heart-of-wessex
Established Member
I left the flat on the 16th (Friday) to the station to get the 1916 service to Bath. Being a Pompey - Cardiff service, I was rather surprised that it was formed of 4 coaches, so no 158/9 I guessed. It was a 158 however, but formed of 15876x and 749. I chose to stand in 749 since I have had it alot and may as well clock up the engine miles.
I heard someone complain (not rant and rave though) about buying a return to Bath and had to pay 2 singles as he was travelling back tomorrow. It's odd that they only sell day returns, not all people come back the same day!
At bath I swapped platforms and got the 1943 ex-Bath to Paddington, formed of 43127+43129. I might get my last GW powercar in one day! It was an uneventful trip, but was surprised that we had a ticket check between Reading and Paddington, not usually done but I had one last time too. At Paddington I bought a Travelcard to cover the night moves and headed to the tube.
On the Oven Line, No heat monster 3457 ao WN showed up on the Southbound service, just as well its no heat, it's a hot atmosphere anyway! I initially was going to go to Waterloo to interchange for Waterloo East but changed my plan when we got to Charing Cross.
Oh and also, what does the announcement say on the Bakerloo line when coming into Regents park? It sounded like she said alight here for ZFL, London Zoo, as if it was a station code for the zoo or something! Thing is over the track racket and low volume, it was hard to understand!
At Charing Cross I made my way up to the NR terminus and got the 2147 Hayes service to Lewisham, which had 466022 up front so scooped that in. There I caught the 2212 back to London Bridge which was non stop to Bridge. 465026 showed up and we didn't go via the slow but used the fast line spur from Lewisham to join the London Bridge mainline, required track scooped in! Well chuffed with that!
There was a bit of time before the 2242 FCC service left for Brighton so I headed for Burger King but beforehand I watched a 171 leave ECS and thought I saw Josh Graves despatching it (I sent a text to him and found out it was). A Whopper meal was duly purchased and I strolled over to the 2242 service formed of 2 fine Class 319s. I scooped in the front set, 319423 (required) and red line it to Three Bridges. Thankfully some more people on board opened some hopper windows in the seats near me, so got the full hellfire scream through the Quarry Line in the MSO
At Three Bridges I had some time to fester so I went to the gates to arrange a ticket. How else does one get a boundary zone 6 ticket when the ticket office is closed and the service is DOO? He couldn't do one but at least offered me to buy a single to a Zone 6 station from the TVM.
Back up the platform I saw an ECS 442 fly past and awaited for the 2338 back to Bridge. There was no RRB awaiting at Bridge, the screen on Three Bridges stated to use LUL for onward connection to St Pancras. Required 319451 duly showed up ex-Brighton and got on the MSO again but the GEC motors were alot quieter than 423 and didn't bellow much through Quarry Tunnel, maybe it had been recently overhauled?
Back at Bridge (arriving 2 mins late somehow) I went to the LU stairs on the concourse to find them shut. I went outside and found no bus parked up, so went back to the station to find staff. I was told the bus would be outside round the corner, turning right out the doors, so I went down the path and did a U turn down some road to an LU entrance where I thought there was a bus flag but I saw the entrance was open. I asked an LU gate line man who said the last Northern Line northbound was in 2 minutes! I tried my 17th september travelcard which rejected (it was past midnight) but was told it was the wrong date and used my 16th september travelcard which passed...confusing! I darted down for the Northern Line and just made it for the last one to Kings Cross St Pancras.
At St Pan, I did the stupidly long walk to the high level termini to catch the 0106 Bedford service formed of 2 319s. I scooped in required 319373 and en-route I did a timetable check to see what station I could get off at with a good plus. Sure enough I could bag Flitwick in with a good +4 for the next one south. We arrived on time at 0208 so I went over to the up fast line platform for the 0212, which had 319448 on the service, another 319 bagged. Another timetable check for another station, I had a reasonable plus for another northbound 319 at Radlett, and could bag in the station too. Got off for a smoke and noticed a board for the station café, you could text them if you were short on time and wanted something, then you can collect it or order something for the following day, good idea providing you have the number first of course! I didn't note it as I doubt I'd be scooping the station again.
