited, that is a huge task - and one I am (jealousy) miles away from.
What will your next target be?

Next year I will start with some of the heritage lines, with the odd railtour thrown in for good measure to get some freight lines & other oddities ticked off.

I've also found an unusual liking of London buses, so I might go off exploring more of London that way (as you see different things from a bus than from the rails) For example I found out about the Musical Museum near Kew Bridge station last night owing to doing a bus move from Ealing

 

[Cowley]

I'm having my weekly catch up. Enjoyed reading about your Shoeburyness trip, it reminded me that Fenchurch St is the only (existing) London terminus that I haven't visited I think.

 

[Kite159]

21st October – A trip to London

I wasn’t originally going to do a report for today but seeing as I’ve had a tough day at work I need to bring back the memories of the previous weekend. Today was a couple lines of rediscover before meeting up with my good friend Techni, staying overnight in Croydon in the hope of doing a Night Tube session. But before he arrived on a bus from Hereford I had some time deciding to focus on the South Eastern lines with the aim of revisiting Abbey Wood as when I visited it before it was on a temporary formation.

Onwards to London on the 06:59 service this morning, formed of 159003 for the speedy run to the capital and Waterloo, where after swinging via Tesco to pick up something to munch I walked up the many stairs to Waterloo East leaping on 375908 & 375824 as a time wasting move to Charing Cross, crossing platform to board 465246 & 465158 to London Bridge, this is where things could have gone wrong as this service was delayed at Waterloo East with the Gillingham service going ahead, thankfully this service overtook on approach to London Bridge for a quick cross platform change onto the new platform 6 for 465186 & 465049 for the fast run towards Lewisham, where I stayed on board to Blackheath for no reason.

A couple minutes later a Victoria – Dartford service rolled in, formed of 465011 & 465018 which I took to Barnehurst as a time wasting move, just in case the Slade Green bound service is a deluxe 376. A few minutes later 465154 rolled in to take me to the curve heading towards Slade Green for a good 6 minute fester before carrying on into the station, forming the next Cannon Street service which I stayed on for a couple stops to reach the island platform of Abbey Wood.



The new station building was still having its finishing touches, the Crossrail platform behind the fence also was having work done to it, but it appeared the OHLE was up on that side. Anyhow I knew my luck wouldn’t last with the appearance of 376033 to take me to Cannon Street (scoring the new layout through platform 2), with the next Lewisham service being the same 465 I alighted from earlier, I went out in search of the free toilets for a quite PNB before returning to board 376015 to take me to Lewisham before 465029 & 465188 to take me down to the end of the Hayes branch line, arriving into platform 2 (so platform 1 remains uncovered).

I was in two minds at my next move, either a bus move (for ”Most of the London Bus Routes” is coming next year towards Croydon or take the same pair of networkers up to Elmers End for a tram move… Sorry route 119 you will have to wait until next year. Returning to board 465118 & 465029 to take me to Elmers End, jumping onto tram 2559 to take me to the West Croydon Tram stop, where I flagged down a route 250 bus (fleet T15) to take me along the London Road to the “Canterbury Road” bus stop, allowing me to check into my hotel, as it saves a job for later. I returned to the main-road spotting a Tesco Express over the road which was visited for a meal deal before I jumped on the first available bus back to Croydon town centre, this time a route 109 formed of bus 2499. I alighted at the “Whitgift Centre” for a short walk to the new entrance to East Croydon station, to find Southern in general chaos.

Turning down a busy pair of 377s for a following Bedford Thameslink, which was formed of winner 700117 for a quick phone charge on the crawl via South London to reach Blackfriars where I spotted another required 700 heading south on a Sevenoaks service, this 700 was due to run fast from St Pancras calling only at Luton Airport due to severe late running. Required 700042 rolled in on a Sutton loop service which I took to the dump of Elephant & Castle, returning to Blackfriars on 700027 for a quick walk to LU with 21407/21408 taking me westwards on a District Line working where I met up with Techniquest at London Victoria, whom for the remainder of this random mutterings will be called “Tech”.

