Roger Burdett and Ken Jones used a Cheshire Ranger and an advanced West Midlands return trip to
Stoke on Trent to plan the following trip, all for less than £26 each. The morning started off badly as
trains around Birmingham were cancelled or delayed due to theft of signalling wire so the first part
of the day used the same route as planned but later trains which meant any time for coffee / photo
breaks were lost until after lunch. I’ve left the original timings in for completion
The itinerary below shows what units we actually had, although there is more to see including 195,
325, 508, 769. TPE 802 units and freight locomotives if you keep your eyes peeled. The itinerary
includes the through platforms at Manchester Piccadilly as well as things like the Ordsall curve.
Arriving back at Crewe for the 17.11 service which was listed in on line timetables we found it didn’t
actually run, although a train to Piccadilly did run every hour except this one. So, we decided to take
a trip back to the airport and return to make use of the ranger rather than stay at Crewe. Other
options were considered but we decided they were too tight for us to catch our train back to
Birmingham.
More about the Cheshire Ranger can be found here
Itinerary
B'ham 07.52 - Stoke 09.01 – class 350
Stoke 09.01 - Crewe 09.25 same train
Crewe 09.50 - Chester 10.10 – Avanti Voyager
Chester 10.15 - LLS 10.58 via Hooton; Birkenhead -class 507
LLS 11.27 - Man Airport 12.52 via Warrington Central; Oxford Road - class 323
Man Airport 12.59 - Piccadilly 13.21 - class 319
Piccadilly 13.30 - Salford Crescent 13.42 – class 331
Salford Crescent 13.57 - Victoria 14.02 – class 150
Victoria 14.40 - Chester 15.56 via Warrington / Oxford Road – class 185 and class 175
Chester 16.35 - Crewe 16.54 Avanti Voyager
Crewe 17.11 - Piccadilly 17.46 via Sandbach – not done see below
Piccadilly 18.15 - Stoke 18.51 - not done see below
Crewe 17.17 – Manchester Airport – and return – class 323
Crewe 18.52 – Stoke on Trent – class 350
Stoke 19.21 - B'ham 20.28 - same train
LLS = Liverpool Lime Street
A TPE 185 unit will take us to Manchester Oxford Road from a rather dark Manchester Victoria station
B'ham 07.52 - Stoke 09.01 – class 350
Stoke 09.01 - Crewe 09.25 same train
Crewe 09.50 - Chester 10.10 – Avanti Voyager
Chester 10.15 - LLS 10.58 via Hooton; Birkenhead -class 507
LLS 11.27 - Man Airport 12.52 via Warrington Central; Oxford Road - class 323
Man Airport 12.59 - Piccadilly 13.21 - class 319
Piccadilly 13.30 - Salford Crescent 13.42 – class 331
Salford Crescent 13.57 - Victoria 14.02 – class 150
Victoria 14.40 - Chester 15.56 via Warrington / Oxford Road – class 185 and class 175
Chester 16.35 - Crewe 16.54 Avanti Voyager
Crewe 17.11 - Piccadilly 17.46 via Sandbach – not done see below
Piccadilly 18.15 - Stoke 18.51 - not done see below
Crewe 17.17 – Manchester Airport – and return – class 323
Crewe 18.52 – Stoke on Trent – class 350
Stoke 19.21 - B'ham 20.28 - same train
LLS = Liverpool Lime Street
A sign of how things are at Birmingham New Street as we wait to leave – we actually left
20 mins later than timetabled
Just outside Wolverhampton we saw 60062 in new livery, on the way home we saw
shunter 97808 in NDS livery at Bescot
We saw 46100 at Crewe waiting to depart on a special
153 362 is seen stabled at Chester in TfW livery
507 018 arrives at Chester – this will form our service to LLS low level station
197 001 is seen on Chester depot, and follows the growing trend of putting shortened fleet numbers on the front of units and full fleet unit numbers on the sides
323 229 will be our service to Manchester Airport
The Manchester Metro also goes to Manchester Airport where we see tram 3102 but is not covered by the Cheshire Ranger
Our service to Manchester Piccadilly [through platforms] and is seen arriving at the airport
331 029 is seen arriving at Manchester Piccadilly for the short distance to Salford Crescent to enable us to get to Manchester Victoria, and get a ride on a new unit
Salford Crescent and we hope a 195 unit will be our connection – instead we have 150 001 – a familiar unit from the days it was based at Tyseley some years ago
Above and below,The metro interchange at Manchester Victoria is airy and pleasant
A TPE 185 unit will take us to Manchester Oxford Road from a rather dark Manchester Victoria station
175 109 is seen arriving at Manchester Oxford Road for our trip to Chester – our 9th different type of unit to travel on
Our Avanti West Coast Voyagers arrive at Chester for our trip to Crewe – the units will then continue to London Euston
A change of plan sees us catch 323 232 back to the airport. Another 323 unit will bring us back to Crewe for our train to Birmingham
Many thanks to Ken for this interesting posting
