5th October – The Return to Kyle Of Lochalsh
Like I mentioned in the previous blog post, the challenge to
revisit the stations I had only previously boarded at or I had only previously
alighted at was near the end, along the way two stations have dropped by the
wayside, Manchester Utd FC Halt which hasn’t been served since November 2017 so
is mothballed in my eyes and Dolgarrog which got seriously damaged in the
flooding at the start of the year and is currently a replacement bus
service. Clearly if Dolgarrog ever gets
rebuilt I will be heading in that direction to alight from a train at (as
previously I caught a service bus there to board), and in the very unlikely
event Man Utd FC Halt gets served I will try and work out a plan to board
there.
For the meanwhile, I was down to the final 2 stations, the
end was in sight, I was both happy and sad, and it would be mission
accomplished. I have no idea how many
other people would have done what I was about to do. But time to move from feelings onto the
trains, it wasn’t the best of nights on the sleeper as the coach was boiling
hot when I boarded at Euston, but the heating failed soon after departure and
other than a brief bit of warmth around Crewe it was freezing within a busy
seated coach. 90041 did the hauling to
Edinburgh with 67004 carrying on for the diesel leg, lost some time around
Kingussie but it gained it back as the Kings Cross HST waited for us to pass
around Tomatin, arrival into Inverness was a minute or so early giving me
around 17 minutes to make a quick dash to the Co-Op for supplies.
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| Probably the last time I will be having a 67 into Inverness |
Back at Inverness I took an unreserved seat on 158720
(removing my reservation from a busy table) for the run towards Plockton, the
Kyle line is one of my favourite lines for looking out of the window off, such
beauty, one of the lines I would recommend anybody to do. I alighted along with around two dozen other passengers
at Plockton, and after a couple pictures of the station I took up a seat on the
bench (not somewhere you want to visit in the rain as there is no seating
underneath the canopy), and waited for 158720 to return to board at my last
station
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| Boarding at all the stations in GB, Tick |
In my original plan for this trip in June, I was going to
head to Kyle first, and then Duncraig before Plockton, as there is short time
between these two stations so it would be a rush to locate the guard to make my
request. The guard was at the front when
158720 rolled in so the first time I did was make my request, it was front door
only at this little used station due to a tiny platform, but as I stepped from
the 158, a large smile appeared on my face, it was done. Scotland completed for
all the stations boarding & alighting and for the time being all currently
rail served national rail stations in Great Britain done. And frankly I couldn’t have picked a better
location in which to end the quest, all it be unplanned. A lot better than my original end station of
Snaith.
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| Alighting at all the stations in GB, Tick |
After walking onto the little bridge for a picture of the platform
and the beautiful waiting shelter, I returned into said waiting shelter for it
had began to rain. I was joined on the
platform by someone else for when 158721 rolled in, flagging it down and waiting
a couple minutes for the guard to open the centre doors (probably shocked he
had customers!), I finished with the run to the end of the line at Kyle Of
Lochalsh, for a quick picture in the strong wind before heading back on board,
sitting on the opposite side in which I arrived for the beautiful run back
towards Inverness.
I decided to alight at Conon Bridge as one of my regrets in
doing the original challenge & the revised challenge was the lack of
pictures I took at the start of the challenge, some areas are better than
others. Maybe one of these days I will
attempt to sort through my pictures, making a list of stations I need to
revisit for pictures. A brief 20 minute
fester at the station with a tiny platform before 158705 rolled in to take me a
couple stops down the line to Beauly, another station where I needed a picture,
and another brief wait for 158713 to arrive from Wick. It was back to Inverness, the end of the day
for playing with trains.
I checked into the same hostel I’ve used in the past couple
visits, one near the bus station, and spent half an hour in the lounge relaxing
before getting a celebratory pizza (eating said pizza in the concourse of the
station as that was the best place I could think of eating as it was horrid wet
weather).
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| The Last One! |
6th October – A personal farewell to the HSTs
on LNER
As this would be the last time I would have a long distance
trip on a LNER HST, it was fitting for it to be my personal farewell. Yes HSTs will still be around in Scotland,
and on XC (plus on East Midlands for the time being), but this would probably
be my last long distance trip on a full sized set. And it doesn’t get any longer than the 10
hours on the Highland Chieftain on a Sunday (it takes longer due to calling at
pretty much every station towards Stirling).
I was lucky to bag myself a cheap advance ticket when they eventually
went on sale and decided to upgrade myself to first class (as £35 for the
distance/time is a bargain).
After checking out of the hostel and a little supply raid
from the Co-Op, I headed towards the station where on platform 1 sat 43277
leading 43208, sadly as it was on platform 1 I couldn’t get a decent picture of
the leading powercar so had to make do with a picture of the rear power car
(which when I put it on Twitter kinda exploded, last check it had 190 likes,
rivalling my picture of the “what train is mine?” poster at Stapleton Road for
most likes. Platform 2 had 2 “mini” HSTs
on, a classic set and a refurbished set, the future is safe for the time being.
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| "Do you remember the good times when you reached 125 mph?" |
When the doors were unlocked, I removed my seat reservation
from a busy coach F, and took a seat in first class, sadly my first pick of a
table for 2 were unavailable, and I didn’t fancy sitting backwards on a single
seat so I had to pick a table for 4, for the trip towards Perth. I’ve done the Highland Main Line in January
18 when it was covered in snow so I know how beautiful it is in places, the
bleak wilderness of the Pass of Drumochter reminds me a bit of Rannoch
moor. The HST kept good time, maybe a
minute or so late due to large loadings at Aviemore, and soon Perth was reached
for a race towards the wires at Dunblane and onwards to Stirling where a bit
more time was lost due to an extended dwell time.
