Six Bells Junction

Route :
1Z50 : Crewe to London Liverpool Street
1Z51 : London Liverpool Street to Crewe

Loco	Route
66116	Crewe - Stafford - Wolverhampton - Sandwell & Dudley - Birmingham New Street - Water Orton - Nuneaton
56087	Nuneaton - Hinckley - Wigston South Jn - Kettering - Wellingborough - (via fast line) - Harpenden (to slow line) - St Albans - Cricklewood UGL
56087 (1)	Cricklewood UGL - Carlton Road Jn - Junction Road Jn - Harringay Park Jn - Harringay Jn - Hornsey - Bowes Park Loop
60075	Bowes Park Loop - (via Up Goods) - Finsbury Park - Canonbury West Jn - Navarino Road Jn - Reading Lane Jn - London Liverpool Street
47197 (1)	London Liverpool Street - Carpenters Road South Jn - Channelsea North Jn - High Meads Jn - Temple Mills East Jn - Tottenham South Jn - South Tottenham East Jn - Harringay Park Jn - Junction Road Jn - Carlton Road Jn - Cricklewood Curve Jn - Dudding Hill Jn - Acton Wells Jn - Acton Down Goods
58029	Acton Down Goods - West Ealing Jn - South Greenford - Greenford West Jn - South Ruislip - High Wycombe - Princes Risborough - Aynho Jn - Banbury - Leamington Spa - Coventry - Nuneaton
66072	Nuneaton - (reverse of outward route) - Crewe

Sources : Gary Thornton (joined/left the train at Sandwell & Dudley) & Kevin Stroud

Tour Review
(by Gary Thornton)

Time once again for Pathfinders annual Christmas "spinner" - this year a run down to and round the London suburbs. Pleasing for me as there were a grand total of four pieces of track that I stood to score during the day.

Erm, three pieces of track....the tickets arrived on the Thursday with information that High Meads Junction to Temple Mills East Junction was off because of Channel Tunnel high speed link work. Oh well...

My day started at 6am, up and ready for the arrival of a colleague from foreign parts, or at least Stevenage! Stuart lived up to his quote that he was an ace navigator and arrived at me pretty well bang on time and we were soon on our way to Sandwell & Dudley to pick up the tour. Why such an unusual location to join? To get all the locos involved joining before Nuneaton (the logical place for me), Birmingham...no thanks, so S&D it was!

Pre-tour gen had locos 47197, 56087, 58029 & 60075 quoted which would give me three out of four as I didn't need the 58. As per usual, no-one seemed bothered to quote the 66's! On arrival at Sandwell & Dudley we soon found out that the first shed was 66116, another winner for me.

A few minutes before time we wandered up to the platform - to a cry of anguish from Stuart as one of his last two class 87's he needed for haulage, 027, was stood on a train at the other platform! Just before our train arrived large-logo 47847 shot through on a northbound VXC service.

66116 duly appeared and we boarded coach A, the second coach in the formation behind the generator/staff vehicle (17105 - ex-Royal Train staff couchette coach 2905). Next stop was Birmingham New street where there was time to get a photo of the 66 and catch up with news/rumours from those joining there. A couple of Voyagers appeared and departed before we did - not something I'm that used to seeing just yet.

Saltley depot was host to at least 47841, 08905, 66091 & 66139. Plastic-city, sorry the Alstom works, had a few Great Western vehicles visible along with a 458 unit but too far away to get any numbers.

Everyone off at Nuneaton to witness the hand-over from 66116 to 56087 "ABP Port of Hull". A few track maintenance trains about and not much else as the Trent Valley route was closed for engineering works. 60100 was one of the locos noted working the engineers trains.

From Nuneaton we headed for Leicester, but only as far as Glen Parva junction at which point we turned south onto the Midland Main Line. We kept on southwards as far as Cricklewood where we turned into the up goods loop in order to add 60075 onto the rear of the train. A good choice, 60075 was one of the last (or possibly the last) class 60 that has never worked a passenger train!

I began to perk up here as our route now took us over two pieces of track I required - Carlton Road junction to Junction Road junction and the Harringay curve. With both bits done (a beer was opened to celebrate) we were now heading north on the East Coast Main Line....but only as far as Alexandra Palace where we branched off onto the Hertford loop. At the first station, Bowes Park, we ran into the reversing siding where we said good bye to 56087. As we passed Bounds Green depot on the way in 89001 was noted on shed.

60075 was in charge to Liverpool Street - we made it there via Finsbury Park, Canonbury, Dalston, London Fields and Bethnal Green. A well-early arrival gave more time to spend in and around the station...in my case a bite to eat followed by a short snooze!

