palmersears
Established Member
- Joined
- 20 Sep 2011
- Messages
- 1,487
29/07/16 - The Swinging 60s
A day off yesterday, but I was still up at 0700, ready for collection by the missus at 0730, and the 0750 from Hazel Grove to Stockport. Formed of two 156s (both duds), which is rare, we had a quick chat about our mortgage shenanigans, before I hopped off, leaving her to continue to Manchester for a day's work. With my Stockport-Sheffield, Sheffield-Derby and Derby-Nottingham tickets collected it was up to platform 2, a quick stop for porridge and peppermint tea, and then all aboard the slightly delayed, lightly loaded, 0828 TPE service to Cleethorpes.
The light load allowed for a window seat on the right, ideal for spotting 66548 in the sidings at Hope, and I then settled in for the remaining 30 minutes through to Sheffield, which was punctuated only by a text from Santander to say the aforementioned mortgage shenanigans were now resolved, and our mortgage offer was on its way! Proper grown-up business.
A slightly grey Sheffield greeted me as I alighted, and with 15 minutes to kill before the next Derby-bound service I set about picking off any Northern units missing from the records. 142091 was first up, squealing away towards Doncaster, whilst 144002 & 144011 waited patiently in the bay platforms for their workings to Leeds and Adwick respectively. With that I had two choices for the next leg to Derby, either a XC 220, or an EMT 222 five minutes later (both duds). Wanting to make the most of the day I bit the bullet and chose the former, which was both fresh and empty. I did wonder if I'd accidentally boarded the wrong service for a split second!
Nothing noted on the 25 minute blast down to Derby, I alighted and, having purchased a wee trail bar to keep the hunger pangs away, settled down aboard another dud, this time a XC 170 for the short hop to Nottingham. Another service transporting me and a load of fresh air about (I saw virtually nobody on any service all day), it rather sportingly crawled passed Derby RTC, allowing me to gather a number of the locos nearest the line, namely 47812, 37419 & 37025, as well as a DVT for the books by way of 82101. Sadly a good number of locos were hidden behind a yellow banana parked on the third road in, but I had a plan for that later in the day.
Enjoying the scenery as we passed Attenborough nature reserve, I almost missed 60010 at the head of 6M57 Lindsey-Kingsbury, but just snapped out of my daydream in time, thankfully. After waiting an age for clearance into Nottingham I jumped off, had a quick scout round for anything new (nothing doing there), before heading up to the tram stop. Despite having visited Nottingham on numerous occasions I've never actually used the tram -it's such a small city you can walk most of the important bits easily enough- but today they were very much required for the alleged 30 minute journey to Toton Lane. Boarding to find yet another fresh air carrier, I settled in for a rather tortuous crawl through the outer reaches of the city centre. Whilst not expecting us to fly along, I was surprised at the amount of times we crawled through junctions and round corners at near walking pace. Safe to say by the time I reached the end of the line it felt like I'd aged 30 years, never mind 30 minutes. Will not be returning to them in a hurry!
Banana devoured, I set off towards the undergrowth, hoping to see the infamous Toton complex before too long. In fact it popped up on me completely out of the blue, stretching out some distance when the undergrowth cleared. Aside from three gentlemen in camping chairs, who were clearly there for the day, the bank was deserted, and I deployed the binoculars to see what I could identify amongst the masses of locos, wagons and other bits and pieces. 68003 was nearest me, with 66762 not far behind, and after that it was a few 66s and heaps of 60s, as you'd expect. I walked the full length of the bank, and it was actually rather sad to see such a large number of locos seemingly left to rot. To the untrained eye I see no reason for this, could they not be employed somewhere on the network for something?
Having done the bank I set off for the 1 mile walk round to the back of the complex, and the other side of the line, to see if anything was hiding there. Sadly the foliage was a bit more troublesome on this side, with the lack of a bank meaning the advantage of elevation was lost. I did get a couple more numbers, but I think a return trip in the winter, when trees are bare, would probably help. That said, I think I did quite well all told, with only a few units in and around the sheds themselves remaining elusive.
