16th November – A trip to the North East
I wanted a nice weekend away in Newcastle area, mainly to
get the northbound platform at Widdrington, but also to see if I could get
anything needed for mileage. Sadly the
Heaton based pacer I needed wasn’t out to play, my last LNER powercar was on a
Newcastle – Inverness service (first stop Berwick, starting at Newcastle due to
engineering works further south), but I had good news for my last 185.
Due to the engineering works, advances for the East Coast
were held back from being released so I decided to think outside the box,
ending up on the lowland sleeper to Carlisle for a slow trip across the Tyne
Valley to reach Newcastle, and on the Sunday managed to do a multi-split on XC
to get to Reading for just over £32, featuring a nice HST. Anyhow the day begins on the lowland sleeper
being hauled by winner 92028 and a
few minutes early arrival at Carlisle where only myself and a business
gentleman alighted (he was in a suit so I suspect someone who is a
regular). I had around 40 minutes to
kill before the first Newcastle service of the day, so I had a brief walk around
a dead quiet Carlisle, always strange walking around places in the early hours
where it’s peaceful.
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| The lowlander sleeper departs Carlisle |
Anyhow, back to the station and it was onto 156481 for the
long trip towards Newcastle, calling at all the stations, every single one,
slow wasn’t the word, but eventually Newcastle was reached, arriving a minute
or so early allowing me to make a tight connection onto a Reading bound 220001
for the run to Darlington where I exited the station to head to a nearby
Sainsburys Local in the hope of scoring a bacon sandwich, but came away empty
handed as the shelves were doing a good impression of the shelves at Euston
Sainsburys in being empty. Back to the
station and after a northbound voyager departed it was a walk to the annex
platform 4a to board 156472 & an empty 158907 for the run to
Newcastle. Doing this route on a
Northern service felt so strange, and is also the first time in many years I’ve
called at Chester Le Street. Once at
Newcastle I sourced breakfast before heading to board a Manchester bound 185103
& 185101 as far as Durham (for a photograph) followed by a busy dud 800102,
a student type wasn’t very happy that I asked her to move her bag from the seat
to allow me to sit down, bless her.
I was back at Darlington, making my way over to the bays for
the next Saltburn service, where I got a phone call from the hotel I was
staying at, saying that due to failing a fire inspection they couldn’t honour
my booking, and suggested a place in Hebburn which had rooms available. Needless to say when I boarded 142018 for the
trip towards Middlesbrough I was on my phone on the booking dot com website
looking at options, expecting the worse but was surprised at the number of
options available for £35, with my eyes catching hold of a £19 room in a hotel
in Whitley Bay, certainly looked close to the metro station so that is where I
booked up. I was expecting either to pay
£60+ for a room or get a dorm somewhere, so issue solved.
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| No trip report to Northern land is complete without the traditional picture of a pacer |
Back on the pacer, as it bounced its way to Middlesbrough,
where I alighted, crossing over to the opposite platform to wait for the next
Manchester train to roll in, a little victory sound as 185108 rolled in,
which clears my 185s for ten mileages, however I needed to stay on this very
busy service to Northallerton for it to be cleared for ten miles. Nothing to note at Northallerton other than
two grumpy cyclists being angry that they couldn’t board due to the
overcrowding (I think there was something happening in York). I crossed over to the opposite platform to
board winner 802203 for the run back
to Newcastle, certainly picked up a nice bit of speed running on the overhead
wires.
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| The grey bullet of 802203 rests at Newcastle |
My eyes picked up on a low mileage 156491 on the next
Carlisle service, which I decided to take to Hexham for the Newcastle bound
platform, and also for a photograph, returning to Prudhoe on 156472 and then
back to Newcastle on 158817 (still feels odd having 158s floating around this
area). Back at Newcastle, it was time to
head towards Whitley Bay to check in as the opening hours were a bit short
(closes at 7pm on the website), and as the first train was a Coast bound
service (4027/4090) I decided to stay on board all the way to Whitley Bay,
where I located the hotel, checked in and dropped some bits from my bag before
heading back to the Metro station with 4058/4012 taken to Monument, where it
was a short connection onto 4037/4031 (which I saw passing around Cullercoats,
so it doesn’t matter which way round you go), which took me to the new station
at South Shields.
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| The new station at South Shields |
Sadly no time to hang around, as it was back on the same
pair for the run back to Central Station, where it was a short connection to
156444 for the run to Blaydon. This
connection was a bit dodgy as it was a +6 and this 156 departed 4 minutes late,
but thankfully the next Newcastle bound service was also running a few minutes
late, so it allowed me to grab my photograph of this semi-awkward station. 156491 was back to take me to Dunston for
another photograph, where it was a short fester before 156472 rolled in on the
Chathill service. It got busy at
Newcastle and I was very surprised how busy it was after Morpeth, must have
been around 20 other passengers on board.
No takers for Pegswood that I noticed, and only I & one regular
passenger alighted at Widdrington. A
station I feel has potential if it had a decent service level, as like Pegswood
it has a lot of houses nearby. Clearly
Northern think it also has potential as they have installed a TVM here...
...Yes a TVM at a station served by 3 trains a day, maybe a
rival for Doleham for least used TVM, although the Promise to pay option wasn’t
available. Sadly the little shelter has
been removed and it appears a future shelter will be installed at some point,
so 85 minutes with no seat, in light drizzle.
