7th & 8th March - The Hacienda tour & A short London day
When this tour first went on sale the details were limited
at first, before the final details got released, it looked to be another good tour for the
track gricer, doing various freight bits within Manchester, and after looking
up timings I decided to book up, paying extra for 1st class for a
better seat (more legroom also helps).
I headed up to Walsall on the Friday night, but due to a
poor week due to coming down with a mild fever, I was still recovering so was a
case of straight to the hotel, after a nice run behind 68011 from Banbury to
Moor Street and a refurbished 350126 on a semi-fast service. Not the best of sleeps as I woke up around
one in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep (body was still
messed up due to the fever).
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| 68011 purring away at Birmingham Moor Street |
7th March - The Tour itself
Before heading to Walsall station I headed to the nearby
Tesco for supplies, especially with a big bottle of water, and headed to board
the next stopper from platform 2, getting lucky with a non-refurbished 350404 (handy table seat plug socket coming
in handy as I forgot to plug my charger in overnight). A standard trip via Aston to reach New Street
where it terminated (attaches to another service from Rugeley to go to London),
and with time to kill I headed up to the little waiting area around the toilets
on the B end near platform 11 (using the USB sockets within the seats for
another little charge when I looked up stuff on the internet). With around 5 minutes to go before departure
I headed down to platform 10 to await the arrival of the charter from the
University direction, and running roughly on time it arrived with winner 66093 leading the usual Mk1 coaches,
standard class leading with first class near the back.
I located my seat, an aisle facing backwards noting that the
coach was lightly loaded (filled up at Stafford), said hello to the others on
the table (all 3 weren’t very talkative), and the tour set off heading towards
Bescot Stadium via Aston, before heading towards Stafford via the direct line
between Walsall & Wolverhampton, but avoiding Wolverhampton. Pausing in a loop for a few services to pass
(including a freight train which was behind us) before the tour headed for the
final pick-up in Stafford. Next stop was
a trip along the slow line towards Crewe, coming off to go via the yard and the
chord giving access to the Nantwich line, as the tour continued into the loop
where winner 66503 was attached onto
the rear (yes a Freightliner 66). With
66503 in charge, it was a trip passed the DRS depot and down to the Crewe
station avoiding lines, using the Manchester Independent line to go underneath
all the tracks to come out the other side, re-joining the passenger network
south of Sandbach for a run towards Manchester, pausing in the goods loop at
Stockport and in the goods loop at Longsight for pathing reasons before
continuing towards Piccadilly.
The usual confused faces of passengers waiting for a train
on platform 14 when a 66 hauled charter passes non-stop is usual, followed with
Oxford Road, Deansgate before taking the chord to head towards Victoria and out
towards the Northern depot, turning off onto the freight only branch towards
Dean Lane (which I believe is the route trains for Oldham would use before that
loop got handed over to Metrolink), going between the Northern depot (featuring
a death-row of pacers plus various sprinters) before running alongside the
Metrolink line and into the no-longer used waste terminal at Dean Lane (not a
lot left other than rubble!). The train
got to the end of the line, just in front of the Metrolink stop block (one of a
couple places I believe there is a physical connection between Metrolink &
the outside world).
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| Tram 3036 heads towards Shaw passing Dean Lane |
Anyhow 66093 was back in charge for the run back out to the passenger
network, back via Victoria and out towards Salford, heading into the Brindle
Heath Loop (around a mile from Salford), so the train could reverse into the
waste terminal. A brief pause before the
train departed the terminal complex, finished the goods loop and was on the way
to Bolton, where we were due a 45 minute break when the train got watered and
cleaned, how very handy they seemed to have built a platform at Bolton for this
purpose ;)
This was the first time outside Bolton station in the daylight
for a while, and the first time I noticed was the rail replacement bus station,
a proper little bus station (featuring three bays) solely for rail replacement
buses (all locked up). I popped to the
nearby Morrisons for supplies for later on and generally relaxed for the break,
before re boarding the train and heading back towards Manchester, passing
Victoria once more and headed towards the loop beyond Brewery Junction to
reverse into the Collyhurst Street siding (where a 09 shunter lives). Part of the old line towards Oldham Road
goods station I believe, the tour reversed to go to the Miles Platting Tarmac facility
before back towards Collyhurst, reversing once more back to the loop beyond
brewery junction.
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| Nice place to wait for a replacement bus! |
A few minutes for time keeping before 66093 hauled the tour
back towards Victoria and towards the Salford Hope Street Peak Stone facility
(between Salford Central & Salford Crescent), another reversal and one
final pass of Manchester Victoria, with 66503 hauling the train over the
freight only Phillips Park line to re-join the passenger network at Ashburys
for the run towards Guide Bridge, heading into the goods loop after the station
for a reversal on the very rarely used east facing chord towards the Guide
Bridge Avenue Sidings (Guide Bridge to Stalybridge line). One more reversal (and awaiting for a late
running TPE from Hull) before re-joining the passenger network, passing Guide
Bridge, but turning left to take the line towards Denton and Stockport, going
via platform 0, and onwards to Crewe, doing a random weave north of Wilmslow
and also north of Sandbach (although that was to allow a Pendo to overtake).
Passing through Crewe station and into the down refuge
siding for one final reversal with 66093 hauling the train into Crewe, where
for me was the end of the tour.
Originally I was going to stay on until New Street and head back to
London via LNwR, but earlier in the day decided to randomly check and bagged up
a £40 same day advance on the Pendo from Manchester which would get me back in
London 2 hours early, and considering my poor night I decided it was worth
paying. As usual the Pendo from
Liverpool cleared the platform at Crewe before 390151 rolled in from Piccadilly,
I found a table seat in a lightly loaded coach U, phone in on charge and set
back to enjoy the speedy run to London, only slowing down near Hemel when we
crossed over to the slow line due to the very hungry Pendo earlier in the day munching
on the wires (must have been spending time with a 91 again!) I think the train arrived a good ten minutes
early, giving me time to pick up a travelcard for tomorrow, something to eat
from Sainsburys before making my way towards West London.
My hotel was the Heathrow Central Travelodge, one I’ve
stayed at before so knew I had a couple options, Piccadilly to Hounslow West
for a bus, or train to Southall (or Hayes) for a bus. The appeal of spending 45 minutes on the
Piccadilly line didn’t appeal to me tonight so I went for the faster option, so
it was 11077/11078 on the Victoria line to Oxford Circus followed with
3551/3266 to Paddington, where it was a short walk to board 345006 on the Hayes
shuttle (Purple Train!). at Southall I
had a short wait for a route 105 bus to take me towards Cranford Avenue (Bus VH45272),
checking into the hotel and I relaxed on the bed, before calling it a
night. At that time I would have only
departed Cheddington had I stayed to my original plan, so God only knows what time I would have reached the hotel!
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| 66503 at Bolton |
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8th March – A short London day
My original idea for today went onto the back-pile as I
wanted a relaxed day, so I decided to do a couple stations which I haven’t had
the chance to revisit for a photograph.
A nice late start with checking out of the hotel and walking to a nearby
Tesco Express for supplies before boarding a H98 bus to Hayes & Harlington
station, and purple train 345006 to Ealing Broadway, where I transferred to the
Central line for the long trip to Stratford (91009, 92068, 92254 & 91043).
At a quiet Stratford I transferred over to platform 11 to
board the next Hertford East service, with 317884 & 317345 taken to Brimsdown,
with 317649 & 317348 taken back one stop to Ponders End, which
clears Greater London for stations I need to revisit for photographs, next up
was 317652 & 317654 for the long run to Ware to clear the Hertford
East line. A 15 minute fester at this
single platform before the same pair of units returned, this time I sat in the
declassified first class area for the run to Tottenham Hale.
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| Last London station I needed to revisit for a photograph |
Changing over to the Victoria line, with 11012 & 11011
taken one stop to Blackhorse Road, timing it right to arrive a couple minutes
before the first 710 was due. The first
Gospel Oak bound service wasn’t needed, but thankfully (for it was very wet), winner
710103 rolled in on the first
Barking service, so onwards to Barking.
I decided it was a good time to start heading home (back was hurting),
so it was a trip to West Ham on a busy 357024, followed by a busy Jubilee
service (96008/96081) to Waterloo (all the tourists with massively oversized
luggage!). A Southampton bound 444004
& 444020 took me to Basingstoke to allow me to connect into the Salisbury
service which was 159003 & 158888 to take me home.
Not the longest of Sunday trips, but I didn’t want to stay
out too late and wanted to take it easy, I’m happy I’ve finally got round to
doing that trio of GA stations, which clears GA for the “West Anglia”
route. I shall leave you with this
picture of a plane coming into land at Heathrow taken in the morning. Hopefully by next weekend I will be back to
full strength for my trip to South Yorkshire.
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| Plane coming into land at Heathrow |
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