Back in April when I was on my Heart of Wales trip, a Branch
Line Society tour popped up for available to booking of a 37 hauled tour to
some freight bits & bobs in Yorkshire, it looked of interest so when
travelling in the dark on the 153 I looked up options, deciding to book onto
the tour and booking into a hotel near Preston station. Later on I decided to book the Friday off
work in order to revisit my remaining stations in that area (although this was
before the various other trips, so would have also added as a “mop up” day if
required). A genius moment saw me
thinking to use one of my Northern free tickets to get me to Windermere, for a
day return to Roose (where I would break my journey at Lancaster).
The Thursday evening was spent heading to London (159106),
then to Euston (51683/51684) via the Northern line, then to Stockport via Crewe
on a delayed 390103 (it must just be me, but the last few times I’ve headed to
Stockport/Macclesfield to head to a hotel as a base for the night, I’ve been
delayed), this delay was due to signalling problems around the Rugeley
area. My hotel was the Stockport
Travelodge because it is handy for the station.
I decided to head towards the Airport first thing on the
Friday morning, the idea was to board the Windermere service there (better
chance of a seat!), so it was to Wilmslow on 323230 where my original plan went
into the bin with the appearance of a shiny 195102 sat on platform 2 working a
service towards Liverpool (via Warrington), the 323 working a stopper towards
Liverpool (via Chat Moss) wasn’t of interest so I headed back towards platform
2 (confusing the revenue staff in the process!) and took a seat on what I was
thinking would be my first 195...
...I was behind the cab and overheard the driver talking
with control because he had a fault light showing, departure time came and
went, as did a single pacer on a Wigan service, in the end I decided to cut my
losses and exited via the only open door and boarded a wedged out 221119 for
the run to Piccadilly, yes one of those rare Cross Country services which goes
via Crewe, wedged out more with the previous service from Crewe being cancelled,
and featuring a lady who boarded at Stockport rolling her eyes that she had to
stand.
Anyhow, due to congestion, we had overtaken that pacer from
earlier so I headed over to platform 14 as 142011 rolled in, a mileage
requirement which was on something like 9.9 miles, so after waiting for it to
empty out (and fill back up) I took it for a leap to Oxford Road which was
enough to push it over the line. The next
service was a Blackpool North bound service which was formed of low mileage 319369
so it would have been rude to turn it down (and get some speedy 319 based noise
as well) for the run to Preston (the train emptied out at Salford). Once at Preston it was a short wait for the
Windermere train to arrive which was as expected formed of a new train, 195117.
Others have written about how nice these are inside, good
mix of tables to airline seats (although I would have had more airline seats),
good legroom (but not headroom if you are in a seat with a TV screen above your
head!). Similar hard seats as found on
other modern trains, decent WiFi and a plug socket below the seat. Excellent acceleration but they are a bit
rough riding at speed (although that might be where I was sitting), this is one
of those services which randomly skips Lancaster (felt odd going through
non-stop in daylight on a passenger train) but waits a good 5 minute in the
loop south of Oxenholme station for the previous service from Windermere to
clear the platform. I remained on board
all the way to Windermere as I hadn’t been there for a few years. After a few photos it was back on board
195117 for the run back to Kendal
for a short wait for the same unit to return from Oxenholme to take me back one
stop to Burneside.
A pleasant little station, with some old tracks in the
station road which used to run towards a factory, random bit of railway
history, and my wait wasn’t for long before 195117 returned to take me to
Oxenholme, where I swapped for 350409 to take me to Lancaster which is where
things went a bit wrong.
Although at the start I didn’t notice anything, the next
Carlisle via the Coast unit was sat in one of the bays, but I decided to jump
on the Leeds bound 150126 to Carnforth on grounds that there is a little Co-Op
located just outside the station. This
is when I noticed the Carlisle train had changed to being cancelled, and some
rude words might have escaped me when I returned to the station to eat
lunch. Former Scottish 156449 took me
back to Lancaster, more of a time wasting move, but it proved to be an
excellent move as the next Barrow in Furness train was 158795 and departed
Lancaster rather full, so had I remained at Carnforth I would probably have
ended up standing for the first few stops at least. The train emptied out along the way before
getting full again at Ulverston with school kids (plus some travel safe
officers keeping tabs on their behaviour).
Due to the overcrowding the train lost time at most of the stations
which pushed it 12 minutes late by the time it reached Roose pushing it over the magic hour (had it been on time it would
only have been a 50 minute delay).
Other than some youths hanging around in the opposite waiting
shelter, not a lot around this suburban Barrow station (I wonder if its usage
has gone up since the barriers went in at Barrow), nearby Tesco which I used
for some supplies before returning to the shelter (funny how the kids decided
it was time to stop their smoking when someone else arrived to sit in the
shelter). A short while later 156486
rolled in from Carlisle to take me back to Lancaster for a cross platform
change onto 390009 for the run to Preston where I headed to the hotel I was
staying in (Ashwood Hotel) to check myself in and drop off some weight from the
rucksack.
20 minutes later, I was back at Preston station, and waiting
for the next TPE service towards Piccadilly.
350401 was the unit as I managed to get a seat (I know twice in the same
day being able to get a seat on a 350/4!) for the fast-ish run towards Bolton
and then a stop-start trip via Castlefield corridor. I was originally going to get off at
Piccadilly and catch a Newcastle bound service to Manchester Victoria, but due
to the 350 going into platform 3 at Oxford Road, and a low mileage pacer
bouncing the opposite way meant my plans changed as I boarded a lightly loaded 142035
leading 150125 for the run to Bolton. I
gave myself a few options to head back towards Manchester, the first couple
wasn’t of interest, but the third was a low mileage 142040 paired with
142007 from the Darwen line. I remained
on board to Victoria, where I changed to a Leeds semi-fast service formed of
153363 & 158902, first stop Rochdale, then Todmorden where I bailed (random
platform score).
It was time to give the “Northern Random DMU Generator” a
good spin to see what it would throw up for a Southport – Blackburn service, it
was formed of 4 coaches. Based on experience
these workings are 142, 150 & 156s, and I was hoping for a Pacer for the
fast run via the Copy Pit line, but it was a pair of 156s (156441 & 156425)
for the lightly loaded trip to Blackburn, where it terminated in platform
1. I crossed over to platform 4 to board
a very lightly loaded 158759 for the run to Blackpool North to investigate the
state of the tram line to North station (the tracks are in leading towards the
Wilkinson store, not sure if there was a temporary station further down the
road, but no overhead wires in). Back at
Blackpool North station with 319371 taken for a random platform score at
Kirkham & Wesham with a short linear hop with 142013 from Blackpool South
to take me back to Preston for the final time of the evening, with a short walk
back to the hotel to retire for the evening.
Probably not the best uses of a Lancashire Ranger, but my main mission was to clear those 3 stations to take me down to only needing a dozen. So until Warrington West eventually opens, North West is ticked off.
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