4th – 6th September – Lincolnshire
After last weekend where I revisited C2C land on the Friday and had a trip towards the New Forest on the Saturday it was back to long distance with a couple nights in the Nottingham Travelodge. Another booking from the “Buy one get one free” promotion they ran in July, and a good excuse to revisit Lincolnshire using a modified plan from a trip I did have pencilled in for May time.
Friday 4th September
I was booked on the 20:34 EMR service to Nottingham from St Pancras (first time leaving St Pancras on an EMR service since July 2018!) so with a few ideas to what to do in the few hours I had, I decided on heading towards East Grinstead which had regained its peak time extra services (all be it one-way as the Thameslink services return empty stock) which allowed me to linear hop some of the required stations for photographs (Woldingham, Lingfield & East Grinstead itself). A sign of the reduced peak time demand is that the Southern services were 8 or 10 coaches rather than the usual 12 coaches, although the train I caught from Clapham Junction was busy until East Croydon.
Changing trains at East Croydon coming back and it was a case of jumping on the first available Thameslink service to take me to St Pancras where I managed to get my ranger from the EMR ticket office for the following day, and was successful in getting a table seat on the 222 towards Nottingham, a bit slow until Luton where the Bedford train in front pulled over to the slow lines allowing the 222 to go fast. Emptied out a bit at Wellingborough but I did notice the Derby HST which departed a few minutes before this train was very lightly loaded (counted less than 10 passengers in the rear 4 standard class coaches).
At Nottingham it was a case of walking up a small hill to reach the hotel, not really a place I would recommend as for some reason it has two layers of windows, the outer ones are fixed with only a flap at the top (which couldn’t be adjusted as the handles had been removed) with the inner windows opening inwards. It was warm within the room (even with the fan going), I dread to think what it would have been like a few weeks ago when the temperatures overnight were hot. Also as usual for a city centre hotel it had a bit of outside noise from party goers from nearby pubs, but that is to be expected.
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| 377 at East Grinstead |
Saturday
The main day with a pigging early start (alarm was set for 4:30 but I was up before that) as I needed to catch the first train towards Grantham, to double back on the Grantham – Nottingham stopper in order to tick the Nottingham bound platform at Elton & Orston. A walk towards Aslockton (turned south out of the station to reach the village of “Elton on the Hill” for a short section of walking along the main-road [mainly on the verge] before turning onto a footpath across several fields to reach the village of Whatton, and back on the pavemented road towards Aslockton station.
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| Least used platform in Nottinghamshire? |
Some of the fields were better than others in terms of footpath marking some were simply a case of guessing where it went based on GPS and spotting a yellow top pole to mark a gap in a hedge, but there was a couple where the path was clearly marked out. If I were to do the walk again I would turn right from Elton station as there appears on the map to be a path running along the bank of the River Smite which probably would mean less road walking, but never mind, I made it to Aslockton within 50 minutes which allowed me to catch an unit to Radcliffe to score that platform, with breakfast taken care of via the Co-Op before heading back to Nottingham on a pair of units bound for Liverpool, and a 45 minute wait until the next train towards the Lincoln direction.
That time passed and soon it was onto the 156 towards Lincoln, same guard who dropped me off at Elton earlier in the day and he was doing pre-boarding ticket checks (because where Nottingham has ticket barriers in the main building, it has 2 side exits (which look to be footpaths) plus the exit from the tram platform so the barriers are a bit pointless. I took this unit to Collingham, changing platforms for a former GA 156 to Newark North Gate, returning to Hykeham for a short 10 minute wait until the next Lincoln train to take me to a busy Lincoln where all the platforms had trains on.
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| A 800 departs Lincoln bound for Peterborough |
My next move was on a Northern 195 (quite busy) to Saxiby for a short wait until a Doncaster bound 156 took me to Gainsborough Lea Road in order to have a look at the new northbound platform which had been built to replace the older one to improve access & a better surface. One thing I did notice when I was waiting is that the southbound platform has a good area where it is straight but the trains stopped on the curved section, I know it isn’t the best for passengers but why not stop the trains on the straight bit, until that platform gets modernised, hopefully the pretty little buildings on the ramp don’t get removed as they add a bit of character.
