2 Years Later

So, the final lockdown took its toll, I ran out of things to write about and, frankly, ran out of motivation to try and write stuff. Then life got chaotic as the world reopened and I decided I needed a break from blogging.

But I will be resurrecting this blog over the next few months, with weekly posts going up, although I'm not sure exactly what day and time yet... watch this space.

London terminals: ✅

The last week before I started work was rather busy, with a lot of things I needed to get done. And so I only had 1 day to properly go out for some railway fun. I gave quite a lot of thought to what I was going to do and eventually settled on visiting the last two London terminal stations I needed to tick off as well as visiting the Emirates air line cable car. There were a few stages to this trip, starting with a Thameslink service into London Bridge station, where I changed to board what would be my first ever train into Cannon Street. 

I then boarded the tube round to Aldgate where I swapped to the metropolitan line to head up to Wembley Park. From here, I made a walking connection, including a quick stop to pick up lunch, across to Wembley Stadium national rail station, which felt rather desolate, however I am sure it doesn't on major event days. Soon enough, I was boarding a train to Marylebone, the last of the London Terminal stations that I needed to visit. A walking connection was made to Baker Street for the Jubilee line, with my next destination being North Greenwich.

I took a few minutes on arrival at North Greenwich to familiarise myself with the area and get my bearings for two reasons. The first was that I'd just booked tickets for a concert in November 2021 at the O2 arena (and have since booked a few additional concerts) and thought a general sense of where I was would be useful. The second was to do with something really cool I was booked in to do that weekend, although I'm not going to give away anything about that yet. Details will be in the post in 2 weeks time.

I then headed over to the cable car, which I was a bit nervous about if I'm honest, for the simple reason that I hate heights, but I actually enjoyed it. Hopefully at some point I'll be able to do it from north to south and see the O2 coming towards me.

That's all for this week, but next Saturday will be a Girl on a Hike update, with the following post being about something really cool and normal railway related service being resumed the week after that.

Behind the Scenes at & Juliet

Firstly, today's post isn't to do with trains, other than the fact I used a train (and then a London bus) to get to my destination. But having mentioned this event in last week's post, where I discussed going to Meridian Water a week prior to this event, having found myself in London a week early, I thought I'd tell you all about it. Plus, let's be honest, I'm trying to keep what content I have going for as long as possible, although hopefully a return to leisure travel being allowed will happen soon.

So, back in September of last year, I went on a backstage tour of the Shaftesbury theatre in London, organised as part of a wider open house event. It was mainly an architectural tour, but as a fan of & Juliet, the show based at the Shaftesbury theatre (and with tickets being free) I decided to book. A lot of fans of the show had the same idea from what I saw on social media - and in fact quite a lot of us on my tour were & Juliet fans. I suppose the first thing to mention is that covid rules were being followed throughout the tour, with masks being compulsory (unless exempt), temperatures being checked and hand sanitiser available. We all also stayed as distanced as possible from each other within our small group. 

The theatres had been empty for 6 months at this point, with many shows, & Juliet included, cancelling performances from Monday 16th March 2020, after the announcement that social distancing was needed and a week before lockdown 1.0 happened. The timing of these decisions meant that many of the theatres were set up ready for that night's show and there were several props in the wings of the stage. We started in the foyer and headed downstairs into the auditorium, where all of the show's fans within the group had a bit of an emotional moment at being back in the auditorium of a show we all love so much, before we headed onto the stage. After a stop to take photos we then headed under the stage, and then up, walking through some of the dressing rooms, and up onto the roof. We then headed back down through the wigs department and production offices, with an opportunity to go out onto the fly grid (where scenery that flies in and out is controlled from), although I opted out of this because I'm not a fan of heights!

All in all, it was a great day. I'm hopefully going to be at the reopening show of & Juliet and I cannot wait. 

A busy week....

On 12th September, I headed up to London. My destination was the Shaftesbury theatre in London, home of & Juliet, and my plan was to attend a backstage tour of the theatre. All was going well until I was sat in the five guys burger restaurant at Covent Garden having lunch, 5 minutes on foot from the theatre, and I realised I was a week too early. Check out next week's post for my post about that.

By that point, I'd already paid for a London travelcard, so decided to have some fun. Meridian Water station had opened whilst I was at university, and I'd wanted to go and take a look. So, i got my phone up to look at the timetable. I decided to go there via tube and bus because the timetable meant that I'd have a long wait to head there directly by train (because I'd have arrived at Stratford just after one had left). And so I headed for the tube. I walked the short distance to Leicester Square tube station, which is just around the corner from where I'd had lunch, where I boarded a Piccadilly line train, changing for the Victoria line at Warren Street. At Tottenham hale, I headed to the bus station and boarded a bus, alighting outside the Tesco and Ikea which are across the road from the station. I quickly nipped into Tesco to pick up a drink before heading to the station. 

Making my way up the stairs towards the ticket barriers, I noticed that the bridge had been left open, enabling people who will be living in the new Meridian Water development to walk over to the shops without needing an additional bridge to be built. The station had minimal facilities however I wasn't there long, instead boarding a train to Stratford, from where I headed back into central London to head home. All in all, a good day, albeit not the plan I'd had for the day.

And then, a few days later, I was offered a job. It was in a local secondary school, and I was starting just over a week later, so I decided to make a few trips out over the last week to try and get some more stations ticked off before I started.

And so, on the Friday, I headed to Moorgate to tick off the stations on the northern city line up to Finsbury Park. It was an uneventful journey however it was my first ride on the class 717 trains. As a regular class 700 user, they were of course very similar, but they were nice nonetheless.

Arriving at Finsbury Park I made a quick trip outside to buy lunch  before I went and tried out another bit of railway I'd never used before: the canal tunnels between Finsbury Park and St Pancras. From there, I boarded the tube, making a quick stop at Westfield London to nip into a couple of shops, before heading back to Hammersmith. I made the now obligatory stop at Hammersmith's branch of Ben's Cookies (well, it would be rude not to whilst I'm walking past!) before heading back to Victoria and then home.

That's all for this week, however next week I'll be talking about my first trip back to a theatre since lockdown, with the tour I attended at the Shaftesbury theatre in London.

Girl on a Hike.... Part 2

Today's post is going to be slightly different. For a start, there isn't really a train in sight. Those of you who've been following me for a while may remember that, back in the summer, I shared on twitter that I have signed up to take part in the London Marathon Walk in September of this year, raising money for Girlguiding, and asked whether people would be interested in hearing about my training journey, and the overwhelming majority of those who responded said that they would. And so, Girl on a Hike was born. I did an introductory post in September last year explaining the basics, at the end of which I said that I was planning on doing my first decent length walk (5 ish miles) in the next few weeks. And then life took an interesting turn. I was offered a job in a school locally to where I live. I always try run my blog posts a couple of weeks behind my actual trip to ensure that if I suddenly wasn't able to travel I wouldn't run out of content. Which meant that, around 10 days after I posted the introductory post to the Girl on a Hike series, when I was offered the job, the story of my first walk hadn't been written up, let alone posted. They wanted me to start less than 2 weeks after being offered the job, which meant that life was very hectic in getting ready and settling in, however I did some trips over the autumn, which will be keeping the blog going all through lockdown 3. But I felt that the story of this walk needed to be shared, if nothing else for a bit of amusement.

