8th December – The Bootle Brush Railtour & 9th December - A Day in Zones 7-9
When this railtour went on sale back in September, it didn’t
take me long to decide to book on it, the main reason for some required track
in the Liverpool area, the line from Broad Green towards Liverpool Docks, plus
the connections to the Merseyrail network at Bootle and at Southport. There was some more quail level bits which
would be required so after a quick scan of my regular hotel booking site
highlighted the Waverley in Crewe being £49 (sadly due to the time of year
there wasn’t anything else which would be a suitable option based on the
starting time, other than hotels which would require a taxi to reach the station).
The day began with breakfast, because if it’s included
within the price you might as well take part if you can, before swinging via
the little Tesco Express near to Crewe station before heading towards platform
6, with the tour being changed to being from platform 7. 47245 was on the blocks with 4 coaches and
47826 on the southern end, sadly both 47s were not required, but my run with
required locos on railtours had to come to an end at some point. I took my seat in the standard class getting lucky
and avoiding one of the narrower bench seats (getting extra lucky as the person
who was due to sit next to me either was a no show or shifted elsewhere, or
wasn’t booked up).
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| 47826 at Crewe |
The tour departed heading towards Nantwich for a reversal
(where I noted the rubbish Sunday service of large gaps), before 47245 took the
train back towards Crewe going via the non-platform goods line (between P11
& P12) before carrying on towards Warrington (using the goods line opposite
platform 4), a brief pause at Earlestown for pick up & pathing (although
the train we were booked to follow had been cancelled!). After departure it was a fast run towards
Liverpool turning onto the Olive Mount chord on the track which will lead to
Liverpool docks.
The tour continued until the Bootle Junction area where
there is a short connection onto the Merseyrail line towards Southport (and
another connection for the disused North Mersey line towards Aintree which runs
behind the platforms at the Bootle stations), the tour joined the third rail
network to head towards Seaforth & Litherland to reverse to head back south
into the Sandhills reversing siding to reverse with the run towards Ormskirk,
pausing at Maghull North for a few minutes for a photograph stop (also for
pathing due to the single track at the end of the line). Certainly I would imagine it was the first
time passengers alighted from Mk1 coaches at the newest station on the
Merseyrail network!
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| First Loco Hauled service to call at Maghull North? |
Everybody back on board for the run to the end of the line
at Ormskirk for another photograph stop and reversal back towards Liverpool,
this time turning off before Kirkdale to go into the carriage sidings, going to
the end of one of the roads within the maintenance depot, reversing with 47245
back in charge to rejoin the passenger network (with the announcement that the
real ale bar had now opened), a brief pause at Fazakerley (again for pathing
& photograph, which allowed me to grab a station photograph to knock it off
my list), before the tour continued to Kirkby.
No time to alight due to the timetable, and it was back to
Sandhills reversing siding, before a fast run towards Southport. Certainly was a novelty going non-stop
through some of the stations on this network and at Southport we had around 45 minutes
to grab supplies etc, which was nice to be able to get away from the train (as
the legroom isn’t the best in the world).
The wind was quite strong and chilly so I didn’t go that far before
heading back to the station and waited for departure.
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| The tour under the train shed at Southport. |
The train used the connection to the Wigan line from
platform 3 to leave the Merseyrail network for a run towards Wigan Wallgate,
pausing a couple times along the way (I guess to drop off staff who didn’t want
to use a rail replacement bus due to Northern collapsing onto itself), before
passing Wigan Wallgate and joining the WCML, using the goods line to dive underneath
and coming off the WCML at Golborne Junction, taking the lesser used side of
the triangle to head towards Newton-Le-Willows and for a run towards Lime
Street, going into platform 10 for another short break. After the break the tour continued with 47245
leading for the final time to head towards Chester, doing a little weave around
Liverpool South Parkway and using one of the reception lines in the Ford
Sidings at Halewood before taking the Halton curve for the trip to Chester,
using the parcels bay (the one next to platform 1).
It was one final reversal with 47826 on the front for the
run back to Crewe where the train terminated, the end of a good little
railtour, arriving pretty much bang on time which is always a nice bonus. I had time to pop to Tesco for some food
before returning to the station to hang around for my booked service to London,
a service from Manchester which was formed of 390010 for my first Avanti West
Coast service, non-stop to Euston (other than pausing in the Stafford area for
a late running service from Liverpool to get back up to speed). Nothing uneventful happened on the way to
London, other than having no WiFi. At
Euston my original idea was to head home but due to the strike timetable I
decided to look up options finding a cheap Travelodge in Romford so to avoid
the worry of making the revised last Salisbury service, I booked the hotel up.
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| Avanti West Coast meets West Coast Railways |
A trip on the Northern line took me to Moorgate
(51645/51646) followed by a Hammersmith & City line service to Liverpool
Street (21327/21328). The first 345 wasn’t
of interest, neither was the 2nd departure so I took a seat on
321305 & 321437, only for the next TfL Rail service to be a required 345 so I bailed at Stratford,
waited for a few minutes before winner 345040
rolled in from Liverpool Street to take me to Romford. Not quite enough to push it over ten miles,
but the 8 and a bit mile run to Romford gave it a good start, and once at
Romford I headed towards the hotel, checked myself in and made myself comfortable.
