15 - 17th December – A weekend in Worcester/West Midlands & Railtour

 15 - 17th December – A weekend in Worcester/West Midlands & Railtour

When Pathfinder tours announced a tour of some of the freight bits in the general West Midlands area it ticked my interest with some needed track at both Baker & Quail level, so I looked into options for accommodation selecting Worcester as the most suitable location taking into account both accommodation cost & travel costs, selecting a room in a family house which has converted some spare rooms into basic accommodation with their own entrance (via a converted garage).

15th December – Onwards to Worcester & an evening spin in Birmingham

I put in a half day holiday at work and finished at 12:30, where I dashed home (like road runner, beep beep) where my bag was already packed getting a lift to the station where I arrived with time to spare before a busy 159011 rolled in from Salisbury on the 12:59 service to London Waterloo (so nice to see London Waterloo displayed rather than Basingstoke on off-peak services).  Although old habits die hard as I alighted at Basingstoke to head across to platform 4 to await the next XC service (pair of voyagers) which was reported as running a minute or so late after Southampton Airport and on the approach to Winchester.  This is where things went a bit wrong as there were reports of a police incident in the Winchester area (trespass?) which meant the voyagers were delayed until further notice.

So, I made my way across to platform 5 to take a seat on a busy 165123 on the Reading stopper resigning myself to an hour delay as this stopper gave a +58 into the next Worcester train.  However, in a lucky turn of events the next Worcester train was delayed by a few minutes due to an earlier signalling fault causing delays to many services on the Great Western (again) so once the 165 arrived at Reading I had a fast walk across to platform 9 where 800011 was rolling in just as I came down the stairs.  I was glad I had a seat reservation for this busy service as I settled down and relaxed (originally, I was planning to take the XC service to Oxford to intercept this GWR service).  As expected, the train emptied out at Oxford allowing a quick seat to change to one with a view on the trip via the Cotswold line to reach Worcester Foregate Street near enough on time (although this service did have a timetabled dwell of around 8 minutes at Shrub Hill).

800011 at Worcester Foregate Street

I decided it would be better to locate my accommodation now just in case there was some issues (better to resolve issues at 16:30 rather than 22:30).  I made the slight mistake in deciding to walk a path alongside the River Severn (noticing that part of the path on the opposite bank was underwater) giving some nice views of the cathedral overlooking the river however both options I had to cut across towards Bromwich Road were flooded (Slingpool Walk & Kingfisher Path) which meant I continued along the riverbank in twilight reaching Diglis Bridge where thankfully the path towards Bromwich Road was passable.  Once I reached that road it was a long walk north reaching the accommodation in the St Johns area of Worcester, a bit of mild confusion with the instructions about where my room was located but I managed to find it, dropped off some of the stuff from my rucksack before making my way back out onto the street to walk back towards Foregate Street station, swinging via the little Tesco Express outside the station to grab something to munch on.

The next Birmingham New Street train was running a few minutes late (caused by the previous Hereford train being late with the single-track section between Malvern & Ledbury) and was winner 196004 running solo.  Yep, a 2-coach special, and it departed rather cosy, and it only got worse by the time it reached Bromsgrove.  Eventually the service arrived at Birmingham New Street (with a large crowd waiting for it) where part of my rough plan for the evening got adjusted due to a cancellation to a Shrewsbury service (which was showing earlier as a pair of 2 coach units).  I headed across to platform 4C to take winner 196112 on another Shrewsbury train to Wolverhampton on a late running service where sadly it missed the connection to a random Birmingham train which ran nonstop via Bescot (just for the novelty factor of a 196 via Bescot now that line has returned to limited service).  Next service for me was a busy 350262 from Liverpool to take me back to Birmingham New Street where after discounting the next Hereford train on the 19:50 I made my way towards Birmingham Moor Street as the 2nd evening Chiltern 68 hauled service wasn’t showing any allocations (and I needed one of the 68s for ten miles and it was floating around earlier in the week).  When at Birmingham Moor Street I spotted the Santa train with a 20 at the country end and “Clun Castle” steam engine steaming away at the buffer stop end.

Steam Engine 7029 Clun Castle at Birmingham Moor Street

Anyhow 68012 rolled in from London (woohoo, the 68 I needed for ten miles) with DVT 82309 on the rear as I took a seat at the front of the train to listen to the 68 making a loud noise via the tunnel to Snow Hill then onwards to Stourbridge Junction calling only at Rowley Regis.  I returned towards Smethwick Galton Bridge on 172214 changing platforms to board a late running 350124 on the Walsall stopper to take me to Birmingham New Street (a crowd avoidance measure) where I took a seat onto winner 196108 on the Worcester Shrub Hill service, being sensible to sit at the very front where it was quieter.  This 196 took me towards Worcester Shrub Hill (sadly the connection towards Foregate Street was cancelled) and I headed towards my accommodation via the busy city centre (Christmas party season) and after sorting my bag/clothes out for the morning (and a 05:20 alarm) headed to sleep.

