16th – 18th October, Whitby & North East
A couple months ago I booked up a night in a Premier Inn in Middlesbrough on the Friday night, getting my advance on Grand Central at the same time; the idea was to revisit a few stations I needed in that area plus have a bus ride to Whitby for a little walk around the seaside town. My original idea was to stay overnight in Newcastle on the Saturday and make my slow way back to London via Carlisle & the Cumbrian Coast line; however a few weeks ago I decided to look up prices of hotels in the Manchester area. Little did I know that the Covid cases in Manchester would sky rocket so was a case of taking extra care when I was in the city.
Friday 16th October
The trip started with the 15:59 service from Grateley to Woking, changing onto a pair of 444s for the following leg to Clapham Junction. As I had some time to play with I was being a bit creative with my route taken for my oyster card so it was over to platform 17 just to see which 377s would roll in to head towards Milton Keynes and I was quite happy my last 377 for mileage was on the rear. Sadly due to an issue with a rail around Harrow & Wealdstone, London Northwestern had done their usual and threw in the towel in providing any sort of service so I had to bail at Wembley Central for a 710 all the way into Euston.
My original idea was based around the return of a triple 319 from Watford Junction to Euston, just for some motor noise. Anyhow at Euston it was a short walk via Sainsburys to reach Kings Cross where the Sunderland bound 180 was waiting to take me towards Eaglescliffe changing onto a 156 for Middlesbrough. Loadings of the Grand Central service in my coach was low, emptied out at York replaced with some drinkers returning home to Middlesbrough after an afternoon/evening on the alcohol, boosting they had no tickets.
For an open access operator whose main source of income is from ticket sales, I am still very surprised the guards on Grand Central are not checking tickets; they must be losing out on some revenue from the “pay when challenged” travellers. Anyhow arrival into Middlesbrough was on time, a good dozen were waiting for the final train towards Saltburn, but walking through the town was quite spooky, the places where in the past would be buzzing were silent, no groups of smokers outside the pub doors etc. Anyhow I located the Premier Inn, got checked in and relaxed for the short time I had before sleep, usual Premier Inn standard of room, a touch of road noise from the road outside but nothing major.
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| Late night at Eaglescliffe |
Saturday 17th
An early start (thankfully not as early as previous weeks) as I checked out of the hotel and headed to Middlesbrough station for the 2nd Whitby service of the day (the 1st is that very early morning ‘fast’ service which only calls at a couple stations along the way). There was a small number of passengers waiting for the 156 to be unlocked, and I was happy for it was a low mileage 156 (only one more to try and locate).
I took this 156 to Great Ayton where I was the only person around the station for the 25 minutes wait for another 156 to take me back to Middlesbrough where I headed out in search of breakfast. Nice station Great Ayton, although the picnic area was a bit overgrown. After returning to the station at Middlesbrough it was onto the next Saltburn train to take me to Marske for a short wait before another Saltburn service arrived (completely empty) for the final leg to Saltburn itself.
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| 156s at Saltburn |
After a swing via the supermarket, I headed towards the bus stop to await the next X4 bus service (which the ranger I was using was valid on). It was a lightly loaded bus going via such places as Brotton, Loftus & Boulby (following the single track freight line towards the Potash mines). Some good views of the sea were had around Sandsend before the bus headed inland to terminate at the bus station at Whitby. A nice little run from Saltburn, certainly one I would recommend. Anyhow I had around 90 minutes to waste before the next train so I headed towards the swing bridge before the beach front, walking along one of the piers to the river mouth.
The weather was beautiful and the town was busy with tourists, certainly a nice town to explore with some history.
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| Whitby in October. |
Anyhow back to the trains, and I headed to the station to have some lunch with a heritage train on platform 2 (job for next year is to try and do that line towards Pickering) before the 156 arrived from Middlesbrough. It looked quite busy judged on the number of passengers getting off, but the return was lightly loaded, at some point along the way I had a private coach. I do like the Esk Valley line as it has some beautiful views along the way, one of my favourite lines in England.
I alighted from the 156 at Marton for a short walk along a footpath (covered with litter) to reach James Cook where I nearly got run over by an idiotic cyclist riding like a bat out of hell over a footbridge with a blind summit (there are signs saying “cyclists must dismount” at either end, but we all know some cyclists cannot read). Back at the station and it was a short wait on a nice bench for another 156 to take me to Gypsy Lane for a short wait before another 156 (surprisingly that!) took me back to Middlesbrough.
Another line complete for station photographs, just leaving a couple in North Yorkshire to hopefully do in December time, assuming we are still allowed to travel (I’m dreading if another lockdown comes, as I don’t think my mental health will cope, especially as the days are getting short and weather turning more cold & wet meaning less chance of being able to escape for a nice walk in the countryside). Anyway it was a short connection in Middlesbrough before boarding a pair of 185s to take me to Redcar Central for a gentle fast walk along the streets to reach Redcar East for another 156 to South Bank, returning to Redcar Central a short while later.
