What are you planning for 2015?

[trentside]

In previous years, I've started a thread asking what lines people were hoping to do over the next year, but I decided this year to do it differently and ask what your general plans are for enjoying the railways in 2015?

Personally, now I'm working full time on the railways, I have less time for exploring new lines and bashing than I did in previous years. I'm hoping to do a few multi-day trips and get a few more areas finished off.

My main targets on the National Rail network are;

• Far North Line & Kyle of Lochalsh
• West Highland Mainline
• South West Wales (Fishguard, Milford Have, Pembroke Dock)
• Cumbrian Coast (3rd Consecutive Year on List!)
• Dawlish (plus down to Penzance)
• Heart of Wessex (Weymouth to Bristol)
• Finish off C2C

The list shrinks year on year - as I've finally got beyond Edinburgh this year and done a round trip via Aberdeen and Inverness. I've also managed to squeeze in the Cambrian, and do the Welsh Highland at the same time - which coupled with a trip in First on Gerald was an amazing trip, that I really should have written a report on.

Looking forward to hearing everyone's plans and targets for 2015

 

[burns20]

Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland or Czech Republic and Slovakia in March

Orient Express London Victoria to Venice and onwards... (a surprise 30th birthday present with help from Mark at Seat61.com)

Australia, New York and San Francisco in October

Maybe Denmark in June

 

[Aictos]

No concrete plans but like to complete London Midland and Scotrail other then that hopefully the entire Berlin S Bahn/U Bahn and Trams network

 

[starrymarkb]

The German Festival Triple (Wave-Gotik-Treffen, Amphi and M'era Luna)

WGT and Amphi will involve a fair bit of rail/tram travel. M'era Luna is all by Coach and boat

 

[GatwickDepress]

Get a PERTIS ticket from every remaining machine! I'm very easily occupied (or I have a lot of spare change).

Linewise, I'd like to get all the third rail mileage ticked off, which for me means a lot of Southeastern and South West Trains travel.

I'm also keeping an eye out for shunter galas to treat my better half to...

 

[higthomas]

I'd like to finish the travlecard area. (Although I doubt I'll find the motivation to do things such as the 0450 from Tonbridge).

Also I want to head up to Scotland sometime soon, as I have over 450 East Coast rewards points and I'd like to spend them before they become useless.

 

[Cletus]

Where does the 0450 from Tonbridge go?

 

[higthomas]

Charing cross, but according to the PSUL website it is the only train of the day regularly timetabled to travel the Beckenham curve.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Not much free time next year, but the Isle of Man and perhaps something down around the Westcountry is what I'm aiming for. Also trying to fit Kyle of Lochalsh and the Isle of Skye in for the second year running.

Where does the 0450 from Tonbridge go?

Beckenham Curve.

 

[ThePannier]

I hope to have a bit more of exploring around the country.

This year I haven't really travelled that far by myself, and have stuck with East Coast, CrossCountry, TransPennine or Northern.

I've actually prepared a plan...

East Coast - Durham to Edinburgh
(09:25 --- 11:10)
ScotRail - Edinburgh to Glasgow Queen Street
(11:45 --- 12:37)
#398 - Glasgow Queen Street to Glasgow Central
(12:50 --- 13:05)
Virgin - Glasgow Central to Carlisle
(13:40 --- 14:46)
ScotRail - Carlisle to Newcastle
(15:36 --- 17:00)
East Coast - Newcastle to Durham
(17:25 --- 17:42)

Obviously more of a summertime thing, but I'm really looking forward to somethin big!

Maybe an East Coast in the morning from Durham to York, a couple of hours at the NRM (I really need to catch up with some exhibits there!), bit of spotting in the station then another East Coast back up would be another day spent well!

I hear Doncaster is a good place to spot, and still gets quite a lot of spotters, so I may try there, too.

 

[bb21]

Charing cross, but according to the PSUL website it is the only train of the day regularly timetabled to travel the Beckenham curve.

What about the 1612 from Beckenham Junction? Probably the most convenient for most people.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

What about the 1612 from Beckenham Junction? Probably the most convenient for most people.

To be the best of my knowledge, every other service along the line (there used to be a fair few, as you imply) is discontinued from 05 January.

 

[adrock1976]

My intended plans for 2015:

Complete PSUL movements in London
West Wales rover and the Ninian Park curve that does not normally see passenger services
Severn & Solent Rover
London, Brighton, & South Coast Railway network using Southern Daysave
Midland Railway metals in Greater Manchester, and the Stockport - Stalybridge service
Fitting in Cumbrian coast line via Whitehaven
Either Tyne Tees Rover and East Yorkshire Rover, or the North East Rover
Sheffield - York via Pontefract Baghill
Merseyrail metals

That seems enough for me to be getting on with at the moment. There may be some additions later on during the course of 2015.

In peace

Adam

 

[D841 Roebuck]

Barring accidents, a four-in-eight North East Rover will start on 27/12/14.

The last two days of this will peobably be 2/1/15 and 3/1/15.

I've a plan of sorts - mulling over an overnight - 2.5 hours in the middle of the night in Newcastle, or a Huddersfield-MAnchester return?? One has to do something between the 1746 Soton-York North from Sheffield via the back of Tinsley yard on the Friday and the 07:wibble Retford-Leeds via the Trumpton curve on Saturday!

As for 2015 in general - I might do a variant of the "Mileage Competition", claiming each route only once.

 

[noddy1878]

For me the first thing I have planned for definite is a few days in Scotland but me and a mate have already got plans to do a trip to South Yorkshire and a Southern Daysave. Just need to work out when we're both off at the same time.

