A day out on a Day Ranger
West Midlands wandering
© Geoff’s Rail Diaries 2019
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
10 September 2019
We’re having a leisurely day out, exploring
some of the railway variety to be found in the
West Midlands - specifically, within the scope
of the West Midlands Day Ranger ticket. It’s
still good value for what it covers, though the
price is creeping up (9% in 3 years).
We begin our travels by heading for New
Street; a walk beside the tram lines takes us to Snow Hill and
a ride down to Stourport, for a trip on what is probably the
oddest train on the national network. Unit 139002 is one of a
pair of Parry People Movers, which between them share duties
on the Stourbridge Jcn - Stourbridge Town service. It’s a short
ride - the train runs every ten minutes. Seems well patronised
too.
Our curiosity satisfied, we’re heading south-west, of necessity
on three different trains - first to Foregate Street, Worcester,
then on a Great Western 158 to Great Malvern, and lastly to
Ledbury on a dreadful roaring, rattling and grinding class 153.
Lunch at Ledbury proves to be a most enjoyable affair - it
would have been very pleasant to stay in the Prince of Wales
for the rest of the day, but the household authorities wouldn’t
have been impressed. So we’re off again, this time to
Bromsgrove, where we have to change to a local electric
service (which appears to make nonsense of the Lickey bank)
in order to change again at Barnt Green for a
run down to Redditch.
We return from Redditch on the same train,
to a very busy New Street (it’s not long after
5pm now). Our next train, over the recently-
electrified route to Rugeley, is packed when
it pulls out, but is very lightly loaded when it
arrives at the Trent Valley station.
We’ve time for a few photos of passing trains (it’s a busy
spot) before a train to Stafford - where across the platform is
a Birmingham-bound service, which departs more-or-less
immediately. At Wolverhampton, there’s just time to pick up
a much-needed coffee before the train back to Shropshire
pulls in. And that was it. We’d had 15 distinct rides on 13
different trains - every one of them on time. What a good day
out!
Links:
•
West Midlands Day Ranger
•
Class 139
