March Trips - 23rd – 30th March

 March Trips - 23rd – 30th March

The first few days of this week I was with mum taking her for a little holiday (and a day trip), the second part of the week was an overnight stay in the West Midlands.

23rd March – Onwards to Newcastle

The day began with the 05:55 service from Grateley formed of 159108 & 158888 which we took to Clapham Junction, changing over to board 378234 to Willesden Junction & 710376 into Euston.  Mum doesn’t like the underground and my theory of going via the Overground was it being less busy than the Thameslink option.  With time to kill we headed across to Kings Cross, going via the Spoons at St Pancras for breakfast (which was quite busy).  After breakfast we headed to Kings Cross to board 801206 on the Newcastle semi-fast service at 09:33 (when I was booking tickets for mum, this service was a lot cheaper than the 09:30 to Edinburgh, to a degree that it would have been cheaper to buy a 70 minute ‘flex’ ticket for the 09:33 and use it on the Edinburgh.  Needless to say, this train was quite busy even in coach G, with no spare seats after Stevenage, although it did slowly empty out along the way.

At Newcastle after grabbing lunch, we headed to the Metro buying a TNE Day Saver and putting some money on my new POP PAYG card (as I was experimenting with it), first up was 555011 for the trip to Sunderland.  Not my mum’s first experience with the Metro as she rode it a couple years ago when we broke in Newcastle coming back from Inverness, but that was on the older stock.  My original idea was to do the ferry across the Tyne but that was out of action due to storm damage so I had to come up with a new wing-it plan, which involved a modern Stagecoach electric bus (73058) on the route E6 to South Shields.

This was an interesting route (for there are quite a few bus routes in this area I wouldn't mind riding for the different scenery you get from a bus compared to the train).  Leaving Sunderland city centre, crossing over the Wear, heading towards Monkwearmouth (and the opposite side to that big Tesco near the Stadium of Light), it headed towards the sea front at Seaburn (reminding me that I need to research the walking idea I had for Sunderland towards South Shields via the Coast).  At Whitburn the bus headed away from the A183 onto the narrow Lizard Lane giving some nice views of countryside before urban returned with the bus heading towards South Shields interchange via a shopping street which featured at least 10 barber shops.

Seaburn Beach (from bus)

At South Shields, we jumped onto the next Metro service formed of 555038 for the long run towards Whitley Bay (which for me clears the Metro network for coverage on a 555), where we had a little stroll towards the seafront before heading towards the town centre bus stops to board a Gateshead Central Buses run route 351 (branded with the Nexus B symbol) to take us towards Haymarket Bus Station.  Another interesting route as this was a lot slower than the more direct Arriva or Go North East services from Blyth as it went via the houses, going via Earsdon, Shiremoor, Holystone before taking the A1058 towards the city centre (with its 10,000 car parking spaces!).

We headed underground once more, taking 555027 towards South Gosforth, the idea was to take this to the Regent Centre for another bus but when I saw it would be a 30 minute wait for the next Q3 so I ditched that plan and instead headed to Gateshead on 555013 where we connected onto the Go North East circular route 54 “Volta” service with electric bus 8804 taken for the short distance back over the Tyne alighting at the bus stop on the Quayside.  We headed to our accommodation, the Easy Hotel which was surprisingly reasonably good value for money for a proper twin room.  After checking in, we headed towards the nearby Spoons for dinner, before relaxing for the rest of the evening.  At one point I was considering heading out on my own for a spot of Metro hunting but the last few days of walking had caught up with me and I was a bit tired.

24th March – Onwards to Whitby 

I managed to bag a couple of bargain (£3) advance fares for Newcastle to Whitby in that rail sale earlier in the year, but before a trip to Whitby I headed out of the hotel early morning to walk up the rather steep hill towards the station, boarding 156479 for the short run to Metrocentre.  Where I transferred across to a route X73 bus from the bus interchange, for this was the time of day where a handful of buses use the “Centrelink” busway.  So, after a trip via Dunston & Teams, the double decker turned onto the busway for a speedy trip alongside the Tyne, crossing over the river on the Swing Bridge.  I left the bus at the Close, near the Spoons, happy that I've covered that underused busway (I guess designed to allow buses to bypass traffic on the Redheugh Bridge in the mornings).

