Mopping Up 1: 1 September 2007

This is the first of three trips to mop up those last few lines that I haven't yet covered. This is either because they were included in the plans of previous trips but something went wrong; or because there just wasn't time to fit them in. Each one will include one of those lines that sees very scant services. Today's trip focuses on the North West and the Midlands.

First step is London Euston to Stockport by Pendolino. This is a trip I've now done a few times, so I can grab some sleep en route, it leaving London at 7.45am. Ironically it goes via Stoke without calling at Stafford first, thus using a stretch of line I haven't been on before, but was not concerned about because it is a slightly different route to the same place with no stations. This also gives me my first glimpse of the breathtaking Peak District, which I never tire of seeing. I notice that the Trent Valley four-tracking works are advancing fast, which will allow faster and frequent west coast services from 2009.

We arrive at Stockport just after ten, and I have the best part of an hour and a half before the next leg. I have a look around the city. It has the usual clone shopping centre and bowling alley, chain shops and too much traffic. But it also has a nice market and some pleasant winding car-free streets. After nosing round a couple of charity shops I give in to my base desires and go to Wetherspoons. I will return to the town some day because there is an air raid museum with a mock-up of a shelter there. Also it was reasonably pleasant as towns go.

Back at the station I get the one and only Stockport to Stalybridge train of the week (two coach Sprinter). It runs on Saturdays at 11.28 and calls at Denton and Reddish South, where one person gets on, before a stop at Guide Bridge on the Woodhead Line. I should imagine the token service is for driver route knowledge and to prevent the government closing the line to passengers (which it recently tried to do). It carries a lot of freight and we pass a couple of such trains in the other direction. I just get the feeling that all the other passengers are line bashers too! There are certainly more than I thought there would be and I notice a couple of them are definitely spotters.

At Stalybridge I visit the station pub, established in the 19th century and still going strong. It always has a good selection of beers on, and indeed, is in the CAMRA guide. I discovered it at the end of last year on the Manchester bash, and the memory of the barmaid has not faded. She is the epitome of the friendly Northern barmaid, and she goes up further in my estimation when a couple of track workers whistle at her and she winks at me and suggests it's me they're after! The same track workers express their envy to me that I am sitting on the platform drinking beer while they are yomping up the trackside with heavy equipment! It was quite dark when I last stopped here, and so I didn't realise how high up the station was. In daylight therefore there is a fantastic panorama of the Peak District with churches and houses nestling in its slopes.

So after a very enjoyable interlude I get on one of the many passing Trans Pennine 185 trains to Manchester Piccadilly. This is another journey I'm familiar with, particularly with the degree of overcrowding on the route. TPE are getting fourth carriages for many of their trains, but I wonder whether that will be enough. I've never quite understood why these routes are not part of Inter City anyway (with appropriate decent length trains) as what else would you call a route like Manchester to Newcastle or Liverpool to Hull? Luckily it's only twenty minutes to Manchester, where I grab some lunch from Marks before the next stage.

My next conveyance is a class 323 EMU to Crewe. This takes the route via Manchester Airport rather than Stockport, reversing at the Airport then passing through the famous Cheshire suburbs such as Alderley Edge. This route was actually suspended until recently. It was closed during the main part of the West Coast modernisation, and the points locked out for the Wilmslow to Airport spur. I believe it has been electrified since then and is now running an hourly service. It's a daft silly little bit of line to cover, but it does have one rarely-used station - Styal - and it's on the way to the third line of the day anyway so why not. I grab some more sleep while I get the chance.

I haven't really been to Crewe properly, beyond changing trains there and visiting the Crewe Works a couple of years ago, which are out of town anyway. I don't think I really want to visit it anyway, judging by the short walk I have to find somewhere to find an antacid. It seems to be another post-industrial town still looking for a new raison d'etre. The inevitable giant ASDA has already opened on part of the Railway Works. There are a lot of interesting looking pubs on the station road too, but I've had enough to drink for the moment! Having found a chemist, I head back and have a coffee while watching the trains come and go at this most famous of junctions.

Next call is a Desiro to Birmingham New Street. This is the stopping train run by Central (soon to be London Midland) and there's not much between it and the faster Virgin train at this point of the route, just because there are so few stops in the empty countryside between Crewe, Stafford and the West Midlands. In some ways this section seems like a buffer between the Midlands and the North, and it makes you realise how small Britain is as you cross it quickly.

There's only about 15 minutes to wait at BNS before the 323 EMU for Redditch emerges from the cavernous tunnels surrounding the subterranean station. The full route is from Redditch and Longbridge to Lichfield, and I completed most of it last October, and if it hadn't been for engineering works then, there would have been no need to come back today! Branches are always difficult to work around, so I'm very relieved to pass the couple of stations that finish this one. At Barnt Green the main line continues to Worcester, a route I covered last year, and a single track branch continues to Redditch. It's almost as if someone has thrown a switch on the branch as the landscape seemingly switches to lush green from concrete and canal in an instant.

At the end of the trail I just stay on and go back as it turns round within 5 minutes. There's only a ticket check on the return leg so no explanations needed for the rather short visit to Redditch. I gratefully exit using the Victoria Square exit at New Street and head for Snow Hill station. I have over an hour to the train home, so I'm seeking a pub. I find one almost overlooking the station called The Old Contemptibles. It's so recently refurbished that you can smell the paint. It has a smart interior that is a nice mix of old and new. There is a reasonable selection of beers. The menu tells me that the pub name comes from a specialist regiment formed in the Boer War (ironically specially for fighting overseas) which was labelled "contemptible" by the Kaiser in the First World War.

At Snow Hill I get a Chiltern six coach class 171 back to London Marylebone. Snow Hill is now part of an office block. It was originally part of the Great Western route to the Midlands and beyond. It was closed in the early 1970s like so much else, and its services generally diverted into New Street, with the next stop down, Moor Street, becoming a terminus. The skeletal remains of the GW station at Wolverhampton, known as "Low Level," can still be seen next to the station that survived on the main west coast line. The tracks have gone but the building's demise is protracted. The Midland Metro tram system now uses the route between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton. However as demand for rail travel rose, and the lost capacity of the closures was required again, Snow Hill was rebuilt and the through route from Moor Street re-opened in 1987. Journeys across the conurbation were now possible - such as Worcester to Stratford. A new Snow Hill to Marylebone service also began, replacing the remainder of the GW route from Paddington. Since then Chiltern have doubled the track all the way and turned a line threatened with closure not that long ago to a viable second route to the West Midlands . While the engineering works are going on on the main line, it takes little longer than the Pendolinos, and since I got the fare for £5 by buying one of Chiltern's print-at-home tickets, it couldn't be better!

The train is packed, much more than I expected, so it isn't the most peaceful trip I've ever had. But it makes good time and I have a trouble-free trip back across town to home. Three more lines done!

New lines this trip:

Stockport-Stalybridge
Manchester Piccadilly-Airport-Crewe
Birmingham-Redditch