The first job was to visit Croydon to drop off Tech’s mobile house as bashing is easier without carrying around a lot of weight, the first service was turned down for a Southampton/Bognor service, formed of 377116, 377413 & 377421 with us getting a seat in the comfy 116, so it was back to Croydon for me, as I waited for Tech to check into the Easy Hotel before carrying on. Next up was a London Bridge bound 171806, for a fast walk to the South Eastern platforms at Bridge to jump onto 465934 & 465155 to Charing Cross. A short walk in the wind took us to Embankment with 21307/21308 rolling in for the short leap to Blackfriars for I had a certain 700 in my sights.

I will do the next part in summary as it was a 700 hunt, Tech getting many winners for his book of sights and for haulage, the original plan of doing the shacks in the northern end of the network went out of the window due to the high winds and the general delays for Bedford services:

700032 to Elephant & Castle
700026 to Blackfriars
700033 to City Thameslink
700001 to Blackfriars
700040 to City Thameslink
700106 to Farringdon
700108 to Blackfriars
700023 to City Thameslink
700012 to Farringdon

There was only one more 700 out which I needed, however that had gone to Brighton and after a good hour and a bit we got bored of the core, so headed to Liverpool Street to see what was working the Stratford shuttles (21493/21494 doing the honours), only to find half of them cancelled due to a train fault, so after swinging via Tesco for a supply raid (lots of reduced price hot food) it was a return to LU with a decent run on 21017 & 21018 to Baker Street, heading to the Bakerloo with 3558/3232 taking us onwards to Marylebone for the next Gerrards Cross terminator.

165018 was working this service which we took to Northolt Park for a short wait in the rain (the waiting shelter was full of drug smoking local youths) before a slightly delayed 165016 to return us to Marylebone, a short wait on the Bakerloo platforms before 3558/3232 took up to Paddington to hunt down some 387s, turning down the delayed first pair of units as being dud for both of us, before a short fester before 387146/387149 rolled in for the short run to Ealing Broadway, leaping onto 165127 & 166215 for the slow run back to Paddington, leaping onto 387137 & 387150 returning us to Ealing Broadway.

The next London service had been cancelled, with the following one being that pair of 387s we turned down earlier, so after heading out of the station for a fresh air break, I spotted the bus destination board forming an idea of getting some of Tech’s shack scores, as a route 65 bus would drop us outside near one of them. Besides that would be better than a long trek back into the city on either the District or Central lines, so it was onto SP40060 working to Kingston taking us past the Musical Museum & London Museum of Steam & Light to drop us off at Kew Bridge. We made good timing as the next Waterloo service was due in a few minutes so it was a trip on 458525 to Chiswick, leaping onto 458533/458529 to take us back to Kew Bridge.

Next up was 458524 to take us to Barnes Bridge with a 15 minute wait, which we spent looking across the river as a footbridge runs alongside the railway bridge over the river, joking about the next bus move, before returning to Barnes Bridge with 458504 taking us to Clapham Junction, for a walk over to platform 7 with 444004 taking us to Waterloo. A bit of confusion when Tech went off for a coffee and I must have missed him as I jumped onto a crowded 455739 for the run to Vauxhall, followed by 455865/455847 to Clapham Junction. 450122/450077 took us back to Waterloo for a short wait before 450126/450038 took us to Surbiton via East Putney, mainly as a “why not” move, crossing over the footbridge at Surbiton to board 455873 to Berrylands for a short walk to the bus stop with a route K2 bus (DE20065) taking us back to Surbiton (the connection from a Berrylands – Surbiton service to an inbound service was tight).

450090 & 450127 rolled in on time, but departed late as it headed towards Clapham Junction, taking the flyover after Wimbledon to cross over to the suburban lines, with a quick dash over to the Southern platforms for a late running fast service, formed of 377414 & 377416. We were both tired so the idea of a Night Tube session was put back onto the back burner for another couple months, both thankful of making this service otherwise it would have been a half hour wait before the next stopping service. Anyhow surprisingly the barriers at East Croydon were wide open as I headed over the road to the bus stop, waiting for a route 64 bus formed of T18 to take me to Canterbury Road with the short walk to the hotel.