From here I had decided beforehand to combine the day with a fitness test. Coming back from a long-term hip injury I have been encouraged by my physio to begin increasing my running distances again, and today seemed like the perfect opportunity to get another couple of miles under the belt. Changing into my running gear at the ASDA in Long Eaton, it was a brisk 1.5 miles to the train station, passed approximately 57 hairdressers/barbers en route. Arriving 2 minutes before a Matlock-bound service, it was all aboard a pair of dud 153s and back to Derby, again passing the RTC. Three more went in the book after the second passing, 73138, 37254 & 37116. Phase two complete.
Derby again offered up nothing apart from 66086 on its way to Peak Forest. I saw not one single 222 or 170 I needed all day, which slightly disappointed, but then I suppose I am now working with quite a small pool! With the lactic acid building a bit now I exited the station, and went for a wee jog round the back of the RTC site, where I got 37611 & 37194, before heading under the railway and back round to the station entrance on the other side of the line. I was looking to see what was on the EMT depot, but this meant traipsing through the business park, which I didn't really want to do on a weekday.
By this time it was 1500, and I decided to head back to Sheffield, this time electing for a 222 (dud, as you may have already guessed). Here it was out of the station to the nearby Travelodge, where my friend works, to blag a room for a quick shower and change before he finished his shift. We had a quick half in the Tap, before going our separate ways; he to his second job as a pizza chef(!), me back to the station for a wee bit more unit grabbing before the 1711 back to Stockport. 90 minutes yielded a fair amount, all Northern stuff:
142022
144004
144007
144021
153304
158815
158855
158908
And with that it was aboard the very cosy 1711! Standing by the accessible toilet wasn't great, but did give a view of Hope sidings once more, which threw up 66524.
And that was it. 73 units in the book, a nice day out, and over 5 miles walked/run. To celebrate I went to Stockport 'Foodie Friday' at the market and had a beer and some paella. Oh, and some pick and mix
A quick footnote as well that I've finally snaffled my last EMT 158, 158774, so the local wishlist is very small now.
Next trip is London on Friday, but given I need only a handful of LM 350s I doubt this will be uber-productive unless the missus wants rid of me for a couple of hours and I can get out to Bethnal Green (we're staying near Liverpool Street).
Destinations for dedicated trips are needing to become increasingly further afield now. Birmingham again might be next up, see if I can split a day between New Street (323s mainly) and Moor Street.
A day off yesterday, but I was still up at 0700, ready for collection by the missus at 0730, and the 0750 from Hazel Grove to Stockport. Formed of two 156s (both duds), which is rare, we had a quick chat about our mortgage shenanigans, before I hopped off, leaving her to continue to Manchester for a day's work. With my Stockport-Sheffield, Sheffield-Derby and Derby-Nottingham tickets collected it was up to platform 2, a quick stop for porridge and peppermint tea, and then all aboard the slightly delayed, lightly loaded, 0828 TPE service to Cleethorpes.
The light load allowed for a window seat on the right, ideal for spotting 66548 in the sidings at Hope, and I then settled in for the remaining 30 minutes through to Sheffield, which was punctuated only by a text from Santander to say the aforementioned mortgage shenanigans were now resolved, and our mortgage offer was on its way! Proper grown-up business.
A slightly grey Sheffield greeted me as I alighted, and with 15 minutes to kill before the next Derby-bound service I set about picking off any Northern units missing from the records. 142091 was first up, squealing away towards Doncaster, whilst 144002 & 144011 waited patiently in the bay platforms for their workings to Leeds and Adwick respectively. With that I had two choices for the next leg to Derby, either a XC 220, or an EMT 222 five minutes later (both duds). Wanting to make the most of the day I bit the bullet and chose the former, which was both fresh and empty. I did wonder if I'd accidentally boarded the wrong service for a split second!
Nothing noted on the 25 minute blast down to Derby, I alighted and, having purchased a wee trail bar to keep the hunger pangs away, settled down aboard another dud, this time a XC 170 for the short hop to Nottingham. Another service transporting me and a load of fresh air about (I saw virtually nobody on any service all day), it rather sportingly crawled passed Derby RTC, allowing me to gather a number of the locos nearest the line, namely 47812, 37419 & 37025, as well as a DVT for the books by way of 82101. Sadly a good number of locos were hidden behind a yellow banana parked on the third road in, but I had a plan for that later in the day.