After swinging via the hotel to pick up mum, we headed out heading towards the station via the stairs, where after breakfast (we couldn’t help notice how many people use the Sainsburys as a cut-through to get to the station carpark), we headed across to board 158848 on the next Middlesbrough semi-fast service, which was a bit busier due to an incident at Durham.  An on-time arrival at Middlesbrough gave us time for some fresh air before boarding 156449 on the Whitby train for the scenic run towards Whitby, arriving in the light drizzle.



After a little walk around the town centre area, we headed towards the bus stop to board the Leeds bound 840 Coastliner service to take it to York via the scenic (even if a bit misty) trip across the Moors.  We alighted from the bus in York at the Stonebow bus stops (where it waits 5 or so minutes) giving us around 90 minutes to get to the station for our booked TPE service to Newcastle (another Rail Sale bargain at £5 each).  After a visit towards the historic city centre, we headed towards the Monk Bar gate on the city walls, as when I visited York back in January 2025, this section of the city wall path was closed for maintenance.  Thankfully it was open, as we climbed up to the wall to walk the path towards Bootham Bar, near the York Art Gallery.  This gave some nice views of the Minster.  We headed towards the station going via the Museum Gardens and the railway bridge carrying the Scarborough line.  I need to research into the various paths heading towards Skelton, so much to do, so little time!

We arrived at the station in good time, as a few minutes after arriving the rain started, bouncing from the roof of a Northern 195.  802206 rolled in from Liverpool to take us towards Newcastle, complete with some idiotic youths boarding at Durham who didn’t have tickets and were having a chat with the police at Newcastle as they attempted to push through the barriers.  Arriving at Newcastle we had a gentle stroll to a bus stop to board the circular Go North East route 53 Volta service with electric bus 8802 taken down the hill to quayside.  The 53 operates clockwise with the 54 operating anti-clockwise.  After dropping some bits into the hotel, we headed to Spoons (again!) for dinner.  An enjoyable day, even if the weather didn’t play ball at times.

25th March – Farewell Newcastle

A later start this morning, as we had breakfast in Spoons before taking the route 53 Volta service towards Newcastle city centre, the long way round.   Crossing the Tyne on the Swing bridge it headed towards Gateshead centre then towards Bensham, skirting round the edge of Saltwell Park (which gains an entry onto my "list to explore") before heading towards Newcastle.  An interesting little route, the premier inn on the Teams business park looked massive!

I had a short notice change of plan and instead of heading towards the station for a train to Ashington (where I was planning to catch a bus back towards Newcastle), we headed towards the city centre to board a route 21 service (with a modern electric decker 6803) to take us to the famous Angel of the North, where on the map I noticed a potential walking idea labelled as the “Angel Cycleway”.  Anyhow tourist hat on, as we visited the Angel, still very impressive but I think mum was blown away by the scale.

Angel of the North

We headed back towards a different bus stop (as the Angel is located midway between two bus stops) to take another route 21 service back towards Newcastle city centre & Eldon Square bus station (going via the Tyne Bridge).  A gentle walk towards the station and it was onto 158853 for the round trip to Ashington, remaining on board back to Newcastle station, where after grabbing lunch, it was onto 801207 with the semi-fast London train starting from Newcastle.  An uneventful journey south, where we had a couple of options to reach Waterloo, walking towards Euston for a bus was ruled out due to the rain, so it was to St Pancras to jump on 700024 to Blackfriars (solely to look at the Thames) followed by a busy 700135 to London Bridge.  A quick change saw us onto 376029 & 376006 for a very slow trip towards Waterloo East (as something had happened on South Eastern with a lot of delays).   Another quick change saw us onto the 19:20 service from Waterloo with 159107, 159005 & 158881 getting lucky with a decent seat in the 158.

The sprinters took us to Grateley, where we had a gentle stroll home, the end of a little getaway to the North East.

26th March – An Unexpected Trip to Weymouth

The original idea for today was to do the random once a week route 86 bus route from Tisbury to Shaftesbury with a bus day on Go Ahead (heading to Poole via Blandford), with the day starting with the 07:51 service from Grateley, the school kids special with a very busy 159017 to Salisbury.  This was originally meant to run to Gillingham but it was cancelled at Salisbury due to late running on the single track.  After grabbing food from Tesco, we boarded the next Exeter bound service formed of 159014 & 159015 as I was trying to decide what we could do, either staying on to Exeter to do a Stagecoach route 2 towards Newton Abbot, then maybe towards Paignton.

