22nd February – A Trip to Cheshire

22^nd February – A Trip to Cheshire

The idea of this trip was to revisit stations I needed in Cheshire, mainly on the Mid Cheshire line plus the Manchester – Crewe line with a couple other Cheshire stations.  I headed up to Stockport on the Friday night, although unusually on the 21:40 service from Euston (the cheap fares had already gone on the 21:00 service), although this was around 45 minutes late into Stockport (arrived around 20 minutes past midnight) so I didn’t get a lot of sleep before the first Chester train.

The Friday was spent in London, hunting down units for mileage, sadly I got bowled with my last 377/5 as it got cancelled due to signalling issues, but managed to pick up my last trio of 377/3s, plus a 700, and 3 more 717s (although 2 of those not cleared outright, but every little helps).  Another after having the previous weekend at home due to the storm, it was nice to be back out on the rails.

I was out of the hotel, swinging via McDonalds for breakfast, and onto the first Chester train which was a very lightly loaded 150204, which I took to Lostock Gralam, one I wanted to get out of the way as it’s the station where the normal hourly services pass.  Not a lot around this station, with the shelter looking worse for wear and car-park looking more like a lake in places.  A short time later (for there will be a few festers on this line with its rough hourly service) 150102 arrived to take me to Mobberley featuring its level crossing and nice signal box.  Funny how today was raining when the last time I did these stations in September 2016 it was also wet.

Signal Box at Mobberley

Less than ten minutes later 150124 rolled in to take me to Cuddington, with the confusing signage about if someone can use the barrow crossing (has both the standard “Stop, look & listen” boards as well as “passengers must not cross the line” signs, considering the PIS on the train announces that passengers should not use the foot crossing until the train has departed so I assumed it was OK to use.  Reminds me a bit like the station on the Walton on the Naze branch which has 2 platforms with the Colchester platform only being accessible by a foot crossing with similar signage telling passengers not to cross the lines.  Anyhow back to Cheshire, the rain had gone away for the moment as I had a short wait for 150204 to return from Chester to take me to Greenbank and another short wait before 150127 arrived (for it was all the 150s today) to take me back towards Chester to reach Mouldsworth.

Although sadly the rain had returned, and that does limit the area you can explore during the festers, so it was a case of hanging in the shelter for 150124 to return from Chester to take me to Northwich.  A short connection here for 150102 to take me back towards Delamere, the forest station as the signs mention, and it was a nice fester for the rain has cleared away for the time being and a gentle walk before 150127 returned from Chester to take me back towards Greater Manchester with Hale.  With it being nearly lunchtime it was time to pop to a nearby Sainsburys for some lunch before the next Chester service, which is where I noticed the following service was showing as cancelled which meant I wouldn’t complete this line today.

No hail at Hale

On the bright side, at least the 2 stations I would be missing can be revisited on a GM Wayfarer, as I took a seat on 150124 for the trip to Plumley, heading back to Stockport with 150102.  Being an hour ahead of my rough plan was nice, but sadly the next Stoke bound Avanti service was running late due to earlier issues so by the time 390011 arrived at Stoke the connection to the stopper back to Manchester had already gone.  I decided to go for a walk before returning to catch the next stopper, formed of 323229 to Congleton featuring some youths smoking something smelling quite strong.  A short wait here before 323236 arrived to take me to Kidsgrove, where I connected onto 156917 for the run to Crewe.  This was one of the former Greater Anglia 156s, but as they can’t work with the other East Midland 156s (issues with the on board PIS being different and other bits) they have been renumbered.  Although like the 450/5s which have been renumbered back to their original numbers I’m not chasing these down again.

At Crewe I had a short wait before boarding 319383 for the run to Holmes Chapel, featuring a couple of fare dodgers who were clearly hoping not to get gripped with their tickets to Sandbach (they were heading to Handforth, so not even on the right train as this one goes via the airport, not the brightest in the world, but shows that barriers have limitations at reducing fare evasion).  Anyhow it was a short walk over to the opposite platform for a time wasting move with 323227 to take me to Sandbach, where I was treated to the return of the rain and also of a convey of 4 Freightliner 66s and 2x 70s heading (I assume) to the maintenance facility in Crewe yard).  In all fairness on that 319 I was expecting it to get looped at Sandbach by a late running Manchester bound Pendo, but it looked like it got looped in the loop before Chelford, losing time in the process (which probably meant it would lose its path via the Castlefield corridor and cause more delays).

 A late running Pendo passing Holmes Chapel (very slowly)

My time at Sandbach wasn’t very long before 323239 returned from Crewe to take me to the rural Chelford station for a nice wait in the shelter (not a station to visit with a tight connection) before 323238 arrived from Manchester to take me back one stop to Goostrey, another rural station, but another one with a decent seat in the shelter.  Next up was 323223 to take me to Wilmslow where I connected via the cross platform to the service from Liverpool, with winner 331102 for the run to Crewe.  This would be my final service operated by Northern under Arriva, as the next time I will be catching a Northern service it will be operated by DOR, seems like an end of a short era.  Anyhow at Crewe I took a seat on the London Northwestern service on platform 4, nice refurbished 350/1 so the plug socket came in handy, and I was lucky to overhear a station announcement that it was due to run fast to Stafford, not go via Stoke.  No announcements on-board, but considering that London Northwestern drop the “Via Stoke” leg of these services for any reason it wasn’t surprising.  Heck Stone had a 4 hour gap earlier in the day of Stoke bound services due to the 350s going fast.  I suspect any remaining passengers of Stone will be glad come May when it should get more reliable (ha!)

Last "Arriva" Northern service I will catch

Anyhow, it was over to a very busy 156917 on the Derby service to take me the one stop to Alsager for a short wait for 350375 to arrive from London, only a couple minutes late as well, to take me back to Crewe for the last time of the day.   With time to kill I headed to the nearby Tesco Express to grab some dinner, sitting down and relaxing waiting for my booked train home.  Sadly it wasn’t on the lightly loaded train from Liverpool (which did help clear away the platform at Crewe) but onto 390039 from Manchester to take me non-stop to Euston.  I managed to grab a table seat in coach B which was a bonus, and also as the Pendo went onto the fast lines after Milton Keynes it arrived into Euston around 10 minutes early.

Due to my planned trip to Anglia on the Sunday I was spending the night in a hostel near Kings Cross, not a good stay due to having a very loud snorer in the dorm room, someone who arrived around 1am, throwing on the room light to sort their bag out and a street party kicking off in the early hours with loud music.  Certainly not a place I would use again in a hurry (and a reminder why I prefer hotel rooms over hostel dorms).  Anyhow today was productive, other than that cancelled Chester train meaning I will need to return to Ashley & Plumley, but they are within the GM Wayfarer area so it could be worse.

Trains at Crewe (156, 221, 390 & 350)