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| The little buildings on the ramp access to the southbound platform |
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| Former northbound platform at Gainsborough Lea Road |
After a lunch break it was back to Lincoln on a required 195, before boarding a busy 156 towards Spalding for an hour wait for the same unit back to Lincoln (via an extended stop at Sleaford), Spalding is another station getting upgraded with new lift being installed along with platform 2 getting resurfaced, this line is meant to be getting a hourly service at some point (although pre Covid) so investment is good to see.
At Lincoln it was a short connection to another 156 to take me to Newark North Gate for the second time of the day, returning to Lincoln on a required 800, also allowing me to tick off another section of the LNER network for coverage. Next up was a 156 to Sleaford returning to Ruskington before a low mileage 158 took me back to Sleaford (for I was at Sleaford a lot today!), for it was time to change to the Skegness line.
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| 156 & 800 at Lincoln |
The last Nottingham – Skegness service was busy in one coach, quiet in the other two coaches (for it was a 156+153 combo), I took these to Boston before returning to Sleaford on a pair of 156s, before the final train towards Boston with another pair of 156s (all be it the rear unit was locked out of use as it came from Lincoln) which I took to Heckington for a short wait for the final Nottingham train of the day, one which was on my list for a while as it uses the direct route towards Nottingham for a bit of a novelty. I took a seat in the empty 153 (only a handful of passengers in the rear coach of the 156) for the trip towards Nottingham, getting some good engine noise on the ‘fast’ section of this line.
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| Heckington late night |
A sensible person would have called it a night, but not me as I headed towards the final Derby train to take me to Attenborough which normally during the day is a minute connection but this service gave a 20 minute wait for the final train from Matlock to take me to Beeston for a short wait before a HST to Nottingham. I had to laugh as the 2 units I used to/from Attenborough were the same pair of units I had together earlier in the day from Radcliffe to Nottingham, having travelled to Liverpool & back. Funny how the diagrams work out, but I was back at Nottingham, and walked back to the hotel to relax for the night after a busy day.
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| Midnight HST |
Sunday
A more leisurely day using one of the “super off-peak” single tickets via Grantham, only because it was cheaper than an advance ticket via Leicester, I did a plan and got my seat reservations for the LNER services I was planning to use and checked out of the hotel via breakfast from the Co-Op at Nottingham station.
I had a choice of 3 services to reach Grantham, the first was a pair of 156s on the Skegness bound, but my focus was on my last 158 needed for mileage for it was 2nd in a long line of sprinters on platform 1 which is where the Peterborough train was due to depart from. Thankfully the units didn’t split up so it was a pair of 158s on the Peterborough service allowing me to tick off 158785 for mileage needs (saves keeping my eyes out for EMR services around Manchester in the future). These were non-stop to Grantham so time to relax on a slow line, all the foot crossings.
At Grantham I had a 40 minute wait before the next LNER service so I popped out of the station to visit the Morrisons for some lunch items before heading back with a pair of 5 coach 801s taken to Peterborough followed shortly by another required 801 to St Neots, where due to the Kings Cross rebuilding works the furthest point LNER were running to. I popped outside (mainly for a mask break) before returning for a busy 700 to Arlesey, well busy in the rear half of the unit, quiet in the front half.
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| 801s at St Neots |
Another 700 took me to Biggleswade to clear the Great Northern stations for photographs before another one took me to Finsbury Park, I was going to jump off at Stevenage to take a 717 via the Hertford loop, to tick off the new platform 5, but we lost 20 minutes due to signalling issues so the connection was missed. At Finsbury Park it was a short connection to board a 717 for the short run to Highbury & Islington, changing over to Oyster and a London Overground service all the way to Clapham Junction, busiest section was between Willesden & Shepherds Bush. At Clapham I was running ahead of my schedule (solely due to not doing the Hertford service) so I took a triple 159 to Andover where I managed to get a lift home. Hopefully next week with the timetable uplift my local station will regain an hourly Sunday service which will make my planning easier.
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| Arlesey from the road bridge |
Overall a successful weekend, my EMR station requirements to revisit for photographs is mostly focused on the Worksop line plus the mainline from Loughborough towards London.
More photos are available here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/157760463@N05/albums/72157715879787576
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