However, I decided we should alight at Axminster to take the First Bus X51 service towards Weymouth, the bus working hard on the hilly section between Brigport & Dorchester.  After a little walk around Weymouth, it was onto the X54 service for Wareham which went via Lulworth Cove for some more countryside views, I decided it would be better to bail at Wool station, than to continue to Wareham.  I must return to Axminster at some point to sample the modern electric decker now being used on the bus towards Taunton.  We used the level crossing (which comes down quite early) at Wool to board 444007 on a London service, running into the rear of 444005 at Bournemouth.

444010 at Wool Station

These 444s took us to Basingstoke, where we had a tight but easy cross platform connection onto 158887 & 159017 to take us back to Grateley, where we had dinner at home.  I spent the rest of the evening playing catch up with my admin work and getting my rucksack packed ready for my 3-night stay in the Midlands.

27th March – Preston Guild wheel & making a start with the Lancaster Canal

I was staying overnight in Walsall for a couple of nights for a railtour, which gave me a few options at what I could do on the Friday, some options were ruled out due to forecast poor weather.  Eventually I decided to head to Preston to make a start with both the Preston Guild Wheel and also with the Lancaster Canal. The Preston Guild Wheel path is a 21-mile cycle route which encircles Preston and the Lancaster Canal is a canal which runs from Preston towards Kendal.

The trip began with 159004 & 158890 for the journey into Waterloo, followed by a gentle walk to Euston for 390129 on a Glasgow Central bound service for the speedy run towards Preston, with changing weather along the way, thankfully when it reached Preston the rain had cleared with the sun making an appearance.  My walk began from the station heading towards via the suburbs (passing a hotel I once stayed at many years ago), cutting via a woodland area to arrive on the banks of the Ribble.  Part of the path here is closed for flood protection works, but the main reason for visiting is to cross over the old Penwortham Bridge to walk a short cycle route which runs close to the former West Lancashire Railway route towards the A582.  I did a short loop back towards the bridge over the Ribble to start with the well sign posted Guild Wheel walk.

Old Railway Bridge Piers in the River Ribble, Preston

The first section was a path towards the modern day Penwortham Bridge, crossing over the road before following the route of the Preston Dock branch (on the right hand side) with the Ribble on my left.  Quite scenic at times before I reached the marina, crossing a dock channel on a railway swing bridge, the path heading along the road for a short distance before returning to the banks of the Ribble.  A short section later I moved away from the Ribble to head towards an industrial estate area the cycle path running alongside the busy A583 "Riversway" road linking up with the older A road towards Blackpool.

Thankfully the section alongside this busy road didn't last for long as the Guild Wheel path crossed over with a farm access track, following a slightly muddy farm access path towards the Ribble Link, a modern day canal making use of the Savick Brook to create a link between the otherwise isolated Lancaster Canal with the River Ribble (where a boat can reach the Leeds & Liverpool canal on the Rufford Branch if they are brave enough).  I detoured away from the Guild Wheel path to head towards a lock, the limit of walking, before making my way back towards the mostly tarmac path, pausing for lunch at a bench near a bridge carrying the A582.

Savick Brook (Ribble Link), Lea

After lunch I resumed my walk, following the Ribble Link/Savick Brook as it passed through some countryside (and a golf club) on the northern edge of Lea & Ashton on Ribble.  The Guild Wheel path leaves the canal towpath on the Savick Way Road bridge, as I continued making my way underneath the railway line (Blackpool branch line), crossing over the B6241 with the canal making a sharp turn and a steep staircase lock flight to reach the top basin where it joined up with the Lancaster Canal.  At the junction I turned right to follow the slightly muddy (lots of rain had fallen recently) towpath as it headed towards the current end of navigation near the Fylde Road, the canal being cut back from its original terminus closer to Preston city centre years ago.

I followed Fylde Road via the campus of the university, crossing over the route of the long-closed Longridge branch line and making my way to the station for it was time to go play with some trains.  An enjoyable walk with various scenery and mostly a decent surface.  At the station it was a short wait before boarding a busy 331107 on a Liverpool bound service where I had a short wait at Liverpool before boarding winner 197023 to take me to Runcorn where I had another short break, watching a Pendo roll in for London carrying mostly fresh air followed by a busy 350118 on the Birmingham bound service, which emptied out at Crewe (if only that Pendo called at Crewe it would actually be useful, rather than crawling towards Tamworth to follow a LNR service).

