ash39
Established Member
- Joined
- 8 Feb 2012
- Messages
- 1,505
I'm lucky enough to get a week and a bit off each Christmas, so usually put aside one day for a day out. I couldn't decide between a Tyne Tees Day Ranger and a Lancashire Day Ranger, but the North West won in the end.
I drove to Garforth and bought a return to Hebden Bridge from the TVM. I'd arrived at around 0730, so I had the option of boarding the 0743 TPE service to Manchester Airport as far as Leeds where I could pick up the Blackpool North service behind it. The frost and light was looking great this morning so I decided to set up for a photo on the opposite platform, and if it was a winner 185 make a dash back over the footbridge for it. It was freezing and tempting to just take the 185 to get warm. Luckily, depending on how you look at it, it was very dud 185143, so I got the shot I wanted.
185143 Garforth 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
The TPE was around 5 minutes late, so it was only a minute or so later that 158758 showed up. Good start to the day. I took the winner 158 through to Preston, purchasing the rover ticket from the guard on the way. At Preston I was hoping it would be 37403 on the loco hauled to Barrow (I knew for certain it was on one of the sets). I couldn't immediately see it as it was on the other side of the station, but I could hear it humming away. I peered over the footbridge to see a filthy, smokey 37403 sat on top of the mk2's. It could have been the 80's again, it looked excellent.
37403 Preston 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
It would have been rude not to, so 37403 was taken as far as Lancaster. I could have got as far as Silverdale on the ticket but the connection back wasn't great and I had other things to chase.
After a short wait 390157 showed up to return me to Preston. I was sure I'd had this one, which would have been seriously bad luck as I've only got 7 in the book, but I was getting mixed up with 156 which I had on my Christmas day out last year (was on a West Midlands Day Ranger).
I had no real plan at all for the day, but I was looking to tick off as many 142's as I could. I didn't think I could go wrong, so I continued to make it up as I went along. It was still freezing, so at Preston I took the first available move which was double winners 156466 & 156461, got myself warmed up and looked up on realtimetrains to try and formulate some kind of plan. I decided to go through to Manchester, but staying on these all the way would be a waste, so I bailed at Bolton, first winner station of the day though I'd been here many years ago. A few minutes later another pair of winners rolled in - 153316 leading 150110. Started to regret this move as they had come from Clitheroe and it seemed the whole of Clitheroe were going into Manchester this morning, the 150 was wedged. It seemed to take much longer than the 15 minutes it actually was, but eventually we got to Salford Crescent, where I unpeeled myself from the door and got off.
153316 Salford Crescent 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
Still no 142's, though I did spot 142005 going the other way. I should have taken it, but in the end I hopped on double winners (again) - 150141 & 150139 to the next stop, an exact 1 mile down the line, Salford Central.
150139 Salford Central 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
The final leap to Victoria was on 156448.
This is where it went a bit wrong. I'd done well on the Bolton-Victoria section, and I should have stayed on there a bit longer, but I walked over to Piccadilly with the hope of trying a 319 for the first time, head towards Liverpool then see what I can pick up around there. I don't like to stay in the same area for too long to prevent boredom so I walked the 15-20mins to Piccadilly, but immediately realised there was hardly anything going west due to engineering works. I couldn't be bothered to walk back to Victoria, so I foolishly decided to take a tram to Eccles, where the Liverpool services were terminating that day. Forgetting that the tram takes the best part of 45 minutes to get there, and I'd just missed a Liverpool train, I basically lost 2 hours due to not planning, lesson learned!
I walked around Eccles and took in the sights to kill a bit of time, eventually 319379 turned up and took the honour of being my first 319. It first came in on the normal platform and continued towards Manchester where it shunted back into the correct Liverpool bound platform.
319379 Eccles 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
I had a fairly long run on 379 to Huyton, where I'd worked out a series of moves in quick succession which would get me a few stations ticked off. Plenty of choice as I'd only done Wavertree Technology Park and Liverpool Lime Street in this area. Next up was 319383 to Rainhill.
319383 Huyton 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
Then it was a fairly quick change back onto 319364 to Edge Hill.
319364 Rainhill 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
I hadn't realised that everything on this section would be 319's. I was glad to get one in but was becoming rather fed up of them now. I'd have to take one more yet though, and at least it wasn't a repeat. 319375 to Wigan North Western - another station I've been to but no record of.
