So the first day of the eventual plan required an anytime return to Manchester Piccadilly. Today would see us do a Cheshire Day Ranger, my first. We planned to get to Manchester and have breakfast there before the Cheshire Ranger was valid. Peter got the tickets and specified Manchester stations so we could use the tram between Piccadilly and Victoria!
We left Leeds at 0625 on a dud 185. Once we arrived into Piccadilly we headed to the trams. We rode these for a short while until the Wetherspoons, (The Waterhouse) we were planning on going to, was open.
After breakfast we headed to Deansgate to catch a train to Piccadilly. This was where we were meeting Dave for the day. There were some severe delays when we arrived and everything heading east was not stopping. Eventually a train stopped (156424 a winner!) but was only going as far as Oxford Road! Another dud 185 took us onwards! There was a +1 for the next train to Chester and was on one of the terminating platforms! I ran ahead of Peter as he said he would catch up later in the day if the plan went wrong! The plan was set by me and was a route scratching plan. He needed pretty much all of what I needed but not the first bit!
Anyway as it so happened the train didn't leave on time and we both made it and found Dave! It was a winning 150148 and 142051 so a good start! The snow continued to fall as we headed to Chester but didn't lose any more time. At Chester a dud 175 took us to Shotton. The original plan was to pop into the Wetherspoons here as we had just over an hour, but a late running train to Bidston rolled in and we jumped on that instead! Bonus! Saved an hour and it was one of my two remaining ATW 150s! (I didn't realise this until I got home though!)
We were now on the Merseyrail network where I should be picking up winners as I had only been on it once before! Dave went his own way from here for a bit as me and Peter headed for Wetherspoons on the network that Dave had already done. We headed to West Kirby first. Then onto Hoylake and then Moreton. Three winning trains and three new pubs!
We then met up with Dave and headed to New Brighton. With the branch complete and the location of the new Wetherspoon known for when it opens, it was now time to head to Ellesmere Port. We headed to one of the two Wetherspoons once here before catching a winning 156460 to Warrington Bank Quay. From here me and Pete visited both Wetherspoons whilst Dave settled in the nearest for dinner. After this it was back to the station and time to head Chester again. Whilst waiting 66849 rolled into the station (only need one more Colas 66 now for sight!). At Chester we headed back onto the Merseyrail network once more to Hooton and back to Chester. We had dinner at Chester before we headed to Crewe. We photted various trains in Crewe and waited for the Pendolino (390104) to Manchester via the Styal line. With that complete we did a Piccadilly to Oxford Road move and back.
We then repeated the move to Oxford Road but stayed on the train as it returned to Wilmslow via the airport. This meant i had completed the 3 sides of the junction to the airport. It was then back to Piccadilly. It was now late but our train to Leeds wasn't for a while. We saw what would be our train (185126) and decided to get on it to the airport. It would then return to Piccadilly and go on through to Salford Crescent before reversing to Victoria and then onto York via Leeds.
A good day for route scratching and managed to ride 15 new units. I also bagged 8 new trams too and travelled just under 325 miles.
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