Alas I only had 15 or so minutes to play with in petersfield before the fast back up to Woking.
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Kite in Japan – Day 8
Sorry Crehld, but as Magnus Magnusson once said, I've started so I'll finish

, a nice departure from the hotel in Osaka and we were back on the road, the finishing point tonight was going to be Matsue, so it was going to be another busy day on the road (at least the legroom is good and the windows kept spotlessly clean, you see drivers of the coaches keeping their buses in tip-top condition when at rest points, polishing them, cleaning the floors etc).
The first proper stop of the day was at “the castle of sweets” in Yonago (although at this point I wasn’t feeling that good, I didn’t have the best of nights sleep as I had a room with a noisy AC unit which couldn’t be turned off), which is a factory where they make sweets which is in the shape of a castle:
Some nice samples of some weird and wonderful Japanese sweets, although I didn’t buy anything, but did find myself at the top of the castle for some rather good views of an industrial area in a city on the Sea of Japan, time for a brief break before setting back on the road towards Matsue itself, where we were going to see the castle, and it is quite impressive for a castle built in the 17th century, it was up into the castle for some views of the inside samurai warrior helmets and outside:
Although it was busier than the previous castle visited (due to it being a public holiday), it was still nice, especially that random girl who was being very brave in only wearing a short skirt on some of the ladders (hey she decided to go in front of me, wasn’t my fault I had to look where I was putting my hands

) The next stop in the city was to an old mid-ranking samurai’s residence, and soon it was back on the road, running alongside Lake Shinji (on the left, and a Matsue private railway line on the right, sample train is below:
And now that is what I call a shack:
Anyhow after the nice enjoyable drive, it was to another shrine, this time the Izumo Shrine, and one thing which springs to mind a couple weeks after visiting was a very thick rope, but was a very nice shrine which is rebuilt every so many years to keep the craft tradition alive:
It was soon back to Matsue city, via a different way and with darkness falling, it wasn’t soon before we were driving in the dark, and back at the hotel where we had a fast check-in and I dumped my bags in the room, and headed out for a spot of rails, not a city with a subway or even trams, so my options was limited to a quick hop to a close-by station, Nogi. Matsue station was small (compared to previous stations, it only had 4 platforms), and manual gates (think Birmingham New Street/Liverpool Lime Street), so it was upstairs to await the next “local” to Nogi.
Before that a 2-car DMU arrived on the other side of the station heading somewhere:
,
Before my train arrived, it was a 2-car 126 Series DMU, set 14, I think, but looked rather good:
To Nogi, which was my only Japanese station which didn’t have ticket gates or a man waiting to collect tickets, which allowed me to keep the outward part of my return ticket (costs the same as 2 singles), a bit confusing as I went to the wrong platform, but the line must be bi-directional as the 2-car EMU arrived on the same platform as the DMU departed. Although I swear going by the carriage numbers and the completely different looking ends, it was 2 cars from 2 different series, the rear end was 114-1117 with the front being a 115-1508, what do you think?
Rear:
Front:
I got confused as it was a rural train, only one set of doors are opened for passengers to board, as you are meant to pay your fare onboard:
Anyhow it was back to Matsue and before I left the station, I managed to grab a picture of a Limited Express heading somewhere and they look kinda funky:
Afterwards I departed the station, and headed to grab some beef curry noodles and rice, and attempted to use some chop-sticks, and it is harder than it looks eating noodles with chop-sticks, and back to the hotel for a nights rest, as the following day would be tiring emotionally.
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And a change of scene with an UK report:
24th October – A Day on Merseyside
A day in Liverpool was in order, and purchased a few months ago as soon as the tickets went on sale, so happy days I got C1 on the way up, but another seat in coach C on the way back, so it was to Waterloo on the 05:24, formed this morning of 159015 for the nice run to the capital, arrival was on time after the usual sitting outside Waterloo for the platform to be cleared by an empty stopper to Haslemere. I had an hour and 20 minutes to kill before the 08:07 to Liverpool from Euston, so it was time for some underground shack scoring.
