12th & 13th July – A day in
East Yorkshire [with a detour into North Yorkshire]
This was another trip which I was planning to do last
September time, but got caught up in the strikes on Northern, and the variable
timetable where the first couple weeks there was one unit going Hull – York and
back a handful of times before that was replaced by nothing, so after
considerations I ditched my plans (thankfully the hotel room had free
cancellation, but I lost out on around £30 for advance fares). This was a trip which needed* a hotel stay in
Hull on the Friday night (*well if I wanted to avoid a walk) so it was a case
of looking up hotel prices for the hotels both near to the station plus ones
which had late check in available.
The plan for this trip changed a bit since the rough plan
last year, mainly with the hourly Hull – Scarborough services rather than the
every 90-odd minutes they were previously.
12th July – An evening in London
As I was booked on the 20:30 Hull Trains service [hey it was
cheap], I had an evening to spend within London, so after a few minutes of
thinking what to do, I decided to hunt down my last few SWR 455 & 456s, and
putting a request to see which services they were allocated to work out a rough
plan. Out of the 7 units, 6 were out and
about (the 7th was stopped for repairs), so a quick plan with Real
Time Trains and I came up with a very loose plan in order to ‘bag’ the
units. Made harder as these are for
mileage and some of the units were only on tiny mile leaps [mainly Waterloo –
Vauxhall] so would need a good run.
I finished work, headed home, and headed to the station
after a quick turnaround at home (I’ve learnt over the years to pretty much
have everything packed the night/morning before to allow for fast
turnarounds). The TVM at the station was
out of use (again!) so it was a case of buying the tickets from the guard on
the train. Because the moves are
repeated I will do it as a summary so you can skip ahead:
Grateley -> Basingstoke: 159020 & 159011 (nice to see
this service being upgraded to a pair of units, the 13:47 Salisbury – Waterloo
was always a busy train when it was a single unit)
Basingstoke -> Clapham Junction: 444006 & 444036
(services from Grateley don’t call at Clapham, my fingers were crossed as it
was held up due to earlier congestion)
Clapham Junction -> Waterloo: 455847 & 455729
Waterloo -> Wimbledon: 455729 & 455847 (got
delayed around 10 minutes due to the preceding Guildford train breaking down,
thankfully I had a reasonable connection at Wimbledon)
Wimbledon -> Vauxhall: 455734 & 455867
Vauxhall -> Surbiton: 456005, 455868 & 455866
Surbiton -> Clapham Junction: 450115 & 450036 (The AC
felt lovely)
Clapham Junction -> Waterloo: 455725, 455871 & 456002
Waterloo -> Wimbledon: 456002, 455871 & 455725
Wimbledon -> Surbiton: 455730 & 455910 (I do like a
good non-stop run between these two stations)
Surbiton -> Clapham Junction: 456016, 455704 & 455702 (last 456 for 10 miles, but one
slow trip due to congestion)
Clapham Junction -> New Malden: 707030 & 707002
(mainly for a platform score, plus to visit the Tesco express outside the
station for dinner)
New Malden -> Clapham Junction: 455863, 455919
& 456008 (after a walk over to the Windsor lines side for what I through
was a low mileage 707 turned out to be incorrect)
Clapham Junction -> Vauxhall: 455742, 455869 & 456024
It was time to leave the little red devils behind and head
underground where 11069/11070 took me to Kings Cross St Pancras, where I made
the most of the time to pick up my rover for the morning, before boarding a
busy 180111 for the trip to Hull. It
emptied out along the way so after Selby I had a private table for the last
section, where it caught up with a late running service from Sheffield so
arrival into Hull was around 10 minutes late.
Less than 5 minutes later I was checking into the hotel, for
what started with a reasonable night (all be the duvet was extra thick which
meant taking it out of the case to sleep underneath the empty case due to the
warmth) until around 1am when a group returned from a night out and decided to
carry on being noisy, arguing with a girl in the group saying that she slept
around etc. Eventually after the 3rd
visit from the member of staff on reception they decided to leave (as the
police were on their way), so peace was restored for the last couple hours, but
the damage had been done.
Anyhow, a pointless pair of passenger information displays,
at least these days they are turned off rather than saying “welcome to New
Malden”, a successful evening in London, only one more SWR 455 for mileage
requirements, which hopefully should be easy to get in the future. Plus a spooky looking empty (ish) Clapham yard,
which is kinda spooky.
------------
13th July (East Yorkshire)
After checking out of the hotel, my first move of the day
was to a 24 hour Tesco next to the station for breakfast (and lunch for later
on) before heading to the 06:45 Doncaster stopping service which was formed of
142032. The guard was on board testing
the doors, however there was an issue with one set of the doors, and after
departure time came and went the service was deemed a failure. Needless to say this threw my plans up in the
air as I headed over to board 158782 working a York stopping service, coming up
with an alternative plan which meant ditching a jolly to score platform 2 at
York.
Anyhow back on this 158, first time (excluding a Meadowhall
leap) on a refurbished 158 which has had the new seating fitted, quite
reasonable (better than some of the collapsed seats found in other examples of
the Northern 158 fleet), and quite empty for the all station service (yes even
Broomfleet!). I made sure I was at the
rear of the train* as I alighted at Eastrington,
causing a shock from the guard as “nobody ever gets on/off here” [and with a limited
service who can blame them]. (* there is
always a small risk that with some of these lighter used stations, the guard
not doing a full release of the doors).