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| 185s at Redcar Central |
This time at Redcar I had a walk towards the water front for a couple photos before the next TPE arrived, running a tad late and it had a short turnaround before departing back towards Manchester. I was on this service as far as York but sadly due to some faults requiring it to be turned off & turned back on again twice the (unofficial) connection at York to a Blackpool North train was missed so I had some time to waste, so I headed out to KFC for some dinner (saves a job when in Leeds) before returning to board a required 195 for the run to Leeds.
At Leeds I had two options to reach Manchester Victoria, either a 195 via Bradford or a 3 coach 158 via Brighouse, I decided to go for the 158 via Brighouse as whilst it was slower it gave the better ride, and meant I didn’t have to do a tour of Leeds station due to the idiotic one way system. The sprinter was pretty much empty in the front coach; I don’t think it got more than 4 other passengers all the way to Manchester Victoria, where the first thing which hit me as I got off was the smell of diesel fumes.
Exiting the station and it was a walk towards the Easy Hotel, trying to avoid the busy areas where social distancing would be very hard due to roads being closed off with outdoor drinking areas, reaching the hotel, checking in and relaxing for the remainder of the night. A quiet evening until I got woken up in the morning by the sound of a couple in a nearby room above making sweet love, with the lady being on the noisy side. Still it beats getting woken up to the sound of a street party playing loud noise which could be classed as music by some, or drunks setting the fire alarm off during the middle of the night for a laugh.
Anyhow it was a good day trip to Whitby, a few more stations revisited for photographs, plus the bonus of a required 195 & a low mileage 156.
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| The level crossing at Redcar Central |
Sunday 18th October
The plan for today changed when I was travelling towards Manchester on the Saturday when I randomly decided to check for fares to get to Doncaster and onwards to St Pancras on the Hull Trains divert (due to Kings Cross being closed), with a couple splits I got it down to around £45 which was more than suitable for a late notice trip for the novelty factor of a 802 going over some unusual routes (nothing new for me, solely due to the various railtours I’ve done over the years).
The day began with walking to Manchester Piccadilly via a Tesco Express & the Co-Op for some supplies before boarding the 08:45 stopper towards Sheffield, which was a 195. I got a seat near the front of the unit which emptied out along the way, and was an enjoyable way to reach Sheffield, better than a 150, although I feel the interior layout of a 195 is not suitable for a stopping service, needs less table seats more airline seats.
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| Trams in Sheffield |
I had a 90 minute wait at Sheffield before my next leg, so I headed towards the city centre for some tram photographs before returning to the station with a 170 to take me to Doncaster on a Hull service, giving me around 20 minutes at Doncaster before the 802 would arrive from Hull so I stayed on the station for a couple photos of passing freight before 802305 arrived a couple minutes late and annoyingly first class was at the front (as I was aiming for a seat in coach A, solely for the lack of an engine underneath).
The Hull Trains 802s are nearly the same as the GWR in terms of first class (coach D is split) but has the TPE style USB sockets in addition to the plug sockets below the seats. Friendly guard soon checked tickets after departure but a quick wonder saw loading was only around 25 passengers in standard class (plus 2 who got kicked out of first class). Anyway the ‘mystery’ tour went via the Swinton avoider line, then via “The Old Road” after the former Rotherham Masborough station (going via Barrow Hill and avoiding Sheffield) to re-join the mainline at Chesterfield before heading towards the Erewash Valley line to go via Toton before finally rejoining the mainline at Trent Junction, for a speedy run towards London.
Passing Wellingborough we were 45 minutes (or so) ahead of time, and with limited platform space available at St Pancras we had to wait so got put behind a 700 after Bedford and another 700 after Luton before the unit from Corby could pass before the 802 went onto the fast lines for the final run into St Pancras arriving around 15 minutes early. Certainly it was a good run and more interesting than a 350 from Crewe!
Ever get the sense you've gone to the wrong station?
Anyhow I decided on the Victoria line to Victoria, navigating the maze of tunnels to reach the district line to Earl’s Court (jumped on the first service which was bound for Richmond), before an unannounced Olympia train arrived for the trip to Olympia on a private S7 before a low mileage 378 took me to Clapham Junction (sadly not enough to push it over 5 miles, but gives a good boost). I jumped on a pair of 444s to Basingstoke changing over to a busy single 159 on the Andover service, where it terminated due to engineering works.
The fast coach departed and eventually the bus on the stopper (a service bus from “Newbury & District”) arrived to take me back to Grateley, the end of an interesting weekend. One positive is on the Saturday when I was in the North East my ticket was checked on the majority of the Northern services, so some sense of normal is returning.
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