Trips on 11th to 13th October

 Trips on 11th to 13th October

11th October – An evening out in London

The idea for this evening’s little trip to London was spotting that both my last C2C 720s were out on services which called at Upminster and were both gettable without requiring mad dashes between platforms.  As a bonus a winning GA 720 was also showing as out on a service from Southend calling at Romford which was timed nicely with the 2nd of the C2C services.

After finishing my work for the day, I headed towards Waterloo on 159015, 159017 & 159104 and headed to the Waterloo & City line for the ride to Bank on 65507 & 65508, first time in nearly 2 years since I used this underground line last (I wonder if TfL will ever reopen it at weekends).  At Bank I made my way towards the DLR platforms turning down the first service before a triple for Lewisham formed of sets 86, 41 & 46 where I needed 41 for a mile.  I took this set to Shadwell where I broke out the deckchair on the look out for any more of my sub mile DLR units, both the older type which are due to be replaced and the newer types, although I have no idea if some of the ones on my list are still active.

DLR Set 32 at Tower Gateway

With one eye on the time, I decided to call it a day with the next Tower Gateway service, getting lucky with sub mile unit 32 on the rear of set 90, with the three quarters of a mile trip to Tower Gateway being enough to push it over the mile mark, which was a nice little bonus.  Anyhow I headed towards Fenchurch Street, swinging via a Tesco Express to grab some dinner items, arriving just as a pair of 720s were rolling in empty from the depot.  I was glad when I saw it was winner 720606 was leading dud 720602 as I took a seat for the run to Upminster.  After transferring to platform 1 I boarded 357044 & 357322 to take me back towards West Ham for a short wait as winner 720608 rolled in with dud 720603 on the rear returning myself to Upminster where after a quick photo, I made my way across to platform 6 to board 710116 on the Romford service.

As I had around 20 minutes to waste before the next fast GA service, I decided to pop out of the station for a little stroll and a visit to the shop where I picked up a reduced to clear chilled pudding as I was still a bit hungry.  Anyhow back at Romford, my fingers were crossed as winner 720134 rolled in with dud 720576 on the rear which took me to Liverpool Street, another GA 720 into my book before I made my way back towards Waterloo going the quickest way I know, which is the Central line one stop to Bank (91139, 92204, 92406 & 91283) before the Waterloo & City line (65504 & 65503) to Waterloo (although not like it could take me anywhere else from bank lol!)

720608 at Upminster

The 19:50 service to Salisbury tonight was formed of 158880 running solo which did get quite cosy on departure, and extremely cosy after Clapham Junction.  After Basingstoke it did empty out as I headed home after a successful little evening in London.  I didn’t fancy hanging around London as the West of England line had somewhat fallen over with both the 20:20 & 21:20 services starting at Basingstoke.

12th October – A Cheshire Day Ranger in the rain

My original idea for this Saturday was either a walk along the disused railway from Warrington towards Altrincham and towards Cadishead Viaduct on the former Glazebrook East Junction to Skelton Junction line which Open Street Maps/Google Maps suggests is walkable.  The 2nd option was to walk the canal from Runcorn towards Warrington before following the route of the former Sankey Canal towards Earlestown.  Sadly, both ideas went back on the shelf with the adverse weather forecast which suggested heavy rain from the afternoon for there would be no point getting soaked.

The day trip began with the 05:24 service to Waterloo with 159022, followed by a quick leap to Vauxhall on 458416 & 458401 to get 401 into my book for renumbering.  Annoyingly the Sainsburys outside Vauxhall station doesn’t open until 8am so I had to wait until I got to Euston (where it was a case of hunting down the sandwiches as the shelves had been moved around) with 11076 & 11075 on the Victoria line.  After grabbing breakfast supplies, I headed towards the 07:30 Glasgow service formed of 390135 for the nonstop run to Warrington Bank Quay where I decided to have a little stroll as the weather was dry.

I exited Bank Quay station, turning south and climbing onto a footbridge which crossed the low level lines and followed the path towards the bank of the River Mersey with the disused transporter bridge.  I followed the footpath alongside the river via the industrial area heading towards Sankey Bridges.  I picked up the route of the Trans Pennine Trail where it leaves the St Helens/Sankey Canal, going via some woodland before crossing the River Mersey heading towards the railway bridges and the remains of the Runcorn & Latchford Canal.

Warrington Transporter Bridge

After following the Trans Pennine Trail towards the Wilderspool area of the town, near the former Walton lock linking the Runcorn & Latchford Canal with the Manchester Ship Canal I headed via a park area and had a fast walk back to Bank Quay station to purchase my Cheshire Day Ranger and managed to get a seat on a Manchester Piccadilly bound 197108 which was on time approaching Manchester but somehow lost 10 minutes in congestion around Oxford Road.  After I popped outside the station to grab lunch from the Co-Op, I returned to take a seat on winner 197119 on the next service towards South Wales.  This 197 took me to Crewe where for a little time-wasting spin, I took 331011 on the next Northern stopper to Sandbach with 331018 back to Crewe.

