I've not done one of these before, but I felt I have made a decent enough trip to warrant a little report. So here we go...
Since I was going to stay with my cousins for a couple of days, I decided to go by train and use my "free tickets" to get there and back. For those who do not know what perhaps I might be talking about, I shall give a brief back-story: in Autumn/Winter 2012, many of you may be aware that London Midland lost many drivers and as a consequence hundreds of trains were cancelled, leading to uproar in the news at the time. The following spring, LM decided to compensate all eligible season ticket holders with 5 tickets; these tickets allowed unlimited travel across the LM network for a day - I gained mine as a result of holding a scholar season ticket to Worcester.
With this being the first time that I've used trains for such a long-distance on my own, I thought it'd be boring to run the same route in both directions, so I 'spiced' it up a little (remembering I was always using London Midland trains). So I was dropped off at Droitwich Spa on a chilly Monday morning, and caught the 0833 service to Birmingham New Street. Fortunately, the front carriage was formed of 153356, so I took advantage of the classes capacious luggage rack to store my hold-all in; this was a luxury not to last.
We arrived on time into New Street; followed by 10 min change, in stead of waiting for the London Euston service, I boarded the 0925 Cross-city service to Lichfield Trent Valley (formed of 323202). This was the first time I had used the Cross-city Line services and a class 323 (I had used one many years ago but cannot remember at all what is was like, thus I treated it as new) - I had the front of the train to myself, and I will say, I love the sound of the 323s, as the thyristors squeal upon acceleration. Having arrived at Lichfield TV, I looked over the platform down onto the Trent Valley platforms, which was heaving with around 50 students, in addition to the regular commuters - it was surprising to see then a XC 220 hurtle past me as I walked along the high level platform.
So I boarded the 10:13 service (formed of 3501336) which arrived a few minutes late. Upon boarding I soon realised that I would not get a seat and had to settle for the cosy corner of the vestibule. With the train having arrived at Tamworth, I quickly lurched for a nearby seat and crammed my stuff onto the other seat; the following stop (Atherstone) my luck ran out and I had to forgo any space I had claimed - this resulted in me having to put my things into the isle as the window seat was used up. Near to me, I also noticed someone had left a huge purple suitcase, taking up more than one seat - I thought the person perched on the edge was being ignorant. The matter came to a head after stopping at Nuneaton. A woman and daughter boarded, whom then asked the person next to the suitcase if they could move it, to which she replied "it's not mine" - after a while a couple of youngish girls in front of me admitted it was theirs and stated they had no intention to move it: argument ensued as the girls said they had nowhere to put the monstrosity of a case, despite repeated suggestions from fellow passengers that they should put it into the isle. It was only after intervention from the conductor over the intercom that they reluctantly moved the case - both me and the person next to me gave a look to each other; I think the common theme was "awkward".
After a while we arrived in Milton Keynes, where I changed platforms for the 1122 service towards Euston (formed of 350244). The train was slightly delayed after a freight working passed through two mins before the scheduled departure time. It was then a steady run to Berkhampsted where I was picked up by my uncle.
The following day, we all went to London and took the 1046, which when I boarded had 4 coaches (350129), but upon arrival at Euston, we had gained another four somewhere. I managed to see some old stock as we passed Willesden Junction, including an NSE 86 and departmental 313.
I shall cut out my journeys on the underground as they were nothing special, but I took advantage of my (limited edition London 2012!) visitor oyster card which made the travelling easy. After spending 6 hours in the Science museum (it certainly was the first time I've managed to visit everything: last time I gave up since it was so busy), and enjoying a delicious Katsu curry at Wagamama in Leicester Square, we returned to Euston and discovered there were major delays as there had been a fatality at MK. This resulted in no trains arriving/departing the station except Overground services. As usual the departure boards displayed no useful information about how long or where the trains were, but fortunately, I had access to a much more reliable departure board
, so was keeping track as the first LM service made it's way towards the station. This gave us a head start over the crowds as the platform was announced as we made the sprint start down to platform 9, where LM had provided us with a 12 coach train - we arrived back in Berkhampsted at quarter to 10.
