14/01/19
Oh dear - not a good start; there's a signal failure affecting services to Waterloo, so I'll have to head to London Bridge instead with no Victoria service due for a while. That's a rather slower way to London and I am waiting on some gen so I don't know where I'm going yet... I only have a Travelcard at this stage... which is
377 323 + 377 305 + 377 130 off Epsom.
Between Brockley and London Bridge, the gen on the TOPS thread comes in and it is good ( thank you again
@37078xotTE ); this time it is my last 350 for haulage,
350 401, but it is tight as it's literally at the start of my time window... because of the delay getting to London I cannot get the ideal 09.40 from Euston and have to rely 100% on the 10.00. The 10.20 won't do it. So this calls for a dash at London Bridge to get to the Northern Line, fortunately
51725 + 51665 pulled in within a minute of my reaching the platforms, having just missed the previous train by literally two seconds, and gets a reasonable run to Euston.
Now I am dependent on there not being a long queue at the ticket office at Euston. The good news is there wasn't a long queue, the bad news is there were only four or five windows, sorry - counters, open. Aarrgghh!!! I get the ticket - on one of those silly overgrown new style flimsy tickets that is the size of a swimming pool but I now have to run like hell as I've only got five minutes or so to get the 10.00; fortunately it went from one of the nearer platforms.
390 138. Amazingly I manage to get a full view forward facing window seat on the right hand side, so at least I'm not going to be standing in the vestibule for a couple of hours.
What's at the Willesden / Wembley complex?
57 305, 66 953, 66 050, 90 035... hmmm... 050 turned up last week as well at Acton didn't it? At Wolverton
08 629 was shunting reprieved
315 858 with a 47 or a 57 on the south end, presumably to return it to London ( see also the class 315 withdrawals thread ) and
57 308 was the Rugby Thunderbird.
Manchester is reached on time and I quickly make my way over to the 13 - 14 island to await my haulage target. The gen is good, and
350 401 appears at the appointed time; I board it for class clearance for haulage - already got them all for photo.
Disaster!!!
This is where I discover - having missed noticing it off the screens - that the Manchester to Scotland TPEs no longer call at Oxford Road... First stop is Preston... *facepalm*
Trolley attendant sees my face and is somewhat amused when I ask him which end the guard is at - he's actually nearby, and is also somewhat amused when I explain. Well... thank you TPE, having got the other 9 for haulage between Piccadilly and Oxford Road you can see how I managed to miss the omission from the boards.
Half an hour later... Preston. On the plus side at least I've just bagged the short chord at Newton Le Willows for my atlas, on the minus side I'm now way out of position and where is the next one back to Manchester - and I need one that calls at Oxford Road because the plan for the day included the Ordsall Chord.
20 minutes to wait, I'll grab a bite to eat... oh... unexpected bonus; one of the three 158s I need for photo - having been told none were due in Manchester that day I had eliminated them from the plan - is sitting in the south bay. So maybe I can recover something from this timetable disaster after all.
158 853... *click* now grab that food and get the Oxford Road train. that's
185 125 and it's on time. Good. Off we go...
...and back we come. We get turned back after Buckshaw Parkway and return to Preston. Jeez!!! Am I going to ever get away from here?! "Broken down Freightliner" in front of us, apparently. Now I'm not into micro-gricing to Quail level, but I would hazard a guess that more than a few people will be jealous that we reversed over the crossover just to the east of Buckshaw...??? Well, back to Manchester attempt #2, this being
319 377 on the Newton le Willows chord route, which at least gets me the chord in the other direction as well. At least this is also an Oxford Road service and a quick check on Real Time Trains shows that it will - just - allow me time to get the Ordsall Chord in although I'll be later off Piccadilly than I planned for.
OK... I'll do it, so I'm off at Oxford Road ( where I discover that there was no broken down Freightliner; it was in fact rather more unfortunate circumstances on the Bolton area; I can understand the need to be discrete in announcements but it's certainly not acceptable to blame freight for the delays... ) and
185 127 gets me to Manchester Victoria for
185 114 back to Piccadilly after a bit if a fester. Pondered getting a tram back, but no my ticket's not valid on the tram only back via the chord and I can't justify even just the quid or so tram fare for what would only be a ten minute time saving and still not put me on an earlier 390 back south. Plus, it would mean I wouldn't have had the chord in both directions... OK, that's a little bit Quailish in level, which I don't really do, but at least it's satisfying.
Back at Piccadilly it's
390 131 to Euston,
51677 + 51678 to Waterloo and then 455 732 + 455 736 to Epsom.
In summary, a highly embarrassing timetable disaster, compounded by further delays but at least I cleared the 350s for haulage, got a 158 off my photo list having not expected to ( two left now... ) and two new bits of track covered.