This late running meant the HST got delayed some more around
Polmont for an Express time from Glasgow so arrival into Edinburgh was around
10 minutes late for the usual changing over of passengers and crew. Departure was around 5 minutes late (racing
alongside a 385 for North Berwick), but something was wrong as it didn’t feel
as strong to accelerate as before, even after being checked for an Edinburgh
bound service at Dunbar (the new platform seems to be coming along well), kept
losing time until Berwick and afterwards, it was announced that due to a fault
in one of the powercars the train would terminate at Newcastle with passengers
changing onto another service. So my HST
farewell ended in Newcastle, with a cross platform onto a Mk4 set with DVT 82215
leading and 91113 on the rear.
An unexpected 91 farewell trip, first class was busier, but
I managed to get a seat, changing seats at York as the recliner was broken, it
was busy in first class after York (no spare seats), I dread to think how busy
it would be in standard class, for it was two trains in one (the 13:19
Edinburgh – Kings Cross got cancelled at Newcastle for the stock to be
used). Annoyingly the 91 managed to claw
back some of the time to arrive into London 26 minutes late, not late enough
for money back, but late enough for me to ditch my original planned move to
Clapham Junction via Clapham High Street.
It was onwards to Waterloo, with 11039/11040 taken to Oxford
Circus, with 3232/3544 for the leg to Waterloo, where I headed to the first
available train to Woking which was a Weymouth bound 444022 & 444003
departing from platform 20. At Woking I
exited the station to await a rail replacement bus, due to the entire
Basingstoke area being closed for engineering works today it would be a bus to
Andover, I turned down the first coach as it was a stopper, awaiting for the ‘fast’
service.
In all fairness when I saw a Hounslow registered coach roll
round I had it down as being the replacement bus towards Hounslow, but it was
the Andover fast bus, CX07 NNF. I have
no idea which was the bus went but it joined the M25 for a short section before
joining the M3 for a fast run towards Basingstoke, for a drop off (and picking
up of one passenger) before returning to the M3 to head towards Andover on the
A303. The engine was quite noisy at
speed, but the coach arrived into Andover a bit late, so it was a quick dash
for passengers heading towards Yeovil, but for me it was a walk to the car
because of the rubbish Sunday service at Grateley, 2 hourly with the services
which skip it staying at Salisbury for an extra 3 minutes for a clockface
departure west. So it was a case of
driving home, before relaxing.
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| What started with an Intercity 125 farewell... |
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| ...Ended with an Intercity 225 Farewell! |
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4th October – The Road to Euston
I decided to hunt down my last few Southern units for
mileage, but decided to only ask for the 455s, the 377/1 & couple 2s I
needed (not the trio of 3s), I got given the information which services they
were on so I formed a fluid plan in order to intercept them for the required
mileages. I drove to Andover in the
rain, parked in my usual spot and headed to the station buying my tickets for
the day, before joining 159013 & 159006 on the 14:06 service for the short
trip to Basingstoke, where I remained on the same platform to board 444026
& 444009 for the non-stop run to Clapham Junction. It was non-stop until just before Clapham
where the train lost a few minutes, rolling into platform 7 alongside the
diesels which were slowly rolling through platform 8 waiting for the next
signal to clear. For me it was a fast
walk over to platform 14 for 455818 & 455815 to take me to Victoria,
where I remained on board for the trip to Streatham Common, one down.
A short fester at Streatham Common before 455809 & 455835
rolled in from London Bridge, the run to East Croydon was just enough to clear 5835
for ten miles as I had a tight connection to another London Bridge bound service
(via Norwood Junction), the connection was made onto 455829 & 455812 to
take me to Honor Oak Park, noticing a slight lack of 378s. A few minutes at Honor Oak Park before a
Sutton bound 455846 rolled in with 455811 on the rear, this is the 455 I
turned down last Sunday and it needed a good run as it was only previously on a
Battersea Park leap, and after Sutton it would run ECS back towards Norwood
Junction via the depot so good to get it out of the way before having to give
chase. Semi-fast after West Croydon and
the train emptied out by Penge.
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| The 2nd last 455 for ten miles |
With the 455s cleared (which means no more having to try and
ID them, as some of those numbers are hard to read at speed due to the cables),
the next move was towards Clapham Junction with 377102 & 377107 taken via
Mitcham. As I headed towards platform 1
I noticed some of the signage had been replaced in Network Rail colours, before
I boarded a busy 378203 to take me to Shepherd’s Bush to intercept an
East Croydon bound service. I only
noticed the footbridge at the northern end of the station after the crowding to
exit and cross over to the opposite platform.
A short fester before 377214 & 377209 rolled in,
377214 only previously had on a Thameslink core leap so needed a good run,
Selhurst would have been enough but I stayed on to East Croydon as it gave more
options. I managed to get a seat (all be
it in the 3+2 coach) for the run as the train got very busy after West
Brompton. The first Thameslink wasn’t
needed and a failed attempt to get food from Sainsburys outside the station,
before returning, the 2nd service was also not-required, but the 3rd
was low mileage 700144 which I took to London Bridge. For lack of a better idea I jumped onto a
pair of low mileage 376s (which I’ve now decided to aim for ten miles on) with 376002 & 376017 taken to Charing
Cross, returning to London Bridge on 466004, 465190 & 465152, every little helps pushing the 465 onto 9 miles.
I grabbed dinner from Boots before joining 700152 for the run to St Pancras and a
gentle walk across to Euston where I joined the queue to check into the sleeper
for my trip to Inverness (see the start).
Overall a successful few hours, although I was glad to be on that 700
which was fast after a few trips on stopping services.
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