Wednesday arrived and it was time for me to return home. I had no idea what train to catch, so the days proceedings were based on the philosophy of "get whatever you see". I figured I'd perhaps be better heading towards London to catch a faster train out, so I caught the 1101 service (350246) BKM-EUS, where I had a chat with one of the LM staff who was catching a lift to Watford - the subject matter invariably led onto floods when I said where I come from; she was shocked when I told her of the army running the shuttles across Worcester river bridge.
I arrived on time at Euston and noticed a departure direct to New Street leaving in 4 minutes, so I quickly hurried onto the platform and down the end of the train. As I boarded the train (350132), the conductor had just come out of the toilet cursing "how the hell can we send a train out like this" - I took my seat at a table and slid my back behind the seat - I had heard of services on this line often having toilet problems, but until now I had never witnessed it. I daren't look myself but apparently the disabled toilet had been vandalised and the regular one (which the conductor had come out of) had been defaecated on.
hock: This resulted in the service having no working toilets. The clearly annoyed conductor came on the intercom explaining the situation and that those in urgent need should get another service - she had arranged for our train to make a toilet stop at Milton Keyes. She hoped that we would arrive on platform 1 (where the toilets were) but fortune denied this; we arrived at P3, which resulted in the conductor having to escort those wanting the toilets over the bridge. The stop lasted nearly 20 mins so we were then late, but over the next hour we caught up time and by Birmingham Intl., we were pretty much on time.
Arriving into New Street shortly after 1400 meant the I would be catching the 1449 service to Hereford in order to return home; clearly I was now famished, having not eaten anything since around 9 o'clock in the morning. Thankfully I had my bite card on me so purchased a nice tuna baguette from upper crust - I didn't sit there though because my next train had already arrived from Hereford; I went down to platform 10B and grabbed my seat on 150107. I then arrived back in Droitwich Spa at 1520, which finished my escapades over the past three days.
Overall I managed to cover at least 350 miles of track, covered new section on the Cross City North; Lichfield TV-Rugby; Northampton Loop line, as well as experiencing 323s, 350s, and one 321. In all, I was happy with the results and thoroughly enjoyed my stay with my cousins.
That has to be the longest post I have ever written... :roll:
Since I was going to stay with my cousins for a couple of days, I decided to go by train and use my "free tickets" to get there and back. For those who do not know what perhaps I might be talking about, I shall give a brief back-story: in Autumn/Winter 2012, many of you may be aware that London Midland lost many drivers and as a consequence hundreds of trains were cancelled, leading to uproar in the news at the time. The following spring, LM decided to compensate all eligible season ticket holders with 5 tickets; these tickets allowed unlimited travel across the LM network for a day - I gained mine as a result of holding a scholar season ticket to Worcester.
With this being the first time that I've used trains for such a long-distance on my own, I thought it'd be boring to run the same route in both directions, so I 'spiced' it up a little (remembering I was always using London Midland trains). So I was dropped off at Droitwich Spa on a chilly Monday morning, and caught the 0833 service to Birmingham New Street. Fortunately, the front carriage was formed of 153356, so I took advantage of the classes capacious luggage rack to store my hold-all in; this was a luxury not to last.
We arrived on time into New Street; followed by 10 min change, in stead of waiting for the London Euston service, I boarded the 0925 Cross-city service to Lichfield Trent Valley (formed of 323202). This was the first time I had used the Cross-city Line services and a class 323 (I had used one many years ago but cannot remember at all what is was like, thus I treated it as new) - I had the front of the train to myself, and I will say, I love the sound of the 323s, as the thyristors squeal upon acceleration. Having arrived at Lichfield TV, I looked over the platform down onto the Trent Valley platforms, which was heaving with around 50 students, in addition to the regular commuters - it was surprising to see then a XC 220 hurtle past me as I walked along the high level platform.