So, the route. There's a bit of a story behind this. Back in 2017, I was meant to be participating in a "Walk the London Bridges" event with my guide unit, which got cancelled with only a few days to spare. And since then, I'd always wanted to do it. Of course,  what with being at university in the midlands, that wasn't convenient. But then I signed up for the marathon walk and decided it was a good place to start with the training. Now, one thing to understand is, like how you wouldn't run 100m and a marathon at the same speed, you wouldn't walk them. The time estimate for the event itself is around 9-10 hours, including refreshment stops, so I'm aiming for just over 3 miles per hour as a sustainable pace. The route was relatively simple: starting at Westminster tube station, walk across Westminster bridge before turning left and walking the entire way to Tower Hill tube station, crossing every road bridge (plus the millennium footbridge) that I found, a total of 8 bridges. The first couple of bridges passed relatively easily, and I was keeping relatively to time. But then I got to Waterloo bridge and it all went wrong. 

How much had I eaten that morning? Not enough. What food did I have on me? Nothing. It was also rather warm. I was exhausted already, but I wasn't giving up. I decided to look for a shop to buy food. The first place I came to was a Waitrose, but I could see both a Sainsbury's and tesco on the other side of my next bridge. I decided to push on. I don't know why. I suppose it helped me build my resilience, which will help in the future training walks of up to 20 miles. I must admit that I don't really remember walking across Blackfriars bridge, I just remember the air conditioning of the Sainsbury's hitting me as I forced myself in to buy food. I thought smart - what was going to help me? I picked up a couple of sports drinks to help rehydrate me, along with some sweets to get my blood sugar up quickly, because I was starting to worry that I was going to pass out if I wasn't careful. Plus I picked up a couple of sausage rolls and some crisps as "lunch". I also got some water to carry with me, but stopped outside the shop to eat some sugar and drink one of my sports drinks before I carried on to the millennium bridge. It was when I got to the south bank of the Thames that I felt a bit better. Not fantastic, but I didn't feel so faint any more. And, of course, I was over halfway there now. 

The next section of the walk was uneventful, until I decided that I really needed the toilet. I was on London bridge, and was about to walk past the station of the same name, so stopped in there, although that took me longer than it should have done because I got rather lost in the one way system that had been introduced due to covid. But, from there, I was on the final stretch. As I crossed tower bridge I was exhausted yet relieved. I did semi crawl onto the underground from tower hill back to blackfriars, where I boarded a thameslink train. I still felt quite weak physically, so alighted at London Bridge to get food before boarding a train home and, after eating a (relatively substantial) late lunch on the train home I felt a lot better. So, what did I learn?

Well, the main thing is that I'll burn more calories than I think. My walk tracker app estimated I'd burned 1100 ish calories in that walk, and of course the marathon walk will be more than 5 times  that distance, and so I need to fuel up adequately, both in the days before and on the day itself, but at least I know that before I start training properly later this year.

That's all for today,  but next week we are back on the trains with details of a couple of my London trips from September.

Farewell class 483s (1938 stock)

This was a trip I almost didn't get to make. By early September, my plans for the autumn involved a trip to the Isle of Wight on 2nd November, followed by a possible trip in the first week of the school Christmas break, just before the 1938 stock was retired. And then, something in my gut told me to go now, and I'm so glad I did. That November trip didn't happen, and neither did the December one. 

I decided to get the catamaran across from Portsmouth, although at some point I do want to give the hovercraft a go, and they were running at the time I went, albeit on a reduced timetable. I had something on in the evening that I had to be home for, and so I was on an early train down to Portsmouth to connect with a ferry, arriving on the island at around 11.30am. By early, I mean 9am, so not all that early, but I decided to wait for the first off peak train as it was quite a lot cheaper. My original plan had been to get the train down to Shanklin, spend 40 minutes there until the next train arrived, buying lunch whilst I waited, and getting the train back up to Ryde. The ferry timings meant that I had to be on the 1.45 ferry back to Portsmouth in order to make the train that would get me home in time, which then essentially meant that I'd be heading straight back to the ferry terminal from Shanklin. But the trains had other ideas, namely the fact that there was only 1 train per hour running in each direction because there was only 1 unit working. 

And so, on the train to Portsmouth Harbour, I came up with a plan. I didn't really want to be that person who literally stayed on the train when it turned around at Shanklin, but I wanted to maximise what turned out to be my last ride on the 1938 stock, and so I decided to get out at Lake and wait there for the train to head to Shanklin and back. I ended up waiting in the shelter on the platform, and in fact I spent the time booking theatre tickets and a hotel! I should probably explain that: I got off the train and checked my phone to see that one of my favourite musicals, & Juliet, had announced a reopening date in March, and of course I wanted to go! The reopening has been postponed to May, and of course I've transferred my tickets.

Anyway, by the time I'd done this, the train was on it's way back to me and so I waited to head back up to Ryde. Alighting at the Esplanade, I took a quick lunch break (fish and chips) before walking up the pier ready to catch my ferry back over to the mainland.

I then took the opportunity to walk around to Gunwharf Quays to go to the Cadbury shop, as I had 45 minutes before I needed to be on the train home. 

It was only a short visit to the Island, but I'm glad I had done it because it turned out to be my last time on the 1938 stock. 

I'm looking forward to getting back over to the Island once the upgrade is over to try out the new class 484 trains, made from upcycled old district line trains. Provided I'm allowed to travel, I'll be over on the island at the end of May to explore and see what's changed. I've got some theatre tickets booked either end of my trip, so will have some time to tick off stations in London, and I also have plans to tick off some stations in both East Sussex and Kent.

The next post on here will be a bit different, with it being the second of my girl on a hike series detailing my training for the marathon walk I'm doing in September, which will be live on saturday, with another train post the following weekend.

The ones that got away....

2020 wasn't a great year, was it? So today, I thought I'd reminisce about the trips that never happened, and when I hope to be able to do them instead. Obviously now I'm working it isn't quite as easy! All of these got cancelled due to covid.

1. The end of the spring term.

I don't think it's a huge secret that I struggled to settle at uni in my final year. It was a couple of weeks into the spring term when I first went to see & Juliet, and it instantly became one of my happy places. And it was with this, and a timetable that left me with no lectures or anything after Tuesday of the final week of the spring term. All I had to do was hand a dissertation in that was due on the Thursday at 3pm. I had a weekend event with a uni society in Sheffield, starting at around 7pm on the Friday, and immediately spotted an opportunity. Now hold on, I know what you're thinking: Charlotte, this is a rail blog, what does a theatre show and uni society event have to do with trains? Well, I managed to fit some trains into the itinerary for this trip. The plan was to get the train to London, check into the hotel and then head out, with my aim being to tick off all of the London Overground stops on the line out of Liverpool Street, before I grabbed dinner and got ready to go and see & Juliet. On the Friday, I was going to head up to Sheffield, where I had a few hours to explore before my friends arrived, in which I was going to get out and do some of the surrounding areas to Sheffield - I hadn't got as far as planning the trip before it was cancelled. 

2.  Various day trips, plus a few days away

I hadn't planned these for certain yet, but they'd have included Matlock, Skegness and visiting Elton and Orston, the least used station in Nottinghamshire. I was also hoping to do a few days somewhere after my final exams, but again hadn't planned it before it became apparent that it wasn't happening. 

