7th September – A Cheshire Day
The idea of this weekend’s little trip was to do a Cheshire
ranger to do some bits & bobs around that area (Northern to Chester from
Warrington, TfW to Liverpool, 195 via Warrington Central, 68 to Liverpool,
along with some other platform scratches.
I was overnight in Macclesfield Travelodge, a hotel I’ve used a few
times before as it is generally cheap, quiet(ish) and pretty much next door to
the station so an ideal place to tip up at 11pm. I will do a summary of my Friday bits in
London afterwards.
I woke up, checked out of the hotel and headed into the
chilly day, crossing the road and into the station, the ticket office was
closed so I would have to buy my ranger on the train, and the first Manchester
bound 323 was already in the station, but for me I would be heading south with
the first Stoke bound service of the day in the shape of 323226. It emptied out a bit with around half a dozen
half-naked ladies who had clearly been up all night in various nightclubs in
Manchester, but it was generally quiet for the speedy run to Kidsgrove, the
guard happy enough to sell me the ranger.
I crossed over to the Manchester bound platform at Kidsgrove (platform
scratch) to await the daily Blackpool service.
Early in the morning a 319 is allowed out on the Stoke line, because
there is fewer trains around for it to hold up (because after all a 319 is
slower to gain speed than a 323!), today this was 319362 for the run towards
Stockport, some time wasted at Bramhall due to a dodgy door, sadly this delay
meant no popping out of the station for breakfast.
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| The Daily 319 arrives into Kidsgrove |
I stepped back a train at Stockport onto 158854 working a
Liverpool service (I assume this has to be a single unit due to it calling at
most of the stations on the Valley of Little Hope?), this took me to Piccadilly
where I had a fast walk to Sainsburys for a bacon sandwich before returning to
board a refurbished 175011 for the run to Earlestown, firs t time on a
refurbished 175 and Transport for Wales has done a good job, new carpets/seat
covers/other interior bits, plus plug sockets (the sort which has 2 USB sockets
above a 3-pin sockets, and they seemed to be quite powerful as it didn’t take
long for my phone to gain charge). The run
wasn’t the fastest (I think the 175 was behind a Liverpool bound freight
service) but I had a short wait at Earlestown before 153324 & 150274 rolled
in from Leeds to take me towards the WCML (brief delay when waiting for a Pendo
to pass, spotted a Dalmatian horse in a field), then after Warrington non-stop
to Chester.
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| A restful 153 at Chester |
At Chester I had around 15 minutes to fester before the
train from Liverpool arrived, oddly onto platform 3, but it was a lightly
loaded 150229 for the run towards Liverpool South Parkway, bit of hassle around
Frodsham junction as the signaller couldn’t get the points for the single track
chord to set, eventually setting off around 15 minutes late, regaining a couple
minutes on the run to South Parkway with some speed. I alighted from the 150 at South Parkway and
crossed over to the opposite platform to await the next Manchester Airport service,
which was formed of winner 195122 to
take me via the new station of Warrington West (not yet open, but looked
complete), Warrington Central, Birchwood and into Oxford Road, sadly there must
have been a set-swap around York as the Middlesbrough - Manchester train wasn’t
185108 but 185122 which I took to Piccadilly.
Thanks to Paul (TrainStationUK) I had news that my final 323
for mileage was on the Stoke line (must have been the 323 I couldn’t ID around
Ponyton this morning), so without a trip to the airport needed for the 185, it
was a run to Stockport on 220003 [first available train] for a short wait
before a busy 323227 rolled in from Stoke for the run back to
Piccadilly, which clears the class for ten miles. At Piccadilly I popped out to the Co-Op for
some lunch before festering around the P13/14 island on the lookout for
anything of interest before heading to Manchester Victoria on 185122 for a
short delay before 68027 appeared
from the east with some new rolling stock.
Due to wanting to attempt a picture of it rolling in (didn’t work out
due to the sunlight), and the busy platform I ended up in the 4th
coach, so didn’t get the full vocal experience, still heard the sound of cat
purr under heavy acceleration. As for
the coaches, well I was a bit underwhelmed, I couldn’t get comfortable on the
seats, which didn’t really line up that well with the windows (which looked
like they were meant to have blinds fitted, but like on a cheap car where the
buttons are blanked out, there was nothing fitted). The 68 seemed to shift quite well along Chat
Moss and into Liverpool Lime Street.
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| 68027 at Liverpool Lime Street |
Next up was a trip to Crewe on 390129 for a short fester,
turning down the first Northern service for it was a 323, instead getting ‘rewarded’
with 319382 on the semi-fast to Alderley Edge, stepping back to 150147 &
142045 working an Alderley Edge – Southport service, all was going well until
Cheadle Hulme where we were delayed for around 15 minutes due to a 175 which
had passed me at Alderley having issues, eventually getting going to Stockport
as my planned train to Buxton was pulling out.
Quick change of plan time as it wasn’t a long wait before 150134 rolled
up on the following Buxton service which I took to New Mills Newtown, waiting
around 25 minutes before 150140 & 150124 to roll in to take me back towards
Piccadilly. I shall have to revisit
Buxton next month when I’m on a Wayfarer as I need platform 1 (and I’m not
quite sure what happens on RTT as ECS shunts between platforms are not shown).