Still freezing, and the 8 minute delay to the northbound Virgin service I wanted to be on was not helping things. 390132 became my second Pendolino winner of the day, back to Preston. It was getting dark now, and even colder, and although I had a few hours left I had to think of a plan for getting home, as I'd have to go from Preston or Manchester Victoria due to my tickets.
I decided to get to Manchester again, have some food then go back from there, so I set about doing a similar run to what I did earlier in the day. First up were a pair of 185's to Chorley - unfortunately the first duds of the day - 185136 & 185103. Chorley seemed to be undergoing some work, the platform I was on faced another platform which appeared to be closed (and fenced off), but it had a ticket office which was open. The actual platform for the Preston direction was staggered and in the Manchester direction. It was a bit strange.
Single 156424 turned up to take me to Bolton for the second time. I'd become greedy now, annoyed it wasn't a pair. I forgot just how little I'd drank all day and was getting dehydrated so bought a bottle of water from the vending machine at Bolton. Hate paying for water, should have carried some bottles. At least the machine took card as I had no coins on me at all.
At last, two of Northerns finest came screeching round the corner into the platform. Winners 142055 & 142003 took me to Salford Crescent. Unfortunately this was followed by dud (from earlier!) 156448, to Manchester Victoria.
I had a McDonalds for tea, the first one I'd had in around 6 months. Went down nicely, warm food was definitely required after suffering most of the day in temperatures which barely topped 2 degrees.
I went back down to the platforms and saw 142004 about to leave. I'd just had 003 so for some reason I really wanted to get 004, but it was on the other side of the line so I thought I had no chance, but I somehow made it onto it. I stayed on board at Salford Central, Salford Crescent is a much better option being an island platform. This proved to be correct when another pacer was waiting in the adjacent platform, about to go. The guard probably thought I was odd, but I dashed from one pacer to another, back to where I came. When I got off at Victoria, around 10 minutes after I left, I checked the ID of the pacer I'd fallen onto and it was winner 142040. If only the rest could be done at a ratio of one every five minutes, they'd be cleared in no time! I was now a bit annoyed I'd not taken 005 when I had the chance earlier in the day.
I decided to head back now, as I could get back to Garforth an hour earlier if I took the next train. I had 15 minutes so went to the co-op just outside the station for some paracetamol and some more water (at about 1/8th of the cost of the bottle I got at Bolton...). I also got a coffee from Starbucks which in theory is quite counterproductive to getting rid of headaches but it seems to work for me. The barista faffed about and in the end I only had 5 minutes to get back to the platform so had to get moving. It was dud 158859 for the run to Leeds, where I'd meet the Blackpool-York service to get me back to Garforth.
Wasn't long until this plan started to unfold. At Rochdale we were held for around 5 minutes when the guard informed us that a large drunk gentleman had collapsed in his own vomit and he had to call for assistance to remove him. The police and paramedics eventually turned up but the damage was 40 minutes (and a sore head for that guy the next day). No chance of making the connection now and unfortunately this would make me a full hour later back at Garforth. At least I stood a chance of getting one of Northern's complimentary tickets as delay repay, even though it felt slightly harsh to claim this when it was not in any way their fault.
We didn't make up any significant time, but due to the way the timetable is, the Blackpool to York train was already at Leeds. It's booked to wait for almost half an hour, which must be infuriating if travelling from say Bradford to Cross Gates. At least I could keep warm, and at least it was winner 158905. I got a couple of pictures first though to kill the time.
91112 Leeds 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
158905 Leeds 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
Day summary
158758 GRF-PRE
37403 PRE-LAN
390157 LAN-PRE
156466 & 156461 PRE-BON
153316 & 150110 BON-SLD
150141 & 150139 SLD-SFD
156448 SFD-MCV
319379 ECC-HUY
319383 HUY-RNH
319364 RNH-EDG
319375 EDG-WGN
390132 WGN-PRE
185136 & 185103 PRE-CRL
156424 CRL-BON
142055 & 142003 BON-SLD
156448 SLD-MCV
142004 MCV-SLD
142040 SLD-MCV
158859 MCV-LDS
158905 LDS-GRF
Report summary
9 new stations (Bolton, Chorley, Eccles, Edge Hill, Huyton, Rainhill, Salford Central, Salford Central, Wigan North Western)
21 new units/locos (1x 37, 4x 142, 3x 150, 1x 153, 4x 156, 2x 158, 4x 319, 2x 390)
4 dud units (1x 156, 1x 158, 2x 185)
I drove to Garforth and bought a return to Hebden Bridge from the TVM. I'd arrived at around 0730, so I had the option of boarding the 0743 TPE service to Manchester Airport as far as Leeds where I could pick up the Blackpool North service behind it. The frost and light was looking great this morning so I decided to set up for a photo on the opposite platform, and if it was a winner 185 make a dash back over the footbridge for it. It was freezing and tempting to just take the 185 to get warm. Luckily, depending on how you look at it, it was very dud 185143, so I got the shot I wanted.