197023 at Liverpool Lime Street

At Crewe it was another short break before I boarded winner 197025 on the Shrewsbury stopper to take me to Whitchurch for a 30-minute break (good time to have dinner when sitting on the bench) before 197011 & 197104 rolled in to take me back to Crewe, where I made a tight connection onto 390141 to take me to Stafford followed with 220026 for the trip to Birmingham New Street.  I was toying with a trip towards Stourbridge behind winner 68024 but decided against it owing to the timings being a bit rubbish (especially as it would have put me onto a stopper to Walsall).  So, I decided to call it a night and jump onto 730034 on a Rugeley service to take me to Walsall where it was a short walk to the Premier Inn near the canal basin.  A rare event that the Premier Inn was cheaper than most of the other options in the West Midlands.  After checking in with the self-service kiosks (no staff members in sight) I headed to my room and relaxed.

28th March - The Cracoe-Jack 

When this tour first got announced, I was interested as it was doing the long freight line from Skipton towards Rylstone Quarry, as well as the short connection onto the Worth Valley line at Keighley.  Although I will admit when the finalised timings came back near enough 2 hours later than first advertised, I wasn’t happy as it gave a +10 into the last train to Walsall at Tame Bridge (or potentially a change at Crewe to put me onto that last train at Birmingham New Street, which was something best avoided due the likelihood of it being full of drunks).  Anyhow the day started with a gentle stroll to Walsall station to board 730020 on what was meant to be the first semi-fast service, but had additional stops inserted to cover for the cancellation of the last stopper.

At Birmingham New Street, I exited the station, heading to Tesco for some supplies for the day ahead before returning to take my seat on the Mk2 coaches being hauled with winner 69006 (first time I’ve had one of the rebuilt 56s), although my cheerfulness died a death when I said “morning” to the 3 others on my table to get a complete blank look, for joy of joys I was on a table with 3 people whom spoke very little (I think until the Freightliner depot in Leeds, they spoke 10 words between them).  Doesn’t help that I find the low-down seats on a Mk2 coach with little legroom under the table as worse than the seats found on a Chiltern Mk5 coach, I was suffering to the point I looked up a post tour escape plan to ditch the tour at Keighley for a voyager move.



Anyhow, back to the tour, as it headed towards Tame Bridge via Aston, before heading towards Stafford for another pick up (and a fresh air stop).  After Stafford it headed towards Crewe via Stoke on Trent for the final pick up, before heading towards Stockport, branching onto the Denton line to head towards Stalybridge (I forgot they had wired up Guide Bridge to Stalybridge, although I would imagine at the moment hardly anything uses it due to the 802s mostly heading towards Victoria).  An enjoyable trip across to the building site of Huddersfield, first time I’ve headed that way for a while, lots of works going on with the TransPennine upgrade project.  The tour headed towards Wakefield Kirkgate and Leeds, pausing for a while in the Midland Road area (where the large Freightliner depot is located) where the 3 others on the table suddenly burst into life taking the numbers of the various 66s & 70s.  The tour bypassed Leeds via the Whitehall curve and headed towards Shipley complete with a 30-minute pathing stop in a loop.  The tour passed Keighley coming to a stop the opposite side of the station with winner 57305 dragging the coaches onto platform 4 at Keighley where we would have a 90-minute break.

Time for a little explore of the town centre area, to get some supplies for dinner and other stuff before I returned to the station to take up my seat.  During the break the locos had run round with 57305 hauling the train from platform 4 at Keighley towards Skipton, pausing on the opposite side of the station for 69006 to haul the train passed the disused platforms at Skipton and onto the Yorkshire Dales Railway route (which used to run to Grassington), the scenery changing to be beautiful once away from the town, with the industrial shunter “Cracoe” hauling the train inside Swinden Quarry.  After the trip to the quarry, 57305 took the train back towards Skipton and 69006 to Keighley where I bailed, the idea of sitting in silence for a further 5 hours as darkness fell wasn’t a good plan and it was onto 333015 on a stopper to Leeds.

