Home > Rail Work Experience > Tuesday 28th March 2006

TUESDAY 28TH MARCH 2006

The day started with over a two and a half hour wait in which we didn't know what was going on. We were asked to be at Basingstoke station by 9am and we - Matthew (my fellow student) and I - had to keep ourselves amused until about 11:40 when somebody finally turned up! We were taken over to platform 2 and boarded the 11:50 Poole service which, due to a broken window in the guard's van, was going to terminate early at Bournemouth. Presumably so it can get to the depot as early as possible to get the window fixed. Matt blagged the first cab ride down to Southampton, and into the platform came the (at the time) unique 'refreshed' Class 442, 2401! He was accompanied into the cab whilst I sat in the passenger compartment awaiting my turn. Here are the interesting points from Matthew's ride:

• UnID Class 66 freight at Basingstoke.
• UnID MPV near Micheldever.
• UnID SWT 73 with BR blue 3417 near Southampton Airport Parkway.
• Light UnID EWS Class 66 at Southampton Airport Parkway.

I got the return trip back from Southampton Central up to Basingstoke in 2411's cab, departing Southampton at 13:00. Interesting sights on my journey back to Basingstoke were:

• UnID Hanson Class 59 near St Denys.
• Guessing our current speed exactly - 90mph. Our top speed was 100mph.
• Queue of 5 trains (most at a stand) between Micheldever and Worting.
• Battledown Flyover which brings the up-main over both up/down Salisbury lines.
• Dismantles crossover between the up-So'ton & up-Salisbury due to maintenance.
• Two loaded UnID EWS Class 66s side-by-side at Basingstoke station.

At Southampton I bumped into Francis Oldfield (see yesterday) and am due to see him at Basingstoke tomorrow as part of the induction! So, this will see me seeing him three days in a row after never meeting him before and only ever talking to him a couple of times on railway forums!

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