3. North Downs line, Reading and the chiltern main line. This was in part a theatre trip, but I was planning on ticking off some trains. I'd have headed to Reading via the North Downs line, before staying over night, and then ticking off the western side of TFL rail on Saturday morning, plus hopefully a few other stations and then heading to the theatre in the evening. On the Sunday I was going to head out of Marylebone to Birmingham before heading over to Nottingham. I'd have done something train related on the Monday before a theatre show in the evening.

4. November. This trip kept changing. The theatre shows got cancelled, so I then decided to do the Liverpool Street Overground services after having done one final extra trip to the Isle of Wight before the 1938 stock went. I'd done a final trip in the summer, but when the opportunity arose for 1 extra trip I took it, but alas it never happened due to lockdown 2. 

Here's all for today, but starting next week I'll be going over some of my final trips of last year, starting in September just before I started my job....

Bucket List

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I last posted on this blog in September, so over 4 months ago now. So, what happened?

I got a job, that's what. I'm now working in a local secondary school, as a cover supervisor. This basically means I deliver pre-prepared work to classes when the teacher isn't available to teach them. As you can imagine, it was a really steep learning curve. We actually had a few cases of COVID-19 in the school at the end of the week immediately before I started, so I was very much thrown in at the deep end. Now I've found my feet, and the current arrangements at my school with the lockdown means that I have slightly more time to breathe. So, here's the plan. Today is a special post to celebrate me reaching 350 Twitter followers (thank you!), and then we will have weekly posts on Saturday at 10am every week. I have a couple of months worth of posts from trips I did in September and October, before lockdown 2 happened, and if I still can't travel at the end of March, when these run out I'll try and figure something out. I'll also be continuing with my girl on a hike series, following my prep for the London Marathon Walk in September of this year. I'll be slotting these in on Saturdays for now but, provided the walk looks like it will be going ahead I'll be starting my proper training in a few months, at which point I'll probably make these into a second post each week. This of course depends on whether I've been allowed to get a train for fun or whether girl on a hike is all I have left to write about. 

Enough of this for now though, it's time for today's special post, which is my railway bucket list.

I've been looking at the trips that, at some point, I really want to do. Obviously I'll be stopping at every station to tick it off, so a lot of these are longer train journeys that skip stations. So, here we go:

1. The sleepers. 

This has 2 parts to it: the night Riviera between London Paddington and Penzance, and the Caledonian Sleeper, which departs London Euston and heads up to a number of Scottish stations. I'd particularly like to use the Caledonian Sleeper portion that heads up to/from Fort William....

2. Stay at Corrour.

Railways and hiking, something I am going to have to learn to love this year. Need I say any more?!

3. The Gerald dining train in Wales

Because trains and food sound like fun. I've been on a boat on the Thames and had lunch, and the idea of dinner on a train sounds like something I'd enjoy.

4. Aberdeen to Penzance 

The longest train service in Britain. It's currently not running because of covid, but I'm hopeful that it will be reinstated.

5. Named trains. 

The ones I'm familiar with include the Flying Scotsman from Edinburgh to Kings Cross, and the Highland Chieftain connecting Inverness with Kings Cross. I'm sure there are plenty more for me to check out though.

6. Least Used Stations. Obviously I have to go through every Least Used station in order to achieve my aim of ticking off every station, but I'd like to be able to get off and explore some of these quieter stations. 

7. Scenic lines

I'm not going to name them all individually, but you know the ones I mean: Heart of Wales and West Highland along with a lot of the other railways in the Scottish Highlands.

8. Visit a station on the opening day

I debated doing this for Warrington West and Worcestershire Parkway when they opened,  but life got in the way. I'll make it happen one day though. 

9. The new Isle of Wight trains 

The class 484s are due to come into service in a few months, once the current upgrade works on the Island Line finish. I'm currently due to be on the Island at the end of May, but this will obviously depend on the covid situation. 

10. Land's end to John O'Groats by public transport.

Using buses and the sleeper alongside other trains. 

I'd be interested to hear what your railway bucket list has on it - either comment below or tweet me @girlonrails98

That's all for today, I'll see you on Saturday to explain what my upcoming plans are, and what trips I had cancelled on me at the end of 2020, and into the start of 2021.

The Argos Adventures

 Argos. The shop where you can order pretty much anything. Except when the product isn't available anywhere close to you and they can't deliver it either. This is the situation I found myself in the other week. I've been reorganising my bedroom to update it from the room I had as a 17 year old to the room of a 21 year old. I've got some new artwork (musical theatre themed, if you're interested), and a corkboard, which I collected from my local Argos store, but the issue revolved around jewellery boxes. 

I'll admit, updating this is something which I should have done a while ago. I still had my old barbie one, which when I emptied it the other day also had a decent amount of cheap plastic kids jewellery in it. I finally found what I wanted, but I wanted two of it to enable me to not overfill them, and at less than £10 in the clearance, it was cheaper than the other box I had seen. I also saw a travel box, with a zip to keep it closed, which I thought would be useful for trips away (and this was something stupid like £2.50). The travel box wasn't too bad, as my nearest one was in Croydon, which isn't too far away. But the bigger, glass box, wasn't local, and if I wanted two I was going to have to travel to two different places: Didcot, and Gosport.

After struggling to purchase them, because of an issue with my bank card (the details had potentially been compromised so it was being replaced by my bank although they hadn't told me this), I had to get to the three different Argos stores within a week. My first trip involved me popping up to Croydon to collect the travel jewellery box and then down to Gosport to collect the first of the glass boxes, which were thankfully packaged pretty well and got home in perfect condition. I ticked off Portsmouth Harbour station and used the Gosport Ferry as well. It was a little bit hectic as I only had an hour and a bit to get to Gosport and back because of needing to be home for something that evening, but I made it work and even had chance to pick up a very late lunch on the walk back from Argos to the ferry.

My second trip, however, took me to some new stations. I'd been hoping to to a trip from Paddington to Oxford and return to Marylebone, however with needing to stop in Didcot this wasn't feasible sadly. My destination was Argos in sainsburys, which is thankfully very close to Didcot Parkway station and my trip up was largely uneventful, passing through Reading on the way up. I wanted the chance to be able to have a brief look around Oxford, so only had about 45 minutes to get to Sainsburys and back, which was fine. I managed to grab my order from Argos, grab a snack in the supermarket and then headed over to the nearby Starbucks for a drink. To my disappointment, the mobile app for Starbucks took my order, but technical issues meant the store didn't get it and there was no sign up saying that there was an issue with this, so I headed straight to the collection point. Having waited for almost as long as I could (around 10 minutes) before needing to head back to the station, I asked, given the fact that someone who had paid at the till after I had arrived had had their drink. The member of staff explained the issue however, when I showed the confirmation on my phone got my drink made quickly. I was, however slightly disappointed that there was no mention anywhere near the collection point that they had issues - at every other store I've been to they say head straight there, as did the app on my phone, however the member of staff told me in no uncertain terms that I should have queued up for the till to check it had gone through. I did point out that the point of the app was that we could go straight to the collection point and that I had used it because I didn't really have time to wait. Another Starbucks (Ealing, to be precise) that I've used had my drink ready pretty quickly after the order went in on the app and I didn't have to queue at the till.