Anyhow with some time to kill before my booked train home it
was a short walk over to platform 13 to board winner 195102 to Manchester Airport, stepping back to have a look at some
of the 185s before winner 195116
arrived from Liverpool to take me slowly back towards Manchester Piccadilly
(got caught behind a delayed Blackpool stopper). After popping out to grab bits for dinner, it
was onto 390126 working the 19:35 to Euston, noticing that the power sockets in
my seat had been upgraded to be a plug and 2x USB sockets which seemed to be a
good upgrade). I spent the trip towards
London watching some TV programmes on my tablet, the train lost time, regained
time but lost time north of Watford Junction as a 350 was running late on the
2-track section (shock horror!). Arrival
into Euston was around 22:05 and when I checked the train which would form the
22:19 towards Andover was at Clapham Junction so I decided to walk to St
Pancras (little did I know that the 159s would somehow lose 15 minutes between
Clapham & Waterloo, and not depart Waterloo until 22:30).
First southbound 700 at St Pancras wasn’t anything of
interest, next up was a Sutton loop 700022
which I took to Blackfriars (nearly an extra couple miles, every little helps),
getting dirty looks from a lady who boarded at Farringdon as I was sat in the
rear first class area, probably thinking “this is my private area, why is there
someone else in here”, I had to laugh when that area got busy at
Blackfriars. A few minutes at
Blackfriars allowing me to attempt a picture of the river, having to hold my
phone right against the glass to remove reflections, and a low mileage 700028 rolled in to take me round the
curve to London Bridge, where I jumped onto a Charing Cross bound 465196 & 465012 which I took to Charing Cross,
returning to Waterloo East, pushing 465012 closer to ten miles (I believe it is
on 9 miles, so ideally I should have stayed on to London Bridge, but hey ho).
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| River Thames from Blackfriars station |
I headed across to Waterloo, and was going to catch a
delayed 444 to Basingstoke to break up my journey home, but that got cancelled
so it was onto a busy 159003 working the 23:40 service to Andover, lost around
10 minutes in the congestion towards Clapham Junction (the main line was closed
for engineering works so everything was on the Windsor lines), emptied out a
bit at Basingstoke and the train terminated at Andover due to engineering works
around Salisbury, so it was to a magical rail replacement bus, this time it was
an unmarked “mini-coach”, registration PO15 LFE for the run back towards Grateley
where thankfully I wasn’t the only passenger getting off (as the detour to
Grateley station adds a good 15 minutes to the journey time from Andover to
Salisbury due to the buses having to double back on themselves). A gentle walk home where I did a few minor
things before crashing out for the night, alarm set for a day in Devon with
Jack (All Stations) where we visited (the quite colourful) Chapelton, Newton St
Cyres & Okehampton.
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| Flowers at Chapleton |
Overall it was a good day in Cheshire, my aims of the day
were met with no real delays, shame that 185 got swapped over around York
(unless Jamie misread the unit when he saw it at Piccadilly after his night
shift).
6th September – A summary of the road to
Macclesfield
Due to a later than expected finish from work, it was the
15:59 service to London tonight, I decided to stay on all the way to Waterloo
rather than my original idea of going via Reading, and decided to spend the few
hours I had hunting South Eastern units for mileage. I will do this part as a summary just for
reference:
Grateley -> Waterloo: 159001, 158888 & 159013
Waterloo East -> Hither Green: 465910 & 465914
(god that was a slow run!)
Hither Green -> Chislehurst: 466025, 465246 &
465039
Chislehurst -> Orpington: 465180 & 465158 (this train carried on towards Sevenoaks so I
could have stayed on to Knockholt, and waited for it to return, but decided to
leave it for another day)
Orpington -> London Bridge: 375713 & 375709
(going to the Cannon Street platforms, first time I’ve used that bit of track
for a while and not called at St Johns or New Cross)
London Bridge -> Welling: 465013 & 465244 (a
very low mileage unit)
Welling -> Blackheath: 465040 & 465030
Blackheath -> London Bridge: 376028 & 376006
(very strong smell of weed)
London Bridge -> Blackfriars: 700107 (popped out to Tesco
for dinner)
Blackfriars -> Kentish Town: 700053 (another 3 and a bit miles, every little helps)
Kentish Town -> Euston: 51722 & 51644 (bank branch)
Euston -> Macclesfield: 390132 (mostly on time until south
of Macclesfield where it caught up with a delayed Stoke – Manchester stopper
which gets looped at Macclesfield. Featured
some youths playing some noise which I guess could be described as music,
seemed to be 3 ‘rap’ songs on repeat, the first sounding like the rapper “was
so ducking rich I can smash up a supercar” and another being the words “a
Warning, she’s calling” repeated along with some other swearly shouting
stuff. They got off at Stoke thankfully.
Overall for the Friday, a few more South Eastern units over
the line to join the ten mile club (5 mile club for the 376s), a much more
enjoyable evening for me than if I headed towards Liverpool Street for 321s.
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| Networkers at Welling |
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