The 0300 Bedford service showed up right time with 319436 on the duty and I took it to my next station to bag in, Luton Airport Parkway. A nice station, and was the only shack I saw that still has the yellow band still at the bottom of the station signs! I forget when that dates back to! (Example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51282757@N05/4741813043/)
Had a nice surprise when the next train on the Down Fast was not scheduled to stop, I thought maybe a freight was going to bomb through but NR's Yellow DBSO came into view and on the rear was Blue 31106!
I also had a nice surprise when an original 319 showed up on the next St Pan service, 319008. I could not refuse a chance to ride it all the way to St Pancras so I did...not only that but scooping in another required station involved some long waiting times.
I decided to do a '0B00' to London Bridge, the next one being at 0430, a bit of time to go yet. The bus showed up on time but was disappointed when some plastic trash showed up vice Trident
At London Bridge I got the 0505 Brighton service formed of 319422 and took it to East Croydon. We went the horribly slow way via Dulwich and Streatham and sat in Selhurst station for a good 4-5 minutes, probably as we were early as we did arrive into Croydon spot on time. There I bagged in another 319, number 456, for a trip back to London Bridge this time via Forest Hill. Back at the Bridge I wondered what to do next. There was a Victoria service due which could be a required 377 or maybe better still a 456. The stock came in ECS from Selhurst, I guess, and the unit allocated the 0611 Victoria service was 456014, required. It was a terribly slow trip through to Victoria, nothing much to see in Stewarts Lane either, just some redundant 460s, a 442 in the shed and 67016 parked up by some tanks.
At Viccy, I headed down to the tube and got a District Line to Embankment, Northern Line to Euston and changed to Platform 6, bank branch, for KXSP. I knew it was platform 6 at Euston, I don't play the Northern Line on OpenBVE too often.....ahem.
There was method behind this odd routing. Of course anyone with sense would just get the Victoria Line straight up (actually it was announced there were delays on the Viccy, already, but that wasn't the reason) but I took this route mainly to pass Tottenham Court Road station. I saved this idea for the bash as I avoided doing it before knowing I should have some time to spare to do it this time. I very nearly didn't count it as we slowed down, a lot in fact, and was getting nervous 'come on don't stop don't stop!' but we got to 2mph, maybe even 1mph for a very very short time and the signal cleared and power was shoved on..phew!!!
At St Pancras I noticed the Skegness tour was shown on the board, looked odd as advertised RA Skegness! The screen on the platform showed the headcode too as 1Z75 (though the book said 1Z43 so I went by that instead). I was worried that a 222 might end up being on the tour but there was a working set and 43075+054 was allocated to the tour. I had already done 43075 with 43047 in 2009 from Nottingham to St Pancras, but 054 was required. I didn't mind having dud 075 up front as both powercars were loud and claggy, proved to be a good pairing!
We were put on the slow lines after Harpenden and ended up following a stopper 319, but we rejoined the fast lines after Leagrave. Couldn't complain at that as the #'s were required. After Bedford I made a move to the buffet and forgot just how rough the MML is!
I bought a coffee and a sausage baguette. The price was a bit high as the stock was from EMT's supply rather than ordered from UKR. With all the bumping around on the track, one of the glasses ended up smashing onto the floor too, must be a hard job for staff on the buffet putting up with that!
I had a long chat and a laugh with the group sitting on the table next to me and before I knew it we were stopped outside of Leicester. We were booked for a stop here so was worried I wouldn't be able to pass the station, but we did actually pass it! That made my day as it is the last station I need to pass on the whole MML from St Pan - Derby. In effect I have now passed all stations from St Pancras to Leeds via Derby, the route via Toton and via Swinton/Doncaster/Wakefield.
We were soon passing the Power Station at East Mids Parkway and turned off to Nottingham where we had a stop for a crew change. As we left, I noticed some EWS tanks over on P6 but the loco was out of sight, probably stopped at the crew change point. The TMD only had 2 dud units in, a 170 and 156. We went on towards Sleaford where I was now on required track, having never done the Sleaford or onward to Skegness line at all. The journey wasn't too bad, at least I got to bag in the small shacks for passage. We arrived at Sleaford for a leg stretch as we had a pathing stop here. I saw 158865+153326 leave for Skegness and another 156 rolled in 3 minutes later heading to somewhere (it said Lincoln on the rear blind, but blank up front)
We got back on and we left right time towards Boston and scored that for passing too along with the rest of the shacks. We did have to go 5mph over some bridge outside of Boston which was horribly slow, but after that it was pretty fast. I think I was told it is a rather slow trip to Skegness but I was expecting Preserved line speeds, but we did well over that, probably as the track is partially CWR. All the old track is stacked high next to the running lines, and there was so much you could make a decent length railway line out of that!