So I boarded the 10:13 service (formed of 3501336) which arrived a few minutes late. Upon boarding I soon realised that I would not get a seat and had to settle for the cosy corner of the vestibule. With the train having arrived at Tamworth, I quickly lurched for a nearby seat and crammed my stuff onto the other seat; the following stop (Atherstone) my luck ran out and I had to forgo any space I had claimed - this resulted in me having to put my things into the isle as the window seat was used up. Near to me, I also noticed someone had left a huge purple suitcase, taking up more than one seat - I thought the person perched on the edge was being ignorant. The matter came to a head after stopping at Nuneaton. A woman and daughter boarded, whom then asked the person next to the suitcase if they could move it, to which she replied "it's not mine" - after a while a couple of youngish girls in front of me admitted it was theirs and stated they had no intention to move it: argument ensued as the girls said they had nowhere to put the monstrosity of a case, despite repeated suggestions from fellow passengers that they should put it into the isle. It was only after intervention from the conductor over the intercom that they reluctantly moved the case - both me and the person next to me gave a look to each other; I think the common theme was "awkward".
After a while we arrived in Milton Keynes, where I changed platforms for the 1122 service towards Euston (formed of 350244). The train was slightly delayed after a freight working passed through two mins before the scheduled departure time. It was then a steady run to Berkhampsted where I was picked up by my uncle.
The following day, we all went to London and took the 1046, which when I boarded had 4 coaches (350129), but upon arrival at Euston, we had gained another four somewhere. I managed to see some old stock as we passed Willesden Junction, including an NSE 86 and departmental 313.
I shall cut out my journeys on the underground as they were nothing special, but I took advantage of my (limited edition London 2012!) visitor oyster card which made the travelling easy. After spending 6 hours in the Science museum (it certainly was the first time I've managed to visit everything: last time I gave up since it was so busy), and enjoying a delicious Katsu curry at Wagamama in Leicester Square, we returned to Euston and discovered there were major delays as there had been a fatality at MK. This resulted in no trains arriving/departing the station except Overground services. As usual the departure boards displayed no useful information about how long or where the trains were, but fortunately, I had access to a much more reliable departure board
, so was keeping track as the first LM service made it's way towards the station. This gave us a head start over the crowds as the platform was announced as we made the sprint start down to platform 9, where LM had provided us with a 12 coach train - we arrived back in Berkhampsted at quarter to 10.Wednesday arrived and it was time for me to return home. I had no idea what train to catch, so the days proceedings were based on the philosophy of "get whatever you see". I figured I'd perhaps be better heading towards London to catch a faster train out, so I caught the 1101 service (350246) BKM-EUS, where I had a chat with one of the LM staff who was catching a lift to Watford - the subject matter invariably led onto floods when I said where I come from; she was shocked when I told her of the army running the shuttles across Worcester river bridge.
I arrived on time at Euston and noticed a departure direct to New Street leaving in 4 minutes, so I quickly hurried onto the platform and down the end of the train. As I boarded the train (350132), the conductor had just come out of the toilet cursing "how the hell can we send a train out like this" - I took my seat at a table and slid my back behind the seat - I had heard of services on this line often having toilet problems, but until now I had never witnessed it. I daren't look myself but apparently the disabled toilet had been vandalised and the regular one (which the conductor had come out of) had been defaecated on.
hock: This resulted in the service having no working toilets. The clearly annoyed conductor came on the intercom explaining the situation and that those in urgent need should get another service - she had arranged for our train to make a toilet stop at Milton Keyes. She hoped that we would arrive on platform 1 (where the toilets were) but fortune denied this; we arrived at P3, which resulted in the conductor having to escort those wanting the toilets over the bridge. The stop lasted nearly 20 mins so we were then late, but over the next hour we caught up time and by Birmingham Intl., we were pretty much on time.Arriving into New Street shortly after 1400 meant the I would be catching the 1449 service to Hereford in order to return home; clearly I was now famished, having not eaten anything since around 9 o'clock in the morning. Thankfully I had my bite card on me so purchased a nice tuna baguette from upper crust - I didn't sit there though because my next train had already arrived from Hereford; I went down to platform 10B and grabbed my seat on 150107. I then arrived back in Droitwich Spa at 1520, which finished my escapades over the past three days.
Overall I managed to cover at least 350 miles of track, covered new section on the Cross City North; Lichfield TV-Rugby; Northampton Loop line, as well as experiencing 323s, 350s, and one 321. In all, I was happy with the results and thoroughly enjoyed my stay with my cousins.
That has to be the longest post I have ever written... :roll:
Last edited:
