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After a really heavy week at work a destress day was needed. What could be better than a trip over new lines.
Bold = Haulage, Red = Winner, All others are sightings.
04:30 is a dreadfully early time to get out of bed but on this occasion it would be worth it.
Leaving the house and a brisk walk to East Croydon to catch the first train if the day.
9R02 East Croydon to Farringdon 700149 [12m 11ch] non winner
down to the to the depths and the west bound platform and catch 9Y25 Farringdon to Paddington 345014 [3m 44ch] ✅ winner.
Amazingly I managed to make it to Paddington before anywhere was open AND to get an earlier than planned train. There were very few trains in the station at that time.
1C02 Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads 800319 [117m 45ch] ✅ winner and cleared for 30 miles. A peaceful trip over a long distance for a change. Leaving early has its benefits.
I had just four minutes to get from platform 13 to platform 4 so I missed the chance of a photo of my haulage. I'd also missed it at Paddington in the rush for the train.
Next up was the train to Taunton and the first section of track to clear. 1V41 Bristol Temple Meads to Taunton 220032 [44m 61ch] ✅ winner and line cleared ✅.
There isn't much at Taunton by the statin to be honest so I just hung around and then caught a castle set back to Bristol.
2U10 Taunton to Bristol Temple Meads via Weston Super Mare 49009, 43172, GW15 [45m 61ch] Non winners.
Its great to see the old girls still going strong it was just a shame they weren't winners.
Uphill Jn to Worle Jn ✅ .
Grabbing a Yorkie bar to keep me going I then headed to platform 5 and my next train.
2K24 Bristol Temple Meads to Severn Beach 159760 [13m 37ch] ✅ winner. The line from Narroways Hill to Severn Beach cleared ✅ . This one was about 7 minutes late so it narrowed my time at Serven Beach so instead of going for a wander I took a few photos of the station and found my seat on the rethern leg and just relaxed.
2K27 Severn Beach to Bristol Temple Meads 158760 [13m 37ch] now a non winner.
Out at Temple Meads and grab some food as apart from the Yorkie Bar I hadn't eaten since 18:30 the previous night.
Over to platform 13 and eat my food.
At the moment Bristol Temple Meads is going through a refurbishment. It's awful. Platforms 1 to 6 (don't try and work out what platforms are where as they are a nightmare!) are covered in Wooden hordings and scaffolding which makes it a rather unpleasant experience. Platform 13 is an osasis of peace in comparison.
Next up was my train to Salisbury. 1F7 Bristol Temple Meads to Salisbury 165132, 166208 [52m 58ch] ✅ winners.
At Salisbury I saw that there was a SouthWestern train to Basinstoke formed of a 159.
1O50 Salisbury to Basingstoke 159006 [35m 62ch] ✅ winner. It's a good job I caught this one as the one I intended to catch, also a SWR diesel got cancelled at Salisbury.
At Basingstone my next train was a pair of EMUs.
1W62 Basingstoke to Clapham Junction 444034, 444041 [43m 60ch] non winners.
Chaos reigned at Clapham with the Rugby lot all queuing to get to platform 5/6.
2B88 Clapham Junction to Selhurst 377408, 377456 [6m 60ch] non winners ended the day.
All in all a really good day.