Well my plan today was to complete any route remaining on a FOSW area. This includes The Severn Beach Line from Clifton, Swindon to Cheltenham Spa and Cheltenham Spa to Great Malvern. So after trawling through the times of various trains and combinations of doing the route I decided on going to Great Malvern then Swindon and then Severn beach. I left on the usual 0925 off Plymouth and caught the train up to Bristol. Because there was a big gap until the train to Great Malvern I did a fill in move to Swindon and then made a move to Bristol Parkway. This gave me the connecting train to Great Malvern.
Upon arriving at Great Malvern earlier than expected a quick run to the other side enabled me to catch a Networker Turbo as far as Worcester Shrub Hill.
I then caught the train I got to Great Malvern back to Cheltenham before heading to Swindon on another bit of new route through Stonehouse, Stroud and Kemble.
All that was left now was the Severn Beach branch. Due to a a late running Swansea train i got off at Swindon and straight on another. I changed at Parkway to head to Temple Meads on a winning 158 where I could do the 1803 to Severn Beach. But when I arrived I saw another winning 158 on the adjacent platform. I jumped on it and quickly looked to see if I could get back to Stapleton Road for the Severn Beach. If all ran on time I would have (or if the bridge at Filton Abbey Road wasn't stupidly long) but I missed it by seconds! So I haven't completed the FOSW! I looked at my options and the next train was for Cardiff. So I headed there. I did a quick bash up the hill to see what was on the bay branch. It was a dud 153303 so I headed back down the hill. I got a phone call from the wife asking if I wanted picking up from Plymouth. The limit was 2300 so I said yes and headed home.
I have done the trickiest bit of the FOSW though and not only had I done this I also got some winning trains for haulage which I was not expecting. Finished my FGW 158s, a bonus 166 and a couple of power cars thrown in for good measure! I also spotted five new locos (66522 at Fairwater, 67021 at Worcester, 66953 at Stoke Gifford and 37059/37069 passing Bristol Parkway at speed sounding beautiful!) and a new unit (150002 also at Worcester).
Winning trains in red.
221134 (0925) 1S39 PLY-BRI
43134 (1130) 1A15 BRI - SWI
43162 (1213) 1B27 SWI - BPW
158798 (1252) 1V94 BPW - GMV
166206 (1435) 1P61 GMV - WOS
158798 (1506) 2O94 WOS - CNM
150233 (1540) 2B96 CNM - SWI
43132 (1638) 1B51 SWI - BPW
158769 (1720) 2O97 BPW - BRI
158766 (1741) 2E26 BRI - FIT
158959 (1800) 1F26 FIT - NWP
43042 (1831) 1B59 NWP - CDF
142073 (1906) 2T52 CDF - CDQ
143614 (1916) 2F78 CDQ - CDF
43097 (1925) 1L92 CDF - BPW
150246 (2011) 2C25 BPW - BRI
221137 (2047) 1V66 BRI - PLY
I did 593 miles giving me 8887 miles for the year so far. Bring on Friday when I head to The South Coast and the Isle of Wight ready for my first tour I will do from start to finish on Saturday.
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