At Crewe once more, I headed across to platform 11 to await the next Chester bound Avanti service for both my first experience of an 805 on diesel (previously only ever having them on electric) and because both 805004 & 805013 were winners.  I took these units to Chester where I headed across to platform 7 for a little spin on Merseyrail trying to determine my route home, trying to avoid 9 coach Pendos as I didn’t have any sort of seat reservations (and the extra 2 coaches on a 11 coach Pendo are handy)

331011 at Sandbach

As it was Autumn, there was 7 diagrams on Chester services meaning instead of the usual 5-minute turnaround the services were there for around 12 minutes (personally something I think Merseyrail should do all year round to aid time keeping).  The first available Merseyrail service was winner 777053 which I took to Bromborough Rake, before realising my mistake in that Bromborough Rake isn’t the nicest to get between platforms in any sort of hurry!  Anyhow the next Chester was showing as a dud and I decided to jump on 777010 to Spital which has a nicer platform to platform change (keeping my eyes on both northbound & southbound services).  The next Ellesmere Port service was winner 777051 which I took to Ellesmere Port and back to Spital to clear it for 10 miles as the next southbound Chester was an unknown.  Sadly, not a winner as it was 777008 which I took to Eastham Rake to ID the 7th unit on Chester services (another dud) and headed for a gentle stroll towards the car park just as the heaven’s opened.

I returned to the platforms at Eastham Rake to take 777009 to Chester, managing to get a seat on 197012 working the next Manchester Airport service to Warrington Bank Quay where I decided to gamble on the next nonstop London train having some seat availability.  It was running a few minutes late but nothing major as 390137 rolled in and I grabbed a pair of airline seats, settling down to watch some videos as well as watching the rain thundering down.  This Pendo took me to London nice and fast arriving around 15 minutes late due to congestion on the southern section of the WCML.

390154 at Warrington Bank Quay

The weather in London couldn’t have been any more different to what I left behind in Warrington and with time to kill I had a stroll towards Waterloo arriving in time to board 458415 & 458410 on a Weybridge service to get another 458/4 into my book for renumbering.  I alighted at Vauxhall, jumping on the first available service from platform 7, which was 455742 & 455852 back to Waterloo before making my way across to platform 7 to take a seat on 159017 working the 20:50 service.  Bit of an earlier than expected finish today but that early start had caught up with me.

An uneventful journey to Grateley, where I finished the trip with a gentle stroll home, to relax after sorting my bag out ready for another day trip on the Sunday.

13th October – An unexpected return to North Camp

The idea for today was to head towards South Wales to take a trip on the Treherbert line as I hadn’t been on that line (in daylight) for a while.  Also to score off the new platform at Treherbert which at the time I believed only saw use on Sundays (since checking RTT it seems platform 1 is in use for the majority of services with the original platform 2 only being used at the start/end of the day when services go ECS to the sidings.  Also, the plan was to have a trip via Barry as the mainline was closed for works.

The day started with the 07:37-odd service from Grateley with 159022 & 159106 taken to Andover where I stepped back for 158890 on a Reading service for the trip to Reading where I planned to make a connection onto a Swansea service (which RTT was suggesting was a 5-coach special).  When I got to Reading the GWML had fallen over due to a points failure at Slough meaning services from London were delayed or cancelled, so after having a quick walk to Tesco Express for some supplies I decided on a little plan B to waste some time and jumped onto an Ascot bound 450050 to take me to Ascot (where it arrived onto platform 2).  One of these days I will get round to doing the peak time services which does the connection into Platform 1 from the Bagshot line (and from platform 2 at Ascot towards Bagshot).

450050 underneath the footbridge at Ascot

Anyhow I changed onto 450078 working a service for Guildford (with such a brilliant timetable which saw the Reading train departing just as the train from Guildford arrived!) as the Bagshot line is another line I hadn’t travelled on since before Covid stuck.  My original idea was to take this service towards Ash to change onto a stopper to Reading but that stopper had been cancelled so I bailed at Ash Vale for a gentle walk to North Camp, a place I wasn’t expecting to visit today!  A reasonably busy 165104 took me back towards Reading on a semi-fast service giving me just over thirty minutes to waste before the next Swansea service.

The next Swansea service was formed of 800007 & 800021 and I easily managed to grab a seat in the front coach for the fast run towards South Wales where my plans for a little tour of Barry  or Treherbert were put on ice as I worked out it would be possible to grab my last 3 active 197s with a trip to Hereford so I alighted from the 800s at Newport, changing to a busy platform 4 for the Holyhead service formed of winner 197117 to take me to Abergavenny where after looking at the construction of the new footbridge I did a little loop around the local roads, just to pass the time before dud 197120 rolled in.  Looked like it swapped over with 197124 at Swansea, ah-well those things happen as I took this 197 to Hereford where I exited the station for another gentle stroll to pass the time.

New footbridge & lifts under construction at Abergavenny Station

I returned to Hereford station with a busy platform as winner 197125 rolled in, full & standing as I ended up standing near the drivers cab with the aisle & vestibules pretty much full, I think everybody got on at Hereford but passengers at the stations towards Newport were left behind as you couldn’t fit anymore passengers on board.  I was glad it was a 3-coach unit rather than the 2-coach unit which was due an hour later!  Anyhow this service took me back to Newport and I was glad to take a seat on the next London Paddington service which was formed of 387157 & 387142 on the Sunday afternoon Welsh Electrostar working.  It only really got busy after Didcot with a couple of passengers asking where was 1st class (it doesn’t exist on this service) so I was glad to change at Reading.

My last GWR service of the day was the late running Basingstoke shuttle formed of 165127, not as cosy as the TfW service but still quite busy on departure from Reading running late because the Sunday timetable simply doesn’t work.  Anyhow I took this 165 to Basingstoke where I relaxed in the waiting room until 159010 rolled in from Waterloo on a Salisbury stopper to take me back to Grateley.  A good day for mileage (and 387 based fun) with 2 more 197s into my book.  Considering I was around 3 hours late into Newport due to the issues earlier on I didn’t do that badly.

Unexpected Voyager in the platform area...

As always, thanks for reading, more photos can be found on my Flickr, although not as many this week as previous weeks due to not walking that much.