I made my train up to Oxford with around 5 minutes to spare, and arrived in Oxford with around 45 minutes until my train back to Paddington. I looked online and saw that it would take around 25 minutes to do the walk into the city and back again, leaving me around 20 minutes to buy some lunch. I opted to place an order on the Mcdonald's app for collection in the city centre, which was ready quickly but then made my almost fatal mistake. I'd seen online that there was a branch of Ben's Cookies in the city, which looked really close to Mcdonalds. I am a fan of their cookies, so wanted to try and find it which I did although it took me a lot longer than I thought it would, leaving me to run back to Oxford station with a couple of minutes to spare before my train. I ended up eating my chicken nuggets and cookies on the train back to London!

All in all, this was a successful week as I managed to achieve everything I wanted to and ticked off some new stations: Portsmouth Harbour, Reading, Didcot Parkway, Oxford and Slough.

Girl on a Hike part 1... in the beginning

 And now for something completely different.

Firstly, it's Monday and I don't post on Mondays. Secondly, this isn't about trains. But I asked on twitter and 2/3 of the respondents said they'd like to see this on my blog. So, here goes.

Welcome to Girl on a Hike.

This is a new series of posts, following my journey over the next year, as I train to take part in the London 2021 Marathon Walk (not the same as the running event). There will be a post most weeks, on Monday at 10am. I say most weeks, because there will likely be some weeks, particularly before I start fully training in the Spring, where I don't have anything interesting to say. Today's post will be explaining a bit about my challenge, why I am doing it, and what I've done so far to prepare.

Why are you doing this?

Yes, this is a very good question. I'm still not entirely sure myself. Whilst at uni, I have really lost the "love" I had for exercise, and I've really not eaten healthily, so I've put on a decent amount of weight. I say "love" for exercise because it's never been the highlight of my day, but I've become more and more sedentary over the last 3 years. So I'd like to lose the weight I've put on, and get back my fitness. I'm also raising money for a charity, in the hope that will help to motivate me even more.

Who are you raising money for?

I am raising money for Girlguiding. I am a volunteer with the charity, and know how badly, like other charities, it has been hit by the pandemic, at all levels. I'd like to help give something back to a charity that has done so much for me over the years.

What are you doing?

I have signed up to the 2021 London Marathon Walk event, organised by Discover Adventure. I don't know the exact route yet but the information I have suggests that it starts in central London, before heading east and south over the Millenium bridge, before using the Greenwich foot tunnel to cross back to the northern edge of the Thames. Heading back into Central London, we will head west towards Westminster, before ending up back where we started. We have a full training plan, which I'll be following from the spring. The plan is 18 weeks long, hence why I don't need to start for quite a while yet, however I will be doing some walks before I officially start training as there's a few things I'd like to test out.

What have you done so far?

I've had a kit list through and, whilst I have most of the items needed already, I've sourced a new rucksack and a couple of water bottles to use on the walk. It's been recommended that we have a rucksack in the region of 25-30L, with a waist strap to help carry it more comfortably. The water bottles are of the variety which have like a built in straw, to save me having to repeatedly unscrew them. The bag had side pickets for bottles and I'm planning on using one for water and one for electrolytes. I'll also carry a slightly larger screw top bottle, as we've been told to be able to carry 2L, and I can top my bottles up at the checkpoints/rest stations on the way. I can refill my drinking bottles as I need to using my larger bottle. I've also picked up some relatively cheap dumbbells to do some weight training with at home, to help me build up the strength to carry my bag. I have to carry water, any snacks I want to provide myself (they do provide some food but if there's something specifically we want we have to provide it ourselves) plus any of my layers (waterproof/fleece etc) that I take off during the day.

Nutrition is something which is key for something like this, as there's nothing worse than trying to walk a long way on an overly full stomach, but additionally there's no point at all in me not consuming enough and not making it to the end. There's a couple of strands to this: carbs/protein and electrolytes. I'll explain the carbs and protein strand of it first because it's less complicated. 

As I walk, I'll be using a lot of carbohydrates to power my muscles, and there won't be enough stored in my body (even with carb-loading beforehand) to not eat during the day. You can basically snack on whatever you want, but it's important I try stuff to check it doesn't make me feel unwell. I've picked up some pretzels that come in individual serving bags, as well as some cheese flavoured savoury biscuits. I also have sweets! One other thing that I've picked up to try are some energy sweets, similar to the gels used by runners, which pack a punch of sugar to give you energy. I've used them once before on a long camp with Guides when I was exhausted, so a few of those may be useful, particularly on the really long training walks and the day itself when I don't want to eat constantly. Protein is useful to help repair my muscles after exercise, so I've picked up a protein flapjack to try, an I'm looking into other options. 

Electrolytes are often found in sports drinks and are minerals, such as sodium, which can be found in the body. You often lose these when you sweat, so it's important to replace these if you're exercising heavily or for a long period of time. I've picked up two types of these to try: a sachet that you simply tip into water and shake, and effervescent tablets that you drop into the drink. Whilst a lot of these have flavours, they can taste salty, so having a separate water bottle just for these will be useful on the day, so I can switch between electrolytes and water without needing to rinse the bottle out. In a way, they are similar to the rehydration sachets that you can get if you are ill, and I know that the taste of those was greatly enhanced by some fruit squash, so I've also obtained some of the Robinsons squash'd squash on the go packs. You just squeeze these into the drink to add the squash, rather than having to carry a bottle and pour them as you would at home. I'm looking forward to giving all of this a go.

I'm going to leave this here for today as this seems to be quite a long post. I'll be back on Wednesday with your next Girl on Rails update, or for more Girl on a Hike check back next Monday. I'm hoping to do a medium (6-8 mile) walk in the next few days, so will be able to tell you how that went next week! 

 

Hitting 10% complete

After the brief interlude of the rolling stock themed post last time, I'm here with some more rail action, and it's an exciting one because this is the blog post in which I reach 10% complete on the national rail network.

I knew I was pretty close to 10% complete and was trying to figure out where I should go to celebrate this little milestone, and I thought Paddington would potentially be an idea, but I didn't actually end up at Paddington on the day I hit 10%. I had made arrangements to meet a friend for a socially distanced lunch (eating out to help out) at Westfield Statford City in East London, and decided to use the Overground from Clapham Junction round to Stratford as I'd ended up on a much earlier train to London than I needed to. And so, as I passed around zone 2 on the overground, I hit 10% at Kentish Town West station.

I didn't get off the train at this station, instead heading to Stratford, where I met my friend. I then ended up getting some tube train action in as, once I'd left my friend, I headed to the centre's Lush in the hope that they had a specific product in (a solid cleanser bar, which melts on the skin, but in the new larger size that has been introduced). Unfortunately they didn't, so I decided to head for the other Westfield centre (White City) to see if they had one instead (spoiler: they didn't - apparently it had only just been launched online and the stock hadn't reached the stores yet. I bought a small one as I had almost run out completely, so will have to wait for that one to run out before I try for the larger one again). When working out how to get across London, I decided to head for Liverpool Street and the Circle Line, rather than using the central line to Shepherd's Bush, in the hope that I may be able to see one of the new FLIRT trains that Greater Anglia have introduced. Well, I saw one. Going in the opposite direction to me. They look nice, and I hope to catch one soon!

A couple of weeks later and I headed back to White City Westfield because they have a specific shop which, whilst the chain has one in Nottingham where I've been at Uni, my home town doesn't. Croydon has one, but I decided I'd rather go and explore Shepherd's Bush Overground station by boarding the Overground up from Clapham. I'd planned to go to Five Guys for lunch, but it took me ages to find it because I got lost!