185143 Garforth 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
The TPE was around 5 minutes late, so it was only a minute or so later that 158758 showed up. Good start to the day. I took the winner 158 through to Preston, purchasing the rover ticket from the guard on the way. At Preston I was hoping it would be 37403 on the loco hauled to Barrow (I knew for certain it was on one of the sets). I couldn't immediately see it as it was on the other side of the station, but I could hear it humming away. I peered over the footbridge to see a filthy, smokey 37403 sat on top of the mk2's. It could have been the 80's again, it looked excellent.
37403 Preston 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
It would have been rude not to, so 37403 was taken as far as Lancaster. I could have got as far as Silverdale on the ticket but the connection back wasn't great and I had other things to chase.
After a short wait 390157 showed up to return me to Preston. I was sure I'd had this one, which would have been seriously bad luck as I've only got 7 in the book, but I was getting mixed up with 156 which I had on my Christmas day out last year (was on a West Midlands Day Ranger).
I had no real plan at all for the day, but I was looking to tick off as many 142's as I could. I didn't think I could go wrong, so I continued to make it up as I went along. It was still freezing, so at Preston I took the first available move which was double winners 156466 & 156461, got myself warmed up and looked up on realtimetrains to try and formulate some kind of plan. I decided to go through to Manchester, but staying on these all the way would be a waste, so I bailed at Bolton, first winner station of the day though I'd been here many years ago. A few minutes later another pair of winners rolled in - 153316 leading 150110. Started to regret this move as they had come from Clitheroe and it seemed the whole of Clitheroe were going into Manchester this morning, the 150 was wedged. It seemed to take much longer than the 15 minutes it actually was, but eventually we got to Salford Crescent, where I unpeeled myself from the door and got off.
153316 Salford Crescent 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
Still no 142's, though I did spot 142005 going the other way. I should have taken it, but in the end I hopped on double winners (again) - 150141 & 150139 to the next stop, an exact 1 mile down the line, Salford Central.
150139 Salford Central 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
The final leap to Victoria was on 156448.
This is where it went a bit wrong. I'd done well on the Bolton-Victoria section, and I should have stayed on there a bit longer, but I walked over to Piccadilly with the hope of trying a 319 for the first time, head towards Liverpool then see what I can pick up around there. I don't like to stay in the same area for too long to prevent boredom so I walked the 15-20mins to Piccadilly, but immediately realised there was hardly anything going west due to engineering works. I couldn't be bothered to walk back to Victoria, so I foolishly decided to take a tram to Eccles, where the Liverpool services were terminating that day. Forgetting that the tram takes the best part of 45 minutes to get there, and I'd just missed a Liverpool train, I basically lost 2 hours due to not planning, lesson learned!
I walked around Eccles and took in the sights to kill a bit of time, eventually 319379 turned up and took the honour of being my first 319. It first came in on the normal platform and continued towards Manchester where it shunted back into the correct Liverpool bound platform.
319379 Eccles 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
I had a fairly long run on 379 to Huyton, where I'd worked out a series of moves in quick succession which would get me a few stations ticked off. Plenty of choice as I'd only done Wavertree Technology Park and Liverpool Lime Street in this area. Next up was 319383 to Rainhill.
319383 Huyton 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
Then it was a fairly quick change back onto 319364 to Edge Hill.
319364 Rainhill 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
I hadn't realised that everything on this section would be 319's. I was glad to get one in but was becoming rather fed up of them now. I'd have to take one more yet though, and at least it wasn't a repeat. 319375 to Wigan North Western - another station I've been to but no record of.
Still freezing, and the 8 minute delay to the northbound Virgin service I wanted to be on was not helping things. 390132 became my second Pendolino winner of the day, back to Preston. It was getting dark now, and even colder, and although I had a few hours left I had to think of a plan for getting home, as I'd have to go from Preston or Manchester Victoria due to my tickets.
