CumbrianSausag
Member
- Joined
- 15 Jan 2011
- Messages
- 101
Well it had to happen, blame Ash39, he got me into this.
Was originally a spotter I suppose, Carlisle based until 1995, lost interest though in 93ish, same old story, birds and well, birds. Moved to West Yorkshire and put down some roots with a family, started spotting locally again and then got into photography, thought that'd be it then Ash persuaded me to start bashing at the back end of 2016. Had never understood it before, the amount of trips that I've done behind 47s, 50s, 85s, 86s, 87s, 90s that went unrecorded forever haunts me. However, the inner stats geek in me relishes the challenge and logistics that go into planning of it all and I was hooked.
Now I never thought I'd write any reports but the list is getting longer and the memory shorter so I thought I'd use this forum as a way of recorded my trips. I tend to work away from home a bit so can often spend an odd evening getting in a few shacks and sampling whatever traction the local are offers. Big excursions tend to be with Ash, I'm not going to write them up, he does a cracking job anyhow and you don't want to read the same thing twice.
Now I realised I was going to spend a Wednesday night in lovely Wrexham, in January, living the dream. It did present me with a free evening and an opportunity to grab some shacks and some ATW units. I decided to get a 2 zone North Wales Rover for £13.60 and a return from Chester to Helsby for £5.60.
I dropped the car in the beautiful Gwersyllt car park and hopped onto 150240 for the stagger up to Shotton High Level. Felt like bandit country with some very dubious looking characters on the train, was quite relieved to get off at Shotton for a brisk walk along the walkway. Which was shut. FFS. It gave me 9 minutes to find an alternative route which luckily took only a few minutes and I found myself on a chilly low level, being the only one not having a fag. 175110 took me through Chester in the now dark to Helsby.
Helsby by exiledcumbrian, on Flickr
Helsby as I'm sure you're all aware is a beautiful looking station, it just about managed it on a freezing January night but anymore than the 15minutes I had would have been tough. 3 Eastern European ladies had got off the 175 with me and were waiting for the return to Chester, couldn't fathom why, surely they weren't after the 67s miles? 67015 duly turned up for the run to Chester.
67015 by exiledcumbrian, on Flickr
20minutes or so later I was on 175101 heading past Wrexham to Ruabon, it had properly started raining and had as often happens had got me questioning what on earth I was doing, I could have been in the spa. Anyhow, thankfully away from the local reprobates on the opposite platform 158822 soon arrived to take me up to Wrexham General. My original plan was to get the WAG 67 North to Chester in an hour or so but the rain was so rubbish and the festers too cold and the connections to Gwersyllt too rubbish I decided to bin it. I then took a horrible rainy walk into Wrexham to grab some tea, a deserted Subway provided that before planning to leave from Central. 40mins after arriving at General and post foot long I found myself at Wrexham Central getting on 150254 back to Gwersyllt. Keeping in with the general ambiance of the night the dodgiest looking group of teenagers where listening to crap music on the station, didn't even feel safe getting the phone on for a pic, especially when they were in t shirts, wiping blood from mouths.... hmmmmm..... the youth of today.
150254 by exiledcumbrian, on Flickr
Anyhow for £19.60, 7 shacks, 6 winners, cold, wet but worth it.
Was originally a spotter I suppose, Carlisle based until 1995, lost interest though in 93ish, same old story, birds and well, birds. Moved to West Yorkshire and put down some roots with a family, started spotting locally again and then got into photography, thought that'd be it then Ash persuaded me to start bashing at the back end of 2016. Had never understood it before, the amount of trips that I've done behind 47s, 50s, 85s, 86s, 87s, 90s that went unrecorded forever haunts me. However, the inner stats geek in me relishes the challenge and logistics that go into planning of it all and I was hooked.
Now I never thought I'd write any reports but the list is getting longer and the memory shorter so I thought I'd use this forum as a way of recorded my trips. I tend to work away from home a bit so can often spend an odd evening getting in a few shacks and sampling whatever traction the local are offers. Big excursions tend to be with Ash, I'm not going to write them up, he does a cracking job anyhow and you don't want to read the same thing twice.
Now I realised I was going to spend a Wednesday night in lovely Wrexham, in January, living the dream. It did present me with a free evening and an opportunity to grab some shacks and some ATW units. I decided to get a 2 zone North Wales Rover for £13.60 and a return from Chester to Helsby for £5.60.
I dropped the car in the beautiful Gwersyllt car park and hopped onto 150240 for the stagger up to Shotton High Level. Felt like bandit country with some very dubious looking characters on the train, was quite relieved to get off at Shotton for a brisk walk along the walkway. Which was shut. FFS. It gave me 9 minutes to find an alternative route which luckily took only a few minutes and I found myself on a chilly low level, being the only one not having a fag. 175110 took me through Chester in the now dark to Helsby.
Helsby by exiledcumbrian, on FlickrHelsby as I'm sure you're all aware is a beautiful looking station, it just about managed it on a freezing January night but anymore than the 15minutes I had would have been tough. 3 Eastern European ladies had got off the 175 with me and were waiting for the return to Chester, couldn't fathom why, surely they weren't after the 67s miles? 67015 duly turned up for the run to Chester.
67015 by exiledcumbrian, on Flickr20minutes or so later I was on 175101 heading past Wrexham to Ruabon, it had properly started raining and had as often happens had got me questioning what on earth I was doing, I could have been in the spa. Anyhow, thankfully away from the local reprobates on the opposite platform 158822 soon arrived to take me up to Wrexham General. My original plan was to get the WAG 67 North to Chester in an hour or so but the rain was so rubbish and the festers too cold and the connections to Gwersyllt too rubbish I decided to bin it. I then took a horrible rainy walk into Wrexham to grab some tea, a deserted Subway provided that before planning to leave from Central. 40mins after arriving at General and post foot long I found myself at Wrexham Central getting on 150254 back to Gwersyllt. Keeping in with the general ambiance of the night the dodgiest looking group of teenagers where listening to crap music on the station, didn't even feel safe getting the phone on for a pic, especially when they were in t shirts, wiping blood from mouths.... hmmmmm..... the youth of today.
150254 by exiledcumbrian, on FlickrAnyhow for £19.60, 7 shacks, 6 winners, cold, wet but worth it.
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