Archive Reports for November 2018

These writings were first put on my old Rail UK thread, archived, sorry for the lack of images and poor formatting.

4th November - Return to the Island

Visiting the Isle of Wight again has been on my "to-do" list for a few months, so with nothing better to do today I decided to head out (although to be honest the weather early on in the morning if I hadn't already purchased my tickets I would have stayed home for it was a tad wet).  For the first time in a good few months I headed towards Romsey for the 10:50 service to Portsmouth Harbour, formed of long-term absent 158950 (which I had previously had back in Nov 15 from Romsey to Portsmouth for some spooky stuff).  This service was delayed so it was a very close connection at Portsmouth Harbour for the 12:15 sailing with Wight Ryder 2 for the hop across the water.

483008 & 483004 were the two 1938 stock (belated happy 80th birthday!) out to play today, with 008 taken to Sandown for a short walk around the station returning via a smelly subway to Ryde St Johns Road for 483009 to mock me (I need it, but it is long term broken), before 004 taken via the tunnel to Ryde Esplanade for a walk into town.  I could tell it was off-season as many of the shops were closed, but I managed to get a late lunch from a Sainsbury Local before returning for a full & standing 483008 along the pier to the pier head.  Back onto the boat (where it was quite busy), where the sunshine deck had been opened up

A delay into the docking station, meant my highly ambitious connection to a GWR service was missed, so it was plan B with a pair of 450s to Eastleigh via Botley (first time in a good few years I've been along that line), for a 158 to Romsey to end the day.  A short and pleasant little spin to re-clear the Island Line for stations

9th – 11th November – A brief return to the Far North

For my final trip to Scotland of the year, I booked up on the sleeper to head to Inverness with an idea of a return to the Far North line, the main aim was to revisit Forsinard which is quite hard to visit on grounds that it is the passing point at the northern end of the line, and has a level crossing.  I also had a plan to grab a couple extra stations at the southern end of the line using a bus move and a linear hop with the evening Ardgay starter.

Friday

I got home, changed and was out of the door for the 14:59 service from Grateley to Basingstoke, changing over to a 165 on the Reading local for a short deckchair session at Reading, 45 minutes (or so) of festering saw a pair of 802s arrive from Penzance (802006 & 802012) which took me onwards to Paddington, all be it very slowly due to congestion.  Once at Paddington it was over to the Hammersmith & City line platform for a S7 to Kings Cross St Pancras where another short walk took me to the Thameslink platforms at St Pancras.

I made use of a request made by another poster at the location of 700019 which had been out of traffic for a while being the automatic driving test unit, so I was happy to get that one finally into my book on a Farringdon leap.  A short fester on the footbridge before 700056 graced me for a hop to St Pancras, where for some strange reason I hung around on the northbound platform (normally a no-go area during the peak due to the majority of FLU workings being fast to St Albans), but I was rewarded with 700146 which took me to Finsbury Park.  Another 700 took me into Kings Cross, for a trip to Blackfriars (after a 30 minute fester at Farringdon, but as my needs are now 4 of the class I might cheat and next time I go 700 hunting ask for details of which services they are due to work).

A brief break at Blackfriars (mainly to keep an eye on the Sevenoaks services), before returning to Farringdon for food, a S7 to Kings Cross St Pancras before a Victoria line service to Euston, I was going to stay with the S7 to Euston Square, but it was raining.  I arrived at Euston, got good news that the seated coach was out of use (free upgrade), and my bad luck with 92s had ended with winner 92023 up front.  I settled down to relax in the berth, happy with my quick smash & grab.

Saturday

After a good trip on the sleeper, and pretty much an on-time arrival into Inverness, I found it was 67003 up front (as expected), and I had an hour to kill before my planned bus move, so I headed towards the Co-Op for breakfast & to get supplies for lunch, wasted a bit more time before making my way across to the bus station to await bus 27913 on a route 25X bound for Invergordon.  A nice fast run followed the A9 across to the Black Isle & across the Cromarty Bridge.  Roughly half an hour after departing Inverness the bus had arrived in the small town of Alness, where I alighted and walked towards the station to await the Wick train.

