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Hartill
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Had a ride around the Thames valley on the 31st July.The Thames branches day rover is not a bad deal. And stared out from Twyford. The first surprise of the day was a pair on LNER 800’s EB on the slow lines. 800.208 dragging 801.201 from Eastleigh to Bounds Green. At least this is what I was told by a couple of enthusiasts on the platform. Apparently rather than hire in a loco the 5 car bi-modes are being used to drag the emu’s to/from Eastleigh. Back to normality saw me on my 1st 387’s to Reading followed by my 1st 345 to Slough. Another high performance modern EMU and one that manage 89mph on several occasions and was making even time runs. Twyford to Maidenhead was 6m 1s with a long coast in, and we managed 86 mph between Maidenhead and Taplow. A gentle stroll over the bridge saw me pick up the 15.04 Slough to Reading, a Worcester service. For some reason that is not clear this set was on diesels, other services were using the OHL but not this one. In practice this was a plus for me as I had a chance to see what a bimode will do on diesel. The answer was 115 mph at Twyford and the 12min schedule was extended by 56sec Still 81mph ave is not bad and 115 on the level (ish) is the fastest I have had with a 800 on diesel. The next leg was Reading to London and back on the 15.39 out and the 16.43 back. This was the same train, 387.162+147+173. The set came in with out of use on the side and there was a bit of a hiatus getting on but eventually after checking with the driver and some sort of reset it became the 15.39 to Paddington. It was incredibly hot in the train and with masks on almost unbearable. The driver apologised and explained that the set had been sitting in the sun, soaking up heat on the hottest day of the year, the aircon was working but would take some time to cool the train down, he also said which coaches on his screen were showing as the cooler ones. Quite a good piece of PR. It was a relief line 90 mph run tom Paddington with a lot of waiting time. We also passed some 315’s heading west for scrap I assume. The return journey started a little late at 16:44 in a much cooler train, we left relief line and headed out to be stopped after Acton Main line to wait for a EB 800 to pass then crossed to the FL and headed off for Reading. We generally ran at around 108mph but peaked at 111 after Slough so I hit the 387 max. It was a slow approach to Reading as again we crossed back to the relief lines. I counted 8 passengers on the 12 coach set as it left Reading for Didcot. My return to Twyford was cancelled but ended up on one 10 mins later although that was late as well. Still not bad for an afternoon out, 2 new train types and personal fastest in a 345, 387 and also diesel mode 800.
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