In these strange days early in the year, I seem to have developed a set of trips which I repeat. Seemingly it's about a two year cycle, but with some variations and the general pleasure just of being out and about again after the disruption of the festive season, it feels new and interesting all over again. So, it's a couple of years since I last went to Stansted Airport although of course if last year's Class 40 trip had made it, I might have thought twice about revisiting so soon. Today's trip, circling in the opposite direction to my first visit, effectively meant I'd used all of the track into the station. This of course wasn't the aim particularly, I just wanted to get out and about after a rather grim and testing week at work, and this was how I planned to do it.

First up, the traditional combination of the first train off Highbridge and the 07:00 from Bristol. My routine was in danger of falling at the first hurdle as breakfast looked to be in jeopardy, but found an alternative outlet and soon settled into the journey north with music and coffee. It was good to be out and about, the sun barely rising as we headed through Gloucestershire. Pondered the tricky week, and the minor victories which had occurred as we trundled slowly into New Street. Time here for a coffee and to watch the world go by on the concourse. Haven't done that for a while, and it was good to be back - if a little chilly when the icy wind blew through the doors and whipped around the busy ticket counters. Down to the platform for the Stansted service, surprised by a small group of men carrying armour and spears. Figured they weren't revenue protection people, but kept my ticket handy just in case!

One of the great pleasures of this journey is the trip across the fens in the misty winter sunshine. However, there wasn't much sunshine in evidence as we climbed over the West Coast Mainline to call at Nuneaton. Snoozed a bit towards Leicester, as far as I could given a very shrill young lady who sat a little in front of me with her boyfriend. He told her she had a 'cute' voice - but her girlish shrieks actually made my eyes hurt. Slipped on the headphones again, but this seemed to irritate another couple who joined at the next station. I'm not sure the gentle sounds of James Yorkston would have been too alarming - but I heard her check with the guard that I actually did belong in First Class with them. When he assured her I was entitled to be seated there, she simply hissed "disgusting!" at me. Too sleepy and relaxed to be irritated, and I decided to just enjoy the run through Ely and into Cambridge where she and her rather mouselike partner left the train!

Once at the airport, made for the same coffee shop I'd visited last time, and watched the drama around the ticket's for Fence Records' 'Homegame' play out on the internet. This ended up in some very silly online banter which resulted in my taking a slightly later London-bound train than planned. Had no desire to hang around the airport though, so dashed for the 14:15 which was operated by the ominously number 317666. After being sold overpriced refreshments by a very polite chap, I settled in for the journey - thankfully alone after my irritating selection of accidental companions so far today. Hadn't really thought through what to do with the several hours in London however - beyond visiting the newly aligned and extended Blackfriars. A weekend closure put paid to this, and rather than spending hours at the station on arriving at Liverpool Street I opted to wander over to Shoreditch High Street. This took me on a familiar winter journey along Brick Lane, full of more annoying people today though. Felt like screaming at the top of my lungs that "Excuse me!" was a genuine request to get by, not some sort of post-modern quip! On the way, passed the curious "I Goat" sculpture by Kenny Hunter, atop packing crates symbolising the recurring immigration into the area. From Shoreditch, took the East London Line south to Crystal Palace. Steps retraced, but good to see the line busy as they light started to fade from the sky. Work email kept my attention away from the rooftops though, and I surfaced just in time for the slog up the stairs at the terminus, and over to a Victoria-bound train.

After snaking through the twighlight, I arrived at a very dark but still busy Victoria with little in the way of a plan for the final leg to Paddington. Given the closures on the Circle and District, opted for a 436 bus from Grosvenor Gardens. Waited only a couple of minutes, and was soon heading past Buckingham Palace, up Park Lane and towards Paddington. Time for more coffee and people-watching before boarding the 19:00 home, with a bunch of rail staff heading home from the football crowded into the seats beside me. Today had been an odd, somewhat unsatisfying day where the general public had been pretty irritating and I'd found myself not relaxing as much as I should. However, it was good to be out - and I actually start to miss these winter trips once the railtour season starts!

Stayed reasonably local again this weekend. Since huge crowds were expected for the Tsunami Relief Concert at the Millenium Stadium, decided to see what Arriva Trains Wales would provide in the way of additional capacity.

Arrived at Newport at around 0930 to find quite a crowd of 60s and 66s on Godfrey Road. Cold but dry start to the day, with five passing freights in the first couple of hours, and a steady stream of the usual units and HSTs.

Things started to get very busy around lunchtime, soon after a couple more members of the infamous 'Gang of Four' arrived on the scene! I'd figured that the concert should be starting at around 1500, and around midday, crowd control and revenue protection swung into action. Huge queues to get into Newport station - and severely overcrowded Cardiff bound services. To compound things, a unit failed between Newport and Cardiff - which eventually returned to Newport and was abandoned on a very damp up through line. To make things even stranger, the staff decided to override the automatic announcements because of the overcrowding, and a guy with a voice like he'd inhaled helium began barking instructions for the next train to Cardiff!

Things stayed busy, with packed platforms and very wet people queuing right up to around 1445, when it became very quiet indeed. Things remained busy on the freight front, and lots of action was to be seen on Godfrey Road. Industrial action on Central Trains services meant some further weirdness - with a somewhat unpredictable pattern of services and some unusual units visiting. Also noted most of the Wessex 3 car Class 158/9s visiting during the day - including 965, 966 and 967 which were all new to me. By popular request, I've added a list of which units make up the 3 car sets here on the site.


Had a very damp walk around to see what was at the back of Godfrey Road - predictably, the locomotives at the front moved minutes after we returned, dripping to the platform! Having seen 158961 head down to Cardiff earlier, decided to wait and catch it on the return to Bristol. Arrived home cold, wet and tired, but as usual an entertaining time at Newport.

New Sawfish includes a nice new theme called "Crux" which is the only thing which has tempted me away from my faithful Helix-Sweetpill themes for ages! Also updated (yet again) RedHat's glibc packages. Worked on the 0.2 stable release of gmailq-applet, but experienced sudden problems with GnomeHelpMenuEntry which were of course entirely my own fault. So a stable version is now out (RH7/RH6/tar.gz) and includes a couple of tweaks. Bit of a frustrating day though, somehow.