The morning of Sat 20 Nov arrived early for your intrepid reporter as he had to cycle 10 miles to Rugby to catch the first Down Birmingham service of the day. (I know, the things we do etc...) Fortunately it was a mild morning! The requisite West Midlands Day Ranger was purchased from the booking office (only £28.80 Adult or £19 with Railcard). I was asked for my surname and it was printed on the ticket to assist with enforcing the 'non-transferable' condition of issue - although most ticket outlets don't bother with this.

It arrived from Bletchley (ex-depot) and was lightly loaded - well, it was an 06.18 departure - to New Street P4, calling only at Coventry, Tile Hill & Birmingham International (spot the odd one out!).

There was time for a trip to the Upper Crust (naturally upstairs) for tea, passing through two gatelines, the ticket worked each one (shame it didn't at Rugby). Then it was back down to P4 for the 07.13 SO to Crewe, formed of a LNwR train from Northampton only a few minutes behind; but not advertised as a through Northampton to Crewe service! On board I met Tom Gilby, our illustrious leader and planner with three others who joined for this run. Very unusually (but isn't that what the Society specialises in?) it is non-stop from New Street to Penkridge via Aston to Bescot Stadium then the PSUL route via Darlaston Jn, Portobello Jn and Bushbury Jn. The guard checked our tickets, commenting that everyone on board except one was on Day Rangers and was anything happening anywhere today? I think he had twigged as he also mentioned the unusual route.

After experiencing the 'Penkridge Flyer' we stayed on past Stafford and Stoke to alight at Kidsgrove, a 'new' station for your reporter! Standing on the footbridge we could see the north portal of the original Harecastle Tunnel to the south (until 27 Jun 1966 the alignment of the route we had just taken). Staffed by EMR, the ticket office was closed with handwritten notices on the door apologising. One member joined us here and we waited for the Manchester to Stoke-on-Trent local Northern service which did the facing crossover to Stoke bay P3, the object of the exercise. With a 20 min wait, sustenance was purchased from the Café and we saw the Derby to Blaenau Ffestiniog 'Jolly Slateman' tour call to pick up passengers. Hauled by two green Class 20s with a Class 37 on the rear, the train manager was none other than Kev Adlam, ably assisted by some of our very own stewarding team!

Our group joined a southbound CrossCountry train to Stafford with another brief wait for a Crewe to Euston LNwR service to Rugeley Trent Valley. There we crossed the footbridge to P1 and the 'Chase Line', which has had electric trains since May 2018, joining EMU 350404 on the 10.19 to New Street. After calling at all stations to Tame Bridge Parkway it ran via Perry Barr North Jn and Soho South Jn.

Arriving at P1 we followed Tom's advice and used Navigation Street footbridge at the Wolverhampton end to cross to P10, the only one that joins all the New Street platforms and tends to be the quietest. This avoided the crowds heading for the German Christmas Market in the City. Our target was the 11.22 to Stansted Airport. However, your reporter spotted 172102 on P10B, part forming the 11.50 to Hereford, which he needed for 'haulage' to clear the Class! So, at very short notice, and arranged with Tom, I left the group and enjoyed a run to Bromsgrove on this Chiltern-liveried DMU. At Barnt Green 7029 'Clun Castle' was heading north on Vintage Trains' Lickey Banker morning tour from Worcester Shrub Hill back to Tyseley, followed shortly by 20189 light engine, required to turn the train on the Worcester triangle and as a standby banker, but was not needed as such. [The turning moves for both trains, via Henwick Turnback Siding then Tunnel Jn, were actually done ECS this day (BLN 1388.2946).]

A quick change at Bromsgrove saw me on a pair of Class 323 EMUs back into New Street and another CrossCountry to Leamington where I rejoined the group. Down P2 Pumpkin Café seemed to have shut permanently although the 'coffee shop' on Up P3 was open. The main group had (per itinerary) been to Nuneaton then down to Tamworth and back before joining the 13.16 Nuneaton P1 to Leamington Spa (which did run, alternate services were buses as then booked). Leamington arrival was into bay P4, track extends a few coach lengths beyond the platform and is used to stable West Midlands' DMUs.

Returning on the 14.02 the party, back to full strength, alighted at Coventry for the 13.53 Birmingham to Northampton train. I took some 'time out' at Rugby and sadly when I alighted things began to go wrong! I noticed that the train back from Northampton was not running due to the lack of train crew.

So Tom and the others arrived at Northampton bay P4 as booked but instead of their 15 minute connection back from P2 they had to wait for the set's return diagram at 15.38 from P4. Once all the passengers had transferred, the 8-car train was pretty 'wedged'! It was worse for me at Rugby as the 15.03 Euston to Birmingham Avanti Service was also cancelled, so two trainloads of passengers were waiting to join an already full and standing train! Somehow I did as did others en route but it was a bit of a 'Man of Steel' move and our itinerary had now gone out of the window! We could still claw it back if we made a very tight connection into the 16.50 New Street to Hereford. Arrival was around 16.45 and again we used the New Street 'B' end footbridge and all made it - literally by about 30 seconds!

This train was nowhere near as busy as we had feared and we all had seats. Online checks en route to Worcester Foregate Street revealed mass cancellations [what, even the religious services‽ and the lack of the Chiltern Class 68 working to Stourbridge (a DMU was substituting); it was decided not to try for all three sides of Worcester Triangle but to head home (sort of). So we waited and caught the 17.41 to Dorridge from Foregate Street. I alighted at Kidderminster to stay the night for our AGM there the next day, while the others continued to Stourbridge Junction. They managed a run along the Town branch and back before abandoning any further travels. Tom even had to resort to a No9 bus back to Birmingham such was the wait for a train! Despite deteriorating into a farce at the end, it had been a good day with convivial company. Thanks to Tom for the excellent research and arrangements.