UkRailtours/Pathfinder Tours The 'One Way Wizzo' 14/4/24
This was essentially a test run that was generously put into passenger service at a reasonable price between London Paddington and Birmingham New Street. The one way nature of the tour and it being relatively short by railtour standards, made accessing the tour easier and more affordable, as no London hotels were required and even with the travel time to meet and leave the tour, it was still a shorter day than some railtours that I do.
I woke around 7am and had time for a leisurely coffee and prep, leaving the house at around 8am, taking the Iskra-mobile the short drive down to Meadowhall station where a free parking spot was secured with ease. I then used the clunky TVM to obtain a paper return ticket from Meadowhall to Sheffield, just in case I had any phone battery issues later in the day. Northern 150271 then rolled into the station to take me the short hop to Sheffield. The train was fairly well loaded, but it is the only early Westbound train on a Sunday morning, with most services emerging from Sheffield at this time still.
At Sheffield, I had a bit of time so grabbed some breakfast from Costa, before heading over to the advertised platform (8). Pretty much every platform number was flashing on the screens, indicating that they had changed, so was immediately suspicious on finding a 185 and a 195 sat in platform 8. I took a seat in the nearby waiting room, where I just heard a barely audible announcement about a platform change, and I crossed the platform to platform 6 after relaying the platform change information to a couple of other passengers.
Next up, was the 0924 EMR service to London St Pancras formed of 5-carriage 222016. Ahead of this journey, I'd had a number of emails stating that the departure time had changed from 0923 to 0913 and then to 0924. These changes had initially been for us to run via Barrow Hill, which I was happy about as it would give me a curve from Sheffield onto the Barrow Hill Line, so I was a little sad when the change was rescinded. Following the lengthy thread on the forums about EMR overcrowding on Sundays, I had taken the decision to upgrade my STD Advance ticket with a seatfrog upgrade to ensure a pleasant journey. This Meridian was booked to stop at every possible station so I suspected that STD would become wedged, especially on the Southern end of the route and it was quite a slow end to end journey time. I knew that the EMR First Class complimentary offering is a bit patchy on a Sunday, so I came with the view that if anything was provided that would be a bonus. The reservation system didn't seem to be working, so I took the opportunity to switch to a better seat than I'd been allocated (it was quiet at this point). Interestingly, first class menus were out on the tables, although I had suspected that this was an oversight from the night before. Shortly after departure from Sheffield the guard came through, and the passengers behind me gave him some grief after he explained there were no refreshments on this service, he took it well and eventually ended up distributing bottles of water to everyone in First as a token gesture. I still had my coffee in my travel flask anyway at this point, so I was sorted for most of the journey. The train did fill up in STD pretty quickly and continued to do so heading South. It was quite an enjoyable run down, probably helped by the sunshine and somehow we ended up arriving 13 minutes early into St Pancras, which is possibly a record early arrival time for me away from sleeper trains.
As I had plenty of time, I'd spotted an opportunity to head over to Paddington a new way, using the Elizabeth line. I know there's been a lot of hype about this line and there was a big rush to do it, but I'm not really into shiny new metro services, so I've dawdled and finally decided to do it when there was a genuine need. Interestingly, google maps did still show the Tube as slightly quicker, and it is direct too. Nevertheless, I made it down to the Thameslink platforms very quickly (once I'd remembered where they were- it's been a while), and I was able to catch a new class of train the
Class 700 on a Rainham service, for a short hop to Farringdon, where I changed onto the Elizabeth Line, which felt very modern, light and airy. While I can absolutely understand the need for platform doors, they do make getting a picture of the train difficult. My Elizabeth Line train of choice was one terminating at Paddington, which was a good choice as it was quieter. This was my first time on a
Class 345. Both of these new train types, were absolutely adequate, but I do struggle to be enthusiastic about them.
Exiting the Elizabeth Line at Paddington was simple, and I headed up to Platform 1 to find the stock in the station and looking smart, with lots of interested tourists and passers-by. Sadly, 57303 appeared again, which I'd had recently on the BLS positioning move to the Edinburgh area and then also had it on the Night Riviera on hire from DRS many years ago. 57303 did look smart though, as did the rake of coaches.
I knew that the narrow end of Platform 1 was going to be a nightmare for getting a photo, so I talked my way on to the end of Platform 2, which was a slight improvement as there were no people in the way, just a lot of bulky railway clutter.
Class 52, D1015 Western Champion (new Class for haulage) arrives, filmed here:
I then headed over to P1 to see if there was a chance of a photo (there wasn't), so I boarded. I'd gone for Standard Class for this one, with it being only a relatively short tour. Every seat was taken on board and there was a pleasant atmosphere as we departed Paddington. The enthusiasts I was seated with were sociable enough, and I also encountered Francis Bourgeois on board, who is a pleasant chap. I was lucky enough to have been seated in Coach J, which ended up just one away from the loco, so some great noise was heard, which really added to the trip. On the run out of Paddington, we had the novelty of running non-stop through Reading Station and also running through Oxford at speed, noisily which was good fun. At Banbury, we had a lengthy photo stop which was really useful for those on the tour to get some photo's without too much crowding, and it allowed enough time to walk out of the station.
The pleasant Spring weather helped with the views and the countryside was teaming with life and looked excellent as we headed North on an old Virgin Cross Country routeing. I clocked us travelling as fast as 77mph, but didn't get anything higher than that, although that was fast enough to be exhilarating and to have the loco bouncing around. We worked our way around the edge of Birmingham, before I alighted at Tame Bridge Parkway to get some external footage and get back home at a sensible time. I'd booked two sets of advance tickets for the return journey to allow an early return or a late one depending on what I desired on the day. With 57303 being very dud and departure from Tame Bridge being the only opportunity for some external footage, I alighted there.
While waiting at Tame Bridge Parkway a class 730 came through, the first I’ve seen in operation. I then took a 350 to Birmingham New Street, which was a lot nicer inside than the last 350 that I rode. At Birmingham New Street, I headed over to my XC train back to Sheffield, but with a vague hope of catching the 57 then coming back into the station with the tour, but I had to give that idea up and jump on my train instead or otherwise I would have had a long wait. The XC had arrived wedged, being only 4 cars, but after its long dwell at Birmingham it left with most seats taken and a few standees, but I do think they would have found one if they had have looked hard enough. Unusually, this XC service went via Nuneaton and Leicester to Derby, which is a long way around, was a first and seemed a bit weird being on the MML on an XC Voyager. I believe this was also my first time non-stopping Leicester station. At Derby, to regain its path the XC had a very long dwell so when doing revenue the TM pointed out that it was faster to alight at Derby and board the EMR up to Sheffield from there. This 5 carriage service was reported as full and standing, but I suspected this was more referring to the situation further South and I thought there'd be enough passenger changeover at Derby for me to get on a probably get a seat. This turned out to be a correct assessment and this was my first meaningful journey in refurbished standard class, which I thought was an improvement. As always, we crawled into Sheffield and then I headed over to platform 1 for a Trans Pennine 185 for the short hop to Meadowhall to return to the car.
Overall, a great day with three new classes sampled and some great heritage locomotive haulage, with a shorter and cheaper day than normal. Thanks to all involved in running this in passenger service
