Six days before I returned to the United States I had the opportunity to journey to Manchester one last time. The first photo is a scan of my British Rail Intercity ticket good for a trip to Manchester via Birmingham and Crewe. A friend and I managed round trip tickets for about eight pounds, not bad for a day of train spotting.
The next three shots are at Birmingham. The first is I believe Tyseley taken from the train, and the other two are New Street portraits.
After Birmingham we traveled to Crewe and caught a class 304 electric multiple unit to Manchester Piccadilly. We then took the train the Guide Bridge and Reddish North to photograph Class 76 electric locomotives. I'll post those pictures at a later date. After returning to Piccadilly we caught a bus to Manchester Victoria to photograph diesel multiple units. The next group of pictures was taken over a one-hour period at Manchester Victoria. The station was so busy that we managed to both get a cramp in our hands from trying to write all the DMU/EMU unit numbers down.
After Manchester Victoria we returned to Piccadilly and caught a train to Crewe. At Crewe we boarded and incredibly long train pulled by two Class 86s. The train was packed and although we had seats there was always somebody's elbow or butt in your face- not really conducive to jumping about and snapping photos. We passed a freight on the slow line just West of Stafford, which was pulled by the last Class 86 locomotive (86-030) that I needed to clear the class (it seemed like a big deal then). A quick decision was made to bail on the over crowded Intercity and get off the train at Stafford. I quickly found a spot and caught 86-030 as she passed through the station.