Whilst in London, I had two ideas. Firstly was that I could visit Paddington and get to ride on one of new Crossrail trains (I got one of the old units in January) by going to Ealing Broadway. The second thought was that, given the fact that at the moment I have limited scope for longer trips, I thought I'd try to tick off all of the stations on the Tube Map. I'm still working out exactly where I am at currently regarding this, but I knew I hadn't been very far west on the District Line, so decided to use this to get to Ealing, where I got lunch and a drink from Starbucks (Smores Frappuccino) before getting a train into Paddington, which I promptly forgot to photograph....

I'm going to leave this here before this post gets excessively long, but next time I'll be explaining how and why exactly I travelled a considerable distance for the purposes of going to Argos.

The trains I've been on (part 4)

 Hello, and welcome back to the last post in my series about the classes of train that I've been on. Today, we have another 6 classes of train to discuss, some of which I have stronger memories of than others. 

We start with the class 365, which I used between London Kings Cross and Cambridge on one of my trips to the city. They are very similar to some of the other units that have been operated by Thameslink over the last decade, so I don't think there's a huge amount of new things I can say. 

The next train today is one that I can say quite a lot about as it operates on one of my local routes. The class 377 "electrostar" units are operated by Southern and primarily cover some of their longer-distance services, rather than the services that operate to suburban London destinations. I do really like these trains, particularly the fact that they have air conditioning, which is a blessing on hot days. I like the mix of seats with and without tables, although I'm not a huge fan of the sections of these trains with 3+2 seating because it's a pain to get bags behind you. I've done a couple of shopping trips to the Westfield centres in London and when you've got several carrier bags it can be a bit of a struggle if you get on a 3+2 carriage, so I always aim not to do this!

I remember the class 387 units mostly from their days on Thameslink, although I don't hugely remember them. They were okay I guess, seeing as nothing has stuck in my head which was overly positive or negative. 

The 390 "pendolino" units are one of my favourite trains in operation in this country at the moment. Operated by Avanti West Coast (and previously Virgin Trains) on the West Coast main line, I've never had a bad experience on them, although take that with a pinch of salt because I've only used them 4 times, and all in first class. The first time I used one was between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly on a family holiday (we came home via York), and we had booked first class tickets because, with our friends and family railcard it was close enough in price to the standard ticket that we actually saved money versus travelling in standard and having to purchase food for lunch (we were on a lunchtime departure). It was certainly a good call as the food kept coming! The "Uglies" chocolates are literally my favourite thing on earth! We also all amused ourselves because we all thought the the "sausage roll" mentioned on the menu would be of the variety commonly sold by Greggs... and that was fine, that was lunch. And then the sausage roll arrived, and it was a sausage in a roll, which we were all thrilled about. The staff's customer service has always been brilliant as well. We received similarly good service on a short trip between London and Birmingham (and return) last year. My most recent trip with them (and the only one of these trips that was actually after Avanti took over the franchise) was in January, when I needed to head from London to Manchester for a careers event, having been in London for a theatre trip (the good old days!). I was travelling alone, and was unmistakably the youngest person in first class, but had splurged to save myself the hassle of buying lunch, and because I'd had a rough couple of weeks around when I'd booked the trip and wanted a treat, if I'm honest. I also love the lounge at Euston, particularly the chocolate brownie. 

The next train will soon be disappearing from the network and is the class 483 units, which operate on the Isle of Wight. Formed of former 1938 stock due to the clearance at Ryde Tunnel not being great enough for standard national rail size trains, I've used these trains quite a bit over the years on numerous trips to the Island, particularly to Shanklin and the Isle of Wight Steam railway, connecting at Smallbrook Junction. My last couple of trips to the island have been by road, with a uni group, so I've not been on board for many years, but I always used to love the bounciness of them. I even remember the dinosaur livery from the early 2000s, although I was pretty young at the time! Considering their age and the reliability issues which have plagued them, I do think it's time for them to be retired, however much I love them. I'm hoping to go to the Isle of Wight very soon to visit them again before they go and will be aiming to go soon after the line reopens next year to try out the new trains and see the changes. This will also be my first trip on a big ferry (well, catamaran) since COVID-19 hit so it will be interesting to see how things have changed there. I probably won't have long to spend on the Island, but I'll be hoping to go and get fish and chips from a proper chip shop! I say a big ferry as I have done Gosport recently, and that will be in a blog post next week!

And so we come to the final train of this series of posts, which is another favourite (again because it operates locally to me), and that is the Thameslink class 700. I like the walk through nature of the trains, which makes it easy for passengers to spread along the length of the train when it's busy. They also seem altogether bigger inside than some of the older trains they replaced and have a great deal of space for people to stand and sit. Plus they are really long! My only bugbear with them is the fact that it's always quieter at the front/back and the entrance to my local station is in the middle of the train, but I will live!

That's it for today, but on Saturday there will be a post about how I hit 10% completion!

The Docklands light railway

I was in London, at the end of July, when I got the impulse to go for a ride on the DLR. I'd met a friend for lunch in central London, so headed back to London Bridge via a very circuitous route -  the central Line to Bank (where there's one of the biggest gaps I've ever had to mind), then the DLR down to Greenwich, where I got onto a Southeastern service, calling at Deptford en route, back to London Bridge to get a train home. And I was on the train home when I had an idea. I recalled Geoff Marshall's video from the start of this year, where he attempted to break the record for visiting all of the DLR stations, and where he mentioned the explorerticket.co.uk website, where all of these unofficial challenges can be found. 

When I got home, I logged on to the website and, having read the rules, decided to attempt the challenge. Whilst I was in no way aiming for the record (indeed, I didn't run AT all, and I did this during the COVID-19 reduced timetables), I decided to time my journey for the fun of it. Unfortunately constraints on when I was able to be in London also meant that I was travelling off-peak (between approximately 12 noon and 2pm) so had to change at Canary Wharf rather than being able to get a direct train from Stratford to Lewisham. 

My route involved starting at Shadwell, where I boarded a train to Bank. Having made my way through the one-way system to Monument, I used the tube to Tower Hill, from where I walked to Tower Gateway DLR station. And this is where I had my first delay. I missed the train by less than 20 seconds. I would say the driver could see me when they left, but I know the DLR is automatic! If I'd have ran the distance, I'd have crossed the road earlier (the pedestrian green man disappeared just before I got there) so would have easily made the train.

But as I was doing this for fun rather than to break the record, I kept going, boarding a train at Tower Hill 10 minutes later and heading for Beckton. From here, I caught the bus to near King George V station, although I had a 13 minute wait at the bus stop. It was an extremely hot day when I did this trip so I debated running into ASDA in Beckton to get a cold drink, but wasn't convinced I'd get back in time for my bus. Instead, I found a local shop on the short walk between the bus stop and King George V station, so nipped into there to grab a drink, which was possibly the highlight of this very warm day. 

From here, I made the return journey to Woolwich (with a not inconsiderable wait at Woolwich for a train heading north), before heading up to Stratford International, where after another wait I headed back to Stratford to head down towards Canary Wharf. Again, I seemed to have a long wait here before the train left (I think it may have even been a bit late), however had a good change at Canary Wharf for a Lewisham train, finishing in around 2 hours and 45 minutes.