We arrived into Skegness early at 1212. Initially this meant we would have got there after the 1215 ex-Skegness local service left but this meant I could make the 1215 rather than wait for the 1315. The 1215 was formed of the set I saw earlier at Sleaford, and I saw in my book that the Blue Brick, 153326, was dud, however 158865 was required. I scooped in the 158 and took it to Boston for the shack scratch. There was only a +27 there for one back at least. I notice that the through roads have long gone and the C.S is heavily overgrown but I could still picture me in 'Hellfire' rover sim, alighting here for the next lot of 'Bombs' to Skegness from Nottingham or Derby!
The 1315 back was 2 late in the end and was formed of required 158856. Back into Skegness I was happy with my filler round trip and went off to explore since I still had 3 hours to waste. It was bigger than I expected and enjoyed it alot, I don't know why everyone I know keeps moaning how trash it is...is it?
The only downside was the ridiculous wind farm plonked right in the middle of the sea view and was only a good mile if that away from the beach! Other than that I found it amusing that some of the ice cream parlours didn't have working machines, probably as a load of people from the tour had bought a load and broke the machines
!
I did like the bus fleet knocking around too, loads of R reg steppy darts, some X reg thing that looked like a National at the back (Stagecoach bus, no idea on model but had a Dennis engine of some descript) and even an R reg Olympian Only closest thing to 'Plastic' I saw was the X reg ALX400 open toppers on the tourist route.
So after a good 2 hours and a half I was happy with what I did, I think 4 hours from arrival was more than enough, just as well I did Boston in between!
I went back to the HST which was ready for boarding when I got there at least and headed back to coach B, where 43054 was now leading back. We left 2 late for some reason but had a good thrashing once we cleared the 10mph out the station. I retired shortly after back to my seat and soon enough we were back at Boston, this time we got held there presumibly as we were now early. The crossing gates went down and we departed with the usual nice amout of clag and the brillant smell that lingers around with it! At Sleaford I was well chuffed that we glided through so I could now add that to my EMT achievements, passing all stations between St Pancras and Skegness!
We reached Nottingham and stopped in Platform 6, again maybe to wait for time, and we left but to my surprise, we actually headed straight on over the Goods Line to Beeston where the Goods Loop runs out! Well chuffed with that unexpected scoop!
To be honest, I don't remember much from here to Kettering, as I was in too deep with having a long chat with the others and having a right old laugh. I did grab a window to hear the departure from there and at Luton Airport Parkway, some proper thrash and turbo scream could be clearly heard from 054!!
I think we stayed on the slow lines all the way but to be honest I wasn't paying much attention as I was distracted in conversations
In the end we arrived 1 minute late which was good, held a top performance throughout.
Now it was time to head to the Northern Line and head to London Bridge for a 319 to St Helier. The next one was at 2215 and was formed of dud 319381. We went round via Tooting and Wimbledon where I got off at St Heiler and walked to Rosehill Roundabout to stay and my boyfreinds place for the night.
On the Sunday I started out by leaving on the 1407 from St Helier to London Bridge, with 4 car 319363 on the run. The motors were rather loud however I had a banging headache as I slept for over 7 hours (I always get major pain when I sleep too long) but for a loud 319, I didn't care that it hurt! Unfortunately, when I sleep long I also feel a bit giddy and very drained, thus not in the mood to try and go for things. Even if 143611 showed up for Brighton I would still be deciding weather to bother or not, so you can imagine the scale on how bad it is!
I did find some effort (and that took some time) to get myself to go to the high level platforms at Bridge and take the leap to New Cross. I got on 465245 to New Cross and caught 378148 on a Dalston Junction service. I tried looking up the headcode for this run but traveline kept packing me over to New Cross Gate on a 6 min walk from New Cross. Does the traveline assume you hate New Cross with a passion and would never ever get a train there but would walk to New Cross Gate instead!?
I got to Canary Wharf and it clicked...Dalston Junction isn't the newly opened line, I'd need Highbury and Islington for that! I wondered if the extension was closed already for engineering so I bailed at Whitechapel for an exit on the tube...but that was shut, argh! I hate Sunday.com!!