A productive day, a couple lines recovered, 4 more 700s into my book and a good social with Tech, but I shall leave you with this picture of 700016 at East Croydon waiting around to work an East Croydon – Brighton service (was meant to be London Bridge but it got turned round at Croydon).
700016 at East Croydon

 

[Iskra]

Sounded like a good day Kite, thanks for sharing.

 

[Kite159]

22nd October – A London Weekend, Day 2

After a decent night’s sleep I woke up, checked out of the hotel and headed to the bus stop at Broad Green Avenue for the first bus heading towards Croydon, this turned out to be a route 60 formed of DW513 which I took to West Croydon railway station, for a quick walk around the corner to reach the tram stop for tram 2564 to take me to East Croydon station where I met up with Tech, popping into Sainsburys for a bacon sandwich meal deal before heading to the platforms.

Option 1 was a 171 bound for Uckfield which is normally a 2-car unit on Sundays, but today was a 171/8, so we headed across the footbridge to platform 1 for a trip to Victoria on 377116/377414 to allow Tech to use the left luggage facility at Victoria Coach Station (a lot larger than I through it was) as he was due to head to Scotland later that evening and fly back to London in a few days time (which I’m sure you will hear about at a later date). Anyhow after a quick PNB it was time to head to LU with 11061/11062 taking us onwards to Kings Cross St Pancras, where we decided to swing via Kings Cross to have a look for any required 365s or 387s stopping at Finsbury Park. Noting a very busy Edinburgh service (not that many unreserved seats it looked like) before boarding a busy 365501/365504 for a run to Finsbury Park.

With nothing else due in the next 15 minutes (and that would have been a single unit as it called at all stations from Cambridge towards the mainline) we headed to the Piccadilly Line with 195/158 soon arriving to take us to Kings Cross St Pancras, this time heading towards St Pancras high level platforms where the 700s were departing from today (as the core was closed), we leapt onto 700014 to run to West Hampstead Thameslink where I kept a watchful eye out of the window to ID the inbound unit which would then form a Luton stopping service. Success it was a required RLU (for both of us) so after a brief fester at West Hampstead Thameslink it was onwards to Hendon on 700004, passing many 700s in the sidings including a brand new 70014X (I want to say 143 but can’t quite remember).

We did a Hendon leap as the next southbound service was running a few minutes late, and luck was in as it was winner 700119 a unit I saw twice yesterday but both times it escaped us. Back to West Hampstead Thameslink swinging via a little bakery for a hellfire baguette before heading down to the Jubilee Line station with 96003/96030 putting in a vocal performance on route to West Ham, for it was time for some C2C station grabbing, so after looking at a couple DLR services we headed to the C2C platform with 357210 taking us to Dagenham Dock, 357327 returned us to West Ham for a time wasting move before 357312 took us to Rainham (Essex), where due to the timetable the half hourly service passes here, but it was only a short wait (in the freezing cold wind) for a route 103 bus (sadly a dud route as I did a similar move a couple years ago to escape to Romford), formed of DW206 to take us to Dagenham East.

It appeared we had just missed a departure from the limited use (off-peak) bay platform, but it wasn’t long before 21529/21530 took us to Barking arriving pretty much at the same time as the return of 357312 from Grays. A short fester before 357015/357013 rolled in to take us to Limehouse for some DLR bashing, the moves I shall summarise below:
70/82/85 to Shadwell
45/43/23 to Limehouse
133/154/119 to Shadwell
67/69/71 to Limehouse
05/77/60 to Westferry
147/152 to Poplar
145/151 to Canning Town
25/72/63 to Royal Victoria
04/47/93 to Canning Town (LL) (busiest service of the day due to an event at the Excel Centre)
82/15 to Stratford

We had covered the vast majority of the DLR workings, sadly unit 39 wasn’t out (the only one we missed was a Lewisham service which was formed of a trio of newer units), as I wanted to get to Paddington for a rail replacement bus avoidance move (Basingstoke to Woking was closed today), it was to the Central Line with 91319/92142/92208/91187 to Liverpool Street, heading upstairs to board 21429/21430 to Edgware Road before 21539/21540 took us to the Praed Street platforms at Paddington as I wanted to visit the Sainsburys for something munch on.