Track of the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway near the former Embsay Junction

At Leeds it was a short wait before 220029 & 220011 rolled in from York, as I managed to get a decent seat in the rear unit, relaxing with my phone on charge and watching some videos as the voyager headed towards Birmingham.  I have no idea why I randomly looked up what a 730/2 was working, but when I saw it as a potential option which didn’t cost me much time (and the bonus of avoiding Birmingham city centre on a Saturday night), I bailed from the voyagers at Tamworth, making my way to the low level platforms for a short wait for winner 730203 leading dud 730213 to take me to Rugeley Trent Valley, where I transferred onto 730002 (which looked like it had been in a war zone with the volume of rubbish) to take me to Walsall via the Chase line.  At Walsall it was a gentle stroll towards the hotel to relax.  Today’s tour reminded me why I cut back on the number of tours I do, especially if it involves those Mk2 coaches.

29th March – A random West Midlands Bus Day & Willenhall Exploring

My original idea for today was to head towards Kidderminster to walk the Staffs & Worcs canal towards Stourton before heading towards Stourbridge via the Stourbridge canal, but the weather forecast didn’t look promising for the afternoon so I came up with a new idea to do a little walk in Willenhall I was planning to do when I got round to visiting the new stations.  After checking out of the Premier Inn I headed towards Walsall bus station to board the frequent route 529 service bound for Wolverhampton with a modern electric decker (complete with rather comfortable seats).  A busy route as it stopped at most of the bus stops along the way towards Willenhall, as I alighted at the bus stop outside the Bentley Cemetery meeting up with a good friend.

The first section of this walk doesn’t show on Google Maps, but I spotted it when looking up Open Street Maps and did some research with Street View.  It was a modern tarmac path along the route of the long-closed Bentley canal (although not the best in terms of litter).  After this short canal section, it was onto the roads for a short section before we picked up a path along the route of the former Wolverhampton and Walsall Railway route.  Passing the site of Willenhall Stafford Street railway station, although no evidence remain.  The path continued on the northern edge of the Willenhall Memorial Park before going into the Fibbersley Nature Reserve.  We reached the end of the railway route on an industrial estate near Wednesfield before doubling back and having a random unplanned trip into the Nature Reserve (a "where does this path go, I have no idea").



After leaving the Nature Reserve it was onto another path with a strong smell of oil from a nearby garage which headed towards Neachells Lane, near Portobello Junction on the railway (where the line heads towards Wolverhampton or avoiding Wolverhampton), originally I was going to end the walk on Willenhall Road but we decided to continue along Deans Road to pick up another random footpath crossing over the railway and onto another path which ran alongside the railway towards the canal at Heath Town (a path which was quite varied in surface, starting as tarmac ending up in mud).  The walk ended outside Farmfoods on Wolverhampton Road for a route 59 service to take us into Wolverhampton Bus Station.

This is when I decided seeing as I had already hit the daily cap for National Express West Midlands to jump on another modern electric decker on a route 16 towards Stourbridge which was an interesting route as it headed into South Staffordshire towards Wombourne & Swindon before following the A491 from Wall Heath into Stourbridge Bus Station.  I said farewell to my West Midlands friend as he headed back towards Wolverhampton after having a little explore of Stourbridge and I jumped onto 139002 to take me to Stourbridge Junction followed by 172338 & 172344 on an unusual 6 coach 172 formation to Cradley Heath where I met up with another good friend.

172344 departs Cradley Heath

As the wind had picked up somewhat, we decided to take the next X10 service towards Birmingham city centre (Colmore Row outside Snow Hill), going via Haden Hill, Halesowen & Bearwood.  In Birmingham the rain had arrived as we headed towards the bus stop near Dale House (which is close to Albert Street Metro Stop, we even saw a tram on driving training pass us).  It was onto a X1 service bound for Coventry, something which had been on our list of random things to do, even though the top deck was a bit steamy with the weather.  This route headed out of the city centre towards Small Heath following the A45 road, detouring into Birmingham Airport using a bus only road near the runway (Jules was quite happy to see a plane taking off).

After the Airport this bus route followed the A45 before serving Meriden, joining the main road again before serving Allesley Green (with notes being taken for future walking ideas), finishing at the large Pool Meadows Bus station in Coventry, where we had a little break, finding a large Sainsburys which hadn't closed due to being a Sunday (it was around 16:50) allowing a little supply raid before the final bus of the day with a route 11 bound for Leamington Spa. This route headed out of Coventry city centre, passing the railway station before heading towards Canley and the University of Warwick campus (which was massive!).  Afterwards it headed towards Kenilworth, crossing over the route of HS2 to the north of the town before heading towards Leamington Spa on a road which had a few Stagecoach buses operating along.  We left the bus at the terminus near the station and headed towards the Spoons for dinner, going via the rather beautiful Jephson Gardens.