So I got 378139 on 9A40 to Crystal Palace as a change of plan. Seems odd being on a class 9, as if I am on an unfitted EMU! I went to Crystal Palace as I had not been to the new termini before. We came into P5, which by the sounds of it we were due to use something else as the announcement on the station said on our arrival of a platform change. Well I must say it looked rather strange being under a huge shed with a grand staircase, so overall a bit odd being a grand terminus for 378s!!
I went out away from the-grand-teriminus-for-378s and headed to the curved part on platform 1 and awaited a Victoria service formed of 377133. I sat in FC since it was well loaded and no-one could be bothered to take those seats but even they were cramped! Also, a headache + listening to 'You are in coach number 1 of 4' = you wanting to rip the bloody speakers apart! Argh that got right in my head after each stop! In the end I bailed at Clapham for a service to Waterloo. Oddly, the next train was due out of P7. I say odd as the more faster P8 was shut for some reason, no real sign as to why but the PIS had nothing booked for it, just P7
450080 and 089 showed up and I scooped in the latter. We were RA to Waterloo at least so I got off and had no idea what to do next. In the end I spotted a Boots at the station and headed over pronto for some Nuro-thingy's (what are they called again!?) to aid with the headache, took a couple then headed for the tube. I got on the Jublilee for a faster route to Baker Street, and I recall something in the poster about Bond Street being shut, but we ended up stopping there in the end. But I generally don't pay attention to what the closure actually is, it could be a night closure only. Techniquest will know what I am like when I nearly went to paddington to blow the engineering poster for having duff gen on a station closure then realising I didn't read what is was about :$
At Baker street I did the short walk for the cross platform interchange to the Bakerloo, and did a very short insect leap to Marylebone as I recall on Gensheet (yahoo group) that there is some additional Harrow-on-the-Hill services due to a blockade on the Met and Jubilee to Harrow. The first service out to Harrow was the 1727 Aylesbury service. There was a lot of people waiting for it as when the platform number showed, there was a massive rugby scrum for the gates! 3 car 165029 was on offer on this serivce and I bagged a seat in the rear car since everyone went diving for the front coach!
As we ploughed up the route to Harrow, I saw the possesion boundary further up the line on the LU tracks and wondered what engineering set there might be...but there was none. It was a block for nothing really. There was no engineering train in sight, no tools left, no engineering workers, no person at all in sight, just the tracks!
At Harrow I waited for the next DMU back which was an ex-Aylesbury service with 165035 on the trip. Another uneventful trip but I wondered what to do after we got to Marylebone but I would work it out once we got there. Turns out there is a +4 on offer for grabs to do the 18:07 Harrow shuttle with 3 car 165033. I took it with both hands and stood up for the trip as it was rammed! I wondered if a # would be in use at Harrow but it went into the usual northbound platform. I went over to the Southbound one to await for a unit back, which just happened to be 165033 again coming back from a shunt reverse, oh well dud obviously! I took it back to Marylebone and there I got the Oven Line to Paddington.
A celebratory KFC was on the cards so it was straight over to KFC for a 2 piece meal then back at the station at 1906, I was surprised that the 1930 was already loading passengers on P8! This was handy as there was no gates, because gates + holding a KFC and drink + trying to get my ticket out my pocket = a royal pain!
I checked the Powercars since I had time and our set was 43190 and 43198. We left right time and surprisingly we got to Reading 4-5 minutes early so we festered there and managed to leave 2 minutes late for some reason!
However this was made up along the way as we turned to being 3 minutes early into Bath Spa at 20:59. This meant I could make the +5 to the Weymouth service but I was booked on the 2138 Pompey service so I waited for that, which was formed of 3 car 158955. Thankfully it wasn't an all stopper so I was back in Trowbridge in no time.
An absolute hellfire weekend in my opinion, now for some stats I've decided to do for each report. By the way, the 'random quote' is from snippets heard when walking to the loo or to the buffet.
Mileage altogether - 996 miles! Shocked me to say the least
Highest Mileage on one train - 402m 40ch on 43075 and 43054
Lowest Mileage on one train (non LUL) - 450089 3m 74ch
Best part of trip - The Jolly Fisherman tour of course!
Worst part of trip - Being on a 377 with a massive headache! Must take pills before alighting!
Random Quote no.1 - "If it doesn't make sense, then it makes sense."
Random Quote no.2 - "they should reply to them in english!"
Hope you enjoyed the read!
James.
I heard someone complain (not rant and rave though) about buying a return to Bath and had to pay 2 singles as he was travelling back tomorrow. It's odd that they only sell day returns, not all people come back the same day!
At bath I swapped platforms and got the 1943 ex-Bath to Paddington, formed of 43127+43129. I might get my last GW powercar in one day! It was an uneventful trip, but was surprised that we had a ticket check between Reading and Paddington, not usually done but I had one last time too. At Paddington I bought a Travelcard to cover the night moves and headed to the tube.
On the Oven Line, No heat monster 3457 ao WN showed up on the Southbound service, just as well its no heat, it's a hot atmosphere anyway! I initially was going to go to Waterloo to interchange for Waterloo East but changed my plan when we got to Charing Cross.
Oh and also, what does the announcement say on the Bakerloo line when coming into Regents park? It sounded like she said alight here for ZFL, London Zoo, as if it was a station code for the zoo or something! Thing is over the track racket and low volume, it was hard to understand!
At Charing Cross I made my way up to the NR terminus and got the 2147 Hayes service to Lewisham, which had 466022 up front so scooped that in. There I caught the 2212 back to London Bridge which was non stop to Bridge. 465026 showed up and we didn't go via the slow but used the fast line spur from Lewisham to join the London Bridge mainline, required track scooped in! Well chuffed with that!
There was a bit of time before the 2242 FCC service left for Brighton so I headed for Burger King but beforehand I watched a 171 leave ECS and thought I saw Josh Graves despatching it (I sent a text to him and found out it was). A Whopper meal was duly purchased and I strolled over to the 2242 service formed of 2 fine Class 319s. I scooped in the front set, 319423 (required) and red line it to Three Bridges. Thankfully some more people on board opened some hopper windows in the seats near me, so got the full hellfire scream through the Quarry Line in the MSO
At Three Bridges I had some time to fester so I went to the gates to arrange a ticket. How else does one get a boundary zone 6 ticket when the ticket office is closed and the service is DOO? He couldn't do one but at least offered me to buy a single to a Zone 6 station from the TVM.
Back up the platform I saw an ECS 442 fly past and awaited for the 2338 back to Bridge. There was no RRB awaiting at Bridge, the screen on Three Bridges stated to use LUL for onward connection to St Pancras. Required 319451 duly showed up ex-Brighton and got on the MSO again but the GEC motors were alot quieter than 423 and didn't bellow much through Quarry Tunnel, maybe it had been recently overhauled?
Back at Bridge (arriving 2 mins late somehow) I went to the LU stairs on the concourse to find them shut. I went outside and found no bus parked up, so went back to the station to find staff. I was told the bus would be outside round the corner, turning right out the doors, so I went down the path and did a U turn down some road to an LU entrance where I thought there was a bus flag but I saw the entrance was open. I asked an LU gate line man who said the last Northern Line northbound was in 2 minutes! I tried my 17th september travelcard which rejected (it was past midnight) but was told it was the wrong date and used my 16th september travelcard which passed...confusing! I darted down for the Northern Line and just made it for the last one to Kings Cross St Pancras.
At St Pan, I did the stupidly long walk to the high level termini to catch the 0106 Bedford service formed of 2 319s. I scooped in required 319373 and en-route I did a timetable check to see what station I could get off at with a good plus. Sure enough I could bag Flitwick in with a good +4 for the next one south. We arrived on time at 0208 so I went over to the up fast line platform for the 0212, which had 319448 on the service, another 319 bagged. Another timetable check for another station, I had a reasonable plus for another northbound 319 at Radlett, and could bag in the station too. Got off for a smoke and noticed a board for the station café, you could text them if you were short on time and wanted something, then you can collect it or order something for the following day, good idea providing you have the number first of course! I didn't note it as I doubt I'd be scooping the station again.
The 0300 Bedford service showed up right time with 319436 on the duty and I took it to my next station to bag in, Luton Airport Parkway. A nice station, and was the only shack I saw that still has the yellow band still at the bottom of the station signs! I forget when that dates back to! (Example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51282757@N05/4741813043/)
Had a nice surprise when the next train on the Down Fast was not scheduled to stop, I thought maybe a freight was going to bomb through but NR's Yellow DBSO came into view and on the rear was Blue 31106!
