27th July – A day in Yorkshire

27^th July – A day in Yorkshire

My alarm(s) sounded and I was out of the hotel, and into the rain, ugū, I noted something was strange when a Brighton bound Gatwick Express service called at East Croydon, as my options northbound were cut in halve with the Bedford bound service cancelled, so it was to the Cambridge bound 700007 for the run to St Pancras, I would normally step back a train at Blackfrairs for a St Albans stopper, but that was also cancelled.  In fact everything heading north from St Pancras was showing as cancelled until the 08:06 Bedford!  (There was some services terminating at St Pancras from the south giving some service, but it was quite bad).

Once at St Pancras, I headed across to Kings Cross and the tesco nearby for some breakfast before heading towards the York stopping service, which could potentially be my last long distance 91 hauled service.  At the front was 91117 with DVT 82228 at the rear as I took my reserved seat in coach F, settled back and watched some more anime on the tablet (passes away the time on a line I’ve done many times).  A bit of delay south of Peterborough and also south of York meant the train was around 15 minutes late into York, the Hull train was a low mileage 158 so it was a quick walk to the ticket office (I was using a Northern Friends & Family Voucher one of my friends kindly gave me), only to be stuck in a queue.

I had given up on making that Hull train (and was quite pleased I didn’t need it for Sherburn), but with 5 minutes to go, the queue jumped forward, and it was a quick transaction by the ticket office lady and with less than 2 minutes to go I exited the ticket office, thankfully the Hull train was on platform 1 as I leapt onto low mileage 158796 with a few seconds to spare.  I decided to bail at Church Fenton because the next York bound service from Sheffield was running a few minutes late (the next Hull – York train was around 20 minutes late!) and it would be a random platform score [previously did Church Fenton linearly heading southbound], with a busy 142022 bouncing me to the island platform of Ulleskelf.  I didn’t fancy attempting to make the tight connection to the next Sheffield service at York!

I was alone in bailing at this little served station, but someone was boarding, and it was quite wet, as the picture below might show:

A wet Ullesklf

The shelter points towards the York bound platform, which is at a higher level, so I got a bit wet waiting for the Sheffield train, formed of low mileage 142009 for the run south (quite busy, with some quite underdressed ladies who I assume had been out all night in York) to Pontefract Baghill.  It was still raining (ugū again), so I got a bit soaked in walking the mile (or so) to Pontefract Tanshelf, via a little Tesco (for shelter, and to get some toilet paper to try and dry my glasses).  Thankfully there is a decent shelter at Pontefract Tanshelf, getting me out of the rain before the next Leeds bound service bounced in.  142091 took me to Wakefield Westgate where I wanted to intercept the Doncaster stopper as it was a low mileage 321/9, the stopping service to Leeds was running late (otherwise I would have headed to Outwood), but the heavens opened, as 321903 rolled in.  It got looped after Fitzwilliam by a late running 800, and gave some good wheel spin (and good motor noise).  I noticed the other unit out was a 331 which gave me an idea for later.

I was considering bailing at Bentley and waiting half an hour for the Adwick starter, but decided against it due to the poor weather, so once at Doncaster it was a short walk via the subway to board 170459 for the run to Meadowhall, on route passing my last 144 for mileage heading towards Adwick, so that again gave me an idea.  At Meadowhall, I exited the station for the first time, via the bus station to the main-road to walk along the mainroad towards Brightside where I was staying in the Crown pub.  Basic accommodation, bit rough around the edges, but a very friendly landlady (seems to be a drinkers pub).  My bag reduced in weight and I was back on the road (thankfully the rain had eased off) walking towards Meadowhall, following someone wearing a belt for a skirt up the stairs to the overbridge to join 142050 for the run to Swinton (which is a random platform score)

