It's been a turbulent and busy week, and once again I'd given little thought to today. There was a point earlier in the week that I'd convinced myself that I'd probably end up going nowhere - but the lure of the railway is such that I can't ever escape for long. The only practical concern is that delaying my decision means the trip costs more! Decided that today should be then end of my fairly poor attempts at travelling on one of the new TransPennine Express class 185 units. I'd tried to incorporate them into the last rover and been in their area of operation on a good few occasions, but have always failed to travel on them. As an interesting side effect, noted that Virgin services from Manchester were diverted from Piccadilly to Victoria Station. No time to check this morning, but guessed at a diversion via Ashton Moss and Denton Junctions, which meant some rare track too.

Stumbled blearily onto 2M02 and was met by a few of the usual faces off to Bristol to bash the Holidaymaker HSTs. Purchased a ticket and had a relaxing trip up to Bristol. A quick switch at Temple Meads onto 1S42, and a fairly quiet ride up to Birmingham. The usual summer saturday chaos here, and with reservations already apparently wrong on the Voyager was harrassed by a family who firstly could not tell Coach F from Coach A, and secondly had utterly misinterpreted their tickets to mean that the 'A' meaning 'airline style seat' meant Coach A. As a consequence, stood from Birmingham to Warrington in an increasingly overheating vestibule listening to the worlds most annoying Birmingham accent for most of the way. I'm desperately glad I'm not in Blackpool today where most of this motley crew were heading. They were complaining bitterly that the train shouldn't stop at any other stations but theirs (a pet hate of mine that!) and that it should go straight to Blackpool. Can't argue with the need for more direct services, but their logic was utterly flawed. Not helped by the On-train Cleaning Staff trying to explain the complexities of the CrossCountry franchise reorganisation which she'd clearly discovered through an extended game of Chinese whispers!

A journey like that makes a walk across Warrington seem like a skip through the park. Nice to be out in the cool air. Familiar enough with the town from my last visit to make swift progress between Bank Quay and Central stations. Reading the posters about security changes at Manchester Airport made me realise that in my arrogance and anger last week, I'd failed to register some fairly big events. The 'Class 185 stop' signs here made me hope for a surprise, but the familiar three-car 158 trundled in. Busy, but not too packed. Had a nice, if a bit sleepy, ride via Manchester and Standedge Tunnel to Huddersfield.

Minutes after arriving at Huddersfield, 185126 thundered in on a Manchester service. Almost dashed over to catch it, which would have been a fairly major change in my itinerary, but instead decided to take some pictures and spend a little time in a station that usually I'm visiting for a quick change, or which is overrun by football fans. Noted in fact a small number of Bristol City fans arriving, but hardly a force to be reckoned with - being outnumbered by Police officers about 3 to 1! A fairly busy hour or so, with 185s on the Hull diagrams only as far as I could see. Chatted to a local who was out photographing them too. He was interested but disappointed to hear that 185132 arrived on Monday with no vinyls applied at all, because he'd been hoping to see the old-style First livery on a 185. Decided on the 12:59 to Manchester Piccadilly which would allow plenty of time to get across town to Victoria.

Once inside, the 185 is not significantly different from any of the other Desiro variants. It's spacious, comfortable and fairly quiet with nice big windows for the Pennine views. Settled in for the quick run into Manchester. Noted that the unit didn't really seem to be tested on this stretch - we didn't seem to get moving until beyond Guide Bridge, and then only as far as the throat of Piccadilly where things slowed to a grind, despite a fair number of services not being in operation. Overall though, a smooth ride and a very pleasant trip. Spotted another couple of 185s lurking in the station - presumably they would normally have headed for the airport, had the line not been closed. Straight downstairs and onto the Metrolink. Missed a Bury tram due to a complete fool trying to buy a ticket in front of me with what appeared to be foreign coins. The platform was wedged with people heading for Old Trafford, and the Metrolink employee doing his best to help people was in fact confusing some of the waiting passengers. Soon enough on an almost empty tram through the City Centre to Victoria.

Grabbed a quick coffee here, and wandered through the barriers, where there seemed to be hundreds of people paying excess fares - which was odd! Bang on time, the Voyager from Brighton arrived on platform 3 - a fairly rare sight in these parts! Had a quick chat with the driver who brought the unit in, and confirmed the routing. Boarded, found a seat and settled in for the unusual trip. Out of Victoria and via Miles Platting towards Ashton Moss North Junction. Here we headed south, onto a bit of freight-only track. Noted another enthusiast in my carriage with his 'Baker' Rail Atlas plotting the route. Crossed above the line to Stalybridge just west of Guide Bridge and joined the route of the Ghost Train - this in itself was an event as its impossible to travel this line southbound on a service train. After Denton station, a pause for another Voyager to clear the single line and pass us, then on to Heaton Norris Junction and back onto the usual route to Birmingham. Aside from an influx of football fans at Stoke, the remainder of the journey was uneventful. At New Street, on to 1V65 for a very late lunch and a quiet trip back home via Gloucester, where Cotswold seem to be storing more of their fleet by the week - with a rather worse-for-wear pairing of 31206 and 47365 evident on Horton Road along with the usual suspects nearer the station. Down here it was warm and sunny, and the sky promised a glorious sunset. I wondered if the clouds had burst over the Pennines yet?

Given fairly steady progress at work, sneaked in an impromptu day off today. The plan was to meet up with a couple of others and head for Rugby. I always seem to end up there around this time of year, and its relaxing to spend a day just watching trains on the always busy West Coast mainline. Despite a damp start from Highbridge things improved markedly in the Midlands, and on arrival at New Street the sun was out. A quick switch to a fairly grubby 321 as far as Rugby, and into the familar spot on platform two.

A quiet morning, with only the odd freight to break up the tide of passing Pendolinos. However, as the afternoon arrived so did a pretty startling array of different liveries and workings which wouldn't be seen back home. During the course of a couple of hours, both of the remaining GBRf Class 66's from the recent new batch which I hadn't seen passed through the station.

Noted several DRS workings, including the infamous 'Malcolm' train at the usual hour. Also pleased to see Fastline's 56302 pass through - albeit on a very empty container train! Having first seen this at Doncaster, it was good to finally get a photograph.

Stayed on a little later than usual, and has a fairly busy last hour or so, with a procession of interesting workings. Finally departed on the 17:47 Pendolino for Birmingham realising that I'd managed to go bright pink in the sun - the closest I ever get to a tan. An otherwise quiet journey back through an amazing sunset was interrupted by some troubling phonecalls. But today was still a relaxing and unexpected break.

Interestingly, in a series of conversations with family members over the past few weeks I've uncovered some fairly strong opinions about how I spend my time and money. I've always accepted that having an interest in railways set me aside as part of a niche group which was fair game for ridicule, but I've met enough decent people on the inside of the group to balance the negatives. In fact I tend to find the whole trainspotter tag rather funny, and play up to the stereotype when I'm with people who find it difficult to understand.

Strange then to note that there are actually a few people within my own family who are so appalled or offended by my activities that they would let this affect or change my relationshop with them! Presumably if I confessed to a range of bizarre perversions or to a secret career as a pole-dancer it would be fine - but because I occasionally take pictures of trains its reason enough to attempt to edit me out of the photographs Trotsky-style?

So the picture below is dedicated to these critics. I suffered for this: climbing barriers, getting stung and standing in an awkward and poorly-balanced situation for a fair while - anyone who knows me and my physique will understand what an achievement that is. It was a pleasant Sunday morning to be out, passing the time of day with people and enjoying the sense of occasion as the Torbay Express passed through town. But of course the people I'm referring to were still sound asleep in bed at this point...