After visiting the nearby Co-Op, I took shelter in a little bus shelter,
watching as the ECS at Chathill was running late, as everything in that area
was delayed I can only assume there was some signal issues, maybe around one of
the level crossings. Anyhow 156472
eventually returned running around 15 minutes late, two other passengers were
on board, and I took it all the way to Newcastle, narrowly missing a train
towards Sunderland. So as a time wasting
move, I decided to board a busy Doncaster bound LNER service (82205 leading
91107, the 5th time I’ve had that 91 for pushing but I’ve never had
it for pulling). At Darlington, it was a
short wait but sadly the gamble didn’t work as it was dud 800113 for the run
back to Newcastle.
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| Some money is being spent at Widdrington for the 3 trains a day |
It was time to say farewell to the big trains and head to
the Metro station, where the next train showing was to the Airport with a “The
Coast” train in 16 minutes, so it was a leap to Monument on 4081/4089, just
missing a Coast train from the high level platform, so it was back to the low
level platform with 4090/4027 taken back to a very busy Central Station, but a
short wait before 4059 rolled in, I managed to get a seat near the front
for the run back towards Whitley Bay, where disaster struck when I was an
absolute idiot and left my phone on the train.
What I imagine happened was I got my phone out of my pocket in order to
make a note of the rear set (4062), but got distracted attempting to release
the hotel keys from my bag (I’ve got a little clip think which I use to hook
keys on) but as this is a new bag the clip is stiff and I ran out of time,
hopping off without doing my usual “pocket” check. On the platform I did my pocket check hunting
for the phone, only to realise I must have left it on board.
Needless to say, this got me quick angry with myself for
being such an idiot (before getting a bit depressed) and also worried. Thankfully my pictures had backed up with the
runs on the LNER earlier so al I lost were the original high resolution
pictures. In a bit of a panic I hopped
on the next service to Cullercoats (4044/4049) and sat on the seat waiting for
the train to return, but when it did as expected there was nothing around. Back to Whitley Bay and a slow walk to the
hotel, where I spent the next thirty minutes sending a couple emails, firstly
to my provider to put a stop to the Sim and also to Nexus to report the lost
property. An awful end of the day, but I
have only myself to blame, I lost focus, an expensive mistake. (Thankfully it is only a Motorola Moto G, so
£125 to replace it with one from Amazon, so it could have been worse).
As for the hotel, it was very nice, especially for £19 for a
same day booking, certainly one I would consider using again the next time I’m
in Newcastle next year on Azuma hunting.
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17th November – Back home
As mentioned at the station, due to a delay with LNER
releasing their fares I decided to go back south on XC, the original idea for
this morning was to score South Shields (as my original hotel was in that
area), but it was a late start as I walked to Whitley Bay Metro station (in the
rain) to catch 4088/4074 for the run to Central Station (via Monkseaton), where
I made use of some free WiFi from a nearby hotel to start researching options
for new devices. I got distracted with
the arrival of an East Midlands Railways HST bound for Edinburgh, and using my
tablet camera got a picture as it looked a bit out of place.
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| Wasn't expecting to see this at Newcastle this morning! |
After that HST departed, I headed over to platform 4 to wait
for the Plymouth bound HST, with 43207 leading 43285. I took my reserved seat, as the guard came
round putting manual labels as the electronic displays had failed to work, and
carried on my research for the speedy run south, before heading towards Leeds
(which I think is the first time I’ve had a HST from York to Leeds), where the
train got very busy until Wakefield & Sheffield, where it was a bit of a
slow run towards Derby due to speed restrictions caused by flooding. Thankfully we overtook a pair of Cardiff
bound 170s outside Derby as due to my many splits I was on those pair of units
from Burton on Trent.
170522 & 170112 rolled in at Burton to take me to New
Street, where I changed trains to a very busy Reading bound 220014, busy with
passengers for Birmingham International & Coventry, how I miss doing this
train on a Saturday where it goes via Solihull and tends to be a lot quieter. Due to the usual congestion it was a bit of a
crawl behind a 350 stopper so we lost around 15 minutes by the time the voyager
reached Leamington. It regained some
time towards Oxford (lots of flooding), but lost time due to being behind a
Paddington bound service (which got looped at Didcot). At Reading, I decided to head to Basingstoke
on 165106, heading towards Andover on 159101, 159019 & 159014 because there
is more options for light food at Andover (compared to Basingstoke which
doesn’t really have any convenience stores close by, other than a little
overpriced Londis). After picking up
dinner from a Co-Op, it was back to the station before 159011 & 159015 took
me for the final 6 miles back to Grateley.
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| A voyager at Reading, nothing unusual here folks! |
A relaxing little walk back home, reflecting on a good day
ruined by me being an idiot but hey ho.
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15th November – The road to the Sleeper
Due to a work commitment on the Thursday night, I finished
early on the Friday allowing me to head to London, mainly to meet up with my
good friend Jules who had returned from Japan.
Going via Reading and scoring 345051 before I met up for a good catch
up, before some Piccadilly line moves, saving farewell at Victoria, the next
few hours for me was on South Eastern where I managed to get 3 more 375s above
10 miles, another 377/5, plus a 465/9 & 466, with a mileage boost to
another 465 & a 700.
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| The LU Rail Adhesion Train at Ealing Broadway |
All in all a productive few hours, as I made my way to
Euston to take my seat behind winner 92028 for the trip to Carlisle.
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