I said farewell to Tech as he made use of a Turbo for a PNB (saved 30p) and I did the long walk to the end of platform 2 to ID the front power car, 43139 was leading low mileage 43094 for the fast run to Reading (well semi-fast as it called at both Slough & Maidenhead), a short walk over to platform 2 to wait for 165126 to roll in for the run to Basingstoke, for a short walk over to platform 2 where the Exeter/Bristol service was waiting, 159008, 159017 & 159015 and in comparison to the previous week, after Andover I had a pretty much empty coach on 159017! Arrival back at Grateley was a couple minutes late, but I got a lift home to end a very good weekend.

Thank you Tech for dealing with me this weekend Next weekend sees another long railtour day as I’m on The Fiddlers Five tour from Westbury, at least this time I’ve decided to upgrade to 1st class to get a better seat (on that train from 05:55 to 23:20 with only a couple potential short breaks, gonna be murder)

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The Basingstoke pizzas are OK, they won't set the world on fire but for £4.99 for a 9.5" one is good value considering there isn't that much food places around Basingstoke station, especially in the late evenings.

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Good news XC170, go out and explore the country

OK - apart from as you said the late evenings: Ahem! The Malls Centre and The Festival Place Centre, medium size and massive shopping centres respectively are right outside!!!! Walk down the steps and you are there! Full of places to get food too! Burger King, Wetherspoons, Nandos, La Tasca, Pizza Hut, Greggs, ASK Italian, EAT, Giraffe, Pret a Monger, Subway, Pizza Express, Wagamama, Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Plus Tesco Metro, Sainsbury's, M&S, Costa, Boots, Caffe Nero and Starbucks and Waitrose if you just fancy something from a supermarket or café. None of these are further than half a mile from the station. I've arrived at Basingstoke on a SWT service at 13:34 before and managed to run down to the shopping centre and grab food, and being able to return five minutes before my XC connection! That's how close it is!

However, as you said about late evenings, most (but not all) of these places do close at about 6pm. But before then, there are loads of places.

 

[Kite159]

OK - apart from as you said the late evenings: Ahem! The Malls Centre and The Festival Place Centre, medium size and massive shopping centres respectively are right outside!!!! Walk down the steps and you are there! Full of places to get food too! Burger King, Wetherspoons, Nandos, La Tasca, Pizza Hut, Greggs, ASK Italian, EAT, Giraffe, Pret a Monger, Subway, Pizza Express, Wagamama, Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Plus Tesco Metro, Sainsbury's, M&S, Costa, Boots, Caffe Nero and Starbucks and Waitrose if you just fancy something from a supermarket or café. None of these are further than half a mile from the station. I've arrived at Basingstoke on a SWT service at 13:34 before and managed to run down to the shopping centre and grab food, and being able to return five minutes before my XC connection! That's how close it is!

However, as you said about late evenings, most (but not all) of these places do close at about 6pm. But before then, there are loads of places.

I did mention late evenings when most of those places which are a good 10 minute walk from the station are closed.

And some of them are not the best if you want something in a hurry

Sainsburys (a couple minutes fast walk) closes at 8pm, Tesco at 10pm. Pretty sure the KFC in the Malls closes at 8pm. I've done the fast walk to Sainsburys before to grab something between the arrival of the 159s to the departure of the voyager

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Ah yes, the KFC

Knew I forgot something!!!

 

[Techniquest]

Excellent read as always good sir! The 700 you weren't sure about was 700141, can't be long until the FLUs are finished coming over then.