Enjoying the scenery as we passed Attenborough nature reserve, I almost missed 60010 at the head of 6M57 Lindsey-Kingsbury, but just snapped out of my daydream in time, thankfully. After waiting an age for clearance into Nottingham I jumped off, had a quick scout round for anything new (nothing doing there), before heading up to the tram stop. Despite having visited Nottingham on numerous occasions I've never actually used the tram -it's such a small city you can walk most of the important bits easily enough- but today they were very much required for the alleged 30 minute journey to Toton Lane. Boarding to find yet another fresh air carrier, I settled in for a rather tortuous crawl through the outer reaches of the city centre. Whilst not expecting us to fly along, I was surprised at the amount of times we crawled through junctions and round corners at near walking pace. Safe to say by the time I reached the end of the line it felt like I'd aged 30 years, never mind 30 minutes. Will not be returning to them in a hurry!
Banana devoured, I set off towards the undergrowth, hoping to see the infamous Toton complex before too long. In fact it popped up on me completely out of the blue, stretching out some distance when the undergrowth cleared. Aside from three gentlemen in camping chairs, who were clearly there for the day, the bank was deserted, and I deployed the binoculars to see what I could identify amongst the masses of locos, wagons and other bits and pieces. 68003 was nearest me, with 66762 not far behind, and after that it was a few 66s and heaps of 60s, as you'd expect. I walked the full length of the bank, and it was actually rather sad to see such a large number of locos seemingly left to rot. To the untrained eye I see no reason for this, could they not be employed somewhere on the network for something?
Having done the bank I set off for the 1 mile walk round to the back of the complex, and the other side of the line, to see if anything was hiding there. Sadly the foliage was a bit more troublesome on this side, with the lack of a bank meaning the advantage of elevation was lost. I did get a couple more numbers, but I think a return trip in the winter, when trees are bare, would probably help. That said, I think I did quite well all told, with only a few units in and around the sheds themselves remaining elusive.
From here I had decided beforehand to combine the day with a fitness test. Coming back from a long-term hip injury I have been encouraged by my physio to begin increasing my running distances again, and today seemed like the perfect opportunity to get another couple of miles under the belt. Changing into my running gear at the ASDA in Long Eaton, it was a brisk 1.5 miles to the train station, passed approximately 57 hairdressers/barbers en route. Arriving 2 minutes before a Matlock-bound service, it was all aboard a pair of dud 153s and back to Derby, again passing the RTC. Three more went in the book after the second passing, 73138, 37254 & 37116. Phase two complete.
Derby again offered up nothing apart from 66086 on its way to Peak Forest. I saw not one single 222 or 170 I needed all day, which slightly disappointed, but then I suppose I am now working with quite a small pool! With the lactic acid building a bit now I exited the station, and went for a wee jog round the back of the RTC site, where I got 37611 & 37194, before heading under the railway and back round to the station entrance on the other side of the line. I was looking to see what was on the EMT depot, but this meant traipsing through the business park, which I didn't really want to do on a weekday.
By this time it was 1500, and I decided to head back to Sheffield, this time electing for a 222 (dud, as you may have already guessed). Here it was out of the station to the nearby Travelodge, where my friend works, to blag a room for a quick shower and change before he finished his shift. We had a quick half in the Tap, before going our separate ways; he to his second job as a pizza chef(!), me back to the station for a wee bit more unit grabbing before the 1711 back to Stockport. 90 minutes yielded a fair amount, all Northern stuff:
142022
144004
144007
144021
153304
158815
158855
158908
And with that it was aboard the very cosy 1711! Standing by the accessible toilet wasn't great, but did give a view of Hope sidings once more, which threw up 66524.
And that was it. 73 units in the book, a nice day out, and over 5 miles walked/run. To celebrate I went to Stockport 'Foodie Friday' at the market and had a beer and some paella. Oh, and some pick and mix
A quick footnote as well that I've finally snaffled my last EMT 158, 158774, so the local wishlist is very small now.
Next trip is London on Friday, but given I need only a handful of LM 350s I doubt this will be uber-productive unless the missus wants rid of me for a couple of hours and I can get out to Bethnal Green (we're staying near Liverpool Street).
Destinations for dedicated trips are needing to become increasingly further afield now. Birmingham again might be next up, see if I can split a day between New Street (323s mainly) and Moor Street.
hock:
