16th – 18th July Trips (West Midlands & Cheshire)
A bit of background to this weekend, I had originally booked accommodation in Crewe due to a railtour on the Saturday. However that tour got pushed back to the end of August (where annoyingly I can’t do it), I had the option of either cancelling the accommodation booking or keeping it and doing a few small bits & bobs on my “slight novelty” list. When I say accommodation, it was one of those “rooms in a converted house” Air B&B style places, although it was quite good with a shared kitchen & lounge area.
Friday 16th
I had booked today off work, and got a lift to Andover station (after doing some food shopping with mum). The 10:05 service took me to Basingstoke, where I changed over to a pair of 444s to Clapham Junction, where I spotted a new 701 hiding in the sidings between various other SWR units. My original idea was to take an Overground service to Willesden Junction to take a chance with a required 710 to Euston, but my eye caught a low mileage 378 on the next Dalston Junction service, which I took to Clapham High Street.
After grabbing something to eat from a nearby Sainsburys I headed to Clapham North Underground station, to take a Northern Line service to Moorgate, heading upstairs to board a 717 with lovely AC for the run to Highbury & Islington before finally a Victoria line service to Euston. I managed to get my rover from the ticket office before the Crewe service was announced for boarding on platform 12, where I had my fingers crossed not to get given a pair of lovely 350/2s for the run to Crewe…
"Hi, I'm new here, how do you do?"
…I was in luck as it was a pair of 350/1s, as I took a seat in the leading coach for the speedy run north, although it wasn’t that fast on departure from Euston as a late running Pendo got put out in front which delayed the 350s by a few minutes. Some more delays along the way due to congestion caused by the hot weather but it was a nice enough trip towards Crewe, although I did have to laugh at the train connection screens on the train completely ignoring the high level platforms at both Tamworth & Lichfield, giving only “connections” to the following Crewe service or a London Euston service!
At Crewe, I was surprised that the ranger operated the ticket barriers (both ways!) as I headed towards my accommodation to pick up the room key (self-check in, with the security codes sent via text), dropping off some weight from my bag and being impressed with the room. I returned to the station and with some time to waste before the next train towards Birmingham managed to pick up my Cheshire Day Ranger from the ticket office for the Saturday.
Baby Hippo at Crewe
I had my fingers crossed for something reasonable on the Liverpool – Birmingham service (although this time the back-up option was a 9 coach 390 from Edinburgh), getting lucky with a 350/3 leading a 350/4, as I grabbed a seat in the /3 for the run to Birmingham New Street, where I had time to swing via Tesco Metro, noticing that the ticket gates on the Navigation Street overbridge were wide open. After grabbing both things for dinner & a couple bits for the following morning I headed over to Birmingham Moor Street, to take the 2 coach 165 on the Leamington Spa stopper.
165 at Leamington Spa
At Leamington Spa I had an extended wait due to delays from London, however there is a very nice waiting room area on the platform 2 side, with church pew style seating, a relaxing place to sit and wait as a 3 coach 165 arrived on a Birmingham service, taking up most of the passengers, followed by a pair of 168s which I took to Warwick Parkway for another short wait before 68010 purred in on the daily loco hauled Kidderminster service (my original idea was to catch the 168 an hour later to Kidderminster, but there was a lot of cancellations on the Snow Hill Lines). Needless to say I was in the front coach for maximum noise from the 68 as it looped the 165 at Hatton (I need to feel sorry for anybody for Dorridge, Solihull or Birmingham who boarded that 165 at Leamington as it got looped twice).
Cat O'Clock at Warwick Parkway
After Birmingham Snow Hill, this Kidderminster service is semi-fast, calling at Rowley Regus & Smethwick only, which is nice to get something reasonably fast along the Snow Hill Lines. At Kidderminster I had a short break before a 2 coach 172/0 arrived from Snow Hill to take me to Worcester Foregate Street where I spotted one of the hired in Chiltern 172s operating a service towards Hereford (looks a bit out of place!) I returned back to the 172 for the trip back to Droitwich Spa for a short break before a pair of 172s arrived from Hereford to take me to New Street for a bit of different scenery.
I arrived at Birmingham New Street on time (felt like we were sitting at University for a good few minutes waiting for the correct departure time), and headed towards a 158 heading towards Wales, just for a time wasting move to Wolverhampton, returning to New Street on a pair of 350s from Liverpool (a /2 & a /4) before the pair of 158s arrived from Wales which would form the Holyhead train which goes via Stafford, just for the novelty of a Transport for Wales service along that route. [There is normally 1 train a day in each direction Monday – Fridays & Sundays]
The pair of 158s departed Birmingham New Street and was very lightly loaded, sitting at Wolverhampton for 15 minutes before heading towards Stafford for some high speed running, there can’t be many places on the TfW network where the 158s can get to max speed. Arrival into Crewe was a few minutes early allowing me to head back to my accommodation, and crashing out ready for an early start on the Saturday.
"This is the Chiltern Railways Service to..."
Saturday 17th
I woke up from my accommodation and headed towards Crewe station, for it was an early start for me as I wanted to catch the random XC service which goes via Alsager to reach Stoke on Trent, solely for the novelty of a voyager on that route. It would also give a nice connection with the daily Stoke – Blackpool service for another novelty of 331s from Stoke towards Manchester (and a Northern call at Longport).
At Crewe I noticed a charter train was on platform 12, with a 47 hauling some West Coast coaches and a steam engine on the rear (looked like it was heading towards the S&C reversing at Liverpool so the steam would be leading). Another oddity was seeing a Northern 323 in platform 3 (guess it must stable there overnight), before the voyagers rolled in. I took a seat in nearly empty rear coach for the run towards Kidsgrove before arriving at Stoke on Trent, where I had a short 15 minute wait before the pair of 331s arrived from Macclesfield, terminating on platform 2 due to being too long for the bay platform.
331s at Stoke
A dud 331 was leading a required 331 (always nice to get a bonus), picking up a few along the way, including a group of females who I assume were heading all the way to Blackpool on a Hen Party for they were drinking already (bear in mind this was before 7am!) I alighted from the 331s at Stockport and popped out of the station to the Sainsburys Local to grab breakfast (mmm Bacon Sandwich) before returning to see another charter train, this time the “Midland Pullman” HST set heading towards the Heart of Wales line [nice to see charter trains back out on the network]. This was only possible as the EMR service to Liverpool was running 15 minutes late, as a single 158 rolled in from Nottingham which took me all the way to Liverpool Lime Street (as I wanted to cover the Warrington Central line once more).
At Liverpool Lime Street I had a short wait before the next Newcastle bound TPE would depart, which was a low mileage 802 (solely from when I visited Chester Le Street last year), which I took to Manchester Victoria for another break, broken up with a time wasting move to Salford Central & back. I was waiting for the next Chester service, which was formed of a required 195. The 195 rolled in from Leeds pretty full, as it emptied out to be refilled again, as I noticed the AC had failed in the front coach so it wasn’t the most comfortable trip towards Chester, after Warrington it was full & standing for the non-stop run to Chester. I don’t think I was the only one happy to feel the fresh air when it arrived at Chester! I spotted several new Merseyrail units being stored in some sidings to the south of Warrington station, and they do look nice.
How many passengers can you squeeze onto a 195 challenge?
Anyhow at Chester I crossed over towards platform 2 to await the train from Birmingham, a pair of voyagers did take some of the waiting crowd, but the 158s were still very busy on the Holyhead train (complete with failed AC). I was only going as far as Shotton, to start my little walk back towards Chester, going via the former Chester and Connah's Quay Railway route, now turned into a popular mixed use path. I started by walking part of the former line towards Connah’s Quay itself before swinging back via the River Dee to cross the Hawarden Bridge, having good timing as a Bidston bound 150 was a couple minutes behind allowing me to photograph it passing the lightly used & limited served Hawarden Bridge station.
150241 passing Hawarden Bridge station
Now onto the “Chester Millennium Greenway” as it’s signposted, on the former south facing curve of the railway junction, having a quick double back via the north facing curve before I headed towards Chester. It’s tarmacked all the way and I would say follows the route of the old railway other than for a footbridge over a busy dual carriageway (carrying the A494), but there was no real evidence of the former life, none of the stations platforms survive (unless they are hidden deep within the hedges). A few signs around the settlement of Blacon where I would imagine the station would have been.
It was a nice little walk, although the signs into England/Wales on the border are a bit damaged, I walked underneath some nice old railway bridges and once into Chester over the canal I came off the former railway near Ermine Road, going via a McCoys for lunch & some cold drink, before heading towards Chester station, the end of my little walk, some nice scenery along the way of farmland along the old railway route itself. It was back to the trains, as I boarded a pair of 153s taken to Crewe, making use of the toilet to change my walking leggings back to trousers before looking out of the window at the scenery.
A former EMR 153 in platform 9 at Crewe, looks odd this end of the station!
At Crewe I had a short wait before a pair of voyagers rolled in to form the next Holyhead service which I took back to Chester, first time on a refurbished Avanti Voyager and they have done a good job with the interiors. A tight connection at Chester saw me jumping onto a 507 which I took to Capenhurst (very warm inside, the restricted opening windows don’t help), I exited as a bylaw enforcement officer was taking details of someone who decided to skip the lesson in school at how to sit properly and was caught feet on the seat opposite. A short wait at Capenhurst before a 508 arrived to take me back to Chester, I would have gone further but the following service was cancelled, as was the Northern service from Helsby to Ellesmere Port meaning I dug out an alternative idea, as I sat on a bench waiting for the next Leeds train to arrive as it was meant to be required.
As expected it was indeed required, as I took the 195 to Newton-Le-Willows for a short wait before the next Newcastle bound 802 as that was showing as required (another one into my book). I took the 802 to Manchester Victoria, popping out of the station to visit a nearby Co-Op for dinner items before returning to the station catching a 156 to Salford Crescent to intercept a pair of 331s from Blackpool as one of them was on around 8 miles so the run to Manchester Piccadilly pushed it over ten miles. Another short wait before a required 397 rolled in from Edinburgh which took me to Manchester Airport, followed by a 319 to Wilmslow.
A 319 & 175 at Wilmslow
My final train of the day (for I was getting a bit tired and wanted a nice shower to wash the sweat) was another 319, this time calling at all the stations towards Crewe. I exited the station, and headed back to my accommodation, to have a well needed shower and relaxing evening (even though it was quite hot, even with the windows open in the room).
Sunday 18th
The rough plan I had for today went into the bin after looking at the list of Northern cancellations, including the entire Leeds – Doncaster stoppers. I needed to be in Doncaster for the 15:47 service to London so I came up with some ideas, eventually narrowing it down to a trip the long way round. I was using a Northern freebie single ticket so route options were more open (than just using the Hope Valley line stoppers which I would have expected would be wedged out from the word go)
I checked out of my accommodation (somewhere I will use again if I need to be in Crewe for 2 nights), and headed to Crewe station via Tesco Express (the one on the roundabout near the Best Western) to grab something for breakfast and also supplies for lunch. My first train of the day was the first Manchester bound stopping service, formed of a 323 for the trip to Piccadilly, where I made a connection onto a busy pair of 331s heading towards Blackpool, which I took to Salford Crescent for a short wait before a 150 arrived from Clitheroe to take me to Manchester Victoria.
This was more a “can’t be bothered walking to Victoria in the hot weather” move, pure laziness from me. Next up was a 3 coach 195 which I took all the way to Leeds via the scenic Calder Vale line, arriving at Leeds to have a short break on the over bridge to have my lunch before heading down to platform 17 to await the doors on the Nottingham bound 195 to get released, allowing me to get a decent seat (I don’t mind the airline seats on these units as they have good legroom).
195001 at Leeds
Departure from Leeds was on time as the train headed towards Sheffield via Wakefield Kirkgate & Barnsley, I forgot how nice this line is in parts for looking out of the window on Yorkshire scenery. Changing trains at Meadowhall, it was a short wait before a 170 rolled in on a Scarborough service. There must have been a set swap during the morning as this service was showing a 158 earlier in the day, but as this was a 170 with the former first class seats I headed that direction for a bit of extra comfort on the fast run to Doncaster. I arrived on time giving me around 45 minutes or so to waste so I popped to the shops for something cold & some more drink before returning to Doncaster station.
Back at Doncaster, I awaited the train from Newcastle as the 802 from Hull soaked up a lot of the waiting passengers before a late running 91 arrived from Leeds before finally my 801, I located my seat for the run towards London, but sadly it was so going due to that late running 91 being slow to accelerate as it called at extra stations due to the previous Leeds getting cancelled. Anyhow arrival into London was 10 minutes down, as I headed down to the depths of Hell, known as the Underground during summer and onto a Victoria Line service to Stockwell.
802302 at Doncaster
It kept mentioning that there were severe delays on the Northern Line so I was a bit worried, but I had less than a minute at Stockwell before a Northern Line service rolled in (seemed to be running the usual 3 minute frequency) for the short hop to Clapham North, where I exited and headed towards Clapham High Street to board a 378 for the run to Clapham Junction, the AC felt amazing! I was ahead of my rough plan, and when at Clapham I saw the next Exeter service was running a few minutes late decided to jump on. Sadly the AC was broken (in all 9 coaches by a glance) so it wasn’t the most comfortable for the run to Andover where I exited the train and had a 20 minute wait before the following Salisbury service (a single unit) which took me the final 6 and a bit miles to Grateley where I headed home.
The end of a good weekend, certainly got good use from my rangers!
Welcome to Wales!
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