I also had a nice surprise when an original 319 showed up on the next St Pan service, 319008
. I could not refuse a chance to ride it all the way to St Pancras so I did...not only that but scooping in another required station involved some long waiting times. I decided to do a '0B00' to London Bridge, the next one being at 0430, a bit of time to go yet. The bus showed up on time but was disappointed when some plastic trash showed up vice Trident
At London Bridge I got the 0505 Brighton service formed of 319422 and took it to East Croydon. We went the horribly slow way via Dulwich and Streatham and sat in Selhurst station for a good 4-5 minutes, probably as we were early as we did arrive into Croydon spot on time. There I bagged in another 319, number 456, for a trip back to London Bridge this time via Forest Hill. Back at the Bridge I wondered what to do next. There was a Victoria service due which could be a required 377 or maybe better still a 456. The stock came in ECS from Selhurst, I guess, and the unit allocated the 0611 Victoria service was 456014, required. It was a terribly slow trip through to Victoria, nothing much to see in Stewarts Lane either, just some redundant 460s, a 442 in the shed and 67016 parked up by some tanks.
At Viccy, I headed down to the tube and got a District Line to Embankment, Northern Line to Euston and changed to Platform 6, bank branch, for KXSP. I knew it was platform 6 at Euston, I don't play the Northern Line on OpenBVE too often.....ahem.
There was method behind this odd routing. Of course anyone with sense would just get the Victoria Line straight up (actually it was announced there were delays on the Viccy, already, but that wasn't the reason) but I took this route mainly to pass Tottenham Court Road station. I saved this idea for the bash as I avoided doing it before knowing I should have some time to spare to do it this time. I very nearly didn't count it as we slowed down, a lot in fact, and was getting nervous 'come on don't stop don't stop!' but we got to 2mph, maybe even 1mph for a very very short time and the signal cleared and power was shoved on..phew!!!
At St Pancras I noticed the Skegness tour was shown on the board, looked odd as advertised RA Skegness! The screen on the platform showed the headcode too as 1Z75 (though the book said 1Z43 so I went by that instead). I was worried that a 222 might end up being on the tour but there was a working set and 43075+054 was allocated to the tour. I had already done 43075 with 43047 in 2009 from Nottingham to St Pancras, but 054 was required. I didn't mind having dud 075 up front as both powercars were loud and claggy, proved to be a good pairing!
We were put on the slow lines after Harpenden and ended up following a stopper 319, but we rejoined the fast lines after Leagrave. Couldn't complain at that as the #'s were required. After Bedford I made a move to the buffet and forgot just how rough the MML is!
I bought a coffee and a sausage baguette. The price was a bit high as the stock was from EMT's supply rather than ordered from UKR. With all the bumping around on the track, one of the glasses ended up smashing onto the floor too, must be a hard job for staff on the buffet putting up with that!
I had a long chat and a laugh with the group sitting on the table next to me and before I knew it we were stopped outside of Leicester. We were booked for a stop here so was worried I wouldn't be able to pass the station, but we did actually pass it! That made my day as it is the last station I need to pass on the whole MML from St Pan - Derby. In effect I have now passed all stations from St Pancras to Leeds via Derby, the route via Toton and via Swinton/Doncaster/Wakefield.
We were soon passing the Power Station at East Mids Parkway and turned off to Nottingham where we had a stop for a crew change. As we left, I noticed some EWS tanks over on P6 but the loco was out of sight, probably stopped at the crew change point. The TMD only had 2 dud units in, a 170 and 156. We went on towards Sleaford where I was now on required track, having never done the Sleaford or onward to Skegness line at all. The journey wasn't too bad, at least I got to bag in the small shacks for passage. We arrived at Sleaford for a leg stretch as we had a pathing stop here. I saw 158865+153326 leave for Skegness and another 156 rolled in 3 minutes later heading to somewhere (it said Lincoln on the rear blind, but blank up front)
We got back on and we left right time towards Boston and scored that for passing too along with the rest of the shacks. We did have to go 5mph over some bridge outside of Boston which was horribly slow, but after that it was pretty fast. I think I was told it is a rather slow trip to Skegness but I was expecting Preserved line speeds, but we did well over that, probably as the track is partially CWR. All the old track is stacked high next to the running lines, and there was so much you could make a decent length railway line out of that!