From there, I headed back into London Victoria, from where I headed home, feeling very warm indeed!  

Stations visited: Greenwich, Deptford, Lewisham, Nunhead, Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye.

The trains I've been on (part 3)

 Hello again, and welcome back. Apologies for not posting in a couple of weeks, whilst I've been dealing with a few family issues. I was planning on posting this a couple of weeks ago but, given the tragic events in Scotland, I felt it was appropriate to wait until today to post again. 

Today's post is the 3rd part of the "Trains I've been on" series.

We start today with the Class 313, currently in operation along the East and West Coastway routes operated by Southern. I've been on one of these trains on two occasions, both of which were back in the summer of 2016 when I was looking at universities. I used one from Brighton to Falmer (to go and look at Sussex University) and one from Chichester to Portsmouth and Southsea to go and look at Portsmouth University, and I must admit I was quite fond of them, particularly as they didn't seem to feature any of the 3+2 style seating which is common on Southern services.

The Class 315 is today's second train to be mentioned, which I rode on the TFL rail network, between London Liverpool Street and Romford in January this year. I had planned to go to Shenfield, however my main aim for the day was to do the Romford-Upminster branch line, which was operated by the same class of train I believe. I needed to get back into central London as I was meeting a friend to check into a hotel and have dinner before we went to see a show in the West End.

And now on to a train that I haven't traveled on for many years. The Class 317 trains are confined to areas of the Greater Anglia network and are in the process of being replaced, but my experience on one of these trains dates back several years, to when they operated on the Great Northern network, when I traveled on one between King's Cross and Cambridge.

Another type of train formerly operated by First Capital Connect, I've ridden on a fair few Class 319 units, and I must admit I wasn't hugely fond of either these or the 317s. I particularly dislike the 3+2 configuration which is often found on these units, as the aisle is then really not very wide. I am looking forward to seeing what they look like after conversion into the class 769 units, which will be going onto a few different routes in Wales and England.

The Class 357 is today's final train to get a mention, and I've only been on one of these, and it was for the short journey from Upminster to Fenchurch Street back in January, when I'd been on the Romford to Upminster line. I quite like these trains, but I don't feel I can comment too much on them seeing as I've been onboard for only a short journey. My memories of that day are also slightly clouded by the fact that I managed to get lost trying to get from Fenchurch Street to my hotel for the night!

I'm going to leave this here for today, but Saturday's post is going to be the story of how I did all the DLR stops, so that's going to be a long one.

Another post-lockdown trip (or 2)

I've made a couple of trips since lockdown now. After my short hop up to Croydon for a job interview, I made my way down to the South Coast, for another interview (which I also didn't get). This involved travelling on 2 trains, changing at Haywards Heath in the middle for a train heading for Littlehampton, to take me to my destination in Shoreham-by-Sea. I didn't tick off any new stations on this trip, however I was shocked at some of the face mask positions, including as covers for the chin, rather than the nose and the mouth. I was also slightly put off by an individual who felt the need to eat a hard-boiled egg on a train. I even saw the "Thank you Key Workers" Class 700.

But my next trip took me back into London for the first time since lockdown. To be brutally honest, I was a bit wary. but I wanted to meet up (socially distanced of course) with a friend from uni. So I got the train to Croydon, before picking up tramlink to Wimbledon, where I met my friend, before getting a train to Waterloo. Here we changed for Waterloo East to cross the river to Charing Cross, leaving us with a short walk to Covent Garden, where we got food and sat and caught up. This trip meant I actually got the chance to tick off a few new stations: Wimbledon, Waterloo and Vauxhall. I didn't stop at any new stations on the way home. 

I've been to London on two more occasions since that day, and I'm actually going to skip over the first of these two trips, as it was the inspiration for something that I'm planning on doing tomorrow (check my social media for updates on the day), and I'll therefore mention it in next week's post. But on my last trip to London, I got the tube to Westfield London, which is near the old BBC television centre. I did this via Hammersmith, changing between the two stations. At the Piccadilly and District Line Station, I even saw a floral display reflecting the rolling stock used on the subsurface lines.

 I took the opportunity to go in the large Lush store at the centre, which was fantastic because my local Lush is tiny, and with really sensitive skin I've found I get on with their products really quite well. My local store is so tiny that, given the current social distancing guidelines, they've just put a table with a till at the door and you have to request what you want, whereas the Westfield one gave me the chance to browse. I picked up a couple of new products to try and I'm really enjoying using them.

  

On my return to Victoria, I had a bit of spare time before I needed to be home, so took the opportunity to get on a train to West Croydon via Crystal Palace, ticking off a few new stations on the way. From there, I simply took the tram back to East Croydon, from where I got a train home.

Stations ticked off: Battersea Park, Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Common, Balham, Streatham Hill, West Norwood, Gipsy Hill, Crystal Palace, Norwood Junction, West Croydon.

Having re-checked my spreadsheet, I've also made a mistake with a calculation, due to how my spreadsheet is set up, so there's a few extra stations added in to my total today.

I think I'll leave this here for today.

Station Count: 237

I'm Back!!

Well hello there everyone, and welcome back to my blog! 

It's been a while now since I last posted - I have been having a few technical issues which made it really difficult for me to be able to upload, but I'm back now and I think those issues have been dealt with for good. Or at least for the foreseeable future, anyway.

So, I'm going to continue my "Trains I've been on" series in the next few weeks, but I'm going to use today's post for a proper "get to know me" post. Those of who who follow me on twitter will know that a few weeks ago, I asked for numbers between 1 and 100 for an upcoming blog post. This is that post! I found a website online with 100 questions for a get to know me post, but I felt that 100 questions was probably overkill, so I'm going to do 20 of those, as well as adding the basic things like who I am!

I got some suggestions off twitter, and have used a random number generator to select the rest of the questions.

Name: Charlotte

Age: 21

Job: Currently unemployed, having finished studying Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry at the 

University of Nottingham this year.

Where I'm based: Sussex, in the South East

Am I left or right handed? I am right handed.

What's the thing I can't leave the house without? My purse and my phone. I don't use contactless payments on my phone, hence why I need my purse!

Am I a morning or night person? I'm more of a night person, but I'm not hugely either. 

Am I on time or always late? I'm always really early getting to places, unless it's a 9am lecture at uni, in which case I mastered the art of walking in at 8:59 am.

Have I ever gone camping! Yes! I'm actually a volunteer Guide leader with Girlguiding, and I was in the Scout and Guide society at University, so I tend to camping at least once a year. Except this year, obviously.

If money were no object, what would you get for your next birthday? Theatre tickets to see something in the West End. I'm looking forward to seeing Six, & Juliet and Come From Away when the West End reopens, and I want to see Frozen and Andrew Lloyd Webber's new version of Cinderella once they open (in theory next year).  I like theatre almost as much as I like trains, but theatre costs a lot more!

Was I ever a Scout or Brownie? I was a Brownie... I was also a Guide, which is the section of Girlguiding equivalent to Scouts. I then became a Young Leader and then an adult leader, and have never left!

How tall am I? I'm about 5 foot 1, maybe 5 foot 2.

Do I have children? I don't, but I'm only 21 at the moment, so I'm still young. I'd quite like to have kids one day, although it won't be for several years yet!

Do I/Have I played any sports? I used to swim when I was younger, in fact I swam for my school at local events on a couple of occasions when I was at primary school. I was also a member of the University of Nottingham Salsa dance team during my time at uni, which involved several competitions a year against other university teams. I missed a lot of the 2019-20 season due to injury though, which was a shame.

What is my favourite foreign food? I'm going to be really boring here, and say pizza. I'm not all that into spicy food, or that adventurous generally with food. I'm quite fond of tacos and fajitas too, and I make a pretty good pasta carbonara. 

What's my favourite snack? To be honest, it changes every so often, and often between sweet and savoury things. I'm quite fond of anything chocolate based, or party rings biscuits, or if I want something savoury I'd probably be tempted by a sausage roll. 

What is my shoe size? I'm a 4/5. It depends on the shoe and on what socks I'd wear with it. Annoyingly I have really wide feet though, so it can be difficult to find shoes that fit.

What phone do I have? I have a samsung galaxy A5 (2017). It's the first smartphone I've ever had, and I'm definitely an android fan. I'm not fussed about something being the most up to date phone and the A range is really reasonable in price.

What's my favourite colour? Pink! I've always been a fan of pink. It varies what shade, sometimes I'm more into brighter pinks, then other times I like a more pale pink and other times I'm a fond of an almost coral colour, that's more orange-based.

Do I have any piercings or tattoos? No, and I can't see that changing, although I'm quite a fan of temporary tattoos!

What's my favourite restaurant? For the variety of food and really student-friendly prices, I'm going to to go with wetherspoons.

Mac or Windows? Windows. We had macs in the music technology room at school, which I used for my GCSE music composition. I used them a couple of times a week for most of a year and I still had no idea what I was doing with them.

Am I more of a tidy person, or a messy one? I'm definitely a messy person. I can make a mess really quickly.  

What is one item on my bucket list? I'd like to stay at Corrour in Scotland at some point in the future.

And that's it for today's post. Check back here on Wednesday at 10am for a new post, about some of my post-lockdown train journeys, before the continuation of my series about rolling stock I've travelled on next Saturday at 10am.

The trains I've been on (part 2)

Hello, and welcome back to part 2 of my review of the trains I've been on. Today I'll talk about another 5 types of train I've been on and give my feedback. Some of these trains were quite a while ago, so I'll do my best to remember!

If you haven't already, check out part 1 of this series of posts, which went live on Wednesday.

So, up first today.... the class 170 turbostar.

This type of train can be found on many routes across the country, but I've used them for various journeys between Nottingham and Birmingham New Street or stations in between the two, such as Derby and Tamworth. The main memory I have of these is how busy they were when I went to Birmingham; whilst the online booking system gave us seat reservations apparently these weren't valid, and I was very lucky to get a seat both ways. The trains were packed full of people, on both a Sunday afternoon and a Monday afternoon, and I had a small suitcase with me as well, which didn't help matters. These trains could really use being doubled up to increase capacity and prevent people from packing all the way down the aisle of the train, as happened on most of my journeys on them.

And next up, the class 185.

This was a few years ago now, when I travelled between Manchester Piccadilly and York with family as part of a holiday in the north of the UK. And when I say a few years ago, I mean 3 years ago, a full 2 years before I even started thinking of doing GirlOnRails. And we booked first class tickets for a Sunday lunchtime, more than anything because between the 3 of us, we had 2 relatively big suitcases (we were away for a week and a half). It was quite nice to be fair, the train wasn't too busy and there was more than enough space to store our belongings on board. The train was right in the middle of the day, with us leaving a hotel in Manchester just before check out at 12 noon, and arriving in York to check in just after 2pm (although I think we got a drink/lunch at York station after arriving) and I had worried that it would be busy, but certainly first class was fine, although there may have been a few people standing in standard. We'd managed to use our railcards to get a discount on the tickets, which made them very affordable.

Next up, is one of my favourite trains in the country, the class 230 D-train, produced by vivarail from old District line D stock, which operates on the Marston Vale line between Bedford and Bletchley. This was one of the first official trips I did after starting GirlOnRails, albeit before the blog started, back in the summer of 2019. I'd just finished my exams for the end of my second year at uni and had a couple of weeks in Nottingham before I went home for the summer, with various events dotted around it such as end of year awards/parties for various activities that I'd been part of during the year.  I decided to make the most of the time I had in Nottingham and got myself a 3 out of 7 days East Midlands ranger ticket. The first day featured a trip down to Bedford (the southernmost limit of the ticket on the Midland Main Line) and across to Bletchley before heading North. I remembered these trains from their days on the tube (just about) and was amazed by the transformation - they were really nice to ride on. I also believe a few D-trains, albeit with a different class number, will be heading over to the Isle of Wight in the next couple of years, and I'm looking forward to heading back over there when they are in service to give them ago. It's a great idea to re-use the bodyshells of trains which have been withdrawn before the end of their lives to make a new unit to continue serving the rails. 

The fourth train for today is, unfortunately, one that I'm not all that fond of - the class 222 Meridians operated by EMR. I've only been on one twice, and the first time was 2 weeks after moving in to uni, when I'd come home for the night after an event in London (leaving home at 6.30am and getting home at 10pm wasn't really my idea of fun). I'd also been quite poorly with the so-called freshers' flu, which in my case turned into a bout of bronchitis which, despite my GP saying I'd likely cleared the infection by the point of this trip, left me with a cough for almost 2 months. I'd barely slept and felt grim and really quite wanted to not go back to uni so wasn't in the best mood seeing as I'd just left my mum behind at St Pancras. The second time was at the end of a university holiday period and I'd got my luggage with me (a medium sized suitcase, laptop case and handbag) We'd plumped for a first class ticket so I could get the free refreshments and more space (we'd established by now how to get a cheap advance first class ticket - middle of the day - and with my railcard we paid less than £20). I was pretty disappointed to discover that there was no luggage rack in my first class carriage (the one with the cab on the end of it) - I had to leave my suitcase in the next carriage's rack and spent most of the journey worrying it would go astray, which it thankfully didn't. The best suggestion of the staff on this service when I queried it was to put my case in the wheelchair space, which of course I didn't. There weren't any valuables in my case but it was still annoying and I hope all new train designers ensure that there are racks, particularly in first class intercity carriages. Since this trip I've stuck to HSTs, although now those are on their way out I'm not sure what I'll do (and if the pandemic means I never get to ride a HST again I'll be very displeased). 

And talking of the HST, that is my final train for today. I love these. That's all there is to say. I'm not a fan of opening the door, particularly not with my hiking rucksack on my back (I'm a guide leader, I use it when I go camping for all of my kit). I did nearly fall out of the train on one occasion whilst trying to open the door, which wouldn't have been a pretty sight. I've been lucky enough to travel in first class both on Virgin East Coast (as it was at the time, now LNER) and on EMT/EMR. The catering is better on the East coast (although there's no beating the franchise now held by Avanti West Coast), but I've loved travelling on the MML. I have used the MML in standard class on a couple of occasions, most recently heading to London in January to watch a theatre show in the West end , and it's just as nice. But when it's around £10 in standard or £18 in first with my railcard, I'm always going to take first. The journey from my accommodation at uni to the station could be very varied in length so I always allowed plenty of time, and therefore use of the lounge at Nottingham was always well appreciated, as was the drink on the train (although I always got a sandwich at the co-op at the station for lunch rather than buying a meal on the train). I'll miss them when they go.

That's all for today, but on Wednesday we will be visiting some units found more locally to home in the South East.