A step back in time now with one of Freightliners class 47's in charge - 47197 to be precise. Our fourth loco of the day and my fourth winner too. From Liverpool Street we headed westwards, though to achieve this meant first heading eastwards via Stratford then north via Temple Mills and finally turning east at Tottenham South junction. Some of the track we traversed was quite rare, but I'd done it all before on service trains. For some on board (mentioning no names Miggy) today actually gave an opportunity to score passenger track!!

At Harringay Park junction we were back on the route we'd travelled over in the opposite direction a few hours earlier. We re-traced our steps as far as West Hampstead where we turned off onto the "down Hendon" which got us to the curve at Cricklewood onto the line to Acton. The usual stagger ensued along this route and, per normal, we were held on the approach to Acton Main Line whilst the GW decided what to do with us.

As booked we then ran into the down goods line and, between Acton Main Line and Acton West we stopped for our next loco change. 58029, my only dud loco for the day, was waiting to take over. At this stage I should mention that timekeeping all day had been very good - we had been within a few minutes of time, mostly early, all day. Our departure from Acton was just a handful of minutes late but as we headed north we caught that back (eventually). A brief unscheduled pause at Ealing Broadway didn't delay us much then we traced our way via Greenford onto the Chiltern line.

58029 wasn't particularly challenged as we wandered our way towards Banbury and we kept just a couple of minutes shy of right time. A stop was made at Banbury for a crew change. On the approach to Leamington Spa an announcement as made to ask people to pause to remember Jonathan Stacey, a Pathfinder regular who had suffered a heart attack and died a week or so earlier whilst waiting for a Pathfinder train at Worcester. A nice touch.

After Leamington Spa we headed for Coventry and a booked set-down for passengers. We'd been back "into credit" with the times after Leamington Spa but Coventry panel wiped that out after we waited 10 minutes for access to the station! At Coventry a certain person from another railtour operator, Mercia Charters, was seen joining - no doubt scratching in another required class 58. An enquiry revealed he'd also needed the 56, but had over-dossed in the morning and missed it. Funny, isn't that the third or fourth grid you've managed to miss this year Denzil....?

Onwards then to Nuneaton via Bedworth, passing a Freightliner 66 (603 someone said) as we approached Nuneaton. Last loco change here - 58029 passing control over to 66072 - loco number six of the day and my fifth required one. 66072 was also to be my 30th 66 for haulage (not that I'm particularly proud of that fact - I merely mention it out of interest!).

A fairly unexciting trundle back to Sandwell & Dudley for us and here we said good bye to those of our group who were on to Crewe.

Verdict : as always, the Pathfinder Christmas "spinner" provided a good mix of locos, track and general entertainment as most everyone in my group of regular railtour travellers had turned out for it.

Just one more tour left in 2001 for me - Hertfordshire's "Lune Ranger" on December 29th.

M.C	Location	Booked	Actual	Booked	Actual	M.C
0.00	Crewe	07.34d	07.42	22.33a	?	73.52
1.64	Basford Hall Jn	07/40	07/46	22/29	?	71.68
8.06	Madeley	07/45	07/51	22/21	?	65.46
19.08	Norton Bridge	07/56	08/02	22/09	?	54.44
24.37	Stafford	08.03a ~ 08.05d	09.08 ~ 08.11	21.57a ~ 22.00d	?	49.15
38.14	Bushbury Jn	08/20	08/23	21/41	?	35.38
39.25	Wolverhampton North Jn	08/24	08/25	21/39	?	34.27
39.68	Wolverhampton	08.26a ~ 08.30d	08.27 ~ 08.30	21.34a ~ 21.37d	?	33.64
45.28	Dudley Port	08/41	08/38	21/25	?	28.24
47.24	Sandwell & Dudley	08.44a ~ 08.46d	08.42 ~ 08.45	21.19a ~ 21.22d	21.15 ~ 21.16	26.28
48.73	Galton Jn	08/49	08/48	21/16	21/11	24.59
50.51	Soho South Jn	08/51	08/49	21/14	21/09	23.01
52.52	Birmingham New Street	08.56a ~ 09.12d	08.56 ~ 09.13	20.56a ~ 21.09d	20.55 ~ 21.04	21.00
53.26	Proof House Jn	09/16	09/16	20/48	20/51	20.26
54.17	Landor Street Jn	09/19	09/18	20/44	20/48	19.35
60.23	Water Orton	09/30	09/26	20/38	20/38	13.29
63.08	Whitacre Jn	09/35	09/30	20/33	20/33	10.44
73.52 0.00	Nuneaton	09L52a ~ 10L15d	09.44 ~ 10.15	19L57a ~ 20L17d	20.02 ~ 20.17	103.48 0.00

