10th August – South Wales Day
The main aim for today was to do a few little bits on a
list I created last year, mainly little novelty microgricing moves, hunting for
some Welsh Pacers needed for mileage, and some platform scores. I had a rough plan in mind, but it was very
fluid in what my moves would be. I woke
up and drove to Salisbury station, noting the price for the car park had
increased since the last time I was here (although that would have been in
September last year), arriving with time to spare to walk to Sainsburys for a bacon
sandwich and to get my ranger, mainly to save a job when I got to Cardiff.
The 07:30 to Cardiff Central service this morning was
formed of 158951 for some sprinter-based noise, making someone unhappy when I
took up my reserved seat on a heavily reserved coach (something which will be
lost when the Turbos take over), huffing to another seat. Anyhow an uneventful trip towards Cardiff,
the train getting busy at Bath, but nothing mega busy, arriving into Cardiff Central
pretty much bang on time, noting the march of the wires. At Cardiff Central I made a tight connection
onto 150284 for the run to Cathays, my first modified Welsh 150 (plug
sockets, new toilet, door buzzers, auto announcer), for a break in the rain at
the university station before 142082 & 143616 came bouncing around
the corner to take me to Pontypridd where they terminated into the bay
platform, a nice bonus low mileage 143 for a required move.
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| Lesser used platform at Pontypridd |
I crossed over to platform 2 to board an empty 143609
working towards Merthyr, which used the crossover at the northern end of the
station for a single stop to Abercynon where I made a tight connection
to a busy 150236 to take me back to Pontypridd, to step back a service to board
150260 (bonus low mileage 150!) to take me back towards Cardiff
Central. What is unusual is this is one
of the few services from Treherbert which turns right after Radyr and goes
nonstop via the City Line, for the novelty of a fast run via that line.
Once the unit arrived at Cardiff Central, it was a quick
scan of the comings & goings, noticing a low mileage 142 heading towards
Penarth, but my focus was on the next Maesteg service which I saw earlier in
the day at Newport, as 143606 rolled in for the fast run towards
Pencoed, where I crossed over to the opposite platform for a busy 175005 to get
fuller & fuller at the other stops, where it pretty much emptied out at
Cardiff Central, not many passengers going all the way to Holyhead today. Sadly due to the delay in getting across to
platform 6, I missed the first option, but at this point the Valleys were in a
bit of chaos due to some fallen branches, with the next Bargeod bound service
starting from platform 7 (I believe 4 trains in a row were cancelled towards
Penarth!).
143608 & 150252 were the unusual Pacer+Sprinter combo
which took me towards Lisvane & Thornhill where I made the most of
delayed southbound service to score this station on a minus 2 connection, a
couple minutes later 143602 & 142074 rolled in, running a few minutes
late. It got later as it headed back
towards Cardiff Central, where it was announced as running fast to Penarth,
with a short delay waiting for the new driver.
Going non-stop through Dingle Road was very unusual. I only needed to stay on to Grangetown to
push the 142 over the ten-mile mark, but I decided to remain on board to avoid
trying to intercept it later. I changed
unit and headed back to Cardiff Central, which was still a bit in chaos with
delays, but better than it was.
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| End of the line at Penarth |
My next plan was to head towards Barry Island, as I
needed the new track layout at Barry (where a 3rd platform was added
a few years ago), so it was a nice bonus to get low mileaged 142073 (the
pacer which came back from the dead) to the end of the line at Barry Island,
doubling back to Barry Docks for a late running 150284 back towards Barry,
where I was expecting for an announcement that it would turn back at Barry
instead of heading towards Island (as it was 6 minutes late at this point), so
I was surprised when it headed towards Barry Island, to return 5 minutes later
with the next Barry Island service waiting for it to clear the single track
terminus.
I stayed on 150284 all the way to Radyr, in sensing a
chance to grab a platform at Waun-Gron Park without a thirty-minute wait (as
the trains are timetabled to pass here), as the next Radyr bound service was 10
minutes late heading towards Coryton. It
was onto 142085 for the 2 and a bit mile run to Waun-Gron Park giving me
around 5 minutes to get across to the opposite platform (overlooking an disused
dump), with 143614 back to Radyr where a tight connection to a northbound
service was made with 150236 taken to Pontypridd, for I had spotted a low
mileage 142 heading towards Aberdare earlier when in the Barry area.
A late running 150 came and went before 142010
returned from Aberdare to take me to Cardiff Queen Street, where I made a cross
platform change onto a busy 143624 to Llanishen, where I stepped back a
train (in the pouring rain) for 142080 to Llanbradach (featuring some smoking
youths in the shelter). 150260 &
142083 took me back one stop to Energlyn & Churchill Park, before 142006
took me to Ystrad Mynach, this was one of my key moves as the return of this
service runs non-stop from Ystrad Mynach to Cardiff Central, a jollified ECS
service. The guard was surprised to get
someone boarding the service who wanted Cardiff!
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| And the Heavens Opened |
That was a good run heading back to Cardiff, a few more
“stations passed without stopping” ticked off, with some confused looking faces
at Caerphilly, but all good things must come to an end as it eventually reached
Central, attached to another unit (before going empty to the depot, goodnight
142006). I noticed the next Portsmouth
service was a 2-coach 158, I checked my list and it was one of the reformed
158s (as 158960 & 158961 have been split up), 158769. I asked the guard
nicely if I could board the train (as I was booked on the one an hour later)
and he said “no problem” which was very nice of him. The train got busy after Bristol & Bath,
remaining busy with standees until Warminster, I was in the airline seat with
the random half-fixed table. A couple
hours later the unit arrived into Salisbury where I alighted and drove to Tesco
for dinner before driving home, the end of a successful day in South Wales.
My target was 5 units for mileage, I was happy with
getting 6 (leaves 1x 142, 2x 143, 2x150 & 1x175 for the Welsh fleet), I did
most of the platforms I wanted to scratch, plus the other oddities, so other
than the rain & wind it was a good day :)
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| The return of 158769 |
(Post Script, on the Sunday I was hoping to do another
‘Devon Roundabout’ with my parents, but due a points failure around Wilton
junction, it didn’t happen as we were around an hour and 20 minutes late into
Exeter, changing trains at Honiton, even the backup option of going clockwise
was binned. On the bright side I got to
sample a 158 from Exeter to Plymouth)
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| The future for the South West |
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