A rather gloomy start to the day, but braved the weather with no coat and set out for the station early. Opted for a quick early breakfast again, as I was heading for London with the intention of covering one of the most significant of my remaining untravelled bits of track originating from the captial. Arrived at Temple Meads, noting the hired-in GNER HST set waiting for its departure for the seaside. Seemed sort of incongruous in the fairly wintery conditions this morning! A quick step over to platform 13 for my seat on the 07:30 to Paddington.

Once again, a smooth and quiet journey towards London. We ran early much of the way. Unusually large amounts of locomotives stabled at Didcot and Reading today too. Noted a progressive improvement in the weather, with the sun peeking between the clouds somewhere east of Swindon. On arrival at Paddington had the frustrating experience of not being able to get off the platform, as the First Great Western prebooked tickets didn't work the gates! Due to a late decision on where I was headed today I picked these tickets up from a FastTicket machine at Temple Meads yesterday. Noted that they were also not endorsed for cross-London underground travel, so shelled out for a Travelcard too. Pretty annoying - when I received similar tickets from the Trainline last week they came complete with a Gate Pass.

Over to Liverpool Street. I depart from here rarely enough to still make it feel like something of an event. It didn't even matter that the rolling stock was a fairly dilapidated 317 with bits falling off and evidence of some comprehensive vandalism in recent days. The train filled up fairly quickly, and soon enough we were heading out into the Northeast London suburbs en route to Cambridge. The entirety of this line from Hackney Downs northwards is new to me - but I found the stop/start crawl through the suburbs most interesting. We weren't scheduled to call anywhere here, but the procession of services meant fairly slow progress until we passed Cheshunt. I'll confess to dozing off a little here - the day had become very warm and my early start was catching up with me. There was something soothing about the rolling, typically English countryside which lulled me into sleep all to easily!

Arrived at a very hot and crowded Cambridge station in one of the south-facing bay platforms. Cambridge has a curious layout - one long through platform with a crossover in the middle to enable working as two separate faces, with a pair of bays facing in each direction. Started with a wander around to see what was stabled, noting 31105 and 31106 on a test train. Found some lunch and rebooked for Ely to cover another missing link in my 'Baker'. Hopped onto Central's Birmingham-bound 170 for a short and pleasantly cool ride through the fens. The incredibly flat, almost featureless countryside here sort of unnerves me somehow. I long for hills or something to break the desolation. For this reason, arriving at Ely is always special. The view from the south was no less impressive, with the Cathedral appearing suddenly and dominating the landscape for miles around. Took time to explore the station a little today, and spent a happy half-hour enjoying a coffee and watching the trains. I'm always amazed how Ely station is perched on the edge of the void landscape - the town to the west and north, but empty fenland to the east and south - the emptiness beginning just feet from the busy station. All too soon time to head back to Cambridge on a curiously still Anglia Railways liveried 170273.

Surprised just how crowded Cambridge station seemed to get - particularly before each direct Kings Cross train departed. My own plans were to take one of these services, but first I found myself a spot out of the crowds and spend some time people-watching and trying to take some photographs of the passing trains, which are all fairly unfamiliar classes as far as I'm concerned. Finally settled on the 14:15 fast train to Kings Cross - a pair of 365s, non-stop. Settled in for a speedy ride along the southern reaches of the East Coast Mainline.

A couple of surprises at Kings Cross. Firstly, 47712 and 47145 stabled in a distinctly unphotographable spot at the station. I understand they'd worked a railtour earlier in the week. Next was the spacious new Underground Ticket Hall which I'd not visited before. Much improved access and lots of space, but a little confusing at first being used to the long walk around caused by the Channel Tunnel Rail Link works at St. Pancras. Once I'd found a Circle Line platform I was soon on a train back to Paddington, with a little time for a pint of Chiswick Bitter in the Mad Bishop and Bear before my train back to Highbridge, which tonight was hauled by 43175 - one of the recently repainted HST power cars which First Great Western can't decide on the final livery for!