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9th December – A Day in London Zones 7-9
I needed a few stations to revisit for photographs in zones
7-9, and with a Zone 1-9 travelcard not costing that much more than a 1-6 card
(and being in Romford allowed easy access to purchase one from a TVM) I decided
it would be a good idea to focus a day on those stations, to make my life
easier for future trips.
A later than normal start (waiting for off-peak to start)
saw me at Romford station for the first Shenfield bound departure where my
ticket was valid, noting that the London bound platform was quite busy! 345009 rolled in to take me a few stations
into Essex with Brentwood where an
attempt to photograph the various style of platform signs got photobombed by a
90 from Norwich!
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| Collection of signs at Brentwood, plus a 90 |
Lady luck was smiling as 345040 from last night
appeared on the next Liverpool Street service (also noting there were at least
4 pairs of 315s out this morning on the off-peak service), this was pushed over
ten miles with the run to Goodmayes
where I stepped back a train for 345009 to take me to Stratford. A quick change at Stratford saw me boarding
the modified 317341 & 317670 for the short run to Lea Bridge, enough time to look at the new toilet fitted to the
317, plus other modifications to allow it to work from January. Anyhow I had a 15 minute wait at Lea Bridge
(noticing some old industrial thing nearby) before 317664 & 317347 rolled
up to take me to Cheshunt, where I
connected onto 315806 for the run to Turkey
Street. Gobble Gobble.
315810 was up next to take me back out of zone 6 to
Theobalds Grove (which I didn’t need, but was under the impression I did,
doh!), for a gentle walk through a town centre (passing a bus station) to reach
Waltham Cross, and 317884/317653 for
the non-stop run to Tottenham Hale, where I walked to the Victoria line with
11041/11042 taken for the fast trip to Euston, where it was lunch time before
the next Tring stopper which was formed of 350251 where I was going to take to
Bushey before having a last minute change of heart at Harrow & Wealdstone
as a northbound Watford stopper was running a few minutes late.
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| 317s at Tottenham Hale |
378203 took me a couple stops to Hatch End, returning south one stop to Headstone Lane on 710263, before 710264 gained a few extra miles for the run to Bushey, returning to Carpenders
Park with 378203 and a 15 minute fester for 710264 to return from
Watford to take me to South Kenton. Carpenders
Park is good for spotting of WCML traffic including some Royal Mail Postal EMUs. I returned there from South Kenton on 378225
which was enough to push it over 5 miles, intercepting winner 710268 for the run back to South
Kenton, returning to Kenton on
710257, where I exited the Watford DC line and had a short walk to Northwick
Park taking 21095/21096 to Harrow on the
Hill
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| How long before these are extended to 5 coach units I wonder? |
I transferred over to the Chiltern platforms with 165007
& 165013 taken to Amersham, not needed for a photograph but for platform 1,
unusually this Chiltern service used platform 2 as there was a southbound
Metropolitan line service sitting on platform 1 (normally the Met services
arrive into P2 before shunting to reversing sidings to the north of the
station, returning to P3 to head back towards London). The next southbound Chiltern service was due
and it was a change of plan with low mileage 165029 (and 165018) taken
to Rickmansworth, making a tight connection onto 165014/165011 back to
Amersham. I turned down the next
southbound Chiltern and took a seat on 21075/21076 as it departed from P1 using
the crossover at the southern end of the station, these took me to Chorleywood where my plan changed again
with low mileage 165006 leading 165001 & 165028 on the next
Chiltern, the run to Chalfont wasn’t quite enough and to avoid leaving my last
2 coach Chiltern 165 on something like 9.7 miles, it was back to Amersham,
connecting onto the return of 165013 & 165007 for the run to Chalfont & Latimer.
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| Chiltern Turbo at Chalfont & Latimer |
With one eye on the time, I boarded 21031/21032 to
Rickmansworth for a photo (didn’t need one, but was nice to get a nice fast S8
again), I stepped back to board 165013 & 165007 which was following to take
me fast to Marylebone. 3241/3540 took me one stop to Baker Street,
before 96017 & 96104 took me to Waterloo, swinging via Tesco for dinner
before heading to the main station to wait for the arrival of the 18:20 service
to Salisbury. This was delayed due to
signalling issues in the Weybridge area and didn’t roll up until nearer half
pass. I decided to head to the front
coach with the theory that it would be quieter, and was right as I had a
private table on 158890, with 159002 & 159018 on the rear. A slow trip back home to Grateley, arriving
around 20 minutes late, and with the temperature dropping so much that cars in
the carpark had frost on the windows (I overheard a couple commuters cursing at
having to remove said frost before driving home).
Certainly my main target of the zones in 7-9 was mostly
complete, only Dartford escaped me, but that can easily be done on the day I
head to that area for the two stations I need towards Gravesend. Certainly a varied day, nice to get another
710 outright, with some more units cleared for ten miles (or 5 miles for the LO
stock). Only one more Chiltern 165 to
locate which was a nice bonus. I will
leave you with this picture of a triple 325 postal units heading south at
Carpenders Park, because who doesn’t like the red 325s?
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| 325001 passing Carpenders Park area |
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