30th August – Return to the Midlands

30^th August – Return to the Midlands

This weekend was meant to be a case of heading to Walsall for a couple nights to do a Pathfinder railtour on the Saturday to some freight bits in Cumbria, that tour has been pushed back to next May which left me with a free weekend, sadly I had booked a non-refundable hotel room (because had it had free cancellation I probably would have done something different).  After some thinking and looking at fares I decided to head to Manchester on the Saturday.

Back to the Friday, I had a couple options at what to do, deciding to visit Water Orton & Atherstone to recover the two stations I ditched last Friday, although with the SWR strike it meant looking at times, and with being knocked off work early on the Friday it was a short walk to the station for the 13:33 service to London, formed of 158890, 159008 & 159021, and as it came from Exeter it was quite busy for the run to Basingstoke, where I had a short wait on platform 4 for an Edinburgh bound 220024 to roll in from Southampton.  I soon found a seat which was “reserved from Coventry” which was good enough for me.

An hour or so later, I alighted at Banbury for a short wait before 168323 & 168329 arrived from Marylebone to carry on towards Dorridge where my plan to get a West Midlands Daytripper from the ticket office failed as the ticket office was closed, so it was back to the platform to see my last 172/3 for mileage rolling in from the Birmingham direction, sadly that wasn’t the next train towards Birmingham as it ran ECS back to Snow Hill, so I made a note and formed a rough plan to hopefully intercept it.  172336 arrived from Stratford Upon Avon to take me to Moor Street where the barrier staff were happy to sell me the ranger [well the Daytripper Exchange, which I exchanged at the ticket office].

A quick walk over to Birmingham New Street as I boarded a Leicester bound 170114, and as expected for a peak-time service formed of 2 coaches it was busy but not crush loaded.  I was only on this service for one stop as I alighted at the underserved Water Orton, and popped out to a nearby Tesco for some supplies before returning to the island platform to wait for the delayed Derby service to appear (the only service which calls at Water Orton heading towards Tamworth), eventually 170519 arrived running around 10 minutes late, and like before it was busy but not crush loaded, I managed to get a seat with ease for the run to Tamworth.

The Derby bound 170 arrives at Water Orton

At Tamworth, I had a short fester before making my way to the low level platform to board a busy Euston bound 350114 for the short run to Atherstone, for another fester (some time was wasted going to the Co-Op for dinner bits) and some pictures of passing 390s before a late running 350256 & 350104 arrived (caught up in congestion between Rugby & Nuneaton caused by a late running freight train) to return me to Tamworth, where I had an extended fester as the next Birmingham bound service was running a few minutes late (caused by another late running freight train), with 170638 appearing.  Eventually reaching New Street around 10 minutes late, where I met up with Stu (who is also visiting every station in GB), making a tight connection to a Wolverhampton stopper formed of 350107 (thankfully everything heading north from New Street was running late this evening due to signalling problems earlier in the day).

We took this 350 to Smethwick Galton Bridge, heading towards the Stourbridge bound platform for a refurbished 172220 & 172219, the plug sockets took me by surprise, although I didn’t sample the WiFi.  We took these units to Lye (as Stu needed the station), for a short wait before 172342 returned from Great Malvern to clear the subclass.  I said farewell to Stu at Birmingham Snow Hill as I set about on a fast walk to New Street, with the aim to intercept a Birmingham International – Liverpool service which I had a feeling would be low mileage (if I had followed it on RTT correctly).

Inside a refurbished 172

 

I was in luck, and in rolled 350240 which would complete the subclass, first stop was Coseley with gave a nice +5 to get to the opposite platform to board a New Street stopper formed of 350377 which on arrival at New Street formed the last semi-fast service towards Rugeley, so I remained on board (making use of the socket on the table).  I wasn’t expecting to get that 350 tonight so I’m happy.  Only the refurbished 350115 left to locate for mileage for the class.  I was in the Walsall Travelodge again, this time in a room on the 4^th floor, another reasonable night.

I was glad I got Water Orton & Atherstone out of the way, getting my final 172/3 & 350/2 for mileage was a bonus, both lucky spots, plus the chance to finally meet Stu :)