I decided to get to Manchester again, have some food then go back from there, so I set about doing a similar run to what I did earlier in the day. First up were a pair of 185's to Chorley - unfortunately the first duds of the day - 185136 & 185103. Chorley seemed to be undergoing some work, the platform I was on faced another platform which appeared to be closed (and fenced off), but it had a ticket office which was open. The actual platform for the Preston direction was staggered and in the Manchester direction. It was a bit strange.
Single 156424 turned up to take me to Bolton for the second time. I'd become greedy now, annoyed it wasn't a pair. I forgot just how little I'd drank all day and was getting dehydrated so bought a bottle of water from the vending machine at Bolton. Hate paying for water, should have carried some bottles. At least the machine took card as I had no coins on me at all.
At last, two of Northerns finest came screeching round the corner into the platform. Winners 142055 & 142003 took me to Salford Crescent. Unfortunately this was followed by dud (from earlier!) 156448, to Manchester Victoria.
I had a McDonalds for tea, the first one I'd had in around 6 months. Went down nicely, warm food was definitely required after suffering most of the day in temperatures which barely topped 2 degrees.
I went back down to the platforms and saw 142004 about to leave. I'd just had 003 so for some reason I really wanted to get 004, but it was on the other side of the line so I thought I had no chance, but I somehow made it onto it. I stayed on board at Salford Central, Salford Crescent is a much better option being an island platform. This proved to be correct when another pacer was waiting in the adjacent platform, about to go. The guard probably thought I was odd, but I dashed from one pacer to another, back to where I came. When I got off at Victoria, around 10 minutes after I left, I checked the ID of the pacer I'd fallen onto and it was winner 142040. If only the rest could be done at a ratio of one every five minutes, they'd be cleared in no time! I was now a bit annoyed I'd not taken 005 when I had the chance earlier in the day.
I decided to head back now, as I could get back to Garforth an hour earlier if I took the next train. I had 15 minutes so went to the co-op just outside the station for some paracetamol and some more water (at about 1/8th of the cost of the bottle I got at Bolton...). I also got a coffee from Starbucks which in theory is quite counterproductive to getting rid of headaches but it seems to work for me. The barista faffed about and in the end I only had 5 minutes to get back to the platform so had to get moving. It was dud 158859 for the run to Leeds, where I'd meet the Blackpool-York service to get me back to Garforth.
Wasn't long until this plan started to unfold. At Rochdale we were held for around 5 minutes when the guard informed us that a large drunk gentleman had collapsed in his own vomit and he had to call for assistance to remove him. The police and paramedics eventually turned up but the damage was 40 minutes (and a sore head for that guy the next day). No chance of making the connection now and unfortunately this would make me a full hour later back at Garforth. At least I stood a chance of getting one of Northern's complimentary tickets as delay repay, even though it felt slightly harsh to claim this when it was not in any way their fault.
We didn't make up any significant time, but due to the way the timetable is, the Blackpool to York train was already at Leeds. It's booked to wait for almost half an hour, which must be infuriating if travelling from say Bradford to Cross Gates. At least I could keep warm, and at least it was winner 158905. I got a couple of pictures first though to kill the time.
91112 Leeds 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
158905 Leeds 29/12/2016 by Flash 3939, on Flickr
Day summary
158758 GRF-PRE
37403 PRE-LAN
390157 LAN-PRE
156466 & 156461 PRE-BON
153316 & 150110 BON-SLD
150141 & 150139 SLD-SFD
156448 SFD-MCV
319379 ECC-HUY
319383 HUY-RNH
319364 RNH-EDG
319375 EDG-WGN
390132 WGN-PRE
185136 & 185103 PRE-CRL
156424 CRL-BON
142055 & 142003 BON-SLD
156448 SLD-MCV
142004 MCV-SLD
142040 SLD-MCV
158859 MCV-LDS
158905 LDS-GRF
Report summary
9 new stations (Bolton, Chorley, Eccles, Edge Hill, Huyton, Rainhill, Salford Central, Salford Central, Wigan North Western)
21 new units/locos (1x 37, 4x 142, 3x 150, 1x 153, 4x 156, 2x 158, 4x 319, 2x 390)
4 dud units (1x 156, 1x 158, 2x 185)