The room was mostly quiet, at the rear of the house so hardly any road noise but there was a low-pitched hum from an electric box (reminded me of the Easy Hotel in Croydon).  Bed was comfy (if not a bit low to the ground) with some free biscuits & cartons of juice thrown into the room price.  Certainly, after the 1st night I would consider using this place again if the need arose (listed on Booking dot com as “Heart of Worcester”).

16th December - The Festive Midland-Ian Tour

My last rail tour of the year was a Pathfinder tour of various freight bits in the West Midlands which turned out to be a sort of farewell tour for the class 60s on DB as they were set to get withdrawn within the next few weeks. Anyhow my alarm went off around 05:30 and I was out of the house and heading towards the city centre swinging via the little Tesco Express outside Foregate Street as that thankfully opened at 06:00 allowing to grab some breakfast items before heading towards Worcester Shrub Hill, arriving to see a XC 170 passing (I always forget about those early morning/late night diverts, something I might need to try and do next year if I get the chance for the novelty of a XC via Kidderminster).  Anyhow 60024 rolled in with the usual Mk2 coaches, after a quick photo of the 60 I located my seat and settled down for the trip towards Kidderminster & Stourbridge (where the 3 others boarded, although 2 were the sort who didn’t even say anything to response to a “good morning” (great one of those sort of tours).

Anyhow the last pick up was at Birmingham Snow Hill where due to a cancelled West Midlands service the train arrived ahead of schedule, allowing a fresh air & walk break (as the legroom on the Mk2 coaches is shockingly bad if you have long legs).  The tour continued towards Moor Street before heading into the goods loop bypassing the platform at Bordesley and via the Caledonia Yard, bypassing the platforms at Small Heath to go towards Tyseley via a line which went round the back of the DMU depot (giving good views of what was on the Vintage Trains depot).  The passenger network was joined again after Tyseley station and the train continued towards Banbury (going via the loops at Dorridge & Ferry Compton)

60024 at Worcester Shrub Hill

Before the tour reached Banbury it reversed in the goods loop to the north of the station to access the Tarmac terminal. After the visit to the Tarmac terminal the train headed into Banbury station for a 50-minute lunch break, time I spent popping to a nearby Morrisons for lunch returning via the Oxford Canal towpath and the eastern entrance to the station (with the modern multi-storey car park).  Winner 66194 hauled the train away from Banbury and taking the branch line towards Kineton MOD, reversing on the Network Rail limit of the former line towards Stratford on Avon.  The tour returned towards Fenny Compton reversing once more before heading back towards Birmingham.

Going via the goods loop at Dorridge before the tour headed towards Birmingham New Street using one of the sidings in between the platforms before carrying on towards Wolverhampton, turning into the Steel Terminal before reaching the station.  A further reversal took the tour back out of the Steel Terminal onto the passenger network once more heading back towards Birmingham before taking one of the Soho curves to head towards Tame Bridge Parkway and then towards Heath Town in Wolverhampton but using the north facing curve to bypass Wolverhampton station itself.  The tour continued although it was now dark so harder to follow if it did anything more unusual towards Stafford, reversing alongside the former Royal Mail platform.

66194 at Banbury (from road bridge)

The tour returned towards Wolverhampton, running early due to a broken loop & a train which was meant to pass the charter just outside Stafford running late (or cancelled), but before Wolverhampton took the non-passenger curve towards the Shrewsbury line where it reversed for the final time in the goods loop alongside Oxley depot.  The last leg took the tour via Wolverhampton station before going via Bescot & Aston to approach New Street from that direction (for it would continue back towards Worcester via Stourbridge).  I decided to bail at Birmingham New Street and after getting news of which units were out on Shrewsbury services headed to the trams.

The trams were a bit of chaos due to heavy bunching up in places (all the idiotic taxi drivers blocking the tram tracks within the city centre ignoring the tram right behind it).  After a while I decided to take a walk following the tram tracks reaching St Chad (formally Snow Hill) where winner tram 54 rolled in.  I took this tram to Brindleyplace, walking back towards the Library tram stop for some photos of the winter fairground rides with 54 to Grand Central where once more I set off on foot towards St Chads stop (got me out of the chaos of the city centre) where tram 39 took me back to Grand Central.

West Midland Metro Tram 21 at Grand Central

Due to many cancellations, it was onto a busy dud 196112 for a train towards Malvern (although might have been for Hereford), the state of play with the “onward connection” screen with 5 out of the 6 trains shown being cancelled.  I alighted at Worcester Foregate Street with announcements of a replacement coach for a cancelled Dorridge service (I dread to think how long that would have taken to reach Birmingham calling at all the stops via Kidderminster).  I was a bit sensible to hold back a few minutes to allow the masses (some slightly worse for wear) to head down the stairs before I headed down myself and walked to my accommodation.

A reasonable day some more unusual track covered, although it was made a bit worse by having 2 people on the table whom were silent with the other person good with tales of the olden days.  I was glad to get out of Birmingham when I did to avoid the chaos of the last stopper to Worcester which no doubt would have been a 2-coach special.