The reason for wanting to stay overnight in Hull was due to this
station, as this is the only time of day where two services call within half an
hour of each other, and hence avoiding the need to walk to Gilberdyke.
I was shocked as a regular passenger joined me in the
waiting shelter as my first 155 for over 2 years rolled in, which 155345 for
the short leap to Gilberdyke, where
I had roughly 20 minutes before 170475 huffed and puffed its way into the
station from Sheffield. Gilberdyke is
one of those stations along this line where the platforms were extended
outwards when the track was reduced from 4 to 2, with evidence of the former
platforms at the Selby ends, just a random bit of history and the reason for
the long footbridge. Anyhow the 170 took
me the 12 miles back towards Hull where I could recover Hessle which was missed this morning, and this is where I had a
bright idea, and a quick play on RTT saw it was possible, as 142093 took me to
Brough. A few minutes later 155345
returned from Hull to take me to Selby (and into the ten mile club), where I
had a short fester before 155343 rolled in from York to take me back towards Howden, more of a time wasting move,
but in a way I’m glad I did as 158782 was on the next York service, and it was
rammed (York races was on).
The Hull – York services are a bit strange, there are a few
which go direct from Selby towards York via the ECML (rather than going via
Sherburn), this was one of those services which allowed me to microgrice the
connection between Hambleton East & North heading towards York, as I’ve
only ever done it towards Selby. The
speed on the ECML was nice on an overcrowded 158 with failed AC, but I was glad
when it rolled into platform 1 at York allowing everybody off. Due to the York races there was a revenue
block and a one-way system in place, but I didn’t get caught up with that as I
headed towards a Scarborough bound TPE service. During high summer, there are some
additional York – Scarborough services using a spare 185, probably to help with
the loadings of the hourly service, these services use the rarely used platform
2 (also known as the Scarborough bay).
From December if Northern introduce their hourly York – Scarborough
services, I suspect they will use the bay, but for now, it’s a rare bay score!
I took a seat on a lightly loaded 185114 on a Scarborough
shuttle (the unit returns to York where it sits in the bay until 5pm before
doing another couple shuttles), forgetting how slow this line is for 185s, and
I had lunch before alighting at Seamer, crossing over to the other side of the
island for 158793 to roll in from Scarborough to take me to Bridlington, mix
between a time wasting move and as a platform score. 158795 was up next to take me back the 10 or
so miles to Hunmanby where I had a
12 minute connection for 158850 to take me back to Hull. The time wasting move to Bridlington was due
to the hourly services passing at Filey so this is a station easier to visit
from the south.
Back at Hull, the next Sheffield stopper wasn’t anything of
interest so I popped out to do a bit of light shopping before returning for the
next York train, which was 155346, I had to check my pictures from
earlier in the day, but yes 346 had swapped with 345 the last time it was in
Hull (and was sitting on another platform), happy days for me as it was another
low mileage 155 as I took it for the run towards Sherburn-in-Elmet as a bonus station score. With an hour to kill, I headed towards the
village centre for some supplies for dinner, noting there were no signs from
the village centre pointing towards the station; it was hidden away down an old
dead end road [next to a pub]. Evidence
of a former road level crossing [I guess replaced by a road bridge and looking
at a map I guess at some point in the past the A162 had a bypass built cutting
Moor Lane in two]. It might be worth
noting for anybody wanting to visit the station with a tight connection is the
tiny level crossing barriers for the foot crossing remained down in the short
time a York bound service arrived and departed and 155346 returning, so it isn’t
worth the risk.
Back on the 155 (my mileage for this class has doubled!) for
the run towards Selby and to my final station of the day at Wressle, another limited served station
and I was the only passenger alighting, and felt like the only living being
around for the 30 minutes before 150126 appeared (with a shocked driver that
someone was boarding here) to take me back to Selby, where for a time wasting
move I took 185140 for the run to Howden (for the novelty of a TPE calling here
as it doesn’t happen that often), turning down the return of 155346 (and noting
that 155345 which was heading to York at Sherburn had turned into 144007 as it
headed back towards Hull), and waited as 180113 rolled in to take me back
towards London.
My reserved seat was in coach C, which looked heavily
reserved, so I simply removed the label and headed to the leading coach (coach
E I think) which was unreserved and had 2 other passengers in (with another
couple passengers joining the train along the way), so a nice peaceful trip to
London, where it terminated into platform 11 at Kings Cross (due to major
engineering works). The 180 arrived
around 5 minutes early which was nice as it gave me that little bit extra time
to reach Waterloo (11003/11004 on the Victoria Line to Oxford Circus, 3260/3547
to Waterloo via the Baker’s Oven). The
last couple times I’ve done the 21:50 to Salisbury it’s been a single unit, so
I was happy as it was a pair, 159001 leading 159104 for the run back home to
Grateley, followed by a gentle potter home.
Overall a successful trip, what started badly turned out
quite well with everything I wanted to do being done. Down to 15 stations left to revisit, another
trio of Northern stations will hopefully fall on Friday, with the remainder over
the next couple weekends, bulk are on the Goole – Knottingley line, with two of
the Pontefract stations as well. An end
to the Northern Empire is in sight!
I will leave you with a random platform ticket for York I
found on one of the trains.
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