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tomonthetrains reports - The Merseyrail madness

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Tomonthetrain

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Well well well…what a day it was! I had a late wake up call so I had to rush!

I got to Stourbridge Junction to get some tickets that I had brought from Redspottedhanky from the TVM but because of the later arrival then planned, I was unable to get all the tickets! What a bad morning to start! My first unit ended up (after run 1 of how many!) being 168218 from Stourbridge Junction to Smethwick Galton Bridge on 1H18.

Upon my arrival at Smethwick Galton Bridge, I needed to get a drink from the machine so I put my coin in, selected my bottle, and it didn’t come out! I had to quickly run down to the Low Level platforms to get 323221 to Birmingham New Street operating London Midland service 2A03.

Used the TVs there to get the rest of my tickets and a Seaway and then went to Cupper Crap to get a Sausage Baguette for breakfast. After that I went down to Platform 4C to get the 07:36 London Midland service to Liverpool South Parkway on 350111 operating 1F33. Because of being some 35 minutes down on my plan because of having to divert via Birmingham, I knew I would end up running 25 down leaving Crewe later in the day.

Anyhow, I spent about 10 minutes looking round Liverpool South Parkway after which I went down to the Low Level to get Mersey rail 508112 to Hunts Cross operating service 2U11. One thing I noticed whilst waiting on the low level platform, I saw Beatles livery 508111 which I remarked was quite good looking!

Anyhow, 508112 stayed with me from Hunts Cross to Southport operating 2S14. The guard for the first part (up until about Liverpool city centre) was quite good looking! Anyhow, I went all the way on the service to Southport where I saw Northern 150144 and an unidentified Pacer.

Next up I went from Southport to Sandhills on 508111 operating 2U20. This being the unit I saw earlier with those 4 lads from Liverpool who had rocked the face of pop culture forever. Yes folks I am on about the Beatles. I had a short ride from Sandhills, past the depot to Kirkdale on 507001 operating service 2K18.

508126 was next up on the small trip from Kirkdale to Ormskirk operating 2O20. I had a look at the arrangement of how they took one continuous platform and converted it into 2!

Ormskirk-platformsml.jpg


I had caught the 508 back from Ormskirk to Kirkdale operating 2G41 where I had planned a +2 connection for a service to clear the track to Kirkby…got to the lift which was in perfect position for me to get…but…every man and his dog was wanting the lift I was using. Therefore because of that, I missed the Kirkby service! What the!!!!!!

So it looked like I was to head back to Liverpool so I got 507001 from Kirkdale to Sandhills operating service 2U26. This then got followed by 507031 between Sandhills and the Northern Line platforms of Liverpool Central operating Merseyrail service 2G42.

Went up to the open air to get some lunch from the chippy over the road from Liverpool Central called the Lobster Pot. Chicken Kebab and Chips and a can of Irn Bru for £4.10? Not bad in my opinion

Anyways, In a change to the plan, 507004 was next up from Liverpool Central to New Brighton operating service 2N27. I looked around the area by the station and I thought it was quite boring. Except for the Avon Bus that was driving along with a tow truck behind following it.

841sml.jpg


I got 507004 back out of New Brighton and went to Birkenhead North on 2N30 past Birkenhead North TMD. Then I got onto another 507, this being 507010. It was delayed due to several Chester services being delayed due to a broken down train in the Chester area. Anyway I got 507010 from Birkenhead North to West Kirby on 2W27.

Thought I would catch whatever unit was behind so I went to the station café where there was these 2 quite good looking women. I ended up spending about 10 minutes in there thinking about chatting the one up but instead I got a bottle of Coke Cherry!

507028 was my next unit heading from West Kirby back through Birkenhead, under the River Mersey, onto the loop to get to Moorfields as service 2W33.

Next up was a quick ride (and short too! Only half a mile!) on the Northern line between Moorfields and Liverpool Central on 508123 operating 2U36 in order to get in position for the last couple of Wirral Line moves.

The next move being between Liverpool Central and Bromborough on 508130 operating service 2C35. Some nice scenery en route, especially at Bromborough Rake.

Anyway, I had to nip to Ellesmere Port to clear that branch, so I went from Bromborough to Ellesmere Port on unit 508110 operating 2Y19. The best bit of that journey, seeing a Pacer at Ellesmere Port. 142035 to be exact. This got quickly followed up by a quick trip to Hooton, again on 508110 operating 2Y23.

A quick interchange at Hooton and I got 507032 on a Semi Fast service to Chester (2C37) which only called at Bache and Chester. I found out then, by changing the plan to Plan O, I ended up 40 minutes ahead of the original plan! At Chester, I got 150257 to Crewe operating 1K14 when I had to do a +5 from platform 9 to Platform 2! What a run from platform to platform! I managed it and so I got 350250 from Crewe to Wolverhampton operating 1L81 to which I ended the day!

Total Mileage: 277m 52ch
 
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transportphoto

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Weren't you aware you could get your tickets from any TOD enabled station? So a divert via New Street wasn't needed, you could have gotten them from Galton Bridge or Wolverhampton? Otherwise a very good write up of an interesting day :smile:

TP
 

MidnightFlyer

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I did similar on Tuesday - Southport-Sandhills-Ormskirk-Kirkdale-Kirkby-Central-Ellesmere Port-Hooton-Chester-Hamilton Square-New Brighton-Birkenhead North-West Kirby-Lime St all went well, then there was trouble on both the Wirral and Northern lines in the evening peak, so I walked to Central from Lime St to avoid the Wirral disruption. My train to Southport was wedged solid and a bit late, but it was a good day out nonetheless. The Off-Peak Daysaver at £4.30 for unlimited ME travel after 0930 was great value too, and I think I'm in love with the M-to-Go combined shop / booking office idea.

The day out just leaves Central-Hunts Cross, Lime St-Central and James St-Hamilton Square (NBN / WKI platform) for me to do now.
 

Tomonthetrain

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Weren't you aware you could get your tickets from any TOD enabled station? So a divert via New Street wasn't needed, you could have gotten them from Galton Bridge or Wolverhampton? Otherwise a very good write up of an interesting day :smile:

TP

I didn't know SGB had a TVM - last time i used the ticket office there they only had a PERTIS! I was scheduled originally a +6 at Smethwick and no change at WVH...plus I was splitting like mad so I had 4 batches to get!
 

transportphoto

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Well that surprises me! The ticket office could have done them for you, according to NRE's page for [stn]SGB[/stn] :smile: You could have probably got two batches in that time, would that have seen you through to Liverpool? Well, I say that, I know how slow LM's ticket clerks can be!


TP
 

Tomonthetrain

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12 Jul 2011
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Well that surprises me! The ticket office could have done them for you, according to NRE's page for [stn]SGB[/stn] :smile: You could have probably got two batches in that time, would that have seen you through to Liverpool? Well, I say that, I know how slow LM's ticket clerks can be!


TP

I had split as follows taking advantage of a few evouchers I had stored on various accounts from RSH using a couple of promotions (plus forgetting my password on the one when i originally signed up!):

(Both CDRs)
WVH - NTB
STA - CRE

(Both SDSs)
CRE - LPY
CTR - CRE

Hence I had to get 4 different codes for TVMs. Good job i didn't have to pay any cash apart from the Savaway. Plus B'ham was a good move because i could have breakfast!
 

12CSVT

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Re: the +2 connection at Kirkdale. It would have been done easily if you had got off at Walton and walked to Rice Lane. It only takes about 2 or 3 minutes to walk from one to the other.
 
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