This Site
Copyright
Back in the mists of time my Great Uncle was on the railway. Starting in St Pancras as a porter/goods clerk he worked his way up and was a relief Area Manager in North Wales when he retired. During that career he was the Station Master at Longport. I've wanted to travel up to ths station for years but agin it is one of those trip that was put off for a few reason. I decided to take the plunge and go for it. In addition to the family connection there is the depot at Longport that is host to 66048 the ex Stobart Rail loco that had a mishap and ended up down an embankment.
Bold = Haulage, RED = Winner, All others are sightings.
My alarm went off at stupid O'Clock again and once washed and dressed I headed out to catch my first train. Amazingly I was able to catch the earlier one from East Croydon.
9R02 East Croydon to St Pancras International 700113
The walk along Euston Road at just after 6am is quite pleasant. No tourists, little commuters indeed quite quiet. At Euston a sausage and bacon roll was purchased, traksy was checked and off to the platform I went. There were a couple of cl.710s in so they were duely noted before boarding 1H03 the earlier than planned train.
1H03 Euston to Stoke On Trent 390013 Winner.
It should have been an unventful journey but Avanti seem to have a vendetta on me and we arrved into Stoke On Trent 20 minutes late. This meant I missed my earlier than planned train and ended up on another one.
2K85 Stoke on Trent to Longport 350404 Winner
So far so good. A couple of photos at the station were teaken than it was of to the back entrance to the depot. From here you can get a good set of photos. All three of my lenses were used but the Canon EF-S 10-20mm ultra wide angle lens came in to its own when up against the fence.
In residence on the day were: 66048 (like that is going anywhere), 56081, 08523, 60014, 69009 and 56303. A good number of photos were taken and after I slowly walked back to the station for my train. The walk doesn't take long, just a matter of minutes. Rather than walk to the end of Station Road then turn left you can cut through the estate tht is next to the old white building. It cuts the walk time by about 5 minutes.
Back at the station the skies turned grey and it felt like there would be a drop of rain. Time to head off to the next location and a new line.
2K86 Longport to Crewe 350253 Winner.
It's a nice little trip to Crewe and on the approcach you past the LNWR sidings (on your left facing direction of travel) just before you arrive at Crewe.
At Crewe I needed food. so a walk to the nearest McDonalds (That's all I cold find) gave me the sustanance. Funny how when I am out and about I either eat at Wetherspoons or some junk food!
At Crewe there was noteably: 56, 67 lots of stuff in the LSL depot. Also two 730/2s came in on tests.
My plan next was to get over and ticket off a couple of more lines. Alas the best laid plans of mice and men (Robert Burns, To a Mouse).
1N14 Crewe to Derby 170516 Winner.
This started off on time but by Derby it was six minutes down and there were other delays on other routes that I would catch later on. I bailed out at Derby as it has been a while since I was last there.
Gone are the days of 31s, 47s, 37s, HSTs and other loco hauls trains. All it seems to have are cl.170s, cl.222s and the odd cl.158. Whilst standing on the platforms the temperature plummeted considerably it was then I decided to stow my camera in the bag and head back to London.
1C56 Derby to St Pancras Internatonal 222018 Winner.
This was on time the whole trip back thankfully.
The short walk downstairs and on to
9S41 St Pancras International to East Croydon 700052 Non Winner.
At East Croydon I was able to make my train back
2J46 East Croydon to Selhurst 377325, 377307