196112 at Worcester Foregate Street

17th December – Walking the Netherton Tunnel

In all fairness I was a bit lost at what to do today, wanting to be on the 14:00 service to Worcester from Birmingham at the latest for the 15:XX GWR service to Paddington as that was the last train which connected into a Reading – Salisbury SWR service (just to avoid the hassle of waiting round both Reading & Basingstoke).  My original idea was to maybe walk the Worcester & Birmingham canal from Worcester towards Droitwich Spa with a section of the Droitwich canal, however research was unfruitful in what the towpath condition was like outside Worcester so I pushed that back to next year (didn’t want to risk the path being too muddy).

So, for lack of a better idea, after playing with Google Maps the night before I came up with an alternative idea involving the Netherton Tunnel branch canal & the Gower Branch canal.  After checking out of the shared house in Worcester I walked into the city centre, swinging via the Spoons for breakfast before heading to Foregate Street for the first train towards Birmingham.  A bonus was with winner 196001 leading dud 196004 on this service, which went via Shrub Hill.  An uneventful trip to Birmingham New Street where I had a short wait before 350124 rolled in on the Wolverhampton stopper to take me to Dudley Port where my walk began.

196004 at Worcester Foregate Street

I headed towards the A461 going underneath the Birmingham Canal (Main Line) Ryland Aqueduct before climbing up to the towpath for a short section along the towpath to the Netherton Tunnel Junction.  This was a short canal built to bypass the narrow Dudley Tunnel back in the canal age, dual towpaths (although the towpath on the Wolves side was better quality hard surface).  I carried on to meet the Old Main line aqueduct where I was forced to swap sides as only one of the towpaths within the tunnel is in use (the other side was gated off).  This is where I had a change of plan as originally, I was going to leave the tunnel itself for another day but decided it would be a good day to walk the 1.75-mile-long tunnel.

A torch (or in my case the flash on my phone) is a must for this tunnel as it’s pitch-black inside with only the odd bit of light from ventilation openings in the roof.  It was also a towpath where a good pair of waterproof shoes is required as there were parts where the towpath was flooded and areas where you needed to keep a watchful eye for any potholes within the path.  It was a unique experience walking in this tunnel being alone, a bit spooky as well but I made it to the end and carried on walking to the end of the Tunnel branch canal to where it met up with the main Dudley Canal.  At the junction I could have turned south to follow this canal for around 2 miles to Old Hill station, but instead did a U-turn and headed towards the tunnel.

Inside Netherton Tunnel

35 (or so) minutes later I came out into daylight once more, restarted my GPS tracker (as clearly it would have gotten all confused had it been running within that tunnel) and headed towards the Birmingham Canal old main line aqueduct, climbing up to walk along the old main line (on a towpath which seemed to have been upgraded recently).  I took this canal towards the start of the short Gower branch canal, a canal which links both the “new mainline” and “old line” via a few locks.  Soon I had reached the new mainline canal, where I had the option to heading back towards Dudley Port or to head towards Sandwell & Dudley station and after a quick check on timings decided to head towards Sandwell as walking that tunnel took longer than I had planned.

I soon reached Sandwell & Dudley station where I only had a short wait before 221110 rolled in on an Avanti London train, I was expecting this train to be a tad cosy (being a single 5 coach voyager rather than a 9 or 11 coach Pendo) but it was lightly loaded (at least in coach D).  Originally, I was planning to heading back towards Worcester Foregate Street, but that train had been missed due to my poor time planning so it was towards a Cardiff bound XC service with 170111 leading 170620.  I ended up in the older /1 unit, one which doesn’t have a lot of legroom, but more importantly I got a seat for the run towards Worcestershire Parkway where I changed to the high-level platform for a short wait before 800316 rolled in on the train from Hereford.

170620 departs Worcestershire Parkway

I boarded this 9 coach IET in the rear coach, mainly for the lack of engine noise (so called “Standard Premium” but also because it was lightly loaded due to being off the platform at all the stations towards Oxford.  Even after Oxford it wasn’t that busy.  All was going well until Didcot Parkway where the train arrived around 6 minutes late, not to worry as it was a 15-minute connection at Reading to the Salisbury train.  For some reason the train lost a further 6 minutes during the call at Didcot Parkway (issue changing over to electric mode?).  Arrival into Reading was still 12 minutes late, so it was a fast walk towards platform 2 where 159020 was waiting on the next Salisbury train, making it with seconds to spare before it departed to take me to Grateley.

A nice short-day trip, other than the mild farce with the tighter than expected connection at Reading.  Certainly, walking the tunnel was an experience I won’t be forgetting in a while, I believe it’s the longest canal tunnel which was built with a towpath inside (rather than expecting the horses to go over the top of the hill and boats to be ‘legged’ through the tunnel.  Another 2 coach 196 into my book was a bonus as those units are going to be harder to locate now the 4 coach units have entered service on Hereford services with the issue at University sorted out for the time being.