The Wick train was formed of 158725 and was moderately loaded, it lost time at Ardgay due to a late running southbound service and gained back a few of the minutes but it was around 4 minutes late into Forsinard, and the southbound service had already departed (it waits the other side of the level crossing).  However it was sunny so I headed for a little walk across to a nearby lookout tower which gives views of the flows, something very spiritual about the place, the sense of finding somewhere on this counted island where it felt you were alone.

I decided to relax, sitting at the top of the tower, eventually deciding to head back down, where I did some walking around the stones before the short walk along the broadwalk to the road, and to the station, I was expecting it to get darker earlier than it actually did, but thankfully the little waiting room on the southbound platform has decent seats & a light which came on automatically.  So it was an enjoyable fester watching the sun slowly set, and for the northbound service to arrive a few minutes before 158725 returned.  The barriers do go up, however they are approach controlled so for anybody wanting to score Forsinard, plan on not making the connection.

The 158 returned towards Inverness, in the darkness, slowly getting busier as it headed south.  I alighted into the freezing cold night of Invergordon, and headed towards the town centre for something to eat (and to get cash out for a key deposit at the hostel).  I had a pizza from an Indian; it was suitable for something hot.  I returned to the station and waited for 158721 to roll in to take me to Inverness, arriving into platform 7 (which was good news for me, as it meant a shorter walk to the hostel!).

Sunday

I will admit I missed a trick here, I should have headed to Kyle & booked onto the sleeper taking a day off work today (Monday), however at the time I wasn’t sure which Christmas leave we would be forced to take.  The line towards Perth was buses today, and I was all set to take the fast coach towards Perth, but when searching for tickets, an advance First via Aberdeen popped up, so I decided to treat myself and go back south via Aberdeen in 1st class.

After checking out of the hostel, I grabbed some breakfast before making my way towards the station, where the platform for the Aberdeen train was announced and it was a 170 & 158 combo.  I sat in the leading coach for the enjoyable trip across to Aberdeen (a couple weekend first people joined in along the way).  Once at Aberdeen I broke my journey (naughty me!) to head to Boots for lunch, returning for another 158 & 170 operated service, the judge advising me that the trolley had a broken wheel so he would recommend sitting in the rear 1st class area to get your freebies.

I do like the line from Aberdeen towards Dundee as it hugs the coastline at times, but this was a stopping service, calling at pretty much all the stations towards Dundee (bar Golf/Barry/Monifieth/Balmossie), thankfully after Leuchars it was semi-fast, but there was only one more person in the rear 1st class area (another weekend first upgrade).  A peaceful way to travel on a busy service, once at Edinburgh I hedged my bets and got a sandwich from Boots (the LNER website no longer tells you the options for the sandwiches).  It was onto a busy service to London, the 16:00 which was being pushed by 91109, with a fast service with plenty of drinks & snacks.

For the first time in a while, I was on a LNER service which arrived into London on time, allowing me to easily make the 21:15 service which was a 159+158 combo, arriving back at Grateley nearly 13 hours after setting out from Inverness!

Pictures to follow once I get them off my phone and sorted through them, but I will leave you with this one:

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The 17th November was aa BL/HST group railtour to the Great Central North line which covered most of the track (all was required), with some miles from 41001. The Sunday was a failed attempt at the bay platform at Worcester Shrub Hill (there was no London services so no need of the ECS move to get the unit out of the way).

The following weekend was a long weekend to the Manchester area, staying in the Macclesfield Travelodge. The Friday was pretty much station revisiting on the West side of the city (Warrington Central & Swinton line), boarding a busy 150 at Clifton and having a quick revisit to New Mills. The Saturday was a trip to Merseyside to clear Merseyrail plus some other odds & sods (50 minutes at Furness Vale was interesting) before clearing my last few Metrolink stops (with a cosy voyager back to Macclesfield).