We arrived into Skegness early at 1212. Initially this meant we would have got there after the 1215 ex-Skegness local service left but this meant I could make the 1215 rather than wait for the 1315. The 1215 was formed of the set I saw earlier at Sleaford, and I saw in my book that the Blue Brick, 153326, was dud, however 158865 was required. I scooped in the 158 and took it to Boston for the shack scratch. There was only a +27 there for one back at least. I notice that the through roads have long gone and the C.S is heavily overgrown but I could still picture me in 'Hellfire' rover sim, alighting here for the next lot of 'Bombs' to Skegness from Nottingham or Derby!
The 1315 back was 2 late in the end and was formed of required 158856. Back into Skegness I was happy with my filler round trip and went off to explore since I still had 3 hours to waste. It was bigger than I expected and enjoyed it alot, I don't know why everyone I know keeps moaning how trash it is...is it?
The only downside was the ridiculous wind farm plonked right in the middle of the sea view and was only a good mile if that away from the beach! Other than that I found it amusing that some of the ice cream parlours didn't have working machines, probably as a load of people from the tour had bought a load and broke the machines
!I did like the bus fleet knocking around too, loads of R reg steppy darts, some X reg thing that looked like a National at the back (Stagecoach bus, no idea on model but had a Dennis engine of some descript) and even an R reg Olympian
Only closest thing to 'Plastic' I saw was the X reg ALX400 open toppers on the tourist route.So after a good 2 hours and a half I was happy with what I did, I think 4 hours from arrival was more than enough, just as well I did Boston in between!
I went back to the HST which was ready for boarding when I got there at least and headed back to coach B, where 43054 was now leading back. We left 2 late for some reason but had a good thrashing once we cleared the 10mph out the station. I retired shortly after back to my seat and soon enough we were back at Boston, this time we got held there presumibly as we were now early. The crossing gates went down and we departed with the usual nice amout of clag and the brillant smell that lingers around with it
! At Sleaford I was well chuffed that we glided through so I could now add that to my EMT achievements, passing all stations between St Pancras and Skegness! We reached Nottingham and stopped in Platform 6, again maybe to wait for time, and we left but to my surprise, we actually headed straight on over the Goods Line to Beeston where the Goods Loop runs out! Well chuffed with that unexpected scoop!
To be honest, I don't remember much from here to Kettering, as I was in too deep with having a long chat with the others and having a right old laugh. I did grab a window to hear the departure from there and at Luton Airport Parkway, some proper thrash and turbo scream could be clearly heard from 054!!
I think we stayed on the slow lines all the way but to be honest I wasn't paying much attention as I was distracted in conversations
In the end we arrived 1 minute late which was good, held a top performance throughout.
Now it was time to head to the Northern Line and head to London Bridge for a 319 to St Helier. The next one was at 2215 and was formed of dud 319381. We went round via Tooting and Wimbledon where I got off at St Heiler and walked to Rosehill Roundabout to stay and my boyfreinds place for the night.
On the Sunday I started out by leaving on the 1407 from St Helier to London Bridge, with 4 car 319363 on the run. The motors were rather loud however I had a banging headache as I slept for over 7 hours (I always get major pain when I sleep too long) but for a loud 319, I didn't care that it hurt! Unfortunately, when I sleep long I also feel a bit giddy and very drained, thus not in the mood to try and go for things. Even if 143611 showed up for Brighton I would still be deciding weather to bother or not, so you can imagine the scale on how bad it is!
I did find some effort (and that took some time) to get myself to go to the high level platforms at Bridge and take the leap to New Cross. I got on 465245 to New Cross and caught 378148 on a Dalston Junction service. I tried looking up the headcode for this run but traveline kept packing me over to New Cross Gate on a 6 min walk from New Cross. Does the traveline assume you hate New Cross with a passion and would never ever get a train there but would walk to New Cross Gate instead!?
I got to Canary Wharf and it clicked...Dalston Junction isn't the newly opened line, I'd need Highbury and Islington for that! I wondered if the extension was closed already for engineering so I bailed at Whitechapel for an exit on the tube...but that was shut, argh! I hate Sunday.com!!