To the Jubilee line platforms for some 96 stock noise to
Westminster on winning set 52 with dud 89 behind, heading up the stairs at the interesting station to jump onto a circle line train to
Sloane Square (S7 stock 399 & 400, both required), a few minutes later a D-stock train appeared, with units 38 & 57 taking me the short hop to
South Kensington, and D-stock units 4 & 17 following to take me to
Gloucester Road, the traditional circle line complete. Locating the Piccadilly line platforms was a long walk (no wonder why it doesn’t appear as an interchange on the maps, Earls Court & South Kensington is easier), for my first 73 Stock since I’ve started recording LU stock. So it was onto sets 890 & 241 to
Knightsbridge, closely followed with sets 150 & 187 to
Hyde Park Corner before finally sets 199 & 870 to Green Park, with Victoria line sets 23 & 24 taking me to Euston.
Well that killed some time as I arrived into Euston station at around 07:40 so still had time to grab some food from Sainsburys before heading towards the higher end platforms where dud 390050 was the unit to take me the distance to Liverpool Lime Street, a slight highlight being a particularly beautiful lady sat opposite in seat C2 wearing a cheap top (which had a good reflection in the window), had to stop myself thinking dirty thoughts for the 2 and a bit hour journey. Arrival was on time and with my pre-purchased Saveaway I headed straight towards P1-P6 side of the station to jump onto the Preston bound 319, which was required
319376 so happy days at the start, nice fast run calling only at Huyton and I alighted at my first new NR shack of the day at
St Helens Central, arriving a couple minutes early (I’m guessing it is timed to be at Pacer acceleration) allowing me a quick chance for a sneaky shack attack and over the wet footbridge and to the other platform jumping onto dud 319364 for the short hop back towards Liverpool at
Thatto Heath.
Dud 319365 was next on a Wigan stopper to take me to the edge of the Saveaway area at
Garswood, and another bridge to cross in the rain (wasn’t the nicest of days weather wise) to jump onto dud 319377 (first time 377 in Northern colours, previously had it on a Farringdon – Blackfriars leap) to
Eccleston Park. Thankfully the weather had cleared up so I went for a walk, walking the mile and a bit to
Prescot to jump back onto 319365 for the 2nd time of the day to take me to Huyton, the line towards Wigan all cleared and not a pacer in sight. A tight connection at Huyton (thankful for the Island platform, and just when are Network Rail going to finish the track-work for P4?) saw me onto a Warrington Bank Quay bound service, formed of dud (first time Northern) 319375 to
Earlestown, I would have tried to get Newton-Le-Willows but it was a “le bus”, but as that shack falls inside the Manchester Wayfarer area, it shouldn’t be too hard to grab it in December.
Across the triangular station and onto an all station stopper, dud 319363 taking me back to Liverpool Lime Street, there was a brief moment where I could have bailed at Edge Hill for a +3 onto a Manchester Oxford Road service to put myself an hour up, but that fell apart when we arrived into Edge Hill 3 down to the sound of a pacer accelerating away, ah-well, it was always going to be a long shot, and to Lime Street, and to Boots to grab some lunch and a break for 15 or so minutes. The next South Parkway bound service was a 185 which was in front of the next stopper, so to grab a table seat to eat lunch and for a quick charge of my phone, it was onto new super-dud 185149 for the short trip to
Liverpool South Parkway, with a brief wait before dud 156488 rolled up with required
156459 behind, so taking a seat in 459 for the short run away from the wires and briefly into 3rd rail land, before reaching
Hough Green, not the nicest of stations if you need to make a fast connection at. Sadly the next inbound service was running a tad late, but it had a required pacer on the front,
142013 with (tiny distance) dud 142039 on the rear, sadly it meant I missed the connection with the next Manchester bound stopper which called at Halewood, so it was time to think, and hop across the footbridge via the gatelines to the low-level platforms. I can’t remember which trip reporter said they were hard to find, but compared to some stations they were quite easy, just follow the signs to the Northern Line.
Having just missed a required 508, meant I had a 15 minute gap before the next service, which was running late (due to being held up for a late running TPX to cross over lines, one of 3 places where Merseyrail units share the same lines with other stock (I believe, excluding Southport), and it was dud 508111 to take me to
St Michaels with winner
508108 back to
Cressington, dud 507028 for the 58 chain leap to
Aigburth before winner
507014 to Hunts Cross, where I had a 10 minute wait before the next Northern stopper was dud (felt it was easier to make the interchange at Hunts Cross than at South Parkway). In came the sound of a couple pacers, and it was the same pair I had earlier (bugger), 142039 & 142013, which I took to
Halewood, with a brief break before the same pair of 156s arrived from earlier (156459 & 156488) to take me back to Hunts Cross, and across the long ramped steps footbridge to the waiting 508120 (sadly a dud) to take me to Liverpool Central, where a brief moment later winner
507033 rolled in to take me to my final shack on that loop to
Brunswick, not the nicest of stations to jump across platforms in a hurry, but it was done with a couple minutes to spare with delayed 508115 taking me north, I was tempted to grab Bank Hall for a +1, but decided against it, so I jumped of at the anti-social behaviour capital of the known universe at Sandhills to await the next Ormskirk bound train, formed of dud 507005 to take me to
Kirkdale, where I had a brief 10 minute wait before winner
507009 rolled in to take me to the end of the line at Kirkby.
