Trips on 29th + 30th June (Pembrokeshire & Grand Union)

 Trips on 29th & 30th June

29th June – Pembroke Coast ‘Express’

Sampling the novelty of a GWR IET service on the summer Saturday extension to Pembroke Dock was something I had hoped to have done last year but it was wiped out by an overtime ban, I had previously booked up a long weekend in the same accommodation in Llanelli (taking an eye mask this time!) for July time but due to changing jobs in August that trip was cancelled due to the need to not use up any more annual leave from work (as I would have to pay it back for using more than my adjusted annual leave).  Not just the only trip in July which has been cut back but needs must.

I was playing with the ticket buying websites and after looking at prices decided on a random day trip to Pembroke Dock, along with mum to have a day of looking out of the window.  Where it was slightly cheaper to start from Salisbury, the savings on the fares might have been wiped out with the need to pay for parking in case the free weekend parking area close to the station has gone due to the car park works at Salisbury.  Also, it wasn’t the best timings with a 55-minute fester at Newport, so this trip started with the 06:59 service from Grateley to Basingstoke formed of 159016 changing to 221122 on the next train to Reading where we exited the station to visit Wendys for breakfast as well as grabbing some supplies for lunch.

Arriva bus 3013 (BJ12 YPY) in Reading town centre on a service to High Wycombe

After breakfast we returned to the station to await the Pembroke Coast Express to roll in, with 800032 leading 800031.  We had seats in the middle of the rear unit (which divides at Swansea) which was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday morning service with only a student on the table who had decided to take over the entire table with various devices & paperwork.  She wasn’t best impressed when we tipped up for our reserved seats, carefully selected to get a table with a view of glass rather a view of plastic.  It had been a while since my last fast run between Reading & Swindon in daylight and onwards to South Wales via the tunnel the service keeping to good timing with the coach only getting busy after Cardiff.

A short 10-minute delay at Swansea due to late running staff (watching as a pair of 153s for Shrewsbury via the Heart of Wales pulled out with 6 passengers on, giving me an idea for a future trip with mum).  800031 departed Swansea, losing a few more minutes due to following the 153s and the reversal at Llanelli, and another couple of minutes outside Carmarthen due to the single track but we were looking out of the window as the train continued a semi-fast run towards Pembroke Dock (there must be a reason why it calls at Saundersfoot rather than Kilgetty).  The train emptied out at Tenby with the last section towards Pembroke Dock quiet.  I presume due to the large step at Pembroke Dock the train only allows the front couple of doors to open which are alongside the raised area which did confuse us at first.

800031 at Pembroke Dock Station

With 50 minutes to waste before the IET would depart back towards London, we popped to Tesco and had a little stroll around the town (bringing back memories of when I stayed in the town overnight in June 2014 when I was covering the various railway lines in the country).  We returned to the train, grabbing a seat on the opposite side of the train (to look out at the scenery on the opposite side) as it departed, this time calling at all the stations on the branch line (including the ones TfW treat as request stops), avoiding a bit of chaos from earlier in the Carmarthen area as it ran in alongside another IET (which would form the London train an hour later, I only wished I had the time to pop out to grab a photograph of the GWR takeover of Carmarthen with units on both platforms).

The train continued towards Swansea where it picked up a few passengers along the way (due to the Manchester train being 40-odd minutes late and being behind us) and Swansea it ran into 800005 to form a 10-coach service for the busier section.  Back towards Cardiff and underneath the wires as the diesel engines got turned off and speed increased as well as the crowds (a lot of Cardiff – Newport passengers).  After Newport the train headed back into England and back towards Reading with a speedy run along the main line.

800031 departing Reading

We arrived at Reading to find the 19:51 voyager to Bournemouth was running late, expected into the station at 20:01 so it was a gamble if that would get given the signal before the 20:05 stopper.  Unlike a previous time, the voyager was using platform 8 (and stopper from platform 3) with a 387 for Newbury chilling out on platform 7.  When I noticed the voyager had lost some more time following a 387 stopper from Didcot I decided to aim for the stopper with mum and into declassified first class on 165113 (which was a classic case of coach closest to the buffer being busy, the middle coach being moderate and front coach being empty).  This departed on time just as the voyager was rolling in, so it was onwards to Basingstoke where we had a 6-minute connection to a busy Salisbury service formed of 159020 which raced the voyager towards Worting Junction getting put ahead at the junction itself.

An uneventful journey back to Grateley, followed a walk home to get pounced on by my brother’s dog who had come to visit as my brother had set up his caravan in the driveway and was staying the night with his family.  An enjoyable little day trip to Pembrokeshire, looking out of the window.  That short section between Weston super Mare & Uphill Junction I believe is the only part of the GWR network which I need for IET coverage (other than the mainline avoiding Gloucester).  Something I might have to investigate for the summer months for a random trip (maybe as part of a walk of the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal).

30th June – An unexpected return to the Grand Union

Due to engineering work in the Basingstoke area, I started today’s trip with a drive to Andover to catch the 08:45 service for London formed of a busy 159105, 159104 & 159017 (although it was quiet in coach 8 of 9 as that unit attached at Salisbury). Originally my plan for today was to finish the Stort Navigation between Harlow & Bishop’s Stortford but when I couldn’t get the TVM at Andover to sell me a super off-peak day return from BZ6 to Bishop’s Stortford I got thinking when on the way to London as I misremembered the timetable from Euston for the hourly train which called at Tring on a Sunday morning and when these sprinters rolled into Waterloo it gave me around 25 minutes to get to Euston to board the Coventry (vice Birmingham) service for a Grand Union Canal adventure.

