26th August – Another Bank Holiday Monday
Southern Daysave
Like with the late bank holiday Monday in May, I decided to
do a Southern Daysave, the main was to get some more of the 313s for mileage,
plus a couple platforms. It was a
similar plan as last trip, with IDing the units on the
Littlehampton/Bognor/Portsmouth circuit, the Worthing units, the Seaford/Lewes
5 and the Hove shuttle. I had 6 to get
for 10 miles, so set myself a target of 5, including any 377s I come across.
It was a nice early morning drive to Romsey, my car happy
she saw some use after a week of rest, parking in the library carpark and
watching to the station, buying my day return to Southampton from the friendly
(and bored looking) ticket office gentleman, and waited as 166219 rolled in on
a Southampton terminating service. No surprise
that the windows were all wide open as the AC on 166s is rubbish when it gets
warm (and today promised to be a hot day).
I had a short connection at Southampton Central, but it was the same
platform face, just further up from 2b (or not 2b) to 2a where 377440 was
working a Victoria service which took me to Chichester in order to ID a
Portsmouth bound service (313203 I believe).
Next up was a busy Brighton bound 377143 and I was glad to
alight at Ford for a short fester before 377138 & 377402 took me one stop
towards Horsham to the beautiful Arundel station, returning to Barnham on
377150 & 377154, spotting a 313 on the Littlehampton bound being low
mileage. A short wait before low mileage
313206 rolled up from Littlehampton on the next Bognor Regis service
which I had to take both ways to get it over ten miles, returning to Bognor a
few minutes later on 377439 & 377443 where due to late running was going
from platform 2 to score the microgrice connection (although easy to do on
Sundays I believe). Another brief return
at Bognor before returning to Barnham and having a fast walk via the subway to jump
on the Portsmouth & Southsea bound 313219.
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| Bish, Bash, Bosham |
It would have been cleared by Chichester, but I stayed on to
Bosham to intercept the 4th unit, which was 313204 and not really of
interest. Neither was the following
London 377, so I popped out of the station to a nearby Tesco for something to
eat before returning for the next Brighton service. 377422 took me to Shoreham by Sea, passing a
low mileage 377/1 on a Bognor service (so I made a note to look up its future moves). The reason to bail at Shoreham was simply to
ID a West Worthing service (having passed one of the three in the turnback
siding), nothing of interest, so it was onwards to Hove on 377108, allowing me
to ID the third unit on the Worthing Metro services (again, nothing of
interest), but the unit on the Hove shuttles was required, and a quick calculation
worked out I needed to do 3 shuttles to get it over ten miles, so it was
onwards to Brighton on 313220, a quick chance to ID one of the Seaford units
and anything else Southern in the station (ignoring the Gatwick Express units
as I don’t need any, and the 700s as I didn’t have a valid ticket).
Back to Hove on 313220 for another quick look at a couple
other units, spotting a low mileage 377/4 heading towards Littlehampton as I
departed back towards Brighton, being able to tick 313220 off for
mileage, with a gentle walk over to platform 8 where an ultra low mileage 313
was sat (another low mileage 313 was sitting in a siding near the station so I
knew I wasn’t getting that one today, leaving just “Big Blue” (201) to see if
it was out and about. On the way to
Lewes on 313208 I did a rough plan using RTT, basically I needed to stay
on this unit beyond Lewes and after IDing the other units as not being blue, I
decided to remain on 208 all the way to Seaford, and after a quick picture
returned to Lewes. I do like this line
as it gives the units a chance to gain some speed, plus has beautiful views.
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| 313208 at Seaford, underneath a big blue sky |
At Lewes, I crossed over to platform 2 to board a Victoria
bound 377426 & 377449 which ran non-stop to Wivelsfield (first time I
believe I have passed Plumpton), and paused at Haywards Heath for a unit from
Littlehampton to join on the rear. I was
happy because it was low mileage 377436 (which clears the sub-class)
which I saw earlier at Hove. The next
stop for this service was Gatwick Airport which is where I alighted, to fight
through the crowds boarding with suitcases, to await the next Portsmouth bound
service, which was formed of 377447. 377112 & 377414, noting that the AC in
377112 was broken (it was quite warm when I walked through). 377447 detached from the other two units and
continued fast to Barnham after Horsham (first time doing this line for a
while, I always forget how pretty it is).
A short connection at Barnham as I waited for the next
service from Bognor which as expected was formed of low mileage 377119,
the run to Ford would leave it close to ten, so it was back to Arundel to push
it over that line. A short connection at
Arundel (made longer due to a delay) with 377402 & 377138 taken to Ford,
before 377110 rolled in to take me to Southampton Central, the last Southern
service of the trip. I had a short
fester at Southampton before 158958 rolled in from Brighton which took me the
final 8 miles to Romsey, with a nice drive back home.
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| 377119 departs Arundel |
Overall, my target was beaten with 6 units for mileage,
leaving just the 2 313s, plus 9 of the Southern 377s. A couple platforms were scored as well as an
unusual microgricing at Barnham. Overall
it was a beautiful day, hence why I finished it earlier as I didn’t want to be
hanging around Brighton when everybody started to head home, also it was the
end of my summer holiday with work resuming on the Tuesday.
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28th August – A mini trip to Pewsey
Back a few years ago I did “Bedwyn rounders” to pass the
time, basically Grateley – Bedwyn is valid via Westbury as it is the shortest
route, but due to the tiny number of services which call at Bedwyn from the
Westbury direction, the most common route is via Reading. However during the evening peak there are
some services which call at Bedwyn on route to Westbury, and since the May
timetable change introduced a Bristol – Waterloo service which calls at Grateley
around 9pm, it makes it easier to do the round trip, and as a side bonus both
services call at Pewsey which would allow me to grab a picture (as the only
previous time I have visited this station was when it was dark).
I finished work early on the Wednesday and decided to head
out, with 159005 & 159105 working the 16:59 service from Grateley, which
took me to Basingstoke, connecting to a busy 165112 where I sat in the declassified
first class section (which surprisingly was quite empty) for the run to
Reading, where I had some time to kill before the Frome stopper, 800002 was
working a Newbury stopping service and a 802/1 was working a Penzance
service. Due to wire damage around Didcot, there
was some additional Turbos working Oxford stoppers plus additional calls being
made on some Bristol bound services due to the lack of EMUs. My time at Reading was cut short with the
appearance of 800313 which took me to Pewsey, emptying out along the way (calls
at the same stations the Bedwyn services do, so a few short platform
announcements).
A few pictures of a wet Pewsey with a late running service
from Newquay also calling, but my time here wasn’t for long, because for some
reason Pewsey gets two services inside 10 minutes, so it was onwards to
Westbury on an Exeter bound 802111. I
noted a Portsmouth bound service being a 158+150 combo with the 150 detaching
at Westbury to work back to Bristol, with a 159 arriving from Waterloo (which
runs ECS back to the depot), which means for a while there is only one platform
available, not the best when a Cardiff bound 158 was running late. Eventually that departed and 159009 rolled in
from Bristol to take me back to Grateley, darkness had fallen but I was glad I
could get out and sample an IET from Newbury to Westbury. A good day trip for just over £10.
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| 800313 departs Pewsey on route to Frome |