The next Sheffield (from Leeds) wasn’t anything of interest, so it was a bit longer wait before 144004 bounced its way in from the Doncaster direction to take me to Sheffield, the class cleared for mileage (which is a good thing as I can just ignore them at Leeds).  The next Leeds semi-fast was a 158 of little interest, but the next Bridlington was a low mileage 170477 which I took to Doncaster (gets them out of the way, and at least something which is fast to Doncaster from Meadowhall is better than a Harrogate line stopper, I’m not the biggest fan of 170s).  With some time to kill it was a quick visit to Sainsburys coming away with nothing, a bottle of pop sourced from Poundland, it was time to sample a 331, in the shape of 331106.  Very much like the 195s inside, but certainly seemed to accelerate well, but the Doncaster – Leeds stopping services is probably not the best place as they don’t get upto much speed.  A reasonable run nether the less, and once at Leeds I popped out to Boots to grab dinner for later.

I had a couple options, either a Sheffield stopper to Castleford (or Woodlesford), or a Knottingley via Wakefield to Kirkgate.   By the time the Knottingley service arrived it was a bit tight to get across to the 144 on the Sheffield stopper so it was onto 153358 & 153304 for the run towards Wakefield, losing a bit of time due to a platform clash at Kirkgate so the connection was gone, so I remained on board to Knottingley, where the units split up.  I was going to head back towards Pontefract with a +10 to the Goole service, but when the doors on the single dogbox were only released 8 minutes after departure I decided to give it a miss.

"I don't want to be with you anymore"

During the time at Knottingley, there was another passenger hanging around who I had down as someone else waiting for the Goole train, and a 60 came past with some coal wagons before 144005 rolled in on the Goole service, it emptied out and I was alone in boarding a private train.  I was trying to decide based on the weather whenever or not to ditch my walk, in the end decided that the weather had dried up and it would allow me to clear Northern with an alight (rather than a board) so I alighted from the empty pacer at Whitley Bridge, not a lot at the station (it has shelters but no seats), but has a nearby pub and some shops close by.  I set about on the opposite walk to August 16, towards the village of Eggsborough, passing the closed power station and branch line (which is slowly returning to nature), along the damp verge eventually regaining pavement as I reached the small village of Hensall, just as a 66 came past with some biomass wagons

Last Northern station to board a train at!

For the levels of service, Hensall has an excellent waiting room, (behind the fence in that picture), a bit like Thorpe Culvert & Havenhouse in that respect.  I wonder when the last traveller to use that waiting room was, and when did the old fire place get removed.  I didn’t see any lights so one not to do during the winter months, but an enjoyable place to rest my feet, as the rain started again.  144005 returned from Goole, this time having another passenger on board as I made a bad decision to bail at Castleford to see what units were floating around (nothing of interest).  I also noticed the Knottingley-Leeds service an hour later was delayed which gave me an idea to grab the Pontefract bound platform at Glasshoughton without an hour fester or a walk back to Castleford (as the hourly trains normally pass here and it isn’t the easiest station to get between platforms in a hurry!)

144005 returned from Leeds (knew I should have done Woodlesford) to take me the mile and a half to Glasshoughton, where I had a 5 minute fester for 153304 to roll in from Knottingley to take me back to Castleford.  144012 took me to Normanton for a linear hop, a few minutes later 142025 was  taken to Wakefield Kirkgate, with 144005 (again!) up the hill to Wakefield Westgate where it terminated.  Another decision time, either I could do a linear hop with Moorthorpe, or hang back for an unknown EMU to Doncaster.  In the end I decided on a linear hop with Moorthorpe for a random platform score, with 158758 taken to Moorthorpe, followed 35 minutes later by 150126 for the run back to Meadowhall, the end of a good day.  Not a good end for a pair of youngsters who was asking how to get back to Manchester! (Bear in mind, this was nearly midnight, the last Manchester train had long since departed, either an overnight stay near the station for the first Manchester train or an expensive taxi I suspect for that couple.

I walked back to the pub, entering via the kitchen/side door, to relax in the bedroom.  A successful day, 4 more stations into my book for revisiting (9 to go in total), plus a handful of low mileage units over the line, plus my first 331, in addition some random platforms were scratched.  I shall leave you with this pair of pacers on the final Leeds service from Moorthorpe on Saturday night.

Pacers at night, Bouncy Bounce