Jephson Memorial, Leamington Spa

After dinner we headed towards the station parting ways as Jules was staying in Leamington Spa and I was staying in Birmingham City Centre, and it was onto a lightly loaded 168219 for the slow trip to Moor Street, where I was reminded at how bad the local railway network is on Sunday evenings with no West Midlands services showing on the departure screen for the next 3 hours (I think there is an hourly service from Snow Hill towards Kidderminster but nothing south of Snow Hill).  I headed out of Moor Street heading to the Travelodge on Newhall Street, a hotel I've used a few times as it's reasonable in terms of outside noise, relaxing for the rest of the evening.

30th March – Bourn Brook Walkway, Dudley Canal & Old Stourbridge Canal

The day began with a gentle stroll towards Moor Street to board winner 68024 on a busy London Marylebone service where I will admit to messing up as for some reason, I had Birmingham Moor Street to Dorridge as over 10 miles, but it is just under 10 miles.  Ah well, mistakes happen as 68024 becomes my first entry on my “stuff needed for mileage” spreadsheet for a couple of years.  Anyhow I met up with Jules at Solihull as he was busy playing with unusual track coverage with 172s (and I never knew there was a West Midlands operated Leamington Spa – Stratford Upon Avon service in the morning).  We headed towards Moor Street on 172340 & 172008 heading into the city centre for some breakfast before heading towards New Street, jumping onto 170619 for the short journey to University where our walk began.

68024 at Dorridge Station

The Bourn Brook Walkway is a path which follows the Bourn Brook (surprising that), heading west from near Selly Oak (the starting point is pretty much half-way between both stations).  A decent path as we followed it towards California and the very nice Woodgate Valley Country Park, the first section of walk ending near Lapal.  The next section was along a little country lane which started off well with a pavement and hardly any traffic as we crossed the M5 before the pavement ended and traffic increased as we reached the A456 dual carriageway, darting across towards a housing estate area.

The third section of todays first walk began as we joined the route of the former Dudley Canal (No 2 Line) on the outskirts of Halesowen, discovering Leasowes Park as we followed the towpath of the disused canal (with water appearing along the way) before joining the pavement on Mucklow Hill.  A small detour via the road (passing an old storage area featuring some old double decker buses), we dropped down onto the canal once more near Hawne Basin, although this section the public path was behind trees as the original towpath is private property for the marina.  We crossed over the canal on a lovely old bridge, following the towpath towards Gosty Hill Tunnel, which is a steep climb for walkers to go up and over the hill.  This soon led us towards the canal near Old Hill station, going underneath the railway bridge and meeting up with the point I started a walk at the start of March, so another canal can be ticked off.

A West Midlands 172 crossing the Dudley Canal (No 2 Line) near Old Hill Station

We had a fast walk along Station Road to a bus stop to board a X10 service to the massive Merry Hill shopping centre where we popped to the toilets and Asda for lunch, before starting the second walk of the day.  We headed away from the shopping centre, picking up the Dudley Canal near Delph Locks, carrying along the canal a short distance before branching off onto cycle route 54 which I think makes use of the route of a closed section of the Stourbridge Canal.  As it headed towards the Stourbridge area with some hills, crossing over the Round Oak Steel Terminal freight line on a very narrow footbridge, the walk ending near the canal basin in Stourbridge.  Just one of those walks which I noticed when researching the Stourbridge canal which looked interesting.  We headed towards Stourbridge Town station via the town centre, jumping onto 139002 to Junction before 172341 & 172214 to Birmingham Snow Hill.

We headed towards New Street, saying farewell to Jules as he headed towards a Hereford bound service and I headed towards a XC for Bournemouth, turning down a 9 coach Pendo on a London service owing to the cancellation of the previous service due to an incident between Wolverhampton & Stafford (which did mean 221126 was starting from Birmingham instead of Manchester with the unit rolling in from Bournemouth and getting turned back.  I managed to grab a decent seat for the trip towards Basingstoke, the trip ending with 159021 & 159106 to take me to Grateley.  As always thanks for reading (even if this was a longer than usual post), more photos can be found on my Flickr *here*.