M.C	Location	Booked	Actual
4.19	Hinckley	10/23	10/25
14.76	Glen Parva Jn	10/40	10/36
15.46	Wigston South Jn	10/42	10/38
17.17	Kilby Bridge Jn	10/46	10.43 ~ 10.45
28.13	Market Harborough	11/00	10/57
38.06	Kettering	11/12	11/08
44.76	Wellingborough	11/19	11/16
53.42	Sharnbrook Jn	11/27	??/??
60.09	Bedford North Jn	11/38	11/28
60.22	Bedford	11/39	11/29
61.17	Bedford South Jn	11/40	11/30
69.59	Flitwick	11/49	11/38
79.58	Luton	11/57	11/46
90.06	St Albans City	12/08	11/56
95.44	Radlet Jn	12/13	12/01
102.78	Hendon	12/22	12/08
104.14	Cricklewood Jn	12/25	12/10
(104.44)	Cricklewood UGL	12L27 ~ 12L38	12.13 ~ 12.35
105.09	Cricklewood South Jn	12/42	12/38
105.77	West Hampstead Thameslink	12/44	12/41
107.64	Carlton Road Jn	12/46	12/46
108.41	Junction Road Jn	12/50	12/50
108.79	Upper Holloway	12/52	12/51
110.14	Harringay Park Jn	12/55	12/55
112.05	Alexandra Palace	13/17	13/03
113.02 0.00	Bowes Park Reversing Siding	13.22 ~ 13.37	13.06 ~ 13.15
0.75	Alexandra Palace	13/47	13/19
3.32	Finsbury Park	14/04	13/27
4.53	Canonbury West Jn	14/10	13/38
5.44	Dalston Jn	14/13	13/40
6.13	Navarino Road Jn	14/16	13/43
6.37	Reading Lane Jn	14/18	13/45
8.02	Bethnal Green	14/21	13/48
9.12 0.00	Liverpool Street	14L24a ~ 15L22d	13.53 ~ 15.23
1.10	Bethnal Green	15/26	15/26
2.69	Bow Jn	15/28	15/29
4.03	Stratford	15/33	15/33
4.45	Temple Mills East Jn	15/38	15/35
7.13	Copper Mill Jn	15/46	15/40
7.60	Tottenham South Jn	15/48	15/42
8.26	South Tottenham	15/51	15/45
10.00	Harringay Park Jn	15/57	15/50
11.15	Upper Holloway	16/00	15/52
11.53	Junction Road Jn	16/01	15/54
12.30	Carlton Road Jn	16/05	15.56 ~ 16.02
13.70	West Hampstead South Jn	16/12	16/06
14.10	West Hampstead Thameslink	16/15	16/07
15.29	Cricklewood Curve Jn	16/20	16/10
16.13	Dudding Hill Jn	16/25	16/14
18.50	Acton Canal Wharf Jn	16/34	16/23
19.10	Acton Wells Jn	16/38	16/25
19.62 0.00	Acton Main Line / Acton West	16L41 ~ 17L19	[16.47 ~ 17.23]
0.59	Acton West	17/23	17/24
2.25	West Ealing	17/26	17.26 ~ 17.28
3.34	Greenford South Jn	17/34	17/35
3.65	Greenford West Jn	17/35	17/37
6.37	South Ruislip	17/41	17/42
8.18	West Ruislip	17/44	17/44
11.00	Denham	17/48	17/47
13.48	Gerrards Cross	17/54	17/52
22.59	High Wycombe	18/06	18.07 ~ 18.10
30.70	Princes Risborough	18/18	18/20
36.55	Haddenham & Thame Parkway	18/24	18/25
49.46	Bicester North	18/35	18/37
57.64	Aynho Park Jn	18/45	18/45
58.48	Aynho Jn	18/50	18.47 ~ 18.49
63.52	Banbury	18c55 ~ 18c57	18.57 ~ 18.59
72.32	Fenny Compton	19/10	19/07
83.61	Leamington Spa	19/22	19/17
84.67	Milverton Jn	19/24	19/19
89.27	Kenilworth	19/29	19/25
92.57	Coventry Park Jn	19/32	19.30 ~ 19.40
93.33	Coventry	19.35a ~ 19.38d	19.41 ~ 19.43
100.02	Bedworth	19/50	19/55

Locos Used	47197, 56087, 58029, 60075, 66072 & 66116
Stock Used	17105+5029+4902+5030+4963+5040+4927+1842+99540+99568+99566