Well today was the start of a 3 day break from work made possible with days owed after Christmas. So I would continue to use my FOSW. I also decided that I would add to my FOSW by getting a £12 Southern Daysave. To make the most of this I this booked into a Travelodge (love them £20 rooms) in Portsmouth.
I left Plymouth on the 0509 to Exeter. From here my FOSW is valid and took me to Southampton via Honiton. Slow and a change at Salisbury, but cheap.
The original plan was to get a Southern train to Brighton at 1033. But upon my arrival I saw another Southern 377 unit in the station. It was heading to London Victoria. Perfect! My ticket was obviously valid and that's where I was trying to get to anyway! I know where my planning went wrong. Asking to go to Victoria from Southampton kept taking me via SWT (and then tube) which is quicker but not what I wanted.
So now I also had the chance to scratch off new route. Barnham to Three Bridges was the route which was required. I changed trains at Gatwick. I was an hour ahead of my plan now it was a chance to pick off more units. I went into Victoria from here and then returned to Clapham Junction. From here I would catch up with my plan of heading North to Milton Keynes. This is the far North bit of the Southern network an although not new route the track was certainly new if you get picky. Also Milton Keynes station was new for alighting.
It was then back south to Clapham and on a train to Brighton! This was done with 3 minutes spare before my ticket technically becomes invalid!
Once in Brighton it was time for some dinner. As usual a new Wetherspoon was visited. It was then back to the station. From here a winning 171 DMU to Lewes was caught. Then back towards Haywards Heath before changing to go north to Three Bridges. My plan was now to catch a train to Bognor Regis to get that branch in. Due to the times a cheeky train to Redhill and back filled in time and as it turned out get enabled a couple more winners.
The journey to Bognor Regis was quite slow and it was now dark. Glad I got the Horsham line in earlier when it was light!!!
I had about 40 minutes in Bognor so a pint was had in the Spoons. Another one in the book!
It was then back to the station and a train to Barnham. Then a train to Portsmouth. Annoyingly my train didn't stop at Hilsea where my Travelodge was. So stayed on it until Portsmouth Harbour. It was then the same train which forms a service to Little Hampton and does stop at Hilsea!!!!
A 10 minute walk to the Travelodge and a well earnt kip!! 530 odd miles covered and 18 winning units in the book.
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