A quick walk under the bridge to the Northern side of the platform to find winning
150201 on the next service towards Manchester (and onwards to Huddersfield), which I took a seat on, and apart from a random stop where it looked like the driver got out the train to look at something on the single track before pausing briefly at the signal box at the end of the single track (something on the line?) to
Rainford to clear that Kirkby – Wigan line. 15 or so minutes later dud 156425 rolls up to take me back to Kirkby with a bit of a fast walk to jump onto fresh dud 507009 to take me to
Fazakerley. A few minutes later dud 508112 rolled in to take me back to Kirkby where I stayed on as it continued on its journal back to Liverpool, and I alighted at Kirkdale. I was going to jump on the service from Ormskirk, but it was running late which put my connection with the next service to Ormskirk at risk. Sandhills is a much better station to interchange than Kirkdale, no long steps to get back to street level. Lightness had started to fall as I boarded 507024 to take me pretty much to the end of the line, and into Lancashire at
Aughton Park.
The ticket office seller looked a bit bored as I went pass him and down to the other side, think Wood End in terms of distance between platforms, anyhow 507024 had returned to take me back towards Liverpool, where I bailed at Orrell Park, and a few minutes later dud 507005 rolled in to take me to my final shack on the Ormskirk branch with
Aintree, only Merseyrail shacks remaining are now those between Southport & Sandhills on the Northern Line. Dud (not really having the best of luck with 50X units today) 508126 took me to Moorfields and eventually I found the Wirral line platform and onto dud 508143 back to Lime Street. Sadly Boots was closed, so I grabbed a sandwich from WH Smiths (not really the best sandwiches) and headed to dud 390005 which was sitting all 390-like waiting to depart.
Apart from a grumpy lady who decided to try and take over most of the table, and most of my seat (grumpy because I asked her to move from the window seat as I needed the plug socket, or just grumpy as she was a Sun reader, who knows) for a slow trip back to Euston, getting caught up in some mild delays caused by a late running stopper in front (as Saturday evenings the southern end of the WCML goes down to 2-tracks) and so it was a bit of a crawl down to Euston, arriving a few minutes down at 22:25. To the underground, and the Victoria line (sets 31 & 32) taking me to Oxford Circus, and finding the northbound Bakerloo platforms, with sets 562 & 264 taking me to my final Bakerloo shack in the shape of
Regent’s Park, 4 minutes later dud 559 with winner 245 rolled in to take me to Baker Street.
Changing onto the Jubilee line (for the lovely sound the 96 stock makes) with sets 71 & 94 taking me onwards to
Bermondsey before doubling back to
Southwark on sets 02 & 41 (I’ve previously used Southwark station, but must have been a few years ago for some magazine focus group), I didn’t have long to wait before sets 115 & 96 took me the 21 chains back to Waterloo. Grabbing some food from McDonalds was first and I headed to see what was on the 23:40 to Basingstoke, and tonight it was 159015 making another appearance with 159005, however I’m not moaning at it means 159015 was cleared for 1000 miles. To Basingstoke where strangely the train terminated due to engineering works and it was outside, down the steps to the little bus stop where two coaches were waiting, one was to Andover only, the other to Overton, Whitchurch, Andover (to pick up), Grateley and finally Salisbury, formed of a Pewsey Vale Coach R913ULA, it was a long trip home, made worst as Overton & Whitchurch stations are down little side streets away from the main-road, and 1 person got off at Overton and nobody got off at Whitchurch, 1 person got on at Andover and me and around 7 others got off at Grateley around 01:50 (leaving at a guess 10 passengers for Salisbury). A quick drive home and I collapsed into bed, with nothing planned for the next day (I previously had planned for the North Downs, but seeing it was a bus from Basingstoke instead of Andover ditched them).
Anyhow, a very productive day in terms of shacks, I can’t wait to get back to Liverpool, although I have no idea when that might be due to SWT not releasing advance quotas for the 05:24.