 

[47403]

hopefully
A North East Round Robin, without the shenanigans i had last time
West Midland Day Rover
Glasgow Roundabout Ticket
A Rover of some sorts in the Manchester Area

 

[Kite159]

Day-trips already advanced tickets for:
South Pennines Day Ranger in January (mainly to complete my route coverage map for that area, only have a few lines left to cover)
Cardiff - Probably end up trying to get the Saturday 10:40 Newport-Fishguard service, mainly for the Swansea avoiding curve, plus having fun with pacers.

Want to do:
Scotland weekend
S&C again
West Midlands Unit coverage

 

[fishquinn]

1. Clear class 168s
2. Cheshire Day Ranger
3. Manchester Wayfarer/Rail Ranger
4. West Yorkshire Day Rover
5. Shack scratch Dorridge
6. Some sort of Rover
7. Head up to Malton on the train
8. Do the Cally Sleeper

 

[Keith Jarrett]

There's plenty of excursions of one shape or another in various stages of planning already. There are several targets for 2015
1. Getting the remaining 193 DMUs and 129 EMUs that I still need outright for haulage with a particular emphasis on my remaining 142, 143, 144, 150, 153, 156, 314, 318, 320, 507, 508 (total EMUs do not include 5-car 378s or newly delivered 387s);
2. Getting as many DMU and EMU cleared for 10 miles;
3. Once I have an accurate record of the track that I have travelled over, starting to reduce the amount of remaining passenger track that I still need to ride

And I currently hope to achieve this by-
1. 4-in-8 North West Rover
2. 4-in-8 North East Rover
3. Devon Day Ranger
4. Several trips to Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds
5. Trip to Scotland of some description
6. Trip to Bristol/South Wales
On top of that there will be several excursions around the capital chasing down the huge amount of units still on the 10 mile list not forgetting anything else done under "STP" rules.

I'll of course be posting reports of my exploits (commuter journeys excepted) as and when the trips take place.

 

[eastwestdivide]

...Orient Express London Victoria to Venice and onwards...

... the 0450 from Tonbridge...

Well that covers the two ends of the spectrum from spectacular to mundane!
I'll probably plump for something in between the two - Belgium?

 

[CarltonA]

I've still got some of the Network Railcard area to explore, in particular the Abbey Line and a couple of the branches in Essex. I also have some preserved lines to visit, NYMR and ELR especially.

 

[317666]

Hopefully my first InterRails in Austria and Switzerland, as well as returning to Germany and Belgium, and visiting Paris for the first time in many years.

 

[trentside]

Just to add to what I said previously, I've got a couple of weeks leave unaccounted for next year which may result in a couple of jaunts to Europe. Either a train or plane combination, or just train depending on cost. No idea where, probably Belgium or Germany - both being places I'm keen to spend more time in.

 

[Iskra]

So far I've got the following planned for the first quarter (relatively new to the hobby, so a lot is new for me!)

New operators:

Chiltern (used previous incarnation Princes Risborough-Aylesbury)
XC (previously used VXC)
EMT (previously used Midland Mainline)
FGW (plus Night Riviera)
Grand Central
Scotrail

New routes:

Newcastle-Aberdeen
Birmingham Moor Street-Leamington Spa
Princes Risborough-Marylebone
Leeds-Hull
Carstairs-Glasgow
Paddington-Bristol
St.Austell- Penzance returning on Night Riviera

Likely new traction:

180
222
57
168

 

[Techniquest]

I have a lot to do in terms of red-penning and shack attacks in 2015! Coverage wise I need very little thankfully.

I will return to this thread with a more detailed post as my phone is nearly flat!

 

[rg177]

First thing i'm doing this year is clearing the Whitby line, then I can consider the Tyne Tees Ranger area totally cleared

 

[Techniquest]

I'm planning to do the same as this year for mileage, 10,000 as a minimum but ideally working out at an average of 1,000 miles per month, so the ideal will be 12,000 miles in 2015. Challenge accepted!

Other than that, I want to hit an absolute minimum of 500 winners in 2015, although I'd like to beat 2014's 642. I haven't done counts on stations yet, but whatever it is I'd like to beat 2014's score.

I would also like to do little things like my last 319s to/from Brighton and Bedford, but who knows if I'll get a chance. Plenty of things like that, but I know one thing I want to do is clear my 314s!

 

[steamybrian]

Some Heritage railways which I have not visited-
..Swindon & Cricklade Rly
..Chasewater Railway
..Baie du Somme Rly (Northern France)

plus
..The Waverley Route reopening Edinburgh-Tweedbank. Whilst staying in Edinburgh will be a trip on Edinburgh Trams.

 

[samuelmorris]

Proper documentation of my trips from start to finish is my main plan for this year - too many changes in what I feel like recording made my 2014 notes a right mess!

Secondary objective is to try and broaden my traction type horizons a bit since I rarely leave my 'comfort zone' of London and the home counties, but I have to admit I'm not all that keen on going long-distance for units solo. Silly question but has there ever been such a thing as a gathering of people out for travelling just for the sake of it?

 

[hassaanhc]

South Pennines Day Ranger on 2 January . Starting with the 0735 departure from King's Cross which means leaving at 0620 and getting up around 0500 to get there 15 mins before at 0720, and not getting back to St Pancras until 2033. Nervous about that . The same "leaving the comfort zone" that Samuelmorris has mentioned above . Felt the same about bashing in the Birmingham area on 16 December which turned out to be great, but this is different.