To the Northern line with 51612 & 51613 to Euston where I had time to pop to Sainsburys for some supplies and to buy a ticket to Tring (good thing with the fare changes on the southern part of the WCML is that singles are half the price of returns rather than being a token 10p less), before fighting my way in the usual Euston chaotic late notice boarding, especially when the barriers were in operation and staff was playing hide & seek causing extra congestion with rejected tickets.  I think in the end some passengers simply pushed through to avoid missing the train.  350115, 350232 & 350111 was on a triple unit (with 350111 detaching at Northampton) and I managed to get a decent seat in the front unit to sort myself out ready for my walk at Tring.

350405 passing Tring

I alighted at Tring (which was a lot busier than I was expecting with passengers alighting) and headed towards the Grand Union canal, scary to think it was last December when I was last here with a heavy rucksack.  The first section was a woodland cutting (which in the sunshine was quite beautiful).  Very peaceful as well due to the rural nature of this area. I reached Bulbourne and soon the Wendover arm branched off as I reached 'dud' towpath with a section I walked back in April.  This time when I reached the reservoirs, I didn't follow the towpath but instead followed a path alongside the Marsworth & Startop's End reservoir (built to provide water to the Grand Union canal.  I reached Marsworth swapping sides of the canal as the Aylesbury arm branched off and I was back on new towpath as the towpath swapped sides once more and soon turned rural in terms of surface.

This section wasn't the easiest to walk due to being narrow in places, with some low branches on trees mixed with some nettles & thorns, although the views were quite good (not in the same ball park as the Leeds & Liverpool Canal but still quite nice).  The canal continued in a heavy rural area reaching the small settlement of Cook's Wharf passing a couple of fishermen who were quite annoyed at being asked to move their rods in as they were blocking the towpath.  I went underneath the WCML (another one of those 'I dread to think how many times I've been over this bridge' popped into my head as I went underneath.

WCML bridge over the Grand Union Canal at Cooks Wharf

My walk continued heading in a general northern direction, enjoying the peace & quiet on a long section passing Slapton & the area of the Great Train Robbery.  An hour (or so) later I reached Grove on the outskirts of Leighton Buzzard where the rural towpath returned to something more solid, a canal walk not to do during winter as I suspect some areas would get quite muddy, although probably one best done in early spring before the nettles & thorns start growing so strong.  Anyhow I went underneath the A4146 and into Leighton Buzzard, passing a surprise of some narrow-gauge rails alongside the canal which after research online appear to be left over from the disused Grovebury Quarry.

Tracks of old Grovebury Quarry railway alongside the Grand Union Canal in Leighton Buzzard

 

I reached an old railway bridge which previously carried the Leighton Buzzard - Dunstable railway line, so I had a little detour from the canal to walk a short path along the old route which has been turned into a mixed used cycle path, before returning to the canal for the final push to reach Leighton Road where I previously reached heading south on a previous walk from Wolverton.  Instead of going straight towards the station I swung via the large Tesco, which was a bit like Supermarket Sweep in terms of people rushing around to grab stuff before it closed at 4pm (oh to be back in Scotland where 4pm closures on Sundays isn't a thing).  After grabbing a late lunch, I headed to the station turning down a pair of 350/1s on the stopper for a gamble with the nonstop service from Coventry.

Thankfully the gamble paid off as 350405 & 350129 rolled in (I was half expecting a pair of 350/2s lol) and I even got a decent seat on the 350/4 to put my phone on charge and to have my food on the nonstop run to Euston, where I was puzzling what to do for the next couple of hours as I wanted to be on the 18:20 service from Waterloo so for the lack of a better idea I headed towards the underground taking 51628 & 51629 to Bank where I was surprised when a DLR service rolled into platform 9 from the outside world (so I guess something had gone wrong with the DLR and a service from Lewisham was diverted into P9 rather than P10 to avoid the ECS shunt).  Anyhow I jumped onto this set (34/46/14) to Shadwell for a short fester to see if any of my sub mile units popped up, before jumping onto a Lewisham bound 54/30/58 to Lewisham to waste some time.

DLR 10 at Shadwell

At Lewisham it was onto 465160 & 465193 for the short run to Hither Green (just to waste time) with 465928 & 465011 on the next Charing Cross service (sitting in the former first-class area of the 465/9 for the classic Networker motor noise considering the 465/9s are not long left from various reports).  I took these to Waterloo East having a gentle walk towards Waterloo main via Tesco on Waterloo Road to grab dinner before taking a seat on the 18:20 service for Exeter (159017, 159104 & 159019, remembering that the service I arrived on this morning would have formed the 10:20 Exeter rather than the 11:20 service due to the morning engineering works).  Due to issues around Christchurch, there was a couple of cancellations on services towards Southampton so this triple 159 got quite busy, even in coach 4 of 9.  Emptied out at Basingstoke but with the volume of passengers I saw heading off I dread to think how busy it was in the rear coaches.

After Basingstoke the train ran nonstop to Andover, arriving a minute or so behind schedule (delayed caused outside Woking due to the long going track issue with trains from Guildford having to use either platform 4 or 5).  I had a gentle stroll to my car, changing my boots to a pair of trainers and drove home, where I rested my feet.  Still not quite back to 100% after the previous weekend but that might be more down to feeling a bit tired (lack of a decent sleep during the hot nights).  

Anyhow scary to think June is complete.  July is currently a mixed bag with the first two weekends currently being ideas depending on the weather before a 2-night stay in Crewe (with a few ideas for both the Saturday & Sunday) with a Railtour to the Dean Forest railway on the last weekend.  Anyhow thanks for reading my little adventures to Pembrokeshire & the Grand Union canal, I’m hoping to finish the main canal by the end of August (down to 3 sections, excluding the long Leicester Arm where I need to research options for buses but that will be a job for another day.  For now, have a 387 at Southampton taken after my medical:

387212 arriving at Southampton Central