Thanks for providing some most welcome company, and don't worry the trip report from me will go up in due course today!

 

[Kite159]

A look back over October 17

Bearing any last minute “ah fudge it, lets go for a trip to Didcot to sample a 800” decisions I’m done for October so it is time for a look back.

The first Sunday was a late notice trip to London to revisit Finchley Central on the Northern Line where due to poor log reporting in 2014 meant I didn’t have a log of visiting this particular station, also I wanted to either board or alight from a Chiltern service at West Ruislip to be able to say England was done before the final push weekend in Wales.

I will admit I got lucky with the timing of my trip to North Wales, the Friday being spent heading to Crewe via Shrewsbury before picking up various shacks on the North Wales Coast, plus a few on the Conwy Valley line (the line which was closed the following weekend, then part closed and now closed until November time due to storm damage), employing the use of a few buses to get two shacks for the price of one. A lazy Sunday followed with a trip to Holyhead to pick up my remaining 4 shacks on the island of Anglesey involving a bus from Holyhead to Valley, plus a walk between Rhosneigr & Ty Croes.

The big day was the Monday where due to an earlier than expected finish on the Sunday and the fact I couldn’t sleep meant an early start to catch the first southbound Conwy Valley service which is semi-fast, meaning I could say “Great Britain” tick at around 08:10 when I stepped off the empty train at the remote Roman Bridge. The rest of the day was spent doing a nice run behind 67016 from Chester to Llandudno Junction, before making my way back home involving a trip in front of 68013.

Next Friday was another trip to North Wales, although this time 67015 entered the book for a run from Shrewsbury to Chester, before getting a Voyager to Wrexham General, scoring the microgrice of the south connection at platform 3 for another run to Shrewsbury before returning north to Shotton to board the last Bidston – Wrexham service to score the PSUL movement with the northern connection into platform 3.

The Saturday was a day where my ticket wallet remained safety in my bag as it was a trip on Merseyrail, just to recover some of the Wirral lines, getting the odd microgrice (platform 1 at Hooton, crossover at South Parkway), before heading back towards home which sadly involved a minibus from Didcot to Basingstoke due to the late notice engineering works at Reading. My lines of rediscovery returned on the Sunday to revisit Aylesbury Vale Parkway & Shoeburyness just for something to do.

20th October was a return of the Friday night “smash & grab” London trip, picking up 4 more 707s but the main result was one of my final trio of 321s (which leaves 304 & 448 if that one ever returns to series, where I have a feeling it will join 332014 on the ‘scrapped’ list), I returned to London the 21st October to revisit a couple of the South Eastern lines, have a look at the new Abbey Wood before meeting up for a good social with Techni, getting some more 700s in the book, plus some more bus routes for my latest project (which reminds me to go back in my log files to pick out any other London bus routes I’ve used in the past to tick them off the list).

A trip to London on the 24th October for the “All the Stations” talked got me the oddity of having 466+466+465 combos twice, with another 159 joining Club 2K, it was a good talk listening to how the ATS team had a team behind them helping them out with planning along the way (certainly made me a bit proud of having done all my planning by myself over the course of the last few years, something I will miss).

The final Saturday was a rail tour to the North West, changing my mind on the Friday between driving to/from Westbury to meeting the train up in Birmingham (with the backup option of Stafford, which turned out to be a good decision as I was home before the tour arrived back at Bath last night, although that did involve a completely crazy +5 from New Street to Moor Street!). Anyhow to the tour, a winning 66 (66183) was joined by my first 56 (56105) for a little tour scoring: The Ince Moss Chord (links the goods line south of Wigan to the St Helens Central line), the Ravenhead Works oil siding (south of St Helens Central), part of the Waterloo sidings near Edge Hill, part of the Dallam Royal Mail Terminal [exited out of the central crossover], one of the Canal Sidings in the freight yard south of Warrington Bank Quay, Latchford Siding, Fiddlers Ferry Power Station Loop [massive pile of coal], plus the “up Liverpool independent” line north of Crewe to bypass the station, rejoining after a trip via the yard. A good day, made better by upgrading to 1st class (even though my back was starting to hurt by the end of the day, still better than those god awful bench seats in standard class on a Mk1 coach).