The trains I've been on (Part 1)

I've decided to split this into four parts, for two reasons: 

1. There's been many types of trains

2. Covid is severely limiting how much I can go out, although with the reopening of some leisure facilities from next month, maybe the future is looking a bit brighter.

But today, I'll focus on a selection of those trains I've travelled on, starting with one of my favourites: the class 139 Parry People Mover. Running from Stourbridge Junction to Stourbridge town again, this unit provides a service every 10 minutes in each direction. It's the cutest train I've ever seen. 

There's not that much I can say about this unit to be honest, although I really liked the use of a smaller, more environmentally friendly, unit on a small branch line, such as Stourbridge, where passenger numbers are relatively low.  The frequency of the service is fab for those using it to connect with trains to or from Birmingham, with a service every 10 minutes, dropping to every 15 minutes on a Sunday. I like this train! Unfortunately I don't tend to have a reason for a trip to Stourbridge, but I'll be trying to get back at some point. 

Class 142 Pacer

I love pacers and will be sad to see them go in full, although I'm glad they've had some of their ranks preserved. 

I like the bumpiness, although I can see that that would be annoying on a long journey, I've only ever been on one for less than an hour at a time. There aren't many trains in this country that are unique, but the fact that the pacer is made from a bus body would in my eyes put it in that group. I'll miss them, and am glad I made the trip up to go and see a couple in Sheffield before they go. 

Class 153 Super Sprinter

I've only been on these a couple of times, and I don't have any pictures, but they seemed nice enough. They worked quite well in rural areas, such as in the East Midlands where I travelled on a few, and they were sufficient to cope with demand however on a number of occasions I have seen a couple of cars coupled together. It would be quite nice if we didn't have anywhere in this country which had single car trains running, however given the lower passenger numbers on some rural services I can definitely see the need for them. 

Class 158 Express Sprinter

I've been on one of these, from Manchester to Nottingham in January, and it was actually the last train I travelled on pre-pandemic. They were nice. If I'm honest I was too tired to pay much notice, but similar to a 153 if I remember correctly. They do the job well.

I'm going to leave it here now, to save enough trains to do another post in a few days. 

The first post-COVID trip

It had been too long. It was January 25th when I last boarded a train and travelled on it. 2 hours back from Manchester to Nottingham, a trip which I didn't realise would be my last trip for almost 6 months.

Thankfully, I'd had some decent train action in the couple of weeks immediately before this date - I'd travelled on an EMR HST from London St Pancras to Nottingham to go and sit my university exams, before travelling back to London to see a show and then up to Manchester for a Careers event immediately before that final trip. 

So to say I've missed being on a train is an understatement. But I understand the reasons why I must stay away for now. Unfortunately there's no easy place for me to even go and spot - I'd be looking at around an hour's walk and it would only be class 377's and 700's (Southern and Thameslink). Not that I don't like those trains, I do, but if I'm going to go and stand and spot I'd kind of like a bit more variety. Or more than 8 trains an hour (4 each way). 

But then, the opportunity arose for me to go on a train. 

I had an interview for a job (which I didn't get), which required me to get a train to Croydon and then a tram. It was a key worker role, hence why my journey was definitely essential for the interview. It was possible for me to be dropped at the local station, so I didn't need to get a bus there or anything, but my Mum was definitely not prepared to make the 45 minute journey each way (particularly when I was only meant to be at the job an hour, so she'd have to sit and wait for me) as she is working from home at the moment. So I had to go on the train and tram.

I planned on being at the station 40 minutes before the train I wanted to get, and that itself got me into Croydon just over an hour before the interview, which considering I wouldn't need to wait more than 10 minutes at the most for a tram ride lasting 10 minutes, was plenty. It was even only a 30 minute walk to my destination from the railway station, so I had ample time to get there. I wanted to have time to queue, what with it being the first day of shops opening, in case there were queues to get onto trains and trams to maintain social distancing.

But I walked straight onto a train 25 minutes before I was planning on, arriving in Croydon 90 minutes before my interview. I then walked to the Sainsburys local next to the station to get a drink before getting on the tram. I ended up sitting at the tram stop for almost 40 minutes before walking to my interview. On the way home, I arrived at the tram stop at the same time as the tram and my only hiccup was the slight wait for a train home.

It was the first day where face coverings were mandatory on public transport in England and I was pleased to see that most people were wearing them. There are a limited number of exceptions and therefore I couldn't really challenge the few people I saw who weren't wearing them. And the trains were empty enough that people were easily able to socially distance. And I felt perfectly safe.

So, while it's important that we stay at home as enthusiasts until it's safe to do so (unless of course we have the occasional essential trip in the meantime), I felt perfectly safe travelling on Monday. And, if it's safe for me to travel for the trips I have planned in the autumn (although who knows if the theatres will have reopened), I will be doing so, knowing how to keep myself and others as safe as possible in this strange time.

So What next?

Well... this wasn't how I expected this blog post to turn out....

My "What next" was meant to be what I have planned for later this year, and I will cover a bit of that, later in this post, but life has taken a rather unexpected turn, and no, I don't mean the pandemic.

Well, in a way, I do. I was meant to be going on a few trips around Easter which got cancelled. That only included a couple of new stations given where I was going, but it was activities I was looking forward to a lot.

I'd got a theatre trip in London, followed by a trip to Sheffield and back to Nottingham, followed a few weeks later by a trip from Nottingham to Liverpool (with Manchester to Liverpool giving me some new stations), followed by Liverpool home to Sussex (one new station - Runcorn - if I remember correctly) and then back to Nottingham.  And a trip from Nottingham to London in May, with a return on a late night coach (I'd have missed the last train). 

And then coronavirus hit. And I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.  

I applied for a few jobs, and nothing really went anywhere.

And then, a few days ago, I got an interview, for a job which requires a train journey to get to. The interview is not over video call, so I have to go on a train for my interview. 

Anyway, what else have I got planned? Of course, all of this is pandemic dependent, particularly in terms of whether the theatres reopen.

Well, in October, I've got a trip to Nottingham, because a theatre trip I had booked for a touring production has been rescheduled from March. But I'm going via Reading (to do Crossrail's eastern edge), and central London for theatre shows on the Friday and Saturday. Then, on Sunday, I'm going to do London to Nottingham via Birmingham (to do some of the stations on the Chiltern main line) ready for the show on Monday night, before returning home. I may even have time to do some sort of tube challenge (possibly zone 1 or all 16 lines, I only have a few hours) while I'm in London. 

And then, in November, I'll be making that trip to Liverpool, for a gig I've got tickets to (a gig at a theatre, rather than an arena or anything), before doing some of the London Overground as I'm visiting London with friends to go to some shows, but we are staying in Hackney rather than the city centre because it's cheaper. I'll therefore be using the Overground to get to and from Hackney during the trip.

And then December, I'll be going to London to use theatre tickets that were postponed from May (a singalong performance of a show, hence why it's so far in the future as they essentially transferred the tickets across). Thankfully, I could get a reasonably (ie approx £100) priced hotel room, so have chosen to stay. The late-night coach back to Nottingham (arriving at 4am) was in place of a £250 TRAVELODGE room. That's really quite excessive. 

And then, in February, an event in Sheffield I'd been going to in April has been rescheduled, so I'll be going to that.

Anyway, I think I'm going to leave this here for now.