So I got 378139 on 9A40 to Crystal Palace as a change of plan. Seems odd being on a class 9, as if I am on an unfitted EMU! I went to Crystal Palace as I had not been to the new termini before. We came into P5, which by the sounds of it we were due to use something else as the announcement on the station said on our arrival of a platform change. Well I must say it looked rather strange being under a huge shed with a grand staircase, so overall a bit odd being a grand terminus for 378s!!
I went out away from the-grand-teriminus-for-378s and headed to the curved part on platform 1 and awaited a Victoria service formed of 377133. I sat in FC since it was well loaded and no-one could be bothered to take those seats but even they were cramped! Also, a headache + listening to 'You are in coach number 1 of 4' = you wanting to rip the bloody speakers apart! Argh that got right in my head after each stop! In the end I bailed at Clapham for a service to Waterloo. Oddly, the next train was due out of P7. I say odd as the more faster P8 was shut for some reason, no real sign as to why but the PIS had nothing booked for it, just P7
450080 and 089 showed up and I scooped in the latter. We were RA to Waterloo at least so I got off and had no idea what to do next. In the end I spotted a Boots at the station and headed over pronto for some Nuro-thingy's (what are they called again!?) to aid with the headache, took a couple then headed for the tube. I got on the Jublilee for a faster route to Baker Street, and I recall something in the poster about Bond Street being shut, but we ended up stopping there in the end. But I generally don't pay attention to what the closure actually is, it could be a night closure only. Techniquest will know what I am like when I nearly went to paddington to blow the engineering poster for having duff gen on a station closure then realising I didn't read what is was about :$
At Baker street I did the short walk for the cross platform interchange to the Bakerloo, and did a very short insect leap to Marylebone as I recall on Gensheet (yahoo group) that there is some additional Harrow-on-the-Hill services due to a blockade on the Met and Jubilee to Harrow. The first service out to Harrow was the 1727 Aylesbury service. There was a lot of people waiting for it as when the platform number showed, there was a massive rugby scrum for the gates! 3 car 165029 was on offer on this serivce and I bagged a seat in the rear car since everyone went diving for the front coach!
As we ploughed up the route to Harrow, I saw the possesion boundary further up the line on the LU tracks and wondered what engineering set there might be...but there was none. It was a block for nothing really. There was no engineering train in sight, no tools left, no engineering workers, no person at all in sight, just the tracks!
At Harrow I waited for the next DMU back which was an ex-Aylesbury service with 165035 on the trip. Another uneventful trip but I wondered what to do after we got to Marylebone but I would work it out once we got there. Turns out there is a +4 on offer for grabs to do the 18:07 Harrow shuttle with 3 car 165033. I took it with both hands and stood up for the trip as it was rammed! I wondered if a # would be in use at Harrow but it went into the usual northbound platform. I went over to the Southbound one to await for a unit back, which just happened to be 165033 again coming back from a shunt reverse, oh well dud obviously! I took it back to Marylebone and there I got the Oven Line to Paddington.
A celebratory KFC was on the cards so it was straight over to KFC for a 2 piece meal then back at the station at 1906, I was surprised that the 1930 was already loading passengers on P8! This was handy as there was no gates, because gates + holding a KFC and drink + trying to get my ticket out my pocket = a royal pain!
I checked the Powercars since I had time and our set was 43190 and 43198. We left right time and surprisingly we got to Reading 4-5 minutes early so we festered there and managed to leave 2 minutes late for some reason!
However this was made up along the way as we turned to being 3 minutes early into Bath Spa at 20:59. This meant I could make the +5 to the Weymouth service but I was booked on the 2138 Pompey service so I waited for that, which was formed of 3 car 158955. Thankfully it wasn't an all stopper so I was back in Trowbridge in no time.
An absolute hellfire weekend in my opinion, now for some stats I've decided to do for each report. By the way, the 'random quote' is from snippets heard when walking to the loo or to the buffet.
Mileage altogether - 996 miles! Shocked me to say the least
Highest Mileage on one train - 402m 40ch on 43075 and 43054
Lowest Mileage on one train (non LUL) - 450089 3m 74ch
Best part of trip - The Jolly Fisherman tour of course!
Worst part of trip - Being on a 377 with a massive headache! Must take pills before alighting!
Random Quote no.1 - "If it doesn't make sense, then it makes sense."
Random Quote no.2 - "they should reply to them in english!"
Hope you enjoyed the read!
James.