Anyhow sorry for boring you with details of that tour, here be some figures:

October in Numbers

3414 miles covered (44582 miles covered to date)
4 New Locos (56105, 66183, 67015 & 67016) (plus 2 DVTs)
11 new units (1x 321, 4x 707, 6x 700) (plus 2x 357/3s for renumbering)
23 new shacks into my book
Plus several buses


Looking ahead to November sees another rail tour, this time to Immingham Docks, a trip to Edinburgh as a relaxing trip to recover a couple of the lines covered by the “Edinburgh Days Out” ticket [hopefully also that tram!]. The remaining couple weeks I’ve got penciled down for some West Midlands Day Rangers, mainly to recover some lines I haven’t been along since 2014. This winter I plan to take things easy, although I suspect I will still have the odd trip to London in the search for those last few LU units, 321304 plus any other new stock.

Strangely unlike some trip report writers, I haven’t yet sampled a 800, even though they are semi-local to me.

 

[Techniquest]

It took you a while to get a 345 in the book as well to be fair You did get your first 707 before the rest of us though, unless Keith managed it and hasn't mentioned it yet.

A good month for you, and it was also good to catch up with you again, it had been a fair while. Probably going to be a good while until the next time too!

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Alas, no 707s in The Haulage Book yet. Might wait until they are in squadron service before I go chasing unless I end up being able to grab some on the regular commute out of Waterloo.

Unlike others, October has been a rather busy month on other fronts (principally selling books, yet more books and even more books) so the only exercise that the red pen has seen is on my last couple of RLU 700s (001 & 004 being the last two) and a handful of re-tractioned 455s. And those have been garnered on the daily commute. About the only positive that I can boast about is that I have made inroads into my SWR 455 carriage requirements. Down to two now!

 

[Kite159]

Alas, no 707s in The Haulage Book yet. Might wait until they are in squadron service before I go chasing unless I end up being able to grab some on the regular commute out of Waterloo.

Unlike others, October has been a rather busy month on other fronts (principally selling books, yet more books and even more books) so the only exercise that the red pen has seen is on my last couple of RLU 700s (001 & 004 being the last two) and a handful of re-tractioned 455s. And those have been garnered on the daily commute. About the only positive that I can boast about is that I have made inroads into my SWR 455 carriage requirements. Down to two now!

I'm shocked you haven't had a 707 yet Mr Keith, even on a Waterloo - Clapham move

Assuming all 001 - 046 are in service for the RLU 700s, I need 019 & 044. Hope the book selling market is going well.

 

[Techniquest]

I echo Kite here, hope everything is going well but it sounded like it is. Doing well Keith with your 455 coaches though, those last two will be challenging. Shouldn't mention how both me and Kite had 700001 and 700004 the weekend before last mind!

 

[Lrd]

What is an 'RLU'?

 

[Dhassell]

What is an 'RLU'?

RLU - Reduced Length Unit
FLU - Full Length Unit

 

[Lrd]

RLU - Reduced Length Unit
FLU - Full Length Unit

Ahh thank you

 

[Keith Jarrett]

I echo Kite here, hope everything is going well but it sounded like it is. Doing well Keith with your 455 coaches though, those last two will be challenging. Shouldn't mention how both me and Kite had 700001 and 700004 the weekend before last mind!

The books side of things is going very well but always looking for more business! October was pure manic with three complete weekends out selling books - and we have two in November as well. Not bad, considering we are only out ten times in a year.

SWR 455 coaches are now down to one! On the way home last night I bagged a few 458 coaches on my way out of Waterloo and literally fell into one of my last two on my way down to Wimbledon to intercept Mrs KJ. Now I am just after 77724 from unit 5873 to clear SWR 455s - then on to the Southern ones which will mean a slightly earlier departure for work each morning.